Bush aide resigns for alleged misuse of USAID grant money (Center for a Free Cuba guy,winger)

[Judi Lynn]

Bush aide resigns for alleged misuse of USAID grant money
Posted 6m ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House says an aide to President Bush has resigned because of the alleged misuse of grant money from U.S. Agency for International Development.

Presidential spokesman Scott Stanzel says the former aide, Felipe Sixto, had been a special assistant to the president for intergovernmental affairs. Stanzel said Sixto was promoted to that position on March 1 and that he came forward on March 20 to tell his superiors about the alleged wrongdoing.

Stanzel said it involved improprieties involving the use of grant money and Sixto's former employer, the Center for a Free Cuba. Stanzel says the matter has been turned over to the Justice Department.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-03-28-bush-aide_N.htm

[Judi Lynn]

1. Ha ha HA. The Florida Cuban idiot just GOT THERE, too!

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
March 6, 2008

Personnel Announcement

White House News

President George W. Bush today announced that he has named three individuals to serve in his Administration.

The President has named Tobi Merritt Edwards to be Associate Counsel to the President. Ms. Edwards recently served as a Deputy Associate Counsel in the White House Counsel's Office. She received her bachelor's degree from the George Washington University and her JD from the University of Mississippi School of Law.

The President has named Felipe Eduardo Sixto to be Special Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs. Mr. Sixto recently served as an Associate Director in the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs at the White House. He received his bachelor's degree from Florida International University. He received his JD from American University.

The President has named Nancy Theis to be Special Assistant to the President and Director of Presidential Correspondence. Mrs. Theis recently served as Director of Comment Line, Greetings, and Volunteers in the Office of Presidential Correspondence. She received her bachelor's degree from the Catholic University of America.

More:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/03/20080306-2.html

[AlphaCentauri]

6. ha! now I understand why the neo-cons get that crooked vision of latin america n/t

[magbana]

2. I Think Frankie Calzon Set up Sixto

Check out Bachelet's article - Sixto is only in his late 20's -- young for a presidential adviser.I don't think Calzon would have let this problem get to the Justice Dept. or USAID IG unless it allowed him to nail somebody. I don't doubt that funds were misused, but I think letting the problem "out" of the Center is the result of a personal vendetta on Frankie's part.

White House Aide Resigns Amid Probe of Cuba Funds
By Pablo Bachelet
McClatchy Newspapers

Friday 28 March 2008

Washington - A White House aide has resigned amid a Justice Department investigation into allegations that he misused an unspecified amount of U.S. grant money intended to promote democracy in Cuba.

Felipe Sixto, a Cuban-American from Miami, was the special assistant to President Bush for inter-governmental affairs, dealing with Cuba, Native American issues, state legislators, Latino elected officials and Puerto Rico.

The White House announced his resignation Friday. Before joining the administration last summer, Sixto had been chief of staff to Frank Calzon, the head of the Washington-based Center for a Free Cuba, which receives some of the funds through the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Sixto didn't respond to e-mails or phone calls to his home.

Officials provided no details on the allegations. White House spokesman Blair Jones said the White House learned of the allegations from Sixto when he resigned from his post on March 20.

"Our understanding is that Mr. Sixto allegedly had a conflict of interest with the use of USAID funds in his former employment," Jones said. White House lawyers investigated and referred the matter to the Department of Justice.

Calzon said he welcomed the investigation. He didn't say how much money was involved.

Florida Republican Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario and Lincoln Diaz-Balart said in a joint statement that they were "deeply disturbed by any allegation of misuse of taxpayer funds" and urged the Department of Justice and the USAID's inspector general "to move thoroughly and swiftly in investigating all the facts in this matter."

Joe Garcia, a Democrat running to unseat Mario Diaz-Balart, said the resignation underscored "the fundamental flaws of a policy designed to win votes in Miami and patronize partisan supporters, not bring freedom to Cuba."

"Millions of dollars intended to fuel a democratic change in Cuba are ending up in the hands of Bush/Diaz-Balart cronies and never makes it to the island," Garcia said. U.S. policy should require that at least 80 percent of the money be made available to Cuban opposition groups on the island, he added.

In 2006, the Government Accountability Office pointed out that most Cuba grants were awarded without competitive bids, and it found some instances of abuse, such as the purchase of cashmere sweaters with U.S. taxpayer money. But the report also found that the grant money led to large amounts of equipment and literature getting distributed to Cuban democracy activists.

Calzon's Center for a Free Cuba works with foreign governments and activists in Cuba to raise awareness of human rights abuses and distributes literature and other materials on the island. Calzon said it was the center that initiated an investigation in mid-January when the allegation of misused funds emerged.

Calzon said he expects that any misappropriated funds will be returned to the federal government.

Sixto, who is in his late 20s, is married and has one child.

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http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/032908Y.shtml

http://snipurl.com/22xa5

[Judi Lynn]

3. Interesting! Calzon is a venemous little toadstool, isn't he? He's completely belligerent, and very

accustomed to getting exactly what he wants.

