[env-trinity] (no subject)

Tue May 22 22:56:58 PDT 2007

MY WORD

DENVER NELSON

The article in Saturday's Times-Standard: "Former Bush Cabinet deputy pleads
guilty" illustrates the greatest problem with our government today.
Billions of dollars are spent to influence our elected and appointed
government officials.  We here on the North coast have nowhere near enough
money to be of significant influence.

All of these crooks worked on Klamath River issues, and most of them came to
the Klamath to "get our input on Klamath issues."  Now that their true
character has been exposed, their "work" on the Klamath appears to be
hypocritical. 

Gale Norton

Gale Norton resigned from being Secretary of Interior in March, 2006 as the
Abramoff scandals were breaking.  As Secretary of Interior, she invested
much time and effort on Klamath issues including coming to Klamath Falls and
opening the gates to divert water from the river to the irrigation projects.

Norton and Italia  Federici co-founded the Council of Republicans for
Environmental Advocacy (CREA) in 1998 before Norton became Interior
Secretary.  Norton's ties to the group have pulled her into the Abramoff
investigation. Norton attended a private dinner with Abramoff, his tribal
clients and other Interior officials organized by the advocacy group's
president, Italia Federici.  Investigators believe Abramoff steered $500,000
in tribal donations to CREA to get access to top Interior officials,
including Norton.  She later approved casino deals favoring the tribal
clients.

J. Stephen Griles  

Griles is awaiting sentencing for lying about being Abramoff"s inside man
for tribal clients who needed Interior Department actions. Griles and
Abramoff met on March 1, 2001, through Italia Federici, cofounder of CREA.
One week later, Griles, who had been serving on Bush's transition team for
Interior, was nominated by the president as deputy to Interior Secretary
Gale Norton. Second in rank only to Norton, Griles effectively was
Interior's chief operating officer while at the agency between July 2001 and
January 2005.

Italia Federici

Italia Federici, the president of the Council of Republicans for
Environmental Advocacy is also a former political aide to former Secretary
of the Interior and CREA founder Gale Norton.  She was sleeping with Griles
while she was working for Abramhoff who got various tribes to give $500,000
to CREA.  Abramhoff got a lot of tribal money and Griles got an attractive
girlfriend.  The tribes thought they were buying Interior Department
rulings, but they probably got screwed also.

Sue Ellen Wooldridge

Sue Ellen Wooldridge came to the Klamath basin several times to get our
input.

Griles now lives in Falls Church, Va. with Sue Ellen Wooldridge who until
January was an assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice
Department's environmental division. They began dating in February 2003,
when Wooldridge was Norton's deputy chief of staff and counselor. Wooldridge
became Interior's top lawyer and counseled Griles on ethics matters. 

The AP reported in February that Wooldridge, who became the nation's
environmental prosecutor in November 2005, bought a $980,000 vacation home
last year with Griles and Donald R. Duncan, the top Washington lobbyist for
ConocoPhillips. Nine months later, she signed an agreement giving the
company more time to clean up air pollution at some of its refineries.

The suggestion that Wooldridge is linked to anything scandalous has come as
a shock to those who knew her as a hard-working and committed public
servant.  "Everybody I've talked to is surprised," said Dan Keppen,
executive director of the Family Farm Alliance in Klamath Falls, Ore., who
knows Wooldridge from two years of work as Norton's chief aide in the battle
between fishermen and farmers over allocation of Klamath River water.

Jack Abramoff

To my knowledge Abramoff was not involved in Klamath River issues.  The
Klamath River tribes are too poor to afford such a high priced crook.
Abramoff took at least 85 million dollars from multiple Indian tribes to
lobby for them.  He is currently in jail and facing further indictments for
bribing multiple elected and appointed government officials.

So there you have it; sex lies and vast sums of money with local connections
to the Klamath River.  With enough money you can turn anyone into a whore or
a crook.  My hero Teddy Roosevelt must be turning over in his grave.

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