In 2002, Likely Attorney General Nominee Ted Olson Said It's Okay to Lie to US Public!

[paulthompson]

Check this out. From a Sydney Morning Herald article in 2002:

The United States Government's top lawyer has said that officials have the right to lie to American citizens, telling the US Supreme Court that misleading statements are sometimes needed to protect foreign policy interests.

"It's easy to imagine an infinite number of situations where the government might legitimately give out false information," the Solicitor-General, Theodore Olson, told the court on Monday.

"It's an unfortunate reality that the issuance of incomplete information and even misinformation by government may sometimes be perceived as necessary to protect vital interests."


Lying to the public is all right, says Washington's chief lawyer
By Mark Helm
Sydney Morning Herald
March 20, 2002
http://www.citizenreviewonline.org/mar_2002/lying_to_the_public_okay.htm


After Attorney General Gonzales, isn't this the last thing we need? Please help spread this through the blogosphere. We need to make sure this comment of his should come back and bite him in the ass. A lot of politicians lie, but Olson is quite unique in freely admitting that he would lie when asked to.

[tularetom]

1. When did this dildo become a likely AG nominee?

I haven't heard much about it since the Michael Jerkoff rumors were squelched.

[paulthompson]

3. This new Washington Post article says he's the leading nominee

Here's the lead paragraph:

Bush Expected to Nominate Attorney General Next Week

Former Solicitor General Is Called a Leading Candidate

President Bush is expected to choose a replacement for Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales by the middle of next week, and former solicitor general Theodore B. Olson has emerged as one of the leading contenders for the job, according to sources inside and outside the government who are familiar with White House deliberations.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/07/AR2007090702560.html?hpid=sec-nation

[StClone]

2. Olson means more of the same

Bush doesn't learn and does care. If Gonzo was killing the Constitution, Olson will be the backup assassin.

[pretzel4gore]

4. olsen called cnn before he notified the pertinent authorities!

supposedly, olson got a call from his ball'n'chain, barbra olson, who phoned him from doomed jet which disappeared into an open bathroom window in the pentagon (never even scratched the paint!) she called him on a cell phone(?) and it was olson who first id'd obl as the master mind behind the wtc disaster ie 911...cnn of course extrapolated this info, as nowhere did barb olson say the hijackers were arab- indeed, the connection between cnn and the bush lie and obl has never been established, not to this day! btw olson began xxxing a young lady before barb's ashes even had time to cool. and olson has, like sam donaldson, ari fliesher, colin powel, brokawkaw, tom ridge, john asscrack, pj ororke and a host of others (plague of host, more like it) went into hiding sorta despite the fact the biggest story in US history has been carefully unfolded to a gullible public, and history is being made by all the actors! It's like the key grip on the movie 'star wars' quitting to 'spend more time' with his socks and lettuce
:shrug:

[BeFree]

5. Ted is

the O in bushco.

If congress approves that crook we know the fix is on, fer sure.

[paulthompson]

8. Yeah...

His 9/11 claims were quite bizarre. He kept changing his story about what his wife told him.

[defendandprotect]

6. They need another cover-up candidate -- especially re election '08 - - - - - - -

[indepat]

7. Eureka, think I've got it: lying to the American people is for their own good

[calimary]

9. Yeah, ted, we KNOW all about that "protecting vital interests" part.

The only "vital interests" these people are concerned with protecting is their own - to keep their sorry asses out of a federal penitentiary.

[The Backlash Cometh]

10. The problem here is, that way to many people in government are taking

this liberty. From the White House to the local level.

I just want to know, where is the line drawn where everyone agrees that, if you don't trust government, why in the hell would you trust any of these crooks to rationalize that lying is okay?

[Major Hogwash]

11. Haven't most Republican Attorney Generals been liars?

Yes, it's a requirement on their application!!

[Major Hogwash]

12. Ted "I talked to my wife on the plane with a cell phone" Olson?

Cell phones don't work on planes, folks.

