Who is Nathan Landow?
Anonymous
RNC Research
1998
Albert Gore and Nathan Landow
Money, Cover-Ups and the Mob?
When Albert Gore Jr. or Bill Clinton need money, they know who to call -
Nathan Landow. According to the Washington Post, Landow is "always at
the top of the list of those who can be tapped for Democratic
congressional candidates and causes." The Associated Press reported that
while Gore, for instance, was making fund-raising calls from federal
property, he secured a $25,000 donation from Landow. Landow was also the
chief financial force behind Sen. Gore’s $4 million decision to run for
president in 1988. Some of Landow’s activities include:
Landow raised a total of $600,000 for Clinton in 1992 and 1996.
Landow allegedly tried to dissuade a witness in Clinton’s ongoing
sex-and-cover-up investigation from testifying. In 1997 Landow allegedly
pressured former White House volunteer Kathleen Willey to suppress her
claim of a 1993 sexual advance by Clinton.
Democrat campaign professional Michael Copperthite stated that Landow
urged him to lie to federal investigators about Landow’s failed land
deal with the impoverished Cheyenne and Arapaho Indian tribes. The land
deal was made in conjunction with Landow’s fund-raising activities for
the Democrat Party.
Landow and former Clinton/Gore campaign manager Peter Knight reportedly
offered to lobby the Clinton/Gore administration on behalf of the tribe
for the return of their oil and gas rich lands in exchange for more than
$100,000 in campaign contributions. Landow also sought a multi-million
dollar contract with the tribes.
Evidence suggests, Landow offered to ease former deputy attorney general
Webster Hubbell’s financial difficulties after his conviction to keep
him from cooperating with White House independent counsel Kenneth Starr.
Landow denies trying to help Hubbell, a claim which Wall Street Journal
columnist Albert Hunt calls a lie.
In 1978, Landow was involved in a proposed hotel and casino project with
Washington gambling kingpin Joe Nesline, internationally known gambling
figure Edward Cellini and a Miami representative of the Gambino
organized crime family Anthony Plate. These revelations cost Landow an
ambassadorship early in the Carter administration.
In the early 1980s, Landow was a Democrat Party booster at a time when
the District of Columbia city government was selling urban renewal
properties at below market rates to politically powerful Democrats and
their friends. Landow obtained a parcel of DC land for a fraction of its
market value.
1987 - Gore’s 1988 Presidential Bid and Landow
Gore may not have run for president in 1988 except for Landow’s
insistence -- and campaign fundraising. Gore announced that he would
enter the race for the Democrat presidential nomination on April 12,
1987, three weeks after saying he would not run. Landow’s pledge to Gore
to help raise $4 million for the effort seems to have been the factor
that changed Gore’s mind.
"Mr. Gore said that a group of major Democratic fund-raisers led by
Maryland developer Nathan Landow had ‘played a significant role in
getting me to change my mind’ about running. At a private March 27
meeting, 17 members of the group pledged to raise $4 million for a Gore
campaign and the senator agreed to reconsider his plans." (emphasis
added) (The [Baltimore] Sun, 4/13/87)
1996 - Gore’s Phone Calls and Landow
Gore also relied upon Landow to come through with campaign cash during
Clinton/Gore’s 1996 re-election campaign. Landow set speed records to
get Gore the cash he requested illegally from his White House office.
"Contrary to his original assertion, Vice President Al Gore did not use
a Democratic Party telephone credit card for as many as 20 fund-raising
calls from the White House. Without public notice the party recently
reimbursed the government $24.20.
"White House documents obtained by The Associated Press provide the most
detail to date about how the vice president secured commitments upwards
of $600,000 in the last election by calling large Democratic donors from
his West Wing office.
"‘You’ll have it in hand in One Hour,’ Gore scribbled on one
fund-raising call sheet in which he secured a $25,000 donation in
December 1995 from Washington businessman Nate Landow."
"Landow apparently fulfilled the prediction. ‘One hour is a record!’
