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: Jury in controversial Iraq War contracts case deadlocks, second time, FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, 10-20-08

Jury in controversial Iraq War contracts case deadlocks, second time

By Ray Hanania  – For the second straight time, jurors deadlocked in the Federal prosecution of a former Halliburton contract manager accused of inflating a price in exchange for an alleged bribe. The deadlock only confirmed what defense attorneys had argued in defending Jeff Mazon, the southwest suburban man who has been the center of the more than three-year-long investigation. The government’s evidence, Mazon’s attorney said, only showed that an error, not a scheme, had occurred.

HANANIA: Judge’s actions overshadown already troubled Iraq war contracts case, FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, 10-19-08

Judge’s actions overshadow already troubled Iraq war contracts case
By Ray Hanania – Jurors in the controversial Halliburton corruption case playing out in a Federal Courtroom in Peoria complained to U.S. District Court Judge Joe Billy McDade last week they were “deadlocked” following their first full day of deliberations in the three-week long trial. The drama began when the jury foreman sent McDade a note Thursday afternoon identifying one juror as refusing to support a unanimous verdict. Instead of simply responding by telling jurors to continue their deliberations, McDade summoned the foreman who sent the note to explain why it was sent.

HANANIA: NEWS: Halliburton corruption case goes to the jury, FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, 10-16-08

Halliburton corruption case goes to the jury

By Ray Hanania – (Peoria, Il., Thurs. 10-16-08) – The controversial prosecution of a Chicago area man accused of taking a bribe while managing contracts for Halliburton in Kuwait during the start of the Iraq War was turned over to a Federal Jury Wednesday following three weeks of testimony. Jeff Mazon, of Country Club Hills in Chicago’s Southwest suburbs, is charged with accepting a $1 million bribe in exchange for inflating a $685.000 contract to $5.52 million for a Kuwait contractor involved in providing services to American forces as they prepared to invade Iraq in March 2003. Mazon’s attorneys blamed his supervisors who said they were making him into a scapegoat to cover their own mismanagement.

HANANIA: Evidence takes back seat in Jeff Mazon prosecution, FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, 10-06-08

Evidence takes back seat in Jeff Mazon prosecution
By Ray Hanania  – Southwest Chicago suburbanite Jeff Mazon is sitting in a Peoria Federal court room again this week because an Excel spreadsheet used to calculate the conversion of Kuwait Dinars into U.S. Dollars to pay an Iraq war related contract was, as the defense admits, inadvertently and unintentionally inflated. Mazon, who oversaw hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts for Halliburton that were the foundation of the March 19, 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, left Halliburton’s employ and about six months later entered into a business relationship with a Kuwaiti contractor. With the inadvertent errors in calculation, the fact Mazon left Halliburton and then entered into a business relationship with the Kuwaiti contractor may make Mazon circumstances look bad. But after sitting through the testimony of key witnesses last week, it is clear the prosecutors do not have one hard fact, one eye witness, or one solid piece of evidence besides circumstance that proves Mazon did anything wrong.

HANANIA: Judge in Halliburton contract corruption trial clashes with defense, FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, 9-30-08

Judge in Halliburton contract corruption trial clashes with defense
By Ray Hanania — (DATELINE Peoria, Il, Sept. 30, 2008) — The judge in the controversial trial of Jeff Mazon, a former Halliburton procurement officer accused of intentionally inflating a contract payment in exchange for a bribe, acknowledged his rulings have caused “some tensions.” In the second day of hearings, U.S. District Court Judge Joe Billy McDade acknowledged his rulings tightened reigns on Mazon’s defense team which is led by J. Scott Arthur a suburban Chicago attorney from Orland Park.

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.

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: Controversy-plagued war contract firms continue to benefit under Bush, For Immediate Release, April 21, 2008

Controversy-plagued war contract firms continue to benefit under Bush
By Ray Hanania – As long as the Bush administration continues to focus on allegations of individual corruption related to Iraq war contracts, the real corruption will continue to go unchallenged. This past week was an eye-opening one for American taxpayers.

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.