|
BERNARD KERIK for DUMMIES
GENIUSES©
The Uber
Compassionate Conservative
Last
Updated 12/18/2004
- contact email: compassion-at-compassiongate-dot-com
Welcome to the
Compassionate Nominees page featuring the now-famous Bernard Kerik - a
man who clearly captured George W. Bush's heart, and who is likewise highly disqualified
to be President. A brief review of Kerik's record shows clearly why Bush
saw fit to nominate him - after all, Kerik displayed many of
the wonderful qualities that President Bush saw in himself and
considered compassionately conservative and worth celebrating
with a nomination.
After you read this
collection, please be sure to write to the White House and lodge a
complaint that Bernard Kerik has been unfairly denied the Presidential
Medal of Freedom (PMF) - a medal that has been awarded to other
compassionate conservatives like George Tenet, Tommy Franks and
Paul Bremer. (Indeed, I simply can't figure out why the authors
of My
Pet Goat or Sisters
were not nominated for PMS, oops sorry, PMF - how grossly unfair this
is!). And unlike Atrios
(this is in reference to the following one-line post below),
I think Kerik is already deserving -- considering not just the peer group involved,
but his remarkable accomplishments documented in
this page:
-
Bernard
Kerik is one scandal away from winning the Presidential Medal of
Freedom. (unattributed)
To get the full value of
Bernard Kerik for Geniuses, you should try to digest all the sections
below -
and marvel at the 27 or so acts of compassionate conservatism
(and counting). Special thanks to some of the media outlets in the U.S.
for their fine reporting -- after they awoke from the initial slumber.
1. PREFACE:
"...You can judge the nature of a man by the company he
keeps..."
2. KERIK'S
IMPRESSIVE RESUME THAT AMAZED AND PLEASED PRESIDENT BUSH (except,
apparently, the "nanny" part)
2A.
PROFESSIONAL SCANDALS, CRONYISM, CORRUPTION, PROFITING VIA
CONFLICTS OF INTEREST COMPASSIONATE CONSERVATISM
2A.1 Kerik used taxpayer paid police officials for research on a personal book
(published by his then girlfriend) that enriched him further
2A.2 Kerik and close
friend Lawrence Ray: Kerik repeatedly milks Ray for money and
illegally did not disclose it; recommends Ray for job in a firm
lobbying for city contract; Ray involved with construction company
with mob ties and indicted in $40M "pump-and-dump stock
swindle" after which Kerik starts to avoid him
2A.3
Kerik and Corrections Department use for Republican campaigning
2A.3.1
Kerik repeatedly promotes Anthony Serra who is later indicted for
partisan and personal use of police/corrections officers
2A.4
Kerik runs Correction Foundation to fund programs to strengthen
department using tobacco settlement - however, establishes few
fiscal controls and appoints deputy commissioner who fraudulently
diverts a huge sum to prison phone-sex operation
2A.5
Kerik and Georal: Security door scandal
2A.6 Kerik
and Defense Technology Systems (DTS) - and link to Georal: Kerik
surrenders massive amount of stock and resigns as adviser to
DTS
2A.7 Kerik and Second
Chance Body Armor Inc.: Pushed no-bid contract violating city
purchasing guidelines
2A.8 Kerik and
useless Celayaton batons: Another outrageous
compassionate contract
2A.9 Kerik's alleged hiring
of a mob-connected contractor Ed Sisca to
renovate an apartment he had purchased at West 239th Street to be
investigated
2A.10 Kerik profits
mightily via glaring conflicts of interest - Giuliani Partners, CamelBak Products
2A.11
Kerik profits astonishingly from post 9/11 Board position in Taser International
2A.12
Kerik and the 9/11 response
2A.13
Kerik and Iraqi police training
2A.14
Kerik and Saudi Arabia
2A.15 Kerik claims
importing drugs from Canada could lead to bio-terror attack! Now I
know why Bush absolutely loved the guy! Where's the masking tape when you need it?
2A.16
Kerik's love for his own busts (I don't mean what you may think I mean)
2A.17 Kerik and
former lover Jeanette Pinero embroiled in lawsuit - Pinero's
superior charged that Kerik prevented him from being promoted
because he had reprimanded Pinero
2A.18 Serial-Liar
Compassionate conservative Rudy
Giuliani appointed Kerik Police Commissioner despite Kerik not having
filed required background check form; not to mention Kerik is one of
Giuliani's close buddies given their compassionate conservative values
2A.19 Kerik and
former lover Judith Regan's cell phone/necklace incident leads to
homicide detectives being used for intimidation against studio
employees
2B.
PERSONAL STORIES OF AN UNPLEASANT NATURE, CLOSE FRIENDSHIPS /
RELATIONSHIPS WITH CRIME FIGURES, and finally, "PARTISANSHIP
BEFORE COUNTRY" - a true hallmark of a compassionate conservative
COMPASSIONATE CONSERVATISM
2B.1 Kerik originally
abandoned both the Korean woman he impregnated and his daughter from
that relationship
2B.2 Kerik
kept first marriage/wife a secret, even in his "autobiography";
question raised as to whether first and second marriages overlapped
2B.3 Kerik's tryst
with (former) lover Linda George ends up with arrest warrant against
Kerik; George indicted in a multimillion-dollar mob-run gambling
ring
2B.4 Kerik's
three-timing compassion: Kerik, the married compassionate conservative
had 2 simultaneous affairs going on - one with conservative New York publisher Judith Regan (well known for chastising
Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton for their lack of morals) and
another with a married junior corrections officer Jeanette Pinero
2B.5 Judith Regan,
having had enough "fun" "working out" with
Bernie "Man-of-Values" Kerik, breaks up with him; then
Kerik evidently stalked her and her kids and she got herself a
bodyguard
2B.6 Kerik managed
his affairs in a love shack near Ground Zero in Battery Park
originally donated to NYPD to help in 9/11 related operations; enter Anthony Bergamo
who rents the apartment to Kerik - the same Bergamo who ran over a
homeless person and killed her and claimed he couldn't see her from
where he was sitting in his SUV - and was not prosecuted when Kerik
was Commissioner
2B.7 Rabidly
Kerry-hating, Bush-loving, Iran-Contra-criminal-loving Republican
partisan Faithful Compassionate Conservative Bernie
Kerik
2B.8
Did Kerik's "nanny" actually exist?
3. KERIK AND
THE COMPASSIONATE MEDIA
1. PREFACE:
"...You can judge the nature of a man by the company he
keeps..."
[Bush,
a few years before he and Kerik became bosom (oops,
sorry, that word is probably censored by the FCC)
compassionate pals]:
You can judge the nature of a man by the company he keeps...
Compassiongate note:
Now, I am not a believer of "guilt-by-association", but
clearly President George "Moral-Values" W. Bush is. So, in
this page, in deference to his "moral values" I humbly and graciously apply
his rule to Bernard Kerik as well.
[Newsweek]:
A
White House aide told NEWSWEEK that Giuliani's support was not
decisive, that the White House "reached out" to
Kerik.
[Newsweek
via Josh Marshall]:
[S]ome
administration officials acknowledge that the president's
predilections work against a careful review. Bush hates leaks
and enjoys popping surprise announcements on the press. He liked
the idea of Kerik—the self-made tough guy—and he dismissed
as gossip or press carping newspaper stories about Kerik's
bending the rules.
[New
York Times]:
"There's a
misperception out there," the [White House] official said.
"Giuliani was obviously a strong supporter of Bernie Kerik, but
we don't make decisions based on recommendations or the faith of other
people's word. We do our own independent vetting and selection
process."
Many people, the
official added, had made recommendations on behalf of Mr. Kerik.
"But the president had his own independent relationship with
Kerik that had formed over the last several years and he made his own
decision," the official said.
[NYT
via Josh Marshall]:
Throughout the process,
the Republican close to the administration said, everyone at the White
House knew that Mr. Bush liked Mr. Kerik, placing him in the special
category of "this guy's our guy." Mr. Bush admired Mr. Kerik
for his service as New York City's police commissioner on Sept. 11,
2001, for his willingness to try to train the police force in Iraq and
for campaigning tirelessly for the president's re-election.
