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Boston
Apr 8, 2014 18:18:21 GMT
Post by Admin on Apr 8, 2014 18:18:21 GMT
Tuesday, May 22, 2001
Feds eye Cashman's Massport expenses
Federal investigators probing alleged racketeering by local Teamster boss George W. Cashman have subpoenaed his expense records from Massport, where he sits on the board of directors, and are eyeing connections the agency has with two of his associates, according to sources.
Sources said investigators are looking into public relations contracts Massport has had with the Rendon Group, which is run by Cashman ally Rick Rendon, as well as records regarding Mark E. Robinson, the chairman of the board of directors. Robinson's Boston law firm, Bingham, Dana, represents the New England Teamsters pension fund and has received more than $2.5 million in Fees since 1997.
In addition, sources said investigators will seek records regarding the hiring of temporary workers on dockside jobs governed by the Teamsters at the Black Falcon Terminal in South Boston. According to sources, Local 25 officials allegedly offered part-time Massport jobs to members of several area police departments, including Revere and Chelsea, as a quid pro quo for the rank and file to agree to Teamster representation.
``We were told when details dry up, we could get jobs driving cars off ships,'' said one Revere police officer who opposed the contract with the Teamsters.
Massport spokesman Jose Juves declined to confirm if the agency had received any subpoenas.
``It's Massport's policy not to comment concerning any requests for information that might be received from law enforcement,'' Juves said.
Rendon, a close ally of Cashman, helped push through an ill-fated plan for a $13 million Teamster-run soundstage on the campus of Bunker Hill Community College with the support of former Gov. Paul Cellucci.
Cashman is a confidant of Cellucci and threw his union's support behind the then-acting governor to help him win election in 1998. But sources said Cashman's standing with acting Gov. Jane Swift, the only one who could force Cashman off the board, is uncertain.
Rendon and Cashman also formed Massachusetts Organizations Vying for the Industry of Entertainment (M.O.V.I.E.) to lobby for filmmaking in the Bay State.
Rendon, who is not a target of the investigation, has received several no-bid contracts from Massport since Cashman, whose term expires in 2007, was appointed to the board by former Gov. William Weld. Among Rendon's contracts were a $119,000 award to film a promotional video on the Head of the Charles Regatta and a $25,000 grant for the Rendon-organized Boston Sports Award Dinner.
Juves said Rendon has no current contracts with Massport.
Robinson's law firm has represented the real estate division of the New England Teamsters and Trucking Industry Pension Fund, but he has in the past denied his relationship with Cashman helped secure the position.
Robinson declined comment and Rendon did not return a call for comment yesterday.
Sources said investigators are planning to call a number of witnesses to the grand jury, a list that may include Massport Executive Director Virginia Buckingham.
``Everybody's being pulled in,'' said one source.
The subpoena is the latest twist in the 22-month long federal grand jury investigation into Teamster corruption that started with allegations of shakedowns of movie studios and producers by union members.
The probe, run by the Inspector General's office of the Department of Labor, has targeted Cashman and several other Local 25 members. The grand jury has subpoenaed records from studios including Disney, Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks, Warner Brothers and Miramax.
The movies made in Massachusetts where Teamster misdeeds allegedly occurred include such hits as ``The Perfect Storm,'' ``Cider House Rules,'' ``Blown Away,'' and ``Love Letters.''
Investigators have also subpoenaed records from the Massachusetts Film Bureau and sources said the agency's director, Robin Dawson, has been ordered to testify before the grand jury. Dawson, who was out of town yesterday, could not be reached for comment.
According to sources, James P. Flynn, an ex-con and reputed Mob associate who runs the union's movie crew, is a key focus of the investigation. Flynn has allegedly forced producers to rent equipment from his company, Location Connection, and has padded overtime and expense sheets in exchange for labor peace.
In addition, Flynn allegedly had a rival union member beaten last summer with Cashman's consent during the South End filming of ``What's the Worst That Could Happen?'' because she refused to turn her snack concession over to a Teamster, according to sources familiar with the investigation.
Investigators are also probing alleged Teamster shakedowns of such other businesses as moving companies and freight carriers.
