*** Special to The BRAD BLOG
*** by Libby/CIA Leak Trial Correspondent Margie Burns
We do not have a political system of government by one man. By virtue of that fact, by definition the man at the top — the president — is responsible for what his people do. When former ambassador Joseph Wilson belatedly published demurrals about purported Iraq efforts to obtain uranium, in July 2003, CIA skepticism about the uranium story also gradually became known to the wider public. In simplest terms, what followed was that the White House including Cheney’s office launched a campaign not only against Wilson personally but also against offices within the CIA that still functioned in intelligence gathering and analysis.
In this endeavor, the Bush-Cheney faction relied heavily on the media, and the Libby trial demonstrates how the administration took a campaign to, and through, major media figures to attribute purported nepotism to a CIA office. But just as a reminder, “Jeff Gannon” — actually James Guckert — demonstrates that small fish also had their uses; it wasn’t only the Tim Russerts of the world who served.
The excerpts below from White House Press Briefiings and Gaggles during Scott McClellan’s tenure represent only a fraction of the faux-journalist Gannon/Guckert’s White House-friendly lines and, undoubtedly, helpful Administration-approved attacks on Wilson…
[October 1, 2003]
Q Thank you.
Q (Inaudible) — answer the question.
MR. MCCLELLAN: You have a hypothetical? (Laughter.) I asked for a hypothetical.
Q (Off mike.) You know, I’m no Bob Novak, but my feelings are really hurt that nobody leaked anything to me. (Laughter.)
Has the White House asked George Tenet or anyone else at the CIA why they would send a partisan like Ambassador Wilson on this mission? And because he is so partisan —
MR. MCCLELLAN: Has who asked? Has who asked anybody?
Q Has the White House asked George Tenet or anyone at the CIA why they would send a partisan like Ambassador Wilson on this mission? He’s proven himself to be partisan, and does that cast doubt on the report that he filed in this matter?
MR. MCCLELLAN: Yeah, I think we’ve kind of been through this issue already. I don’t know of any such conversations. Certainly — you know, I don’t think it’s my position to get into speculating about someone’s motives. I think that is a role for you in the media to determine how to follow, and how to — and how to present — but I —
Q Is — is the White House the least bit curious about how they — how the process was that Ambassador Wilson was chosen to go on this very important mission?
Q Scott, in addition to the controversy surrounding Ambassador Wilson’s wife we’ve seen open, public dissension in the State Department, the EPA inspector general has made claims that the White House doctored air quality reports, and Senator Clinton is using this to hold up the nomination of Governor Leavitt for the EPA post. Still others leave the administration, write an op ed criticizing the administration, and then join a Democratic presidential nominee’s campaign.
My question is, is the president, or anyone else in this administration, concerned that the Clinton holdovers are undermining the administration?
MR. MCCLELLAN: In a certain department?
Q Yeah, in these various departments.
MR. MCCLELLAN: I think that the president has assembled a team that is working together to implement his priorities. We have a strong team that is in place that is trying to implement what the president’s focus is.
Q But time and time again, you’ll see one holdover from various departments criticizing the administration and ““
Q Okay. Let’s go back to the CIA. Is the White House looking for an explanation from that agency about why Joe Wilson was sent and who sent him and the process under which —
MR. MCCLELLAN: I think that explanation was provided by the director of Central Intelligence in a statement on July 11th.
Q And what was that?
MR. MCCLELLAN: He spelled it out in his statement. He talked about — there — he said that the counterproliferation arm of the CIA were the ones who decided to send him on that mission.
Q Does that include the ambassador’s wife?
MR. MCCLELLAN: I’m sorry?
Q Does that include the ambassador’s wife?
MR. MCCLELLAN: I don’t know. You’d have to ask CIA. I don’t know that. I don’t know the answer to that question.
Q I know that you said you hadn’t seen the Rockefeller memo that Jim referred to, but I have, and it clearly outlines a Democrat plan to exploit the information gathered by the committee to undermine the president’s reelection chances. Under those circumstances, would the White House consider halting the transfer of documents to the Senate Intelligence Committee until a Senate ethics panel investigates the matter?
MR. MCCLELLAN: We have been and will continue to work cooperatively with the Senate Intelligence Committee. That is our position. We want to assist them and help — we want to be helpful in their efforts to review the intelligence relating to Iraq. That’s exactly what we plan to continue doing. Again, I just have not seen that specific memo. I’ve seen the news reports. But, you know, we would hope that people are not trying to politicize an issue of such importance.
