BuzzFlash
presents Capitol Buzz
by Anonymous
Capitol Buzz
From
Capitol Hill to BuzzFlash.com
by
Anonymous
June 5, 2002
Who am I?
Let me introduce myself. I am a partisan Democrat who has something to say. And as a senior staffer on Capitol Hill, I have a perspective that may be different than the one provided by the mainstream media. But, due to my position, I run the risk of my views being attributed to my employer. So, I offer this anonymously-written weekly column and speak only for myself.
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Phoenix
Memo Fallout
by Anonymous
A remarkable turnabout occurred on Capitol Hill in the wake of the disclosure of the Phoenix memo, a pre-9/11 document that encouraged FBI officials to examine why alleged terrorists were being trained at U.S. flight schools. House Democratic Leader Richard A. Gephardt has been criticized by members of his Democratic caucus for being far too deferential to the President after September 11. Suddenly, after the Phoenix memo was leaked to the Washington Post, the lion roared: "What we have to do now is to find out what the President, what the White House, knew about the events leading up to 9/11, when they knew it and, most importantly, what was done about it at the time."
This was precisely the wrong question to ask and is the primary cause of the Democratic loss of the Phoenix memo spin war. It also has set back Democrats who want to ask the real questions about Bush's war on terror.
The media played rope-a-dope, pouncing on Gephardt's questions, which clearly implied that the White House or President could have prevented 9/11, but failed to do so. We all know that Bush was on vacation at the "Western White House," more commonly known as "cowboy camp," as the memo rolled in. And that may have had something to do with the lack of attention given to it. But never ones to give Democrats a break, the press decided to make the Democrats prove the impossible: that Bush knew the attacks were coming and did nothing about it. Facing this onslaught, within three days, Gephardt was in full retreat on Fox News Sunday: "I never, ever, ever thought that anybody, including the president, did anything up to September 11th other than their best."
Total nonsense. Did the FBI do its best? Did Ashcroft do his best when he refused the FBI's request for additional counter-terrorism funding? Did the CIA do its best when it failed to share information with other federal agencies on two of the 9/11 hijackers? Did Bush do his best when he thought the best use of federal law enforcement resources was shutting down medicinal marijuana clubs? The list goes on and on.
A popular parlor game on the Hill has been to watch the jousting of Gephardt and Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle as both gear up for Presidential runs, with most members giving Daschle an edge. In this instance Daschle again showed that his political instincts were sharper than those of his House counterpart, when he asked "[w]hy did it take eight months for us to receive this information?" That is the question that bears asking over and over. If anything will be the undoing of this Administration, it is its penchant for hiding the truth from the American people.
And there are other questions as well. Why is it that Democrats are "unpatriotic" and "unfair" in questioning the Bush Administration's readiness for 9/11, but it was fair game for Ashcroft to threaten Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy with responsibility for future terrorist attacks unless he capitulated to the Administration's version of the Patriot Act? When does the "war" end? When it does, can it be considered a success, especially in light of the escape of Osama Bin Laden and many of his top aides? Who is running our nation's foreign policy, Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice or Karl Rove (all three were present during the President's recent European foreign policy swing)?
And what about the FBI? Not reported was the fact that FBI Director Robert Mueller's plan to reform the FBI called for consolidation of anti-terror efforts at FBI headquarters and Ashcroft's guidelines called for dispersal of authority to local offices. Even now, does this Administration have its act together?
And what about former FBI Director Louis Freeh? It was under his watch that the FBI slid even further into incompetence and careerism. Freeh was too busy playing patty-cake with Republicans on the Hill in their various attacks on President Clinton. I was recently told by a high ranking law enforcement official, that it was the Director's copy of the LaBella memorandum (which urged the appointment of an independent counsel to investigate Vice President Gore about alleged campaign finance improprieties) that was leaked to the Los Angeles Times during the 2000 Presidential election.
And what about the Congress? The House Committee on the Judiciary, which is entrusted with oversight of most counter-terrorism activities, took a pass on any oversight of these agencies for the past several years, choosing instead to impeach President Clinton.
And finally, what about the press? Their obsession with getting Bill Clinton on oral sex and twenty-year-old land deals stood in the way of reporting on matters involving life and death. And with Chandra Levy, Robert Blake, Michael Skakel, et al., here they go again.
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