The Herald has reported members of the union's movie crew, who earn salaries of $2,000 a week and more plus expenses, include convicted bank robbers and killers, the disgraced former Middlesex sheriff and Hell's Angels. The members are handpicked by Cashman and Flynn and are given the plum assignments over longtime union members, sources said.
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Boston
Apr 8, 2014 18:19:49 GMT
Post by Admin on Apr 8, 2014 18:19:49 GMT
Wednesday, June 13, 2001
Feds probe Massport deal with Teamsters
Federal investigators probing embattled Teamsters boss George W. Cashman have subpoenaed Massport records for a sweetheart deal that allows the local union to operate a profitable truck driver training school rent-free on the authority's prime waterfront property in East Boston, sources said.
Investigators are eyeing whether Charlestown-based Local 25 is being given special treatment because its president is Cashman, who is also a member of the Massachusetts Port Authority's board of directors, according to sources.
In addition, the driving school may be violating state law by training drivers for commercial driver's licenses who are not members of Local 25.
Sources confirmed that the authority's employees receive training at the school, and Teamsters sources said drivers from other companies, including utilities, regularly pay for instruction at Pier One in East Boston even though the Teamsters are not certified as required by the Registry of Motor Vehicles if they train drivers from outside Local 25.
Massport spokesman Jose Juves declined to comment on the subpoena or the driving school.
``It's Massport policy not to comment concerning any requests for information that might be received from law enforcement officials,'' he said.
Juves said the area is under agreement to be developed as residential property owned by the authority but he did not know the timeframe.
A spokesman for the Department of Labor's Inspector General office also declined comment. And Cashman did not return a call for comment.
The subpoena is the second Massport has received from investigators regarding Cashman. Last month the Herald reported investigators subpoenaed Cashman's Massport credit card and expense records.
One high-ranking Massport official said the agency has been cooperating with investigators. The official initially said all Massport employees receive free training from the Teamsters driving school as part of the agreement but later amended that to just Teamsters at Massport when informed the school is not certified to instruct anyone who is not a member of Local 25.
One source said the rent-free deal predates Cashman's place on the board but conceded Massport officials have been unable to locate any contract or other records showing how long the agreement has been in place or what the terms of the agreement are.
The head of the Teamsters driving school is Sean O'Brien, a former member of the union's movie crew, which is the focus of the racketeering probe. O'Brien's father is William O'Brien of Charlestown, a transportation coordinator on the crew.
William O'Brien's name appears in an indictment in the 1994 armored car heist in New Hampshire that ended in the execution of two guards. The indictment stated William O'Brien's name was on the rental agreement of the getaway car, but O'Brien was never charged.
In addition to Sean O'Brien, William O'Brien has two other sons who are members of Local 25; one who works on the movie crew and another employed at Massport.
At the driving school yesterday, about a half-dozen men took turns maneuvering tractor-trailer units emblazoned with the Local 25 logo through rows of orange cones. Nearby, a man sat in a Massport dump truck reading a newspaper.
At one point, an instructor approached a Herald photographer and reporter outside the fenced in area posted with Massport ``No trespassing'' signs to inquire who they were. When asked if he was Sean O'Brien, the man asked why. When the reporter identified himself, the man abruptly walked away.
``See you later, buddy,'' he said as he grabbed his cell phone to make a call.
The subpoenas are the latest twist in a federal grand jury's widening two-year-old racketeering probe of Cashman and other Local 25 members. Sources said investigators are looking deeper into Cashman's relationships with state officials, including $125,000 that has been tucked into each of the last three state budgets for Local 25 to train its members.
Cashman was a confidant of former Gov. Paul Cellucci and threw his union's support behind the then-acting governor in the 1998 gubernatorial election. Cellucci, now US ambassador to Canada, reappointed Cashman to a seven-year term on the Massport board.
The federal probe had initially been focusing on allegations of shakedowns and strongarming of movie producers and studios filming in Massachusetts by members of Local 25's movie crew. Investigators allege that the movie crew's bosses regularly pad expense and overtime sheets, force producers to rent members' equipment usually at a higher cost and add unneeded workers to the crew at a minimum base pay of $2,000 a week plus expenses.
Investigators have subpoenaed scores of records from the studios, the Massachusetts Film Office and Local 25, and dozens of witnesses have already testified before the grand jury, according to sources. The probe has widened into shakedowns of moving and freight companies as well.
