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Andrew Tilghman

Evidence-Dumping Lobbyist Pleads Guilty in Weldon Probe

Andrew Tilghman | July 25, 2008, 4:01PM

The federal investigation of former Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA) has nabbed another one.

Pleading guilty in federal court today was Cecelia Grimes, Weldon's very good friend and a former lobbyist.

Grimes admitted to destruction of evidence and could face up to 20 years in prison, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

The case goes back to October 2006, just after the feds began investigating Weldon for alleged nepotism, particularly concerning the lucrative lobbying contracts awarded to his inexperienced daughter.

Grimes admitted today that just a few days after the feds served her with a subpoena, she stuffed a stack of documents into a trash bag and put it on the curb outside her home for pick up. The FBI later retreived those documents, which included records of her travel plans and Weldon's campaign.

She also told a federal judge that she threw her Blackberry into a trash can at a fast food restaurant in Pennsylvania so the FBI could not recover the emails stored on it.

The court documents refer to Weldon only as "Representative A."

Weldon's chief of staff pleaded guilty last year

This federal investigation probably contributed to Weldon's failure to win reelection in 2006, But so far, none of this seems to be getting in the way of Weldon's new career as an international arms dealer.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (3) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (5)
Topics: Curt Weldon, Justice Department

John Ashcroft

Torture Memos Makes DOJ Sound Like Mob Attorney

Andrew Tilghman | July 25, 2008, 1:49PM

The more we see of the back-and-forth between the Department of Justice and the CIA regarding the torture program a few years ago, the more it becomes clear that everyone knew it was a little shady.

The American Civil Liberties Union yesterday released three previously undisclosed memos about the torture program from 2002 to 2004, which it obtained as part of its ongoing FOIA lawsuit with the DOJ seeking records on the treatment of prisoners in U.S. custody overseas.

One memo in particular appears to instruct the CIA in what agents should say if anyone raised the specter of criminal charges. For example: "To violate the statute, an individual must have the specific intent to inflict severe pain or suffering. ...absence of specific intent negates the charge of torture."

"It read like an attorney preparing a mob client for a confrontation with the police," said Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University. "Why on earth would you instruct interrogators on the meaning of 'specific intent' unless you wanted to coach them as to what to say when confronted?"

The very existence of this extensive, documented legal exchange between the DOJ and the CIA underscores the intelligence officials' concern about the legality of their own program, said Herman Schwartz, a former civil rights attorney and law professor at American University.

"The CIA people knew this was shaky stuff -- that's why they kept asking for memos from the Justice Department saying this was OK. They were very scared they would have to face up to this in some way later on," Schwartz said in a telephone interview.

An August 2002 memo from DOJ came about the same time the attorney general had laid out a definition of torture so narrow as to only involved things like "organ failure." Specifically, the CIA wanted to know, how does that apply in practice?

Then-Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee wrote to the CIA: "You have asked for this office's views on whether certain proposed conduct would violate the prohibition against torture found ...[in] United States Code."

Virtually all of the "proposed conduct" was redacted with large black marks covering whole pages. In fact, more than 80 percent of the 23 pages released to the ACLU were blacked out, apparently concealing the names of agents involved in the program and the specific techniques in question.

The memo spells out a legal logic that rests not on the facts of what may occur during interrogation, but the "defendant's" state of mind (the defendant being anyone who may actually get charged with torture).

...If a defendant acts with good faith belief that his actions will not cause such suffering, he has not acted with specific intent. A defendant acts in good faith when he has an honest belief that his actions will not result in severe pain or suffering.

So, hypothetically, an interrogator gets up in front of a grand jury and tells them he had the "good faith" belief that a few hours of waterboarding was not going to cause "severe pain or suffering."

What if a jury doesn't buy it? The memo goes on to say: "Although an honest belief need not be reasonable, such a belief is easier to establish where there is reasonable basis for it."

About six months later, Tenet sent a memo to the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel informing them that the interrogators were keeping copious records.

"In each interrogation session in which enhanced Technique is employed, a contemporaneous record shall be created setting forth the nature and duration of each technique employed, the identities of those present."

Turley called that a "C-Y-A memo."

It wasn't long after that that then-Attorney General John Ashcroft rescinded the key 2002 memos that provided hte legal foundation for the torture programs.

Maybe the most important question raised by these new memos involves the records of torture sessions that Tenet referred to.

