He (Livingston) is charging $1.2m - He's charging Turkey - and this is not the government of Turkish Republic, this is ummm... who are these people who are paying him $1.2m per year? to do what? that is the question.he's charging Turkey, but not the government? is she talking about the ATC? the Turkish military? the embassy?
my guess is still the embassy - not least because we know for a fact that the embassy is the actual registered client - but let's look again at the VF article:
“Then (Douglas Dickerson) pointed at Sibel and said, ‘All you have to do is tell them who you work for and what you do and you will get in very quickly.’” Matthew could see that his wife was far from comfortable: “She tried to change the conversation to the weather and such-like.” But the Dickersons, says Matthew, steered it back to what they called their “network of high-level friends.” Some, they said, worked at the Turkish Embassy in Washington."and
"Sibel also recalled hearing wiretaps indicating that Turkish Embassy targets frequently spoke to staff members at the A.T.C., one of the organizations that Turkish Embassy targets frequently spoke to staff members at the A.T.C."and
"In her secure testimony, Edmonds disclosed some of what she recalled hearing. In all, says a source who was present, she managed to listen to more than 40 of the Chicago recordings supplied by Robertz. Many involved an F.B.I. target at the city’s large Turkish Consulate, as well as members of the American-Turkish Consulate, as well as members of the American-Turkish Council and the Assembly of Turkish American Associates. "and
"At the time, (haster) explained his decision by saying that he had received a letter from President Clinton arguing that the genocide resolution, if passed, would harm U.S. interests. Again, the reported content of the Chicago wiretaps may well have been sheer bravado, and there is no evidence that any payment was ever made to Hastert or his campaign. Nevertheless, a senior official at the Turkish Consulate is said to have claimed in one recording that the price for Hastert to withdraw the resolution would have been at least $500,000. "i'm pretty sure that's what is going on. The embassy is shovelling money at Livingston, which then gets slush-funded back into the GOP machine.
criminals, all.
1 comment:
I'll take it one step further and call it narcotics money laundering.
As, I was reading that Public Citizen report on Livington's shop, I wrote in the margin narcotics $ --> lobbyists (eg Livingston) --> campaign committees and PACs (Republican).
Look at the list of contributions by Livingston and his PACs. All of them Republicans. Not a gosh darn Dem on the list, even though he employs at least one dem in his firm (Lari Fitz-Pegado), and one of his principals is former congressman Toby Moffett, a democrat.
Now, of course, the contributions are in line with the K street project, even if some of his employees aren't Repugs. Also notice that according to that report he received $1.8 million p.a. _regardless_ of any lobbying services performed from the Republic/Embassy of Turkey. I can't find any record of him lobbying for Turkish interests in 2000-2002, seems like the first thing is his fight over the $1 bil and the Armenian resolution. (and I know Sibel has said it's only $1.2 mil, I'm not sure of why there's a discrepancy)
But my point is that the Turkish gov't must be his only client that pays the same high amount year after year. Look at the appendix and notice that few, if any, of his clients consistently pay the same amount each year (Oracle is probably the only exception).
So what do YOU think is going on? The Turkish embassy/ATC must be laundering money into the GOP coffers through intermediaries like Livingston. Look at the big winners from Livingston's PAC's largesse from 2000-2004: mostly House Leadership, a few senators, and a few louisiana reps, and of course the RNC, the Republican congressional and senate committees, and the preznit's campaign.
He also gave quite a few small donations to individual campaigns (probably those strapped for cash), several of which were unsuccessful. And, he also gave quite a bit to those congresscritters he lobbied on behalf of Turkish interests (e.g. Geogre Nethercutt of WA, Bill Young of FL, Dave Hobson of OH, Jim Kolbe of AZ).
When you also put it together with the fact that the Armenian Resolution vote was never really in doubt anyway, he's just another Jack Abramoff in my book, albeit on a smaller scale.
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