Native American News
Top US Indian court upholds first gay marriage
Wed Jan 4, 2006 7:53 PM ET
By Adam Tanner
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The top court of the Cherokee Nation has declined to strike down a gay marriage in what is seen as a pioneering case in American Indian country, the couple and officials said on Wednesday.
Cherokee tribal members Kathy Reynolds, 29, and Dawn McKinley, 34, married in May 2004 in Oklahoma, just weeks after the city of San Francisco ignited a national debate on gay marriage by briefly allowing same-sex couples to wed.
Gay rights advocates say the pair are the first registered same-sex marriage in Indian country.
Because tribal law at the time allowed same-sex marriages, a tribal clerk gave them a wedding certificate. But members in the Tribal Council sued, saying the marriage would damage the reputation of the Cherokees, and the law was later changed.
In a December 22 decision announced on Wednesday, the Judicial Appeals Tribunal of the Cherokee Nation, the tribe's highest court in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, rejected the request for an injunction against the marriage.
"Members of the Tribal Council, like private Cherokee citizens, must demonstrate a specific particularized harm," the court ruled. "In the present case, the Council members fail to demonstrate the requisite harm."
Historians say Native American culture before the arrival of European settlers tolerated homosexuality, although the settlers' religious teachings ultimately turned the tribes against it.
"Since the tribe has become so Westernized and adopted Christian religions and European ways, they strayed away from traditional Cherokee values of indifference," Reynolds told Reuters. "Cherokees are very private where they respect each other and respect how they live."
Reynolds, a graduate student, said she had lived together with McKinley, who works in the retail industry, for four years before they opted to wed. Both women said their friends and family welcomed their decision although tribal officials disapproved.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
"We really thought our tribe would be accepting of us," Reynolds said. "That hasn't proven to be the case."
Added McKinley: "Because of their law we were able to get married, but now they want to say that it is not family values or that it is bothering them."
McKinley said the couple did not marry to make a point, but because of love. "It's exciting and it's scary at the same time," she said of their pioneering status.
The lawyer for the Tribal Council, Todd Hembree, said the tribe would no longer fight the marriage. "As far as the Tribal Council is concerned, that is the end of the legal proceeding," he said in an interview on Wednesday.
He said it was also possible that the U.S. government would have to recognize the marriage because of the sovereign status of Indian tribes, which could, in theory at least, make them eligible for federal tax benefits denied to date to gay couples.
Lena Ayoub, an attorney who represented Reynolds and McKinley, said the federal government has not recognized any same-sex state marriages to date and called the federal obligation to recognize sovereign tribal marriage "a very complicated area of the law."
The largest Indian reservation, the Navajo Nation, also banned gay marriage last year.
source: http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyID=2006-01-05T005317Z_01_KWA503169_RTRUKOC_0_US-RIGHTS-GAYS-CHEROKEES.xml&archived=False
4 Comments:
Note to Republicans. Here's your leaders and their handy work !
Dallas Morning News Letter to the Editor:
Will they get the chiefs?
Re: "Abramoff's plea puts Congress in crosshairs – Lobbyist will aid prosecutors after admitting 3 felonies, asking God's forgiveness," yesterday's news story.
Why is it that I feel the Jack Abramoff scandal will play out like Abu Ghraib? He misrepresents Indian tribes, spreading corruption throughout the Republican Congress, and the only people who'll go to jail are probably the Indians.
Stephen D. Spotswood, Plano
source: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/letters/stories/DN-thuletters_0105edi.ART.State.Edition1.188e05c2.html
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Jack Abramoff lobbying and corruption scandal
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
(Redirected from Abramoff-Reed Indian Gambling Scandal)
This article documents a current event.
Information may change rapidly as the event progresses.
The Jack Abramoff lobbying and corruption scandal is a United States political scandal relating to the work performed by political lobbyists Jack Abramoff, Ralph E. Reed, Jr., Grover Norquist and Michael Scanlon on behalf of Indian casino gambling interests. The lobbyists are accused of orchestrating lobbying against their own clients in order to force them to pay for lobbying services.
In the course of the scheme, the lobbyists are accused of illegally giving gifts and making campaign donations to legislators in return for votes or support of legislation. Politicians implicated include Tom DeLay, Conrad Burns, Tom Harkin and Bob Ney.
In addition to his involvement in the Indian Gambling scandal, Abramoff is under investigation by a grand jury in Guam over possibly illegal contract payments and money laundering and was indicted on August 11, 2005 by a third grand jury in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for a $23 million bank fraud arising out of the purchase of the SunCruz Casinos boat company. Abramoff is also a 'person of interest' in the murder investigation of Konstantinos Boulis, the original owner of SunCruz.
On January 3, 2006, Abramoff pleaded guilty to three felony counts, conspiracy, fraud, and tax evasion, involving charges stemming principally from his lobbying activities in Washington on behalf of Native American tribes. In addition, Abramoff and other defendants must make restitution of at least $25 million that was defrauded from clients, most notably the Native American tribes. Further, Abramoff owes the Internal Revenue Service $1.7 million as a result of his guilty plea to the tax evasion charge.
