McCain photographed meeting with criminal in Montenegro

[npk]

This was the top story on the Rachel Maddow show last night on MSNBC. The picture appears in THE NATION MAGAZINE.

The picture shows John McCain and his campaign organizer Rick Davis boarding a yacht in which celebrity Ann Hathaway and her criminal boyfriend Raffaello Follieri are already on board. The picture was taken in Montenegro in 2006 as McCain was celebrating his 70th birthday and apparently wanted to spend it hob nob bing with some celebrities.

The ironic thing to the story is that McCain has maid his campaign about Experience v. Celebrity. Calling Obama nothing more than a man seeking celebrity status on the campaign trail. Yet this picture clearly sows that McCain has a taste for the celebrity life much more than Obama.

Follieri, who posed as Vatican chief financial officer in order to win friends and investments, pleaded guilty Wednesday in a Manhattan district court to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, eight counts of wire fraud and five counts of money laundering. As part of the plea, Follieri admitted to misappropriating at least $2.4 million of investor money and redirecting it to foreign personal bank accounts that were disguised as business accounts.

Full story:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080929/berman_ames

[Blue_Roses]

1. I saw this on Rachel's show last night...wow!

McCain looks like he's in hiding with that cap and sunglasses.

[dennis4868]

2. According to Hannity...

McCain is guilty by association much like Obama is because of his relationship with Bill Ayers.

[godai]

3. He also celebrated that birthday with a Russian tycoon with links to AF EADS tanker deal.

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_3364.shtml


John McCain's 70th birthday bash held on boat of Russian tycoon
By Wayne Madsen
Online Journal Contributing Writer


Jun 12, 2008, 00:17



(WMR) -- John McCain's campaign is trying to make political hay out of the conviction of Chicago tycoon Tony Rezko, a one-time fundraiser for presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. However, the McCain campaign wants to bury the story of McCain's 70th birthday bash held on board the yacht of a Russian aluminum tycoon in the Adriatic Sea. The party was held on August 29, 2006, McCain's birthday and followed a congressional junket by McCain and five other GOP senators to the Republic of Georgia.

The host for McCain's yacht party off the coast of the Republic of Montenegro was, according to WMR sources with close links to the Republican Party, Oleg Deripaska, one of Russia's most powerful tycoons who made his billions in cornering Russia's aluminum market in the 1990s.

The 40-year old Deripaska is also politically-connected, having married the daughter of Russia's late President Boris Yeltsin. Unlike most other Russian tycoons, who now live in exile abroad and are protected by Israeli passports, Deripaska maintains close relations to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and another Russian tycoon, Roman Abramovich, who was also invested in Russia's aluminum industry. In 2000, Deripaska merged his firm, Basic Element, with Abramovich's firm, RusAl. Both tycoons maintain expensive homes in London.

Deripaska has attracted the attention of U.S. law enforcement and he has been the subject of several civil law suits filed against him because of his business practices. However, no federal criminal charges have been brought against Deripaska. That is because Yeltsin's son-in-law counts, in addition to McCain, former GOP Senator and 1996 GOP presidential candidate Bob Dole among his most ardent supporters. In 2005, Deripaska paid Dole $500,000 in lobbying fees and was granted a visa to enter the United States. However, in 2006, the Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. government refused to grant Deripaska another visa because the FBI discovered he made "inaccurate statements" to the bureau.


The 70th birthday bash was reportedly a promise of huge cash donations to McCain's forthcoming presidential campaign, another indication of violations of law prohibiting donations from foreign sources. The quid pro quo for Derpaska was that McCain and his top lobbyists were pushing the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company (EADS) and its Airbus subsidiary to receive the lucrative US Air Force contract to replace the Air Force's fleet of refueling tankers. The reported source for the aluminum in the Airbus tanker aircraft is Deripaska's Russian Aluminum Company (RusAl).