COMMENT: In FTR #742, we exam­ined a num­ber of high­ly sus­pi­cious deaths linked to GOP pow­er pol­i­tics in Alaba­ma. Those deaths tracked back to two over­lap­ping inves­ti­ga­tions:

• The polit­i­cal destruc­tion of for­mer Demo­c­ra­t­ic Alaba­ma gov­er­nor Don Siegel­man and his replace­ment by the con­sum­mate­ly, lethal­ly cor­rupt admin­is­tra­tion of GOP gov­er­nor Bob Riley.
• The inves­ti­ga­tions into the activ­i­ties of con­vict­ed GOP lob­by­ist Jack Abramoff, who was involved with cor­rupt­ed Native-Amer­i­can gam­bling activ­i­ties in the state.

The storm swirling around Riley and asso­ciates tracks back to the polit­i­cal destruc­tion of Demo­c­ra­t­ic Alaba­ma gov­er­nor Don Siegel­man, who had con­trol over the records of George W. Bush’s Air Nation­al Guard record.

(Recall that Bush had been assigned to an Air Nation­al Guard base in Alaba­ma, and appears to have spent his time there pol­i­tick­ing on behalf of GOP can­di­dates. Had this dis­clo­sure got­ten the play it deserved, it would have denied Dubya a sec­ond term.  Siegel­man’s destruction–widely attrib­uted to the sin­is­ter, Machi­avel­lian Karl Rove–put the infor­ma­tion in the hands of a trust­ed GOP hack, Bob Riley. In Fam­i­ly of Secrets, Russ Bak­er details the maneu­ver­ing around Bush’s mil­i­tary records and the delib­er­ate destruc­tion of jour­nal­is­tic and polit­i­cal sources pur­su­ing the truth. Bak­er is inter­viewed about the book in FTR #‘s 711 through 716, 730, 743.)

Now, the blood­let­ting may have claimed the life of Chace William Swa­tek, a promi­nent lawyer in the Alaba­ma GOP fold.

“Alaba­ma Lawyer with Strong Ties to GOP Turns up Dead at Con­struc­tion Site”; Legal Schnau­zer; 2/16/2012.

EXCERPT: An Alaba­ma lawyer with round­about con­nec­tions to our Legal Schnau­zer sto­ry was found dead at a Shel­by Coun­ty con­struc­tion site late yes­ter­day morn­ing.

The body of Chace William Swa­tek, 35, was found behind a stack of met­al pipes near the Shel­by Coun­ty Ser­vices Build­ing in Pel­ham. Law-enforce­ment offi­cials say the cause of death is not known, but they do not sus­pect foul play.

Swa­tek had pow­er­ful fam­i­ly ties to the Alaba­ma Repub­li­can Par­ty. His old­er broth­er, Dax, is head of the lobbying/consulting firm Swa­tek Azbell Howe & Ross. Dax Swa­tek was 2006 cam­paign man­ag­er for for­mer GOP Gov­er­nor Bob Riley–he of the ties to GOP felons Jack Abramoff and Michael Scanlon–and is a pro­tege of Bill Canary, pres­i­dent of the Busi­ness Coun­cil of Alaba­ma. Canary, of course, is the hus­band of Leu­ra Canary, Bush-era pros­e­cu­tor in the Don Siegel­man case and insti­ga­tor of the fed­er­al bin­go pros­e­cu­tion, which is being retried at this moment in Mont­gomery. Dax Swa­tek also played a promi­nent ear­ly role in the bin­go fias­co. . . .