"We know there are records of what happened. Then the next question is: Will they come to light and to what extent?" Schwartz said. "I have to wonder what would be the significance of a Democratic president? If he puts his person in as head of the CIA and he puts his person in at head of DOJ? Will they as most executives are likely to do, continue to cover up what happened because of bureaucratic imperative? Or the alternative -- to provide this to Congress?"

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (13) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (11)
Topics: John Ashcroft, Torture

Oil

State IG to Probe Deals Between Texas Oil Firm and Iraqi Kurds

Andrew Tilghman | July 25, 2008, 9:24AM

Publicly, the U.S. State Department said it was discouraging U.S. oil companies from forging deals with Iraqi Kurds last year.

But privately, Bush administration officials may have sent different signals.

Now the State Department's Inspector General has launched an investigation into what exactly was said to whom.

The New York Times reports:

The State Department's internal watchdog division will investigate allegations that department officials did nothing to prevent a Texas oil company with close ties to President Bush from concluding an oil deal with the Kurdistan regional government that undermined both American policy and the Iraqi central government.
The Kurds' deal last year with Hunt Oil Company of Dallas -- and similar contracts between the Kurds and other energy companies -- have infuriated the Iraqi government, which has called them "illegal" attempts to usurp Baghdad's authority.

American officials have also stated publicly that the contracts undermine Baghdad's fragile central government and that they have discouraged such deals until the Iraqi government passes a national oil law.

But earlier this month a Congressional committee released internal e-mail messages and documents from the State Department and Hunt Oil that suggested that State Department officials did not try to dissuade Hunt Oil from signing the deal with the Kurds.

This week, the acting inspector general of the State Department, Harold W. Geisel, disclosed in a letter to lawmakers, which was also provided to The New York Times, that he had "initiated a review of the responses provided to the Congress recently on the issues surrounding oil contracts, oil field development and U.S. policy in Iraq."

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (5) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (4)
Topics: Oil

John McCain

Sheunemann Helped Pakistan Get In Good Favor With U.S.

Andrew Tilghman | July 24, 2008, 4:25PM

A story in the New York Times today reports that the U.S. is planing to buy a new fleet of F-16 jet fighters for Pakistan.

Apparently the Bush administration wants to use nearly $230 million in "counter-terrorism money." That's an awfully broad definition of counter terrorism.

Nevertheless, the report underscores how U.S. relations with Pakistan have come around 180 degrees since Sept. 11, 2001, when the U.S. still had harsh words and economic sanctions for the country that had tested a nuclear bomb in 1998. Back then we used to consider President Pervez Musharraf a military dictator who'd overthrown a democratically elected government.

It was a small team of lobbyists who helped lead Pakistan back into our good graces. We told you last week that Stephen Payne was among them. And we were reminded this week that Randy Scheunemann, Sen. John McCain's top foreign policy adviser, was also helping out a few years ago, too.

Scheunemann was head of the two-man lobbying shop called Orion Strategies back in 2002 when they signed on to lobby for International Business & Energy Development Corp., a firm run by Payne.

According to lobbying disclosure reports, Scheunemann was "monitoring" a bill providing assistance to Pakistan.

Specifically, the bill -- which ultimately passed -- said any law that "prohibits direct assistance to a country whose duly elected head of government was deposed by decree or military coup shall not apply with respect to Pakistan."

These days, Scheunemann likes to talk tough about dealing with the "situation" in Pakistan.

Between 2001 and 2003, Scheunemann's firm was paid about $80,000 for its work for International Business & Energy Development Corp, lobbying disclosure reports show.

Scheunemann stopped working for Payne on Pakistan-related issues in 2003, according to Senate lobbing disclosure reports.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (2) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (8)
Topics: John McCain, Randy Scheunemann, Stephen Payne

Intelligence

Former Chief Spook Tapped For House Ethics Review Board

Andrew Tilghman | July 24, 2008, 3:03PM

From The Hill:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Thursday announced joint appointments to a landmark ethics review board that for the first time will allow private citizens to review allegations against members.

Still, four out of six members of the board for the newly created Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) will be former members of Congress, including former CIA Director Porter Goss (R-Fla.), who will serve as co-chairman.

