Is John Murtha About to Plant a Lackey at Homeland Security?

by Erick Erickson: Tomorrow, the United States Senate’s Homeland Security Committee just might vote Tara O’Toole out of committee and send her to the floor for confirmation.

The committee may want to look again. Nominated by Janet Napolitano, there is a late breaking disparity in Ms. O’Toole’s testimony — disparate enough to suggest she is hiding some very close times to John Murtha. And the tangled web of lobbyists, high dollars, and corruption just might infiltrate the Department of Homeland Security.

Ms. O’Toole is the head of the very well respected Center for Biosecurity. According to written testimony to the United States Senate on June 10, 2009, in response to a question about ties between Ms. O’Toole’s Center for Biosecurity and a group called the Alliance for Biosecurity, Ms. O’Toole told the Senate

the Alliance for Biosecurity [is] a group initiated by the Center for Biosecurity in 2006. . . . The Center for Biosecurity receives no money from any member of the Alliance and funds all costs associated with running the Alliance out of our philanthropic funds. No biotech or pharmaceutical firm provides the Center with financial support of any kind.

Odd, in new written testimony to the Senate — testimony not even fully publicly available — Ms. O’Toole now claims there are no “financial connections” between the Center for Biosecurity and the Alliance for Biosecurity. In fact, Ms. O’Toole now disavows all connections between the Center and Alliance.

Why? Well, let’s follow the money. Joel McCleary is a founding partner of Four Seasons Ventures. He is also a founder and company director at PharmAthene. James Ervin, another founder of Four Seasons Ventures, also lobbies for PharmAthene. Four Seasons Ventures is invested in PharmAthene. Ervin is a central figure in Murtha’s world. Those seeking access and money from Congressman Murtha go through Ervin.

McCleary is an advisor to a proposed manufacturing facility the Department of Defense and HHS plan to build in Murtha’s district and also to the Center for Biosecurity, which is connected to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). Here is where O’Toole comes back in. UPMC is a primary funder of the Center for Bioscience, in addition to being its founder.

O’Toole runs the place, McCleary sits on the board, and Ervin gets money flowing to PharmAthene and various other projects. In turn, O’Toole tells the Senate that PharmAthene is on the board of the Alliance for Bioscience and, in fact, chairs the Alliance from what I’ve been told. But O’Toole, remember, having first testified to direct financial ties between the Alliance and the Center, now says there are none.

More troubling, O’Toole says she is in no way connected to $30,000.00 in contributions flowing to Murtha from UPMC academics all in one day, but O’Toole just so happened to also give a large sum to Murtha on the exact same day. O’Toole says she was not aware that colleagues of hers at UPMC were all pooling money to give to Murtha on the exact same day she too gave the largest contribution she’d ever given to him.

More troubling, it appears that PharmAthene, UPMC, the Center, and the Alliance all have common ties to Murtha through a lobbying group — an issue as yet unexplored by the Senate. There are way too many coincidences and way too many inescapable conclusions to think anything other than O’Toole is scrambling to hide some very troubling ties to John Murtha. The Senate should dig further before voting on Ms. O’Toole.

John Murth: "What's That Got to do With Me?"

When the liberal media keeps nipping at the tail of a liberal democrat, then something must be in the wind. Maybe for even the Democrats there is a point at which too much graft is really too much. Of maybe its time for the Democrats to toss the public a pork chop. With every passing day, porker and earmark king Rep John Murtha appears to be the pork chop that is going to fed to the public. Not that he doesn't deserve it.

Yesterday, The New York Times blasted John Murtha in an editorial with innuendos of his connection to using Federal money to advance his interests via family and friends. Below are a few of the comments:

One of the most favored insiders in Representative John Murtha’s rich churn of defense earmarks has pleaded guilty to criminal charges, shedding light on a twisting, pay-to-play money trail. . . . What’s that got to do with me?” commented Mr. Murtha, who previously lavished praise and tens of millions of dollars in contracts on the two companies caught up in the criminal investigation. . . . Investigators have not identified him as a target. But the inquiry is backtracking a trail of hundreds of millions awarded to Pentagon contractors who gratefully requited with tens of millions in political donations to Democrats on the appropriations subcommittee headed by Mr. Murtha.

