By RICK CASEY
Houston Chronicle
One of the services performed by people like Houstonian Stephen Payne ? highly paid political fixers who help foreign politicians win favor in Washington ? is cross-cultural education.
Thus we find Payne, a longtime Republican fundraiser with a consulting firm called Worldwide Strategic Partners, explaining in a series of e-mails to an exiled politician from Kazakhstan the American folkways that allow you to purchase certain political benefits without actually committing a crime.
Ready to seal the deal
Payne provided the e-mails to a political Web site called TalkingPointsMemo.com in the wake of the Sunday Times of London's sting. The Times caught Payne on a secret camera telling a man he knew as Eric Dos that he could arrange a meeting between a high U.S. official ? possibly Vice President Dick Cheney or Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ? for a fee of $700,000 that would include $250,000 for President Bush's forthcoming library.
According to the Web site, Payne provided the e-mails, admitting that he deleted at least one, to show he had done nothing illegal. The e-mails, written after the secretly recorded meeting, are quoted here as written.
One exchange took place July 9. Dos wrote that the "sponsors" of ousted president of Kyrgyzstan Askar Akayev, who sought meetings with American bigwigs to restore his relations with Washington, were ready to seal the deal.
No cash for Bush gift
"Money can be tomorrow," Dos wrote. "They can give the Bush donation in cash as I told them that the Bush library still to be created. Do you want me to bring cash to London to simplify things?"
Payne wrote back the same day: "That's Great news ... cash is very hard to deal with in and can't be easily brought to USA ? a wire transfer for 700 to cover everything at once is best way (but we can discuss options if it's a problem)."
Dos responds almost immediately:
"OK. I'm telling them that transfer can do as well. It did work when you successfully brought VP Cheaney to Kazakhstan in 2006. Correct me if I said wrong. The last time the Kazakh govt through KMG or whatever entity transferred directly to Worldwide Strategic and then some of it was transferred to Bush's people? Was it to Bush Sr library or foundation? or did your company just pass it on to Cheaney's people?"
KMG is Kazakhstan's state oil company. The reference is to a highly controversial visit Cheney (with Payne as an advance man) paid in 2006 to the oil-rich nation, where he glowingly praised President Nursultan Nazarbayev for improvements in his country's human rights record and commitment to democracy, despite a few minor glitches.
They include the assassination of an opposition leader, rigged elections, a U.S. State Department report that "almost all media outlets willing to criticize the president directly were subjected to intimidation," and the indictment by a federal grand jury of an American businessman for allegedly paying tens of millions in bribes to Nazarbayev and his family.
It's not clear whether Payne suspected Dos of setting him up by asking questions about payments to "Cheany's" people or whether he felt they simply reflected a Kazakh's understanding of business-as-usual.
Either way, Payne responded: "Let me be clear on these issues you just raised ? 'Cheney's people' were not paid anything as a result of his visit to KZ ? he came to KZ because he wanted to ? no other reason ... I personally, as you know, have given and raised over a million for the Republican party over the past several years ? but these donations are never tied to any specific request or Govt. action ? they are simply me expressing my desire for good Govt."
Dos responds the next morning, worried about the impact on the Kazakhs of this stuff about "good Govt."
"Discretion is very important to them, but they ? understandibly ? want to know that their money will work in the best way and go to the right people, i.e. the most influential ones, not to 'somewhere on the planet Earth'. We both know that I am an intimate with the Cheaney's arrangements because Timur, you an I laid their foundations in Almaty! I told Akayev's sponsors that the Kazakh arrangement for Cheaney visit involved the money going to you and some of it went to the Republicans. Surely that is right?"
Payne responded within an hour: "No problem, I'm happy to visit with you by phone when you are ready ... Please remember that we are dealing in the USA and anyone that tells you 'I can deliver a government action in exchange for specific funds' is someone you will soon visit in prison ... as that would be bribery in this country ? you know my firm's track record, you know how we get things done, but I can't engage in conversations of 'I'll get this exact thing done for that specific amount of money because I'm giving part of the money to bush or cheney' it doesn't work like that here.
"To be clear for Akayev's sponsors ? we will be making some large contributions this fall ? the more funding we have the larger those contributions will be ...
"We are ready to work and we will produce good results for the 700 we discussed ? exactly how those funds will be spent is at our discretion ... but our past performance is excellent and we are ready to perform again for your new friends."
There you have it. Good government. American-style.
