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| NY Post sez Jack Kemp may have shilled for Sammy |
| 2005-01-26 |
| A blistering letter written by former vice-presidential candidate Jack Kemp to congressional leaders, criticizing the 1998 U.S. bombing of Iraq, has raised new questions about whether he was promoting a secret agenda on behalf of Saddam Hussein's oil spy in the United States, The Post has learned. Kemp's Dec. 18, 1998, letter to then-Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), which called for congressional hearings into the Clinton administration's decision to bomb Iraq, has left investigators wondering whether he was pushing "talking points" drawn up by Virginia oil trader Samir Vincent, who pleaded guilty last week to charges that he received payments from Iraq to weaken U.N sanctions. In the letter, Kemp — who has been questioned by the FBI about his contacts with Vincent — blasted U.S. policy and raised numerous Iraqi propaganda points. Kemp asked, for example, if it was true "that around 4,500 children under the age of five are dying" in Iraq every month, and whether the U.S. government was refusing to have "direct contact with Iraq." "The Iraqi government believes that nothing it can do will cause the United States to allow the economic sanctions to be lifted," Kemp said in the letter. "Is it realistic to expect any regime to cooperate with U.N. inspectors if it believes the U.S. has declared de facto war on it and that nothing it can do will lead to a lifting of sanctions?" Kemp added. Vincent was making eerily similar points to Kemp during their once-a-month meetings during the same period, Kemp's office admitted. In a statement issued by Kemp's office, Empower America, over the weekend, the former upstate GOP congressman and Buffalo Bill football star said he believed Vincent was "motivated by the national security of the United States and thought the Iraqi government believed the sanctions could never be lifted, which he said he believed was leading them to obstruct inspectors from coming into the country." One congressional official involved in the U.N. oil-for-food investigation said, "Knowing what we know now, the question is: Where did Jack Kemp get this stuff? "It looks like Samir Vincent did a very good lobbying job." Andrew Porter, spokesman for Empower America, said Vincent played no role in the drafting of Kemp's letter to Lott. Vincent admitted in federal court last week that he was paid $3 million to $5 million by Saddam to lobby American officials against sanctions. Kemp, Bob Dole's running mate in 1996, admitted he was questioned by the FBI about his relationship with Vincent last October. He has said he and Vincent worked behind the scenes on a plan to persuade the Clinton and Bush administrations to consider phasing out sanctions in return for Iraq's agreement to "robust" U.N. weapons inspections. Kemp denied there were any business or financial dealings with Vincent, who is Iraqi-born, saying they talked only about "policy." Kemp's lawyer, Lanny Davis, said last week that he believes Kemp was duped by Vincent and did not know Vincent was on Saddam's payroll. Kemp's letter and other speeches and media interviews opposing the Clinton administration's bombing of Iraq were controversial at the time and represented a break with many of his conservative political and intellectual supporters. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #3 What about Carter's ties to Vincent? Carter put him on some charity board he founded. |
| Posted by: Remoteman 2005-01-26 5:08:02 PM |
| #2 Lanny Davis seems to be a flexiable sort, he went to school with W and has lots of good things to say about him. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2005-01-26 1:04:39 PM |
| #1 Kemp’s lawyer, Lanny Davis, said last week that he believes Kemp was duped by Vincent and did not know Vincent was on Saddam’s payroll. Isn't Lanny Davis a former Clinton heavy? One very good outcome of Kemp's stupidity (if that's all it was) is that this aspect of Oil For Fraud will get the attention of the Republican-hating MSM and perhaps, finally give this story the legs it deserves-- without tarnishing the neocons or anyone else in the Bush admin. Well done, Jack. |
| Posted by: lex 2005-01-26 12:19:54 PM |