In addition to Cashman, another target of the grand jury is ex-con and alleged Mob associate James P. Flynn, who runs the Teamsters movie crew. Flynn, whose South Shore home was raided by investigators last year, is being probed for forcing filmmakers to rent equipment from his company, Location Connection, in exchange for labor peace on the sets.
The Herald has also reported that the the plum movie crew assignments are regularly doled out to an array of Hell's Angels, convicted killers and bank robbers as well as new union members such as the disgraced sheriff of Middlesex County, John McGonigle.
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Boston
Apr 8, 2014 18:25:05 GMT
Post by Admin on Apr 8, 2014 18:25:05 GMT
The Rendon Group is a secretive public relations firm that has assisted a number of U.S. military interventions in nations including Argentina, Colombia, Haiti, Iraq, Kosovo, Panama and Zimbabwe. Rendon's activities include organizing the Iraqi National Congress, a PR front group designed to foment the overthrow of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
The Chicago Tribune reports that the Rendon Group has garnered more than $56 million in Pentagon work since September 2001.
John Rendon began his career as an election campaign consultant to Democratic Party politicians. According to Franklin Foer, "He masterminded Michael Dukakis's gubernatorial campaign in 1974; worked as executive director of the Democratic National Committee in the Jimmy Carter era; managed the 1980 Democratic convention in New York; and subsequently worked as chief scheduler for Carter's reelection campaign." James Bamford reports Rendon and his younger brother Rick went into consulting in 1981. In the mid-1980s, he began working for clients in the Caribbean and other places outside the United States. His "career took an unlikely turn in Panama, where his work with political opponents of Manuel Noriega kept him in the country straight through the 1989 American invasion. As U.S. forces quickly invaded and quickly pulled out, he helped broker the transition of power." This in turn led to contacts with the CIA, and in 1990 the government-in-exile of Kuwait hired him to help drum up support for war in the Persian Gulf to oust Iraq's occupying army.
Personnel: *John Rendon *Rick Rendon - in the Boston office *Linda Flohr, a CIA covert operations veteran, she is now a top anti-terrorism official at the White House's National Security Council. *Francis Brooke worked on the Rendon Group's anti-Iraq campaign in London. He subsequently became the chief assistant in Washington to Ahmad Chalabi. *Paul Moran, a freelance TV cameraman who was killed in Iraq by a suicide bomber during the war in Iraq in 2003.
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Boston
Apr 8, 2014 18:36:57 GMT
Post by Admin on Apr 8, 2014 18:36:57 GMT
International Brotherhood Of Teamsters Local 25 President Sentenced
OCT 17--Boston, MA….Mark R. Trouville, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in New England; Gordon S. Heddell, Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Inspector General, Office of Labor's Office of Labor Racketeering; James M. Benages, Regional Director of the Employee Benefit Security Administration; Paul F. Evans, Commissioner of the Boston Police Department; and United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan announced today that U.S. District Judge Douglas P. Woodlock sentenced George W. CASHMAN, age 54, of Revere, Massachusetts to 2 years and 10 months in prison, to be followed by 3 years of supervised release. Judge Woodlock also ordered CASHMAN to pay a $30,000 fine.
On April 25, 2003, CASHMAN and co-defendant William H. Carnes, each pleaded guilty to participating in illegal activities involving the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 25 ("IBT Local 25") located in Charlestown, Massachusetts. Particularly, CASHMAN pled guilty to a two-count superseding information charging him with Hobbs Act extortion; and conspiracy to steal and embezzle from an employee benefit program, to file false documents with ERISA, to commit mail fraud and to violate the Taft-Hartley Act. Carnes, age 59, of Melrose, Massachusetts, pled guilty to four counts of an indictment charging him with two counts of theft or embezzlement from an employee benefit plan and two counts of mail fraud. Carnes was sentenced on August 7, 2003, by Judge Woodlock to 5 years of probation, the first year of which is to be served in home confinement with electronic monitoring, and a $5,000 fine.
As a result of their pleas, both CASHMAN and Carnes will be barred from any further employment by a union or Employee Retirement Income Security Act ("ERISA") fund for a period of thirteen years.
