The Justice Department and the Interior Department are looking into Abramoff's use of charitable foundations as businesses and nonprofit political groups as conduits for foreign money. The Senate Finance Committee is also investigating Abramoff's use of tax-exempt entities; the Senate Indian Affairs Committee is questioning his treatment of the tribes.In short: A lovely guy.
And now Daniel Hopsicker offers a glimpse of just how lovely Abramoff truly is.
One of the most amazing thing about this most amazing scandal -- hundreds of millions in slush funds beats Oval Office blowjobs by a mile -- is that some of the same names in the Abramoff scandal also surface in connection with Mohammeded Atta's.Hopsicker goes on to describe Abramoff's history in the unregulated ship-board gambling history. Yes, Atta and company really did take a trip on a boat owned by Abramov's company, SunCruz -- ostensibly to gamble, although Hopsicker thinks the motivation goes deeper.
Less than a week before the 9.11 attack, for example, Atta and several other hijackers made a still-unexplained visit onboard one of Abramoff's casino boats.
Hopsicker, alas, doesn't really prove a link between Atta and the "Soprano"-esque milieu of the gambling ships. But the writer does present some fascinating data-nuggets, sure to please connoisseurs of the seamy:
Two SunCruz executives, Jack Abramoff and Ben Waldman, are walking examples of the strange alliance between the family-values party and the gambling industry. Both men have strong ties to Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition, which is adamantly opposed to gambling; Waldman was Robertson top aide in the televangelist's run for the presidency.I urge you to check out Hopsicker's latest. Pursuing this avenue of research may well take us into important areas.
Abramoff, who perhaps wisely only took the title of vice president (less heat) has been connected to the Christian right since a student at Brandeis University, where as head of the College Republicans he enlisted Top Christian Ralph Reed as his top deputy. The two have remained close friends ever since.
A man named Adam Kidan became Sun Cruz's new chairman. Kidan's mother had been murdered in a gangland-style hit in New York. Madonna's one-time boyfriend and South Beach restaurateur Chris Paciello, was eventually convicted in the case.
5 comments:
Joseph, I wish you would comment on how
you go about evaluating journalists'
credibility in general, and Hopsicker's in
particular.
I've found his work on the voting machine
companies and on Huffman Aviation
interesting, and also his comments about
Mena Arkansas.
When the story about Clinton's involvement
in drug flights with the cooperation of
State Troopers came out I assumed this was
just more smear, but Hopsicker's
suggestion that this story was true and
the flights were CIA sponsored piqued my
interest. That would go a long way toward
explaining why Bill is so chummy with the
Bushes.
And what do you think of Wayne Madsen?
Evaluating credibility? I do not wish to alienate Hopsicker, with whom I've had some helpful correspondence lately. But I don't think he'd mind if I advised a "mistrust, but verify" attitude toward EVERY investigative writer -- including those you like, and including me.
There is a certain type of writer -- Madsen and Hopsicker seem to fit in this same general category -- whose primary virtue lies in the ability to churn up new facts and new ideas. Since people in this category tend to be ornery independents without editors or finances, they often do not have the resources to pursue their investigations to the end. And they CAN be misled.
Regarding the Mena stories surrounding Clinton: I first heard these in 1992, and even looked into them to a degree. Back then, I ran into interesting characters who were willing to tell me all sorts of hair-curdling yarns about CLinton's involvement with drug-running. But then I ran these yarns past a state prosecutor who had tried to mount a case against Barry Seal, and THAT guy didn't confirm any of the details. He wasn't really ticked off at Clinton. He was ticked off at the Bush administration, which had done everything it could to undermine the federal case against Seal.
As this fellow reminded me, due to the size of the case and the state's limited budget, the case was best pursued at the federal level. Yet the Bush I Justice Department refused to present evidence compiled by the people who worked for Clinton's state government.
So I began to smell a disifnromation campaign. Note that, after Bush II came to power, the right no longer spreads stories about Mena.
Madsen, I am now convinced, was fed a dish of scarlet red herring vis-a-vis the Five Star Trust and that infamous mega-million dollar check. I still consider the man worth reading. Read with caution; but read.
//There is a certain type of writer...whose
primary virtue lies in the ability to churn
up new facts and new ideas.//
Right, so they present information that is
not available anywhere else and is thus
unverifiable.
// Read with caution; but read. //
Okay. Thanks.
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