Posted on 05/24/2006 8:10:05 PM PDT by hipaatwo
Brian Ross Reports:
Richard Esposito and Rhonda Schwartz contributed to this report.
Despite a flat denial from the Department of Justice, federal law enforcement sources tonight said ABC News accurately reported that Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert is "in the mix" in the FBI investigation of corruption in Congress.
Speaker Hastert said tonight the story was "absolutely untrue" and has demanded ABC News retract its story.
Law enforcement sources told ABC News that convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff has provided information to the FBI about Hastert and a number of other members of Congress that have broadened the scope of the investigation. Sources would not divulge details of the Abramoff’s information.
"You guys wrote the story very carefully but they are not reading it very carefully," a senior official said.
One focus involves a letter Hastert wrote in 2003 urging the Secretary of the Interior to block an Indian casino that would have competed with tribes represented by Abramoff.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.abcnews.com ...
So many departments are nothing more than sieves, now, it's a wonder that ANYTHING at all gets done, besides the leaks.
bttt
Yes. "In the mix" very precise wording one might expect from ABC.
A Brian Ross Moment From another thread:
...Following the tease quoted above, with "Alleged Plot" as the on-screen heading, Jennings led the February 22 World News Tonight: "Good evening. We're going to begin tonight with an American who was indicted today for allegedly planning to assassinate the President. His lawyers said in a Virginia courtroom that he was tortured while being held in Saudi Arabia. And his family had already filed suit, claiming he was being held in Saudi Arabia at the behest of U.S. authorities. His name is Ahmed Omar Abu Ali. He's 22 years old. Here's ABC's Brian Ross."Ross began, as corrected against the closed-captioning by the MRC's Brad Wilmouth: "Abu Ali's friends and family were at the courthouse in Virginia this morning, hoping for his release after 20 months in custody in Saudi Arabia."
Omar Abu Ali, father of assassination plot suspect, outside the federal court building in Alexandra, Virginia: "I am glad that Ahmed is back home. I thank Allah almighty."
Ross: "But instead of freedom, the 23-year-old Abu Ali, raised in suburban Washington, was charged in a six-count federal indictment with conspiring to assassinate President Bush and providing material support to al-Qaeda."
Omar Abu Ali: "All of that is lies. They lied to the court."
Ross: "U.S. intelligence officials tell ABC News the Saudis picked up Abu Ali on electronic surveillance telling a suspected al-Qaeda member he wanted to join. Today's indictment alleges, with few specifics, Abu Ali had the 'intent to become a planner of terrorist operations like Mohammed Atta.' The alleged plot against the President involved Abu Ali getting close enough to either shoot him or blow him up with a car bomb."
Ashraf Nubani, attorney for defendant: "He has no role in attempting or conspiring to assassinate anyone."
Ross: "Abu Ali was studying Islam in Medina when taken into custody by Saudi authorities in June 2003 and held in this prison until Sunday. His lawyer says his client was tortured into making a false confession."
Nubani: "He said that they whipped me. And I said, 'Where?' He said, 'On my back.' And I said, 'Show me.' He unbuttoned his jump suit from the front side, and he pulled up his T-shirt from the back, and I could see, you know, the marks. And he said that this was done a few months ago."
Ross: "Prosecutors said Abu Ali had turned his back on America, but human rights lawyers say the issue will be one of U.S. tactics."
Scott Horton, human rights attorney: "I think the term that's being used for this now is 'torture by proxy.'"
Ross: "Meaning?"
Horton: "Meaning that the U.S. can't aggressively interrogate or torture a detainee, so it relies on an ally that uses these practices to do the dirty work for it."
Ross: "Further raising questions about the case, law enforcement officials told ABC News late today that the plans to assassinate President Bush never moved past the talking stage and may not have been seriously thought out. Which is why, Peter, prosecutors did not charge Abu Ali with the much more serious crime of actually assassinating the President."
[As someone noted : Or, maybe it's because the President wasn't actually assassinated.]
Thanks.
bttt
There is a full force press out there by the Feds to hunt down leakers and they will not stop at anything to identify and deal with as many of them as they can.
If they fire a high level person like Mary McCarthy whom was a senior person in Clinton's admin (and she is singing like a canary), enter Jefferson's office with a warrant (first time in 219 years), release millions of captured iraq documents most unstranslated (that are now implicating the corrupt TORCH), this adminstration is very serious at dealing with these traitors.
thank you
Of course, the damned Dems have no such rule.
I'm already betting that either Hastert or someone from his staff...had some meetings with a lobbyist who was wired. And I'll bet that several other congressmen will be mentioned by summer. This whole corruption story is long from being over.
