The guy was a paid Pakistani government lobbyist!!
Abramoff has of course been connected to Tom Delay's troubles. Who else in the Republican heirarchy is linked to Abramoff?
Makes one wonder if there is a link to
- Pakistani links to 9/11 ignored
- Pakistani nuclear proliferation ignored and still not shut down
- Giving billions in aid (now F-16s) to the nation that still runs terrorist camps and brings out Al Qaeda "figures" when absolutely necessary (see recent diary on the latest catch being somewhat of a dud)
http://nytimes.com/2005/05/08/politics/08abramoff.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1115514070-1ECN4DButRlvO
740FIWJbw
See here for Pakistani links to 9/11
and here for the proliferation network
Excerpts from the article below the fold:
Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist at the center of a federal corruption investigation, led a Congressional delegation to Pakistan in 1997 but failed to tell the group's sponsor or the lawmakers that he was a registered lobbyist for the Pakistani government, according to the sponsor and the two House members on the trip.
The trip to Pakistan and Mr. Abramoff's role in it came to light with the release of documents this week showing that he had also used his personal credit card to pay more than $350,000 in travel expenses for other Congressional trips, some of them sponsored by the National Security Caucus Foundation, which is now defunct.
His payments for trips to the Northern Mariana Islands, a United States territory in the Pacific Ocean, and other locations overseas that involved Representative Tom DeLay and other lawmakers have come under scrutiny. House ethics rules forbid legislators from accepting such gifts from lobbyists.
Mr. Abramoff did not pay for the group's trip to Pakistan, Mr. Hilton said, adding that his foundation had arranged the trip's financing. A spokesman for Mr. Abramoff had no immediate comment on the trip. Government filings show Mr. Abramoff's law firm was registered as Pakistan's lobbyist until April 1997, after his trip. The firm said on Saturday that it did its last work on the contract in 1996 and did not consider Pakistan a client by 1997.
By not revealing his lobbying work for Pakistan while he served as a tour guide there for the nonprofit group, Mr. Abramoff might have served his own business practices, but he also deceived the people he had offered to help, the trip's participants said.
Edward McDonald, chief of staff for Mr. Coble, Republican of North Carolina, said he worried that Mr. Abramoff had organized the trip for the lawmakers as a way to demonstrate to his Pakistani clients "how relevant and important" he was.
Mr. Hilton said that Mr. Abramoff assured him repeatedly that Pakistan was not among his lobbying clients and that he would have no conflict of interest in traveling with the lawmakers and joining them in meetings with Pakistani leaders.
In interviews, Mr. McNulty and Mr. McDonald said the lawmakers also had no idea that Mr. Abramoff, identified on the foundation's invitation as a "senior fellow" of the group, was lobbying on behalf of Pakistan. His work for Pakistan had been mentioned in a few publications several years earlier, but the men said he did not disclose it on that trip.
Travel records and a written itinerary show that the lawmakers flew from Washington to Lahore, Pakistan, on Jan. 22, 1997, where they met with the leading opposition party before traveling to Islamabad and Karachi for meetings with Pakistani dignitaries. Mr. Abramoff accompanied them, gaining access to leaders including former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, whose government was a prime source of business until it was toppled in late 1996.
Lobbyists for foreign governments are required to register with the Justice Department. Disclosure statements filed by Mr. Abramoff and his former firm, Preston Gates & Ellis, show that the firm was retained by Pakistan in May 1995 to lobby to overturn sanctions barring delivery of American weapons to Pakistan if its government continued to pursue a nuclear weapons program. The initial six-month lobbying contract paid the firm a retainer of $165,000, plus expenses. A spokesman for Preston Gates had no comment.
Later disclosure forms show that Mr. Abramoff and the firm lobbied aggressively on Pakistan's behalf, including repeated contacts with the offices of Mr. DeLay, a close friend of Mr. Abramoff. Mr. DeLay, now the House majority leader, has asked the House ethics committee to resolve accusations involving his overseas travels with Mr. Abramoff.