Posted on 08/12/2004 4:47:45 PM PDT by dead
Ex-McGreevey aide's credentials exaggerated - originally published 12/22/02
The Israeli national's expertise was in public relations.
TRENTON -- Despite his statements to the contrary, Gov. McGreevey, from the beginning, intended to make his now-departed Israeli adviser and friend, whose expertise was public relations, the state's point man on terrorism, documents obtained last week under the federal Freedom of Information Act show.
Using the terrorism attacks of Sept. 11 to justify the hiring, the governor's chief lawyer wrote a letter to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service on McGreevey's inauguration day, telling the federal agency that New Jersey wanted Cipel to coordinate increased security with all branches of government and that Cipel had the necessary "substantial experience" in public security.
The letter was part of a petition by the state for a specialty work visa that had to show Cipel was qualified for what he was being hired to do.
Israeli military expert and journalist Yossi Melman said the letter "more than exaggerates" Cipel's experience and capabilities in the Israeli Defense Force.
"The state of New Jersey's application (to the immigration service) in particular struck me as full of chutzpah," Melman said. "It is rather surprising that the governor went out of his way by using the pretext that his Israeli friend is a terrorist expert in order to accommodate him. I find it especially troubling to use the horrible events of 9/11 as a justification for the nomination of Golan Cipel to a highly important security position which he was not qualified for."
Asked whether the public was misled about the role Cipel was slated to play in New Jersey's security, McGreevey spokesman Kevin Davitt said, "Not to my knowledge."
"This is what we believed his (Cipel's) responsibilities were to be at that time," Davitt said of the letter. "As the administration moved forward, there was a determination made that we needed someone with better experience."
Davitt said that the INS was not misled about Cipel's qualifications.
As for whether Cipel was qualified for the security post, Davitt said, "I think it was found there were probably others more suited to do that job."
Cipel did not respond to requests for comment.
When Cipel quit last August after a Gannett New Jersey report on the exaggeration of his security credentials, the governor blamed the exaggeration on a poorly worded biography issued by McGreevey's office.
But the governor's chief counsel, Paul Levinsohn, who served as McGreevey's campaign finance chairman and is a longtime confidant of the governor, was detailed when he wrote to the federal immigration service and described how Cipel was qualified to be the governor's point man on security.
As McGreevey's special adviser on issues of homeland security and public safety, Cipel's duty would be disseminating and coordinating public safety programs with other state departments and branches of government, Levinsohn wrote.
Although early news accounts of the Israeli's hiring by the state of New Jersey pointed out that Cipel, who is not an American citizen, could not qualify for federal security clearance, that was ignored in the Levinsohn description of Cipel's duties.
The Levinsohn letter said Cipel would coordinate security issues between the governor's office and the New Jersey Domestic Security Preparedness Task Force, State Police, the New Jersey National Guard, the FBI and the Armed Forces.
'Exaggerated'
Assemblyman Guy Gregg, R-Morris, said the Levinsohn letter was crafted to place Cipel in a job he was not qualified to do.
"Basically, they exaggerated at a level that most people would find much closer to a mistruth," he said. "It is almost admitted by this administration that he is not an expert in security. He doesn't have years and years experience in it. He wasn't going to be able to pass the simplest of four-way background checks to be a state trooper, let alone talk to one."
Gannett New Jersey obtained the Levinsohn letter last week from the U.S. Department of Justice through a federal Freedom of Information Act request filed last summer with the immigration service. The requests traditionally take months for a response.
Levinsohn has been the subject of his own recent controversy over the money he earned, just before McGreevey took office, from a billboard company whose procedures in obtaining a lucrative billboard deal in South Jersey have been questioned. The FBI is in-vestigating that deal.
In the U.S. Department of Labor application, dated Jan. 9, before McGreevey took office, Levinsohn listed his title as assistant attorney general, a courtesy title the administration said he was given, and sworn-in to, during the transition period. Cipel's potential employer is listed as the state Department of Law and Public Safety.
