Candidate for Senate Tied to Organized Crime

The Honorable Joe DioGuardi announced his bid for the US Senate today. Of course, everyone is talking about the fact that he is the father of an American Idol judge.

What everybody should be talking about is Mr. DioGuardi's ties to narcotics- and arms-smugglers in the Balkans. Quite surprisingly, a blogger linked Senator and former Presidential Candidate John McCain to ethnic Albanian organized crime, especially to the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). The connection was former Congressman-turned-lobbyist (now hoping to turn US Senator) Joe DioGuardi. In the 1990's, the Honorable Mr. DioGuardi was fronting for the KLA, seeking US arms for fighting in the former Yugoslavia. Senator McCain helped support this, and received praise from Mr. DioGuardi for doing so. This praise turned into substantial support (including money!) during Senator McCain's presidential bids in 2000 and 2008.

From McCAIN AND THE KLA CONNECTION by Justin Raimondo, February 25, 2000:



Mr. DioGuardi's lobbying for (and Senator McCain's support of) these Albanian "freedom fighters" happened even as the then-Republican-controlled US Senate condemned President Clinton's arms deals with these very same people due to the KLA's brutalitiy and ties to Islamic terrorists, including some circuitous connections to a then-unknown terrorist, Sheikh Osama bin Laden.