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From: Democracy Now!
Re: Rundown 10-01-03
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8:00-8:01 Billboard:
Conflict of Interest? White House Rejects Call for Independent
Counsel On CIA Leak Despite Longtime Rove-Ashcroft Ties
The War on the Bill of Rights and the Gathering Resistance:
A Conversation with Nat Hentoff
8:01-8:06 Headlines
8:06-8:07 One Minute Music Break
8:07-8:40 Conflict of Interest? White House Rejects
Call for Independent Counsel On CIA Leak Despite Longtime
Rove-Ashcroft Ties
INTRO: President Bush’s closest aide Karl Rove was
a consultant for John Ashcroft since 1985 in his gubernatorial
and senatorial bids and pushed Bush to nominate Ashcroft as
Attorney General. Rove has been accused of blowing the cover
of a CIA operative to retaliate against her whistleblower
husband. We speak to the author of Bush’s Brain: How
Karl Rove Made George W. Bush President.
The Justice Department announced yesterday that it has begun
a full criminal investigation into allegations that Bush administration
officials leaked the name of a CIA operative to the media.
The operative's identity was published in July, a week after
her husband, former acting ambassador to Iraq Joseph C. Wilson
IV, publicly challenged President Bush's claim that Iraq had
tried to buy uranium from Niger for possible use in nuclear
weapons.
But the White House has rejected calls for an independent
counsel even though Bush’s closest aide Karl Rove, who
has been accused of having a role in the leak, once served
as a consultant to Attorney General John Ashcroft.
Rove had done campaign work for Ashcroft since 1985 in both
his gubernatorial and senatorial bids in Missouri and lobbied
hard for Ashcroft’s nomination as Attorney General after
the Missouri Senator lost his seat to a dead man - the late
Mel Carnahan.
After encountering strong opposition to his nomination, Rove
and others reportedly told Bush that spilling some blood over
Ashcroft was "a no-lose proposition."
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) yesterday joined
Democrat demands for a special prosecutor saying: “Given
allegations about the involvement of senior White House officials
and the past close association between the Attorney General
and one of those officials, the investigation should be headed
by a person independent of the administration. If there ever
was a case for the appointment of a special counsel, this
is it.”
Nearly three months after officials within the White House
outted the operative, White House counsel Alberto Gonzales
ordered the preservation of any documents related to the case.
In particular, Gonzales cited any contacts with conservative
columnist Robert Novak who first revealed that Wilson’s
wife was a CIA operative. He also cited Timothy M. Phelps,
Washington bureau chief for Newsday, and Knut Royce, a staff
writer for the paper.
Newsday Editor Howard Schneider said last night his newspaper
has had no contact with the White House or Justice Department
about the memo. He said, however, that Newsday was probably
singled out because the newspaper was the first to report
that the CIA officer publicly revealed in Novak’s column
worked at the CIA "in an undercover capacity."
- James Moore, co-author of the book “Bush’s
Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush President.”
He has been writing and reporting on Karl Rove for over
20 years. His new book, scheduled to come out next spring,
is “Bush’s War for Re-Election.”
Link: http://www.bushsbrain.com
- Tape: President George W. Bush speaking on September 30,
2003.
- Tape: Attorney General John Ashcroft speaking on September
30, 2003.
8:40-8:41 One Minute Music Break
8:41-8:58 The War on the Bill of Rights and the Gathering
Resistance: A Conversation with Nat Hentoff
INTRO: Democracy Now! speaks with prolific author, journalist,
Village Voice columnist and longtime civil liberties commentator
Nat Hentoff about the controversial USA Patriot Act.
The deadline for complying with some major provisions of
the USA Patriot Act has arrived including requiring banks
and other financial institutions to gather more detailed information
on their clients to prove their identities and make sure they're
not on any watch list.
Passed two months after the Sept. 11 attacks, the law aims
to stem money laundering and so-called terrorist financing.
Consumers and businesses can expect to dole out more private
data, especially if they aren't citizens or U.S. based.
- Nat Hentoff, prolific author, journalist and weekly columnist
in the Village Voice. He is the author of the new book “The
War on the Bill of Rights and the Gathering Resistance”
8:58-8:59 Outro and Credits
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdul Kouddous,
Lenina Nadal, Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press and Jeremy Scahill.
Mike Di Filippo is our music maestro and engineer.
[Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Rafael delaUz, Gabriel Weiss, Johnny Sender,
Rich Kim, Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Jenny
Filipazzo]
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