...Sargeant is the owner of an oil-trading company that has a lucrative Pentagon contract to supply fuel to the U.S. military in Iraq by way of Jordan -- and he's also reportedly getting sued by the brother-in-law of the King of Jordan over that contract...
...A few months ago, NBC News laid out the facts about the lawsuit in this piece. According to NBC, Sargeant's company, called International Oil Trading Company, has a Pentagon contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars per year to supply fuel, mostly aviation fuel, to the military, which it ships to Jordan and then across the border into Iraq. The company's latest contract is worth $913 million over two years, and the Pentagon confirmed to NBC that it wasn't the lowest bid.
...the upshot is that one of the more prolific bundlers for McCain appears to have bagged a huge contract to deliver fuel to the U.S. military in Iraq, even though he wasn't the lowest bidder for that contract, allegedly by relying partly on a connection in Jordan to deliver it.
The Jordanian business partner of a prominent Florida businessman, who has raised more than $500,000 for Senator John McCain, appears to be at the center of a cluster of questionable donations to his presidential campaign.
Campaign finance records show Mr. McCain collected a little more than $50,000 in March from members of a single extended family, the Abdullahs, in California and several of their friends.
Amid a sea of contributions to the McCain campaign, the Abdullahs stand out. The checks come not from the usual exclusive coastal addresses, but from relatively hardscrabble inland towns like Downey and Colton. The donations are also startling because of their size: several donors initially wrote checks of $9,200, exceeding the $2,300 limit for an individual gift...
...Through Mr. Abu Naba'a's connections, Mr. Sargeant has raised more than $100,000 in contributions from several dozen Arab Americans in California, including the Abdullahs,Faisal Abdullah, a Palestinian immigrant who works as a director of operations of a window treatment company, identified himself in an interview as the driver behind the McCain donations from his relatives and friends. He sent them to Mr. Abu Naba'a, whom Mr. Abdullah described as an acquaintance.
Mr. Abdullah is an unlikely McCain fund-raiser, admitting he had soured on the Republican Party as a result of President Bush...
H...e told his friends and relatives that the contributions were tax-deductible, something he later seemed surprised to learn from a reporter was not true. Many in his circle appear to have little affection for Mr. McCain but said they gave mostly as a favor to Mr. Abdullah.
Abdullah Makhlouf, the owner of a discount stereo store who is one of Mr. Abdullah's closest friends, and his wife contributed $9,200.
"He's like a worse copy than Bush," Mr. Makhlouf said of Mr. McCain.
When a reporter initially contacted Mr. Makhlouf, he denied giving to the McCain campaign.
After eventually admitting to the donation, Mr. Makhlouf added, "I'm still not going to vote for him."
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