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Post by Moses on Feb 19, 2005 0:02:49 GMT -5
What she is referring to is Rove's recent promotion to Deputy? -- after which he stated an interest in foreign policy and mentioned a possible trip to Saudi Arabia.
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Post by Moses on Feb 19, 2005 0:53:53 GMT -5
It is just getting so strange and so obvious. Blitzer and Kurtz weren't bothered, and didn't report on, the right wing blogger attacks against anyone up until now. But a male prositute who peddles sex w/ military guys and for military guys is a victim of the "meanspirited" "left"?!?!
It's insane. And, of course extremely suspiscious.
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Post by RPankn on Feb 19, 2005 5:35:12 GMT -5
[ I was thinking while reading the interview with Cooper how well "Gannon" stayed on particular talking points and never strayed very far them. I also noticed his tactic of trying to turn the situation around and blame his critics, which is what Kurtz allows him to do here. Gannon takes on the "persecuted" "Christian" mantle.] Jeff Gannon Admits Past 'Mistakes,' Berates CriticsBy Howard Kurtz Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, February 19, 2005; Page C01 Jeff Gannon, the former White House reporter whose naked pictures have appeared on a number of gay escort sites, says that he has "regrets" about his past but that White House officials knew nothing about his salacious activities. "I've made mistakes in my past," he said yesterday. "Does my past mean I can't have a future? Does it disqualify me from being a journalist?" Gannon chastised his critics, breaking a silence that began last week when liberal bloggers disclosed his real name, James Dale Guckert, and a Web page, which he paid for, featuring X-rated photos of himself. "Why would they be looking into a person's sexual history? Is that what we're going to do to reporters now? Is there some kind of litmus test for reporters? Is it right to hold someone's sexuality against them?" [ No one has yet to call him on the fact that he himself made his sexual preferences public when he posted those photos of himself on escort sites that anyone could have found, and there are those in washington who apparently did.] As for his critics, Gannon said: "People have said some of my writing expressed a hostile point of view" toward gays. "These people are willing to abandon their principles on the basis of trying to make me out to be a hypocrite. These are the same groups that cherish free speech and privacy." [ Now that's chutzpah] John Aravosis, a gay activist who posted the pictures of Gannon on his Americablog.org, said the issue is not Gannon's right to be a journalist but his "White House access. . . . The White House wouldn't let him in the door right now, knowing of his background." Aravosis said Gannon is guilty of "what I call family-values hypocrisy. Basically, he's asking the gay community to protect him when he attacks us." Gannon resigned earlier this month as a reporter for two conservative Web sites, Talon News and GOPUSA, both owned by a Texas Republican activist. Gannon became a target after asking President Bush a question that slammed Senate Democrats and contained false information about Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). In the interview, Gannon did not dispute evidence that he has advertised himself as a $200-an-hour gay escort but would not specifically address such questions. [ because Howie decided to lob him softballs with no follow up on the contradictions in "Gannon's" answers.] Dismissing speculation that he had a permanent White House press pass, which requires a full-blown FBI background check that usually takes months, Gannon said he could not get one because he was required to first get a pass from the Senate press gallery, which did not consider him to be working for a legitimate news organization. Instead, he said he was admitted on a day-to-day basis after supplying his real name, date of birth and Social Security number. He said he did not use a pseudonym to hide his past but because his real last name is hard to spell and pronounce. [ Cooper took apart this excuse pretty well but Howie just lets it slide.] Gannon said he began covering the White House in February 2003, at least a month before Talon News was created. He said he was then working for GOPUSA. Talon was launched as "a marketing consideration to separate the news division from something that could be viewed as partisan," he said. Suggestions that White House officials coddled him or gave him special access are "absolutely, completely, totally untrue," Gannon said, adding that he was often among the last to be called on at press briefings and sometimes could not ask a question at all. "I have no friendships with anyone there. . . . The White House, as far as I know, was never aware of the questions about my past." Asked how recently he was putting his photo on escort sites, Gannon said that "so much of this stuff" was "years in the past. . . . Anything that goes on the Internet is there forever," he said. "Every day I learn about another site where there are allegedly pictures of me." [ Alleged? I'd say each one of the pictures I've seen are him. And as mentioned somewhere else, one of those sites was updated only a few months ago, not "years in the past"] Gannon says he was questioned by the FBI in the Valerie Plame leak investigation after referring to a classified CIA document when he interviewed the outed CIA operative's husband, former ambassador Joe Wilson. But he said yesterday: "I didn't have the document. I never saw the document. It was written about in the Wall Street Journal a week before. I had no special access to classified information." [ I think this, like his the White House knew nothing about my escort activities speil, is going to turn out to be a lie.] Aravosis and other critics cite several examples of what they view as Gannon's anti-gay writing. Gannon wrote last year that John Kerry "might someday be known as 'the first gay president,' citing his "100 percent rating from the homosexual advocacy group the Human Rights Campaign" for backing a "pro-gay agenda." Gannon said he was just reporting the facts and playing off suggestions that Bill Clinton was the first black president. [ Whoa, whoa, whoa; hold up a second here. It's apparent he used "first gay president" in a deragotary way. So is he saying that there's also something wrong with being Black? What's he getting at here and why didn't Howie follow up on this?] In reporting on comments by Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) that legalizing gay marriage could lead to judicial approval of bestiality, Gannon made an issue of the fact that the Associated Press reporter who interviewed Santorum was married to a top Kerry aide and described the comments of gay activists as "predictable responses." Gannon said he was not taking a stand on the issue. Other allegations, meanwhile, keep surfacing. Aravosis wrote yesterday on his blog that an unnamed television producer says Gannon told him the Iraq war was going to begin four hours before Bush announced it. Gannon chuckled at that, saying many reporters sensed an attack was imminent because the White House kept delaying the routine announcement that no more news would be made that day. "You could feel it in the air," he said. Despite the battering he has taken, Gannon hasn't abandoned plans to work in journalism and hopes to generate sympathy by speaking out. [ Cue violins] "People criticize me for being a Christian and having some of these questionable things in my past," he said. "I believe in a God of forgiveness." [ Oh sure, they believe in the forgiving God of the New Testament when it suits their purpose, but their enemies have to live up to the standard of the angry, vengeful God of the Old Testament.] www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36733-2005Feb18.html
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Post by Moses on Feb 19, 2005 9:21:34 GMT -5
Holy nuts. Kurtz is whoring for the sleeper!!
