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 ...
Ping
and Gov. Jonny-boy is leaving Saturday, 5/20, for a lovely SIX day 'trade mission' trip to East Asia to convince East Asian companies to expand their business to NJ...uh-huh
So many issues, so little time.
Another dot ping.
You know, I read that, and first thought, "What in the world is freema talking about??"
And then I connected the dots...... ;)
: )
You are referring to Frank Lautenberg. During the 2002 Senatorial contest, against Doug Forrester, when the extent of The Torch's corruption came to light, he fell about 20 points behind in the polls. The dems replaced him with Lautenberg, a retired former senator who was still reasonably popular in this left-leaning state.
The real scandal was that the switch was made close to Election Day, on October 2, with 35 days to go. New Jersey law does not allow a candidate to be replaced after the date that is 51 days before the election. The switch was made nearly two weeks after the deadline, with the blessing of the (ultra-far-left) New Jersey Supreme Court, which makes the Florida Supremes look like Robert Bork. The rationale given by The Court was that, with Torricelli out, "The people of New Jersey would not have a real choice in the upcoming election without a democrat candidate." The specific deadline that was (and is) established law, was completely and conveniently ignored. It was one of the worst cases of legislating from the Bench in American history.
Even if we picked the 535 from the General Population at Leavenworth, we would still be ahead of the game.
I'm sure that she is right - both parties are in neck deep.
I'm shocked that the paper even reported he's a democrat! Maybe there is hope for the MSM after all (but I won't bet the farm on that!).
it is interesting in this article about a corrupt senator the only party mentioned is the republican party... culture of corruption...
just my thoughts...
teeman
oo0ps meant to say that the bush administration is mentioned before the offending affiliated party... getting late...
teeman
He is soooo damn SLIMEY, I'm not surprised he's involved in "Oil-for-Food"....he makes the "ICK Meter" hit a 10.
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