Waxman to Leave Committee Whose Powers He Abused

Congressman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) has upset the House seniority system to chair the Energy and Commerce Committee, a move that will require him to step down as chairman of the investigative committee whose powers he abused while helping his trial lawyer friends harass Blackwater.

Longtime loyal Waxman staffer Philip Schiliro (pictured at right) is moving up Pennsylvania Avenue, where President-Elect Barack Obama has named him chief of White House congressional relations. Schiliro is leaving as the ultra-partisan staff director of the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, from which he ran the anti-Blackwater hearings in partnership with trial lawyers as they sued the company.

Within two weeks of trial lawyer Daniel Callahan writing to Waxman requesting partisan attacks on Blackwater, Schiliro told the Washington Post that he planned to focus the committee investigations on Iraq, contracting, and the response to Hurricane Katrina - coincidentally the exact issues that had generated controversy for Blackwater. The Post noted at the time that when run by the Republicans under the chairmanship of Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.), the Committee had a "relatively bipartisan tone." Schiliro turned it into an ultra-partisan attack machine.

Report: War Profiteer Defeated in Federal Court

We're hearing out of the US Federal Court of the Fourth Circuit in Richmond that a federal judge has rejected the trial lawyers' suit against Blackwater for the terrorist ambush in Fallujah, and has told the parties to settle their differences out of court.

This is a huge blow for ambulance chasing trial lawyer Dan Callahan (pictured), who had shell companies set up in North Carolina in the names of four deceased Blackwater contractors whom Islamist insurgents ambushed, murdered and mutilated in 2004. Via the shell companies, which he represented as "estates," Callahan was hoping to pocket many millions of dollars by taking advantage of the terrorists' attack on the Blackwater men. He persuaded several grieving members of the deceased men's families to go along, blaming Blackwater instead of the terrorists for the deaths, and holding out the prospect of lots of money from a court decision.

The trial lawyer is going to have to settle for a lot less now - if anything at all - after spending millions of dollars in venture capital in hopes of profiting from the atrocities.

It's also a big blow to Congressman Henry Waxman (D-Cal.), who opened up his "investigation" of Blackwater at Callahan's request, had Callahan's anti-Blackwater clients testify before Congress as expert witnesses, and followed the trial lawyer's script in holding the hearings and leaking confidential documents to the media.

Of course, this blogger's opinion that Dan Callahan is a sleaze is, indeed, an opinion, and is therefore protected speech. I'll be sure to post links to legal documents and news reports as soon as they're online.

CBO Fingers Waxman As Source of False Information

Congressman Henry Waxman's office is the source of the false information about how much Blackwater security contractors in Iraq are paid. That's not simply this blogger's view - it's a statement in a new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report on private contractors in Iraq. The Senate Budget Committee commissioned the report.

During October 2, 2007 hearings, the staff of House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Waxman prepared a memorandum to committee members, stating that Blackwater security personnel in Iraq were costing $455,000 per person per year, "over six times more than the cost of an equivalent US soldier." Blackwater CEO Erik Prince sharply disputed the figure, which several congressmen - including and especially Waxman - repeated during the hearing and in subsequent interviews with the media.

Waxman made the statements as part of a favor he did for a trial lawyer who stands to make millions by discrediting and suing Blackwater. The liberal website ProPublica.org says Waxman's strategy is to discredit the company to "make it ineligible for future federal contracts."

The New York Times, Washington Post and other news outlets uncritically repeated the misleading figures, adding to the falsehood by stating that the figure was what the individual contractors were being paid. This blog reported on the falsehood on the day of the hearing. nearly a year ago.

The CBO report, issued last month, points directly to the source of the falsehood. In footnote 22 of page 14 of the report, the CBO said that the critics' "figures appear to come from a memorandum to members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Additional Information About Blackwater USA (October 1, 2007), http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20071001121609.pdf."

