Bill Moyers Journal: Going after the whistleblowers
By Nicole Belle Sunday Mar 16, 2008 8:35am
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It's infuriating that the Bush administration has gone so far around the Constitution without any accountability from those who are charged with oversight, yet the few journalists and whistleblowers that have tried to shine a light on the actions of the Bush administration are fighting to not go to jail. Case in point: James Risen, the reporter who broke the warrantless wiretapping story and who is now fighting to not go to jail after being subpoenaed to reveal his sources. Rick Karr looks at how the Bush administration has consistently sought to squelch journalists and whistleblowers like Risen, Sibel Edmonds, and even Talking Points Memo.
The entire episode (including an interview with Rep. Henry Waxman on government oversight) can be viewed online.
Transcripts below the fold.
BILL MOYERS: If the Chairman of powerful oversight committees can't get straight answers from the Bush Administration, you can imagine how hard things are for whistleblowers exposing the truth about government conduct, and muckraking journalists digging behind the news. James Risen, for one. He exposed power grabs ... and intelligence blunders inside the Administration ... and is fighting now to stay out of jail. Here's my colleague Rick Karr to bring us up to date.
RICK KARR: You may not know James Risen's name, but you probably know his work: He's one of the NEW YORK TIMES reporters who broke the story of the Bush administration listening in to phone calls and reading email, without search warrants. That story infuriated some conservatives. A popular blog accused Risen and his co-author of treason for revealing sensitive information, and pundit William Bennett said the reporters deserved jail time.
Bennett may get his wish. A federal prosecutor has asked a grand jury to look into a book that Risen wrote. It details not only warrantless wiretapping but also how, when it came to covert operations in the Middle East, the Administration made "mistake piled on mistake" caused an "espionage disaster" and was "operating in the blind" when it came to Iran.
Risen was subpoenaed to tell a grand jury who he talked to about Iran — in other words, to reveal his anonymous sources. So far, the reporter has refused to talk. And recently, his lawyer moved to quash the subpoena. Some veteran investigative journalists wrote letters in support of that motion. One of them told me that if Risen is forced to testify, the public will be the real loser. Here's why: Anonymous sources have a lot to lose if their identities are revealed because a lot of them are powerful or prominent. So, if the Federal government can force a reporter like Risen to reveal their identities, those sources will clam up. There'd be more corruption and wrongdoing in Washington that the public would never learn about.
Administration officials seem not to mind keeping the public in the dark.
But for muckrakers and whistleblowers, it's getting harder and harder to expose corruption and wrongdoing.
Take the case of former FBI agent Sibel Edmonds: She blew the whistle on massive incompetence at the Bureau — sloppy translations, missed messages from terror suspects. She even alleged that insiders were leaking secrets to foreign agents. She lost her job for it.
Just after Congress got interested in her story — and a bipartisan group of Senators said they found her claims credible enough to warrant an investigation — the administration retroactively classified everything that she knew, pretty much shutting down any chance of an investigation. U.S. journalists have found it nearly impossible to look into her claims. Over the past year, there's been only one article on her in a major newspaper, and it simply announced that she'd won a freedom-of-speech award. Meanwhile, the TIMES OF LONDON has published three stories — just this year — digging into her claim that Administration officials sold secrets to foreign governments.
Sometimes the Administration's efforts to squelch critics seem downright petty: Reporters for the Web site TALKING POINTS MEMO, for example, led the way in showing how the Administration encouraged federal prosecutors to go after Democrats, but go easy on Republicans. So the Department of Justice kicked the web site off of its press list. A small thing, sure, but it rankled one member of the House enough that he asked Attorney General Michael Mukasey about it at a hearing. Mukasey's response? "I don't know."
Recently, the Department of Justice reinstated TALKING POINTS MEMO to its press list — right around the same time that the web site won an award for its reporting on the Department of Justice.
So, Administration officials stonewall lawmakers and try to silence critics — or just make their jobs harder. That's not news. But this time, a reporter could go to jail. The irony in James Risen's predicament is that he was one of the reporters who revealed that the Administration could never have secretly listened in on phone calls, or read emails, without help from big telecom firms — the conglomerates that supply most Americans with phone or Internet service. After the article appeared, civil-liberties advocates filed lawsuits against the conglomerates trying to hold them accountable for helping the Administration break the law. Just recently, the Senate voted to grant those telecom companies immunity from the lawsuits — to let them off the hook — while the reporter who'd exposed them fought to stay out of jail.
