Anderson, Kerry's investigation and WaPo; what's the FBI looking for?

[ProSense]

F.B.I. Is Seeking to Search Papers of Dead Reporter
By SCOTT SHANE

Published: April 19, 2006
WASHINGTON, April 18 — The F.B.I. is seeking to go through the files of the late newspaper columnist Jack Anderson to remove classified material he may have accumulated in four decades of muckraking Washington journalism.

Mr. Anderson's family has refused to allow a search of 188 boxes, the files of a well-known reporter who had long feuded with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and had exposed plans by the Central Intelligence Agency to kill Fidel Castro, the machinations of the Iran-contra affair and the misdemeanors of generations of congressmen.

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/19/washington/19anderson.html?ex=1145764800&en=4504719ac351c2e2&ei=5087%0A

How the Washington Post Censors the News

A Letter to the Washington Post
by Julian C. Holmes

Snip...

Recall how the Post saved us from the truth about Iran-Contra.

Professional conspiracy exorcist Mark Hosenball was hired to ridicule
the idea that Oliver North and his CIA-associated gangsters had
conspired to do wrong (*1). And when, in their syndicated column, Jack
Anderson and Dale Van Atta discussed some of the conspirators, the
Post sprang to protect its readers, and the conspirators, by censoring
the Anderson column before printing it (*2).

But for some time the lid had been coming off the Iran-Contra
conspiracy. In 1986, the Christic Institute, an interfaith center for
law and public policy, had filed a lawsuit alleging a U.S.
arms-for-drugs trade that helped keep weapons flowing to the
CIA-Contra army in Nicaragua, and cocaine flowing to U.S. markets
(*3). In 1988 Leslie Cockburn published Out of Control, a seminal work
on our bizarre, illegal war against Nicaragua (*4). The Post
contributed to this discovery process by disparaging the charges of
conspiracy and by publishing false information about the
drug-smuggling evidence presented to the House Subcommittee on
Narcotics Abuse and Control. When accused by Committee Chairman
Charles Rangel (D-NY). of misleading reporting, the Post printed only
a partial correction and declined to print a letter of complaint from
Rangel (*5).

Sworn testimony before Senator John Kerry's Subcommittee on Terrorism,
Narcotics, and International Operations confirmed U.S. Government
complicity in the drug trade (*6). With its coverup of the arms/drug
conspiracy evaporating, the ever-accommodating Post shifted gears and
retained Hosenball to exorcise from our minds a newly emerging threat
to domestic tranquility, the "October Surprise" conspiracy (*7). But
close on the heels of Hosenball and the Post came Barbara Honegger and
then Gary Sick who authored independently, two years apart, books with
the same title, "October Surprise" (*8). Honegger was a member of the
Reagan/Bush campaign and transition teams in 1980. Gary Sick,
professor of Middle East Politics at Columbia University, was on the
staff of the National Security Council under Presidents Ford, Carter,
and Reagan. In 1989 and 1991 respectively, Honegger and Sick published
their evidence of how the Republicans made a deal to supply arms to
Iran if Iran would delay release of the 52 United States hostages
until after the November 1980 election. The purpose of this deal was
to quash the possibility of a pre-election release(an October
surprise). which would have bolstered the reelection prospects for
President Carter.

Snip...

Former Washington Post publisher Philip Graham "believing that the function of the press was more often than not to mobilize consent for the policies of the government, was one of the architects of what became a widespread practice: the use and manipulation of journalists by the CIA" (*81). This scandal was known by its code name Operation MOCKINGBIRD. Former Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein cites a former CIA deputy director as saying, "It was widely known that Phil Graham was someone you could get help from" (*82). More recently the Post provided cover for CIA personality Joseph Fernandez by "refusing to print his name for over a year up until the day his indictment was announced ...for crimes committed in his official capacity as CIA station chief in Costa Rica" (*83).

http://www.copi.com/articles/holmes1.html

[TomInTib]

1. Since the day this Anderson thing surfaced, I thought it was about

Iran-Contra.