"Those figures, however, are not appropriate for comparing the cost-effectiveness of contracting the security function or performing it using military personnel," according to the CBO. The $455,000 a year figure comes from a daily billing rate of $1,222 a day. "The figure of $1,222 a day represents the contractor's billing rate, not the amount paid to the contractor's employees. The billing rate is greater than the employee's pay because it includes the contractor's indirect costs, overhead, and profit," the CBO said. This cannot be compared to what a U.S. soldier costs the taxpayer because of many other costs involved.

The CBO backs up Prince's contention at the 2007 hearing that the costs include equipping and supplying the security personnel, and paying for equipment damaged or destroyed by insurgents or the US military. That equipment includes several helicopters the company lost to hostile fire. It is not possible to insure helicopters in war zones; Blackwater pays for the losses out of its profit and overhead.

It is rare for the CBO - an independent, nonpartisan auxiliary of Congress - to point to congressmen or congressional staff as the sources of misleading information, so the observation in the report is particularly important.

Senator Webb Won't Back Waxman; Says Blackwater Should Still Compete for Contracts

Senator Jim Webb won't back Congressman Henry Waxman's call for the US government to cancel Blackwater's contracts.

Moonbat writer Jeremy Scahill buttonholed politicians at the Democrat National Convention this week for a left-wing website. While getting Waxman to make his unprecedented call to cut off Blackwater - and receiving some praise for his own work against the company - Scahill didn't get Senator Webb to say the same.

To the contrary: Despite all his criticism of the company, Webb says he thinks Blackwater should still compete for contracts. Here's the dialogue:

JEREMY SCAHILL: "Do you think that, though, that Senator Obama should cancel Blackwater’s contract with the State Department, because it will be there if he wins? What should he do on Blackwater specifically?"

SEN. JIM WEBB: "I’m not—I mean, I’m not in a position right now to say that Blackwater’s contract specifically should be cancelled. I think all of them should be aggressively reviewed and, you know, have standards put on them, and I think Blackwater, like other companies, ought to compete."

Waxman Joins Moonbat Writer and Calls for Obama to Cancel Blackwater Contracts

Congressman Henry Waxman, the California Democrat who has abused his committee chairmanship to help a trial lawyer make millions in a suit against Blackwater, is now calling on Barack Obama to have the US cancel its contracts with the company.

Waxman made the statement in league with moonbat writer Jeremy Scahill for a leftwing website.

In his commentary, Scahill appears upset that Senator Obama is not for an immediate pullout from Iraq. "Obama’s Iraq policy in reality is one of downsizing and rebranding the occupation, not entirely ending it," he says. That would be good news for Blackwater, which is needed to provide security as US troops pull out.

Waxman tells Scahill that he thinks Blackwater is doing a "very poor" job in Iraq, and promises to "investigate" the company even more. He also praises Scahill, saying, "And so, they’re going to be investigated much further by the Congress and people in the administration and good people like you on the outside."

Waxman says Blackwater has not "lived up" to its Worldwide Personal Protective Services (WPPS) contract in Iraq - an odd comment because the company has been universally praised for its stunning 100 percent success record in keeping Americans safe.

Even Senator Obama has said that he thinks Blackwater's "getting a bad rap." And Senator Jim Webb (D-Va.), another Blackwater critic, would not back Waxman when Scahill asked him to.

So Waxman is putting himself out on the extreme fringe with his comments - and his praise of one of Blackwater's goofier critics.

Congressmen Accuse Waxman of Blocking Probe of Corrupt Colleagues

Congressman Henry Waxman (pictured), who has raised eyebrows by doing favors for a trial lawyer with a business interest in trashing Blackwater, now stands accused by two other lawmakers of blocking a probe into congressional corruption.

Reps. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Mark Souder (R-IN) have filed a complaint with the House Ethics Committee over a published report that a mortgage company "gave illegal mortgages prohibited by House rules to members of Congress, congressional staff and other officials," Fox Business reports.

The lawmakers say that Waxman, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, "is ignoring their demands for an investigation into cheap, VIP mortgages allegedly given by Countrywide Financial to House staff members and elected officials."

Issa and Sounder went to the House Ethics Committee after Waxman twice declined to pursue the issue, saying that it isn't the duty of his panel to investigate cases involving alleged corruption of his colleagues and their aides.

