Post by Moses on Dec 9, 2004 11:05:33 GMT -5
www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A45175-2004Dec7?language=printer (Excerpt below)
Kerik's Surveillance Activity in Saudi Arabia Is Disputed
Cabinet Pick Is Accused of Carrying Out Hospital Chief's Agenda
By John Mintz and Lucy Shackelford
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, December 8, 2004; Page A03
The autobiography of Bernard B. Kerik, President Bush's nominee to head the Department of Homeland Security, recounts a ... time 20 years ago when he was expelled from Saudi Arabia amid a power struggle involving the head of a hospital complex where Kerik helped command a security staff.
In the book, Kerik described his discomfort at having to investigate employees' private lives, but said it was necessary because of the Saudis' laws prohibiting drinking and mingling of the sexes in public..... He was expelled from Saudi Arabia in 1984, the book said...
Since he was nominated last week to be homeland security secretary, however, nine former employees of the hospital have said that Kerik and his colleagues were carrying out the private agenda of the hospital's administrator, Nizar Feteih, and that the surveillance was intended to control people's private affairs. Feteih became embroiled in a scandal that centered in part on his use of the institution's security staff to track the private lives of several women with whom he was romantically involved, and men who came in contact with them, the ex-employees said.
Kerik, who as chief of investigations was considered third in command of the security staff, personally surveilled some employees and at times confronted them with the results, several former employees said. He also was a lead investigator in the controversial arrest, for drinking, of a physician who was detained and deported from Saudi Arabia for the crime.
Ex-employees also said the official Saudi investigation of Feteih and the security team was begun in response to hospital employees' complaints to Saudi officials of intimidation by Feteih and the security staff.
After medical personnel at the hospital complained to Saudi officials, [Kerik] ... helped get one whistleblower jailed overnight, sought to put another into a Saudi mental hospital, and stepped up its surveillance of some members of the medical staff, several of the former hospital employees said. Six members of the hospital security staff, including Kerik, were fired and deported, and Feteih was sacked as hospital administrator after an investigation in 1984 by the Saudi secret police, they said.
Loyalty to Superiors
Kerik, a former New York City police commissioner whom Bush praised as "one of the most accomplished and effective leaders of law enforcement in America," was nominated last week to succeed Tom Ridge as secretary of the sprawling anti-terrorism agency created in 2003. If confirmed, Kerik would run a Cabinet department with investigative units, including the Secret Service and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. At times they deal with the Saudis.
The former employees said their allegations shed light on the extent of Kerik's loyalty to his superiors. They involve his work from 1982 to 1984 as chief of investigations for the security office at King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Riyadh, one of the kingdom's premier hospitals, where members of the royal family are treated.
"Kerik was a goon," said John Jones, a former hospital manager, who said he felt harassed by the security team. "They were Gestapo. . . . They made my life so miserable."
"Kerik used heavy-handed tactics in following single men around and keeping them away from some women," said Ted Bailey, who was a doctor at the hospital and now practices in Indiana. Added paramedic Michael Queen: "Men and women had to be careful with security, but Bernie was the one we watched out for the most."
Kerik said that he knows of no improprieties by the security staff....[blah blah blah]
Bob Burghardt, who worked with Kerik at the hospital and remains his friend, said ..."Bernie and I were ostracized [by hospital staff members] for upholding Saudi law," .
Gilda Riccardi, then a hospital nurse and now a friend of Kerik's, said that despite strong rumors of wiretapping and impropriety by the security staff, she knows of no proof it occurred. "To implicate Bernie [in any possible misdeeds by the security team], I have a problem with that," said Riccardi, who became friendly with Kerik years later when he was a New York police officer and she was a prosecutor.
...A spokesman for Giuliani Partners, the consulting firm for which Kerik works, twice declined to comment. An administration official working with Kerik on his confirmation said Kerik described events at the hospital "with candor and in some detail" in his 2001 memoir, "The Lost Son."
"[blah blah blah]. . Part of his job was ensuring Westerners at the hospital understood and obeyed Saudi laws."
Feteih could not be located to comment. The Saudi Embassy declined to comment, but a source familiar with the government probe said officials concluded that Feteih and the security staff were abusive toward staff members and that "management of the hospital was horrendous."
Separation of the Sexes
The turmoil at the huge, lushly landscaped King Faisal hospital -- separated from the rest of Riyadh by high walls and with fountains in front -- began when Feteih took over in the early 1980s, the former employees said. Previously, the administrators at the Saudi government-owned facility allowed men and women on the mostly Western staff to date and drink alcohol if they were discreet.
But when Feteih took over, he had the security staff strictly enforce separation of the sexes when it came to some women, according to the medical personnel who worked there. In addition to Jones, Bailey and Queen, the events concerning Kerik and the security staff were corroborated by these former hospital employees: Dan Mackey, a doctor who now lives in Georgia; John Froude, who practices medicine in Upstate New York; former hospital employee Dennis Daughters, who lives in Florida; William Larkworthy, a doctor, and his wife, nurse Maria Larkworthy, who live in Europe; former medical technician Peter Rodenburgh in Canada, and two former hospital employees who did not want to be identified.
