Cannonfire's got a HUGE story!!!

[sellitman]

Snip <The truth: Wilkes was a mechanism by which public funds earmarked for national defense were funneled to G.O.P. candidates and causes.

Read the Blockbuster story. Perhaps the worst news for the GOP since Nixon:

http://babyurl.com/aGVMVH

[InaneAnanity]

1. You're right

This could be a HUGE scandal.

Of course, given the recent trends, it probably won't ever come to light.

[iconoclastNYC]

35. I firmly believe that the only time a scandal comes to light

Is to cover up an even bigger scandal. Anybody know the term for this?

[Autonomy]

45. Sounds like a corollary of the Iceberg Effect. nt

[KnaveRupe]

129. Modified Limited Hangout? n/t

[TallahasseeGrannie]

2. Ah...Monday morning coffee

and a story like this on DU. LIFE IS GOOD.

[benburch]

3. If this is true...

it is the end of the GOP.

[sellitman]

4. I like those words

The End of the GOP. What a nice sound! This story could be the biggest one of my life time that's for sure! It's also on the Daily KOS.

[jarnocan]

125. How can we help?

Can someone- who is good a letter wrtiting compose a to the point letter- insisting that this story get covered?
We could all send it direct and/or sign a petition???
Let me know- and I will push it around.

I am right now going to start a dscussion on OLS.... but would like to do more.

[Canuckistanian]

5. And just look at the names involved

Henry Bonilla, Roy Brown, Rick Clayburgh, Duke Cunningham (of course!), John T. Doolittle, Maria Guadalupe Garcia, George W. Gekas, Lindsay Graham, Duncan Hunter, Darrell Issa, Samuel Johnson, Thaddeus G. McCotter, Constance Morella, Devin Nune, Steve Pearce, Bill Van de Weghe Jr., Jerry Weller.

[sellitman]

6. If this is true it will dwarf every scandal EVER!! n/t

[nicknameless]

12. A few paragraphs below that list:

Other recipients of Wilkes' largesse: President Bush, Katherine Harris, Tom Delay, Virgil Goode Jr. and Elizabeth Dole -- whose husband, as you may recall from yesterday's post, lent his name to Reverend Moon's "stamp out the cross" crusade. Talk about being on the Dole!

[FreedomAngel82]

43. Wow!

Didn't Bush try to stop the Abramoff case? Maybe this is why?

[Octafish]

102. Bush demoted US Attorney investingating Abramoff in Guam...

Hhi,

[donkeyotay]

146. So, the President of the United States is doing bidness for Abramoff?

Subpoena issued November 18, 2002 that would have revealed Abramoff.
And the very next day November 19, 2002, Bush squelches the grand jury by demoting the US Attorney.

The Los Angeles Times reports that in 2002, lobbyist Jack Abramoff entered into a secret agreement with Guam Superior Court officials to lobby against a court revision bill then pending in the United States Congress. For his lobbying efforts, Mr. Abramoff was reportedly paid with thirty-six $9,000 checks funneled through a Laguna Beach lawyer to disguise the lobbyist's role in working for the Guam Superior Court. These transactions were the target of a federal grand jury subpoena issued on November 18, 2002, which required the Guam Superior Court Administrative Director to release records involving the lobbying contract. It was on November 19, 2002, that President Bush announced he was demoting U.S. Attorney Black. The federal grand jury took no further action in the Abramoff investigation.

Looks, walks and talks like a duck... probably a flamingo.

[nicknameless]

128. That scandal seems to involve just about everyone from the GOP.

There seem to be interwoven crimes, they pull on one thread and soon another crime is revealed.

:popcorn: (Oooh -- My first opportunity to use my favorite smilie)

[TheDebbieDee]

142. Is Sen. Diane Feinstein's defense contractor husband....

connected, in any way, to MZM? Is she gonna be one of the few Dems to catch some flak about this sham? I was just wondering......

[carnie_sf]

153. One can only hope

[Capn Sunshine]

169. Last I checked, Sen Feinsteins husband was a real estate developer

Did he have a mid life career change?

[TheDebbieDee]

170. I don't know how reputable these sources are, but.....

http://www.sf.indymedia.org/news/2003/04/1603517.php

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=32190

They are both old stories but these "facts" are stuck in my head!

[salin]

7. forget "Pay to Play" politics- this is Slush Fund politics

but isn't that the whole point of the K Street Project?

[htuttle]

10. It's mafia politics

The way they've been channeling public funds into campaign coffers (through 'cutouts' otherwise known as 'contracters'), is a classic racketeering scam.

The entire party leadership, and the Bush administration, should be indicted under the RICO laws.

[salin]

18. tax payer dollars, federal contracts and kickbacks...

we used to call that graft. But this modern day national Tammany Hall debacle is now considered so "business as usual" that these folks don't even work very hard to hide it.

[MADem]

51. Makes Teapot Dome look like a tempest in a tea pot! n/t

[Old and In the Way]

38. It is the Republican Syndicate today.

They've transcended politics and operate in the plane of Organized Crime.

[chat_noir]

8. Friends of "Duke Cunningham"

Maybe we should be looking at this FEC Disclosure Report for additional names:

http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/com_supopp/C00242446/

[acmavm]

9. What a holy mess. But how do we get the 'people' to give a damn that

their lives and the lives and futures of their kids have been bought and sold by a bunch of lying corporate bastards and their cheap (and not-so-cheap) whores in the republican party?

[FreedomAngel82]

44. Because all they have to do

is just say they're the conservative Christian's and how much they love Jesus and hate the gay people. :eyes:

[PurpleChez]

147. I'm in a very red county in a red state.

I think Dick Cheney could break into folks' houses, forcibly conscript their teenage sons, send them off to Fallujah to be killed a week later, and Mom and Dad would STILL refuse to say ANYTHING bad about *, the war, any war, etc. The previous poster is right -- all the thugs need to do is say "we're redneck christians, just like you," and all is forgiven. I mean ALL is forgiven. In 1991, it took Daddy Bush about two and a half minutes to convince the population that Saddam Hussein was the New Hitler -- in spite of the fact that he had been an ally up until the moment that he became more valuable as an enemy, in spite of the fact that most Americans probably had no idea who he was or why he was evil. Ever since then I have been perplexed when people look at Germans in the 1930s and wonder "How could a sophisticated, modern nation fall for Hitler?" BushCo's atrocities might not quite rise to the level of Nazism, but we have now seen repeatedly that a great many Americans are eager to fall in behind some maniac who who makes an appeal to some twisted version of national pride and to a hateful, elitist religion. Such people might not be in the majority but they are an extremely vocal minority, and for any number of reasons the majority is too afraid to confront them. The Rethugs are criminals of the highest order. I have no sympathy for them as people or as politicians. They deserve every misery that is heading their way, and I won't be ashamed to giggle my ass of when it all hits the fan for them.

[Historic NY]

11. Even McCain credited the news reporters.......

with sniffing out the Duke Cunningham case. Which is just the tip of the iceberg.

[robbedvoter]

16. Cuz McCain remembers his Keating Five days - takes one to know one

[zbdent]

13. Could that be the $$$$ slated to go to the protection of our troops

in Iraq? Like, body armor and armor for the HumVees (other than the ones carrying around Joe Lieberman and the like) . . .

[sellitman]

20. Yep....the GOP has a problem.

This sure could do more damage than even Traitor-gate.