Gore scribbled on a thank you letter to the businessman on Dec. 11,
1996." (emphasis added) (The Associated Press, 8/26/97)
Clinton-Gore ’96, the Cheyenne and Arapaho Indian Tribes and Landow
Landow went to the limit to raise funds for the Clinton/Gore campaign in
1996. But he also tried to make his efforts on Clinton/Gore’s behalf
worth his own while. Landow and Clinton/Gore campaign manager Peter
Knight offered to lobby the administration for the return of the
Cheyenne-Arapaho Indian tribes’ land in exchange for campaign
contributions totaling more than $100,000.
"Last week, a private investigator testified in Senate hearings on
campaign fund-raising abuses that the [Cheyenne-Arapaho] tribe
approached him about investigating Oklahoma Sen. Don Nickles. The
senator opposes the return of former Indian lands the tribe wants, and
the investigator, Terry Lenzer, proposed a probe that might turn up
politically embarrassing information that would compel Mr. Nickles to
drop his opposition."
"There was more than money for Mr. Lenzer in the deal; there was a
chance it might dig up enough dirt on Mr. Nickles to divert the
spotlight from an embarrassing blot on the reputation of Vice President
Al Gore. Longtime Gore fund-raiser Nathan Landow and former Clinton-Gore
campaign manager Peter Knight reportedly offered to lobby the
administration for the return of the lands in exchange for campaign
contributions from the tribe of more than $100,000."
"For their efforts the Indians got lunch with President Clinton and a
dinner invitation from Mr. Gore, but no land. When news of the shakedown
broke earlier this year, the Democratic National Committee returned the
money." (emphasis added) (editorial, The Washington Times, 8/6/97)
There was more to this "shakedown" than just campaign contributions.
Landow also tried to obtain for himself a contract with the tribe that
could have been worth hundreds of millions of dollars in oil and gas
reserves under the land.
"Although officials of the Cheyenne-Arapaho tribes ultimately refused to
testify in the case, tribal lawyer Richard Grellner told the Senate
Governmental Affairs Committee that in exchange for help with their
claim, Landow demanded 10 percent of any development revenues and gas or
oil royalties on the disputed land -- a bonanza possibly worth as much
as $200 million." (emphasis added) (U.S. News & World Report, 3/30/98)
1997 - Kathleen Willey Connection
According to Newsweek magazine, Landow raised $600,000 for the
Clinton/Gore ticket’s 1992 and 1996 campaigns. But Landow seems to want
to do more for the administration than just raise funds. Investigators
looking into Clinton’s cover-up scandal acquired documents suggesting
Landow tried to influence the testimony of Kathleen Willey, a former
White House volunteer who has charged Clinton with improper conduct and
lying to cover it up.
"The documents show that on Oct. 6, 1997, Landow’s real-estate firm
chartered a plane to fly Willey from her home to Maryland’s Eastern
Shore, where Landow has an estate. The flight cost $1,050, said Fred
Hutson, operations manager for Million Air, the Richmond charter firm.
It came two months after Willey had been subpoenaed in the Paula Jones
case. Last week, according to a source familiar with her testimony,
Willey told the grand jury that during a two-day stay at Landow’s
estate, the Democratic moneyman repeatedly pressed her about her version
of the encounter, telling her ‘Don’t say anything,’ according to the
source. Landow told her that if she said ‘nothing happened’ between her
and the president, she could not be contradicted, the source said.
Willey also told the grand jury that Landow offered to fly her to New
York City for a Christmas shopping trip. When first questioned two weeks
ago, Landow acknowledged talking to Willey about her ‘mental anguish’
over the Jones case, but insisted suggestions of witness tampering were
‘absolutely untrue.’" (emphasis added) (Newsweek, 3/23/98)
Landow’s efforts may be his way of ingratiating himself with Gore and
those who will direct the Gore campaign in 2000, such as Peter Knight,
Clinton/Gore’s 1996 campaign manager.
"Landow’s goal in undertaking such a mission would have been less to
help Clinton -- Landow and the president are said to care little for
each other -- than to ingratiate himself with Gore and Knight. A
Washington investor who knows Landow believes Landow is capable of this:
‘It would not be atypical for Nate to insert himself into [the Willey
affair] or for him to tell Willey things as if he were acting at the
behest of the White House, when in fact he had no such authority." (The
Weekly Standard, 3/30/98)
1997 - Attempted Cover-up of the Cheyenne Arapaho Deal
On another occasion, Landow seemingly used the same persuasive
techniques on Democrat campaign professional Michael Copperthite months
before the Willey episode. Copperthite stated that Landow tried to "keep
him quiet" about one of Landow’s questionable campaign fund-raising
episodes.
