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| Former FBI agent Jim Davis shown with Saddam Hussein in 2003 following his capture |
Davis has a very interesting background. He was temporarily assigned by the FBI to work in Iraq during that colossal quagmire. He was among a team of American interrogators who first questioned former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein following his capture in 2003. The 26-year FBI veteran performed undercover work for the FBI in Chicago during the 3-year Operation Silver Shovel investigation that netted two dozen convictions, including six Chicago aldermen.
Davis served as a special investigator for the independent counsel that investigated former Clinton Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt in the late 1990s. That investigation centered around whether Babbitt and Interior Department officials rejected an Indian casino proposed in Wisconsin after competing casinos lobbied the administration for the rejection of the casino project and contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Democrats. Babbitt was cleared of any wrongdoing in that investigation.
Davis came to the Indianapolis FBI office in 2003 where his responsibilities included program management of all FBI criminal investigations in Indiana. His service in Indianapolis was interrupted on several occasions for temporary duty assignments he served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
More recently, Davis worked as the head of the Colorado Department of Public Safety for Gov. John Hickenlooper's administration after several years as special agent in charge of the Denver FBI office. He left that job to start his own private security firm. Denver's sheriff's department paid his firm $80,000 over a five-month period as a consultant helping the office implement reforms.
2 comments:
This is kind of interesting the investigation into Bruce Babbitt was called Wampumgate.
From WIKI > Wampumgate is the name for the controversy around the July 14, 1995 rejection of an Indian gambling project by three impoverished Chippewa Indian tribes who hoped to establish a casino in Hudson, Wisconsin.
Documents uncovered by Congressional investigators, lawsuits and an Independent Counsel showed evidence that political contributions and pressure from lobbyists from rival tribes caused Bruce Babbitt to overrule staff recommendations and deny the casino application.
When Babbitt gave conflicting explanations of the incident to Congressional leaders, Atty Gen Janet Reno, who had resisted an independent probe of campaign finance, asked a judicial panel to appoint an outside prosecutor to probe Bruce Babbitt's role in the rejection as well as the influence of campaign contributions.
The Chippewas engaged Phoenix attorney and longtime Babbitt confidant Paul Eckstein to act as an informal liaison with Babbitt. Eckstein later became incensed when Babbitt hinted to him at a private meeting that the decision to turn down the tribes was influenced by campaign contributions from the opponents. Janet Reno denied the independent counsel right to probe broader campaign fund-raising issues in the Clinton administration. (No big surprise here!!!)
President Clinton supported Bruce Babbitt in his overruling regional Interior officials. Records from the Interior Department showed that the office of Harold Ickes, then Pres Clinton's Deputy Chief of Staff, did in fact contact Babbitt's aides about the Hudson project.
In addition, Donald Fowler, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, made phone calls to senior Interior Department staff on behalf of the opposition and there were numerous contacts between Interior staff and lobbyists and officials from the opposing tribes. One prominent lobbyist, Patrick O'Connor, spoke directly with President Clinton in Minneapolis about the matter, triggering calls to the White House from Air Force One by Bruce Lindsey. O'Connor later contacted Ickes directly regarding Hudson.
The Independent Counsel eventually did not find prosecutable evidence of wrongdoing, though did note major irregularities in the decision process. In 2000 the Interior Department chose not to continue fighting a lawsuit by the tribes in the Hudson partnership and reversed its earlier denial of the casino application.
This has the smell of the Clinton's all over it.
Sure seems to be some strong governmental and law enforcement connections between Indiana and Colorado. And Kentucky. Right on down through Arizona too.
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