[robbedvoter]

14. Duncan Hunter - the auteur of the "Murtha resolution" - sweeet!

Duncan Hunter -- chairman of the House Armed Services Committee -- was a big ADCS pusher:

Since 1994, Wilkes and ADCS gave $40,700 in campaign contributions to Rep. Duncan Hunter, a San Diego Republican who now chairs the House Armed Services Committee. Hunter has acknowledged that he joined with Cunningham in 1999 to contact Pentagon officials who reversed a decision and gave ADCS one of its first big contracts, for nearly $10 million." (USA Today, 11/29/05)

[nicknameless]

15. Holy crap

Here's hoping that MSM, beyond the San Diego Union Tribune, will pick this up.

Nominated!

[0007]

17. Quite a read!

[salin]

22. the angle of the article is one I hope gets copied and repeated

which contractors getting govt dollars are mere shell companies - and how much of that money is funnelled back (KICKBACKS).

[realFedUp]

32. wonder how many are attending White House Holiday parties?

Bush Inc. is one giant gaming industry.

[Supersedeas]

37. campaign finance just got a lil more complicated

[tanyev]

19. Kick for later.

[pberq]

21. Kick! - Recommended

[we can do it]

23. Awesome Find - Pass It On

I only got to skim through the articles before I go to work - I can't wait to get home and read them thoroughly and pass them on to everyone on my mailing list.

[Pirate Smile]

24. Send it to Olberman.

[drm604]

25. Hmm...

This might mesh with some research I've done in the past. I ran into a number of "shell" websites that appeared to have right-wing connections and appeared to be government contractors but didn't appear to consist of anything more than a basic website or, in one case, an "under construction" page that hasn't changed in years. For some reason I never thought of the possibility that they were being used to launder campaign funds. I may go back and take another look and see of I can find any connections with cannonfire's findings.

Great articles. Thanks for posting!

[sellitman]

28. I bet they are all connected.

Heads are going to roll! the more folks we have looking into this the better. Let us know your findings and thanks for the reply!

[FreedomAngel82]

46. Everything they do is connected

And leads to the same person. A lot of these people are also more than likely connected to the Abramoff scandal. Perhaps this is why the troops in Iraq haven't gotten their armor while other countries got armor from the same people twelve months earlier.

[drm604]

26. Duplicate: Self Deleted

[BamaBecky]

27. Congratulations to John Dean, Joseph and ALL who contributed

to this awesome story! This should be on the front pages of every newspaper everywhere..........

Bama

:toast: :applause: :toast: :applause: :toast: :applause: :toast: :applause:

[burythehatchet]

29. wow. just wow

[donkeyotay]

30. Connecting dots on the GOP crime family

This is the best news I've heard for democracy in 5 years. The corruption has gotten so bad with everyone wanting a piece of the action that it's out of control and threatens to take down the insiders!

In all my research, I keep coming across companies that do "data mining" or are high-tech DHS. Many a GOPer has one somewhere. Perle had Autonomy, one Abramoff donor was White Oak Tech. Inc who had access to FEC records for data mining, Ken Blackwell is deep into helping us live better lives with government tech... if only we can connect any of this tainted money with Ohio. The only promising link I've found so far is a link between Ohio Matrix and Data Base Technology in Florida, 2000. (The company ChoicePoint bought. It was the company that purged voting rolls.)

The only thing these GOPers might be mining is our democracy.

The President promises to do one thing only: defend the Constitution. These asshats have trashed the Constitution and compromised our defense, our economy and the rule of law.

We need the Mother of All investigations.

[realFedUp]

31. This is big

Will it take six months for the MSM to investigate?

[Toots]

33. Six years would be more like it

Do you think this is a new occurrence? This has been going on for many more years than six and we are barely hearing about it now and not from Major sources either...

[realFedUp]

34. right...

thank God for bloggers. I'd put them on the
cover of Time magazine.

[cyberpj]

36. Bloggers on Time cover as "person of the year" - GREAT IDEA!

I'm going to suggest it.

[Quakerfriend]

39. This should bring Americans into the streets en mass!

But, what will??

[FormerRepublican]

40. This needs to be sent to all the media outlets and posted all over the...

...internet. Just reading about it makes me feel ill.

I doubt seriously that all those good minded Republicans who want to cut taxes and spending had cuts for these companies in mind!

Just pigs slopping at the trough.

[loudsue]

41. NOTHING is going to bring down the republican party ..... they're in too

many pockets, and there are too many well-placed politicians, judges and spooks who have fed at this trough. I seriously doubt that our judicial system is large enough, and uncorrupted enough, to handle the case load that the republicans would put it under IF there were actual investigations into all of it.

:kick::kick::kick:

[buddysmellgood]

42. kick

[PistolSteve]

47. I can't wait to hear more of this!

Although none of it surprises me!

[Nothing Without Hope]

48. The totally corrupt, bought-and-paid-for Rip. Richard Pombo, who is

behind the terrible plan to sell off hundreds of millions of OUR NATIONAL PUBLIC LANDS at garage sale prices for devasation or strip mall development, is on this list too. His STATED campaign support is from real estate, mining, oil interests like you would expect, but now we see that that's just a tiny bit of the whole picture.

The reek of corruption brings tears to my eyes.

And in the meantime, we must act soon to block Pombo's stealth rider on the House Budget bill from being incorporated into the reconcisled congressional budget, possibly later this month. See the recently archived DU threads on this in my sig line. I'll post again on this today or tomorrow with an update. PM me if you want me to PM you with a link when I do.

[nicknameless]

161. I just checked out the links in your signature.

I thought that creep was representing SOUTHERN California!
Very appalled that voters in the North would elect such a sleaze-bag. Big money of Blackhawk might have something to do with it.

It's amazing to see DiFi trying to do anything to benefit the environment. Good on her! ... for once.

I hope these interwoven scandals take down the whole lot of deceitful thugs -- including Pombo.

[Nothing Without Hope]

167. I hope Pombo's taken down very soon - he's been escalating his anti-

environmental efforts from the first, and now this massive grab of public lands is the major plum. He is bought and paid for, and he is giving the greedy corporations who support him a good return on their investment. He demonstrates how much harm just one corrupt representative can do.

[mike_c]

49. this is becoming quite interesting...

...I'm beginning to think that the term "culture of corruption" is more than just a political catch phrase-- those folks appear to have raised money laundering to a level the mob would envy.

[Dinger]

50. Well, Good- Now, What Will Happen? When Is Enough Enough?

I sure hpe this story has enough legs to FINALLY make something actually, really happen. Who cares about 2008 - this ought to speed things up. We'll see.

[grasswire]

52. gawd almighty

I'm speechless. And that tuna on rye I just ate ain't sitting too well right now.

I'm beginning to think that the old practice of pulling a person's skin off in strips might be the appropriate punishment for these thugs.

Is there no end to their depravity?

[stillcool]

53. Holey Moley....

my brain is threatening to blow....

[Dora]

54. What fucking nerve. How long to wait for somebody big to pick this up?

This scheme just raised the bar on evil.

[rman]

55. now let's see those "liberal media" run with this

[happydreams]

56. Does this tie in with Abrahmof scandal????

If it can be linked, even potentially then it could merge with that investigation.
I don't have the time to get this to those investigating Abrahmof.
I am going to fire a copy to Cong.Henry Waxman.

[happydreams]

58. Somebody please in the 30th District mail this to Waxman

His site doesn't work for me.