"Michael C. Copperthite, a Democratic fund-raiser, campaign manager and
consultant, said Mr. Landow did ‘the exact same thing to me’ that he is
accused of doing to Mrs. Willey." "Mr. Copperthite said Mr. Landow’s
attempt to keep him quiet was consistent with recent news reports
suggesting he tried to silence Mrs. Willey about being sexually groped
by Mr. Clinton." (emphasis added) (The Washington Times, 3/18/98)
In particular, Landow wanted Copperthite to lie to investigators about a
failed land deal Landow had with the Cheyenne-Arapaho Indians.
"He [Copperthite] said that a year ago, Mr. Landow pressured him to lie
to federal investigators about a contract aimed at netting Mr. Landow
hundreds of millions of dollars from oil and gas reserves beneath Indian
lands in Oklahoma." "‘Mr. Copperthite, who sought half of any
compensation Mr. Landow secured from the tribe, said Mr. Landow urged
him during a phone call to tell FBI agents investigating campaign fund
raising that he knew nothing about the deal, even though he had
discussed it in several meetings with Mr. Landow.
"‘He said, and I quote exactly: "You’re going to be contacted by Justice
Department people probably and/or law enforcement people and I want to
go over with you what the truth is, so that you can tell the truth,"
said Mr. Copperthite, who added he nonetheless cooperated with the FBI
in the probe. ‘So then he does this whole story that doesn’t even match
up to anything that happened and then says, "Now that’s the truth isn’t
it? You’re going to tell the truth."
"‘He was lying to me,’ said Mr. Copperthite, a member of Mr. Clinton’s
National Finance Committee during the 1992 presidential campaign."
(emphasis added) (The Washington Times, 3/18/98)
However, instead of offering merely a New York shopping trip, as he did
with Willey, Landow offered Copperthite a job with Gore’s 2000
presidential campaign.
"In exchange for his expected silence, Mr. Copperthite said, he was
promised a job in Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign. Mr. Landow was
Mr. Gore’s primary financial backer in the 1988 campaign and, before the
Indian land deal, had hoped to play a major role in Mr. Gore’s next
presidential bid.
"‘[Mr. Landow] said, "We’re all going to be part of the big happy Gore
family some day and this all will pass over,"’ Mr. Copperthite said. ‘He
was clearly telling me to keep my mouth shut, play along and I would be
taken care of -- or un-taken care of.’" (brackets in original) (The
Washington Times, 3/18/98)
Much of Landow’s behind-the-scenes efforts seem to be geared to getting
himself in the good graces of Gore in 2000. Of course, Landow has done
plenty of other things that are just as unethical that do not have much
to do with Gore.
1994 - Helping Hush Up Web Hubbell
According to Albert Hunt writing in The Wall Street Journal, Landow,
along with several other Democrats, apparently tried to help Webster
Hubbell financially while he was facing severe financial problems due to
past criminal conduct. This assistance may explain why Hubbell could
afford to become tight-lipped in the face of Independent Counsel Kenneth
Starr’s ongoing investigation into numerous Clinton wrongdoing.
"Several years ago, when Clinton confidant Webster Hubbell faced
imprisonment and big legal bills, Democratic moneyman Nathan Landow
tried to arrange a favorable real estate deal involving a Washington
office building for the former top Justice Department official. Several
other well-heeled Democrats also tried to help the beleaguered Mr.
Hubbell; this has drawn the attention of special prosecutor Kenneth
Starr, who questions whether Mr. Hubbell’s limited cooperation with Mr.
Starr’s investigation of the president was influenced by all the help
Mr. Hubbell received from the president’s associates.
"What sets Mr. Landow apart, however, is that he and Bill Clinton
actually have a hostile relationship. But Mr. Landow is close to Vice
President Albert Gore. Political observers who know him say it’s highly
doubtful that Mr. Landow would have done this out of personal kindness
rather than political calculation; Mr. Landow, the former Maryland
Democratic Party chairman, did not return phone calls. Late yesterday,
the vice president’s office said Mr. Gore did not know of Mr. Landow’s
offer to help Mr. Hubbell." (Albert Hunt column, The Wall Street
Journal, 3/13/97)
Landow vehemently denied Hunt’s assertions.