Houston Chronicle
One of the services performed by people like Houstonian Stephen Payne ? highly paid political fixers who help foreign politicians win favor in Washington ? is cross-cultural education.
Thus we find Payne, a longtime Republican fundraiser with a consulting firm called Worldwide Strategic Partners, explaining in a series of e-mails to an exiled politician from Kazakhstan the American folkways that allow you to purchase certain political benefits without actually committing a crime.
Ready to seal the deal
Payne provided the e-mails to a political Web site called TalkingPointsMemo.com in the wake of the Sunday Times of London's sting. The Times caught Payne on a secret camera telling a man he knew as Eric Dos that he could arrange a meeting between a high U.S. official ? possibly Vice President Dick Cheney or Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ? for a fee of $700,000 that would include $250,000 for President Bush's forthcoming library.
According to the Web site, Payne provided the e-mails, admitting that he deleted at least one, to show he had done nothing illegal. The e-mails, written after the secretly recorded meeting, are quoted here as written.
One exchange took place July 9. Dos wrote that the "sponsors" of ousted president of Kyrgyzstan Askar Akayev, who sought meetings with American bigwigs to restore his relations with Washington, were ready to seal the deal.
No cash for Bush gift
"Money can be tomorrow," Dos wrote. "They can give the Bush donation in cash as I told them that the Bush library still to be created. Do you want me to bring cash to London to simplify things?"
Payne wrote back the same day: "That's Great news ... cash is very hard to deal with in and can't be easily brought to USA ? a wire transfer for 700 to cover everything at once is best way (but we can discuss options if it's a problem)."
Dos responds almost immediately:
"OK. I'm telling them that transfer can do as well. It did work when you successfully brought VP Cheaney to Kazakhstan in 2006. Correct me if I said wrong. The last time the Kazakh govt through KMG or whatever entity transferred directly to Worldwide Strategic and then some of it was transferred to Bush's people? Was it to Bush Sr library or foundation? or did your company just pass it on to Cheaney's people?"
KMG is Kazakhstan's state oil company. The reference is to a highly controversial visit Cheney (with Payne as an advance man) paid in 2006 to the oil-rich nation, where he glowingly praised President Nursultan Nazarbayev for improvements in his country's human rights record and commitment to democracy, despite a few minor glitches.
They include the assassination of an opposition leader, rigged elections, a U.S. State Department report that "almost all media outlets willing to criticize the president directly were subjected to intimidation," and the indictment by a federal grand jury of an American businessman for allegedly paying tens of millions in bribes to Nazarbayev and his family.
It's not clear whether Payne suspected Dos of setting him up by asking questions about payments to "Cheany's" people or whether he felt they simply reflected a Kazakh's understanding of business-as-usual.
Either way, Payne responded: "Let me be clear on these issues you just raised ? 'Cheney's people' were not paid anything as a result of his visit to KZ ? he came to KZ because he wanted to ? no other reason ... I personally, as you know, have given and raised over a million for the Republican party over the past several years ? but these donations are never tied to any specific request or Govt. action ? they are simply me expressing my desire for good Govt."
Dos responds the next morning, worried about the impact on the Kazakhs of this stuff about "good Govt."
"Discretion is very important to them, but they ? understandibly ? want to know that their money will work in the best way and go to the right people, i.e. the most influential ones, not to 'somewhere on the planet Earth'. We both know that I am an intimate with the Cheaney's arrangements because Timur, you an I laid their foundations in Almaty! I told Akayev's sponsors that the Kazakh arrangement for Cheaney visit involved the money going to you and some of it went to the Republicans. Surely that is right?"
Payne responded within an hour: "No problem, I'm happy to visit with you by phone when you are ready ... Please remember that we are dealing in the USA and anyone that tells you 'I can deliver a government action in exchange for specific funds' is someone you will soon visit in prison ... as that would be bribery in this country ? you know my firm's track record, you know how we get things done, but I can't engage in conversations of 'I'll get this exact thing done for that specific amount of money because I'm giving part of the money to bush or cheney' it doesn't work like that here.
"To be clear for Akayev's sponsors ? we will be making some large contributions this fall ? the more funding we have the larger those contributions will be ...
"We are ready to work and we will produce good results for the 700 we discussed ? exactly how those funds will be spent is at our discretion ... but our past performance is excellent and we are ready to perform again for your new friends."
There you have it. Good government. American-style.
