OIG and OPR Expanding Whitewash of USAgate

[pberq]

Some reaelity-based info on the OIG and OPR "investigations" of the attorney firings.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/5/31/63640/6139

OIG and OPR Expanding Whitewash of USAgate

by Jesselyn Radack
Thu May 31, 2007 at 03:47:08 AM PDT

Like starving kittens lapping up milk, the mainstream media and Congress seem to be comforted by the fact that the Justice Department's Office of Inspector General (OIG) and Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) are expanding the scope of their investigation of USAgate to include allegations regarding improper political considerations in hiring decisions at the Department of Justice. Any reporter who really cares to understand that these two offices 1) are politicized, 2) interested not in investigating the underlying misconduct, but investigating those who brought it to light, 3) act as tools of the government, and 4) do shoddy work, are welcome to see the OIG report and OPR bar referral done in my case because of my blowing the whistle on ethical misconduct in the case of "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh. The fallout of the retaliation led by these two offices still affects me today, six years later. You can contact me via my website at http://www.patriotictruthteller.net if you would like the reports. Also, why all the shock about politicized hiring of career folks? Ashcroft was open about it.

Why all the post-Goodling shock about the politicization of hiring career personnel at the Justice Department. The Attorney General's Honors program, founded by President Eisenhower's first AG and long overseen by career attorneys, was first taken over by Ashcroft and his acolytes. When I started, the Honors Program was highly competitive, well-regarded, and had the laudable distinction of being apolitical. Ashcroft decided in 2002 that the Program would benefit from more direct participation by him and other political appointees. Bush made clear his intention of stacking the federal bench with political conservatives, and aimed to do the same within the career ranks at Justice. So why the hue and cry now?

And as for the Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility, don't be fooled into comfort. I had a quixotic view of those offices as knights in shining armor. They are bureaucracies just like any other, with the same problems, limitations and vulnerabilities of any office. They control the investigation, often initiating a probe in response to a scandal first raised in the media. And often, the only real investigation that emanates from them centers not on the problem, but on the person who raised the problem. It is not unusual for the employee who made the report of misconduct to find him or herself the subject of the real investigation, and that is exactly what happened to me.

I cooperated initially with the IG, and tried to steer Agent Ronald Powell towards the issue of why someone would leak e-mails in the case of "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh, but he clearly had no intention of going there. All he cared about was plugging the leak, and he became the Inspector Javert of my life, following me to my new law firm in the private sector, trashing me to my employer and friends, and making a normal life impossible.

(More. . .)

[glitch]

1. USAgate is good. But I would like to propose USAcoup for the term.

It covers all the Bush crimes, "-gate" just doesn't do them justice. K & R for Jesselyn Radack.