Posted on 05/18/2006 5:37:16 PM PDT by wjersey
The US Senate is looking into allegations that a former US senator urged Baghdad to give a US company lucrative contracts under the much-criticised United Nations oil-for-food programme.
This is the first time that a leading US lawmaker has been linked to the controversial UN programme, whose shortcomings have been an important element of the Bush administration's critique of the UN.
The investigation involves one of the most vivid figures in US east coast politics, former senator Robert Torricelli, a New Jersey Democrat who was forced to pull out of the 2002 election after being "severely admonished" by the Senate ethics committee for accepting expensive gifts from David Chang, a campaign contributor. Mr Chang, a Korean-American businessman, was found guilty in 2002 of conspiring to violate federal campaign laws and was jailed for 15 months.
Senator Norm Coleman, the Republican chairman of the US Senate permanent sub-committee on investigations, said: "We take these allegations seriously and will continue to investigate in a bipartisan manner allegations of wrongdoing under the oil-for-food programme. We have investigated the illicit conduct of politicians in Russia, France, and the UK. We have a similar interest in preserving the institutional integrity of the US Senate, so we take these allegations regarding former Senator Torricelli seriously and will continue our investigation into them and will refer our findings to the appropriate agencies." The British, French and Russian politicians investigated by the subcommittee deny the allegations.
The allegations are based on Iraqi documents, including diplomatic cables, retrieved after the fall of Saddam Hussein, Iraq's former president.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Burn the Torch!!
Oh here we go again thank god he is a Dimwitcrat!
The "TORCH" is about to be extinguished.....again!
No they won't, not as it relates to Toricelli. He "retired" as requested and won't be bothered further.
Yes, but did Torricelli and George Galloway exchange bodily fluids?
Where there is one rat there are more. Perhaps we are about to fully understand the Democrat love affair with Saddam.
Wow there is blast from the criminal past. The Torch. Hey didn't he sleeze in another rat senator from NJ?
I am shocked,simply shocked------NOT
What was Pelosi saying about the "Culture of Corruption"? Perhaps the chickens are coming home to roost.
LOL! Torch is a alot of fun isn't he?
Let's also take this occasion to go down Memory Lane with Toricelli- a man who had as much to do with emasculating the CIA as Frank Church.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/9/17/162056.shtml
Culture Of Treason!
Ding! ding! ding! We have a winner!
Yah, too bad... [snicker!]
Hah.
he's used to getting gifts. he loved the gifts from the chinese
Once again, The Torch got burned.
If he gets indicted, will he have Frank Lautenburg replace him as the defendant?
How's the Rockerfeller investigation going?
Ah....he'll just deny it...isn't that his MO!!
Funny how Normie started out gung-ho...and hasn't been heard of since...LOL
Coleman has been a disappointment. Is it a case of follow the money...to where he found it?
I want to see him "frog marched"...to court....LOL
Oil-For-Food ping
I had high hopes for Coleman...but not only has he done bupkis (thanks Tony) re: OFF lately..
But, he seems to have caught the Lincoln Chafing (thanks Mark) disease...and is voting more and more against President Bush's agenda.
Incredible. Torch getting lit up again.
I guess the "Torch" can retire from politics but we will never be able to be rid of his stench.
who would indict him?
Culture of corruption goes on and on and on.......
The REAL culture of corruption.
GMTA!
Ping A Ling
What will come of it?
Gee I wandered over just in time to see the ping.
This should be fun to follow.... ;-)
Pinz
Thanks for the ping!
ROTFLOL!
I hope that this time, he DOES TIME!
According to the same Iraqi document, Mr Torricelli met Mr Hamdoun again two days later. At that meeting, Mr Torricelli said that since their previous conversation he had spoken with Edward Gnehm, the deputy US representative to the UN, who was leading negotiations with Iraq about the oil-for-food programme.
On June 22, according to the same document, Mr Torricelli allegedly met Mr Hamdoun again. Mr Torricelli told him he had heard that the Iraqis might not give US companies any contracts and advised him that this would be a mistake. Mr Torricelli told Mr Hamdoun that he expected to win a US Senate seat in the November election (as he later did), and said that Bright and Bright was important to him and his election campaign and that he hoped that the company would receive contracts from Iraq.
According to the Iraqi document, Bright and Bright initially asked for 60 per cent of Iraq's oil contracts and a discount of $1.50 a barrel. Then on June 11 1996, a Bright and Bright executive wrote to Mr Hamdoun asking for government contracts worth as much as $300m in the first 90 days of the oil-for-food programme. In return, he said Bright and Bright would continue to support the normalisation of relations between the US and Iraq.
With Lautencadaver, the 'Rats have taken the "Dead Men Vote" strategery to a whole new level.
Those Republicans and their culture of corruptions, why...what? Another Democrat?
Never mind.
I just hope something comes of this. He's been slippery, thus far.
Not sure .. but I'll betcha there are a few phone calls going on about this within the Dem Ranks
LOL!!
the DOJ doesn't strike me as being too aggressive rooting out cases of political corruption by Dems. its the "new tone" you know.
Funny ain't it
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