The agreement alleges that Abramoff bribed public officials, including a person identified as "Representative #1," but is obviously Bob Ney, a Republican congressman from Ohio. Also included: the hiring of congressional staffers and conspiring with them to lobby their former employers -- including members of Congress -- in violation of a one-year federal ban on such lobbying. [1]
Contents
[hide]
1 Background
2 Allegations of corrupt lobbying practices
2.1 Allegation of double dealing
2.2 Alleged spending irregularities
2.3 American international center
2.4 Insulting references to clients
2.5 Comments by politicians
2.6 Reed's denial
3 Parties Allegedly Involved
3.1 House Majority Leader Tom DeLay
3.2 U.S. Representative Bob Ney
3.3 U.S. Rep. Tom Feeney III
3.4 U.S. Rep. Richard Pombo
3.5 U.S. Rep. Mike Ferguson
3.6 U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan
3.7 U.S. Senator Conrad Burns
3.8 U.S. Senator John Cornyn
3.9 U.S. Senator David Vitter
3.10 U.S. Senator Tom Harkin
3.11 U.S. Senator Charles Grassley
3.12 State Senator William Gormley
3.13 Edward Miller and Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.
3.14 Timothy Flanigan
3.15 Deputy United States Secretary of the Interior J. Steven Griles
3.16 David Safavian
4 Abramoff cash returned or donated
5 Ramifications
6 Timeline
6.1 August 11th, 2005
6.2 January 3rd, 2006
7 External link
[edit]
Background
Abramoff, Reed and Norquist all served as officers in the College Republican National Committee (CRNC). In college, Reed would sleep on Abramoff’s couch. According to his book "Active Faith," he also introduced Abramoff to his future wife.
Abramoff was elected Chairman of the CRNC in 1983, and appointed Reed Executive Director of the CRNC in the same year, succeeding Norquist. Norquist had managed Abramoff's campaign for National Chairman and would later found Americans for Tax Reform, an anti-tax group which would later serve as a fundraising conduit in the Indian gaming scandal.
At the CRNC, Abramoff, Norquist and Reed formed what was known as the "Abramoff-Norquist-Reed triumvirate." Upon Abramoff's election, the trio purged "dissidents" and re-wrote the CRNC's bylaws to consolidate their control over the organization. Reed was the "hatchet man" and "carried out Abramoff-Norquist orders with ruthless efficiency, not bothering to hide his fingerprints." (Nina J. Easton, Gang of Five, page 142)
[edit]
Allegations of corrupt lobbying practices
Abramoff and his partner Scanlon are alleged to have engaged in a series of corrupt practices in connection to their lobbying work for various Indian Casino gambling tribes. The fees paid to Abramoff and Scanlon for this work are believed to exceed $85 million.
In particular, Abramoff and Scanlon are alleged to have conspired with Washington power broker Norquist and Christian activist Reed to co-ordinate lobbying against his own clients and prospective clients with the objective of forcing them to engage Abramoff and Scanlon to lobby against their own covert operations. Reed was paid to campaign against gambling interests that competed with Abramoff clients. Norquist served as a go-between by funneling money to Reed.
[edit]
Allegation of double dealing
Reed repeatedly denied knowing the source of the money used to fund his campaign against the casinos until prosecutors released emails exchanged between him and Abramoff. According to emails, Reed and Norquist contacted Abramoff separately in 1999 to say they wanted to do business. Norquist complained about a "$75K hole in my budget from last year." Reed said he was counting on Abramoff "to help me with some contacts."
On February 7, 2000, Abramoff warned Reed that an initial payment for antilottery radio spots and mailings would be less than Reed thought. "I need to give Grover something for helping, so the first transfer will be a bit lighter," Abramoff wrote. The transfer was apparently lighter than even Abramoff expected. In a note to himself on February 22, Abramoff wrote, "Grover kept another $25K!" Norquist claims he had permission.
In 2000, Abramoff forced the Choctaws to give the Alabama Christian Coalition $1.15 million in installments. Norquist agreed to pass the money on to the Coalition and another Alabama antigambling group, both of which Reed was mobilizing for the fight against a proposed Alabama state lottery.
In 2002, after Abramoff worked with Reed to close the casino of the Tigua tribe, he persuaded the tribe to hire him to lobby Congress to reopen the casino.
Of the $7.7 million Abramoff and Scanlon charged the Choctaw for projects in 2001, they spent $1.2 million on their behalf and split the rest in a scheme they called "gimme five."
[edit]
Alleged spending irregularities
In 2004, Abramoff resigned from Greenberg Traurig amid a scandal related to spending irregularities in his work as a lobbyist for Native American tribes involved in gambling, namely The Mississippi Choctaw, the Louisiana Coushatta, the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, Sandia Pueblo, the Saginaw Chippewa and the Tigua of Ysleta del Sur Pueblo.