[realFedUp]

57. Contractor 'knew how to grease the wheels'

Contractor 'knew how to grease the wheels'

ADCS founder spent years cultivating political contacts
By Dean Calbreath
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
and Jerry Kammer
COPLEY NEWS SERVICE

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/04/AR2005120400945.html

December 4, 2005

In government documents, he is referred to as "co-conspirator No. 1": a man who gave more than $630,000 in cash and favors to former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham for help in landing millions of dollars in federal contracts.

Howard Lipin / Union-Tribune

ADCS has received at least $80 million in government contracts since 1996. Its $11 million headquarters is located in Poway.
Poway military contractor Brent Wilkes – whom Justice Department officials identify as the co-conspirator – has long been active in local political circles, serving as the San Diego County finance co-chairman of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign and the state finance co-chairman for President Bush.

Wilkes has not been charged with a crime in the Cunningham case. The former Rancho Santa Fe congressman announced his resignation Monday after pleading guilty to charges of tax evasion and conspiracy. Three other men – Washington defense contractor Mitchell Wade, businessman Thomas Kontogiannis and financier John T. Michael, both of New York – also have been identified as co-conspirators.

Wilkes' story shows how gifts, favors and campaign contributions can be used to gain lucrative business from the government.


continued

[stickdog]

59. Link isn't working for me now. "Connection Refused" (nt)

[ChiciB1]

61. Not Working For Me Either!

Did someone sabotage it???

Sure wouldn't surprise me... nothing surprises me much anymore!!

[druidity33]

not working here either...

too hot a story? Who shut it down? Or is the site just getting a lot of hits...

[mzmolly]

63. Not working for me eitha?

:shrug:

[Twist_U_Up]

70. notta n/t

[Wordie]

97. 403 Forbidden Error here...

It says: You don't have permission to access /2005/12/deeper-into-wilkesmzm-scandals-updated.html on this server.

Why would that happen? Any computer experts here???

[psychopomp]

60. Developing...

:kick:

[BlueIris]

62. Thanks for posting this. J.C. is the BEST. BLOGGER. EVER.

As I've posted before: you might not like everything you read, but at least you'll be informed.

[mzmolly]

64. Cannonfire is down.

Hmmmmmmmm

[FormerRepublican]

65. I don't know for certain, but circumstantial evidence says Hatch got the..

...story killed. I've seen him do it before. Can't prove anything.

See this link: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2292939

I HATE Orrin Hatch!

Maybe the server's just down, but Grrrr!

[sellitman]

68. I am trying the link but it doesn't work.

There is a bit of the story on the Bradblog. Check it out.

[robertpaulsen]

66. Hopsicker is on this - Cunningham Stripped $700 Million from U.S. Defense

Cunningham Stripped $700 Million from U.S. Defense

'Dukester's' Epic Boo-Hoo Hiding Massive Pentagon Rip-Off



*World Exclusive*
Nov 30 2005--Venice,FL.
by Daniel Hopsicker

The MadCowMorningNews has learned that California Republican Congressman Randy ‘Duke’ Cunningham steered $500 million in defense contracts in less than a decade, according to the company’s own website, to a start-up San Diego software firm which—and here’s the beauty part—doubled as a lobbying firm.

The lobbying firm then gratefully kicked back—at a bare minimum—hundreds of thousands of dollars annually to a Jack Abramoff-directed Washington D.C. lobbying and consulting firm run by two former senior staffers of Texas Republican Tom DeLay.

It offered, in other words, one-stop shopping.
While the focus was on the $2 million in bribes paid to Cunningham after his guilty plea, the question of just what the Congressman had done for all that long green received scant media attention.


The GOPMOB's Magic Horn of Plenty

But as the extent of the damage to America’s national security wrought by the bribes which crossed Cunningham’s greasy palm begins to come into focus, the fraud being revealed is orders of magnitude greater than has been hinted at so far.

more...

http://www.madcowprod.com/index.html

[FormerRepublican]

67. I won't send THIS link to Hatch's office!

We probably should get the text into DU archives somewhere, though.

[Al-CIAda]

73. Hopsicker.

:thumbsup:

[dutchdemocrat]

69. Did anyone save it?

Or mirror this one?

No Wayback - it's too fresh... and the site is toast. is't a blogspot.com site - this is bullshit - bandwidth is NOT an issue.
WTF?

[dutchdemocrat]

71. blogspot.com is shut right down

None of the blogs seem to be working
Atrios included.

[FormerRepublican]

72. Maybe it IS a conspiracy and THEY don't want the word to get out.

;)

[dutchdemocrat]

75. How much money is at stake?

And careers?

Just curious...

[FormerRepublican]

77. Millions (Billions?) and lotsa top level 'pukes.

[dutchdemocrat]

74. http://www.madcowpress.com/

http://www.madcowpress.com/ is down as well.

Tin foil hat is firmly on.

Blogspot.com is working - for most sites. But still no cannonfire.

[FormerRepublican]

76. They're killing the story. No way that many unconnected web sites...

...could go down for technical reasons - especially when the only sites down are liberal sites (with the juicy story on them)!

Did anyone save the text?

[dutchdemocrat]

78. Hopsticker is up.

http://madcowprod.com./

Hopsticker is up.

http://allspinzone.com/blog/index.php?itemid=1777

This blogger.com site has got some snippets

http://search.blogger.com/?q=cannonfire&btnG=Search+Blogs&hl=en&ui=blg&scoring=d

This blogger search for cannonfire does not give up much. Pretty much most of the sites with any info from cannonfire are having problems.

[FormerRepublican]

80. I realized I still had the mad cow story up on my computer...

...so I saved a couple copies local, just in case.

[In Truth We Trust]

79. anybody got a screenshot or the body of the message? site is down!?!

fascista will go down!

[dutchdemocrat]

81. It could be a network issue.

But it's kind of weird.

http://zz-news.blogspot.com/2005/12/deeper-into-wilkesmzm-scandals-updated.html

This one is up now. It's not cannonfire but ....

I am posting the whole thing.

Deeper into the Wilkes/MZM scandals (Updated)
Saturday, December 03, 2005

Original post:
http://cannonfire.blogspot.com/2005/12/deeper-into-wilkesmzm-
scandals-updated.html
Deeper into the Wilkes/MZM scandals (Updated)
(Note: If you came here by way of LiePar Destin's excellent piece in Kos, you may want to read "Wilkes: The Invisible Empire" first. Also, I'm happy to report that this blockbuster piece on Wilkes in the San Diego Union Tribune strengthens the thesis presented here.)

The good news is that reporters working for the mainstream media have caught on -- in part. They understand that Randy "Duke" Cunningham is hardly the only Republican politician to receive economic "assistance" from Brent Wilkes, head of the Poway-based "defense" firm ADCS -- a.k.a. the Wilkes Corporation, a.k.a. Group W Advisors, a.k.a. lots of other names.

But they still treat this company as though it were something real. Not a single mainstream reporter has scrutinized those web sites and reported on the obvious signs of fakery.

No reporters -- and, for that matter, no procurement officers at the Pentagon -- bothered to do any checking at the patent office. If they had, they would have found that there are no patents covering the "proprietary" designs and innovative equipment advertised by the many ADCS subsidiary firms.

The truth: Wilkes was a mechanism by which public funds earmarked for national defense were funneled to G.O.P. candidates and causes.

Want proof?

