It has been awhile since I've covered any news on Jack Murtha's moonbattery. So let's kick this off with what is going on over at the Irey campaign. First is from Irey's website with details about the probe that Diana Irey has asked the Department of Justice to launch on Rep. Jack Murtha for trading earmarks for campaign contributions.
By John Bresnahan
September 27, 2006A Republican challenger to Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) has asked the Justice Department to investigate whether Murtha traded appropriations earmarks for hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the clients of lobbying firms with close ties to the veteran lawmaker, including one where his brother works.
On Tuesday, Washington County Commissioner Diana Irey, Murtha's GOP opponent, delivered a letter to Mary Beth Buchanan, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, requesting that Justice begin a probe of Murtha immediately.
"This is a troubling development - an elected official should never undertake any activity that calls into question his motives," Irey said in a statement. "Nor should he undertake any activity that raises the possibility that he is trading his office for campaign cash."
A Murtha spokesman denied Irey's accusations, calling it a political stunt by a long-shot challenger.
"This is coming from a very desperate political candidate who is hanging on by her fingernails to try to stay in this race," said Ed Mitchell, Murtha's spokesman.
The allegations about Murtha's relationship with the PMA Group and KSA Consulting - a lobbying firm that employs Murtha's brother, Kit Murtha, as well as a former aide - were first reported by the Los Angeles Times in June 2005.
Since then, some House Republicans have called publicly for an ethics probe of Murtha, although no GOP lawmakers have stepped forward to officially file a complaint against him. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington recently included Murtha on a list of the most corrupt Members of Congress.
Taxpayers for Common Sense, another government watchdog group, analyzed the 2006 Defense spending bill and found at least 60 earmarks for PMA clients worth more than $95 million. Murtha is the ranking member of the House Appropriations subcommittee on Defense.
"Over the last six years, officials and clients of the PMA Group have contributed roughly $800,000 to Congressman Murtha's campaign fund," Irey said. "In return, they have received at least $95 million in federal contracts, loans, and grants. That's a better than 100-to-1 return on investment."
Mitchell said it was not surprising that defense companies, which make up the bulk of PMA's clients, would give to Murtha due to his position on the Defense subcommittee and his reputation as a strong supporter of national security, despite his more recent turn against the Iraq War.
Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.), a Murtha ally, became the subject of a federal investigation after a conservative organization wrote the Justice Department seeking a probe of his personal financial holdings. Mollohan was later forced to step down as ranking member of the House ethics committee, but he has kept his seat on the powerful Appropriations Committee.
But Murtha's problems don't stop there. Remember the old ABSCAM bribery scandal? What you may not remember is that Jack Murtha was up to his eyeballs in the ABSCAM mess, in fact, he is one of the unindicted coconspirators. Well, up to now there has only been a few second snippet of the bribery tape available, but now the American Spectator has located a copy of the full tape.
The American Spectator: "For more than 26 years, Congressman John P. 'Jack' Murtha (D-Penn.) has not been truthful about his involvement in Abscam, court records and the complete video of his meeting with the FBI show.
In recent years, only a 13-second video of Murtha's videotaped meeting with the FBI agents was publicly available. TAS has obtained a copy of the full, original video from a source close to the Abscam investigation on the condition of anonymity. The court transcript is publicly available at the National Archives. (To see the full 54 minute video, click here. For a transcript of the meeting, click here.)
"Murtha has repeatedly maintained his innocence in the Abscam sting operation, even as recently as this year. However, his November 20, 1980 testimony in the trial of Congressmen Frank Thompson (D-N.J.) and John Murphy (D-N.Y.) and the FBI's complete undercover video of his January 7, 1980 meeting with its agent and informant reveal a man showcasing his political influence and apparently tempted to take a $50,000 bribe.
On the tape, Murtha appears eager to arrange his own, long-term deal with the supposed representatives of Arab sheiks, and to cut out Thompson and Murphy. His testimony reveals that after his January 7 meeting, he looked into helping the sheiks enter the country, rather than contacting the FBI or the Ethics Committee, of which he was a member. Through the years, Murtha has maintained that he only met with the FBI agents to discuss investments in his district. His testimony, the video, and the cases of other congressmen snared in Abscam suggest that "investments in the district" was a common Abscam defense for those accused of bribery. full story
Wasting no time, Diana Irey called a full press conference where she released the following statement, which details graphically what the video depicts. It isn't pretty.
