WEEEEL NOW Isn't that Special??
Posted on 02/09/2004 11:47:54 AM PST by areafiftyone
WASHINGTON - Presidential Democratic hopeful John Kerry (news - web sites) is letting former Sen. Robert Torricelli raise money for him less than two years after the Senate formally rebuked Torricelli for his actions with a political donor.
Torricelli, whose rising political career collapsed in 2002 after his fund raising became the subject of criminal and Senate investigations, said Friday he is not seeking a formal position in Kerry's campaign but has raised money for it.
"I have asked people to send in checks," Torricelli said in a phone interview. "I have raised some money for John. I have known him for many years and probably have contributed to most members of the Democratic caucus."
"I don't have role in the campaign nor am I seeking one," Torricelli said, saying he attended a meeting of fund-raisers with Kerry Thursday night in New York. "I am happily retired from political campaigns. But I certainly support his candidacy."
"John did a briefing last night with 150 people, made a brief appearance and thanked me for the help," he said. Torricelli said he did not know how much money in all he raised for Kerry because checks were still flowing in.
Kerry's campaign spokeswoman, Stephanie Cutter, said Friday the presidential Democratic hopeful was appreciative of Torricelli's help.
"John Kerry and Bob Torricelli served together in the Senate for many years," Cutter said. "Many of Kerry's current and former Senate colleagues are supporting his bid for the presidency with the united goal of defeating George Bush."
Cutter declined to address whether Torricelli's role conflicted with Kerry's message on the campaign trail that he has fought the taint of special interest money throughout his political career.
But Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., who is co-chairing Kerry's campaign effort in New Jersey, sought to put some distance between Torricelli and the campaign.
"What Bob Torricelli does is his business, but he has nothing to do officially with this campaign," Pascrell said.
Torricelli, once one of the Democrats' top fund-raisers for Senate candidates and a close ally of former President Clinton (news - web sites), dismissed any suggestion that his past problems with fund-raising will be used by rivals to attack Kerry.
"If that is the best criticism a man can come up with against John Kerry, then he is in remarkably good shape," Torricelli said.
Though Torricelli was investigated by a federal grand jury for his fund-raising ties, favors and gifts involving donor David Chang, he was never charged with any wrongdoing.
However, the Senate Ethics Committee in July 2002 sent a letter that "severely admonished" Torricelli for accepting improper gifts from Chang. Torricelli aired a television commercial apologizing for any missteps and denying he had knowingly broken any rules. But the public was mostly unforgiving, his political approval plummeted and he dropped his re-election bid.
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WEEEEL NOW Isn't that Special??
MARCH 25, 1995 : (DEMOCRAT REPRESENTATIVE TORICELLI LETTER TO CLINTON ALLEGES CIA INVOLVEMENT IN DEVINE & BAMACA DEATHS IN GUATAMALA; RESULTS IN CIA POLICY CHANGE, IMPAIRING THE CIA'S HUMINT RESOURCES) In its 1997 report, the House Intelligence Committee had this to say about the antics of Torricelli, by then a senator: "None of the allegations raised by Rep. Torricelli in the March 22, 1995 letter to the president [Clinton] or subsequent public statements concerning the involvement of the CIA in the DeVine and Bamaca deaths in Guatemala have proved true." Still, Torricelli's efforts paid off with the Clinton administration, which moved to ban the use of spies or the recruitment of spies that had any involvement with criminals or terrorists. It was about the time of this well-publicized incident that the CIA's slide into a deteriorated human intelligence capability accelerated. Torricelli effectively blinded the CIA. - "Senator Who Helped Tie CIA’s Hands Now Castigating Agency for Intelligence Failures," by Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff, NewsMax.com, 9/30/01
1995 : (DEMOCRAT REPRESENTATIVE TORRICELLI LEAK GIVES AWAY THE NAME OF A CIA SOURCE IN GUATAMALA, ALLEGEDLY TO PLEASE BIANCA JAGGER, HIS GIRLFRIEND) In 1995 Robert Torricelli, D-N.J., then a member of the House of Representatives, made secrets public at the behest of left-wing activist Bianca Jagger, his girlfriend at the time, according to Newark Star-Ledger columnist Paul Mulshine in the January/February issue of Heterodoxy. Mulshine's article showed how Torricelli's action in giving away the name of a CIA source in Guatemala was based not on fact, but on a conspiracy theory of "the loony left," as Heterodoxy later characterized it. - "Senator Who Helped Tie CIA’s Hands Now Castigating Agency for Intelligence Failures," by Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff, NewsMax.com, 9/30/01
