Dennis Hastert On Turkish Payroll: Hastert Paid To Kill The Armenian G
#1
Posted 10 October 2005 - 11:06 AM
Online Journal Contributing Writer
Online Journal, FL
Aug 31 2005
August 31, 2005-Thanks to a Vanity Fair article penned by British
Journalist David Rose, as well as to some excellent follow-up
interviews in the alternative press, the final 'dots' in the story
of fired FBI contract linguist and 9/11 whistleblower Sibel Edmonds
are close to being fully connected.
A case that has been shrouded in unprecedented government secrecy
for over three years is finally being forced into sharp focus,
giving the mainstream press no more excuses to ignore a scandal
that makes Tom DeLay's lobbying shenanigans look like an exercise
in 'good government' by comparison. We now have a very good idea
of the countries, organizations and individuals Edmonds heard in
wiretaps connected with the money laundering, arms dealing and drug
trafficking activities that the whistleblower says facilitated the
crimes of September 11, 2001.
Although the Turkish-American Edmonds had always been creative
in drawing an abstract outline of the official corruption she had
discovered as a translator of Central Asian languages at the FBI,
where she was hired a few days after 9/11, she was hindered from
'naming names' by a series of Justice Department gag orders. However,
the Vanity Fair article has opened a floodgate of new information,
as author Rose was able to obtain leaks from congressional sources
and FBI officials present during Ms. Edmonds classified testimony
before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The article reveals for the first time that one of the elected
officials that bin Laden-connected Turkish nationals claimed to
have on their payroll was none other than Republican House Speaker
Dennis Hastert, to whom bribes and illicit campaign contributions may
have been funneled in order to get him to pull a House Resolution on
Armenian Genocide from the House Floor in 2000. It also reveals that
these same Turkish nationals claimed to have bribed several State
Department and Defense Department officials to facilitate illicit
conventional and nuclear arms trades, and had infiltrated U.S.
nuclear weapons laboratories in order to sell U.S. technology to the
"highest bidder" (al Qaeda, North Korea, Iran?)
The one flaw in the Vanity Fair article is that it seems to boil
Sibel Edmonds' testimony down to an Armenian Genocide resolution, when
actually most of what Edmonds has testified about relates directly to
9-11 (It is not clear why a bunch of Turkish mafia types would have
been so interested in a non-binding resolution on the slaughter of the
Armenians by the Ottoman Turks at the beginning of the 20th Century:
were they acting on behalf of the Turkish government, or were they
afraid a freeze in U.S.-Turkish relations would cut off Turkey as a
transshipment point for heroin and nuclear materials?)
As a result, Ms. Edmonds has been made a pariah in Turkey, while
Dennis Hastert is apparently no worse off than before: except
for one article in USA Today, no major newspaper has reported on
these explosive revelations surrounding the speaker of the House of
Representatives. But although the Rose article missed the mark in
certain respects, it provided a useful launching pad for the follow-up
interviews the FBI whistleblower gave with Amy Goodman, Scott Horton
and Chris Deliso, in which she fleshed out many additional details
of the scandal.
Pulling all this new data together, we now have a pretty good idea
of what exactly Attorney General Ashcroft was trying to hide when
he twice invoked the "State Secrets" privilege to suppress Edmonds'
testimony in the U.S. court system.
Foreign Relations: The Edmonds case has always been quashed by the
State and Justice Departments under the guise of protecting "sensitive
foreign relations." In the Deliso and Horton interviews, Edmonds hints
this is because U.S. "quasi-allies" Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan,
Tajikistan, and at least one Balkan country, are implicated in 9-11,
mainly through partnership with al Qaeda in the global heroin trade.
Government officials: Besides Dennis Hastert, Edmonds testimony
pointed to bribes given to State Department and Pentagon officials.
Edmonds harshest rhetoric is directed at the State Department,
which she hints blocked the investigation into the "drugs for arms"
network, partially because some of its own officials had been bribed.
She also claims that at least some neocons are involved in this
illicit activity.
Organizations: At least three Turkish organizations were apparently
named in Edmonds testimony, including the American Turkish Council
and the Assembly of Turkish American Associations. However, Edmonds,
has spoken of "several" such "semi-legitimate" organizations. Some
of her recent statements may put AIPAC in that category, as well as
other organizations connected to the above mentioned Central Asian
countries (I would personally not be surprised to find the Project
for a New American Century end up on the list someday).
So how does one pull all these new clues together to develop a coherent
narrative of what Edmonds testified to before various Committees and
the 9-11 Commission? One thing that struck this author is the close
parallel between the claims the 'Inconvenient Patriot' has been making
and the testimony given by author Peter Dale Scott at the recent 9/11
symposium organized by Representative Cynthia McKinney. Specifically,
Scott pointed out how the U.S. geopolitical strategy in Central
Asia-primarily designed to gain control of the energy resources in
the region-has led to a tolerance of and maybe even complicity in the
heroin trade and to a much more complex relationship with al Qaeda
than was revealed in the 9-11 Commission Report.
Scott writes: "The truth is that for at least two decades the United
States has engaged in energetic covert programs to secure U.S.
control over the Persian Gulf, and also to open up Central Asia for
development by U.S. oil companies . . . To this end, time after time,
U.S. covert operations in the region have used so-called 'Arab Afghan'
warriors as assets, the jihadis whom we loosely link with the name and
leadership of al Qaeda. In country after country these 'Arab Afghans'
have been involved in trafficking Afghan heroin."
Combining the analysis of Mr. Scott with the testimony of Edmonds,
it would appear that investigative reporter John Stanton had it
exactly right when he wrote that the American people " . . . are easily
sacrificed for a perceived greater good." From the U.S. support for the
drug-running KLA in Kosovo, to its coddling of totalitarian regimes
in Central Asia, it appears that once again the U.S. is complicit in
the drug trade, even though that same trade also benefits our alleged
enemy, Osama Bin Laden. And the heroin is not just going into Europe:
Edmonds makes clear that the pipeline of Southwest Asian heroin to
the United States that closed after the end of the Soviet-Afghan war
has been reopened. The DEA's own website may give credence to her
allegations: According to the its Domestic Monitor Program, Southwest
Asian Heroin, which had previously been brought in small quantities by
West African couriers, principally through JFK Airport in New York,
suddenly began appearing in larger quantities in Washington D.C. in
2001. Was this heroin coming in with the full knowledge and even
the support of the U.S. government? Were these narcotics, and not
some obscure collection of Islamic charities, the primary financing
mechanism for the 9-11 attacks?
