The Ties That Bind: Abramoff, Bongo, and Osama

November 19, 2005 -- Another link emerges between Russian-Israeli Mafia capo "Casino Jack" Abramoff and "Al Qaeda" financial network. It has recently emerged that Jack Abramoff, the Orthodox Jewish GOP lobbyist and fundraiser, attempted to secure a $9 million fee from Gabon's President Omar Bongo to arrange for a visit by the Gabonese President to the White House to meet with George W. Bush.

In a July 28, 2003 letter to Bongo, Abramoff wrote, "I have been cautiously working to obtain a visit for the President [Bongo] to see President Bush, the Congress and policy and opinion makers in the United States. As you know, we were, in advance of the war in Iraq, able to secure a tentative date for this meeting, however, the war cancelled all such scheduled visits, with the exception of the critical US war allies . . . I suggested that I visit Gabon after my trip to Scotland in mid August, but that in order for me to preserve this and be able to turn down the neighbor's offer, we had to commence the representation, even in small part, perhaps ten percent . . . Please bear in mind that the neighbor's proposal was to pay the entire amount up front. [The 'neighbor' referenced here may be Nigeria. Abramoff's firm Greenberg Traurig hired a former staffer for New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Valerie J. Owens, who, while with the State Department in the Clinton administration, served as special liaison to Nigeria. Abramoff produced an anti-communist pro-Angolan UNITA film called "Red Scorpion" in the 1980s, so it is doubtful his old enemies in Luanda would have much to do with him] I am willing to visit after my visit to Scotland with the congressmen and senators I take there each year . . . It is possible they will want to join me in Gabon, which will be an extra bonus." Gabon is a major oil producer. The $9 million was to be paid to Abramoff in three $3 million wire transfers to Grassroots Interactive, a now-defunct Silver Spring, Maryland entity created to skirt tax and campaign finance laws.

Grassroots was run by Maryland Governor Bob Ehrlich's deputy chief of staff, Edward B. Miller. (Note: This is yet another example of foreign money that poured into Republican coffers prior to the 2004 election, money that included illegal payments and illegal "feints" such as counterfeit money orders and warehouse receipts involving Nigerian oil money. The editor totally stands by his November 2004 investigation about the illegal $29 million "check" that was used to funnel money to programmers who were altering the software and hardware used in the November 2004 presidential election).

What has not been reported is that Bongo sits, along with a number of Saudis, on the board of the Islamic bank, Dar al Mal al Islami (DMI). A French intelligence report obtained by WMR indicates that DMI has been looked at closely by French intelligence for aiding money transfers to Islamist terrorist groups like "Al Qaeda."

The Ties That Bind: Abramoff, Bongo, and Osama

Click here for French intelligence documents on DMI and Omar Bongo.

Bongo's links to the Saudis and Abramoff add a new wrinkle to the scandal surrounding the Bush administration's leak of classified CIA information involving a covert agent and her network. The proposed trip by Abramoff to Gabon was planned for August 2003, only a few months after the White House chose to expose Valerie Plame and her Brewster Jennings & Associates network. There is one person in Washington, DC who is very familiar with Gabon, having served as ambassador there. The Abramoff-Bongo deal may be yet another reason the Bush White House chose to do a "work up" on Joe Wilson.

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