Huffington Post: McCain and his committee "sat on the controversial portion" of email linking Jack Abramoff to Alabama Governor
The Huffington Post has obtained evidence that indicates John McCain may have withheld information about Jack Abramoff's dealings with Alabama Governor Bob Riley:
A little-known document, however, shows that McCain may have taken steps to protect his Republican colleagues from the scope of his investigation.
In the 2006 Senate report concerning Abramoff's activities, which McCain spearheaded, the Arizona Republican conspicuously left out information detailing how Alabama Gov. Bob Riley was targeted by Abramoff's influence peddling scheme. Riley, a Republican, won election in November 2002, and was reelected in 2006.
In a December 2002 email obtained by the Huffington Post -- which McCain and his staff had access to prior to the issuance of his report -- Abramoff explains to an aide what he would like to see Riley do in return for the "help" he received from Abramoff's tribal clients.
An official with the Mississippi Choctaws "definitely wants Riley to shut down the Poarch Creek operation," Abramoff wrote, "including his announcing that anyone caught gambling there can't qualify for a state contract or something like that."
The note showed not only the reach of Abramoff, but raised questions about Riley's victory in what was the closest gubernatorial election in Alabama history.
CREW's Melanie Sloan had this perspective on the reality of McCain's actions when it came to Abramoff:
"Although Sen. McCain has long bragged of his role in the Abramoff investigation, he let Tom DeLay and the other members of Congress who were doing Abramoff's bidding completely off the hook. The sole exception was Rep. Bob Ney, who served time in prison," Melanie Sloan, Executive Director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics In Washington told the Huffington Post recently. "Sen. McCain knew what his colleagues were up to, he chose to take the easier path and give them a free pass."
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McCain didn't give free pass; respecting US DOJ's investigations
A main reason why McCain wasn't getting along with his Republican contemporaries for many years was his varied opinion on Vladmir Putin. Throughout the Cunningham and Abramoff probes Russia repeatedly has arisen, and is a common thread between the two corruption probes. Ney is in jail in part because of the chips he was given at a London casino by Russian biz execs who made sure he twice left the casino with the exact amount of money he owed on his credit cards. The mob and gaming and wagering have been tied for the latter part of a century!
One major reason why Putin has been acting-out since last spring re our missile defense system, his repeated threats of nukes and bombs as bad but w/o the nuclear fallout to defend Russia's sovereignty, and his continual invasion of democracies' airspace with his Martin Mariette bombers is because he doesn't want the former # 3 at CIA to be tried and it come-out that Foggo was a 911 insider with Putin and hence, working for Putin.
No candidate is perfect and we always go to the polls to vote for the better of evils. It is important to point-out that McCain's investigation impeded on US DOJ's that is far broader than the focus McCain had. US DOJ's investigation is very much still underway, and many of McCain and US DOJ's findings must remain secret to prevent the destruction of evidence before a grand jury can be provided it. Melanie Sloan needs to remember that CREW just wrote to the House to object to the Legal Counsel's abuse of the Speech and Debate clause to protect crooks such as Doolittle. I know for a fact McCain always was right about Russia! Putin is a former KGB officer and he's a mob boss! His crime gang backed 911 and has a majority interest in our publicly traded defense suppliers. They voted-in Board of Directors of their choosing, and the Board of Directors installed more people like themselves with a sworn loyalty to Vladmir Putin.
Each time the US or its allies are attacked, the mafia bribes who they need to have illegal no-bid contracts awarded to address the elevated threat we again perceive. Hence, with each new attack the Russian mafia--comprised of many FSS (former KGB) and MVD (Russian military intelligence) officials orchestrate, they device a financial incentive from dividend income earned from defense supplier investments, to attack us more.
McCain is no idiot and he has made sure that his stand toward Putin remains known...
2008:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080215/pl_nm/usa_russia_mccain_dc
http://wonkette.com/348138/
2007:
http://www.theotherrussia.org/2007/05/30/john-mccain-on-putins-russia/
2006:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12121191/from/RSS/
2005:
http://www.friendsofmccain.com/news/dspnews.cfm?id=224
2004:
http://www.cdi.org/Russia/324-1.cfm
2003:
http://rpc.senate.gov/_files/McCain110403statement.pdf
The 2003 speech is most important, because everything in McCain's gut that was wrong is proving to be true! Also, it is to emerge that McCain was the one member of Congress who really couldn't be bought by Putin operatives' (includes Lockheed Martin) money! His 2003 speech shows how long McCain refused to be bought!
The corruption write-ups on DeLay over and over again discussed meetings with Russians in the US, in the UK and in Russia. McCain knows US DOJ is investigating this and that he can't disclose what he knows because he can't impede on US DOJ's investigations. McCain did not give DeLay and others a free pass! He has respected that we have a third branch: the Judiciary and is letting the Judiciary do its work w/o his interference!