Whistleblower breaks 15-year silence to allege McCain hid wife's drug abuse

[radfringe]

Whistleblower breaks 15-year silence to allege McCain hid wife's drug abuse
Nick Juliano - RAW STORY
Published: Thursday September 11, 2008
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Whistleblower_breaks_15year_silence_to_allege_0911.html

Cindy McCain's addiction to prescription painkillers emerged into public view 14 years ago with a well-orchestrated PR campaign designed to preserve her husband's political future.

Aside from a lengthy contemporary investigation from Phoenix's alternative weekly and occasional mentions since then, the addiction back-story -- including ample questions about what John McCain knew, when he knew it and questions over whether he was complicit in the cover-up -- has gone largely untold. Until now.

Tom Gosinski, a former employee of the medical-aid charity Cindy McCain used as personal supplier of Percocet and Vicodin, is speaking out publicly for the first time.

On Wednesday, Gosinski sat down with RAW STORY and other outlets to tell his story and distribute copies of his personal journal from his time with the American Voluntary Medical Team in the last half of 1992, where he voiced ever more acute concerns and frustrations over McCain's drug use and its impact on her mood and job performance.

[aquart]

1. That's it?

Shit.

[RedCappedBandit]

18. my thoughts exactly

[EmilyAnne]

2. But according to posters far more knowledgeable than me, there never was a 15 year silence.

All of this was covered, including his journals. He's not speaking out for the first time.

[Hubert Flottz]

3. K&R

And all the time John was all for putting anyone who abused drugs behind bars.

Reminds me Of Ashcroft's family growing pot and Ashcroft killing that story and the kids gettig off scott free..

[liberalla]

4. I think it sounds bad - don't know how bad, but...

"Now, it begins to get dangerous and vicious after Gosinksi was fired. At first the McCain's said they'd help him find a job, but it became clear to Gosinksi that McCain was using his political connections to blackball him from another job in Republican politics in Arizona. So he sued the McCain's for wrongful termination, and went to the Drug Enforcement Agency to find out the legal repercussions of having prescriptions for painkillers written in his name. To retaliate, McCain then had his political ally, Rick Romley, open an extortion investigation against Gosinksi. In the course of that investigation, it was revealed that the DEA was circling around Cindy McCain and her charity. It's not clear what they were investigating her for, but it is clear she was bringing illegal prescription drugs from around the world on a diplomatic passport secured for her by McCain's Senate office.

McCain's Senate staff and Senate resources were intimately involved in Cindy's work with the charity. John McCain procured her a diplomatic passport, which meant that her bags were not searched by customs, and Mark Salter and Torie Clarke were both coordinating with Gosinski on logistics for the trips abroad. Here's Gosinski on the coordination with McCain's Senate staff.

The charity was supposed to conduct medical missions abroad, but Cindy was also stealing from the charity's supply of drugs for her own personal use. In August of 1994, the story was going to come out, and so John McCain came out with his side of the story. He claimed he didn't know that Cindy McCain was using drugs until 1994, a clear lie. Cindy McCain overdosed in 1991, and John McCain went to the hospital in Sedona and told the hospital staff not to make the information about Cindy public. Gosinski heard about the overdose in 1992, after he began work for Cindy McCain.

There are lots of unanswered questions, but the basic contours of the story are clear. John McCain used his position as a Senator to help his wife abuse illegal drugs and avoid being searched by customs, and somehow his wife managed to avoid any charges by the DEA or the state (which has mandatory minimums in cases like this) on drug charges despite ample evidence. Did the DEA or the state not file charges against her because of political pressure? Did they keep this on the Federal level to avoid mandatory minimums for Cindy McCain because of political pressure from McCain? Did John McCain and/or his Senate staff tamper with a criminal investigation of his wife and her conspiracy to fraudulently obtain illegal drugs?"

more

[dmr]

5. Read this 1994 article "Opiate For the Mrs."

Cindy's addiction and drug theft may be old news, but the only thing I knew is the story McCain's people put out on her bravery to kick her habit. I've read about half this article, it's very interesting.

http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/content/printVersion/161307

Opiate for the Mrs.