Biggest fuckin' lie of the 9/11 Commission evah!

[karlrschneider]

14. Funny, I called my partner with my cell phone in the plane about an hour ago

to have him pick me up at the airport. I'm guessing it worked since he was waiting in front of the hangar...
:eyes:

[Major Hogwash]

15. Technology changed in the last 6 years, huh?

Funny that, karl.

[paulthompson]

18. Yeah

The technology has changed. There have been articles in the last year or so talking about how cell phone calls are now possible on airplanes much higher up in the air than before.

[Major Hogwash]

25. Not only that, paul.

But the 911 Commission never even asked for, nor did they receive, the phone records from Olson's account to prove that Barbara had even made a phone call that day using her cell phone.

And since the type of plane she was on, for that particular airline, did not have airphones, her supposed call to Ted was impossible for her to make.

[spanone]

13. He's the Perfect AG !!!!

[struggle4progress]

16. Well, Teddo certainly believes in lying to Congress: Memory Lapses From Ted Olson

<May 2001>
Robert Scheer

Remember when Hillary Clinton dared suggest that a vast right-wing conspiracy was behind the campaign to destroy her husband's presidency? Well, the troubles besetting the nomination of Theodore B. Olson as US solicitor general provide stunning evidence of what she had in mind.

Olson's confirmation hearing was abruptly suspended last week by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) after a report in the Washington Post raised questions about Olson's truthfulness under oath about his relationship to right-wing billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife and the $2.3-million, anti-Clinton Arkansas Project of Scaife's American Spectator magazine. Olson served as the magazine's lawyer and on its board of directors, but when questioned by Democratic members of the committee as to his connection with the infamous Arkansas Project, Olson stated: "It has been alleged that I was somehow involved in that so-called project. I was not involved in the project in its origin or its management."

That statement was subsequently contradicted in testimony before the Judiciary Committee by David Brock, the writer responsible for the key American Spectator articles attacking the Clintons. Brock stated that he was present at "brainstorming" sessions on the Arkansas Project with Olson at the home of American Spectator Chairman R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. Brock connected Olson with the Spectator's strangest article linking Clinton to the suicide of his close friend and aide, Vincent Foster. According to the Post, Brock said Olson told him that "while he didn't place any stock in the piece, it was worth publishing because the role of the Spectator was to write Clinton scandal stories in hopes of 'shaking scandals loose."' ...

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20010528/20010515

[paulthompson]

30. Interesting link

Thanks

[madokie]

17. damn he'll be approved sure as shit

damned if I'm not ready for a change. Like one of our fellow DU'ers used to have as a sig line, politicians are like babies diapers, they both need changing from time to time. well not exactly like that but you get the point I hope.

If it wasn't so serious I would just blow it off but this is for keeps, the bush* cabal are taking over our government and trashing our constitution

[cali]

33. Care to wager?

Something really simple, like writing an OP professing how wrong you (or I) were?

No way Olsen gets confirmed. Not only does Leahy dislike him, he has an axe to grind about him re the confirmation hearing for SG.

[alfredo]

19. He was also part of the Arkansas Project.

[Senator]

20. Olson's Crimes "Invented" Independent Counsels

But it's not like the LieberDems will make a peep about him this time either.

A careful examination of that episode raises serious questions about not merely his integrity but the legendary legal prowess to which even his critics defer. Indeed, the last time Olson served as a top presidential legal counselor, he left behind a political disaster area strewn with bad legal advice, wrecked careers and lingering scandals.

As assistant attorney general to President Reagan from 1981 to 1983, Olson advised the president to claim executive privilege to block an investigation by congressional Democrats into the scandal-plagued Superfund program, based on assertions that later proved fatally false -- largely because Olson, apparently eager to force a political fight with Congress, failed to double-check key information.

Olson's blunders eventually caused the resignation of Reagan's lightning-rod Environmental Protection Agency administrator, Anne Gorsuch Burford. And those events in turn wound up costing Reagan much of his administration's agenda for reshaping environmental policy.

