Gov. Sarah Palin to be indicted?

[Douglas Caddy]

Rumors Fly About Palin’s “Iceberg Scandal”

by Muriel Kane

www.rawstory.com

http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/07/03/rum...ceberg-scandal/

Update: BradBlog now suggests that Palin’s resignation was due to an upcoming Federal indictment for embezzlement. Max Blumenthal at The Daily Beast adds more details.

In the wake of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s surprise resignation on Friday, rumors are beginning to circulate that she might have acted in anticipation of a previously unsuspected scandal being revealed.

Alaskan blogger Shannyn Moore suggested at Huffington Post that “rumors of an ‘iceberg scandal’ have been circulating” even before today’s announcement.

“Resignation is certainly out of character for Sarah Palin,” Moore noted. “Senator Mark Begich had a meeting with Sarah Palin two days ago with no mention of her leaving office. Palin’s press secretary, David Murrow had posted on his Facebook page Wednesday, ‘David Murrow is considering life’s ironies.’ He was hired less than a month ago. Yesterday he wrote, ‘There’s gonna be some fireworks this weekend!’”

Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo similarly suggested, “Remember that based on the public record, Palin is a wildly unethical public official, guilty at a minimum of numerous instances of abusing her authority as governor. And a lot of very damaging information has come out about her in the last few days — though mainly embarrassing information about her character rather than new evidence of bad acts. I would not be surprised if this latest round of revelations shook something else loose that we haven’t heard about yet.”

Moore later spoke by phone with BradBlog’s Brad Friedman and told him that “Palin is ‘resigning as part of damage control’ due to a scandal this is ‘not of a family nature.’”

“The governor would not be able to continue her job when it comes out,” Moore told Friedman. “Why would Mark Sanford not resign, but Sarah Palin did? Her family didn’t even know about the resignation until they were standing with her by the lake when she made her announcement.”

Update: BradBlog is now reporting additional information received from Alaskans who follow Palin: “I’ve now been able to get independent information from multiple sources that all of this precedes what are said to be possible federal indictments against Palin, concerning an embezzlement scandal related to the building of Palin’s house and the Wasilla Sports Complex built during her tenure as Mayor. Both structures, it is said, feature the ’same windows, same wood, same products.’ Federal investigators have been looking into this for some time, and indictments could be imminent, according to the Alaska sources.”

Max Blumenthal at The Daily Beast offers additional details:

One logical place to start looking is the affair that has Alaska political circles buzzing: an alleged scandal centered around a building contractor, Spenard Building Supplies, with close ties to Palin and her husband, Todd.

Many political observers in Alaska are fixated on rumors that federal investigators have been seizing paperwork from SBS in recent months, searching for evidence that Palin and her husband Todd steered lucrative contracts to the well-connected company in exchange for gifts like the construction of their home on pristine Lake Lucille in 2002. The home was built just two months before Palin began campaigning for governor, a job which would have provided her enhanced power to grant building contracts in the wide-open state. …

Though Todd Palin told Fox News he built his Lake Lucille home with the help of a few “buddies,” according to Barrett’s report, public records revealed that SBS supplied the materials for the house. While serving as mayor of Wasilla, Sarah Palin blocked an initiative that would have required the public filing of building permits—thus momentarily preventing the revelation of such suspicious information.

Just months before Palin left city hall to campaign for governor, she awarded a contract to SBS to help build the $13 million Wasilla Sports Complex. The most expensive building project in Wasilla history, the complex cost the city an additional $1.3 million in legal fees and threw it into severe long-term debt. For SBS, however, the bloated and bungled project was a cash cow.

Questions about the construction of Palin’s house are not new. An article last fall by Wayne Barrett at the Village Voice offered many of the same speculations that are now being presented by Blumenthal and others as possible explanations for Palin’s resignation.

If these allegations turn out to be accurate, Palin’s problems would be ironically similar to the scandal which torpedoed former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens’ career. That also involved improvements to his home for which he made no payment.