The way he frames the issue-- a bunch of gays after a poor ole gay guy just doing his job--- and the part about the press pass! He writes deceptively implying that there have been false accusations he had a permanent pass! Not that someone was letting him into the white house every day.
And I'm sure the WH DID know his background!!!!
All of Washington is going to see through Kurtz on this one.
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Post by RPankn on Feb 19, 2005 9:52:06 GMT -5
The Pink Triangle: Homosexuality Rampant in top Republican Circles: White House Staff’s Involvement Jeff Gannon's alma mater: The Leadership Institute February 15, 2005 disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?disc=149495;article=75908;title=APFN The only journalism-related credential listed on former Talon News Washington bureau chief and White House correspondent Jeff Gannon's Talon News bio -- which was removed from Talon's website after Media Matters for America drew attention to Gannon and Talon News -- was The Leadership Institute Broadcast School of Journalism. While Talon News appears to be more of a Republican political advocacy group than a media outlet, The Leadership Institute Broadcast School of Journalism appears to be more of a training ground for Republican advocacy in the media than a school of journalism. The Leadership Institute's president and founder, Morton C. Blackwell, told The Washington Post in 1992 that the Institute is "conservative, but not partisan." A review of the Institute's leadership and programming indicates otherwise. The Institute The Leadership Institute is classified a 501(c)(3) non-profit, non-partisan educational foundation (view its 2003 form 990 here). It works "to increase the number and effectiveness of conservative public policy leaders" by offering a number of seminars on journalism and public policy nationwide and at its F.M. Kirby National Training Center in Arlington, Virginia. The Institute claims to have graduated more than 40,000 students. According to its website, The Leadership Institute Broadcast School of Journalism is " n intense two-day seminar ... designed to give aspiring journalists the skills necessary to bring balance to the media and succeed in this highly competitive field." It costs $50, for which attendees receive "two days of instruction, meals on Saturday and Sunday and all course materials," as well as free housing "on a first-come, first-served basis."
The Leadership Institute's annual budget of $8 million has been financed by contributions from wealthy conservatives -- including major conservative financier Joseph Coors, a June 2001 New York Times article reported. Numerous conservative foundations, such as the Coors-funded Castle Rock Foundation, the F.M. Kirby Foundation, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, and the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation [Richard DeVos is president of the AmWay pyramid scam business, have also provided funding to the Institute.
The founder
Morton Blackwell is a former Reagan White House staffer, a lifelong Republican activist and a member of the executive committee of the Republican National Committee. At the 2004 Republican National Convention, Blackwell passed out adhesive bandages marked with Purple Hearts to mock Senator John Kerry. The discredited anti-Kerry group Swift Vets and POWs for Truth (formerly Swift Boat Veterans for Truth) questioned Kerry's receipt of medals for his service in Vietnam, including Kerry's three Purple Hearts. The Navy's chief investigator concluded that all of Kerry's medals were "properly approved." Republican leaders "publicly repudiated" Blackwell's actions, as did the Military Order of The Purple Heart, a wounded veterans organization, according to a September 1, 2004, New York Times article.
According to his Institute bio, Blackwell was "Barry Goldwater's youngest elected delegate to the 1964 Republican National Convention in San Francisco. He was a national convention Alternate Delegate for Ronald Reagan in 1968 and 1976, and a Ronald Reagan Delegate at the 1980 national convention." Blackwell was also involved in the leadership of the College Republicans and the Young Republicans. "Off and on" between 1965 and 1970, Blackwell worked as executive director of the College Republican National Committee. He also served on the Louisiana Republican state central committee for eight years. In 1980, Blackwell "organized and oversaw the national youth effort" for Ronald Reagan. He then served as special assistant to the president on Reagan's White House staff from 1981 to 1984. (According to a May 25, 2003, New York Times article, when recruiting on college campuses, the Institute "prominently displays at its sign-up table a huge poster that includes a photograph of Reagan.") In 1988, Blackwell was elected Virginia's Republican National Committeeman, a post he still holds. In 2004 he was elected to the RNC's executive committee.
Included among Blackwell's selected speeches and writings that appear on the Leadership Institute website is a 1994 speech titled "Why Jesse Helm's [sic] is the country's favorite conservative Senator." Blackwell asks, "Why do we love him [Helms]?" and gives ten reasons, including: "In every word and deed, Sen. Helms embodies solid conservative principles. No one else in the Senate, no one at all, comes even close to his reputation for selfless, steadfast adherence to every tenet of our conservative philosophy."
Blackwell was involved in an effort to use University of Oklahoma students to discredit Anita Hill in 1991, according to Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas (Houghton Mifflin, 1994) by Jane Mayer and Jill Abramson, as the Daily Oklahoman noted on November 12, 1994. According to the Oklahoman, "Strange Justice" states that Blackwell "advised an an OU student on how to make Hill's life 'a living hell.' ... Blackwell's contact with the student came during the 1991 hearings in which Hill, an OU law professor, accused Thomas of repeatedly making lewd comments when she worked for him at two federal agencies in Washington." The Daily Oklahoman went on to note:
Blackwell told the student, Chris Wilson, to round up other conservative students to fax letters of complaint about Hill to key senators, the book says. Wilson, described as a "star pupil" at the Leadership Institute, told the book authors, "Morton's really incredible! We faxed hundreds -- well maybe thirty -- letters" to Republican Sens. Alan Simpson of Wyoming, Orrin Hatch of Utah, and Hank Brown of Colorado.