[WP
via Atrios]:
[O]ne
presidential adviser pointed out that Kerik "brings 9/11
symbolism into the Cabinet."
[Newsday]:
White
House spokesman Scott McClellan said earlier Friday the Bush
administration has "full confidence" in Kerik's
integrity and is confident "he will take the appropriate
steps necessary to make sure that there are no conflicts [of
interest]."
[Josh
Marshall]:
President
Bush gives
a thumbs-up
to Al Gonzales over the Kerik vetting, say DeFrank and Bazinet
in the Daily News. "Rest
assured, we did significant due diligence," says Dan
Bartlett." [Compassiongate
note: More on Bush's "vetting" of Kerik here]
[MSNBC]:
Bush
administration lawyers who vetted former New York City police
Commissioner Bernard Kerik before President Bush named him to
head the Homeland Security Department knew he had a “colorful
past” but concluded that his long record of public service
would outweigh questions about his conduct, a senior U.S.
official told NBC News on Monday.
The
official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the lawyers
were aware that Kerik had been questioned in a civil lawsuit involving
questions about an alleged extramarital affair with a corrections
employee; the failure to properly report financial gifts on disclosure
forms; and an arrest warrant issued after he failed to pay condo fees.
“The
lawyers looked at all these issues,” said the official. "We
believed they were not disqualifying."
[Josh
Marshall]:
...in the Monday Times piece
by David Sanger, White House officials, including Scott
McClellan seem to make quite clear that they were aware of all
the issues now being discussed about Bernard Kerik's background.
And that it was only the alleged nanny problem, which they had
no way of discovering absent Kerik's volunteering the
information, that came as a surprise. And that it was that alone
that sank his nomination.
[Josh
Marshall]:
Mr. Giuliani said he did not believe
any of the revelations he had heard would have changed his mind
on Mr. Kerik's appointment
[Newsday]:
Bernard Kerik, the former nominee for Homeland Security
secretary, will return to work at Giuliani Partners "in the
very near future," a spokeswoman for the Manhattan
consulting firm said yesterday.
2. KERIK'S
IMPRESSIVE RESUME THAT AMAZED AND PLEASED PRESIDENT BUSH (except,
apparently, the "nanny" part)
2A.
Professional scandals, cronyism, corruption, profiting via
conflicts of interest compassionate conservatism
Without a doubt, Kerik's
long history of compassionate conservatism probably brought
secret tears of joy to the leadership of today's Republican Party and
their brown shirts in the media such as Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity.
In particular, I suspect that Kerik's ability to "multi-task"
with women may have brought quite a kick to Newt Gingrich and the horde of
other like-minded Conservative politicians and their media brown shirts.
Now, Kerik (evidently) declined the
position of Director of Homeland Security of the United States of
America -- but this is no reason to deny him the well-deserved post
of Chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC). Better still, he
would serve well as the Chair of the Family Values Council or the
Concerned Women of America or many other such fine compassionately conservative
organizations. I think the Republican Party is making a grievous mistake
by ignoring a man of Kerik's "abilities" and
"background", just because he pales in comparison to the
compassionate conservatism displayed by some of their current
leadership. That's such short-term thinking -it's so 20th century guys!
Come on!
Anyway, you got here to
learn more about Kerik. So let's start with this.
2A.1
Kerik used taxpayer paid police officials for research on a personal book
(published by his then girlfriend) that enriched him further
Via the Center
for American Progress, here's an extract from this
Washington Post article (bold text is my emphasis):
Kerik's
tenure as a high-level city manager was a mix of accomplishment and
nagging questions about his judgment. The city's Conflicts of
Interest Board fined him $2,500 for sending two police officers to
Ohio to help research his best-selling 2001 memoir, "The Lost
Son."
2A.2
Kerik and close friend Lawrence Ray: Kerik repeatedly milks Ray for
money and illegally did not disclose it; recommends Ray for job in a
firm lobbying for city contract; Ray involved with construction company
with mob ties and indicted in $40M "pump-and-dump stock
swindle" after which Kerik starts to avoid him Via
Josh
Marshall, this report in the New
York Daily News:
Former
New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik accepted thousands of
dollars in cash and gifts without making proper public disclosures, a
Daily News investigation has revealed.
Kerik failed to report
the gifts on financial disclosure forms he was required to file with
the city as head of the both the NYPD and, before that, the Department
of Correction.
...
The News probe
calls into question his conduct while holding two of the city's most
important public offices.
The probe revealed that
for many years, one of Kerik's main benefactors was Lawrence Ray, the
best man at Kerik's 1998 wedding, according to Ray, other sources and
checks shown by Ray to The News.
Ray and another Kerik
pal, restaurant owner Carmen Cabell, helped bankroll Kerik's 1998
wedding reception, contributing nearly $10,000.
Ray also gave Kerik
nearly $2,000 to buy a bejeweled Tiffany badge that Kerik coveted when
he was Correction commissioner.
And Ray said he gave
Kerik $4,300 more to buy high-end Bellini furniture when Kerik
allegedly griped that he couldn't afford to furnish a bedroom for a
soon-to-be born daughter.
The city's Conflicts of
Interest Board requires officials to report any gifts of $1,000 or
more.
The board's definition
of gifts includes cash, free travel, and wedding presents not given by
relatives.
Intentionally failing
to report gifts is a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in
prison and a fine of $1,000. The board also can impose civil fines of
up to $10,000. The News has examined Kerik's disclosure forms and
there is no record of any of the gifts for the period concerned.
At the time of the
gifts, Ray was working for Interstate Industrial, then a major city
contractor. City ethics rules bar officials from accepting gifts worth
more than $50 from anyone doing business with the city. The company
hired Ray based on a recommendation from Kerik, according to a sworn
deposition by Interstate's owner Frank DiTomasso. New Jersey gaming
regulators said Kerik had confirmed to them that he had vouched for
Ray.
...
Thanks to the fame he achieved standing next to Giuliani after Sept.
11, 2001, Kerik now enjoys tremendous wealth. He recently turned a
profit of$5.5 million by selling stock options earned during his 18
months on the board of Taser, a company that makes controversial stun
guns.
But until his last year
in public office, Kerik had money problems. He filed for bankruptcy in
1987 as a rookie city cop, when he earned $25,000 a year and had
$11,782 in debt. By the time he became correction commissioner in
January 1998, his only asset was a condo in New Jersey that had been
in foreclosure throughout the 1990s, according to his financial
disclosure forms and court records in New Jersey.
In connection with that
case, he was cited for contempt by a New Jersey judge, according to
Newsweek magazine.
Despite his finances,
Kerik's November 1998 wedding was a grand affair. It was attended by
Donna Hanover, then Mayor Giuliani's wife, Deputy Mayor Joseph Lhota,
and state Supreme Court Justice Leslie Crocker Snyder.
The reception was held
at The Chanticler, in Millburn, N.J., one of the Garden State's
premier catering facilities. Kerik and his new wife, Hala, entertained
230 guests in the facility's Empress Room.
"This thing was
top shelf," said one person who attended. "Martini bar, full
spread, the works."
Ray wrote a check for
$1,000 in July 1998 to cover the deposit. Cabell wrote a check for
$6,688 to the Chanticler on the day of the wedding. Six weeks after
the wedding, Cabell wrote another $2,000 check to the Chanticler.
"Bernie was a
close friend of myself and Larry's that needed help," Cabell told
The News. "I helped him in the planning, details and cost of the
wedding."
Kerik still couldn't
pay the remaining balance, and the Chanticler threatened to sue, Ray
and Cabell said. Ray's attorney's handled correspondence with the
Chanticler, until Ray and Cabell covered the remaining balance.
"Bernie told
everybody those guys paid for it," said one official who
attended.
The reception was not
the first time that Ray covered Kerik's tab. After Kerik was named
correction commissioner in January 1998, he pleaded with underlings to
buy him a Tiffany badge like the one given to the police commissioner,
department sources told The News.
