dKos: "Abramoff is no lobbyist, and this is no administration"

[understandinglife]

It's a very astute observation they make. Josh and dengre do us all a big favor by shifting our perspective on the goings-on, and prompting us to think of Abramoff as something other than a lobbyist who happens to have gotten himself in trouble. In fact, what he does is just the polite name for influence peddling. And no, that's not actually what most lobbyists do. Or at least, it wasn't, until the advent of the "K Street Project."

But it's more than just that. Jack hooks his clients up with what amounts to a GOP protection racket. As in, "Nice business you got there. Be a shame if something tragic -- something regulatory -- happened to it." And then, as Josh notes, the spoils are divided among the players in the movement right's seamy underbelly. "Lobbying" work is performed by dealers either too shady (see Grassroots Interactive -- who just had two employees abscond for Israel, a la Myer Lansky!) or too concerned with their false image of piety (see the use of the Christian Coalition to run interference on behalf of Indian gaming outfits) to be contacted directly. And, of course, Abramoff takes a cut of the fee. In fact, perhaps more than just a cut, since Grassroots Interactive, for instance, is "controlled" by Abramoff.

Much more at the link:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/27/93833/8085

Peace.

[Oreo]

1. Can we officially use the word Racketeering now?

http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/ocrs.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racketeering

Organized Crime and Racketeering Section

The Organized Crime and Racketeering Section (OCRS) coordinates the Department's program to combat organized crime. The principal enforcement efforts are currently directed against traditional groups such as La Cosa Nostra families emerging groups from Asia and Europe, such as Chinese Triads, the Sicilian Mafia, and Russian organized crime. OCRS supervises the investigation and prosecution of these cases by Strike Force Units within U.S. Attorneys' Offices in 21 federal districts having a significant organized crime presence. These cases involve a broad spectrum of criminal statutes, including extortion, murder, bribery, fraud, narcotics, and labor racketeering.

OCRS is involved in setting national priorities for the organized crime program by coordinating with investigative agencies such as the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and others, and by working with the Attorney General's Organized Crime Council, which is ultimately responsible for the Federal Government's policy in this area.

In addition to its close supervision of all federal organized crime cases, OCRS reviews all proposed federal prosecutions under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statute and provides extensive advice to prosecutors about the use of this powerful statute.

In a more specialized context, OCRS also reviews criminal prosecutions involving labor-management disputes, the internal affairs of labor unions in the private sector, and the operation of employee pension and welfare benefit plans.

Finally, OCRS maintains a cadre of experienced prosecutors in its Litigation Unit who travel as needed to prosecute or assist in the prosecution of organized crime cases in the U.S. Attorneys' Offices' Organized Crime Strike Force Units. The Litigation Unit attorneys are particularly trained in multi-defendant RICO cases, especially in the field of labor racketeering.

[barbaraann]

2. And Preston, Gates, and Ellis is no ordinary law firm.

n/t

[understandinglife]

3. An interesting comment in an interesting Abramoff thread

The comment on the following WaPo item concluded with "Be interested to know if Unka Jonathan did any trading in airline puts for his "private" clients around Sept. 11, 2001." Here's the WaPo item:

Web Site Cites Bush-Riggs Link

By Kathleen Day
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 15, 2004; Page E02

A political Web site written by a Democratic operative drew attention yesterday to the fact that President Bush's uncle, Jonathan J. Bush, is a top executive at Riggs Bank, which this week agreed to pay a record $25 million in civil fines for violations of law intended to thwart money laundering.

<clip>

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28396-2004May14.html

This interesting comment is inserted in a clever bit of analysis and speculation on Abramoff and Able Danger:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/27/41028/0006

Follow the money, in_deed.


Peace.

[KittyWampus]

4. that was a great diary read on Kos. thanks.

[barbaraann]

5. Kick

:kick:

[seemslikeadream]

6. "Atta's Big Gamble. Plus: Jack Abramoff's Link To A Mysterious Saudi

THE BRAD BLOG: "Atta's Big Gamble. Plus: Jack Abramoff's Link To A Mysterious Saudi -- And Perhaps To Al Qaeda"

Guest blogged by Joseph Cannon

You have probably never heard of Makram Chams. It's time you met him.

Actually, you can't physically meet him -- he disappeared on September 11, 2001. I bring him to your attention for two reasons:


He knew, and apparently aided, Mohammed Atta and the other 9/11 terrorists.


He owned a casino ship in Florida.


Yes, a casino ship -- just like the SunCruz ships owned by Jack Abramoff, the recently-indicted Republican money-man and wheeler-dealer. According to Associated Press, the terrorists took a mysterious trip on a SunCruz ship on September 5, 2001. And that trip is of great interest for three reasons:


SunCruz ships were under investigation for involvement in money laundering and other unsavory activities.

Al Qaeda operatives made a number of mysterious casino jaunts in that era; few believe that they were hard-core gamblers.

Al Qaeda was funded by drug money. Drug money must needs be laundered. Casinos have been known to be used for that purpose. Casino ships are unregulated.


So with that background in mind, let's learn more about the mysterious Makram Chams (whose first name is sometimes transliterated as Meekram).

My information was kindly provided by the estimable Daniel Hopsicker, of Mad Cow Morning News. I'm trying to double check the Makram Chams story (which is mentioned on one of his documentary videos, but is not on his website) to the limited extent that I can.