Congressional advisers and board of directors
The Institute's "Bi-Partisan Congressional Advisory Board" has 109 members, 108 of whom are Republicans (including former Democrat but now Republican Rep. Ralph Hall (R-TX)). The only Democrat listed on the advisory board is deceased -- Representative Larry McDonald (D-GA), who was killed when the jetliner he was aboard, Korean Airlines Flight 007 (KAL 007), was shot down over the Soviet Union in 1983. McDonald was the chairman of the ultraconservative John Birch Society.
[Continued in next post]
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Post by RPankn on Feb 19, 2005 9:52:50 GMT -5
The Leadership Institute's board of directors is made up of a variety of Republican donors and activists, including:
* Fred Sacher, who contributed nearly $200,000 to GOPAC, former Representative Newt Gingrich's (R-GA) political committee, according to a November 16, 1995 article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Sacher was also one of the nation's biggest contributors to the Nicaraguan contras in the 1980s, donating $400,000, which prompted a personal letter of thanks from Marine Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, according to a July 19, 1987, Los Angeles Times article. In the 1990s, Sacher financed a large-scale publicity effort that promoted Congressional Republicans' "Contract with America" by sending out faxes on a regular basis to between 600 and 700 journalists in the beginning of the 104th Congress, according to an October 17, 1996, Roll Call article.
John P. Maxwell, former executive director of Campaign for Prosperity, the political action committee of then-Representative and presidential hopeful Jack Kemp (R-NY), as noted in a February 3, 1986, Associated Press report.
Craig L. Murphy, who served as spokesman for Representative Joe L. Barton (R-TX), GOPAC's Texas chairman responsible for fund-raising in that area. Murphy issued a statement on Barton's behalf, according to the December 17, 1995, Los Angeles Times, in which he denied helping cement-producing company Southdown with a trade dispute in exchange for $25,000 in political contributions.
Baker Armstrong Smith, former director of labor relations at the Housing and Urban Development Department under Reagan. Smith "resigned in 1983 after allegations that he sharply curbed HUD's enforcement program, improperly dismissed employees because of their union backgrounds, and had his former secretary type his master's thesis and mail his Christmas gifts," according to an April 27, 1986 article in The Washington Post.
Ken Thornhill, former head of the Bush-Cheney 2000 Committee in Franklin Parish, Louisiana, which paid for newspaper ads that tried to paint former Vice President Al Gore "as a president who would confiscate guns," according to the November 2, 2000, edition of the Baton Rouge (Louisiana) Advocate.
Eugene H. Methvin, appointed by Reagan in 1983 to the President's Commission on Organized Crime. He is an author and journalist whose writings have appeared in National Review, The Weekly Standard, and The American Spectator.
Leadership Institute programs and alumni
The seminars offered by the Institute cover a wide range of topics, including the two-day broadcast journalism workshop of which Gannon is a graduate and a five-day Candidate Development School, in which students preparing to run for public office are instructed in areas such as "Right to Life -- How to Win This Battle," and "Right to Keep & Bear Arms -- How to Win This Battle" (according to the school's "sample agenda"). The Leadership Institute lists on its website a number of prominent public figures who have graduated from its programs; including Senate Majority Whip Mitch McConnell (R-KY), president of Americans for Tax Reform Grover Norquist, and Republican strategist, former executive director of the Christian Coalition and Southeast regional chairman for the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign Ralph Reed.
Patrick B. McGuigan, former editorial page editor for the Daily Oklahoman, was "perhaps the most influential graduate of the institute working in newspapers," according to the June 2001 New York Times article. According to a 1999 Columbia Journalism Review article, McGuigan "had no newspaper background when he was hired [by the Daily Oklahoman] in 1990. He was a well-known conservative activist in Washington who fought against the Supreme Court nomination of David Souter (too moderate) and for his friends Clarence Thomas and Robert Bork." According to an August 3, 2002, Associated Press article, McGuigan resigned after sending a letter on Daily Oklahoman letterhead praising a Republican candidate for Oklahoma labor commissioner.
Aside from offering the various seminars, the Leadership Institute has worked extensively to establish and fund conservative newspapers on college campuses. A May 7, 2003, Los Angeles Times article reported on a North Carolina conference funded by the Leadership Council: "In an eight-hour session that bore little resemblance to a traditional journalism class, the students were taught how to start their own conservative newspapers and opinion journals. And how to pick fights with lefty bogeymen on the faculty and in student government."
Among the "resources" offered to Leadership Institute patrons is a documentary produced by the Leadership Institute titled: "Roots of the Ultra-Left: What They Really Think." A trailer for the documentary and the full script are available here. The documentary features a number of sound bites from FrontPageMag.com editor and co-founder David Horowitz, who said: "Modern liberals are socialists, they're not liberals. What are they liberal about besides hard drugs and sex? Everything else they want to control in your life. That's true of the Democratic Party. It's true of the British Labor Party. They're socialists. That's their religion." The documentary also features commentary from right-wing pundit Ann Coulter, conservative columnist and radio host Armstrong Williams, and Moral Majority founder Reverend Jerry Falwell.
- N.C. & S.S.M.
The unmaking of a media sleeper
February 18, 2005 by Justin Raimondo
A gay prostitute, a phony media organization that managed to sneak its "reporter" into White House press briefings, and the lies that were fed to the media and the American people in the run-up to war with Iraq - what possible connection could these items have to one another?