Anyone who has studied the history of U.S. intelligence agencies
involvement with drug traffickers and terrorists should not be
surprised about these revelations. However, this would be the first
time as far as this author knows, that the drugs being allowed into
the country by U.S. officials may be financing the very attacks that
endanger our citizen's lives-a fact that would be almost comical if
it were not so tragic. And the next attack, if it comes, could be with
WMD-knowledge obtained not from tinhorn dictators or Iranian mullahs,
but from our own military-industrial complex.
While those of us looking to reopen the 9-11 inquiry have much to be
encouraged about with the recent clues put out by Sibel Edmonds, we
are once again disappointed with the tepid response of the corporate
media, and frankly, the nonresponse of much of the Internet community
(Where are Buzzflash, Josh Marshall, Daily KOS and Juan Cole on
this issue?) Beyond Online Journal, Antiwar.com and Democracy Now,
these stunning allegations have received scant coverage. Yet, if Ms.
Edmonds is correct-and Republican Senator Charles Grassley calling her
'credible' is a strong indicator that she is-then at this very moment,
our nuclear secrets are being sold to the very alleged terrorists
our government claims to be chasing down in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Is there any issue more important than the fact that the reckless
hypocrisy of the U.S. government could result in a nuclear attack on
American soil and the subsequent shredding of what little remains of
the U.S. Constitution? If there is, I'm all ears.
http://www.onlinejou....../083105mejia....
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http://www.hillnews....004/turkey.aspx
Hastert slices Turkey bill
By Jonathan E. Kaplan
House GOP leaders are vowing to kill a controversial amendment that
chastises a key U.S. ally following a successful Democratic maneuver to
pass the bill late last week.
Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Appropriations Foreign
Operations Subcommittee, exasperated House leaders last Thursday when
he accepted a Democratic amendment, which would bar Turkey from
lobbying against a Republican-backed resolution that would call the
Ottoman Empire's killings of 1.5 Armenians during World War I
"genocide."
patrick g. ryan
Turkey would be barred from lobbying against a bill sponsored by Rep.
George Radanovich (Calif.) under a foreigh-operations amendment.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rep. Adam Schiff's (D-Calif.) amendment would deny Turkey the use of
U.S. foreign aid money to lobby against the Armenian genocide
resolution sponsored by GOP Rep. George Radanovich (Calif.). If
enacted, Radanovich's resolution would be the first time Congress
formally marked the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians between 1915 and
1923.
But House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) said he will not schedule
Radanovich's bill for a vote this Congress even though the Judiciary
Committee has passed it.
Schiff, who represents one of the highest concentrations of Armenians
in the United States, said he used the appropriations process because
Hastert has not scheduled a vote. "Leadership understands the House
will vote overwhelmingly to recognize Armenian genocide. ... They chose
wisely to let it be voice voted," he told The Hill.
Radanovich told The Hill: "I think [the amendment] was a good way to
keep Armenian genocide in front of people," adding that his bill will
never be passed because "of the force of the Turkish lobby."
Turkey has tapped former House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bob
Livingston, a lobbying powerhouse, as its Washington representative.
Livingston's associate referred calls to the Turkish Embassy,.
"There is a Turkish-American presence here. [But] the Turkish lobby
is not considered a very strong lobby," said Timur Soylemez, a
Turkish Embassy official. "We are not putting [this issue] at heart
of the Turkish American relationships. Some on the Hill are trying to
poison that relationship. I would very much doubt either the Armenians
or Turks would call it symbolic."
Schiff had redrafted his original proposal, which could not have been
considered under the House rules. But his redrafted account caught
House leaders off guard. During the debate, Kolbe said that was the
first time he had seen the amendment and complained that the language
was not clear.
Republican sources told The Hill that they did not think the House
parliamentarian was going to make Schiff's amendment "in order"
and were surprised when the parliamentarian decided it was. With a few
minutes' notice, appropriators and their aides chose to accept the
amendment. The alternative choice was to risk losing a roll call vote.
In a harshly worded statement, Hastert, Majority Leader Tom DeLay
(R-Texas) and Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) acknowledged their
displeasure with Kolbe and the amendment.
"We are strongly opposed to the Schiff Amendment to the
foreign-operations appropriations bill, and we will insist that
conferees drop that provision in conference. We have also conveyed our
opposition to Chairman Kolbe, and he has assured us that he will insist
on it being dropped in the conference committee," Hastert said.
Kolbe said, "I allowed this because I determined that the amendment
had no practical effect. ... As the chair of pending conference
committee on the Foreign Operations bill, I will insist this
meaningless language be removed in conference."
Armenian genocide has flummoxed Hastert and House Republicans over the
past several years. Many lawmakers want the House to acknowledge the
genocide even though Turkey, a longtime U.S. ally and NATO member,
objects to any such legislation.
In 2000, Hastert promised Schiff's predecessor, then GOP Rep. Jim
Rogan, a vote on a resolution condemning the genocide. But the Clinton
administration lobbied against a vote and Hastert yanked the bill
minutes before its consideration.
Also that year, George W. Bush said that as president, he would
"ensure that our nation properly recognizes the tragic suffering of
the Armenian people."
The White House was less involved this time, said John Feehery,
Hastert's spokesman, simply because House leaders knew the
administration's position.
Even if GOP leaders strip his amendment in a conference committee,
Schiff said:
"I think amendment succeeded in drawing out opposition into the open.
The battle has been joined."
Debate over spending bills has grown increasingly bitter as lawmakers
push their own projects or gain political points. On the foreign aid
bill, lawmakers used the process to object to Bush administration
policies toward Iran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
Rep. Steve Buyer (R-Ind.) introduced an amendment that would bar the
government from using taxpayer money to have United Nations officials
monitor the 2004 elections.
