May 28 2006
Rep Jefferson – Africa – Joe Wilson?
*** Updates at the end ***
Mac Ranger has been hinting that there are possible connections to Joe Wilson and Rep William Jefferson (bribery scandal). Turns out there may be. Recall that Joe Wilson was running his own international business consulting firm when the CIA asked him twice (through his wife) to visit Niger in 1999 and 2002. He went again in 2000 when the military coup d’etat had been supllanted with a democratic government. His business was representing these governments to assist them in getting lucrative business opportuities.
With that in mind, note this news on the ever expanding Rep Jefferson probe (which somehow the Conrgessional Reps were able to jump on the wrong side of instantly):
The FBI is focusing on at least eight different suspected bribery schemes as part of its corruption probe of Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-La.), according to a federal affidavit and sources familiar with the investigation.
…
Federal authorities have alleged in court documents that Jefferson took more than $500,000 in bribes in exchange for using his official position to promote iGate’s technology in Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon.
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The affidavit discloses an alleged scheme in which Jefferson introduced officials from Netlink Digital Television (NDTV), a Nigerian company, to Jackson.NDTV agreed to pay iGate nearly $45 million for the right to use its technology and to distribute it in Nigeria. The affidavit alleges that Jefferson, without iGate’s knowledge, separately negotiated with NDTV officials to receive $5 for each subscriber in “return for Jefferson’s official assistance if the deal was successful.”
More here on the NDTV scheme. Some news from Nigeria here. I will have to dig into this later in the weekend. But two more links are important: one is regarding the man who coordinated President Clinton’s trip to Africa in 1998 (one Joe Wilson) and two where we learn of one Lousianna Congressman who was also on the trip to Africa with Clinton and Wilson:
Jefferson and two other members who traveled with Clinton to Africa called a news conference to announce their support for an idea by Jesse Jackson, the president’s special envoy to Africa, for a museum dedicated to slavery in Washington.
Interest and joint travel to Africa do not make a conspiracy or demonstrate guilt. Guilt is a multi-part characteristic which includes ‘opportuntiy’. We shall see if there was motivation in any of this, let alone some hard evidence. Right now it is simply coincidence. But Mac and I seem to be interested in what one Atiku Abubakar may say now that he too has been ‘searched’ by the FBI.
Update: Seems Nigerian VP Atiku has some personal ties to the investigation since it appears his wife was just indicted by the US with regards to Jefferson:
VICE-PRESIDENT Atiku Abubakar’s wife, Jennifer, has been indicted in the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) probe of US Congressman, William Jefferson, over bribery involving a transnational tele-communications deal. Jennifer resides in the Potomac, Maryland home of Atiku which was raided on August 3, 2005, by the FBI in connection with the bribery investigation.
In a report on Tuesday, the FBI revealed that a taped conversation between Jefferson and a wired Mody saw the embattled American lawmaker describing Jennifer as a “frontâ€. Jefferson told Mody that the Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Gede Foundation, being operated in Washington by Jennifer, was a front, being used to channel illegal funds by the Atiku family.
Want to know how bad this is going to get? Bribery is one thing. Hiding bribery and corruption behind humanitarian aid is the lowest of low:
Gede Foundation, according to the founder, was to help in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
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“In a recorded conversation, Jefferson said that a top Nigerian official was scheduled to arrive in Washington shortly. Jefferson described him as a businessman “who has more deals than the man in the moon†and “he’s a very well, the word might be… corrupt.†The official, Jefferson later said, could be bribed by funnelling money through a charitable foundation run by the official’s wife, which Jefferson called a “frontâ€.
How low can these people be? I guess we will be finding out.
Hey, AJ, this should amuse you:
Remember that photoscan of the Post-Standard from Feb 26, 1999 showing “Joseph C. Wilson IV, chief executive officer, J.C. Wilson International Ventures Corp., and Valerie Wilson” (bottom, fourth column) attending a state dinner tribute for Ghanian President Jerry Rawlings?
Guess who was also on the guest list that day? “Rep. William J. Jefferson, D-LA., and Andrea G. Jefferson, vice chancellor, Southern University at New Orleans” (bottom, second column).
This doesn’t prove anything, of course, but the coincidence still makes me smile.
DubiousD,
Yes, I do recall that (and linked to it once as well). Good catch!
Was reading the comments in a similar thread over at Macsmind. Point was brought up that Jennifer, the wife of the Nigerian VP is also Joe Wilson’s first wife. That in and of itself doesn’t imply any wrongdoing per se but it sure puts Wilson potentially closer to any wrongdoing if he knew who the “go to” people were to get things done.
The comments on this tread are fascinating.
Sorry, misread the comment at macmind. it was Jacqueline they were talking about, I got confused in that huge first comment in that stream of comments. Might need a pencil and paper to diagram those connections 🙂
Color me stupid for a moment.
