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Date: Sat, 29 Nov 1997 07:00:11 -0800
To: (Recipient list suppressed)
From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar]
Subject: SLS: Exit Michael R. Shaheen (fwd)

<snip>
>
>http://www.washtimes.com
>
>The Washington Times
>November 28, 1997   
>        
>EDITORIAL: Exit Michael R. Shaheen
>
>For all intents and purposes, Michael R. Shaheen, who announced his
>resignation from the Justice Department's Office of Professional
>Responsibility this week, invented the office in 1975, at a time when
>then-President Gerald Ford and his attorney general, Edward Levi, were
>attempting some post-Watergate rehabilitation at Justice. And though he
>has served every administration -- Republican and Democratic -- since
>then, for 22 years, his work can hardly be called even-handed.
>     True, he investigated Carter appointed Attorneys General Griffin
>Bell and Benjamin Civiletti (Bell he cleared, Civiletti he criticized).
>But it is clear that his investigative zeal was much sharper when it
>came to Republicans. He went after Reagan appointees William French
>Smith and Edwin Meese III in a big way. And he took his beef with Bush
>Attorney General Richard Thornburgh over an investigation of two
>Thornburgh aides to Congress.
>     Then, lest anyone has forgotten, there is the truly appalling story
>of OPR's treatment of Reagan Justice official Roger Pilon. On the
>flimsiest evidence -- later proved absolutely false and worthless --Mr.
>Shaheen called for Mr. Pilon's resignation because of false charges he
>had used his wife to pass a classified document to South Africa. Mr.
>Pilon was totally and quickly vindicated, but not before he'd been
>placed on administrative leave and had his security clearance revoked.
>Then, a year later, Mr. Shaheen's office leaked the story (which had
>been kept under wraps for security reasons) -- and Mr. Pilon's name.
>     Yes, Mr. Shaheen did produce a blistering report on former FBI
>Director William Sessions that ultimately -- and deservedly -- cost Mr.
>Sessions his job in 1993. And his investigation of FBI malfeasance at
>Ruby Ridge led to a grand jury investigation and the conviction of a
>senior FBI official. But it must be noted that both of those cases were
>leftovers from the Bush administration.
>     When it comes to the Clinton administration, Mr. Shaheen's
>crime-sniffing instincts seem largely to have deserted him. Was the FBI
>guilty of misconduct when it bowed to White House pressure to
>investigate the seven longtime Travel Office staffers (fired at the
>apparent insistence of Hillary Clinton) on charges trumped up by the
>Clinton associate who wanted their jobs? Or did the agency get together
>with the White House PR machine to produce a press release revealing
>that the seven were under investigation? Nah.
>     Was it improper -- not to mention illegal -- for former FBI General
>Counsel Howard Shapiro to warn the White House in advance of activities
>by a House committee, when this would show that Mrs. Clinton had indeed
>had a hand in hiring D. Craig Livingstone? Nah.
>     And speaking of Filegate, has Mr. Shaheen set his investigative
>sights on the ethics -- and/or the legality -- of the FBI nonchalantly
>handing over 900 confidential files of former Republican employees just
>because the White House asked for them? Not so's you'd notice.
>     And where is the righteous indignation Mr. Shaheen reserved for the
>likes of Ed Meese and Dick Thornburgh when it comes to Attorney General
>Janet Reno. After all, it is Miss Reno who has allowed her department's
>investigation of the Clinton-Gore campaign finance scandal to flounder
>for months and is still dithering about appointing an independent
>counsel? Nowhere to be seen.
>     Will Mr. Shaheen really be missed all that much by people who
>believe that some real, independent oversight and investigation of Janet
>Reno's Justice Department is in order? Not hardly. 
>
>Copyright 1997 News World Communications, Inc.

===========================================================================
Paul Andrew Mitchell, Sui Juris      : Counselor at Law, federal witness 01
B.A.: Political Science, UCLA;   M.S.: Public Administration, U.C.Irvine 02
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_____________________________________: Law is authority in written words 09
As agents of the Most High, we came here to establish justice.  We shall 10
not leave, until our mission is accomplished and justice reigns eternal. 11
======================================================================== 12
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