#2
Posted 10 October 2005 - 11:20 AM
Aug 17 2005
Hastert funding is under scrutiny
~U Investigation sought: Group which has ties to Democrats wants
claims of impropriety examined
By Ed Fanselow Staff WRITER
WASHINGTON - A magazine story alleging a covert relationship between
a group of Turkish nationals and House Speaker Dennis Hastert
has prompted a group of leading Democrats to call for a federal
investigation into the claims.
The story, published in the September issue of Vanity Fair magazine,
relies on an uncorroborated account from a former FBI translator, who
says she overheard Turkish wiretap targets - who were the subject of
counter-intelligence investigations - brag of funneling thousands of
dollars into Hastert's campaign fund in exchange for political favors.
The translator told the magazine that the donations were to be made
in payments of less than $200, which do not have to be itemized under
Federal Election Commission rules.
The Yorkville Republican himself was never heard in the recordings, the
translator told the magazine, and the story's author admitted that the
Turks supposed claims may have been nothing more than "hollow boasts.
"
Still, the story caught the eye of the Citizens for Responsibility and
Ethics in Washington (CREW), which on Tuesday filed a complaint with
the FEC calling for "a thorough investigation into Hastert's finances."
The group, founded by the former senior counsel to House Democrats,
was responsible for drafting a complaint against House Majority Leader
Tom DeLay, R-Texas, for which he was admonished last year.
In a written statement, CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan suggests
that the translator's claims warrant a closer look since Hastert
recorded an inordinately high amount of small, unitemized donations
between 1996 and 2002.
According to the FEC, the Hastert For Congress Committee reported more
than $480,000 in donations of less than $200 during that 7-year period.
By comparison, DeLay reported receiving less than $100,000 during
the same span.
"The sheer number of small contributions should have raised a red
flag," Sloan said.
John McGovern, a Hastert spokesman, called the allegations
"outlandish."
"These are ridiculous and reckless claims from a Democratic front group
that have no basis in reality," he said Tuesday. "It's just not true."
According to the Vanity Fair report, the Turks were apparently looking
for Hastert to help derail a 2000 House resolution designating the
killings of thousands of Armenians in Turkey during the 1920s as
genocide.
The controversial issue has long been a source of hostility between
the two countries as well as between Americans of Armenian and
Turkish descent.
The magazine alleges that Hastert originally supported the resolution,
only to reverse his position and withdraw it from consideration on
the House floor.
Another Hastert spokesman told the magazine, though, that the speaker's
about-face came only after a personal appeal from then-President
Bill Clinton.
"To insinuate anything else," the spokesman said, "just doesn't
make sense."
#3
Posted 10 October 2005 - 03:18 PM
Vanity Fair is reporting in its September 2005 issue that a Turkish
diplomat spoke about arranging for $500,000 in illegal payments to
House Speaker Dennis Hastert in order to kill a congressional
resolution on the Armenian Genocide, in the fall of 2000.
Joel Robertz, an F.B.I. special agent in Chicago, had asked Sibel
Edmonds, one of F.B.I's Turkish interpreters, to review more than 40
recorded conversations of "a senior official" at the Turkish Consulate
in Chicago, as well as members of the American-Turkish Council and the
Assembly of Turkish American Associations in Washington, D.C.,
according to Vanity Fair.
The subject of the wiretapped conversations sounded like attempts to
bribe several members of Congress, both Democrats and Republicans.
"Some of the calls reportedly contained what sounded like references to
large scale drug shipments and other crimes," the magazine said.
In the wiretaps, the Turkish callers frequently used the nickname
"Denny boy," to refer to the Republican Congressman from Illinois,
Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert. The Turks monitored by the F.B.I.
said they had "arranged for tens of thousands of dollars to be paid to
Hastert's campaign funds in small checks. Under Federal Election
Commission rules, donations of less than $200 are not required to be
itemized in public filings. Hastert himself was never heard in these
conversations," Vanity Fair's David Rose wrote.
The magazine's examination of Speaker Hastert's federal filings for
the years 1996-2002 showed his campaign committee to have received
close to $500,000 in un-itemized payments - the second highest amount
in such contributions for all Congressmen. Vanity Fair stated that
there was no evidence that such payments were in fact made by these
Turkish subjects. "Nevertheless, a senior official at the Turkish
Consulate [in Chicago] is said to have claimed in one recording that
the price for Hastert to withdraw the resolution would have been at
least $500,000."
David Rose reported that Edmonds told congressional investigators: "The
recordings contained repeated references to Hastert's flip-flop, in
the fall of 2000, over an issue which remains of intense concern to the
Turkish government - the continuing campaign to have Congress designate
the killings of Armenians in Turkey between 1915 and 1923 a genocide.
For many years attempts had been made to get the House to pass a
genocide resolution, but they never got anywhere until August 2000,
when Hastert, as Speaker, announced that he would give it his backing
and see that it received a full House vote. He had a clear political
reason, as analysts noted at the time: a California Republican
incumbent, locked in a tight congressional race, was looking to win
over his district's large Armenian community. Thanks to Hastert, the
resolution, vehemently opposed by the Turks, passed the International
Relations Committee by a large majority. Then, on October 19, minutes
before the full House vote, Hastert withdrew it. At the time, he
explained his decision by saying that he had received a letter from
President Clinton arguing that the genocide resolution, if passed,
would harm U.S. interests."
In another wiretapped conversation, "a Turkish official spoke directly
to a U.S. State Department staffer." Vanity Fair reported. He
"suggested that the State Department staffer would send a
representative at an appointed time to the American-Turkish Council
office, at 1111 14th Street NW, where he would be given $7,000 in
cash."
A congressional source told the magazine that Edmonds testified that
"she'd heard mention of exchanges of information, dead-drops - that
kind of thing.... It was mostly money in exchange for secrets....
Another call allegedly discussed a payment to a Pentagon official who
seemed to be involved in weapons-procurement negotiations. Yet another
implied that Turkish groups had been installing doctoral students at
U.S. research institutions in order to acquire information about black
market nuclear weapons. In fact, much of what Edmonds reportedly heard
seemed to concern not state espionage but criminal activity. There was
talk, she told investigators, of laundering the profits of large-scale
drug deals and of selling classified military technologies to the
highest bidder."