The answer: a man called "Jeff Gannon."
Amid the media frenzy over Gannon's journalistic bona fides, or lack of them - and the lurid speculation going on in the left lane of the blogosphere about how a purported male hooker got admitted to White House press briefings before his "Talon News Agency" (a front group created by "GOPUSA") was even created - one has to ask: who cares?
Answer: Patrick J. Fitzgerald, for one, the chief prosecutor in an investigation that could rope in several high-ranking administration officials and even lead to the White House itself. And those of us who have been awaiting the come-uppance of this White House, for two, and are ready to get out the popcorn and the chips-and-dip and settle down for a nice long juicy scandal.
[Continued in next post]
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Post by RPankn on Feb 19, 2005 9:54:17 GMT -5
Let's go back to my column for Jan. 12, 2004, in which I pointed to an interview with Iraq war critic Joe Wilson conducted by Gannon. Wilson, a former ambassador to Gabon, was sent to Niger by the CIA to find out whether Saddam had been trying to procure uranium in that African nation as part of his weapons development program - you know, the one that turned out not to exist. When Wilson returned, he reported that no such attempt had been made, and he was therefore astonished when the president, in his 2003 State of the Union address, made reference to Saddam Hussein, who supposedly "sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." Wilson went public with his mission and its results, which is when the neocon smear machine went after him hammer and tongs. Robert Novak wrote a column in which administration officials were cited as saying that Wilson was a partisan out to get the president and had only gotten the job because his wife, Valerie Plame, was a CIA agent.
At that point, Ms. Plame's career as a covert agent - apparently assigned to nuclear nonproliferation issues - came to an abrupt end. A crime had been committed - a violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, which makes it a felony to "out" a CIA agent on a covert mission - and an investigation was launched. When then-Attorney General John Ashcroft recused himself and appointed a special counsel to look into the matter, the political implications of the case became clear.
Whoever was guilty of engineering the "outing" of Plame was also part of a more general effort to discredit Wilson - and head off any further investigation into how so much phony "intelligence" came to be touted by the president and his White House as "fact." The president's infamous "16 words" alluding to the Niger uranium caper supposedly launched by the Iraqis turned out to be based on an elaborate forgery - which was exposed by the scientists at the International Atomic Energy Agency, using Google, within hours of receiving the documents.
How did such a fantastic hoax get perpetrated on the Bush White House - and by whom? You can bet the Bushies were really interested in finding out the answers to these questions. That explains the otherwise mysterious Ashcroft recusal and the launching of an extensive investigation that, in its relentless hunt for information, has several journalists facing subpoenas and the threat of jail.
Enter Jeff Gannon, aka Jim Guckert, supposedly a journalist for the "Talon News Agency." Gannon, a familiar face at White House press briefings who had distinguished himself as outspokenly pro-Bush by the nature and tenor of his questions, somehow finagled Wilson into doing an interview, which was subsequently published on the Talon Web site (and then erased), in which he asked:
"An internal government memo prepared by U.S. intelligence personnel details a meeting in early 2002 where your wife, a member of the agency for clandestine service working on Iraqi weapons issues, suggested that you could be sent to investigate the reports. Do you dispute that?"
How did Gannon get his hands on an "internal government memo" that was classified information? That's what I wanted to know last year at around this time, and the authorities were similarly interested, as the Washington Post reported:
"Sources said the CIA believes that people in the administration continue to release classified information to damage the figures at the center of the controversy, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV and his wife, Valerie Plame. …
"Sources said the CIA is angry about the circulation of a still-classified document to conservative news outlets suggesting Plame had a role in arranging her husband's trip to Africa for the CIA. The document, written by a State Department official who works for its Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), describes a meeting at the CIA where the Niger trip by Wilson was discussed, said a senior administration official who has seen it.
"CIA officials have challenged the accuracy of the INR document, the official said, because the agency officer identified as talking about Plame's alleged role in arranging Wilson's trip could not have attended the meeting."
It is true that news of the internal memo cited by Gannon had already appeared in the Wall Street Journal, but when confronted on the Free Republic Web site, where he frequently posted, as to the provenance of the memo and his knowledge of it, Gannon did not deny that he had seen it - and never so much as mentioned the Journal article. When a poster who calls himself "JohnGalt" challenged Gannon's contention that he was being persecuted and his professed ignorance of why he was on the list of journalists called before the Plame grand jury, Gannon got huffy quick:
JohnGalt: "Mr.Gannon is not being truthful when he says he does not know why he is being subpoenaed. When he interviewed Wilson last October he made reference to 'an internal government memo' purporting to be the minutes of a meeting at which Plame played a key role in getting her husband the Niger assignment. …. Gannon is suggesting that he was made privy to counterfeit official/government documents which is a crime, and a separate crime at that and logically he would be hauled in front of a grand jury probing the Plame affair."
To which Gannon replied:
"Your professed insight into the motivation of the grand jury is merely guesswork. The document in question has never been acknowleged by any government agency to even exist. This is a one-sided investigation where people are being accused of crimes for revealing names and information that may have not been secret in the first place."
JohnGalt: "That is simply not true, Jeff. You are ensnared because you made reference to a government document, which appears to have been a forgery. You need to tell the grand jury who made you privy to that document. … What was the document you referred to in the interview with Wilson?"
Gannon: "I disagree with your characterization of the document itself, but that aside, I maintain that I am under no obligation whatsoever to reveal my sources. That is a fundamental element of maintaining a free press."
At this point, Gannon could easily have cited the Wall Street Journal piece. But he didn't. Instead, he reiterated the same point he made to the two FBI agents who supposedly questioned him. According to Gannon's account, he told them the same thing: he couldn't reveal his sources. A Gannon interview with Editor & Publisher reveals:
"He also threw into question media accounts suggesting that he had seen a classified CIA document critical to the Plame case, saying he had made references to the 'internal memo,' but adding, 'I never said I had it or had seen it.' But when asked if he had in fact seen it, he declined to say."
