Miers and the Aug.6, 01 PDB...

[dqueue]

Just saw <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/10/4/13945/3197">this DKos diary</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--> titled <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>Is Miers the CIA briefer who read Bush the 8/6/01 PDB?</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> In the comments, someone posts <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9577329">this MSNBC story</a><!--EZCODE LINK END-->. Notice the caption for the photo, "Harriet Miers, at the time staff secretary, is seen on Aug. 6, 2001, briefing President Bush at his ranch in Crawford, Texas."<br><br>Is this appointment cronyism of the worst sort? <p></p><i></i>

[maggrwaggr]

Bush doesn't even want to leave the room to research who should be the next SCOTUS judge.<br><br>He just looks across the table and says "Hey. You wanna take care of this for me?" <br><br>Lazy fuck. He still thinks everybody worships him and will do whatever he wants. <br><br> <p></p><i></i>

[thrulookingglass]

There was an interesting article in the Village Voice regarding Miers past as Texas lottery czar...<br><snip><br>by James Ridgeway, with Isabel Huacuja<br>October 4th, 2005 3:12 PM <br>WASHINGTON, D.C.—Sooner or later, senators pondering Harriet Miers's qualifications to be a Supreme Court judge will want to inquire into the byzantine dealings of the Texas Lottery Commission in the late 1990s, when she was its chair. <br>Miers has been portrayed as a tough administrator who cleaned up a scandal-plagued state board, as in this report from the Houston Chronicle: <br><br>"Harriet Miers proved to be a tough, no-nonsense administrator during her five years heading the Texas Lottery Commission, firing two executive directors to stamp out scandal but leaving unexpectedly amid lagging sales and player interest." <br><br>The paper goes on to note that "one of those firings stirred up questions about whether political influence helped George W. Bush avoid active service in Vietnam." <br>-article follows @<br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://villagevoice.com/news/0540,webmondo2,68584,6.html">villagevoice.com/news/054...584,6.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br> <p></p><i></i>

[antiaristo]

Looks like George Tenet's book deal on top of Miers presence on 6 August has had the desired effect.<br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr><!--EZCODE FONT START--><span style="font-size:small;">Goss Won't Seek Review for Tenet, Others</span><!--EZCODE FONT END--> <br><br>Thursday October 6, 2005 1:01 PM<br><br><br>By KATHERINE SHRADER <br><br>Associated Press Writer <br><br>WASHINGTON (AP) - Contrary to recommendations from his own internal watchdog, CIA Director Porter Goss will not order disciplinary reviews for a former director, George Tenet, and other officials criticized for their performance before the Sept. 11 attacks. <br><br>Goss said in a statement Wednesday that the report from the CIA's inspector general, John Helgerson, did not suggest ``that any one person or group of people could have prevented 9/11.'' <br><br>``After great consideration of this report and its conclusions, I will not convene an accountability board to judge the performances of any individual CIA officers,'' Goss said. <br><br>Half of those named in the report have retired from the CIA. ``Those who are still with us are amongst the finest we have,'' Goss said. <br><br>Lawmakers investigating the attacks asked the inspector generals of the CIA and other agencies to review whether any officials should be held personally accountable for failures before the suicide hijackings of Sept. 11, 2001. <br><br>After a two-year review, Helgerson's report recommended that Goss convene formal panels to investigate specific actions by Tenet and other current and former officials. The panels, known as accountability review boards, could suggest disciplines. <br><br>In his previous job as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Goss helped lead the congressional inquiry into the attacks and was among those who requested Helgerson's investigation. <br><br>The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Pat Roberts, said he has asked Goss and National Intelligence Director John Negroponte to appear before his committee to discuss the decision on the review boards. <br><br>In a statement, Roberts, R-Kan., said he was ``concerned to learn of the director's decision to forgo this step in the process.'' <br><br>Some intelligence veterans say that disciplinary reviews would drain energy from the focus on current threats and create significant ill will for Goss as he tries to lead a work force battered by a series of reports about Sept. 11 and the botched prewar intelligence on Iraq. <br><br>Current and former officials have also noted there are few options available to punish anyone who has left the CIA, other than letters of reprimand or a ban on future contracts with the agency. <br><br>Along with Tenet, others singled out for some of the harshest criticism include the former clandestine service chief, Jim Pavitt, and the former counterterrorism center head, Cofer Black, according to individuals familiar with the report. They who spoke only on condition of anonymity because the report it remains classified. <br><br>Through an associate, Tenet declined comment. Efforts to reach Black were unsuccessful. <br><br>Pavitt said the agency needs to keep focusing on its mission. ``This removes a burden and will allow these extraordinary people to do the extraordinary work that is critical to national defense,'' he said. <br><br>In a series of Sept. 11 reviews, the CIA has been faulted for being risk averse, failing to share crucial information with other agencies and not executing a thorough plan to go after al-Qaida. <br><br>Yet the Sept. 11 commission also said no agency did more to attack the terrorist group than did the CIA. <br><br>Goss indicated he will make little - if any - of Helgerson's report public, saying now is not the time to reveal how intelligence is collected and analyzed. <br><br>But California Rep. Jane Harman, the House Intelligence Committee's top Democrat, said ``Goss must persuade the public that he has dealt fairly with his agency's past mistakes'' <br><br>The families of some Sept. 11 victims want to see the report - and punishments. <br><br>``We need transparency, and we certainly need accountability,'' said Kristen Breitweiser, one of the most outspoken advocates among Sept. 11 families. <br><br>In his public statement, Goss said Helgerson's report ``unveiled no mysteries.'' He said that all 20 of the systemic problems that the report identified are being addressed by internal reforms or changes mandated by President Bush. <br><br>Before the attacks, Goss said, resources were inadequate and hiring was at historic low. Some officers who excelled in certain areas were asked to take tough assignments. ``Unfortunately, time and resources were not on their side,'' Goss said. <br><br>In a statement, Negroponte supported Goss's decision against forming the disciplinary boards.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--> <br><br> <p></p><i></i>

