Sunday, February 8, 2009

Northwest Airlines Murderous McCain Connection- McCainattacks.blogspot.com

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McCain Lawyers Have Northwest Airlines and U.S. Chamber of Commerce as their top clientelle
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McCain Lawyers Have Northwest Airlines and U.S. Chamber of Commerce as their top clientelle as per murder attempts upon the James family
as seen here on this web page
http://barack-omaba-onmccain-northwest-ties.blogspot.com/#McCain(click)
also see http://MCCAINATTACKS.BLOGSPOT.COM for further details on this international McCain disgrace!
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Post from Tina Wyatt's Blog:



McCain's
Has Some Shady "Friends"


From The Nation

John McCain has been hammering rival Barack Obama for being little more than a vapid "celebrity" and "elitist." But The Nation has obtained a photo revealing just how star-struck a straight-talking maverick can become when offered the chance to celebrate his birthday aboard a yacht filled with celebrities--even if one of those celebrity types turns out to be an A-list con man.

The photograph substantiates reports that in late August, 2006, McCain celebrated his 70th birthday aboard a yacht, the Celine Ashley, rented by A-list con man Raffaello Follieri and his then-movie star girlfriend Anne Hathaway. In the current edition ofVanity Fair, Michael Schnayersonreported that Follieri rented the Celine Ashley for the month of August 2006. Montenegro's leading daily
newspaper, Vijesti, earlier reported that during McCain's visit in 2006 he celebrated with birthday cocktails and sweets aboard the Celine Ashley yacht. In the photograph, taken in Montenegro at the end of August, McCain is shown boarding the yacht ramp towards the smiling Follieri and Hathaway. Just ahead of McCain and shaking hands with Follieri appears to be Rick Davis--McCain's top aide and now co-manager of his campaign, who accompanied him on the trip and advised the government of Montenegro. A few months after McCain's yacht party, Follieri strengthened his ties to McCain's orbit by retaining Rick Davis's well-connected Washington lobbying firm, Davis Manafort, and offering Davis both an investment deal and help in securing the Catholic vote for McCain's presidential bid.

Follieri, who posed as Vatican chief financial officer in order to win friends and investments, pleaded guilty Wednesday in a Manhattan district court to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, eight counts of wire fraud and five counts of money laundering. As part of the plea, Follieri admitted to misappropriating at least $2.4 million of investor money and redirecting it to foreign personal bank accounts that were disguised as business accounts.

At the time he met McCain, Follieri was adept at collecting friends in powerful places and using those connections to attract investments in projects which later turned out to be bogus. His ties to Bill Clinton and his entourage have been well-documented; the charismatic Follieri, whom Vanity Fair has likened to an ambitious nineteenth-century protagonist from a Balzac novel, ingratiated himself to President Clinton and aides by posing as a mega-donor to the Clinton Global Initiative. He also formed an investment partnership with California business mogul and Clinton donor Ron Burkle to develop surplus real estate properties owned by the Catholic Church, which Follieri claimed to represent. Burkle later sued Follieri for $1.3 million in misappropriated funds.

Yet Follieri's ties to McCain's orbit have been largely overlooked by the media. Follieri first met McCain when the Arizona Senator visited Montenegro from August 29-31 as part of a Congressional delegation that included Republican senators Lindsay Graham, Richard Burr, Saxby Chambliss, Mel Martinez and John Sununu. [We'll have more on what else McCain was doing in Montenegro in a forthcoming article in the print edition of The Nation.]

What, exactly, was McCain doing aboard Follieri's yacht? Or put another way, was this McCain's 70th birthday wish--to spend an evening floating on the Adriatic with one of Hollywood's top actresses and her smooth-talking Italian beau?

An even bigger mystery is how Follieri's boat came to be docked in Montenegro on McCain's birthday. According to a journalist in Montenegro, the yacht had been anchored there for several days before McCain's arrival, and only sailed away after McCain boarded. According to Vijesti, locals were told that McCain was meeting "friends from Florida" on the yacht.

McCain aides later confirmed the encounter with Follieri, but said it was "entirely social and nothing came of it." Follieri, they toldthe New York Daily News, was just a "passing acquaintance." (Though the McCain campaign promise to comment on the encounter, it did not respond to The Nation's request by the time this article was published.)

It must not have seemed that way to Follieri. According to the Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, in January 2007 Follieri sent Rick Davis a packet of information on his companies Follieri Capital and Follieri Media, apparently hoping to get financing from Pegasus Capital Advisors, a hedge fund in Connecticut that Davis represented. "Follieri's proposal to Davis had two dimensions to it--first, as an investment opportunity for Davis's fund; but secondly, there was the political dimension, in which Follieri offered to help deliver Catholic votes to McCain," said Claudio Gatti, a reporter for Il Sole 24 Ore, who investigated Follieri for eighteen months.

In February 2007, according to a recent article in the New YorkDaily News, Follieri retained Davis's lobbying firm, Davis Manafort. According to the paper, "on Feb. 27, 2007, Davis Manafort partner Rick Gates signed a confidentiality agreement drafted by the Follieri Group. In the contract...Gates agreed not to disclose any information about Follieri's deal to get Clinton pal Ron Burkle to buy Catholic Church properties." (Gates did not respond to repeated requests for comment.)

Two months later, Burkle sued Follieri, who later repaid the $1.3 million owed to Burkle's Yucaipa Funds. That fall, the Wall Street Journal exposed Follieri's life as a high-society con man. In June of this year, Follieri was finally arrested and charged. Following his guilty plea this week, Follieri now faces up to five years and three months in jail



KEATING FIVE SCANDAL

CHAPTER VII: THE KEATING FIVE

As a war hero and U.S. senator, John McCain has been chronicled in pictures.