[John Bevilaqua]

Rumors Fly About Palin’s “Iceberg Scandal”

by Muriel Kane

www.rawstory.com

http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/07/03/rum...ceberg-scandal/

Update: BradBlog now suggests that Palin’s resignation was due to an upcoming Federal indictment for embezzlement. Max Blumenthal at The Daily Beast adds more details.

In the wake of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s surprise resignation on Friday, rumors are beginning to circulate that she might have acted in anticipation of a previously unsuspected scandal being revealed.

Alaskan blogger Shannyn Moore suggested at Huffington Post that “rumors of an ‘iceberg scandal’ have been circulating” even before today’s announcement.

“Resignation is certainly out of character for Sarah Palin,” Moore noted. “Senator Mark Begich had a meeting with Sarah Palin two days ago with no mention of her leaving office. Palin’s press secretary, David Murrow had posted on his Facebook page Wednesday, ‘David Murrow is considering life’s ironies.’ He was hired less than a month ago. Yesterday he wrote, ‘There’s gonna be some fireworks this weekend!’”

Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo similarly suggested, “Remember that based on the public record, Palin is a wildly unethical public official, guilty at a minimum of numerous instances of abusing her authority as governor. And a lot of very damaging information has come out about her in the last few days — though mainly embarrassing information about her character rather than new evidence of bad acts. I would not be surprised if this latest round of revelations shook something else loose that we haven’t heard about yet.”

Moore later spoke by phone with BradBlog’s Brad Friedman and told him that “Palin is ‘resigning as part of damage control’ due to a scandal this is ‘not of a family nature.’”

“The governor would not be able to continue her job when it comes out,” Moore told Friedman. “Why would Mark Sanford not resign, but Sarah Palin did? Her family didn’t even know about the resignation until they were standing with her by the lake when she made her announcement.”

Update: BradBlog is now reporting additional information received from Alaskans who follow Palin: “I’ve now been able to get independent information from multiple sources that all of this precedes what are said to be possible federal indictments against Palin, concerning an embezzlement scandal related to the building of Palin’s house and the Wasilla Sports Complex built during her tenure as Mayor. Both structures, it is said, feature the ’same windows, same wood, same products.’ Federal investigators have been looking into this for some time, and indictments could be imminent, according to the Alaska sources.”

Max Blumenthal at The Daily Beast offers additional details:

One logical place to start looking is the affair that has Alaska political circles buzzing: an alleged scandal centered around a building contractor, Spenard Building Supplies, with close ties to Palin and her husband, Todd.

Many political observers in Alaska are fixated on rumors that federal investigators have been seizing paperwork from SBS in recent months, searching for evidence that Palin and her husband Todd steered lucrative contracts to the well-connected company in exchange for gifts like the construction of their home on pristine Lake Lucille in 2002. The home was built just two months before Palin began campaigning for governor, a job which would have provided her enhanced power to grant building contracts in the wide-open state. …

Though Todd Palin told Fox News he built his Lake Lucille home with the help of a few “buddies,” according to Barrett’s report, public records revealed that SBS supplied the materials for the house. While serving as mayor of Wasilla, Sarah Palin blocked an initiative that would have required the public filing of building permits—thus momentarily preventing the revelation of such suspicious information.

Just months before Palin left city hall to campaign for governor, she awarded a contract to SBS to help build the $13 million Wasilla Sports Complex. The most expensive building project in Wasilla history, the complex cost the city an additional $1.3 million in legal fees and threw it into severe long-term debt. For SBS, however, the bloated and bungled project was a cash cow.

Questions about the construction of Palin’s house are not new. An article last fall by Wayne Barrett at the Village Voice offered many of the same speculations that are now being presented by Blumenthal and others as possible explanations for Palin’s resignation.

If these allegations turn out to be accurate, Palin’s problems would be ironically similar to the scandal which torpedoed former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens’ career. That also involved improvements to his home for which he made no payment.

