Abramoff Emails Linked In Multiple Ways To Military Analyst Planning

Congressman Waxman released a draft report detailing Abramoff's connections with the White House. The draft report contains several conclusions.

One hurdle to discovery were the Ralston and Farley depositions. Their counsel said they would invoke the 5th Amendment and not provide details of their conversations.

However, their counsel did not anticipate something: The DoD emails which by pass these hurdles, and establish a link between the Abramoff-connected emails and the President's military analyst program.  The evidence shows the propaganda effort through DoD was much larger than the narrow slice of Abramoff emails.

A single name means DoD may have important information for Congressman Waxman.

5312 of the DoD emails has a name included on Jan 2001  emails bewteen Elie Pieprz and Jack Abramoff on 29 of 127

That common name is 

Cliff May

The DoD emails of 2006 show Cliff May was on the the list of opinion leaders. It appears May moved from the RNC in the wake of the Abramoff issues, and stayed connected with the White House and President through the DoD military analyst briefings.

May is president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracy and former RNC communications director. May, in his connection with the RNC, knew or should have known from McClellan the propaganda efforts.

The US Attorney emails show the GOP was involved; and the DOD emails show the GOP was included in the planning cells. The Abramoff emails show the President and White House coordinated with the GOP on political issues.  Here is part of the larger nexus connecting the DoD emails with Abramoff, POW abuse and FISA violations; and how this connects to Senator McCain.

The link is through Rove and other intermediaries.

Ralph Reed Emails: One Missing Link

Abramoff responds to Pieprz 29 of 127:

"I'll get in touch with Rove through Ralph Reed."

This helps answer how Abramoff and Rove were communicating in 2001. Reed's name is not (yet) in the Committee's draft report.
 
Ralston and Farley were reluctant to discuss how they knew about Abramoff, or what contacts they had with the Abramoff team. If, as it appears, there were intermediaries, then the real question may be:

Who were the intermediaries acting between Rove and Abramoff to thwart Congressional oversight and FBI investigators from understanding the President's activities:?

Intermediaries were involved with the FISA violations, and may be related to the Libby perjury decisions. These intermediaries could be people who are well known, on the White House access list, and doing things we still do not understand. It is premature to offer immunity to any witness or offer amnesty to any telecom in exchange for testimony. We still have not reviewed the public records nor exhausted all email options.

These intermediaries could float between the Office of Vice President, President, and outside counsel, without leaving a trace.  That is, until we look at the Department of Justice's JCON database, the White House counsel statements, and the President's propaganda connected with the POW abuse, rendition, FISA violations, and the Valarie Wilson issues.

The common element: There are legal counsel attached to the propaganda and President. The DoD emails are only part of the picture. The rest of the propaganda evidence is within the JCON database, attached to outside counsel, and includes intermediaries who were supporting the FISA violations and processing the NSLs. These are contractors.

Just as DoD has emails showing how the President organized DoD resources, so too is there a parallel effort within DoJ. "military analysts" is only part of the propaganda effort. Part of the bigger puzzle includes legal counsel. They were the ones who crafted the dubious legal memoranda, were invited to DoD installations, and misused their legal training to confuse the Congress and public.

They betrayed their clients and the Constitution.  American legal counsel were complicit with the FISA violations, POW abuse, rendition, and the illegal invasion of Iraq. There was no imminent threat. There was propaganda to create the illusion of a belief. That does not meet the Geneva standards.

Audit Papers and Increased Audit Scope

The Securities Exchange Commission, New York Stock Exchange, and auditors have a tool. This took will help the Congress  confront publicly traded companies allegedly complicit with war crimes, POW abuse, and illegal activity.

The tool is SAS 99. This is an accounting standard. Auditors can use to justify an increase in audit scope against contractors connected with the NSA for alleged involvement with illegal activity. Auditors look at other things besides numbers. They look at internal controls, and how management organizes itself to provide information, comply with procedures, and justify confidence it is a going concern.

Waxman needs to find out who inside the White House directed auditors to not apply SAS 99, and why there are not audit working papers related to the NYSE-connected SAS 99 issues. Once there are allegations of illegal activity, SAS 99 is the guidance for auditors and internal audit committees to increase audit scope.

The President, as was done with the DOJ OPR reviews of the DOJ Staff on NSA violations, likely worked through legal counsel to pressure the NSA contractors not to increase audit scope. Rather, as with the Guantanamo evidence destruction, the President likely ordered the auditors working papers of the NSA contractors destroyed.

There is evidence connecting the NSA contractors and the rendition. One of the legal counsel connected with the DoD propaganda is indirectly linked with the attestation services; and they did conduct a review of one of the NSA contractors providing scheduling assistance for the rendition effort. These are well connected legal counsel, crossing many disciplines. The common element is the President.

McClellan: Presidential Propaganda Overshadows Abramoff Emails

The Abramoff emails are a minor issue given the President's open connection with the military analysts.  We know this through Feith's approvals, and the President's direct meeting with the analysts at a meeting including White House counsel and national security advisers.

The committee appears to have gotten wrapped around the axle on whether the directly-connected Abramoff personnel in the White House will or will not cooperate. The DoD emails establish the larger nexus touching the President, Vice President, Libby, Feith, McClellan, and white House counsel.

Presidential Meetings On Propaganda

By implication, it means the President directly or indirectly ordered Farley to pass instructions to Ring; and Farley was aware of legal issues behind the emails because of information from the White House counsel listed on the DoD and Abramoff emails.  We know this is likely because the DoD emails list named White House counsel Barlett, who offered an unsatisfactory and incomplete denial related to McClellan's book.

Those connected with Abramoff may not fully appreciate where they stand within the larger White House propaganda effort. The DoD emails help answer the committee questions about the instructions, who provided them, and what those instructions really meant.

Please encourage Chairman Waxman and the Staff working on the House Oversight Committee to look for other links between the Abramoff emails and the President's propaganda disseminated through the military analysts.

It does not appear the draft report included any analysis of the DoD emails. We know this because there is no reference to
any DoD emails in the draft report; and key page numbers of the Abramoff emails -- listing names connected with the military analysts -- are not listed in any of the footnotes on the draft
report.