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Wikileaks rules.
The blatant violation of laws by this administration can only be ended by removal from office.
Let's make a law giving reporters immunity from prosecution!
Wait, don't we already have laws like that?
Not one case has been investigated to the end. conyers, leahy and waxman charged with the investigation are sitting on their duff. I bet in October they ratchet it up again. You know conyers will he is to be re-elected this year. I didn't check when leahy and waxman will be but if it is in November you bet there will be a flurry of activity..
The thing I see, is, they are worst than the republicans. The republicans were openly opposed to any type of oversight for bush. It seems like our Democrats are underhandedly against any type of oversight for bush. They have had a year and half and have accomplished absolutely positively ZERO.
Welcome to Amerika.
as far as i'm concerned waxman *and congress et al* have done squat to assure the safety of the whistleblowers that do help them with information leading to meaningful oversight on questionable administration activities. neither have they contested the administration's consistant flouting of congressional authority under the constitution.
waxman for all i care can keep banging his gavel and posturing for the camera. until he starts sending out the Sergeant at Arms to frog march some of these yahoos into the congressional dungeon i'm going to discount his little role playing game as little more than a bad joke..
Acting Patriotic @ 1:
That looks like a great idea.
I previously posted this quote from Joseph Goebbels thinking the first half was germaine (without emphasis). Here the second half is germaine (now with emphasis).
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
Joseph Goebbels
Nazi Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda
Way way OT.
Cheney was giving a press conference on Iraq, which was just interrupted BY BUSH to tell us the economy will be OK, as it goes tits up worldwide. (He thanked Paulson for working over the weekend. That sure musta been a sacrifice.) And now Cheney is back on spewing lies of "the success story called Iraq".
WTF??? Pass the gun, I'm shooting myself in the head.
What ever happend to the idea that doing the right thing was the moral thing to do. Is this, what we as a nation, have come to? People who have the balls to stand up to what is the right thing to do get muzzled, vilified and tarnished? What the hell is going on. Many people I know would stand up for what is right. But I believe or so-called leaders are as immoral as they come.
Get used to it.
P.D. @ 10:
It's over.
On my side of the globe, it's bedtime. I hope the Bush (cough) team "burns the midnight oil" to save us, those (fart) fuckin' morons. G'night.
Bush to make statement on economy Reuters - 50 minutes ago
I'm tired of banging my head against the wall! Everyday I get up and try to face the day with humor. Only to find it is only getting worse. I used to be optimistic, now I find myself in dispair. My fellow Americans, I fear for our future.
Edwin Hussein (not a scary black Reverend) @ 9:
Was that before or after oil hit $111 a barrel? What a tool.
Edwin Hussein (not a scary black Reverend) @ 9:
The only thing I saw Paulson doing this weekend was going on talk shows to show us he didn't know shit about anything. What he said made absolutely no sense at all. Having bush tell me not to worry about the economy is like the having the capt of the titanic tell me not to worry about the big chunks of ice in the ocean.
The biggest enemy bush and his administration have is the truth. They have to fight against it at all cost because they know it could easily bring them down in a lawful world.
P.D. @ 15:
It's getting worse. Your not imagining things.
pissed off patricia @ 17:
They lie.
Maybe it's a good thing average Americans are armed to the teeth, with Uzi's and AK-47's???
InternetJunkie @ 16:
I saw $112, and Bush had ZERO confidence, didn't know what he was even talking about, and had a real shit-eating grin, to boot. (Like, this is all way to incomprehensible for me. Let's get outta here fast.)
Watching the Sunday news, I beginning to think we live in a surreal world. Watching these idiots spout out their drivel makes me dizzy. And many Americans buy it. Well at least I know the bottom is going to fall out soon. Will they?
Anyway (Nicole, didn't mean to hijack the thread), the Bill Moyers piece is good, in that disgusting BushCo. way. I'll watch the whole thing later (bedtime).
And now its McCain, in Iraq. Why did I turn on CNN?
Basically all republicans cannot be trusted at all. Never believe what one says unless it is fact checked several times.
Its ashame they have become the party of liars.
The two party system in this country should be replaced with 3-4 partys instead.
Global markets tumble
Investors were already skeptical about the JP Morgan deal, which was completed with the backing of the U.S. government. "Just buying an investment bank does not solve the problem," Hunter said. "Markets are prodding (the U.S. government) to inject public funds."
