Russian authorities still deny pre-war connections to Saddam Hussein


Washington, DC (Washington Prost) - An anonymous White House/Pentagon source today revealed further photographic and documentary evidence suggesting that Russian intelligence sources inside America were able to feed information to Saddam Hussein prior to the US invasion. The information was reputedly confiscated by US troops from various Hussein command posts after the invasion.

Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton has resigned from her post in the Bush administration after five years at  that post. An anonymous source claims Norton "is not leaving because of any problems" but simply "wants to go home for a while."

Proclaimed reasons notwithstanding, Norton leaves as the Abramoff scandal is progressively enveloping the White House - a scandal that has firmly ensnared the interior secretary.

Investigators have unearthed e-mails showing Rep. Tom DeLay's office tried to help lobbyist Jack Abramoff get a high-level Bush administration meeting for Indian clients, an effort that succeeded after the tribes began making $250,000 in donations.

Tribal money went both to a group founded by Interior Secretary Gale Norton, the Cabinet secretary Abramoff was trying to meet, as well as to DeLay's personal charity.

"Do you think you could call that friend and set up a meeting?" then-DeLay staffer Tony Rudy asked fellow House aide Thomas Pyle in a Dec. 29, 2000, e-mail titled "Gale Norton-Interior Secretary." President Bush had nominated Norton to the post the day before.

Rudy wrote Abramoff that same day promising he had "good news" about securing a meeting with Norton, forwarding information about the environmental group Norton had founded, according to e-mails obtained by investigators and reviewed by The Associated Press. Rudy's message to Abramoff was sent from Congress' official e-mail system.

Within months, Abramoff clients donated heavily to the Norton-founded group and to DeLay's personal charity. The Coushatta Indian tribe, for instance, wrote checks in March 2001 for $50,000 to the Norton group and $10,000 to the DeLay Foundation, tribal records show.

The lobbyist and the Coushattas eventually won face-to-face time with the secretary during a Sept. 24, 2001, dinner sponsored by the group she had founded.

According to the "Washington Wire", the Campaign to Defend the Constitution has "taken on three icons of the religious right: Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, Rev. Lou Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition, and former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed."

The group "launched an online and TV campaign Wednesday...saying the three 'have a serious gambling problem' and citing ties to disgraced Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff who worked on behalf of Indian casino gaming."

In addition, they're placing a single ad in the New York Times.

Although the campaign was launched just yesterday, Political Cortex's own Frederick Clarkson has been the primary driver for this story from the beginning:

Way back in December of 2005, it was Fred who alerted us to "Lucky Louie" Sheldon and his implication in the Abramoff-related Gambling Scandal:

In some ways, Ralph Reed is the ultimate poster child for the Republican Party's thermonuclear meltdown over the Jack Abramoff scandal.  You see, Ralph Reed was for many years the chief political officer for the Christian Coalition, an organization whose entire raison d'etre was the promotion of what it characterized as uncompromising moral values.

Well, Reed's shenanigans with Jack Abramoff reveal that the promotion of those so-called moral values was a sham, and the real interests being promoted were those of its high powered corporate contributors.

Today's revelations in the Atlanta Journal Constitution provide another chapter in that story.

The message should ring loud and clear to anyone with sound judgment - Impeach George Bush before he does more damage.  How much damage can one Administration do before common sense, patriotism, and true conservatism take over?

We have just been informed that only 5 percent of the nine million containers that go through U.S. ports are being inspected.  Is that homeland security?  The Republican Administration has failed to be alert to Hurricane Katrina, which ravaged Louisiana and Mississippi.

The U.S.A. was never in any grave danger because Clinton had sex outside of marriage.  Nevertheless, the Republican hate machine went into high gear spending taxpayers' millions, with $30 million from Ken Starr's vendetta alone, to reek personal revenge on a Democratic president, all the while posing as moral guardians.  

With the record of every kind of corruption going on in this Republican led Administration, the glaring spotlight on hypocrisy is evident for the eyes of the world to witness.

What did James Dobson know, and when did he know it?  That's what Max Blumenthal writing in The Nation wants to know.  

