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The Book on Ben-Veniste (a few timely facts about him)
NewsMax ^ | Thursday, Apr. 08, 2004

Posted on 04/08/2004 8:00:19 PM PDT by Cedar

The Book on Ben-Veniste

9/11 Commissioner Richard Ben-Veniste, who grilled Condoleezza Rice on Thursday as if she were a criminal suspect, is usually identified in press reports as merely a former Watergate prosecutor.

But as the leading finger-pointer in the 9/11 probe, a few other details in Ben-Veniste's background might be deemed relevant.

The Washington super-lawyer's last high-profile roll came in 1995-96, when he served as lead Democratic counsel for the Senate Whitewater hearings. His chief mission: Defending Bill and Hillary Clinton for all he was worth.

A review of press reports from the period shows that he'd been auditioning for the job since at least 1993, when he stepped up to the plate to assure reporters that there was nothing untoward about the Clintons dispatching White House counsel Bernard Nussbaum and other top aides to rifle Whitewater lawyer Vince Foster's office on the night of his death.

"Novelists aside and skeptical Washington journalists aside, I don't hear anything involved in this tragedy that leads me to suspect either Bernie Nussbaum, who himself has an impeccable reputation, or anybody else associated with the White House has done anything that is not on the up-and-up," Ben-Veniste told the Associated Press at the time.

The next year, when Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr was appointed to look into Whitewater, Dr. Rice's griller was troubled, telling CBS News that the move would "inevitably . . . create an impression that this decision was in part politically motivated."

Of course, Nussbaum, Ben-Veniste and Hillary Clinton were by then already old friends, having worked shoulder-to-shoulder on the Watergate committee two decades earlier.

When the Clintons' fundraiser extraordinaire Terry McAuliffe got into legal hot water in the campaign finance scandal of 1997, Ben-Veniste was readly to take his case.

Speaking of the allegations that swirled around his client at the time, Ben-Veniste told the Legal Times that McAuliffe "has been advised that he is not a target of any investigation. And on the basis of what I know about the matter . . . the conclusion will be that there's nothing there."

The Clinton Justice Department decided that Ben-Veniste was right and McAuliffe was off the hook. Three years later, the Clintons installed Ben-Veniste's client as head of the DNC.

The Democratic legal ace's most unusual case by far, however, didn't take place in Washington - but instead in Arkansas.

Ben-Veniste's client, a flamboyant pilot named Adler Berriman "Barry" Seal, was said to have flown guns out of Arkansas' Mena airport at the CIA's direction. On the return trip his plane was allegedly loaded with cocaine.

Still, the high powered lawyering didn't do much to protect Seal. Ben-Veniste's client was assassinated in 1986 after he began cooperating with a federal probe into the Mena drug ring that flourished while Bill Clinton was governor of the state.


TOPICS: Extended News; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 911commission; barryseal; benveniste; clintonistas; condoleezzarice; mena; ricetestimony; terrymcauliffe; watergate; whitewater
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1 posted on 04/08/2004 8:00:21 PM PDT by Cedar
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To: Cedar
Check out post 1067!

More interesting information.

2 posted on 04/08/2004 8:09:23 PM PDT by hoosiermama (prayers for all)
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To: All


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3 posted on 04/08/2004 8:10:09 PM PDT by Support Free Republic (Freepers post from sun to sun, but a fundraiser bot's work is never done.)
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To: Cedar
How in the world did this guy get on any commission that is suppossed to be a search for the truth?
4 posted on 04/08/2004 8:16:01 PM PDT by dix (Remember the Alamo, and God bless Texas)
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To: Cedar
Richard Ben-Veniste, then, might not have entirely clean hands in a number of enterprises. His associations alone make him suspect. He comes across as rude, not just rude but behaving that way as a tactic to cover up his relative incompetence. His tactic is to talk over any point that may be damaging to his case, intending to bully the other person into submission.

Sometimes it works. Often enough, apparently, so that he employs it frequently. It certainly works with the other members of the commission. They have been pretty much bulldozed. It had to stick in his craw when Dr. Rice would not submit to his bully tactics.

