Just A Reminder of How The GOP Washington Times Saved bin Laden

Orcinus - The Washington Times -- the capital's unabashed right-wing newspaper, which consistently has the best sources in the intelligence world and the least compunction about leaking -- ran a story mentioning that bin Laden "keeps in touch with the world via computers and satellite phones."

Bin Laden stopped using the satellite phone instantly. The al-Qaeda leader was not eager to court the fate of Djokar Dudayev, the Chechen insurgent leader who was killed by a Russian air defense suppression missile that homed in on its target using his satellite phone signal. When bin Laden stopped using the phone and let his aides do the calling, the United States lost its best chance to find him.

[A later Washington Post story confirmed that in fact the Times story was "a major intelligence setback."]

Way to go, Washington Times! Um, whose side did you say you were on?

el - like the Wall Street Journal being partly responsible for the Vince Foster suicide, that it outrageously tried to spin into a Clinton conspiracy, this story will be buried.

"White House deputy counsel Vince Foster committed suicide on the night of 20 July 1993 by shooting himself once in the head, a day after he contacted his doctor about his depression. A note in the form of a draft resignation letter was found in the bottom of his briefcase a week after his death. (Note that this letter was not, as is often claimed, a "suicide note." It was Foster's outline for a letter of resignation.) Foster cited negative Wall Street Journal editorials about him. He was also upset about the much-criticized role of the counsel's office in the controversial firing of seven White House travel office workers."

More - On June 17 the Journal ran a comment entitled, “Who is Vincent Foster?” It began: “In its first months, the Clinton White House has proved itself to be careless about many things, from Presidential haircuts to appointing a government. But most disturbing is its carelessness about following the law.” The editors made much of the fact that Foster had refused to send the newspaper a photograph of himself. The Journal proceeded to file a request for a photo under the Freedom of Information Act.

One week later the Journal printed another snide opinion piece, “Vincent Foster's Victory,” which concerned an appeals court decision permitting Hillary Clinton to hold meetings of her Health Task Force in private. It sarcastically suggested that with “one mighty sweep he [Foster] has struck a blow for separation of powers, executive authority, critics of the litigation explosion, and we dare say, even for the formulators of the Reagan White House's off-the-books Iran-Contra operation.... [W]e suspect that Vincent Foster and Ollie North might hit it off.”

On July 14, in “FBI Director Rose?,” the Journal referred to a “Rose clique from Little Rock that has already shown a willingness to cut many legal corners...” In “What's the Rush?” (July 19), the editors referred to Hillary Clinton and Foster, “both of whom were also involved in the travel-office affair [involving the firing of White House travel office staff].” It continued, “The mores on display from the Rose alumni are far from confidence-building.”

Foster was apparently made distraught by the editorials, which he felt were mean-spirited and baseless. He believed, reasonably enough, that the Journal would continue attacking him and others. He told his sister that friends and colleagues in Arkansas would read the pieces and expressed concern that his reputation, which he valued, would be damaged. Foster had told an audience at the University of Arkansas Law School in a commencement address two months earlier: “The reputation you develop for intellectual and ethical integrity will be your greatest asset or your worst enemy...”

On July 20, 1993 Foster drove to Fort Marcy Park in Virginia and shot himself to death. The Journal campaign was not the only factor in his suicide, but it clearly played a significant role. A torn note was eventually found in his briefcase, which read, in part, “The WSJ editors lie without consequence.” It concluded, “I was not meant for the job or the spotlight of public life in Washington. Here ruining people is considered sport.”

The response of the Journal to Foster's suicide was chilling. It ran a piece, blandly headlined “A Washington Death,” which, after perfunctorily expressing sorrow, went on to demand an investigation into his death. "The American public,” the editors asserted, "is entitled to know if Mr. Foster's death was somehow connected to his high office."