There are grainy mug shots of a young McCain, printed in U.S. newspapers after his jet was shot down over North Vietnam. There are black-and-white images of his return, grinning and waving.

In happier times, there is McCain holding his newborn daughter while his wife, Cindy, smiles from her hospital bed.

But it is an innocent vacation picture that carries the reminder of the scandal that threatened his political career.

In the picture, taken in the Bahamas, McCain is seated on a bandstand while wearing an outrageous straw party hat. Next to him on the dais sits Charles Keating III, son of developer Charles H Keating Jr.

McCain calls the Keating scandal "my asterisk." Over the years, his opponents have failed to turn it into a period.

It all started in March 1987. Charles H Keating Jr., the flamboyant developer and anti-porn crusader, needed help. The government was poised to seize Lincoln Savings and Loan, a freewheeling subsidiary of Keating's American Continental Corp.

As federal auditors examined Lincoln, Keating was not content to wait and hope for the best. He had spread a lot of money around Washington, and it was time to call in his chits.

One of his first stops was Sen. Dennis DeConcini, D-Ariz.

The state's senior senator was one of Keating's most loyal friends in Congress, and for good reason. Keating had given thousands of dollars to DeConcini's campaigns. At one point, DeConcini even pushed Keating for ambassador to the Bahamas, where Keating owned a luxurious vacation home.

Now Keating had a job for DeConcini. He wanted him to organize a meeting with regulators to deliver a message: Get off Lincoln's back. Eventually, DeConcini would set up a meeting with five senators and the regulators. One of them was McCain.

McCain already knew Keating well. His ties to the home builder dated to 1981, when the two men met at a Navy League dinner where McCain spoke.

After the speech, Keating walked up to McCain and told him that he, too, was a Navy flier and that he greatly respected McCain's war record. He met McCain's wife and family. The two men became friends.

Charlie Keating always took care of his friends, especially those in politics. McCain was no exception.

In 1982, during McCain's first run for the House, Keating held a fund-raiser for him, collecting more than $11,000 from 40 employees of American Continental Corp. McCain would spend more than $550,000 to win the primary and the general election.

In 1983, as McCain contemplated his House re-election, Keating hosted a $1,000-a-plate dinner for him, even though McCain had no serious competition. When McCain pushed for the Senate in 1986, Keating was there with more than $50,000.

By 1987, McCain had received about $112,000 in political contributions from Keating and his associates.

McCain also had carried a little water for Keating in Washington. While in the House, McCain, along with a majority of representatives, co-sponsored a resolution to delay new regulations designed to curb risky investments by thrifts such as Lincoln.

Reluctant participant

Despite his history with Keating, McCain was hesitant about intervening. At that point, he had been in the Senate only three months. DeConcini wanted McCain to fly to San Francisco with him and talk to the regulators. McCain refused.

Keating would not be dissuaded.

On March 24 at 9:30 a.m., Keating went to DeConcini's office and asked him if the meeting with the regulators was on. DeConcini told Keating that McCain was nervous.

"McCain's a wimp," Keating replied, according to the book Trust Me, by Michael Binstein and Charles Bowden. "We'll go talk to him."

Keating had other business on Capitol Hill and did not reach McCain's office until 1:30. A DeConcini staffer already had told McCain about the "wimp" insult.

When he arrived, Keating presented McCain with a laundry list of demands for the regulators.

McCain told Keating that he would attend the meeting and find out whether Keating was getting treated fairly but that was all.

The first meeting, on April 2, 1987, in DeConcini's office, included Ed Gray, chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, as well as four senators: DeConcini, McCain, Alan Cranston, D-Calif., and John Glenn, D-Ohio.

(Years later, McCain recalled that DeConcini started the meeting with a reference to "our friend at Lincoln." McCain characterized it as "an unfortunate choice of words, which Gray would remember and repeat publicly many times.")

For Keating, the meeting was a bust. Gray told the senators that as head of the loan board, he worried about the big picture. He didn't have any specific information about Lincoln. Bank regulators in San Francisco would be versed in that, not him. Gray offered to set up a meeting between the senators and the San Francisco regulators.

The second meeting was April 9. The same four senators attended, along with Sen. Don Riegle, D-Mich. Also at the meeting were William Black, then deputy director of the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp., James Cirona, president of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, and Michael Patriarca, director of agency functions at the FSLIC.

In an interview with The Republic, Black said the meeting was a show of force by Keating, who wanted the senators to pressure the regulators into dropping their case against Lincoln. The thrift was in trouble for violating "direct investment" rules, which prohibited S&Ls from taking large ownership positions in various ventures.

"The Senate is a really small club, like the cliche goes," Black said. "And you really did have one-twentieth of the Senate in one room, called by one guy, who was the biggest crook in the S&L debacle."

Black said the senators could have accomplished their goal "if they had simply had us show up and see this incredible room and said, 'Hi. Charles Keating asked us to meet with you. 'Bye.'"

McCain previously had refused DeConcini's request to meet with the Lincoln auditors themselves. In Worth the Fighting For, McCain wrote that he remained "a little troubled" at the prospect, "but since the chairman of the bank board didn't seem to have a problem with the idea, maybe a discussion with the regulators wouldn't be as problematic as I had earlier thought."

McCain concedes that he failed to sense that Gray and the thrift examiners felt threatened by the senators' meddling.

'Always Hamlet'

The five senators, including McCain, seemed like a united front to Black.

"They presented themselves as a group," Black said, "and DeConcini is the dad, who's going to take the primary speaking role. Both meetings are in his office, and in both cases it's we want this, with no one going, 'What do you mean we, kemo sabe?'"