The main focus of Vanity Fair's expose is the controversial firing of
Sibel Edmonds for complaining to her bosses at the F.B.I. that she
believed one of her Turkish co-workers was leaking confidential
information to the Turkish officials who were being investigated by the
F.B.I. The Bush Administration has banned Edmonds from talking to
anyone about her case and has prevented her from filing a lawsuit for
her mysterious dismissal.
Besides the bombshell about the Turkish plot to bribe Hastert in order
to prevent the passage of a congressional resolution recognizing the
Armenian Genocide, one wonders why the F.B.I. would wiretap for several
years the Turkish Consulate in Chicago, and even more intriguing, the
offices of the American-Turkish Council and the Assembly of
Turkish-American Associations. What did the F.B.I. suspect about these
Turkish-American non-profit groups that merited such intrusive
surveillance?
Even more incredible is the allegation that officials working at the
Pentagon and State Dept. were receiving cash payments from Turkish
sources. Is there a Turkish network that has bought its way and
infiltrated the highest levels of the U.S. government?
The fact that Edmonds is prevented from talking about her work and
filing a lawsuit could be due to the U.S. government's intent to file
charges against these Turkish entities and its desire not to have the
case jeopardized by Edmonds' actions. It could also be that
Washington is trying to cover-up the suspected illegal activities of
these Turkish groups in order to protect their co-conspirators at the
top echelons of the Bush Administration.
The ACLU has appealed Edmonds' case to the Supreme Court. We hope
that the highest court of the land would hear her case, thereby
revealing to the American public what the U.S. government has
discovered about the activities of the suspected Turkish diplomats and
Turkish American organizations.
By Harut Sassounian; Publisher, The California Courier
#4
Posted 11 October 2005 - 01:50 AM
Now we finally hear some darn names. I have heard many a time about the Turkish government bribing United States officials not to pass any bill for the Armenian Genocide's recognition, and now it is being brought to the public's knowledge.
Edited by Anahid Takouhi, 11 October 2005 - 01:54 AM.
#5
Posted 13 October 2005 - 01:48 AM
Now we finally hear some darn names. I have heard many a time about the Turkish government bribing United States officials not to pass any bill for the Armenian Genocide's recognition, and now it is being brought to the public's knowledge.
yes, and Hastert is not the only one...Livingston(now he is the head of turkish lobby in Washington), Birt, and some others too are paid by the turks...
#6
Posted 29 May 2015 - 09:49 AM
Hastert charged with lying to FBI about apparent hush money
By Jake Griffin
May 28, 2015
Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert has been charged by federal
prosecutors with lying to the FBI about withdrawing nearly $1 million
in apparent hush money to avoid federal financial reporting
regulations.
The 73-year-old Hastert, of Plano, is accused of trying to cover up
payments he was making to a longtime acquaintance who Hastert had
wronged, according to the seven-page indictment released today.
Hastert indictment as a PDF File
[http://www.dailyhera...DA138267528.pdf]
Hastert could not immediately be reached for comment, but when told by
a reporter for Politico.com last week that he was going to be
indicted, Hastert responded, "Well, it's not true," and hung up the
phone.
Prosecutors said Hastert met with an unnamed associate from Yorkville
in 2010 and agreed to pay $3.5 million "in order to compensate for and
conceal his prior misconduct against" that unknown individual. That
person -- dubbed Individual A in the indictment -- was paid more than
$1.7 million from 2010 to 2014.
The indictment does not provide any details into the relationship
between Individual A and Hastert.
Starting in June 2010 through April 2012, Hastert made 15 withdrawals
of $50,000 from three different area banks and provided cash to
Individual A every six weeks, according to the indictment.
Federal law requires financial transaction reports for any withdrawal
or series of withdrawals of more than $10,000. Bank officials
eventually questioned Hastert about the transactions in April 2012 and
prosecutors said Hastert then began withdrawing in increments less
than $10,000 to avoid reporting requirements, according to court
papers.
It's those payments, that totaled almost $1 million, that Hastert is
facing charges over.
In 2013, IRS and FBI officials began investigating Hastert's
withdrawals, concerned that he was potentially being extorted or
involved in some type of wrongdoing.
Hastert met with FBI agents in December 2014, and when asked if he was
making withdrawals because he didn't feel his money was safe in the
country's banking system, he replied, "Yeah ... I kept the cash.
That's what I'm doing," according to the indictment.
Hastert faces a maximum of five years in jail if convicted.
The stunning indictment left a number of local politicians without
comment. State Rep. Keith Wheeler, an Oswego Republican and former top
Kendall County GOP official, urged people not to rush to judgment.
"I think that we should still stick to the
innocent-until-proven-guilty approach. He deserves that as much as
anybody else does," Wheeler said.
In a congressional career that spanned 20 years, it is widely accepted
that no one, including Hastert, ever expected the former high school
wrestling coach to become third in line for the presidency.
But that all changed in December 1998 when outspoken GOP Speaker Newt
Gingrich resigned the post in the wake of a poor midterm election
result and the party chose Rep. Bob Livingston to replace him. It was
soon discovered that Livingston had an extramarital affair, which
ultimately forced Livingston's resignation, leaving a power vacancy
once again. This all while former President Bill Clinton was
undergoing an impeachment trial as a result of the Monica Lewinsky
scandal.
Republican congressional leaders, rocked by the fiery Gingrich's
departure and a sex scandal atop their own party, looked for a calming
influence to helm and unite the House majority and chose the
little-known Hastert.
And there Hastert stayed until retiring in 2007, becoming the
longest-serving Republican House Speaker in history.
It was a reign that was not without controversy though.
An FBI translator claimed that wiretaps of Turkish targets uncovered
talk of bribing Hastert to withdraw support of an Armenian Genocide
resolution that had passed a House subcommittee. But investigators
never found proof Hastert accepted any bribes. When he left office,
Hastert became a lobbyist and received a contract from the Turkish
government.
Hastert on Thursday resigned from the Washington lobbying firm
Dickstein Shapiro, spokesman Jason Huntsman said.
Hastert also came under fire for a land deal that critics claimed
would not have been as lucrative if it hadn't been for his support of
a now-dead $1 billion bypass through the area linking interstates 80
and 88. Hastert contended the land he sold was miles from the proposed
highway.