The other board members include Rep. David Skaggs (D-Colo.), who will serve as chairman of the board, former Rep. Yvonne Brathwaite Burke (D-Calif.), former Rep. Karan English (D-Ariz.), former House Chief Administrative Officer Jay Eagen and Allison Hayward, the former chief of staff to Bradley Smith, a Republican-appointed former chairman of the Federal Election Commission.
...
The OCE will conduct preliminary reviews of ethics complaints and make recommendations to the full ethics committee for further investigation and action. Some watchdogs have criticized its lack of subpoena powers.

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Topics: Intelligence

Torture

DOJ: Torture Is Legal With "Good Faith"

Andrew Tilghman | July 24, 2008, 2:06PM

From the AP:

The Justice Department in 2002 told the CIA that its interrogators would be safe from prosecution for violations of anti-torture laws if they believed "in good faith" that harsh techniques used to break the will of prisoners, including waterboarding, would not cause "prolonged mental harm."

The newly released but heavily censored memo approved the CIA's harsh interrogation techniques method by method, but warned that if the circumstances changed, interrogators could be running afoul of anti-torture laws.

The Aug. 1, 2002 memo signed by then-Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee was issued the same day he wrote a memo for then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales defining torture as only those "extreme acts" that cause pain similar in intensity to that caused by death or organ failure. That memo was later rescinded by the Justice Department.

Late Update: The ACLU has posted the memos here.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (20) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (4)
Topics: Torture

BMW

Malkin's "JAW-Dropping Political Miracle" Provides Big Fees For BMW Direct

Andrew Tilghman | July 24, 2008, 12:41PM

The Devil is in the details, as they say.

Conservative columnist Michelle Malkin was breathlessly celebrating in yesterday's New York Post about how much money Republican Congressional candidate William Russell has been raising this year.

Never heard of him? You're not alone. Russell is challenging Rep. John Murtha for his Pennsylvania House seat, which is considered among the safest Democratic seats in the country.

Malkin was pointing out Russell's "JAW-dropping political miracle" in campaign fundraising. Indeed, Russel has raised almost $1 million so far this election cycle, a huge pull no doubt.

But guess who helps Russell run his massive, nationwide direct-mail fundraising efforts? Our old friends over at BMW Direct.

Russell is perfect for BMW Direct, which often raises tons of cash for candidates who look good on glossy mailers but ultimately spends nearly all the money raised on expenses related to the fundraising effort itself.

Lt. Col. William Russell is a clean-cut Army veteran who served in Iraq, the Gulf War and at the Pentagon on 9/11, according to a campaign Web site.

Malkin claims there's been a "great media wall of silence around Russell's upstart campaign." OK, let's break that silence and take a close look.

In the most recent quarter Russell raised $669,534, almost all from out-of-state donors who presumably are on BMW Direct's list of self-styled conservatives with a good track record of responding to direct-mail fundraising.

At the same time, he spent $442,990, almost all of it on expenses related to the direct mail effort and paid to BMW Direct and its affiliates (some of which share the same downtown Washington office).

The only expenses that appear to be spent on an actual campaign totaled about $20,000 for Web site design, a low-budget video and a campaign consultant based in Pennsylvania rather than Washington.

He reports having $269,953 in cash on hand. But he also reports debts totaling $242,521 -- almost all for direct mail expenses to BMW Direct and its vendors.

So that leaves him only about $27,431 ahead -- not much for a guy who's raised a total of nearly $1 million this election cycle.

Meanwhile, Malkin suggests that Murtha is in trouble since he only "scraped together a measly $119,000." But Murtha isn't running a direct mail campaign with BMW Direct, so he actually has money left over to spend on things like renting a campaign office back in the 12th District.

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Topics: BMW

AEY, Inc.

Prosecutors Level New Charges Against Florida Arms Dealer AEY

Andrew Tilghman | July 23, 2008, 6:49PM

Federal prosecutors in Miami have stepped up their case against AEY Inc. and the 22-year-old arms dealer accused of selling shoddy and illegal ammo to the U.S. government to supply the Afghan Army.

Prosecutors have filed a superseding indictment, adding a stack of wire fraud charges to the initial case that led to the arrest of Efraim Diveroli and three other business associates on June 19 for violations of the Arms Control Export Act.

There's no new allegations from the previous indictment, but the U.S. attorney in Miami decided to hang wire fraud charges on each of the money transfers the firm received from the U.S. Army.

Diveroli now faces 13 counts of wire fraud, which under federal law carry a possible sentence of up to 20 years in prison.