Defense contracts are a matter of public record. A reader named John Dean (no, not the Watergate-related John Dean) has been going through some of the records related to Wilkes -- a job which ought to be done by congressional investigators. On one form, the given address does not relate to the massive Wilkes complex on Stowe Avenue in Poway. Instead, the address is 15092 Avenue of Science, San Diego CA 92128.

That, we are told, is the address of a defense firm called Mirror Labs, allegedly a leading firm in the field of testing military equipment. They are referenced in this edition of the Homeland Defense Journal. Their website, we are told, is www.mirrorlabs.com.

That URL goes nowhere. Google has no cache of anything ever being there.

However, this archive page reveals that they once did have a site up, from 2001 to early 2004, at which point the firm, such as it was, seems to have become defunct. The web pages speak of a company with branches in Virigina and Panama. But the only satisfied customers mentioned are a couple of small-ish private companies (real companies) who had some software beta-tested. Google presents no external evidence that a San Diego company named Mirror Labs has ever done anything related to defense, or that it had Virginia and Panama branches.

(Update: A background check on www.mirrorlabs.com shows that the URL address was registered by Group W Media, Wilkes' fake ad agency. The listed administrative contact is PerfectWave Techonologies, another fake company.)

I believe that, for all practical purposes, there is no Mirror Labs, although a firm by that name may well have performed an actual service at one time. So where did the money go? When that nice fat check filled with taxpayer dollars was sent to 15092 Avenue of Science, who opened it? And what did they do with the money?

Here is the organization that really has -- or had -- offices at that address: ADCS PAC. That's where the money went.

Apparently, Wilkes felt queasy about housing his PAC at the same address as ADCS proper, so he set up a small office in a San Diego business park. Someone must have put down the wrong address on one of the applications.

So which candidates got chunks of that taxpayer money earmarked for "defense"?

Henry Bonilla, Roy Brown, Rick Clayburgh, Duke Cunningham (of course!), John T. Doolittle, Maria Guadalupe Garcia, George W. Gekas, Lindsay Graham, Duncan Hunter, Darrell Issa, Samuel Johnson, Thaddeus G. McCotter, Constance Morella, Devin Nune, Steve Pearce, Bill Van de Weghe Jr., Jerry Weller.

All Republicans, of course. As the scandal unfolds, the pundits will try to convince us that "both sides do it." That simply is not true.

The donations amounted only to $5000 or so. But ADCS Pac was hardly the only mechanism by which Wilkes could distribute the Christmas candy. Remember, Perfect Wave Technologies, Pure Aqua Technologies, Group W. Advisors and other "subsidiaries" were also used as funding mechanisms.

By keeping the donations small, and by maintaining the illusion that the donors are numerous, the conspirators could line many a pocket with relative safety. Clever, eh?

Other recipients of Wilkes' largesse: President Bush, Katherine Harris, Tom Delay, Virgil Goode Jr. and Elizabeth Dole -- whose husband, as you may recall from yesterday's post, lent his name to Reverend Moon's "stamp out the cross" crusade. Talk about being on the Dole!

Did all these pols understand the ultimate source of the funds? Perhaps not. However, we know that Duncan Hunter -- chairman of the House Armed Services Committee -- was a big ADCS pusher:

Since 1994, Wilkes and ADCS gave $40,700 in campaign contributions to Rep. Duncan Hunter, a San Diego Republican who now chairs the House Armed Services Committee. Hunter has acknowledged that he joined with Cunningham in 1999 to contact Pentagon officials who reversed a decision and gave ADCS one of its first big contracts, for nearly $10 million." (USA Today, 11/29/05)

And then there's Republican Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis, who ordered continued funding of ADCS even after the DOD raised objections.

Obviously, Hunter and Lewis must go under the microscope. Even so, you're missing the point if you waste much time castigating the above-named politicians for receiving the money. What is significant is the device itself -- using "false fronts" to translate IRS-collected revenues into Republican campaign commercials.

Much evidence indicates that Wilkes is but one of many villains involved with such schemes.

I rarely beg my readers, but in this case I must: Please get the word out. This type of investigative work should not be left to the likes of me (or John Dean, or Daniel Hopsicker). Someone in the major media -- or Congress, or the Justice Department -- must investigate.

This scandal could and should be bigger than Plamegate

Who is the "inside man" in the Pentagon? I cannot believe that checks went to Wilkes based purely on the say-so of Duke Cunningham or the other bribed pols. Someone in the Pentagon's procurement offices must be signing off on these expenditures. If investigators identify the person or persons involved, then this conspiracy can be blown wide open.

John Dean found that each of the DOD contracts to ADCS and its related firms were prepared by "DOD_MIGRATOR" -- whoever or whatever that may mean. I'm hardly an expert on Defense Department procurement procedures, so I cannot tell if this nomenclature is standard or unusual. But since each award is numbered, it should not be difficult for an investigator to track down the real person behind DOD_MIGRATOR.


Another oddity: According to Dean, on each ADCS form -- whatever the year -- the company is listed as having 130 employees and annual revenues of "$13,345,9." (Yes, that is the figure given.) These numbers, I am told, never vary.

On the MZM front: Is the other company that bribed Cunningham real or fake? What, precisely, do they do?

Ah, there's the rub: We're dealing with black budget stuff. We're not supposed to know what they do. Alas, in such a world we cannot easily know if they do...anything.

MZM, run by Mitchell Wade -- a longtime member of the Wilkes/Cunningham "posse" -- began life in the early 1990s. Yet during most of the ensuing years, it made little impact on the world. As a "defense and intelligence" firm, it seems to have sprung from nothing in 2002, like a Rambo-ized Venus from the brow of Ares.

This page from (of all things) the Panama American Chamber of Commerce contains some interesting info about MZM: The address is 1523 New Hampshire Ave., N.W.; Washington, DC 20036, USA. The only email contact addresses go to Wade and a man named Joel Cornelison.

Their line of work? Surprisingly enough -- it's a law firm!

When the firm began life in 1993, Wade and Cornelison -- the only names connected with the place -- were "business consultants."

More recently, MZM originated a 501(c)3 nonprofit called the "Sure Foundation" -- allegedly an organization devoted to refugee aid -- which shares the same address. The address was also used by the front company which purchased Cunningham's home at an inflated price.

The Sure Foundation website (the contents of which are quoted here) used to refer to MZM as its "first corporate sponsor." MZM's line of work has changed once more: Now they provide "data warehousing and information technology consulting services to both governmental and non-governmental entities."

That description may be literally true, if we presume that they kept a few floppy disks or notebooks hanging around the office.

So far, I've seen no evidence that the Sure Foundation actually transferred monies to starving refugees. However, we do know that MZM did distribute funds to certain "needy" individuals: Republican politicians.

Wade, unlike Wilkes, kept the MZM Pac housed in the very same office. (We must presume that they didn't have a great deal of office space, since unrelated tenants are in the same building.) When we look at the data on MZM Pac and its activities in 2003-2004, we learn that the population of this company has grown by leaps and bounds.

The PAC now lists roughly 100 names. A close scan of the names indicates that wives and children were recruited to the cause -- the cause being, of course, donations to G.O.P. candidates. (One of the named donors is "Joe Dollar." That can't be real -- can it?) Nearly all the donors are listed as employees of MZM Inc., and many have grandiose titles -- Chairman of this, VP of that.

MZM employees, we learn, were told they had to make the donations or be fired. I believe there are laws against that sort of thing.