Once this article was written, Gary Mack jumped to her defense, trying to say that Eugenics, The Council for National Policy

and The Pioneer Fund had nothing to do with the JFK hit. Now that Mack has been exposed by James DiEugenio for his true

alliances and outright duplicity, this forthright and unprovoked attack by Mack on the Eugenics links into not only the choice of future presidents but the elimination of any presidents or public officials opposed to the The Eugenics Agenda become even more poignant.

History will record the fact that Wickliffe Draper and his Pioneer Fund cohorts were behind the entire JFK assassination plot.

And as I predicted those from the CNP and their Eugenics cohorts are the ones calling most of the shots in today's world.

I hope she goes down in flames along with all of her CNP sponsors and her Eugenics associates...

This article which I personally discovered in the NY Times archives led to the all out frontal assault on Wickliffe P. Draper in 1994.

It is one of my proudest contributions to research which has resulted in over 1,000 articles and dozens of books about Draper,

The Pioneer Fund and all of his nefarious associates from The Mississippi Sovereignty Commission to the KKK to the "Park Avenue

Patriots" and his intelligence contacts with both C. D. Jackson and the Tobacco Gray family at the Bowman Gray Medical School at

Wake Forest. It also includes his sponsorship of the H. Smith Richardson Foundation and their MK/ULTRA research using Dr. Hans

J. Eysenck and Dr. H. Warner Klopfer whose name was in Oswald's notebook.

Lichtenstein, Grace "Fund Backs Controversial Study of 'Racial Betterment'." The New York Times 11 December 1977

THE SEDUCTION OF SARAH PALIN: EUGENICS, CNP, AND THE PIONEER FUND

ConspiracyArchive

- by Paul & Phillip D. Collins, October 13th, 2008

Left to right: Wickliffe Preston Draper (1891-1972), founder and benefactor of the Pioneer Fund; on the Board of Directors (1937-72). Harry Hamilton Laughlin (1880-1943), Pres. (1927-28) and Dir. (1923-39) of the American Eugenics Society; Superintendent of the Eugenics Record Office in (1910-21) and its Director (1921-40); first president of the Pioneer Fund (1937-41). Frederick Henry Osborn (1890-1981), second president of the Pioneer Fund (1941–1958); Pres. (1946-52) and Dir. (1969-72) of the American Eugenics Society.

No one on America's political stage today has more motivation to oppose eugenics than Sarah Palin. The Alaskan Governor and Vice-Presidential running mate has learned experientially about the sanctity of life. In April, she gave birth to a baby boy with Down syndrome (Demer, no pagination). When she first learned that the child would be born with the birth defect, Palin chose life in a situation where 90 percent of women have an abortion (no pagination). Lisa Demer has correctly described Palin "as anti-abortion as a politician can be" (no pagination).

It was, therefore, disturbing to learn that Palin had been vetted by a secretive group with connections to the eugenics movement. In a September 1, 2008 article for The Nation, Max Blumenthal reported that the "members of the Council for National Policy are the hidden hand behind McCain's Palin pick" (no pagination). According to Blumenthal, the Council for National Policy (CNP) met at a hotel in downtown Minneapolis the week of the Democratic National Convention to acquaint themselves with Palin (no pagination). The article also stated that the Palin selection secured McCain the support of the conservative movement and that CNP participant James Dobson "may soon emerge from his bunker in Colorado Springs to endorse McCain, providing the Republican nominee with the backing of the Christian right's single most influential figure" (no pagination).

For many people on the left, it is hard to swallow the idea that the CNP has ties to the eugenics movement. After all, CNP participants such as James Dobson, Tim LaHaye, and Alan Keyes are considered to be stalwart pro-lifers. George W. Bush even put in an appearance at a secret meeting of the CNP in 2000 promising to nominate only pro-life judges (no pagination). There is a body of evidence, however, that suggests that all the pro-life rhetoric and pro-life participants may be mere window dressing to hide the sinister goal of creating a master race.

