Some of these GOP Congressmen…you give them something for free, they’ll join your religion, hawk your products, help you get rid of a body…
Ohio Rep. Robert Ney personally lobbied the then Secretary of State Colin Powell to relax U.S. sanctions on Iran. Who asked him to? A convicted airplane broker who had just taken the congressman and a top aide on an expense-paid trip to London, NEWSWEEK has learned. Ney’s lawyer confirmed to NEWSWEEK that federal prosecutors have subpoenaed records on Ney’s February 2003 trip paid for by Nigel Winfield, a thrice-convicted felon who ran a company in Cyprus called FN Aviation. Winfield was seeking to sell U.S.-made airplane spare parts to the Iranian government—a deal that would have needed special permits because of U.S. sanctions against Tehran.
Ney’s lawyer, Mark Tuohey, said Ney had no idea of Winfield’s criminal past, which included a 1982 conviction for trying to swindle Elvis Presley in an airplane deal and two more in the late 1980s for tax evasion. Tuohey said there was “absolutely nothing improper” about Ney’s raising the issue of Iranian sanctions with Powell and other Bush administration officials. At the time, there had been a number of civilian plane crashes in Iran attributable to a lack of spare parts. Ney, who had a longstanding interest in Iran, considered easing sanctions to allow spare-parts sales a “humanitarian” matter, Tuohey said.
The Justice Department subpoenas of Ney’s travel records grew out of the Jack Abramoff lobbying case. Ney is identified in Abramoff’s recent plea agreement as “Representative #1,” who allegedly agreed to intervene on behalf of one of Abramoff’s Indian tribal clients after receiving political contributions and an earlier all-expense-paid golfing trip to Scotland arranged by Abramoff. The Iranian airline deal shows how the Abramoff case is already expanding into a broader investigation into D.C. lobbying practices. Ney was introduced to Winfield by lobbyists Roy Coffee, a former legislative aide to the then Gov. George W. Bush, and David DiStefano, who had previously been Ney’s chief of staff. Coffee and DiStefano (who did not respond to requests for comment) arranged for Ney and a staff member to fly over to London, where Winfield and his Syrian-born business partner, Fouad Al-Zayat, pitched the congressman on their business plan. Back in Washington, Ney talked to Powell, Tuohey said. But “nothing ever came of it,” Tuohey said, because the company’s deal fell through. Spokespeople for Powell and the State and Commerce departments (which administer U.S. trade sanctions) had no immediate responses to requests for comment.
—Mark Hosenball, Michael Isikoff and Holly Bailey
Sounds like a louse to me.
Say one or a couple of his misdeeds hadn’t been exposed, this clown could have been the House Majority Leader…a fitting replacement for Delay I suppose!
Hey, don’t ya know, the deals with Iran were “humanitarian” efforts. : P
Ney, who had a longstanding interest in Iran, considered easing sanctions to allow spare-parts sales a “humanitarian” matter, Tuohey said.
Hardly a scandal. Hillary Clinton’s campaign contribution fraud, now there’s a scandal. How is selling airplane parts a scandal? Do you want Iranian civilians to die in plane crashes?
Right, Iran wants to blow up Israel. I’m sure you frowned upon countries who disregarded the sanctions on Iraq when Saddam was in charge, so why would this deal here be acceptable to you?
Could it be that a Republican worked to make it happen? I’d like to see what your reaction would be if a Democrat was cited in this article!
Like with the warrentless wiretapping issue, it seems to me that conservatives are all for law and order for everyone but themselves. Interesting how once it’s a Republican found in violation, suddenly the rules aren’t important.
Right, Iran wants to blow up Israel. I’m sure you frowned upon countries who disregarded the sanctions on Iraq when Saddam was in charge, so why would this deal here be acceptable to you?
Because the situation hasn’t gotten to the point that Saddam took it and aircraft parts that only work on passenger liners arean’t much of a threat to Isreal. If Iran goes the Saddam route I’m all for shooting down anything that flies but until then it’s good to keep a few channels open.
Could it be that a Republican worked to make it happen? I’d like to see what your reaction would be if a Democrat was cited in this article!
