American Minute with Bill Federer
Scandals: end DOESN'T justify the means!
Scandals in politics have been motivated by personal gain, greed, love of power, lust, or simply a conviction that one's political agenda is so good it justifies bending the law.

This ungodly behavior was observed by Machiavelli in The Prince (1513), who recorded the evil tactics of Cesare Borgia: "the ends justifies the means."
In 1798, Yale President Timothy Dwight described how the Jacobins acted this way during the French Revolution:

"Adultery, assassination, poisoning, and other crimes of the like infernal nature, were taught as lawful ... provided the end was good."
Saul Alinsky advocated this in his nefarious Rules for Radicals (1971):

"The end justifies almost any means."
In 250 BC, India's Mauryan Empire became the largest empire in the world, under King Chandragupta Maurya.
The King followed the advice of his prime minister Chanakya, also called “Kautilya,” who is described as India’s Machiavelli.
Chanakya wrote Arthashastra , which gives shrewd, brutal instructions on deceit, assassination, and statecraft to accumulate power.

Chanakya counseled the King to use spies to create crises of rivalry, where subjects would fight among themselves, allowing him an excuse to consolidate control.
Max Weber wrote in Politics as a Vocation (1919), that “compared to Chanakya’s Arthashastra, Machiavelli’s The Prince is harmless.”
Roger Boesche, who wrote "Kautilya’s Arthashastra on War and Diplomacy in Ancient India” (The Journal of Military History, 2003), described its harsh political pragmatism:

"Is there any other book that talks so openly about when using violence is justified? When assassinating an enemy is useful? When killing domestic opponents is wise?

How one uses secret agents? When one needs to sacrifice one’s own secret agent? How the king can use women and children as spies and even assassins? When a nation should violate a treaty and invade its neighbor?

Kautilya ... addresses all those questions.
... In what cases must a king spy on his own people? How should a king test his ministers, even his own family members, to see if they are worthy of trust?

When must a king kill a prince, his own son, who is heir to the throne? How does one protect a king from poison?

What precautions must a king take against assassination by one’s own wife? When is it appropriate to arrest a troublemaker on suspicion alone? When is torture justified?

At some point, every reader wonders: Is there not one question that Kautilya found immoral, too terrible to ask in a book? No, not one ... And this is what brings a frightful chill."
The Bible condemns such behavior, as the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans, chapter 6:

"Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid...

Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin ... For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Below is a list of some of the notable political scandals in American history:
1866 - GUNS TO MEXICAN GANGS

After the Civil War, the United States secretly supplied "decommissioned" guns to Mexican gangs to cause domestic violence and insurrection in order to oust Maximillian I.

Benito Juárez then captured Maximillian and had him shot, June 19, 1867.
1868 - JOHNSON REFUSES BLACK VOTING

President Andrew Johnson refused to protect the right of freed slave to vote. As a result, the Republican Congress voted to impeach him.
1872 - CREDIT MOBILIER SCANDAL

President Grant's Vice-President and several Congressmen received shares of stock in the Crédit Mobilier construction company, which was building the Union Pacific Railroad, in exchange for the company being allowed to fraudulently bill the government.
1875 - WHISKEY RING CONSPIRACY

Government agents and whiskey distillers were involved in bribery and tax evasion. Grant promised swift punishment, but when his personal secretary was implicated, Grant tried protect him, which only made the scandal worse. The Secretary of War was impeached.
1875 - BRIBES FOR LAND

Grant's Secretary of the Interior, who advocated killing off the Buffalo to make way for the railroads, was forced to resign for taking bribes in exchange for land grants.
1881 - STAR POSTAL ROUTE

During President Garfield's administration, though he was not implicated, private companies delivered mail on the Star Route in America's west. Low bids were given to postal officials, but when those officials presented the bids to Congress, they increased the amounts and pocketed the difference.
1910-1919 - GUNS TO MEXICAN GANGS

During the Border War with Mexico, President Woodrow Wilson supported one gang leader against the others, selectively ignoring an arms embargo, even arranging for train cars of weapons to be left unattended at a border town for Pancho Villa and anti-Catholic revolutionary Venustiano Carranza to be used against Victoriano Huerta.

