This diary has been drafted for a few weeks now, but, I was hesitant to publish it. Someone sent me an email after my previous Frederick Black diary, What does Alberto Gonzales know about Jack Abramoff, Guam, and US Attorney Fred Black's demotion?. was published, and I have since then received a copy of the Justice Department Report in hard-copy. I do not believe that it is available in the, say, 'public domain' and I was reluctant to scan it and make it into this diary. However, I see today that the story is slowly leaking out, and I found two sources that have also received or read the Report, so, I am going to publish it today.
I. Background.
The Nation in 2006:
The Guam story begins in February 2001, when there was legislation before Congress to create a Supreme Court on the island territory, to be above the existing Superior Court. Judges on that court, who wanted to retain the powers of the island's traditional highest court, asked Howard Hills, a lawyer from California, to hire Abramoff to fight the bill. Abramoff's success in blocking higher wage standards in the Commonwealth of Northern Marianas Islands (CNMI)--where workers are paid $3.05 an hour to make clothes bearing "Made in USA" insignia--had given him a reputation there as an influential lobbyist. Hills, Abramoff and Superior Court Judge Alberto Lamorean subsequently reached an agreement at Abramoff's Capitol Hill restaurant, Signatures. At the time Abramoff, a former member of George W. Bush's transition team, was a $750-an-hour lobbyist with access to the highest levels of the Republican Party.
...
Fred Black was the acting US Attorney in Guam between 1991 and 2003. In November 2002, Black began investigating a contract between Abramoff and Guam's highest court and asked for DOJ's assistance. Since Black's communication happened to raise serious questions about the integrity of a high-level federal official who was being renominated to his post, Justice passed the information on to then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales.
A grand jury, convened by Black, subpoenaed the Abramoff contract on November 18, 2002. The next day the Bush Administration announced that Black would be replaced as US Attorney and demoted him to Assistant US Attorney, after twelve years on the job. His replacement, Leonardo Rapadas, had close ties to the Guam Republican Party, including the support of Abramoff and another lobbyist with access to Karl Rove.
II. Black requests a security audit from the US Justice Department
At some time in October 2001, Frederick Black requested that the US Justice Department do a post-9.11 security assessment of Guam and the Marinas. The Report was completed by US Department of Justice Regional Security Specialist, R.G. Meissner. It was completed and sent to Black on May 6, 2002 (hereinafter "The Meissner Report").
III. The Meissner Report suggests that the islands are rife in corruption
This bring us to the recent news accounts of the uncovering of this Report. This from the AirForceTimes, April 30, 2007:
Guam and the Northern Marianas offer a "ready-made environment" for terror groups to launch attacks on U.S. facilities and personnel, according to a report that assessed security vulnerabilities on the islands in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
With the nation's security at stake and the islands vulnerable to terror groups, the report states that "the level of safeguards and federal control" on the islands has not measured up.
A federal government regional security specialist prepared the report five years ago, but it has resurfaced in light of the federal conspiracy case filed earlier last week against Mark D. Zachares.
Zachares, a former Northern Marianas Cabinet official and ex-congressional staffer, said he used his job while still employed by Congress to seek a copy of the report at the request of now-disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Zachares pleaded guilty April 24 and is cooperating with authorities in the widening investigation into public corruption and Abramoff's lobbying activities. Abramoff has pleaded guilty to corruption and fraud charges.
IV. The national security component
This excerpt is from the AirForceTimes article linked to above:
'Single most cause of concern'
The report states that the lack of oversight by federal immigration law enforcers over the screening of foreigners entering the CNMI is "the single most cause of concern" expressed by all federal law enforcement officials who provided input for the report.
...
"The entire justice system lacks credibility when ... lobbyists are permitted to gain access to information that they cannot legally have," according to Rep. John Conyers, senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, in the January 2006 joint statement that also included the signature of Bordallo.