...."They weren't there to provide security as much as to be a spy network for Feteih," William Larkworthy said.
"Bernie Kerik was an enforcer" for the head of the security office and for hospital administrator Feteih, Mackey said. "It was sinister."
Froude recalled that in one encounter with Kerik, "he summoned me to his office and slid a piece of paper toward me and said, 'I want you to tell me what is incorrect in this,' " Froude said. "It was an account of how I'd dated some women. I said, 'Besides the spelling errors, it's correct.' He got out of his chair and said, 'Don't get fresh with me, doc.' " He also recalled Kerik surveilling him from a security car when he left a woman's apartment late one night.
The controversies came to a head in November 1983, when Larkworthy got into an argument with a nurse the morning after he had people over at his home to play bridge and drink homemade wine, said several of those interviewed. Several ex-employees said Feteih intensely disliked the Larkworthys and ordered the security staff to investigate the doctor's behavior that day.
Feteih sent security men to question William Larkworthy, according to hospital documents obtained by The Washington Post. They declared him drunk -- an assertion Larkworthy denies -- and searched his home, finding beer and wine. The security staff handed him over to Saudi security, a move the former employees said was unique in their experience. Within days, the Larkworthys were deported.
Kerik was a lead investigator on the case, according to the hospital documents. The Larkworthys, Mackey and other former employees said the case was trumped up because of Feteih's dislike of them. [i.e. Kerik falsified evidence]
The incident prompted doctors to complain about Feteih and the security staff to Ghazi Gosaibi, the minister of health, who began an investigation. ....
Within weeks, Michael Kingston, one doctor who complained, was jailed overnight by police in what the former employees called an attempt to silence the whistleblowers. Feteih and the security staff searched for weeks for another whistleblower, a physician, and told employees they intended to place him in a mental hospital, said Bailey, Mackey and two other hospital employees.
The physician was forced to hide before flying back to England, said Bailey, Mackey and other employees. Bailey said that while the physician was under serious stress and was acting odd, "he did not need to be institutionalized" -- a view echoed by other former employees. The ex-employees cannot recall Kerik's specific activities during those weeks but say he was part of the effort.
Saudi secret police and a royal panel investigated Feteih and the security staff for months on allegations that included not only improper surveillance, but also wiretapping. While they released no report, Saudi officials said then that they concluded that many complaints of Feteih's alleged mismanagement had merit, and he was fired and assigned to attend to a sick princess, the ex-employees said.
(rest of Kerik heroics at link)
Kerik's Surveillance Activity in Saudi Arabia Is Disputed
Cabinet Pick Is Accused of Carrying Out Hospital Chief's Agenda
By John Mintz and Lucy Shackelford
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, December 8, 2004; Page A03
The autobiography of Bernard B. Kerik, President Bush's nominee to head the Department of Homeland Security, recounts a ... time 20 years ago when he was expelled from Saudi Arabia amid a power struggle involving the head of a hospital complex where Kerik helped command a security staff.
In the book, Kerik described his discomfort at having to investigate employees' private lives, but said it was necessary because of the Saudis' laws prohibiting drinking and mingling of the sexes in public..... He was expelled from Saudi Arabia in 1984, the book said...
Since he was nominated last week to be homeland security secretary, however, nine former employees of the hospital have said that Kerik and his colleagues were carrying out the private agenda of the hospital's administrator, Nizar Feteih, and that the surveillance was intended to control people's private affairs. Feteih became embroiled in a scandal that centered in part on his use of the institution's security staff to track the private lives of several women with whom he was romantically involved, and men who came in contact with them, the ex-employees said.
Kerik, who as chief of investigations was considered third in command of the security staff, personally surveilled some employees and at times confronted them with the results, several former employees said. He also was a lead investigator in the controversial arrest, for drinking, of a physician who was detained and deported from Saudi Arabia for the crime.
Ex-employees also said the official Saudi investigation of Feteih and the security team was begun in response to hospital employees' complaints to Saudi officials of intimidation by Feteih and the security staff.
After medical personnel at the hospital complained to Saudi officials, [Kerik] ... helped get one whistleblower jailed overnight, sought to put another into a Saudi mental hospital, and stepped up its surveillance of some members of the medical staff, several of the former hospital employees said. Six members of the hospital security staff, including Kerik, were fired and deported, and Feteih was sacked as hospital administrator after an investigation in 1984 by the Saudi secret police, they said.
Loyalty to Superiors
Kerik, a former New York City police commissioner whom Bush praised as "one of the most accomplished and effective leaders of law enforcement in America," was nominated last week to succeed Tom Ridge as secretary of the sprawling anti-terrorism agency created in 2003. If confirmed, Kerik would run a Cabinet department with investigative units, including the Secret Service and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. At times they deal with the Saudis.
The former employees said their allegations shed light on the extent of Kerik's loyalty to his superiors. They involve his work from 1982 to 1984 as chief of investigations for the security office at King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Riyadh, one of the kingdom's premier hospitals, where members of the royal family are treated.