The IBT Local 25 has approximately 9,000 members. CASHMAN has been IBT Local 25's President since 1992 and Carnes its Vice President for the same time period. CASHMAN and Carnes were also trustees for IBT Local 25's Health Services and Insurance Plan ("IBT Local 25 HSIP") which provides health care benefits to approximately 20,000 active and retired members of IBT Local 25 and their families. CASHMAN was also a trustee of the New England Teamsters and Trucking Industry Pension Fund, which provided retirement benefits to approximately 22,000 retired members of various IBT locals and their families.
CASHMAN and Thomas DiSilva, an owner and operator of several trucking companies, pled guilty to participating in a scheme to launder the proceeds of $100,000 extortion payment from representatives of Cardinal Health, an Ohio based pharmaceutical distribution company, through one of DiSilva's companies. According to prosecutors, this payment was made in connection with the settlement of a pension fund liability that Cardinal owed to the New England Teamsters and Trucking Industry Pension Fund after a lengthy strike at Cardinal's Peabody, Massachusetts facility. According to prosecutors, CASHMAN received $20,000 from DiSilva.
CASHMAN also pled guilty to his participation in a scheme to provide health benefits to IBT Local 25 members who were otherwise ineligible for benefits by submitting false documents to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 25's Health Services and Insurance Plan ("IBT Local 25 HSIP"). CASHMAN utilized several trucking companies owned and operated by DiSilva to falsely report that these individuals were employed by DiSilva when, in fact, they were not. DiSilva and one of his companies, Hutchinson Industries, pled guilty to their participation in the scheme in April of this year.
DiSilva, age 63, of Lexington, Massachusetts, pled guilty on April 18, 2003, to his participation in the scheme to provide health benefits to IBT Local 25 members who were otherwise ineligible for benefits and to participating in the scheme to launder an illegal payment from Cardinal Health to CASHMAN. DiSilva was sentenced on July 31, 2003, to 5 years' probation, the first year of which is to be served in home confinement with electronic monitoring; and a $50,000 fine. In conjunction with DiSilva's plea, Hutchinson Industries, Inc., one of several DiSilva owned companies located at 20 A Street in Burlington, Massachusetts, also pled guilty to all counts of a pending indictment for its role in the health benefits scheme. Hutchinson was also sentenced on July 31, 2003, to one year of probation as well as a $140,000 fine and a $11,600 special assessment. Additionally, Hutchinson will pay restitution in the approximate amount of $68,000 of IBT Local 25 HSIP.
Carnes pled guilty to the submission of false documents, which caused IBT Local 25 HSIP to pay healthcare claims for two ineligible members of IBT Local 25 and their dependents. Carnes also pleaded guilty to using the U.S. mail to execute this scheme to defraud IBT Local 25 HSIP and cause it to pay healthcare claims for these ineligible members of IBT Local 25 and their dependents.
The investigation is continuing.
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Boston
Apr 8, 2014 18:38:13 GMT
Post by Admin on Apr 8, 2014 18:38:13 GMT
August 4th, 2004:
Rendon Group Wins Hearts and Minds in Business, Politics and War
A spectacular fireworks display lit up the night over the Boston harbor on the eve of the Democratic National Convention, while a crowd of well-dressed politicians, corporate executives and their friends watched from a private party at a waterfront restaurant named Tia's.
Rick Rendon, the man in charge of the party, chatted casually with his clients: the Time Warner executives, including chairman Richard Parsons, who paid him to stage the event in honor of a powerful Congresswoman from California: Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader.
Eight hours later, there would be another test of Rendon's technology-enhanced information management abilities: a live video conference between 56 Democratic party convention delegations scattered all over town in 23 locations. "This is important because the Democratic Party wants to deliver a consistent message from all of its delegates, particularly when they are interviewed by the media," Rick Rendon, co-founder and senior partner with the Rendon Group told Information Week.
For the Rendon Group, whose motto is: "information as an element of power," the event was just another contract in the field of "perception management" that the consulting firm provides for clients that include Massachusetts government agencies, multinational corporate executives, the Democratic party, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) offices in the Pentagon, and the Colombian military regime. Services range from creating "a favorable environment before privatization begins" to helping justify war.