Helms and the Pioneer Fund

The CNP connects to the eugenics movement through deceased Senator Jesse Helms. Helms was on the CNP Board of Governors in 1982 and was a member in 1984-1985, 1988, 1996, 1998, and 1999 ("The Council for National Policy: Selected Member Biographies," no pagination). Throughout his political career, Helms collaborated closely with two other CNP participants: Thomas Ellis and R.E. Carter-Wrenn (no pagination). In the 1980s, the three CNP participants teamed with Harry Weyher and Marion Parrott to form an elaborate, multimillion dollar network of corporations, political action committees, ad hoc groups, and foundations ("Race Science and the Pioneer Fund," no pagination). According to the Institute for the Study of Academic Racism, the network's leadership "especially, Harry Weyher, Thomas F. Ellis and Marion A. Parrott are part of an interlocking set of directorates and associates linking the Pioneer Fund to Jesse Helm's high-tech political machine" (no pagination). In the 1980s, Ellis' Coalition for Freedom, a component of the Jesse Helms political machine, received grants totaling $195,000 from the Pioneer Fund (Begos, no pagination).

What exactly is the Pioneer Fund? The story of this mysterious private trust fund begins with a reclusive philanthropist named Wickliffe Draper. Draper was born in Massachusetts in 1891 (no pagination). The product of a mixture of old Kentucky and Puritan blood, Draper was convinced that his family tree constituted a superior stock of humanity that should be considered the true Americans (no pagination). In the 1920s, Draper inherited a multimillion-dollar textile fortune (no pagination). After attending the Nazis' International Congress for the Scientific Investigation of Population Problems in 1935 Berlin, Draper decided to devote a large portion of his fortune to eugenics and race science (no pagination).It would be no exaggeration to say that Draper was drawing his inspiration from mass murderers. Wilhelm Frick, a war criminal convicted during the Nuremberg trials, was the Honorary Chairman at the 1935 meeting that Draper attended in Berlin (no pagination).

In 1937, Draper joined with eugenicists Harry Laughlin and Frederick Osborn to form the Pioneer Fund (no pagination). The Fund helped the crusade for nationwide eugenical regimentation through the distribution of grants (no pagination). In its first year, the Pioneer Fund had in its budget two German films promoting the theme of eugenics. One of those films, entitled The Hereditary Defective, was shown at 28 high schools throughout the United States thanks to the efforts of Harry Laughlin (no pagination). Draper's money was also used to print a special edition of Earnest Sevier Cox's "White America" (no pagination). The racist tract was distributed to every member of the 1937 Congress (no pagination).

For Draper, "race betterment" meant disenfranchisement for blacks. One of the white supremacist academics Draper recruited to his cause was segregationist and Chair of Psychology at Colombia University Henry Garrett. Garrett served as a witness supporting segregation in the 1952 Davis v. County School Board ("Race Science and the Pioneer Fund," no pagination). Davis v. County School Board became part of a much larger, historic case, Brown v. the Board of Education (no pagination). In 1964, the Missippi Sovereignty Commission used $215,000 given to it by Draper in an attempt to prevent the Civil Rights Act from passing (Begos, no pagination). In 1977, North Iowa professor Dr. Ralph Scott used Pioneer Fund money to finance anti-busing, anti-school integration seminars (Lichtenstein, no pagination).

Draper may have even tried to use internal security organs to advance his agenda. According journalist Grace Lichtenstein, Draper supported Representative Francis E. Walter, the chairman of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), throughout the 1950s and 1960s (no pagination). In 1960 HUAC staff director Richard Arens was forced to leave his Congressional job when it was discovered that he was a paid consultant to Draper (no pagination). Draper may have contributed to the corruption of national security politics and the discrediting and dismantling of America's internal security apparatus. So it is that Paul Wolfowitz, during his time as Deputy Defense Secretary, could have a "discreet romance" with a woman who was born in Tunisia and raised in Saudi Arabia without anyone asking any serious questions about penetration and compromising of internal security (Leiby, no pagination).

