The Whistleblower and Harriet Miers
By James Ridgeway, with Isabel Huacuja
The Village Voice
Tuesday 04 October 2005
Questions linger about Court nominee's time with Texas Lottery.
Washington - Sooner or later, senators pondering Harriet Miers's qualifications to be a Supreme Court judge will want to inquire into the byzantine dealings of the Texas Lottery Commission in the late 1990s, when she was its chair.
Miers has been portrayed as a tough administrator who cleaned up a scandal-plagued state board, as in this report from the Houston Chronicle:
"Harriet Miers proved to be a tough, no-nonsense administrator during her five years heading the Texas Lottery Commission, firing two executive directors to stamp out scandal but leaving unexpectedly amid lagging sales and player interest."
The paper goes on to note that "one of those firings stirred up questions about whether political influence helped George W. Bush avoid active service in Vietnam."
But that's not the last question stirred by Miers's tenure on the lottery commission. There's room for speculation about whether, even as she worked to clear out corruption, she stifled the claims of a key whistleblower.
The story goes like this:
Apparently in January 1996, then Texas governor George Bush received an anonymous letter claiming that Nora Linares, director of the Texas Lottery Commission, was in cahoots with a former employer and a boyfriend to rip off the commission. Supposedly, the boyfriend, convicted on an unrelated federal bribery charge, was using state equipment and personnel to work on a private contract he had with Gtech. That's the company contracted to carry out the Texas lottery. According to reports in the Houston Chronicle from that time, Linares claimed she knew nothing about this, even though the boyfriend was running his business out of her cousin's New Mexico apartment address.
At first, Bush and his then assistant Miers did nothing, but eventually Miers was sent over to the commission to straighten things out. This raised eyebrows at the time, since Miers's law firm represented a company which had a major contract with the lottery. Linares was fired, and in March 1997 the commission put the Gtech contract up for re-bid. Then in June, one Lawrence Littwin, a Democrat, was hired to run the lottery, which had been set up in 1992. At the time, Miers, now chair of the lottery commission, said of Littwin, "His extensive business, technical and lottery experience, his knowledge of lottery products offered by vendors, and his knowledge of the procurement process will be of great benefit . . . . He is a man of integrity who will further develop and maintain strict controls at the commission and insure operations that are above reproach."
When Littwin took over he received a report from the state auditor critical of both Gtech and the lottery commission for failure to conduct proper accounting. Littwin hired the firm of Deloitte and Touche to run more audits, and they allegedly revealed that Gtech had seriously violated its contract. His investigation also revealed what were described as illegal campaign contributions. At that point, according to Littwin, Miers and other commission members ordered him to stop the investigation.
The upshot of the affair was that Gtech, even though not the low bidder, got its contract back, and according to Littwin never corrected its auditing breaches. Littwin was fired that October, after only five months on the job. The commission would only say it had "lost confidence" in him. The personnel files say he was dismissed for "reasons unknown."
In a subsequent 1999 lawsuit, Littwin claimed Gtech was engaged in questionable dealings through its chief Texas lobbyist in 1997, Ben Barnes, former state lieutenant governor.
Barnes hit the headlines during Bush's first campaign because he supposedly was the man who got young George out of the draft and into the Texas National Guard, a charge he denied. Littwin's suit was eventually settled for $300,000. Barnes's deposition, in which the National Guard matter was mentioned, disappeared.
The question is whether Miers was dispatched to the state lottery commission to cover up a mess on the verge of being brought to light by a whistleblower. We may never know.