While Gannon denied he had been subpoenaed to appear before the grand jury, admitted that he'd been questioned by the FBI, and "hinted" that he had never seen the internal memo, he added:
"I am not going to speak to that. It goes to something of a nature I do not want to discuss."
If, after all, Gannon had merely read about the memo in the Wall Street Journal, why this curious reticence? Is his readership of that rather staid publication really "something of a nature" this gay escort who charged $1,200 for a weekend fling would be too shy to discuss?
[Continued in next post]
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Post by RPankn on Feb 19, 2005 9:55:00 GMT -5
Later on in the John Galt-Gannon dialogue on Free Republic, it gets pretty hilarious: Galt: "Sorry, Jeff, but you claimed in this report you did not [know] why you were being subpoenaed which is untrue. You know very well why you are being subpoenaed. You are a logical target for the Grand Jury probing either the forged Nigerian documents, 'forged' being the FBI's characterization not mine, or L'Affair Plame. The law does believe you are obligated so you are incorrect. While I would respect your integrity in accepting the consequences in refusing to release your sources, you are still obligated by the law to reveal who made you privy to the document you referenced. I am sure as a 'conservative' you understand the difference, don't you?" Gannon: "Justin Raimondo is that you? I didn't think you hung out here anymore. Oops, now I've 'outed' someone else!" Galt: "Sorry, Jeff, the only one 'outed' was you who claimed ignorance as to why you were being subpoenaed. I have been on this forum since 1997. Twenty-something; I sell software over the phone. Plenty of people on this forum have met me in the real world." Gannon mistook this 20-something Freeper for me, a mistake no doubt occasioned by my March 8, 2004 follow-up on the Gannon saga: "An interesting footnote: On the list of subpoenaed materials are included administration contacts with more than two dozen journalists. Included right up there with superstars such as Walter Pincus and Dana Priest, of the Washington Post, Evan Thomas (Newsweek), Andrea Mitchell, Chris Matthews, Tim Russert, Nicholas D. Kristof, and Judith Miller, we have one Jeff Gannon, of something called 'Talon News.' So, what's up with that?" Reminding my readers of the column cited above in which the significance of the Gannon-Wilson interview is underscored, I pointed out that the "internal document" cited by Gannon - like the Niger uranium forgeries - turned out to be completely bogus: "There was just one problem with these documents: as in the Niger uranium forgeries, which listed ministers who hadn't served in years and got key facts wrong, these minutes of a purported meeting of CIA agents placed personnel in locations they couldn't possibly have been. Another forgery! Counterfeiting official documents is also a crime, particularly when it is done with the cooperation or complicity of government officials involved in a conspiracy. "I advise Mr. Gannon to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, if he knows what's good for him." He didn't listen - and look where he is today. This story isn't about sex - although Gannon's reported sideline as a gay escort (or was his "journalism" the sideline?) could figure even more prominently as the personal and the political meet and merge in this case. It's about a bitterly fought internal power struggle inside the Bush administration, pitting the neoconservative clique centered in the office of the vice president and the civilian upper echelons of the Pentagon against the remnants of resistance in the intelligence community, in the top ranks of the military, and in the diplomatic corps. It's about the lies the former told in order to bamboozle Congress and the nation into a disastrous conflict in the Middle East - and the crimes they committed in covering up the lies. It's a story about the neocon "alternative" media - such as "Talon News" and its many proliferating clones in cyberspace and the world of print and television - the purpose of which is to refract and distort images of an unjust and increasingly troubling war into the illusion of "victory." It's about payola pundits and media sleepers who swallow the party line without question and without even charging a fee. If Gannon is a plant, then what about the other right-wing screamers and ranters with an identical agenda and tactics who are, in many cases, just as sleazy? Who planted Gannon in the White House press pool, and gave him all that access - and to what purpose? Clearly part of the scheme was to lob softball questions at a beleaguered White House press secretary facing a barrage of pointed questions about the war and the Bush administration's many scandals. However, the idea was also to debunk and distract attention away from the questions that were beginning to be raised not only about the Plame matter, but also about the series of outright fabrications that represented a great deal of this administration's case for going to war. That case had been made by influential neocons now facing scrutiny from Congress and the Justice Department, and Gannon served as their personal pitbull, going after Wilson and other debunkers of the neocons' war myth. As a gay man, I can't say that I understand Gannon's appeal to his clients in the escort business - a 47-year-old male hooker camouflaging himself as a decade-younger faux-butch jarhead? It doesn't work for me - but his attractions to the neoconized American right are all too easy to see: he offered Republican activists a more congenial view of the increasingly bad news from Iraq - and the home front - as a nefarious plot by the "biased" mainstream media (MSM) to make the president (and America) look bad. That they bought it, and continue buying into it, is all the evidence we need that the neoconized "conservative" movement is not only brain dead, but dangerous to boot. If we follow the slime trail left by Gannon and his sponsors all the way to the end, we'll stand face-to-face with the real authors of the Iraq war, and the full record of their crimes in the reckless pursuit of power and imperial glory. Gannon may be a minor player in all this, but then so was the Watergate burglary a minor escapade - the unraveling of which eventually led to the resignation of Richard M. Nixon and a general disillusionment with the neoconservative agenda of global