And I hope that they ferret out, trial, convict, and jail everyone they find!
The Dems also have some leadership...something sorely lacking in the GOP House and Senate.
True, but very sad. :-(
On the eight of the month of November :
NOVEMBER 8, 2005 : (FRIST & HASTERT CIRCULATE LETTER CALLING FOR A CONGRESSIONAL LEAK INVESTIGATION INTO THE DISCLOSURE OF ALLEGED US SECRET PRISONS ABROAD: See MARY MCCARTHY, SECRETPRISONSLEAK, BLEEDINGHEARTATTACK, RENDITIONS) WASHINGTON - Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert are circulating a draft letter calling for a congressional leak investigation into the disclosure of secret U.S. interrogation centers abroad. The Washington Post reported Nov. 2 on the existence of secret U.S. prisons in Eastern Europe for terrorism suspects. The Bush administration has neither confirmed nor denied that report. "If accurate, such an egregious disclosure could have long-term and far-reaching damaging and dangerous consequences, and will imperil our efforts to protect the American people and our homeland from terrorist attacks," stated the draft.
The Associated Press obtained a copy of the draft request to Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts of Kansas and his House counterpart, Intelligence Committee Chairman Peter Hoekstra of Michigan. Hoekstra's spokesman, Jamal Ware, declined to comment because the office had not yet received the letter.
Frist and Hastert said the joint probe by the House and Senate intelligence committees should determine who leaked the information and under what authority.
"What is the actual and potential damage done to the national security of the United States and our partners in the global war on terror?" the draft letter asked. "We will consider other changes to this mandate based on your recommendations."
Frist's and Hastert's offices declined immediate comment.
The letter says the leaking of classified information by employees of the U.S. government appears to have increased in recent years, "establishing a dangerous trend that, if not addressed swiftly and firmly, likely will worsen."
"We are hopeful that you will be able to accomplish this task in a bipartisan manner given general agreement that intelligence matters should not be politicized," it added.
The Post story of a week ago said that the CIA has been hiding and interrogating some of its most important al-Qaida captives at a Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe, as part of a covert prison system set up by the agency four years ago that at various times has included sites in eight countries. The eight, said the story, include several democracies in eastern Europe.---------- "Frist,Hastert Consider Prison Leak Probe," ap - Washington ap on Yahoo, 11/08/05
And precisely one month later, on the eight of the month of December :
DECEMBER 8, 2005 : (FOX NEWS' O'REILLY FACTOR : ABC NEWS CORRESPONDENT BRIAN ROSS APPEARS TO DISCUSS WOT DETAINEE "BLACK" PRISONS IN EUROPE - See SECRETPRISONSLEAK) ABC News Correspondent Brian Ross appeared on The O’Reilly Factor to discuss the exposure of detainee prisons in Western Europe. Ross is among a handful of reporters who have exposed these black prisons and embarrassed our country. Ross says he does not feel that this hurts the USA’s image around the world, in fact he thinks what he did helped it. ------DOWNLOAD and view video here. ABC Reporter Exposes Detainee Prisons, Proud Of His Work (VIDEO) thepoliticalteen.net ^ | December 8, 2005
I once thought it was viral but now I'm leaning toward hereditary.
Just compare many of the heated threads here on FR with those on DU. About the only way to tell the difference is the DU threads usually aren't as ugly in referring to the President.
Timing is everything. ABC had a story which was shaky and probably would not get much notice, until the fat boy came out in defense of the indefensible Mr. Jefferson. Before the ABC story came out, the fat boy looked like he and every member in both parties had a lot to hide and a lot to be afraid of. It is not like there are very many in Congress doing the people's business, they are owned by special interests. Whether it be the Democrats by the trial lawyers or Republicans by defense contractors. Using unmanned aircraft to stop illegal immigrants is simply a form of welfare for the defense contractors. There are lot of things that could be done to enforce our borders, using those expensive unmanned aircraft for border patrol defies commons sense.
I will disagree. If that were true, we would have heard about this 6 months ago through leaks when the Ambroff scandal was breaking and repubs were allegedly being linked. Shortly thereafter, Reid was implicated in receiving like $67,000 from Ambroff clients, so the donks and the msm would have been screaming and pointing fingers at Hastert. It would have been page one for weeks.
Does not pass the smell test and most here are not stupid enough to keep taking the bait after DOJ explicit denials. I will trust the DOJ spokesperson any day over ABC.
Are you trying to get me and others to get frustrated and stay home in Nov? If so, pretty lame try.
In my fairly new opinion, they are donks and not very good at disguising themselves.
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