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[LEAKGATE] Hoyer on Gannon/Plame Connection
Mon Feb 14, 2005 23:33
64.140.158.128
Hoyer on Gannon/Plame Connection
by PlayByTheRules
Mon Feb 14th, 2005 at 16:18:05 PST
(From the diaries -- kos)
http://www.dailykos.com/
Hoyer, the House Democratic Whip released this item today... pretty cool.
HOYER STATEMENT ON "JEFF GANNON" CONNECTION TO VALERIE PLAME LEAK
WASHINGTON DC - House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer released the following statement regarding revelations that a man who went by the name of "Jeff Gannon," and who was given White House media credentials despite his lack of qualifications, was given access to classified documents which disclosed the identity of Undercover CIA Operative Valerie Plame:
"Valid questions are being raised regarding the Bush White House's relationship with James Guckert, also known as "Jeff Gannon," and his access to documents that revealed the identity of Undercover CIA Operative Valerie Plame.
"This issue is important from an ethical as well as from a national security standpoint. It is hard to understand why a man with little real journalism experience was given a White House press corps credential let alone access to sensitive security documents. In fact, it only raises questions as to the nature of the relationship between "Jeff Gannon" and the White House, and whether there was an alliance of interests that did not conform to ethical and security standards. President Bush's father, President George H.W. Bush, called the disclosure of an undercover operative's identity treason.
"This most recent revelation is only the latest in the growing list of ways that Republicans in Washington are attempting to manipulate the American people through the media and avoid accountability. When the Bush Administration had trouble selling its domestic policies, it unethically paid journalists to promote its policies under the guise of journalism. When the Ethics Committee held Majority Leader Tom DeLay accountable for improper actions last year, the Republican leadership simply removed Chairman Joel Hefley (R-CO) and other Republicans from the Committee.
"I encourage the Special Counsel looking into the Plame matter to include "Jeff Gannon's" ties to the issue in his investigation."
====================================
Monday, February 14, 2005
OP/ED: What today's revelation adds to the story
by Rob in Baltimore - 2/14/2005 09:40:00 PM
Three days ago I wrote this:
Well, I personally think that he has something to hide. Or something to hide for someone in the White House who still has a job today. The real story hasn't even started yet.
* Why hasn't the Valerie Plame case been brought to prosecution? Someone leaked her name, and that was a crime. The list of possible criminals is pretty short. Why haven't we seen justice?
* How did Jeff Gannon, a man who wasn't even a "journalist" two years earlier, get right into the middle of all of this? Who gave him access to the CIA documents? Did he tell everything he knew to the Justice Department?
So yes, there is more work to do. More threads to unravel and more of the story to tell. Like the Right did with Rathergate, we're doing it with this story. The difference is that our story ends with who committed a crime. An egregious crime against our country.
Someone in the White House put political gain for the President ahead of our national security, exposing an undercover CIA agent who operated covertly in the Arab world. In the middle of a war in the Mideast, someone in the White House diminished our nation's intelligence gathering capability. A crime against our national security at a time of war was committed. And someone needs to be held accountable.
What has today's story accomplished? This:
* How did Jeff Gannon, a gay prostitute who wasn't even a "journalist" two years earlier, get right into the middle of all of this? Who gave him access to the CIA documents? Did he tell everything he knew to the Justice Department?
That's all it did. But that's a lot.
By replacing "man" with "gay prostitute" you have a FULLER story. What John's post today did was to tell a little more of the truth to this story. From the pictures on this post, it's my option that The Truth is that Jeff Gannon was male prostitute before, and perhaps during, his time as a White House "reporter."
So I'm supposed to believe that what bloggers can dig up online means one of three things:
* The Secret Service did a bang up job and can't protect the White House
or
* The Secret Service knew what he was and let him pass into the West Wing on a daily basis regardless, again compromising White House security
or
* The Secret Service knew that he was a prostitute and was instructed to let him pass into the White House
Now following this, we have the fact that within four months of his arrival in the White House he is one of six people in the middle of the Valerie Plame affair. The fact that five months earlier he was a gay prostitute makes the story all that more bizarre.