See what is now happening is the Global Economy, people invested in United States is going to start enforcing Fiscal Discipline on us. And if that doesn't work they can just dump everything and we go right into the garbage.
Nice job Bush Co. Bush Cabal. Liars. Bastards.
Ruth @ 2:
......and bringing them to justice before they flee to countries with which the US has no extradition treaties.
McCain the Liar @ 24:
If Americans really realized what is going on they would be in the streets right now lynching the investor classes, ceo's, and wall street guys, and others.
Great Job Rick, thanks for mentioning Sibel Edmonds!
Marge @ 4:
This is why the Democrats have done nothing.
Good Luck
L.A. Confidential @ 27:
Yeah, but American Idol is on...
liberalHUSSEINmoderation @ 31:
Thats right. Rah rah groovy groovy. Pass the doritos, cheese dip, and beer.
See ya later.
InternetJunkie @ 16:
Some predict it will hit $200 before it starts going back down again.
Good ol' Lawrence Kudlow, on today's Morning Joe, was blaming the mortgage meltdown on the idiots who got sub-prime and/or zero interest loans. About Bear-Sterns going belly-up he said, basically, that the financial market is a gamble; some companies win, others lose. FREE MARKET ECONOMY yeeeeehawwwwwwww!!!!!!!!
McDuff @ 34:
It probably will. And it'll stay there for quite some time before dropping down to a "normal" price.
"New world order," buyers seen for banks: CreditSights
10 minutes ago
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Financial firms face a "new world order" after a weekend fire sale of Bear Stearns and the Federal Reserve's first emergency weekend meeting since 1979, research firm CreditSights said in a report on Monday.
Yip we been sayin and sayin and sayin and sayin.
Pass the Chips. Turn on Idol!
I had planned to storm Cogress/WH with vats of boiling oil. Now what will I do? (Hi NSA guys. Death to... ________, actually you guys fill in the blank; you will anway. )
The Junta is willing to break every law of the land to protect actual perpetrators of treason, granting immunity when all else fails, and is willing to crush anybody who tries to hold them accountable, using the full power and weight of the US government.
I hope nobody tries to wave a flag in my face and insult me by telling me that the US is still a free country and that we don't live in a police state ruled by despots.
Paul @ 39:
As if we don't have enough on our plate watching the markets get ready to implode, we notice "Veterans take over national monument" may be shaping up with word circulating on the 'net that a Veterans group is planning to shut down IRS on Wednesday.
http://www.warresisters.org/IRSinDC.htm
L.A. Confidential @ 40:
All this stock market crap is just blatant manipulation of the market to make profit.
This morning all the "little people" freaked and sold, the market dropped like a stone yet again. The profiteers are now snapping up that stock and will drop it back in after they make their millions this day. This is nothing more than high-stakes poker for the ultra rich. The house is stacked against the little people (us). right now the market is climbing again from it's low of 11,400 and then it will slide again later, unless they stay to play their hands until Thurday afternoon.
They're after this whistle-blower?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94x9RO8JgTA
♣Bangkok Bob♣ @ 41:
It's out of control. Beyond blatant.
Maybe a depression is what people need to see what these people have done the past 7 years.
CheneyIsADick @ 26:
Here's the thing. Stringing up Bush and Cheney will not solve the problems we face, because these guys are just the front men for an insidious, international cabal.
That YouTube video of Nader reading the comments of the MA Rep who says if Congress tries to Impeach/convict, our "Dear Leader" and his buds will just create an emergency (invade Iran [?], or unleash another "new Pearl Harbor" like 9/11 inside the US) in order to put all of their new, Unitary Executive laws, directives, and orders into use. I believe the guy is correct. Cheney/Bush et al cannot wait for a reason to cancel elections, send the Blackwater goons all over the country to round up "subversives," and then continue on their merry way toward a complete facist state.
It's hard to know how 300 million Americans might react once they understand they've been had - and the collapsing economy should be bringing many more to their senses in the very near future.
Paul @ 39:
"It's un-patriotic and un-American, terrorist coddling traitors like you who should be ashamed. You make me SICK."
ysbaddaden @ 42:
This might work better
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94x9RO8JgTA
Amitola @ 44:
Were going to learn soon.
