Bad Deeds for 5-19-2009

Former Democratic Fund-Raiser Guilty of Campaign Fraud – A former Democratic fund-raiser who contributed to the presidential campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama has been convicted in federal court on four counts of campaign fraud — one for each year from 2004 to 2007. Lev Dassin, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said that Hsu not only swindled investors out of at least $20 million but, according to the indictment, also told some investors to make campaign contributions to the candidates he supported, and suggested that their investments could be jeopardized if they didn’t do as he asked.
He “also asked victims to contribute to specific candidates for federal office, and then directly reimbursed the victims for their contributions from his fraud proceeds, in violation of federal campaign finance laws,” the indictment said.

When Hsu’s activities came to light, the campaigns of Obama and Clinton — as well as others — either returned his donations or gave them to charity.

 

More Errors in CIA Records of Briefings – Congressman David Obey (D-WI) has become the latest lawmaker to highlight erroneous information in CIA records. Rep. Obey sent the following letter to CIA Director Leon Panetta on Tuesday:

Dear Director Panetta:

In light of current controversy about CIA briefing practices, I was surprised to learn that the agency erroneously listed an appropriations staffer as being in a key briefing on September 19, 2006, when in fact he was not. The list the agency released entitled “Member Briefings on Enhanced Interrogation Techniques (EITs)”, shows that House Appropriations Committee defense appropriations staffer Paul Juola was in that briefing on that date. In fact, Mr. Juola recollects that he walked members to the briefing room, met General Hayden and Mr.Walker, who were the briefers, and was told that he could not attend the briefing. We request that you immediately correct this record.

Sincerely,
David R. Obey

 

Newt Gingrich Makes False Accusations About Uighurs – Chinese Muslims known as Uighurs, have been detained for more than six years at the American prison at Guantanamo Bay. The Uighurs were picked up by bounty hunters in Afghanistan who sold them to the U.S. military.

Newt Gingrich stated in an op-ed, that ‘[b]y their own admission, Uighurs being held at Guantanamo Bay are members of or associated with the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), an al Qaeda-affiliated group designated as a terrorist organization under U.S law.”

No, they have never admitted that, says Abbas, adding that the Uighurs call the claim “baseless, factless slander against them.” Abbas returned from Guantanamo Monday. She now works with the Uighurs’ defense attorneys.

“Why does he hate us so much and say those kinds of things? He doesn’t know us. He should talk to our attorneys if he’s curious about our background,” Abbas relates. “How could he speak in such major media with nothing based in fact? They were very disappointed how Newt Gingrich was linking them to ETIM which they never even heard of the name ETIM until they came to Guantanamo Bay.”

Regards,

Jim