Senator Conrad Hits DeLay in Indian Affairs Hearings
Obwon
This article appears in the October 8, 2004 issue of
Executive Intelligence Review.
Senator Conrad Hits DeLay in Indian
Affairs Hearings on Abramoff Looting
by Anton Chaitkin
The Senate Indian Affairs Committee stunned a public
hearing by revealing that recent newspaper coverage had
inaccurately understated what the committee identified
as over $66 million in payments and millions more in
political donations, extracted from six Indian tribes
by casino lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his secret junior
partner Michael Scanlon. The partners shared millions
of this loot with former Christian Coalition executive
director Ralph Reed, Abramoff's protégé and currently
Southeast USA director of the Bush-Cheney election
campaign, who has used the Christian Coalition to carry
out the Abramoff/Scanlon schemes.
Tension in the Sept. 29 hearings was high, as the
stakes are high.
The role of Abramoff, Scanlon, and Reed, in creating
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's Congress-dominating
machine, overshadowed the hearings. North Dakota
Democrat Sen. Kent Conrad repeatedly brought out the
fact that the looters had made their access to DeLay
their selling point for getting lobbying contracts with
the casino-owning tribes.
Arizona Republican John McCain, who himself has been
attacked for pushing these hearings, intervened, in an
effort to take the spotlight off DeLay and the
Republicans. McCain Grover Norquist, whose Americans
for Tax Reform got $25,000 from the Abramoff Indian
loot, has accused McCain of pushing the hearings to get
back at Bush partisans for opposing McCain for the 2000
Republican Presidential nomination, and McCain may have
been covering himself within the Republican Party as
the election approaches.
In the Senators' opening remarks, the perpetrators'
leaked e-mails were read and displayed for the hearing,
as were Abramoff's references to the tribal leaders
whom he was ripping off, as "monkeys" and other racist
epithets.
Senator Conrad began in the preliminary statements to
highlight the schemes in DeLay's Texas, by Abramoff,
Scanlon, and Reed. McCain asked Conrad to move along,
not to dwell on this side of things.
Committee Chairman Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell
(R-Colo.)—himself a chief of the Northern Cheyenne
tribe—announced that Mike Scanlon is dodging subpoenas
and resisting the committee's request to appear before
them. Senator Campbell emphasized that either Scanlon
would come voluntarily or would be escorted in by
Federal marshals.
Jack Abramoff appeared and invoked his Constitutional
right not to testify.
Senator Campbell, in his unanswered questions to
Abramoff, said that Jewish people had long been the
victims of such bigotry as Abramoff showed in his
contemptuous e-mails about his clients, so Campbell was
surprised to hear this coming from Abramoff. Abramoff
presents himself as an Orthodox Jew, and is Tom DeLay's
intermediary with the Israeli political forces around
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his Likud party.
Senator Conrad hit Abramoff with questions centering on
his schemes with Ralph Reed and the Christian
Coalition. Senator McCain twice asked Conrad to stop
asking these questions, since Abramoff was not
answering, suggesting that it was "badgering" the
witness.
Testimony on the looting, and the manipulation of
tribal elections to install Abramoff-controlled tribal
leaders, was heard from Richard Milanovich, chairman,
Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, from Palm
Springs, California, and Bernie Sprague, Sub-Chief of
Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan.
The witnesses said the tribes had contributed to
political candidates about whom they knew nothing,
because Abramoff recommended them. Senator Conrad
asked, through several particular questions, to whom
did Abramoff say he was going to give you access? And
the repeated response was, "Tom DeLay." The Chippewa
representative agreed that they had contributed to
Abramoff's front, the Capital Athletic Foundation,
after Abramoff told them it would "impress Tom DeLay."
McCain repsponded, during his questioning, by asking,
didn't contributions go to both sides of the aisle,
Democrats, as well as Republicans? Answer, yes. And
this wasn't just about one person, was it? Answer,
that's correct. While McCain was making this
intervention, a particular communication from Abramoff
to one of the tribes was being displayed on a screen
for the Senators and hearing's audience, dated Nov. 1,
2002, which stated boldly, "Mr. DeLay assists in
raising money for a youth activity organization called
Capital Athletic Foundation.... They are respectfully
requesting a contribution of $25,000." No other
individual name was displayed on the screen.