According to nearly verbatim notes taken by Black, McCain started the second meeting with a careful comment.

"One of our jobs as elected officials is to help constituents in a proper fashion," McCain said. "ACC (American Continental Corp.) is a big employer and important to the local economy. I wouldn't want any special favors for them. . . .

"I don't want any part of our conversation to be improper."

Black said the comment had the opposite effect for the regulators. It made them nervous about what might really be going on.

"McCain was the weirdest," Black said. "They were all different in their own way. McCain was always Hamlet . . . wringing his hands about what to do."

Glenn, a former astronaut and the first American to orbit the Earth, was not as tactful.

"To be blunt, you should charge them or get off their backs," he told the regulators. "If things are bad there, get to them. Their view is that they took a failing business and put it back on its feet. It's now viable and profitable. They took it off the endangered species list. Why has the exam dragged on and on and on?"

DeConcini added: "What's wrong with this if they're willing to clean up their act?"

Cirona, the banking official, told the senators that it was "very unusual" to hold a meeting to discuss a particular company.

DeConcini shot back: "It's very unusual for us to have a company that could be put out of business by its regulators."

The meeting went on. McCain was quiet. DeConcini carried the ball. The regulators told the senators that Lincoln was in trouble. The thrift, Cirona said, was a "ticking time bomb."

Then Patriarca made a stunning comment, according to transcripts released later.

"We're sending a criminal referral to the Department of Justice," he said. "Not maybe, we're sending one. This is an extraordinarily serious matter. It involves a whole range of imprudent actions. I can't tell you strongly enough how serious this is. This is not a profitable institution."

The statement made DeConcini back off a little.

"The criminality surprises me," he said. "We're not interested in discussing those issues. Our premise was that we had a viable institution concerned that it was being overregulated."

"What can we say to Lincoln?" Glenn asked.

"Nothing," Black responded, "with regard to the criminal referral. They haven't and won't be told by us that we're making one."

"You haven't told them?" Glenn asked.

"No," said Black. "Justice would skin us alive if we did. Those referrals are very confidential. We can't prosecute anyone ourselves. All we can do is refer it to Justice."

After the meeting, McCain was done with Keating.

"Again, I was troubled by the appearance of the meeting," McCain said later. "I stated I didn't want any special favors from them. I only wanted them (Lincoln Savings) to be fairly treated."

Black doesn't completely buy that argument. If McCain was concerned about Keating asking him to do things that were improper, why go to either meeting at all?

Black said McCain probably went because Keating was close to being the political godfather of Arizona and McCain still had plenty of ambition.

"Keating was incredibly powerful," Black said. "And incredibly useful."

McCain's reservations aside, Keating accomplished his goal. He had bought some time, though the price was very high.

Short-lived reprieve

A month later, the San Francisco regulators finished a yearlong audit and recommended that Lincoln be seized. But the report was virtually ignored because of politics on the bank board.

Gray was being replaced as chairman by Danny Wall, who was more sympathetic to Keating.

The audit, which described Lincoln as a thrift reeling out of control, sat on a shelf.

In September 1987, the investigation was taken away from the San Francisco office, away from Black and Patriarca. In May 1988, it was transferred to Washington, where Lincoln would get a new audit.

It was a win for Keating. A battle, not the war.

Back in San Francisco, Black was fuming.

"Clearly, we were shot in the back," he would say later.

Despite the reprieve, Keating's businesses continued to spiral downward, taking the five senators with him. Together, the five had accepted more than $300,000 in contributions from Keating, and their critics added a new term to the American lexicon: "The Keating Five."

The Keating Five became synonymous for the kind of political influence that money can buy. As the S&L failure deepened, the sheer magnitude of the losses hit the press. Billions of dollars had been squandered. The five senators were linked as the gang who shilled for an S&L bandit.

S&L "trading cards" came out. The Keating Five card showed Charles Keating holding up his hand, with a senator's head adorning each finger. McCain was on Keating's pinkie.

As the investigation dragged through 1988, McCain dodged the hardest blows. Most landed on DeConcini, who had arranged the meetings and had other close ties to Keating, including $50 million in loans from Keating to DeConcini's aides.

But McCain made a critical error.

He had adopted the blanket defense that Keating was a constituent and that he had every right to ask his senators for help. In attending the meetings, McCain said, he simply wanted to make sure that Keating was treated like any other constituent.

Keating was no ordinary constituent to McCain.

On Oct. 8, 1989, The Arizona Republic revealed that McCain's wife and her father had invested $359,100 in a Keating shopping center in April 1986, a year before McCain met with the regulators.

The paper also reported that the McCains, sometimes accompanied by their daughter and baby-sitter, had made at least nine trips at Keating's expense, sometimes aboard the American Continental jet. Three of the trips were made during vacations to Keating's opulent Bahamas retreat at Cat Cay.

McCain also did not pay Keating for some of the trips until years after they were taken, after he learned that Keating was in trouble over Lincoln. Total cost: $13,433.

When the story broke, McCain did nothing to help himself.

"You're a liar," McCain said when a Republic reporter asked him about the business relationship between his wife and Keating.

"That's the spouse's involvement, you idiot," McCain said later in the same conversation. "You do understand English, don't you?"

He also belittled reporters when they asked about his wife's ties to Keating.

"It's up to you to find that out, kids."

The paper ran the story.

In his 2002 book, McCain confesses to "ridiculously immature behavior" during that particular interview and adds that The Republic reporters' "persistence in questioning me about the matter provoked me to rage."

"I don't know how (The Republic journalists) would have reported the story had I been more civil and understanding or just more of a professional during the interview," McCain wrote.

