Police State Blotter
Doesn’t it figure? The heir of Nixon, via his FBI, is already trying to rob the grave of one of Nixon’s greatest nemeses:
WASHINGTON – Not long after columnist Jack Anderson’s funeral,
FBI agents called his widow to say they wanted to search his papers. They were looking for confidential government information he might have acquired in a half-century of investigative reporting.[…]
Anderson died in December at age 83 after a career in which he broke several big scandals and earned a place on President Nixon’s “enemies list.” Authorities on several occasions tried to find the source of leaked information that became a staple of his syndicated column.
Given his history, Anderson’s family might already have been skeptical when the FBI came calling.
The timing only deepened suspicion.
Well, no shit.
Think this is just about ancient history? Bzzzt! This is about something very current: specifically, Dear Leader’s robust hatred of leaks that he or his party do not approve of. Like a Dick, Bush feels that when the President does it, it’s legal. Now this philosophy doesn’t just apply to, say, domestic surveillance. That would be banal. No, it’s a general philosophy, adopted as a lifestyle and mode of governance. So Bush wants to plug leaks that might spill dirty secrets new or old. He and his zombies also want to renew in a bigger and better way Nixon’s old crusade against the press.
The background on the FBI’s desire to get Anderson’s papers concerns, both superficially and substantively, the AIPAC case. Superficially in that it’s the first excuse the FBI uses to justify its desire to plunder Anderson’s archive:
“The agents expressed interest in documents that would aid the government’s case against two former lobbyists for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, who have been charged with disclosing classified information, said Kevin Anderson, the columnist’s son.
Substantively in that that reasoning is in all probability a sham (it’s unlikely Anderson had any sensitive documents relating to the AIPAC case), but the AIPAC case itself is centerpiece in Bush’s legal war against the press — and not because the Bushies actually savor prosecuting Israeli spies (we, Israel, and Great Britain are one big Axis of Goodness, after all), but because the AIPAC case provides a sweet precedent by which Bush can, he hopes, legally persecute/prosecute journalists. Dick is dead; long live Dick!
But there’s more, and it too is straight out of Dick’s playbook. What do you think the FBI would be tempted to say to get Anderson’s papers if the AIPAC excuse seems too fishy? Ding ding ding! If you answered, remembering the saga of the Pentagon Papers, “national security” you win a Sadly, No! bozo button! From the AP story:
Still, when the FBI first called Olivia Anderson and said it was a matter of national security, the family was willing to consider the request. Jack Anderson himself cooperated with the FBI from time to time, his son said.
The more the Andersons learned, however, the less willing they were to help. Lawyers for the family are preparing a letter to the FBI declining to cooperate, Kevin Anderson said. The story was first reported by the Chronicle of Higher Education.
“We don’t think there’s anything related to the current investigation there, based on the time frame and dad’s poor health,” he said. “They made it clear they want to look at everything and by the way, if we find anything classified, we’ll have to remove it. I suspect that’s their real intention, to get through these papers before they become public.”
The Bush Regime has always been about rollback, which makes perfect sense as it’s composed of ratbag reactionaries: rollback the New Deal (“reform” Social Security!), rollback the Progressive Era, rollback the Bill of Rights, the Magna Carta, the Code of fucking Hammurabi. So their desire to rollback Hugo Black and sensible guards against prior restraint is just the latest example, if a bit overshadowed by their overall desire to reinstate the Sedition Act. And for bonus wingnut points, they do it through avenging Richard Nixon on Jack Anderson’s corpse. I don’t think it’s as bad as what Dick & Crew had planned for Anderson back in the day, but it still seems like Bush has done — just by the foreskin of his teeth, you might say — Dick some bit of justice in this regard as indeed he has in so many others.
PS: Shame on GWU for not helping the Anderson family more with this. Don’t they know that Dear Leader has it in for libraries, too?
I met Daniel Elsberg once and programmed his VCR, he seemed like a cool dude. Then I read about the incidents that defined his career. To ask that which has been asked so many times, where the hell are our Elsbergs, Bernstein and Woodwards?
When did investigative reporting die?
Investigative reporting died when the media became just another arm of your various profit-making conglomerates out there.
David Neiwert had a bit a while ago about the surrealist-level absurdity of the Malkin-thing calling herself an “investigative journalist”. In it, he spent some time talking about exactly what investigative journalism is, and why nobody does it anymore.
Basically, it involves news outlets giving reporters lots of money, and lots of time, and there only being a slender chance of getting a payoff from doing so.
Now, while an institution dedicated to the old fashioned principles of journalism might not have a problem with this, d’you really think that GE/Time-Warner/Clear Channel/Scripps/Knight-Ridder have the slightest interest in making such a risky investment?