"The statement in Albert Hunt’s March 13 Politics & People column that I
tried to arrange a real estate deal for Webster Hubbell is totally false
and without foundation." (Landow letter to the editor, The Wall Street
Journal, 3/20/97) Hunt flatly states that Landow "lied."
"But a year ago, I reported that the same Mr. Landow secretly had tried
to help Clinton confidant Webb Hubbell when he was in legal and
financial straits. Mr. Landow adamantly insisted that wasn’t true,
either. I know he lied then, which makes his credibility [in the Willey
matter] suspect now." (emphasis added) (Albert Hunt column, The Wall
Street Journal, 3/19/98)
The First Democrat Bank of Landow
Landow made numerous personal contributions to the Democrat cause over
the years, in addition to the millions of dollars he raised from other
donors for the party and his favorite candidates. Over the past 12
years, according to documents on file with the Federal Election
Commission (FEC), Landow has given almost $200,000 to Democrat
candidates and political committees out of his own pocket.
Election Cycle Contribution Amounts
1997-98 (as of 3/20/98) $12,500
1995-96 $29,250
$50,000 (soft)
1993-94 $30,420
1991-92 $27,500
1989-90 $29,750
1987-88 $19,000
Total (1987-98): $198,420
(Source: Federal Election Commission Reports, 1987-98)
Furthermore, Landow raised $2 million for Walter Mondale’s presidential
effort in 1984.
"A few days after Jimmy Carter’s 1980 defeat, Landow paid a call on
Walter Mondale, uninvited, to offer him his full support for 1984.
Landow placed his private jet at Mondale’s disposal and he personally
raised over two million dollars." (The New Republic, 4/22/85)
Landow also raised campaign funds for Jimmy Carter.
"Landow, 45, a self-made entrepreneur, has been heavy contributor to the
Democratic Party and was an active Carter fund raiser." (The Washington
Post, 1/26/78)
Landow summed up the reason for all of his financial generosity to the
Democrats.
"‘It certainly could relate to policy,’ Landow said." (emphasis added)
(Los Angeles Times, 5/3/87)
Landow’s Shady Past: 1978 - Landow and Gambling
Long before engaging in shady dealings on behalf of the Clinton/Gore
re-election campaign in 1996, Landow engaged in shady deals on his own
behalf. In the 1970s, Landow tried to break into the hotel and gambling
industries. To do so, Landow enlisted the help of underworld figure Joe
Nesline.
"Two prominent Washington investors with connections to the Carter
administration were involved in a proposal to build a hotel and gambling
casino in Atlantic City, with Washington gambling king pin Joe Nesline
as a consultant.
"The investors are multimillionaire builder Nathan Landow and Smith
Bagley, a Reynolds tobacco heir. Landow is under consideration for
appointment as U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands."
"Landow acknowledge [sic] a casual acquaintanceship with Nesline of many
years’ standing, and an involvement in one other hotel-casino venture in
which Nesline also played a role." (The Washington Post, 1/26/78)
Nesline had a long criminal record. He is also identified by police
authorities as the suspected "godfather" of Washington "bookmaking and
other gaming action."
"Nesline, who lives in the luxurious Promenade highrise apartment
building owned by Landow at 5225 Pooks Hill Rd. in Bethesda, has been an
internationally known gambling figure for 40 years. He had long been
identified in local police files as the suspected ‘godfather’ of
bookmaking and other gaming action is [sic] and around Washington.
"With an arrest record spanning four decades. Nesline has been charged
with bribery and bootlegging as well as gambling. He was convicted of
carrying a deadly weapon in the fatal shooting of a man at point-blank
range in an after-hours club in 1951." (The Washington Post, 1/26/78)
The deal with Nesline, which fell through, was worth $85 million.
"A search warrant for Nesline’s apartment in a Landow-owned high-rise in
Bethesda, The Promenade, netted plans for a 1,000-room, $85 million
Atlantic City hotel and casino project that Landow had intended to build
with Nesline’s guidance." (The Washington Post, 8/24/80)
Another potential deal pursued by Nesline and Landow consisted of a
hotel-casino on St. Maarten island in the Caribbean. Edward Cellini,
brother of mob associate Dino Cellini, was also involved.
