"The United Methodist Church says it views representing Gonzalez
as a humanitarian act and is paying for Craig's service through a
special fund that accepts contributions from church members
_and_others_ [emphasis added]. The fund is administered by the
National Council of Churches, an umbrella group to which the
Methodist Church belongs ... To pay for his services, the
Methodist Church has raised about $50,000 so far and aims to
raise up to $100,000, with Craig accepting reduced rates, the
church says."
I guess one can launder money through a church, but it's
not something I would have ever thought of.
Mike
From:
http://chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/article/0,2669,ART-44515,FF.html
GOP targets lawyer for Elian's dad
By Naftali Bendavid
Washington Bureau
April 27, 2000
WASHINGTON -- As Republicans prepare for hearings on the raid
that whisked 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez from Miami, they also are
focusing on a surprising target: Gregory Craig, the lawyer for
Elian's father, who was an outspoken attorney for President
Clinton during his impeachment trial.
Some Republicans suggest that might have biased the
administration toward the father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, or even
created an inappropriate "back channel" to Atty. Gen. Janet Reno.
"It appeared that attorney Greg Craig was very much involved, and
as perhaps he should be, but that he even had veto authority over
the agreements or agreement that might be reached," Senate
Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) said this week.
Administration officials deny any inappropriate influence on
Reno's decisions during the weeks of volatile negotiation that
preceded the Miami raid early last Saturday. Critics of the
Republicans say the charges are just another political attack on
the Clinton administration.
The accusations against Craig are sure to focus more attention on
a lawyer who has played a highly visible role in two of the more
explosive recent national dramas: the Monica Lewinsky matter and
the Gonzalez case.
The public has seen the telegenic, white-haired Craig�a certified
member of the Washington Establishment�emerge periodically from
his office to make statements on Gonzalez's behalf. Viewers are
likely to see even more of him as the Elian battle moves from
Little Havana to congressional hearing rooms in Washington and
federal courtrooms in Atlanta.It was Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.),
the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, who brought
Craig to the attention of the church group that is paying his
bills.
"Craig is a Vermonter, and he and the senator go way back," said
Leahy spokesman David Carle. "He is a good, decent person. He is
well-respected."
The United Methodist Church says it views representing Gonzalez
as a humanitarian act and is paying for Craig's service through a
special fund that accepts contributions from church members and
others. The fund is administered by the National Council of
Churches, an umbrella group to which the Methodist Church
belongs.
"The churches saw a need here and stepped in," said Carol Fouke,
spokeswoman for the National Council of Churches. "The conspiracy
thing sounds totally preposterous to me. It sounds really crazy."
Craig did not return calls Tuesday or Wednesday.
What is beyond dispute is Craig's status as a powerhouse
Washington lawyer, a combination political-legal fixer of the
sort that is a special creature of the capital. Craig, who is 55
and married with five children, attended Harvard University,
where he was a leader of the anti-war movement, and Yale Law
School, where he met the Clintons.
Craig was hired by Williams & Connolly, one of Washington's
premier law firms, known for no-holds-barred criminal defense.
The firm's attorneys specialize in fighting their clients'
battles in all venues�public and political as well as legal�and
Craig is a master of that art.
"Greg has a superior talent at the crossroads of policy,
politics, media and law," said Robert Barnett, a firm partner who
used to be President Clinton's personal lawyer. "That allows him
to perform admirably in these difficult, multifaceted cases."
An early example was the trial of John Hinckley Jr., who
attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in 1981. Craig
was on the team that formulated Hinckley's insanity defense,
which surprised many and angered some by succeeding.
At the same time, Craig has been active in Democratic foreign
policy circles, periodically leaving his firm to take government
jobs. In the mid-1980s he served as foreign policy adviser to
Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), helping steer Kennedy through such
controversies as the war in El Salvador.
"Greg's an excellent, great lawyer with sound judgment and good
instincts," Kennedy said recently. "He did a brilliant job as a
foreign policy adviser in my office in the 1980s. He traveled
with me to South Africa in the battle against apartheid, and he
was a key part of our successful effort in Congress to impose
sanctions on South Africa."
Craig has kept his foreign policy credentials burnished, serving
on the boards of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Foundation and
the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Three years ago,
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright tapped him to be her
director of policy planning, one of the top positions at the
State Department.
