From the reporting about Jack Abramoff in the MSM, this appears to be the first time money in politics ever had a shady nexus. With the allusions to Watergate, it appears everyone has forgotten the good old days of selling the Lincoln Bedroom, fundraisers at Buddahist temples and Roger Tamraz.
But for those of us with an internet connection and ability to type a few words into Google, the details of the Clinton’s and the DNC’s selling access in the 1990’s are free for all to see.
It was less then ten years ago when the law and lobbying firm of Greenberg Traurig was in the news for its connections for none other than Roger Tamraz.
Tamraz was a naturalized U.S citizen who had a history of criminal convictions and a warrant for his arrest by Interpol who gave $300,000 to the DNC to gain access to President Clinton to sell his plan for an oil pipeline from the Caspian Sea region.
Tamraz was originally rebuffed by an NSC/Interagency working group who had other pipeline plans and decided to make an end-run around the bureacrats the old fashioned way: Big Money.
Tamraz gave enough money that then DNC chairman Don Fowler went to bat for him in the policy arena.
“Fowler complained to him over the telephone that “big oil companies were muscling out [Fowler’s] friend here Roger Tamraz, and that he intended to give this guy a fair hearing . . . .” Fowler told Bob that Sheila Heslin “was keeping consideration of Tamraz’s pipeline from being fairly considered or something like that.”
Tamraz also retained Greenberg Traurig to represent him. Marvin Rosen, DNC Finance Chair 1995-1997, was and still is a member of the firm. [Greenberg Traurig is back in the news again, but this time regarding Jack Abramoff.]
For $300,000, Tamraz got some quality face time with the President and some ranking staffers to go to bat for him to get around Sheila Heslin, an NSC staffer Fowler felt was in the tank for the big oil companies.
From the Senate Report:
“The key to understanding why these officials found the idea
of endorsing Tamraz’s pipeline to be so attractive five months
before the presidential election may lie in Simpson’s
communications to Carter and in Carter’s own subsequent
communication with Heslin. By this point, after all, Heslin was
the principal obstacle that remained for Tamraz. Buying access
to U.S. Government officials had been comparatively easy, but
the interagency working group headed by Heslin remained opposed
to offering the official support Tamraz “desperately
need[ed].” 140 After receiving his instructions
from Simpson, therefore, it was not surprising that Carter
should continue to “follow-up” on the Tamraz issue by
contacting her at the NSC. What is particularly significant
about this contact, however, is the degree to which the two
Energy officials apparently understood this “follow-up” to
revolve around Tamraz’s campaign contributions.”
According to the WaPo, Fowler’s assesment of Heslin was correct.
“By early 1995, the U.S. oil companies operating in Azerbaijan had set up a Foreign Oil Companies group in Washington. It met with National Security Council energy expert Sheila Heslin and later with an interagency committee headed by her boss, Samuel R. “Sandy” Berger.
Government documents show that the NSC and oil companies worked together in June 1995 to forestall an attempt by Lebanese-American oil financier Roger Tamraz to promote his own pipeline from Baku to Turkey, via Armenia. Pennzoil’s Hamilton alerted NSC officials of oil company opposition to the Tamraz initiative, effectively killing any White House support for the project.”
Which brings us to what was left out of Syriana. The “Bob” that appears in the Senate report is none other than Robert Baer the inspiration for George Clooney’s movie, Syriana. Bob, for a while, was Tamraz’s CIA handler. Bob, out of the field at this point, was bored and curious about the politics that dictated the policies he carried out. [I stongly recommend reading Baer’s book. I don’t recommend the movie.]
Bob, seeing what Tamraz was doing was curious as to why Heslin was using the CIA to dig up on Tamraz. Bob conclusion was similar to Fowler’s and the WaPo’s.
“Heslin’s sole job, it seemed, was to carry water for an exclusive club known as the Foreign Oil Companies Group, a cover for a cartel of major petroleum companies doing business in the Caspian. It was the same cartel that wanted dirt on Tamraz and others. The group particularly hated Tamraz because he was a lot more agile than they were.
Another thing I learned was that Heslin wasn’t soloing. Her boss, Deputy National Security Advisor Sandy Berger, headed the interagency committee on Caspian oil policy, which made him in effect the government’s ambassador to the cartel, and Berger wasn’t a disinterested player. He held $90,000 worth of stock in Amoco, probably the most influential member in the cartel and the one with the greatest reason to be wary of Tamraz.”
Baer goes on to discuss all the Caspian oil money sloshing aroung D.C. through law and lobbying firms and then tosses in this nugget, “Probably the most aggressive was Berger’s old firm, Hogan & Hartson, which put out the word that it could guarantee entree int the White House anytime.” (Pg. 243-244, See No Evil)
In the end, Tamraz didn’t get his pipeline approved by the U.S. government.
In the Senate Hearings into the matter, this line questioning sums it all up:
SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN: So do you think you got your money’s worth? Do you feel badly about having given the $300,000?
ROGER TAMRAZ: I think next time I’ll give $600,000.
Tamraz’s $300,000 was enough to get the president interested, the Chief of Staff, a few appointees and the Chairman of the DNC intersted, but he was out maneuvered by the Foreign Oil Companies Group, Berger and Heslin. My guess is that $600,000 would have gotten the job done for Tamraz.
And all of the above comes from just one section of the Senate report about the 1996 elections.
What about Johnny Chung, Yogesh Gandhi, Ted Sioeng, John Huang, The Hsi Lai Temple Fundraiser, Charlie Trie, Ng Lap Seng, Warren Meddoff? And who can forget the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes? Obviously the MSM can.
Abramoff is not the biggest scandal since Watergate, it is what happens in D.C. everyday. And compared to Caspian pipelines, Indian Gaming seems pretty petty.
X Fixer 