A pathetic character who was formerly legislative
director for the Saginaw Chippewas, who helped arrange
for Abramoff to get in with the tribe, testified that
he got his picture taken with President Bush and with
Bush adviser Karl Rove, because the tribe had made
multiple contributions to the "Republican Eagles"
campaign channel.
'Cesspool of Greed'
CBS News commented on the Sept. 29 hearings, later that
day, that "Abramoff and Scanlon were renowned for their
ties to DeLay; DeLay is renowned for trying to make
paying clients use friendly, Republican lobbyists.
Today, Sen. Byron Dorgan [D-N.D.] told the committee
Abramoff and Scanlon lurked in a cesspool of greed. A
Washington grand jury, the FBI, and a task force of
five different Federal agencies are looking into the
cesspool."
EIR asked Senator Conrad after the hearing, if the
committee was looking into whether funds Abramoff took
from the Indians went into the Tom DeLay campaign
fundraising machine, which is under criminal
investigation in Texas. Senator Conrad responded, that
this should be looked into, and he would look into it,
whether or not the (Republican-controlled) committee
did so.
In the course of the hearings, a blow-up display was
presented of another of Jack Abramoff's e-mails, dated
March 15, 2002, of which the subject was "Personal
Financial Statement." The message asked the recipient
to "remove the SunCruz item from it."
The reference is to the SunCruz casino ship line based
in Florida, which was taken over by Abramoff, Scanlon,
a mafia-connected man named Adam Kidan, and another
partner in 2000-2001. In 2000, Rep. Robert Ney
(R-Ohio), is quoted in the Congressional Record,
speaking against SunCruz's former owner, Gus Boulis,
and endorsing Kidan, Abramoff's partner in the
takeover. After Boulis complained that Abramoff and his
partners had not actually paid him for the
government-pressured purchase of his casino boats,
Boulis was shot to death gangland-style, and the murder
has never been solved. Mike Scanlon told reporters at
the time, it was ridiculous to accuse Abramoff of the
murder, and that Abramoff was cooperating with police.
In the Sept. 29 hearings, Senator Conrad brought up the
fact that a tribe had made a contribution to the
Abramoff-run Capital Athletic Foundation, and that the
foundation had paid for a $120,000-plus golfing junket
to Scotland, which included Representative Ney, Jack
Abramoff, and Ralph Reed.
'Abramoff's Indian Takings and the Texas TRMPAC
Prosecution'
In preparation for the hearing, the Lyndon LaRouche
Political Action Committee submitted the following
memoradum to the Senators:
Two major scandals have erupted in the past weeks,
centered around the Republican Party fundraising
apparatus headed by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.
There have now been criminal indictments against top
DeLay aides in Texas. And there are new revelations
about suspected criminal activity—alleged looting of
Indian tribes by two of DeLay's leading associates,
longtime lobbying manager Jack Abramoff and former
DeLay Chief of Staff Michael Scanlon, for their
personal gain and for political contributions. The
question that now confronts investigators is to
determine how the two prongs of the DeLay scandal may
converge on an even larger criminal enterprise.
Questions for Investigators
The questions for investigators are in light of the
following facts:
1) Federal criminal investigators are probing the
pattern of transactions in which lobbyist Jack Abramoff
and his partner Michael Scanlon took over $45 million
from Indian tribes for lobbying and public relations
fees on behalf of casino gambling, with alleged misuse
of tribal funds, illegal campaign contributions and tax
code violations. The Washington Post reported Sept. 28,
2004, that the "tribes also had donated $2.9 million to
Federal candidates since 2001."
2) Senate investigators are conducting a parallel
investigation of these alleged wide-scale abuses by
Abramoff and Scanlon.
