Fifth Congressional staffer pleads guilty to Abramoff-related crimes
Mark Zachares, who worked for Rep. Don Young (R-AK), became the eleventh person -- and fifth Congressional staffer -- to plead guilty to Abramoff-related criminal charges:
A former congressional aide pleaded guilty Tuesday to accepting tens of thousands of dollars in gifts from lobbyist Jack Abramoff in an influence-peddling scandal that has touched the White House, Interior Department and congressional Republicans.
Mark Zachares was the 11th person to be convicted in the Justice Department probe.
Zachares admitted engaging in official acts on Abramoff's behalf while working for Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, who chaired the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
Abramoff assisted Zachares in obtaining his committee post. Zachares left Young's staff in 2005. Young's office did not return repeated phone calls seeking comment Monday and Tuesday.
"Guilty, your honor," Zachares told U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle who asked what plea he would enter to a single count of conspiracy. He faces a maximum of five years in prison, but under federal sentencing guidelines will probably face two years or less.
everything you ever did or said
Reading this chills me. Unless this sort of horror is legislated away, there will be a data bank on every person in this country containing the most intimate details of our lives. Friends of the Bush Family and their sucessors will have access to this to use against whomever they please however they please.
Who understands? Of all that we have been hearing, this is the worst.
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Selection of ID credentialing stds have been done by convicts!
Felon/Convict David Safavian selected the federal worker ID (HSPD-12) credentialing standard to be a biometric smart card just months before his arrest. Previously he selected the biometric smart card to be the Transportation Worker Identification Credential standard while he committed official acts for Jack Abramoff as GSA Chief of Staff. While at GSA Safavian had contractors with superior credentialing platforms banned from federal procurement because of their monopoly-power, which not just is illegal according to FAR, but total bull since being an inventor of a standard doesn't mean a company will monopolize the marketplace.
Felon/Convict Mark Zachares selected the biometric smart card to be the maritime/port worker ID credential. In all three identification credentialing programs, felons Safavian and Zachares wouldn't permit superior (secure and privacy respecting) credentials to be considered and Zachares was so bad that by 2003 and 2004 he made the program manager/team chief's contact information for the port worker ID program exempt from FOIA to any contractor with a superior platform to that of the biometric smart card!
In that convicts were behind the setting of the credentialing standard for the federal worker, TWIC and Maritime ID identification credentialing programs, it is time for Congress to undo the racketeering of Zachares and Safavian and open consideration and competition to far better identification credentialing platforms! It is unconscionable that billions of taxpayer dollars are being spent on fixed contracts of a privacy-invading platform--a standard that was outright fixed...that isn't even working, and that Congress hasn't made moves to stop it!