Over the years it has been amazing how the lid basically stayed on the whole affair.

[annabanana]

I'll bet there's gold

in them thar files.
The safest thing to do would be to release them all. . .throw them ALL out there into the sunlight before anything gets "disappeared".

[whometense]

5. This story and the

NH phone jamming story are the two that seem to me to have the biggest potential to upend the administration - don't know why, but they are both like icebergs - a little bit of ice bobbing on the surface, and under the surface??? certain death.

[blm]

8. ALL Dems should declare themselves in favor of OPEN BOOK GOVERNANCE

and support the people's right to know what their government has done - WE are the ones who end up paying in spades for the blowback.

[glitch]

4. It could be encouraging they are worried about Iran-Contra at this point

Perhaps their position is not so established as they would wish.
Ah poor lying criminals, always looking over their shoulders.

[Catrina]

9. True and the Pentagon Spy case may lead to some in this administration

who were part of Iran/Contra. Also some, like Wolfowitz, eg, who were previously suspected of attemtping to get classified information to pass along to foreign agents, as I recall.

The article mentions the Spy case now going to court ~ so far, the two accused men, Rosen and Weissman are threatening to reveal embarrassing information on top government officials and AIPAC, in their defense, which is based on their claim that sensitive info was routinely shared with them, which undermines the claim that they were spying.

The standoff, which appears to have begun with an F.B.I. effort to find evidence for the criminal case against two pro-Israel lobbyists, has quickly hardened into a new test of the Bush administration's protection of government secrets and journalists' ability to report on them.

The FBI had been investigating this case for two years ~ I'm not sure why the think anything Anderson had in his files is in any way related to the current trial. Unless the defense plans to show that some of those who were top government officials at the time of the alleged spying, were giving freely, sensitive info as claimed by the defendents and that this has been the case going back decades, in some instances, involving some of the same characters who were a part of this administration, and who also were part of previous administrations.

Those officials could be Feith, Ledeen, Wolfowitz, Cheney, Condy, et al. But I do remember reading that Wolfowitz and others in this administration had been suspected of mishandling sensitive info back in the '80s. Elliot Abrams (wasn't he pardoned in the Iran/Contra affair?) is another individual given a role in this administration.

I agree with the poster who said that this case may have far more dire consequences for this administration than even the Plame affair.

[Kagemusha]

2. I gave this issue some thought last night...

Regardless of whether Jack Anderson had classified material dead or alive, the FBI does not have an unlimited right to search his belongings. If they have a search warrant, that's one thing. If they have a subpoena, that's another thing. But just saying that because they *believe* that there may be classified materials is highly unlikely to confer any right to search the belongings of a non public official. If they had cause to judge Mr. Anderson to be a domestic terrorist or an agent of a foreign power they wouldn't need a warrant, but without a warrant, getting the university where his archives are stored to cooperate may be difficult. It's not like tapping a phone line and not telling anyone.

Edit: Corrected a typo for the reporter's name. Oops.

[yurbud]

3. GOP is anticipating MEGA-gate investigation when Dems take over

and want to pre-emptively destroy the evidence.

[AuntiBush]

6. .

Good point :popcorn:

[gordianot]

7. Exactly correct, am willing to bet the shredders working overtime.

[yurbud]

12. probably had to pull Ollie North out of retirement...

[tomp]

10. who ordered the search? nt

[blm]

11. Probably Robert Mueller - same guy who tried to cover up BCCI for Bush1.

Recall that Mueller was the US Attorney asigned to BCCI and refused to indict anyone, so Kerry took the evidence to the NY Attorney General in an effort to keep it alive.

Those of us familiar with what happened knew EXACTLY why Mueller was tapped to head the FBI - he's been playing cleanup position from the getgo.

[yurbud]

13. that's a good tidbit--I hope Kerry is pulling some of these strings too.