Q Doesn’t the implication of the memo cast a whole new light on the Niger controversy and all of the things that have ensued after the remarks of Joe Wilson?
Q Thank you.
Q Forgive me if my colleagues — forgive me if my colleagues have already touched on this subject, but last Friday the Senate Intelligence —
MR. MCCLELLAN: Three if we don’t shout all over each other and we have a civil discourse.
Q I have a question.
MR. MCCLELLAN: I’m coming to you, Helen.
Q Last Friday the Senate Intelligence Committee released a report that shows that Ambassador Joe Wilson lied when he said his wife didn’t put him up for the mission to Niger. The British inquiry into their own prewar intelligence yesterday concluded that the president’s 16 words were, quote, “well founded,” unquote. Doesn’t Joe Wilson owe the president and America an apology for his deception and his own intelligence failure?
MR. MCCLELLAN: Well, one, let me point out that I think those reports speak for themselves on that issue. And I think if you have questions about that, you can direct that to Mr. Wilson.
Q Well, we spent so many weeks here dissecting the 16 words that are now absolutely true. Don’t you think ““
I still haven’t figured out whose bum is the sorest at the White House from all that ‘penetration analyses’ that was going on back then
Floridiot “bums” in the White House . . .
John Conyers and Louise Slaughter obtained copies of Gannon/Guckert’s sign in and outs from the SS. Those dates/ times should be examined and compared with dates for actual press conference and better yet, with dates the WHIG met. While we’re at it, maybe even compare them with Monica’s sign ins and outs, too.
Don’t forget about those orgies Scalia was talking about. Those wouldn’t have been in the oval office would they? Scalia didn’t happen to be there on nights Gannon was checked in, was he?
No wonder Cheney wanted an office INSIDE the White House.
Seems suspicious that these quotes by Gannon at the press briefings are trying to steer the conversation in the exact direction Cheney wanted it to go at that time. That is – to distance himself from Wilson’s involvement in the yellow cake investigation.
Interesting!
Obviously enough people still believe this even today. Why else would the criminals still be in power?
Truth is what the neocons tell us truth is. I get so tired of feeling as though there is no effective remedy to cure this scourge. After all of the deceit, THEY ARE STILL IN POWER AND READY TO DESTROY THE MIDDLE EAST!
Maybe this giant lie that wraps itself around the White House –like kudzu in a Georgian woods– will strangle the life out of the neocon agenda. If the truth isn’t enough to bring them down, maybe their own lies will choke them off from the sun.
Everytime I watch one of them repeating their lies, I am going to imagine vines coming from their mouths and wrapping around their throats until the strands destroy the hosts.
Come on “mainstream media”, Margie’s giving you another chance to discover a salacious sex scandal in the white house.
Susan Page must be salivating!
Anybody know where “Jeff Gannon/Guckert” is these days? I wonder if he’s alive…
Surely he’s not still in the White House…
When the late, great Andy Stephenson was here in Nashville for the National Election Reform Conference in April of ’05, he was saying that Jeff Gannon was actually Johnny Gorsh (sp?), the 10 year old boy that disappeared in the early ’80s in the midwest and became the first milk-carton missing child.
Andy did a TV show (MSNBC, I think) from here in Nashville along with Johnny Gorsch’s mom and they stated that “Gannon” was Johnny. The whole story was monstrously foul, involving a kidnapped little Johnny being part of a child sex slave ring based in Washington. On the show, “Gannon” would not deny that Gorsh’s mom was his mom; he would only use slippery languaged when asked point blank, “Is that your mom?”
He said something like, “I feel very sorry for the pain this lady feels. She wants to see her son…”
A man who said he was Gorsh visited his mom in ’97 for a mere few minutes. Ms. Gorsh was not sure that the man was her son, but she thought he might be. He told a tale of kidnapping, etc; and was worried that someone was watching and would kill him if they knew he was visiting his mom and talking. He told her he loved her and not to worry; and he might not see her again.
During the time White house fake journalist “Gannon” was tossing puffy softballs to the administration officials so that they could knock ’em over the fence, Gannon/Guckert’s web site was called “Hotmilitarystud.com” and featured naked photos of him… Which was how Gorsh’s mom recognized him, from a birthmark…
All a nasty tale; but indicative of the kind of people that the Repubs used to do their business…
Yeccchh, I feel slimed just thinking about such stuff; but feel that people need to be continually reminded about the horrible things that have happened under this administration. I hope some of the bad guys will see justice for their crimes one day…
shw
A male prostitute whoring his penis on the internet for all to see visits the WH several hundred times, is expose to high security materials, sits in the WH press corps — that says it all folks.
