--- Begin Message ---
-Caveat Lector-
>From: Joseph Wanzala <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Subject: Re: [NewPacifica] Corn on NPR
>Date: Sun, 9 Jun 2002 22:47:05 -0700 (PDT)
>
>
>Below this rather telling article from
>http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=184912
>is this comment about Corn that is interesting.
>
>
>David Corn on NPR (english)
>former Nation admirer 8:13pm Fri Jun 7 '02
> comment#184918
>
>I heard David Corn, who writes about Capital Hill for the Nation, on NPR
>today discussing the new plan for a Department of Homeland Security. He was
>with David Brooks of the Weekly Standard, a neoconservative (warmonger)
>magazine published and edited by William Kristol.
>
>I was shocked by the similarity of their analyses. Corn said nothing, not
>even lip service, about the civil liberties implications of this new
>agency. I can't remember exactly what he said, but he basically viewed it
>in terms of partisan politics, saying something to the effect that Bush's
>proposal would take the wind out of the sails of Democratic critics of
>Bush's actions before 9/11. Again, I can't remember what David Brooks said,
>but it was basically this same Washington insider type of analysis.
>
>David Corn seemed not at all concerned that this Ministry of Homeland
>Security is obviously timed to divert attention away from the congressional
>investigation. Perhaps this isn't surprising given that Corn has already
>prejudged the results of that investigation.
>
>David Corn and the Nation have lost any credibility they had with me.
>
>
>--------------------------------------
>
>Plan Was Formed in Utmost Secrecy
>re-post 7:26pm Fri Jun 7 '02
> article#184912
>
>Final Proposal Came From 4 Top Bush Aides; Most Others Out of Loop
>
>By Dana Milbank
>Washington Post Staff Writer
>Friday, June 7, 2002; Page A01
>
>The proposal was designed largely by just four of President Bush's most
>trusted senior aides, meeting for 10 days in a bunker-style, secure
>conference room beneath the White House.
>
>Those sessions, in late April and early May, were the beginning of a
>seven-week deliberative process secret even by the standards of a Bush
>administration known for its discipline and control. By the time of
>yesterday morning's meeting of Bush's 20 most senior aides, the majority
>did not know the details of the plan to create a new cabinet-level
>Department of Homeland Security.
>
>Even Cabinet secretaries were kept in the dark about the plan until
>informed Wednesday -- and senior officials in the departments affected by
>the realignment learned about it from news reports yesterday morning.
>
>Congressional leaders, too, were unaware. Hundreds of lawmakers attending
>the White House barbecue Wednesday night had no idea what was unfolding.
>The only two believed to have been briefed, House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert
>(R-Ill.) and Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), were told during
>the picnic. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.), author of legislation much
>like the White House's proposal, got a call from Homeland Security Director
>Tom Ridge Wednesday night asking about details of his bill -- but Ridge
>didn't give a hint of what was coming in the morning.
>
>White House officials say it was a coincidence that Bush's announcement of
>a new cabinet-level Homeland Security Department came on the anniversary of
>D-Day. But it's no accident that the decision and announcement resembled a
>military operation in its precision and stealth as they assembled a
>proposal for what Bush called the most significant reordering of the
>federal government since 1947.
>
>White House officials figured that the element of surprise would give their
>proposal a better chance of success. Early leaks, they said, would have
>allowed opponents, particularly committee chairmen who stand to lose
>authority under the proposal, to gain the initiative. "This will not be
>easy for Congress, but it will be easier with a big head of steam,"White
>House press secretary Ari Fleischer said.
>
>Veterans of the Clinton administration expressed grudging admiration. Could
>this have been kept secret in the Clinton White House? "Quite honestly?
>Unlikely," said David Leavy, spokesman for the National Security Council
>under Clinton. "They have a very small loop in terms of top-line
>information, and that allows them to control news flow in a way you have to
>admire."
>
>The potential danger with the Bush administration's approach is that by
>restricting the number of people involved, it may not obtain the necessary
>input. Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee issued a statement
>saying this resulted in "a haphazard plan." Bush aides say they got plenty
>of input, from Congress and Cabinet agencies -- before officials sat down
>April 23 to draft a plan.
>
>On that day, White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr., Ridge, White
>House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales and Office of Management and Budget
>Director Mitchell E. Daniels Jr. convened their working group to create the
>cabinet-level entity. They relied on a few other top aides, including Card
>deputies Joseph Hagin and Joshua Bolten.
>
>The meetings continued daily for about 10 days as they refined the
>proposal's specifics. Card or Ridge kept Bush informed of progress. On May
>3, Card described the tentative plan to Bush. To flesh out the details, the
>group then expanded slightly to include a few officials from Ridge's office
>and lawyers from Gonzales's office -- though most of those officials knew
>of only their pieces of the proposal. Hagin served as "the enforcer" during
>this time. He kept the proceedings limited to "those who truly needed to be
>involved," as an aide put it, and reminded them, repeatedly, "This is the
>president's news to make."
>
>Even some of the most senior Bush aides, including counselor Karen P.
>Hughes, political strategist Karl Rove, Fleischer and speechwriter Michael
>Gerson, didn't join the process until last week, officials said. As of
>Wednesday, officials said, fewer than 20 aides had knowledge of the plan.
>
>Bush, briefed on it on his way to Europe aboard Air Force One on May 23,
>gave his final sign-off last Friday, May 31. At that point, a "roll-out"
>team -- communications director Dan Bartlett, his deputy, Jim Wilkinson,
>Fleischer, Cheney aide Mary Matalin; and Ridge spokesmen Susan Neely and
>Gordon Johndroe -- drafted a minute-by-minute communications plan for their
>D-Day release, and they assembled a 24-page booklet detailing the plan.
>
>The rollout began Wednesday, with one-on-one meetings with most of the
>Cabinet members who would lose jurisdiction to the new agency; they had
>input before April 23 but not during the plan's formulation. Even Joe M.
>Allbaugh, whose Federal Emergency Management Agency would be entirely taken
>over by the new office, was not briefed until Wednesday, officials said.
>Allbaugh is a longtime Bush aide and was manager of his presidential
>campaign.
>
>Wilkinson said it was a triumph of the White House's no-leak strategy. "The
>president makes the news and calls the plays -- we just run the plays he
>calls," he said.
>
>Wednesday night, the proposal booklet was sent to the printers in the
>basement of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building to be printed
>overnight, guaranteeing that the word would stay in the White House. To
>keep reporters off the trail, the White House issued a press release
>yesterday announcing "NO PUBLIC EVENTS" on Bush's schedule for today and
>scheduled a 12:15 p.m. briefing by the press secretary that would not, in
>fact, be held.
>
>The operation began in earnest Thursday morning at the 7:30 senior staff
>meeting. The vice president and other senior officials began to brief key
>lawmakers, and at 10 a.m., he walked into the briefing room to give the
>announcement. After the briefing, the White House sent out a page of
>talking points, first to allies on Capitol Hill and then to governors and
>supporters around the country, thousands in all. Bush aides scheduled
>briefings throughout the day and fanned out to speak on talk radio and
>cable news shows and online chats, and to regional editorial boards.
>
>Yet, even after the announcement, administration officials were reluctant
>to say what they knew about the proposal and when. FBI Director Robert S.
>Mueller III, asked at a hearing if he was consulted, replied: "I believe
>that I should not be forthcoming."
>
>
>© 2002 The Washington Post Company
>
>www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A... add your own comments
>
>
>
>
>
>
>I'm calling my senator tomorrow (english)
>m. 7:56pm Fri Jun 7 '02
> comment#184915
>
>And let him know that the whole system is in jeopardy.
>
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