The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians paid $15 million to Abramoff and Scanlon's organizations. The funds were diverted to a number of projects, including the Eshkol Academy, an all-boys Orthodox Jewish school set up by Abramoff in Maryland, and to a friend who ran sniper workshops for the Israel Defence Forces.[2]
[edit]
American international center
Part of the sums paid by the tribes for lobbying were paid to the American International Center, an organization presenting itself as a think tank headed by David Grosh, a lifeguard on the Delaware shore who operated it from his beach house. Grosh had no qualifications or work experience relevant to policy research and currently works as a construction worker. At a Senate hearing, Grosh admitted that he had abetted the deception and said that he was "embarrassed and disgusted to be a part of this whole thing."
[edit]
Insulting references to clients
In emails now made public by the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, who is investigating his activities, Abramoff repeatedly referred to Native Americans as "monkeys", "troglodites" and "idiots."
Abramoff via email once asked his co-conspirator Scanlon to meet a client, saying, "I have to meet with the monkeys from the Choctaw tribal council. You need to close the deal... with the client..."
About one tribal client (date unknown) Abramoff wrote to Scanlon, "These mofos are the stupidest idiots in the land for sure." In another email message he wrote, "we need to get some money from those monkeys!!"
[edit]
Comments by politicians
John McCain has said of the Abramoff scheme, "Even in this town, where huge sums are routinely paid as the price of political access, the figures are astonishing."
[edit]
Reed's denial
From a television interview conducted on October 19, 2005 in Atlanta
[Reed] said he asked Abramoff's firm for assurances his pay would not be in gambling dollars. "And I was provided with those assurances by the law firm," Reed said. "If we were paid with funds that derived from gambling activity, then it was contrary to my understanding and the assurances that I received." [3]
[edit]
Parties Allegedly Involved
Abramoff has a reputation for largesse considered exceptional even by Washington standards. In addition to offering many Republican members of Congress expensive free meals at his restaurant Signatures, Abramoff maintained four skyboxes at major sports arenas for political entertaining at a cost of over $1 million a year. Abramoff hosted many fundraisers at these skyboxes including events for politicians publicly opposed to gambling, such as John Doolittle. [4]
[edit]
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay
Joining Abramoff on a vacation was Tom DeLay, whose airfare to London and Scotland in 2000 was charged to an American Express card issued to Abramoff, according to two sources who know Abramoff's credit card account number and to a copy of a travel invoice displaying that number. DeLay's expenses during the same trip for food, phone calls and other items at a golf course hotel in Scotland were billed to a different credit card also used on the trip by a second registered Washington lobbyist, Edwin A. Buckham, according to receipts documenting that portion of the trip.[5]
[edit]
U.S. Representative Bob Ney
In 2002, after Abramoff and Reed closed the casino of the Tigua tribe, Abramoff persuaded the tribe to hire him to lobby Congress to reopen the casino. After Abramoff met with Ney to ask him to push the legislation, the Tigua (by overnight mail) sent three checks to Ney's political committees, totaling $32,000. The apparent exchange of campaign contributions in return for Ney's support of an amendment to reopen the Tigua's casino could constitute bribery.
Emails between Abramoff and the Tigua's political consultant show that Ney solicited the Tigua to pay for part of a 2002 golf trip to Scotland, knowing full well that solicitation of travel is specifically prohibited by House rules. Shortly after Ney returned from Scotland, he was scheduled to meet with members of the Tigua tribal council. Prior to that meeting, Abramoff reminded the Tigua that "for obvious reasons" the golf trip would not be mentioned at the meeting, but that Ney show his appreciation "in other ways," which was, Abramoff pointed out, just what the tribe wanted. Although the tribe never ended up paying for the golf trip, Ney's attempt to tie the gift of the trip to the legislative assistance the tribe was seeking likely violates federal criminal law.
Ney (R-OH) lied when he said he was "duped" by Abramoff and lied again on financial disclosure forms when he said that a nonprofit had paid for the trip. However, Safavian, in an email to his government employer seeking permission to go on the trip, states that Abramoff personally extended invitations to all the guests. Ney also said he made the trip to speak to Scottish parliamentarians. But the Scottish parliament wasn't in session at the time he was in Scotland.
Ney is also implicated in the separate Abramoff SunCruz scandal.
Ney is now setting up a legal defense fund for Abramoff. [6]
Ney is widely believed to be "Representative #1," in Abramoff's January 3 plea agreement [7]
[edit]
U.S. Rep. Tom Feeney III
Congressman Tom Feeney (R-FL) joined other Republicans on the now infamous golf trip to Scotland with Abramoff in 2003.
[edit]
U.S. Rep. Richard Pombo
In 2003, Abramoff gave Richard Pombo's (R-CA) PAC $5,000. Abramoff also gave $2,000, the maximum allowed, to Pombo's congressional campaign committee that same year.
