Opinion
Editorial Observer
A Small-Time Crime With Hints of Big-Time Connections Lights Up the Net
By ADAM COHEN
Published: April 17, 2006
The Internet is a great breeding ground for political conspiracies, and there is a new one lighting up computer monitors across the country. Bloggers are fascinated by what they see as eerie parallels between Watergate and a phone-jamming scandal in New Hampshire. It has low-level Republican operatives involved in dirty campaign tricks. It has checks from donors with murky backgrounds. It has telephone calls to the White House. What is unclear is whether it is the work of a few rogue actors, or something larger.
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Now, Jack Abramoff and his Indian tribe clients have joined the cast of characters, and some records of phone calls to the White House have turned up, though the significance of both of these revelations is hotly disputed. The evidence that the phone-jamming scandal goes higher than Mr. Tobin remains scant. But the watchdogs are right about this: the news media, prosecutors and the general public should demand more information about what happened.
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...The Senate Majority Project has been putting key documents on its Web site www.senatemajority.com and is continuing to investigate.
The phone jamming could turn out to be the work of a few bad actors. It could, on the other hand, take the Abramoff scandals to a new level of skullduggery. At least, 34 years after Watergate, we know the right questions to ask.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/17/opinion/17mon4.html?ex=1145505600&en=4caff9b78bd95546&ei=5070Group files FOIA for Justice Dept. findings on White House involvement in 'phone-jamming scandal'
RAW STORY
Published: Tuesday April 18, 2006
A Democratic group has filed a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain all findings by the Department of Justice in the probe of White House involvement in New Hampshire's "phone jamming scandal," RAW STORY has found.
"Nearly four years after high-level Republican officials broke the law to prevent people from voting, we still don't know the answer to the question: how high does this go?," Senate Majority Project Executive Director Mike Gehrke said in a press release. "One thing is for certain, the Department of Justice does not investigate the White House after 'normal Election Day activity.'".
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records show that Bush campaign operative James Tobin, who recently was convicted in the case, made two dozen calls to the White House within a three-day period around Election Day 2002 — as the phone jamming operation was finalized, carried out and then abruptly shut down," The Associated Press reported last week.
"There was enough evidence that the Justice Department saw fit to investigate the White House," SMP's Gehrke said in the press release. "If the investigation clears them, why not just release the findings? Why is it so hard to people tell the truth?"
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Senate Majority Project press release follows.
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http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Dem_group_files_FOIA_for_Justice_0418.html