SBA Memo Does Not Accuse Blackwater

You wouldn't know it by Congressman Henry Waxman's spin when he released a memo to the press, but the Small Business Administration Inspector General did not accuse Blackwater of improper behavior.

A reporter for the Virginian-Pilot (a paper that has long been critical of the company) actually read the memorandum and reports, "The memo, written by Glenn Harris, counsel to SBA inspector general Eric Thorsen, refers to 'potential misrepresentations by Blackwater' but does not accuse the Moyock, N.C.-based firm of breaking federal laws or improperly obtaining contracts."

Waxman postured in a written statement that Blackwater “misled contracting officials who in turn ignored blatant warning signs. It is deplorable that no one ever looked out for the interests of the federal taxpayer.” He said it as fact, when that's not what the Inspector General said at all.

Waxman Strategy: Make Blackwater Ineligible for Federal Contracts

As he continues to hammer away at the linchpin that keeps US diplomatic activity secure and the troops resupplied in wars on the other side of the world, Congressman Henry Waxman is revealing his strategy.

If he can't discredit the job Blackwater is doing - with its 100 percent success record defending diplomats, aid workers, and visiting congressmen and senators from terrorist attack - Waxman thinks he can destroy the company by picking away at regulatory issues.

ProPublica.org describes what's happening: "Waxman appears to be taking a new tack: scrutinizing the contractor's employment practices to make it ineligible for future federal contracts."

"So far," says ProPublica.org, whose reporting is biased against the company, "Waxman's strategy seems to be working."

Waxman began his jihad against Blackwater in February 2007, at the behest of a California trial lawyer. The trial lawyer, Dan Callahan, is suing the company on behalf of shell companies that another trial lawyer set up in the names of four security guards whom terrorists murdered in 2004.

Sounds like a sleazy arrangement: A congressman using taxpayer dollars to discredit a defendant in a lawsuit on behalf of a private businessman, a trial lawyer, who stands to make millions by suing a private company that the congressman is pressuring the government to investigate. Too bad there's no accountability to stop such abuse.

Inspector General Faults SBA in 4 of 5 Findings, But Waxman Spins It to Blame Blackwater

The Inspector General of the Small Business Administration (SBA) has faulted the SBA in four out of five findings concerning Blackwater Worldwide.

Congressman Henry Waxman (D-Cal.) is alleging "waste, fraud and abuse" on his committee website, which contains a headline today worded to imply that the SBA has a major problem with Blackwater.

Blackwater is certain to take the blame in the headlines soon to be generated from the Waxman statement. Waxman generated the complaint to the SBA in March.

However, a look at the SBA Inspector General memorandum shows that of the five "findings," the government agency itself appears to be at fault in four of them.

In Finding 1, Blackwater and an affiliated company "may have" won contracts that were set-asides for small businesses, even though the company no longer qualified as a small business. It's pretty subjective and inconclusive, because of Blackwater's use of contractors versus employees in key areas to support the troops.

In Findings 2-5, the Inspector General blames the SBA itself - not Blackwater. Take a look at the original document and see for yourself: http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20080728141224.pdf.

Waxman spins the issue in a memorandum dated today, July 28, and titled: "SBA IG Finds Blackwater May Have Misrepresented Small Business Status." That's the gist of his complaint - he doesn't make an issue of the IG's four allegations against the SBA itself.

At the core of this argument is whether Blackwater can call its contractors "contractors," or whether it must designate them as "employees." The SBA IG report is littered with weasel words like "could have" and "potential," not daring to issue any definitive finding at all.

Waxman, as part of his work helping trial lawyers who stand to make millions from suing Blackwater, complained to the SBA, saying that the company shouldn't be allowed to call its contractors "contractors," but instead should call them "employees" so they can be taxed. Big Labor doesn't like how the law allows contractors either, because they can't be unionized and forced to pay dues to the union political machine.

The trial lawyers and labor unions are among the biggest campaign contributors to the very partisan Waxman's political party.

