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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: CYBERKEN who wrote (232632)	3/1/2002 10:39:26 AM
From: Dr. Doktor	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

And now it looks like the economy is doing better in spite of the Great Obstructionist's blocking stimulus. What will they do now to sabotage the recovery? DOC

To: CYBERKEN who wrote (232632)	3/1/2002 10:45:52 AM
From: DMaA	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Illegal acts by Federal Officials continue to go unpunished. One reason the Federal Bureaucracy is out of control - apparently they are above the law. The other reason is Big Media hides scandals like this on B2, if they print it at all. I'm sure Dan and Pete will run with this one: US: Documents on Indians backdated No prosecution of former official By Sean P. Murphy, Globe Staff, 3/1/2002 A top federal official at the Bureau of Indian Affairs illegally backdated documents to give government recognition to an Indian tribe seeking to build a casino, according to a report compiled by federal investigators. But Michael Anderson, the Clinton administration official who gave recognition for the Nipmuc Indian tribe of central Massachusetts and the Duwamish Tribe of Seattle, will not face prosecution. The Justice Department declined to prosecute Anderson after receiving a referral from the Inspector General's Office of the Interior Department, which oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Justice officials were unavailable for comment late yesterday afternoon. After leaving office on Jan. 19, 2001, Anderson returned to the Interior Department headquarters on Jan. 22 to sign and backdate documents giving the Duwamish the right to open a casino, a hugely lucrative business in areas near the population centers of the Northeast and Northwest. Anderson had apparently neglected to sign the Duwamish papers in the frenzy of the last hours in office. On Jan. 22, 2001, he had a former assistant bring the documents to him while he waited outside the Interior building in his car, the report says. There, he signed and backdated the documents, and the assistant returned them to the files. The Inspector General's report was made public yesterday by US Representative Frank R. Wolf, Republican of Virginia, who contends the process for recognizing groups as official tribes is flawed and influenced by money and politics, particularly in recent years as tribes close to urban areas realize billions from casino operations. Wolf yesterday urged Attorney General John Ashcroft to reconsider his decision to forgo prosecution of Anderson and M. Sharon Blackwell, a current ranking Bureau of Indian Affairs official who was aware of Anderson's actions. Blackwell announced her retirement earlier this week. No reason was given. The Inspector General's Office had also referred to the Justice Department the case of Hilda Manual, who ran afoul of lobbying laws when representing the Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Tribe of Cape Cod after leaving the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The Justice Department declined to prosecute that case as well. Wolf said he spoke with Ashcroft about reconsideration after Ashcroft appeared before the House subcommittee on appropriations for the Justice Department, which Wolf chairs. ''It's highly unethical what they did,'' Wolf said in an interview later. ''After these documented abuses, I don't think there's much chance these tribes can go on and get recognition and open casinos.'' In a letter to Ashcroft, Wolf wrote, ''I implore you to reevaluate this decision. The report confirms that the tribal recognition process has been compromised. And more specifically it documented the serious misconduct of Clinton administration appointees.'' Anderson, Blackwell and Manual did not return telephone calls yesterday. A spokeswoman for the Bureau of Indian Affairs said the report had not been made available to that office. The Inspector General's report portrays the Bureau of Indian Affairs as being in a frenzy to conclude recognition of the two tribes before the Bush administration took over on Jan. 20, 2001, and riven by distrust between Anderson and other officials who opposed the recognition - to the point of threatened physical violence. ''Staff collectively described the last 17 days of the Clinton administration as pure hell,'' the report says. Anderson, who took over as acting head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs on Jan. 3, 2001, and an assistant, Loretta Tuell, pushed the staff to reverse the staff findings on the Nipmuc and Duwamish recognition applications. The staff, made up of historians, anthropologists and genealogists and known as the Bureau of Acknowledgment and Research, had concluded neither tribe met the criteria for federal recognition. Besides the right to open a casino, federal recognition makes tribes eligible for federal assistance in housing, health, education and other programs. ''Tuell had pressed the (researchers) for a positive outcome on the Nipmuc and Duwamish tribes,'' the report says. And when the staff complained and suggested they put their concerns in a memo, Blackwell ''told them not to put their concerns on paper.'' Blackwell told the investigators that in those tense hours she ''considered physical confrontations a realistic possibility, expecting someone to `get slapped,''' inside the Interior Building, the report says. Sean P. Murphy's e-mail address is smurphy@globe.com. This story ran on page B2 of the Boston Globe on 3/1/2002. © Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company. boston.com

To: CYBERKEN who wrote (232632)	3/1/2002 1:24:00 PM
From: Mr. Whist	Respond to of 769670

News flash: Sen. Jim Bunning, R-KY, breaking ranks with Republicans in War on Terrorism. Details to come.

To: CYBERKEN who wrote (232632)	3/1/2002 1:38:44 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Respond to of 769670

I thought the criticism of Dubbya was not for flying around the country on 9-11 (a prudent precaution), but rather of the White House press flacks for publicly claiming that the terrorists had specifically threatened to fly a plane into Air Force One... and using that claim to combat criticism of Air Force One's diversion from Washington. This report of a telephoned threat was later (and quite quietly) denied by the Secret Service. The denials never made it 'above the fold' in most press reports.

To: CYBERKEN who wrote (232632)	3/2/2002 2:48:25 AM
From: JEB	Respond to of 769670

We won't forget but most of all, ...neither will NYC: ___________________________________________________________ As you know, the FBI has identified at least 19 hijackers aboard the four airliners that crashed on September 11th into the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon, and Stony Creek Township, Pennsylvania. Last week, the FBI released a letter handwritten in Arabic found in three separate locations: the first, in a suitcase of hijacker Mohammed Atta which did not make the connection to American Airlines Flight #11 that crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center; the second, in a vehicle parked at Dulles International Airport belonging to hijacker Nawaf Alhazmi; and the third at the crash site in Pennsylvania. Translations of the letter indicate an alarming willingness to die on the part of the hijackers. We have also located some of the flight recorders and voice data recorders and are in the process of analyzing them for insights into what took place on board those flights. With respect to United Airlines Flight #93 that crashed in Pennsylvania, I can confirm that the passengers engaged in a fight for their lives with their four hijackers and most likely saved the lives of unknown individuals on the ground fbi.gov ___________________________________________________________ When the Democrats feel like digging their own graves a bit deeper, ...pass them the shovel.