[edit]
U.S. Rep. Mike Ferguson
New Jersey Republican Rep. Mike Ferguson is not going to give back the $1,000 he received in 2001, according to his spokeswoman Abby Bird. [8]
[edit]
U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan
Senator Byron Dorgan, the senior Democrat on the Senate committee investigating Abramoff, advocated for programs pushed by Abramoff's clients around the time he accepted tens of thousands of dollars from associates and clients of Abramoff (though NOT from Abramoff[O'Reilly]). According to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Dorgan received at least $79,300 from Indian tribe clients and lobbying associates of Abramoff. [9]
After several news articles appeared detailing the tribal donations[10], Dorgan wrote a news release replying to several claims he said were erroneous, including the allegation he received money directly from Abramoff. In the release, Dorgan said, "The fact is I have never met Abramoff and have never received a campaign contribution from him. If he was directing any of his clients to make a political contribution to me, it was done without my knowledge."[11]
Dorgan says, in the release, that his activities in support of several tribal programs are continuing his trend of supporting Native American issues since being elected, and do not stem from Abramoff-related campaign contributions.
In December 2005, Dorgan returned tribal donations totaling $67,000.[12][13]
[edit]
U.S. Senator Conrad Burns
Conrad Burns (R-Montana) is an alleged recipient of illegal favors and $136,000 in campaign contributions from Abramoff. As the chair of the Interior Subcommittee on Appropriations, Burns received over $136,000 in campaign contributions through Abramoff and then directed $3 million to the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe of Michigan, an Abramoff client and one of the wealthiest tribes in the country from a program intended to help the neediest tribes fix dilapidated schools.
After initially claiming credit for the appropriation, Burns subsequently denied knowledge of it. "A lot of things happened that I didn't know about. It shouldn't have happened, but it did."
Although intially refusing to return Abramoff's donations,[14] Burns ultimately said that he would return or give away $150,000 he received from Abramoff and his clients.
In December, 2005, a leader of a tribe which gave $22,000 in campaign contributions to Burns in 2002 stated that they had done so solely at the request of Abramoff and believed the senator was part of “Abramoff's group.” [15]
[edit]
U.S. Senator John Cornyn
(R-Texas) On November 12, 2001, Reed sent Abramoff an e-mail stating, "get me details so I can alert cornyn and let him know what we are doing to help him" [sic]. Similarly, on November 13, Reed wrote "I strongly suggest we start doing patch-throughs to perry and cornyn [sic]. We're getting killed on the phone." Also, on January 7, 2002, Reed sent Abramoff an e-mail stating "I think we should budget for an ataboy for cornyn" [sic].
When John Cornyn ran for Senate, Abramoff contributed $1,000, the maximum amount legally allowed. Cornyn, who has spoken out against gambling, also received $6,250 in contributions from Las Vegas casino interests who oppose Indian gaming, some of which were made at the same time Cornyn was pushing to close the Tigua's casino.
[edit]
U.S. Senator David Vitter
The Louisiana Jena Band of Choctaws offered testimony accusing Louisiana Senator David Vitter (R) of being in cahoots with Abramoff and his attempts to stymie the tribe's casino plans.[16]
[edit]
U.S. Senator Tom Harkin
According to the FEC, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) failed to account properly for two fundraisers he held in Abramoff’s skybox at Washington’s MCI Center in 2002 and 2003, according to filings with the FEC and the Iowa Democrat's spokeswoman.[17]
[edit]
U.S. Senator Charles Grassley
Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, one of several committees investigating the scandal. From 2001 to 2004, Grassley received over $62,000 in donations from groups related to the scandal. In March 2002 he sent a letter to Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton opposing the Jena casino. In April he received a donation of $1000 from Abramoff's firm. [18]
[edit]
State Senator William Gormley
New Jersey State Sen. William Gormley, R-Atlantic, got $1,000 from Abramoff when Gormley was running for the U.S. Senate in 2000. [19]
Abramoff also gave $5,000 to the New Jersey Republican State Committee. New Jersey Democratic Party Chairwoman Bonnie Watson Coleman hopes this money will be returned to Abramoff. [20]
According to an analysis by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, Abramoff has contributed more than $220,000 in New Jersey since 1995, almost exclusively to Republican candidates and committees and only a "smattering" of those who received donations from Abramoff have returned them. [21]
Documents showed that Abramoff and his firm paid travel bills not only for Republicans like DeLay, but also for Southern Democrats like James Clyburn of South Carolina and Bennie Thompson of Mississippi.
[edit]
Edward Miller and Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.
A federal grand jury issued a subpoena in 2005 to Edward Miller, the deputy chief of staff of Governor Robert Ehrlich (R-MD), because of Miller's connection to Grassroots Interactive. [22]
[edit]
Timothy Flanigan
Former White House Deputy Counsel Timothy Flanigan left his job in December 2002 to work as General Counsel for Corporate and International Law at Tyco International. He immediately hired Abramoff to lobby Congress and the White House on matters relating to Tyco's Bermuda tax-exempt status. Tyco subsequently alleged that the company had been defrauded and that the astroturf campaign they paid for had never been performed.