It’s not even that they “afraid of the truth” or any such idealistic nonsense. It’s just not a good investment. Short term bonds and corporate paper just make more sense.
Bush is marching us proudly backwards to the future. In a hilarious satire “The Department of Homeland Decency: Decency Rules and Regulations Manual” the government can take a “LookSee” in your house anytime they want, just to make sure you are decent, reading decent books, watching decent TV. The perfect joining of government and God, it’s not so different from what the FBI and Bush want.
You can see more at http://www.homelanddecency.com
Remember, according to the Left
leaking secrets which bash Bush = that’s good and shouldn’t be punished
leaking Valerie Plame’s name = treason
I have no doubt of your hypocrisy when it comes to leaks.
You know, if I were Jack Anderson’s kid in this case I’d have a two-step plan.
Step 1: Photocopy every single flippin’ piece of paper in every single box, and make sure the copies are stored outside the GW archive.
Step 2: Scan everything (easier if you use a combined scanner/ copier in step 1), circulate digital copies, and make sure there are enough copies out there that the FBI will never be able to stop ’em from circulating.
You know, if I were Jack Anderson’s kid in this case I’d have a two-step plan.
Step 1: Photocopy every single flippin’ piece of paper in every single box, and make sure the copies are stored outside the GW archive.
Step 2: Scan everything (easier if you use a combined scanner/ copier in step 1), circulate digital copies, and make sure there are enough copies out there that the FBI will never be able to stop ’em from circulating.
There was a piece the other day about how they essentially tried to trick Anderson’s widow into signing something that gave them the right to view the papers. Her daughter was present, and they’d only bring it up when she left the room. Apparently the Anderson family was understandably pissed.
Exactly, Gary. The content has nothing to do with the message, the message is simply the effect it has on society. What is the future effect of your premise on society, Gary?
leaking secrets which bash Bush = that’s good and shouldn’t be punished
leaking Valerie Plame’s name = treason
Ya gotta love trolls. Even fake trolls like Gary.
Leaking evidence of criminal behavior by the government = bad.
Leaking sensitive national security information (a crime in and of itself) for political payback = good.
“…leaking secrets which bash Bush…”
Remember, according to the right, the Bush administration is never the problem — evil, objective facts are.
Why do the facts hate America?
The facts hate freedom. The facts are objectively pro terrorist. The facts should be imprisoned at Gitmo for a lOoooonnngggg time.
mikey
leaking secrets which bash Bush = that’s good and shouldn’t be punished
leaking Valerie Plame’s name = treason
As if Gary is the paragon of consistency. In Gary’s world you can have it both ways. You can bash the left for “hypocrisy” while failling to hold the right to those stringent standards. See, Gary believes just the opposite:
leaking Valerie Plame’s name: no big deal
leaking information that damages Bush: treason
So, who’s the hypocrite? That’s without even mentioning that the leak of Plame’s name ACTUALLY COMPROMISED NATIONAL SECURITY. She was working on WMD, and had to close up shop and go home. The leak of Bush’s illegal wiretap program didn’t damage national security in any way.
Gary once famously promised to quit trolling Eschaton if Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame were not indicted by Fitzgerald.
Guess what? He was full of shit. When the Libby indictments came down, he didn’t quit trolling at all. Only a real man lives up to such boastful promises. Gary, being the sniveling pussy bitch that he is, does not.
OT but please read this and go support Ava!
“Ava Lowery is a fifteen-year-old who lives in Alabama. She calls herself a peace activist, and for the past year, she’s been producing her own short animations on her website, peacetakescourage.com. All in all, she’s made about seventy of them, she says, and most of them oppose Bush and his Iraq War.
She says she’s received a lot of positive feedback in short messages back to her site. And she understands that the fact that “people are on the web, and they just let loose.â€? But she was unprepared for the viciousness of the negative feedback—especially the ugly sexual slurs similar to those that Cindy Sheehan has faced. (If you can’t stand foul language, stop reading now.)”
http://progressive.org/mag_mc042406
I’d like to get my hands on the sick SOBs that sent her hate mail. They can’t go fight their fuck-wad dear leaders illegal war but they can viciously attack a peaceful, kind, loving 15 year old girl!!
I want to say more but I’m just to F***ing pissed right now to make sense.
Didn’t the Gnostics think the real world was inherently evil? Therefore…*ahem*…facts are evil. If you’re a Gnostic. Ergo, the wingers are modern-day Gnostics. Who were heretics and like all heretics, should be burned at the stake.
And that, my liege, is how we know the earth to be banana-shaped.
Works for me.
…lalalala
annie is that your belly and the bottom of your tits on your homepage? if so, sign me up.
oh yeah, praise the lord