Reply #32: Here's some other weird stuff on Safavian [View All]

[starroute]

I feel a little funny posting this, because it comes from one of those groups that is anti-immigrant to the point where it verges on racism. But given what else is coming out about Safavian, it may be credible:

http://www.projectusa.org/ezine/2005/04-12-bribery.html

I'll show how <Rep. Chris> Cannon set up Section 527 political groups for no purpose but to enrich himself, first by fleecing the rubes through conservative-cause-of-the-month fundraising come-ons, later as a way for corporate donors, Indian tribes, and Internet gambling concerns to send chunks of unregulated cash his way. I'll show how his first 527 group was set up with two questionable characters: 1) a woman named Bethany Noble who, at least on one occasion, raised money for Cannon, and 2) his chief of staff at the time, David Safavian.

<snip>

I'll show how, even before the Western Leadership Fund, the 527 group, was set up in June, 2001, Noble and Safavian had a long and deep connection to Grover Norquist and Norquist's lobbying firm, Janus Merritt. I'll show their connections to indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the lobbying firm he worked for, Greenberg Traurig. I'll show how Noble and Safavian both lobbied for the Marianas Islands, a U.S. territory exempt from U.S. wage and immigration laws, and the center of one of the controversies swirling around both Tom DeLay and Abramoff.

<snip>

I'll show how money reported by the Western Leadership Fund as being paid to other Chris Cannon 527s never shows up on the books of those other 527s. I'll produce two separate lists of the donors at the same fundraising event--one list complete, and one shorter list showing the donations that are actually reported.

I'll show all this and a lot more. But it isn't even Chris Cannon who is the main target here, though he is going to cause all sorts of problems for the Republicans, I think, and, in my view, certainly belongs in jail. The main target begins to come into focus when you discover where David Safavian and Bethany Noble are today.

See also http://www.projectusa.org/ezine/2005/04-18-cannon-minutemen-agjobs.html