Governor, Guard withhold e-mails in spying probe

[NVMojo]

INVESTIGATORS CALL MOVE SUSPICIOUS
Posted on Thu, Aug. 04, 2005

The Schwarzenegger administration and California National Guard are refusing to make public a series of 20 e-mails between two of the governor's spokesmen and a Guard official regarding a Mercury News story in June that revealed the existence of an intelligence-gathering unit.

Sen. Joe Dunn, D-Garden Grove, who is heading a probe into the unit, said the refusal only furthers suspicion the Guard unit may have engaged in domestic spying.

The Guard also acknowledged Wednesday that seven of its computers went missing around the time the story was published and just recently reappeared. Dunn has demanded to know whether any classified material was removed, but the Guard has said the computers were brand new -- never used -- and not relevant to the investigation.

more...

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/12300375.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

[quaoar]

1. Ah yes

It's always the cover-up that brings them down.

[elehhhhna]

2. Let's reserve space at GITMO for abusers of power. Lotsa space.

[Kelvin Mace]

3. See this earlier story

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/12064201.htm

They are definitely covering up:

Despite a request from a state senator that it preserve all documents related to a controversial intelligence unit, the California National Guard erased the computer hard drive of a retiring colonel who oversaw the fledgling project.

Computer technicians at the Guard erased the officer's hard drive on June 27, said Col. Cherie Takami, the Guard's acting chief of staff. That same day, state Sen. Joe Dunn asked top military officials not to destroy any evidence concerning the special intelligence unit.

On Tuesday, the National Guard rebuffed Dunn's requests for answers and immediate access to the computer, saying they could not respond because of a federal investigation into the matter expected to begin today.

While the Guard's top general refused to address Dunn's concerns, the acting chief of staff told the Mercury News that the computer hard drive had been erased before anyone had seen the senator's letter.

Riiiiight!

[MissMarple]

4. Erased...as in totally irretrievable?

By anyone? :shrug:

[Kelvin Mace]

6. Dunno!

There's erased and then there's *ERASED*. If they used a DoD approved purge routine, it's gone.

[MisterP]

19. ayym zee Eghaysa!!!

[rateyes]

7. Isn't the applicable term for the destruction of the hard drive..

obstruction of justice?

[zbdent]

5. Gonna invoke "lawyer-client privilege"?

I don't think so, scooter . . .

See Kenneth Starr for details . . .

[Sam_Lowry]

8. Why hasnt there been a recall of this clown?

I still can't believe that with all the obvious crap this guys gets away with, that no one has even tried to get enough sigs to force a recall. It would be so mind-bogglingly easy to get enough! We could get the requisite sigs here in the bay area alone! What one earth is going on??? Soros? Can you spare a million or two?

:wtf:

[BrotherBuzz]

9. California has no stomach for a recall at this time...

The up side is the fact that Arnie's numbers are in the toilet and he would lose an election if he ran unopposed for dogcatcher. 2006 will be interesting year for Californians.

[goforit]

10. Hmmmm......Arnold a treasonist?

[Judi Lynn]

11. Outside income for governor's top aides

Posted on Thu, Aug. 04, 2005


Outside income for governor's top aides

SCHWARZENEGGER SHOULD TELL LIEUTENANTS TO FOLLOW HIS EXAMPLE AND FORGO PAY
Mercury News Editorial

It is no surprise that three of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's top aides favor his re-election and share the goals of the political committee created to promote his ballot initiatives.

It is a surprise -- and not a reassuring one -- that they are being paid as campaign consultants in addition to their state salaries. Although the second jobs meet the letter of the law, Schwarzenegger, who recently gave up a consulting job with some fitness magazines, should tell his aides to give them up.

Kate Folmar and Andrew LaMar of the Mercury News Sacramento Bureau discovered the payments in campaign-finance reports filed Monday.

Richard Costigan, the governor's legislative affairs secretary, received $25,000 from the California Recovery Team, which raises funds for some of the governor's initiatives.
(snip/...)

