Tales of deception and betrayal:Think-tank head said DeLay didn't know Ind

[Judi Lynn]

June 22, 2005, 11:57PM

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Donald Kilgore, left, attorney general of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, pauses as Nell Rogers, the tribe's planner, consults with her lawyer Wednesday. She told the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs that the tribe was unaware of plans for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's trip to Britain.


Tales of deception and betrayal
Think-tank head said DeLay didn't know Indian funds helped pay for trip
By BENNETT ROTH
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - The head of a conservative nonprofit group that sponsored several foreign trips by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay testified Wednesday that she was deceived by lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who funneled funds from his Indian tribe clients through her organization and used it to arrange travel.

Amy Ridenour, the director of the National Center for Public Policy Research, told the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs that Abramoff added a golf outing to Scotland when DeLay made what was supposed to be a fact-finding trip to Britain in 2000.
But Ridenour said DeLay was unaware that the Choctaw Indians, a Mississippi tribe represented by Abramoff, contributed $25,000 to the center on the same day that the two men, along with DeLay's wife and two congressional aides, left for Britain.

The hearing, chaired by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., focused on what the committee said was Abramoff's diversion of millions of dollars collected from the Choctaws for lobbying but used for his own purposes — including paying a monthly stipend to a high school friend who conducted sniper workshops for members of the Israeli Defense Force.

"Today's hearing is about more than contempt, even more than greed. It is simply and sadly a tale of betrayal," McCain said.
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