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Terrorist Fundraiser of the Year
Oops! Building on my last post on the NRCC's bogus Business Advisory Council and "Businessman of the Year" program, it turns out that Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari isn't the first member of the council to be indicted on charges of supporting terrorism.
Yasith Chhun, the head of the Cambodian Freedom Fighters, a group designated by the State Department as a terrorist organization, was indicted in May of 2005 for charges of plotting to overthrow the Cambodian government. He was also, The Los Angeles Times reported, a member of the NRCC's Business Advisory Council:
Before his federal indictment this week [Chuun] had raised $6,550 for the National Republican Congressional Committee and was invited to sit on the group's Business Advisory Council, which has tens of thousands of members nationwide, said Carl Forti, a spokesman for the committee....Chhun attended the annual meeting of the National Republican Congressional Committee's business advisory council in Washington, D.C., last year. [NRCC Spokesman Carl] Forti said the committee did not know Chhun's group had been designated a terrorist organization, saying it was impossible to do background checks on all its members.
"At this point, the gentleman hasn't been convicted of anything," Forti said. If he is a terrorist, "it's something we need to look at. Clearly, we wouldn't want any leader of a terrorist organization being members of our business advisory council."
Chhun was even a cause celebre of Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), who "remained a supporter of Chhun and his allies because of their passionate efforts to topple the Cambodian government led by Prime Minister Hun Sen."
Despite having powerful friends, Chhun was indicted for "attempting to kill the prime minister, attack government buildings and launch small-scale attacks on karaoke bars and fuel depots in an effort to galvanize opposition to the Phnom Penh government," along with raising between $100,000 and $200,000 for his group's activities, the Times reported.
His trial is due to start next month.
Comments (37)
b!X wrote on February 19, 2007 6:12 PM:Of course, if these people had ties to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the newsbots on television would be shrieking about it 24/7.
TM Smith wrote on February 19, 2007 6:16 PM:Ours is not the task to determine if this is a direct mail scam.
If the Republican National Committee says these terrorists are their "Business Person(s) of the Year" then that's good enough for me.
lilybart wrote on February 19, 2007 6:31 PM:b!X: That is my thought too.. I guess the Media expect corruption from the Republicans, so it has to BAD to get noticed.
gin wrote on February 19, 2007 6:32 PM:At least he was targeting the karaoke bars. Those crazy Cambodians and their karaoke bars!
Kevin Hayden wrote on February 19, 2007 7:42 PM:Did the White House fly their families out of the country after 9-11 when every other plane was grounded?
Richard L. Adlof wrote on February 19, 2007 8:46 PM:Dude . . . The leader of their party and its Human-Chimp Hybrid Puppet are tay-er-ists . . . So why not the idiots who give them cash.
carole wrote on February 19, 2007 9:28 PM:"Clearly, we wouldn't want any leader of a terrorist organization being members of our business advisory council."
There is no doubt in my mind that if Chhun raised more money for the NRCC than Dr. Welby, the Cambodian Freedom Fighters would magically become the Cam Patriotic Business Advisors.
global citizen wrote on February 19, 2007 10:00 PM:He obviously did not raise enough money to get Cambodia named a member of the axis of evil.
I agree that if these terrorist sponsors were Democratic Party contributors CNN would bump Anna whatshername and be reporting nothing else for the next week.
RepubAnon wrote on February 19, 2007 10:21 PM:All it takes to get into these groups is a checkbook - Chhun was probably using pictures taken at $1,000/plate fundraisers to convince the credulous of US Government support for his scams. It just happened to be Republicans because they're in power.
mcr wrote on February 19, 2007 10:39 PM:I have to agree with RepubAnon that these people would have been contributing to Dems if they were in power. The thing I still can't figure is why the CNN/FoxNews is so enthusiastic about reporting this sort of crap with the Dems are involved and so silent with the NRCC is involved
Obnox wrote on February 19, 2007 11:45 PM:"Small-scale attacks on karaoke bars and fuel depots."
You can't make this shit up.
bjobotts wrote on February 19, 2007 11:49 PM:B!X. The media is owned by the GOP and seldom reports anything that might damage the Republican party. What you really mean to say is that "I don't want to hear anything against the GOP, that would put them in a bad light" and rather than learn and take responsibility or try to straighten out the mess your party makes the first thing you do is ignore and throw rocks at the Dems. Truth doesn't play Political parties it just is. Fix the problems not hide from them. Too much blame damage.
bjobotts wrote on February 19, 2007 11:54 PM:I meant this is what CNNers do. They ignore anything that put GOP in bad light and rather than fix it they want to blame Dems.
Arabiflora wrote on February 20, 2007 1:06 AM:When this chapter in American history is recorded in HS textbooks, PLEASE let it reflect the complete and utter abandonment of principles and national priorities of our traditional media.