Probably the most high profile case involving the Pioneer Fund was the publishing of The Bell Curve in 1994. The controversial best-seller asserted that whites were genetically superior to blacks and that blacks were inclined to have lower IQs (Begos, no pagination). Anglo-American race scientists William Shockley, Hans J. Eysenck, Arthur Jensen, Roger Pearson, Richard Lynn, J. Philippe Rushton, R. Travis Osborne, Linda Gottfredson, Robert A. Gordon, Daniel R. Vining Jr., Michael Levin, and Seymour Itzkopp were all cited in The Bell Curve and were all recipients of Pioneer Fund money ("Race Science and the Pioneer Fund," no pagination). According to a November 22, 1994 ABC World News Tonight report, the researchers cited The Bell Curve received $3.5 million from the Pioneer Fund ("The Bell Curve and the Pioneer Fund," no pagination).

One would think that with the passing of Draper, Laughlin, and Weyher, the Pioneer Fund would have begun pursuing nobler endeavors. Unfortunately, old habits seem to die hard. In February 2006, current Pioneer Fund head J. Philippe Rushton spoke at an American Renaissance conference held at the Hyatt Dulles Hotel in Herndon, Virginia (Williams, no pagination). American Renaissance is a white supremacist magazine headed up by Jared Taylor that promotes the "clear conception of the United States as a nation ruled by and for whites" (no pagination). Rushton was surrounded by such notable white supremacists as former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke, racist talk show host Hal Turner, Director of the Holocaust denying Institute for Historical Review Mark Weber, former neo-Nazi National Alliance members David Pringle and National Vanguard's Kevin Strom, and former Klansman and head of white supremacist website Stormfront.org Don Black (no pagination). Rushton used the occasion to speak about IQ tests proving whites' supposed genetic superiority over blacks (no pagination).

The Pioneer Fund and the Power Elite

While many might consider the Pioneer Fund merely a fringe organization, it is far from being a collection of disenfranchised, racist misfits. Pioneer Fund principal Harry Laughlin was also the superintendent of the Eugenics Record Office (ERO) (Chaitkin 551). The ERO was established on 80 acres of land and in buildings donated by E.H. Harriman's widow, Mary A. Harriman (550). The Harrimans were the most powerful family in the Democratic party at one time and their dynasty belongs among the ranks of the power elite. Like most elitists, the Harrimans possessed a fascination with eugenics. Averell Harriman was on the Executive Committee of New Yorks' American Museum of Natural History. In 1921, Harriman and the rest of the Museum Executive Committee hosted the Second International Eugenics Congress (551). Averell also contributed $1,000 to the conference and his mother and sister were primary hostesses at the conference (551).

The trend was repeated in 1932 when the Third International Eugenics Congress was held at New York's American Museum of Natural History (552). Once again, the Harrimans financed the conference and Averell's mother and sister acted as hostesses (552). At the conference, Dr. Ernst Rudin, the man responsible for Nazi Germany's sterilization program, was recognized with a medal and was elected President of the International Federation of Eugenics Societies (552). There is no small connection between Laughlin, the Harrimans, and the Nazis. When writing the Nazi's sterilization law entitled "For the Protection of German Blood and German Honor," Rudin relied heavily on the "Model Sterilization Law" drafted for the ERO by Laughlin (551). Laughlin was attempting to achieve the ERO's goal of producing "the perfect man" by 1980 through the sterilization of 15 million Americans (551). Among those targeted by Laughlin's law were "orphans, the homeless, ne'er-do-wells, and tramps" (552). Ironically, Laughlin would later discover that he had epilepsy, a condition his model law identified as a criterion for sterilization ("Harry Laughlin," no pagination).