...Manipulating markets
...Manipulating energy prices
...Manipulating americans with propaganda
...Manipulating public presidential record oversight
oh.. and gutting the Espionage Oversight Board - Established by President Ford - by a NEW Executive Order
--> are NOT american values.
neither is ...blowing off over 200,000 public Freedom of Information requests
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Audit_finds_more_than_200K_publicrecords_0...
hmmm - what is the corrupt Bush cia boy hiding?
Youtube has a lot of malformed URL's lately.
All this doom and gloom calls for another watching of Dr. Strangelove. If there ever was a time for some maverick young filmmaker to try to channel Stanley, I believe that time is now.
L.A. Confidential @ 43:
Naw, their all too busy watching news a bout Paul McCartny and his heather splitting up for $50 million. When they get off the freaking couch and go to the market for food this week it may start to dawn on them that bread is up 70 cnets a loaf, milk is up 65 cents a gallon, produce is so expensive (from what my friends back there tell me) that they are buying rice in 50 pound sacks. I'm fortunate to miss that, produce here is plentiful and good, rice is the staple and the local fish is plentiful.
They will react when they open their wallets and see nothing but dust and moths flying out.
Another point someone made earlier should be talked up. had bush been able to pass his Social Security change to the stock market think what damage that would have done to the American psyche (sp)
The U.S. Economy right now reminds me of Enron in March 2001. They were in deep deep shit and tried to hide all the losses until they collapsed that fall.
Typical Republican @ 45:
♣Bangkok Bob♣ @ 53:
Sorry Paul, that should have looked like this "As do you zombies of the Moron Factor make us sick, go back and watch FOX.
And we call it democracy.
Breaking News! Heather Mills gets 48 million. Spitzer got a deal for $4,300.
Edwin Hussein (not a scary black Reverend) @ 9:
Drop that gun and head north instead...
Edwin Hussein (not a scary black Reverend) @ 9:
Yeah it's going to be okay!!!!!!!!! George W. Bush!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
MAN OH MIGHTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OH LORD PLEASE WAKE EVERYONE UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ruth @ 2:
It's a step by step process.
Step 1: Democrats grow a backbone
Step 2: Bush and Cheney are impeached.
L.A. Confidential @ 58:
Ah ma...just five more minutes...'k?
Col Kilgore @ 5:
=============================================
Ain't that the truth! although this has been a thing that they have used since probably the late sixties. it isn't very hard to find a judge that will let this shit go on. Even here in Alameda County, there has been some action against those that might make folks pay attention.
Ruthless People @ 59:
That's why republicans don't want to believe in evolution.
ysbaddaden @ 60:
Problem there is five minutes in celestial evolution is 50 million years.
Argggggh. Gimme Meat! Woman Mine! Mo Money too!!!!! Me Big Man!!!!!!
Bets oil-and-gasoline shortages come next? Which will continue to drive prices up?
L.A. Confidential @ 64:
and all the while the oil and gas conglomerates make record profits... it's not just obscene any longer, it's criminal. Whatever happened to the theory that monopolies and rackateering were illegal? WTF?!
ysbaddaden @ 62:
Honestly at this point with less than a year before BushCo slithers out of office it might be best just to let them stay and tie them around the neck of John McCain and every Republican running for the house and senate. Dems should have moved on impeachment when they took power. 2 years would have been enough time to hold impeachment hearings and remove them from office but now there probably would not be enough time. Truth be known this may have been the Dems 2008 election strategy all along.
♣Bangkok Bob♣ @ 54:
I was being sarcastic. Hence, the user name "Typical Republican", you know, since that's what a republican drone would say.
Didn't mean to offend anyone.
HEy Moyer's its called national security, loose lips sink ships!!
L.A. Confidential @ 27:
Absolutely. I think I've mentioned it here before that I find it hard to believe you people aren't having a civil war.
I just hope the republicans aren't re-elected. I can't imagine half the U.S. citizens being able to sit back and allow another 4 years of complete government corruption. The fact that it's so blatant is the worst part.
Marge @ 4:
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So you think that Waxman, Leahy, and that horrible man Conyers will be reelected this year? Probably! It's good this time you could add Waxman and Senator Leahy. Kind of makes you really look really give a damn instead of just doing the old Conyers two shoe tap dance, that you usually do.