Christian Right consultant and now, Georgia GOP pol, Ralph Reed and former GOP super lobbist Jack Abramoff, and now admitted felon, persuaded Christian broadcaster James Dobson to use his national radio broadcast in part of a complicated scheme to help one of Abramoff's clients.  

At stake was the possible opening of an Indian casino in one state. Abrammoff's client, a tribe that owned a casino in a neighboring state didn't want the competition. So they hired Abramoff, who in turn hired Reed to whip up the Christian Right to stop the casino. Dobson claims he didn't know he was shilling for gambling interests. But Blumenthal points out that he isn't taking questions.

In a January 6 press release issued three days after Abramoff's indictment, Dobson declared, "If the nation's politicians don't fix this national disaster, then the oceans of gambling money with which Jack Abramoff tried to buy influence on Capitol Hill will only be the beginning of the corruption we'll see." He concluded with a denunciation of vice:
"Gambling--all types of gambling--is driven by greed and subsists on greed."

What Dobson neglected to mention--and has yet to discuss publicly--is his own pivotal role in one of Abramoff's schemes. In 2002 Dobson joined a coterie of Christian-right activists, including Tony Perkins, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, to spearhead Abramoff's campaigns against the establishment of several Louisiana casinos that infringed on the turf of Abramoff's tribal clients. Dobson and his allies recorded messages for phone banking, lobbied high-level Bush Administration officials and took to the airwaves. Whether they knew it or not, these Christian soldiers' crusade to protect families in the "Sportsmen's Paradise" from the side effects of chronic slot-pulling and dice-rolling was funded by the gambling industry and planned by the lobbyist known even to his friends as "Casino Jack."

Much more.

The Republicans need some more propaganda to justify the sorry contribution they have made to The State of the Union.

Please tell me how they can justify the War on Iraq; which causes the U.S.A. to be considered by some nations as the number one terrorist nation.

A nation capable of launching war based on lies and deception causing, by some estimates, 100,000 Iraqi deaths, over 2,500 U.S. service personnel's deaths, and over 15,000 service personnel injured, is definitely not something to be proud of or cheer.

The State of the Union now has the distinction of saddling future generations of U.S. citizens with the biggest burden of national debt of any nation in the world.  Is that something to be proud of?

What will the Republicans and Democrats who voted for the Iraq War, we now know as based on lies, forgeries and deception do when George Bush caries on about bringing "democracy" to Iraq?  Will they, robot-like, rise to their feet and give Bush a hefty round of applause in the light of what we see about the real Iraq every night on TV?

Sadly, religion played a role in this corruption scandal that Jack Abramoff lobbying activity included.  Let us begin with Tom DeLay.  DeLay's pastor, with whom he prayed, was also his chief of staff.  Edwin Buckham and DeLay often prayed together at work.  It was Buckham who helped introduce Tom DeLay to Jack Abramoff.

Continuing the cast of characters in this colorful corruption scandal resembles a Hollywood movie.  Next, Tony Rudy joined Abramoff as a lobbyist.  Rudy used his e-mail from GOP strategy sessions he attended.  This corruption scandal involved both Republicans and Democrats.  Abramoff was associated with 9 Democratic Senators, and 6 Democratic House members.

On national TV both Republican and Democratic Senators and Congressmen who had received cash from Abramoff were shown as they stated they were returning the cash, now that Abramoff's scandal ridden conduct had been exposed.  The King of Lobbyists made a plea deal, which helped him not being forced to spend the rest of his life behind bars.

President Bush's former procurement policy head, David Safavian, was indicted for allegedly hiding dealings with Abramoff while ambitious Abramoff was seeking to seize control of government-managed land.

Ralf Reed, former head of the Christian Coalition, was Abramoff's connection to the "anti-gambling" forces.

President Bush and his Administration have been tragically misleading us.  Among the more blatant and destructive courses in this direction has been the infamous war promotion fear campaign with the "weapons of mass destruction" high voltage propaganda pitch.  

This was geared to strike fear, to rev the American public into a "fight or die" war frame.  Once the truth was revealed, once much of Iraq's infrastructure was destroyed, was there an apology for this deadly deception?

