White House keeps dossiers on more than 10,000 'political enemies'

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Tue, 8 Nov 2005 18:28:14 -0800 (PST)

White House keeps dossiers on more than 10,000 'political

enemies'

 

 

 

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_7625.shtml

 

 

 

White House keeps dossiers on more than 10,000 'political enemies'

By DOUG THOMPSON

 

 

 

Publisher, Capitol Hill Blue

Nov 8, 2005, 06:40

 

 

 

 

Spurred by paranoia and aided by the USA Patriot Act, the Bush

Administration has compiled dossiers on more than 10,000 Americans it

considers political enemies and uses those files to wage war on those

who disagree with its policies.

 

The " enemies list " dates back to Bush's days as governor of Texas and

can be accessed by senior administration officials in an instant for

use in campaigns to discredit those who speak out against

administration policies or acts of the President.

 

The computerized files include intimate personal details on members of

Congress; high-ranking local, state and federal officials; prominent

media figures and ordinary citizens who may, at one time or another,

have spoken out against the President or Administration.

 

Capitol Hill Blue has spoken with a number of current and former

administration officials who acknowledge existence of the enemies list

only under a guarantee of confidentiality. Those who have seen the

list say it is far more extensive than Richard Nixon's famous " enemies

list " of Watergate fame or Bill Clinton's dossiers on political enemies.

 

" How is that you think Karl (Rove) and Scooter (Libby) were able to

disseminate so much information on Joe Wilson and his wife, " says one

White House aide. " They didn't have that information by accident. They

had it because they have files on those who might hurt them. "

 

White House insiders tell disturbing tales of invasion of privacy,

abuse of government power and use of expanded authority under the USA

Patriot Act to dig into the personal lives of anyone the

administration deems an enemy of the state.

 

Those on the list include former Ambassador Joseph Wilson and his

wife, former covert CIA operative Valarie Plame, along with filmmaker

and administration critic Michael Moore, Senators like California's

Barbara Boxer, media figures like liberal writer Joe Conason and

left-wing bloggers like Markos Moulitsas Zúniga (the Daily Kos) and

Ana Marie Cox (Wonkette).

 

" If you want to know who's sleeping with whom, who drinks too much or

has a fondness for nose candy, this is the place to find it, " says

another White House aide. " Karl (Rove) operates under the rule that if

you fuck with us, we'll fuck you over. "

 

Rove started the list while Bush served as governor of Texas,

compiling information on various political enemies in the state and

leaking damaging information on opponents to friends in the press. The

list grew during Bush's first run for President in 2000 but the names

multiplied rapidly after the terrorist attacks of 2001 and passage of

the USA Patriot Act. Using the powers under the act, Rove expanded the

list to more than 10,000 names, utilizing the FBI's " national security

letters " to gather private and intimate details on American citizens.

 

National security letters, which can be issued by an FBI supervisor

without a judge's review or approval, allows the bureau to examine the

telephone calls, correspondence and financial lives of any Americans.

 

The FBI issues some 30,000 national security letters a year to

employers, credit bureaus, banks, travel agencies and other sources of

information on American citizens. The Patriot Act also forbids anyone

receiving such a letter to reveal they have passed on information to

the federal government.

 

" Those letters helped us build files quickly on those we needed to

know more about, " says a former White House aide.

 

The database of political enemies of the Bush administration is not

maintained on White House computers and is located on a

privately-owned computer offsite, but can be accessed remotely by a

select list of senior aides, including Rove. The offsite location

allowed the database to escape detection by special prosecutor Patrick

Fitzgerald during his investigation of the Valerie Plame leak. The

database is funded by private donations from Bush political backers

and does not appear on the White House budget or Federal Election

Commission campaign reports.

 

Bush is not the first President to use the FBI to keep track of his

enemies. Richard M. Nixon used FBI files to try and discredit his

opponents, including Daniel Ellsberg, the Department of Defense

employee who leaked the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times. Bill

Clinton used the FBI to compile dossiers on critics like Conservative

Congressman Bob Barr and legal gadfly Larry Klayman of Judicial Watch.

 

But worried White House insiders say the intelligence gathered by the

Bush administration is far larger, more extensive and potentially more

damaging than the excesses of previous occupants of the White House.

Even worse, it dovetails into a pattern of spying on Americans that

has become commonplace since Bush took office.

 

" We're talking about Big Brother at its most extreme, " says one White

House staffer. " We know things about people that their spouses don't

know and, if it becomes politically expedient, we will make sure the

rest of the world knows. "

 

The White House press office did not respond to a request for an

interview on this story and did not return phone calls seeking comment.

 

© Copyright 2005 by Capitol Hill Blue