Democrats Press Justice Dept. Nominee Anew The New York Times, September 24, 2005
Tyco Exec: Abramoff Claimed Ties to Administration, The Washington Post, September 23, 2005
[edit]
Deputy United States Secretary of the Interior J. Steven Griles
Abramoff claims in emails sent in 2002 that Griles had pledged to block an Indian casino that would compete with one of his clients. Abramoff later told two people that he was trying to hire Griles.
Abramoff Cited Aid Of Interior Official, The Washington Post, August 28, 2005
[edit]
David Safavian
On September 19, 2005, David Safavian, who served as the head of the federal procurement policy at the Office of Management and Budget, was the first arrest of the scandal and was charged with lying to investigators and obstructing the federal inquiry of Abramoff. [23]
[edit]
Abramoff cash returned or donated
Many politicians have returned or donated money received from Abramoff or his clients.
On August 18, 2005, Rep. Frank LoBiondo said he plans to give back the $1,000 contribution he received in 2001 from Abramoff.
On August 18 Rep. Jim Saxton also returned a $1,000 contribution Abramoff made in 2001. [24]
On October 26 Sen. Jim Talent returned a $2,000 contribution made to his 2002 Senate campaign by Abramoff. Talent also returned a $1,000 contribution that Abramoff's former law firm made to Talent's re-election campaign earlier this year. [25]
On December 13, 2005 Sen. Byron Dorgan reported that he would return $67,000 in questionable donations from Abramoff's clients. Dorgan was quoted as saying he would not "knowingly keep even one dollar in contributions if there is even a remote possibility that they could have been the result of any action Mr. Abramoff might have taken." [26]
Sen. Max Baucus gave $18,892 in Abramoff-related money he received to tribal colleges in Montana.
In December 2005, Rep. Ernest Istook, said he would donate a $1,000 campaign donation from Abramoff to the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation for Indian health research. A $5,000 donation to a political action committee Istook was involved with will also be given to the OMRF.
Sen. Conrad Burns announced that he would return or donate $150,000 he received from Abramoff and his clients. His spokesman had previously claimed that the money could not be returned as the committee that received it was shut down and the money was "already spent".[27]
Rep. Dennis Rehberg returned $20,000.[28]
On January 4, 2005 President George W. Bush announced that his campaign will donate $6000 from Abramoff, Abramoff's wife, and the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan [29] to the American Heart Association. It is not clear if this is all of the money Abramoff gave or directed to be given to Bush or his allies.
[edit]
Ramifications
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, since 1999, at least 250 members of Congress have accepted campaign funds from Abramoff or his Indian clients. "This could be the biggest investigation of 2006," says Stephen Hess, professor of media and public affairs at George Washington University. [30]
Also according to the Center, Abramoff and his clients gave more than $4.4 million to candidates since 1999. At least 65% of the money went to Republican candidates and party organizations, and approximately 35% went to Democratic candidates and organizations. It should be noted that it is alleged that Abramoff has never personally given money to Democratic candidates, and that they were given his money through PACs and special interest groups which gave Abramoff no hand in deciding where his donations would go.
[edit]
Timeline
[edit]
August 11th, 2005
Abramoff is indicted by a third grand jury in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for a $23 million bank fraud arising out of the purchase of the SunCruz Casinos boat company.
[edit]
January 3rd, 2006
Abramoff pleads guilty to federal conspiracy, fraud and tax evasion charges. According to NPR, this puts Abramoff on the prosecutor's side and he is expected to cooperate in the continuing investigation that could involve "up to 20 members of Congress" NPR. The court filing is available as a PDF [31].
[edit]
External link
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abramoff-Reed_Indian_Gambling_Scandal
Anti-gaming religious leader arrested for solicitation
Pastor led charge against tribally owned casinos
OKLAHOMA CITY OK
Native American Times 1/5/2006
One of the leaders against last year’s effort to allow expanded Indian gaming has been arrested for soliciting an undercover policeman posing as a prostitute.
Oklahoma City police say South Tulsa Baptist Church senior pastor Lonnie Latham was arrested Jan. 3 after he tried to convince the male officer to come back to his hotel room. Officials say Latham asked the cop to engage in oral sex.
Latham told area media he was “set up.”
He was charged with offering to engage in an act of lewdness, and released on $500 bail.
Latham has been senior pastor at the church since 2002, and he has used his position to speak out against Indian gaming. In 2004, he spearheaded efforts to place an anti-gaming measure on the state ballot.
“The petition would be to allow the state’s people to vote on whether or not they want this kind of casino gambling in the state,” he said. “…. We’re hoping that we can gather not only 51,000 names but also many more who will see this as the moral issue that it is.”
