Can we get an amen? Err, I mean linguini?
I thought so.
WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING | Chicago Tribune Back in the day, Jack Anderson was a one-man truth squad who wrote a ripsaw column carried in 1,000 newspapers. The Iran-contra scandal during the Reagan years, Nixon administration fundraising illegalities and other hidden trickery were daily specialties.In today's blogosphere and news channels cycles, there's no equivalent--and maybe even less memory of Anderson's stature.
But this amnesia shouldn't undercut the outrage due the FBI, which wants to Dumpster-dive in the late muckraker's records. It's a meritless fishing expedition that should be called off. -- San Francisco Chronicle
The SFC continues
After retiring more than a decade ago, Anderson died last December. Two months later, the feds showed up at Anderson's Maryland home and asked to go through some 187 boxes of files and records. The family was making arrangements to donate the batch to George Washington University, located within the Beltway world that Anderson skewered for decades.The FBI mission is, frankly, ridiculous. A tipster has the feds believing that Anderson's records may contain confidential paperwork related to a current espionage case against two staffers of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee.
An Anderson biographer, who has combed through the papers, can't recall any secret documents on any topic. Anderson's family, naturally enough, wants no part of a rummaging search that the columnist would never have countenanced. Also, the espionage case materialized years after Anderson retired from the investigatory front lines.
This misguided FBI move should trouble anyone who values the role Anderson and his successors play in reporting government malfeasance. But it's also a further sign of a gumshoe mind set, encouraged by this White House, that wants to hunt down bad news, leaks and dissent.
Example B is the dismissal last week of a CIA higher-up, reportedly the source of a disclosure of a secret prison system in Eastern Europe used by American anti-terrorism authorities. The career officer walked the plank for informing the public, not betraying a justifiable national secret. The hidden jails were clearly chosen to evade the U.S. legal system and keep suspects hidden from view.
The FBI is also after the source of leaks about a warrantless eavesdropping program approved by President Bush. One small victory on the other side of the scale: the National Archives last month stopped a bid by intelligence agencies to restore secrecy labels on thousands of declassified documents. At a recent Capitol Hill hearing, Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., declared that 50 to 90 percent of government paperwork now stamped secret shouldn't be kept off limits. It's a habit adopted by bureaucrats and political insiders insulating themselves from criticism and embarrassment.
If only Jack Anderson were still around. He'd probably agree: This is no time to be a whistle-blower.
Such a transparent mockery of a dead man, and a country that used to celebrate truth, justice and opium pies.
Tags: FBI
