Jack Abramoff on LexisNexis

[ck4829]

The Seattle Times
FIRM DRAWS FIRE FOR LOBBY TACTICS -- ACCUSED OF INTIMIDATING OFFICIALS
April 01, 1998

"Other critics, including human-rights workers, charged that Preston Gates' chief lobbyist once headed a pro-apartheid think tank partially funded by the then-white dominated South African government. The lobbyist, Jack Abramoff, also lobbied three years ago on behalf of Zairian dictator Mobutu Sese Seko."

...

"For nearly 10 years Abramoff headed a group called the International Freedom Foundation, which was dedicated to fighting communism around the world. Among other projects, it supported the Nicaraguan Contras and defended Ronald Reagan aide Oliver North. It also vigorously opposed Nelson Mandela's African National Congress in South Africa, and it was revealed in 1995 that the group had been financed in part by the South African military regime.

In 1989, Abramoff also produced a movie called "Red Scorpion," which ended up on the U.N.'s cultural boycott list because the South African military helped in the production.

In 1995, while working at Preston, Gates & Ellis, Abramoff lobbied Republicans in Congress to get a U.S. visa for Zairian dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, a move opposed by the State Department because it viewed Mobutu as an "obstacle to democracy." Mobutu never got the visa and was deposed last year. He died last year."

[RagingInMiami]

1. Mother Jones had a very good article on him this month

[Octafish]

2. Abramoff is a BFEE turd of the first stank.

Here's what Daniel Hopsicker found: Abramoff looks connected to a gangland murder in Florida:

New Mobs Links in Abramoff Scandal: Kidan owned island casino with Sicilian Mafia figure.

Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian
anymore than going to a carwash makes you a car.”


**World Exclusive**
**Must Credit The MadCowMorningNews**
by Daniel Hopsicker

Last week's indictment of three men with Mob ties in the gangland-style murder of gambling ship magnate Gus Boulis during Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff's take-over of the gambling cruise ship line revealed deep Mob connections at the highest levels of the Republican Party.

Now The MadCowMorningNews has learned exclusively of more Mob ties to the case. One of the principals in the scandal, Adam Kidan, an Abramoff partner and a former Republican “fund-raiser,” was the co-owner and general counsel of a Caribbean island hotel-casino with Rosario Spadaro, called "a member of the Sicilian Mafia" in an Associated Press story reporting his recent arrest in Italy in a major investigation into international arms trafficking.

“St. Maarten hotel owner arrested, linked to Mafia” read the headline.

“Italian police have arrested St. Maarten's most prominent hotel owner, Rosario Spadaro, accusing him of laundering money for the Sicilian Mafia, Italian police said Thursday,” read the AP report in the May 20, 2005 Orlando Sentinel.

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

CONTINUED...

http://www.madcowprod.com

Hopsicker maps out the connections pretty damn well. Would that Big Media like The New York Times would put him on the payroll instead of folk like Steno Judy.

[blm]

7. Octafish, I think Abramoff is opening the door to re-opening BCCI.

Especially his links to Pakistan and Saudi cover up money.

[blm]

3. Notice that most EVERY story today is rooted in IranContra and BCCI?

Hell, Octafish needs his own forum here at DU.

[Octafish]

4. LOL, blm.

YOU were there when nobody knew nothing about nothing.

Thanks to YOU, we're starting to see the light shine on these cocka-roaches.

[Octafish]

5. Abramoff is a Bag-Man for the GOP

Gee. This is a pretty important topic. One would think more DUers, of all people, would be interested.

Josh Micah Marshall pegs the turd:

On paper, Jack Abramoff was a lobbyist. And he made a great deal of money for himself. But if you think of Jack Abramoff as just a crooked lobbyist most of the facts coming out about what he did don't make a great deal of sense. He was a key player in a very big political machine and he was managing a slush fund.

Look at the pattern.

Notice how all Abramoff's clients seemed to get 'bilked' out of large sums of money that ended up going to other conservative foundations, consulting firms, Ralph Reed, lobby shops, Grover Norquist, astroturf organizers, politicians, etc.? All of them part of Washington's Republican infrastructure?

In the case of Abramoff's work for Flanigan and Tyco, Abramoff ended up sending the greater part of their $2 million lobbying fee to an astroturf outfit called Grassroots Interactive -- an outfit allegedly controlled by Abramoff and run by a guy who now works as the Deputy Chief of Staff to the Governor of Maryland.

The money ended up diverted to other purposes beside the honorable task of whipping up populist enthusiasm on behalf of corporations that relocate to PO boxes in Bermuda to avoid paying taxes. Tyco lawyer George Terwilliger claims the firm "was a victim of a rip-off."

So is that it? Another rip-off? Another corporation which hires a lawyer out of the White House only to get taken in by Jack Abramoff's wiles? Please. How many times can one operator pull off the same stunt? How many times do big chunks of these pay days get passed on to other operators and organizations without the operators and organizations getting wise to the game?

CONTINUED...

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2005_09_25.php#006629

Put politely, Abramoff is a gangster.

[blm]

6. Sometimes folks are late to pick up on significant developments that

the media won't cover.

Media knows DAMN WELL how scandalous this story is and that it goes right to the top of the entire GOP powerstructure.