George H.W. Bush, the consummate oligarch, gave an audience to recipients of the Pioneer Fund. In 1969, then-chairman of the Republican Task Force on Earth Resources and Population Bush invited Professors William Shockley and Arthur Jensen to appear before the committee and share their views concerning race and eugenics (52). According to the Institute for the Study of Academic Racism, Shockley would go on to "receive an estimated $188,710 from the Pioneer Fund between 1971 and 1978" and Jensen, Shockley's recruit into race science, received more than a million dollars from the Pioneer Fund over three decades ("Race Science and the Pioneer Fund," no pagination). For Bush, the growth of the black population was obviously a threat, as is evidenced by the views held by Shockley and Jensen. In the same year that the GOP task force supplied him with a congressional platform, Shockley wrote:

"Our nobly intended welfare programs may be encouraging dysgenics-retrogressive evolution through disproportionate reproduction of the genetically disadvantage… We fear that 'fatuous beliefs' in the power of welfare money, unaided by eugenic foresight, may contribute to a decline of human quality for all segments of society." (Tarpley and Chaitkin 200)

To counter this tide of so-called "retrogressive evolution," Shockley proposed a "Bonus Sterilization Plan" (Tarpley and Chaitkin 200). Individuals with genetic defects, chronic diseases, or drug and alcohol addiction would be paid for volunteering to be sterilized (200). Chaitkin and Tarpley elaborate:

"If [the government paid] a bonus rate of $1,000 for each point below 100 IQ, $30,000 put in trust for some 70 IQ moron of 20-child potential, it might return $250,000 to taxpayers in reduced cost of mental retardation care," Shockley said. (200).

True to the Draper tradition, Shockley identified African-Americans as the main target of his mass sterilization plan. Tarpley and Chaitkin share Shockley's racist views:

"If those blacks with the least amount of Caucasian genes are in fact the most prolific and the least intelligent, the genetic enslavement will be the destiny of their next generation," he wrote. Looking at the recent past, Shockley said in 1967: "The lesson to be drawn from Nazi history is the value of free speech, not that eugenics is intolerable." (200)

Why would Bush give Pioneer Fund recipients with radical racist views a platform? Tarpley and Chaitkin provide an accurate explanation:

Oligarchy… subsumes the self-conception of the oligarch as belonging to a special, exalted breed of mankind, one that is superior to the common rule of mankind as a matter of hereditary, genetic superiority. This mentality generally goes together with a fascination for eugenics, race science and just plain racism as a means of building a case that one's own family tree and racial stock are indeed superior. (9-10)

Conclusion

The majority of conservatives have been duped and Palin is no exception to that rule. If Palin does not want to become involved with the kind of dirty politics and radical agenda that have made most Americans jaded and cynical, she must recognize the CNP for what it really is. Under the CNP's mask lies an elite combine that is mobilizing unwitting conservatives and grassroots activists behind an elite agenda. Part of that agenda is eugenics.

Sources Cited

Begos, Kevin. "Benefactor With a Racist Bent." Winston-Salem Journal

Blumenthal, Max. "Secretive Right-Wing Group Vetted Palin." The Nation 1 September 2008

Chaitkin, Anton. Treason In America. New York: New Benjamin Franklin House, 1985.

"Council for National Policy: Selected Member Biographies." Seek God

Demer, Lisa. "Abortion opponents give Palin high marks." Anchorage Daily News 7 September 2008

"Harry H. Laughlin." Wikipedia 10 July 2008

Leiby, Richard. "What Will the Neighbors Say? Wolfowitz Romance Stirs Gossip." Washington Post 22 March 2005

Lichtenstein, Grace "Fund Backs Controversial Study of 'Racial Betterment'." The New York Times 11 December 1977

"Race Science and the Pioneer Fund." Institute for the Study of Academic Racism July 1998

Tarpley, Webster and Anton Chaitkin. George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography. Washington, D.C.: Executive Intelligence Review, 1992.