The company, which has offices in Boston and Washington DC, is run by four senior staff: Rick Rendon, his brother John Rendon, his sister-in-law Sandra Libby and David Perkins, who formerly worked for the Pentagon.
Rick Rendon's career with the Democratic party dates back at least 24 years to the 1980 New York convention where his job was keeping track of delegates. His brother John was executive director and national political director of the Democratic National Committee. When Jimmy Carter lost the election to Ronald Reagan, the Rendons set up shop as political consultants.
Almost a quarter century after the New York convention, the two brothers are still closely linked business and political partners. Like the Rendon Group's presence on the web, which features two completely different websites, one domestic and one international, John and Rick appear to work in two distinct orbits, Boston and Washington. John circles the world selling war strategies while Rick stays at home selling peace, making corporate videos and staging events for clients. But the company is in fact one entity and a careful study suggests that perhaps their neat division is another case of perception management.
When Reagan won the election, kicking off 12 years of Republican presidents, the Rendons' consulting practice became more wide-ranging, John Rendon started doing contract work for the military. During the invasion of Panama in 1989, he helped direct the information war from a downtown Panama city high-rise. For the first Gulf war in 1991, his staff worked out of Taif, Saudi Arabia. For the Afghan war, he took part in a 9:30 a.m. conference call every morning with top-level Pentagon officials to determine the day's war message.
One of his most famous messages, planted with the assistance of the Hill & Knowlton PR firm, was staged during the run up to the 1991 Gulf War. On October 10, 1990, the Congressional Human Rights Caucus held a hearing on Capitol Hill. California Democrat Tom Lantos and Illinois Republican John Porter introduced a 15-year-old Kuwaiti girl named Nayirah. Weeping and shaking, the girl described a horrifying scene in Kuwait City. "I volunteered at the al-Addan hospital," she testified. "While I was there I saw the Iraqi soldiers come into the hospital with guns and go into the room where babies were in incubators. They took the babies out of the incubators, took the incubators, and left the babies on the cold floor to die."
Seven pro-war senators brought up the baby-incubator allegations to argue for an invasion of Iraq, leading to a narrow five-vote win. Later it was discovered that the Nayirah was a member of the Kuwaiti royal family, daughter of the ambassador to the United States and that the incubator incident was fabricated.
Another media triumph Rendon brags about was the manipulation of media during the actual conflict. "If any of you either participated in the liberation of Kuwait City ... or if you watched it on television, you would have seen hundreds of Kuwaitis waving small American flags. Did you ever stop to wonder how the people of Kuwait City, after being held hostage for seven long and painful months, were able to get hand-held American flags? And for that matter, the flags of other coalition countries? Well, you now know the answer. That was one of my jobs," he told a National Security Conference in 1998.
Shortly after the September 11 attacks on Wall Street and Washington, the Pentagon gave Rendon a $100,000-a-month contract to track anti-U.S. foreign news reports, offer advice on media strategy and plant pro-U.S. stories in web, print and television. In 2002 when the Pentagon tried to create the Office of Strategic Influence to spread misleading stories in foreign countries, Rendon was the contractor they had in mind. President Bush ultimately disappeared the Office after a storm of protest from the media and the public at large, but in retrospect one wonders if the administration simply renamed the project.
A year ago John Rendon was invited to give a talk in London at King's College, London, to a conference of military officials on "how best to use military information operations capability, educating politicians and analysts and selling the case for action at home and abroad.”
"I believe that Operation Iraqi Freedom provided for all of us a ringside seat for a clash of cultures of communication. If you watched US or Western media you saw the war portrayed one way. If you watched or listened to war news in the Arab media, you accepted delivery of a different set of news and information," he said, according to a copy of his talk, obtained by Corpwatch.
"Elsewhere, coverage provided citizens a combination of viewpoints. In Indonesia for example, home to the world's largest Muslim population, television viewers were able to choose between CNN International, BBC World, and by late March, Al-Jazeera ... Which network do you think was most watched? Al-Jazeera, of course."
"This brings me to the first critical lesson to be learned. We must do a better job of increasing our message population ... in an array of international languages ... and with the cultural context necessary to ensure the message is received and not just sent."
