PBS had a special on Moyers on America about the rise and fall of the Jack Abramoff franchise which he is now called federal inmate No. 27593-112....
Abramoff, Inc.
The fallout from the Jack Abramoff scandal continues. On September 15, 2006, Representative Bob Ney of Ohio agreed to plead guilty to federal corruption charges. As THE NEW YORK TIMES put it "Representative Bob Ney of Ohio admitted Friday that he had effectively put his office up for sale to corrupt Washington lobbyists and a foreign businessman in exchange for illegal gifts that included lavish overseas trips, the use of skyboxes at sports arenas in the Washington area and thousands of dollars worth of gambling chips from London casinos." It was Ney's ties to Jack Abramoff, who pleaded guilty in January to conspiring to corrupt public officials, that brought him under scrutiny.
Abramoff came under intense public scrutiny through hearings in front of the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs in late September 2004. Those hearings laid out allegations of exorbitant fees, back-door deals and improper influencing of tribal elections. Abramoff invoked his Fifth Amendment right to silence throughout the hearings. It's now clear that Abramoff and his allies engaged in numerous questionable practices.
The Abramoff trail also leads to the Marianas, a US territory in the Pacific that Congress exempted from the U.S. minimum wage and immigration laws. The islands are home to Chinese-owned factories, where low-wage workers were imported from China and the Philippines and forced into slave labor conditions, living in squalid shacks behind barbed wire, to produce "Made in the USA" goods. As pressure built in the mid-1990s for a bill to impose U.S. laws on the islands, Abramoff was pitching his client-the government of the Marianas-as a regulation-free paradise and taking lawmakers, including Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX), there on luxury junkets. "Capitol Crimes" lays out how Abramoff's influence with DeLay kept reform legislation from ever being debated on the floor of the House. Former Senator Frank Murkowski (R-AK), who sponsored legislation after seeing the appalling working conditions in the Marianas first hand, asks: "How could we have, in the United States, working conditions like this under the U.S. flag?"
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/moyersonamerica/capitol/abramoff.html
3 comments:
I saw PBS special too. Now I understand what the plan was and how they did the corruption. It is so sad that these guys used God's name to commit crimes. Reed is a piece of work. DeLay is still using the name of God to cover up his crimes. Jack was the big guy. Gover is still working it. Karl is up to his neck it this mess. All this going on and Bush is sitting around picking his nose. Cheney was working for Halliburton and his share of the stolen money.
SPB I read Bush has spent 2 trillion dollars for Iraq/Afghan since 9/11 and when the taxpayers realize the waste there will be hell to pay.
I've seen that drawing before -- great illustration of the connections. And Gov. Haley Barber & George Bush are still scamming the American people...
Come January, Pelosi and the new Congress will put a stop of the milk machine.
Jackie,
It is a shame that the Gerbil ran this country like his own 3 falied businesses.
CC:
Interesting posting that illustrations of the Abramoff connections. Norquist and DeLay are still running free on the streets. But, their days will be numbered. But a great PBS special last night. And Abramoff, according to the testimony by one of the Indian tribes, ripped off the Indians over 45 million dollars.. It is a lot to be angry about...
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