Showing posts with label Dennis Hastert. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dennis Hastert. Show all posts

Saturday, September 05, 2009

DLA Piper and Sibel Edmonds' revelations about Dennis Hastert


WWW--It's been several weeks now since the sworn deposition of FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds, and she's been doing a lot of talking. About whom, you might ask? About former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, Indiana Rep. Dan Burton (can't control the...you know), an unidentified Democratic Rep. who's been compromised and blackmailed in a lesbian affair to aid the Turkish government, and a whole lot more.

Most of the players are Republicans, but this time we're going to get some Democratic fish in the barrel. In one case--it looks like Burton and a few others involved--nuclear secrets were being sold to Turkey, Pakistan, and a few others that are on terror-lists as "renegade nations." They were also listed by the last president as being part of an "axis of evil." You do the math.

Burton's office and someone representing him has been around, but there have been other players. This exchange from the deposition transcript before Congress is pretty extraordinary and raised some flags for me on DLA Piper's recent visit to the site:
... Q: Now, are you --- has it come to your attention that some members of Congress once they've left Congress like Dennis Hastert engaged in lobbying for the Turkish government?

A: Dennis Hastert is known publicly. Stephen Solarz is known publicly. He used to be a Congressman, and then he became lobbyist as soon as he left both for Israel and Turkey.

Bob Livingston, he within a year after he left Congress, he became lobbyist for the government of Turkey, and he is registered under Foreign Agent's Registration Act. But then there are people who work for these lobbying firms who are not the top, but they have received their share while they were working, whether they are in Pentagon.

One person was Defense Intelligence Agency person, Dana Bauer, and now she works for Bob Livingston, but this individual, Ms. Bauer, did a lot of favors and illegal favors to --- for government of Turkey and others, and then was hired by Livingston and put on a big salary to represent Turkish government.

So it's not only top tier of the lobbying firm, but then the people who work for them later and the various layers of those people.

Q: How about Richard Gephardt? You know, who he is, right?

A: Yes, I do.

Q: And do you have any information about whether or not he took money from Turkish organizations?

A: No, I just have (unintelligible) information based on what I read that he joined the lobby firm for --- that represents Turkey, the lobby that Mr. Hastert got hired, but I don't have any information.

Q: For the firm called DLA Piper?

A: Yes.

Q: Law firm. Are you aware of them lobbying for the Turkish government?

A: Yes.

Q: Let me give you a hypothetical and just get your understanding of what might be going on because it's particularly relevant to our case.

You have a hypothetical Congresswoman from State X. Her district has no Turkish population to speak of or Armenian population to speak of. She's the largest recipient of Turkish PAC money in the 2008 election cycle. All right?

She meets with Livingston and Rogers or Livingston Group when they're escorting members of the Turkish parliament to a reception. She receives fact sheets from the Livingston Group talking about Turkish relations; goes to luncheons in honor of the Turkish Foreign Minister, and she opposes Armenian genocide resolution and, in fact, refuses to even recognize the genocide as a historical fact. ...

Curiouser and curiouser, that. The soon-to-be-identified congresswoman is done, toast. Once her identity is out there and it's known that she's being blackmailed by the Turkish intelligence community and their government, that's it, she can no longer discharge her duties. This is coming very soon, and she's not going to be the only one marching out of Congress and into a courtroom.

Did I mention that it appears Indiana Rep. Dan Burton has been caught screwing around on his wife again, this time getting his dick caught in the gears of the Turkish government? Yes, he did. That's right folks, elected officials are taking bribes, being proffered a piece-of-ass, and even promised all kinds of things like a kingdom in hell, but most of all, they're being blackmailed and turned to spy on the rest of us, against our common interests.

That's treason, and it's not a joke or a laughing matter. Ask your local news outlet, paper, CNN, Fox, and all the rest of the mainstream media, why they're not covering the Sibel Edmonds story. Is there a connection to the DC Madam scandal? Could be. She and her defense counsel--Montgomery Blair Sibley--issued subpoenas to the DIA and the CIA, both institutions refused to accept them. It's a good thing they had Federal District (and former FISA court) Judge James Robertson looking out for their interests. It seems protecting reputations of criminals in high office is more important than national security, which makes it more than a little ironic when they invoke it in court to avoid exposure. That's not merely corruption, it's a dysfunctional political culture, a system in free fall.

Sibel Edmonds' August 8, 2009 sworn testimony before Congress: http://www.bradblog.com/Docs/SibelEdmondsDeposition_Transcript_080809.pdf

Thursday, October 18, 2007

The Real Reason Dennis Hastert is Resigning


Washington D.C.
/San Diego--
All roads appear to be leading to both cities in a number of current scandals, and it appears that Illinois GOP Rep. Dennis Hastert is just another inept and corrupt fish caught in the nets of ongoing investigations, trials, and hearings. But if one reads the coverage today of Hastert's announcement that he won't be serving-out the rest of his term, one would think it has nothing to do with anything at all--just that it's time.

