Former Bush officials under investigation for supporting terrorism

Michael Isikoff reports: Speaking firms representing ex-FBI Director Louis Freeh and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Hugh Shelton have received federal subpoenas as part of an expanding investigation into the source of payments to former top government officials who have publicly advocated removing an Iranian dissident group from the State Department list of terrorist groups, three sources familiar with the investigation told NBC News.

The investigation, being conducted by the Treasury Department, is focused on whether the former officials may have received funding, directly or indirectly, from the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, or MEK, thereby violating longstanding federal law barring financial dealings with terrorist groups. The sources, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity, said that speaking fees given to the former officials total hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“This is about finding out where the money is coming from,” an Obama administration official familiar with the probe said. “This has been a source of enormous concern for a long time now. You have to ask the question, whether this is a prima facie case of material support for terrorism.”

Freeh and Shelton are among 40 former senior U.S. government officials who have participated in a public lobbying campaign – including appearing at overseas conferences and speaking at public rallies – aimed at persuading the U.S. government to remove the MEK from the terror list.

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3 thoughts on “Former Bush officials under investigation for supporting terrorism”

  1. Norman

    Corruption runs deep, into your life it will creep. So what is is new? As long as they can, they will. No wonder the country is going down the drain.

  2. dickerson3870

    FROM COMMON DREAMS, 3/16/12:

    (excerpt) A Treasury Department investigation has been initiated against nearly two dozen former high-ranking US officials, many who continue to hold elite positions of power in media and policy circles or private industry, for their active support and financial ties to an Iranian dissident group, the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (or MEK), that is listed by the State Department as a ‘terror organization’.
    Those under investigation represent a bipartisan group including former Democratic governors Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania and Howard Dean of Vermont; former Republican Homeland Security Advisor to George W. Bush, Fran Townsend*, Bush’s Attorney General, Michael Mukasey, and former UN ambassador John Bolton; former Republican Mayor of New York, Rudolph Guiliani; and ex-FBI Director Louis Freeh and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Hugh Shelton, among others…

    SOURCE – http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/03/16
    * Chutzpah, thy name is Fran Townsend!
    SEE GLENN GREENWALD EXPOSE HER SICKENING HYPOCRISY: Washington’s high-powered terrorist supporters, by Glenn Greenwald, Salon, 3/12/12
    LINK – http://www.salon.com/2012/03/12/washingtons_high_powered_terrorist_supporters/singleton/

    P.S. FROM THE MSNBC ARTICLE BY ISIKOFF:

    …Rendell told NBC News that he received an email this week from Freeh’s office alerting him and more than three dozen other former senior officials that subpoenas were being issued by the Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control. The email asked that the former senior officials contact Freeh and former Attorney General Michael Mukasey. Freeh and Mukasey, who have been among the leaders in the campaign to “delist” the MEK, are hiring a lawyer to represent all former senior officials caught up in the investigation, the email from Freeh’s office said, according to Rendell…

    SOURCE – http://openchannel.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/16/10710422-ex-us-officials-investigated-over-speeches-to-iranian-dissident-group-on-terror-list

  3. dickerson3870

    ALSO SEE: Speakers bureau works for Iranian terror group, by Justin Elliott, Salon, 9/07/11

    (excerpt) A Pennsylvania speakers bureau is sending out invitations for a lucrative speaking opportunity on behalf of an officially designated terrorist organization, the Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK) of Iran, according to an email obtained by Salon.
    Last week, a person at a Washington think tank was emailed the $10,000-plus-expenses offer to speak at a Geneva event by Lourdes Swarts, managing director of 21st Century Speakers Inc., “on behalf of our client, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, Foreign Affairs Committee.”
    The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) is listed as a foreign terrorist organization by the State Department, and is described as the “political front” of the MEK.
    The language of the contract indicates Swarts — as well as anyone who agrees to the speaking offer — is breaking the law that bars material support for terrorism, according to Georgetown Law School professor David Cole…

    ENTIRE ARTICLE – http://www.salon.com/2011/09/07/mek_speaking_offer/

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