Examples cited
Prepared seven months after Sept. 11, the report lists examples of the presence of certain people or groups on the islands that raise security concerns:
- A man who claimed to be Iranian attempted to enter Guam using forged documents, and immediately requested asylum when arrested.
- "Federal authorities fear that this individual is from Kabul and has terrorist ties," the report noted.
- During a routine discussion between a member of the U.S. Attorney's Office and an official of the Guam airport agency, it was learned that the Guam airport received letters from three different addresses within Iraq. "Each letter contained a request for maps, posters and promotional materials about Guam and the airport," the security report stated. "The information was compiled and was being readied for dispatch when it was discovered by a supervisor who brought the requests to the attention of higher management. No materials or information were provided."
Now if that doesn't get people's attention, then here is the true smoking-gun:
Al-Qaida concern
Past incidents provide sufficient indication that Guam and the CNMI are being considered as possible targets for terrorist activity, according to the report. It mentions a "bio-terrorism threat" that was received at several local government locations. The threat was credited to al-Qaida "as much as one year prior to the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center," according to the report. The identification of possible al-Qaida "cell members and other highly questionable individuals foster additional concern," according to the report.
"Additionally, there is a growing sentiment among federal officials that since the attacks against U.S. sites in Malaysia and Singapore were foiled, Guam and the CNMI have ... been moved up on a list of potential targets in the Pacific. These factors and others create a valid concern," according to the five-year-old security report. While the report was being prepared, according to Meissner, a federal attorney on Guam was attempting to gather "open-source information" — for the report — about bombings in the Philippines. But in the process of doing the electronic research, according to the report, the federal attorney's anti-hacking software warned that "the online activity was being monitored from a source in Pakistan."
The news article from a local Guam newsource, Pacific Daily News, similarly tracks the AirForceTimes piece and adds some other concerns that they found significant enough to highlight:
These two from pages 17 and 18 of the Meissner Report:
Philippines
"Many experts now believe that the Philippines is a major service area and source of bomb-making materials for global terrorists; not all of which are Islamic or Muslim oriented. ...
"It should be remembered that both the Guam and CNMI populations are more than 25 percent Filipino. Thus, it would not be unreasonable, from a threat perspective, to assume that a small portion of this population could be active or passive supporters of the Islamic movements linked to the Philippines or involved in the criminal enterprises which currently smuggle drugs into Guam and CNMI. ...
"Given the proximity of the Philippines to Guam and the CNMI and owing to the propensity of growing relationships between criminal and terrorist groups globally, a Philippine association as a highly potential threat source to U.S. interests in the Pacific, especially Guam and the CNMI, make this threat even more probable and therefore cannot be overlooked.
"As previously stated, the criminal mechanisms involved in past and current importation of drugs and illegal aliens to Guam and the CNMI could easily be devoted to the importation of explosives, weapons of mass destruction and terrorist operatives."
Abu Sayyaf
"Since 9/11, more information is surfacing which is defining the relationships between terror organizations around the world and within the United States. For example, it has been widely reported that Philippine authorities provided information to the U.S. in 1993 that Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols had attended meetings with the co-founder of Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), Edwin Angeles, in the Philippines.
"Ramsi Youssef, convicted mastermind of the first World Trade Center bombing, is also alleged to have attended such meetings. Philippine officials have further stated that information was also provided in 1995 that Middle Eastern pilots were training in U.S. flight schools for future terror acts, and that Zacarias Moussaoui, now awaiting trial in the Eastern District of Virginia for his part in the 9/11 attack, also visited members of ASG. It is alleged he was provided credentials during one such visit which were discovered by FBI agents when they searched Moussaoui's apartment in Minneapolis."
V. The cover-up of the Report
The Nation has a piece from a couple of weeks ago, written by Ari Berman:
The apparent purging of Black at Abramoff's behest demonstrates the clout the lobbyist wielded at both the DOJ and the White House. Then-White House political director Ken Mehlman, the recent chairman of the Republican National Committee, told White House official Leonard Rodriguez, a protégé of Karl Rove, to "reach out to make Jack aware" of all Guam-related information, including candidates for US Attorney, according to the IG report.