This all makes getting arrested for drunk driving and accused of domestic violence seem like no big deal.

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Topics: AEY, Inc., Efraim Diveroli

John Sweeney

Somebody's Snitching To The Feds For John Sweeney Probe

Andrew Tilghman | July 23, 2008, 6:39PM

There's no doubt that the federal investigation of former Rep. John Sweeney (R) and his lobbying pal from upstate New York is delving into the time Congressman Kick-Ass spent on the House Appropriations Committee.

And freshly unsealed court papers show the prosecutors have a key informant who's helping to build their case. Who that is remains unclear.

The new disclosures came after the Albany Times Union convinced a federal judge to unseal documents related to the raid conducted on Powers & Company, the lobbying firm, in June.

Investigators appear to be looking for evidence that Sweeney may have steered federal money toward Powers' clients or that Powers provided favors for Sweeney's ex-wife, Gayle Sweeney, who worked for the lobbying office when Sweeney was in the House.

The search warrant affidavits show prosecutors are digging through Sweeney-related records dating back to 2001, when he landed a coveted seat on the appropriations committee. Others from that committee have been targeted in the broader investigation of convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who was one of Sweeney's travel buddies at the time.

And the fact the raid was orchestrated through the Department of Justice's Washington-based Public Integrity Unit rather than the local U.S. Attorney in New York gives a further clue into what the focus might be.

The DOJ didn't fight release of papers showing what the FBI agents seized. But they did urge the judge to block release of their initial request for the search warrant, which spelled out their justification for the raid -- and named their informant.

"Unsealing the affidavit would reveal the identify of a cooperating witness whose help is important to the ongoing investigation," wrote Public Integrity Unit Chief William Welch II in a letter to the Albany judge.

The federal agents in the raid seized documents and computer equipment with records dating back to January 2001. Specifically, they were looking for "communications in any form" between Powers' office and Sweeney, his Congressional office or staffers.

The warrants also sought "any thing of value paid to or received by Gayle Sweeney or John Sweeney ... (including) gifts, loans, offers of employment, contracts, billings, financial transactions, travel, tickets, souvenirs or photographs of sporting or entertainment events, or dining at restaurants."

The documents also suggest that prosecutors had previously received materials from Powers & Company and may have suspected some sort of tampering. The agents sought "the author, timing, extent and purpose of modifications of electronic data provided to the FBI on our about March 28, 2008'".

Also listed among the items seized was a letter from Sweeney to President Bush. What was that doing in Bill Powers' office?

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Topics: Jack Abramoff, John Sweeney

Stephen Payne

McCain Adviser Tied To Bush Library Schemer Through Latvian Lobby

Andrew Tilghman | July 23, 2008, 3:30PM

Sen. John McCain's campaign has admitted that his top foreign policy adviser has lobbied for not two but three different firms run by cash-for-access deal-maker Stephen Payne.

But the McCain camp insists that Randy Scheunemann did not lobby McCain himself on "any issues relating to" Stephen Payne.

That might come as a relief to McCain supporters, since Payne was caught on video a few weeks ago telling a Kazakh politician he could set up high-level meetings at the White House in exchange for big donations to the future George W. Bush Presidential Library fund.

But is it true?

Let's go back to 2001. That's when Scheunemann and Payne first met, according to the McCain camp.

Scheunemann was lobbying on behalf of the government of Latvia. Latvia was seeking entry into NATO. And McCain was among the lawmakers he targeted. In fact, Scheunemann and McCain both traveled to Latvia in August 2001, where McCain met with an slew of Latvian officials and talked about NATO expansion and U.S. policy with Sheunemann, according to lobbying documents filed with the U.S. Department of Justice.

Reader DG points out that it was just a few days later that McCain announced his support for the Baltic country's admission into NATO. (It was granted admission in 2004)

And what was Stephen Payne doing in Latvia?

According to his own firms' documents, a lot. One brochure said Payne's firm, Worldwide Strategic Partners, "led Lavia's efforts to become a NATO member." Another for his related firm, Worldwide Strategic Energy, said the same thing.

Payne has been Latvia's "honorary consul" in Texas, which is among the many business activities he conducts from the same office address in suburban Houston.

It looks like Payne and Scheunemann were on the same side of the issue, trying to convince people like McCain and other U.S. lawmakers to back Latvia's bid for NATO membership.

