[Chicago Tribune] A South Side man was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison Tuesday for illegally lobbying on behalf of top Zimbabwe government officials in an attempt to lift U.S. economic sanctions against the southern African nation..
Before the sentence was handed down, C. Gregory Turner, 72, made lengthy remarks in which he described his actions as "reckless" but well-meaning, saying he intended to help the destitute people of Zimbabwe and invoking everything from genocide in Rwanda to the recent social unrest in Ferguson, Mo.
"It was never my intention to circumvent the U.S. government," Turner told U.S. District Judge Elaine Bucklo. "I'm sorry for the mistake, but I am not sorry for attempting to help 14 million people who are starving."
But prosecutors said Turner's effort to appear humanitarian was a fraud. Friendly fire? Appears none of this would have seen the light of day had the 2008 transition team been operating on the same page. Revealing excerpt from Aug 2013 'Thinkprogress' article follows.
On or about December 15, 2008, a scheduler for President Elect Obama's transition team sent an email to another member of the transition team stating that State Representative A ''wants a phone call from [transition team officials] regarding a meeting he had last week in Zimbabwe. I am not sure who to pass this on to but it's the second time they have called.'' The transition team forwarded this email to the FBI based on its concerns that State Representative A had violated sanctions in his travels to Zimbabwe.
#1
The 'transition team's' concern over sanctions violation is a convenient cover for action. They likely called in the FBI to make the contacts simply go away. In doing so, the FBI found a thread they could not ignore.
#3
he described his actions as "reckless" but well-meaning, saying he intended to help the destitute people
This is different than the latest Ebola episode of Dw/oB on the African coast?
..Lawrence Eagleburger came in 12th place with only 0.31 percent.
Then, dead last, is John Kerry. He also got a total of only five votes and tied Eagleburger's 0.31 percent, but the magazine lists him at 13th.
This is all truly odd. Loop Fans may recall Eagleburger was only secretary of state for six weeks, from Dec. 8, 1992 to Jan. 20 1993. To be sure, he was acting secretary for three months before that, but it's hard to say he left a huge diplomatic footprint.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/05/2015 08:47 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
