[eDebate] White House keeps dossiers on more than 10, 000 'political enemies'

[trond at umich.edu]

Torture and secret prisons abroad, COINTELPRO II (or III or...) at home.

Note that when Rove says "if you f*ck with us, we'll f*ck you over" he means
opposition through things like telling uncomfortable truths and legal political
activities.  Doubt Abramoff made the list.

Nixon's real crimes were direted against the Panthers, AIM, SWP, SNCC, SDS,
etc., not to mention Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, but attacking the Dems in
Watergate is what brought him down (Dems didn't care until then).  Hope the
people with power this list attacks will realize there is no room to compromise
with these thugs and will take them out by any means necessary.  In self-defense
if nothing else.

Does the PATRIOT ACT keep us safe from Al Qaeda?  Well no, but it sure keeps
Sen. Boxer under wraps.

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_7625.shtml

White House keeps dossiers on more than 10,000 'political enemies'
By DOUG THOMPSON
Publisher, Capitol Hill Blue
Nov 8, 2005, 06:40

"Spurred by paranoia and aided by the USA Patriot Act, the Bush Administration
has compiled dossiers on more than 10,000 Americans it considers political
enemies and uses those files to wage war on those who disagree with its
policies.

The ?enemies list? dates back to Bush?s days as governor of Texas and can be
accessed by senior administration officials in an instant for use in campaigns
to discredit those who speak out against administration policies or acts of the
President.

The computerized files include intimate personal details on members of Congress;
high-ranking local, state and federal officials; prominent media figures and
ordinary citizens who may, at one time or another, have spoken out against the
President or Administration.

Capitol Hill Blue has spoken with a number of current and former administration
officials who acknowledge existence of the enemies list only under a guarantee
of confidentiality. Those who have seen the list say it is far more extensive
than Richard Nixon?s famous ?enemies list? of Watergate fame or Bill Clinton?s
dossiers on political enemies.

?How is that you think Karl (Rove) and Scooter (Libby) were able to disseminate
so much information on Joe Wilson and his wife,? says one White House aide.
?They didn?t have that information by accident. They had it because they have
files on those who might hurt them.?

White House insiders tell disturbing tales of invasion of privacy, abuse of
government power and use of expanded authority under the USA Patriot Act to dig
into the personal lives of anyone the administration deems an enemy of the
state.

Those on the list include former Ambassador Joseph Wilson and his wife, former
covert CIA operative Valarie Plame, along with filmmaker and administration
critic Michael Moore, Senators like California?s Barbara Boxer, media figures
like liberal writer Joe Conason and left-wing bloggers like Markos Moulitsas
Z?niga (the Daily Kos) and Ana Marie Cox (Wonkette).

?If you want to know who?s sleeping with whom, who drinks too much or has a
fondness for nose candy, this is the place to find it,? says another White
House aide. ?Karl (Rove) operates under the rule that if you fuck with us,
we?ll fuck you over.?

Rove started the list while Bush served as governor of Texas, compiling
information on various political enemies in the state and leaking damaging
information on opponents to friends in the press. The list grew during Bush?s
first run for President in 2000 but the names multiplied rapidly after the
terrorist attacks of 2001 and passage of the USA Patriot Act. Using the powers
under the act, Rove expanded the list to more than 10,000 names, utilizing the
FBI?s ?national security letters? to gather private and intimate details on
American citizens.

National security letters, which can be issued by an FBI supervisor without a
judge?s review or approval, allows the bureau to examine the telephone calls,
correspondence and financial lives of any Americans.

The FBI issues some 30,000 national security letters a year to employers, credit
bureaus, banks, travel agencies and other sources of information on American
citizens. The Patriot Act also forbids anyone receiving such a letter to reveal
they have passed on information to the federal government.

?Those letters helped us build files quickly on those we needed to know more
about,? says a former White House aide.

The database of political enemies of the Bush administration is not maintained
on White House computers and is located on a privately-owned computer offsite,
but can be accessed remotely by a select list of senior aides, including Rove.
The offsite location allowed the database to escape detection by special
prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald during his investigation of the Valerie Plame
leak. The database is funded by private donations from Bush political backers
and does not appear on the White House budget or Federal Election Commission
campaign reports.

Bush is not the first President to use the FBI to keep track of his enemies.
Richard M. Nixon used FBI files to try and discredit his opponents, including
Daniel Ellsberg, the Department of Defense employee who leaked the Pentagon
Papers to The New York Times. Bill Clinton used the FBI to compile dossiers on
critics like Conservative Congressman Bob Barr and legal gadfly Larry Klayman
of Judicial Watch.

But worried White House insiders say the intelligence gathered by the Bush
administration is far larger, more extensive and potentially more damaging than
the excesses of previous occupants of the White House. Even worse, it dovetails
into a pattern of spying on Americans that has become commonplace since Bush
took office.

?We?re talking about Big Brother at its most extreme,? says one White House
staffer. ?We know things about people that their spouses don?t know and, if it
becomes politically expedient, we will make sure the rest of the world knows.?

The White House press office did not respond to a request for an interview on
this story and did not return phone calls seeking comment."

Trond E. Jacobsen