So where can this story go now? I see at least one or two options.
1. Congress, with its oversight capabilities, can subpoena the White House and Secret Service records to investigate how Gannon got into the White House on a regular basis.
2. Patrick Fitzgerald can use this information to further his own investigation.
John's post today gave people more of the story, more of The Truth. That's a very good thing.
-- Rob in Baltimore
MUCH MORE:
http://www.americablog.org/
Bush press pal quits over gay prostie link
BY HELEN KENNEDY
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON - A conservative ringer who was given a press pass to the White House and lobbed softball questions at President Bush quit yesterday after left-leaning Internet bloggers discovered possible ties to gay prostitution.
"The voice goes silent," Jeff Gannon wrote on his Web site. "In consideration of the welfare of me and my family, I have decided to return to private life."
Gannon began covering the White House two years ago for an obscure Republican Web site (Talon-News.com). He was known for his friendly questions, including asking Bush at last month's news conference how he could work with Democrats "who seem to have divorced themselves from reality."
Gannon was also given a classified CIA memo that named agent Valerie Plame, leading to his grilling by the grand jury investigating her outing.
He came under lefty scrutiny after revelations that the administration was paying conservative pundits to talk up Bush's proposals. By examining Internet records, online sleuths at DailyKos.com figured out that his real name was Jim Guckert and he owned various Web sites, including HotMilitaryStud.com, MilitaryEscorts.com and MilitaryEscortsM4M.com.
"The issue here is whether someone with connections to male prostitution was given unfettered access to the White House and copies of internal CIA documents. For a family values administration, that's pretty creepy," said John Aravosis, one of the bloggers chasing the story.
The White House didn't return a call asking how someone using an alias was given daily clearance to enter the White House.
On his TalonNews Web site, Gannon had written that liberals were out to get him because he's a white conservative man who owns a gun, drives a sport-utility vehicle and is a born-again Christian.
Yesterday, however, he abruptly quit, and all of the stories he wrote were erased from the Web site. A great many were on gay issues, including one detailing John Kerry's "pro-homosexual platform" that was headlined mockingly, "Kerry Could Become First Gay President."
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Here's Kurtz's Wash Post story on Gannon. And a few thoughts by me...
by John in DC - 2/10/2005 12:45:42 AM
It's not bad (though he does fail to mention the Plame connection). To his credit, he does mention the names of the Web addresses Gannon owned - which now opens up that door to the entire media. But, I still think this story deserves a bit more than a Style section piece. I mean, we're not talking about whether Laura dyes her hair here. And I still think Kurtz's story, and the critics quoted in it, miss the main point here.
This story isn't about some guy's private life. (Not to mention, even if it were about his private life, since when was a gay private life off-limits political territory for this White House?) This story is about some nobody who owns Web addresses dealing with call-boy services getting favored access to the family-values White House, the president and internal CIA documents pertaining to Valerie Plame. It's about the White House blowing off the entire story, and claiming there are lots of reporters like Gannon at the White House. Really? Do the other White House reporters use pseudonyms and collect male prostitute URLs too? Cool. This White House is more swingin' than I thought.
Then there's the religious right, oh so silent throughout all of this. What do they think about the White House giving Mr. MilitaryEscortsM4M.com a prime seat at the table? And what do they think about the White House shrugging the whole thing off, especially since the religious right has made pornography and obscenity one of their top four issues for this entire administration (and let's not even talk about the gay angle to this story - that would be another of the 4 apocalyptic issues the religious right is focusing on). Yeah, I wonder how they feel about Scott McLellan pretty much laughing off this entire affair.
We can't stop here. And we won't. The Daily Kos-sacks are still digging away, as are the rest of us. And I suspect you aint' seen nothing yet. The White House has a lot of questions to answer. And hopefully Kurtz's story blew any journalistic reticence about reporting on this out the window.