Indeed it is, because yesterday former GOP House Speaker Dennis Hastert was named in one of the hearings regarding the ever-widening net cast in the trial of Brent Wilkes, former proprietor of a San Diego-based defense contractor called "ADCS" that received incredible payouts in contracts thanks to the undue influence of then-Representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham.

Like Hastert, Cunningham is also a failed athlete and human being. Yet, besides being a former High School teacher (the last to know how things really work in America), Hastert was also a wrestling coach at that time, so one can assume he's been wrong-headed most of his natural--if not public--life. If you've been reading about the Brent Wilkes/Randy Cunningham saga at all, you'll note that the mainstream media has done its best to keep any other GOP congresspersons out of the spotlight, and as much as possible.

They're doing so today. Virtually none of the stories by the major wire services are connecting the decision of Hastert not to serve out the rest of his term with the testimony yesterday of Wilkes' nephew (and second--or third depending on the news source--hireling of Wilkes' contractor company
ADCS) Joel Combs.
Wilkes also paid to fly Cunningham and former House Speaker Dennis Hastert from a golf outing in Palm Springs to San Diego for a reception and then back to Washington on private jets, Combs testified. Combs told prosecutors he didn't recall Cunningham ever volunteering to cover his share of the expenses. He said on cross-examination that he would not have been responsible for processing any reimbursements and did not know whether company accountants ever billed the congressman or his campaigns. Cunningham occasionally paid for wine at dinner with Wilkes, Combs testified. (AP, 10.17.2007)
And so, there it is: Wilkes appears to have allowed Hastert and Cunningham to come to San Diego on his dime, play some golf, and to fly back to Washington on separate, privately chartered jets. Yes, it's time alright. It's time for Dennis Hastert to secure legal representation if he doesn't have it already. He's in a lot of trouble, but at least the mainstream press is providing some cover for him and buying him some much needed time to regroup.

It begs-the-question: what other contractors in San Diego might be involved? Or are there just similar scandals waiting to be uncovered in the big defense contractor city? It's peculiar, a bunch of failed athletes who aren't particularly bright--one might be forgiven for thinking we were referring to the president, but like minds keep company. Considering Cunningham once served on the House Intelligence Committee, it might be a good idea to ask if SAIC (based in San Diego) had their fingers in the pie. You never know. The Wilkes trial is nearly over:
Brent Wilkes has pleaded not guilty to 14 charges of bribery, money laundering, fraud and conspiracy. The government entered phone records and other documents Thursday before jurors returned to the courtroom. They called their final witnesses Wednesday, including women who testified they were paid to have sex with Cunningham and Wilkes at a Hawaiian resort. Federal prosecutors have rested their case in the trial of a defense contractor charged with bribing former U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham. (AP, 10.18.2007)
Were they bribing Rep. Cunningham and others in Congress for contracts? It appears a strong possibility. Who else? Are others still doing so with other representatives? It deserves investigation. As this is being written, the prosecution has rested, and the defense has begun making its case. It's unclear whether a prima facie case(by all appearances unless rebutted) has been made at this point.

Hastert is also connected to the Jack Abramoff scandal and received over $100,000 in donations from the lobbyist's fundraising efforts on his behalf. It's appropriate at this point to consider that a March 2007 article on SAIC has fingered them on some serious ethical violations involving their work as a defense/intelligence contractor.

More recently, in June of this year, The San Diego Reader outlined some interesting connections between Brent Wilkes and another San Diego area based defense contractor, one Mitchell Wade. For months Wade has been confessing to government investigators the gist of it all: that Wilkes was running a system of bribes and rewards in-exchange for defense contracts in DC (and probably in the environs of San Diego when necessary), and maybe not just for himself. He has some strange accomplices.
Among those implicated is Kyle Dustin "Dusty" Foggo, an ex-San Diego cop, SDSU grad, and CIA agent. A boyhood friend of Wilkes, Foggo had been appointed to the CIA's third-highest post by Porter Goss, who recently was forced out of his job by the president. The latest San Diego link was first reported by the Washington Post on May 6: Jerome Foster, a downtown San Diego-based businessman. Foster was on the board of Shirlington Limousine, the company that furnished transportation for the alleged Cunningham assignations. Christopher Baker, Shirlington's owner, has a criminal history that reportedly includes felony charges for attempted robbery and car theft. (San Diego Reader, 06.08.2006)
And as quoted before on this site, Foster did subcontracting work with SAIC, primarily to secure them contracts as an almost "dummy firm" to increase their ability to hold more contracts than they were qualified to under federal statutes. But hey, what's the law mean under the current administration? Not much. Hastert sees the writing on the wall. It's time.