Reality Based Scandal – Moon of Alabama

December 13, 2004

Reality Based Scandal

There is an American exile billionaire sitting in Switzerland. He expects some bad press about his business dealings in the Iraq Oil-for-Food program. A neutral investigation by the estimeed Paul Volker is looking into various, probably illegal, deals.

The billionaire calls up his old lawyer and buddy, who is in a high political position, and asks him to help to divert the developing scandal. The lawyer-buddy discusses the request with his boss.

Having been in the same business as the pressured billionaire, the boss understands the problem and agrees to help. He talks to his old friend, the important Op-Ed writer, and they come up with an operation plan.

As they can not stop the ongoing investigation, they will push for a new investigation going into a different direction and they will project a "bigger scandal" which shall hide the real one. Creating a new reality is the general, time tested idea.

Billionaire Marc Rich has emerged as a central figure in the U.N. oil-for-food scandal and is under investigation for brokering deals in which scores of international politicians and businessmen cashed in on sweetheart oil deals with Saddam Hussein

"We think he was a major player in this – a central figure," a senior law-enforcement official told The Post.
Link

From Yale, Libby went on to Columbia Law School and then settled down to practice law in Philadelphia. His most famous client was Marc Rich, the fugitive financier and alleged tax evader who was pardoned by President Clinton during the last days of his administration. Clinton’s pardon, which at the time drew heavy criticism from Republicans, was largely the result of legal arguments Libby had been making for 15 years.
…
Today what touches Cheney reaches Libby and vice-versa.
Link

CHENEY: "And Bill Safire is an old friend of mine, and I frequently agree with him."
Link

William Safire: U.N. chief getting mired in oil-for-food scandal
Link

Kofi Annan’s son, without the senior’s knowledge, did get $2,500 per month and it is yet unknown if this has anything to do with Oil-for-Food at all.

"Rich and Pollner would pocket percentages of the profits, worth hundreds of millions of dollars".

Which one is the reality-based scandal?

Posted by b on December 13, 2004 at 19:57 UTC | Permalink

Comments

Bernhard…
Marc Rich is notorious in the US not for any connections with the Bush crowd but for the genuinely scandalous pardon given him by Bill Clinton in the waning minutes of his presidency.
The New York Post, article, based entirely on unsourced assertions by “investigators,” appears to be trying to establish some kind of guilt by association between Bill Clinton and the oil-for-food morass: a putative Clinton-Annan-Rich axis of scandal. Recall that the New York Post is a right-wing Murdoch publication, about as reliable as Fox News. I’m not saying there’s nothing to this, but playing up the Marc Rich connection (if true) provides more fodder for the right-wing hate machine than for priorities of the two or three Americans who know and care who Lewis Libby is.

Posted by: ralphbon | Dec 13 2004 20:43 utc | 1

Marc Rich was also involved in oil deals with Iran, and some speculate he was a front for run on the ruble.
Personally, I have no great love for Clinton. I thought it was a bad thing to pardon Rich, and I don’t care if it was a Republican or Dem who did it. I also do not think it is only Republicans who are involved in shady deals. Iran/Contra crooks seem to have run cocaine out of Mena, Ark, too.
who knows, maybe that’s why Jackson Stephens supported Clinton, even though he was a Bush man from waaaay back. Just my speculation.
But I think it would be useful to look into Rich’s association with Bush Sr. as well.

Posted by: fauxreal | Dec 13 2004 21:15 utc | 2

At the risk of seeming simplistic, Rich seems to fit in well with other neocons like Perle. Same ties to Likud.
I agree that this is a smear campaign on Clinton. No way is the Post going to go against this admin or any of its players.
One last thing, you all do know that Chevron has a ship named after Condi Rice IRT the Chevron investigation named in the story..

Posted by: dan of steele | Dec 13 2004 21:26 utc | 3

@ralphbon
I don´t think the NY Post is sucking this out of the air. The may use it for their manipulation though. There have been several reports, abcnews for example, on Rich and the oil for food program.
Rich is in the boat with both parties in the US and with many Likutniks in Israel plus diverse Mafia types in Russia and elsewhere. Safire is one who is single handed driving the “annan scandal” – I just try to connect several dots.

President Bush, asked if he thought the investigation into Rich’s pardon should continue, burbled that it was “time to move on.” The Republicans are as wary of opening this can of worms as any die-hard Clintonista. The recent House hearings conducted by Dan Burton completely ignored the Israeli angle, while the Senate hearings made it clear, as Salon noted, that Clinton and Rich have reason to be optimistic: Bush’s opposition put a definite damper on the proceedings. The continuing cover-up of the Marc Rich outrage, as Arianna Huffington points out, is a bipartisan affair. While much is made of Jack Quinn, the supposed Svengali who hypnotized Clinton into pardoning his client against the advice of the White House legal staff, little is said about Lewis “Scooter” Libby, also one of Rich’s legal hired hands, who recruited Quinn to Rich’s cause – and then segued into position as Dick Cheney’s chief of staff. Then there’s David Bossie, Rep. Dan Burton’s chief investigator and a veteran of the impeachment hearings, who was hired by Quinn to brief him for his appearance before a House investigating committee this week – one that just happened to be chaired by Rep. Burton. What a coincidence!

MARC RICH: TREASON IS THE REASON

Posted by: b | Dec 13 2004 21:30 utc | 4

I’m with y’all. It will be interesting to see whether and how this develops.

Posted by: ralphbon | Dec 13 2004 22:50 utc | 5

(I previewed this and the formatting was funky. Apologies in advance.)
Hi, I haven’t been around much anymore, but I wanted to draw your attention to the nominations for the Koufax Awards for the best left-wing blogging.
Ok, confession time. The Koufax brought me–and perhaps a swarm of people–to the Whiskey Bar in the first place. Maybe his award was a bad thing for Billmon, the beginning of the end, but I’m inclined to think that writing as meteoric as Billmon’s was was bound to meet its limiting point.
Still, Billmon was doing incredible work this year, work that deserves to get recognized. I’ve nominated his “Wild Blue Yonder” post on economic trends for the “Best Post” category, but that choice was based on a briefish scan of the archives. So much was good, so if you guys and gals can come up with more, specific examples of what deserves rewards in Billmon’s oeuvre, please go to the nomination site and remind the forgetful bloggers of what we’re missing.
Maybe an award will bring him back. I doubt for long, though.

Posted by: Jackmormon | Dec 14 2004 3:31 utc | 6

Marc Rich is one of trail markers in the Bush-Clinton-Bush Connection that you don’t much read about unless you hit some of the so-called tin foil hat sites. 😉 But we’re not supposed to speak of the endemic corruption in many if not all of US executive branches since who know’s when. Nope. We’re not supposed to speak of such things ever.
😉

Posted by: Kate_Storm | Dec 14 2004 4:44 utc | 7

Kate, you can’t believe it is possible now to even get IN to the executive branch without all the proper (corrupt) connections. So you can blame the folks who are IN there, but I blame those who put them there. (Not talking about voters here either.)

Posted by: rapt | Dec 14 2004 15:00 utc | 8

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