(JOHNSTOWN, September 30) -- Washington County Commissioner and Pennsylvania 12th district Republican Congressional nominee Diana Irey -- responding to the release yesterday of the 26-year-old, never-before-seen full FBI ABSCAM surveillance video starring Congressman Jack Murtha -- this morning held a press conference in Johnstown, where she released the following statement:
"Yesterday was a disappointing and disturbing day here in the 12th Congressional District, because yesterday we learned that the overwhelming majority of Jack Murtha's tenure in Congress has been the result of a fraud he perpetrated on his constituents more than a quarter century ago.
"For the first time ever, the public can now see for itself the full, unedited, 54-minute-long FBI surveillance video of Jack Murtha's meeting in a Georgetown townhouse with a man he believed to be the representative of an Arab oil sheik who wanted to trade tens of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for help in getting into America.
"What the FBI undercover surveillance tape makes clear is two-fold: First, that -- contrary to his assertions at the time, and ever since -- it is clear that Jack Murtha believed he had made a deal to accept $50,000 in cash in exchange for helping that Arab oil sheik get into the country with special, private legislation; and, second, that his stated defense for the last 26 years -- that he went to the meeting solely to discuss business investments in the District -- was a fraud at the time, and has been a fraud ever since.
"First, to the matter of the deal itself. Early in the meeting, Jack Murtha designated Howard Criden -- a Philadelphia attorney acting as a middleman -- as his agent, to accept the $50,000 on his behalf. You can see that about 16 minutes into the tape, or find it on page 5 of your transcript, where Mr. Murtha says, 'I'll deal through Howard … eh, uh … in this thing.'
"Howard Criden had already played the same role -- bag man -- for Congressman Frank Thompson in an earlier meeting with the same undercover FBI agent. In that meeting, Criden had accepted a satchel containing $50,000, saying he was accepting the cash on Thompson's behalf. At that meeting, Thompson's own promises of aid for the sheik had already been recorded on videotape, so the idea that Howard Criden would act as the physical intermediary, responsible for actually taking the cash out of the room and then handing it to the Congressmen later, was already well-established with the undercover FBI agents running the sting operation.
"Back to the meeting with Jack Murtha. Roughly 48 minutes into the 54-minute-long meeting -- found on page 15 of the transcript before you -- you see a notation in brackets: 'Criden and Murtha walk in.' That's because a few moments before, the two men had stepped outside, into the hallway, apparently to have a private conversation.
"Upon their return, Howard Criden says to Anthony Amoroso, the undercover FBI agent posing as the representative of the sheik, 'John says that it is okay for you to give me what's in that drawer.' [The drawer he was referring to, of course, is the desk drawer in which agent Amoroso had already placed $50,000 in cash.] Jack Murtha then immediately follows, explaining to Mr. Amoroso, 'Is that all right, Tony, let me make it very clear. The other two guys [Congressmen Frank Thompson and John Murphy] do expect to be taken care of, as Howard. And you're gonna have to deal through Howard. Me, you've got my deal.' Criden then acknowledges, 'We have a deal.'
"But Amoroso, the FBI agent, is apparently determined to pressure Criden and Murtha by feigning that he's been insulted -- and he begins complaining that he was sent to deal directly with Jack Murtha, not the middleman Criden. A face-off ensues, neither side getting satisfaction, until Criden and Amoroso have an exchange regarding their previous experience with Congressman Thompson. Criden reminds Amoroso that Thompson, too, was 'gun shy,' to which Amoroso responds by reminding Criden that nothing happened to Thompson after their earlier deal was done, implying that nothing would happen to Murtha, either. Criden's response: 'But wait a minute. You're not trying to tell me that he doesn't know about the money because you already mentioned it to him three times. So that if he takes it he knows that I ain't gonna keep it --.' Amoroso then ends the meeting by telling Criden that he'll be taken care of on the following Thursday, when he is set to return with Congressman John Murphy, and reminds Criden that he will be there for a week.
"Leaving a room where one has just been offered $50,000 in cash, only to return two minutes later with a bag man saying 'John says that it is okay for you to give me what's in that drawer,' is not something done by a man who's not aware he's trying to take a bribe.