While his brother worked at the helm of "information operations" selling war, Rick Rendon was handling the PR for the post 9-11 United We Stand education campaign in Massachusetts which, according to the Rendon Group's web site, "helped to create a visible sign of hope a 'larger than life' American flag, measuring 65-by-120-feet and made up of approximately 40,000 individual pieces of six-by-six-inch fabric inscribed with students' messages of patriotism, peace, love and support for our country… created in over 675 classrooms by 50,000 students."
More recently, Rick has been touting a project titled "Empower Peace" that uses the Rendon Group video conferencing technology to sell peace to kids in the Middle East and in Massachusetts, albeit on a smaller scale than at the Democratic National Convention.
The first exchange went live on May 20, 2003. The plan was modest but exciting: El Centro del Cardenal High School in Boston, and students from Stoneham High School in Stoneham, and Muslim students from Khawla School in Bahrain, would be hooked up for an hour via the Polycom video technology to talk about peace. "For older generations, shaping or changing perceptions and mindsets will be difficult. For future generations, changing or shaping perceptions and mindsets is essential. We turn to the future generation of youth for hope,”said Rendon at the time.
Colleen Cull, a teacher El Centro del Cardenal High School, waxed enthusiastically: "Basically I think they'll take a lot of information that they learn from this program and share it with friends, family to start that whole peace process".
Perhaps projects like "Empower Peace" and the "United We Stand" project work well in television and print to counter Al Jazeera anti-American rhetoric? Is Rick Rendon helping his brother to communicate" in the language and with the cultural context necessary to ensure the message is received and not just sent" using students in Boston and Bahrain as a vehicle to show the U.S. occupation of Iraq as a sign of U.S. goodwill? If so, he wouldn't say. Asked if he would discuss the Iraq invasion contract, he snapped: "That's irrelevant. I'd be happy to discuss Empower Peace but nothing else."
Standing outside the party at Tia's in Boston, Rendon told CorpWatch that the project was entirely funded by his company. "We did it out of the goodness of our own hearts. It was based on what has became the world's largest school-based racial harmony Campaign, which brought together 15,000 youths here in Boston to talk about diversity and promoting mutual respect with students from Belfast in Northern Ireland (Catholic and Protestant) and students from South Africa (black and white); they all interacted on ways they overcame prejudice and misconceptions and learned to live, work and play together."
But as in most public relations efforts the surface message is not necessarily the ultimate purpose of a campaign. What makes the work of the two brothers most intriguing is that they often used the same staff to do the work: one of whom was discovered when he was unexpectedly killed in northern Iraq in the first three days of the March 2003 invasion.
Paul Moran, a freelance Australian Broadcasting Corporation journalist from Adelaide, who was living in Bahrain at the time, was working for Rick Rendon on setting up Empower Peace. But beside being a freelancer who made corporate videos for cash, he also had a double life, working for John Rendon, according to the Adelaide Advertiser, who interviewed his family and friends at his funeral.
Moran used "his experience as a freelance cameraman to train Iraqi dissidents in the use of hidden cameras to covertly film military activities. During workshops in Tehran, in Iran, he would show Iraqis opposed to Saddam how to use everyday items, such as bags of dates, to hide cameras… worked closely with exiled Iraqi opposition parties in their campaign to mobilise a popular uprising against Saddam (and) …was involved in the defection of an Iraqi scientist who provided vital evidence to the US Government about nuclear, chemical and biological weapon laboratories in Iraq."
In addition he "was contracted to help reactivate a Kuwaiti television station used to broadcast anti-Saddam messages into Iraq (and to… produce public service announcements for the Pentagon which were broadcast into Iraq in preparation for Operation Iraqi Freedom."
Many of these broadcasts were taped in Boston. A Village Voice article revealed that the Rendon group hired a Harvard graduate student to help them on the project, although some of the productions were ill conceived. "No one in-house spoke a word of Arabic. They thought I was mocking Saddam, but for all they knew I could have been lambasting the US government… Who in Iraq is going to think it's funny to poke fun at Saddam's mustache when the vast majority of Iraqi men themselves have mustaches?" said the student, who requested anonymity.
One may ask is the "perception management” or "information operations” work of the Rendon group, what might have once been called propaganda or disinformation? In light of the recent revelations that the evidence produced by the Bush administration to justify the invasion of Iraq was wrong, it is worth examining the role of Moran and the Rendon group in providing that information.
