Another Bush Thug Bites the Dust

This Is Who Bush Wanted to Secure His Homeland

Submitted by david swanson on Fri, 2006-06-30 20:42. Media

Kerik Pleads Guilty in Corruption Probe
By TOM HAYS , Associated Press

A year and a half after his Homeland Security nomination sank over ethics questions, former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik pleaded guilty Friday to charges of accepting tens of thousands of dollars in gifts while he was a top city official.

Kerik was convicted on a pair of misdemeanors in a deal that spared him any jail time. He instead was ordered to pay $221,000 in fines at the 10-minute hearing.

Kerik acknowledged accepting $165,000 worth of renovations on his Bronx apartment from a company attempting to do business with the city - a New Jersey construction firm with alleged links to the mob. He also admitted failing to report a loan as required by city law.
The plea bargain allows Kerik to continue his new career as a security consultant in the Middle East.

The papers cited testimony by mob turncoats that owners Frank and Peter DiTommaso were associates of the Gambino organized crime family.

The civil complaint also detailed Kerik's cozy relationship with an Interstate official. In 1999, he sent a series of e-mails to the official that "indicated his lack of sufficient funds to both purchase and renovate his new Bronx apartment" and "indicated he would provide information to Frank DiTommaso regarding New York City contracts," the papers said.

In recent months, a grand jury has heard conflicting testimony from the DiTommaso brothers - who denied paying for the renovations - and from a contractor who said they picked up most of the tab. Former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, a close friend of Kerik and his one-time boss, also testified.
Giuliani said Friday that the guilty pleas do not diminish Kerik's accomplishments.
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/12633

Our Newsday confrere, columnist, Ellis Hennican, delivered a tart reminder yesterday about who Kerik really is for anyone who's forgotten. For example, Ellis recalls "one of many petty scandals that have hung over Kerik's career. When he ran Correction, nearly $1 million of tobacco-company rebates were diverted into an obscure foundation Kerik was president of. This was for cigarettes bought with taxpayer money and then sold at inflated prices to jail inmates. But this rebate money - would kickbacks be a better word? - got spent entirely outside the normal rules for public funds. No one was criminally charged. But a whole rash of IRS rules were seemingly violated. One board member quit in protest when the foundation treasurer refused to provide him with financial reports. And no one has ever explained where all the money went. It was a typical Kerik deal. He behaved from start to finish like normal rules didn't apply to him." Read Hennican's whole column.

But there's a lot more: Kerik whose Iraq assignmnent won him the nickname "the Baghdad Terminator," has in the past advocated assassination as a U.S. Policy in Iraq. The New York Times reported last year on an odiferous arms purchase in Iraq at inflated prices on Bernie Kerik's watch in Iraq while Rudy and Bernie were raking in big dough as security consultants (and Bernie was on the Saudi payroll as a royal bodyguard). http://direland.typepad.com/direland/2004/12/we_new_yoorkers.html
The past few days have seen news reports about a rash of possible personal and professional improprieties on the part of the former New York City police commissioner, including big stock-option windfalls, connections with people suspected of doing business with the mob and, on Monday, allegations he had simultaneous extramarital affairs with two women.
http://www.wnbc.com/news/3991421/detail.html