At a news conference after the story ran, McCain was a changed man. He stood calmly for 90 minutes and answered every question.

On the shopping center, his defense was simple. The deal did not involve him. The shares in the shopping center had been bought by a partnership set up between McCain's wife and her father. (The couple also had a prenuptial agreement that separated Cindy McCain's finances and dealings from his.)

But McCain also had to explain his trips with Keating and why he didn't pay Keating back right away.

On that score, McCain admitted he had fouled up. He said he should have reimbursed Keating immediately, not waited several years. His staff said it was an oversight, but it looked bad, McCain jetting around with Keating, then going to bat for him with the federal regulators.

"I was in a hell of a mess," McCain later would write.

Meanwhile, Lincoln continued to founder.

In April 1989, two years after the Keating Five meetings, the government seized Lincoln, which declared bankruptcy. In September 1990, Keating was booked into Los Angeles County Jail, charged with 42 counts of fraud. His bond was set at $5 million.

During Keating's trial, the prosecution produced a parade of elderly investors who had lost their life's savings by investing in American Continental junk bonds.

Verdict: 'Poor judgment'

In November 1990, the Senate Ethics Committee convened to decide what punishment, if any, should be doled out to the Keating Five.

Robert Bennett, who would later represent President Bill Clinton in the Paula Jones case, was the special counsel for the committee. In his opening remarks, he slammed DeConcini but went lightly on McCain, the lone Republican ensnared with four Democrats.

"In the case of Senator McCain, there is very substantial evidence that he thought he had an understanding with Senator DeConcini's office that certain matters would not be gone into at the meeting with (bank board) Chairman (Ed) Gray," Bennett said.

"Moreover, there is substantial evidence that, as a result of Senator McCain's refusal to do certain things, he had a fallout with Mr. Keating."

Among the Keating Five, McCain took the most direct contributions from Keating. But the investigation found that he was the least culpable, along with Glenn. McCain attended the meetings but did nothing afterward to stop Lincoln's death spiral.

Lincoln was the most expensive failure in the national S&L scandal. Taxpayers lost more than $2 billion on the bailout. McCain also looked good in contrast to DeConcini, who continued to defend Keating until fall 1989, when federal regulators filed a $1.1 billion civil racketeering and fraud suit against Keating, accusing him of siphoning Lincoln's deposits to his family and into political campaigns.

In January 1993, a federal jury convicted him of 73 counts of wire and bankruptcy fraud in the collapse of American Continental and Lincoln. Keating was sentenced to 12 years and seven months in prison but served just 50 months before the conviction was overturned on a technicality. In 1999, at age 75, he pleaded guilty to four counts of fraud. He was sentenced to time served.

In the end, McCain received only a mild rebuke from the Ethics Committee for exercising "poor judgment" for intervening with the federal regulators on behalf of Keating. Still, he felt tarred by the affair.

"The appearance of it was wrong," McCain said. "It's a wrong appearance when a group of senators appear in a meeting with a group of regulators because it conveys the impression of undue and improper influence. And it was the wrong thing to do."

McCain noted that Bennett, the independent counsel, recommended that McCain and Glenn be dropped from the investigation.

"For the first time in history, the Ethics Committee overruled the recommendation of the independent counsel," McCain said. For his part, DeConcini is critical of McCain's role in the affair. The two senators never were particularly cozy, and the stress of the public scrutiny worsened their relations.

In his memoir Senator Dennis DeConcini: From the Center of the Aisle, he praises the decision to keep McCain on the hook.

"It became clear to me, and it was later confirmed by Ethics Committee members, that Bennett was attempting to dismiss the charges against McCain, and in order to appear nonpartisan, he included Glenn in this effort," DeConcini wrote with co-author Jack August. "Thanks to the three Democrats on the committee and perhaps with the help of Senator (Jesse) Helms (R-N.C.), however, the charges remained in place for all the senators under investigation. So all of us had to attend the 23-day public hearing, which was indeed a trial, before the six-member Senate Ethics Committee."

In the book, DeConcini reiterates his allegation that McCain leaked to the media "sensitive information" about certain closed proceedings in order to hurt DeConcini, Riegle and Cranston. It's a fairly serious charge. The Boston Globe revisited the Keating Five leaks in 2000. The story paraphrased a congressional investigator, Clark B. Hall, as personally concluding that "McCain was one of the principal leakers." The newspaper also reported that McCain, under oath, had denied involvement with the leaks.

McCain owns up to his mistake this way:

"I was judged eventually, after three years, of using, quote, poor judgment, and I agree with that assessment.

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DAVID IFSHIN

By Marc Cooper @ Huffington Post

The McCain campaign shows no shame in engaging in a tired guilt-by-association tactic as Sarah Palin accuses Obama of "palling around with terrorists." This desperate calumny derives from Obama once serving on the same non-profit board as former 60's radical Bill Ayers, one of the founders of the Weather Underground.

But what about McCain's own associations with former 60's radicals. Indeed, until just a few years ago, McCain openly boasted not only about his passing friendship but also his deep collaboration with one of the most prominent of Vietnam-era student radicals, David Ifshin. The same David Ifshin who denounced America on Radio Hanoi as McCain sat locked up as a POW.

I met Ifshin about the same time he came into McCain's life. But under very different circumstances. In 1970, as president of the left-leaning National Student Association, Ifshin traveled to North Vietnam with other anti-war radicals and it was then that he went on Radio Hanoi to denounce his own country's war effort. That broadcast was piped directly into POW McCain's cell in the Hanoi Hilton and he was understandably enraged by what he thought was a traitorous act by a fellow American.