Payne doesn't always register his work for foreign countries in the Department of Justice database maintained under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

The McCain camp told us that Sheunemann and Payne met in Latvia in 2001. How exactly did they meet? Were they working together? Did McCain at any point meet Payne? Those are some of the questions we've asked the campaign. We'll let you know if and when they get back to us.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (2) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (3)
Topics: John McCain, Stephen Payne

Pentagon

Auditors Sought To Cover-Up Defense Contractor's Overbilling

Andrew Tilghman | July 23, 2008, 12:54PM

From the Washington Post:

Auditors at an oversight agency of the Pentagon were pressured by supervisors to skew their reports on a major defense contractor's work, hiding wrongdoing and charges of overbilling, according to an 80-page report from the Government Accountability Office.

The Defense Contract Audit Agency, which is charged with overseeing contractors for the Defense Department, made an upfront agreement with "a major aerospace company" to limit the scope of work and basis for an audit, the report said.

When the contractor, who is not named in the report, objected to the draft findings of the DCAA audit, managers at the audit agency assigned a new supervisor to the case and threatened the senior auditor with personnel action if "he did not delete findings from the report and change the draft audit opinion to adequate," according to the GAO report.

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Topics: Pentagon

Surveillance

Massive Domestic Spying Investigation Coming Soon?

Andrew Tilghman | July 23, 2008, 10:37AM

After Democrats failed to muster any substantive opposition to the Bush White House's overhaul of domestic spying laws just a few weeks ago, it would be a striking turn of events if the House leadership launched into a massive, multi-decade investigation of how the government has been monitoring its own citizens since the Cold War.

But that's what Salon speculates about today in a far-reaching report from Capitol Hill.

While reporting on domestic surveillance under Bush, Salon obtained a detailed memo proposing such an inquiry, and spoke with several sources involved in recent discussions around it on Capitol Hill. The memo was written by a former senior member of the original Church Committee; the discussions have included aides to top House Democrats, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Judiciary Committee chairman John Conyers, and until now have not been disclosed publicly.

That's pretty interesting. This Democratic leadership doesn't seem to have done anything over the past couple years to suggest it is about to launch a broad, sweeping investigation into highly sensitive national security-related issues. (They haven't even really questioned the president on his hugely unpopular Iraq policies).

Reporter Tim Shorrock reaches as far back as the Regean Administration and culls evidence of a secret and potentially illegal database maintained by the National Security Administration called "Main Core." The existence of such a database has been the subject of speculation for years, but never confirmed. This database would presumably be the focus of any large-scale congressional investigation.

The investigation under consideration would be rare in its scope, potentially encompassing both Republican and Democratic administrations.

During one recent discussion on Capitol Hill, according to a participant, a senior aide to Speaker Pelosi was asked for Pelosi's views on a proposal to expand the investigation to past administrations, including those of Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush. "The question was, how far back in time would we have to go to make this credible?" the participant in the meeting recalled.
That question was answered in the seven-page memo. "The rise of the 'surveillance state' driven by new technologies and the demands of counter-terrorism did not begin with this Administration," the author wrote. Even though he acknowledged in interviews with Salon that the scope of abuse under George W. Bush would likely be an order of magnitude greater than under preceding presidents, he recommended in the memo that any new investigation follow the precedent of the Church Committee and investigate the origins of Bush's programs, going as far back as the Reagan administration.

It's hard to think of any examples of a Congressional probe of the scope described here.

The Salon report notes that Democrats on the Hill may be reluctant to green-light the investigation because of their own party's complicity in approving certian surveillance techniques. Key lawmakers declined to comment for Salon's story, including Pelosi, Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Russ Feingold (D-WI).

However skeptical we may be, the idea sounds fascinating. It's hard to think of much more exciting than a parade of witnesses on Capitol Hill revealing how the government has been spying on all of us since the Cold War. We'd be sure to cover that gavel-to-gavel.

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Topics: Nancy Pelosi, Surveillance

Stephen Payne

McCain Adviser Found To Have Lobbied For Third Group Tied To Stephen Payne

Andrew Tilghman | July 22, 2008, 6:38PM

More evidence of ties between John McCain's top foreign policy adviser and Stephen Payne, the guy caught on video offering to arrange meetings with top White House officials in exchange for big donations to the future George W. Bush Presidential Library Fund.