"These are the actions, rather, of a man who wanted very much to take the bribe -- as he said at one point on the tape, 'you know, I need the [expletive deleted] money like anybody else does' -- but who thought he was clever enough, and careful enough, to have figured out a way to take the bribe without actually accepting the money himself.
"Jack Murtha could have contradicted Howard Criden when Criden said 'John says that it is okay for you to give me what is in that drawer.' He could have said, 'Howard, I never said that.'
"But Jack Murtha did NOT contradict Howard Criden. Instead, he said, 'Is that all right, Tony,' and went on to remind the FBI agent that two other Congressmen 'do expect to be taken care of,' and then to agree with Criden -- 'And you're gonna have to deal through Howard.'
"Just what did Howard Criden and Jack Murtha discuss in the hallway? Did Criden tell Murtha, 'It'll be alright, Jack, I'll take the money, just like I did for Frank Thompson?' I don't know. But I think any reasonable person watching that tape would reasonably conclude that some version of that discussion is EXACTLY what happened in the hallway.
"Jack Murtha believed he had cut a deal. But the deal fell apart -- FOR THE MOMENT -- when he refused to take the money himself.
"Did Jack Murtha call the FBI to report that, as a sitting Member of the House of Representatives, he had just been offered a bribe? Did Jack Murtha call the Speaker of the House of Representatives, or even the Chairman of the House Ethics Committee -- of which he was a member at the time -- to report a bribe attempt?
"No, he did not. Instead, as he testified later in federal court, he called his 'immigration guy,' to determine what could be done on behalf of the sheik. Why? Because he thought he still had a deal.
"Second, the so-called 'Investments Defense' is now demolished, once and for all time.
"As the tape makes clear in numerous places, the only reason Jack Murtha talked about bringing investment into the District was so that it could act as a cover for this exercise. Consider this excerpt from the tape:
"'And what I'm sayin' is, a few investments in my district, a few you know, is big to me, to this guy apparently is not too big, to a couple of banks which would get their attention. And investment in a business where you could legitimately say to me -- when I say legitimately, I'm talking about so these bastards up here can't say to me, well, why, in eight years from now, that's possible, we'd never hear a thing for eight years, but all at once, ah, some dumb bastard would go start talking eight years from now, ah, about the whole thing and say, '[expletive deleted], ah, this happened,' then he, then he, in order to get immunity so he doesn't go to jail, he starts talking and fingering people and then the [expletive deleted] all falls apart.'
"Just a few moments later in the tape, Mr. Murtha continues, discussing what he calls 'a business commitment' in the district:
"'A business commitment that makes it imperative for me to help him. Just, let me tell you something. I'm sure if -- and there's a lot of things I've done up here, with environmental regulations, with all kinds of waivers of laws and regulations. If it weren't for being in the district, people would say … "Well that [expletive deleted], I'm gonna tell you something … This guy is, uh, you know, on the take." Well once they say that, what happens? Then they start going around looking for the [expletive deleted] money. So I want to avoid that by having some tie to the district. That's all. That's the secret to the whole thing.'"
"'That's the secret to the whole thing.' Investment not for the sake of investment, but because 'that's the secret' to how you can take a bribe and get away with it.
"Jack Murtha has not been telling the truth for 26 years. You can believe what he says, or you can believe your own eyes. But you cannot believe both.
"Jack Murtha, as we all know, is a powerful man, and he may never see the inside of a court room -- not for his role in Abscam, where he became the second-most-famous unindicted coconspirator in history, nor even for his more recent actions in apparently trading tens of millions of dollars worth of earmarked federal appropriations for hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions.
"But a court room is not the only place a public official faces a verdict -- the voters get to pass judgment, too. And on November 7, I am confident that the citizens of the 12th Congressional District will cast their votes to restore honor and integrity to the House of Representatives, by voting to send Jack Murtha to an early retirement."
To learn more about ABSCAM and Jack Murtha's record, please visit www.youdontknowjack.org.
It is time to vote this dishonest, senile old man out of office.
Join Bootmurtha.com:
Boot Murtha Rally - Sunday, Oct. 1st
Time — 2:00 pm Place: Cambria County War Memorial Arena (Johnstown, PA)
And don't forget to check in regularly with:
Support Diana Irey Visit her website and sign up for her email updates. A contribution to her campaign, or to Vets4Irey.com, would help her get her word out and defeat Rep. John Murtha.
And Diana Irey is one of the approved candidates on the new Rightroots list, so this is one more way you can donate and help her campaign.