I crossed paths with the same David Ifshin a few months later when he showed up in Chile with folksinger Phil Ochs and Yippie leader Jerry Rubin. We spent some days together n Santiago and I can personally attest that while Ifshin never went as far as Ayres did in becoming a literal bomb-thrower, he was very much emblematic of a generation of radical dissidents. Ifshin had risen to notoriety by leading the takeover of his Syracuse university campus. He opened up his NSA offices to radicals trying to shut down Washington DC with streets protests in May 1971. Just after their sojourn in Chile, Ifshin and Ochs went on to Uruguay, joined a local university takeover and were arrested and deported.

As the years passed, Ifshin - just like Ayers-- eventually moved into the American political mainstream. Ayers came out of the underground, took up education as a profession and staked himself out on the non-violent political left. Ifshin moved more quickly to the center and eventually became General Counsel to the Bill Clinton campaign as well as a prominent leader in pro-Israeli causes. But until the day he died, at age 47 in 1996, Ifshin never renounced nor apologized for his youthful, radical past.

In the meantime, and much to his credit, Senator John McCain forged a close personal friendship with Ifshin, as well as a working political alliance. Together they worked to establish the Institute for Democracy in Vietnam and partnered up on the issue of normalization of relations with Vietnam.

As recently as two years ago, speaking at Columbia College, McCain affectionately and warmly recalled his relationship with Ifshin saying:

"We worked together in an organization dedicated to promoting human rights in the country where he and I had once come for different reasons. I came to admire him for his generosity, his passion for his ideals, for the largeness of his heart, and I realized he had not been my enemy, but my countryman . . . my countryman ...and later my friend. His friendship honored me. We disagreed over much. Our politics were often opposed, and we argued those disagreements. But we worked together for our shared ideals."

That John McCain is unrecognizable from the man who today stands behind the scurrilous attacks suggesting that Barack Obama pals around with terrorists because Bill Ayres - when Obama was literally eight years old--stupidly fancied himself an armed revolutionary.

The old John McCain was able to overcome his own repulsion against a young man who went on the radio station of the enemy who was holding and torturing him and built a warm friendship with him. If Obama were to run commercials today criticizing McCain for hanging out with the Tokyo Rose of the Vietnam era, it would be nearly as execrable as the McCain campaign's current smears around Bill Ayres.

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OLEG DERIPASKA

John McCain, Rick Davis, and Oleg Deripaska

by SetrakSun May 11, 2008 at 09:14:55 PM PDT

A tale of three men. One of these men had their visa revoked and is being sued in the U.S. and the U.K.

Recently, John McCain and the Republican Party have been forced to remove a second aide over their connections to DCI, which has assisted the Burmese military junta.

The second McCain aide in as many days has left the campaign over ties to a public relations firm that once represented the Burmese junta.

Doug Davenport, one of McCain's 11 regional campaign managers, quit his post today, a McCain spokeswoman said in response to an inquiry.

Davenport's region covers West Virginia, Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia. That fifth state, that Obama and Warner and some other down-ticket Dems will be willing in. This diary, however, isn't about these two aides. It isn't about the general stink of McCain's top aides. It's about John McCain, Rick Davis, and a guy named "Oleg Deripaska." A name that will be heard many more times to come before November.

Marc Ambinder noticed the irony earlier today, and I quote;

Goodyear and Davenport were recruited by McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, who has been accused by some current and former McCain advisers of take insufficient care of McCain's reformer brand by appointing lobbyists to key positions. Ironically, as Newsweek reported, Goodyear was asked to become convention CEO after Davis's lobbying firm partner, Paul Manafort, was nixed because of his own close ties to foreign governments and controversial companies.

Emphasis added. The International Herald Tribune had a great article detailing some of the work Manafort has done. Anyone who remembers the Orange Revolution would remember who Manafort is representing. Yet the ties between McCain's associates and anti-Western figures do not stop there. Indeed, in 2006, John McCain himself was introduced to a Russian by the name of Oleg Deripaska.

Deripaska is filthy rich(billions..) and widely thought to have had links to organized crime. He's also infamous for shady business practices which are "legal" in Russia. Much like Yanukovych, another figure connected to Paul Manafort and Rick Davis. The two are also similar in their loyalty to Vladimir Putin of Russia. Yet unlike Yanukovych, Deripaska was given the honor of meeting Senator McCain. Despite having a revoked visa, despite having pending lawsuits both here in the U.S. and the U.K., he met with a United States Senator.

( Since the posting of this diary, the New York Times has noticed McCain/Davis/Deripaska )

Deripaska is not someone to brush aside as "a low ally of Putin's." He's on track to becoming the richest man in the world.The title of the Washington Post article that broke the story was "Aide Helped Controversial Russian Meet McCain." The aide is, of course, Rick Davis. Oleg Deripaska is described as being "so controversial that the U.S. government revoked his visa." That takes a lot of controversy!

Rick Davis, who is now McCain's campaign manager, helped set up the encounter between McCain and Russian aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska in Switzerland during an international economic conference. At the time, Davis was working for a lobbying firm and seeking to do business with the billionaire.

Emphasis added.

I wonder what business exactly has taken place since then and now between Davis/Deripaska. Don't you? Is it involving the Ukraine and Putin's allies there? You know, the ones that Manafort was working for. The name "Oleg Deripaska" is going to be known during this election season. Trust me on that.

There is no evidence that McCain did anything for Deripaska after they met at a social gathering over drinks and dinner. Deripaska was grateful for the introduction, writing a thank-you note to Davis and his partner and offering to assist them in a subsequent business deal, according to a copy of the note obtained by The Washington Post.

Emphasis added.

Yes, I am still wondering about those business deals between Davis and Deripaska. The Washington Post article details some more about the letter and the first meeting. Yes, the first meeting.

