McCain orders marshals to find no-show GOP operative

[quaoar]

Perhaps they should check the flights to the Cayman Islands. This woman is president of something called the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy.

http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/news/state/13064881.htm

Senate probe to focus on former Colorado political operative

JENNIFER TALHELM
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Sen. John McCain has called on U.S. marshals to help deliver a subpoena to a former Colorado political operative he wants to testify about indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff's dealings with American Indian tribes.

Italia Federici didn't show up to a Wednesday Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearing at which she was expected to talk about her relationship to Abramoff, Indian tribes and the Interior Department.

Her attorney, Michael Scheininger, said Federici told McCain in a letter last week that she could not attend because it was the anniversary of her father's death.

"She has not been served a subpoena to my knowledge," Scheininger said, adding that he would not say where she was. "I don't think she's hiding. She sent the letter. It's not a big mystery here."

[rooboy]

1. The anniversary of her father's death??? LOL!! n/t

[FVZA_Colonel]

3. If I were her father, I would be hoping that she would set aside her grief

over my death for as long as it took to deal with such a serious legal issue.

[napi21]

2. I watched that hearing today. McCain said "Go find her!"

He said they will find her and she will appear before this body.

I don't know who she is or what her connection is to this hearing, but they all sounded like they were going to get her to appear, one way or another.

[seafan]

4. Italia Federici is a friend of Griles, deputy secretary of Interior

.....The task force also is examining Abramoff's relationships and influence with officials of the Bush administration, as highlighted by the previously undisclosed Gun Lake e-mails. The e-mails show how Abramoff relied on the president of a conservative group, Italia Federici, to intercede with Griles, who was her friend.

--snip

That same day, Abramoff sent an urgent e-mail to Federici, president of the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy.

"This is a disaster in the making," Abramoff wrote. "This is the casino we discussed with Steve and he said that it would not happen. It seems to be happening! The way to stop it is for Interior to say they are not satisfied with the environmental impact report. Can you get him to stop this one asap? They are moving fast. Thanks Italia. This is a direct assault on our guys, Saginaw Chippewa."

Federici posted a quick reply: "I will call him asap." She met with Griles in his office two days later, according to a copy of Griles's schedule released under the Freedom of Information Act. Federici did not respond to interview requests for this article.

Federici's group, CREA, was founded in the 1990s by conservative anti-tax activist Grover Norquist and Gale Norton, now secretary of the interior. It has received financial backing from chemical and mining interests, leading some environmentalists to brand it a front for industrial polluters. Abramoff directed tribes he represented to donate $225,000 to CREA from 2001 to 2003.

--snip

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/27/AR2005082701067_pf.html

I think she is indeed running from the investigators, yes I do.

[KoKo]

5. Thanks for posting this and the link. It's interesting.

I caught a little of the McCain hearings on C-Span today about this, so this gives some more info.

[seafan]

7. Y're welcome! This just gets curiouser and curiouser.

Abramoff is the glue that welds all these criminals together. When they all fall, it's gonna make a big dust cloud.

[quaoar]

8. True

And it's amazing Abramoff hasn't died under mysterious circumstances yet.

[Zynx]

9. Abramoff doesn't die. He makes people die. See case in Florida.

[quaoar]

10. Another reason why

Abramoff is likely to die in a small plane crash.

If I were Abramoff, I'd have someone else start my car in the morning.

[bostonbabs]

6. the c-span coverage is the best ..i'm hooked

[Catrina]

11. I agree, I just discovered the hearings today

It's pretty dramatic stuff ~ I don't know why the media is not covering this story. It's mind-boggling. So many crimes, so many different aspects to what Abramoff was involved in. How could anyone who dealt with this man not have known he was a con-man? Answering myself! They DID know, that's WHY they dealt with him. They let him do the really dirty work of raising funds for their campaigns and now, all those he placed in office, don't seem to remember knowing him!!

There's the Indian Casino lobbying case in which he cheated them out of the money they paid him.

Then there's the Florida, Sunkruz Casino case. Three mafia types already arrested, and Abramoff's partner suspected of ordering the murder of his former business associate, who sold him the Sunkruz Casinos. This story even touches on 9/11 because of eyewitnesses claiming they saw three of the hijackers, including Atta, on a Sunkruz Casino. Papers on that were handed over to prosecutors this week, I believe.

Then there's the offshore stuff, the Marianas Islands, slave labor, money laundering etc.

I think the entire Republican party will be affected by all these allegations about Abramoff, and he's not all that happy with them, now that they have forgotten ever knowing him. I think he'll be talking to save himself ~Tom Delay needs to ready for more trouble. Abramoff said last year that Tom Delay was lieing when he said he didn't 'know him very well', that Tom Delay is lieing, and even more ominous for the Hammer, he said that Delay 'knew everything'.

So many trials of corrupt Republicans coming up, so little time. The Spies in the Pentagon trials in January. All the Abramoff trials. Ken Lay's trial ~ Scooter Libby going to trial maybe!! Look at the company Bush keeps!! You can be judged by that alone.

Oh, and I forgot the trial in Chicago, where is Fitzpatrick may nail Perle, the Prince of Darkness. This is getting good, should mean a clear victory for Dems in 2006 if they can get some good candidates together by then.

[Disturbed]

12. The Bush Regime is so ripe with coruption that.

citizens will need to be given gas masks soon to keep from smelling the stench.

[ibegurpard]

13. Who observes the anniversary of a death?

That's weird.

[RB TexLa]

14. I don't do much on the day my father died

I'd answer a subpoena but don't get many of those. It might sound weird but I just don't do much on that day.

[Humor_In_Cuneiform]

15. Anniversaries of difficult times aren't "observed" so much as

they just happen.

Next to right after the death, one year later is one of the hardest times.

However in this case, I imagine the person is just using it as an excuse or she would have offered to appear at another time.

[Humor_In_Cuneiform]

16. I watched the last hearing too, streamed it from a web site.

I saw part of it yesterday.

It is truly an amazingly horrid story.

That Griles guy's face was the brightest red, while he and another witness's testimony totally contradicted each others.

[quaoar]

17. I truly believe that Abramoff

has the potential to be the Joe Valachi of the Bush Administration. If some prosecutor somewhere would just load him up with enough indictments, Abramoff would sell out everyone.