Frankly, I'm not at all sure how MZM transformed itself from a two-man law office (I'm picturing a Republican version of Daredevil's Nelson and Murdoch) into a go-go defense and intelligence firm.

For that, it would seem, is the final incarnation of MZM. According to the Center for Public Integrity,

MZM Inc. is a high-tech national security firm based in Washington, D.C. The private firm provides intelligence gathering, technology and homeland security analysis and consulting for both international and domestic governments and private-sector clients. The firm also provides consulting on political and public message strategies. Its government clients include Congress, the White House, the Defense Department, the U.S. intelligence community, the Foreign Terrorist Tracking Task Force and state and local governments, according to the company's Web site. MZM refused to provide any information, however, about its corporate structure, including names of other principals.

In addition to its D.C. headquarters, MZM has field offices in Miami, Tampa, San Antonio, San Diego and Suffolk, Va. The company employs about 70 people.

Following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, MZM expanded its counterintelligence and national security efforts. It soon experienced an influx of government contracts. The company now predicts a growth rate of more than 35 percent in the 2003 fiscal year. Mitchell Wade, president and CEO, reportedly expects to increase sales from $25 million to $120 million and to hire 230 more employees over the next five years. Wade told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that recently the company has "come out of a flat period" with defense industry contracts.

In September 2003, MZM collaborated with 16 other organizations, called the General Dynamics team, as part of a five-year, $252 million contract to provide engineering and information warfare services to the Air Force Information Warfare Center at Lackland Airforce Base in Texas.

In November 2002, MZM opened a computer center in Charlottesville, Va., to house classified engineering intelligence in a digital mapping and architecture analysis system. Twelve employees in that office are developing the program for the Pentagon. It is designed to provide digital maps of thousands of buildings worldwide. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that the mapping system will help soldiers and planners know details of buildings -- even which way doors open and close.

At least we are given some indication of what the firm actually does. The data page goes on to name a number of individuals involved with this work -- intelligence analysts, generals, the kind of people whom we would expect to be involved with such an enterprise. Cornelison seems to have disappeared.

But how much of this data is on the level? One would think that so august a firm would have a web site. However, the listed URL -- www.mzinc.com -- is blank, as is Google's cache for that page. Interestingly, Dean found an MZM contract with the DOD dated February 13, 2003 in which MZM states that it has zero employees and zero revenue. The contract is for a mere $12,740,000.

However, we do know that they did open a fairly large facility in Martinsville, Virgina.

The Center for Public Integrity is trustworthy, but they can only relate what they've been told -- and at this point, who can be sure if a company like MZM is telling the truth? Obviously, Wade's creation (unlike many of the Wilkes pseudocompanies) does actual work for the military/intelligence complex; as we've seen, they've even provided office furniture for the White House. Even so, we must still ask: How and why did Wade's tiny firm suddenly grow like Topsy? Who is Mitchell Wade? Is he a lawyer, a businessman, a spook, or...what?

Which brings us to the larger question surrounding these out-of-nowhere defense firms: How much of this stuff is real?

[dutchdemocrat]

82. Daily Kos article is informative as well.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/12/3/204731/868

[drm604]

84. Network Issue

My guess is that the article is drawing a lot of attention and therefore is overburdening the servers.

[FormerRepublican]

85. If it were a server issue, the 'puke sites would go down as well.

They haven't.

[drm604]

86. Some more info

for whatever it's worth. Mirrorlabs.com is hosted at IP address 12.22.219.140. A reverse IP of that address shows that there are 37 websites hosted at that address:

1 ACOUSTICALCS.COM
2 ADCS.COM
3 AKAMAIINFOTECH.COM
4 ARCHERDEFENSE.COM
5 ARCHERLOGISTICS.COM
6 ASAP-CATERING.COM
7 AZTECCLASSIC.COM
8 AZTECGOLF.COM
9 BBQRANCH.COM
10 CDPSA.COM
11 EDGE-CATERING.COM
12 ELECTHARMAN.COM
13 GROUPWADVISORS.COM
14 GROUPWEVENTS.COM
15 GROUPWHOLDINGS.NET
16 GROUPWMEDIA.NET
17 GROUPWOUTFITTERS.COM
18 ICT-SA.COM
19 LIBERTYDEFENSETECH.COM
20 MAILSAFEINC.COM
21 MIRRORLABS.COM
22 OCDLLC.COM
23 PEFECTWAVETECH.COM
24 PERFECTWAVETECH.COM
25 PKMI.COM
26 POWAYMAFIA.COM
27 POWAYSC.COM
28 PRIMEVECTOR.COM
29 PUREAQUATECH.COM
30 SANDIEGOHEROES.ORG
31 SDHEROES.ORG
32 W-CATERING.COM
33 WILKESCLAN.COM
34 WILKESCORP.COM
35 WILKESFOUNDATION.COM
36 WILKESFOUNDATION.ORG
37 WILKESTECHNOLOGYGROUP.COM

Note the various Group W and Wilkes domains and the ADCS.com domain. There are also a number with the word "defense" and various others related to companies mentioned in the article. All of these are hosted on the same server or at least the same LAN, meaning they all are physically hosted at the same premises and possibly on the same box.

Why would all of these different defense contractors be hosted in the same place? (That's a rhetorical question.) These people are, in some ways, very very clever but in other ways (openly hosting everything in one place for example) astoundingly naive. I guess they've just gotten cocky and over-confident.

One of the domains, Electharman.com, caught my eye. If you click on the link you'll get an "under construction" page. But if you look at the whois info for Electharman.com you'll see an image of the original site which shows that "Scott Harman" was running for Poway city council. Has the name "Scott Harman" been mentioned in connection with any of this?

[FormerRepublican]

87. EXCELLENT info, thank you!

[drm604]

90. You're welcome, here's a little more.

If you look here you'll see that the address 12.22.219.140 is part of a block of addresses, 12.22.219.128 to 12.22.219.255, that is assigned to ADCS Inc. Unless this "Defense Contractor" is in the business of hosting websites for all comers, ADCS has some sort of interest in every one of those domains. Including the Scott Harman city council campaign page. Now I wonder why a defense contractor would be hosting a website for a city council candidate? Was the dollar value of this hosting service reported as a campaign contribution? Who is Scott Harman? From the picture it looks like he's some kind of medical worker. Wasn't this the plot of some bad movie? :popcorn:

[drm604]

98. And check out this one!

Another one of those domains is powaymafia.com. WTF? Very weird. Like I said: "a bad movie".

[No DUplicitous DUpe]

117. "For whatever it's worth..."?? drm604...You are blowing my mind...

NICE WORK!!

I'm sitting here shaking my head...in disbelief..

[drm604]

120. It's all public info

and easily accessible to anyone with just a little knowhow, so I wasn't sure how revelatory it was.

[drm604]

122. Scott Harman

Article about Scott Harman's campaign

He sounds almost like someone I'd like to vote for, at least in that article. The only thing that jumps out at me is part of this sentence (I added the bolding):

Getting increased state funding for the Poway Unified School District, streamlining the process by which local businesses get permits and working to boost local firefighters' pay are other priorities Harman cited.

In this article his opponent accused of him of trying to buy a city council seat.

This Google cache page shows that he lost the election. So if this guy was somehow important to their schemes, they didn't bother (or weren't able to) steal the election for him. He could simply be an innocent bystander who someone genuinely thought would be good for Poway. But it does seem odd that they would use their resources to specifically support this one guy.