Later that month, Deripaska wrote to Davis and his partner, GOP political consultant Paul J. Manafort, to thank them for arranging the meeting.

/snip

The letter went on to mention a business deal that Deripaska and the consultants had apparently been talking about. "Please will you send me the information on the metals trading company we discussed and would be happy to see if I can do anything to help,"Deripaska wrote.

Emphasis added.

Deripaska sounds fairly grateful, doesn't he? Maybe he's only grateful because he's such a nice guy, right? Is anyone else still curious about these deals between Davis and Deripaska? I know I am, I'm hoping more reporters are. Maybe once the Democratic nomination is over and down with.. I mean,really over and done with. It could refer to this. The Washington Post mentions the second time when McCain, Davis, and Deripaska were together. This time in Montenegro where Davis's firm had been doing work.

Afterward, a group from the dinner took boats out to a nearby yacht moored in the Adriatic Sea, where champagne and pastries were served, partly in honor of McCain's 70th birthday.

Salter said neither McCain nor Davis recalls Deripaska being on the yacht after dinner.

McCain and Davis can't recall if Deripaska was there? It wasn't that long ago, just over a year and a half. Granted I'd probably forget, but then again I don't usually meet with some of the richest and most controversial men of the world. Perhaps one excerpt from the Washington Post story best sums up this situation and John McCain;

The letter was sent to Davis at the Reform Institute, a Virginia-based nonprofit group that McCain helped start to promote many of his trademark reform efforts, including increasing the transparency of lobbying and campaign financing.

Davis was the institute's president from January 2003 until December 2005. During that time, he was also a registered lobbyist at Davis Manafort. The institute was located at the Davis Manafort offices until January 2006.

Emphasis added. The irony is breath-taking. It's a shame the Washington Post didn't receive more credit for this when they reported it, but McCain wasn't exactly seen as a front-runner for the Republican nomination at the time.

So what is it with John McCain and his like for people who lobby on behalf of these people? These people who rule with an iron fist in Burma, who make a bunch of monks go missing. Those people in Eastern Europe, poisoning political opponents and rigging elections. Rising to power alongside organized crime, like Yanukovych and Deripaska. Rising to power alongside Vladimir Putin. What kind of campaign is John McCain trying to run? And what business deals exist between Oleg Deripaska and Rick Davis?

From Salon.com

SEPTEMBER 10, 2008 1:09PMJohn McCain's Under Reported Shady ConnectionsRATE: 0 Flag

William Ayers will be the focus of "dubious associations" as Bill O'Reilly puts it when it comes to Barack Obama. But a more concerning association exists between one of John McCain's lead campaign managers and the Russian underworld.

In 2006, Davis set up a meeting between Senator John McCain and Russian metals billionaire Oleg Deripaska in Switzerland. It should be noted that Davis' lobbying firm famously used its connections with the Senator in the past to gain approval for the merger German courier DHL and US-based Airborne Express. The merger led to the closing of Airborne's Willmington, OH hub facility and hte resulting loss of approximately 8,000 US jobs.

Ostensibly in a similar move, Davis and his lobbying firm were using their close connections with Senator John McCain to demonstrate the type of access he and his lobbying firm had as Davis was courting Deripaska for furture lobbying business. This makes pure business sense from Davis' perspective as Deripaska is set to become the richest man in the world. It makes business sense, but it probably isn't example of "Country First."

Deripaska's loyalties to Vladamir Putin have considerably helped his business dealings in Russia. He has known ties to Russian organized crime and is barred from entering the United States by the State Department because of the depth of those connections. As such, McCain's tough talk towards Russian rings a bit hollow given his closest advisors significant dealings with the country's ruling business elite.

Many may remember, Doug Davenport was another McCain campaign associate who left earlier in the campaign season after having lobbying connections to the Burmese Junta.

Barack Obama may have had coffee with a man who 40 years ago did some horrible things, but it appears Senator McCain is having stronger drinks with members of the Russian underworld right now.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Then There are the Lobbyists

McCain Has Had At Least 133 Lobbyists Running His Campaign & Raising Money For Him

Progressive Media USA Research
PUBLISHED: May 19, 2008

The individuals in this chart are all current or former lobbyists who either serve as fundraisers for McCain's campaign or senior aides or advisers. There are currently 118 126 129 130 133 134 lobbyists working for or raising money for McCain's campaign.

Last NameFirst NameFirm / EmployerCampaign RoleSelect List of ClientsSource

Aiken

Robert

Pinnacle West Capital Corporation

Fundraiser

Pinnacle West Capital Corporation

Public Citizen

Aldonas

Grant

Split Rock International

Economic Adviser

Corning

Mittal Steel USA

JohnMcCain.com

Anderson

Philmore B.

DC Navigators LLC

Fundraiser

Aetna

American Council of Life Insurers

AT&T

Bell South

Hartford Life

PG&E Corp.

Visa

Public Citizen

Anderson

Rebecca "Becky"

Williams & Jensen

Women for McCain Steering Committee

Astrazeneca Pharmaceuticals

Cigna

Cox Communications

Novartis

Sunoco

Time Warner

Wyeth

Women for McCain Steering Committee

Anderson

Stanton

McDermott Will & Emery

Fundraiser

Lawyers for McCain

Chiquita Brands Electronic Industries Assoc. of Japan

Northwest Airlines Union Telephone

U.S. Chamber of Commerce

JohnMcCain.com

JohnMcCain.com

Andres

Susan Auther

Union Pacific

Women for McCain Steering Committee

Union Pacific

Women for McCain Steering Committee

Asher

Robert

WMPI Pty

Fundraiser

WMPI Pty

Jefferson Health System

Public Citizen

Bailey

William J. III

XM Satellite Radio

Fundraiser

Padgett Business Services

XM Satellite Radio

Public Citizen

Ball

William III

Loeffler Group

National Security Adviser

American Beverage Association

EADS

Introgen Therapeutics

Qualcomm

Southwest Airlines

Washington Post

Beightol

David

Dutko Worldwide

Fundraiser

Amerigroup Corporation

Amgen

IDT Corporation

McCain Fundraiser

Bentz

Rhonda A.

