Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Bill Clinton Scandal - SANITY CHECK -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jlallen who wrote (56612)	7/16/1999 8:30:00 AM
From: Zoltan!	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 67261

More from the most corrupt Administration in US history: July 16, 1999 ESSAY / By WILLIAM SAFIRE Whitewash at Justice -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The most dramatic clash between the F.B.I. and the heavily politicized Reno Department of Justice took place in February 1997. Stimulated by press reports of "the Asian connection" to the Clinton-Gore campaign, the Bureau teletyped all field offices for reports on foreign attempts to influence U.S. political campaigns. On Washington's Birthday the F.B.I.'s counterintelligence chief, John Lewis, delivered a packet of those top-secret reports to Janet Reno. "The Attorney General gave the packet of teletypes to then Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick," reports Michael Bromwich, the in-house Inspector General. At the same time, White House Counsel Charles Ruff made two calls to Justice seeking to find out what embarrassment was in store. Never told by Ms. Reno of F.B.I. restrictions on the documents, Ms. Gorelick bucked them to the Office of Intelligence Policy and Review. They then blithely passed them on to Laura Ingersoll's Justice "task force," selected for its ineptitude. Nothing doing, said the F.B.I., which "retrieved the packet shortly after the Task Force received it," according to Bromwich. When I asked the F.B.I. Director, Louis Freeh, yesterday if he had been aware of the confrontation -- an unprecedented dispatch of agents to snatch back evidence from Main Justice -- he replied, "I knew about it and certainly approved of it." What was going on? The F.B.I., though slow off the mark and unaware of all the leads it had in its computers, was getting evidence of China's efforts to penetrate our political system. Ruff's calls show that the Clinton White House hungered for it. Justice was passing the surveillance of messages to Ted Sieong and Maria Hsia -- both in direct contact with Al Gore in his fund-raising -- all over the building. And so the F.B.I. acted to prevent contacts with the White House officials under investigation, to avoid the sort of improper "heads up" given them in Whitewater. The F.B.I. meekly genuflected when Ms. Reno's lapdog I.G. chastised it for cooperating too much with Congress rather than Main Justice, but Freeh says grimly: "None of that changes my resolve to limit dissemination that would undermine the integrity of a criminal investigation." The name-no-names whitewash by Ms. Reno's I.G. admits that Congress was not given two pieces of espionage information it should have had until September 1997 -- after the Senate investigators had all but closed shop and Democrats happily declared the Asian penetration unproven. Bromwich's 569-page report dumping on the F.B.I. and claiming innocent ineptitude on high is stamped "top secret" because it might jeopardize an ongoing failure at Justice. The two of its deep, dark secrets mentioned above are covered in Elizabeth Drew's new book that has a chapter about the successful obstruction of the Thompson committee investigation, "The Corruption of American Politics." One is the Hong Kong source of the $400,000 contribution of Indonesia's Sieong, most of it routed to the Democratic National Committee through his resident alien daughter. He was seated next to Al Gore during Maria Hsia's Buddhist fund-raiser, and his money was never returned by the Democrats; because money is fungible, China's contribution will buy spots in Campaign 2000. Another secret was sent the committee only after its hearings were over. It alleged that Ms. Hsia had recruited someone in California's state government to be "an agent" for China. In the Bromwich sandwich, eight more bits of intelligence information concealed from Congressional oversight are deliciously embedded, but not for the public to see until after the next election. "It looks to me," says Fred Thompson, "that people at high levels of Justice and the Bureau had access to significant information very early on. We need to find out what was held back and why. Was it rank incompetence, as in the Department of Energy, or was it a deliberate holding back at Justice for political purposes?" Here was a dangerous triple failure. First our counterintelligence failed to take seriously the fund-raising-espionage connections. Then our Justice prosecutors failed, letting middle-level perpetrators walk lest they lead to higher-ups. Finally, our Congressional oversight failed, obstructed by partisans who put party ahead of country. nytimes.com

To: jlallen who wrote (56612)	7/16/1999 8:35:00 AM
From: DMaA	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 67261

Another Pork B. S. station admits to being in cahoots with the DNC: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPcap/1999-07/16/079r-071699-idx.html WETA's Political Name-Swapping Exchange of Donor Lists With Democrats Angers GOP By Paul Farhi Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, July 16, 1999; Page C01 WETA, Washington's biggest public broadcaster, said yesterday that it had exchanged donor lists with the Democratic National Committee, a disclosure that comes amid a budding controversy over public stations' fund-raising ties with the DNC. Congressional Republicans already are angry at WGBH, the Boston public TV station, which recently revealed that it exchanged membership lists with the DNC on two occasions. Yesterday, a key Republican predicted that public broadcasting's federal funding would be cut as a result of the flap. Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-La.), who heads the subcommittee overseeing public broadcasting, said he would discuss rolling back a proposed $300 million outlay for hundreds of public radio and TV stations to an unspecified level. "I am frankly of a mind to support [reduced funding] from what I've seen in Boston," he said. Conservatives have attacked public broadcasting for years over TV and radio programs deemed to have a liberal slant. Now, public broadcasting's fund-raising methods are providing fresh ammunition to the same critics. Like many public stations, WETA sells lists of its donors, or "members," to other organizations. It also trades these lists for those kept by other organizations. WETA spokeswoman Mary Stewart said the station has exchanged lists with the Democratic National Committee, but she didn't know how many names were involved or how frequently the exchanges took place. While there haven't been any exchanges with the Republican National Committee, she said the station has provided lists to conservative organizations, including groups she identified as Great American Republicans and the Patriotic Veterans Association. Asked if viewers of WETA or listeners of WETA-FM were aware of the list exchanges, she replied, "They may not. You can check a box on some of our solicitations" to prevent your name from being given out, "but not all of them" have such a feature. Added Stewart: "Our policy has been the same for 20 years. We trade lists with a variety of organizations, from all walks of life. We trade with both liberal and conservative groups. . . . If this is becoming a concern on Capitol Hill, we will reevaluate our policy." Other major public TV stations say they prohibit list exchanges with political organizations. But those policies appear to have been violated. WGBH acknowledged exchanges with the DNC following reports in May that a 4-year-old boy had received a fund-raising pitch from the Democratic Party after his mother made a donation to the station in the name of her son, a fan of public TV's "Barney & Friends." Yesterday, WNET in New York said it had exchanged lists with both Republican and Democratic organizations, which a spokeswoman, Stella Giammasi, said she could not identify. WNET's exchanges were made by an independent list broker "without our knowledge," said Giammasi, who said the broker had been fired. Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.), chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, the party's fund-raising and campaign arm, said the disclosures raise questions about public broadcasters' standing as tax-exempt organizations. "This not only jeopardizes their tax status, it puts their whole [federal] funding program in jeopardy, and that's unfortunate," he said. "I'm hopeful this can be resolved in a constructive way so Big Bird can remain on the air." Staff writer Juliet Eilperin contributed to this report. © Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company