When you read the comments over at Macsmind they go from bottom to top, not top to bottom. So a comment that is referencing another comment is referencing one below it, not above it. Wasn’t till I looked at the timestamps on the comments that I figured that out. No wonder it was confusing.
Heads up AJ!!
http://www.americanthinker.com/comments.php?comments_id=5234
“Judge Walton made some rulings yesterday on Scooter Libby’s right to certain materials he subpoenaed from the media. The most significant part of his ruling is that he found some internal inconsistencies in Matt Cooper’s drafts relating to his testimony about the conversation he had with Libby on July 12, 2003. Since these accounts are inconsistent, he is ordering Time to turn them over now to Libby as these varying accounts can impeach anything Cooper can say at trial.The best analysis of that ruling and it’s negative impact on the Libby AND Rove cases is by Byron York:”
HAHAHA!! i just saw your post in this regard…sorry bro..:)
Crosspatch,
If it’s the same comment you caught at Macsmind, I posted that as a question, “Is Jacqueline Wilson the ex-wife of … (the doofus)?”
I don’t know the answer, just thought it was an interesting possibility. But “Wilson” is not a rare or unusual name, and neither is Jacqueline or Jennifer, so it could be a long shot.
For the record, I never ran into another “Merry” until I was in my 40’s and met an eye doctor born on a Christmas day; recent Internet searching has turned up at least two other “Merry Whitney” names (three if a California smoker is not also a psychic; the other one is an 18-year-old Asian model).
Merry
I got messed up because the comments went the opposite direction from what I was expecting. I had an interesting thought today, though. I was thinking back to Hastert up there with Pelosi coming out so strongly against the search of Jefferson’s office and got to thinking …
What if Pelosi told Hastert … if you guys blow this open, we have a thing or two on one of your guys we can unload with. So Hastert and Pelosi go jointly to the podium to express what an “outrage” the whole thing is.
Patch,
If Ms. Culture of Corruption had something on a republican, she would use it. I can’t figure out what Hastert is up to, but I wouldn’t expect Pelosi to hold back anything she might have.
Do you think Noreen Wilson might be related to Joe Wilson somehow?? The following company is involved with the Jefferson investigation. Here are portions of a news story from Platt’s Oilgram News.
Platt’s Oilgram News
July 9, 1997
SECTION: Vol. 75, No. 131; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 865 words
HEADLINE: THE MOUSE THAT ROARED: SMALL COMPANY GRABS A WHOLE NATION’S RIGHTS
BYLINE: Ray Tyson
DATELINE: Houston
BODY:
A small upstart company with just a few million dollars in capitalization has pulled off an impressive coup thousands of miles from its Louisiana homeland.
Environmental Remediation Holding Corp, with 1,800 shareholders and stock valued at less than 50 cts/share, has managed to snatch the exclusive rights to handle oil and gas development for an entire nation.
Granted that The Democratic Republic of Sao Tome & Principe is tiny in stature. The former Portuguese colony is made up of two small islands that straddle the equator about 200 miles off the coast of Gabon, West Africa. The country, with a population of about 127,000, is 372 sq miles in size, an area about one-third the size of Rhode Island.
“Based on the preliminary test wells and seismic data, we believe that the nation could realize hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue,” ERHC vice-president Noreen Wilson said.
Under terms of the joint venture agreement, however, ERHC will end up getting much more than a few exploration concessions and an opportunity to poke around oil and gas prospects on its own.
ERHC actually will be responsible for development of the Sao Tome’s entire oil and gas reserve and serve as primary liaison and consultant to the oil and gas industry. ERHC brought in Procura Financial Consultants of South Africa as a junior partner.
In other words, ERHC/PFC was selected to negotiate on behalf of the country with oil companies for the leasing of all government concessions. For this, ERHC will collect a 5% royalty on all production generated by other companies.
“We will be negotiating with major oil companies for concessions,” Griffin said.
Not a standard contract But there is more.
Revenue generated from its 40% stake in the joint venture will be tax free, while another 20% will be set aside for recovering project costs.
In return, ERHC will funnel $ 1/bbl of production into a special fund to help educate the children of Sao Tome.
“In all my years of speculating in small caps, I have never seen anything like this before,” ERHC shareholder Bill Morgan said of the joint venture.
So how did a small company like ERHC, which went public just a year ago, end up with such a sweet deal? The company only has about $ 5-mil in capitalization, 200 aging production wells in East Texas, and a contract to remediate 400 old Chevron wells in the Gulf of Mexico.
“We said we will build you an oil company that you will own in 25 years,” Griffin said. “We said we will train and help educate your people. We were straightforward with them.”
ERHC chief executive officer Sam Bass and his international reputation for deal-making also played a big role in landing the joint venture with Sao Tome, said Geoffrey Plank, president of GFC Communications, ERHC’s public relations firm.
“He knows all the majors and is a real lightning rod for deals,” Plank said. “It’s not often a small E&P signs an agreement for a whole country that is sitting smack dab in the middle of an oil reserve.”URL: http://www.platts.com
SBD