Hey these guys are in the suit also.

Team Coleman has sucessfully ducked that question since August 4th.

http://www.mnblue.com/node/2430

Bomb Iran, Just Bomb Iran….

Bob Ney: “They’ve taken bloodsport to a whole new level in this administration”

A couple weeks ago Ken wondered why a liberal-leaning talk radio network had hired early-release Republicrook Bob Ney. I wondered the same thing. Looks like Air America’s Thom Hartmann got to the bottom of it. And I’m still shocked– although, frankly, by now none of us should be shocked by anything the Bush Crime Family pulls. Hartmann is comparing the Bush Regime’s treatment of Ney, a right wing Republican hack with their jihad against Alabama Democratic Governor Don Siegelman!

According to Hartmann’s interview with Ney, the Bush Regime was up to their old tricks, this time in regard to Iran– and Ney got in the way. Transcript:

Thom Hartman: You were prosecuted by the Bush Administration for what Ellen has characterized to me as mostly … a political prosecution because you were pushing back on Iran. Can you speak to that? Please?
Ney: At the end of the day, I brought a lot of things on myself and I did some things that were wrong; but I also believe that part of this was fueled in the sense of the Iran issue.

It’s been no secret that when I went to prison I gave permission for a secret meeting I’d had with Mr. Gorman who came from Switzerland. He presented a document that was absolutely incredible, where Iran would have recognized Israel and a whole host of other things, would have let our inspectors on their ground; and I said that to the White House; I’ll stand by that today; the white house denies it, but Colin Powell’s former assistant admits that that [document] came over to the State Department and the White House wanted no part of it.

I believe that every step of the way, and I think it came more from Cheney’s people, but every step of the way that I attempted to deal with Iran, it got pretty harsh back. So I think part of this, I gave them the bullets, but I think some of the force was also involved with Iran and people that would rather see those countries not communicate, no matter who is head of Iran.

Hartmann: So Iran came to you, because you speak Farsi and you are the Iran expert in the House of Representatives…

Ney: Ambassador Goolaban, who was ambassador from Switzerland to Iran, he came to me.

Hartmann: Their representative, in other words they approached you through their legal representative…

Ney: And I had participated in the meeting in Stockholm…

Hartmann: And they said that they would recognize Israel and that they would allow UN inspectors into their nuclear sites, and you passed that information along to the White House, it fell down the rabbit hole and immediately you were being prosecuted.

Ney: It, it fell down the rabbit hole, there was a lot of kickback; I know that Gorman had terrible problems after that, I think through mainly Rumsfeld’s people and Cheney’s people. That’s what happened after that agreement.

Hartmann: It so sounds like the Don Siegelman story and the Paul Minor story, and if you’re not familiar with those two stories, I encourage you to do a little Googling. I think that we have political prisoners in the United States now.

Ney: Well, I know that the harshness of the administration, and again, I take culpability, I did some wrong things, but when you get in their path, I think they’ve taken bloodsport to a new level in this administration.

Hartmann: “They’ve taken blood sport to a new level; what a quote! Congressman Bob Ney, thank you for coming on our program and sharing candidly with us.”

Warning to DWT readers: if you notice Bob Ney getting onto a plane you’re on, switch your flight… immediately.

Labels: Bob Ney, Don Siegelman, Iran, Thom Hartmann

Inside the National Iranian-American Council (NIAC)

Robert William (Bob) Ney is a current federal prisoner and a former Ohio Congressman from 1995 until November 3, 2006. On October 13, 2006 Ney pled guilty

Department of Justice – Statement on Bob Ney

Kiel, P. “Ney Faces Possible 2 Years Plus in Prison.” (09-15-2006)

to charges of conspiracy and making false statements in relation to the Jack Abramoff lobbying and bribery scandal. Ney reportedly received bribes from Abramoff, other lobbyists, and two foreign businessmen – a felon and an arms dealer – in exchange for using his position to advance their interests.
Conspicuously missing from this dossier of disservice to the country is Ney’s masterful creation of an active and disguised Washington-based lobbying enterprise for the Iranian theocratic regime, The National Iranian-American Council (NIAC). NIAC is an effective node of Tehran’s comprehensive US lobbying web. This article will address the creation of NIAC, the motives underlying its formation, NIAC’s manifesto, Tehran’s role, NIAC’s connection to Iran’s oil mafia, and NIAC attempts to penetrate the US political system.

