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he-firing-of-new-mexico-attorney-david-iglesias/
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<br><br>---------- Forwarded message ----------<br><span class=3D"gmail_quo=
te">From: <b class=3D"gmail_sendername">Greg Palast</b> <<a href=3D"mail=
to:palast@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx">palast@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx</a>><b=
r>Date: May 16, 2007 9:57 AM
<br>Subject: An Army of Rove-Bots -- Captain Iglesias, Obstruction of Justi=
ce, and the Theft of 2008<br>To: <a href=3D"mailto:margitjo@xxxxxxxxx";>marg=
itjo@xxxxxxxxx</a><br><br></span>
<div>
<h3><font face=3D"Arial">An Army of Rove-Bots -- Captain Iglesias, Obstruct=
ion of Justice, and the Theft of 2008</font></h3>
<p><font face=3D"Arial"><strong>by Greg Palast</strong><br></font></p><font=
face=3D"Arial"><strong><em>Special to The BRAD BLOG | </em>Wed=
nesday, May 16, 2006</strong><br><br>"The wheels have come off, the engine =
is on fire and no one is driving," Captain David Iglesias told me yesterday=
. I'd asked the Naval Reserve officer, heading off to duty in Norfolk, why =
he didn't want his old job back, United States Attorney for New Mexico.
<br><br>The busted, burning, ghost-mobile he described is the Department of=
Justice, driven by Alberto Gonzales. Or is Karl Rove at the wheel? Or no o=
ne? Whomever, he didn't want to jump back into Bush's Justice Jalopy.<br>
<br>Today, Iglesias is in Washington to pull the junker off the road, meeti=
ng with the Office of Special Counsel where Obstruction of Justice may be s=
wirling around in the old oil pan laying on the garage floor.<br><br>The ex=
-prosecutor and I, long, long ago, had both worked for the Attorney General=
of New Mexico, a state where the snakes have less venom than the politicia=
ns.
<br><br>First, there's Senator Pete Domenici, whose hiss is as smooth as hi=
s bite is deadly.<br><br>Domenici, softball interviewer Chris Matthews note=
s, is a nice guy. On TV. However, the Republican Senator's call to Iglesias=
at his home, just before the 2006 midterm election, asking the prosecutor =
about filing charges against Democrats in the week before the vote, was dow=
nright rude. When the prosecutor replied in the negative, the Senator hung =
up.
<br><br>And apparently, the Senator contacted one Monica Goodling who, scri=
bbled on a notepad: "Iglesias - Domenici says he doesn't move cases." Oops.=
Goodling, a political stooge working for Gonzales, was listing the reasons=
for firing US attorneys. Now, rudeness was no longer the issue. Firing a p=
rosecutor for failing to "move cases" =97 handcuff citizens at the request =
of a Senator =97 is Obstruction of Justice.
<br><br>No wonder Monica took The Fifth.<br><br>Of course, the Rove dogsbod=
ies at Justice couldn't tell Congress they fired Iglesias because he wouldn=
't jump at the Senator's rattle. They reached for another complaint on Moni=
ca's list: "absentee landlord." Deputy Assistant Attorney General Paul McNu=
lty used absenteeism as the official reason for dismissal. McNulty's resign=
ed.
<br><br>He should have taken The Fifth=85.<br><br>The problem is that the U=
S Attorney from New Mexico was missing for 40 days because he was on active=
duty. I guess the White House gang doesn't go to the movies. Iglesias is a=
celebrity Navy lawyer, the role model for Tom Cruise in A Few Good Men.
<br><br>"Our Mission Accomplished President attacked you for spending time =
in the US Naval Reserve?" I asked Iglesias=85<br><br>"Appalling," he said. =
And illegal. Firing a reserve officer for missing work for active duty viol=
ates the Uniform Services Employment Rights and Reemployment Act (USERRA).
<br><br>Pressuring a prosecutor to bust Democrats and punishing a soldier f=
or deploying are the little felonies, the warm-up crimes, in this caper.<br=
><br>The real crime is the one they are about to commit: The Theft of 2008.
<br><br>Iglesias told me he was continually being pushed to bring "voter fr=
aud" cases beginning in 2004. Unfortunately, Iglesias went along with the g=
ame, at least at the opening kick-off, holding a press conference just week=
s before the Bush-Kerry race, announcing he was setting up a task force wit=
h the FBI to hunt down evil voters.
<br><br>But there were none. "It was the old throwing pasta at the wall tri=
ck. Something's got to stick. And it didn't," he said.<br><br>So Iglesias g=
ot the axe. "I didn't help them out on their bogus voter fraud prosecutions=
."