In May 2002 Abramoff used his influence to kill a risk-assessment report of Guam and the neighboring Northern Marianas Islands (CNMI), requested by Black, that called for federalizing immigration laws on the islands, a move that might have jeopardized the influx of cheap labor to CNMI and Abramoff's $1.6 million lobbying contract with its local government. Abramoff learned of the report from John Ashcroft's then-chief of staff, David Ayres, whom he hosted at a Washington Redskins game. "We'll hope that higher ups will take some time to squash this," Abramoff wrote. Sure enough, the report never came out, and the DOJ demoted its author, regional security specialist Robert Meissner.
At the time, Meissner's boss was then-US Attorney for Eastern Virginia, Paul McNulty, who has since risen to become Deputy Attorney General and a key player in Gonzales's embattled DOJ. A longtime Republican operative who served as spokesman for House Republicans during Bill Clinton's impeachment--and never tried a case before becoming US Attorney--McNulty now stands accused of misleading Congress about the reasons for the eight US Attorneys' dismissals.
Meissner discussed his risk-assessment report with McNulty on multiple occasions and told several colleagues he believed McNulty helped suppress the report and curtail his career. "Bob told me he thought McNulty had everything to do with it," says one colleague of Meissner's in the Bush Administration with knowledge on Guam matters. Says another colleague, "McNulty was kind of the fireman at Justice. He was the guy trying to run around and put a lid on things that could become political, especially with Abramoff."
McNulty may have also intervened in the IG's investigation of Black's removal. According to sources close to the investigation, when Black contradicted Administration testimony, he was told by IG investigators, "That's not the scope we were given by DAG"--at the time, McNulty. McNulty's office declined to comment, and the IG's counsel, Cynthia Schnedar, says, "The conclusion we reached was a fair and appropriate one."
Sampson and McNulty were close to the heart of the Guam affair, but it's unlikely they were operating as rogue agents. Indeed, contained in the IG report is a startling admission. Sampson told the IG that after receiving permission from the DAG, AG and White House counsel to replace a US Attorney, "he would then discuss the US Attorney candidate recommendations with the President." After the Attorneygate scandal broke, Bush contradicted this, claiming that he "never brought up a specific case nor gave [Gonzales] specific instructions."
VI. Abramoff's response
Abramoff didn't give two-shits about America's national security and its being breached in Guam and the Marinas Islands. He is a criminal and a thief, and was more concerned with using Guam and its non-FDIC approved banking system to launder money. The part of the report that Abramoff the criminal wanted capped is this section:
Transnational crime organizations
The report made a host of recommendations, but it's unclear whether the recommendations were ever followed.
Besides beefing up Guam and Northern Marianas border security with federal law enforcers, the report also recommended "continuous on-island oversight of financial transactions ... to curtail the activities of transnational criminal organizations."
The report states there's indication of presence of Japanese, Russian, Chinese and other organized crime groups in the Northern Marianas.
"It would also provide U.S. authorities a means to monitor and prevent a flow of funding to terrorist groups and the countries that sponsor and support their efforts," according to the report.
"The presence of several transnational criminal organizations on Guam and in the CNMI coupled with the lack of federal immigration, customs and interdiction patrols present a critical vulnerability to the federal government and a ready made environment for terrorist groups to perpetrate any number of actions," according to the report.
This Abramoff--money-laundering--US Attorney scandal link is expanded in the recent diary of mswsm titled, USAs: Disrupting Money Laundering Investigations at Indian Casinos?
