This is so bizarre, you hope it’s not true. But it appears to check out. The man that John McCain has appointed to head up his transition team, assuming that’s a relevant thought, was a big time lobbiest on behalf of . . . wait for it . . . Saddam Husein. As reported by Murray Wass on the Huffington Post . . .
William Timmons, the Washington lobbyist who John McCain has named to head his presidential transition team, aided an influence effort on behalf of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to ease international sanctions against his regime.
The two lobbyists who Timmons worked closely with over a five year period on the lobbying campaign later either pleaded guilty to or were convicted of federal criminal charges that they had acted as unregistered agents of Saddam Hussein’s government.
During the same period beginning in 1992, Timmons worked closely with the two lobbyists, Samir Vincent and Tongsun Park, on a previously unreported prospective deal with the Iraqis in which they hoped to be awarded a contract to purchase and resell Iraqi oil. Timmons, Vincent, and Park stood to share at least $45 million if the business deal went through.
Timmons’ activities occurred in the years following the first Gulf War, when Washington considered Iraq to be a rogue enemy state and a sponsor of terrorism. His dealings on behalf of the deceased Iraqi leader stand in stark contrast to the views his current employer held at the time.
This is a man who was in it so deep, that he did a star turn in Paul Volcker’s extensive and exhaustive report on the oil-for-food scandal. At least one of his colleagues in that affair later went on to be a guest of the tax payers for five years.
What is it about John McCain and the people he chooses to work with? One is more ethically challenged than the next. And how this. After howling incessantly about evil Saddam and his WMDs, he hires the guy who was working the system to lift the sanctions placed on Saddam to prevent precisely that from occurring. After pounding a tin drum over a paper-thin association between candidate Obama and former student radical Bill Ayers, he signs up a gold plated advocate for one of the certifiable bad guys of the past 25 years. For someone who wants to make much about associations, John McCain’s hands are filthy.
My question is this: Is he really that stupid, or is it something worse?
Tags: WilliamTimmons, John McCain, Bill Ayers, Obama, Decision Making