"The Bell Curve and the Pioneer Fund." ABC World News Tonight 22 November 1994

Williams, David. "BNP leader embraced by top US Nazi." Searchlight Magazine April 2006

About the Authors

Phillip D. Collins acted as the editor for The Hidden Face of Terrorism. He co-authored the book The Ascendancy of the Scientific Dictatorship, which is available at www.amazon.com. It is also available as an E-book at www.4acloserlook.com. Phillip has also written articles for Paranoia Magazine, MKzine, News With Views, B.I.P.E.D.: The Official Website of Darwinian Dissent and Conspiracy Archive. He has also been interviewed on several radio programs, including A Closer Look, Peering Into Darkness, From the Grassy Knoll, Frankly Speaking, the ByteShow, and Sphinx Radio.

In 1999, Phillip earned an Associate degree of Arts and Science. In 2006, he earned a bachelor's degree with a major in communication studies and liberal studies along with a minor in philosophy. During the course of his seven-year college career, Phillip has studied philosophy, religion, political science, semiotics, journalism, theatre, and classic literature. He recently completed a collection of short stories, poetry, and prose entitled Expansive Thoughts. Readers can learn more about it at www.expansivethoughts.com.

Paul D. Collins has studied suppressed history and the shadowy undercurrents of world political dynamics for roughly eleven years. In 1999, he earned his Associate of Arts and Science degree. In 2006, he completed his bachelor's degree with a major in liberal studies and a minor political science. Paul has authored another book entitled The Hidden Face of Terrorism: The Dark Side of Social Engineering, From Antiquity to September 11. Published in November 2002, the book is available online from www.1stbooks.com, barnesandnoble.com, and also amazon.com. It can be purchased as an e-book (ISBN 1-4033-6798-1) or in paperback format (ISBN 1-4033-6799-X). Paul also co-authored The Ascendancy of the Scientific Dictatorship.

A comprehensive collection of Collins articles can be found here.

[Christopher Hall]

Rumors Fly About Palin’s “Iceberg Scandal”

by Muriel Kane

www.rawstory.com

http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/07/03/rum...ceberg-scandal/

Update: BradBlog now suggests that Palin’s resignation was due to an upcoming Federal indictment for embezzlement. Max Blumenthal at The Daily Beast adds more details.

In the wake of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s surprise resignation on Friday, rumors are beginning to circulate that she might have acted in anticipation of a previously unsuspected scandal being revealed.

Alaskan blogger Shannyn Moore suggested at Huffington Post that “rumors of an ‘iceberg scandal’ have been circulating” even before today’s announcement.

“Resignation is certainly out of character for Sarah Palin,” Moore noted. “Senator Mark Begich had a meeting with Sarah Palin two days ago with no mention of her leaving office. Palin’s press secretary, David Murrow had posted on his Facebook page Wednesday, ‘David Murrow is considering life’s ironies.’ He was hired less than a month ago. Yesterday he wrote, ‘There’s gonna be some fireworks this weekend!’”

Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo similarly suggested, “Remember that based on the public record, Palin is a wildly unethical public official, guilty at a minimum of numerous instances of abusing her authority as governor. And a lot of very damaging information has come out about her in the last few days — though mainly embarrassing information about her character rather than new evidence of bad acts. I would not be surprised if this latest round of revelations shook something else loose that we haven’t heard about yet.”

Moore later spoke by phone with BradBlog’s Brad Friedman and told him that “Palin is ‘resigning as part of damage control’ due to a scandal this is ‘not of a family nature.’”

“The governor would not be able to continue her job when it comes out,” Moore told Friedman. “Why would Mark Sanford not resign, but Sarah Palin did? Her family didn’t even know about the resignation until they were standing with her by the lake when she made her announcement.”

Update: BradBlog is now reporting additional information received from Alaskans who follow Palin: “I’ve now been able to get independent information from multiple sources that all of this precedes what are said to be possible federal indictments against Palin, concerning an embezzlement scandal related to the building of Palin’s house and the Wasilla Sports Complex built during her tenure as Mayor. Both structures, it is said, feature the ’same windows, same wood, same products.’ Federal investigators have been looking into this for some time, and indictments could be imminent, according to the Alaska sources.”