Davitt said the letter could not be found in state files, but Levinsohn had a copy at his home.
To hire Cipel for the homeland security and public safety post, the state needed to show that Cipel had a bachelor's degree in an area related to security or collegiate-level expertise in the field, according to U.S Labor De-partment expert Stephen Stefanko.
In the state's application on Cipel's behalf for his H-1B work visa for a specialty occupation, Levinsohn said Cipel had the necessary background in the areas of security and anti-terrorism initiatives.
From 1995 to 1999, while earning his bachelor's and master's degrees in communications from the New York Institute of Technology, Cipel worked for the Consulate General of Israel in New York, where he had the title of chief information officer.
In his letter, Levinsohn described Cipel's work at the consul:
"In particular, his experience as chief information officer, consulate general of Israel, involved responsibility for developing and maintaining the country's terrorism portfolio, keeping government authorities abreast of terrorist activities and threats, maintaining a database of such activities and coordinating that information with data obtained from other agencies."
But former Consul Collett Avital, a member of the Israeli parliament and the official in charge of the consulate while Cipel worked there, told Gannett, "He (Cipel) was not involved in anything related to terrorism."
The Levinsohn letter also stated that "as a naval officer in the Israel Defense Force, Mr. Cipel functioned as a special operations officer and was appointed as media adviser, disseminating data on military operations and anti-terrorism measures to the media while insuring that sensitive information was not disclosed. As such, he is well-qualified in the areas of information gathering, dissemination and sharing with other agencies."
Cipel served for five years in the Israel Defense Force with a Navy patrol boat unit before serving a 10-year stint in the reserves at the Homeland Command, where he reached the rank of lieutenant.
Melman likened Cipel's military service to serving five years in the U.S. Navy followed by 10 years in the National Guard Reserves. Service in the Homeland Command is noncombatant duty known in Israel as an easy, comfortable place to do military service, Melman said.
Levinsohn told the INS that Cipel would be paid $80,000. As one of McGreevey's highest advisers, his salary was $110,000.
When Cipel's appointment first came under fire early this year, McGreevey said Cipel was never intended to be the state's official terrorism leader, only a personal adviser on the issue.
His security role from the beginning, McGreevey said in August, was to do an exhaustive evaluation of published best practices on the subject.
In the August interview, McGreevey argued that Cipel had been hired in the role of adviser to the governor on numerous issues and that his first assignment was security.
McGreevey initially responded to the criticism concerning Cipel by taking him off the security issue and moving him to a general adviser.
INS records show that the state applied in March to change Cipel's specialty designation from special consul to the governor on security issues to policy adviser. The March letter, authored by Levinsohn, does not mention security issues or Cipel's security qualifications.
After Cipel resigned in August, McGreevey recommended him for a job at the politically connected public relations firm of MWW Group in East Rutherford. An official there said Cipel only stayed a month because the company and Cipel did not agree on the amount of time he was expected to spend in the office.
With another recommendation from McGreevey, Cipel has been hired at State Street Partners, a small Trenton lobbying firm whose partners include McGreevey's best friend, Rahway Mayor James Kennedy.
McGreevey has described Cipel as a very good friend whose advice he still seeks and who still does outreach for the governor to the Jewish community.
Before joining the McGreevey administration, Cipel was parttime director of Jewish outreach for the Democratic State Committee during McGreevey's election campaign at a salary listed on the INS application at $30,000 a year. He also was a part-time public relations associate for McGreevey's top campaign contributor, at an additional $30,000 a year, INS records show.
The contributor, Charles Kushner, has since been appointed to the board of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
McGreevey said he met Cipel during a 2000 trip to Israel, where Cipel served as spokesman for the city of Rishon Le Zion.
Kushner's firm filed the first INS application for Cipel in the fall of 2000, and he re-entered the United States in February 2001, according to INS records.
