[spacefreak]

Halliburton, Halliburton, Halliburton.

Why is it that this shady deal escapes all further examination? Kerry kills legislation that would have recovered $150,000,000 in federal overpayments made to AIG, the conveniently accepts $50,000 over the next few years in donations from AIG, including $30,000 to form Kerry's presidential campaign organization.

This article is about as far and as in-depth as the mainstream media pursued.

The documents obtained by AP detail Kerry's effort as a member of the Senate Commerce Committee to persuade committee chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., to drop legislation that would have stripped $150 million from the Big Dig project and ended the insurance funding loophole.

In 1999, Transportation Department auditors discovered that Big Dig managers had overpaid $129.8 million to AIG for worker compensation and liability insurance that wasn't needed, then allowed the insurer to keep the money in a trust and invest it in the market. The government alleged AIG kept about half of the profits it made from the investments, providing the other half to the project.

Outraged by the revelations, McCain submitted legislation that would have stripped $150 million from the Big Dig and banned the practice of allowing an insurer to invest and profit from excessive premiums paid with government money.

"Any refunds of insurance premiums or reserve amounts, including interest, that exceed a project's liabilities shall be immediately returned to the federal government," McCain's legislation said.

But Kerry and Kennedy intervened, and McCain withdrew the legislation in 2000 in favor of the hearing.

At that hearing, the Transportation's Department inspector general made a renewed plea for a permanent federal policy banning the overpayment of insurance premiums and subsequent investment for profit -- what McCain had proposed and Kerry helped kill.

In September 2001, AIG paid an estimated $540 in travel expenses to cover Kerry's costs for a speech in Burlington, Vt., according to a Senate report filed by Kerry.

A few months later in December 2001, several AIG executives gave maximum $1,000 donations to Kerry's Senate campaign on the same day. The donations totaled $9,700 and were followed by several thousand dollars more over the next two years.

Kerry wasn't the only committee member to get AIG donations. In 1999 and early 2000 as the Big Dig issue was pending, McCain received several thousand dollars in donations from executives of the insurer, the records show.

In spring 2002, AIG donated $10,000 to a new tax-exempt group Kerry formed, the Citizen Soldier Fund, to lay groundwork for his presidential campaign. Later that same year, AIG gave two more donations of $10,000 each to the same group, making it one of the largest corporate donors to Kerry's group.

[angaq0k]

Originally posted by spacefreak:
Halliburton, Halliburton, Halliburton.

Why is it that this shady deal escapes all further examination? Kerry kills legislation that would have recovered $150,000,000 in federal overpayments made to AIG, the conveniently accepts $50,000 over the next few years in donations from AIG, including $30,000 to form Kerry's presidential campaign organization.

This article is about as far and as in-depth as the mainstream media pursued.

Just as scandalous as Bush and the republicans being funded from the profits made in Iraq.