Ben-Veniste is not a credit to his race.
5 posted on 04/08/2004 8:21:42 PM PDT by alloysteel
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To: Cedar
One missing item in this summary is the identity of the substance that he uses to grease his face. I've never seen anyone look so consistently slimey.
6 posted on 04/08/2004 8:22:06 PM PDT by per loin (This tagline has not been censored!)
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To: dix
It (the DNC) is still sinkEmperor's party. Make no mistake in that regard, howeverfluffy may be Kerry's (and Kerrey's) theater.
7 posted on 04/08/2004 8:22:41 PM PDT by MHGinTN (If you can read this, you've had life support from someone. Promote life support for others.)
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To: Cedar
"client was assasinated"

Wouldn't a lawyer know where his client was at all times? What did he know, wehn did he know, who did he tell and how much did he get for telling? This guy is a slime. Maybe someone should write a book based on that background.
8 posted on 04/08/2004 8:26:37 PM PDT by freeangel (freeangel)
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To: Cedar
He's been a hatchetman for the 'rats since Watergate - 'nuff said....
9 posted on 04/08/2004 8:28:50 PM PDT by Intolerant in NJ
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To: Cedar
This man is so vile that new words need to be invented and added to the Webster's to describe him.
10 posted on 04/08/2004 8:30:18 PM PDT by ladyinred (Anger the left! Become a MONTHLY DONOR to FreeRepublic.com)
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To: ladyinred
Ben-Veniste make Mark Geragos look respectable. Nuff said.

Pinz
11 posted on 04/08/2004 8:34:04 PM PDT by pinz-n-needlez
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To: ladyinred
After reading the information on line tonight, it makes me wonder if his attack of Condi today was an attempt to point the finger away from himself.....(You know good offense negates the need for defense)
12 posted on 04/08/2004 8:34:22 PM PDT by hoosiermama (prayers for all)
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To: per loin; All
What everyone in the media is overlooking is that this commission is intended as a fact-finding body to determine how 9/11 came about and to make recommendations for change to prevent future attacks.

So, charged with this solemn duty, it made no sense for Ben-Veniste to employ prosecutor style tactics in questioning Dr. Rice. He didn't want to draw out information; he wanted to elicit specific answers to carefully crafted questions to produce a particular result, namely to place blame on Rice/Bush for 9/11.

In other words, Ben-Veniste conducted himself as if he was prosecuting a criminal case against Dr. Rice for 9/11.

SHAMEFUL!!
13 posted on 04/08/2004 8:35:20 PM PDT by Spotsy (Bush-Cheney '04)
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To: per loin
slimey indeed.

Trajan88
14 posted on 04/08/2004 8:36:23 PM PDT by Trajan88 (www.bullittclub.com)
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To: Cedar
It is a shame that the commission is being used in a political manner to damage the Bush administration instead of trying to find out what went on during this period.

15 posted on 04/08/2004 8:37:36 PM PDT by TheLion
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To: per loin
One missing item in this summary is the identity of the substance that he uses to grease his face.

Oil of Ben-Venasty. An old family recipe.

16 posted on 04/08/2004 8:38:23 PM PDT by auboy (The 9-11 Commission ain't worth a bucket of warm spit. Make that half a bucket.)
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To: Mrs Zip
ping
17 posted on 04/08/2004 8:50:59 PM PDT by zip (Monthly donations are the easiest way to say Thanks for FR)
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To: Cedar
Liberal spouse has on CNN. It is the Larry King show. Sickening though it is, I could not help but catch some of it. The gentleman himself is going to be on at various times. A great deal has be said- and rightly, about those who put politics and partisan gain before country.

What I would like to say though is about one Diane Feinstein (Senator). She is on old Larry's show. Fortunately I am able to directly quote King from many years ago. "I am a liberal democrat and we want to get rid of them". He meant republicans.

Now to the lady herself- DF. She virtually said she sort of knew something terrible was going to happen, along with "many". This before 911.

Move over Sylvia Brown- Di is here.

18 posted on 04/08/2004 9:19:38 PM PDT by Peter Libra
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To: Cedar
He was so caught up with the thrill of harrassing Dr. Rice that he forgot his own questions as soon as they left his mouth. I have no problem with asking tough questions. I have a problem with someone using the commission for his own political gain.
19 posted on 04/08/2004 9:20:50 PM PDT by Kirkwood
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To: Cedar
We were just discussing Ben-Veniste's background over on this thread, starting in Post #46:

Richard Clarke's Pentagon Papers/VVAW Connection

One thing that was pointed out was Ben-Veniste's connection to mob-connected figure Nathan Landow:

DOWNSIDE LEGACY AT TWO DEGREES OF PRESIDENT CLINTON SECTION: SECRET POLICE SUBSECTION: ALL

The Washington Weekly (http://www.federal.com) 5/4/98 "……. So successful was this formula, that in 1992 Bill Clinton used it to reach the highest office, the office of the U.S. Presidency. In return for large campaign donations, the crime families would be represented in the Clinton administration. The New York Mob paid $56 million [1] and won the slot of Deputy Chief of Staff for its lawyer Harold Ickes. The Dixie Mafia paid an undisclosed amount and obtained slots for Patsy Thomasson and Buddy Young. The Chicago political machine sent Rahm Emanuel and David Wilhelm. Harold Ickes proved his value to the Mob when he held his hand over Mob puppets Arthur Coia and Ron Carey who were under separate RICO investigations by the Justice Department. Patsy Thomasson, in charge of White House drug testing policy, saw to it that criminal figures on the White House staff would not be bothered about past and current drug use. ……… Peripheral Mob figures Nathan Landow, Richard Ben-Veniste, and their associates Terry Lenzner and Paul Begala became part of the secret police that would keep Clinton in office despite multiple revelations of criminal offenses. Ironically, the only member of the Clinton enforcement team who has threatened the use of Mafia methods in public is James Carville. He said on television that Kenneth Starr was just one mistake away from not having any kneecaps. "Kneecapping" is a Mafia specialty. Yet the only link between Carville and the Mafia that we have been able to find so far is his partnership with Paul Begala, who admitted in a recent deposition for the Filegate trial that he was in close and frequent contact with his friend Richard Ben-Veniste, a Mob lawyer and friend of Mobster Alvin Malnik [2]. Richard Ben- Veniste has defended several drug traffickers and money launderers for the Mafia and for the DNC. Ben-Veniste also defended Bill Clinton on the Senate Whitewater panel in 1995. ........."

Getting Down to Business With Landow

After Carter's victory, Landow's daughter, Harolyn, got a job at the White House, and top presidential aide Hamilton Jordan started hanging out at the Landows' Eastern Shore vacation house. For a while, it looked as if Carter might appoint Landow as ambassador to the Netherlands. But in 1978, The Washington Post printed a front-page story revealing that Landow had hired Joe Nesline, a Washington illegal-gambling kingpin, as a consultant in an unsuccessful effort to build a casino in Atlantic City. At the time, Landow admitted that Nesline was a friend but denied knowing about his friend's criminal past. Now Landow says, "There were a lot of inaccuracies in that article."

DOWNSIDE LEGACY AT TWO DEGREES OF PRESIDENT CLINTON SECTION: BEHIND THE OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE ALLEGATIONS SUBSECTION: THE CAST: Nathan Landow

Involved in a proposed hotel/casino project with Joe Nesline, Edward Cellini and a Miami representative of the Gambino organized crime family Anthony Plat

Photograph of The Tidewater Inn

See Wash. Post, January 26, 1978: DC Gambling Kingpin is

Linked to Prominent Investors' Casino Deal, January 26, 1978: Two prominent Washington investors [Nathan Landow and Smith Bagley] with connections to the Carter administration were involved in a proposal to build a hotel and gambling casino in Atlantic City, with Washington gambling kingpin Joe Nesline as a consultant. Nesline's involvement with the casino venture became known Jan 14 when federal and local police raided Nesline's Bethesda apartment... FBI agents seized a file containing and memoranda spelling out a proposed $85 million deal involving Bagley and Landow... [It] was not the only gambling venture in which Nesline had been involved with Landow... Involved in the St. Marten venture were Landow and Edward Cellini, a brother of Dino Cellini, a former associate of organized crime figure Meyer Lansky... In November... [t]he party at [the] Landow home was observed by Montgomery County plainclothesmen, who took down license plate numbers of guests' cars. Officers of the county's organized crime section have had Landow under surveillance for nearly a year. They learned from Florida police that Landow had an interest in a now defunct corporation whose concealed owners allegedly included an identified member of the Carlo Gambino Mafia "family." Secret Service agents who were at the party to protect the president's son, questioned the Montgomery County plainclothesmen who explained their interest in Landow. *** Landow said the meeting actually took place in the hallway outside the Senate Appropriations Committee chamber... [T]he committee's chairman [was] the late Sen. John L. McClellan... *** [The] business involvement of Landow that originally attracted the attention of Montgomery County's organized crime unit was an investment in Quaker Masonry... Florida law enforcement authorities reported to other police agencies in October of 1973 that Anthony Plate known to them to be an associate of the Gambinos, was believed to have a 25 percent interest in Quaker.

20 posted on 04/08/2004 9:41:07 PM PDT by Fedora
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