We’re talking bottom of the ditch here – perhaps the lowest point in American history. A goddamn whore sticking his prostituting ass right in our face on prime time.
And not a damn thing was done about it. We are truly in a despicable state – absolutely and totally disgusting.
I presume Patrick Fitzgerald’s investigative team would have interviewed Jeff Gannon to find out who in the White House was giving Gannon his “talking points.”
I know this doesn’t have anything to do necessarily with Libby and the charges against him, but Gannon definitely was pushing OVP lies and spin at those press conferences.
In fact, I vaguely remember from several years ago as more information came out about the OVP’s treasonous outing of a covert CIA agent, and coinciding with Gannon’s leading questions, that someone asked whether Gannon had been called before the Fitzgerald grand jury to testify. However, I can’t remember if he had.
Shannon this is the web site “Jeff” is currently involved with to keep himself busy. He has I assume the desire to start/run a conservative web site that generates a traffic count comparable to Drudge Report.
http://www.jeffgannon.com/
……..
Recent Entries, (Headlines of Articles)
Congress To Get Terrorist Surveillance Details
Bush 41 Cites Old Media Hostility
Kerry & Fonda – Betraying America Again
Russett Pleads Ignorance To Wilson-Plame Link
Farewell, Deborah Orin-Eilbeck
America, Iraq Kicking Insurgent A**
Anti-War Scum Desecrates Capitol Building
Harry Reid’s Personal Culture of Corruption
Happy Anniversary To Me!
Plame Arranged Wilson Trip To Niger
………
While Jeff Gannon/Guckert was attending the White House Press Conferences under the status of “guest” for Talon News Service out of Texas he was also involved in extra curricular activities. Some say these side jobs were of only a source of income of a personal nature. Others say he sexually prostituted himself at the White House to someone in the Bush administration too.
A record of Mr. Guckert/Gannon’s escort/income/prostitution web site can be reviewed here,… (you might want to wear your rubber gloves
before activating this link.)
http://americablog.blogspot.com...lled-jeff.html
#8
I could not agree with you more, Louis.
A friend just sent me this piece from The Progressive, by Howard Zinn, “Impeachment by the People”
http://www.progressive.org/node/4473
Some excerpts:
“…The Declaration of Independence, revered as a document but ignored as a guide to action, needs to be read from pulpits and podiums, on street corners and community radio stations throughout the nation. Its words, forgotten for over two centuries, need to become a call to action for the first time since it was read aloud to crowds in the early excited days of the American Revolution:
“Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it and institute new government.”
“…True, no government in the history of the nation has been faithful to those ends…
…Still, there seems to be a special viciousness that accompanies the current assault on human rights, in this country and in the world. We have had repressive governments before, but none has legislated the end of habeas corpus, nor openly supported torture, nor declared the possibility of war without end. No government has so casually ignored the will of the people, affirmed the right of the President to ignore the Constitution, even to set aside laws passed by Congress…”
Zinn goes on to discuss the burgeoning impeachment movement…
“…. Indeed, an actual “indictment” has been drawn up by a former federal prosecutor, Elizabeth de la Vega, in a new book called United States v. George W. Bush et al, making a case, in devastating detail, to a fictional grand jury.
“There is a logical next step in this development of an impeachment movement: the convening of “people’s impeachment hearings” all over the country. This is especially important given the timidity of the Democratic Party.
“Such hearings would bypass Congress, which is not representing the will of the people, and would constitute an inspiring example of grassroots democracy.
“These hearings would be the contemporary equivalents of the unofficial gatherings that marked the resistance to the British Crown in the years leading up to the American Revolution…
“…Impeachment hearings all over the country…could push reluctant members of Congress…to do what the Constitution provides for and what the present circumstances demand: the impeachment and removal from office of George Bush and Dick Cheney…”
Am I dreaming here? Is Zinn dreaming? I don’t know about you all, but I’m REALLY tired of endless pointless talk from Washington. BLOOD is being spilled every day every day every day. And they talk and talk and talk and talk and talk. They will talk for the next two years. And then the next four years after the next rigged election. And the four years after that.
I’ll go. I’ll fucking go. Isn’t it PAST TIME???
Wilson Talks about Niger Mission; Blasts Bush Foreign Policy
By Jeff Gannon
Talon News
October 28, 2003
Link,
http://mensnewsdaily.com/archiv...803-wilson.htm
…..