For example Adnan Ihsan Saeed al-Haideri, an Iraqi civil engineer who claimed to have seen 20 secret buildings thought to be used for producing biological and chemical weapons, was smuggled to Thailand to be interviewed by Moran. Helping al-Haideri was Zaab Sethna, media spokesman for the Iraqi National Congress (INC) and a long-time colleague of Moran's.
Not surprisingly, the INC (best known for its founder, Ahmed Chalabi, a now disgraced member of the Iraqi Governing Council) was created by the Rendon Group, according to a February 1998 report by Peter Jennings of ABC News which showed that the Rendon Group spent more than $23 million dollars under contract with the CIA. According to ABC, Rendon invented the name for the Iraqi National Congress. Indeed Seymour Hersh of the New Yorker magazine says the Rendon Group was "paid close to a hundred million dollars by the CIA" for its work with the INC.
Chalabi and the INC were a major "source” for information about Iraq's mysterious "weapons of mass destruction" for major newspapers like the New York Times.
Was the Rendon group working with Moran and Chalanbi under some special government contract to justify the war by manipulating the media, such as the New York Times? There is no hard evidence of this but plenty of circumstantial ties that look very suspicious.
According to Australian reporter John Hosking, who interviewed Zaab Sethna on the Australian news program Dateline, the only other reporter who interviewed al-Haideri before he was whisked away into a witness protection program was the infamous Judith Miller of the New York Times.
Miller authored numerous stories promoting the weapons of mass destruction "threat" posed by Iraq and she cited al-Haideri as a source. Those stories and similar information were repeatedly cited by Bush administration as the pretext for the current Iraq war.
In May 2004, the New York Times, ran an editorial to apologize for five stories-- including several page one articles--written between 2001 and 2003 that had accounts of biological, chemical and nuclear weapons in Iraq.
"In some cases, information that was controversial then, and seems questionable now, was insufficiently qualified or allowed to stand unchallenged …Looking back, we wish we had been more aggressive in re-examining the claims as new evidence emerged - or failed to emerge," wrote the editors.
Rick Rendon refused to comment on the role of Moran or any of the Rendon Group's work in Iraq. As the party at Tia's restaurant drew to a close at midnight, Rendon walked away from this reporter, abruptly cutting off our interview.
Meanwhile his paymasters at Time Warner and their guests gathered around him to thank him for yet another great party and chance to talk to each other.
Jason Steinbaum, chief of staff for Congressman Eliot Engel, a Democrat from New York, was one of the last guests to leave. He stopped to chat with CorpWatch: "Those of us who attend these functions are very appreciative to the sponsoring organization, be they companies or trade associations or other types of--other types of groups. So we are very appreciative. I work with some of the folks in Time Warner on issues that are before the committee that my boss serves on and this gives us a chance to get to know each other behind the scenes," he said. "They are a company that has a presence in Washington and we welcome them in (our) offices."
If John Kerry wins the presidency, maybe he will call on the Rendon Group to help shape the public perception of the war in Iraq. After all the Rendon brothers are long-standing supporters of the Democratic party who have managed to present two entirely different faces to the world while working out of the same corporation: Spin doctoring for the Colombian military's counter insurgency; encouraging citizens of the Massachusetts to pay their taxes and recycle their beverage containers; doing public relations for Jean Bertrand Aristide when he was being re-installed by the Clinton administration and for the citizen groups advocating the overthrow of Noriega as the U.S. military invaded. But should Kerry be defeated by the Cheney-Bush administration, not to worry, the Rendon Group will still be ready and willing to serve.
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Boston
Apr 8, 2014 19:18:53 GMT
Post by Admin on Apr 8, 2014 19:18:53 GMT
July 27, 2000
Teamsters movie crew includes some bad actors
BOSTON, Massachusetts (The Boston Herald) -- The Boston Teamsters movie crew targeted by a federal grand jury has found work for a rogues gallery of criminals, including seven men tied to a murderous armored car heist as well as the disgraced former Middlesex sheriff, according to sources and records.
"It's a crew of Damon Runyon characters,'' said one Teamster member who has watched the select group garner the bulk of the lucrative film-related work that pays drivers $2,000 a week plus hundreds in expenses.
