BoatBanter.com - OT Corruption in BushCo

The lying, cheating, stealing thugs of BushCo are still at it:

CORRUPTION
Top Bush Official Arrested in Corruption Probe

David Safavian, who until Friday headed the "obscure but extremely
important" federal procurement office in the White House Office of
Management and Budget (OMB), was arrested yesterday, accused by federal
agents of "lying and obstructing a criminal investigation into
Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff's dealings with the federal
government." In his position at the OMB, Safavian set purchasing policy
for the entire government, and "had recently been working on developing
contracting policies for the multibillion-dollar relief effort after
Hurricane Katrina." His arrest -- the "first criminal complaint filed
against a government official" in the ongoing Abramoff probe -- exposes
a thicket of corruption involving Abramoff, leaders of the right-wing
movement like Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed, and public officials at
the very highest levels of government, including House Majority Leader
Tom DeLay (R-TX).

LYING ABOUT ETHICS TO SEND KICK-BACKS TO ABRAMOFF: The complaint filed
by the FBI accuses Safavian of making "repeated false statements to
government officials and investigators" about a golf trip with Abramoff
to Scotland in 2002, when Safavian was chief of staff at the Bush
administration's General Services Administration. In that position,
"ethics rules flatly prohibited the receipt of a gift from any person
seeking an official action by the agency," and before the golf trip,
Safavian assured GSA ethics officers in writing that Abramoff "has no
business before GSA." In truth, Safavian was already actively assisting
Abramoff "acquire control of two federally managed properties in the
Washington area;" a 40-acre plot that became the campus for a Hebrew
school Abramoff founded, and office space that Abramoff was seeking to
lease for his Indian tribal clients. Indeed, on the very same day
Safavian sent the letter to the GSA ethics office, "he sent an e-mail
to Abramoff from his home computer, advising him how to 'lay out a case
for this lease.'" The day before he departed to Scotland, Safavian
"arranged a meeting for Abramoff's wife and business partner with
officials at GSA" to tour of one of the properties -- a tour that
Abramoff suggested after being shown a map of the space in Safavian's
office. And in an email to a colleague, Abramoff himself explained why
he'd invited Safavian on the golfing trip: "Total business angle. He is
new (chief of staff) of GSA."

TRAINED BY THE MASTER: "Like Abramoff, Safavian is a veteran Washington
player," the Washington Post reports. The two worked closely together
at the lobbying firm Preston, Gates & Ellis, where "Abramoff schooled
Safavian" and where they "jointly represented a broad swath of gambling
interests." The two also held Shaw Environmental and Infrastructure
(part of the Shaw Group) as a client, which is now represented by
former FEMA chief and 2000 Bush-Cheney campaign manager Joe Allbaugh.
(The Securities and Exchange Committee has launched an investigation
into the Shaw Group for possible accounting irregularities, Newsweek
reported this weekend. Shaw scored a $100 million no-bid Katrina
contract "before the flood waters receded.") Safavian moved on to found
Janus Merritt, a top-end lobbying firm, with "Abramoff's college
roommate and conservative maverick Grover Norquist."

THE BUSH CONNECTION: Some of Jack Abramoff's most heinous work was on
behalf of the government of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S.
territory between Hawaii and the Philippines. Human "brokers" bring
thousands there to work as sex slaves and in cramped sweatshop garment
factories where clothes (complete with "Made in USA" tag) are made for
several brand names. Working with Safavian, Abramoff lobbied various
public officials, particularly Rep. Tom DeLay, to prevent any
crack-down on the worker abuse on the island. In January 2001, when
President Bush entered office, Abramoff wrote island officials, "Our
standing with the new administration promises to be solid as several
friends of the [Marianas] will soon be taking high-ranking positions in
the Administration." He was right. Two members of Abramoff's lobbying
team subsequently received positions in the Bush White House, one as
assistant secretary of labor, and another -- David Safavian -- as chief
of staff to the General Services Administration. In the first 10 months
of Bush's presidency, Abramoff and his lobbying team "logged nearly 200
contacts with the new administration." They pressed for "friendly
hires" and lax labor laws with officials as high up as Attorney General
John Ashcroft and policy advisers in Vice President Dick Cheney's
office, and it apparently worked: the islands "fended off proposals in
2001 to extend the U.S. minimum wage to island workers and gained at
least $2 million more in federal aid from the administration." By
mid-2003, Abramoff "had raised at least $100,000 for Mr. Bush's
re-election campaign, becoming one of Bush's famed 'pioneers.'"

THE MIKE BROWN OF CONTRACT PROCUREMENT: Two weeks after Safavian was
confirmed in June 2004, Steven Kelman, the federal procurement
administrator under President Clinton, told Government Executive
magazine that Safavian "doesn't have a lot of background in
procurement, so the hope is that he's a good learner." Allan Burman,
another former procurement chief, agreed: "I don't know where David
Safavian comes out on [acquisition reform]." Even Angela Styles, who
held the top acquisition post in the Bush administration until
September 2003, said Safavian had "no apparent philosophy" on
procurement issues.

ALL IN THE FAMILY: Safavian's arrest also places a spotlight on his
wife, Jennifer Safavian, who works for Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA). Davis
chairs the House Government Reform Committee, and Jennifer Safavian
serves as chief counsel for oversight and investigations (she
reportedly "has signed a recusal agreement that will keep her from
looking into OMB and procurement matters"). Nevertheless, according to
Hill columnist Josh Marshall, Rep. Davis pushed through several
"made-to-order crony-empowerment (a.k.a., contracting deregulation and
streamlining) provisions" in the Katrina emergency funding bills. When
David Safavian was first nominated, the Federal Times warned that if he
were confirmed, "it would be difficult to believe - if only because of
appearances - that he or his wife's committee is acting independently
of the other as each tends to the integrity of the federal procurement
process."