VII. US Attorney black is 'reassigned'
The report was killed, the indictments against the criminals in Guam related to Jack Abramoff died. Meanwhile, Gonzales sent someone named Russell Stoddard to take over the office on an interim basis. Now this gentleman's name may be familiar to those tracking the Margaret Chiara firing in Michigan. After leaving Guam--as soon as Abramoff's Black was re-assigned, and a puppet could be installed in the office--Russell went to Chiara's office to keep it under wraps.
Of course, Russell sees it differently. From the OIG Report:
Stoddard told the OIG that his decision to remove Black from the task force was based on his belief that Black's lack of focus was not helpful to other task force members. Stoddard told the OIG that this re-assignment was made in order to improve the functioning of the task force, not to hamper its progress on the Gutierrez Administration investigations. Stoddard stated that prior to his arrival in Guam he was not directed by anyone as to how he should nun the office. He stated that he believes, based on his discussions with others on the task force, that he made the right decision about Black's involvement on the task force.
Enter the scumbag Abramoff and the investigations that Chiara was undertaking on the Saginaw tribes, and the relations with Abramoff and the Department of Interior. See more at the recent diary of mswsm titled, USAs: Disrupting Money Laundering Investigations at Indian Casinos?
VIII. Congressional letter requesting an investigation
This is the letter to the Office of the Inspector General:
August 23, 2005
Honorable Glenn A. Fine
Inspector General
United States Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, Suite 4322
Washington, DC 20530-0001
Dear Inspector General Fine:
We write to request that the Office of the Inspector General conduct an investigation into the November 2002 demotion of former Acting United States Attorney for Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, Frederick A. Black. We are troubled by an August 7, 2005, report in the Los Angeles Times that suggests this demotion was politically motivated (enclosed).1
At the time U.S. Attorney Black was demoted, he was supervising a grand jury investigation into the lobbying activities of Jack Abramoff and conducting an ongoing investigation into possible corruption within the Government of Guam. U.S. Attorney Black had been serving as the Acting United States Attorney for more than 10 years when he was demoted. The timing of President Bush's decision to remove and replace U.S. Attorney Black is questionable and warrants an investigation.
The Los Angeles Times reports that in 2002, lobbyist Jack Abramoff entered into a secret agreement with Guam Superior Court officials to lobby against a court revision bill then pending in the United States Congress. For his lobbying efforts, Mr. Abramoff was reportedly paid with thirty-six $9,000 checks funneled through a Laguna Beach lawyer to disguise the lobbyist's role in working for the Guam Superior Court. These transactions were the target of a federal grand jury subpoena issued on November 18, 2002, which required the Guam Superior Court Administrative Director to release records involving the lobbying contract. It was on November 19, 2002, that President Bush announced he was demoting U.S. Attorney Black. The federal grand jury took no further action in the Abramoff investigation.
...
In May 2003, U.S. Attorney Black was replaced by Leonardo Rapadas who had been recommended by the Republican Party of Guam. Fred Radewagen, a lobbyist, said he carried that recommendation to Karl Rove, White House Deputy Chief of Staff, in early 2003. Since taking office, U.S. Attorney Rapadas has excused himself from the ongoing public corruption case involving the Government of Guam because he is the cousin of one of the key targets of the investigation.
...
Sincerely,
John Conyers, Jr.
Member of Congress
Madeleine Z. Bordallo
Member of Congress
cc: Hon. William E. Moschella
Assistant Attorney General
Hon. F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr.
Chairman, U.S. House Comm. on the Judiciary
IX. The OIG Report
The complete OIG report is available here in searchable .pdf format.
From the Office of
The OIG learned of Black’s allegations in July 2005 from Noel Hillman, at that time the Chief of the Public Integrity Section of the Department of Justice (DOJ). Hillman notified the OIG that Black had recently been interviewed by Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agents assigned to DOJ’s investigation into Abramoff’s activities. In that interview, Black stated that he believed he had been replaced as the U.S. Attorney because of political controversy he caused in the fall of 2002 by calling for an investigation of lobbying fees that the Superior Court of Guam had paid to Abramoff. Black also alleged that he may have been replaced in order to prevent the implementation of a recommendation contained in a May 2002 security report prepared by a DOJ security specialist regarding the applicability of federal immigration law to the CNMI, which Black supported and Abramoff allegedly opposed. During the FBI interview, Black also raised various concerns regarding the appointment of Rapadas as the U.S. Attorney and the management of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Guam and the CNMI (USAO-Guam) after Rapadas’s appointment.