(Follow-on added at 5:08 PM: This blog broke the story of the SBA IG report. The first news report appearing on Google News was a McClatchy story written by Joseph Neff of the Raleigh News & Observer - the folks who gave the world the phony "news" about the Duke lacrosse team - posted at 4:27 PM. Standish posted the story first at 3:36 PM eastern time.)

Enemies List: Waxman Steals Page from Tricky Dick

Congressman Henry Waxman has stolen a page from Richard Nixon's playbook and is trying to use the Internal Revenue Service to go after his political enemies.

Near the top of Waxman's enemies list, Blackwater is the subject of the California Democrat's call for an IRS probe. Waxman has complained loudly about Blackwater's alleged Republican connections, and the fact that the company and its owner have given money to Republicans but not Democrats.

According to Politico, Waxman is "reviving a long-dormant congressional inquiry of the North Carolina-based security firm that has protected US personnel in Iraq," pressuring the IRS to go after the company. Not convinced that the IRS will be enough, Waxman is also leaning on the Labor Department and the Small Business Administration, we learn. This coming from a man who has already been accused of destroying the independent oversight system.

Meanwhile, we already know that Waxman has already been abusing his chairmanship by doing the bidding of a California lawyer who stands to make millions by suing Blackwater.

Blackwater is dismissing Waxman's latest headline-generating stunt. "Blackwater’s classification of its personnel is accurate, and Blackwater has always been forthcoming about this aspect of its business with its customer, the US government," company spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said. "The company regrets the Chairman’s decision to publicly air misleading information."

Next question: Will the IRS respond in a politicized way by answering Waxman's request? Or will it stay out of politics as it's supposed to?

Waxman Destroys Independent Oversight

Howard Krongard recently worked his last day as the State Department Inspector General, an event accompanied by some scathing remarks by the Wall Street Journal for Congressman Henry Waxman. From the article:

Howard Krongard... learned a hard lesson in the ways of modern Congressional "oversight." To wit, if you don't follow Henry Waxman's orders, he'll try to ruin you....

In July, Mr. Krongard testified before Mr. Waxman's House oversight committee [that]... he had inspected and found no evidence of human trafficking or human-rights violations [at the new US Embassy in Baghdad]. That's not what Mr. Waxman wanted to hear. In his opening statement, the California partisan insisted that State's approach to the inquiry was evidence of a "full bunker mentality."

As if on cue, "whistleblowers" emerged to accuse [Mr. Krongard]of being too cozy with top State officials, failing to pick up counterfeit computers in Afghanistan, and even of being a high-handed boss. The principal complainers were not under oath, nor did they offer much evidence. One accuser admitted that, "I have no proof, I want to make that clear it is just my opinion."

Democrats howled that Mr. Krongard had intervened in the audit of State Department books to help the department get a "clean" result. What really happened? He argued that the auditors should get extra time to complete their work -- a position supported both by the Office of Management and Budget and the Government Accountability Office.

Mr. Krongard was also said to have "impeded" a Justice Department probe into allegations of weapons smuggling by Blackwater Inc., the civilian contractor in Iraq. In fact, he was coordinating as far back as July on a civil audit of Blackwater contracts with the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. Later that month, he learned that employees in his office were cooperating with a criminal investigation by the US Attorney in North Carolina....

To avoid the conflict of parallel proceedings within the office, Mr. Krongard instructed the employee to "stop immediately" any further work until Mr. Krongard could speak to the US Attorney's office, which he offered to do right away. In short, he was doing his job, which is to make sure investigations aren't tainted by conflicts of interest. Mr. Waxman also made much of the fact that Mr. Krongard has a brother who served on a Blackwater advisory board. But Mr. Krongard immediately recused himself on learning of his brother's Blackwater tie.

Every specific charge against Mr. Krongard was examined and refuted in a report by the committee minority. And as Mr. Krongard noted, he was not a big political donor, had never met President Bush, and had never been to the White House except as a tourist. Yet none of these facts interfered with Mr. Waxman's public smears that Mr. Krongard's "partisan political ties" had led him to "halt investigations, censor reports, and refuse to cooperate with law-enforcement agencies."

