Part III: DeLay's Godfather
Belief:
Jesus Hated War -- Why Do Christians Love It So Much?
Gary G. Kohls
Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace:
Wall Street's 10 Greatest Lies of 2009
Nomi Prins
DrugReporter:
We Can't Let Politics Keep Trumping Science on Drug Policy
Beth Schwartzapfel
Environment:
A New Outside-the-Beltway Climate Bill Deserves Support; Why Won't Enviros Get Behind It?
David Morris
Food:
The Year in Food: The Biggest Edible News of '09 and Predictions for 2010
Ari LeVaux
Health and Wellness:
How Real Health Reform Was Killed by Politicians Trying to Look 'Moderate'
James Ridgeway
Immigration:
Greyhound Lines Inc. Accused of Racial Profiling
Seth Hoy
Media and Technology:
Moyers, Moore and Maddow are the Most Influential Progressives
Don Hazen
Movie Mix:
James Cameron's Wizardry in 'Avatar' Movie Demands Being Witnessed on the Big Screen
Wajahat Ali
Politics:
Can We Rescue the Republic Before the Dark Politics Take Over?
Kirk Nielsen
Reproductive Justice and Gender:
Men: Invisible Allies in the Struggle for Choice
Claire Keyes
Rights and Liberties:
Nigerian Man Attempted to Blow Up US Airliner
Sex and Relationships:
Why Aren't There Sleazy Sex Scandals Involving Powerful Women?
Sarah Seltzer
Take Action:
G-20 Meetings: Nothing Much Happened in the Suites, and There Was Too Much Punch in the Streets
Laura Flanders
Water:
NASA Report Highlights Need to Retire Drainage Impaired Land in California
Dan Bacher
World:
Israel Declares War on NGOs and Human Rights Groups
Jerrold Kessel, Pierre Klochendler
Read Part I: DeLay's Axis of Influence
Read Part II: DeLay's Judge Dread
Read Part IV: DeLay's Unregulated Pacific "Paradise"
If a person can be judged by his choice of friends, then Tom DeLay should face harsh judgment indeed. Probably no single DeLay insider is more controversial than the man who has been described as DeLay's financial godfather, attorney/lobbyist/fundraiser Jack Abramoff. When DeLay kicked off his political action committee, Americans for a Republican Majority (ARMPAC), Jack Abramoff pledged that he would raise "plenty" for the effort.
And when Jack says "plenty" he means just that. Abramoff routinely raises over $1 million a year for conservative members of Congress, donating up to $250,000 himself. Much of that money ends up in Tom DeLay's PACs. And the route that Abramoff took to become a conservative powerbroker is a strange one indeed.
Abramoff's conservatism stretches back to his college days, when he chaired the GOP's College Republicans in the 1980s. It was there that Abramoff, an orthodox Jew, bonded with evangelical Christian Ralph Reed, who would later go on to lead the Christian Coalition (and then to work for Enron).
Bwana Jack
In 1983, as the South African apartheid regime was fighting for its survival, Abramoff became chairman of the College Republican National Federation. The group passed a resolution condemning "deliberate planted propaganda by the KGB and Soviet proxy forces" against the South Africa regime. The resolution made no mention of apartheid.
The dawn of the 1990s found Abramoff in apartheid South Africa once again, this time producing an anti-communist thriller film, "Red Scorpion." The film depicted the South African army's fight against "pro-communist forces." The film was banned by the United Nations since it violated the UN's embargo on doing business with the racist South African regime.
Abramoff also helped direct the work of The International Freedom Foundation (IFF). The IFF presented itself as a conservative think tank whose stated goal was to "demonstrate the benefits of a parliamentary democracy and expose the failures of a people's democracy." But in explosive testimony before the South Africa Truth Commission, former South African intelligence officers revealed that the IFF was actually part of the apartheid regime's propaganda operations.
According to those who testified, the IFF served as an intelligence gathering and "political warfare" instrument of the government. They testified that the South African government funded the organization to the tune of $1.5 million through 1992 under the code name "Operation Babushka."
According to Newsday, which investigated the IFF and reported extensively on it in the wake of the Truth Commission hearings, "The project's broad objectives were to try to reverse the apartheid regime's pariah status in Western political circles. More specifically the IFF sought to portray the ANC as a tool of Soviet communism, thus undercutting the movement's growing international acceptance as the government-in-waiting of a future multi-racial South Africa."
It was reported that Abramoff attracted many other Washington conservatives to the IFF's cause, including Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN), Senator Jesse Helms, (R-GA), Rep. Phillip Crane (R-IL) and Rep. Robert Dornan (R-CA)
South African intelligence even voiced satisfaction with the work the IFF did. "They (IFF) were all very good, those guys," testified former South African police official Vic McPheerson, who ran security branch operations for the apartheid regime. "They were not just good in intelligence, but in political warfare."
According to McPheerson, the IFF earned up to half its funding doing "jobs" for South African intelligence. He said the intelligence agency sent their fee payments directly to IFF's Washington office. And while Abramoff's IFF focused on tarnishing the image of Nelson Mandella and the ANC, it also supported the Nicaraguan Contras, defended Ronald Reagan aide Oliver North, and sought a British government investigation of the charity Oxfam for the political support it gave the ANC.
All the US participants involved with the IFF, including Abramoff, deny any knowledge that South African intelligence had funded any of IFF's operations. The IFF disbanded in 1993 when South African president de Klerk pulled the funding for most of the government's clandestine operations.
In 1994, Abramoff had a new lobby-client in Africa: Zairian dictator Mobutu Sese Seko. Sese Seko was a corrupt despot whom the U.S. State Department had designated as one of Africa's "biggest obstacles to democracy."
DeLay and "Casino Jack"
When Republicans gained control of the House, more lucrative prospects opened up for Abramoff. As a member of the Washington lobbying firm Preston Gates Ellis & Touvelas Meeds LLP, Abramoff quickly built a clientele willing to pay big money for help with unpopular causes. Abramoff became a major force in promoting and protecting gambling on Indian reservations. He worked hand in glove with DeLay to successfully block every attempt by Congress to limit the spread of Indian gaming or to tax its exploding revenues.
Gambling proved a very lucrative beat. With American Indian tribes raking in over $10 billion a year in revenue from their combined gambling operations, there was plenty left over to spread around Washington. And who better to spread it than Tom DeLay's friend, Jack Abramoff?
The Choctaw tribe alone has paid Abramoff more than $10 million for his services. It was bargain. In June 2000, the House and Senate passed, without debate, a DeLay-supported bill that turned over thousands of additional acres of land to the tribe.
Historically, American Indians had been a Democratic constituency. Abramoff and DeLay saw an opportunity to change that. The two men were ideological and emotional twins. "You have to be willing to do whatever it takes to win," Abramoff told the Wall Street Journal. He was clearly Tom DeLay's kind of guy.
With DeLay's newfound support for all things Indian, Abramoff succeeded in moving tribe contributions to the Republican camp.
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