Payne Forced To Quit Homeland Security Advisory Panel

Globetrotter Stephen Payne has left his post as a Department of Homeland Security adviser.

The Department told him told him he could no longer serve on its top advisory committee. Publicly, the department didn’t say why, according to UPI:

“The department asked him to step down” from his post on the Secure Borders and Open Doors Subcommittee of the Homeland Security Advisory Council, [Department spokeswoman Laura] Keehner said, declining to comment on the reasons.

Payne was appointed to the committee last year, where he served along with government officials, academics and others from the private sector.

Certainly his ouster had something to do with the video of Payne apparently offering to help a Kazakh politician arrange high-level meetings with Bush administration officials in exchange or large donations to the Bush presidential library fund.

But there’s also Payne’s apparent claim that he “transformed” an Uzbeck man named Mohammad Salih from an “accused terrorist” to a “U.S. ally.”

In a brochure from Payne’s firm, Worldwide Strategic Partners, the group claims that its work on behalf of Salih included:

— Worked with the White House and the Department of State and Justice to facilitate the removal of Mr. Salih’s name from the terrorist watch list and the waving of the Interpol Warrant for his arrest

— Worked with the White House, Department of State, Justice, Homeland Security and Treasury, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and key Congressional Leaders — to provide Mr. Salih with a U.S. Visa.

We can see why that’s not really the kind of guy Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff would want advising him.