CHENEY'S ROLE PROBED IN 2002 KLAMATH RIVER FISH KILL DISASTER

[redacted]

North Coast fishermen and Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, are applauding a House committee chairman's decision to investigate Vice President Dick Cheney's involvement in the deaths of 68,000 migrating chinook salmon in fall 2002.

"We know where the smoking gun lays," said Chris Lawson, a fisherman and president of the Bodega Bay Fisherman's Marketing Association.

While the salmon kill, the largest ever in the West, long has been attributed to Bush administration decisions, a Washington Post story last month detailed Cheney's successful effort to rewrite federal water policy for alleged political gain.

The resulting diversion of water to Klamath basin farmers and ranchers who were battling a drought lowered the river's flow and set the stage for the fish kill.

"Characteristically, Cheney left no tracks," the Post reported.

The same day the story was published, Thompson and 35 other Democrats from California and Oregon called for a hearing by the House Natural Resources Committee to zero in on Cheney's actions. A day later, Chairman Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., agreed.

"They say a fish rots from the head down," Thompson said, applying an old aphorism to the episode that left thousands of rotting salmon carcasses in the lower Klamath. In this case, he said, the head is Cheney's.

MUCH MORE
http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/article/20070709/NEWS/707090313/1033/NEWS01

[Captain Hilts]

1. Yaaaaaay! nt

[L. Coyote]

2. There was a recent thread on this

[ProSense]

3. Cheney vs. Environment: Killing the Forests for the Trees

Cheney vs. Environment: Killing the Forests for the Trees

[kineneb]

4. go Mike!

He is our Rep., and can be a little too centerist for my taste. (George Miller was our Rep before we moved).

Klamath basin is a damned desert.

[nam78_two]

5. K&R.nt

[paparush]

6. Maybe this will work out just like Al Capone. The murderer went to jail for tax evasion.

Maybe Cheney will get impeached because of the fish kill.

[burythehatchet]

7. that's the differenc between justice for the rich and the poor

when you're poor you get tagged with the most serious offense, when you're rich, the least serious offense.

[oregonjen]

8. Sen. Gordon Smith R-OR got re-elected because of this

The farmers were appeased and thus, Smith got their votes. Disgusting. Interesting how this little tidbit was left out of the article.

[BuyingThyme]

9. The Congressman called the Vice President a fish!

[Canuckistanian]

10. He's a piscicidal maniac

Add that to the charges.

[XemaSab]

11. No WAY!!!

Like, this is DEFINITELY yellow submarine time. :P