Hastert and other House GOP leaders were also deemed "willfully
ignorant" by the House Ethics Committee in the wake of the Mark Foley
congressional page scandal. Foley, a Florida Republican, was accused
of sending sexually suggestive emails and text messages to teenage
boys who had formerly served in the congressional page program.
Several GOP leaders claimed they warned Hastert about Foley's
activities but Hastert ignored them. For his part, Hastert claims he
was never warned. Foley resigned from office but was never charged
criminally.
Hastert also came under fire for receiving federal funds while working
as a lobbyist. He was paid a small allowance to maintain offices
because of his status as former speaker. He argued that the work being
done in those offices had nothing to do with his work as a lobbyist.
But media outlets reported that Hastert's government-funded offices
were used occasionally for personal business.
Hastert will be arraigned at a U.S. district court at an unspecified
later date, according to the U.S. attorneys office for the Northern
District of Illinois.
Daily Herald staff writer Erin Hegarty and The Washington Post
contributed to this story.
http://www.dailyhera...news/150528710/
#7
Posted 31 May 2015 - 09:19 AM
I hope justice will be done!
Chicago Daily Herald
May 29, 2015 Friday
Hastert charged with lying to FBI about apparent hush money
By Jake Griffin and Mike Riopell
Hastert charged with lying to FBI about apparent hush money
Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert has been charged by federal
prosecutors with lying to the FBI about withdrawing nearly $1 million
in apparent hush money to avoid federal financial reporting
regulations.
The 73-year-old Hastert, of Plano, is accused of trying to cover up
payments he was making to a longtime acquaintance whom Hastert had
wronged, according to the seven-page indictment released Thursday.
Hastert could not immediately be reached for comment, but when told by
a reporter for Politico.com last week that he was going to be
indicted, Hastert responded, "Well, it's not true," and hung up the
phone.
Prosecutors said Hastert met with an unnamed associate from Yorkville
in 2010 and agreed to pay $3.5 million "in order to compensate for and
conceal his prior misconduct against" that individual. That person --
dubbed Individual A in the indictment -- was paid more than $1.7
million from 2010 to 2014.
The indictment does not provide any details into the relationship
between Individual A and Hastert. But Individual A has known Hastert
most of his or her life, growing up in Yorkville, the city next to
Hastert's current hometown of Plano. Prosecutors said the actions
"occurred years earlier" than the 2010 meeting that sparked the
payments.
The investigation began in 2013, by the FBI and the Internal Revenue
Service, which cited "possible structuring of currency transactions to
avoid the reporting requirements."
Starting in June 2010 through April 2012, Hastert made 15 withdrawals
of $50,000 from three different area banks and provided cash to
Individual A every six weeks, according to the indictment.
Federal law requires financial transaction reports for any withdrawal
or series of withdrawals of more than $10,000. Bank officials
eventually questioned Hastert about the transactions in April 2012 and
prosecutors said Hastert then began withdrawing in increments less
than $10,000 to avoid reporting requirements, according to court
papers.
It's those payments, that totaled almost $1 million, that Hastert is
facing charges over.
In 2013, IRS and FBI officials began investigating Hastert's
withdrawals, concerned that he was potentially being extorted or
involved in some type of wrongdoing.
Hastert met with FBI agents in December 2014, and when asked if he was
making withdrawals because he didn't feel his money was safe in the
country's banking system, he replied, "Yeah ... I kept the cash.
That's what I'm doing," according to the indictment.
Hastert faces a maximum of five years in jail if convicted.
The stunning indictment left a number of local politicians without
comment. State Rep. Keith Wheeler, an Oswego Republican and former top
Kendall County GOP official, urged people not to rush to judgment.
"I think that we should still stick to the
innocent-until-proven-guilty approach. He deserves that as much as
anybody else does," Wheeler said.
"It's a shock to me as much as anybody," Loren Miller, a longtime
friend of Hastert from Yorkville, told The Washington Post. "He got
his job because he didn't have any skeletons in his closet."
Miller first knew Hastert when he played high school football against
him in the early 1960s -- Hastert for Oswego High, Miller for
Yorkville. They later became close when Hastert entered political
life, inviting Miller for trips to Washington and occasionally sharing
perks like holiday baskets and a trip to the Kentucky Derby.
"I was one of his closest friends and got to do a lot of things, but
nothing that wasn't on the level," Miller said.
Hastert would pay regular visits to Miller's auto restoration shop,
though the visits became less frequent in recent years as Hastert
spent more time in Washington, Miller said.
"I don't know the details, but I know what the man is made of, and I
know that I will stand behind him."
In a congressional career that spanned 20 years, it is widely accepted
that no one, including Hastert, ever expected the former high school
wrestling coach to become third in line for the presidency.
But that all changed in December 1998 when outspoken GOP Speaker Newt
Gingrich resigned the post in the wake of a poor midterm election
result and the party chose Rep. Bob Livingston to replace him. It was
soon discovered that Livingston had an extramarital affair, which
ultimately forced Livingston's resignation, leaving a power vacancy
once again. This all while former President Bill Clinton was
undergoing an impeachment trial as a result of the Monica Lewinsky
scandal.
Republican congressional leaders, rocked by the fiery Gingrich's
departure and a sex scandal atop their own party, looked for a calming
influence to helm and unite the House majority and chose the
little-known Hastert.
And there Hastert stayed until retiring in 2007, becoming the
longest-serving Republican House Speaker in history.
It was a reign that was not without controversy though.
An FBI translator claimed that wiretaps of Turkish targets uncovered
talk of bribing Hastert to withdraw support of an Armenian Genocide
resolution that had passed a House subcommittee. But investigators
never found proof Hastert accepted any bribes. When he left office,
Hastert became a lobbyist and received a contract from the Turkish
government.
Hastert on Thursday resigned from the Washington lobbying firm
Dickstein Shapiro, spokesman Jason Huntsman said.
Hastert also came under fire for a land deal that critics claimed
would not have been as lucrative if it hadn't been for his support of
a now-dead $1 billion bypass through the area linking interstates 80
and 88. Hastert contended the land he sold was miles from the proposed
highway.
Hastert and other House GOP leaders were also deemed "willfully
ignorant" by the House Ethics Committee in the wake of the Mark Foley
congressional page scandal. Foley, a Florida Republican, was accused
of sending sexually suggestive emails and text messages to teenage
boys who had formerly served in the congressional page program.