X. Conclusion
Fortunately, this story is being noticed and discussed. When the Meissner Report makes it into the public domain, this story will be the truly polished gem of the US Attorney Scandal: It has the usual players, the Bush Crime Family, Gonzales, a US Attorney; but, it adds a member-in-good-standing, the slimy, filthy, disgusting Jack Abramoff thrown into the mix. Second, it has a national security component as well. The fact that Jack Abramoff, the filthy bastard, could successfully kill a report from the Justice Department that outlines, after 9.11, the American Homeland is at danger because of the porousness of Guam, is the final nail in the coffin for any of you who doubted that the Bush Crime Family cares more about appeasing its special-interests than it does in protecting America from another terrorist attack.
Thanks to Alberto Gonzales' idiocy and utter incompetence, this story will be further analyzed as part of the ongoing US Attorney scandal. But, it may not end there: Two Democratic congressmen, Rep. George Miller (D-CA) and Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) have written a letter to Chairman Conyers, Chairman Leahy, Chairwoman Sánchez, and Chairman Schumer:
In October 2005, and again in January 2006, we and others asked the Attorney General to appoint an outside counsel to determine whether Black was replaced by the Bush Administration in November 2002 because he was conducting a criminal investigation of Abramoff and his clients, and because he favored insular area policies that Abramoff and his clients opposed.
As we wrote to Attorney General Gonzales, it is clear that Abramoff was given ample and, in our view, improper opportunity to weigh in with the Justice Department, and that the White House sought his counsel. Newspaper reports and leaked emails indicated that Abramoff had used his influence in the Justice Department to remove the Acting U.S. Attorney, and had worked to gain knowledge of and attempt to prevent the release of a classified review of Guam and CNMI immigration laws commissioned by Black. In one email, Abramoff explained that he had found out about the classified immigration report when "we had the COS of the Justice Department in our box at today’s Redskins game."
...
The Inspector General’s June 2006 report found that Abramoff – who described the Acting U.S. Attorney as a "total commie" and told his colleagues that "We need to get this guy sniped out of there" – had weighed in and attempted to influence the process of replacing the U.S. Attorney. However, the report concluded that the replacement of the Acting U.S. Attorney had not been improper.
At the time, we viewed the replacement of the Acting U.S. Attorney as an example of the overly zealous and improper, if not illegal, conduct by the now disgraced and convicted lobbyist, Jack Abramoff.
In light of more recent revelations about political interference with the work of other U.S. Attorneys, however, it is necessary now to re-examine the case as it may represent the beginning of a pattern of behavior by some members of Congress and officials in the Bush Administration to politicize the work of U.S. Attorneys and to quash their independence.
We encourage you to include this earlier incident in your ongoing work. As you know, Jack Abramoff worked closely with the Bush Administration and Congress to distort insular area policy; that matter was never appropriately investigated by this body.
The impeachment of Richard Nixon would not have been possible had it not been for a handful of Republic politicians realizing that enough was enough. I have nothing but disdain for anyone with an "R" after their name, but, it is hoped that once certain Republics realize that Bush has allowed a national security hole in Guam and the Marinas Islands, they will finally say 'enough is enough'.
I don't care if its Tancredo or his ilk. Any Republic hoping to be re-elected in 2008 ought to consider this an opportunity to distance themselves from this Organized Criminal Enterprise in the White House. Then, and only then, will the heat become so intense that this filthy bastard Bush and his other co-conspirators will be shown the door.