Bigger than Downing Street, MUCH bigger than Watergate

[redacted]

I just don't see how a story this huge can be prevented from breaking in corporate media. Since this story's going to break wide open anyway, ambitious reporters and editors (like Keith O.) would be wise to drop what they're doing to shift the focus of their research and resources NOW.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2291706

[Burning Water]

1. Which story is this? n/t

[SharonRB]

2. Huh?

What story are you talking about? There are so many out there.

[Pam-Moby]

3. May I ask, what are you talking about????

:shrug:

[leveymg]

4. It's the Wilkes defense contracting scandal that nicked Cunningham

Seems to involve about a dozen GOP Congressmen. Do you really think this is bigger than Abramoff?

Can anyone explain how these cases might be related?

[Geoff R. Casavant]

9. It has the potential to be bigger than Abramoff

If it's the story I think it is. The gist is that a company getting big defense contracts was just a shell to funnel all that cash to Repub political campaigns.

[leveymg]

17. Seems to be a skimming or kickback scheme

by defense contractors, some new and others more established, with ties to Republican Congressmen.

This seems to be another side of the mafia, corporate raiding and terrorist-money network that Abramoff and others have set up to feed the Republican Party Money Machine. See, http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/10/17/122311/72

Hard to say which side of the scandal is more appalling.

[stillcool]

19. The Wilkes defense contractor...

is bogus...how are these cases related? Money Laundering in a big, bold, and brazen way. This story is a must-read.

[redacted]

25. Parallel to Enron?

Enron: Shell companies used to funnel money and escape auditing.

The public understands that, because the result was the company went bankrupt after the fraud was uncovered, the stock tanked (after the corrupt execs cashed in) and thousands lost their savings and pensions.

In this case, we have shell companies used to funnel money and escape auditing. But in this case, it's our taxpayer money earmarked for defense contractors laundered and funneled to the GOP.

See the parallel here? It shouldn't be much of a stretch for Joe Sixpack to understand how despicable this is because he already understands the Enron game, which is 80 percent of the scam.

The part JS needs to understand is that our tax dollars that should have gone to buy our kids body armour ended up funding the GOP. When Sixpack fully understands this part, the demise of the GOP could be a viable possibility.

[Toots]

27. Yes the idea that Companies are taking Defence funds and are nothing more

than a GOP front company that offer no products. All they do is redistribute tax payer money to Republicans. Yes this is even bigger than Congressmen accepting bribes. It is major fraud and involving shortchanging our troops while engaged in warfare. It is bordering on treason....

[Drum]

5. Followed the links,

to a story about big government graft, diverting money to GOP causes etc...big stuff, but complex. I'm gonna wait for it to boil down from sap to syrup before I'll be able to understand fully.

[Catherine Vincent]

6. It all depends on our wonderful media.

:eyes:

[Quakerfriend]

7. Yes, huge! Did you all notice the terra, terra, terra info all

afternoon.

Watch out- Pandemic, pandemic!!- yada, yada, yada.

When are we going to get out in the streets people?

[hippiechick]

8. ... and that story would be ....

[Bluestar]

10. GAO Investigation our only chance

It would be great if someone like John Conyers could request the GAO look into this. It's the only way we'll ever know the truth.

[pbca]

11. I'm still waiting for the memo from London

That says George Bush wanted to bomb Al-Jazeera in Quatar: Not only is Quatar a US ally, but Al-Jazeera is a legitimate news agency and American, British and Canadian journalists likely would have been killed in the bombing. It would have been taken no differently, by the civilized world, than if Bush had bombed CNN headquarters in Atlanta - an act of unprovoked, state sponsored terrorism and nothing more.

[xchrom]

12. has anyone forwarded the mzm story to

someone imortant?

mzm FOLLOWING on the heels of abramoff would be a deadly blow indeed.

and the money flowing OUT of the pentagon that way -- is pretty stupendous.

[kwolf68]

13. And what became of the Downing Street Memo?

It's now in the kill file. I don't expect anything that remotely topples the artistocracy to come from this. We have enough bread and circusus for now and therefore, most people don't give a shit about the plight of humanity and our visions here.

