He was purportedly in the employ of the Jordanian King, but we know that what scratch that dude doesn't get from the Saudis, he gets from us.
http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/18864/
A month after having his name stripped from a downtown jail, ex–top cop Bernie Kerik may be going back into the prison business—in Jordan. The Kerik Group, which offers prison-management consulting, has been working for King Abdullah II in Jordan, and a source says he has expressed interest in helping develop or run a U.S. detention center there. President Bush, who nominated Kerik to run the Department of Homeland Security in 2004 before Kerik withdrew his name after a series of scandals, has outsourced the construction of detention centers abroad to private contractors, amid continuing pressure to shut down the prison in Guantánamo Bay. Having more detention centers closer to the “theaters in the region” makes logistical sense, Defense Department spokesman J. D. Gordon says, but he says there are no plans to open prisons in Jordan, though human-rights groups say that the CIA is already holding hundreds of suspected terrorists at Al-Jafr in Jordan’s southern desert. Kerik’s attorney Joe Tacopina declined to comment.
A lengthy profile of the er, fellow:
http://www.bestlifeonline.com/cms/publish/finance/Bernie_Kerik_Wont_Fold.shtml From it, we learn that Kerik knew this indictment was coming half a year ago .... or more.
The onetime hero of September 11 tries to prove there are second acts in American life
By: Joseph Braude, Photographs: Dana Lixenberg
Jun 20, 2007 - 3:06:56 AM
Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Bernard Kerik's fall from grace is one of the most astonishing political tales of the age of terrorism
I. The Pit
It is called Al-Hafr—the Dig—this giant pit that stretches a quarter mile across and seven stories deep into the reddish Arabian soil. A steep, jagged road cut into the side of the crater provides access for a procession of trucks and turbaned laborers who work long hours seven days a week to deepen and enlarge the hole. I am here on a pleasant, wind-whipped March afternoon in the desert kingdom of Jordan with Bernard Kerik—former police commissioner of the City of New York, President George W. Bush’s onetime nominee for homeland security chief, a Rudy Giuliani confidant, and a true hero of September 11, whose fall from grace is one of the most astonishing political tales of the age of terrorism.
“I’m pouring my heart and soul into this,” Kerik shouts over the roar of the construction. “Everything I got.” Al-Hafr, I’ve already learned, is the first stage in the construction of a high-security crisis-management headquarters commissioned by Jordan’s royal family. As integral as this project is to the future of the Hashemite Kingdom, it is equally important to Kerik, who sees it as the centerpiece of his comeback.
The project is top secret, though it has to be one of the noisiest, most glaring national-security secrets in the Arab world. Jordan’s security establishment has effectively barred local journalists from reporting on the excavation and will not allow me to reveal its location. The men driving tractors and earthmovers at the base of the pit—Tonka miniatures viewed from ground level—know little about the nature of their work. Even a four-star general in the country’s military intelligence can provide only hints about its purpose when questioned by uniformed colleagues.
In a softly lit corner of Amman’s Four Seasons Hotel lobby, the mastermind of this project harbors his own secret. Just a few days before, on February 28, 2007, Bernard Kerik made a fateful decision: He turned down a plea bargain from the United States Attorney’s Office in White Plains, New York, which was investigating him on matters of income-tax fraud. Because he did not cut a deal—which would have mandated jail time—he was told he faces possible indictments on a variety of charges that could bring down his new career and send him to prison. It could also damage the presidential campaign of his close friend Rudy Giuliani. Now, while his attorneys in the United States work to forestall the indictments, Kerik carries on in Jordan, forging ahead, keeping his counsel, and fighting his nighttime fears.
At the Four Seasons, Kerik takes his morning macchiatos with Sweet’N Low, one shot following the next, sometimes a bit sweaty after lifting weights upstairs in the gym. In the afternoon, it’s sirloin with french fries, interrupted by a respectful parade of visitors from the Middle East and elsewhere.....King Abdullah II brought Kerik to Jordan in 2005, after the hero cop withdrew his nomination for secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, facing a fusillade of scandals that would have crushed a less resilient soul. For those who don’t recall the ugly details, Kerik’s vetting process brought forth a lifetime of bad judgment calls: associations with sketchy, possibly Mafia types; two flagrant adulterous affairs; bankruptcy; and insider business deals that reeked of opportunism at best and possibly graft. A “multiplatformed flameout,” wrote The New Yorker. “Disgraceful,” wrote The New York Times.
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