Dengre has a wonderful rec'd diary about just how far Abramoff shadow is casting. I'm reposting a diary I wrote in 2006 just as a complimentary piece to dengre's piece. It was about the conflict that was going between Lebanon and Israel. But there was something else going on behind the vail at the same time. Cheney was interferring with the Israeli political process, trying to get Netanyahu reelected. And using Abramoff to funneling money to questionable american charities, that pumped money into West Bank settlement.
Presumably, these charities could not operate the way they do without some tacit approval from Congress via lobbying by Abramoff and his special interest donors. And that's where I think my diary meets up with dengre's. The coffers of certain members of Congress were opened to Abramoff. And as always follow the money...
Over the flip is the repost (I was still in the learning process, in 2006, of when to post a diary if you want alot of eyes to see it; so I stupidly posted the original at ~ 10PM. I think it only recieved 4 comments)
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We have seen tons of diaries here at Kosania, expressing the dreams and nightmares on both sides of the aisle in this conflict. Their is also alot of overlapping too. Not all Israelis support Israel's move into Lebanon, and not all Lebanese support Hezbolla. In my opinion, Hezebolla was wrong for capturing those 2 Israeli soilders, however, Israel was wrong in it's overwhelming response just to rescue those 2 soldiers. Meanwhile, while we are all preoccupied, Darth Cheney has had a liason in Israel working with Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu and the neo-con Likud party, which "Bibi" is the head of, to regain their power in the Israeli parliament. Mind you, the Israeli people voted the ultra right-wing Likud party out, that's how Sharon became the head honcho.
But first some background leading us to this point.....
As with anything corrupt (and republican), the general motto is FOLLOW THE MONEY!!!
We will need to go all the way back to 1996 and visit David Wurmser, Cheney's Middle East adviser, that pillar of virtue, and integrity (NOT....he [Wurmser] was one of the main people pushing us into the war of Iraq, albeit he's not a public figure). Alot of us know about [ PNAC (Project for New American Cetury) ] and their declaration that America should obtain peace througout the world via American military might. But some of you may not have heard of a [ document ] called "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm", which Wurmser authored. This is Israel's equivalent to our ridiculous PNAC document. The document talks about how Israel can make a "clean break" from the way of diplomacy in the the Middle-East, and establish itself as a militarized world power in the region. The document talks about how to "pull" America in to support Israel's decisions -- no matter if they are in the interest of America. It expounds the notion of claiming self defense while "palenstinian profiling" -- essentially akin to racial profiling (ie. "you fit the description" tactic). Even striking Lebanon, Syria, and eventually Iran is in this document...
"...[If and When] Syria challenges Israel on Lebanese soil. An effective approach, and one with which American can sympathize, would be if Israel seized the strategic initiative along its northern borders by engaging Hizballah, Syria, and Iran, as the principal agents of aggression in Lebanon..."
(bold highlights, and underlining are from me)
And as recently as 2000, Wurmser helped write a strategy document published by Daniel Pipe's Middle East Forum and Ziad Abdelnour's U.S. Committee for a Free Lebanon that advocated a wider U.S. role in Lebanon. It criticized the United States for engaging rather than confronting the regime. Some co-signers of the document were Elliott Abrams, Douglas Feith, Michael Rubin, and Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky, Richard Perle (pushed the false "story" that an Iraq representative met with a member of al-Qaeda thus proving their was a connection between Iraq, and al-Qaeda), Jeane Kirkpatrick, Michael Ledeen (responsible for the forged Niger documents claiming that Iraq had purchased yellow cake uranium from Niger, which was disproven by Joe Wilson and by 2 separate visits by 2 different people previous to Joe's visit), and Frank Gaffney.
We have had reports, in the news today, about Syria saying it will not tolerate a prolong conflict in Lebanon. Syria wishes a cease-fire before this escalates to a war.
......tooooooo late!!!
Now, how does money fit into this. Well, all this is going to require money, and other resources. Money, and resources, that Israel could never generate on its own. And this gathering of resources needs to be done as quietly as possible as not arouse suspicion. In walks the American proxy -- Jack Abramoff.
Jack Abramoff is more important than you can ever imagine. He is the monetary foundation of the neoconservative movement (some say it was Grover Norquist, but he's more of a meter-maid directing donors money to these fake Abramoff created charities). Bob Ney, Tom Delay, Conrad Burns, and others were the congressional connection (polistitutes, if you will) needed to broker foreign deals with Israel. And the one pushing the "clean break" agenda now -- Dick Cheney. Cheney is doing everything possible to facilitate "regime change " in Israel. Netanyahu wants to be prime minister again and Jack Abramoff was the key to getting money from the US to Israel. As matter of fact Netanyahu is so close to Abramoff, that if Abromoff talks it will have repercussions not just here but in Israel as well. Abramoff plea deal threatens to bring down the international web of money-laundering fronts, tax-exempt charities, and no-bid contractors put together by Abramoff.
The first time we here of this connection between Netanyahu and Abramoff was in Newsweek when...
Michael Isikoff revealed on May 2, 2005 that one of Abramoff's tax-exempt charities, Capital Athletic Foundation, had funnelled $140,000 to a West Bank settlement, to finance the purchasing of security equipment, including camouflage suits, sniper scopes, night-vision binoculars, a thermal imager, and other material.
And where did the original money going to CAF come from............Indian Tribes. The same indian tribes Abramoff lied to, and stole money from (remember Ralph Reed and Choctaw indian tribe). However, CAF was not the only entity involved in this. Foxcom, an Israeli telecom startup company, contributed $50,000.
Foxcom received a $3-million contract to install wireless antenna systems at the U.S. Congress, in a deal pushed through by Abramoff crony Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Administration Committee. The Washington Post revealed on Oct. 18, 2005 that Foxcom had paid Abramoff $280,000 in lobbying fees around the time they got the Congressional contract.
And as a side note:
An American company, LGC Wireless, which had lost the bid to Foxcom, went to the FBI and charged that the bidding process had been rigged by Ney.
And people wonder why Cheney is seen as the dangerous. He's interferring in the elections of a foreign country. The republican party would shit all over themselves if Gore was working with Chavez, or if Putin was laundering money to American charities, or PACs that supported Socialism and/or electing candidates that are socialist.
There is a reason why people feel this an attempt to start wars with Iran and Syria, by proxy. And that this current Middle East Crisis was giving the green light from America because this is an election year. The old Iraq boogey man is no longer working, so a new boogey man is needed. Be prepared to here the right-wing centrifuge spin out phrases like "...Iraq was never the goal...it was Iran...", or "...are you anti-Semitic?" just because you don't blindly support every action of Israel
Reference documents [ 1, 2 ]
::ADDENDUM::
After this initial post I went on google and found some more reference material:
EIR Editorial
Independent Media Center
RawStory article
White House News Release (yes...the white house)
CounterPunch.com article
Think Progress article
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