He was running as a Republican so that could be the sole reason. It was also a presidential election so maybe they were trying to increase Republican turnout.

[eppur_se_muova]

145. #3 -- AKAMAIINFOTECH.COM for real ??

Is this for real? Or are they infringing on Akamai's name? See www.akamai.com for more info -- Akamai's software underlies a LOT of Web-based business. If you've ever looked up stock quotes through yahoo, you've probably seen the message "receiving from akamai.com/..." (or similar) many times.

I looked up Akamai.com's IP and got an address for "akamai-5" on our *local* host -- and yes, there's an akamai-1 through 4. So it looks like our local IS is very dependent on Akamai solutions.

An odd, even macabre connection is that one of the founders of Akamai was on one of the planes that hit the WTC.

[drm604]

160. Confirmation of the location of that IP address.

Satellite View
Click on "Satellite" on the upper right to see an actual satellite photo. It looks like a building in an industrial or office park. You can zoom in by using the slider on the left.

This service gives a number of pieces of info about an IP address: http://www.showmyip.com/?ip=12.22.219.140

It gives a location of
Latitude: 32.7473
Longitude: -117.148
for that IP address.

This service gives the latitude and longitude of a given street address. For 15902 Avenue of Science, San Diego, CA it shows
Latitude 32.99
Longitude -117.08

I think that's close enough to confirm that that IP address is in fact located at that street address.

Can someone in that area drive by and get a look at that building? Don't stop or anything, just see if it looks like an active business and has any signs outside.

[progressive_realist]

162. Those are not the same address.

The first address is on Centre St., between University and Robinson Aves., in San Diego/Hillcrest.

The second is much further north, in the Poway area.

You can run them through Mapquest to verify.

[drm604]

166. You are absolutely correct.

I just showed my ignorance about latitude and longitude. I didn't realize that the figures after the decimal were that significant. But this still tells us something. The server is at a different, though relatively nearby, location. Maybe someone should drive down that block of Centre Street as well as past the Avenue of Science address.

Thank you, progressive_realist, for the correction. This is why I like DU - lots of smart people to catch my dumb mistakes!

On Edit: Fixed street name.

[drm604]

175. A clarification.

I did a little research on IP geo-location and it turns out that it's not an exact science and has a limited accuracy. In fact, I don't see how it could be otherwise.

One company that provides an IP geo location service is Quova, Inc. This article explains what they do and how they do it.

Once a given IP address has been identified, Quova can tell you where it is located down to the city level. Quova's software solutions have a precision that is approximately within a 20-50 mile radius.

This map shows driving directions from the 15000 block of Ave of Science to the intersection of Centre St & Robinson Ave. It gives a driving distance of 19.42 miles which is within the margin of error. So, while the latitude and longitude given for that IP address are not absolute proof that the server is at 15092 Ave of Science, it does not rule it out. Couple this with the fact that the Ave of Science address listed in the domain registrations is very close to that location and it looks very likely that that is where the server is located.

[HR_Pufnstuf]

165. Coming Soon - The Poway Mafia

http://www.powaymafia.com

lol.

[EVDebs]

83. Please look into the whole moneylaundering operation

Start with

Hot Money and The Politics of Debt by R.T. Naylor

then go to

Blank Check by Tim Weiner, followed by

The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade by Alfred McCoy.

No oversight, off the books funding for black ops AND the Congressmen/women who should be doing oversight, and add a dash of Operation Mockingbird media 'looktheotherway' and VOILA !

What a mess.

[kittenpants]

88. Wow, here's another article with lots of info...

http://www.sdreader.com/php/cover.php?mode=print&id=20001005

I came accross it after finding that the groupwmedia.net site was registeres to a Cliff Rittel - who happens to be the IT director of ADCS - and who happened to be one of the corrupt donors to ADCS. This is an old article but contains lots of info on money laundering in an election year.

[BlueIris]

89. Yikes. Can't get to the site. First time in months that's happened.

Think the posts pissed someone off? Maybe it's just high traffic.

[FormerRepublican]

91. I emailed a link to the site to Senator Hatch and told him to...

...cut the budget there so he could reduce taxes. Then, mysteriously, the web site went down. I've seen him disappear news stories before that were detrimental to the White House, so I put on my :tinfoilhat:.

[sellitman]

93. Imagine if we didn't have the Internet.

The shit they would be getting away with would make this pale in comparison. Thank G-D for Blogs!

[BlueIris]

100. Knock on wood when you post statements like that!

I think about that a lot.

[BlueIris]

94. Who--Hatch?

'Cause now I'm getting a bunch of weird messages from Blogger.

I really love Joseph. Cannonfire totally saved my life. Mr. Hatch BETTER not have done anything to my favorite blog!

[FormerRepublican]

96. Yeah. See this here...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2293070

Don't know if he was involved, but :tinfoilhat:.

[AtomicKitten]

92. bad link - at least for me.

where can I get this story?

[FormerRepublican]

95. It's posted above, and also...

...here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2293220

But the original site has gone down. Since it went down after I emailed Senator Hatch with the link, and other news stories I sent him links on also disappeared, I put on my :tinfoilhat:.

[nicknameless]

132. Maybe you should consider not sending Hatch links to information that he

can have scrubbed. The right wing is so corrupt at this point, they've been doing pretty much whatever they want, and getting away with it. Don't let him turn you into an inadvertent informer.

:shrug:

[FormerRepublican]

138. That's my take on it, too. Pity the guy's my Senator - what a MORON!

[nicknameless]

158. My condolences about that.

I've felt bad having DiFi "representing" me. But Hatch is worse.
Beyond just a "moron", he's another immoral, sadistic repug.

So sorry. :(

The mayor of SLC sounds pretty cool though. Maybe the rest of the state will catch on.

[happydreams]

99. I got a copy to Cong. Jim McDermott.

[BlueIris]

101. Good work!

Nice.

[BlueIris]

111. Shouldn't we all be e-faxing/calling our reps?

Everyone do that, if you can.

[Cobalt Violet]

103. Kick! Recommened and Bookmarked.

Cut and Pasted into Notepad too! :kick:

[BlueIris]

104. Can anyone get onto Cannonfire?

It still isn't loading for me.

[Cobalt Violet]

105. OMG!! The link in the opening post just worked for me.

Try it again.

[Sam_Lowry]

107. Second that

It just opened fine for me too. All of the blogspot.com sites seem to be back up.

[BlueIris]

110. The link in the OP works for me, too, but the main site won't load.

Frustrating.

I kicked that URL around to a few folks, including MM.com, let's hope something catches.

[Czolgosz]

106. Name the Cunningham-ADCS-Wilkes Corp.-Group W scandal

I'm leaning toward CunningScam. You?

[Donailin]

108. kick

important story. must keep on front page

[FormerRepublican]

109. Robbergate? Laundrygate?

[BlueIris]

112. OMG, "CunningScam" is an AWESOME name.

Hee.

[SpiralHawk]

121. Cunningscam !

GiggaDittoes !

[BlueIris]

113. The main site is back up! Huzzah!

Nice.