3) Prosecutor Ronald Earle, District Attorney of Travis
County, Texas, has filed numerous indictments in his
continually widening probe of persons associated with
the Tom DeLay-affiliated Texans for a Republican
Majority Political Action Committee (TRMPAC), a spinoff
from the national group, Americans for a Republican
Majority Political Action Committee (ARMPAC). The
charges specify that TRMPAC and related Texas channels
used illegal corporate donations to elect candidates to
the Texas legislature, in what was reportedly a
successful scheme to seize control of the Texas
legislature, in order to redistrict the Texas
Congressional Districts for U.S. Congress.
These indictments may be accessed electronically at
http://alt.coxnewsweb.com/
statesman/metro/elxpacs/092104_indictment.pdf.
4) The House Ethics Committee is investigating the same
matter, with respect to Tom DeLay, alleging the illegal
use of corporate funds in a scheme to take control of
the Texas legislature in order to redraw U.S.
Congressional Districts, to the prejudice of the rights
of Rep. Chris Bell.
5) The Washington Post reported Sept. 26, 2004, and
National Public Radio reported Sept. 27, 2004, that
Abramoff and Scanlon worked secretly to obtain from the
Texas government the closing down of the Tigua tribe's
Speaking Rock casino in El Paso, Texas, having received
millions of dollars from Louisiana's Coushatta tribe,
800 miles away, to lobby to block their competition in
Texas. Abramoff and Scanlon then shook down the Tigua
tribe for several million dollars in lobbying fees and
hundreds of thousands in contributions to Republican
Party candidate-funding organizations, in return for
Abramoff and Scanlon's acting as lobbyists for
reopening the casino they had secretly acted to close.
6) Findings by an FBI/IRS/Interior Department task
force have induced Ralph Reed, former Christian
Coalition executive director, and currently the
Southeastern USA chairman for the George W. Bush
election campaign, to admit that he got more than $1
million in payments from lobbyists Abramoff and
Scanlon, as Reed's share of their payments from Indian
tribes which operate gambling casinos. Reed's
assignment, without disclosing that he was paid through
Abramoff and Scanlon from the casinos, was to lobby
religious activists and others to prevent the opening
of certain casinos that would compete with those that
were being induced to secretly pay Abramoff to prevent
competition. (In the matter of the Tigua tribe, Reed
worked in tandem with Abramoff and Scanlon to close the
Speaking Rock casino, but no evidence has been
presented that he worked with them in the next phase,
the extraction of payments to reopen the casino.)
7) Jack Abramoff has served, over many years, as a
manager of fundraising and political action committee
activities for Rep. Tom DeLay, including the
development of the ARMPAC-TRMPAC apparatus. Abramoff
(with Scanlon as junior partner and apparent disguiser
of payments) has been the main intermediary for
Congressman DeLay with the Indian tribes involved in
gambling casinos, receiving substantial fees and
securing for DeLay substantial contributions from those
tribes, with DeLay acting on behalf of the casinos'
interests in legislative initiatives.
The following questions should now be directed to the
Federal criminal investigators and the Senate
investigators probing Jack Abramoff and Michael
Scanlon, to the House Ethics Committee probing Tom
DeLay, and to the Texas prosecutorial team probing the
Tom DeLay-related political action committees:
1) Of the $40-50 millions obtained from Indian tribes
by Jack Abramoff and Michael Scanlon, which
transactions are the subject of Federal criminal
investigation and Senate investigation, did any of
these payments go to the political action committees
and other channels being investigated for felony
prosecution by the Travis County District Attorney and
by the House Ethics Committee?
2) Did any of the political contributions, which the
Tigua tribe was induced to make through Jack Abramoff
and Michael Scanlon's reported double-dealing, go to
the political action committees and other channels
being investigated by the Travis County prosecutors and
by the House Ethics Committee? (It is reported that a
substantial portion of those Tigua contributions went
to state-level Republican campaigns, in roughly the
period under investigation in the TRMPAC matter.)
0[ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ]0
Liars share with those they deceive
the desire not to be deceived.
--Sissela Bok
0[ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ]0