Several GOP leaders claimed they warned Hastert about Foley's
activities but Hastert ignored them. For his part, Hastert claims he
was never warned. Foley resigned from office but was never charged
criminally.
Hastert also came under fire for receiving federal funds while working
as a lobbyist. He was paid a small allowance to maintain offices
because of his status as former speaker. He argued that the work being
done in those offices had nothing to do with his work as a lobbyist.
But media outlets reported that Hastert's government-funded offices
were used occasionally for personal business.
Hastert will be arraigned at a U.S. district court at an unspecified
later date, according to the U.S. attorney's office for the Northern
District of Illinois.
* Daily Herald staff writer Erin Hegarty and The Washington Post
contributed to this story.
#8
Posted 02 June 2015 - 10:18 AM
Immoral pervert!
Commentary
Hastert Should also be Investigated
On Turkish Bribery Accusations
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
Federal Prosecutors indicted last week former U.S. House Speaker
Dennis Hastert for:
1) Lying to the FBI on why he had withdrawn nearly $1.7 million from
various banks in the last four years,
2) Evading the reporting requirements of banks for large cash
transactions.
Each count carries a maximum penalty of five-years in prison and a
$250,000 fine.
The indictment charges that in 2010 Hastert secretly met one of his
former students and agreed to pay him $3.5 million to secure his
silence for `past misconduct', when he was a wrestling coach at the
Yorkville High School in Illinois from 1965 to 1981. Since that
meeting, Hastert, 73, paid him $1.7 million by withdrawing initially
$50,000 at a time from several banks, and after being questioned by
bank officials, he reduced each withdrawal to just under $10,000, to
evade the banks' reporting requirements.
In December 2014, when asked by the FBI as to why he had made such
large cash withdrawals, Hastert made `materially false, fictitious and
fraudulent statements,' the federal prosecutors said. Hastert was
making these payments to his former student to conceal sexually
abusing him decades ago, according to various news reports.
Hastert's indictment is of particular interest to the
Armenian-American community because of past accusations that he
received large bribes from Turkish entities to quash pending Armenian
Genocide resolutions, while serving as Speaker of the House of
Representatives from 1999 to 2007. These claims were never fully
investigated by the U.S. government. After retiring from Congress,
Hastert worked for Dickstein Shapiro in Washington, D.C., as a
lobbyist for Turkey and other clients.
Ironically, at the start of his political career, Cong. Hastert
strongly supported recognition of the Armenian Genocide. He spoke on
the House floor on April 19, 1984, in favor of a congressional
resolution acknowledging the Genocide. On June 5, 1996, he voted for
an amendment to cut U.S. aid to Turkey until that country recognized
the Armenian Genocide. Furthermore, in August 2000, Speaker Hastert
met with Armenian community leaders in Glendale, pledging to bring the
pending Armenian Genocide resolution to a vote, despite
Pres. Clinton's vehement objections.
However, moments before the genocide resolution was to be voted upon
on October 19, 2000, Speaker Hastert yanked the bill from
consideration, using the excuse that Pres. Clinton had sent him a
letter raising `grave national security concerns.' How is it that the
Republican House Speaker, who fiercely opposed a Democrat President on
almost every issue and supported his impeachment, suddenly decides to
agree with him on rejecting the Armenian Genocide resolution? Four
days later, the Turkish Sabah newspaper reported that Hastert had
agreed to block the resolution on condition that Pres. Clinton made
such a request in writing.
Could there have been a sinister reason why Speaker Hastert had a
sudden change of heart on the Armenian Genocide issue?
Vanity Fair magazine revealed in its September 2005 issue that former
FBI translator Sibel Edmonds had reviewed wiretaps of Turkish phone
calls claiming that Speaker Hastert's price to withdraw the Armenian
Genocide resolution would be at least $500,000. The FBI overheard
Turkish speakers boasting that they have `arranged for tens of
thousands of dollars to be paid to Hastert's campaign funds in small
checks' because contributions less than $200 do not have to be
itemized in public filings. In fact, Vanity Fair's examination of
Speaker Hastert's federal filings from 1996 to 2002 showed that his
campaign had received close to $500,000 in un-itemized payments.
Shockingly, rather than investigating Edmonds' credible accusations,
the FBI fired her, and the US government did not allow her to testify
in Congress or in court, using the `state-secrets privilege' as a
cover.
Not surprisingly, Speaker Hastert's visits to Turkey in 2002 and 2004
were funded by the Turkish-US Business Council. Consequently , in July
2004, Hastert issued a blunt statement vowing to block all future
Armenian Genocide resolutions -- a pledge he kept until his departure
from the House in November 2007!
Interestingly, Hastert's personal wealth went from $270,000 to up to
$17 million during his two decades of service in Congress, at a time
when his congressional salary was $175,000 a year! Where did his
millions come from?
Six months after leaving the House, Hastert began to reap the benefits
of serving Turkish interests in Congress by joining the firm Dickstein
Shapiro as a lobbyist representing the Turkish government, among other
clients. He worked jointly with former House Majority Leader Dick
Gephardt, sometimes travelling together to Turkey, and splitting
millions of dollars in lucrative lobbying fees. Last week, immediately
after the federal indictment was issued, Hastert resigned from the
lobbying firm.
A full investigation should now be conducted of all allegations
against Hastert that have been ignored for far too long. The American
public needs to know if he were being bribed, or even worse,
blackmailed, by Turkish entities during his tenure as Speaker, the
third most powerful office in Washington after the President and Vice
President!
#9
Posted 07 June 2015 - 07:56 AM
Karma's sweet bite!
Former Congressman and Turkish lobbyist may be charged with sexual abuse
16:27, 06.06.2015
Region:World News
Theme: Politics
Former House of Representatives Speaker Dennis Hastert is accused of
sexual abuse.
A woman from Montana said her brother sexually abused by Hastert when
he worked as a wrestling coach at a Chicago school,Associated Press
reported.
According to a woman, brother told her that his first homosexual
contact was with Hastert and that it lasted throughout his high school
years.
Last week Hastert was charged with lying to FBI in an attempt to hide
$3.5 million in payments. According to indictment, Hastert paid $3.5
million to a person to conceal past misconduct.
