Abramoff Tied to NSA Government Contracting Scandal

[leveymg]

Enron-Global Crossing-Qwest common link: Jack Abramoff

Yet another scandal-plagued corporation with close ties to GOP fixer Jack Abramoff is in the news. Telecommunications giant Qwest bid on huge NSA contracts for outsourced IT services to develop secret surveillance capabilities that ended up being used by the Bush Administration for illegal domestic spying.

A federal judge in Denver yesterday denied former Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio's plan to use classified government contracting documents in his defense against insider trading charges. Reuters reported:

"Qwest in 2002 had to restate $2 billion in revenue for the two preceding years. The fallout from the scandal triggered civil and criminal action against Qwest and its former executives, including Nacchio.

Nacchio's attorneys, in another filing unsealed on Monday, said the former executive's knowledge of classified government contracts anticipated by Qwest in 2001 "is one of the key elements to his defense."

Even before revelations of massive NSA domestic spying, Big Telecoms appear to have engaged in a whole host of dirty dealings and intrigue that involved Abramoff. As UpInArms pointed out at DU yesterday, Qwest was previously implicated in improper transactions with Enron to inflate both companies' bottom lines.http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2061397 Global Crossing -- yet another bankrupted market-maker -- was doing shady business with Qwest, a spin-off of Verizon.(1)

Jack Abramoff presents a common link between all these scandal-plagued companies. Abramoff's former law firm, Greenberg Traurig (GT) has operated as a deal-maker and arm of the GOP and the Bush White House at a number of crucial junctures.(2); also, See, http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

Abramoff's close associate, former Tom DeLay Chief of Staff Ed Buckham, was Enron's registered lobbyist.(3)

Here we see Abramoff at the center of yet another web of corporate and government corruption. As we pull back a layer of his incredibly convoluted influence-peddling career, Jack appears to be a link in the emerging NSA domestic spying scandal.

NOTES:

1)Qwest and Verizon Wireless are the same company, according to the company's FCC filing: http://www.fcc.gov/transaction/qwest-verizon.html

Qwest Wireless - Verizon Wireless
Timeline | Orders & Public Notices | Record Documents | Applications | Background | Contacts
Qwest Wireless, LLC and Cellco Partnership d/b/a Verizon Wireless Seek Commission Consent for the Assignment of Sixty-two Broadband Personal Communications Services Licenses

2) According to the Center for Public Integrity, Verizon is one of the five biggest lobbying clients for Jack Abramoff's former law firm, Greenberg Traurig: http://www.publicintegrity.org/telecom/analysis/Influen...

Lobbying firm information for Greenberg, Traurig, Hoffman, Lipoff, Rosen & Quentel

Lobbying Records

Lobbying by client
Company Name Total %
Forstmann Little & Co. $220,000 32.35%
Covad Communications Co. $180,000 26.47%
Viacom Inc. $120,000 17.65%
Singapore Technologies, Inc $100,000 14.71%
Verizon Communications Inc. $60,000 8.82%
Total $680,000

Source: U.S. Senate Office of Public Records lobbying disclosure records from 1998 to 2004.

3) According to the Washington Post, one of Abramoff's closest associates, former Tom DeLay Chief of Staff Ed Buckham, was registered lobbyist for Enron. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12416-20... ; also, see, SourceWatch for more on Buckham's Alexander Strategy Group, http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Alexander_St...

WaPo: "Buckham, a former chief of staff to DeLay, was at the time (of the much-publicized Scotland golf trip paid for by Abramoff) was registered lobbyist for AT&T, Enron Corp., and the Nuclear Energy Institute. DeLay's wife was employed, at the time of the trip, by Buckham's lobbying firm, the Alexander Strategy Group, and was receiving a salary from it, according to DeLay's personal financial disclosure statement for that year, on file with the House clerk."

[Double T]

1. Republicans breed political and corporate corruption that will......

bring down this entire nation. The repukes are following in the steps of the Romans that destroyed an empire.

[Roland99]

2. Nice research. I assume there's an Abramoff thread in the Research forum?

[Just Me]

3. Good Lawd. My head is spinning.

The corruption is,...everywhere! x(

[mwb970]

10. And it's all connected! (n/t)

[jimshoes]

4. What a cesspool

these people have created. And they all thought they were going to get away with it. I hope they all wind up in prison for life at hard labor.

[cantstandbush]

5. Everyone of the criminals is trying to use 9/11 and classified info as

a defense for their criminal behavior.

[bettyellen]

6. just like Libby- my defense is classified. glad the judge sadi no.

[Carni]

7. OMG! These ASSHOLES Forstmann Little & Co. $220,000 32.35%

How nice I lost a bunch of money in telecom stock a few years back due to these P's OF S--- and their games!

[Carni]

8. 911?Question/ WHEN in 01 did quest know they had the contracts?

I am looking at the below from the OP:

"Qwest in 2002 had to restate $2 billion in revenue for the two preceding years. The fallout from the scandal triggered civil and criminal action against Qwest and its former executives, including Nacchio.

Nacchio's attorneys, in another filing unsealed on Monday, said the former executive's knowledge of classified government contracts anticipated by Qwest in 2001 "is one of the key elements to his defense."

So when did Nacchio know of the anticipated contracts? If it was PRE 9-11 wouldn't that look just a tad bit suspicious? It would prove that bush was planning on wire tapping before 9-11 occurred, wouldn't it? Or am I thinking about this wrong?

[leveymg]

9. That was for contracts to outsource NSA's IT infrastructure

At that time,before 9/11, the Agency was undergoing a major transformation of its technology infrastructure, and Information Technology (IT) capabilities -- the ability to tap into web-based communications networks -- was outsourced to private sector contractors. Previously, all that work was done in house by NSA employees.

The NSA today is largely a privatized entity -- particularly domestic surveillance. It really is the telephone company (the descendants of ATT, anyway)that is spying on us. You should see the 1960s spy comedy with James Coburn, "In Like Flynt" to appreciate the reference.

Private sector contractors took over many NSA functions in 2000 and 2001. There were obvious security concerns about that, but money and expedience won out. As to whether that provided an opening to anyone who would have wanted to exploit that vulnerability for penetration and misuse of data before 9/11, we may or may not ever know. It raises a line of inquiry for investigation.

[Carni]

11. Ok thanks I understand this better now

So this was outsourced from NSA internally under the auspice of saving money (God only know what they were really doing!)

[htuttle]

12. The movie you're thinking of...

...is called 'The President's Analyst'. While it starred James Coburn, it wasn't one of the Flint movies. The bad guys were working for 'TPC', ie., "The Phone Company".

[leveymg]

13. Right you are.

Perhaps you'll recall: "Reach out, reach out and crush someone" That was a tee-shirt people wore at the Anti-trust Dept. at Justice in the late 'seventies when AT&T was being broken up.

God, this was a different town, then.

[donkeyotay]

14. Scandal overload. I feel like Bill the Cat going to cough up a hairball..

Between Abramoff and Cunningham, it is becoming increasingly clear that the people in office, the people relieving us of our tax dollars, the people who mysteriously win elections and are not held accountable for little details like 9-11 and war, are all in the same crime family.