At 08:41 AM 08/01/2003 -0700, Steve Schear wrote:
Report: Poindexter to Resign Wired News 2:43 PM Jul. 31, 2003 PT
WASHINGTON -- John Poindexter, the Iran-Contra scandal figure who headed two criticized Pentagon projects, including one that would have enabled investors to profit by predicting terrorist attacks, will quit his post within weeks, U.S. defense officials said Thursday. ....
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,59853,00.html http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=3198102
It's nice that some of the news media have changed from their previous policy of toadying up to "Admiral Poindexter" and are now starting out their article by referring to his known dishonesty and unfitness for public service before getting down to explaining what they're talking about. It may not be Fair, but it's a bit more Balanced :-) Of course, much of this may be a play by the "Senior US Defense Officials" to make sure he gets the point and does resign, rather than commentary by the news media, and/or an attempt to distance themselves from a couple of unpopular programs by sticking it on the designated fall guy, but it still couldn't happen to a nicer guy. Wired is a lot more enthusiastic in its comments than Reuters, which was terser. WaPo toadies up to him by starting out "John M. Poindexter, the retired rear admiral involved in the Pentagon's ill-fated plan", while Fox News says "The admiral who developed two controversial Pentagon database programs quickly killed by Congress" and goes on to make it clear that it's that nasty Congress's fault for refusing to fund Poindexter's cool programs. The real question is whether the administration and officials that rehired Poindexter and hired Ashcroft and Homeland Security will continue the same kinds of attacks on US civil liberties now that he's gone, and unfortunately, the answer is presumably yes.
On Fri, 1 Aug 2003, Bill Stewart wrote:
Of course, much of this may be a play by the "Senior US Defense Officials" to make sure he gets the point and does resign, rather than commentary by the news media, and/or an attempt to distance themselves from a couple of unpopular programs by sticking it on the designated fall guy, but it still couldn't happen to a nicer guy.
I think there's a lot in the game to that. He *will* resign, he won't be fired :-)
The real question is whether the administration and officials that rehired Poindexter and hired Ashcroft and Homeland Security will continue the same kinds of attacks on US civil liberties now that he's gone, and unfortunately, the answer is presumably yes.
That has nothing to do with it. The pentagon had a choice, fire Poindexter or lose all of DARPA. DARPA has a lot of cool programs that are too important to lose, and Poindexter was giving them bad publicity.
From congres's perspective, choping off $2.5 billion to get rid of Poindexter was no big deal. For the pentagon it is a big deal. So they rid themselves of Poindexter and save everything else. Even Rumsfeld can understand that :-)
Patience, persistence, truth, Dr. mike
On Fri, 1 Aug 2003, Bill Stewart wrote:
It's nice that some of the news media have changed from their previous policy of toadying up to "Admiral Poindexter" and are now starting out their article by referring to his known dishonesty and unfitness for public service before getting down to explaining what they're talking about. It may not be Fair, but it's a bit more Balanced :-)
Man, you fell for their spin doctor bullshit hook, line, and sinker. The news media is still playing to their masters, it's just that somebody had to lose their head and he was the one. It's not like he will lose a single opportunity, if anything it will open more up for him. -- ____________________________________________________________________ We are all interested in the future for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. Criswell, "Plan 9 from Outer Space" ravage@ssz.com jchoate@open-forge.org www.ssz.com www.open-forge.org --------------------------------------------------------------------
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Mike Rosing