When laws are broken, somebody's got to be punished. In the case of Cindy McCain, that somebody is Tom Gosinski

By Amy Silverman, Jeremy Voas
published: September 08, 1994

You're U.S. Senator John McCain, and you've got a big problem.

Your wife, Cindy, was addicted to prescription painkillers. She stole pills from a medical-aid charity she heads and she used the names of unsuspecting employees to get prescriptions.

The public is about to find out about it.

Until now, you've managed to keep it all quiet. When Tom Gosinski, a man your wife fired, sued for wrongful termination and threatened to expose the whole sordid story, you didn't hesitate to call in the big guns.

John Dowd, the attorney who got you out of your Keating Five mess, worked on getting your wife a sweetheart deal with federal prosecutors. He also made Gosinski's lawsuit go away.

He didn't stop there.

To help maintain your reputation and discredit your wife's accuser, Dowd called Maricopa County Attorney Richard Romley and complained that Gosinski was trying to extort money. Romley, your Republican ally, promptly launched an extortion investigation.

But now New Times makes a public records request for documents in the extortion case. It's only a matter of days before the story gets out.

Here's what the senator does.

He calls in another big gun, political strategist Jay Smith, who conceives a rather remarkable plan.

Much more at the link ...

[screembloodymurder]

6. If this is Lonestarnut's big news, it's not.

This is nothing. Zero. Zilch.

[JI7]

7. i thought lonestars had to do with McCain taking medication

for alzeimers.

[liberalla]

12. It was about *prescription drugs* and about *McCain*

While speculating about what the story would be and how those two pieces would come together, people went to the Alzheimer's/dementia possible scenario.

[cags]

14. She shoulf have squashed that scenario, instead of letting people run with it IMO

[MrScorpio]

8. The news cycle is going to last what on this? Three days or so?

Isn't this old news?

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

9. There are probably a lot of new details and there is McCain's possible abuse of power. McCain

said he knew nothing of Cindy's problem back in 2000. Gosinski also talks about Cindy being suspect of drugging her children.

It makes me feel sympathetic for Cindy. A "marriage" of convenience. She was drowning her feelings of not being loved. Although what she did was illegal, addicts will do most anything to feed their addiction. Morality often goes out the window.


That said...it will not have legs and if Obama uses it, it will blow back right in his face

[cags]

10. LOL, I'm not even sure the news cycle will even pick this up

[lamp_shade]

13. They won't. Especially not today.

[Obamanaut]

11. Yes it's old news, but there will be a brazillion threads on it anyway. nt

[Dorian Gray]

15. I doubt that this will stick

or be the huge story that we might hope his abuse of power would be. I guess we'll see how it plays out.

I can't see Obama attacking Cindy McCain for her prior drug addiction, though.

[SheilaT]

16. Very old news.

And it's not as though it didn't come out some time over a decade ago. Well, okay, maybe not ALL the details came out way back when, but the additional details simply don't matter.

If it turns out that she's once again abusing drugs, there might be a small story there. But, and this is a huge but, she'd get a lot of sympathy for being so brave as to admit her addiction, and we can't condemn her and on and on like that. Heck, she could be high on something every single hour of the day and it wouldn't matter to those who are going to vote for McCain anyway, and might gain him a lot of sympathy votes from "undecideds".

[Romulox]

17. Oh Jesus. Let's sick Mr. Drug Czar/Rave Act on her.

Cause the War on Drugs is rational and just so long as Democrats are the ones locking people up for medical problems.

[RedCappedBandit]

19. Who wouldn't?

It is sort of a personal thing, drug addiction..

[Fluffdaddy]

20. Is a 15-year old story the best we can come up with?