Poindexter to Resign

[Bill Stewart]

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.