Mr. Waxman doesn't much care if any of this is true, because his larger goal is to send a message to every Inspector General in government: They answer to him. Mr. Waxman expects them to tee up political scandals in the executive branch and serve as witnesses for his prosecution whether or not the facts support it. Mr. Krongard's mistake was telling the truth.

A Vast Conspiracy Indeed...

If you do a news search for "Blackwater" these days, you'll get a number of hits, though few are about private security contracting. One particular vein of stories is worth examining.

Burson-Marsteller, one of the world's largest public relations firms, has been hired by Blackwater. You don't have to be a right-wing militant to recognize that the company has had a lot of mud slung at it lately; anyone in their position would be well-advised to get some PR folks. But returning to the news...

Burson-Marsteller's Mark Penn (pictured), a pollster and political guru, has been working for Senator Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, a story that the Telegraph, among others, has picked up. That's turning up a lot of the red herring Blackwater stories. In fact, Burson-Marsteller is all over the news: they're working for the Labour Party of Britain, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, and a variety of other entities.

Why bring this all up? It's not simply to demonstrate the wiles of internet searches. In fact, it shows just one more way that Blackwater is a fairly normal member of the international business community (if in a somewhat more dangerous line of work). According to the Virginian-Pilot, Blackwater trains Virginia Beach police and sheriff’s deputies, a variety of other "cops, federal agents, servicemen, merchant marines, game wardens, forest rangers and security guards. They came from across the country and the globe, including Switzerland, Italy, Chile and Canada."

If Blackwater is part of the vast right-wing fascist-Zionist-Bushite conspiracy, it is a vast conspiracy indeed, wide enough to include the Canadians, the Arabs, the left wing of both the British and American political scenes, the game wardens and even the ever-neutral Swiss. Now if you really think all those folks are in cahoots, well, feel free to join the Foil Hat Conspiracy.

This would all be amusing, except that some people take such talk seriously, while others like Congressman Waxman pick it up and try to foist their nonsense on Congress. Ladies and gentlemen, let's try to stick to the facts.

Waxman is making up stories again

Congressman Henry Waxman (D-Cal.), who is using his chairmanship of a House oversight panel to help a trial lawyer sue Blackwater, is recycling his old allegations into new headlines again.

This time he's generating news by repeating old statements alleging that Blackwater's contractors aren't really contractors, and that the security provider should be paying tens of millions of dollars in back Social Security, Medicare and other federal taxes. He's now accusing the company of committing a crime.

As part of the Democrat Party's jihad against defeating al Qaeda and Iranian-backed terrorists in Iraq, Waxman is trying to bring financial ruin on the company that serves a linchpin to ensure secure US diplomatic operations in Baghdad. He's also helping a big California trial lawyer sue Blackwater for at least $20 million. The trial lawyers are the largest business group that funds Waxman's party. Lawyers in general give overwhelmingly to Democrats.

Congressional failure: 'Gaps in law' may not allow prosecutions

"Gaps in the law" are among the problems the Justice Department is finding in the prosecution of Blackwater guards involved in the September 16 shootout in Baghdad, where 17 civilians were killed.

The antics of a few showboating congressmen, including Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Cal., pictured), have followed the script of a California trial lawyer who stands to make millions suing Blackwater, and have diverted lawmakers from the real problem: Gaps in the laws that they themselves are responsible for writing.

The New York Times reports that those "gaps,"as well as State Department immunity for the Americans who risk their lives daily protecting diplomats and VIPs in Iraq, are complicating and might not even permit a prosecution of those allegedly involved.

We reported last November that, because of Congress's failure to update the law, the Justice Department might have to "twist" the facts of the case and even the law itself in order to prosecute the diplomatic security guards.

Why isn't Waxman going after non-performing contractor in his backyard?

Private contractors are wondering why Congressman Henry Waxman (D-Cal.) is so spun up about Blackwater, while he ignores the problems of a private contractor in his own political backyard.

So far he has singled out Blackwater and KBR, a former subsidiary of Halliburton that builds oil drilling facilities, pipelines, refineries and the like. The trial lawyer who asked Waxman to "investigate" Blackwater was open about the partisan nature of his attack, and KBR until earlier this year was associated with Vice President Dick Cheney, who used to be Halliburton CEO.

