Abramoff: Corruption of Power
We have seen some very disruptive, carefully planned leaks over the last few years, and they seem to be more frequent and have much more harmful impact. Ms. Plame lost her career, and her security. President Bush and the NSA are being subjected to a rather specious probe over “unauthorized” wiretaps on U.S. citizens, stemming from a leak in the NY Times.
In the first two examples, neither Ms. Plame nor President Bush ever exceeded their positions in the performance of their duties. Due to the hysteria, and the disclosing of classified/covert information, we are more vulnerable to our enemies. And yet so far, only “Scooter” Libby has been indicted. Who leaked NSA intelligence a year ago to the NY Times? Though Vice President Cheney has been implicated, it’s not likely he’ll be prosecuted. These are very serious issues, yet not much is being done to find out who else might be responsible -again.
Either very few people in Foggy Bottom are concerned with this side of the equation, or they are being outshouted and filibustered into silence, by posturing pedants masquerading as our public servants. As with the Clinton/Lewinski scandal, those who have some very nasty secrets of their own are shrieking the loudest, or hiding in the shadows, busily collecting monies for campaign war chests.
Let’s take a look at a few of these fine upstanding members of Congress. It’s quite instructive. Representative Hal Rogers (KY). This 67 year old paragon of virtue is a force to be reckoned with in D.C. As the first Chairman of the Homeland Security subcommittee, he is responsible for the management of all appropriations to any agency involved with the Department Of Homeland Security, which amounts to billions of dollars. His state has had some major defense contractors move in, including Datatrac Information Services Inc., Science Applications International, NucSafe and Reveal.
2003 saw DataTrac receive a 10 year renewal contract worth at least $200,0000,000. What for? For cards that are given to Mexicans crossing the border, to aid in identifying them. This contract was renewed, in spite of the fact that the cards are not being utilized properly and can be compromised.
Boeing, who originally developed the rather unwieldy explosives detection machines used in airports, was outbid the next time round, by a small Massachusetts startup company-Reveal Imaging Technology Inc., for $435,000,000. This was after hiring a lobbyist and donating $14,000 to Rogers pet project named HALPAC. His goal: Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. In return Reveal promised to develop a smaller, more accurate explosives detection device. By 2004 nothing from Reveal had been produced as promised, and after every major complaint/query, within a very short time, a donation was made to HALPAC or Rogers campaign. You can read the information, including charts and timelines through this link:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/24/AR2005122400372.html
John Kerry, another poseur cum presidential candidate, has lots of ugly things in his closet. Not the least is his wife Tereza’s affinity for the Tides Foundation and George Soros, along with some rather nasty ties to terrorism. As a potential Presidential wife she leaves much to be desired, especially, since she appears to switch political sides, like underwear.
Nowadays you see her standing by Teddy Kennedy, a man she described as a “perfect bastard” Of course she was still married to Republican Senator H. John Heinz and a staunch Republican then. “The combustible and ever-quotable Heinz Kerry said of Democrats, “The Democratic machine in this country is putrid.” Excerpts of the comments appeared in The Boston Herald American in January 1976.
During the last Presidential campaign Mike Wallace had this to say about Tereza- “Pamela Leavey said that at a campaign event which she attended, “When Theresa Heinz-Kerry arrived, she handed me a pin that read in the center: ‘Asses of Evil’ with ‘Bush,’ ‘Cheney,’ ‘Rumsfeld,’ and ‘Ashcroft’ surrounding it.” In this writer’s wildest dreams, I can’t imagine any of our former First Ladies engaging in this low brow conduct.
The woman who refers to herself as an African American (without the hyphen) is quoted as saying, “I can’t believe my family left Africa and came to this country” and, “I can’t believe I ever even married an American.”
Even more troubling are the allegations that Tereza donated monies to fund terrorist organizations, through the Tides Foundation and environmental shell groups. Tides supports both the Democratic Justice Fund, created through the joint efforts of Tides and George Soros, which seeks to ease U.S. restrictions on Muslim immigration from countries designated by the State Department as terrorist nations and the Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR), a group that bills itself as a “Muslim civil rights group,” but whose leaders are linked to the terrorist group Hamas.
Finally, Tides supports the National Lawyers Guild (begun as a Communist Party front); whose member Lynne Stewart was arrested for helping her client Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, convicted in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, communicate with terrorist cells in Egypt.
John Kerry’s voting record since the last campaign has improved hopefully, because when I researched him, I discovered he had an abysmal voting record, absent for the majority of votes. Here is a link to his voting record:
http://www.vote-smart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=S0421103.
Ironically, here is one of the most vocal opponents of the Bush Administration. In an analysis of John Forbes Kerry, Jonathan Stein has written a well thought out and researched article about Senator Kerry titled “What’s Kerry Hiding And How Is He Hiding It? Here is one quote: “[Kerry] cares about as much for national security as a giraffe.” Kerry was on the wrong side of every Cold War issue, and he has been on the wrong side of every post-Cold War defense issue, including drastic proposals that would have neutered the CIA just as Al Qaeda was ascendant. In sum, Kerry’s actions and credentials suggest that he would be ineffective as a wartime leader, despite having served in Vietnam for four months over thirty years ago”
If you simply take some time to do a little research yourself, you’ll discover that the most vocal anti-Bush adherents, have some very nasty little troubles of their own. The biggest one being the blurring of lines between political contributions and the awarding of key contracts.
It is unethical to receive monies for any purpose, when one has secured, through a Congressional position, a key contract, and/or its renewal, or for that matter any type of funding benefiting an individual or corporation. In many cases it may well be illegal, and if not, it should be.
The leaking of highly classified information, whether from the Office of the President or anywhere it touches on our national security should be a fully investigated offense. These leaks are creating an extremely difficult arena for our intelligence people to operate from. ( Update) The Justice Department has opened an investigation into the leaking of covert information.
We are an open society, which is one of the immense privileges of living in the United States. But considering the dedication and ruthlessness of our enemies, there has to be some form of reasonable limit placed on leaking information classified as sensitive. It is a sensible idea to perhaps take a closer look at some of the people holding key intelligence positions in the Congress, and their staffs. These leaks are coming from somewhere, and they have to stop.
We, the citizens of this country, really need to monitor our local representatives and what their voting records reflect, as well as where their funding is coming from. If too many funding irregularities are discovered, we have the right to an accounting and an explanation of why certain contracts were awarded.
But the internet has proven there are many of us out there, using all the power of the net to expose and lay open the dirty little secrets Washingtonians have hidden for years.
Together, we can be an enormously potent force for productive change, in the way things are done in our government. It is past time for many of us to jump in and speak out on the issues that trouble us most. Whether we agree or disagree is not the point. Caring enough to stand up and be heard is.
