Menendez discouraged U.S. help in favor of Dr. Melgen’s port security contract

From Progreso Weekly staff

(For more on the Menendez probe click here to read articles published or reproduced by Progreso Weekly.)

MIAMI – According to an article that appears today (Monday Feb. 11) in The New York Times, New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez worked to discourage plans by the U.S. government to donate port security equipment to the Dominican Republic. Menendez cited a “concern that the advanced screening gear might undermine efforts by a private company – run by a major campaign contributor and friend of his — to do the work,” according to The Times.

The relationship between the senator and South Florida eye doctor Salomon Melgen, the campaign contributor mentioned in the New York Times report, has drawn much scrutiny in recent weeks since Menendez took over the chairmanship of the powerful Foreign Relations Committee.

Other disturbing information provided by The New York Times include:

• In spite of the fact that Menendez has publicly chastised the Obama administration for not doing more to combat the surging drug traffic moving through Dominican ports.
• Menendez’s intervention came not long after Dr. Salomon E. Melgen, the senator’s friend currently embroiled in numerous investigations by the FBI, the IRS and others “arranged to meet with a senior State Department official, accompanied by a former aide to Mr. Menendez, in a related push to protect the port security contract, which is worth as much as $500 million over 20 years.”

In the report, New York Times reporters Eric Lipton and William K. Rashbaum explain that “Aides have acknowledged that Mr. Menendez had spoken to State Department officials about the port security contract, which the Dominican government was refusing to honor; the senator questioned other administration officials about it as well. But in recently obtained e-mails, the degree to which Mr. Menendez sought to intervene on behalf of Dr. Melgen’s interests became clearer.

“In a January e-mail exchange with Customs and Border Protection in the Department of Homeland Security, Mr. Menendez’s staff did not mention Dr. Melgen or his company, Boarder Support Services, by name.

“But the aide asked if the United States government was planning to donate additional port security equipment to the Dominican Republic. The aide explained that if such a donation occurred, the Dominican government, perhaps under pressure from criminal elements there, might intentionally limit the use of the equipment so that drugs or other contraband could still flow through the country’s ports on the way to the United States.

“Only by hiring the unnamed private contractor, the e-mail said, could the United States be assured that port security in the Dominican Republic would be enhanced.

 The New York Times piece also reports that “in 2006, the Department of Homeland Security donated to the Dominican Republic one X-ray scanning device, which is used at Multimodal Caucedo, one of its largest ports, where Dominican inspectors worked alongside representatives from the United States government to scan more than 1,700 containers last year. Nearly 5,000 pounds of cocainewas found hidden in a cargo container of peaches in the first week the equipment went into operation.”

For the complete New York Times report, click here.