"He just had to
have one because the police commissioner always gets one," said a
source who then worked at Correction Department headquarters.
In April 1998, Ray
wrote a check out to Jorge Ocasio, then Kerik's chief of staff, for
$1,895 with "Tiffany badge" written in the memo field.
Ray's wife, Teresa,
issued the certified check to Bellini on Feb. 22, 2000, shortly before
the March 3 birth of Kerik's daughter, Celine.
Ray, who acknowledged
the gifts to The News after the paper showed him other evidence of the
pattern, said he was flush at the time and Kerik always complained
about surviving on his civil servant salary.
"He was always
crying about money," Ray said. "Like before Celine was born,
he was always saying he couldn't believe how much everything cost and
they were out of money."
Ray also showed The
News a check for $2,500 that his wife made out to "cash" on
Aug. 29, 1999. The check was endorsed and cashed by Kerik.
In total, Ray and
Cabell showed The News checks to the value of $18,400.
At the time, Ray's own
finances were deteriorating.
A week after Kerik's
daughter was born, Ray and 18 other men were indicted in a $40
million, mob-run, pump-and-dump stock swindle. Kerik repeatedly spoke
to Ray's criminal defense attorney before the indictment, but he
dropped his longtime benefactor when the case became public.
"We never saw Ray
around Corrections again," said the headquarters source.
On Dec. 2, The News
asked Kerik to discuss issues raised by the paper's six-month
investigation. Kerik never responded.
Via the same link from Josh,
a story in the New
York Times:
While serving as
New York City correction commissioner in the late 1990's, Bernard B.
Kerik spoke to the city's Trade Waste Commission on behalf of a close
friend who was helping a company suspected of mob connections try to
get a license from the city, according to a former commission
executive.
The conversation was
part of a web of relationships Mr. Kerik developed with officials of a
New Jersey construction company long suspected by
New York authorities of connections to organized crime. The company,
Interstate Industrial Corporation, hired Mr. Kerik's close friend
Lawrence Ray, the best man at Mr. Kerik's wedding, to help with its
licensing problems. Mr. Ray said yesterday that he gave Mr. Kerik more
than $7,000 in cash and other gifts while Mr. Kerik was commissioner
of correction and the police. The gifts were first reported in The
Daily News yesterday.
Interstate also hired
Mr. Kerik's brother, Donald Kerik, after the conversation with the
Trade Waste Commission executive, Raymond V. Casey, then head of
enforcement at the agency, although there is no indication that the
hiring was in return for the conversation. Both Mr. Kerik and one of
the owners of Interstate, Frank DiTommaso, acknowledge that they were
friends, but said there was no effort to inappropriately influence the
licensing process.
Mr. DiTommaso said his
company did not have ties to organized crime. But in January of this
year, city regulators recommended denying the license, citing what
they said were ties to organized crime over many years.
...
According to a memorandum issued in January by the Business Integrity
Commission, the successor to the Trade Waste Commission, Interstate
paid more than $1 million in 1996 to buy a debris transfer station in
Staten Island from a company controlled by a captain and a soldier in
the Gambino crime family, and it then employed organized crime figures
at the station and did business with trucking companies owned by crime
figures. The memorandum, which recommended denying the company a
transfer station license, said the owners of Interstate associated
with crime figures and had a cavalier attitude about the integrity of
their employees.
"There is ample
evidence on which to conclude that Interstate Materials Corp. and its
principals, Frank and Peter DiTommaso, lack the good character,
honesty and integrity required of a transfer station permit
holder," according to memorandum. Interstate Materials is an
affiliate of Interstate Industrial, both owned by the DiTommasos. They
have not been charged with any crime.
In recent testimony in
an unrelated case in Federal District Court in Manhattan, an
informant, Anthony Rotondo, has made more direct accusations about
Interstate, saying that it has been tied to two crime families for
years and that the company paid bribes in paper bags to the
DeCavalcante crime family of New Jersey so as to be allowed to use
cheaper, nonunion labor.
As the commission was
looking into Interstate in 1999, Mr. Kerik spoke to Mr. Casey, then
the agency's deputy commissioner for enforcement, about the man
Interstate had hired to help with its licensing problems, Lawrence
Ray. Mr. Casey said in an interview that Mr. Kerik had told him that
he "thought Ray was a good, honest person with a security
background that could help the commission alleviate the concerns with
Interstate. And that Ray was someone we could work with."
The next year, Mr. Ray
was indicted and later pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit stock
fraud in an unrelated federal case.
Mr. Casey said that
after his conversation with Mr. Kerik, he assigned a commission
detective to talk to Mr. Ray, along with a supervisor. Mr. Casey said
he thought it was "weird" for the correction commissioner to
speak up on behalf of an employee of a company under suspicion, but
said he did not think Mr. Kerik intended to improperly influence the
commission's decision.
In the interview
Saturday, Mr. Kerik described himself as a friend of Frank DiTommaso,
and said he did not recall having the conversation with Mr. Casey. He
defended his relationship with Mr. DiTommaso.
Via Josh Marshall, here is
an extract from a
New York Times piece:
Two months before the
appointment, the department learned that Mr. Kerik had a social
relationship with the owner of a
New Jersey construction company suspected of having business ties to
organized crime figures. Investigators knew further that the company's
owner had hired both Donald Kerik, Mr. Kerik's brother, and Lawrence
Ray, the best man at Mr. Kerik's wedding, during a period when one of
his companies was seeking a license from the city, according to city
documents.
Mr. Kerik notified city
investigators in the spring of 2000 that Mr. Ray had been indicted on
federal criminal charges unrelated to the company. That and other
questions about Mr. Kerik's relationship with construction company
officials prompted the city's investigations commissioner at the time,
Edward J. Kuriansky, to question Mr. Kerik sometime in 2000, according
to city officials. But Mr. Giuliani said no information gleaned from
the city's review of Mr. Kerik's relationships was ever forwarded to
him before he selected Mr. Kerik as police commissioner.
If Mr. Giuliani's
recollection is correct, the department's decision not to inform him
raises questions about the management of information in his
administration.
"That would be
highly unusual," said William B. Eimicke, a professor of public
administration at Columbia University. "It's hard to imagine how
that would happen, that they wouldn't have passed that information to
City Hall. Whether the commissioner would have communicated it
directly to the mayor or not is a wholly different question."
There is no evidence
that Mr. Kerik acted improperly, but the city's vetting of him in 2000
has emerged as a pivotal point in his near-ascension to one of the
most delicate positions in the
United States government. White House officials have said they relied
in part on the assumption that Mr. Kerik had already run a gantlet of
city background checks before becoming police commissioner.
In fact, city
investigators said in their statement yesterday that no one from the
White House had ever contacted them about Mr. Kerik, either before or
after he was nominated.
Josh hints at something
else here:
Now, I'm just getting
my footing here in the Big Apple. But I'm told by some pretty
knowledgable people that big runs of penny-stocks are not infrequently
used by some of your shadier business elements to cleanly move ...
well, let's say 'thank you money' to politicians for services
rendered. Pump the stock up a bit and there you go.
Such unfortunate
manipulations of stock prices certainly do happen. Remember, for
instance, that Lawrence Ray, Kerik's financial benefactor, who worked
for the allegedly mobbed-up construction company in New Jersey, later
got indicted in that "$40 million, mob-run, pump-and-dump stock
swindle."
2A.3
Kerik and Corrections Department use for Republican campaigning
Via the Center
for American Progress, here is an extract from this
Newsweek article:
Kerik has
always been highly political. After he left as chief of the New York
City Department of Corrections in 1999, he was named in a civil
lawsuit as the architect of a system to force prison guards to work
for Republicans in their off-hours. The suit, by a Democratic warden
who claimed he was punished for his political views, claimed that
Kerik would "hunt down" anyone deemed "disloyal."
The suit was settled; the plaintiff got $300,000 and a promotion.