Without impeachment, they're just going through the motions.

----

[pretzel4gore]

21. it's like they're working from a movie script, the movie already in the can!

and we just bystanders-it only take ONE SENATOR in 2000 to refuse to confirm bush in office of president! ONE SENATOR!
Yet none would support the CBCaucus with a vote....gore himself could have stopped the criminals in their tracks, but NOOOO! The bush is god movie was already playing at the local cineplex, it seems

[cali]

34. Bullshit.

Leahy voted against him as SG. He was pissed that he wasn't allowed by Arlen to pursue the Arkansas Project material. He said then that he couldn't vote for him because of his partisanship. He won't let him get through. And I can't think of a single dem on that committee who would vote for him.

[in_cog_ni_to]

22. I just sent this to Durbin and Obama. They CANNOT confirm Ted Olson! He gave us the psycho-in-chief

fercryingoutloud! How much more damage can this man do????

[Quantess]

23. "...protect vital interests"

We can guess what that phrase implies.

[LaPera]

24. Sounds like a typical republican fascist...and someone the frighten Dems will confirm!

And the Dems wonder why we are so disgusted with them & their republican kiss ass, spinelessness...What blackmail does Bush's eavesdropping hold over our Dem law makers, obviously some and many things.........

[cali]

35. This is really beginning to piss me off

There is no way that Leahy will let him get through committee. Odds are that he won't even let him come up before committee.

And I'm sure that when that happens, you'll be all to willing to apologize and say you were wrong.

[creeksneakers2]

26. Olson is a key player in the vast right wing conspiracy

If confirmed as AG he'll turn his attention toward investigating and prosecuting Democrats, including presidential aspirants. Bush's response to investigations into politicizing the Justice Department is to politicize it more.

[pretzel4gore]

27. olson's a fricking coward...

that sukker's been hanging onto his head since 911- he almost certainly knows if the review of 911 ever happens, a real brute nypd type review, he's as daid as meyers or rumsmell.... the guy was solgen yet he disappeared from public view 5 years ago; a greedy grasping petty crook like that! he's scared, and he outta be....him and condoleeeza do alot of hyperventlating together as soon as the door's closed, foxnews reports

[Rosa Luxemburg]

28. Olson should be in jail

[seemslikeadream]

29. "It's easy to imagine an infinite number of situations where the government might legitimately give

yea like missing nukes

[paulthompson]

31. Looks like Bush is going to pick Olsen

This new article says Bush is just about to pick Olsen:

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN1144974420070911

[L. Coyote]

32. Olson should be answering for crimes in the Arkansas Project

GOP Floating Ted Olson, Head of 1990s Anti-Clinton ‘Arkansas Project,’ for AG
Posted by Jon Ponder | Apr. 22, 2007,

During the 1990s, the GOP ran a stealth disinformation campaign against the Clintons, .... out of the offices of the American Spectator, a rightwing magazine. Internally, the operation was called the Arkansas Project, but Hillary famously referred to it as a “vast rightwing conspiracy.” It was funded by Richard Mellon Scaife and its CEO was Ted Olson.

Olson’s wife, Barbara ...the author of the diatribe ... “Hell to Pay: The Unfolding Story of Hillary Rodham Clinton,” died on the plane that hit the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.

... Olson argued for the Bush/Cheney campaign in Bush v. Gore. ... he was rewarded with the position of solicitor general, a job once held by his friend Ken Starr ... who spent $60 million of the taxpayers’ money to smear the Clintons with allegations, much of which were generated by the Arkansas Project. ....

With the possible exception of Starr, no one is more responsible than Ted Olson for paving the way for the Worst President Ever.

...... Today the Judiciary chairman, Pat Leahy, and other committee Democrats like Chuck Schumer, Ted Kennedy and Russ Feingold may be more ready to get Olson on the record about his role in the Arkansas Project .....

FROM: Bush vs. Gore, the 'Arkansas Project,' the USA firings, and the Swiftboat Admiral
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1029113