interventionism. What I wrote last winter about the Plame case applies equally to l'affaire Gannon: "This case is about much more than the outing of a CIA agent: It's about a cabal of ruthless liars who stopped at nothing - not even treason - to achieve their goals, and kept lying (and committing forgery) even after they were caught. It's about a bogus war fought on account of faked 'evidence.' It's about the hijacking of American foreign policy on behalf of interests that are neither American nor morally defensible." - Justin Raimondo An excellent comment on this sorry mess from the Internet, sent us by a reader, Unfortunately, they neglected to credit this observation: “If you're advertising a dodgy business on the web and someone finds out about it, it doesn't constitute "digging into your personal life"--key words here being "advertising" and "business." Not sure what part of that the right wingers fail to comprehend. Also, discussions of whether or not prostitution should be legal are completely irrelevant, just a further attempt to sidetrack the issue. Rightly or wrongly, prostitution is illegal, and if G/G was running an escort service, that means he was publicly advertising his criminal activity, apparently while also being granted access to the White House which was denied to an established columnist for the New York Times unless she would submit to an extensive and redundant FBI background check which he himself could never possibly have passed. For the right wingers to pretend that there's nothing interesting going on here is laughable. The only question is whether our cowed So-Called Liberal Media will actually investigate, or just continue to give everybody the benefit of the d**ned doubt.” www.tbrnews.org/Archives/a1392.htm
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Post by RPankn on Feb 19, 2005 10:23:06 GMT -5
The link below ties in with the Wayne Madsen article on "Gannon" and the similarities to the Franklin Community Credit Union/child prostitution ring during the beginning of Poppy Bush's term. It's a data dump of Washington Times articles with links to the full text of the articles, so I won't post everything here. Of interest: - In which we learn that Craig Spence [the alleged ringleader of the child prostitution ring who committed "suicide" under mysterious circumstances] brought a 15-year old boy on at least one of his midnight tours of the White House, that Spence asked detailed questions about the Delta Force operations, that he partied with former U.S. Attorney Joseph diGenova and his wife, Victoria Toensing, and that he bragged of having blackmailed a high-ranking Japanese politician, Motoo Shiina.
"Spence ma[y] be Shiina's downfall," Edward Neilan, The Washington Times, July 18, 1989
[Funny how the names of rightwing sleaze like diGenova and Toensing keep turning up in these contexts.]
- In which we learn that First Lady Barbara Bush was not concerned about the security questions raised by midnight White House tours, but did think it good that the Washington Post had not followed the Times' story.
"Secret Service furloughs third White House guard ," Jerry Seper, and Michael Hedges, The Washington Times , July 26, 1989
- The only story that received much attention. A male prostitute, identified by the alias Greg Davis, entertained clients in the apartment of Rep. Barney Frank. Frank admitted having a relationship with the prostitute, but denied knowledge of the use of his apartment for illicit purposes.
"Sex sold from congressman's apartment: School used as base for sex ring," George Archibald and Paul M. Rodriguez, The Washington Times, August 25, 1989. [ Note the m.o. of a male prostitute using an alias. I'm even old enough to remember when the prostitution ring being run out of Frank's apartment was making the news.] www.newsmakingnews.com/sexandcapitol7,18,01.htm#article19
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Post by Moses on Feb 19, 2005 10:24:22 GMT -5
That Kurtz article is the cheapest piece of prostitution I think I have seen in the Post?
Other than in the editorials, that is.
So the question is, who is Kurtz writing this for?
Did the Washington Post editor call him and ask him to spin for Gannon? But then, Blitzer was "servicing" Gannon also. But Cooper is w/ CNN, right?
I can't help but believe that the Washington Post editor is in on this, since he reads Kurtz and if he isn't in on covering for Gannon, he would fire Kurtz. Because clearly, the story is how did he get admitted to the WH for two years before there was even a "Talon" News? And DID the WH know? And how did he get the info? (as reported by CBS, e.g.)
Spinning of Gannon and putting in this religious crap at the end-- this is a piece of sleeze, coming from the so-called media critic.
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Post by RPankn on Feb 19, 2005 10:30:59 GMT -5
Friday, February 18, 2005 Texas Republican Party Denies Knowing Bobby Eberle; Why Is Eberle Being Hung Out to Dry? What Does He Know About Jeff Gannon's White House Connection? By ADVOCATE STAFF According to the Houston Chronicle, "Texas Republican officials this week declined to talk about [Eberle] and even denied knowing him." Specifically, Sherry Sylvester, a spokeswoman for the Republican Party of Texas, said, when asked about Eberle, "I'm not going to comment because I don't know him, and nobody here does." That is impossible, given Eberle's publicly-available biography: "Bobby's political experience began through his involvement with the Republican Party of Texas and the Young Republicans organization. Bobby's activities within the Republican Party of Texas (RPT) include serving as a delegate to the 2000 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia. Bobby also served as a delegate to the RPT State Convention in 1996, 1998, 2000, and 2002. Bobby served on the RPT Education and Training Committee from 1998-2000. In 1999, Bobby was recognized with a unanimously approved resolution of commendation by the Republican Party of Texas for service and dedication to the Republican cause. Bobby served as President of the Houston Young Republicans, the Director of Club Development of the Texas Young Republican Federation, and as a three-term State Chairman of the Texas Young Republican Federation." Now, where have we seen a denial regarding knowing Eberle before? Oh, that's right, from the President of the United States. And that denial seemed like a lie, too. Despite both Bush and Eberle