Though a Kerik protege was later indicted, Kerik himself was never
accused of criminal wrongdoing.
Via the Center
for American Progress, here's an extract from this
WNYC report:
Part
1
July 13, 2004
» Listen
In 2002, in the final weeks of Governor George Pataki's campaign for
re-election, word began to emerge that New York City Correction
Department employees were working on Republican political campaigns --
often while on-duty. Now, WNYC takes a close look at the system of
rewards and punishments on Rikers Island that led to hundreds of city
employees working as campaign foot soldiers - in apparent violation of
city law. WNYC's Andrea Bernstein has this first of two reports.
» More
Part 2:
July 14, 2004
» Listen
Earlier, WNYC looked at how hundreds of employees of the New York City
Department of Correction came to work on Republican political
campaigns for a decade beginning in the 1990's, often on City time.
Those who participated were rewarded with the choicest assignments and
promotions. Those who worked for Democrats faced demotion, cuts in
pay, and transfers to the most dangerous jails. Today, WNYC's Andrea
Bernstein reports on how nobody has been charged with wrongdoing for
these activities.
» More
2A.3.1
Kerik repeatedly promotes Anthony Serra who is later indicted for
partisan and personal use of police/corrections officers Via
the Center
for American Progress, here's an extract from this
Washington Post article (bold text is my emphasis):
Kerik
several times promoted Anthony Serra, finally to bureau chief. But
this summer -- well after Kerik left the department -- the Bronx
district attorney filed a 146-count indictment against Serra, charging
that he had over several years used corrections officers to work on
his home and in Republican Party campaigns. There was no
indication that Kerik knew of the alleged crimes. [Compassiongate
note: Sure!]
Josh Marshall also
has this Newsday
story posted:
Kerik -- who
remains under scrutiny because he abruptly withdrew his nomination last
Friday for the nation's top security post -- once warned correction
subordinates he was a "hunter of men" and demanded loyalty.
The trial of former three-star correction chief Serra is scheduled next
month in State Supreme Court in the Bronx on dozens of counts, including
grand larceny. The allegations are related to Serra's paid role in
running Republican campaigns and the rebuilding of his suburban house
using labor and materials that belonged to city taxpayers.
Another high-ranking department retiree who declined to be identified
said that depending upon how testimony is elicited, new questions could
arise about Kerik's command of the agency.
Serra has proclaimed his innocence. His lawyer, Peter Driscoll, did not
return calls yesterday.
A spokesman for the Bronx district attorney's office gave no comment on
Serra, who was promoted repeatedly on Kerik's watch.
When Kerik left the Correction Department to become police commissioner
in 2000, and later in his consulting business with former Mayor Rudolph
Giuliani, he brought along with him several correction colleagues,
including his ex-chief of staff, John Picciano. In 2002, Kerik had a
longtime aide working with him who was still on the city payroll, as
reported by Newsday.
More recently, a retired correction officer, who the Bronx DA says was
ordered to work on Serra's house while being paid by the city, was hired
for a joint venture involving Giuliani's consulting in Florida, private
sources confirmed. "Giuliani-Kerik cannot comment on questions
related to a private contract," said Chris Rising, a spokesman for
the consulting business.
Serra once was a volunteer for Giuliani's campaign, when Kerik organized
volunteers. However, last summer, before his GOP convention speech at
the Republican National Convention, Kerik said, "I never knew the
guy" as a campaign aide. "I met him in corrections."
2A.4
Kerik runs Correction Foundation to fund programs to strengthen
department using tobacco settlement - however, establishes few fiscal
controls and appoints deputy commissioner who fraudulently diverts a
huge sum to prison phone-sex operation Via
the Center
for American Progress, here's an extract from this
Washington Post article (bold text is my emphasis):
As
corrections commissioner, Kerik also ran the New York City
Correction Foundation, which was funded by money from court
settlements with tobacco companies. The foundation was supposed to
fund programs that strengthen the department. But it had few fiscal
controls, and Kerik appointed a deputy commissioner who later pleaded
guilty to defrauding it of $142,000. The former aide is serving a
federal prison term.
Josh Marshall has an
update from the New
York Post:
There's
also Kerik's never-fully explained role in the 1990s as head of a New
York City Corrections Department foundation that was secretly funded
with roughly $1 million of tobacco company rebates from departmental
purchases of cigarettes using city funds. Kerik's hand-picked
treasurer for the foundation, Frederick Patrick, is now serving a
one-year prison sentence after admitting in court that he pilfered
nearly $140,000 of the foundation's money to pay for collect-call
phone sex from inmates.
2A.5
Kerik and Georal: Security door scandal
Via the Center
for American Progress, here is a kid-gloves extract from this
Newsweek article:
Kerik has
been known to make up his own rules. While he was police commissioner,
the NYPD bought four $50,000 security doors for police headquarters.
They turned out to be too heavy for the floor to support. One of them
was used by the Department of Corrections, and the other three are in
storage. A police department investigation found irregularities in the
bidding process. After leaving the NYPD, Kerik became an adviser to a
company distributing the doors, though he renounced his deal after the
door-maker's president was indicted for defrauding the city.
Via Josh
Marshall, here's the New
York Post:
Rauch said no one at
Defense Technology has any idea why Kerik cut ties to the company,
except perhaps in the hope of distancing himself from its association
with a Queens-based security-door company, Georal Inc., if questions
about that company should have come up at his confirmation hearings.
In late October,
Georal's owner, Alan Risi pleaded guilty to submitting inflated and
excessive invoices to the city under various contracts, and is
scheduled for sentencing this Friday.
In June 2001, when
Kerik was running the New York Police Department, Risi's company sold
the department four automatic high-security door systems for 1 Police
Plaza, at a price that published reports say was roughly $200,000.
Georal's general counsel, Theodore Pryor, said that figure is
"somewhat low."
When the doors arrived,
they were never installed, and wound up being shipped to Rikers Island
for use there.
Pryor said the doors
were supplied under a contract in which Kerik played no role, which
Kerik as well has insisted. Last July, Kerik's successor, Ray Kelly,
opened an investigation into door purchases.
Phone calls to Kerik at
his office at Giuliani Partners, seeking comment on the matter, were
not returned.
Via
Josh
Marshall, here's Newsday:
But
retired Deputy Warden Terrence Skinner says there were several major
purchases Kerik approved as correction commissioner that left him
scratching his head.
...
Skinner served twice in the chief of security's office at Rikers
Island and held several command positions. He helped create and run
the Gang Intelligence Unit and the agency's World Trade Center detail
at the city medical examiner's office. In 1999, he received a career
achievement medal from the department. He currently has a lawsuit
against the department, but the claims are unrelated to procurement.
...
Long before the Georal doors became controversial, the Correction
Department had one set at the Queens House of Detention. While working
for the chief of security in 1999, Skinner was tasked to assess the
doors.
Skinner said he wrote a report advising against purchase of more of
the doors, saying that they were prone to maintenance problems and
that standard metal detectors would be just as effective and cheaper.
But Kerik opted to make the purchase.
In February, 2000 and 2001, the city entered into two contracts worth
a total of $2 million. Only one company, Georal, bid on the second
contract, which was worth $1.5 million, a city official said.
Some of the doors are currently in place in the main visiting area at
Rikers. The president of Georal, Alan Risi, is scheduled to be
sentenced today in connection with charges that he overbilled the city
by $50,000 to service doors on other buildings, the Manhattan district
attorney's office said.
After Kerik left city government, he joined the board of Georal's
parent company. According to a published report, he quit from the
board just before becoming a candidate for the Homeland Security
Department.
2A.6 Kerik
and Defense Technology Systems (DTS) - and link to Georal: Kerik
surrenders massive amount of stock and resigns as adviser to DTS
Via Josh
Marshall, here's the New
York Post:
Bernard
Kerik's sudden and unexplained resignation six weeks ago from the
advisory board of a Long Island company is raising new questions about
the former New York City Police Commissioner's private-sector
dealings.
Kerik was nominated by
President Bush on Dec. 3 to become Secretary of Homeland Security, but
backed out six days later after disclosures about his private life and
financial practices.
