Revealed: Bush officials e-mailed bogus rumor blaming Gore for failure to kill Bin Laden

[kpete]

Source: Raw Story

Revealed: Bush officials e-mailed bogus rumor blaming Gore for failure to kill Bin Laden

By Margie Burns
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009 -- 9:03 am


Revealed: Bush officials e mailed bogus rumor blaming Gore for failure to kill Bin Laden"Missing" Bush White House emails found

White House emails retrieved from Bush administration records reveal that top Bush Justice Department officials circulated a memo falsely blaming Al Gore for U.S. failure to get Osama bin Laden. The apocryphal Osama-Al Gore-Oliver North story, already debunked on snopes.com, was forwarded internally to administration personnel by David M. Israelite, Deputy Chief of Staff and Counselor to Attorney Gen. John Ashcroft (pictured above right).

The existence of such politicized emails may help explain why millions of emails sent to and from the previous White House have gone missing despite rules for preserving presidential records. This particular email, spreading a bogus rumor, has not been reported before.



Justice counselor David Israelite forwarded the Snopes-worthy narrative to colleagues in Ashcroft's office Jan. 23, 2002. Headed "For you historians" and "Do you remember?" it purports to describe a 1987 video clip from Col. Oliver North's congressional testimony in the Iran-Contra hearings. According to this anonymous narrative -- which first surfaced in Nov. 2001 and has survived repeated debunking to recur periodically -- North warned senators about Osama bin Laden in his testimony but was ridiculed and shut down by then-Sen. Al Gore.

Read more: http://rawstory.com/2009/12/investigation-politicized-hiring/

[Arctic Dave]

1. Only a few days and look what was dug up. Wonder what else will be uncovered.

[stubtoe]

2. Nothing will be done about it, nothing will change.

I guess at least it will be fodder for the history books.

[OKNancy]

3. Hardly breaking news

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7179930

a typical rawstory "investigation"


ETA: http://www.margieburns.com/ ( scroll down to Dec 8th) stop and read some other good stuff too!

[Luminous Animal]

10. The Raw Story article was written by Margie Burns.

[Winterblues]

4. This is old and Snopes says it is FALSE

http://www.snopes.com/rumors/north.asp

[Kolesar]

7. Snopes does not address TODAY'S story--that the bushies circulated a slanderous email

[Brickbat]

5. I don't think forwarding on an internet rumor constitutes a "memo." This makes it sound like the

White House wrote it and released it, which I highly doubt.

[superconnected]

6. I was expecting the emails would be blaming Clinton for everything.

[harmonicon]

8. it's not even skillful

This is like what I would expect from a junior high fiction writing assignment, not someone working on a government conspiracy. It's laughable in its absurdity.

[Ozymanithrax]

9. Thanks to the emails, we may learn what the Bush administration really did...

Those 935 Lies will grow exponentially. Perhaps the new number will approch 20 million.

[Segami]

11. Revealed: Bush officials EMAILED BOGUS RUMOR Blaming Gore For Failure to KILL BIN LADEN

Source: RawStory

"Missing" Bush White House emails found


White House emails retrieved from Bush administration records reveal that top Bush Justice Department officials circulated a memo falsely blaming Al Gore for U.S. failure to get Osama bin Laden. The apocryphal Osama-Al Gore-Oliver North story, already debunked on snopes.com, was forwarded internally to administration personnel by David M. Israelite, Deputy Chief of Staff and Counselor to Attorney Gen. John Ashcroft (pictured above right).


The existence of such politicized emails may help explain why millions of emails sent to and from the previous White House have gone missing despite rules for preserving presidential records. This particular email, spreading a bogus rumor, has not been reported before.


<>


Justice counselor David Israelite forwarded the Snopes-worthy narrative to colleagues in Ashcroft's office Jan. 23, 2002. Headed "For you historians" and "Do you remember?" it purports to describe a 1987 video clip from Col. Oliver North's congressional testimony in the Iran-Contra hearings. According to this anonymous narrative -- which first surfaced in Nov. 2001 and has survived repeated debunking to recur periodically -- North warned senators about Osama bin Laden in his testimony but was ridiculed and shut down by then-Sen. Al Gore.


North himself denied this claim Nov. 28, 2001.

This emailed anecdote from Israelite is the sole internal reference to Osama bin Laden found in a FOIA search of Bush White House emails for 2002.

A top aide to Ashcroft, Israelite was among Ashcroft's first appointments at Justice in early February 2001. The political priorities are clear. Before working for Ashcroft, Israelite had been Director of Political and Governmental Affairs at the Republican National Committee, going to the RNC from the office of Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond (R-MO). He got his law degree at the University of Missouri and was an attorney in Kansas City law firm Bryan Cave.

Israelite's email about Osama bin Laden, Al Gore and Oliver North was disclosed to Raw Story through prolonged correspondence under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), requesting emails between the Bush White House and Bush's attorney general, deputy attorney general, associate attorney general, Office of Public Affairs, Office of Legal Counsel and Office of the Inspector General, in the Justice Department.

Read more: http://rawstory.com/2009/12/investigation-politicized-hiring/

[abelenkpe]

12. I am shockied.

Well, no not really. :(

[tridim]

13. I can't count how many times I recieved that RW spam email.

No surprise that it was started by BushCo. I bet they all were.

Fucking scumbags.

[Buzz Clik]

14. I guess stupidity and ignorance are hard to kill. The terrorist in question was Abu Nidal.

http://www.snopes.com/rumors/north.asp

Morons.

[Turbineguy]

17. It's the first thing listed when you google

snopes ollie north

[Brickbat]

15. I'd hardly call forwarding on a debunked e-mail rumor a "memo."

But interesting, nonetheless.

[Winterblues]

16. Snopes is your friend...This is old and snopes says FALSE

http://www.snopes.com/rumors/north.asp

[Stephanie]

19. Yes, that's the point

Bush officials spreading false info about Gore.

[OKNancy]

18. this is a dupe of a crappy

rawstory piece.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4186736

[ck4829]

20. I wouldn't be surprised if BushCo was the original source for the chain email

[Peace Patriot]

21. Well, what do we expect from an AG who covered the forgiving breasts of "The Spirit of Justice"?

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2002/01/29/statues.htm

...and from the Junta to which he pledged his life, his fortune and his sacred honor...

--lies
--preemptive war
--torture
--assassination squads
--massive domestic spying
--massive thievery, banksterism and war profiteering
--death, horror and bankruptcy
--political prosecutions
--immunity for the super-rich; "three strikes" for everybody else
--no mercy

[jmowreader]

22. Gee Ollie...

maybe if Osama bin Laden was the most evil person alive that you knew of, perhaps, just maybe, he wouldn't have been such a threat if your hero Ronald Reagan wouldn't have been FUNDING HIM DURING THE 1980S!

But yeah, it's pretty fuckin' funny the Bushie staffers were forwarding an email that's so full of shit it leaves brown stains on the inside of your screen when you read it.

[johnfunk]

23. Note the second recipient

Republican dirty trickster and frequent media Bushfluffer Barbara C*msl*t... er, Comstock.

Apologies for the use of a really foul term, but i know of at least one small-government libertarian who has regularly referred to Comstock by that Rude-Pundit-worthy name...

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

24. I remember recieving this bullshit email back in 2001-02. n/t