having been members of the Board of Directors of the Texas Lyceum Association, and despite Eberle having been one of Bush's home-state delegates during the 2000 presidential election, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan tried to assure the White House press corps (unconvincingly) there was no connection between the two men. "I don't think [Bush] has ever known [Eberle]; I don't think he has ever met him. I have never asked the president, but I don't think so." [Article]. What a strange denial! I haven't asked him, but I'm not going to ask him, either, so please accept this non-denial denial as though it were something I had actually looked into--and don't ever again ask me about who knows Eberle and who doesn't. As for Eberle himself? He wouldn't answer any questions about Jeff Gannon (James Guckert), the Chronicle reports. The Advocate wonders, would the Republican Party of Texas deny knowing Bill Fairbrother as well? Fairbrother started GOPUSA.com with Bobby Eberle, and is the current Chairman of the Williamson County Republican Party. Now, wouldn't it be strange if a State Republican Party claimed not to know one of its County Republican Chairs? Here's Fairbrother's biography (which has since been suspiciously removed from the GOPUSA.com website; why would they remove the bio of one of the company's directors?): "Board member Bill Fairbrother has been active in politics since 1984 when he joined the Baylor University College Republicans. Since then, he has served as a delegate to four Republican Party of Texas state conventions and an alternate delegate to one convention. At the 2000 Republican Party of Texas Convention, Bill was elected by his fellow county chairs to serve as the Texas Republican County Chairmen's Association's liaison to the State Republican Executive Committee. He was also selected as an alternate delegate to the Republican National Committee Convention in Philadelphia. Bill currently serves as Chairman of the Williamson County Republican Party and has previously served as a Precinct Chairman and chairman of the County G.O.P. Technology Committee. He also chaired his senate district convention's Credentials Committee. Bill has chaired or volunteered on many local and state campaigns in recent election cycles. He is the founder and webmaster for the Williamson County Republican Party web page. Bill recently served on the Republican Party of Texas Finance Committee. So, is the RPT willing to deny knowing Fairbrother, too? What about Bruce Eberle, the man who "gave" his organization "Millions of Americans" over to Bobby Eberle and GOPUSA.com? Would they deny him three times at the well, too? That would be a shame, given the copious amount of money Bruce has given the Republican Party and its candidates the nation over (including, of course, the maximum allowable contributions to George W. Bush). [Eberle's organization "Millions of Americans" also boasts the following on its website: "The Millions of Americans plan last year was to support the President, and we did, by not only supporting his agenda, but by raising money for him at the end of the last election cycle." Ooh, that thankless bastard! He's never even heard of you, Bruce!]. Oh, and Eberle has been the keynote speaking at an event featuring Vice President of the United States Dick Cheney. What say you, Dick, ever heard the name Bruce Eberle? Your boss George served on the Board of Directors of the Texas Lyceum Association with Bobby Eberle, and Bruce Eberle is one of the top direct-mail fundraisers in the Republican Party (having worked for John Ashcroft, Alan Keyes, Oliver North, and countless other Republican stars) and Bush has never heard of either Eberle, right? Would he, or the RPT, denying knowing Kathleen Eberle, Bobby's wife? Here's her biography (which has likewise been wiped from the GOPUSA.com site): Treasurer Kathleen Eberle (Bobby Eberle's wife) is active in grass roots Republican Party politics. In 1996, she was elected to the Board of the Houston Young Republicans (HYRs) as the Director of Club Development, leading the club to almost double in size in one year. Kathleen served as Vice President of the Houston Young Republicans for the next two years. In 1998, she was appointed as the Texas Young Republican Federation Convention Co-Chairman. She served on several committees within this organization over the years, and chaired the [Texas Young Republican Federation] Site Selection Committee in 1999. Kathleen's activities within the Republican Party of Texas (RPT) include serving as an alternate to the Senate District 13 Convention in 1996 and as a delegate in 2000. She also served as a delegate to the Republican Party of Texas State Convention in 2000. Kathleen is a strong believer in the importance of grass roots activism and has volunteered on numerous campaigns over the last eight years ranging from school board and city council elections to campaigns for the U.S. Congress and President of the United States. Congratulations, Kathleen, on being a Bush-Cheney campaign volunteer! Sorry he's never heard of you. Congratulations also on your substantial activities with the Republican Party of Texas! They've never heard of you, either. We repeat: Talon News was created by Bobby Eberle to create a journalistic "haven" for Jeff Gannon (James Guckert), who had already been allowed into the White House in violation of White House regulations, which require any "reporter" to be associated with a valid journalistic enterprise. This is the smoking gun. The blogosphere must turn its attention to Eberle to figure out why the Republican community is suddenly hanging him out to dry, through patently dishonest denials about knowing him. posted by News Editor at 2/18/2005 12:17:00 PM nashuaadvocate.blogspot.com/2005/02/texas-republican-party-denies-knowing.html[ Hmmmm. An insider being hung out to dry over a male prostitute and the inner circle denies any connection to the insider or the wh0re. It's like Eberle is channeling Craig Spence.]
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Post by Moses on Feb 19, 2005 12:31:31 GMT -5
Bush denied knowing Ken Lay, too-- then some videos came out of a private party w/ Bush I and Jr. and Ken Lay.
I really hope there are some "private party" videos to expose these guys! (And there probably are).
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Post by Moses on Feb 19, 2005 13:29:16 GMT -5
Note that this list includes a notorious mysogynist Marine!
