Delay, Abramoff, Scanlon, and Thatcher (Scandals-R-Us)

[RSchewe]

The Stakeholder:

Widening Still

Posted by jesselee
Monday, October 3, 2005 at 1:29 PM

Man, that's wide...

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=16201986&method=full&siteid=94762&headline=keep-it-sealed-keep-it-secret--name_page.html">KEEP IT SEALED KEEP IT SECRET

A DOCUMENT linking Margaret Thatcher to a US corruption probe is so explosive civil servants have been asked to ensure it remains "sealed".

The 79-year-old former Premier is said to have met Congressman Tom DeLay in Britain while he was on a suspected favours-for-freebies scam.

In return for his free holiday, DeLay - who resigned as Republican leader of Congress last week after being accused of laundering political funds - allegedly backed legislation favourable to lobby groups.

Disclosing that US authorities were seeking aid from UK counterparts, a secret Home Office briefing says: "One visit to the UK involved a meeting with Mrs Margaret Thatcher.

"Evidence is sought from her about that meeting and her involvement in the alleged deception and violation of US criminal laws."

Police will "sensitively" investigate the meeting, which took place in May 2000.

In the dossier headed "Secret...wider circulation strictly forbidden", civil servants then warn ministers: "There would be considerable press interest in this case if it were to become public knowledge.

"We have been asked by the US to keep this request 'sealed', which we take to mean as confidential as possible. This has been relayed to the Crown Office and Metropolitan Police.

Feel free to take The Mirror's details with a grain of salt, but here's http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2029532005">a more reliable source for the basics.

Back on this side of the pond...

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/3378292">Indictment not only cloud hovering over DeLay

The prospects of Tom DeLay ever returning to a leadership position in Congress may be jeopardized more by scandals rooted in Washington than this week's indictment in Texas.

Particularly worrisome for DeLay are a federal investigation into the dealings of Jack Abramoff, a lobbyist who had close ties to the Sugar Land Republican, and a House ethics committee examination of DeLay's trips and any other activities with Abramoff.

"Either being linked to Abramoff in a federal criminal indictment (of Abramoff) or a finding against him by the ethics committee would be hugely damaging," said Thomas Mann, a senior political analyst with the liberal-leaning Brookings Institution.

Larry Noble, a former Federal Elections Commission lawyer, said the accumulation of ethics concerns surrounding DeLay could put him at a "tipping point" where even Republican loyalists feel the party is better served with him relegated to the sidelines.

<...>

If Abramoff offers his unqualified cooperation, he could have plenty to say about a series of extravagant trips he took with DeLay that have raised questions about whether the lawmaker violated rules covering gifts from lobbyists.

One of the people who reportedly has been talking with federal investigators probing Abramoff is Michael Scanlon, a former DeLay aide who later became a business associate of Abramoff in deals that led to the alleged bilking of $82 million from the Indian clients.

Scanlon could be a bridge between the SunCruz case and the Abramoff investigation in Washington, because he did public relations work for the Florida company and for Abramoff's Indian clients. He also could be a source of information on whether DeLay was improperly influenced by trips, gifts or campaign contributions.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/12/AR2005081201547.html">Scanlon, Scanlon, what have you been singin'?

The potential cooperation of Scanlon with prosecutors could provide crucial evidence in the federal task force investigation of Abramoff and his lobbying.

http://blog.dccc.org/mt/archives/003647.html

I forget how the saying goes but, you are who you associate yourself with, and Delay got a huge group of crooks he can be associated with.

[calimary]

1. How 'bout "by thy friends art thou known."

Don't remember where that's from, but I do use that quote fairly frequently. Birds of a feather and all that stuff.

[RSchewe]

2. Thanks, I would like to say it properly. Now I know... n/t

[Sydnie]

3. What ever became of

the South African scandal and Thatcher's son? I don't think I ever heard what the outcome was. Thatcher has had her problems too. Wasn't it Thatcher that told poppy not to go soft in the first gulf war?

[Joe Chi Minh]

4. Wasn't Thatcher's son

convicted of racketeering in the US?

[Sydnie]

5. things that make you go hummmmmmmmm

<snip>

In 1987, Mark Thatcher married Diane Burgdorf, the conservative Lutheran daughter of a millionaire Texas car dealer. They reportedly met at a party for D Magazine, a Dallas lifestyle publication, while Thatcher was living in Texas as a representative of the luxury automotive company Lotus Cars. They have a son and a daughter, Michael Thatcher and Amanda Margaret Thatcher. The family moved to South Africa possibly to avoid bad publicity because of allegations of racketeering that resulted in a £4 million civil action in 1994.

On April 3, 2005, Sir Mark, then living with his widowed mother in London, announced that his family will reside in Europe after he was refused a residence visa to live in the United States, presumably as a result of his guilty plea in South Africa in re his alleged unwitting involvement in an attempted coup d'etat in Equatorial Guinea. His children, he stated, will be educated in the United States. In September 2005 his divorce was announced.


....

Thatcher is alleged by Saudi dissident Mohammed Khilewi and British Member of Parliament Sir Tam Dalyell to have received a multimillion-pound commission on the £20 billion Al Yamamah arms contract with Saudi Arabia, which his mother signed in 1985 as Prime Minister. However, according to The Guardian, "Sir Mark has always denied receiving this payment or exploiting his mother's connections in business dealings."

Other widely reportedly Thatcher embarrassments include reported U.S. tax evasion (the criminal case was eventually dropped) and a racketeering case in Texas (it was settled out of court). According to "The Telegraph" (August 26, 2004), "In 1998, he was at the centre of a scandal after he lent huge sums of money at exorbitant interest rates to more than 900 local police officers and civil servants in Cape Town. He admitted lending the cash but insisted that he had done nothing wrong. He is also thought to have profited from contracts to supply aviation fuel in various African countries."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Thatcher

[Joe Chi Minh]

6. Thanks. Pretty much what I thought.

I thought he'd been formally convicted of racketeering, at first, but settlement out of court scarcely suggests innocence.

[RSchewe]

7. NYT confirms Thatcher questioning in article about Delay's new indictments

(snip)

The new indictment was issued as Bush administration officials confirmed news reports in London that the Justice Department had asked the British police to question former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher about the circumstances of her meeting in 2000 with Mr. DeLay during a trip to Britain organized by the Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

more...


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/04/politics/04delay.html