Lawyers for Kushner's firm and the Democratic State Committee also filed letters with INS applications for his work visas, but the letters made no mention of his security qualifications.
They flashed it on tv. Seemed like a short, pudgy guy in that instant. BTW, I thought this gov's speech was just awful. He's proud to be whatever sexual orientation. And, he's "sorry" that his conduct subjected the gov's office to potential blackmail, etc. Oh. That's all. No big deal, especially in this post 9-11 world...
There was a piece of land owned by a farmer I think in Edison where McGreevey was mayor. This farmer has been trying to sell this land for years but couldn't sell it or couldn't get what he thought was enough money for it due to zoning or something. This guy D'Amiano got this farmer to donate 40k to McGreevey in return the state would buy his land for 5 million although it wasn't worth anything near that. The sign that McGreevey accepted the deal was that he would use the word "Machiavelli" when they met. He used it in the first sentence when he met the farmer, they had never met before. Somehow this was all taped. McGreevey said he always uses literary references !!! I believe the sentence he used was " I heard you are reading "The Prince " by Machiavelli" or something like that.
Duly charge, try, convict, sentence and execute the McGreevy homo garbage.
Please tell me about the Machiavelli thingy! I only heard something about McGreedy used that word as a sign....HELP! I don't get it.
A farmer had to sell his farm to the state for some stupid environmental reasons. The state was going to give him something like $1.2 million. A corrupt fundraiser told him that he could get a much higher price out of the state if he gave a large political contribution to McGreevey. He arranged a meeting between the farmer and McGreevey, and told him that McGreevey would use the word “Machiavelli” to signal that the deal was a “go.”
They didn’t know that the farmer had gone right to the FBI and told them what was up. The farmer wore a wire to the meeting and, sure enough, Governor McGreevey just happened to mention the 15th century political philosopher right away in the conversation.
Naturally, there was nothing queer about this as its hard to have a meeting with anybody and not bring up Machiavelli.
After the meeting, the state coincidently upped their offer to $5 million or so.
The Machiavelli thing happened after he became governor.
What is the big deal?
The previous Governor of NJ also had sex with a man !
when mcgreevey was running for governor there was a strange story on how his car was ticketed in times square (ny) many times, when asked about it he replied that he was doing legal work, yet the press couldn't find any clients. for those who don't know times square is where many "johns" hang out
Yeah it may have been in Piscataway, that does ring a bell. Isn't Woodbridge and Edison merged into one entity now ?
Maybe he was hanging out with Charles Schumer ?
Bookmarking...
Subhuman garbage.
And though he's resigning it won't take effect until AFTER the election. Disgusting. The Republicans are going to HAVE to get some cojones and challenge this!
Well, rah rah for gay pride, all pride, etc., but such pride is not really the topic here...
I know (repulsed) Freaky queers butt pirating is SOOOOOO much more important that America's safety and security.
Aftering seeing this McGreevey fruit I am convinced many queers are autistic. The way he was so happy and smiling at his news conference. Like some kid winning a trip to Disney Land. Very odd and delusional behavior considering the serious circumstances. Gay men shouldn't run with scissors.
when mcgreevey was running for governor there was a strange story on how his car was ticketed in times square (ny) many times, when asked about it he replied that he was doing legal work, yet the press couldn't find any clients. for those who don't know times square is where many "johns" hang out
Hence where all his large "political donation money" went, to his Time Square tricks. Yack! Your tax dollars at work. Euro-trashes Sodom and Ghomorra(sp?) comin to us soon.
I hadn't heard that before. I lived in New Brunswick and worked in Edison about 12 years ago. It may have happened after I moved.
Yeah I spent a lot of time in that area, went to HS in Metuchen and did a lot of partying in New Brunswick.
and did a lot of partying in New Brunswick.
That’s what it's there for.
I lived in New Brunswick from 1982 to about 1990 or so. College and post-college.
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