"The proposed Atlantic City hotel-casino project, which never reached
fruition because of financial problems, was not the only gambling
venture in which Nesline had been involved with Landow. Also found in
the raid on Nesline’s apartment was a large color photograph of an
architectural rendering for another proposed hotel-casino deal on the
Caribbean island of St. Maarten’s in which Nesline was acting as a
middleman.
"Involved in the St. Maarten’s venture were Landow and Edward Celini, a
brother of Dino Cellini, a former associate of organized crime figure
Meyer Lansky. Edward Cellini formerly ran the Paradise Island casino
operation in Nassau, the Bahamas for Resorts International, but he was
let go." (The Washington Post, 1/26/78)
Landow was also involved with Anthony Plate, an associate of the Gambino
Mafia family. Plate owned a 25 percent stake in Quaker Masonry, a firm
in which Landow served as vice president and director.
"They [officers of the Montgomery County’s (Md.) organized crime
section] learned from Florida police that Ln-dow [sic] had a financial
interest in a now defunct corporation whose concealed owners allegedly
included an identified member of the Carlo Gambino Mafia ‘family.’"
"The business involvement of Landow’s that originally attracted the
attention of Montgomery County’s organized crime unit was an investment
in Quaker Masonry Inc., a firm that had offices in Silver Spring and in
Hollywood. Fla.
"According to corporate records in Tallahassee, Landow was listed in
1972 as a vice president and director of Quaker Masonry.
"Florida law enforcement authorities reported to other police agencies
in October 1973 that Anthony Plate, known to them to be an associate of
the Gambinos was believed to have a 25 percent interest in Quaker." (The
Washington Post, 1/26/78)
1982 - Landow and Sweetheart Real Estate Deals
In the early 1980s, Landow became a beneficiary of an urban renewal land
transfer from the federal government to the city government of the
District of Columbia. The D.C. government, presided over by Democrat
Mayor Marion Barry, seems to have awarded parcels of prime D.C. real
estate to Democrat Party boosters. Landow obtained a parcel of downtown
land for a third of its market value.
"In the late 1970s an estimated $100 million in federal property was
transferred to the D.C. government. The RLA [Washington, D.C.
Redevelopment Land Agency] was put in charge of selling the transferred
property, as well as other tracts already owned by the city."
"The General Accounting Office (GAO) was openly critical of the RLA in
1982, charging that city property (much of it a gift from the Federal
Government) was being sold for bargain-basement prices, often to
political friends of the mayor [Marion Barry]. In March of that year, a
GAO report criticized the RLA for failing to have clear criteria for
determining ‘why one developer is selected over another.’ Some
transactions, said the report, give the appearance of a loosely run
activity, and, as a result, much controversy exists concerning the sale
of urban renewal property, sales prices, and selection of developers.’
Nathan Landow, for example, a prominent Democratic Party fundraiser,
paid less than one-third the market price for a piece of downtown real
estate he purchased from the RLA in early 1982." (emphasis added)
(National Review, 6/24/91)
Copyright © 1998, Republican National Committee Research Division
Anonymous
j...@inxpress.net
articles in a defense of his Presdident, didn't even notice
>
> Nathan Landow Refresher Course
>
> RNC Research
>
> 1998
>
> Albert Gore and Nathan Landow
>
> Money, Cover-Ups and the Mob?
>
> When Albert Gore Jr. or Bill Clinton need money, they know who to call
*Jews* trumps everything for you, huh, Waynes?
j...@inxpress.net
National Review
April 6, 1998 MICHAEL LEDEEN
Not for commercial use.
C L I N T O N T H E C H I N
MICHAEL LEDEEN
Mr. Ledeen, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise
Institute, is the author, most recently, of Freedom Betrayed: How
America Led a Global Democratic Revolution, Won the Cold War, and
Walked Away. He is currently working on Machiavelli for Moderns.
AN Italian journalist of a certain age was telling me
about his first trip to Little Rock. ``I recognized it
immediately,'' he said with a wry smile. ``The closed
atmosphere, the reluctance to be seen talking to an
outsider, the background fear . . . just like Sicily.'' He
had spent years covering the Mafia in his own country, and
he was quick to recognize the similarities between the
Sicily of his youth and the Arkansas of his maturer
years: Bill Clinton's Arkansas, whose methods and
mores have been so brutally and effectively imposed on
Washington in the 1990s.
It's a shame that the tandem of Francis Ford Coppola
and Mario Puzo has not given us its vision of our
present condition, for Clinton and his political/business
``family'' are right out of The Godfather. Just as the
Corleones started in a tiny backwater town and
eventually became a vast international criminal
organization, so the Clintons have moved from Hope,
Arkansas, to exert their corrupt influence on a global
scale. The climactic moment of The Godfather, when Al
Pacino looks deep into the eyes of his beloved to tell her
a bald-faced but comforting lie, has been reprised to the
point of monotony by Bill Clinton.
Just as Don Corleone and his sons bought, blackmailed,
or extorted the favors of businessmen, politicians,
judges, and journalists, so Clinton's tenacious survival of
a series of mortal threats to his Presidency is intimately
linked (as was his initial rise to power) to the successful
manipulation of business, political, judicial, and
journalistic institutions, beginning with the spectacular
purge of all the U.S. Attorneys at the outset of the first
term, and culminating so far with the intimidation of
potentially damaging witnesses, probing journalists, and
Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr. And just as real-life
mafiosi often maintain Jewish consiglieri, so the Clintons
have their Nussbaums, Landows, and Blumenthals.
It should not surprise us. Small-town politics always
have a bit of the mafia about them, particularly in the
south, whether it be southern Italy, southern Germany
or the Southern United States. Life in the South is more
sensual and languid than in the North, less imbued by
the Puritan ethic in bedroom or workplace, and less
open to inquiring eyes from without. Southern societies
are more secretive, and are more often dominated by
small groups -- whether you call them mafias or the
good ol' boys, it's the same kettle of fish -- than the more
transparent and meritocratic northern ones. Mafias rest
on a dual code of absolute loyalty to the family and
tenacious refusal to cooperate with the broader society
and its values.
The Clinton family's contempt for conventional rules
was recently pointed out by the Administration's own
expert on the subject. In the course of hearings on illegal
foreign funding of the Democratic National Committee,
Rep. Dan Burton asked FBI Director Louis Freeh whether
he had ever been involved in a case in which so many
witnesses were unavailable. Freeh instantly responded:
``Actually, I have. . . . I spent about 16 years doing
organized-crime cases in New York City, and many
people were frequently unavailable.'' Mafia family
members owe loyalty only to the family, never to
outside organizations, as Democratic Party regulars can
attest. Clinton's organization is his alone, which helps
explain this President's notable lack of coattails in
election years. Indeed, Clinton's main effect on his party
has been to drive hundreds of elected Democrats to
become -- Republicans. The centrality of the family was
seen in the first months of the Administration, in the
classic takeover operation known as Travelgate. Civil
servants were replaced by Clinton's relatives so that the
profits would be kept in the family, and when the
victims refused to go quietly they were accused of the
very thing the Arkansas mafia intended to do: make
money out of the government travel business.
The greatest threat to a mafia is betrayal from within --
hence the rigid code of silence (omertà). For the code to
work effectively, all members must be guilty of serious
crimes, so that any betrayal will doom them all to
extended prison terms, or worse. The presence of a
single honest man could be fatal to the organization by
breaking the ties of reciprocal blackmail, which perhaps
explains why Al Gore was made the Administration's
``solicitor-in-chief'' and the bag man in the
Buddhist-temple caper. Once he had been publicly
corrupted he couldn't turn in the others without
subjecting himself to the same punishment. The code has
been extraordinarily effective; in the classic tradition,
Clinton family members have refused to provide
information about their chieftains, even when -- as in the
cases of Susan McDougal and Webster Hubbell -- they
must serve time.
For outsiders who pose a danger, more explicit threats
are required. Anyone acting against the family must be
destroyed (as the White House brags it is doing to
Kenneth Starr), but at the same time the Godfather
invariably offers such people a corrupt way out:
cooperation is rewarded.