[truthisfreedom]

114. i don't know if this is new information, but i googled a fax number from

one of the sites mentioned at http://cannonfire.blogspot.com/2005/12/wilkes-invisible-empire.html and it was being used on-line for a number of interesting things...

copy/paste the fax number from this site into google:

http://www.acousticalcs.com/contact.html

from that page:

Fax: [phone]

results from Google:

M of A - Turkey vs. Israel
858 848 2000 fax: [phone]. Technical Contact: Network Solutions, LLC. Whois Privacy and Spam Prevention by Whois Source 13200 Woodland Park Drive ...
www.moonofalabama.org/2005/12/turkey_vs_israe.html - 30k - Dec 4, 2005 - Cached - Similar pages

Multiple Award Schedule: 3-01-70-1398A - EDP SERVICE
NAME:, ADCS INC. ADDRESS:, 15092 AVENUE OF SCIENCE SAN DIEGO, CA 92128. CONTACT:, MICHAEL WILLIAMS 858-848-2000. FAX:, 858-848-0400. TERMS OF PAYMENT:, Net ...
pdrox.pd.dgs.ca.gov/pin/html/3-01-70-1398A.htm - 3k - Supplemental Result - Cached - Similar pages

SIGNAL Online Sourcebook
ADCS INC. 13970 Stowe Drive Poway, California 92064, Telephone. [phone]. FAX. [phone]. E-mail. [e-mail] . Web. http://www.adcs.com . ...
www.afcea.org/sourcebook/ details2.asp?constitid=50034399 - 11k - Supplemental Result - Cached - Similar pages

Residential - Northwest Montana Association of Realtors
Fax: [phone] E-mail General: [e-mail] Sales: [e-mail] or visit the Sales page. Business Development and Vendor Relations: [e-mail] ...
www.mlsnmar.com/index.pl/residential?proxiedUrl=http%3A... adcs.com%2Fcontactus.aspx&wid=202&am... - 18k - Supplemental Result - Cached - Similar pages

ContingentWorkforce.Org - Member Profile
Contact Information. Toll Free #:, 888-701-9800. Phone #:, [phone]. Fax #:, 858-848-0400. Web Site:, www.ADCS.com . Email:, Send Email ...
www.contingentworkforce.org/directories/ Memberprofile.asp?MemberID=261&CustomerID=2267 - 31k - Supplemental Result - Cached - Similar pages

Welcome to Archer Defense
13970 Stowe Drive Poway, CA 92064. Phone:, [phone]. Fax:, [phone]. Email:, [e-mail] .
www.archerdefense.com / - 2k - Supplemental Result - Cached - Similar pages

Acoustical Communication Systems, LLC
E-mail. [e-mail] . Location. 13970 Stowe Drive Poway, CA 92064. Phone. Tel: [phone] Fax: [phone] ...
acousticalcs.com/contact.html - 3k - Supplemental Result - Cached - Similar pages

[drm604]

171. truthisfreedom, I just got around to looking at what you found,

and to be honest it doesn't seem all that interesting. The first one, moonofalabama.org is a blog that is discussing the same things we're discussing. They list some info on Group W which includes the fax number.

The others appear to be either (shell?) companies that we already know about, or websites that reference those companies.

[banana republican]

172. From Fed Biz Ops

http://www.fbo.gov/servlet/Documents/R/914329


General Information


Document Type: Award Notice
Solicitation Number:
Posted Date: Apr 16, 2004
Archive Date: May 01, 2004
Classification Code: 70 -- General purpose information technology equipment
SetAsides:
Naics Code: 541512 -- Computer Systems Design Services

Contracting Office Address
TACOM WARREN BLDG 231, WARREN, MICHIGAN 48397-5000
Description
Contract Award Date: Apr 16, 2004
Contract Award Number: W56HZV04C0345
Contract Award Amount: $499,852.00
Contract Line Item Number: 0001AA
Contractor: ADCS INC,13970 STOWE DRIVE,POWAY,CA,92064-8803

Point of Contact
SUE STONER,[phone] or MICHAEL T. FINNELL,[phone]
Email your questions to TACOM WARREN BLDG 231 at [e-mail]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Goverment-wide Numbered Notes
USA-Specific Numbered Notes
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You may return to Business Opportunities at:
USA U. S. Army Materiel Command listed by
USA Agencywide listed by

[drm604]

174. It looks like they've also done business with the state of California.

http://64.233.179.104/search?q=cache:sC9sQeGNJ6UJ:pdrox.pd.dgs.ca.gov/pin/html/3-01-70-1398A.htm+858-848-0400&hl=en

[BlueIris]

115. Hey, guys...am I on drugs? Losing my mind? Or...

do some people in this world--alleged Democrats--not GET how huge this story is? I've been kicking e-mails about Joseph's entry around to everyone I know and I've gotten some--well, let's say strange responses. They're roughly equivalent to "why is this a big deal?" and "what's your point?"

WTF?

[drm604]

133. They may be missing the point.

They may be seeing it as just another instance of corporations funding politicians (that's how this'll be spun). They're probably totally missing the point that it looks like tax dollars are being funneled through sham companies to fund politicians. All of the details are important and they need to be stated but we need to emphasize the main point: tax dollars being funneled through sham corporations to fund Republican candidates.

[Historic NY]

116. I get it..........we have work to do to help him.

Simply amazing using our own money (taxpayers) against us. Talk about campaign finance reform. I'd be real interested in how the Reublican culture of trickle down bribery & thievery was distributed. 3/4's of a billion where did it all go.

[redacted]

118. Will this top 100 recommendations?

The last time we had a story get this much attention, Harry shut down the Senate and took them into executive session. What's going to happen this time?

[BlueIris]

119. Knock on wood when you post things like that!

:-)

For the record, I have no idea. Couldn't even begin to hazzard a guess.

[sellitman]

123. I am glad it is getting everyones attension.

Now if we can move it off DU into MSM .......

[EFerrari]

126. Ack! The link give me a "forbidden" message! Help!

[Cobalt Violet]

140. 105 at the moment.

I just kick again for the lunch crowd.

[sofa king]

124. I just had to add a zoom function to my mental GOP crime chart.

Seriously, I thought I had the general picture firmly in my grasp. Now I realize that I'm familiar with only a small percentage of the crime network.

Now I'm beginning to think that Jack Abramoff's job was pretty much just to manage the terrorist operations of the GOP, while these other chaps were in charge of a much, much larger slush fund.

Ponder that for a moment, if you will. This crime network is still firmly in place; still firmly in charge of this nation. Still in charge of investigating and prosecuting itself. And my eyesight just improved slightly enough to reveal that what I had my hands on all this time was just the trunk of a much, much larger and more dangerous beast.

I've just realized that I'm far more likely to go to jail for my knowledge of these crimes than any single one of them.

[Al-CIAda]

134. Funny you should mention 'terror'...The 'secret world' of Jack Abramoff-

The 'secret world' of Jack Abramoff-


June 21, 2005 -Venice, FL.
by Daniel Hopsicker

The MadCowMorningNews has learned exclusive new details about the gangland-style hit in Florida of Gus Boulis, whose murder figures prominently in lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s rise to power.

The 'secret world' of Jack Abramoff being probed by investigators today has definite connections and unmistakable links to the one inhabited during their final year in the U.S by Mohamed Atta and the other hijackers.

So as the scandal embroiling House Major Domo Tom Delay and Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff grows hotter, there may be new revelations about the 9.11 attack.

One of the most amazing thing about this most amazing scandal—hundreds of millions in slush funds beats Oval Office blowjobs by a mile—is that some of the same names in the Abramoff scandal also surface in connection with Mohamed Atta’s.

Less than a week before the 9.11 attack, for example, Atta and several other hijackers made a still-unexplained visit onboard one of Abramoff’s casino boats.