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End of the night, hopefully, open thread
by John in DC - 2/10/2005 12:07:53 AM
A special thanks, and request, to the Daily Kos folks who got this story rolling and who have found most of the dirt on Gannon. As you get updates and post them on your site, please email me the links. I'm trying to digest everything here and summarize it, keep track of it, and overall make it easier for journalists and other newbies to get a handle on (as they probably don't have the time we do to read everything). It's been hell tracking all the news on this, so any help folks can give in sending me updates would help a LOT, and it can also ensure I give credit where credit is due :-)
Thanks all, this has been an amazing day.
PS This is a fascinating piece the Daily Kos folks put together about the linkages between Valerie Plane and Jeff Gannon. This has all the feelings of a larger scandal.
NB I knew I couldn't stay away. David E's Fablog obliterates Howard Kurtz's and Wolf Blitzer's interview about Gannon.
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Wednesday, February 09, 2005
Transcript of one of the 2 NPR Gannon interviews
by John in DC - 2/9/2005 11:55:04 PM
For those who are interested, I've attached the transcript of the interview as a "rich text format" document. Thanks to Michael van Atta for doing the transcribing - all but the last 4 minutes are here. There's a second interview as well if anyone can get it transcribed.
NPR Gannon Interview.rtf
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All of Gannon's stories deleted from GOPUSA.com Web site too
by John in DC - 2/9/2005 11:35:32 PM
Ok, something is up. Do a google search on GOPUSA.com's Web site for "Jeff Gannon." Here is what you get, lots of links.
Click on ANY of those links and here is what you get, NADA.
Faster than you can say George Orwell, he's gone.
So, just a question for those reporters who are suggesting that this is simply a liberal vendetta against a poor embattled conservative: If there's nothing really wrong here, then why are the conservative Web sites sending all his articles down the memory hole?
http://www.americablog.org/
by PlayByTheRules
Mon Feb 14th, 2005 at 16:18:05 PST
(From the diaries -- kos)
http://www.dailykos.com/
Hoyer, the House Democratic Whip released this item today... pretty cool.
HOYER STATEMENT ON "JEFF GANNON" CONNECTION TO VALERIE PLAME LEAK
WASHINGTON DC - House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer released the following statement regarding revelations that a man who went by the name of "Jeff Gannon," and who was given White House media credentials despite his lack of qualifications, was given access to classified documents which disclosed the identity of Undercover CIA Operative Valerie Plame:
"Valid questions are being raised regarding the Bush White House's relationship with James Guckert, also known as "Jeff Gannon," and his access to documents that revealed the identity of Undercover CIA Operative Valerie Plame.
"This issue is important from an ethical as well as from a national security standpoint. It is hard to understand why a man with little real journalism experience was given a White House press corps credential let alone access to sensitive security documents. In fact, it only raises questions as to the nature of the relationship between "Jeff Gannon" and the White House, and whether there was an alliance of interests that did not conform to ethical and security standards. President Bush's father, President George H.W. Bush, called the disclosure of an undercover operative's identity treason.
"This most recent revelation is only the latest in the growing list of ways that Republicans in Washington are attempting to manipulate the American people through the media and avoid accountability. When the Bush Administration had trouble selling its domestic policies, it unethically paid journalists to promote its policies under the guise of journalism. When the Ethics Committee held Majority Leader Tom DeLay accountable for improper actions last year, the Republican leadership simply removed Chairman Joel Hefley (R-CO) and other Republicans from the Committee.
"I encourage the Special Counsel looking into the Plame matter to include "Jeff Gannon's" ties to the issue in his investigation."
====================================
Monday, February 14, 2005
OP/ED: What today's revelation adds to the story
by Rob in Baltimore - 2/14/2005 09:40:00 PM
Three days ago I wrote this:
Well, I personally think that he has something to hide. Or something to hide for someone in the White House who still has a job today. The real story hasn't even started yet.