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/opinion/12300435.htm
(Free registration required)

[Judi Lynn]

12. Schwarzenegger Is Losing Jewish Vote

2005-08-05

Schwarzenegger Is Losing Jewish Vote
by Raphael J. Sonenshein

In November 2003, California voters recalled Gov. Gray Davis and replaced him with Arnold Schwarzenegger. White voters backed the recall by a large margin, but Jewish voters swam against the tide, with 69 percent voting against the recall. On the second part of the ballot, where voters chose a replacement candidate, Schwarzenegger collected a surprising 31 percent of Jewish voters.

I suggested then in these pages that Schwarzenegger might eventually do well with Jews: “Jewish voters aren’t likely to abandon the Democratic Party anytime soon, but will likely give Arnold Schwarzenegger a chance to prove that he can govern in a bipartisan, moderate manner.... If Schwarzenegger truly seeks to solve the state’s problems without being a tool of right-wing forces, and with an open-minded, progressive approach, he may find a surprising number of friends among California’s Democratic-leaning Jewish voters.”

Chance given, chance blown.

Political historians will surely marvel at the precipitous political decline of California’s celebrity governor, especially because Schwarzenegger should have been a lock with Jewish voters. He came into office as a moderate Republican with lots of Democratic friends (he’s even married to a Democrat), with pro-choice views on abortion and as an advocate of “reform,” a concept dear to many Jewish voters. Schwarzenegger invited comparisons to Gov. George Pataki of New York, a Republican moderate who is finishing his third term in a very blue state. Over time, Schwarzenegger even seemed likely to attract support from elements of organized labor.
(snip/...)

http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=14440

[Judi Lynn]

13. This is truly creepy.

From the article:

The e-mail exchange in question took place around the Mercury News' June 26 story that revealed high-level interest among Guard officials in a Mother's Day anti-war rally at the Capitol. Dunn launched his investigation the next day.

Thompson said given Dunn's fledgling investigation it would be naive to assume the e-mails focused solely on media strategy.

Dunn has complained during his investigation that the Guard has stonewalled his requests for documents. He is planning to hold a contempt hearing later this month to try to compel the Guard to make officers available for depositions, as well as turn over documents and some computer hardware used by the head of the intelligence unit.

The seven computers that were missing for approximately five weeks may also come into play. Baldwin acknowledged the Guard last month called in its Criminal Investigations Division to investigate. The computers turned up last week in a different storage room at the Guard's headquarters.
(snip)

Thanks for posting this article.

[NVMojo]

15. Judy Lynn, I agree, that is the really creepy part!

http://tinyurl.com/bh8eg

maybe this link might help non-registere??

[carnie_sf]

14. Ahhnold

is now officially a washed up has-been

[WhiteTara]

16. the nazi boobengroper is so disgusting

:puke:
He'll get his though. He is so dirty that the scales will fall away and he will be shown for the criminal he is.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

17. kick....very interesting...does it have legs?

[ronnykmarshall]

18. Hope so

I only heard it on the local AAR station in LA.

[Trevelyan]

20. Subject: I admire State Senator Dunn for his courage. I read about this

few weeks ago in the context of Code Pink and Raging Grannies protesters being harrassed and going to the National Guard offices to talk about it.

There was a horrible poster that I downloaded and which the Code Pink
and Raging Grannies mentioned of General Pershing quoting his
recommendation of torturing Arabs and a logo that said peace the old
fashioned way with a picture of a fighter jet and something bad below that.

The Guard officials said he did not know if that office had such a poster on the wall of a government office.

Sen. Dunn was told that one of the computers he requested information on had its hard drive deleted because an employee had left which was
Standard Operating Procedure and Dunn said that he had looked into the last 100 employees who had left and none of their hard drives had been deleted when they quit. KICK AND DOUBLE KICK!!

[NYC]

21. Everybody should read your post:

Sen. Dunn was told that one of the computers he requested information on had its hard drive deleted because an employee had left which was Standard Operating Procedure and Dunn said that he had looked into the last 100 employees who had left and none of their hard drives had been deleted when they quit.