Here's a shocker: Congress has concluded that the FBI rushed to conclude the investigation into the Oklahoma City bombing, leaving too many loose ends and unanswered questions. Further, the Clinton Justice Department stood in the way rather than aiding the investigation:
The report also sharply criticizes the FBI for failing to be curious enough to pursue credible information that foreign or U.S. citizens may have had contact with Nichols or McVeigh and could have assisted their plot. . . .
Rohrabacher's subcommittee saved its sharpest words for the Justice Department, saying officials there exhibited a mindset of thwarting congressional oversight and did not assist the investigation fully.
I've always maintained that the McVeigh was executed far too hastily, given the number of questions that lingered after the investigation. I'm not a huge conspiracy theorist, but I would have liked to have known what happened to John Doe 2 and what the connection to the Philippine terrorists was all about.
Ronald Montaperto was an intelligence analyst for the Pentagon. He has been convicted of passing "highly classified" information to the Chinese.
A crime for which he will serve three months in jail, three months of home detention and five years' probation.
That's right. A man that compromised national security will spend three months in jail, in spite of the fact that sentencing guidelines call for four to five years.
Why so little? Judge Gerald Bruce Lee (a Clinton appointee) was impressed that other traitors that infest our intelligence agencies wrote character references in support of Montaperto.
Rep. Peter Hoekstra, chairman of the House intelligence committee, said he is concerned by the apparent support for Montaperto from the U.S. intelligence community and promised a committee probe.
"You would think that the intel community would set the standard for holding people accountable for mishandling and passing of classified information to our enemies," Mr. Hoekstra said.
First, believing intelligence officers about the character of a fellow intelligence officer is like asking doctors to sanction other doctors who commit malpractice. Or judges sanctioning other judges for making up the rules as they go along rather than following the law. It just doesn't happen that often.
Second, who still believes that the members of our intelligence community have any respect for the rule of law or want to support American interests?
Third, how many more judgements like this will it take before Americans stand up and demand judicial reform?
Our dear friend Judge Lee (described as a "hero to criminal defense attorneys") is the one responsible for sentencing American terrorist Ahmed Abu-Ali, who was convicted of providing material support to al Qaeda and was involved in a conspiracy to assassinate President Bush. Judge Lee decided not to impose the death penalty and settled for the much lighter sentence of 30 years.
Lee is also notorious for dismissing the kidnapping and murder charges against Jay Lentz even though a jury had found him guilty.
Legal experts said Lee's ruling, which came after he excluded much of the evidence prosecutors wanted to present to jurors, marked the first time a judge dismissed a jury verdict in a federal death penalty case.
Judge Lee, setting precedence and making it up as he goes along. What ever happened to shooting those who commit treason?
Finally, remember Lawrence Franklin? He was recently convicted of passing some classified material just like Montaperto. So here's a little table presented for comparison purposes:
| Ronald Montaperto | Lawrence Franklin | |
| Occupation | Intelligence Analyst | Intelligence Analyst |
| Conviction | Passing classified material to our enemy, the Red Chinese |
Passing classified material to our allies, the Israelis |
| Sentence | 3 months jail, 3 months house arrest, 5 years probation |
12 years in prison |
| Judge | Gerald Bruce Lee Appointed by Clinton |
T. S. Ellis III Appointed by Reagan |
And some people don't think it's important to have a Republican in the White House.
Technorati tags: Treason in our Courtrooms, Judge Gerald Bruce Lee, Judge T. S. Ellis III, Conservative Judges, Liberal Judges, Need for Judicial Reform, Impeaching Judges, Ronald Montaperto, Lawrence Franklin, Judicial Reform.
In February 2006, Judicial Watch uncovered previously confidential files and working papers from the holdings of the National Archives at the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Arkansas that provide remarkable insight into the Clinton administration's relentless drive to market RU-486 (mifepristone), a drug used to cause abortion, to American women. The documents offer a window into the political strategy, legal theories and media "spin" on the Clinton administration's abortion program.Fascinating peek into the man who wanted to leave a legacy. Among JW's conclusions:
Technorati Tags: Bill Clinton, Judicial Watch, FDA, RU-486, Mifepristone, FDA, Bill's Legacy.
It says that, for example, Attorney General Janet Reno said Barrett could only look at one tax year.Actually, it's even more pointed:It also said Internal Revenue Service officials in Washington took a Cisneros investigation away from district level IRS officials in Texas and then said the evidence against Cisneros was too weak to justify a criminal enquiry, a decision disputed by one Texas investigator, the Times said
Mr. Barrett's 746-page report said that the tax and obstruction phase of the inquiry ended without a definitive conclusion, but it declared: "These agencies' treatment of possible charges against Cisneros was at best questionable and at worst represented serious wrongdoing. There seems to be no question that Cisneros was given special consideration and more limited scrutiny because of who he was - an important political appointee." ...The bad news is that Barrett buckled under pressure and let one Clinton crony get away:Mr. Barrett concluded that "in the end enough high-ranking officials with enough power were able to blunt any effort to bring about a full and independent examination of Cisneros' possible tax offenses in the face of what seemed to many to be obvious grounds for such an inquiry."
Then-IRS Commissioner Peggy Richardson, a close friend of Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), was involved in efforts to quash the probe, a source close to the case alleged.Captain's Quarters observes:But Richardson's role was cut from Barrett's report, which went through 26 drafts, because Democratic law firm Williams & Connolly successfully pressured Barrett to remove a section of the report naming her, a source said.
The report, if the Daily News has its facts straight, will prove explosive to the 2006 re-election effort of Hillary Clinton, but even more damaging to her expected run at the Presidency in 2008. For instance, Williams and Connolly not only represents Cisneros in this probe, but also has as clients a couple named Bill and Hillary Clinton. It seems as though burying this report and getting a series of redactions helps a number of their clients out, a kind of anti-conflict of interest in this case. And it seems more than passingly strange that Cono Namorato winds up running the IRS division that would have been tasked with discovering a cover-up and malfeasance involving a former client after he gets done representing him.But the Anchoress notes that Democrats fought to get fully 25% of the report redacted:
No, it's nothing earthshaking. No, nothing indicts Bill or Hillary Clinton. But the Democrats worked hard to suppress the release of the report, and that alone makes it worth looking at. And for my money, when the Democrats are trying to run as the "ethical" party (only half as many Democrats on Abramoff's list as Republicans, after all!) and trying to pin the "corruption" label on the GOP, it's something that should be heeded.Balloon Juice likens the release of this report to the Democrat's "Fitzmas" from last year (which fizzled):
Will this be the equivalent of GUT for the Freepers in the never-ending anti-Clinton crusade? Will all of the paranoid accusations be confirmed? Or will they, as I suspect, wake up to a lump of coal?I suspect that the potential of the report will be immense, but the fallout will be minimized because of MSM spin. After all, the "culture of corruption" angle doesn't hit the right target, now does it?
Technorati Tags: Henry Cisneros, David Barrett, Barrett Report, Clinton, Clinton Legacy, Independent Counsel, Culture of Corruption, IRS.
... the CIA deliberately gave Iranian physicists blueprints for part of a nuclear bomb that likely helped Tehran advance its nuclear weapons development program.This is almost enough to tempt me to buy the book but I know I wouldn't have time to read it.
HT to Say Anything
Technorati Tags: Clinton Legacy, Iran, Iran's Nuclear Program.