Posted on 08/27/2002 9:47:01 AM PDT by It'salmosttolate
U.S. Report Faulted Anthrax Prober
By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 24, 2002; Page A02
The official in charge of the FBI's anthrax probe was accused of misconduct and recommended for discipline for his role in a flawed review of the deadly Ruby Ridge standoff, but a Justice Department official later concluded that punishment was unwarranted, according to newly revealed information about the case.
Van A. Harp, a 32-year FBI veteran who now heads the bureau's Washington field office, allegedly "committed misconduct" by helping to prepare an incomplete report on the 1992 Ruby Ridge siege that had the effect of protecting high-level FBI officials, according to a confidential 1999 report by the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility.
The report by Justice Department attorney Richard M. Rogers recommended a letter of censure or suspension for Harp, but Stephen R. Colgate, then the assistant attorney general, rejected that recommendation in January 2001, sources said. As has been disclosed, Colgate also declined to issue penalties against others, including then-FBI Director Louis J. Freeh. Harp's role ........ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55102-2002Aug23.html
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
President Bush's lawyers are trying to keep secret the inside stories of President Bill Clinton's last-day pardons by invoking a claim of executive privilege that extends far beyond the White House.
In pleadings filed in U.S. District Court here this month, including affidavits from White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales and Deputy Attorney General Larry D. Thompson, the Bush administration contends that the privilege covers not only advice given to a president about individual pardons, but also government papers he has never seen and officials he has never talked to, such as the sentencing judge in a particular case.
The stance, taken in opposition to a lawsuit filed by the nonprofit group Judicial Watch for access to Clinton pardon records, represents a hard line that the government has never taken. In the past, executive privilege has been recognized for advisers who operate within the White House. Bush's lawyers say it covers officials in any part of the government who are asked for input about pardon requests.
The pardon is "a core Presidential power exclusively entrusted to, and exercised by, the President himself, and the documents generated in the process of developing and providing advice to him are squarely subject to the privilege," Assistant Attorney General Robert D. McCallum Jr. wrote in an Aug. 12 memo seeking summary dismissal of the Judicial Watch case.
A legal watchdog group that has challenged both Republican and Democratic administrations, Judicial Watch sued the Justice Department under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) last year for records concerning pardons granted or "considered" by Clinton in January 2001. The 177 pardons and commutations that he approved on his last day in office kicked up a storm, especially over the clemency he bestowed on fugitive financier Marc Rich, a man prominently listed on the government's international "lookout" list, and his business partner, Pincus Green.
"It's a bad-faith argument," Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said........http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64818-2002Aug26.html
Harp is a proven coverup artist, even by lax FBI standards.
"The FBI spent $3 million of your tax money to blow up the World Trade Center." - Joseph Farah
FBI Director Nominee Mueller Helped FBI and DOJ Cover Up Evidence on Waco, Ruby Ridge, OKC Bombing
FBI Chief Mueller Expresses Support for Muslim Group
"We're not looking for individuals of any particular religion or from any particular country."
FBI Director Robert Mueller - SOURCE.
Sham FBI conference used as cover for party
"More than 140 persons, including as many as nine FBI executives and special-agents-in-charge (SACs) of bureau field offices, attended the Oct. 9, 1997, party in Arlington for veteran agent Larry A. Potts, ... a onetime FBI deputy director -- was under criminal investigation over his questionable handling of a standoff at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, during which three persons died."
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