1997 : (HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE ON TORICELLI SAYS HIS ALLEGATIONS ABOUT CIA INVOLVEMENT IN DEVINE & BAMACA DEATHS PROVED UNTRUE) In its 1997 report, the House Intelligence Committee had this to say about the antics of Torricelli, by then a senator: "None of the allegations raised by Rep. Torricelli in the March 22, 1995 letter to the president [Clinton] or subsequent public statements concerning the involvement of the CIA in the DeVine and Bamaca deaths in Guatemala have proved true." Still, Torricelli's efforts paid off with the Clinton administration, which moved to ban the use of spies or the recruitment of spies that had any involvement with criminals or terrorists. It was about the time of this well-publicized incident that the CIA's slide into a deteriorated human intelligence capability accelerated. Torricelli effectively blinded the CIA. - "Senator Who Helped Tie CIA’s Hands Now Castigating Agency for Intelligence Failures," by Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff, NewsMax.com, 9/30/01
SEPTEMBER 2001 late : (TORICELLI WANTS AN INVESTIGATION OF THE CIA) New Jersey Senator Robert Torricelli, who is calling for an investigation of the CIA to pinpoint the responsibility for the agency's failure to predict the Sept. 11 disasters, was one of those directly responsible for that failure. In an arrogant display of unmitigated gall, Torricelli told CNN that he wants to set up a special committee to learn just what went wrong with the CIA, when it was his own actions that helped emasculate the agency and thus guarantee future intelligence failures. "It's not clear to me that unless we take a look at what went wrong and how our systems failed, we're going to succeed in preventing any future attacks," he told CNN. What went wrong was the gutting of the CIA's ability to recruit reliable undercover agents in the field, and that inability was partly the result of Torricelli's meddling in the CIA's affairs.
As Newsmax.com's Washington correspondent Wes Vernon has reported, Torricelli led congressional efforts in the mid-1990s that handcuffed the CIA's abilities to recruit spies - a key policy that helped allow the attacks of Sept. 11 to take place with no intelligence warnings. Vernon wrote that current and former CIA operatives say Clinton administration policies which forbade the CIA from recruiting known terrorists and other criminals left the U.S. government bereft of all intelligence about such terrorist groups. If the senator, now [Sept 2001] under investigation for alleged bribery schemes, wants to know what caused the intelligence lapses he has only to look in the mirror to find one of the prime culprits. - "Senator Who Helped Tie CIA’s Hands Now Castigating Agency for Intelligence Failures," by Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff, NewsMax.com, 9/30/01
FEBRUARY 26, 1998 (WASHINGTON, DC : OLD EXECUTIVE OFFICE BUILDING : CHANG MEETS WITH BRUCE RIEDEL, SENIOR DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL FOR NEAR EAST & SOUTH ASIAN AFFAIRS TO DISCUSS HIS PROPOSAL FOR A DIALOGUE BETWEEN THE US AND IRAQ) Mr. Chang meets at Old Executive Office Building with Bruce Riedel, senior director of the National Security Council for Near East and South Asian Affairs, to discuss his proposal for a dialogue between the United States and Iraq.
JUNE 1998 (mid month) : (IRAQ : AL QAEDA OPERATIVES ATTEND 4 WEEK SESSIONS AT AL-NASIRIYAH TRAINING CAMP TAUGHT BY IRAQI INTELLIGENCE & MILITARY; TRAINING INVOLVES RECON & TARGETING AMERICAN INSTALLATIONS, COVERS WEAPONS SMUGGLING INTO SAUDI ARABIA) Bin-Laden’s operatives were at the al-Nasiriyah training camp, receiving a four week course of instruction from the Iraqi intelligence and military on reconnaissance and targeting American facilities and installations for terrorist attacks. Another group was organized and trained for smuggling weapons and explosives into Saudi Arabia – and used their return to the kingdom as the first (successful) operation. A third group of bin-Laden’s Saudi operatives received a month of sophisticated guerrilla operations training later in the Summer of 1998. - Youssef Bodansky, “Bin Laden; The Man Who Declared War on America,” Prima Publishing, Roseville, CA, 2001, page 324
JUNE 9, 1998 (CHANG AND YU ATTEND STATE DINNER FOR PRSIDENT KIM DAE JUNG) Mr. Chang and Audrey Yu attend state dinner for President Kim Dae Jung of South Korea.
JUNE 1998 (CHANG DONATES $50,000 TO DNC AND ANORTHER $%0,000 TO THE DNCC) Mr. Chang donates $50,000 to the Democratic National Committee and $50,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
I'm just intrigued how torch and kin are still striving to get into the CIA and tear it up- add in the weird Wilson/Plame affair and it looks like they've invested an awful lot in the effort.
Add in Khan and what we've known N Korea was up to all these years, and you have to wonder where these jokers loyalties really lie.
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