Ecce, uh, homo.
Posted on 08/13/2004 1:03:45 PM PDT by Freedom of Speech Wins
page B6
In early 2002, when he was facing criticism for appointing an unknown Israeli citizen named Golan Cipel as his special assistant on homeland security without so much as a background check, Gov. James E. McGreevey was asked by a reporter about rumors that he and the man were involved in a sexual relationship.
Mr. McGreevey responded, "Don't be ridiculous!"
But yesterday, in a short announcement in which he said he would resign the governorship, he acknowledged that he was gay and had had an affair with a man. The man, his aides acknowledged, was Mr. Cipel, 35, who they added, had threatened a sexual harrasment suit naming the governor.
The details of their relationship and a clearer picture of Mr. Cipel, a published poet and formal naval officer, will emerge in the days ahead. But he occupied a significant position in New Jersey's effort against terrorism with questionable credentials for nearly three months and played a curious role in the McGreevey administration that provoked rumors about their relationship.
Throughout his eight months in the administration, Mr. Cipel remained publicly silent, avoiding the news media and never being asked by the governor to answer its questions.
Indeed, in a long list of appointments that have come back to haunt Mr. McGreevey, Golan Cipel's was the first. On Jan. 24, 2002, with great fanfare, Mr. McGreevey announced the creation ofan office of counterterrorism and appointed Kathryn Flicker, a respected assistant attorney general to the post.
But in late February reporters discovered that there were two Homeland Security officials.
Mr. Cipel, who listed Mr. McGreevey's largest contributor, the developer Charles Kushner, as the sponsor on his visa application, and was paid $ 30,000 a year for a public relations job with Mr. Kushner's company in 2000, had actually been hired with no fanfare, on Jan. 15, a full week before Ms. Flicker.
His salary of $ 80,000 rose after a month and a half to $ 110,000, one of the highest in the executive branch at a time when the state was facing a $ 2.9 billion budget shortfall.
Mr. McGreevey defended Mr. Cipel then, saying he was an expert on terrorism who had served as chief information officer for the Israeli consulate in New York and before that as an Israeli naval officer.
As it turned out, Mr. Cipel had not been the chief information officer but just one of more than a dozen information officers at the consulate. he had worked there for about three years while earning a fine arts degree at the New York Inistitute of Technology.
he had also served four years in the Israeli navy, leaving with the rank of lieutenant. As far as his knowledge of intelligence and terrorism, it turned out to be minimal.
Because he was a foreign citizen, Mr. Cipel could not get a federal security clearance and therefore could not sit in on high-level intelligence briefings. When important Republican legislators threatened to hold up other appointments, the governor reassigned Mr. Cipel.
Mr. Cipel resigned from state government in August 2002.
Mr. McGreevey had been mayor of Woodbridge when he made a junket with other mayors to the Israeli city of Rishon Le-Zion, where he met Mr. Cipel, who became the city's information officer after leaving the Israeli Consulate. Whn Mr. Cipel returned to the United States, Mr. McGreevey helped him get an appointment in Iselin a short distance from his own home in Woodbridge, according to the Star-Ledger. Mr. McGreevey even accompanied him on a final walk-through of the dwelling, which the real estate agent found odd, according to the newspaper.
Mr. Cipel started working for the state Democratic party during Mr. McGreevey's campaign for governor, as liaison to the Jewish community. Mr. McGreevey got him a job with Mr. Kushner. Mr. Kushner was charged last month with trying to obstruct a federal investigation into his financial affairs.
After Mr. Cipel left the state government, Mr. McGreevey helped him get a $ 120,000 a-year job wiht the MWW Group, a prominent public relations firm. After only a month he moved to State Street Partners, a lobbying firm with a $ 150,000 salary.
A message left at the office of Mr. Cipel's attorney, Alan Lowry was not returned. Mr. Cipel lives on the West Side of Manhattan. A man who answered the door to his apartment yesterday said he was not Mr. Cipel, and that Mr. Cipel was not there.
He's going to be lying low in New Jersey for a couple of weeks, the man said as he escorted a reporter from the doorway.