Wilson then backed Carranza against Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata.
1921 - TEAPOT DOME SCANDAL

President Warren G. Harding's Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall was caught selling exclusive rights to oil reserves in Teapot Dome, Wyoming, in exchange for personal profit and cattle.
1922 - VETERANS AFFAIRS EMBEZZLEMENT

President Harding's Director of Veterans Affairs Charles Forbes was convicted and imprisoned for denying claims of wounded World War I veterans and embezzling $225 million.
1924 - BOOTLEGGERS

President Harding's Attorney General Harry Daugherty let pharmacies and bootleggers obtain permits to sell alcohol for "medicinal" purposes during the era of prohibition. This, and other scandals, forced him to resign.

During Prohibition, among those suspected of illegally importing liquor was Joseph Kennedy.
Herbert Hoover wrote of President Harding in his memoirs (1952):

"Harding had another side which was not good.

His political associates had been men of the type of Albert B. Fall (Teapot Dome Scandal) ... Harry Daugherty (bootlegging scandal) ... Charles Forbes (embezzled from veterans over $2 million) ...

He enjoyed the company of these men (in) weekly White House poker parties ... the play lasted most of the night ... It irked me to see it in the White House."
1953 - OPERATION AJAX

Though President Truman opposed it, as he feared it would set a dangerous precedent for the C.I.A, President Eisenhower gave his approval to the C.I.A.'s first operation to overthrow of a foreign government.

Iran's democratically-elected President Mohammad Mosaddegh had sought to limit the amount of control BP (British Petroleum) had over Iran's oil reserves. He also indicated he would establish ties with the Soviet Union.
In Operation Ajax, the most feared mobsters in Tehran were hired and hundred of agitators were bused in to stage riots and destabilized the country.

In the created confusion, the government was overthrown, President Mosaddegh was arrested, and the pro-West Shah Reza Pahlavi became the new leader of Iran.
Meanwhile, the Soviet Union did the same thing.

Its Committee for State Security (Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti, or K.G.B.) organized clandestine opposition groups to destabilize pro-western countries.

The K.G.B., with the help of Fidel Castro, created the National Liberation Army of Columbia (FARC) in 1964.

The K.G.B. , with the help of Ernesto "Che" Guevara, created the National Liberation Army of Bolivia (ELN) in 1964.

The K.G.B., with the help of Yasir Arafat, the Egyptian-born nephew of Mufti Amin al-Husseini, created the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1964.

In 1968, the K.G.B. created the "liberation theology" to promote a progressive Marxist social justice agenda of class-warfare to destabilize western democracies.
1969 - CHAPPAQUIDDICK

U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy hosted a party attended by six married men and six single women on Chappaquiddick near Martha's Vineyard.

Kennedy left the party with one of the women, Mary Jo Kopechne.

The next morning she was found dead in Senator Kennedy's submerged car.
1973 - AGNEW

Spiro Agnew became the second Vice President in U.S. history to resign when confronted with charges of extortion, tax fraud, bribery, and conspiracy.
1979 - IRAN HOSTAGE CRISES

The Shah of Iran reportedly refused to renew a 25-year-old exclusive oil agreement with BP. At the same time, the Cold War with the U.S.S.R. was growing tense.
Jimmy Carter's National Security Council, headed by Zbigniew Brzezinski, debated a plan that if the Shah was abandoned and Ayatollah Khomeini took power, that it would be major obstacle to the Soviet Union's expansionist plans.
Reagan thought Carter's actions were misguided, stating: “I did criticize the President because of his undermining of our stalwart ally, the Shah.”
Disregarding his promises of setting up a democratic government, the Ayatollah took Iran in a fundamentalist direction and crushed all opposition. He then held captive 52 American hostages for 444 days.
1986 - IRAN-CONTRA

During President Ronald Reagan's administration there was a scandal of a different sort. As the Cold War continued, plans were made to sell arms to anti-Soviet forces in Iran in exchange for the release of more U.S. hostages.

These funds would then be used to help Contra freedom fighters stop Soviet-backed communists from taking over Nicaragua.

