Abramoff Used DeLay to Fund Anti-Intifada Militia

[editor’s note, by lapin] BooMan has graciously invited me to post on the front page. Thank you for this privilege.

Jack Abramoff dangled a carrot to Indian tribes in exchange for contributions to a charity he set up, the Capital Athletic Foundation.  The Foundation had been described to them by Abramoff as one of Tom DeLay’s favorites.  They understood that contributions to the charity would grease the skids into Tom DeLay’s office.  What they didn’t understand was that some of their contributions would be used to fund anti-intifada operations by Israeli settlers:

More than $140,000 of foundation funds were actually sent to the Israeli West Bank where they were used by a Jewish settler to mobilize against the Palestinian uprising. Among the expenditures: purchases of camouflage suits, sniper scopes, night-vision binoculars, a thermal imager and other material described in foundation records as “security” equipment.

Abramoff has stepped in it big time.

The Newsweek investigative piece details shattering revelations:

The charity, called the Capital Athletic Foundation, was supposed to provide sports programs and teach “leadership skills” to city youth. Donating to it also had a side benefit, Abramoff told his clients: it was a favored cause of Rep. Tom DeLay.
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In 2002 alone, records show, three Indian tribes donated nearly $1.1 million to the Capital Athletic Foundation. But now, NEWSWEEK has learned, investigators probing Abramoff’s finances have found some of the money meant for inner-city kids went instead to fight the Palestinian intifada.
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The FBI, sources tell NEWSWEEK, is now examining these payments as part of a larger investigation to determine if Abramoff defrauded his Indian tribe clients. The tribal donors are outraged. “This is almost like outer-limits bizarre,” says Henry Buffalo, a lawyer for the Saginaw Chippewa Indians who contributed $25,000 to the Capital Athletic Foundation at Abramoff’s urging. “The tribe would never have given money for this.”

Abramoff is described in the article by one of his associates as a super-zionist.  The connection between Israeli internal affairs and American policies has only been strengthened by DeLay and his association with Abramoff.  Who would have guessed that gambling Americans would end up funding sniper rifles for Israeli settlers.  This is truly bizarre.


Jack Abramoff in his natural state: consulting with his lawyer in 2004