The Republican party was on Tuesday facing a fast-growing corruption scandal with potentially serious implications for next year's elections after a well-connected Washington lobbyist pleaded guilty to bribing a congressman and other public officials.
The plea by Michael Scanlon is a breakthrough in an investigation of influence-peddling in Congress that could reach top levels of the party. It comes at a time when the Republicans are already nervous about next November's congressional elections, with support for the Iraq war falling away and the White House under the cloud of an intelligence leak investigation.
"The potential is huge," said Thomas Mann, a political analyst at the Brookings Institution. "We've never seen an example as egregious as this with these sums of money, the bilking, the cynicism and linkages ... I think you're going to see a string of indictments."
Scanlon is expected to give evidence against public officials alleged to have accepted bribes, including free golfing trips to Scotland, restaurant meals and sports tickets, in return for pushing legislation favorable to clients of Scanlon and his boss, Jack Abramoff, a Washington super-lobbyist who is also under investigation.
The congressman named in the Scanlon plea agreement is Robert Ney, a powerful Republican insider known as the "mayor of Capitol Hill" because of his influential role at the head of the House administration committee. He received a free golfing trip to Scotland, US$14,000 in campaign contributions and regular free meals at Abramoff's Washington restaurant, Signatures.
In return, court documents allege, he backed legislation and attempted to influence administration officials on the lobbyists' behalf. He is also alleged to have put his political weight behind Abramoff's attempt to buy a fleet of Florida casino ships. The man who sold it to him was killed in a mafia-style execution in 2001.
Also reported to be under investigation are half a dozen other members of Congress, including Tom DeLay, the former House majority leader who was forced to step down in September after being charged in a separate scandal over political money-laundering.
Attorneys for DeLay sought the immediate dismissal of conspiracy and money laundering charges against him on Tuesday, but a Texas judge said he would not rule for two weeks in the case.
A ship that appears to be taking on the identity of a scrapped gas carrier exited the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, showing how strategies to get through the waterway are evolving as the Middle East war progresses. The vessel identifying as liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier Jamal left the Strait on Friday morning, ship-tracking data show. However, the same tanker was also recorded as having beached at an Indian demolition yard in October last year, where it is being broken up, according to market participants and port agent’s reports. The ship claiming to be Jamal is likely a zombie vessel that
Japan is to downgrade its description of ties with China from “one of its most important” in an annual diplomatic report, according to a draft reviewed by Reuters, as relations with Beijing worsen. This year’s Diplomatic Bluebook, which Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s government is expected to approve next month, would instead describe China as an important neighbor and the relationship as “strategic” and “mutually beneficial.” The draft cites a series of confrontations with Beijing over the past year, including export controls on rare earths, radar lock-ons targeting Japanese military aircraft and increased pressure around Taiwan. The shift in tone underscores a deterioration
LAW CONSTRAINTS: The US has been pressing allies to send warships to open the Strait, but Tokyo’s military actions are limited under its postwar pacifist constitution Japan could consider deploying its military for minesweeping in the Strait of Hormuz if a ceasefire is reached in the war on Iran, Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Toshimitsu Motegi said yesterday. “If there were to be a complete ceasefire, hypothetically speaking, then things like minesweeping could come up,” Motegi said. “This is purely hypothetical, but if a ceasefire were established and naval mines were creating an obstacle, then I think that would be something to consider.” Japan’s military actions are limited under its postwar pacifist constitution, but 2015 security legislation allows Tokyo to use its Self-Defense Forces overseas if an attack,
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) yesterday faced a regional election battle in Rhineland-Palatinate, now held by the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD). Merz’s CDU has enjoyed a narrow poll lead over the SPD — their coalition partners at the national level — who have ruled the mid-sized state for 35 years. Polling third is the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which spells a greater threat to the two centrist parties in several state elections in September in the country’s ex-communist east. The picturesque state of Rhineland-Palatinate, bordering France, Belgium and Luxembourg and with a population of about 4 million,
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