Category: Politics

Who is Doug Edelman?

Billy: The Early Years, a Mina Corp. production

"Billy: The Early Years," a Rev. Billy Graham biopic produced by an employee of a secretive UK firm under congressional inquiry.

Doug Edelman is the Californian at the center of a congressional investigation into a $1.4 billion contract to supply aviation fuel at the U.S. air base in Kyrgyzstan, a critical hub for the war in Afghanistan.

Congress wants to know whether the sole-source, classified contracts awarded to Mina Corp., Ltd., and Red Star Enterprises Ltd., were really a vehicle for the U.S. government to deliver payoffs to the family of two corrupt former Kyrgyzstan presidents.

Edelman’s name first surfaced in May in London’s Daily Telegraph newspaper, which tracked Mina and Red Star to an address in London’s posh Mayfair district.

“Inside, Mina Corp and Red Star’s logos are clearly displayed,” Richard Orange wrote. “Senior staff include Chuck Squires, a former US defence attache, and Doug Edelman.”

Jeff Stein at The Washington Post’s SpyTalk blog describes Edelman as “a Californian with extensive business experience in Moscow and Central Asia.” Deirdre Tynan of Eurasianet.org and Paris-based Intelligence Online have dug deep into Edelman’s corporate affiliations. Edelman controls a network of a companies organised around an offshore financial consultancy, Aspen Wind Corporation, according to Intelligence Online. Aspen Wind Corp. registered in 2002 with New York State, listing principal executive offices in Nicosia, Cyprus.

No one seems to have yet connected the 58-year-old native of Stockton, California to the most interesting part of his biography: his role as one of the executive producers of a feature film on the life of evangelist Billy Graham.

Billy: The Early Years features Arnie Hammer, great-grandson of Armand Hammer, who led Occidental Petroleum in Los Angeles and forged close ties with the Soviet Union.

Doug Edelman’s name appears in the credits and virtually nowhere else, although there were some side benefits. One of his daughters is credited with a small role; another daughter performs a song on the film’s soundtrack.

Though a host of endorsements were offered on the film’s web page (www.billytheearlyyears.com), Franklin Graham, president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, released a statement saying that BGEA “has not collaborated with nor does it endorse the movie, Billy: The Early Years.” The film, released in 2008, bombed at the box office, grossing less than $350,000, according to boxofficemojo.

Billy: The Early Years was financed by Solex Productions, which describes itself in press materials as a “sister company” of Mina Media.

Mina Media, with an address of 15 Agiou Pavlov Street, Nicosia, Cyprus, is a subsidiary of UK-based Mina Corp. Ltd. (Click here for Mina Media’s corporate records)

It owns and operates MTV Adria in Slovenia, which broadcasts in Macedonia, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina.  Mina Media’s Stephen MacSearraigh was a director of Mina Corp. He also served as publisher of Iraq Today, a defunct English-language newspaper financed by Mina Corp that was published in Baghdad after the U.S. invasion. (Mina Corp/Mina Media did not respond to a request for comment.)

Edelman isn’t the only Mina employee with a movie connection. MacSearraigh is credited as a consultant to the geopolitical thriller Syriana.

The Enigma Impresses the Poker World

Poker writer Peter Sharkey is impressed by Brent “The Enigma” Wilkes’ power of concentration at the card table:

Brent Wilkes should exploit a gap in the market – for poker players’ benefit

Just how good are you at blanking everything out and concentrating fully upon your poker?

The level of concentration necessary to be successful is startling as you need to keep a constant eye on how play progresses and how individuals react to winning as well as to defeat. If you’re having problems away from the table and they begin to prey on your mind, it’s invariably curtains for your game.

Of course, there are short cuts to achieving a level of focus few other pursuits require. Switching on an mp3 player or donning those mirrored lens shades are two of the most popular – and effective, but there’s no substitute for heading to the felt with a clear mind.

So imagine you had been convicted for bribing a government official and received a 12-year prison sentence. That’s bad enough, but assume you’ve been free on bail for more than two years, pending an appeal against your sentence. Seems you would have your plate pretty full eh? And probably not much time to partake of a few hands of poker.

Not Mr Brent Wilkes, a 56 year-old former defence contractor who was convicted of conspiracy, bribery, money laundering and wire fraud in 2007. Mr Wilkes was freed from prison in February 2008 pending an appeal, which finally got under way on Monday.

Teddy Bear Collector Admits Stealing San Diego County Pension $

Paul Greenwood

Bow-tie wearing hedge fund founder Paul Greenwood has pleaded guilty to defrauding San Diego County’s pension and other big institutional investors of at least $331 million.

Greenwood and partner, Stephen Walsh, ran WG Trading, which collapsed with $78 million of San Diego County retirees’ money.

“You treated these investments as your own personal bank accounts?” U.S. District Judge Miriam Cedarbaum in Manhattan asked Greenwood during his plea hearing yesterday.
“Correct,” said Greenwood, who said he and Walsh often paid investors back using funds from other investors.
Greenwood used part of the money to acquire a collection of rare teddy bears and other stuffed animals.
The San Diego County Employees’ Retirement Association is suing to get its money back.

Former Clinton official Mark Lindsay is "educating" Congress on Mina/Red Star

Add another name to the troupe of lobbyists that the super-secret U.S. defense contractor Mina Corp/Red Star has dispatched to Capitol Hill.

Mark F. Lindsay has registered with both houses of Congress as a lobbyist for the company at the center of a congressional inquiry over $1.4 billion in contracts awarded to supply jet fuel to the U.S. airbase in Kyrgyzstan.

Lindsay describes his job as “work[ing] with the Administration and Congress to educate them on the mission of Mina Corp./ Red Star Enterprises Ltd.,” according to the registration form received by the House and Senate July 26.

Congress is investigating whether Mina/Red Star’s “mission” involved payments to the family of a corrupt former Kyrgyz president.

Lindsay was hired by Weil, Gotschal & Manges, which appears to be coordinating Mina Corp.’s response to the dirt kicked up by the Rep. John Tierney and his Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

The registration was made in Lindsay’s role as president of White House Consulting Inc., which shares the address of of Lindsay’s employer, The Livingston Group. Lindsay joined the The Livingston Group to run its health care practice last year.

Lindsay was a member of the Obama transition team and ran the Office of Management and Administration in the Clinton White House.

The lobbyist filings exempt Mina, a foreign corporation seeking to influence the U.S. government, from the much more stringent filings required by the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

Under FARA, Mina would be required to reveal the names, residences and nationalities of its directors and officers — the precise information it has worked so hard to conceal.

However, FARA provides an exemption for foreign corporations whose agents register under the weaker Lobbying Disclosure Act.

As a senator, Barack Obama in 2008 co-sponsored a bill that would have eliminated this exemption, the “Closing the Foreign Lobbying Loophole Act.” The bill died in the Foreign Relations Committee.

Palin spokesman also part of the Mina/Red Star team

McCain/Palin campaign spokesman W. Taylor Griffin is coordinating the public relations response to Mina Corp., the secretive defense contractor that is the subject of a congressional investigation into its fuel contracts for a U.S. airbase in Kyrgzystan.

Griffin is a partner in Hamilton Place Strategies LLC, the PR firm that, as I reported yesterday, employs former White House Press Secretary Dana Perino and her former colleague, Tony Fratto.

As part of the Palin team, Griffin led a crisis communications team that dealt with the “Troopergate” affair.

Griffin was part of the communications team for the 2000 and 2004 Bush presidential campaigns, and did a stint in the Treasury Department’s Office of Public Affairs and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.