<br><br>Notably, Iglesias has been signaling these cases were phony-baloney=
for two years. I got that word from his office in 2005 while reporting for=
BBC Television on what passes for elections in the USA. But the New Mexico=
and US press continued to hawk the Republican line of masses of illegal vo=
ters, especially illegal immigrants jamming the polling stations.
<br><br>One thing the American media still has failed to do is to explain w=
hy the GOP wanted to bring these cases. In New Mexico, in Arizona, in Georg=
ia and a dozen other states, Republicans were pushing laws requiring voters=
to have special ID. In 2004, at least a quarter million citizens lost thei=
r vote because they didn't bring in the right ID. And which quarter million=
? Overwhelming, it was Black, Brown and "Blue" Americans.
<br><br>Yet, despite this tidal wave of a quarter million "fraudulent" vote=
rs, not one was charged with a crime. Hmmm. Maybe they were innocent. If th=
ere's no crime, there's no need for a law to stop the crime. But Republican=
s don't want to stop voter fraud =97 they want to stop voters. The US press=
won't tell you that.
<br><br>But Iglesias wouldn't help. He did the PR stunt =97 but he wouldn't=
handcuff the innocent. Was he fired for that? His termination was ordered =
by Tim Griffin, Karl Rove's right-hand hitman.<br><br>Were Griffin and Rove=
punishing Iglesias for not bringing the fake cases? Iglesias said, "If his=
intent was, look what happened with Iglesias, if that was his intent, he's=
in big trouble. That is obstruction of justice, one classic example."
<br><br>Figuring out Rove's intent requires crawling inside his head. That'=
s scary and difficult =97 unless you have his office's "missing" emails. I =
have 500 of them. How I got them is another story. The key thing is, as I w=
as discussing with my fellow alum of the AG's office, is to explain to a ju=
ry the perp's mindset. And these emails show the mad fixation of Griffin an=
d the Rove crew with eliminating voters of the wrong hue.
<br><br>Most notable were the "caging" lists naming thousands of voters who=
lost their vote to GOP challenges, a large proportion of them soldiers sen=
t overseas. Voting rights attorney, law professor Robert F., Kennedy Jr., r=
eviewed the evidence we obtained and concluded, "They ought to be in jail f=
or doing this" =97 Griffin and his boss Rove both =97 for violating the Vot=
ing Rights Act of 1965.
<br><br>But who would bust them, Bobby? Albert Gonzales?<br><br>Is Captain =
Iglesias just another serviceman "caged"?<br><br>And where is Griffin today=
? After Rove had the US Attorney for Arkansas fired, he replaced him with G=
riffin. The perpetrator became the prosecutor.
<br><br>And that's the real crime: removing those who won't conspire with t=
he GOP bigs to push the voter ID con =97 and planting their Griffins, exper=
t in election manipulation =97 in place for the 2008 race.<br><br>This week=
, I contacted the office of Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy about the Grif=
fin appointment to which they seemed oddly indifferent. His aide said, "Wel=
l, Griffin's just an interim appointee."
<br><br>True, Griffin has promised to leave =97 right after the 2008 electi=
on.<br><br>Prosecutor-gate is not about Gonzales' incompetence. It's not ab=
out appointing "loyal Bushies." It's not even about firing A Few Good Men.
<br><br>It's about the 2008 election and changing the Department of Justice=
=97 the agency charged with protecting voters =97 into an army of Rove-bot=
s=85programmed to attack them.<br><br><br>* * * * * * * * *<em><br>Greg Pal=
ast is the author of the New York Times bestseller, ARMED MADHOUSE: From Ba=
ghdad to New Orleans =97 Sordid Secrets and Strange Tales of a White House =
Gone Wild, just out in a new edition. For more information, go to=20
<a onclick=3D"return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href=3D"http://=
www.gregpalast.com/" target=3D"_blank">www.GregPalast.com</a></em><br><br><=
/font><font face=3D"Arial"><em>Read / Watch / Listen to the report by Palas=
t, on David Iglesias, for Democracy Now! here: =20
<a onclick=3D"return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href=3D"http://=
www.gregpalast.com/investigative-journalist-greg-palast-reports-on-the-firi=
ng-of-new-mexico-attorney-david-iglesias/" target=3D"_blank">http://www.gre=
gpalast.com/investigative-journalist-greg-palast-reports-on-the-firing-of-n=
ew-mexico-attorney-david-iglesias/
</a></em></font><br><font face=3D"Arial"><br><br><br><br><br><br></font>
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