What were they doing there?

http://www.madcowprod.com/06202005.html

[sofa king]

141. Oh yeah, they're managing the terrorists, too.

The terrorists were on Jack's boat before the attacks, Jack and Grover Norquist represented the General Council of Islamic Banks, and lobbied extensively to sell the disinformation that that group was not supporting al Qaeda when in fact the Chairman of that organization is a primary financial supporter of Osama bin Laden. They managed to get Saleh Kamel written out of the 9/11 Commission Report, and who knows how many FBI investigations were halted by John Ashcroft when they ran up against Abramoff and Norquists' operations. Abramoff's extensive ties with the Marianas and the Philippines provide an excellent laundering and communications conduit between Islamic extremists and the White House.

The operation actually serves to protect the terrorists, because by pumping their own evil funds into the corrupt GOP they've purchased their safety. The FBI isn't allowed to go past Abramoff, and the terrorists are hiding behind him.

Remember that these allegations could be easily disproven should the White House ever allow itself to be properly investigated. They won't, and since the facts fit the available evidence, I feel perfectly justified in branding the Republican Party as treasonous murderers of our own people.

[rodeodance]

127. Kick-for the troops

[drm604]

130. Kick

:kick:
Why aren't people screaming about this?

[Peace Patriot]

131. Another place to look for Republican corruption is Diebold and ES&S,

the voting machine companies, run by Bush/Cheney campaign chair and fundraiser (Diebold) and billionaire donors to far rightwing causes (ES&S), major beneficiaries of the HAVA $4 billion boondoggle (Rep. Bob Ney, Sen. Christopher Dodd (Dem in name only)), for electronic voting systems that use 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY software, with virtually no audit/recount capability, to steal elections. Taxpayer dollars (billions) go from taxpayer to Feds, then to states (or from taxpayer to states), thence into the pockets of the major Bush donors who run the voting companies, who donate to Bush/Cheney and other Republicans, with Republicans getting a percentage edge in the voting machines in elections. A perfect loop of corruption.

These are very expensive systems, requiring not only upfront costs for new technology, but all sorts of long term, backdoor costs in servicing and upgrades (and emergency repairs when the machnes break down--which is often). Nice chunk of money there, from state and federal taxpayers (some of it into Republican coffers).

Sequoia is another one I'd look into. Former Repub Calif Sec of State Bill Jones and his chief aide Alfie Charles now work for Sequoia. They bought this technology for the state, then went to work for one of the companies.

Dems are involved in this kind of corruption as well (which is probably why Dem leaders have not gotten on it). Election officials are now very powerful people, who use the gobble-de-gook of electronic voting to prevent voters and also elected representatives from understanding how votes are counted. They have an attitude of "We know, you don't. We're the 'experts'." And I think there's some very dirty business going down, with all this money and private companies and "revolving door" employment involved.

I think Calif's other former Sec of State (recent) Kevin Shelly was onto some of it. He had sued Diebold, and banned the worst of their voting machines. He also banned "revolving door" employment. Then a gang of county officials, many Repubs, but led by Dem (Los Angeles) Connie McCormack got on him (he withheld the HAVA money for insecure voting systems), and they and the SF Chronicle drove him from offiice. This resulted in A. Schwarzenegger APPOINTING a Repub Sec of State who is very pro-Diebold and is pulling all sorts of the secret shenanigans to get their election theft machines re-certified in Calif.

Very smelly, indeed. Dems colluding with Repubs to eliminate transparency in our election system.

But it was initially (and probably still is, largely) a Repub scam. Tom Delay was involved in bottling a "paper trail" requirement up in committee. They didn't want any record of future elections in the United States.

I think: venal corruption by some Dems, and major corruption and crime (intent to steal elections) by Repubs (and make a few bucks on the side).

I was reading something on Abramoff, and stumbled across this: One of the benefits to an Indian gambling tribe was to be placed as a rider into the "Help America Vote Act" (HAVA) by Rep. Bob Ney. He didn't do it. I think he or someone said something like, the HAVA bill was too important to risk on such a favor.

Too important, indeed. HAVA was the whole ballgame.

Knowing what I know about the 2004 election, all this other stuff--funneling Defense money into Repub campaign coffers, and all the rest--doesn't surprise me.

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." --Lord Acton

[donkeyotay]

149. They have us fund our own screwing and then laugh at us

"the HAVA $4 billion boondoggle "

I think you're right about California. They're going to put it into play as the next Florida-Ohio, and they don't even use their own money to do it with. Ha ha.

[NVMojo]

164. the state of nevada secretary of state bought the HAVA boondoggle

just after a secret meeting with Bush, Cheney and other key repukes in Nevada in 03 at the Reno airport hotel. Then he was on the Sequoia website after the 04 election bragging about how well Sequoia functioned in our state. you might be on to something ...like this entire country is being run by a mob instead of by "THE FUCKING PEOPLE!!"

[we can do it]

135. Here's Another K&R

[Elidor]

136. This is going to take a while to unfold

Consider that the Plame thing has been unfolding for over two years. This is so much more complex. I wonder if it can be unraveled in time for 2008?

[drm604]

137. One more kick!

:kick:

[Cobalt Violet]

139. And another kick!

:kick:

[FormerRepublican]

143. Can this not be put back on the Greatest page?

[drm604]

144. I think there's some kind of time limit based on the date. N/T

[eppur_se_muova]

148. A SUGGESTION TO MODERATORS...to keep important threads prominent

why not let recommendations decay with a half-life, instead of just locking after 24 hr? Each 24 hr, cut the number of recommendations for the thread in half (rounding down) but leave it open to new recommendations. Continued interest in the thread will keep it active, but if interest fades, so will the rating of the thread.

Also, some of us have a lot more free time on weekends, but miss out on things that get posted in the week. This would keep noteworthy threads prominent for a week or more.

[redacted]

151. Great idea!

[Botany]

150. So the Lincoln Group was not the only one?

just like the Japanese Mafia or other crooks .... kick backs and bribes.
In Ohio the repugs used Worker's Comp as their personal slush fund.

Our Tax money was being laundered through these "groups" and then
back to republican groups & corporate crooks.

Bush's uncle ..... HW's brother has an arms business in St Louis and has
made millions.

Bring on the pitch forks & tourches.

[raysr]

152. The way Duke

was blubbering my guess is he'll be naming alot of those names for some time off his century long sentence.

[stevietheman]

154. Am I only one having trouble keeping track of this...

ever-expanding list of GOP scandals?

I mean, I'm a smart fellow, but Republicans are breaking so many laws, left and right, my brain is actually hurting trying to keep up.

I still don't fully understand the Abramoff thing, now here comes the Cunningham thing.

It would be nice if there was some sort of "digest" that compiles all the current GOP scandals into one spot. Maybe there already is... lemme know so I can become sane again. :)

[happydreams]

156. Serial crooks are like serial murderers. After you commit

so many what more can happen to you if you commit more. :shrug:

[sellitman]

159. Has this made the papers yet?

I believe this has made all the other scandals pale in comparison. It is so very hard to keep with all their garbage like you said. I just still wonder how ANYONE could still support these monsters.

[meunier33]

155. Sent this to my Rep. Ed Markey...

n/m

[seafan]

157. Kick. n/t

[NVMojo]

163. holy shit!!

[seafan]

168. Kick. n/t

[drm604]

173. I've started a thread on this in the Research Forum.

Contribute if you can.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_oet&address=358x1610