[Vision2020] Don't Blame the Whistleblowers

[Tom Hansen]

>From today's (April 23, 2006) episode of "Face the Nation" with Bob
Schieffer -

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Don't Blame the Whistleblowers
By Bob Schieffer

At my age, nothing much surprises me, but my jaw dropped when I read the FBI
has been trying to go through the files of dead columnist Jack Anderson to
see if he had any classified documents. 

Mind you, Anderson was 83 when he died and did virtually no work for 15
years because of Parkinson's, but the FBI has been pressing his family to
get at those files. The family said no. 

Dare I state the obvious: that with Osama Bin Laden still on the loose,
maybe there are more important things for the FBI to do. 

And it happened the same week the CIA fired an agent for hanging out with
Washington Post reporter Dana Priest, who just won a Pulitzer Prize for
revealing the CIA is operating a secret prison system. The Justice
Department will decide whether to bring charges. 

Almost every day now brings news of another leak investigation, but it's not
the leakers, it's what they're leaking that scares me. 

After all, why should a democracy be operating secret prisons anyway? If the
government hadn't told us they exist, can we ever be sure who might wind up
inside them? 

Isn't finding out stuff like that what reporters are supposed to do? 

As for rifling through Jack Anderson's files, surely that will founder in
its own silliness now that it's been exposed. 

But you do have to wonder what some government zealot will try next, maybe
reopening the hunt for the killer rabbit that once attacked Jimmy Carter's
canoe? No one has seen the beast since Mr. Carter fought it off with an oar.
Might still be out there and dangerous. If it still has teeth.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho


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"In America, anybody can become president.  
That's one of the risks you take . . ."

- Adlai Stevenson

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