Hopsicker learned from eyewitnesses -- including a cab driver who drove Atta on a number of occasions, and who told this story to the FBI -- that Atta frequently visited Makram Chams, a Lebanese who lived above a convenience store that he owned.

At one point, Chams asked the cab driver to take him to the Orlando Executive Airport. There, Chams picked up an Armani-suited Saudi businessman and his wife, who wore traditional Arab attire. The driver then took this party back to Chams' apartment. (After 9/11, the FBI reviewed surveillance tapes of this pick-up, which is how they learned of the driver.)

Weeks later, the same driver was asked to take the Saudi's wife back the airport. But now they were carrying extra luggage -- extremely heavy luggage. It was a chest so heavy that two men had to transport it. An intelligence source contacted by Hopsicker felt certain that this chest contained gold.

Chams was no mere convenience store operator. He co-owned (along with one other investor) a casino ship called Vegas-in-Venice. This ship attracted a fair amount of attention because it had been left illegally in the harbor for over a year. We have no word as to what happened to this ship, or how Chams paid for it. Was he a front man? Was the ship purchased by SunCruz?

After 9/11, Makram Chams disappeared, and his store remains shuttered.

Just like Welfare, Modern Medicine must end: 60 years of it and we still have illness in US

by lawnorder on Tue Sep 27th, 2005 at 07:40:44 PDT
< Parent >


Follow/click links between SunCruz (none / 0)

and 911 guys.

Here's more info, see especially the second one (cached AP). Note, though everyone mentions Atta specifically, the original source AP story mentions only "some of the men suspected in the terrorist attacks", "two or three men linked to the Sept. 11 hijackings" and "manager recognized one of the suspected terrorists." - Video of that man given to FBI. Note that Atta's name is not mentioned. Still, it's amazing enough.

Some info here and especially -->> here (full text of original followup story by AP, Sep. 27, 2001).

AP Sep. 27 - On the Port Canaveral ship, the casino manager recognized one of the suspected terrorists as someone who may have frequented the vessel. Video of that man is being turned over to the FBI either later Wednesday or early Thursday.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/27/41028/0006


"3 arrested in gangland-style murder of Suncruz founder 'Gus' Boulis - Abramoff"

By CURT ANDERSON
Associated Press
Posted September 27 2005, 11:56 AM EDT


FORT LAUDERDALE -- Three men were charged with the 2001 gangland-style slaying of Miami businessman Konstantinos ``Gus'' Boulis, whose sale of a casino boat fleet to Jack Abramoff and a partner has led to federal charges against the prominent Washington lobbyist.

Anthony Ferrari was arrested at his North Miami Beach home Monday evening, Fort Lauderdale police said in a statement Tuesday. Fort Lauderdale homicide detectives arrested Anthony Moscatiello, 67, at his Howard Beach home in New York late Monday, police said.

Moscatiello and Ferrari, 48, were once paid by Adam Kidan, Abramoff's partner in the SunCruz Casinos sale, according to court documents in lawsuits filed about the sale.

Kidan paid Ferrari $95,000 when he was running SunCruz, but it is unclear what it was for, according to the documents. Kidan paid Moscatiello's daughter Jennifer $145,000 for his work as a food and beverage consultant at SunCruz, according to court documents.

Ferrari was being held at the Broward County Jail, sheriff's spokesman Jim Leljedal said. A third man, 28-year-old James Fiorillo, was arrested Tuesday in Palm Coast.

Moscatiello and Ferrari were charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder and solicitation to commit murder, police said. Fiorillo was charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. All three were scheduled to appear in court either Tuesday or Wednesday.

more
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-927boulismurder,0,6594337.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines








The Terrorist Who Came To The White House

Feb 2003 - Sami Al-Arian and seven other people were arrested in Tampa last week on charges of financing, organizing, and materially abetting Palestinian Islamic Jihad.. prosecutors laid out in some detail the role played by Al-Arian, a professor at the University of South Florida, as the terrorists' chief US operative

A résumé like that should have made Al-Arian radioactive -- the kind of person anyone with political ambitions or decent instincts would shun. So why in the world would he be treated as a friend and ally by -- of all people -- George W. Bush?

Why, for example, did Bush make a point of posing for pictures with Al-Arian and his family during a 2000 campaign stop in Tampa? Why was Al-Arian not only invited to a White House briefing given by Bush aide Karl Rove in June 2001 -- against the advice of the Secret Service -- but honored with a front-row seat? Why was his son Abdullah invited to yet another White House meeting a few days later? And when the Secret Service properly pronounced Abdullah a security risk and removed him from the building, why did Bush bend over backward to apologize and order his security staff and spokesman to issue apologies as well?

Sami Al Arian's friends in high places: Grover Norquist
On 10/23/2003 John Loftus attends Countdown with our favorite MSNBC man Olbermann

How could these guys operate for more than a decade immune from prosecution? And, the answer is coming out in a very strange place. What Alamoudi and al-Arian have in common is a guy named Grover Norquist. He's the super lobbyist. Newt Gingrich's guy, the one the NRA calls on, head of American taxpayers. He is the guy that was hired by Alamoudi to head up the Islamic institute and he's the registered agent for Alamoudi, personally, and for the Islamic Institute.

Grover Norquist's best friend is Karl Rove, the White House chief of staff, and apparently Norquist was able to fix things. He got extreme right wing Muslim people to be the gatekeepers in the White House. That's why moderate Americans couldn't speak out after 9/11. Moderate Muslims couldn't get into the White House because Norquist's friends were blocking their access.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/27/41028/0006