Being that it’s just passenger plane parts and were not at war with Iran, non-military commerce is good for America. You seem to equate unrelated things quite often and this is one of those times. Iran is not Iraq, yet.
Like with the warrentless wiretapping issue, it seems to me that conservatives are all for law and order for everyone but themselves. Interesting how once it’s a Republican found in violation, suddenly the rules aren’t important.
I am for law and order. No one is being sent through the court system with tainted intelligence and there have been no attacks recently
So we’re not following the letter of the law now, but deciding what trade is allowable on a case by case basis? What’s the use of having rules if they can be gotten rid of based on influence?
Our entire society is based on the idea that laws govern what we can and cannot do. If I can’t export my goods to Iran because of trade sanctions, then why should my competitor be allowed to? Because they set a congressman up in a five star hotel for a weekend?
Because that’s what we’re talking about here with Ney. In exchange for bribes he petitioned the Secretary of State to allow a business to break the law without penalty. That’s how things in government often happen, but when a case is exposed, we’re supposed to grin and bear it?
How about this company’s competition in the marketplace who doesn’t have the priviledge to compete for Iran’s business?
I’m not following your logic here Right. Providing a single firm exclusivity to trade with a government that every other industry within our country is forbidden to do is NOT good for America. It’s good for that one company, and bad for their competitors.
Trade sanctions are put in place for a reason, and in Iran’s case, the reasons are spelled out rather clearly on almost a daily basis with the news coming out of that country. Their elected (sigh) leader is a throwback, and his rhetoric is that of an opportunistic madman whose intentions are not based on what’s best for the people of Iran, but what’s best for a collection of sick religious ideologues who think things were better back when electricity wasn’t yet invented.
The people of Iran elected this man, and in doing so, they voluntarily turned back the hands of time. This is not America’s fault, neither is it our problem. If the Iranian people would be better off buying airplane parts from America, then that’s a matter they need to work out amongst themselves. It’s not up to a single congressman to decide right and wrong based on what he gets for free from the company lobbying him to help them subvert the rules.
We’ve successfully prosecuted individuals who at the time of their arrest were residing within this country, and claiming American citizenship. Our ability to conduct investigations on people like this, prosecute and win convictions is my sole focus on this matter.
Reporting in recent days contains quotes from FBI sources who say that thousands of leads are provided by the NSA, to which they devote thousands of man-hours investigating, and most turn up nothing. The productivity of our domestic intelligence and law enforcement organizations, according to these people, is reduced.
Now, do I want the FBI chasing dead ends provided by a computer and a sign off by the NSA, or do I want the FBI doing what they know works…undercover, fliping informants, etc?
Two of the most consequential busts post-9/11 have been accomplished by the FBI on leads they cultivated on their own. In one of those cases, they built a level of trust with an individual who subsequently sold one of their undercover agents a cache of shoulder launched missiles.
Now, is that a better way to spend the FBI’s limited amount of hours, or should they be chasing down thousands of phone numbers and email addresses produced by NSA computers? That’s the deal here as far as I’m concerned, and to compound the misuse of time and money, when a suspect is identified through the use of a warrantless wiretap, defense lawyers are provided an avenue to legitimately file motions to have the case thrown out before it even begins.
Same as a mafia suspect or a drug cartel, when they’re provided a court date, the government’s ability to ensure that justice is done depends heavily on the evidence and how that evidence was obtained. It’s a professional endeavor that requires serious planing and execution, and first and foremost, adherence to the law.
Becuase without that, thousands of hours can be spent on an investigation that in the end bears no fruit. That’s millions of dollars that you and I provide as taxpayers being flushed down the toilet.
Maybe it’s my operations manager coming out, but nothing annoys me more than wasted money, especially when it’s the result of some executive who doesn’t know the business making a call that creates the waste. We deserve efficient government, bang for our buck, and having the FBI running down thousands of dead ends is an operational travesty based on what we learned about the way we did business pre-9/11.
The President can’t look at this from a cost-benefit standpoint because of politics. If he switches up to the benefit of the job, he loses face. To me, that’s not a good enough reason to not switch up if the situation calls for it.