In just one tangent of the complex inquiry, Mr. Ianieri’s company hired the lobbying firm of Mr. Murtha’s brother Kit. The company soon was blessed with money from an $8.2 million defense earmark. . . . Representative Murtha, using a 2005 tsunami relief bill, took the $8.2 million from another contractor that had severed ties with his brother’s lobbying firm. The Department of Justice alleges that Mr. Ianieri’s company then illicitly distributed $1.8 million of the money to other companies, some of them represented by Kit Murtha’s firm.

The Murtha money trail is far from fully explored but already features a second tangent of Congressional appropriations staff members’ exiting through the golden door to defense lobbying and scoring big contracts from their old bosses. Taxpayers should press the question of what all this has to do with Mr. Murtha . . .

Beyond the criminal investigation, a full-scale ethics inquiry should be pressed by House Democrats and Speaker Nancy Pelosi. If not, the Murtha money trail could lead them back to the minority.

In conclusion, the following remark by Does It All Matter posted three months ago is still appropriate [Hat tip to the same source for the above photo]: "Come on people, we had a revolution in this country once because of unfair government representation. Perhaps with the next election cycle we need to have another revolution and get rid of this bunch of corrupt scum!"

Republican Primary in the Winds with Winner Taking on John Murtha

Tim Burns declared his candidacy as a Republican for Congress for Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District. Previously, Bill Russell had earlier declared his candidacy and took on Murtha in the last election. Russell is the primary focus of this "Veterans for Bill Russell for Congress" blog. Note, the Roll Call Against Murtha is committed to the defeat of John Murtha!

In announcing his candidacy, Burns said: "We need to get away from looking to the government to solve all of our problems. Instead we need to force them to solve theirs. We need to stop the bailouts and handouts, and need to balance the budget and ensure that our children will inherit a strong America, not a bankrupt one. I know how to create jobs, make a payroll, meet a budget, and stay out of debt. I am running to restore this forgotten, commonsense value to Washington."
Tim Burns speaking at the Johnstown, PA, Tea Party

Ianieri Pleads Guilty - John Murtha Involvement Pending?

Previously reported: The former chief executive for a defense contractor with ties to Democratic U.S. Rep. John Murtha has been charged by federal prosecutors with taking about $200,000 in kickbacks from a subcontractor. Richard S. Ianieri, of Doylestown, was charged in a one-count criminal information filed Monday in Pittsburgh. He is accused of accepting two kickbacks of about $100,000 each from a subcontractor — identified only as "K" — while he was an officer of Coherent Systems International Corp.

Update - AP reports: "Court documents filed late Tuesday and others unsealed Wednesday show Richard S. Ianieri has agreed to plead guilty after federal prosecutors transfer his case from Pittsburgh to Pensacola, Fla., where federal prosecutors accused him separately of defrauding the Air Force. Prosecutors in Pittsburgh charged Ianieri, of Doylestown, on Monday with taking $200,000 in kickbacks from a subcontractor while he headed Coherent Systems International Corp., a defense contractor with ties to U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa." [Full Story]

DOJ Says Murtha Earmark Money Was Illicitly Distributed

Paul Singer at Roll Call reported: A contracting firm that had hired the brother of Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) as its lobbyist took the proceeds from a Murtha-provided, $8.2 million Air Force earmark and distributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to other companies represented by the Congressman’s brother for items that were not part of the project, the Justice Department charged Thursday. . . .

Roll Call reported in June that Murtha used a 2005 tsunami relief bill to take away $8.2 million of government funding from a company called AEPTEC Microsystems that had severed ties with his brother’s lobbying firm and moved that money to Coherent Systems International, which had hired his brother’s firm. The lobbying firm, Rockville, Md.-based KSA Consulting, had hired Kit Murtha and Carmen Scialabba, a former Appropriations Committee staffer for Congressman. . . .

According to the Justice Department, Coherent paid $300,000 to Gensym — a Massachusetts-based company that opened an office in Murtha’s district and hired KSA as its lobbyist — for software that Coherent never used. The charges also allege that Coherent paid $275,000 to VidiaFusion, a KSA client in Florida, for software that was never used. . . .

Earlier this week, Ianieri was charged in Pennsylvania with soliciting $200,000 in kickbacks in January 2006 from a defense contractor identified only as “K.” In Thursday’s filing, the government alleges that in December 2005, Coherent paid the Pennsylvania defense contractor Kuchera Industries $650,000 for “prototype cards” that were not part of the Ground Mobile Gateway project. Kuchera is owned by Bill Kuchera, a friend and longtime supporter of Congressman Murtha. Coherent and Kuchera had co-located some of their operations in Pennsylvania, and Murtha had praised their close cooperation.