Truly shameless, the whole lot of them.
r€nato wrote on February 20, 2007 1:11 AM:surely there's something in the Patriot Act that would allow the US government to seize Republican party funds, since they are now a terrorist-financed organization.
And I'll start holding my breath for that to happen, in 3, 2, 1...
kipling wrote on February 20, 2007 5:04 AM:How to deal with unwanted telemarketers. Nice video.
kipling wrote on February 20, 2007 5:05 AM:Oops, comments won't accept HTML tags. The video is here: http://www.howtoprankatelemarketer.ytmnd.com/
Yep wrote on February 20, 2007 8:06 AM:Is there anyone who still doubts that 9/11 was orchestrated by the neocons?
Anonymous wrote on February 20, 2007 10:23 AM:Posted by: RepubAnon
Date: February 19, 2007 10:21 PM"
So true RepubAnon, but that does not explain why the party of morality, self-responsibility and and accountability fell for it...does it.
DallasNE wrote on February 20, 2007 10:41 AM:When campaign cash is at stake it becomes a don't ask, don't tell moment. This will continue to be a feature of the American political system until public financing of federal elections is the law of the land. Until then, fasten the seat belts as it will be a bumpy ride.
freelunch wrote on February 20, 2007 10:53 AM:I got a call from someone on behalf of the 'Business Advisory' shakedown and it was clear that she wasn't used to being told that the people she was working for were incompetent and had betrayed the fundamental principles of the Republican Party. Amazingly, her response was that I should join to help steer things on a better course.
Anyone want to become helmsman five seconds before you hit the reef?
ohiomeister wrote on February 20, 2007 11:46 AM:Why isn't the Democratic congressional committee highlighting it?
Some TV coverage explaining what happened might dampen what little wingnut enthusiasm for the GOP remains.
HayDay wrote on February 20, 2007 11:48 AM:"At this point, the gentleman hasn't been convicted of anything," Forti said.
HayDay wrote on February 20, 2007 12:08 PM:Much like the "terrorists" being held at Gitmo.
The NRCC also has a Physicians Advisory Board for which they "enlist" members that they call Honorary Chairmen. Tom Reynolds used to be the the Chairman of this sweet little fundraising scam. Now its Tom Cole.
HayDay wrote on February 20, 2007 12:11 PM:I worked for a doctor & we would get a call from one of their telemarkets about once a year with the announcement that Tom Reynolds was pleased to award him (the Doc) as an honorary chairman of the PAB. They made it sound like a big honor/award. After a little research online I found out that it was simply a fundraising organization for the NRCC. If someone calls back to find out the details of the "award" they are basically asked to donate money. Simple bait & switch. Of course, there are people who will believe they get some cred or cache by putting that title into their CV
I meant to leave the URL for the NRCC's PAB.
Minerva wrote on February 20, 2007 4:00 PM:http://www.physiciansadvisoryboard.org/
Makes perfect sense -- Republicans are into "supply-side" thinking, in general, and it is clear that there were not enough terrorist attacks on Americans in 2006 (reported in the press, anyway) to support the RSCC's "They are about to kill you in your sleep" campaign theme, and their ever-evolving graft agenda of "Let's double the military budget and outsource it all with no-bid contracts"...
San Hensel wrote on February 20, 2007 5:39 PM:Funny how Fox didn't mention this. It would be right up their ally.
sj wrote on February 21, 2007 12:54 AM:Chhun a terrorist? Hun Sen, the Cambodian prime minister is THE terrorist. He is Cambodian's Sadam Husein. He is a corrupt, murdering, Vietnamese government puppet. Chhun is a hero; he has the guts to go against the terrorist that Hun Sen is.
Drew Bernard wrote on March 2, 2007 10:52 PM:Thanks for the scoop... I got the call asking me to join the advisory council too and felt like I should get to the bottom of the scam. So, I called back and recorded my conversations a couple times to see what I could learn.
Here is the whole scoop from the telemarketing company who is doing dirty work. Turns out, they are called InfoCision, www.infocision.com out of Acron, OH. The really beautiful thing is that they use the NRCC work as one of their success stories on their website. If there is any question at all as to the purpose of this campaign. This post, along with supporting documents and recordings on my blog, should clear that up. http://drewsshoes.wordpress.com/tag/business-advisory-council-scam/
A quick scan of their website provides everything we need to know… They use a the NRCC work as a case study to show how successful they are at raising money… The PDF is available on their website as well as my blog…
Here are a few clips from InfoCision’s Case Study.
“A high profile, Washington-based political committee was facing an increasingly frustrating fundraising effort. Its donor housefile was shrinking and new donor prospecting was struggling. InfoCision was recruited to help turn the group’s fundraising program around.””
“Originally, the business program was restricted to only outbound calling, but it InfoCision added an inbound component, allowing business donors to return calls when their schedules permitted. The result? A long-term, profitable fundraising campaign and a financially solid political committee.”
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