To be added to the Murtha Watch ping list please notify myself or RedRover.
Posted on 06/25/2007 5:10:24 PM PDT by jazusamo
Monday, June 25, 2007
Roll Call ($) has an extensive report today on some of the earmarks obtained by John Murtha, and their beneficiaries:
INDIANA, Pa. — In April 2004, Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) celebrated the groundbreaking for a gleaming new office building here, designed around its anchor tenant, a Rockville, Md.-based technology company called Aeptec Microsystems.
Murtha pursued millions of dollars worth of legislative earmarks for the company, and Aeptec’s federal contracts blossomed after it opened a branch in his district in 2001, rising from about $13 million in 2000 to $45.6 million in 2003 and $33 million in 2004, according to fedspending.org, a database of federal contracts. The company had been represented by two lobbying firms with close ties to Murtha: KSA Consulting and the PMA Group.
But Aeptec never moved into the Indiana building, which was built mostly with state and local development funds and remains mostly empty after opening last month. The company, also known as 3eTI, instead moved its staff of about 15 people into a nondescript office park across town, where its name is not even posted on the outside door. It has since been bought by Texas-based EFJ Inc...
A good guide to the patterns of Murtha’s largesse is the client list of KSA Consulting, a lobbying firm that employs a former Murtha staffer and used to employ Murtha’s brother, Kit Murtha.
News stories have highlighted KSA’s success in getting earmarks for its clients, but there is more to the story than that. KSA’s client list consists largely of small businesses that are either based in Johnstown, Pa., or have opened offices in Johnstown, plus a significant smattering of companies that no longer exist and may never have existed at all.
The pattern that appears dominant is that the companies’ federal contract dollars expand shortly after they open an office in the 12th Congressional district — though it is not entirely clear how much of their work is actually conducted in the district...
Roll Call provides examples of three other firms that opened offices in Mr. Murtha's district and reaped significant federal contracts immediately afterwards. At least two of them retained KSA as their DC lobbyists. According to the article:
Applied Ordnance Technologies signed with KSA in 2001, opened an office in Johnstown, and doubled its government contracts in just two years; ChemImage signed KSA in 2001, opened an office in Johnstown (which now employs just 3 people), and secured its first ever federal contracts in 2003; and, KDH was created in 2003 to sew bulletproof vests and secured a Navy contract to do so in 2004 -- even though it had no facility in which to do so. KDH later opened two such locations in Murtha's district, and has seen significant increases in their federal sales.
It's also reported that KSA has filed disclosures of its clients past the legal deadline, and identified clients that seem not to exist, or that deny any association with KSA. The company's CEO acknowledges problems with the paperwork, saying 'that’s probably because we don’t know how to file them.'
It's unclear whether there's anything illegal in all this -- which is pretty depressing in itself. It's worth noting however, that the practice of giving special treatment to firms that locate in Johnstown, or Mr. Murtha's Congressional District more broadly, is reminiscent of something he told an undercover agent during Abscam:
I'll tell you exactly what I'd like. I'd like to be able to tell you that there's some places I'd like you to invest some money, in banks, on my district, uh and I'd say some, you know, some substantial deposits...
I think that in order to introduce legislation, you have to have a real tie to the district.
I'll give you maybe a list of businesses that I think would be the appropriate businesses that would be very helpful to me if you could see your way clear any one of those... you know, that you might -- this then would make a tie, which we'd have to make a little bit of a fuss about, maybe the guy doesn't wanna do this, but you have to remember this, you have to look down the road -- public relations.
To be added to the Murtha Watch ping list please notify myself or RedRover.
Grrrrrr.....
Your wasted tax dollars at work.
Grrrr is right!
I think it’s pretty much a given that this is what he’s been doing for years. Even in this piece they say they don’t know whether he’s broken any laws or not.
I sure don’t know but it seems to me at the very least it would be unethical to entice companies to come into your district by promising earmarks and then taking big campign contributions from them. It wouldn’t surprise me if he’s getting personal kickbacks too.
The Best of Murtha ABSCAM-The video
Hat tip to smoothsailing for this article.
Thanks Smooth, for the article and posting the ABSCAM tape link to murtha showing the world how his corruption enabled him to stay in office thru the lowlife he’s dealt with.
Applied Ordnance Technologies signed with KSA in 2001, opened an office in Johnstown, and doubled its government contracts in just two years; ChemImage signed KSA in 2001, opened an office in Johnstown (which now employs just 3 people), and secured its first ever federal contracts in 2003; and, KDH was created in 2003 to sew bulletproof vests and secured a Navy contract to do so in 2004 -- even though it had no facility in which to do so. KDH later opened two such locations in Murtha's district, and has seen significant increases in their federal sales.
This needs more digging around.ChemImage employs 3 people in Johnstown and gets Federal contracts? How much in campaign money does ChemImage give murtha?
What do we get for our money? (because most people are smart enough to get value for what they purchase—except here in Pennsyltuckia). Our kids are dumber than boxes of rocks and the roads are among the ten worst in America.
No; I wasn’t born in PA: Thanks; I have a brain.
You bet it deserves some digging.
I think I’ll check out that Political Money Line tonight or tomorrow and see if they list any donations to murtha from ChemImage.
