Blue Spot

Former 60's radical Bill Ayers appeared on Good Morning America and called the attacks on him and the attempts to associate Obama to him a "dishonest narrative."

Labels: anti-war movement, Bill Ayers, Cultural issues, FBI, personal attacks - mudslingling, Terrorism, The 60's, Viet-Nam War, war crimes

Bush claims executive privilege on CIA leak - The White House- msnbc.com

WASHINGTON - President Bush invoked executive privilege to keep Congress from seeing the FBI report of an interview with Vice President Dick Cheney and other records related to the administration's leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity in 2003.

The president's decision drew a sharp protest Wednesday from Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of House Oversight Committee, which had subpoenaed Attorney General Michael Mukasey to turn over the documents.

"This unfounded assertion of executive privilege does not protect a principle; it protects a person," the California Democrat said. "If the vice president did nothing wrong, what is there to hide?"

Waxman left little doubt he would soon move for a committee vote to hold Mukasey in contempt of Congress.

Labels: Cheney, Executive priveledge, FBI, Plamegate

ABC News: FBI Raids Bush Official's Office

FBI agents raided the downtown Washington, D.C. offices of Special Counsel Scott Bloch Tuesday, a spokesman for the official confirmed.

The Office of Special Counsel (OSC) was created to protect whistle-blower rights and investigate improper political activity by government employees. Bloch allegedly attempted to destroy certain computer files in his office following complaints by whistleblowers in his own office. President Bush appointed Bloch to head the office in 2003.

"We are cooperating with law enforcement," said OSC spokesman Jim Mitchell by e-mail. "We do not know what this is about. Meanwhile, we are continuing to perform the independent mission of this office."

Labels: Civil Rights, FBI, Investigations, whistleblowers

Gonzales was told of FBI violations - Washington Post - MSNBC.com

As he sought to renew the USA Patriot Act two years ago, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales assured lawmakers that the FBI had not abused its potent new terrorism-fighting powers. "There has not been one verified case of civil liberties abuse," Gonzales told senators on April 27, 2005.

Six days earlier, the FBI sent Gonzales a copy of a report that said its agents had obtained personal information that they were not entitled to have. It was one of at least half a dozen reports of legal or procedural violations that Gonzales received in the three months before he made his statement to the Senate intelligence committee, according to internal FBI documents released under the Freedom of Information Act.

The acts recounted in the FBI reports included unauthorized surveillance, an illegal property search and a case in which an Internet firm improperly turned over a compact disc with data that the FBI was not entitled to collect, the documents show. Gonzales was copied on each report that said administrative rules or laws protecting civil liberties and privacy had been violated.

Labels: AG Gonzales, Alberto Gonzales, FBI, Patriot Act, Surveilance