Visa

Fundraiser

Women for McCain Steering Committee

Visa

Women for McCain Steering Committee

Berman

Wayne

Ogilvy Government Relations

National Finance Co-Chair

Fundraiser

Chevron Texaco

AIG

American Petroleum Institute

AmeriChoice

AT&T

Motorola

NRA

Reliant Energy

Verizon

Visa

JohnMcCain.com

Betts

Steve

Gallagher & Kennedy

Fundraiser

William Lyon Homes

Public Citizen

Black

Charlie

BKSH

Senior Adviser

Fundraiser

Accenture

Fluor

General Electric Capital Services

General Motors

GTech

Johnson & Johnson

JP Morgan

NADA

Occidental Petroleum Corp.

Philip Morris

United Technologies

U.S. Smokeless Tobacco

Washington Mutual Bank

Yukos Oil

Public Citizen

Black

Judy

Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck

Fundraiser

Women for McCain Steering Committee

AT&T

Clear Channel

Comcast

Genworth Financial

IBM

Merrill Lynch

National Cable & Telecom Association

Women for McCain Steering Committee

Blalock

Kirk

Fierce Isakowitz & Blalock

Fundraiser

American Insurance Association

America's Health Insurance Plans

Coalition for a Competitive Pharma Market

EADS North America

Coca Cola

MCI

Miller Brewing

Sprint Nextel

Time Warner

Yahoo!

Public Citizen

Bonilla

Carlos

Washington Group

Economic Adviser

Bell South

Bio Marin Pharmaceutical

BioPure Corp.

Cox Communications

E-Trade

Bangladesh

Panama

Exelon

Fleming & Co. Pharmaceuticals

Heyl Chem-Pharm Fabrik

Motorola

NADA

National Cable & Telecom Association

Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals

Sanofi Pasteur

Teva Pharmaceuticals

Watson Pharmaceuticals

USA Today

Burgeson

Christine

CitiGroup Inc.

Fundraiser

Women for McCain Steering Committee

CitiGroup

Women for McCain Steering Committee

Burgeson

Eric Robert

Barbour Griffith & Rogers

Fundraiser

Energy Adviser

Lockheed Martin

Government of Kurdistan

BP

NRA

Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association

Public Citizen

Cammack

Kerry

Kerry N. Cammack, P.C.

Fundraiser

Exxon Mobil

SAP America

Public Citizen

Chadwick

Kirsten Ardleigh

Fierce Isakowitz & Blalock

Fundraiser

Women for McCain Steering Committee

American Insurance Association

America's Health Insurance Plans

APRIA Healthcare

Coca Cola

EADS North America

Fannie Mae

Ford

Home Depot

MCI

Sprint Nextel

Time Warner

Women for McCain Steering Committee

Chamberlin

Rob

McBee Strategic Consulting

Fundraiser

American Airlines

Babcock & Wilcox

Boeing

Delta Airlines

Expedia

Fedex

General Dynamics

Northrop Grumman

United Technologies

Public Citizen

Charlton

Susan

Gallagher & Kennedy

Fundraiser

William Lyon Homes

Public Citizen

Clerici

John

McKenna Long

Fundraiser

Sanofi (pharma)

EMD (pharma)

DOR bio (pharma)

Acambis (pharma)

GMH (military housing)

Public Citizen

Cooper

Josephine "Jo"

Toyota

Women for McCain Steering Committee

Toyota

Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers

Women for McCain Steering Committee

Courter

James

Verner Liipfert Bernhard McPherson & Hand

National Finance Committee Co-Chairman

Lockheed Martin

PhRMA

NBC

SBC

Verizon

Public Citizen

Crane

David

Washington Group

Senior Policy Adviser

Bank of America

Chamber of Commerce

State Farm Insurance

Beacon Capital Partners

Bell South

Bio Marin Pharmaceutical

BioPure Corp.

Cox Communications

Delta

E-Trade

Exelon

Fleming & Co. Pharmaceuticals

Heyl Chem-Pharm Fabrik

Hyundai

Microsoft

Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals

Teva Pharmaceuticals

Theragenics Corp.

Watson Pharmaceuticals

Media Matters

Crippen

Dan

Washington Counsel

Senior Policy Adviser

Aetna

GE Capital Assurance

General Electric Co.

General Motors

Group Health

Hewlett Packard

Merrill Lynch

Mutual of Omaha

JohnMcCain.com

Culvahouse

Arthur

O'Melveny & Myers

Heading V.P. Search

Lawyers for McCain

Lockheed Martin

Civil Justice Reform Group

Fannie Mae

Time Warner

The Hill

JohnMcCain.com

Cunningham

Bryan

Barbour Griffith & Rogers

Fundraiser

Pfizer

Eli Lilly

Republic of India

AT&T Services

Verizon

Motorola

Public Citizen

D'Amato

Alfonse

Park Strategies

Fundraiser

Lockheed Martin

News Corp.

United Technologies

JohnMcCain.com

Davenport

Doug B.

