Wes Vernon, NewsMax.com
Friday, July 12, 2002

He also warns that past FBI abuses from that era should serve as a caution signal regarding a willingness in some quarters to sacrifice liberty in the name of security.

In all of the uproar over who knew what and who fell down on the job before Sept. 11, Freeh’s name is rarely mentioned, even though he was the top cop during that entire period, until just shortly before the terrorist attacks on America last fall.

"I don’t see any efforts at all to hold Louis Freeh accountable,” Aldrich told NewsMax.com after a speech sponsored by Accuracy in Media.

He noted that security-minded writers and leaders were making the case for the ouster of Clinton holdover George Tenet as CIA director. But hardly any word about Freeh has turned up in any media discussion of the intelligence failures before 9-11.

There’s "a deeper story here” with respect to the FBI "that people just won’t talk about in this town,” Aldrich said. "And that is the misuse of the FBI resources during the Clinton administration.”

Pursuing Abortion Foes and Movers of Dirt

FBI agents’ activities were micromanaged by Clinton’s Attorney General Janet Reno, the FBI whistle-blower charged. They were told to "investigate such amazingly violent groups as abortion clinic protesters or to have FBI agents going around with camera equipment photographing piles of dirt that had been moved from point A on somebody’s property to point B because this was a major EPA violation.”

Continuing to add up this Clinton-Reno misuse of the FBI, with no apparent protest from then-Director Freeh, Aldrich ridiculed the pattern of "getting agents involved in this organized crime we call deadbeat dads.

"You realize there’s an organized group of dads around this country who are running this cartel designed only for the purpose of avoiding child support payments. Did you know that?” he mockingly asked.

"We’ve had FBI agents chasing these guys all over the country. Of course, the guys we’re talking about here were on the back of garbage trucks or in the lawn care business where they get paid [under the table] cash and are going city to city as transients always do.”

It is this kind of "nonsense that went on during Louis Freeh’s watch," charged Aldrich, whose book "Unlimited Access” blew the lid off the entire lackadaisical approach to White House security under Clinton.

"You people,” he said, addressing his audience of conservative activists, "you people were the people that the Clinton administration wanted to look into to see if you had some plan to drive a truck up to the White House.”

What's Bad for Slick Willie Is Bad for America

In a demonstration of what he called "very self-serving paranoia," Aldrich alleged "the Clinton administration decided that anything that was negative to the Clinton administration was a threat to national security.

"Watch out for that in the current administration,” he added. "Watch out for them using that rationalization to do what they do” in the post-Sept. 11 environment, "because mere protest by citizens is as American as apple pie.”

The veteran FBI agent faults the Bush administration for getting "poor political advice” to avoid raising issues concerning the damage the Clinton people did because "there are some matters and principles that should not be ignored,” among them, the previous administration's abuse of power, such as nearly 1,000 FBI files being given over to a political party for partisan purposes.

It is the Clinton-Reno-Freeh era of abuses that cause Aldrich to view with skepticism part of the Bush-Ashcroft plans for expansion of government power in the wake of 9-11. Many of the problems those proposals attempt to remedy could better be dealt with by applying laws already on the books, he believes.

"We have law on law on layer on layer,” he said in answer to a questioner who stated that he was more concerned right now with whether he and his family would just survive the war on terror than with concerns about abuse of power.

Aldrich responded that laws already on the books are not being adequately enforced in the fight against terrorists. Nor, he said, is it necessary to add a lot of legislation to deal with corporate corruption.

'Take More of Your Liberty'

We have laws "where any one of those executive can be prosecuted and put away for 20 years,” he said. But in fighting terrorists, instead of going after those who pose a danger to us, too many are ready to say, "Let’s go over here and take more of your liberty" of law-abiding citizens.

He cited the GOP congressional primary in Georgia as a classic case of the split between privacy-minded and security-oriented conservatives. Aldrich strongly backed Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., who has been redistricted into a race with fellow incumbent John Linder, R-Ga., whom the whistle-blower described as "a fine man,” but one with less emphasis on the crucial privacy issues than is evident with Congressman Barr.

In cover-ups and bias, former Clinton aide George Stephanopoulos is "a classic case of what we’re talking about” and "doesn’t even bother to try to hide his politics" in his broadcasts with ABC News, as Aldrich sees it. He recalled that from the time Clinton began his quest for the White House, Stephanopoulos and "Ragin’ Cajun” James Carville "set up a group to do nothing but spin the truth, and hide the truth and lie.”

ABC's 'Professional Liar'

Prior to the election, as well as after he went to the White House, Stephanopoulos was "a professional liar" declared the FBI whistle-blower whose appearance on ABC’s "This Week” after his book's publication in 1996 was allowed over the former Clinton aide’s protest. And when Aldrich did appear, Stephanopoulos put up his colleagues to blindside the author with accusatory questions that attempted to discredit him.

Stephanopoulos is "as good an example” as any of what is wrong with the media today, the former FBI man and current think tank (Patrick Henry Center) executive said.

And yes, he added, you could say he is a living metaphor for the media’s refusal to hold Louis Freeh accountable for what went on at the FBI on his watch.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:

Bush Administration

Clinton Scandals

Homeland/Civil Defense

Media Bias

Privacy

War on Terrorism

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