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TVNL Editor's Comments: Some important media deception points:
Porter Goss, our new CIA Director, said yesterday that he will not hold anyone responsible for failures related to the non-prevention of the events of 9/11/2001. What the media has not told you is that on that dreadful morning Goss was having breakfast in Washington with the man who was found out to have wired Mohamed Atta $100,000 during the weeks prior to the event. Of course Goss was the natural choice to head the CIA now that we know this. Now he is protecting the rest of the inside crew. Understand this; there are many people in the Bush administration who were either incompetent in preventing or complicit in conducting or permitting the events of that day. They either failed miserably (and catastrophically) to protect us or they intentionally harmed us. There is no in between. The media, the justice system and the majority of Americans have not examined that incompetence or complicity, in essence leaving America vulnerable to the same incompetence or complicity. My new definition for the word “stupid” is “anyone who still believes the official explanation for the events of 9/11.” It is becoming so obvious that there is more to the story than we have been told and that the trail leads to the highest levels of the Bush administration, that there is no legitimate excuse for not being suspicious
On another note: Yesterday, one of the pathetic news networks (CNN or MSNBC), I forget which, had 2 guests discussing the very important issue of the new Supreme Court Justice nominee. One point I want to make is that you are never told anything at all about the “institutions” or “think tanks” that these “guests” come from. What is the Heritage Foundation or the American Enterprise Institute? Of course you never hear about the Project for a New American Century even though members of that group litter the administration and the TV news shows. The other thing I want to point out about this discussion…even though the guests were only on for about 2 minutes and even though one guest started to say something that sounded like he really wanted/needed to express, the host cut him off and told him that he “had to go!” What was so urgent? What did this network have time for when they could not devote more time to the vital issue of the selection of a Supreme Court Judge? They “had” to address some new female teenage golf pro (Michele Wie). Yes, golf was more important to this 24 hour per day “news” network than the selection of a Supreme Court justice! As a matter of fact CNN is doing a piece on her as I write this
My web site is littered with my comments about how (non state sponsored) terrorism is not a big threat to us. I keep saying that the biggest threat to us is environmental terrorism in the forms of polluting and global warming, are a much greater threat to life on Earth. I have also pointed out how this fact makes George W. Bush, by virtue of his environmental policies, the greatest terrorist on earth. Well, another, and I repeat, another report came out proving my point. Where is the media on this issue? Nowhere. For this reason they are complicit in the crimes against life on Earth being committed by our government
One last note I scanned the 3 criminal news networks at the top of the 10 o’clock hour (ET) last night just to see what their priorities are. CNN was, to their credit, talking about one of the Bush administration spy scandals hitting the fan; I don’t remember which one, there are so many to keep track of! MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough (former Republican Congressman who had a female intern die in his office with none of the media fanfare that Gary Condit, who did nothing wrong, had to go through, turned host of a “news” program) was discussing one of the murdered women stories that have no impact on any Americans other than the friends and families involved. FOX News was also addressing this nationally non-vital issue of a murdered woman. National “news” networks? Who are they kidding? Apparently many people! Think about it! – Jesse, Editor, TvNewsLIES.org
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Former Bush Official Indicted in Probe
By Michael J. Sniffen / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration's former chief procurement official was indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury on charges of making false statements and obstructing investigations into high-powered Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
The five felony counts in the indictment charge David H. Safavian with obstructing Senate and executive branch investigations into whether he aided Abramoff in efforts to acquire property controlled by the General Services Administration around the nation's capital.
Both probes looked into an August 2002 golf outing that Safavian took to Scotland with Abramoff, former Christian Coalition executive Ralph Reed, Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, and others.
Safavian, a former lobbying associate of Abramoff, is the first person beyond Abramoff himself to face charges arising out of the probe of the lobbyist, who is a major Republican fundraiser with close ties to GOP leaders in Congress.
The indictment covers May 16, 2002, until January 2004, when Safavian was chief of staff at the General Services Administration, the government housekeeping agency. From November 2004 until late last month when he resigned three days before his arrest, he was the government's top procurement officer, in the Office of Management and Budget.
The indictment said Safavian falsely told a GSA ethics officer, a GSA inspector general's agent and the Senate Indian Affairs Committee that Abramoff had no business with GSA at the time the Scotland trip was being planned. It said Safavian concealed that Abramoff did have business with GSA before the trip and that Safavian was aiding him in dealing with GSA.
Barbara Van Gelder, Safavian's lawyer, said Safavian would plead not guilty. "If this case did not involve Mr. Abramoff, the government would never have indicted Mr. Safavian on these charges," she added. "We believe ... Mr. Safavian will be acquitted of all charges."
Each count carries a potential top penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
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