Congressional leaders inadvertently expose Israeli lobbyists behind letter to Obama
Published: May 15, 2009
Updated 6 months ago
Update: In response to an email query, Katie Grant, a spokeswoman for House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said, “The letter was discussed with AIPAC, and a staffer named it that.”
Josh Block, a spokesman for AIPAC, said he wasn’t familiar with the particular letter but that he could “only guess that whoever wrote the [letter] used it that title as shorthand, since it’s well know that we support the Hoyer/Cantor letter it is attached to.”
GOP House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) circulated a letter to colleagues this week urging President Obama to support Israel when moving forward with any Israeli peace process.
Trouble is, they forgot to delete the name of the lobbying group involved in the letter from the document.
Attached to the email message they circulated when seeking signatures from other members of Congress was the document, titled, “AIPAC Letter Hoyer Cantor May 2009.pdf.”
AIPAC stands for the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, a powerful bipartisan pro-Israel lobbying group. Recently, the group found itself in the news over allegations that two former staff members were involved in espionage — though the Justice Department recently dropped the case against them and no wrongdoing was alleged against the group itself.
The file name flub was discovered by The Washington Post’s Al Kamen in his “In the Loop” Column Friday.
The email to congressmembers seeking their support said they hoped they’d sign onto “the attached letter to President Obama regarding the Middle East peace process,” which argued that the US “must be both a trusted mediator and a devoted friend to Israel” and added, “Israel will be taking the greatest risks in any peace agreement.”
“Seems as though someone forgot to change the name or something,” Kamen quipped. “AIPAC? The American Israel Public Affairs Committee? Is that how this stuff works?”
The practice of lobbyists writing letters for congressmembers — to which they affix their names — is not uncommon. The custom was prominently in view during the scandal involving fallen power-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, whose staff were sometimes responsible for drafting letters that found themselves on congressional letterhead. Abramoff pled guilty to fraud and corruption charges in 2006.
An email to Hoyer’s press secretary was not immediately returned. The spokesperson for Cantor could not immediately be reached for comment, nor could a spokesperson for AIPAC.
The letter follows as a GIF. The PDF version can be downloaded here.
President Barack Obama spoke to the AIPAC Policy Conference in June 2008.
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Well, Golly Gee Whiz, Andy, Can you Imagine that? Our Federal Politicians being paid off by a foriegn nation? Can you inagine that? Isn’t treason a capital crime? Let’s execute these two as an example………Too bad Israel wasn’t caught trying to put us into another war for them. Wake up folks!!!
It’s a lot more than politicians being “paid off” by Israel. The fact is that this country is led by the nose by the Jewish state. They significantly dictate, or at least heavily influence, American foreign policy, all the while receiving the largest amount of foreign aid by us (even though they are the fourth most affluent country) and repeatedly spying on us. It’s almost as if the might United States has become a proxy agent for Israel.
dionysis. it is not that black and white. it is very complicated. go watch “fabled enemies” and see if you come to the same conclusion as I. It was multiple intel agencies that benefited globally. No question Iraq was an AIPAC give away. Why send Jewish soldiers when you can send POOR white trash, Latino, and African-American soldiers to do the same job?
Metallica wrote a song about this in like 1987. It was called “Disposable Hero’s” Black Sabbath wrote a song about it in like 1977. It was called “War Pigs”. Is heavy metal the answer to all of our problems? you decide….
dionysis - `It’s almost as if the might United States has become a proxy agent for Israel.`
I’m think the current incarnation of our government was designed to be the proxy agent for Israel.
natty, I am not acquainted with ‘fabled enemies’; is it a DVD, and readily available? Who put it out? Heavy metal? Well, it’s been used to try and break down ‘the enemy’, so maybe it does have amazingly diverse powers. As for Black Sabbath’s ‘War Pigs’ I recall it well. Actually went to my one and only Black Sabbath concert right after that song came out; I thought they sucked as a band, although with enough reefer in your system they could be endured.
and to ‘theconstitution’, you’re probably right.
Oh, wow, who would’ve thought that JEWPAC had so much clout with our elected representatives?
For those who might be upset with my anti-”semitic” use of JEW above, please know two things: 1) AIPAC claims (or at least wants you to believe) that they represent all Jews, not just the zionist ones; and 2) most Jews are not Semites, but most Arabs (specifically those in the “levant”, i.e. Palestinians, Syrians, Lebanese and Jordanians) are.
Israel gone by 2025.
Israeli interests call all the shots, literally.
They have maneuvered themselves to be at the table whenever
dinner is served. They sit at the head of the table. Not to diminish
what the Jews went through in WWII, but, their current interests are not
mine and they should not be giving thumbs up or down on every policy issue. There will be no peace in the mideast until some fairness is observed.
And Netanwahoo ain’t the one interested in fairness. I support the Palestinians in their resistance against a cruel occupation.
It’s not shocking that AIPAC did this. What’s shocking is every time AIPAC says jump, every member of congress regardless of their stripes replies “How high?”.
This reinforces that fact that our corrupt federal government is run by Israel.
It is time to break the Israel-Washington connection.
Do you really think it’s an “inadvertant flub?”
I don’t.
I always say, follow the money and you’ll find the answers to just about everything. That said, 5 of the 7 Governors of the Federal Reserve Bank are “Jewish.” I don’t mean Semites I mean Zionists!
Ron Paul now has a bill up to audit the SECRETIVE, illegal, and unconstitutional Federal Reserve Bank. IT HAS NEVER BEEN PROPERLY AUDITED in its 97 year existence. The bill is called the Federal Reserve Transparency Act H.R. 1207 and we all should force Congress to act on it immediately.
Just imagine the 97 year trail of skeletons in their closet. Of course thay will probably pull a Cheney and destroy documentation. Nonetheless, you should tell one and all and circulate the information to EVERYONE to push for transparency of the Fed.
GO GET EM RON!!!
Actually, this means that our Representatives, on both sides of the aisle, are getting their voting orders straight from AIPAC. I assume the Senate is an Israeli institution too, and probably President BlackBush. Let’s just get rid of the US government as we are being ruled by the Knisset anyway. Maybe we can save enough money so our masters will let us have health care. Welcome to the Zionist States of Amerika.
This kind of shit by Israel has lead me to believe that the best thing for the US is that Iran obtain nuclear weapons and end the Israeli hegemony in the Middle East.
Journalist Philip Weiss on the Neoconservative agenda:
“In terms of their politics, they were almost all Democrats and then as soon as the Democratic party suggested that it wasn’t going to have a strong military, Norman Podhoretz and Irving Kristol, the grandfathers of this movement, they went Republican. Why? Because they said, back in the 70’s, a strong American military is needed to protect Israel.”
Download an mp3 of Phil saying the above here (9:45 minutes in)
http://antiwar.com/radio/2008/07/12/philip-weiss/
Watch the BBC documentary “The War Party”, part 1 of 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vWZTTrceV8
philipweiss.org - blogging daily all things Neocon, AIPAC, Zionism
Zionists are like parasitic organisms. Once theyve leeched the USA dry they’ll find another host.