Latham also said the social costs of gaming outweigh its benefits, and he opposed efforts to establish a state lottery.
State voters eventually approved both expanded Indian gaming and a lottery.
Latham also supported a Baptist Convention directive that encourages befriending homosexuals in an effort to persuade them to become heterosexual and reject their “sinful, destructive lifestyle."
source: http://www.nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=7413
A Tribe Takes Grim Satisfaction in Abramoff's Fall
Desire to Protect Casino Revenue Made Coushattas Receptive to Lobbyist's Pitch on Access
By Peter Whoriskey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, January 7, 2006; A01
ELTON, La. -- The dizzying downfall of lobbyist Jack Abramoff means more than just another Washington political scandal in this rural outpost of tin-roofed homes and fraying trailers.
It is a measure of vengeance.
Led on by what they say were his false promises of political access, leaders of the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, which is based here, paid Abramoff and his partners about $32 million for lobbying and other services -- more than $38,000 for each of their 837 tribal members. By their accounting, they got very little in return.
It was thievery, tribal members said, that echoes the historic losses of Native Americans to European settlers.
"Abramoff and his partner are the contemporary faces of the exploitation of native peoples," said David Sickey, a member of the tribal council. "In the 17th and 18th century, native people were exploited for their land. In 2005, they're being exploited for their wealth."
The money the Coushatta Tribe and other tribes with casino interests paid to Abramoff helped him spread favors and gain access in the nation's capital -- the subject of speculation about a widening political dragnet. But even more rankling to many Coushattas is the knowledge that Abramoff had, in released e-mails, referred to some of his Native American clients as "monkeys," "troglodytes" and "morons."
"That hit a nerve," Sickey said, frowning and pausing. "That really hit a nerve."
It was in part the revelations of Coushatta Tribe members about the exorbitant sums Abramoff was commanding that drew attention to his multifaceted operations and led to his guilty plea to charges of conspiracy, mail fraud and tax evasion this week. But the origins of the scandal are in some ways much broader, the product of the competition for the government gambling permits that has led to the spread of Indian casinos and waterfront operations across many rural parts of the country.
Those casinos have made many tribes rich, and some, like the Coushatta Tribe, have used their money to try to buy clout to squelch any potential competitors. As their gambling revenue grew, the tribes began to make political contributions, targeting mostly Democratic lawmakers. But when Abramoff came calling, it was not hard for him to persuade the tribes to start spreading the wealth to Republicans.
In some instances, the Coushattas got what they paid for: Abramoff was able to help quash a rival tribe's proposed casino, protecting the Coushatta Casino Resort.
The casino, about 20 miles north of Lake Charles and Interstate 10, is a vast complex of hotel rooms around a cavernous hall of slot machines and game tables.
Compared with the clusters of shuttered storefronts or half-demolished barns that line many roadsides here, it is a lavish spectacle, with a giant flashing sign by the road.
Since it opened 11 years ago, it has drawn gamblers, mostly Texans, and markedly changed the lives of the Coushattas.
Revenue from the operation is estimated to be about $300 million a year, and each tribal member is given a quarterly sum from the profits. Tribe finances are not disclosed publicly, but estimates of those checks per member have ranged from $30,000 to $40,000 annually. Members also receive free medical care and education, as well as financial aid to buy a home. Many have used the money for better cars and better homes. The per capita prosperity has also kicked off a baby boom, tribal leaders said, and today 342 of the tribal members are under the age of 18.
"We all stuck together this long, and now everything is a whole lot better than we ever had," said Curtis Sylestine, 51, a tribe member who works on the reservation's maintenance operations. He chuckled ruefully when asked about the Abramoff money.
"It's like the old days -- they're still robbing us blind," he said.
In conversation, many Coushattas compare the casino to "the golden goose" and say they were naturally defensive about other groups, Indian or non-Indian, seeking to open casinos that might cut into their market.
Abramoff and partner Michael Scanlon promised to ward off the competition by blocking their government approvals, using their political access to prevent the Interior Department from approving a casino for a rival Indian group, the Jena Band of Choctaws, and trying to stifle the approval of other state-controlled licenses.
Abramoff did provide some lobbying. To ward off the Jena Band, for example, Abramoff called on support from senior senators and congressmen, the deputy secretary of the interior, and evangelical leaders James Dobson and Ralph Reed.
But there are a number of other instances where, tribe members say, the services that were provided were unclear and some of the money simply went to the coffers of Abramoff's allies. The guilty plea this week will help them try to recover their money from Abramoff, Scanlon and the law firm Greenberg Traurig, with which Abramoff was working, lawyer Jimmy Faircloth said.
Because Abramoff has admitted to a conspiracy, "the only issue now is the amount of the damages," Faircloth said.