"He worked with Secretary Albright and me very closely," recalled
outgoing department spokesman James Rubin. "He was a very
intelligent and very thoughtful and very fair-minded individual.
He had a great ability to synthesize the policy implications and
the public implications of issues in foreign affairs."
In addition to helping focus attention on Africa and tending to
the nation's sometimes raw relations with Japan, Craig
coordinated policy on Tibet�a highly sensitive issue, especially
because Clinton held two summits with Chinese leaders during
Craig's tenure.
Associates say Craig's easygoing style puts people at ease. This
combination of skills led Clinton's defense team to enlist him in
September 1998, as the House impeachment inquiry was beginning in
earnest.
David Kendall, Clinton's personal lawyer and a Williams &
Connolly partner, knew Craig from law school, where they met
during a moot court exercise in which Kendall played a prosecutor
and Craig a criminal.
"In our later lives neither one of us was able to assume those
roles," Kendall quipped dryly.
Kendall wanted Craig aboard because "he had three things:
enormous legal intelligence and awareness of how the case had to
be defended legally, high energy, and a great knowledge of
Congress."
Plunging into the case, Craig sought to craft a different defense
for each arena. Before the House Judiciary Committee, Craig
asserted that Clinton may have done wrong but did not break the
law. In a much-quoted statement, he said Clinton's testimony in
the Paula Jones case was "evasive, incomplete, misleading, even
maddening" but not perjury.
When that argument failed, Craig told the public the process had
been unjust, an accusation that polls suggested had some effect.
"Nothing about this process has been fair. Nothing about this
process has been bipartisan. Nothing about this process has won
the confidence of the American people," Craig said.
At the impeachment trial in the Senate, Craig's presentation was
workmanlike though hardly dazzling. He focused relentlessly on
the weakest charges and ridiculed them�for example, that Clinton
said he had had sexual encounters with Lewinsky "on certain
occasions" when it was actually 11, a distinction few could see.
In the end, of course, the defense prevailed, and so to Leahy,
Craig was a natural choice when it was time to locate an attorney
for Juan Miguel Gonzalez.
Since taking over the case in mid-February, Craig has sent a
stream of steady, low-key messages to the public: Elian belongs
with his father; the Miami relatives are breaking the law and
exploiting Elian.
Polls suggest this has gotten through.
"I think he has done a good job under difficult circumstances,"
said attorney Ronald Weich, also a former Kennedy staffer. "He
achieved the result his client wanted by deploying a
public-relations strategy as well as a legal strategy."
That strategy was most recently on display last weekend, when The
Associated Press distributed a photo of a helmeted federal agent
in full gear seemingly pointing a gun at a scared Elian during
the raid.
Within hours, Craig, whose media savvy led him to carry a
disposable camera, released a photo showing a smiling Elian
reunited with his father, blunting the first photo and prompting
many newspapers to run the two images side by side.
Craig now very likely faces battles that will test his other
skills. The Senate hearings next week and an appeals court
session May 11 will pit the Justice Department against Elian's
Miami relatives, but Juan Miguel Gonzalez may well have a role in
both proceedings, which means Craig could be heavily involved.
To pay for his services, the Methodist Church has raised about
$50,000 so far and aims to raise up to $100,000, with Craig
accepting reduced rates, the church says.
Still, Craig's simultaneous connection to Clinton and Juan Miguel
Gonzalez have proved to be irresistible to conspiracy theorists.
Larry Klayman, chairman of the watchdog group Judicial Watch, has
asserted that Clinton must have cut some sort of deal with Cuban
leader Fidel Castro.
"It is shocking that Elian Gonzalez' father, Juan Miguel
Gonzalez, is being represented by Bill and Hillary Clinton's
lawyer and law firm," said a recent press release from Judicial
Watch, which regularly attacks the administration and has filed
numerous lawsuits against it.
"It is certain that Juan Miguel Gonzalez cannot afford the legal
fees of Williams & Connolly, and thus it is likely that they are
being paid by Castro or someone on his behalf."
Those involved say such notions are fantasy.
"I suppose the conspiracy theorists out there are willing to
believe almost anything," said Thom White Wolf Fassett, general
secretary of the Methodist Church's General Board of Church and
Society.
"There is not a thing they are saying that has a modicum of
truth."
#####
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=================================================================
Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*Mike Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~~~~~~~ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day.
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