We knew that Randy Scheunemann had worked for two of Payne's firms in recent years. Now the AP reports on a third:

International Business & Energy Development Corp., is the third of Payne's firms to emerge as paying money to Scheunemann. The payments from mid-2001 to mid-2003 totaled $80,000, for issues ranging from monitoring legislation concerning global energy developments to lobbying on a bill authorizing Bush to provide assistance to Pakistan and India, according to the Senate filings. The post-Sept. 11 legislation lifted the last remaining economic sanctions against Pakistan.

That brings the total paid by Payne's firms to McCain's adviser to about $130,000 since 2001.

The McCain campaign said Scheunemann has had no business relationship with Payne since July 2006 and has no knowledge of Payne's business activities since that time.

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Topics: Stephen Payne

Congress Freezes Funding For Cuba Group Accused of Theft

Andrew Tilghman | July 22, 2008, 5:14PM

From the Miami Herald:

Congress has put the U.S. Agency for International Development's $45 million Cuba program's 2008 funding on hold, following a series of troubling audits and cases of massive fraud, The Miami Herald has learned.

In a quest to get the funding hold lifted, U.S. AID on Friday ordered a bottoms-up review of all its Cuba democracy programs and suspended a Miami anti-Castro exile group that spent at least $11,000 of federal grant money on personal items.

Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., ordered a hold on the U.S. AID Cuba program funding last month, in part in response to a $500,000 embezzlement at the Center for a Free Cuba in Washington disclosed earlier this year, federal officials said.

Rep. Howard Berman continued to amp up the pressure today, saying the amount embezzled amounts to $700,000.

Berman's been pushing for a "fresh ideas" in the U.S. policy toward Cuba.

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Topics:

Stephen Payne

Investor Document Says Payne Was Key Bush Campaign Operative

Andrew Tilghman | July 22, 2008, 2:45PM

We've gotten a hold of a new document from Worldwide Strategic Energy, one of the numerous firms run by Stephen Payne.

We've been writing a lot about Payne since he was caught on video offering to arrange meetings with high-level Bush administration officials conditioned on big donations to the future George W. Bush Presidential Library fund.

This 44-page document, which was previously obtained by the Times of London and the blog Majikthise, was distributed to investors about two years ago and outlines the people involved with Worldwide Strategic Energy and how they planned to make money.

Payne is listed as the president and chief executive officer and touts some connections to the Bush administration that we hadn't heard before.

Spending hundreds of days on the road for the Bush/Cheney Campaign in 2000 and 2004, Mr. Payne was part of a small team of five Bush operatives, including former White House Chief of Staff Andy Card, who coordinated the campaigns' efforts for the three Presidential debates held that year.

The document includes a photo, above, showing Payne in traditional Kazakh garb alongside Timur Kulibayev, a billionaire and chairman of the board for KazMunaiGaz, the Kazakh oil and gas company (Kulibayev is also the Kazakh president's son-in-law), and Togrul Baglrov, executive vice president with the Moscow International Petroleum Club.

This particular document also offers some insight into what Payne and his business partners do. In short, they go into politically unstable countries and forge political deals for leasing the rights to drill for oil or natural gas. Once those deals are secured, they form "joint ventures with developing and drilling companies."

It's big money they are looking for:

In order to begin our lease acquisition phase of operations, WSE is seeking an Angel Investor round of funding of between $3,000,000 and $5,000,000.

If successful, investors can expect a massive return for the expected 20-year lifespan of a well, the document says. One example suggests a total of $773 million in total revenue (and that's calculated with oil at $50 a barrel).

The document is not dated, but appears to be no older than March 2006, based on its sources and references.

There are big players involved, according to this document.

One is a current White House official. Bush appointed Spencer E. Geissinger last year as Deputy Assistant to the President for Advance and Operations. Geissinger also served in a similar White House position under President George H.W. Bush as a Special Assistant to the President for Advance.

For Payne's firm, Geissinger is listed as an "advisory board member." A call to Geissinger's White House office was not immediately returned.

The firm Bracewell and Giulinai, which includes the former New York City mayor and has an office in Kazakhstan, is listed as the "Outside Strategic and Legal Counsel." A spokeswoman for the international law firm has not responded to our request for further information.

And, in keeping with our reporting from yesterday, the document also lists Sen. John McCain's top foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann, among its "executive team." The McCain camp responded yesterday.

