White House Heavily Redacts Clinton Papers

White House Heavily Redacts Clinton Papers

Friday, March 18, 2005


(03-18) 12:17 PST WASHINGTON (AP) --


The Bush administration blacked out almost all the information in hundreds of documents before releasing them to a conservative organization looking into President Clinton's controversial pardons four years ago on his last day in office.


The only items not deleted from the material are the names of the person who wrote the document and the person it was sent to.


The government accountability group Judicial Watch said Friday that it received the Justice Department documents following a court battle that featured a Republican administration fighting to keep secret documents generated by its Democratic predecessor.


The Bush White House has argued that releasing pardon-related documents would have a chilling effect on internal discussions leading up to presidential action on such requests.


Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton called it an instance of the Bush administration covering up a Clinton administration scandal.

more...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/03/18/national/w121752S68.DTL

More like Bush administration making sure that if/when they have to release documents, they can do the same shit.

that parts of FIOA act requests could only be redacted if it involved national security, not just scrutiny (ie: covering your own ass). This kind of thing is why the FIOA is in existance.

Nothing more, nothing less.

It's not enough he locked up his gubernatorial papers in Poppy's Presidential Library at Texas A&M before he even got to Washington.

He blocked Reagan's papers because he knew it meant locking up Poppy's 8-year VP record during Reagan's senility.

Locking up his predecessors' papers now means locking up his own later will be a slam-dunk.

Hell, he could be the first President to pre-emptively pardon himself.

even pretend there's criminal activity to cover up.

they have done ever since this imposter was appointed pResident

it is always about how to cover up their own crimes.

Why would the Bush administration want to do anything to help the Clinton administration? If anything he would want any controversial pardons to come to light.

My guess is, there is nothing substantially wrong with these pardons, so Dubya doesn't want to release anything that could exonerate Clinton.

Alternate theory is, it would also shed light on how other Presidents have done their pardons, possibly making people like Dubya's dear old dad or Reagan look bad.

130+ people in the Reagan /Bush administrations were convicted or indicted in Iran-Contra alone, they were pardoned by GHW Bush. The precedent they are setting will keep all of those people names out of the press. Names like Reagan and Bush and North and Rumsfeld. Just think if they tried Reagan now and convicted him of treason posthumously. I know they can't or won't, but that would sure smear the St. Ronnnie image.

like arrange a pardon for Bernard Ebbers (from Worldcom, recently convicted) or Kenneth Lay of Enron (if he's convicted).

Still, normally they have no problem with different Executive Branch power rules for Democrats and Republicans.

Mr. Ebbers is interesting, has donated to Debbie Stabenow, John Kerry, Charles Pickering, Orin Hatch...

Mrs. Ebbers is not nearly so conflicted, having given over $20,000 to the RNC.

came up with first.

that Bush 43 federalized all Presidential papers going back to RR.

Clinton, as with any president, was allowed to pardon whoever he wanted to.

Some of these people were "sensitive", such as Marc Rich. Once the word came down that he was a Mossad asset, the GOP shut up real quick.

I suspect that Clinton salted his pardon list with enough Republican reprobates to make sure that they didn't pursue him once he left office.

--p!

Very interesting.

a google of Marc Rich and ... take one's choice: BCCI, Iran-Contra, Poppy Bush should help lead the researcher to info ...

"Dick Cheney’s chief of staff (Lewis Libby) had been one of Rich’s lawyers"

"If the BCCI affair were fully investigated, it seems probable that the resulting scandal would bring down the Bush administration in that Bush, his father, Dick Cheney and Colin Powell are implicated in one aspect or another of the Iran-Contra affair, the Iraqgate scandal, or the machinations of Osama Bin Laden."

I don't know what this link is. It just googled up ... but it somewhat outlines the connections
http://www.spitfirelist.com/f277.html

We hear about the Senate investigations into BCCI ... but, nothing really was solved ... the culprits are still on the playing field.

that Bill Clinton pardoned Marc Rich for Poppy's benefit? Rich is one man who could bring down the whole Bush family and they won't even touch him. Rich is way too powerful, friends in high places all over the world. I would agree that Rich is a "National Security" risk for more than one reason, least of all Iran-Contra leftovers.

And for the record, I haven't made up my mind whether he's a good guy or a bad guy, not that my opinions mean much. But he's been witness to a lot of history over the last 20 years or so.

And then, this rivalry/friendship between Poppy Bush and Bill Clinton is intriguing. I personally like Bill, but he's likewise a friendly guy and has had the Devil on his dance card from time to time, too.

Politics can be so frustrating! I mean, they never tell us anything.

--p!

Don't want the public to see (or the historical record to note), after all, that the Clinton administration considered al Qaeda a top priority, which the Bushistas promptly began ignoring when they came into office. And how about Clinton's efforts at preventing groups like al Qaeda from obtaining financing by tightening and enforcing money laundering statutes? Which again the Bush junta began overturning once they entered office, much to the consternation of financial crimes and antiterror units in the federal government.

It's simple, by redacting everything, they can continue to spout the crap about their being something improper about them in the first place. In no other instance has the Bush Administration done anything to protect Clinton's legacy, why would they start now? Answer: They aren't. The release would have shown no impropriety and thus would kill a bash talking point.

My suspicion is that they will tell Clinton "we did you a favor, now you owe us one."...even if there wasn't anything "embarrassing" to redact....

Clinton has been a bit too chummy with Bush Senior lately.

himself, without redaction?

I would love to see that -- Clinton saying, 'There's nothing there to hide.'

And a lot of cocaine trafficing charges.

Do incoming Presidents ask the outgoing ones for a favor sometimes?

http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pardonchartlst.htm

"And I pardon all my neocon friends & anyone who intimidated people or caused them to not vote. Also I pardon all the folks who started a War without perhaps the proper papers."

and anyone else who got too much money illegally."

I am willing to put Clinton's papers up against the Bushes' any time you're ready. CAVEAT: please be sure you really want the Truth to come out before you ask for it: you might get your wish!

"Bring 'em on!" (sound familiar?)

:evilgrin:

avoid a Clinton-related scandal, so there must be another explanation. It drives me crazy to think of the Bush documents they've probably already destroyed.

Just so I'm on the record. :)

These are the same people who made up bogus stories about employees in the Clinton admin. trashing the WH before leaving, they initially claimed they received no terrorism warnings or briefs from Clinton's staff which was proven to be a LIE, and they blamed the economy on Clinton after passing two ridiculous tax cuts knowing they were already planning to go to war in Iraq (before 9/11 by the way). Then, of course, they claimed we HAD to go to war in Iraq because both the UN and the Clinton admin. were too easy on Saddam and therefore he acquired WMD which was obviously a LIE.

So now I'm suppose to believe this crap? This is insane...politically brilliant, but insane. This has Rove all over it.

by
Catherine Austin Fitts

http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/010705_economic_hitmen.shtml