Afterall, its Christmas time and I gotta go buy more shoddy shit to funnel into the landfill next year while at the same time trying to catch all the standard fare on TV that will further erode my brain.

It's easy being an invalid. Sorry folks. This story will wither away just like all the others we trot out as an example of everything wrong with these criminals running our nation.

[redacted]

20. I disagree, but your post is just great! LOL!

Loved your second paragraph. ROTFL! Ain't is so true!

[rman]

14. GOP illegally funded via defense contracters

Cannonfire
The Wilkes/MZM scandals
Saturday, December 03, 2005
http://cannonfire.blogspot.com/2005/12/deeper-into-wilkesmzm-scandals-updated.html

Randy "Duke" Cunningham is hardly the only Republican politician to receive economic "assistance" from Brent Wilkes, head of the Poway-based "defense" firm ADCS -- a.k.a. the Wilkes Corporation, a.k.a. Group W Advisors, a.k.a. lots of other names.

But they still treat this company as though it were something real. Not a single mainstream reporter has scrutinized those web sites and reported on the obvious signs of fakery.

No reporters -- and, for that matter, no procurement officers at the Pentagon -- bothered to do any checking at the patent office. If they had, they would have found that there are no patents covering the "proprietary" designs and innovative equipment advertised by the many ADCS subsidiary firms.

The truth: Wilkes was a mechanism by which public funds earmarked for national defense were funneled to G.O.P. candidates and causes.

Want proof?

<more>
http://cannonfire.blogspot.com/2005/12/deeper-into-wilkesmzm-scandals-updated.html

[NMDemDist2]

15. sent the CannonFire link to KO and his producer n/t

[pbca]

16. The story I mentioned, in case anyone missed it

22 November 2005
EXCLUSIVE: BUSH PLOT TO BOMB HIS ARAB ALLY
Madness of war memo
By Kevin Maguire And Andy Lines

PRESIDENT Bush planned to bomb Arab TV station al-Jazeera in friendly Qatar, a "Top Secret" No 10 memo reveals.

But he was talked out of it at a White House summit by Tony Blair, who said it would provoke a worldwide backlash.

A source said: "There's no doubt what Bush wanted, and no doubt Blair didn't want him to do it." Al-Jazeera is accused by the US of fuelling the Iraqi insurgency.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=16397937&method=full&siteid=94762&headline=exclusive--bush-plot-to-bomb-his-arab-ally-name_page.html

[redacted]

22. This story is all over the UK media. . .BBC. . .Channel 4. . .you name it,

they've all got it. I saw some of that footage and there must have been 200 cameramen outside the courthouse when those alleged "leakers" were arraigned.

Stories like this are a good reason why we need more UK coverage here on DU. Those two fellows are due for a hearing in a few days, and when it happens, UK media will cover it irrespective of how much our US media ignores the story.

[LifeDuringWartime]

18. dont know how it could be prevented from breaking?

maybe posting a link to a link instead of the actual text :eyes:

[redacted]

23. Give me a break!

Like you LDW I work damm hard for a living, and when the client is yelling about late projects, sometimes there's not enough time to work up the DU post as well as it should be posted. Besides, posting a link directly to the blog leaves out the reactions of our fellow DUers, which is often a good way to quickly grasp whether it's a genuinely important story or a red herring. In this case the reaction posts are almost as interesting as the original story in Canonfire.

[BlueIris]

24. It's so great that people here care more about Joe's blog now.

He did great work on this story and has been doing great work for a long time now. He's an original. Hopefully, he will get to reap the benefits of this recognition for well, if I had my way, ever.

[redacted]

26. Good point! Absolutely right.

[BlueIris]

21. Everyone: IT'S TIME TO GET IN TOUCH WITH YOUR REPS.

ALL OF THEM. E-mail/e-fax/hard fax/phone call or knock on their doors if you have to. It's that important. My senators web forms are mysteriously unavalible at this time, don't know what that's about. But all who can hook up with yours, please do, ASAP. This will be my project for tommorow.