In late October, Kerik
abruptly submitted a resignation letter as an adviser to the firm,
Hauppauge-based Defense Technology Systems Inc., failing thereafter to
return phone calls asking for an explanation, said the company's chief
operating and finance officer, Philip Rauch.
Three weeks later,
Kerik returned certificates for 400,000 shares of stock and the
surrender of a slew of options he'd been granted by the firm, Rauch
said.
Rauch said no one at
Defense Technology has any idea why Kerik cut ties to the company,
except perhaps in the hope of distancing himself from its association
with a Queens-based security-door company, Georal Inc., if questions
about that company should have come up at his confirmation hearings.
In late October,
Georal's owner, Alan Risi pleaded guilty to submitting inflated and
excessive invoices to the city under various contracts, and is
scheduled for sentencing this Friday.
In June 2001, when
Kerik was running the New York Police Department, Risi's company sold
the department four automatic high-security door systems for 1 Police
Plaza, at a price that published reports say was roughly $200,000.
Georal's general counsel, Theodore Pryor, said that figure is
"somewhat low."
When the doors arrived,
they were never installed, and wound up being shipped to Rikers Island
for use there.
Pryor said the doors
were supplied under a contract in which Kerik played no role, which
Kerik as well has insisted. Last July, Kerik's successor, Ray Kelly,
opened an investigation into door purchases.
Phone calls to Kerik at
his office at Giuliani Partners, seeking comment on the matter, were
not returned.
People familiar with
his role said Kerik did attend meetings that resulted in a deal that
made Defense Technology a distributor of Georal's security products.
Rauch said he does not
know what role, if any, Kerik may have played in facilitating the deal
with Risi's company, but he does say he knows "from principals at
Georal," that Kerik's deal with Defense Technology Systems was
"very similar" to an arrangement he had with Georal owner
Risi. Georal lawyer Pryor said he knows of no such arrangement.
But press accounts have
referred to an individual named Lawrence Ray, identified as a
"close friend" and best man at one of Kerik's weddings,
claiming that Ray had given Kerik $7,000 in cash and other gifts while
Kerik was NYPD boss.
SEC filings show that
an individual of the same name recently held more than 200 million
shares of stock and options in a penny-stock company called FINX Group
Inc., which lists Risi and Georal as sole supplier of its main
products.
Josh has
more:
So let's review. Kerik
quickly cuts his ties with Company A because it does business with
Company B, and the owner of Company B got caught over-charging the
city and is probably going to do time.
So far so good.
But Kerik seems to have
had some other connections to Georal.
When he was running the
NYPD the department bought a few of Georal's security doors for pretty
good money. But there was apparently no use for them; they never got
installed and were eventually sent over to Riker's Island. Kerik has
always insisted he had nothing to do wtih that purchase. But this
summer, his successor, Ray Kelly, opened an investigation into the
purchases.
And there's more.
It seems that the
"advisor" who put Defense Technologies together with Georal
was ... take a guess. Right: Bernard Kerik. And Rauch says he heard
from folks at Georal that Kerik had a "very similar"
arrangement there as he had with Defense Technologies. So, in other
words, sign on as an "advisor" and get dealt in for about a
kajillion shares of penny-stocks in the company.
Now, I'm just getting
my footing here in the Big Apple. But I'm told by some pretty
knowledgable people that big runs of penny-stocks are not infrequently
used by some of your shadier business elements to cleanly move ...
well, let's say 'thank you money' to politicians for services
rendered. Pump the stock up a bit and there you go.
Such unfortunate
manipulations of stock prices certainly do happen. Remember, for
instance, that Lawrence Ray, Kerik's financial benefactor, who worked
for the allegedly mobbed-up construction company in New Jersey, later
got indicted in that "$40 million, mob-run, pump-and-dump stock
swindle."
And the funny thing is,
Mr. Ray's name comes up in this story too. According to the Post,
SEC filings show that a man by the name of Lawrence Ray recently held more
than 200 million shares of stocks and options in another
penny-stock company called FINX Group Inc. And FINX lists Georal and
our friend Mr. Risi (owner of Georal) as the sole supplier of the most
of the products it sells.
Small world, isn't it?
2A.7
Kerik and Second Chance Body Armor Inc.: Pushed no-bid contract
violating city purchasing guidelines Via
Josh
Marshall, here's Newsday:
But
retired Deputy Warden Terrence Skinner says there were several major
purchases Kerik approved as correction commissioner that left him
scratching his head.
The largest of the three involved the $4.8-million purchase of 11,008
stab-resistant vests in May 2000 from a company called Second Chance
Body Armor Inc. The purchase was touted at the time by Kerik and
then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani in a City Hall news conference.
Skinner, who left the job in April 2002, said he chaired a
three-person panel that examined the vests then on the market and
decided there was little difference among them. The hand-picked panel
recommended that the department issue custom specifications and put
the job out to bid.
Instead, Skinner said, the agency chose Second Chance, using a
state-purchasing contract, which at the time bypassed the city
comptroller's office.
The purchase drew complaints from at least one other manufacturer, who
charged in a September 2000 published report that the city had
overpaid.
After the City Council raised questions about the purchase, Skinner
said, he received a call from the Correction Department's general
counsel, inquiring why the project had not been bid out. "I said
I didn't recommend that we buy them," Skinner said. "The
commissioner's office did.
"Their purchasing clearly violated city purchasing
procedures," Skinner said. A Kerik spokesman referred calls
seeking comment to the Corrections Department. "If he has any
complaints, he should take them to the proper authority," said
Thomas Antenen, a correction spokesman. He declined further comment.
"These are all items contracted for four and five years
ago."
Skinner served twice in the chief of security's office at Rikers
Island and held several command positions. He helped create and run
the Gang Intelligence Unit and the agency's World Trade Center detail
at the city medical examiner's office. In 1999, he received a career
achievement medal from the department. He currently has a lawsuit
against the department, but the claims are unrelated to procurement.
2A.8
Kerik and useless Celayaton batons: Another outrageous
compassionate contract Via
Josh
Marshall, here's Newsday:
But
retired Deputy Warden Terrence Skinner says there were several major
purchases Kerik approved as correction commissioner that left him
scratching his head.
...
Skinner served twice in the chief of security's office at Rikers
Island and held several command positions. He helped create and run
the Gang Intelligence Unit and the agency's World Trade Center detail
at the city medical examiner's office. In 1999, he received a career
achievement medal from the department. He currently has a lawsuit
against the department, but the claims are unrelated to procurement.
The second contract, Skinner said, involved the purchase of Celayaton
batons -- a telescoping rubberized nightstick. Kerik initially wanted
to buy 10,000, he said.
After reviewing the equipment as an aide to the chief of security,
Skinner said he concluded that the batons didn't meet training
standards.
The commissioner's office, however, purchased 2,000 of the batons,
arguing they could be used on hospital runs and by the Emergency
Services Unit. But Skinner said that those uses would be a waste of
money.
"They would sit there forever," he said. "They would
never be used."
Once the department purchased the batons, the company then demanded to
be paid for training instructors on how to use them. Skinner refused.
Kerik's chief of staff, John Picciano, took the company's side, but
Skinner still refused, Skinner said. The company then filed a
complaint with Inspector General Michael Caruso, according to Skinner.
After Kerik stepped down to run the Police Department, William Fraser
took over as correction commissioner. Skinner was subsequently called
downtown to Caruso's offices for an interview on the baton purchases.
"I told them that the commissioner's office pushed this
purchase," he said. "They then ended the interview."
Officials at the Department of Investigation did not return phone
calls seeking comment.
2A.9 Kerik's
alleged hiring of a mob-connected contractor Ed Sisca to
renovate an apartment he had purchased at West 239th Street to be
investigated
Via Josh
Marshall, here's the New
York Post:
The Bronx District
Attorney's Office said yesterday it will investigate allegations that
former NYPD top cop Bernard Kerik used a mob-connected contractor to
renovate an apartment he purchased.
