07-09-09 Biased Peoria judge should resign in Jeff Mazon case

Peoria Judge who rejected Mazon plea deal should resign
By Ray Hanania – I covered both trials of Jeff Mazon, the man accused of allegedly taking a “bribe” in exchange for allegedly increasing a contract payment to a Kuwaiti firm that providing material support for our troops in Iraq. In both trials, the jury deadlocked on the charges against Mazon. After meticulously weighing the evidence in the case during lengthy trials, neither of the two juries could agree to convict Mazon, who lives in the Southwest Suburbs of Chicago.  Part of the problem is that many of the witnesses were not credible, some convicted felons who pled guilty to contract fraud and mismanagement while working for a spin-off of the controversial firm Halliburton called KBR. Well, it just got worse.

HANANIA: Will the Bush Administration expand its wars to help McCain? FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, 10-27-08

Cross-border attacks in Syria and Pakistan are not coincidence

By Ray Hanania – The Bush administration will start a war for oil. And one week before a presidential election, with his Republican party’s candidate waning in the polls, the Bush Administration will also start a war for politics.

HANANIA: Government seeks to muzzle Halliburton criticism, FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, Sept. 27, 2008

Bush administrations moves to choke off Mazon defense
By Ray Hanania – The Bush administration moved to prevent Jeff Mazon from making a defense that would most certainly shift the blame from charges he took a bribe to the more important questionable track record of his former employers, Halliburton. In a motion made to U.S. District Court Judge Joe Billy McDade earlier this month, the Bush administration asked that Mazon be denied the right to argue the most fundamental issues driving alleged corruption in the handling of war-related contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

CARTOON: Line in the Sand, Bush, Cheney & Habeas Corpus, FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, June 18, 2008

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HANANIA: War contract mistrial proves public is concerned more about Halliburton, For Immediate Release, May 1, 2008

Mistrial in war related corruption case proves there is more to it
By Ray Hanania – A jury in Rock Island, Illinois said they were deadlocked on the Bush Administration’s prosecution of a former middle-level sub-contractor for Halliburton that the federal government has targeted for more than three years. The jury was split evenly over charges that Jeff Mazon, a manager for Kellogg, Brown & Root, (KBR), a construction and engineering company that had received a contract from the U.S. Army Sustainment Command at the Rock Island Arsenal to provide services to troops in the Middle East, had accepted a bribe to increase the contract for a Kuwaiti contractors. U.S. District Court Judge Joe B. McDade, who muzzled the trial by refusing to allow Mazon’s defense team to address the larger issues of the Iraq War and the widespread contract corruption involving politically connected Halliburton, the parent company of KBR, had no choice but to declare a mistrial. But what are the real issues behind why the jurors could not convict Mazon, who the Bush Administration has targeted for more than three years in a politically-motivated campaign that cost taxpayers millions of dollars?

HANANIA: Truth comes out in Iraq war-related contract-abuse case, For Immediate Release, April 18, 2008

Truth starts to leak out in Iraq war contract-abuse case
By Ray Hanania – The U.S. Attorney is prosecuting what should be a high profile case involving corrupt practices in Iraq-war related contracts in the backyards of the Midwest apparently to protect Halliburton, the company formerly run by Vice President Dick Cheney. But instead, the case is being handled like a petty crime in a middle America suburb. That decision has resulted in suppressing the shocking headlines, and silencing any talk about the clear ties that the Iraq war-related corruption has to the administration of President George W. Bush. Now we know why.

HANANIA: Iraq war corruption cases go beyond simple “fraud” For Immediate Release, April 8, 2008

Iraq war corruption cases go beyond simple “fraud”
By Ray Hanania – This week, a suburban Chicago man who once held a management position at a company that sub-contracted war-related services in Iraq through Halliburton, will finally face trial on charges of corruption. Halliburton and the sub-contractor, Kellogg Brown & Root Inc., (KBR), have seen a string of their managers and employees convicted on corruption charges over the past five years since the war began. But the judge overseeing the case has ruled the defendants will not be permitted to debate the Iraq War during the trial, fueling suspicions the Bush administration is manipulating the cases to protect its political and financial interests.