In this way, communists would be stopped on two fronts at no financial expense to the United States, but Democrats opposed this.
1989 - KEATING FIVE

Five U.S. Senators were accused of corruption:
-Alan Cranston,
-Dennis DeConcini,
-John Glenn,
-Don Riegle, and
-John McCain.

It was discovered that Charles Keating had donated substantially to each of the senators' campaigns.

Correspondingly, the senators had intervened to end a regulatory investigation into Charles Keating's Lincoln Savings & Loan, which had collapsed, defrauding bondholders and taxpayers of $3 billion.
1998 - MONICA LEWINSKY

President Clinton had an illicit relationship with Monica Lewinsky, whose friend, Linda Trip, convinced her to keep a stained dress as protection to keep her from being added to the Clinton body count list, a collection of names circulating the Internet of deceased former Clinton associates.
Attempting to cover up the affair, Clinton was impeached for perjury and obstruction of justice.
2009 - GUNS TO MEXICAN GANGS

President Obama's Attorney General Eric Holder was held in Contempt of Congress after refusing to release documents regarding a "Fast and Furious" operation which provided guns to Mexican drug gangs.
2012 - GUNS TO BENGHAZI & SYRIA

Prior to re-election, President Obama announced the war on terror was over. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with the 57 leaders of the OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooperation) and promised support of a U.N. Resolution abolishing free speech insulting to Islam.

This was after several European countries hurriedly abolished free speech insulting Islam after orchestrated outbreaks of violence to Danish cartoons of Mohammed in 2005, and French newspaper Charlie Hebdo in 2011.
On September 11, 2012, an orchestrated attack began on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Six hours into the attack, President Obama spoke via telephone with Secretary Clinton but no rescue was ever attempted.
The next morning, Clinton's State Department sent memos to YouTube and Google recommending they censor speech insulting Islam.

Momentum began to abolish free speech, until it was discovered that the U.S. Ambassador in Benghazi had been warning Hillary's State Department of the dangerous situation for months, and that his repeated requests for security were denied.
When it was uncovered that the attacks were planned and not spontaneous in response to a video insulting Islam, Secretary Clinton responded "What difference does it make."

The momentum to abolish free speech quickly subsided.
Then, emails surfaced revealing more details of what was going on.

U.S. arms had illegally been used by the Obama Administration to oust Libya's President Gaddafi.

These arms were being moved in a gun-running fashion through Benghazi, similar to Eric Holder's "Fast and Furious" scandal, to arm fundamentalist Muslims to oust Syria's President Assad.
When Russia came to Assad's defense, the Muslim terrorists armed and trained by the U.S. attacked into Syria and Iraq, calling themselves ISIS.
They proceeded to torture, rape, and behead hundreds of thousands in what Secretary of State John Kerry had to formally declare was a genocide. (CNN, 3/18/16)

In just eight years, the Christian population in Syria had gone from 2.5 million to a just few hundred thousand.
Obama administration's arming of Muslim militants was reported in the Los Angeles Times (3/27/16): "In Syria, militias armed by the Pentagon fight those armed by the CIA."
President Trump ended Obama's secret CIA program of arming and training Muslims, as TIME Magazine reported (7/28/17): "President Trump ends covert plan to arm Syrian rebels, Russia has pushed U.S. to end program."
2013 - IRS TARGETING

After President Obama met 157 times with IRS director Lois Lerner, she pleaded the 5th Amendment when asked by Congress on whether the agency targeted conservative political groups prior to the President Obama's re-election.
2016 - HILLARY'S EMAILS

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton illegally used secret email servers.

When questions arose over lack of security, and the coordination of her Secretary of State's Department to arrange favorable treatment for foreigners giving donations to the Clinton Foundation, supposedly in exchange for speeches given by her husband, suddenly 30,000 of Hillary's emails were deleted.

When questioned, her technology specialist, Bryan Pagliano, pleaded the Fifth Amendment on March 2, 2016.