Bronx DA Robert Johnson
is launching the probe in the wake of a report that in 1999 Kerik had
a mob-connected contractor convert two first-floor apartments into one
large apartment at the West 239th Street building.
Kerik, then the city's
Correction Department commissioner, was experiencing severe financial
problems at the time.
Kerik's lawyer, Joseph
Tacopina, insisted yesterday that the story is bogus because the
embattled ex-NYPD commissioner bought the apartment after the lavish
renovation was done.
He also said Kerik
never met the ex-cons involved in the construction work.
"Bernie Kerik
never met either of these people, never hired any of these
gentlemen," Tacopina said. "The building secured permits
with them before Bernie Kerik purchased the apartment, and after the
two units were converted into a single apartment."
Stephen Reed, a
spokesman for Johnson, said the office has opened a "preliminary
investigation," adding, "we are gathering information"
regarding the apartment's improvements and how they were paid for.
He said his office will
try to determine whether Kerik had a relationship with the
mob-connected contractor who did the work. The project's contractor
was Ed Sisca, who had previously been arrested in a bid-rigging
scheme, according to reports.
Sisca, of Englewood,
N.J., is the son of a Gambino capo. He was sentenced to 41/2 years in
prison for the scheme.
The project's engineer
was Charles Marino, who was once sentenced to five years probation for
filing false documents with the Department of Environmental
Protection.
Tacopina
said Kerik bought the pad directly from the building's management for
$170,000 after taking out a mortgage. He also said Kerik paid $50,000
for renovations he wanted, but hired "his own people" — not
Sisca or Marino.
...
2A.10
Kerik profits mightily via glaring conflicts of interest - Giuliani Partners, CamelBak Products
Via the Center
for American Progress, here's an extract from this
Newsday article (bold text is my emphasis):
A business
partner of Bernard Kerik and Rudolph Giuliani said Kerik's role as an
adviser to the Department of Homeland Security gave them insight into
where the government was investing its resources, which was helpful in
choosing potential business ventures.
Newsday also learned Friday that Kerik, who withdrew his nomination
after being tapped last week by President George W. Bush to replace
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, has resigned from the board of
a second company, CamelBak Products, Inc., which has sold at least $16
million worth of equipment to the government, including to border
patrol squads overseen by the Department of Homeland Security.
Rick Perkal, a senior managing director at Bear Stearns Merchant
Banking who oversees the firm's $300-million investment venture
looking for security-related investments with Giuliani Partners, the
company formed by Kerik and the former mayor in 2002, said Kerik's
experience with a little-known advisory committee reporting to Ridge
provided an advantage in deciding where to invest their money.
"Being an adviser in Homeland Security, what has been helpful to
us is that he understands the needs of the country," said Perkal,
who praised Kerik's expertise. "When we look at opportunities -
companies that come up for sale - he can say this is a good company, I
think it has good growth prospects."
But supporters of Kerik said he had done nothing wrong, was not
involved in any specific contracts and had abided by all existing
government guidelines.
Kerik has served on the Academe and Policy Research panel since late
2003, which seeks out strategic advice from leaders in academia,
technology and policy development to advise the Department of Homeland
Security on how to spend its nearly $40-billion annual budget. He has
attended meetings of that government advisory group this year while
working with Giuliani Partners and Bear Stearns.
"The Committee has no role in procurement issues nor are they
privy to sensitive discussions that would in any way benefit companies
interested in doing business with the department," said Tasia
Scolinos, a Homeland Security spokeswoman.
Since his nomination, much of the attention about Kerik has focused on
potential conflicts of interest between his proposed role as the
nation's security chief and the expansive business ventures of
Giuliani Partners, a firm set up to invest and guide businesses
concerned with security in the post-9/11 economy, including those
seeking contracts with the Department of Homeland Security.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said earlier Friday the Bush
administration has "full confidence" in Kerik's integrity
and is confident "he will take the appropriate steps necessary to
make sure that there are no conflicts."
"This is our worst fear," said Danielle Brian, executive
director of the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Project on Government
Oversight. "Membership in these appointed panels is providing an
inappropriate and unfair insight for friends and business partners
about where the government is going to use its resources. That's a
ticket to the most prized information."
If he had been confirmed, Kerik was expected to resign from the board
of Taser International, a stun-gun manufacturer where he reportedly
earned millions from stock options.
A Kerik spokeswoman confirmed he has removed himself from CamelBak's
board and then referred other questions to the White House.
A White House spokesman, Brian Besanceney, said Kerik's use of his
government experience in deciding on private business is not atypical
for those serving on advisory panels. He said advisers to Ridge come
from many sectors of private industry. "It's a fairly common
situation," he said.
Besanceney said Friday the White House was in the early stages of
reviewing Kerik's finances, and that so far there had been no problems
that would hinder Kerik's nomination.
Since earlier this year, Kerik has been a member of the board of
CamelBak, a privately owned, California-based company making hydration
backpacks with hands-free sipping tubes for use in Iraq and for use
with domestic border patrols. "I'm honored to join the Board and
I look forward to working with the company on expanding their
market," said Kerik back in March, after serving as interim
minister of the interior in Iraq. "I used their hands-free
hydration system in Iraq in July of 2003 so I know how valuable this
product is and the important applications it has in a broad range of
market sectors."
...
Perkal said the joint venture by Giuliani Partners and Bear Stearns
into CamelBak is a good example of how Kerik used his government
expertise in the private sector. Perkal said Kerik didn't lobby or
supply specific details about pending government contracts, but his
government experience helped them tailor CamelBak's goods to suit
government needs.
"In the case of CamelBak, Bernie spent a few months in Iraq - he
understands the product and he understands the needs of the military,
having spent a lot of time there, and so, specifically with CamelBak,
Bernie was knowledgeable as a user and he actually gave product
suggestions, in terms of product improvements," Perkal said.
He indicated Kerik had an equity interest in CamelBak but was not sure
if he had cashed out his stake in the company. A CamelBak spokesman,
Pennington Way, confirmed that Kerik had left the board but had no
further comment.
Since getting off the ground, the joint effort between Giuliani
Partners and Bear Stearns has resulted in few other successful
investments, though Perkal said they are currently working on a deal
involving a $15-million to $20-million company in the security field.
"Bernie has been very helpful to us in the process of
looking" for companies to invest in, Perkal said.
2A.11
Kerik profits astonishingly from post 9/11 Board position in Taser International
Via the Center
for American Progress, here's an extract from this
Washington Post article (bold text is my emphasis):
In 2002,
Kerik was appointed to the board of Taser International Inc., which
manufactures high-voltage stun guns. Critics have accused the
company's weapons of contributing to dozens of deaths. Kerik received
options on more than 100,000 shares of stock. Company records show
Kerik recently exercised those options and sold $5.8 million worth of
stock, whose value increased by more than 19 times in the past two
years.
Compassiongate note:
I am all for capitalism and all that, but for an appointed Board
member to make several million dollars
seems a bit compassionate to me. And indeed, it is...
As CAP points
out (amount slightly different, bold text is my emphasis):
Kerik
has made $6.2 million dollars in profits from his relationship
"with Taser International, a Scottsdale, Ariz., manufacturer of
stun guns." Kerik was appointed as a director of the company immediately
after he had the NYPD purchase the guns as police chief. Since
2002, Kerik has hawked Taser's products to police departments around
the country. Recently the company has made an "aggressive
push to enter markets either regulated or controlled by the federal
government, most notably the Department of Homeland Security."
Thomas Smith, the company president, said the company would
"continue to go after that business" at the Department of
Homeland Security should Kerik be confirmed.
More
on the controversy over the safety of tasers here
(via Dailykos).
2A.12
Kerik and the 9/11 response
Via the Center
for American Progress, here's an extract from this
Washington Post article (bold text is my emphasis):
A prominent Republican member of the Sept. 11 commission, former
Navy secretary John F. Lehman, sharply criticized Kerik and former
fire commissioner Thomas Van Essen for failures of leadership during
the terrorist attacks, saying that rivalry between the departments
hampered rescue efforts. The command and control of their departments,
Lehman said, were "not worthy of the Boy Scouts." Kerik
heatedly disputed the charge.