As most who attended the rally know, I was there. After the dust had cleared created by some moonbat among the bootmurtha crowd who called in a fake police report that a fight had broken out, Larry Bailey came out to speak with me.
I complimented him from the bottom of my heart for the contributions he has made to our country's national security while he was serving active duty in the US Navy.
He made it clear my request to speak would not happen. He then proceeded to suggest he has no memory of the email he wrote me on 8/20/2006 2:59:30 P.M. Eastern Standard Time stating that our current Commander in Chief made stupid mistakes in Iraq.
Larry then proceeded to illustrate stupid mistakes made in passed wars. After he mentioned 3 or 4 examples I interjected that there is a difference between those wars and this one.
In the past it took weeks, months, sometimes years for mistakes to be discovered and reported. Today is the information age where mistakes are reported within hours of their occurrence. I reminded him this war was still going on. I also reminded him of the glaring mistakes he had acknowledged President Bush had made in Iraq, and our respective use of the Internet to support our respective views and that is where our conversation ended.
I waited outside the Arena with a Johnstown police officer who had stayed behind after the bootmurtha hysterics caused 3 squad cars and a sergeant to arrive with sirens blaring. I was debating Steeler football with him when a motorcycle officer stopped by, who had been inside. When I asked how many were inside he said, "not many at all" When I asked "500?", he responded, "na ... well maybe 500, at most."
At the end of the event when Larry Bailey came out for a photo op next to the bootmurtha.com sign on the sidewalk outside the War Memorial Arena. I handed Larry the speech I had waited to deliver. He put it in his outside left coat pocket.
This is my speech Larry Bailey has in his coat pocket ... the words he was not man enough to let me say:
"Please join me in Prayer.
Heavily father we pray today for you to continue to protect the men and women of the armed forces of the United States and other countries who are in harms way in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other countries throughout the world. We thank them and their families for their sacrifices.
We pray for the souls of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in all wars. We pray for strength and courage for the POWs and MIAs and those held hostage.
We pray for protection and safety of relief workers helping those in need.
We pray for the protection of children and innocent civilians. Lord we especially pray for our nation and our leaders."
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Below you will find the press release that went out on October 29th of this year.
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LARRY BAILEY (BOOTMURTHA.COM) OCTOBER 1ST RALLY IN JOHNSTOWN, PA.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Cliff Hancuff
September 29, 2006 (202) 247-1418
[email protected]
"American troops could be home now, except for critical mistakes made by our current Commander in Chief," charges Cliff Hancuff, Director of The World of Journalism Is Flat, Too.
"Media and right-wing bloggers are ignoring this fact. For weeks I have been challenging political activists and journalists to act with a minimum of ethical standards," continued Hancuff.
"I became involved when the Sun-Sentinel in Florida reported that Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) said the U.S. poses the top threat to world peace. I watched in dismay as the media and bloggers worldwide reported on this misquote."
"My involvement continued when I discovered Diana Irey, John Murtha's political opponent, had attacked Murtha using a fictional quote attributed to Abraham Lincoln."
"Larry Bailey of bootmurtha.com is continuing his three year blind support of our current Commander in Chief's incompetence in war. President Bush declared war in Iraq without the 4th Infantry, our most lethal, modern, and deployable heavy division in the world," added Hancuff.
This mistake lead to the atrocity of Al Qaqaa. Iraqi insurgents stole hundreds of tons of high explosives to be used as weaponry.
"These are the explosives being used by Iraqi insurgents and al Qaeda to perpetuate the war in Iraq."
"I am distressed that the same issues ignored by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth in 2004 are being ignored again in 2006," said Hancuff adding, "Americans, American soldiers, and their families deserve better."
"Without these critical mistakes made by our current Commander in Chief, our American troops would be home with their loved ones, with honor, right now."
On October 1, 2006 Hancuff be at the Cambria County War Memorial Arena located in Johnstown Pennsylvania for Larry Bailey's Swiftboating of John Murtha rally. It is there Hancuff will continue his wait for Mr. Bailey to recall the values of honor and integrity taught him by our US Navy.
There is a youtube.com video online at:
YouTube - Rovian Architecture Unplugged
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5jcyHokFyE
The World of Journalism Is Flat, Too
(202) 247-1418
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Posted by: chancuff | 04 October 2006 at 10:12 AM