McCain transition chief aided Saddam in lobbying effort

I'm all for Obama, but the international sanctions on Saddam's regime were actually killing more innocent Iraqis than anything else. Ending the sanctions would have been a good thing.

Uhh...daboz....I don't know if you didn't realize this but Obama didn't make this accusation....the huffington post did..... seriously, the link is right above the picture.

And this is more significant than a druggy terrorist connection to the ACTUAL CANDIDATE, Obama. Grasping for straws aren't you?

Saddam was "a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch".

Installed by the US and worked closely with "us" before invading Kuwait.

Lets not forget our history.

More damning excerpts:

"Timmons (the guy McCain made his Presidential Transition Team Chief) testified that he first introduced Vincent to Tongsun Park and encouraged him to hire Park to work on the deal.

At the time Timmons introduced the two men, Park's notorious background was well known:

In the 1970s, Park had admitted to making hundreds of thousands in payments and illegal campaign contributions to U.S. congressmen on behalf of the South Korean government. Park was indicted on 36 counts by a federal grand jury, but fled to South Korea before he could face trial."

Holy shit!

Timmons knew all about how corrupt Park was....but still encouraged Vincent to hire him!

McCain is either totally ignorant of all of this international intrgue (an unbelievable proposition) or McCain did know and just....didn't care!

Whereas Obama briefly sat on the same Charity Board as Bill Ayers....McCain's hand selected inner circle seems to be so unbelievably corrupt that you can't shake hands with McCain without coming away smelling like shit.

McCain never bothered to vet Palin and it seems never bothered to vet ANYONE in his inner circle.

I don't know which is more unbelievable (or worse): that McCain is so totally ignorant of the histories of the people he has surrounded himself with....or that he knows, doesn't care and/or assumed the Press would never find out about it.

@Saladin:

It's not a spin job, it's a very serious (dare I say treasonous?) scandal.

Were the sanctions bad? Probably.

But these guys were NOT acting on behalf of some perfectly legal NGO or Humanitarian organization -- far from it.

Damning excerpt from the article:

"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."

Another damning excerpt from the article:

"Vincent, an Iraqi-born American citizen with whom Timmons worked most closely, pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges in January 2005 that he had acted as an unregistered agent of Saddam Hussein's regime. Tongsun Park, the second lobbyist who Timmons worked closely with, was convicted by a federal jury in July 2006 on charges that he too violated the Foreign Agent Registration Act.

As part of a plea bargain agreement with the Justice Department, Vincent agreed to testify against Park and others in exchange for a reduced prison sentence. He was the government's chief witness against Park during Park's trial. Park was sentenced to five years in prison after his conviction.

A U.N commission headed by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker conducted an exhaustive investigation of the oil-for-food program, in which various individuals were found to have paid illegal kickbacks to Saddam Hussein. The findings of the Volcker Commission detail the roles of Vincent, Park and Timmons in trying to ease the sanctions."

-----

Far from being spin, this reveals deep, deep corruption and illegal behaviour with the leader of a terrorist state.

And John "maverick" McCain put himself hip deep in this corruption shit storm by making this guy cheif of his transition team. Why?

Why the hell would he pick someone so tainted when he could have easily picked any one of a hundred other people?

God only knows what's going on in the frazzled brain cells of the maverick these days.

Wow, I wonder who John McCain would say was worse.....Ayers or Saddam? McCain shouldn't try and expose Obama's skeletons if he isn't ready to open his closet

He helped an effort to ease sanctions against Iraq?

How is that a bad thing?

Those sanctions were AWFUL, killed a million people over ten years.

John McCain still sucks, but this article is just silly spin. There seems to be an awful lot of bullshit spin on current today.

What is Karl Rove running the democratic campaign now?

We have it in the bag with our policies, stop bullshitting people.

If McCain and Palin want to play the "guilty by association game" with Obama and the Ayers story, people must equally investigate McCain's and Palin's affiliations...
I hope this story breaks out in the media in order to keep fair and balanced reporting...

Pallin' around with terrorists... :)