Creation of NIAC

The main actors behind the creation of the National Iranian-American Council (NIAC) were four non Iranian-Americans: Roy Coffee, Dave DiStefano, Bob Ney and Trita Parsi. Coffee and DiStefano, both Washington lobbyists, were investigated by the Justice Department for arranging a trip for Bob Ney to meet a known felon and a Syrian arms dealer in an effort to circumvent sanctions to sell US-made airplane parts to Tehran.

Roy Coffee sent a letter to the Dallas Morning News in February 2006 to justify his relationship with the two London-based felons. Part of the letter discussed the creation of NIAC in 2002. In this letter, Coffee described the events following the meeting of his former classmate Darius Baghai (who had just returned from Iran) with Bob Ney:

Re: A Lawyer in Trouble. Front Burner, (February 1, 2006)

From that meeting, Darius, Dave and I began to work with Trita Parsi, another Iranian-American, to try to form a political action committee of Iranian-Americans to pursue a strategy of normalization of relations between the two countries. The 4 of us worked very hard for about 9 months to form this committee.
Trita Parsi at the time was a Swedish-Iranian graduate student in his early twenties with ties to Iran’s ambassador in Sweden.

Payvand Site: Dialog between Iranian Ambassador and Iranian exiles in Sweden. (03/13/00)

He was working part-time as a Congressional aid in Ney’s office in Washington on a temporary visa. Parsi was subsequently appointed president of NIAC. Should we believe that one of the most expensive lobbying teams in the US, one of the most corrupt lawmakers in Washington and a Congressional aid in his office, none of them Iranian-American, worked hard for nine months out of their humanitarian concern for the Iranian people?

The New Lobby

In the 1990’s, the American-Iranian Council (AIC), with backing from multinational oil companies, was a front for the Iran’s lobbying efforts in the US. Houshang Amir-Ahmadi served as its president. Amirahmadi has been an active pro-Tehran player in the US since the early 1980s. While residing in the US, he was also a presidential candidate in Iran’s elections. He officially collaborated with different Iranian institutions and notably the foreign ministry.

Dariush Sadjadi – Document

In 1999 and 2000 Trita Parsi was closely working with Amirahmadi and was well positioned in the leadership of AIC.

Payvand Site: “The Iranian Presidential Elections and Its Implications for US-Iran Relations.” (6/4/01)

The Iranian: Jahanshah Javid “Act as a community.” (ed. Iranian, T.) (May 10, 2002)

In 2001, the pro-Iran lobby in the United States became intensely active to prevent the renewal of the Iran Libya Sanctions Act (ILSA), and to improve US-Iran relations. Despite extraordinary pressure from the lobby, ILSA passed overwhelmingly.

Prior to his imprisonment, Bob Ney, in concert with AIC, was Tehran’s dogged warrior in Washington as he relentlessly led Congressional efforts to end ILSA and initiate Tehran-friendly policies. Ney, disappointed and angered by the ILSA vote, began to plan for the next battle of the war.

The ILSA vote doesn’t look very promising, but that doesn’t mean the struggle should stop on this entire issue. It is a matter of education and re-education and people getting together and forming a citizen’s lobby to make sure that members of Congress and their offices are educated on this issue.
- Speech to AIC, June 2001 (Emphasis added).

AIC UPDATE – Vol. 2, No. 20. (May 2005)

While Ney was hard at work “forming a citizen’s lobby,” Trita Parsi claimed that the majority of lawmakers voted against their true wills. In a tone apologetic to Tehran, he expressed his hope that the Iranian regime understood that he and his colleagues had worked hard to prevent this result:

Hopefully, Tehran will recognize that an honest attempt was made to defeat or at least weaken the sanctions. The call for a review and Speaker Hastert’s pledge to insist on Congressional action based on the review must also be interpreted by Tehran as a step in the right direction.

We don’t know if Coleman (via his wife) got inappropriate payments or not. But I believe that Coleman changed the tone of the campaign to minimize the lawsuits damage to his candidacy, and filed the suit against Franken for the same reason. Ironic (and seemingly vindicating) that the lawsuit was politically unrelated and filed by a long-time republican supporter.

I’m putting in my summary, because this was a HUGE issue for me when I heard about it. I said to myself that if this is Franken’s doing, its dirty and he’s losing my vote. I also said that if its not Franken’s doing, then its Coleman playing the victim card is just as dirty and he won’t get my vote. After doing 2 hours of reading (this site and others for the perspective story – and Kessler’s report), I believe that Franken is being improperly accused and Coleman knows it and is trying to deflect attention. So…unless the story changes in the next 24 hours, Franken now has my vote.

a fellow independent who cares about the truth

It’s certainly not clear, but that’s how I read it.