Coushatta and other Native American leaders say they and their casino operations probably have been hurt politically as well, because of Abramoff's close ties to the tribes. There is already considerable political and moral unease over the spread of gambling. Many of the highway billboards promising the excitement of gambling also ask, in smaller type, "Gaming Problem?" and recommend a toll-free number for counseling. A billboard facing Texas-bound travelers leaving the Coushatta resort is simpler: "TIRED OF LOSING?" it asks. "TRY JESUS CHRIST."
Even before the money in the scandal came to fund Abramoff's work in Washington, it belonged to people such as Marie Buckler and Walter Elliott, a retired couple from the Houston area, who arrived at the Coushatta resort this week on a bus with other retirees. Neither seemed terribly troubled about losing the money.
"Is that where our money went?" Buckler asked with a chuckle.
"It's just about getting away from the house," Elliott said.
Native American groups frame gambling as an issue of personal freedom.
"We're not putting a gun to anyone's head and say give money to the Indian people," Sickey said. "It's a personal decision."
For now, the Coushattas are simply hoping to win their money back, maintain their casino profits in the face of competition, and hold on to their customs.
Many speak their native language fluently, and the tribe is particularly noted for the baskets some weave from pine needles.
Most significantly, they are trying to prove to themselves that they can manage the riches that come with the casino. The old tribal council, which entered into the agreements with Abramoff and Scanlon, has been swept from power. Many voters said they were disappointed with the former council members but doubted that they had enriched themselves.
"He cheated us. He deceived us. And he shouldn't get away with it just because he's big in Washington politics," Sylestine said.
"We want justice," Kirk Langley, a tribe member who works at a millwork shop, said during a cigarette break. "And we want our money back."
source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/06/AR2006010601796_pf.html
Abramoff schemes scar tribe in Texas
Lobbyist's casino scam drained Tiguas' cash, left taint of scandal
By Chuck Lindell
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Sunday, January 08, 2006
Flush with casino cash and desperate for help, the Tigua Indian tribe of Texas was a perfect pigeon for Jack Abramoff's lobbying scam.
A federal court had just shut down the tribe's casino when Abramoff and partner Michael Scanlon took a chartered jet to El Paso in 2002. Abramoff had helped orchestrate the closing, but he didn't tell that to the Tiguas.
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Instead, brimming with expertise and confidence, Abramoff unveiled a grandiose political operation that included behind-the-scenes lobbying in Congress to reopen Speaking Rock Casino.
Abramoff, a charismatic lobbyist who used his GOP connections to build one of Washington's highest-dollar practices, offered to help the tribe for free. But, he warned, success required a savvy blitz of public relations, phone banks and polling that only Scanlon could provide.
The Tiguas bit, paying $4.2 million to Scanlon, unaware that $1.85 million would find its way back to Abramoff in a secret kickback scheme.
Other tribes, similarly scammed, would provide bigger paydays, but the Tigua deal would prove pivotal to Abramoff's downfall, playing a major role in last week's guilty pleas that will send him to prison for up to 11 years.
Like Scanlon, who pleaded guilty in November, Abramoff agreed to cooperate with federal investigators, sending tremors through Capitol Hill, where Abramoff's list of close associates included former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land.
The tiny tribe from West Texas also is central to a brewing scandal involving Abramoff and U.S. Rep. Bob Ney, a high-ranking Republican from Ohio. Both Ney and DeLay have insisted they did nothing wrong.
The Abramoff affair has cast an unexpected, and unappreciated, spotlight on a roughly 1,300-member tribe, not even recognized by the federal government until 1987, that now finds itself ensnarled in a corruption investigation that threatens to engulf Congress and Washington's lobbying industry.
"I always knew this was going to be coming. Greed will always surface," tribal Gov. Art Senclair said. "I think right now it's just the top of the iceberg. It's going to be a domino effect . . . once (Abramoff) starts naming names."
Still, Abramoff's admission of guilt, even his promise to repay $25 million to the cheated tribes, brought small satisfaction to the Tiguas.
Their $60 million-a-year casino remains closed. Tough financial times have returned to their El Paso reservation, symbolized by the school bus that sits in a parking lot, its two drivers laid off.
Help from Congress now appears unlikely.
"With the investigation going, who would want to get involved to help us?" said Carlos Hisa, the tribe's lieutenant governor. "I think everyone is going to shy away because of the big rat we're connected to."
A simple seduction
Abramoff seduced the Tiguas with a plan that was elegantly simple if ethically suspect.
The idea was to surreptitiously amend the federal law recognizing the Tiguas by removing its restrictions on gambling. The brief language would be slipped into unrelated legislation, hopefully escaping notice from anti-gaming factions.
Abramoff needed an insider and claimed he found one in Ney, chairman of the House Administration Committee.
"Just met with Ney!!! We're f'ing gold!!! He's going to do Tigua," Abramoff wrote to Scanlon on March 20, 2002.
According to Abramoff, Ney promised to add the language to his election reform bill, which a House-Senate conference committee was finalizing.
A week later, Abramoff directed the Tiguas to make $32,000 in donations to Ney's election and political action committees.
