G.H.W. Bush associate charged with illegal arms sales

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/default.stm

Menem charged with weapons sales
By Daniel Schweimler
BBC News, Buenos Aires

Argentina's former President Carlos Menem has been charged with involvement in the illegal sale of weapons to Croatia and Ecuador during the 1990s.

His passport has been withdrawn and assets worth $120m (£60m) frozen to pay for any fine resulting from the case.

--snip--

Mr Menem is accused of involvement in selling 6,500 tonnes of rifles, cannons, anti-tank rockets and ammunition to Ecuador and Croatia between 1991 and 1995.

--snip--

...and as my father used to tell me, there is no honor among thieves.

At 77, he's three years shy of the average life expectancy. I just wish it didn't take 16 years to charge these people. As it stands, he could pop-off before his trial.

From his perspective, and considering what he's illegally gained, it was a pretty good calculated risk. I'm sure he would say, "even though a few people got themselves killed...."

- K&R

esecially if none of your family is at risk.

These people have no empathy. They just stare at themselves in the mirror and tell their reflection how great they are.

Think of ODESSA, the Nazis escaping to Argentina and the Croatian leg on the route to South America.

Old habits run deep.

It's a way of life.

Nothing smells so sweet as one Skunk to another.

you are going to get burned. :shrug:

Martyrdom is God's greatest gift.

St. Menem anyone?

With the internets, these little side jobbies are getting to get more difficult for them as we go along. Because we just don't trust anyone, anymore.

Once you know who they are.


The usual suspects.

Menem charged with weapons sales, September 8, 2007





A couple of old stories:


Menem remembers Falklands dead, October 28, 1998, BBC


Menem gets red carpet treatment . October 27, 1998, BBC

The boys.

Isn't it DUer blm who always challenged us to ponder: Does anyone really believe that George Bush woke up one day in Jan.1993 and decided he would no longer participate in running arms, proliferating WMDs, deal drugs and fund terrorists anymore just because he was no longer in the White House?

They have been doing it for so many generations, it's embedded in their genetic code, just like turtles return to the same beach to spawn or salmon return to the same river, Bush Gang deal in destruction and War.

There just is no way to make this stuff up!! This is a court pleading. Unbelievable.

First get some spy files from Israel, alter them to look like Argentine spy files, make them implicate Bush and Menem in corruption, blame Gore for the forged documents. Sound familiar. Did I mention blackmailing bribed journalists and, of course, the perennial covert Republican dirty tricksters.

Hilarious to see how the Menem part is coming true! Who next, Bush?
Or, is this just more political sabotage? Never forget, in politics, up is down and ... Did you see that white rabbit?

==========================
http://pacer.ca4.uscourts.gov/opinion.pdf/041901.P.pdf
Olavar (Triumph Communications International Group, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v.
Santibañes, Defendant-Appellee, and Ikon Holdings, Inc., t/a Ikon Public Affairs, Dick Morris, Roger Stone, Eileen McGann, John Does, Defendants.

Appeal from the United States District Court Decided: December 1, 2005

Triumph Communications International Group, Incorporated is a corporation that provides political consulting and public relations services and is owned and operated solely by Mattie Lolavar.

In early 2000, Miss Lolavar began discussions with defendant Dick Morris about the possibility of her working with Craig Snyder and defendant Roger Stone, who are partners in defendant IKON Holdings, Inc., another political consulting firm ... about the possibility of Triumph Communications’ assistance with work that IKON was doing for the government of Argentina.
These discussions lead to two contracts ... and provided that Triumph would act as a public relations consultant to "the Secretary of Intelligence of Argentina" as well as arrange various media events...

Miss Lolavar went to Argentina in August 2000 to assist de Santibañes with preparations for his testimony in Argentine congressional hearings inquiring into allegations that he and the Argentine intelligence agency, known as SIDE, were responsible for bribing various Argentine senators in exchange for political support. Morris and Stone assigned other tasks to Miss Lolavar while she was in Argentina. Among other acts, they instructed her to contact SIDE and obtain a list of journalists who accepted bribes from that organization in order to harm the credibility of those same journalists in reporting on a bribery scandal surrounding de Santibañes and President de la Rua, as well as requiring her to spread false information to the press concerning de la Rua’s political opponent, Dr. Carlos Menem. The charges and counter-charges related here are from the papers in the court file, as are the other facts.

A request that occasioned controversy between Miss Lolavar and the defendants was Morris and Stone’s request that she serve as an intermediary in an anonymous wire transfer of funds to an official in Israel. These funds were to be paid to secure intelligence files from the Israeli government to assist de la Rua’s political domestic disputes with Menem, and to imply a corrupt relationship between Menem and George W. Bush, who was then running against Albert Gore for the United States presidency. These files were to be altered by Miss Lolavar to appear to be SIDE documents.

When the defendants became concerned that this plot would be discovered and traced back to them, they ordered Miss Lolavar to orchestrate a press response to blame Vice President Gore for the dissemination of the documents, since it was known to them that the Gore campaign had been attempting to connect Menem with the Bush campaign.

It's rough in the big league.

More than we will ever realize, I suspect!

You can always tell when you hit a nerve.

I love to yank their chain.

They work in packs too, so it's difficult to counter. What makes them particularly effective is the lockstep of their pack behavior, like instant high rec tallies.

Of course, it is easy to trace them back to their computers too!

When the Rapture doesn't come and they're back to selling Bibles door to door to pay the rent on their flophouse efficiency and a six pack of ramen, we can have the last laugh.

The meek shall inherit the Earth.

That's not supposed to happen! I'm sure Menem is innocent, though, just like Scooter Libby and Jack Abramoff. It is heartening, though, to see a simple public servant, through careful management of his meager government salary, accumulate a small nest egg that he can pass on to his family. If the Democrats don't tax him out of it, that is. I mean, can you imagine amassing $120 million and only getting to pass $55 million of that on to your loved ones? It's just so unfair.