But what about Parsons Corporation of Pasadena, California? Parsons is located in the state's 29th congressional district - adjacent to the 30th, which Waxman has represented since before many of our soldiers were born.

Parsons is famous for being the recipient of Clinton Administration contracts to work disarmament projects in Russia.

Sources close to the Iraq contracting industry say that Parsons was "front loaded" a substantial amount of taxpayer cash to construct more than 120 medical clinics in Iraq. The sources say that Parsons completed only 20 of the clinics.

If true, that's a scandal. Nobody has accused Blackwater of failing to deliver on its contracts. And KBR has also built a great reputation in Iraq of doing what it has been contracted to do. Waxman chairs the committee responsible for government reform and oversight. He's been using it as a weapon against those he deems domestic political adversaries, while looking askance at allegations of failure to deliver among his partisan friends.

Parsons is one of the top political contributors in the construction sector. In the 2006 election cycle, Parsons Corp. gave slightly more money to Democrats than Republicans: 51 percent to 49 percent, according to OpenSecrets.org: a total of more than $472,000.

That's a lot more in one year than the Blackwater owner has ever given away to politicians.

Maybe someone should investigate Waxman. The House Ethics Committee would be a good place to start.

Waxman twists immunity issue

Congressman Henry Waxman has twisted the Blackwater immunity issue to mislead the public about what the State Department's post-Nisoor Square action really means. Brit Hume, Morton Kondracke, Charles Krauthammer and Fred Barnes discuss the issue on Fox News. A partial transcript follows:

HUME: The issue is Blackwater. And the irrepressible Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Congressman Henry Waxman, the investigator of California, is saying this in a letter to the Secretary of State: "This rash grant of immunity was an egregious misjudgment. It raises serious questions about who conferred the immunity, who approved it at the State Department, and what their motives were."

And what grant of immunity is he talking about? He is talking about a grant of what is called "use immunity" to certain of the Blackwater USA personnel who were involved in that shooting incident last month in which 17 Iraqi civilians were killed.

There is a big investigation going on. The State Department conducted its own, and immunity was granted. Now, is this all total immunity from prosecution? Who better to ask than Mort Kondracke?

KONDRACKE: This is called a "Garrity warning," and it refers to a 1967 Supreme Court case in which police officers and others public officials whoa re required to testify and give evidence or lose their jobs cannot have what they say be used against them.

HUME: Used against them, but it can be used against others, though.

KONDRACKE: But it can be used against others. So—

HUME: And they are not immune from prosecution, but they just cannot have their own words used against them.

KONDRACKE: right. That is the warning that was given in this case. Now some FBI people, and Jennifer Griffin quoted one of them last night on our air, saying that this is going to make an FBI investigation more difficult, especially because, apparently, some of these guards are using the Garrity, this limited immunity as an excuse not to talk to the FBI, which I do not think is allowed, but, nonetheless, that is what they're doing.

The bottom line here, it seems to me, is that these are professionally trained people. And they ought to be able to do both things that they are required to do—protect Americans, including Congressman, in Iraq, and not kill civilians at the same time.

And the early evidence suggests that on September 16 there was not enemy activity—we do not know this for sure—but there was not enemy activity and they shot up a bunch of civilians.

KRAUTHAMMER: We do not know that there was no enemy activity.

Commentators look at motives for attacking Blackwater

Fox News commentators discuss the motives of Congressman Waxman, and senators like John Kerry, for attacking Blackwater. Excerpts of the October 31 discussion between Brit Hume and Charles Krauthammer follow:

KRAUTHAMMER: One of three things happened [at the September 16 Nisoor Square incident]. Either there was shooting, in which case the response of the guards was appropriate. There was not, but they imagined or thought or had the impression that they were under attack, in which case it is a tragic error, it requires discipline, but not locking them away. And the third option is that these are psychopaths who are itching to kill civilians wantonly while running protection for Americans in convoys.

The way that Democrats have attacked these guards and this operations implies—I think it seems as if they are assuming that third option, and acting accordingly.