Not on your life!  The "Saddam was a bad man and we got rid of him" message was declared.  Nothing was mentioned as to why, if Saddam Hussein was such a bad man, did Daddy President Bush ask for that $3 billion loan to help Saddam buy foodstuffs during the elder president's first two years?

Then, suddenly, when we had announced we would not do anything about Saddam invading Kuwait, when Iraq felt fully justified in stopping Kuwait's oil steal through slant drilling, the Elder Bush went to war in the Gulf.

With righteous indignation, the U.S. rallied allies and the coalition managed to kill Iraqis running across the desert, many with their hands up begging to be taken prisoners, anything to escape from Saddam - a man the U.S. had supported for years with a "weapons buffet".

Here's what a recent Newsweek story says about Congressman Bob Ney's (R-OH) most recent bribery-colored coincidence:

Bloomberg News is reporting that the growing Washington, DC scandal centered around GOP superlobbyist Jack Abramoff, is damaging the campaign for Lt. Governor of Georgia, of former Christian Coalition executive director Ralph Reed -- who has been caught-up in the scandal for months.

Reed, who is the chairman of the Georgia GOP, is making his first run for public office. Since leaving the Christian Coalition in the late 1990's he has worked as a political consultant, heading a firm called Century Strategies. Among other candidates, he worked for George W. Bush's 2000 presidential campaign; and he also ran the Bush campaign in the Southeast in 2004.

"Supreme Court confirmation hearings are under way for Judge Samuel Alito. It's pretty interesting. Democrats want to know his position on privacy. Republicans want to know his position on prison terms for bribery."

-- Jay Leno 01/10/06

At least in terms of personal donations, Republican Jack Abramoff was all Republican, All the time!

Of the $261,918 that Jack Abramoff has donated to political causes/campaigns over the years, $172,933 has gone to various Republican political candidates while the remainder ($88,985) went to special interests such as "Americans for a Republican Majority PAC", "Keep our Majority", and the "Republican Majority Fund". Zero dollars of his personal funds went to Democrats. (See below for a full list of Donations made by Abramoff and/or his wife)

The Republican "Culture of Corruption" is alive and well. And to help fight that self-inflicted stigma, Republicans have latched on to an extensive list of contributions made to both Republicans and Democrats by various Indian tribes (See the list of these tribes below). GOP operatives argue that a contribution from one of these tribes is to be translated as an 'Abramoff-linked' contribution. It is the basis by which they falsely claim Abramoff to be an "equal money dispenser".

Last week, on the eve of GOP superlobbyist Jack Abramoff's guilty pleas in a widening federal corruption probe, I summarized the relationship between Abramoff, several religious right leaders, and Abramoff's lobbying campaign on behalf of eLottery, an internet gambling company. Abramoff funneled eLottery cash to three religious right entitities as part of his campaign to derail the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act of 2000. A company headed by Ralph Reed, the founding executive director of the Christian Coalition had received $150,000; The Traditional Values Coalition, headed by Rev. Lou Sheldon, received $25,000; and Toward Tradition, an Orthodox Jewish foundation based in Seattle and headed by Rabbi Daniel Lapin, receieved $25,000 from eLottery. Abramoff was a board member and former board chairman of Toward Tradition.

Now, The Seattle Times reports further details about the role of Toward Tradition in the growing scandal.

"Even President Bush returned the $6,000 given to him by that creepy lobbyist guy Jack Abramoff. But Bush said he hadn't done anything with the money. In fact, it still had the original strings attached."

-- Jay Leno 01/06/06

Straight to work went the Republicans as the alarm bells of truth set off a GOP-collective migraine. Once again, it was Howard Dean who lit the fire and set the Abramoff record straight.

Right-wing Newsmax was of the first to assert that Dean 'fibbed':

Well, we all could see this coming a mile away, couldn't we? Under the headline, GOP Leaders Seek Distance From Abramoff, the Washington Post reports:

With a House Republican committee chairman implicated in the criminal case and the highest echelons of the Republican Party increasingly vulnerable to charges, GOP leaders moved yesterday to distance themselves from disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and prepare to combat a growing corruption scandal.

The same story goes on to detail Newt Gingrich's advice about Total Distance Management (TDM), focusing on beleaguered Senate Majority Leader Tom Delay: