Busy morning...
This morning we launched a petition campaign to call on Speaker Hastert to appoint a special counsel to investigate Tom DeLay. In America, you can't buy a jury. It's illegal. But DeLay, though his PAC, has given money to 225 or the 232 GOP members. We can't get an impartial ethics committee from that jury pool. Congress can't police itself.
We also faxed letters to Reps. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) and Bennie Thompson (D-MS) to ask them to answer allegations that appeared in a number of news outlets regarding travel they took to the Northern Mariana Islands with Jack Abramoff. We'll let you know of any response we get.
We're also preparing for a protest in the district of Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH). Ney hasn't replied to the letter we put together with other organizations to ask him a series of questions about the WaPo story on Sunday regarding the purchase and sale of SunCruz Casinos in Florida. Here's the who, what, when, where, and why... if you're in the area come on down!
And a copy of the letter is here.
Meghan will have a news round up soon...
We also faxed letters to Reps. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) and Bennie Thompson (D-MS) to ask them to answer allegations that appeared in a number of news outlets regarding travel they took to the Northern Mariana Islands with Jack Abramoff. We'll let you know of any response we get.
We're also preparing for a protest in the district of Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH). Ney hasn't replied to the letter we put together with other organizations to ask him a series of questions about the WaPo story on Sunday regarding the purchase and sale of SunCruz Casinos in Florida. Here's the who, what, when, where, and why... if you're in the area come on down!
Who: Constituents of U.S. Representative Bob Ney
What: Press Conference in front of Rep. Ney’s district office in Zanesville, OH
When: 12:00 noon, Friday, May 6th
Where: Masonic Temple Building, 38 North, 4th St., Zanesville
Why: Rep. Ney used his position in the House of Representatives to involve himself in a business deal regarding the sale of a Florida cruise line, SunCruz Casinos, that has little or nothing do with the interests of his constituents or Ohioans.
Individuals involved in the purchase and sale of SunCruz Casino are under federal investigation for allegations including mob influence, and one former owner was murdered.
Ohio Citizen Action, Public Campaign Action Fund, American Family Voices, and Campaign for America’s Future sent letters to Rep. Ney to ask him to answer specific questions regarding this matter after media reports earlier in the week, but have not received any reply.
And a copy of the letter is here.
Meghan will have a news round up soon...
posted by David Donnelly at
12:30 PM
4 Comments:
From author of Cigar City Mafia Scott M. Deitche
"EVERYONE EARNS"
"There's always been cooperation between the families. Everyone earns,'' said another law enforcement source who declined to be named.
Blood is occasionally shed. This month's indictment made reference to three October 1995 murders in Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton that have never been solved officially.
Gus Boulis, the flamboyant, combative self-made Greek multimillionaire, was murdered in February 2001 in an orchestrated shooting with all the trappings of a messy mob-style hit. Boulis was driving from his Fort Lauderdale office when one car stopped short, cutting him off. Another car pulled alongside, and the driver emptied a semiautomatic into the founder of Miami Subs and SunCruz Casinos.
Boulis supporters immediately started pointing fingers at Adam Kidan, the disbarred New York lawyer who had bought the floating casinos four months earlier for $147.5 million. Kidan's financing was shaky, and the deal had quickly imploded into lawsuits and fisticuffs.
ODD FOOTNOTE
After the murder, Boulis estate lawyers discovered that Kidan had paid $145,000 to Anthony Moscatiello, a childhood friend of the John Gotti family, as a food and beverage consultant to SunCruz. In an odd footnote, Kidan's mother, Judith Shemtov, had been murdered in 1993 in Staten Island in a mob-connected home invasion gone awry. The getaway driver: former South Beach club impresario-turned-informant Chris Paciello.
The Boulis murder case remains unsolved."
http://www.geocities.com/scottyyz/news.html
Think some need to understand that Legal Hostile Takeover of SunCruz was not the first Hostile Takeover Attempt.
Got to ask question why Gus was enraged to point of stabbing Kidan with a pen.
First order of business for Kidan was to write some checks and buy a big ole speedboat.
Gus was probably trying to keep rats off ship for some time when Kidan left them come in front door.
By
Anonymous, at 5:36 AM
Some of you may ask how deep does this go ? Refer you to this link on The Defense Monitor published by Center for Defense Information by Michael Stohl of Purude University:
http://www.cdi.org/dm/2001/issue8/dm8-2001.pdf
Immediate Challenges for U.S. Policy Toward Failed States
Compiled by Matthew Lewis, Research Assistant
5 Plan Colombia, A Closer Look, from Colombia Report website: http://www.colombiareport.org/plancolombia.htm
6 San Francisco Chronicle, http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/
chronicle/archive/2001/08/12/MN216965.DTL
7 Ibid.
COLOMBIA
The stakes: Drug trafficking by resistance groups replaces
historical issues of agrarian reform, unequal
distribution of wealth and social injustice; U.S. efforts
to eliminate the principal global supplier of
drugs and internationalize the war on drugs; the
threat of an expanding regional war.
Warring Parties:
1 Colombian government and paramilitaries
with assistance from U.S. “Plan Colombia”
2 Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
(FARC)
3 Army of National Liberation (ELN)
4 Various other right-wing paramilitary groups
Victim numbers and who: Estimated 40,000 dead in
the fighting since mid-1980s. 1.9 million displaced
persons5, 700,000 of which are children, thousands
of kidnap victims whose ransoms fund the ongoing
conflict.
Costs:
• Plan Colombia costs $7.5 billion overall, the
Colombian government is scheduled to pay $4
billion, the U.S. $1.3 billion. The remaining $2.2
billion is supposed to come from international
donors. Of the $1.3 billion in U.S. aid, 80% goes
to military and police.
• The Andean Regional Initiative (ARI) costs the
U.S. $1 billion this year
• Undetermined environmental damage from
spraying to destroy crops
• Unemployment rate 22%
• Millions lost in oil development due to terrorist
activities
• Proliferation of thousands of landmines
throughout the country6
• Widespread violence and conflict
Years of conflict: Civil conflict since 1964.7
And
http://www.fas.org/irp/crs/RL32223.pdf
"Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)
Name(s). Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)
Goals and Objectives. FARC’s goal is to establish a Marxist state in
Colombia. On its website, the groups says it aims “to overcome the great economic,
social, cultural, ethnic and political inequalities” in Colombia.389
Brief History. FARC was established in 1964 after a particularly bloody period
in Colombia’s history known as La Violencia (1948-1958).390 The violence ended
in 1958 with a reconciliation between key parties in the government. Meanwhile,
landless rebels banded together under FARC, which was formally established as the
military wing of the Colombian Communist Party. FARC has emerged to be what
the State Department describes as Colombia’s “oldest, largest, most-capable, and
best-equipped Marxist insurgency.”391 It has targeted both Colombian and foreign
interests (including U.S.), as well as military and civilian targets.
FARC’s original leader, Manuel “Tirofijo” Marulando, still controls the group,
and has in the past agreed to negotiate cease-fire terms with the Colombian
government. In 1999, these negotiations led President Andres Pastrana to grant
FARC autonomy over a Switzerland-size zone in southern Colombia. Experts say
that FARC engaged in illicit behavior, including kidnapping, extortion, and drug
operations, and that this behavior proliferated in the autonomous area. In 2001, the
FARC killed 197 civilians.392 President Pastrana called off peace talks with FARC
in February 2002, after the group failed to cease attacks. The president ordered
Colombian armed forces to reclaim the FARC-controlled area. Peace talks between
FARC and the government have not progressed since the last failed attempt in 2002.
Favored Tactics. FARC practices a variety of tactics, including bombings,
kidnappings, hijackings, and mortar attacks.393
Anti-American Activities. FARC has been known to target U.S. citizens.
Experts say that since 1980, FARC (together with the National Liberation Army
(ELN)) has kidnapped more than 100 Americans, 13 of whom have been killed. As
recently as February 2003, FARC rebels claimed to have shot down a U.S. plane
carrying four Pentagon contractors and a Colombian on an anti-drug operation. The
rebels kidnapped three of the Americans and executed the fourth after their plane..."
Americans should be appalled that Congressmen, Senators and Lobbyists aided Terrorists and Drug Traffickers.
By
Anonymous, at 7:00 AM
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By
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By
Joshy, at 4:04 AM
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