DCI Group

Regional Campaign Manager

Fundraiser

AT&T

GM

Goldman Sachs

Intel

Lockheed Martin

Mortgage Insurance Companies of America

Verizon

Visa

Public Citizen

Davis

Ashley

Blank Rome

Women for McCain Steering Committee

BearingPoint

Boeing

Mylan Laboratories

Prudential Financial

Women for McCain Steering Committee

Davis

Kurt

Hamilton, Gullett, Davis & Roman

Fundraiser

Yavapai Ranch

Translational Genomics Research Institute

Public Citizen

Davis

Rick

Davis, Manafort

Campaign Manager

Bell South

GTech

SBC Telecommunications

Verizon

Dawson

Mimi

Wiley Rein

Fundraiser

Women for McCain Steering Committee

Amazon.com Holdings

Colorado Gaming Association

General Motors

Motorola

Sirius Satellite Radio

Verizon Wireless

Women for McCain Steering Committee

Diamond

John

Washington Capitol Group

Economic Adviser

KSOLV

JohnMcCain.com

Donatelli

Frank

McGuire Woods

Deputy RNC Chairman

AT&T

Exxon Mobil

Knoll Pharmaceutical

PhRMA

Blue Cross Blue Shield

Dominion Resources

Verizon

The Hill

Edwards

Melissa "Missy"

Washington Group

Fundraiser

Women for McCain Steering Committee

Amgen

Assoc. of Corporate Credit Unions

BellSouth

Cox Communications

Delta Airlines

E-Trade

Bangladesh

Panama

Microsoft

Motorola

National Automobile Dealers Assoc.

Women for McCain Steering Committee

Fay

Kevin

Alcalde & Fay

Fundraiser

3M Corporation

Public Citizen

Ferry

Christian

Davis Manafort

Deputy Campaign Manager

SBC Telecommunications

Verizon

USA Today

Fidler

Chris

Petrizzo Strategic Group

Fundraiser

America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP)

Direct TV

NewsCorp

GlaxoSmithkline

Boehringer IngelHeim (pharma)

Stratus Pharmaceuticals

Public Citizen

Fiorentino

Thomas Jr.

Fiorentino & Hewett

Fundraiser

United Airlines

Public Citizen

Furman

Sally

Furman Group

Women for McCain Steering Committee

Pinnacle West Capital Corp.

Women for McCain Steering Committee

Geduldig

Samuel K.

Clark Lytle & Geduldig

Fundraiser

AT&T

Ernst & Young

Fidelity Investments

Prudential

Qwest

Verizon

Public Citizen

Ginsberg

Ben

Patton Boggs

Fundraiser

Lucent Technologies

Venetian Casino Resort

McCain Fundraiser

Girard-di Carlo

David

Blank Rome

Fundraiser

Mylan Laboratories

American Financial Group

FastShip

Public Citizen

Glassner

Michael

IDT Corp.

Fundraiser

IDT Corp.

Public Citizen

Glover Weiss

Juleanna R.

Ashcroft Group

Fundraiser

Women for McCain Steering Committee

Novartis

PhRMA

Eli Lilly

Aventis Pharmaceuticals

AT&T

Adelphia

Coors Brewing Company

Freddie Mac

Women for McCain Steering Committee

Gorton

Slade

Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates

Honorary Chairman, Washington State

All State Insurance

American Nuclear Insurers

Delta Airlines

Microsoft

Safeco

Starbucks

T-Mobile USA

Babcock & Wilcox

JohnMcCain.com

Gramm

Phil

UBS

Fundraiser

Economic Adviser

UBS Americas

Public Citizen

JohnMcCain.com

Green

John

Ogilvy Government Relations

Congressional Liaison

Fundraiser

Philip Morris

U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company

Amerada-Hess

Chevron Texaco

AT&T

Bell South

Motorola

Time Warner

U.S. Telecom Association

Verizon

AmeriChoice

AHIP

EADS

Hoffman-La Roche

Pfizer

Blackstone Group

CitiGroup

NRA

Public Citizen

Grissom

Janet M.

Johnson, Madigan, Peck, Boland & Stewart

Women for McCain Steering Committee

Ford

Accenture

Alliance of Auto Manufacturers

Amgen

NYSE Group

Women for McCain Steering Committee

Gullett

Wes

Hamilton, Gullett, Davis & Roman

Fundraiser

Arizona Campaign Co-Leader

Yavapai Ranch

Translational Genomics Research Institute

Public Citizen

JohnMcCain.com

Gullott

Kristen

Brown Rudnick Berlack Israels

Women for McCain Steering Committee

American Gas Association

Toyota

Yamaha Motor Corporation

AT&T

Bristol-Myers Squibb

Introgen Therapeutics

PhRMA

Women for McCain Steering Committee

Hance

Kent

Hance Scarborough Wright Woodward & Weisbart

Fundraiser

Stanford Financial Group

Public Citizen

Harding

Robert

Greenberg Traurig

Fundraiser

Home Source Inc.

Stellar Management

Washington Post

Hart

Vicki

Hart Health Strategies

Women for McCain Steering Committee

Johnson & Johnson

PhRMA

Vaxgen

Amgen

Vitas Healthcare Corporation

CitiGroup

Eli Lilly

Lehman Brothers

Lockheed Martin

Merrill Lynch

New York Stock Exchange

United Health Group

Verizon

Visa

Women for McCain Steering Committee

Hartwell

Robert van Laer

Hartwell Capitol Consulting / Hartick LLC

Fundraiser

National Association of Chain Drug Stores

BLR Aerospace

Public Citizen

Hawley

Buzz

Van Scoyoc Associates

Virginia Steering Committee

ELSAG North America

JohnMcCain.com

Heubusch

John D.

Waitt Family Foundation

Fundraiser

Gateway

Public Citizen

Hilleary

William "Van"

Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal

State Co-Chairman, Tennessee

AMSURG

MILITEC


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