Josh Crescenzi is also reported to have worked with the White House advance team under the current President Bush. For Worldwide Strategic Energy, Crescenzi is listed as a "Vice President, Administration and Controller." Crescenzi did not return a call for comment.

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Topics: Stephen Payne

Stephen Payne

McCain Camp Plays Down Foreign Policy Adviser's Links To Cash-For-Access Dealmaker

Andrew Tilghman | July 21, 2008, 7:12PM

John McCain's campaign responds to the AP regarding McCain aide Randy Scheunemann's previous work with Stephen Payne, the guy caught on video offering to set up meetings with White House officials in exchange for big donations to the George W. Bush Presidential Library fund.

The AP reports:

On Monday, the McCain campaign said that from 2002 to 2006, Scheunemann periodically engaged in consulting relationships with the two companies and that Scheunemann was never on the payroll of either firm, but that he was an occasional outside expert consultant.
Scheunemann did not lobby on any specific legislation on behalf of Worldwide Strategic Partners, said McCain campaign spokesman Brian Rogers.

In regard to Caspian Alliance, Scheunemann arranged several informational meetings for Payne with Department of State and NSC officials following Caspian energy issues, but Scheunemann did not lobby on specific legislation or projects, said Rogers.

Scheunemann did not lobby McCain on Caspian energy issues or any other issue related to Payne, the McCain campaign spokesman added.

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Topics: John McCain, Stephen Payne

Stephen Payne

Homeland Security Adviser Offering Cash-For-Access Deal Worked With McCain's Foreign Policy Adviser

Andrew Tilghman | July 21, 2008, 3:55PM

Before last week, we'd never heard of Worldwide Strategic Partners and Stephen Payne, the (former) Homeland Security adviser who was caught on video soliciting big donations for the future George W. Bush Presidential Library fund while offering to arrange access to top White House officials.

But Randy Scheunemann, Sen. John McCain's top foreign policy adviser, has known him -- and been working with his business associates -- for years.

Worldwide Strategic Partners was one of Scheunemann's lobbying clients back in 2002, when Scheunemann worked for the lobbying firm Orion.

And more recently, Scheunemann was lobbying for a group called the Caspian Alliance. That group was one of Scheunemann's four registered lobbying clients in 2005 and 2006, and paid him a total of $40,000.

The Caspian Alliance was formed by Payne's business associate, Houston lawyer Brian Ettinger, to "specialize in pushing the interests and advising American oil groups active in the former Soviet republics that overlook the Caspian Sea (Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan)," according to a 2006 report in the Paris-based Intelligence Online, which we found in the Nexis news database.

Ettinger has worked with Payne at Worldwide Strategic Partners along with other ventures and currently shares office space with Payne at the firm's Houston office.

And the Caspian Alliance uses the same Houston address as Payne's Worldwide Strategic Partners on lobbying forms filed with the Senate.

One lobbying form for the Caspian Alliance lists several people working on its behalf, including including Ettinger, Payne's former business partner Gary Polland and Ari Storch with Artemis Strategies.

Payne is among the founders of Atremis Strategies, a lobbying firm which has had a partnership with the Caspian Alliance. Artemis Strategies was founded in 2003 by Payne, Ettinger and others including Timothy F. Powers, formerly deputy director of the Republican National Committee's congressional affairs and strategic planning operation and member of the Bush-Cheney transition team, according to a March 13, 2003 report in the Washington Post.

Payne was recently caught bragging about his close ties with Scheunemann, according to the Times of London. The British newspaper took an undercover video of Payne talking to a Kazakh politician about a potential deal. On the tape, Payne said Scheunemann has been "working with me on my payroll for five of the last eight years," according to a report in the Times.

The Times described the Caspian Alliance as a "subsidiary" of Worldwide Strategic Energy, of which Payne is also president. TPMmuckraker found that many of the same people are involved with both the Caspian Alliance and Worldwide Strategic Partners, but could not independently verify the nature of the relationship between the two firms.

A reporter for the blog Majikthise apparently obtained a 44-page document from Worldwide Strategic Energies that featured Scheunemann prominently, including the above photo. The reporter, Lindsay Beyerstein, said the document was a prospectus distributed to potential investors and listed Schuenemann among the firm's executive team, along with Major General Lincoln Jones III, a former executive at Enron.

The Times also said it obtained a similar document.

Neither the McCain campaign nor Worldwide Strategic Partners responded to requests for comment today.

Late Update: The McCain campaign responded late Monday.