In addition, the Herald has learned that federal investigators have subpoenaed records from Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks Productions, a major Hollywood studio that filmed the recently released movie ``What Lies Beneath'' in Vermont last year.
The revelations come as more producers spilled horror stories about dealing with the alleged strong-arm tactics of Teamsters Local 25.
A federal grand jury, the Department of Labor's racketeering unit and the FBI have launched probes into the union's dealings, including no-show jobs, padded overtime and expense bills and forced rental of equipment owned by James P. Flynn, a crew chief with alleged Mob ties, according to sources.
"When they see a cash cow, they milk it for all it's worth,'' one industry insider said yesterday.
A motley crew
According to sources, at least seven of the eight men cited by investigators in the 1994 robbery and executions of two armored car guards in New Hampshire have worked on movies filmed in New England.
Stephen Burke, Michael O'Halloran and Matthew McDonald, who are serving life sentences for killing the two guards in the Hudson, N.H., robbery, were all members of the Charlestown-based Local 25 before their convictions, according to sources.
Patrick ``Magoo'' McGonagle, who is serving a 30-year sentence for the same crime, was a driver on a number of made-in-the-Bay State films, including ``Blown Away'' and ``The Good Son,'' according to records.
Michael Yandle, convicted of lying about the robbery before turning prosecution witness, was given several days work on a film shot on the North Shore during a work-release stint in 1998.
One current crew chief, William O'Brien, was cited by a grand jury indictment in the armored car robbery as the person who ordered a rental car that was used as a getaway in the crime. O'Brien, who could not be reached for comment yesterday, is currently working on the MGM movie ``What's the Worst That Could Happen?'' being filmed in the Boston area.
One source said labor department investigators began eyeing union activities in the mid-1990s after the men's connections to Local 25 became apparent but that probe was abruptly halted for unknown reasons.
Also on the MGM set is John McGonigle, the Middlesex County sheriff convicted in a kickback scheme that ended in a prison term. Sources said McGonigle, who was not a Teamster member prior to being released, scored a slot on the film crew unit through his connections to Flynn and union president George Cashman.
One source said McGonigle had to receive permission from his parole officer to work on the set of ``What Lies Beneath'' last year because the film was being shot in Vermont, where Local 25 controls the contract. McGonigle, who could not be reached yesterday, also got a plum assignment on ``The Perfect Storm.''
It was unclear if McGonigle's work with convicted felons violates his parole conditions.
``Everybody is (angry) because he jumped over a lot of guys with seniority,'' said one member.
In addition, other members described by officials as ``low-level hoods'' are favored members of the union who get constant work on movies, tapped by Flynn and Cashman, sources said.
Among those are Gilbert ``Gigi'' Eatherton and William Coyman, both Charlestown natives who have armed robbery convictions, according to one investigator.
Filmmakers have no choice
Flynn, whose Weymouth home was raided by investigators in the probe last month, is the transportation coordinator on all the films he works on. Among his responsibilities is managing the contract that the union has negotiated with producers and ensuring it comes in at budget.
But sources said Flynn routinely adds unnecessary workers - always friends - once filming is under way, and has been confronted about padding overtime and expense slips.
``(Industry officials) don't have a problem with signing the labor contract,'' said one insider familiar with the union. ``It's the unsigned contract that gets them. Things like the no-show jobs at 1,500 bucks-plus, forcing them to deal with Jimmy (Flynn), threats, things like that.''
Flynn's alleged actions on DreamWorks' ``What Lies Beneath'' and the thriller ``In Dreams,'' which was filmed in Western Massachusetts in 1997, are at the center of the records investigators have looked at from the studio.
According to sources, investigators are eyeing filmmakers' use of Flynn's company, Location Connection, which rents movie equipment. Among the items are make-up trailers and a piece of equipment called a ``honey wagon,'' a portable bathroom for changing and make-up.
According to sources, when Local 25, which controls movie contracts in Massachusetts and northern New England, negotiates with producers, union officials force the filmmakers to use Flynn's equipment.
``Sometimes they need it, sometimes they can get it somewhere else but they always have to get it from Jimmy,'' said one source familiar with negotiations. ``They get very disgruntled.''
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