Your suspicions about this are truly interesting, and probably totally well-founded.

Do you recall hearing about the incident in which he goaded, with extreme provocation, a Cuban diplomat attending a UN function in Geneva, until the guy lost it and punched his nose? Then he attempted to make an international incident over that momentary loss of composure.

It's unexpected seeing Joe Garcia square off against Lincoln Diaz-Balart. Too cool to imagine the rifts to come, if this continues.

The one thing they had going for them was their fanatic hard-edged unity. They held together to become a hideous force, wielding far more power than they EVER should have been allowed to accumulate. Hope that's due for some radical shifts. It would be heaven to see them fragment further, as they did once Jorge Mas Canosa bought the farm.

People need to know how MUCH money is going to so FEW Cubans right out of the U.S. taxpayers' pockets. This has been a real gold rush for these clowns.

[magbana]

4. Yes, I vividly remember the Cuban diplomat whacking Frankie

so hard he hit the floor in the hallway outside the meeting in Geneva. The Cuban diplomats here laughed for days about that one.

Usually, once or twice a year there is a gusano protest in front of the Cuban Interests Section here in DC. We always know about it ahead of time and we take the side of the street in front of the Interests Section. It is customary for the Secret Service to keep antagonists apart so the gusanos always end up on the other side of the street. At the most recent demo, Frankie Calzon showed up. Normally he is not a part of these demos, but for us we had a big fish to humiliate, and we welcomed his presence.. I started yelling, "Frankie, asesino!" over and over. After about the 15th time, Frankie did one of those mob signals and hit his chest with both hands as if to say "come get me."" The largest, tallest African-American comrade in our group said, "Oh no MF, you are going to have to deal with me and I know black people scare the shit out of you guys." Frankie backed off. Then the comrade grabbed the microphone again and said, "Frankie, better yet, take your ass back to Spain. We all nearly collapsed laughing. Another day of protest in the belly of the beast!

[Mika]

5. Smells like a false flag "integrity" PR op.

All the while we're getting robbed by these cretinous worms in more ways than anyone keeps track of.


Meanwhile Cuba keeps moving forward, expanding infrastructure and helping peoples in need most all corners of the world.


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[Peace Patriot]

7. Something's not right with this. He steals from USAID funds then gets HIRED by

the White House? Then they have to throw him under the bus, cuz somebody's ratting on somebody?

The Bush White House--the biggest mafioso theft ring in the history of the world--doesn't fire people for corruption. Something is astir. I suspect that Sixto is a patsy for something much worse. You know, they've been using these funds, USAID-NED, for some very, very corrupt, destabilization ops in South America--funding rightwing political oppositions, rightwing thugs and rioters, rightwing coup plotters, the 2004 rightwing recall election in Venezuela, Hillary Clinton's pollster (Penn & Schoen), James Carville, a whole gaggle of anti-democratic political organizers, for nutso winger 'christian' groups, probably for bribes and payoff's, and, I suspect they may also have been using these funds for rightwing paramilitaries, maybe even for assassins--in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, possibly Argentina.

Scratch a Bushite, find a thief. Also, they deliberately hire scumbags--and promote scumbags into Congress, etc.--and keep a close watch on their activities, through pervasive NSA spying, in order to control them. So, another question might be: what does this scumbag know?

Fishy smell, you know what I mean? They don't "investigate" for the normal reasons. They don't care about corruption. They are the most corrupt scumbags on the face of the earth, and then some. What's going on behind the scenes here? Why did they hire this guy who was dirty, and them bump him out? It's not as if they didn't know.

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Edited to add some speculation:

One thing that springs to mind is that "suitcase full of money" Bush/CIA caper out of Miami, intended to "divide and conquer" Venezuela-Argentina. $800,000 in U.S. cash involved. It was a botched CIA operation, which a Bushbot U.S. Attorney in Miami is trying to make something out of--using a rich Miami/Venezuelan (described as, two jaguars in the driveway)--the same guy who tried to take the money into Argentina (supposedly currying it from Chavez to Cristina Fernandez), as the "witness" in the case. The whole thing is totally absurd. But where did the money come from? Most likely, black CIA drug money, but still.

Some red flags in the longer article that Magbana posted above. His new job was "dealing with Cuba, Native American issues, state legislators, Latino elected officials and Puerto Rico." Native American issues. More casino corruption? Puerto Rico--the Democratic governor there is in some kind of trouble about corruption--being investigated by (Bushite) DoJ. Related?

Another red flag: He was promoted March 1. Isn't that the date of the U.S./Colombia bombing of Ecuador, and the slaughter of the FARC hostage negotiator, Raul Reyes? Just thinking out loud...about the totally Bushified USAID, and its totally filthy/evil activities in South America. Sixto seems like a small fish. But what might he have been mixed up in? Or what might he know? Drug trafficking maybe? Knowing what-all we know about Bushite activities in South America--and all their intense propaganda recently (against Chavez, against Correa), I get the feeling a bombshell is coming--or, something very big is being suppressed. They get most propagandistic when they are most guilty.