Max Blumenthal at The Daily Beast offers additional details:

One logical place to start looking is the affair that has Alaska political circles buzzing: an alleged scandal centered around a building contractor, Spenard Building Supplies, with close ties to Palin and her husband, Todd.

Many political observers in Alaska are fixated on rumors that federal investigators have been seizing paperwork from SBS in recent months, searching for evidence that Palin and her husband Todd steered lucrative contracts to the well-connected company in exchange for gifts like the construction of their home on pristine Lake Lucille in 2002. The home was built just two months before Palin began campaigning for governor, a job which would have provided her enhanced power to grant building contracts in the wide-open state. …

Though Todd Palin told Fox News he built his Lake Lucille home with the help of a few “buddies,” according to Barrett’s report, public records revealed that SBS supplied the materials for the house. While serving as mayor of Wasilla, Sarah Palin blocked an initiative that would have required the public filing of building permits—thus momentarily preventing the revelation of such suspicious information.

Just months before Palin left city hall to campaign for governor, she awarded a contract to SBS to help build the $13 million Wasilla Sports Complex. The most expensive building project in Wasilla history, the complex cost the city an additional $1.3 million in legal fees and threw it into severe long-term debt. For SBS, however, the bloated and bungled project was a cash cow.

Questions about the construction of Palin’s house are not new. An article last fall by Wayne Barrett at the Village Voice offered many of the same speculations that are now being presented by Blumenthal and others as possible explanations for Palin’s resignation.

If these allegations turn out to be accurate, Palin’s problems would be ironically similar to the scandal which torpedoed former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens’ career. That also involved improvements to his home for which he made no payment.

The FBI says it's not investigating Palin for anything:

http://www.adn.com/palin/story/854318.html

And Ted Stevens (whom I pulled against, I might add) was acquitted.

[Guest Tom Scully]

The FBI says it's not investigating Palin for anything:

http://www.adn.com/palin/story/854318.html

And Ted Stevens (whom I pulled against, I might add) was acquitted.

Please post any proof you have to support your assertion that Sen. Ted Stevens "was acquitted" of the bribery and corruption charges he was tried in court for. My understanding is that one of the first official acts of newly confirmed US Attorney General Eric Holder was to determine that there was prosecutor misconduct committed in the prosecution of Stevens extensive enough to warrant overturning his conviction and sentence, and that Holder's DOJ further determined that

it would not retry Stevens.

Stevens seems to have committed the crimes for which he was prosecuted:

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Corruption_c...ainst_0401.html

[Christopher Hall]

The FBI says it's not investigating Palin for anything:

http://www.adn.com/palin/story/854318.html

And Ted Stevens (whom I pulled against, I might add) was acquitted.

Please post any proof you have to support your assertion that Sen. Ted Stevens "was acquitted" of the bribery and corruption charges he was tried in court for. My understanding is that one of the first official acts of newly confirmed US Attorney General Eric Holder was to determine that there was prosecutor misconduct committed in the prosecution of Stevens extensive enough to warrant overturning his conviction and sentence, and that Holder's DOJ further determined that

it would not retry Stevens.

Stevens seems to have committed the crimes for which he was prosecuted:

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Corruption_c...ainst_0401.html

You are correct, Tom.

My memory failed me.

My feelings regarding Stevens were good riddance, but I forgot that he was convicted and then had his conviction withdrawn (they didn't teach me anything about withdrawing convictions in law school) by Holder for prosecutorial misconduct.

[Len Colby]

The judge probablly would have ordered a new trial anyway since he order a special prosecutor to investigate Steven's prosecutors, cited them for contempt and said their misconduct was the worst he'd seen in 25 years. Since their star witness seems to have purgered himself their is a good chance he would have been aquitted.

I've not looked into the case enough to be sure he was guilty though I think he was. Tom's link however contains no evidence either way.