The government also alleges that Coherent paid $200,000 to a company called Schaller Engineering for “target tags” that were never delivered. Richard Schaller has been charged separately with distributing the proceeds of that payment to himself and his business partners, including Mark O’Hair, the Air Force official who approved the original payment to Coherent. O’Hair has also been charged. Attorneys for O’Hair and Schaller have denied the charges, and their supporters argue that the men were attempting to build a revolutionary product for the Defense Department. . . . [Full Story]

Feds: Pa. defense contractor exec took kickbacks

The AP has reported:

The former chief executive for a defense contractor with ties to Democratic U.S. Rep. John Murtha has been charged by federal prosecutors with taking about $200,000 in kickbacks from a subcontractor.

Richard S. Ianieri, of Doylestown, was charged in a one-count criminal information filed Monday in Pittsburgh. He is accused of accepting two kickbacks of about $100,000 each from a subcontractor — identified only as "K" — while he was an officer of Coherent Systems International Corp.

In an April 2006 news release, Murtha announced that Coherent and Kuchera Defense Systems were working "virtually as one company" on 14 contracts worth $30 million to develop high-tech military gear. At the time, both companies had offices in Windber, near Murtha's home base of Johnstown.

Kuchera, which has given ten of thousands of dollars to Murtha's campaign and political action committee, has been under scrutiny in recent months. . . . A spokesman at Murtha's office in Washington, D.C., also declined to comment on the charge.

Ianieri was charged via a federal criminal information, which typically indicates that a defendant is cooperating with prosecutors. . . . In April, the Navy suspended the Kucheras and their companies for "alleged fraud" including multiple instances of incorrect charges, along with allegations of defective pricing and ethical violations. . . . [Read: Full Story]

Another shoe drops for Murtha

H/T Hot Air's Ed Morrissey: A figure close to John Murtha has been charged with fraud in connection to government contracting. Richard Ianeri, former president of Coherent Technologies, took kickbacks from subcontractors. But Ianeri may be singing rather than fretting at the moment (via HA reader Frank P):

A former executive for a defense contractor with ties to Democratic U.S. Rep. John Murtha has been charged by federal prosecutors with taking about $200,000 in kickbacks from a subcontractor.

Richard Ianieri, of Doylestown, Pa., served as president and CEO of Coherent Systems International Corp., the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.

The government alleges Ianieri received checks which were “provided for the purpose of improperly obtaining and rewarding favorable treatment … relating to a government prime contract.”

Coherent worked so closely with Kuchera Industries that Murtha himself bragged three years ago that the companies practically worked as one entity. Kuchera, a big Murtha backer, got suspended from its Navy contracts for fraud in April. Kuchera has appealed that decision, but FBI raids on its headquarters strongly suggest that the government may have more to say about Kuchera’s future.
The AP notes that the type of charges filed against Ianeri suggest that he may be more ally to the government than adversary:

Ianieri was charged via a federal criminal information, which typically indicates that a defendant is cooperating with prosecutors.

In other words, keep the popcorn handy.

Murtha Snubs District With Cap & Trade Vote

District Residents Could See $2K Jump In Utility Rates
(JOHNSTOWN, PA) – Ignoring the importance of the coal industry in the 12th Congressional district, incumbent Rep. John Murtha (D) voted with his Democrat party leadership in supporting the Obama Energy Bill in the late night hours Friday. The bill, also called “Cap and Trade,” would heavily tax energy derived from fossil fuels such as coal and oil.

“Our local residents could see as much as a fifty percent increase in their home utility costs,” said William Russell, Republican candidate in the 12th district. “This bill is nothing more than a way for this government to take even more money from its hard-working citizens. Residents in this district are already having trouble paying their home heating and electricity bills, how can they afford to pay up to fifty percent more?

Russell also pointed out that Rep. Murtha also thumbed his nose at the district’s coal industry by supporting the bill. “Pennsylvania and the 12th district sit on some of the largest coal and gas deposits in the country,” said Russell. “Passage of this bill could virtually shut down the coal industry. We should be encouraging the development and use of clean coal technology. This is just another example of how Mr. Murtha puts the support of his party ahead of the needs of his district.”

Russell also noted that West Virginia’s three representatives voted against the cap and trade bill. “Voters in the 12th district have to ask themselves one simple question,” said Russell. “Why on earth would Mr. Murtha support this bill? There is only one answer, to pay back his boss, Nancy Pelosi.”