These practices have been adopted with regard to
Monica Lewinsky (now getting her a high-paying job,
now threatening her career by portraying her as an
unstable sexual predator, all the while denying any
involvement with her), and in the matter of Kathleen
Willey. Mrs. Willey's mugging by the President was first
confirmed by her friend Julie Steele, who then changed
her story after a conversation with family fundraiser and
consigliere Nate Landow, and a cash offer from a
national tabloid. Here again, The Godfather provides us
with the model of one witness who retracts his
testimony before a Congressional committee just when it
appears the Don is about to be indicted, and another
who is killed when he refuses to cooperate.
When Michael Corleone expanded the family empire, he
created a series of strategic alliances, and the Clintons
have done the same. The Clinton mafia was created by
the marriage of two urban families: the Arkansas group
that had grown up around the governor's mansion in
Little Rock, and the Chicago family associated with
Richard Daley Jr. This fusion brought Rahm Emanuel to
the White House, Richard Wilhelm to the leadership of
the Democratic Party (and then to manage the re-election
campaign in '96), and finally Daley himself to the Labor
Department. The choice of Chicago was perhaps
prompted by actual family ties -- it is Mrs. Clinton's
home town, after all -- and the alliance with the Daley
machine gave the Clintons an entree to yet another
powerful family: the Teamsters.
The mafia has always preferred corruption to conflict,
because warfare is bad for business, and so it has been
with the Clinton family. Even before coming to
Washington, the Clintons established financially
profitable ties to Asian families like the Riadys, and this
provided the model for American foreign policy toward
China under the cover of ``free trade.'' Why risk conflict
with the People's Republic when there is so much money
to be made by doing business with it? And why worry
about such trivial matters as national security when, by
selling dozens of supercomputers to the Chinese, family
friends in the electronics business can make millions of
dollars?
Finally, looking at the Clinton Administration as a mafia
helps explain the President's rising popularity as the
American public learns more about his corrupt actions.
When I first saw The Godfather, the audience burst into
cheers when Michael lied to his bride and told her that
was the last time he would answer such questions. But
that was only a movie. Who could have imagined that it
was a prescient look at the future of American politics?
=======================================================================
"... gift of Mr. and Mrs. C. Joseph Giroir, Jr., in honor of
Dr. and Mrs. Mochtar Riady" -- caption describing the
Smithsonian's Hall of Presidents bust of William J. Clinton
"In a world of infinite possibilities, Lippo leaves nothing
to chance." http://www.lippo.co.id/Main.htm
In article <1998101813...@replay.com>, Anonymous <nob...@replay.com>
wrote:
Anonymous
the mysterious violence around the Clintons?
Why has Kenneth Starr been unable to focus his attention on the scandals
of substance in the Clinton administration?
Why did Kenneth Starr try to censor the testimony of Patrick Knowlton in
his bogus and lying report on Fostergate?
STARR PULLING ON STRING THAT LEADS TO THE MOB
Washington Weekly
Monday, October 19, 1998 By Marvin Lee
Threats and Harassment by the Clinton Machine
An Alexandria, Virginia grand jury is looking into attempts by Clinton
friend Nathan Landow to threaten and intimidate Kathleen Willey to lie
in her deposition in the Paula Jones lawsuit.
Landow chartered a private plane to fly Kathleen Willey from Richmond to
his Maryland Eastern Shore estate before her deposition. He repeatedly
asked her what she intended to say about her alleged sexual encounter
with the President in the OvalOffice.
Apparently, Landow was not convinced that Willey would "keep her story
straight." Two days before her testimony in the Paula Jones case, Willey
was approached by a jogger who asked her about her punctured tires, her
missing cat, and about her children. "I hope you're getting the
message," the jogger said.
Willey had not gotten the message. She testified that Clinton kissed her
and groped her in a private hallway off the Oval Office on Nov. 29,
1993.
As Kenneth Starr investigates this Mob-style intimidation attempt, he
cannot avoid noticing Nathan Landow's associations with the Gambino and
Lansky crime families. In 1976 Nathan Landow withdrew his name from
nomination for U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands after the Washington
Post linked him to the Gambino and Lansky crime syndicates.
When asked by Newsweek whether he had ordered the harassment of Willey,
Landow denied that he had done so directly but added: "If somebody hired
somebody to check somebody else out, so what?"
