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

To: Machaon who wrote (476564)	10/16/2003 10:09:02 AM
From: Machaon	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

World should kiss America's ass for ridding the world of Saddam! I cannot understand the ingratitude of most of the world. America is sacrificing it's sons and daughters to free this world of one of the most evil, dangerous regimes in Iraq. The leaders of the world should be praising America, and thanking America for having the balls to do what the rest of the world was afraid to do. Is the world totally corrupt and timid? Was there any doubt that Saddam needed to go? If there is a World War III between the Muslim terrorist states and the West, should Americans once again die to free Europe, after the Muslims overrun and occupy them? If the 1.3 billion Muslims overran and occupied Europe, would that be considered a threat to America. If we have a Democrat as President, at that time, would he take the cowards path like Clinton did, and not go after the terrorists?

To: Machaon who wrote (476564)	10/16/2003 11:15:16 AM
From: Skywatcher	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Senior Federal Prosecutors and F.B.I. Officials Fault Ashcroft Over Leak Inquiry October 16, 2003 By DAVID JOHNSTON and ERIC LICHTBLAU WASHINGTON, Oct. 15 - Several senior criminal prosecutors at the Justice Department and top F.B.I. officials have privately criticized Attorney General John Ashcroft for failing to recuse himself or appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the leak of a C.I.A. operative's identity. The criticism reflects the first sign of dissension in the department and the F.B.I. as the inquiry nears a critical phase. The attorney general must decide whether to convene a grand jury, which could compel White House officials to testify. The criminal justice officials, who spoke on the condition that they not be identified, represent a cross section of experienced criminal prosecutors and include political supporters of Mr. Ashcroft at the department's headquarters here and at United States attorneys' offices around the country. The officials said they feared Mr. Ashcroft could be damaged by continuing accusations that as an attorney general with a long career in Republican partisan politics, he could not credibly lead a criminal investigation that centered on the aides to a Republican president. Democrats have criticized each step of the inquiry as tainted by Mr. Ashcroft's relationship with the White House. The investigation is trying to determine who told the syndicated columnist Robert Novak, as he wrote in July, that Valerie Plame, the wife of a former ambassador, Joseph C. Wilson IV, was a C.I.A. employee. Mr. Wilson was a critic of the administration's Iraq policies. A senior Justice Department official acknowledged on Tuesday that the question of whether Mr. Ashcroft should step aside had stirred discussion in the department, but said that the dissent was limited and did not reflect the overall thinking of the career lawyers who are in daily control of the leak case. The official said that the option of recusal or referral to a special prosecutor remained "wide open." The official said that the question of whether Mr. Ashcroft should step aside had been discussed among Mr. Ashcroft's senior advisers, but that so far none of the career lawyers on the case had recommended that the attorney general remove himself. The official said Mr. Ashcroft had twice gathered his investigative team to urge them to find out who had leaked the identity of the C.I.A. operative and to prosecute that person if possible. "He's angry about this," the official said. But Mr. Ashcroft faces the same political and legal dilemma that haunted his predecessors when the Justice Department has been forced to examine the conduct of senior officials in the White House or the Cabinet. Janet Reno was forced to turn to independent counsels seven times in her nearly eight-year tenure at the department. But her refusal to seek an outside prosecutor to investigate charges of campaign finance irregularities in President Bill Clinton's re-election campaign in 1996 permanently damaged Ms. Reno's standing in the capital. Mr. Ashcroft's relationship with the White House is far closer than Ms. Reno's was with President Clinton. Mr. Ashcroft has closed ranks with President Bush in the war against terrorism, which has altered nearly three decades in which most attorneys general and F.B.I. directors sought to keep a distance from the White House. But Mr. Ashcroft and the F.B.I. director, Robert S. Mueller III, operate as major members of Mr. Bush's antiterror team, a closeness that complicates a criminal inquiry at the White House managed by Mr. Ashcroft and Mr. Mueller. Several alternative approaches have been suggested both inside and outside the Justice Department, the officials said. In one approach, Mr. Ashcroft would recuse himself from the case once James B. Comey, the federal prosecutor in Manhattan, took over as deputy attorney general in either an acting or permanent basis. Mr. Bush said earlier this month that he intended to appoint Mr. Comey as deputy attorney general. Mr. Comey brings established prosecutorial credentials to the job. If Mr. Comey took charge, it would avoid the time-consuming prospect of appointing a special counsel who would then have semi-independence to investigate the case, but would still be answerable to the attorney general. Mr. Ashcroft is aware of the political sensitivity of the case, and aides said he had worked hard to ensure an aggressive investigation. After a news report indicated that the F.B.I. would move cautiously because of the intense scrutiny, an angry Mr. Ashcroft had an aide call the F.B.I. immediately to let officials there know that that would not be the case, a Justice Department adviser said. "He wants to make certain we're moving with all appropriate dispatch." Mr. Ashcroft and Alberto R. Gonzales, the White House counsel, have also been under fire for their initial handling of the case. The Justice Department allowed the White House to wait overnight on Sept. 28 before sending an electronic message ordering White House employees not to destroy records related to the leak. Ashley Snee, a spokesman for Mr. Gonzales, said he believed the delay was acceptable because no one in the White House had any idea there was an investigation. But The New York Times and The Washington Post had reported the day before that the C.I.A. had forwarded the matter to the Justice Department for possible investigation. nytimes.com CC