However, the woman says her brother died 15 years before Hastert
allegedly promised to pay that money.
As Speaker of the U.S. House, in October of 2000, Dennis Hastert
killed the Armenian Genocide Resolution moments before its adoption.
According to dailyherald.com, when he left office, Hastert became a
lobbyist and received a contract from the Turkish government.
http://news.yahoo.co...-114647316.html
http://news.am/eng/news/270492.html
#10
Posted 08 June 2015 - 10:29 AM
Good riddance, I hope he resigns from life as well pervert!
Rapid News Network
June 7 2015
Ex-House Speaker Dennis Hastert resigns from firm
Federal prosecutors have indicted Thursday, May 28, 2015, the ex- U.S.
House Speaker on bank-related charges.
Hastert is expected to be arraigned on the charges in U.S. District
Court. The amount agreed upon to be paid by Hastert to the recipient,
the grand jury says, was $3.5 million. As for what his `prior
misconduct' involved, it had to have been bad enough that Hastert
virtually emptied his bank accounts paying the ex- student off.
He later served until 2007, making him the longest-serving speaker in
American history. Before serving in Congress, he was a high school
teacher and coach in Yorkville, Illinois. He said any vetting of
Hastert before his appointment wouldn't have included asking him if
there were any skeletons in his closet.
Former Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., told CNN, `It doesn't make any sense to me'.
`I'm just surprised if this is true', said Ryan, who has lived in
Kankakee, Illinois, since his release from prison. Hastert said Monday
that no Republican leaders saw lurid Internet exchanges from ex- Rep.
Mark Foley to pages and that he would have demanded the Florida
Republican's expulsion if he had known about them.
As Speaker of the U.S. House, in October of 2000, Dennis Hastert (in
concert with President Bill Clinton) killed the Armenian Genocide
Resolution moments before its adoption. The ex- speaker agreed in that
meeting and subsequent meetings to pay a a total of $3.5 million. When
questioned by the FBI about the withdrawals last December, `I kept the
cash. That's what I'm doing'.
The 73-year-old Hastert, a ex- high school teacher, headed the House
from 1999 to 2007 and later worked in Washington as a lobbyist.
Hastert was a little-known lawmaker from Plano, Ill., a Chicago
suburb, when chosen to succeed Gingrich as speaker.
In 2008 he joined the Washington lobbying firm Dickstein Shapiro as a
senior adviser.
Hastert, who became a D.C. lobbyist after retiring from Congress, has
resigned from his position in the wake of yesterday's criminal
indictment. One that Hastert allegedly evaded currency transaction
reporting requirements, and the other that he lied to the FBI.
Hastert didn't return email and phone messages from The Associated
Press seeking comment on the allegations.
The 7-page document raises many, many questions. There was no threat
of deep-sixing Otter's political future, nor was there any offer of an
earmark or campaign contribution.
>From 2010 to 2014, Hastert withdrew $1.7 million in cash from various
bank accounts and gave it to the individual.
`In or about 2010³, the indictment says, Hastert met with this person
and `discussed past misconduct by [Hastert] that had occurred years
earlier'. Hastert has remained quiet since the announcement of the
indictment.
1980: Hastert comes in third in Illinois state House of Representatives primary.
Why did Hastert agree to pay $3.5 million in what looks like, for all
intents and purposes, hush money.
The indictment indicated that the person whom Hastert paid has been a
Yorkville resident and known Hastert most of his or her life. `It's
very unfortunate and certainly shocking'.
http://rapidnewsnetw...rom-firm/30559/
#11
Posted 11 June 2015 - 08:26 AM
The old pervert is sinking!
HASTERT'S TROUBLES MOUNT
Gapers Block
June 10 2015
By Thomas J. Gradel
Dennis Hastert, a former Republican Congressman from Illinois and
former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, appeared in
federal court on Tuesday to enter pleas of not guilty to charges that
he violated banking laws and lied to the FBI in an effort to conceal
his alleged sexual abuse of a high school student some 45 years ago.
Meanwhile, a previously under-reported Hastert scandal is coming into
focus. It involves FBI wiretaps of the Turkish Consulate in Chicago,
Hastert's lucrative lobbying career, possible secretive large scale
cash bribes when he was House Speaker, and his blatant betrayal of
the Armenian people and the Armenian-American community. There are
40,000 Armenians in Chicago and another 10,000 throughout Illinois.
In an interview with me on Sunday, Harut Sassounian, a writer, Armenian
community activist and publisher of The California Courier newspaper,
called for a federal investigation into Hastert's highly-paid lobbying
activities on behalf of the Republic of Turkey.
Hastert's work for Turkey may have begun when Hastert was still House
Speaker and was being paid by American taxpayers.
Sassounian, who is also an advisory board member of the Armenian
National Committee - Western Region, has been covering U.S.
Representative Dennis Hastert since 1984 when Hastert supported a
congressional resolution recognizing the killing of 800,000 to 1.5
million Armenians between 1915 and 1923 as a genocide carried out by
the Ottoman government in Turkey.
As Sassounian wrote in his column on June 2, 2015 in The California
Courier, "the Armenian genocide resolution remained stalled in
Congress until August 2000, when then Speaker Hastert met with
Armenian community leaders in Glendale, California. At the meeting
Hastert pledged to bring the resolution to a vote despite President
Bill Clinton's vehement objections.
"However on October 19, 2000, moments before the genocide resolution
was to be voted on, Speaker Hastert yanked the measure from
consideration saying that President Clinton requested such action
in a letter raising 'grave national security concerns.'" Sassounian
pointed out that Hastert voted for the impeachment of Clinton and
had fiercely opposed almost every issue backed by the President.
In his column and in his conversation with me, Sassounian questioned
if "there could have been a sinister reason why Hastert had a sudden
change of heart."
A lengthy article in the September 2005 issue of Vanity Fair
magazine entitled "An Inconvenient Patriot" contains some interesting
circumstantial evidence. The article, written by contributing editor
David Ross, suggests that Hastert may have been bribed to change his
position on the Armenian resolution. A Hastert spokesperson denied
the allegations and said the letter from President Clinton was the
reason Hastert withdrew the resolution.
