HOT: Mother Jones Releases Secret Koch Brothers Tapes

Mother Jones has obtained a secret recording made at a private Koch Brothers plot fest held in June at a resort near Vail, Colorado. Reports MJ:

"We have Saddam Hussein," declared billionaire industrialist Charles Koch, apparently referring to President Barack Obama as he welcomed hundreds of wealthy guests to the latest of the secret fundraising and strategy seminars he and his brother host twice a year. The 2012 elections, he warned, will be "the mother of all wars."

Charles Koch would probably not publicly compare the president of the United States to a murderous dictator. (As a general rule, he and his brother don't do much politicking or speechifying in public at all.) But Mother Jones has obtained exclusive audio recordings from the Koch seminar, a private event that took place in June at a resort near Vail, Colorado.

Security was tight at the Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Gulch on opening night of the weekend conference, which drew an estimated 300 guests, according to MJ. Audio technicians even set up outward-pointing speakers around the perimeter of the outdoor dining pavilion, according to sources, emitting static to frustrate would-be eavesdroppers.

"There is anonymity that we can protect," noted emcee "Kevin"—likely Kevin Gentry, a VP for the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation., Charles Koch named 32 individuals and families who had donated more than $1 million over the previous 12 months, yet because of loopholes in federal campaign law, their donations do not exist in the public record.

Charles Koch identified the following as contributing a million dollars or more (Note names spelt phonetically by transcriber of the tape):

The Camerons, John Childs, The Ciokas, The Cortopossis, Joe Craft, The DeVoses, The Farmers, Kelly Friedman, The Friesses, The Fullinwiders, The Gilliams, The Griffins, The Hamms, The Haworths, The Haydens, Diane Hendricks, The Humphreys family, Virginia James, The Levys, The Marshalls family, The Menards, John Moran, The Patricks, The Popes, The Schwabs, Paul Singer, The Templetons, The Traytellas, The Robertsons, Karen Wright, and Tom Rastin, and the principals with the Services Group of America


A transcript and 4 minute clip of the recording are here.