The NJ Arab community has had members in it that were culprits in both attacks on the Trade Center.
These were attacks both on the lives and economioc livelihood of US citizens as well as the ctizens of other nations.
This conglomerate of McGreevey scandals can't be confined to just NJ. It is a bigger scandal than just NJ as it involves the protection of the lives and livelihood of US citizens and the citizens of other countries around the world.
Sounds clear that McGreevey put his own interests, by hiring his lover, over the interest of the protection of the citizens in his state.
Also McGreevey through Cipel was vulnerable to blackmail. We see an actual fear of extortion on the part of McGreevey as he went to the FBI to try to escape Cipel's extortion demand for a $ 5 million dollar payoff.
And then we also have Kushner who blackmailed his own relative having a connection with Cipel having brought him into the country and paid him $ 30,000. So the Governor has an additional angle of potential trouble and vulnerability, carrying on an affair it sounds like, with a man brought into the country by a man who is being charged with blackmailing those around him.
So while McGreevey will try to make himself seem like a proponent of civil liberties, the reality of the situation is that the type of blackmail and extortion he appeared to use in the Machiavelli incident, in seeking campagin contributions for a grant of farm aid, was used against him here.
Ethics, hiring the most qualified person for the job, not using government payroll to pay for government positions where prostitutes are appointed etc., and many other issues are involved.
The real culprits here are the state GOP and the media -- because they knew damned well what was going on back in 2002, and they refused to even bring up the subject that should have been first and foremost in everyone's mind.
This governor was not shamefacedly cruising down backstreets or in cheap dives -- he was arrogantly subverting federal and state regulations to get his paramour appointed to an important security position on the state payroll when he wasn't qualified. Arrogance, thy name is Democrat!
Ecce, uh, homo.
Gee...where was the great NYT TWO YEARS AGO when all this was happening? There were whispers from the very beginning about McGreevey, but because he's a Dem, the NYT wasn't interested. The Old Gray Whore has egg on her face again today because she was in bed with the Dem crooks as usual.
Gorelick, Berger-Burglar, Clintons, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.
The whore-Governor will probably get the Nobel Prize.
PARTIAL LIST OF TERRORIST ACTIVITIES AIDED AND HELPED BY DEMOCRATS TO DESTROY AMERICA
1993 Attempted Assassination of Pres. Bush Sr., April 14,1993
1993 First World Trade Center bombing, February 26th, 7 Killed, Hundreds injured, Billions
1995 Attack on US Diplomats in Pakistan, Mar 8,1995
1996 Khobar Towers attack
1998 U.S. Embassy Bombing in Peru, Jan 15, 1998
1998 U.S. Kenya Embassy blown up, 100's murdered
1998 U.S. Tanzania Embassy blown up, 100's murdered
1999 Plot to blow up Space Needle (thwarted)
2000 USS Cole attacked, many U.S. Navy sailors murdered
"The real culprits here are the state GOP and the media"
GOP?
He's a DEM!
Their complaints should have been about the fact that McGreevey had appointed his "sweetheart" to the position in the first place.
New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey: "Damn it, I am not a slut. We paid quite a bit for the sex.
You pople ought to stay out of our business"
No, the state GOP is the culprit. many a letter and phone call went to the offices of my state assemblymen and Senator (all R's) about Golan Cipel and his 110K salary.
None of them wanted to touch it. The state GOP in NJ is as corrupt as the Dems.
http://www.american-partisan.com/cols/2002/tedlang/qtr4/1205.htm <-- Link
Those photos always take my breath away and make me choke back tears.
How many other politicians have participated in bringing security risks into this country under the guise of lovers?
There is no bottom to this New Jersey scandal.
McGreevey and Cipol should be behind bars.
Humorous there though a sad situation, not so much for the reason some of the Dems would be sad about this.
May have an idea to post there, developing it.
Apparently, the position offered including bending over a desk.
Maybe....................
The McGreevy is a homo threads will replace all the Peterson/Bryant threads...........
I can only hope.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.