The article is primarily about the FBI's silencing and firing of
a young Turkish-American translator, Sibel Edmonds. Now, she is
an acclaimed book author, editor of the online Boiling Frogs Post,
and president of the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition. com
She was fired in March 2002 after she challenged her supervisor and
a co-worker who failed to thoroughly investigate her concerns about
wiretapped discussions suggesting that individuals associated with the
Turkish Consulate in Chicago and Washington were bribing or co-opting
FBI employees and U.S. officials.
Sassounian's column summarized the part of the Vanity Fair article
that dealt with Hastert. He wrote, "Edmonds had reviewed wiretaps of
Turkish phone calls claiming that Speaker Hastert's price to withdraw
the Armenian Genocide resolution would be at least $500,000. The FBI
overheard Turkish speakers boasting that they 'arranged for tens
of thousands of dollars to be paid to Hastert's campaign funds in
small checks' because contributions less than $200 do not have to be
itemized in public filings."
Vanity Fair also examined Hastert's campaign financing reports. The
magazine found that "between April 1996 and December 2002, un-itemized
personal donations to the Hastert for Congress Committee amounted to
$483,000." According to Vanity Fair that total was far higher than
all other congressmen for the same time period except for Clay Shaw,
of Florida, who received $552,000 in un-itemized donations. The third
highest was only $265,000.
Hastert's visits to Turkey in 2002 and 2004 were funded by the
Turkish-US Business Council, according to Sassounian. He also wrote
that six months after leaving the House, "Hastert began to reap
the benefits of serving Turkish interests by joining the firm of
Dickstein Shapiro as a lobbyist representing the Turkish government,
among other clients. He worked jointly with former House Majority
Leader Dick Gephardt, sometimes travelling together to Turkey, and
splitting millions of dollars in lucrative lobbying fees.
"A full investigation should now be conducted of all allegations
against Hastert that have been ignored for far too long," Sassounian
said. "The American public needs to know if he were bribed, or even
worse, blackmailed by Turkish entities during his tenure as Speaker,
the third most powerful office in Washington after the President and
Vice President."
http://gapersblock.c...troubles-mount/
#12
Posted 28 October 2015 - 09:22 AM
Hastert to Plead Guilty of Sexual Abuse,
Yet US Still Covers up Turkish Blackmail
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
This week, former House Speaker Dennis Hastert is expected to plead
guilty to the charge of making secret payments to buy the silence of
boys he had sexually abused when he was a high school wrestling
coach. This plea deal with federal prosecutors would seal his court
records, thus hiding from the public the details of the evidence
against him.
Ever since 2005 when former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds exposed
corruption at the highest levels of the US government, concerned
citizens have been waiting impatiently for law enforcement officials
to look into her shocking revelations.
Given the regrettably long silence by Washington and the mainstream US
media, I believe it is time to expose once again the scandalous cover
up of the claims that Turkish groups had bribed Speaker Hastert.
Philip Giraldi, former CIA officer and Executive Director of the
Council for the National Interest, published in The American
Conservative last week the sinister details of foreign governments
blackmailing Speaker Hastert.
Edmonds was fired from her FBI position after revealing to her
superiors the penetration of US government entities by Turkish agents
`who were seeking to influence U.S. foreign policy while sometimes
engaging in illegal activity,' according to Giraldi. `The scope of the
corruption allegedly involved bribery of senior government officials
and congressmen, arranging for export licenses to countries that were
embargoed, and the exposure of classified information,' Giraldi wrote.
In a 2009 deposition, Edmonds explained that Hastert was `one of the
primary U.S. persons involved in operations and activities that are
not legal, and they're not for the interest of the United States but
for the interest of foreign governments and foreign entities.' She
described Hastert's wrongdoing as: `The acceptance of large sums of
bribery in forms of cash or laundered cash and laundering it to make
it look legal for his campaigns, and also for his personal use, in
order to do certain favors and call certain -- call for certain
actions, make certain things happen for foreign entities and foreign
governments' interests, Turkish government's interest and Turkish
business entities' interests.'
During the deposition, Edmonds was asked: `Did you have reason to
believe that Mr. Hastert, for example, killed one of the Armenian
genocide resolutions in exchange for money from these Turkish
organizations?' She responded: `Yes, I do.... Correct..., and not only
taking money, but other activities, too, including being blackmailed
for various reasons.' After retiring from the House of
Representatives, Hastert worked for the Washington firm of Dickstein
Shapiro as a registered lobbyist for Turkey.
Edmonds also revealed during her deposition that Hastert `used the
townhouse [in Chicago] that was not his residence for certain not very
morally accepted activities. Now, whether that was being used as
blackmail I don't know, but the fact that foreign entities knew about
this, in fact, they sometimes participated in some of those not maybe
morally well activities in that particular townhouse that was supposed
to be an office, not a house, residence, at certain hours, certain
days, evenings of the week. So I can't say if that was used as
blackmail or not, but certain activities they would share. They were
known.'
Edmonds told congressional investigators that on FBI phone recordings
Turkish individuals boasted of their secret relationship with
Hastert. `They discussed giving him tens of thousands of dollars in
clandestine payments in exchange for political favors and
information. Many of the transcripts involved a suspect at the city's
Turkish Consulate, as well as several members of the American-Turkish
Council and the Assembly of Turkish American Associations, business
entities that some FBI agents believed served as occasional covers for
organized crime. Some calls appeared to be referring to drug shipments
and other possible crimes,' Giraldi wrote.
`Edmonds noted that the phone taps contained repeated references to
Hastert's volte face [change of position] in the fall of 2000 over the
campaign to have Congress designate the killings of Armenians in
Turkey between 1915 and 1923 a genocide. In August 2000, Speaker
Hastert declared that he would support the resolution and send it to
the full House for a vote. The resolution, vehemently opposed by the
Turks, did indeed pass in the International Relations Committee by a
large majority. Then, on October 19, shortly before a full House vote,
Hastert withdrew it.... A senior official at the Turkish Consulate
indicated in one recorded conversation that the `price for convincing
Hastert to withdraw the genocide resolution would be at least
$500,000,' Giraldi reported in his article.
Fifteen years later, the American public is still waiting for the US
government to investigate the serious allegations of Turkish bribery
and blackmail of Speaker Hastert!
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