Look, this is a proxy way of attacking the U.S military. The Democrats learned 30 years ago that if you attack American soldiers in war the way that John Kerry did 30 years ago, you suffer politically for 30 years and more. And nobody does that in this war.

But these contractors, who are called "mercenaries," are fair game. And it is a way to actually do that.

I would call them honorable Americans earning a living in a way that is helping a war effort, and at high risk to themselves.

HUME: They are protecting the hindquarters of members of Congress who visit over there all the time, not one of whom has had a hair on his or her head harmed.

KRAUTHAMMER: That is absolutely right.

HUME: They have, however, lost some 30 of their own.

KRAUTHAMMER: I think 30 of their own have died.

Campaign corruption: Edwards attacks Blackwater as his trial lawyer former partner sues

Former Senator John Edwards, the trial lawyer now running for president, has made campaign statements attacking Blackwater - but has not revealed to the public that his friend and former law partner stands to make millions of dollars in pending litigation against the diplomatic security provider.

In an October 30 news release from his presidential campaign, Edwards called for a congressional investigation of State Department immunity for Blackwater contractors, and for a redoubling of Justice Department probes.

Edwards failed to disclose that one of the trial lawyers suing Blackwater, David Kirby, is his former partner. Kirby is the North Carolina end of the lawsuit brought forth by California trial lawyer Daniel Callahan. Callahan requested that Rep. Nancy Pelosi, now speaker, and Rep. Henry Waxman "initiate" hearings on Blackwater. Waxman complied, calling Callahan's clients as witnesses and has recycled the trial lawyer's legal briefs as congressional "investigative" documents.

Could Edwards be jumping on the anti-Blackwater issue to help his trial lawyer friend make money?

Schakowsky still silent on tax evasion issue

People are talking about why Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) remains so uncharacteristically quiet about the latest muck being thrown at Blackwater.

She has said nothing publicly about Rep. Henry Waxman's latest attack position: that Blackwater evades paying federal taxes by treating its contractors as contractors instead of as employees.

Schakowsky has never been this slow to pick up a new allegation against the protector of our diplomats in Iraq. Some people think it might be related to the fact that her husband is a convicted felon who committed bank fraud and tax evasion.

Latest to condemn Blackwater: Senators who accused US troops of atrocities and compared them to Nazis

Senator Dick Durbin has compared our troops to Nazis. Senator John Kerry said American soldiers are "terrorizing" women and children in Iraq. Now they're trashing the people who guard our diplomats in Iraq.

Durbin joins fellow Illinois Democrat Barack Obama in a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson, echoing Congressman Henry Waxman's allegation that Blackwater has evaded federal taxes by paying its contractors as contractors, and not as employees.

A muckraking blog is running what is purported to be the text of the Durban-Obama letter on October 26. For Kerry's latest, see the post below.

"We are writing to ask for a full investigation and audit of Blackwater USA’s practice of classifying many of its personnel as independent contractors instead of employees. As House Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman recently found, Blackwater may have enjoyed an unfair competitive advantage over other contractors if its classification were incorrect, and as a result, may owe the American taxpayer millions of dollars in Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment taxes," the letter says.

The most prominent critic of Blackwater in the Illinois congressional delegation, Rep. Jan Schakowsky, has been silent on the tax issue. Her husband is a convicted tax evader felon.

In a 2005 speech on the Senate floor (pictured), Durbin recanted his abuse of American military personnel, saying that "some may believe" he crossed the line (though not admitting so himself), wrapped himself in Abraham Lincoln and stressed how much he loves his country:

"Some may believe my remarks crossed the line. To them I extend my heartfelt apologies. There’s usually a quote by Abraham Lincoln that you can turn to in moments like this. Maybe this is the right one. Lincoln said “If the end brings me out right what is set against me won’t amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong ten thousand angels swarming at his right won’t make any difference.” In the end I don’t want anything in my public career to detract from my love of this country, my respect for those who serve it, and this great Senate. I offer my apologies for those who were offended by my words, I promise you that I will continue to speak out on the issues I think are important to the people of Illinois and to the Nation. Mr.President I yield to the floor."