"Kerik was a goon," said John Jones, a former hospital manager, who said he felt harassed by the security team. "They were Gestapo. . . . They made my life so miserable."
"Kerik used heavy-handed tactics in following single men around and keeping them away from some women," said Ted Bailey, who was a doctor at the hospital and now practices in Indiana. Added paramedic Michael Queen: "Men and women had to be careful with security, but Bernie was the one we watched out for the most."
Kerik said that he knows of no improprieties by the security staff....[blah blah blah]
Bob Burghardt, who worked with Kerik at the hospital and remains his friend, said ..."Bernie and I were ostracized [by hospital staff members] for upholding Saudi law," .
Gilda Riccardi, then a hospital nurse and now a friend of Kerik's, said that despite strong rumors of wiretapping and impropriety by the security staff, she knows of no proof it occurred. "To implicate Bernie [in any possible misdeeds by the security team], I have a problem with that," said Riccardi, who became friendly with Kerik years later when he was a New York police officer and she was a prosecutor.
...A spokesman for Giuliani Partners, the consulting firm for which Kerik works, twice declined to comment. An administration official working with Kerik on his confirmation said Kerik described events at the hospital "with candor and in some detail" in his 2001 memoir, "The Lost Son."
"[blah blah blah]. . Part of his job was ensuring Westerners at the hospital understood and obeyed Saudi laws."
Feteih could not be located to comment. The Saudi Embassy declined to comment, but a source familiar with the government probe said officials concluded that Feteih and the security staff were abusive toward staff members and that "management of the hospital was horrendous."
Separation of the Sexes
The turmoil at the huge, lushly landscaped King Faisal hospital -- separated from the rest of Riyadh by high walls and with fountains in front -- began when Feteih took over in the early 1980s, the former employees said. Previously, the administrators at the Saudi government-owned facility allowed men and women on the mostly Western staff to date and drink alcohol if they were discreet.
But when Feteih took over, he had the security staff strictly enforce separation of the sexes when it came to some women, according to the medical personnel who worked there. In addition to Jones, Bailey and Queen, the events concerning Kerik and the security staff were corroborated by these former hospital employees: Dan Mackey, a doctor who now lives in Georgia; John Froude, who practices medicine in Upstate New York; former hospital employee Dennis Daughters, who lives in Florida; William Larkworthy, a doctor, and his wife, nurse Maria Larkworthy, who live in Europe; former medical technician Peter Rodenburgh in Canada, and two former hospital employees who did not want to be identified.
...."They weren't there to provide security as much as to be a spy network for Feteih," William Larkworthy said.
"Bernie Kerik was an enforcer" for the head of the security office and for hospital administrator Feteih, Mackey said. "It was sinister."
Froude recalled that in one encounter with Kerik, "he summoned me to his office and slid a piece of paper toward me and said, 'I want you to tell me what is incorrect in this,' " Froude said. "It was an account of how I'd dated some women. I said, 'Besides the spelling errors, it's correct.' He got out of his chair and said, 'Don't get fresh with me, doc.' " He also recalled Kerik surveilling him from a security car when he left a woman's apartment late one night.
The controversies came to a head in November 1983, when Larkworthy got into an argument with a nurse the morning after he had people over at his home to play bridge and drink homemade wine, said several of those interviewed. Several ex-employees said Feteih intensely disliked the Larkworthys and ordered the security staff to investigate the doctor's behavior that day.
Feteih sent security men to question William Larkworthy, according to hospital documents obtained by The Washington Post. They declared him drunk -- an assertion Larkworthy denies -- and searched his home, finding beer and wine. The security staff handed him over to Saudi security, a move the former employees said was unique in their experience. Within days, the Larkworthys were deported.
Kerik was a lead investigator on the case, according to the hospital documents. The Larkworthys, Mackey and other former employees said the case was trumped up because of Feteih's dislike of them. [i.e. Kerik falsified evidence]
The incident prompted doctors to complain about Feteih and the security staff to Ghazi Gosaibi, the minister of health, who began an investigation. ....
Within weeks, Michael Kingston, one doctor who complained, was jailed overnight by police in what the former employees called an attempt to silence the whistleblowers. Feteih and the security staff searched for weeks for another whistleblower, a physician, and told employees they intended to place him in a mental hospital, said Bailey, Mackey and two other hospital employees.
The physician was forced to hide before flying back to England, said Bailey, Mackey and other employees. Bailey said that while the physician was under serious stress and was acting odd, "he did not need to be institutionalized" -- a view echoed by other former employees. The ex-employees cannot recall Kerik's specific activities during those weeks but say he was part of the effort.
Saudi secret police and a royal panel investigated Feteih and the security staff for months on allegations that included not only improper surveillance, but also wiretapping. While they released no report, Saudi officials said then that they concluded that many complaints of Feteih's alleged mismanagement had merit, and he was fired and assigned to attend to a sick princess, the ex-employees said.
(rest of Kerik heroics at link)