Theft of FBI files 'has makings of Kerry Watergate'

The Daily Telegraph ^ | April 11, 2004 | Julian Coman

[A Jovial Cad]

Theft of FBI files 'has makings of Kerry Watergate' By Julian Coman in Washington (Filed: 11/04/2004)

It has, according to the victim of a burglary in California, all the makings of a "west coast Watergate".

When Gerald Nicosia, a respected author and historian, returned to his home in the town of Corte Madera on March 25, it became clear that he had been the victim of an unusual break-in. Doors were ajar and there was evidence of a hurried departure, but no valuables had been taken: a Canon camera was still lying on the kitchen table.

[A Jovial Cad]

Looks like someone was awful anxious to prevent information about a certain, ahem, "war hero" seeing the light of day, *at least this year*. Or until Nov. 3rd, anyway.

[weegee]

Wonderful thing about this new "must excerpt" policy...

Sorry, the page you have requested is not available This error message may occur for a number of reasons:

Any further details that you can provide (or do you have a better link)?

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

I think the author staged this stuff to get more publicity for the book he will be writing.

[holyscroller]

This is an old story. I read it acouple weeks ago. The stuff stolen was all acquired by Freedom of Information Requests, and could be replaced (or easily re-acquired) with little effort. I'd put my money on the fact that Kerry operatives took the files (if indeed they were ever even taken), to stop the truth from getting out of exactly how he did get those medals. However you can bet the crooked media and the Lyin Libs will try to make this into a Republican Watergate. For all we know, there never was a theft. This could just as easily be a contrived story op to make the Republicans look bad. This story doesn't pass the sniff test.

[rdb3]

Link here.

[yazd]

Once a FOIA request has been granted, anyone can write to the same agency and request a copy of the file which was released to the first party (and pay whatever the copying charges are). I myself have done this with DOJ.

Therefore, since the files are legally available to all comers, friend and foe alike, it makes little sense to commit a crime by stealing them, regardless of whether one is motivated to see what is in them, or to hide them from others.

One thing that might be accomplished by stealing them that could not as easily be accomplished by ordering a copy is to draw immediate attention to them in the press. In that case one needs to ask .. cui bono? Who would be willing to take this risk ... and for what gain?

[Political Junkie Too]

But's also the time it took to research, organize and collate the information. Somebody else who requests the same information will have to undergo the same collating all over again.

The object was to delay, not eliminate.

-PJ

[A Jovial Cad]

Yes, I think you're right. I definitely smell a big huge Demo Rat somewhere. My point from the story (the link appears to be broken), is that it took the author years to acquire the info, even under FOI. It would be well past the '04 election before those documents could be assembled again.

[A Jovial Cad]

Sorry about the link I provided, but Rdb3 has the correct one below. Don't know why it wouldn't work, I entered the same info.

[A Jovial Cad]

Thanks, I owe you one :-). Same link, don't know why it won't post through on my original above.

[A Jovial Cad]

Exactly right, PJ. That was precisely my point.

[stylin_geek]

Bump

[bayourod]

"My hunch is that Republicans did this," he said last week.

I concur. Republicans wanted to prevent any anti-Kerry information being made public until after he is the official Democrat nominee.

Republicans are terrified of Kerry being exposed in time for another candidate to replace him.

[Savage Beast]

"Well don't look at me..."
~Hillary~

[The Raven]

ping

[arthurus]

It cannot be another "watergate" because Dan Rather will not intone about it evening after evening.

[dalebert]

This story is old and the police could find no evidence of forced entry. Also, Kerry's people tooks some of the records prior to claims of break in. The records did not include Kerry's military records so we still don't know what his purple heart injuries were.

[weegee]

This is an old story. I read it acouple weeks ago. The stuff stolen was all acquired by Freedom of Information Requests, and could be replaced (or easily re-acquired) with little effort.

This was going to be my post but I decided to hold such comments until I could see the text of this article.

[Eva]

My thought was that the documents which were stolen were probably on available to Kerry, himself. I believe that Kerry was cooperating with this author.

Of course, I could be wrong.

[yazd]

It is my understanding (and experience) that the agency keeps a copy of what was sent out to the first requestor and then need only run additional copies for others. When I wrote to DOJ for the copy of what someone else had received, they said I only needed to reference his FOIA request and they were able, in advance, to tell me the exact amount of the check I needed to include. The materials (about 300 pages pulled from numereous files) arrived within a week or two; not months.