The commission's final report contained much muted criticism of the
two departments and framed the overarching question this way:
"Whether the lack of coordination between the FDNY and the NYPD
had a catastrophic effect is a subject of controversy."
Compassiongate note: That there is
a controversy about this -- is itself somewhat revealing. If Kerik is even
remotely similar to his almost-boss and the latter's National InSecurity
Advisor, then Lehman's comments may be understandable.
2A.13
Kerik and Iraqi police training
Via the Center
for American Progress, here's an extract from this
Washington Post article (bold text is my emphasis):
But Kerik's track
record combating terrorism and working on the national stage is more
spotty. Appointed by President Bush to train a new Iraqi police force
in 2003, Kerik came under criticism for inadequate screening of
recruits as U.S. authorities rushed to deploy the force. It has been
plagued by desertions and by allegations that insurgents have
infiltrated theranks.
Kerik quit four months into his six-month tenure in Iraq, telling
New York reporters later that he needed a vacation.
Josh Marshall has more
details:
In an article
in the New York Daily News on May 16th 2003, Kerik confirmed
that he'd been tapped to be the American in charge of the Iraqi
Interior Ministry (formally, he'd be the chief 'advisor').
Principally, that meant he'd be in charge of domestic security and
specifically in charge of standing up a new Iraqi police force. This
was just after Bremer had arrived on the scene. And he told the Daily
News he'd be leaving for Iraq within three days. As for how long
he'd be in the country, he said he'd be in Iraq "in excess of six
months, but no one really knows . . . as long as it takes to get the
job done."
As Kerik suggested, six
months seemed optimistic. In mid-July, according to an article in the
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Robert C. Orr, who the Pentagon had
just sent as part of a fact-finding mission to Iraq, said that
"former New York police commissioner, Bernard B. Kerik, is
training an Iraqi police force but his work won't be completed for
at least another 18 months, and the need for help is urgent and
immediate (italics added)."
If you review the
newspaper reportage over the next couple months you'll see Kerik
quoted in various articles about security and policing in Iraq. He
even showed up in walk-along columns by the Post's Jim
Hoagland and the Times' Thomas
Friedman.
But little more than
two months into his tour, just as Iraq was slipping the first few
rungs down the ladder into chaos, something happened -- something that
I've never seen explained.
Remember that on August
7th, the Jordanian Embassy in Baghdad was bombed
-- the first high-profile terrorist act since the war. Then on August
19th a truck bomb destroyed the UN compound in the Iraqi capital
killing seventeen, including the head of the UN mission, Sérgio
Vieira de Mello.
Then, only a few days
later, a few press reports noted for the first time -- in most cases
just in passing -- that Kerik was preparing to leave the country. The
earliest of these that I'm aware of came in a Times article
by Dexter Filkins in which he notes in passing that Kerik was
"wrapping up his tour in Iraq" and later that Kerik's
"time here is to end in a week."
[ed.note: If
there are earlier references to the timing of Kerik's departure I'm
not aware of them. But if you are, I'd be obliged if you could let me
know.]
Then just a few days
later, on August 29th, a bomb
exploded outside the Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf killing upwards of a
hundred people including Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim, head of SCIRI.
Tracking down the
precise date of Kerik's departure is difficult. But he apparently left
the country either two or three days later. The first word of Kerik's
departure that I could find comes in a September 3rd article
by John Tierney in the Times, which reported on the truck
bombing of the central office on the Iraqi police in Baghdad. In that
report Tierney notes that the leader of the effort to reconstitute the
Iraqi police force had been "Bernard B. Kerik, a former New York
City police commissioner [who] finished his three-and-a-half-month
tour here this week."
The question, I
suppose, pretty much asks itself: what happened? Kerik arrived in Iraq
with a rather open-ended committment. By his own account, it should
have carried him at least through the end of 2003. There was even some
suggestion that it would keep him in the country through 2004. Yet
just after the first two major terrorist attacks in Baghdad reports
surfaced that he was about to leave. And only a week later, after
major terrorist incidents numbers three and four, he was gone.
At the time, the
Pentagon and Kerik (or rather people speaking on his behalf) made
rather unconvincing claims that Kerik's departure was simply part of
the original plan.
As TPM noted
a week after Kerik left, the Pentagon said the Kerik was actually
supposed to leave in the summer and "extended his stay to finish
his ongoing projects." That was a bit hard to figure since that
would have meant his entire tenure in the country would have lasted
only a few weeks. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Kerik's employer,
Giuliani
Partners, said the plan had always been that he'd only stay in the
country for 90 days. But that of course directly contradicted Kerik's
own statements.
We now know that the
many of the key security-related decisions that have haunted the
occupation for the last year and a half happened in those first few
months. Kerik also left at a time when there seemed to be plenty of
police work to go around in Iraq.
So again, what
happened?
Josh Marshall has a
follow-up here
and here
and here
as well:
Yet the
President was oddly — and utterly — silent on Kerik's work in
Baghdad, and perhaps for good reason. Though Kerik presided over the
hiring of thousands of recruits for the reconstituted Iraqi police
force, most were hired without background checks, and many turned
out to be hardened criminals. As a result, some 30,000 of them, or
roughly 25 percent of the entire force, are now reportedly being let
go, with the U.S. footing the bill for $60 million in severance
payments.
...
And heck, that's
from the New York Post
Via the Center
for American Progress, here is an extract from this
Newsweek article:
After the
invasion of Iraq the Bush administration tapped Kerik to go to Baghdad
to begin rebuilding the local police force. As he left, Kerik vowed
that he'd be gone for six months or until he'd finished the job. But
he came home after a little more than three months, just as the
insurgency was starting to explode. Kerik told reporters that he
needed a vacation; officials now say he left because an Iraqi was
ready to take over his job.
[Compassiongate note: Sure!]
Josh also points
out:
Go back to an article
by Patrick Tyler and Raymond Bonner that ran in Times on
October 4th, 2003. The headline is "Questions are Raised on
Awarding of Contracts in Iraq." The central issue examined in the
piece is why the Interior Ministry payed $20 million to a company in
Jordan for (50,000) pistols, (20,000) Kalashnikovs and (10,000,000)
rounds of ammunition for the Iraqi police when the US military was
confiscating tons of weaponry every month from Iraqi military
arsenals.
One governing council
member said "There is mismanagement right and left, and I think
we have to sit with Congress face to face to discuss this. A lot of
American money is being wasted, I think. We are victims and the
American taxpayers are victims." Another said, "I don't have
the evidence, but I think there is corruption. This is a common
grievance that people tell me ... It is totally unnecessary to buy
[the guns] from outside the country."
The explanation for the
purchase of the weaponry was that there would just have been too many
logistical problems involved in purchasing or requisitioning the
revolvers and rifles in small lots in country. And without any greater
context or being able to judge the challenges the folks on the ground
were facing at the time, that seems like it might be a reasonable
explanation.
But it turns out there
is some context. As you might have expected already, the contract was
okayed on the authority of Bernard Kerik.
All the Iraqis on the
Governing Council at the time seemed to think the deal stunk to high
heaven, that Kerik was spending millions to bring weapons into a
country that was already bursting with weapons. And when the Times
wanted to talk to Kerik about the deal he didn't want to talk to them.
The Iraqis wanted
Congress to investigate. Sounds like a good idea. Read the article.
See what you think.
2A.14
Kerik and Saudi Arabia Via
the Center
for American Progress, here's an extract from this
Washington Post article (bold text is my emphasis):
The autobiography of
Bernard B. Kerik, President Bush's nominee to head the Department of
Homeland Security, recounts a difficult time 20 years ago when he was
expelled from Saudi Arabia amid a power struggle involving the head of
a hospital complex where Kerik helped command a security staff.
In the book, Kerik described his discomfort at having to investigate
employees' private lives, but said it was necessary because of the
Saudis' laws prohibiting drinking and mingling of the sexes in public.