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Post by RPankn on Feb 19, 2005 17:23:04 GMT -5
[ I really hope there is some truth to this.] 2/19/2005 Mainstream press picks up pace on Gannon; New Yorker gets into the gameHeat from press rises on White House over Gannon By John Byrne | RAW STORY Editor A broad array of mainstream publications and television networks are aggressively pursuing various angles of the burgeoning scandal surrounding discredited White House reporter Jeff Gannon, RAW STORY has learned. Washington sources tell RAW STORY that calls are flying around the District as much of the mainstream press seeks to catch up with online reporting–including some from such prestigious magazines as The New Yorker. The wire services have also begun digging, sources say, which could place the Gannon scandal in hundreds of smaller newspapers across America. Some suggest that the mainstream media–which initially left blogs and online outlets like this site to flesh out the story–are now seeking to reestablish their grasp and perhaps break new elements of it themselves. Major newspapers, such as the New York Times, may also run Sunday pieces detailing all of the information that has come to light on the Internet to date. Reporters are trying to flush out how the conservative escort/reporter got such access to the president and possibly to classified state secrets. The tenor of calls, it appears, has reached a fevered pitch. Mainstream journalists are scrambling to be the first to hammer down a solid connection between President Bush’s White House and the conservative reporter with a dubious history who was given daily access to White House briefings and invited to the White House Christmas party. Media sources are reluctant to say which publications and networks will break into the game; many of the networks and national newspapers have been exploring leads but thus far none have confirmed a release date. For now, they say, it’s wait and see. Copyright (c) 2004, 2005 by Raw Story Media, Inc. rawstory.com/news/2005/index.php?p=103
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Post by Moses on Feb 19, 2005 17:52:41 GMT -5
This is from a Republican Blog: Sex, Lies & The White House Press Office Posted by Silas Kain on February 19, 2005 04:20 AM (See all posts by Silas Kain) Filed under: Politics - Scroll down to read comments on this story and/or add one of your own.
Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush John W. Dean Book from Little, Brown Release date: 06 April, 2004
CBS reporter Leslie Stahl ("60 Minutes") expressed exasperation on the third season premiere of HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" when Maher asked about the current scandal in the White House Press Office. I admit I had heard about it but not seeing much in the media, I assumed that this was just another story that was dead on arrival but the points raised by Stahl and Maher have given me pause to investigate further. So, here goes... I won't waste your time going into the background of this story. That can be done by reviewing the article "A Man Called Jeff" at AmericaBlog.com or another article at Salon.com. Bloggers of the world stand and be proud. Thanks to John at AmericaBlog, and several other blogs all over the country, the truth about this reporter from Talon News has come out. The fact that James Guckert used the pseudonym "Jeff Gannon" in his press reports does not bother me. Many authors, celebrities, etc. use them. The fact that he may have advertised on several web sites as a male escort for other males is not even an issue with me. If he chose to generate an income in that way, he is certainly entitled to do so. I hope that Mr. Guckert kept track of all his dates and reported that income on his tax returns in a timely manner. James Guckert/Jeff Gannon is not the issue. The Administration of George Walker Bush bears the responsibility. Looking at both sides of the issue, I'm left with more questions than answers. ON THE RIGHT: Republicans in Congress and in grassroots America should be outraged by this breach of security. President Bush has done an excellent job of convincing most Americans that his Administration is on top of our national security. Is the White House exempt from any and all security breaches? How did Mr. Guckert-Gannon get a press pass? His legal name was on it, so the White House Press Office knew who he was. After a thorough background check, Mr. Guckert-Gannon must have been cleared -- but by whom? The fact that Mr. Guckert-Gannon worked for GOPUSA before Talon News was spun off indicates that the White House must have recognized his credentials as a bona fide reporter. After all, GOPUSA is a conservative organization which blindly supports the Bush Administration. There's a scandal brewing, my Republican friends, and I submit that this has the potential of exploding into another Watergate. Had it occurred before 9/11 it may not have mattered as much. There's a hole in the veil of security that surrounds the White House. Where are the outraged Republicans demanding thorough investigation? There is something extremely Nixonian going on here. If this was William Jefferson Clinton, there would be rabid calls for a special prosecutor. "I just don't get it. How he got a press pass?... You have to be cleared through the Secret Service to get it... There's something behind this story that has to come out," commented Ms. Stahl, implying that there will be no investigation. That is an issue that Republicans within and outside the Beltway must address. And a note to the fundamentalists -- don't make this a gay issue. ON THE LEFT: Sen. Joe Biden (D-Delaware) asked "how could that happen and nobody had any idea who he was." He said that if Democrats were in charge there would be an investigation and implied that due to the Republican majority there will be none. Biden said that he cannot call for a hearing in that only chairmen of committees can call for a hearing. Respectfully I have to disagree. Here is an opportunity for Democrats in Congress to step up to the plate and make some points with the American people. Granted, under the procedures adopted by this Congress, Democrats have little or no power to do much of anything; however, that does not negate their political responsibility to follow through. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-California) said last week that Democrats will work with new DNC Chair Howard Dean and they expect that Dean will take his directions from the same Congressional Democrats. Ms. Pelosi should be more concerned about building a spirit of bipartisanship and worry less about the everyday operations of the Democratic Party. This Congress has two years remaining and there is much work that needs to be done which cannot be deferred until after the mid-term elections. Howard Dean, in his capacity as DNC Chairman, should be pounding his fists on a podium at a press conference demanding complete disclosure by the White House. There is ample evidence to show that Mr. Guckert-Gannon had access to someone in the White House. There is an appearance of impropriety at the highest levels, not specifically by President Bush, but by someone in the upper echelon of the Administration. What are the Democrats afraid of? In a political system such as ours, it is the duty of the opposition party to ask questions and hold the majority accountable. There is a system of checks and balances between the three branches of government. There is also a political system of checks and balances between the two most powerful political parties and the media. It is not treason to question the actions of government. It is not un-American to call for the accountability of our elected officials. In the end, there are similarities between this embarrassment and the disclosure of Joe Wilson’s wife as a CIA operative. Americans should be demanding an investigation by calling their elected representatives at the local, state and Federal levels. We should be here on the Internet posting at blogs and news websites asking the media why they have not done more to determine what happened. Again, this is not about a male prostitute becoming a White House reporter. This is about an Administration prepared to take away fundamental rights of Americans in the name of “national security” while they can't keep their own press room secure. President Bush welcomed an investigation of the Wilson affair just over a year ago and the American people still have no clue what happened. Mr. President, if your own Administration is incapable of insuring the security of the White House press office, how can your Administration be capable of insuring our security as a Nation?
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