* Why hasn't the Valerie Plame case been brought to prosecution? Someone leaked her name, and that was a crime. The list of possible criminals is pretty short. Why haven't we seen justice?
* How did Jeff Gannon, a man who wasn't even a "journalist" two years earlier, get right into the middle of all of this? Who gave him access to the CIA documents? Did he tell everything he knew to the Justice Department?
So yes, there is more work to do. More threads to unravel and more of the story to tell. Like the Right did with Rathergate, we're doing it with this story. The difference is that our story ends with who committed a crime. An egregious crime against our country.
Someone in the White House put political gain for the President ahead of our national security, exposing an undercover CIA agent who operated covertly in the Arab world. In the middle of a war in the Mideast, someone in the White House diminished our nation's intelligence gathering capability. A crime against our national security at a time of war was committed. And someone needs to be held accountable.
What has today's story accomplished? This:
* How did Jeff Gannon, a gay prostitute who wasn't even a "journalist" two years earlier, get right into the middle of all of this? Who gave him access to the CIA documents? Did he tell everything he knew to the Justice Department?
That's all it did. But that's a lot.
By replacing "man" with "gay prostitute" you have a FULLER story. What John's post today did was to tell a little more of the truth to this story. From the pictures on this post, it's my option that The Truth is that Jeff Gannon was male prostitute before, and perhaps during, his time as a White House "reporter."
So I'm supposed to believe that what bloggers can dig up online means one of three things:
* The Secret Service did a bang up job and can't protect the White House
or
* The Secret Service knew what he was and let him pass into the West Wing on a daily basis regardless, again compromising White House security
or
* The Secret Service knew that he was a prostitute and was instructed to let him pass into the White House
Now following this, we have the fact that within four months of his arrival in the White House he is one of six people in the middle of the Valerie Plame affair. The fact that five months earlier he was a gay prostitute makes the story all that more bizarre.
So where can this story go now? I see at least one or two options.
1. Congress, with its oversight capabilities, can subpoena the White House and Secret Service records to investigate how Gannon got into the White House on a regular basis.
2. Patrick Fitzgerald can use this information to further his own investigation.
John's post today gave people more of the story, more of The Truth. That's a very good thing.
-- Rob in Baltimore
MUCH MORE:
http://www.americablog.org/
Bush press pal quits over gay prostie link
BY HELEN KENNEDY
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON - A conservative ringer who was given a press pass to the White House and lobbed softball questions at President Bush quit yesterday after left-leaning Internet bloggers discovered possible ties to gay prostitution.
"The voice goes silent," Jeff Gannon wrote on his Web site. "In consideration of the welfare of me and my family, I have decided to return to private life."
Gannon began covering the White House two years ago for an obscure Republican Web site (Talon-News.com). He was known for his friendly questions, including asking Bush at last month's news conference how he could work with Democrats "who seem to have divorced themselves from reality."
Gannon was also given a classified CIA memo that named agent Valerie Plame, leading to his grilling by the grand jury investigating her outing.
He came under lefty scrutiny after revelations that the administration was paying conservative pundits to talk up Bush's proposals. By examining Internet records, online sleuths at DailyKos.com figured out that his real name was Jim Guckert and he owned various Web sites, including HotMilitaryStud.com, MilitaryEscorts.com and MilitaryEscortsM4M.com.
"The issue here is whether someone with connections to male prostitution was given unfettered access to the White House and copies of internal CIA documents. For a family values administration, that's pretty creepy," said John Aravosis, one of the bloggers chasing the story.
The White House didn't return a call asking how someone using an alias was given daily clearance to enter the White House.
On his TalonNews Web site, Gannon had written that liberals were out to get him because he's a white conservative man who owns a gun, drives a sport-utility vehicle and is a born-again Christian.
Yesterday, however, he abruptly quit, and all of the stories he wrote were erased from the Web site. A great many were on gay issues, including one detailing John Kerry's "pro-homosexual platform" that was headlined mockingly, "Kerry Could Become First Gay President."
