Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: July 13, 2008 7:18:19 PM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Government for Sale, Cheap: Bush Admin Official Caught
Soliciting Bribes
Bush Homeland Security Aide Caught On Tape
Selling High-Level Access for Cash for Bush Library
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/07/12/bush-library-donation-scandal/
The Sunday Times reports Stephen Payne, a Bush pioneer and a
political appointee to the Homeland Security Advisory Council, was
caught on tape offering access to key members of the Bush
administration inner circle in exchange for “six-figure donations to
the private library being set up to commemorate Bush’s presidency.”
In an undercover video, Payne is seen promising to arrange a meeting
for an exiled leader of Krygystan with Dick Cheney or Condoleezza
Rice. (Not President Bush because “he doesn’t meet with a lot of
former Presidents these days,” Payne says. “I don’t think he meets
with hardly anyone.”) All it will take for him to arrange this high-
level meeting, says Payne, is “a couple hundred thousand dollars, or
something like that”:
PAYNE: The exact budget I will come up with. But it will be
somewhere between $600,000 and $750,000, with about a third of it
going directly to the Bush library. […]
200, 250, something like that. That’s gonna be a show of “we’re
interested, we’re your friends, we’re still friends.”
Watch the startling video here:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/times_online_tv/?vxSiteId=d8fa78dc-d7ad-4d5a-8886-e420d4bc4200&vxChannel=Times%20Online%20News&vxClipId=1152_timesonline0938&vxBitrate=300
.
The Times reports, “The revelation confirms long-held suspicions
that favours are being offered in return for donations to the
libraries which outgoing presidents set up to house their archives
and safeguard their political legacies.” Bush loyalists previously
said they had “identified wealthy heiresses, Arab nations and
captains of industry as potential ‘mega’ donors” to the Bush library.
The Department of Homeland Security website reports that the
“Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC) provides advice and
recommendations to the Secretary on matters related to homeland
security.” Payne has been a member of the council since August 2007.
In Jan. 2008, Payne — an early supporter of Rudy Giuliani — said he
would throw his support to John McCain if Giuliani dropped out. A
personal friend of Bush, Payne has helped clear brush on the
Crawford Ranch with the President (see the picture on the right).
UpdatePayne is President of Worldwide Strategic Partners. His bio on
a cached version of the consulting firm's site says Payne served as
"George W. Bush's personal travel aide during his father’s 1988
Presidential campaign." It adds, "Currently, Mr. Payne assists the
White House as a Senior Advance Representative traveling
internationally in advance of and with President Bush and Vice
President Cheney."
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