[Peachtree Pam]

October 6, 2005—So you thought that Harriet Miers, George W. Bush's new Supreme Court pick has no paper trail. You were wrong. One of Miers only qualifications for the high court—as she hasn't an ounce of judicial experience—is that she was the head of Locke, Liddell & Sapp; a sleazy corporate law firm based in Dallas, Texas.<br><br>According to the InterNet Bankruptcy Library (IBL), Locke Liddell & Sapp paid $22 million in a suit alleging it aided a client in defrauding investors. The Dallas-based firm agreed in April of 2000 to settle a suit stemming from its representation of Russell Erxleben, a former University of Texas football star whose foreign currency trading company, Austin Forex International, was a pyramid get-rich Ponzi scheme.<br><br>Erxleben later pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy and securities-fraud charges. "It's a very simple legal proposition: a lawyer can't help people steal money," George, of George & Donaldson told reporters at the time. George's firm had represented investors who lost close to $34 million in Erxleben's company. <br><br>All this was going on while Harriet Miers was co-managing partner of the law firm at the time. Miers denied that settling the suit indicated that they her firm was somehow complicit in Erxleben's criminal activities. "Obviously, we evaluated that this was the right time to settle and to resolve this matter and that it was in the best interest of the firm to do so," Miers said.<br><br>Miers' scandal laden past goes deeper than her ties to corporate crooks in Texas. According to Newsweek, she's also played a role in maintaining Bush's National Guard credibility. As Michael Isikoff wrote in July of 2000:<br><br>"The Bushies' concern began while he was running for a second term as governor. A hard-nosed Dallas lawyer named Harriet Miers was retained to investigate the issue; state records show Miers was paid $19,000 by the Bush gubernatorial campaign. She and other aides quickly identified a problem—rumors that Bush had help from his father in getting into the National Guard back in 1968. Ben Barnes, a prominent Texas Democrat and a former speaker of the House in the state legislature, told friends he used his influence to get George W a guard slot after receiving a request from Houston oilman Sid Adger. Barnes said Adger told him he was calling on behalf of the elder George Bush, then a Texas congressman. Both Bushes deny seeking any help from Barnes or Adger, who has since passed away. Concerned that Barnes might go public with his allegations, the Bush campaign sent Don Evans, a friend of W's, to hear Barnes's story. Barnes acknowledged that he hadn't actually spoken directly to Bush Sr. and had no documents to back up his story. As the Bush campaign saw it, that [sic] let both Bushes off the hook. And the National Guard question seemed under control."<br><br>It gets better, if not dirtier. At roughly the same time Miers was helping Bush dodge National Guard questions; Bush had named her chairman of the Texas Lottery Commission, which had been scandal-plagued for years. The chief issue before Miers and the commission was whether to retain lottery operator Gtech, which had been implicated in a huge Texas bribery scandal.<br><br>According to the Philadelphia Daily News, Gtech's main lobbyist in Texas in the mid-1990s was none other than Benjamin Barnes, who just happened to have the low-down on how Bush got into the National Guard to avoid going over to Vietnam.<br><br>Gtech fired Barnes in 1997. A short time after Barnes was fired, Gtech had its lottery contract renewed even though two companies had bid-lower than Gtech had.<br><br>Former Texas lottery director Lawrence Littwin filed suit, as he thought the whole charade smelled of scandal. Littwin's lawyers suggested in court filings that Gtech was allowed to keep the lottery contract, which Littwin wanted to open up to competitive bidding, in return for Benjamin Barnes's silence about Bush's entry into the National Guard.<br><br>Barnes and his lawyers denounced Littwin's theory as "favor-repaid" theory in court pleadings as "preposterous . . . fantastic [and] fanciful." According to the Philadelphia Daily News, Littwin was "fired after ordering a review of the campaign finance reports of various Texas politicians for any links to Gtech or other lottery contractors. But Littwin wasn't hired, or fired, until months after Barnes had severed his relationship with Gtech."<br><br>Littwin later settled with Gtech for a hefty $300,000.<br><br>And here we have Republicans more upset about Bush's Supreme Court choice than Democrats. Well, they have a reason to be skeptical, if not upset. As William Kristol recently noted that Bush's pick "will unavoidably be judged as reflecting a combination of cronyism and capitulation on the part of the president." <br><br>For once the old windbag may be right.<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/100605Frank/100605frank.html">www.onlinejournal.com/Spe...frank.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br> <p></p><i></i>