"It was challenging, negotiating such a closed, rigid system and
trying to find justice in laws that, to an American, were
unjust," he wrote. He was expelled from Saudi Arabia in 1984, the
book said, after he had a physical altercation with a Saudi secret
police official who was interrogating him.
Since he was nominated
last week to be homeland security secretary, however, nine former
employees of the hospital have said that Kerik and his colleagues were
carrying out the private agenda of the hospital's administrator, Nizar
Feteih, and that the surveillance was intended to control people's
private affairs. Feteih became embroiled in a scandal that centered in
part on his use of the institution's security staff to track the
private lives of several women with whom he was romantically involved,
and men who came in contact with them, the ex-employees said.
Kerik, who as chief of investigations was considered third in command
of the security staff, personally surveilled some employees and at
times confronted them with the results, several former employees said.
He also was a lead investigator in the controversial arrest, for
drinking, of a physician who was detained and deported from Saudi
Arabia for the crime.
Ex-employees also said the official Saudi investigation of Feteih and
the security team was begun in response to hospital employees'
complaints to Saudi officials of intimidation by Feteih and the
security staff.
After medical personnel at the hospital complained to Saudi officials,
the security team helped get one whistleblower jailed overnight,
sought to put another into a Saudi mental hospital, and stepped up its
surveillance of some members of the medical staff, several of the
former hospital employees said. Six members of the hospital security
staff, including Kerik, were fired and deported, and Feteih was sacked
as hospital administrator after an investigation in 1984 by the Saudi
secret police, they said.
...
"Kerik was a
goon," said John Jones, a former hospital manager, who said he
felt harassed by the security team. "They were Gestapo. . . .
They made my life so miserable."
"Kerik used heavy-handed tactics in following single men around
and keeping them away from some women," said Ted Bailey, who was
a doctor at the hospital and now practices in Indiana. Added paramedic
Michael Queen: "Men and women had to be careful with security,
but Bernie was the one we watched out for the most."
Kerik said that he knows of no improprieties by the security staff,
and that he was put in an awkward position in having to enforce the
strict Saudi moral code. Alcohol is prohibited under the code, but the
government usually allows Westerners to ignore that ban, as well as
the ban on intermingling of the sexes, inside the walled compounds of
institutions such as the King Faisal hospital and their homes, as long
as they do so privately.
Bob Burghardt, who worked with Kerik at the hospital and remains his
friend, said in an interview that he knew of no improper surveillance
by the security team. "Bernie and I were ostracized [by hospital
staff members] for upholding Saudi law," said Burghardt, who is
now an auditor.
Gilda Riccardi, then a hospital nurse and now a friend of Kerik's,
said that despite strong rumors of wiretapping and impropriety by the
security staff, she knows of no proof it occurred. "To implicate
Bernie [in any possible misdeeds by the security team], I have a
problem with that," said Riccardi, who became friendly with Kerik
years later when he was a New York police officer and she was a
prosecutor.
...
2A.15
Kerik claims importing drugs from Canada could lead to bio-terror attack!
Now I know why Bush absolutely loved the guy! Where's the masking tape when you need it? You
see it is quite safe to import the flu vaccine en masse from other
countries outside the United States. But prescription drugs from Canada?
NOOOOO. That is objectively pro-terrorist! Via
the Center
for American Progress, here's an extract from this
Washington Post article (bold text is my emphasis):
Bernard Kerik, the
former police commissioner who now runs a consulting firm with former
New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani (R), said allowing Americans to buy
lower-cost drugs from countries such as Canada could invite terrorists
to launch a biological attack under the guise of a legal purchase.
"We are very concerned if wholesale importing is permitted, it
will make this country's medicine supply extremely vulnerable to
terrorist intervention," said Kerik, who said in an interview
later that he has been hired by the Pharmaceutical Research and
Manufacturers of America to investigate the safety of drug
imports.
[Compassiongate note: Don't you
just love the euphemism "investigate"?]
Kerik said he believes drug counterfeiting profits are
already supporting terrorists.
2A.16
Kerik's love for his own busts (I don't mean what you may think I mean)
Via the Center
for American Progress, here is an extract from this
Newsweek article:
Eyes rolled
in the NYPD when Kerik reportedly used $3,000 of Police Foundation funds
to order up 30 busts of his own likeness, complete with bristling
mustache. Possibly because Kerik heard the grumbles, the busts were
never handed out. (His aides insist the idea for the busts originated
with the nonprofit Police Foundation.) Kerik likes the glittery
celebrity life. After he stopped being a street cop, he cut his ponytail
and began wearing silk-thread suits and Italian loafers. His workout
partner and literary editor for his memoir was Judith Regan, a
flamboyant and successful publishing figure. ("She is brash, very
assertive, extremely demanding and talks like a man," Kerik
approvingly told Vanity Fair magazine. "But you know what? I've run
the biggest police departments in the country. I've run the largest
jail. Sometimes it takes a person like that to get things done.")
2A.17
Kerik and former lover Jeanette Pinero embroiled in lawsuit - Pinero's
superior charged that Kerik prevented him from being promoted because
he had reprimanded Pinero
Via Josh
Marshall, here's a report in Newsday:
On
Thursday, the day before he took his name from contention, Kerik, 49,
was forced to testify in a civil lawsuit about an alleged affair with
a subordinate.
The case, which involves Kerik's use of authority when he was city
correction commissioner between 1998 and 2000, was brought against the
city by a former deputy warden. Plaintiff Eric DeRavin III contends
Kerik kept him from getting promoted because he had reprimanded the
woman, Correction Officer Jeanette Pinero.
About halfway through Pinero's deposition on Tuesday, attorneys for
the city began to raise the issue of sealing the depositions,
particularly the parts that concerned Kerik and Pinero's relationship,
lawyers in the case said.
On Wednesday, the lawyers requested and received a special hearing
before Federal Magistrate Kevin Nathaniel Fox, where they requested
that both Kerik's and Pinero's transcripts be sealed.
DeRavin's attorney, Gregory Lisi, argued against the sealing, calling
it a First Amendment issue.
The judge ordered the parties not to discuss the contents of either
deposition until he ruled.
DeRavin said that while other depositions in the case have been taken
in small, cramped quarters at the city Law Department, Kerik's was
held in a spacious conference room furnished with leather chairs.
Kerik arrived with his personal attorney, Joseph Tacopina.
2A.18 Serial-Liar
Compassionate conservative Rudy Giuliani appointed Kerik Police Commissioner despite Kerik not having
filed required background check form; not to mention Kerik is one of
Giuliani's close buddies given their compassionate conservative
values
Newsday has this
report:
City
investigators revealed last night that Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's City
Hall allowed Bernard Kerik to become police commissioner despite
failing to file a required background form.
With the announcement, the Department of Investigation suddenly
confirmed that it is probing whether or how Kerik may have been vetted
for the job in 2000.
Kerik
had long been a personal friend, appointee and campaign aide to
Giuliani before a surprise appointment as the former mayor's third
police commissioner.
Questions were directed at DOI in recent days after Kerik's candidacy
for Homeland Security secretary exploded amid revelations about his
financial and personal dealings going back to his city service.
Just three months before Kerik's appointment by Giuliani, it has been
reported, city investigators conducted interviews that would have shed
light on questionable friendships Kerik had.
The friendships, while he was correction commissioner, involved two
men involved with a major city contractor under investigation and
gifts Kerik received from one, including payment for his wedding
reception.
There was also an unresolved lawsuit in New Jersey involving a condo
he had owned. The civil litigation regarding that case resulted in a
warrant issued for his arrest.
The DOI, under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, said in a statement that it so
far found Kerik "did not fill out a background form when he was
police commissioner" - but did so in 1998 to become jail
commissioner.
The rigorous form asks top municipal job candidates about all aspects
of their lives - including civil proceedings, sources of income, tax
information and possible conflicts.
One city official who declined to be identified noted that just lying
on the form in the past ha | 