The Justice Department, under Attorney General Loretta Lynch, initiated an investigation, but after an unprecedented meeting with Hillary's husband at the Phoenix Airport, the investigation was curtailed.
When interviewed, Lynch said "he mentioned the golf he played in Phoenix" though sources told ABC15 "former President Clinton did not play golf during his most recent visit in Phoenix."
Under Lynch's authority, FBI Director James Comey announced they would not investigate Hillary, though he described her behavior as "extremely careless."
Since Comey's statements differed from Hillary's, House Judiciary Committee chairman Bob Goodlatte accused Hillary of lying under oath to the House Benghazi committee.

Commentator Dick Morris explained that several of Hillary's emails exposed nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri as an American spy, resulting in him being executed in Iran.
2010 - URANIUM ONE

Allegations remain regarding who was involved in the approval of the sale of significant amounts of uranium to Russia during the Obama Administration and the timing of $145 million in donations to the Clinton Foundation.
2016 - DNC

When WikiLeaks' Julian Assange released 20,000 emails showing the Democrat National Committee worked to undermine Bernie Sanders in favor of Hillary Clinton, DNC Chairman Debbie Wasserman Schultz was forced to resign, though she was quickly hired by Hillary.

Rachel Alexander of Townhall.com wrote: "Since the Democrat National Committee emails were leaked a few weeks ago, three people associated with the DNC have all been found dead under what could be questionable circumstances."

Seth Rich, a DNC data analyst, was shot in the back July 10, 2016, though his wallet, credit cards and watch were not taken.

On July 13, 2016, Shawn Lucas, who had served the DNC with a lawsuit on July 3, 2016, was found dead on August 2, 2016.

On June 22, 2016, John Ashe, former President of the United Nations General Assembly, was found dead with a barbell across his throat just days before he was scheduled to testify that a Chinese businessman illegally funneled funds to the DNC during Bill Clinton's term in office.

July 22, 2017, Imran Awan, a Pakistani IT staffer who worked at the DNC, was arrested trying to flee the country.
1972 - WATERGATE

At the top of the list of political scandals in U.S. history was Watergate.

It began when five low-level members of President Nixon's re-election team did a third-rate break-in of the Democratic headquarters in the Watergate building.

Though Nixon was not involved, his efforts to defend a subordinate led to him being implicated in a cover up.

The House Judiciary Committee staff prepared the articles of impeachment against President Nixon.
Hillary Rodham served on the Impeachment Inquiry staff. Her conduct was described by Jerry Zeifman, the Chief Counsel of the House Judiciary Committee, as "dishonest," being that she "engaged in a variety of self-serving unethical practices in violation of House rules," possibly to facilitate a future run for President by U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy.

Rather than face impeachment, President Nixon resigned.
Unfortunately, the scandal overshadowed more notable aspects of his administration:

-ending racial segregation in southern schools;

-ending the draft;

-NASA's Apollo mission to the moon;

-officially recognizing "Fathers' Day";

-beginning the process to end the Cold War;

-visiting Beijing and Moscow as steps to bring down the Bamboo Curtain and the Iron Curtain;

-fighting foreign oil price gouging;

-producing a balanced budget;

-supporting Israel in the Yom Kippur War, with Secretary of State Henry Kissinger attempting to negotiate agreements between Israel and Egypt and Syria.
With media aggressively fanning the scandal, Richard Nixon resigned on AUGUST 8, 1974.

Having served as the 37th President of the United States, he stated from the Oval Office:

"Good evening. This is the 37th time I have spoken to you from this office ...

To continue to fight ... for my personal vindication would almost totally absorb the time and attention of both the President and the Congress ...

Therefore, I shall resign ... If some of my judgments were wrong ... they were made in what I believed ... to be the best interest of the Nation."
In an almost prophetic final warning, Nixon stated:

"In the Middle East, 100 million people in the Arab countries, many of whom have considered us their enemy ... now look on us as their friends.

We must continue to build on that friendship so that ... the cradle of civilization will not become its grave."
Concluding, Nixon added:

"I have taken heart from what Theodore Roosevelt once said about the man in the arena, 'whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly ... If he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly' ...

In leaving ... I do so with this prayer: May God's grace be with you in all the days ahead."
Privately, to his Cabinet, President Nixon confided:

"Mistakes, yes ... for personal gain, never ... I can only say to each ... of you ... we come from many faiths ... but really the same God ... You will be in our hearts and ... in our prayers."
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