I will tell you who won't be elected to anything besides the senators job she has now, Hilliary!
unfortunately we seem to have to look outside the US for news
Amerika fer shure
1933: FIRST THEY IMPRISONED THE COMMUNISTS .. BUT I WAS NOT A COMMUNIST
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2001: FIRST THEY IMPRISONED THE MUSLIMS .. BUT I WAS NOT A MUSLIM
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One of these days I'd like to hear a Senator or Congressman ask one of bushco's henchmen - say like Mukasey - 'Mr. Secretary. Do you have grandchildren? Do you talk to them about right and wrong? What do want them to believe about you as they grow older? That lying to support the President is honorable...that not getting caught in a lie is the same thing as telling the truth? Just what kind of person would you like to see them become and do you think that as honorable adults they would be proud of their 'Poppa'?
Doubt if he'll say I can't remember to that, but regardless, it ought to close with...'Mr. Secretary. Would you care for a video of your testimony today to save to share with those grandkids?'
Surely, some of these motherfuckers have a conscience.
Col Kilgore @ 5:
xoites Hussein defends Constitution @ 3:
Again, this is the slippery slope that began in the 80s when all of a sudden, employees public behavior and its so-called reflection on their employer became de rigeur...that has now been extended to any activity which the company says "soils their image" including blowing the whistle on illicit or illegal company practices.
I refer to it as "the criminalization of honesty".
i want Obama...
i want justice... i want these people who are in this administration to go to jail...
impeachment is not enough (even if it could happen)...
this administration is CRIMINAL...
and every last one of them involved in this, the war, cover ups, etc... all of them need to go to prison...
if for not other reason, then as a deterrent to future administrations...
this should have been done 35 years ago with Richard Nixon...
if it had been... we would probably not be in this mess we are in today...
James Risen is my personal hero. At a time that the MSM were either threatened into lethargy, and other people, like Colin Powell choose not to step forward to stop the inevitable, James Risen did. We have to get behind him now, and keep him from becoming the next Dan Siegelman. I encourage everyone who reads my post, please go to this link and read James Risen's NY Times article from April 28, 2004. If the people in this country had just paid attention, what a difference today would be. James Risen is one of the extremely few who tried to stop it. I'm sick at the thought that he could be facing prison for doing what Colin Powell refused to do.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9404E7DE1F3AF93BA15757C0A...
Please read Risen's article and get behind him now, as he's one of the few to have our backs up until now!
Nice article by Risen, but not much new.
The fact is that there was, is and likely will be more than enough evidence to warrant a complete, independent and unbiased investigation into that the Administration "knew and when did they know it" with regard to the lack of WMD, Saddam/Al Quada connection, potential civil war, etc.
While war crimes are important, the fact is that more importantly...this Administration has violated the Constitution on so many levels, that people not only should be going to jail for a VERY long time, but some people may actually face execution for their betraying the Constitution and the country and putting our national interest at risk.
Marge @ 4:
I am in complete agreement. He let the man quit and then let it go. What?! Yeah, it's good that he quit, but without continuing the investigation you still got NOTHING! Whomever his successor is will continue the job just as he did. He will allow Blackwater to operate however they like while he gets a kickback through a friend. They won't be dumb enough to use a family member again, but you never know. There is obviously no punishment, so why not?
Liberal AND Proud @ 77:
Yeah, Not gonna happen! They will be home resting and watching the democratic president and congress get blamed for the trillions of dollars we owe, the war, the economy, and anything else they can pin on them. We are all going to have to pay for this starting next year and the Republicans will blame those in office for making us pay. We live in a fascist state and it doesn't look like anyone in power wants to change that anytime soon. Waxman, Conyers and Leahy had better start arresting people who've ignored subpoenas or they are going to have trouble getting re-elected.
Help, I think somebody put some bad acid in my coffie and I can't come down,this just can't be real. Wtf? Let some smuck "chat room" an undercover (entrapment) cop pretending to be a minor and we see 30,40 keystone cops, all yelling different things,billyclubs flying in all directions, street blocked by top of the line suvs, maybe even a chopper or small tank, crime solved! Smoke part of a harmless plant, off to prison, protest peacefully, off to prison! bush taps our phones(crime), no big thing, waterboarding(crime) no big thing, Perhaps I'll take some more acid, it could not get more surrealistic! Lets face it bush is drunk behind the wheel and the world is stuck in the car with him! Oh the colors.
Peter Hollman @ 75:
Sickening isn't it? What do you think will actually happen? No reporter has the balls. No citizen has the time or money and no congressmen have the backbone to arrest people they've subpoenaed.