Comment (0) | Permanent Link |
Español | Deutsche | Français | Italiano | Português
Here's Kurtz's Wash Post story on Gannon. And a few thoughts by me...
by John in DC - 2/10/2005 12:45:42 AM
It's not bad (though he does fail to mention the Plame connection). To his credit, he does mention the names of the Web addresses Gannon owned - which now opens up that door to the entire media. But, I still think this story deserves a bit more than a Style section piece. I mean, we're not talking about whether Laura dyes her hair here. And I still think Kurtz's story, and the critics quoted in it, miss the main point here.
This story isn't about some guy's private life. (Not to mention, even if it were about his private life, since when was a gay private life off-limits political territory for this White House?) This story is about some nobody who owns Web addresses dealing with call-boy services getting favored access to the family-values White House, the president and internal CIA documents pertaining to Valerie Plame. It's about the White House blowing off the entire story, and claiming there are lots of reporters like Gannon at the White House. Really? Do the other White House reporters use pseudonyms and collect male prostitute URLs too? Cool. This White House is more swingin' than I thought.
Then there's the religious right, oh so silent throughout all of this. What do they think about the White House giving Mr. MilitaryEscortsM4M.com a prime seat at the table? And what do they think about the White House shrugging the whole thing off, especially since the religious right has made pornography and obscenity one of their top four issues for this entire administration (and let's not even talk about the gay angle to this story - that would be another of the 4 apocalyptic issues the religious right is focusing on). Yeah, I wonder how they feel about Scott McLellan pretty much laughing off this entire affair.
We can't stop here. And we won't. The Daily Kos-sacks are still digging away, as are the rest of us. And I suspect you aint' seen nothing yet. The White House has a lot of questions to answer. And hopefully Kurtz's story blew any journalistic reticence about reporting on this out the window.
Comment (0) | Permanent Link |
Español | Deutsche | Français | Italiano | Português
End of the night, hopefully, open thread
by John in DC - 2/10/2005 12:07:53 AM
A special thanks, and request, to the Daily Kos folks who got this story rolling and who have found most of the dirt on Gannon. As you get updates and post them on your site, please email me the links. I'm trying to digest everything here and summarize it, keep track of it, and overall make it easier for journalists and other newbies to get a handle on (as they probably don't have the time we do to read everything). It's been hell tracking all the news on this, so any help folks can give in sending me updates would help a LOT, and it can also ensure I give credit where credit is due :-)
Thanks all, this has been an amazing day.
PS This is a fascinating piece the Daily Kos folks put together about the linkages between Valerie Plane and Jeff Gannon. This has all the feelings of a larger scandal.
NB I knew I couldn't stay away. David E's Fablog obliterates Howard Kurtz's and Wolf Blitzer's interview about Gannon.
Comment (0) | Permanent Link |
Español | Deutsche | Français | Italiano | Português
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
Transcript of one of the 2 NPR Gannon interviews
by John in DC - 2/9/2005 11:55:04 PM
For those who are interested, I've attached the transcript of the interview as a "rich text format" document. Thanks to Michael van Atta for doing the transcribing - all but the last 4 minutes are here. There's a second interview as well if anyone can get it transcribed.
NPR Gannon Interview.rtf
Comment (0) | Permanent Link |
Español | Deutsche | Français | Italiano | Português
All of Gannon's stories deleted from GOPUSA.com Web site too
by John in DC - 2/9/2005 11:35:32 PM
Ok, something is up. Do a google search on GOPUSA.com's Web site for "Jeff Gannon." Here is what you get, lots of links.
Click on ANY of those links and here is what you get, NADA.
Faster than you can say George Orwell, he's gone.
So, just a question for those reporters who are suggesting that this is simply a liberal vendetta against a poor embattled conservative: If there's nothing really wrong here, then why are the conservative Web sites sending all his articles down the memory hole?
http://www.americablog.org/
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