Kenneth Starr also cannot avoid noticing that Vince Foster spent a
weekend at Nathan Landow's Maryland Eastern Shore estate a few days
before he was found dead in Fort Marcy Park. Kenneth Starr knows first
hand that a witness who claims to have seen Foster's potential murderers
at the park, was subjected to harassment and intimidation before his
grand jury appearance that was similar in style, but different in
magnitude to the harassment Kathleen Willey suffered.
But Kenneth Starr decided to exclude the account of the Fort Marcy Park
witness, Patrick Knowlton, from his report on Foster. It had to be put
back in by the three-judge panel that overseeshis work.
Following this modus operandi, Kenneth Starr would likely go for a
single count of witness tampering for Landow's invitation of Willey to
his estate, and not a RICO indictment that includes a larger pattern of
harassment and intimidation.
Then why did the grand jury in Alexandria last week hear from Democratic
political consultant Michael Copperthite? According to the Associated
Press, Copperthite told the grand jury of threats made by Nathan Landow
against him and a lawyer for the Cheyenne and Arapaho Indian tribes of
Oklahoma. Landow attempted to extort money from the tribes in an effort
to get the Clinton administration to help them with a longstanding
tribal land claim. After the newsmedia got wind of the bribery and
extortion scam involving the Clinton administration, Landow made several
calls to Copperthite. Copperthite testified about those calls before the
Thompson Committee in the Senate last year. Referring to alleged Landow
efforts to silence Willey, Copperthite said, "Landow did the exact same
thing to me."
[ Marvin Lee can be reached at edi...@dolphin.gulf.net ]
Published in the Oct. 19, 1998 issue of The Washington Weekly Copyright
1998 The Washington Weekly (http://www.federal.com) Reposting permitted
with this message intact
j...@inxpress.net
>
> Are we starting to get close to the evil center which has generated all
> the mysterious violence around the Clintons?
>
> Why has Kenneth Starr been unable to focus his attention on the scandals
> of substance in the Clinton administration?
Why hasn't the Clinton DOJ been willing to mount a Traitorgate
investigation?
Why isn't anyone pulling on the string that leads to Lippo?
David Martin
the fact that Mr. Landow hosted two days of meetings at his Maryland
Eastern Shore estate on July 17-18, 1993, for then de facto Attorney
General Webster Hubbell and Deputy White House Counsel Vincent Foster,
Jr. That was two days before Foster's body was found in Ft. Marcy
Park. That fact is also missing from all press reports. Here is how
the Washington Post, who as we see below knew full well who Nate Landow
was, reported it on July 30, 1993:
"Many friends noted that Foster attended a pool party three weekends
bfore his death, worked both days two weekends before his death, and
vacationed at the beach house of Washington lawyer Michael Cardozo the
weekend before his death."
It is not a beach house and it is not Cardozo's house, but that of his
father-in-law, Landow.
Christopher Ruddy almost got it right in his book, "The Strange Death
of Vincent Foster." This is his footnote on p. 210:
"Michael and (wife) Harolyn Cardozo were not the only people who spent
that last weekend with Foster and were not interviewed.
"Curiously, (Robert) Fiske not only did not interview but made no
mention whatsoever of two other guests who spent the weekend at the
Cardozos' Eastern Shore vacation home: Nate Landow and nationally
famous tennis star Nick Bolletieri. Landow, a Washington
D.C./Baltimore-area developer, is Harolyn Cardozo's father, a longtime
Democratic National Committee fundraiser and former Maryland Democratic
Party chairman.
"Further, Mr. Fiske did not even spell the names of the Cardozos
correctly. In his 'meticulous' final report, Fiske referred to them as
the 'Cardozas'."
Crime writer Dan E. Moldea knows all about Joe Nesline and Nate Landow,
and he studied the Ruddy book carefully and he refers to the Hubbell
deposition which mentions Landow hosting the meeting, yet in his book,
"A Washington Tragedy, How the Death of Vincent Foster Ignited a
Political Firestorm," the meeting took place at Cardozo's home and there
is no mention of Landow's presence.
Kenneth Starr, in his report on his "exhaustive" 3-year "investigation"
avoids the problem by making no mention of Vince's last weekend, telling
us only that wife Lisa said Vince cried when talking to her on Friday
night.
--
DC Dave newsgroup: alt.thebird
column: http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Senate/2932/index.html
poetry: http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Senate/2932/poetry.html