Abramoff's quest for money became a theme of his relationship with the tribe.
He quickly directed the Tiguas to make $300,000 in political donations, all but $19,500 intended for GOP candidates and committees. The tribe complied, so in midsummer, he sought an additional $50,000.
"Our friend (Ney) asked if we could help, as in cover, a Scotland golf trip for him and some of his staff," Abramoff e-mailed Marc Schwartz, a Tigua representative. "We did this for another member — you know who — 2 years ago."
Schwartz said "you know who" was DeLay. Both the DeLay and Ney trips are being investigated by the Justice Department's Public Integrity Division.
This time, the Tiguas declined to pay but agreed — regrettably, in hindsight — to take the request to an East Texas tribe, the Alabama Coushatta, whose casino also had been shuttered by Texas.
The Alabama Coushattas, directed to send the $50,000 to a charity that acted as an Abramoff front, did not know the lobbyist was involved in the trip, tribal lawyer Fred Petti said.
"They were told Ney was somebody who was looking after the Tigua tribe . . . issue, and that would also benefit the Alabama Coushatta Tribe," said Petti, adding that his clients were told that the purpose of Ney's trip was educational.
The donation achieved little beyond embroiling the Alabama Coushattas in a federal investigation and straining relations with the Tiguas.
Yet for all its effort and money, the Tiguas got even less.
Ney failed to deliver. He did have a grand time golfing in Scotland, however.
Trouble arises
The first hint of trouble came in a July 25, 2002, e-mail from Abramoff to Scanlon titled "emergency Tigua."
Ney had just come from a disconcerting meeting with his Senate counterpart on the conference committee. Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., was supposedly on board with the Tigua fix but looked at Ney "like a deer in the headlights and said he had never made such a commitment," Abramoff wrote.
Scanlon claimed Dodd reneged on a deal. Dodd denied even knowing Abramoff or Scanlon. Regardless, the effort was foiled.
Yet for three months, Abramoff kept the deal's collapse hidden from the Tiguas, even as he continued trying to separate the tribe from its money.
"I have a great idea," he e-mailed Scanlon on Sept. 18, 2002. "Let's tell Schwartz that we are launching all missiles to get the bill a vote and, therefore, using all our resources, so that once the bill passes, we immediately need more money!!! OK?"
When tribal officials met Ney in his Washington office days after his August trip to Scotland, no one admitted the deal had fallen through, Hisa said. Nor was Scotland discussed, per Abramoff's orders.
"BN had a great time and is very grateful, but is not going to mention the trip to Scotland for obvious reasons," Abramoff wrote in a pre-meeting e-mail to Schwartz. "He said he'll show his thanks in other ways."
The truth of the deal's collapse emerged in October when Ney's bill passed without the Tigua language.
But for the Tiguas, the final indignity came in 2004 when they learned Ney's Scotland trip also included Ralph Reed, the former Christian Coalition leader who had led a grass-roots campaign to close Speaking Rock Casino.
"A rattlesnake will warn you before it strikes. We had no warning," Hisa later told a Senate panel investigating Abramoff. "They did everything behind our back."
One final ploy
The Tiguas were running low on money by the spring of 2003, but Abramoff wasn't done with them yet.
Despite having no legislative success, he asked the tribe to join the "Elder Legacy Program," which would buy life insurance policies on tribal members 75 and older. Death benefits would go to Eshkol Academy, Abramoff's school for Orthodox Jewish boys in suburban Maryland.
In return, Eshkol would hire Abramoff's law firm, Greenberg Traurig, on the Tiguas' behalf — giving the tribe access to savvy lobbyists without additional charge.
The Tiguas declined. "Especially with tribal elders, you can't put a price on a life," Senclair said.
A year later, the Abramoff-Scanlon empire collapsed after news reports prompted investigations by the Senate and Justice Department.
By then, Scanlon had reaped $53 million from the Tiguas and three other tribes, kicking $20 million back to Abramoff while providing little of the promised work, prosecutors said.
Last November, Scanlon pleaded guilty to defrauding the four tribes and conspiring to bribe public officials. Abramoff followed last week with three guilty pleas:
•Conspiring to defraud the tribes and bribe public officials.
•Corruption of a public official for offering a stream of money, trips and meals to Ney.
•Tax evasion for concealing his kickbacks.
Information provided by the Tiguas was key to the first two charges, but Hisa found little to cheer.
"I don't think I'll ever be satisfied with what happens," he said. "The damage to the tribe and to El Paso's (economy) was just too devastating."
U.S. Sen. John McCain, whose Indian Affairs Committee investigated Abramoff and Scanlon, found their Tigua dealings to be particularly distasteful.
"In the Tigua's desperation and despair, Mr. Abramoff and Mr. Scanlon found opportunity and hope, not for the tribe but for themselves," McCain said. "They went to El Paso selling salvation and instead delivered snake oil."
clindell@statesman.com, 912-2569
source: http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/01/8tigua.html
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