…Guckert said that contrary to many press reports, he was never subpoenaed by the special prosecutor and has never testified before a grand jury in the case. But he said he was interviewed by two FBI agents in his home for about 90 minutes last year.
Link,
http://justoneminute.typepad.co...hy_did_th.html
Joan:
We are definitely at a crossroads. If the Republicans keep acting like patriarchal Gods, something is going to explode! It’s going to get mighty ugly!
Yep, when even the brain dead rubber stamp leader can see the true picture of a very perverted presidency, and now neoConishly admit it, there is some blue sky.
However, now instead of following up on a story that a major deceit of the american people has taken place, they act as if everything is normal.
Un-freaking-believable … but I believe it.
OldTurk: Isn’t it always the case, a “kinky homo” starts a “conservative” website? Does anyone get that that’s the way it is? Ted Haggard, Mark Foley, etc…we can go on and on and on and on…and the idiot real conservatives don’t tar and feather these guys, they QUOTE them!!! And make “excuses” for them!!!
Damn, sounds like there’s little to no chance of JimmyJeff ever being put on the stand.
I was sooo looking forward to mainstream newspapers printing something about the White House Hooker, just so I could send the link to my evangelical pro-Bush relatives who are STILL hung up on Clinton’s blowjob.
Maybe better luck when Fitz uses evidence uncovered in this trial to bring charges against Rove?
Violence is the child of war, untruth is its mother:
–Alexander Solzhenitsyn
And they are not discriminatory, violence by gays, lies by gays, “it is all good”.
Yeah, KBE – I thought I read somewhere that the old guckster used to boast that he could “make it stand up in court” – I can see why he’d get a pass on testifying, frankly!
Jeff Gannon: “I’m inviting all you conservatives, to support new conservative websites like mine. We conservatives have to stick together, against liberals. We stand for family values. Please join me at ‘www.BallMouthPlug.com’, and support the party of family values, morality, and balanced budgets…”
“…and support our war profiteers…OOPS! I mean ‘our troops'”……….
#13
I dunno, Larry. I thought we were at a crossroads when the Abu Ghraib scandal broke. And the Downing Street Minutes, and warrantless wiretaps, after he’d JUST SAID how we need a WARRANT for wiretaps, you silly people! And oh yeah, the “lost” 9 billion dollars. And the outing of Valerie Plame. TREASON, for God’s sake! And barely a whisper of consequence for any of it.
I almost feel like it’s bad luck to say it but it is damn hard to imagine our government being more Kafkaesque than it already is.
It SICKENS me to think of the young men & young women over there in the sand & the mud in the middle of this horror, for these SICK FREAKS that are running the country.
Jesus, if any of them actually believe in God the way they say they do, I would think they would be absolutely terrified for their shriveled little souls.
A fake , a fraud, and a fascist fool – with softball questions for bu$$hco.
2/2005
The conservative reporter who asked President Bush a loaded question at a news conference last month resigned yesterday after liberal bloggers uncovered his real name and raised questions about his background.
Jeff Gannon, who had been writing for the Web sites Talon News and GOPUSA, is actually James Dale Guckert, 47, and has been linked to online domain addresses with sexually provocative names.
He has been under scrutiny since asking Bush how he could work with Senate Democratic leaders “who seem to have divorced themselves from reality.”
Link, click here.
Jeff Gannon is Johnny Gosch, but he’s “Divorced from Reality” and doesn’t want to accept the truth. It’s as simple as 123
I’m pregnant…
?????????
To Jeff Gannon:
Say ‘Ahhh’ rent boy:
http://www.google.com/search?hl...h%22+horseshoe
“giddy up giddy up 409”
385-007
Jeff Gannon will be called by the court to answer for his actions, both as a prostitute for hire, and as someone who unlawfully provided aid and comfort to George W. Bush. He better hope he has some pretty powerful representation. The gavel wields no power for him because “pee” is his middle name.
http://www.quitsearching.com/images/mysins.jpg
Jeffy Jeffy, you’re the girl for me.
You don’t know me but you make me so snappy
I tried to call you before but I lost my nerve.
I tried my imagination, yes you are disturbed.
Jeffy, I got your number,
I need to make you whine.
Jeffy, don’t change your number,
8-6-7-5-3-0-9 (8-6-7-5-3-0-9)
8-6-7-5-3-0-9 (8-6-7-5-3-0-9)
I got it, I don’t got it!
I got your number on the stall!
I got it, I got it!
For a gay (and I don’t mean happy) time, for a gay time call….
****Jeffy Gannon******