ABRAMOFF: The President’s ‘Pioneers’
04 January 2006 1:31 pm by Taylor Marsh
ABRAMOFF: The President's “Pioneers”
President Bush, former House Majority Leader
Tom DeLay and his successor Roy Blunt on Wednesday joined the list of officials
shedding political donations from Jack Abramoff, the once- powerful lobbyist
who has agreed to testify in a political corruption investigation.
The full extent of the investigation is not yet known,
but Justice Department officials said they intended to make use of the trove
of e-mails and other material in Abramoff's possession as part of a
probe that is believed to be focusing on as many as 20 members of Congress
and aides.
Abramoff raised at least $100,000 for the Bush-Cheney
'04 re-election campaign, earning the honorary title “pioneer” from
the campaign. But the campaign is giving up only $6,000 that came directly
from Abramoff, his wife and one of the Indian tribes that he worked to win
influence for in Washington. …
Top
Republicans Give Up Abramoff Donations
Terror Guy is only giving up $6 grand out of $100,000 Abramoff
raised for him? Excuse me, but why is that, exactly?
We already know that Abramoff bilked Indian tribes out of over
$53 MILLION. How does the president know his “pioneer” money didn't
come from cash bilked from some other poor souls?
And while we're looking at the cash that came in, Juan Cole has
brought up an absolutely hair raising possibility, complete with background dish
that should send chills down our collective democratic spine. Were some of Abramoff's
charity deeds actually a front for meddling in the Middle East? Juan
Cole asks: Is
Jack Abramoff the “mirror image” of Sami al-Arian?
“Among the expenditures:
purchases of camouflage suits, sniper scopes, night-vision binoculars, a thermal
imager and other material described in foundation records as “security”
equipment. The FBI, sources tell NEWSWEEK, is now examining these payments
as part of a larger investigation to determine if Abramoff defrauded his Indian
tribe clients . . .Abramoff, a legendary lobbyist particularly close to
DeLay, is also a fierce supporter of Israel—”a super-Zionist,”
one associate says. That may explain why Abramoff's paramilitary gear ended
up in the town of Beitar Illit, a sprawling ultra-Orthodox outpost whose residents
have occasionally tangled with their Palestinian neighbors. Yitzhak Pindrus,
the settlement's mayor, says that several years ago the town was confronting
mounting security problems. “They [the Palestinians] were throwing stones,
they were throwing Molotov cocktails,” Pindrus says. Abramoff's connection
to the town was Schmuel Ben-Zvi, an American emigre who, the lobbyist told
associates, was an old friend he knew from Los Angeles. Capital Athletic Foundation
public tax records make no mention of Ben-Zvi. But they do show payments to
“Kollel Ohel Tiferet” in Israel, a group for which there is no public
listing and which the town's mayor said he never heard of.
However, I still want to know one thing and I want to know it now. Why is George W. Bush only giving back $6,000 out of the $100,000 Abramoff
raised for Bush-Cheney in '04? In fact, why did it take our president and the leadership of his party this long to take any action at all?