I’m not too good at investigating but I’ll try googling too.
I wonder how much stock he/or his family got in this company?
Good question and this is just one company, he’s been doing this for years.
Excellent cartoon.
Here’s some more text from the Roll Call piece, with a link. Thanks again, Smooth.
In April 2004, Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) celebrated the groundbreaking for a gleaming new office building here, designed around its anchor tenant, a Rockville, Md.-based technology company called Aeptec Microsystems.
Murtha pursued millions of dollars worth of legislative earmarks for the company, and Aeptec’s federal contracts blossomed after it opened a branch in his district in 2001, rising from about $13 million in 2000 to $45.6 million in 2003 and $33 million in 2004, according to fedspending.org, a database of federal contracts. The company had been represented by two lobbying firms with close ties to Murtha: KSA Consulting and the PMA Group.
But Aeptec never moved into the Indiana building, which was built mostly with state and local development funds and remains mostly empty after opening last month. The company, also known as 3eTI, instead moved its staff of about 15 people into a nondescript office park across town, where its name is not even posted on the outside door. It has since been bought by Texas-based EFJ Inc.
Aeptec’s story is not unique. Murtha has obtained millions of dollars in earmarks for firms in his district, many of them clients of PMA and KSA. But in many cases the money is not for local companies, it is for companies that move to the district, and frequently it is for start-ups that essentially would not be in business were it not for Murtha’s largesse. Some of the firms also are simply store-front offices of companies that do most of their work elsewhere.
Murtha has almost - but not quite - single-handedly created a new economy in his district, with start-up companies getting Murtha earmarks, getting contracts from other companies that have gotten Murtha earmarks or getting trained on how to get government money by other institutions that have gotten Murtha earmarks.
A good guide to the patterns of Murtha’s largesse is the client list of KSA Consulting, a lobbying firm that employs a former Murtha staffer and used to employ Murtha’s brother, Kit Murtha.
Ok, be patient with me because these searches are still raw.
But, in going through the Iran Contra docs, I have this so far:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1855923/posts
See this guy, Farhad Azima:
Excerpts from thread, see link for all:
Iranian-born owner of Global International, Farhad Azima, expressed dismay that his airline might have been bamboozled into gunrunning by the charter firm in Belgium In Beirut, sources familiar with P.L.O. operations told TIME that other planeloads of weapons had been successfully flown to Central America from Libya and Algeria. All the-cargoes were disguised as medical supplies.
For The Record - Bill Bradley, Al Gore, John McCain, Hillary Clinton, and others - Brief Article
Excerpt:
Donors to Clinton library include Farhad Azima, whose 1997 contribution of $137,000 to Democratic National Committee was returned because of links to Iran-contra scandal, reports MSNBC.... Banners at First Lady’s announcement speech read “Hillary!” with no last name given....
Iran Contra Affair - National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 210
[Farhad] Azima came to know [Fred D.] Thompson after Azima bought Capitol Airways, based in Smyrna, Tenn., in 1983. At the time Thompson served on the board of the company and also represented it in legal matters. According to Federal Election Commission records, Azima raised $9,500 for Thompson’s campaign at a 1996 fund-raiser at his Missouri home
Now, I saw this today:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Beechcraft Vertrieb und Service GmbH
+49 (0) 821 / 7003 - 0
www.beechcraft.de
Raytheon Aircraft Sells Three Premier I Jets to ALG Leasing
WICHITA, Kan. (August 3, 2000) - Raytheon Aircraft Company’s Premier I order book continued to grow with the signing of three of the hot-selling entry-level business jets by Aviation Leasing Group (ALG Transportation, Inc.) in London.
ALG will place two of the Premier I jets and a recently ordered Beechjet 400A into a primary training regime for use by the Civil Aviation Training Centre (CATC) in Thailand for Thai Airways International’s student pilots and other Pacific Rim air carriers.
“Simply put, the Premier I and the Beechjet are the best aircraft for the training mission,” said ALG Chairman Farhad Azima. One Premier I and a previously purchased Beech King Air B200 will be assigned for corporate use. The aircraft will be maintained and supported by Hawker Pacific, Raytheon Aircraft Company’s authorized sales and service center for Thailand.
Azima and Suthi Aksornkitti, president of CATC/Thailand, joined Karl Childs, vice president - Sales and Marketing for Raytheon Aircraft, at the signing ceremony.
“We are absolutely delighted that Mr. Azima and ALG have once again placed confidence in our products and customer support,” Childs said.
More than 250 Premier I aircraft are in the order book, with a backlog that stretches into 2005. Raytheon Aircraft is to achieve FAA certification by the end of the summer, and deliveries will begin immediately thereafter.
Jack Murtha has awarded numerous contracts to Raytheon.
OPINION:
Maybe what they were fishing to stop with AbScam failed so the Iran Contras (drug and weapons running) continued....
Thank you, Cal, for your investigative skills. :-)
I just copy and paste :)
That guy, Bob Kerrey, that stood up and spoke for John Murtha is a directory with JONES APPAREL GROUP. They are clients of Kissinger Associates. Kissinger Associates set up Jones Apparel with labor camps in China.
G'night all!
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.