Month: July 2005

Pentagon Taps Document Shredder For Top Post

Posted by on July 13, 2005 at 12:04 pm. NO Comments :

You just have to wonder what’s on the agenda when having document shredder on your resume helps you land a job at the Pentagon. The Los Angeles Times reported that Robert Earl has been hired as Chief of Staff to Acting Deputy Secretary of State, Gordon England. England has been nominated by Bush to replace Paul Wolfowitz, who has gone on to head the World Bank.

In 1987, Robert L. Earl told a grand jury that he had destroyed and stolen national security documents while working for Lt. Col. Oliver L. North during the Iran-Contra scandal.

Now, he sits in one of the most coveted offices in the Pentagon as chief of staff to Gordon R. England, acting deputy secretary of Defense. Earl has clearance to review the kinds of classified documents he once destroyed.

Earl was granted immunity in exchange for testifying so we can’t call him a felon. But his criminal behavior should disqualify him for any position in public service, particularly one that requires a security clearance. The audacity of this administration appointing someone with so little regard for the law or national security, is boundless. Imagine the reaction from the right if Democrats were to give a sensitive post to Sandy Berger, the former Clinton National Security Advisor who pled guilty to removing documents from the National Archives. Fox News alone would spend three days on it.

Earl, if confirmed would join his Iran-Contra co-conspirators Elliot Abrams and John Poindexter in an administration rife with corrupt power players. And serving as a role model for these evildoers, and all the young aspiring evildoers, is the master, Karl Rove, who is earning his own criminal stripes even now with his involvement in the Plame affair.

This is the time to call on the Limbaughs, O’Reilly’s, Hannitys, etc., and see if their ethics are functional; see if they’ll support a confessed document shredder who lied to the FBI; see if they would have any problem with a Berger appointment to the DNC or Democratic Senatorial staff; see if there are any limits to their hypocracy.

But who will ask them? The media? Yeah, right. Its up to us…again.

FreePress.net Stumbles On Shield Law For Plame Leakers

Posted by on July 5, 2005 at 1:13 pm. 1 Comments :


media is the issue: www.freepress.net

FreePress.net has begun a new campaign to promote the passage of a Federal Shield Law for reporters and are making Judith Miller and Matthew Cooper their poster children. The folks at FreePress are amongst the biggest heroes of the media reform movement. The criticism that follows should not be construed as a call to withhold support from them. But, in my opinion, they are off-track on this matter.

There is a distinction between bona fide whistleblowing and conspiring with individuals or agencies in government to pursue a political vendetta against their enemies.

All the facts are not in yet, but I don’t believe that the reporter’s privilege applies if, for instance, Karl Rove called Judith Miller and recruited her to plant a story for the purpose of punishing Amb. Joe Wilson for criticising the administration.

There is nothing even remotely resembling a whistleblower case here. A whistleblower seeks to disclose information of wrongdoing that the government or others want to keep secret at the public’s expense. Valerie Plame was not engaged in wrongdoing and the disclosure of her identity was not in the public’s interest. It was political payback and the reporters involved are acting as co-conspirators, not journalists.

I support a Federal Shield Law for reporters, but by citing the Miller/Cooper case they are infecting the argument with the illegitimacy of their claims. Reporters do need to be able to protect their sources without fear of legal consequences when engaged in the conduct of their profession as journalists, but not when they are acting on behalf of government hitmen and promoting propaganda. That’s not protecting your sources, that’s protecting your accomplices.

Update: There are reports swirling that Karl Rove was, indeed, Matt Cooper’s source. Despite the White House’s protestations to the contrary, It appears that Rove was planting the Plame story. He has denied having done so, but now his denials are getting murkier. He may still weasel out of this because it is not illegal to disclose the identity of a covert agent if you didn’t know she was covert. It might be difficult to prove what Rove knew when he outted Plame. But he may still have some legal headaches. If he told Special Counsel Fitzgerald, or the grand jury, that he was not the source, he may be facing a perjury charge.

We can dream can’t we?