CNN * 17:00 ET
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0704/13/sitroom.01.html
THE SITUATION ROOM
Why Good People Turn Evil; Controversial Aircraft to Iraq; Wanted: More Military Recruits

Aired April 13, 2007 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

WOLF BLITZER, HOST: And to our viewers, you're in THE SITUATION ROOM . . .
. . . Let's go to New York and Jack Cafferty for The Cafferty File -- Jack.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the Bush administration's terrible luck with finding documents is the title of a salon.com article written by Glenn Greenwald. He's a former litigator, author of the book, "How Would A Patriot Act?"

In light of the revelation that the White House may have lost thousands of e-mails sent out on the Republican National Committee e- mail account, some of which are thought to pertain to the firing of the eight federal prosecutors, Greenwald has ticked back through some other examples that tend to suggest a pattern.

So here we go, starting with this week.

"Some official e-mails have potentially been lost."

Then, "In Justice Department documents, there's a gap from mid- November to early December in e-mails and other memos."

And this: "What happened to a crucial video recording of al Qaeda operative Jose Padilla being interrogated in a U.S. military brig that has mysteriously disappeared?"

Or this: "The Pentagon sought to explain why some 2,000 pages were missing from a Congressional copy of a classified report detailing the alleged acts of abuse by soldiers against Iraqi inmates at Abu Ghraib Prison."

And then this: "Documents that should have been written to explain gaps in President Bush's Texas Air National Guard service are missing from the military records released about his service in 1972 and '73."

And there's this: "FEMA's Michael Brown's comments about the president surfaced in a transcript of an August 29th, 2005 video conference call produced by Bush administration officials today after they initially told Congress that no such document existed."

And, finally, this: "Concerning the trial of "Scooter" Libby, prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald had cautioned Libby's lawyers that some e-mails might be missing because the White House's archiving system had failed."

So here's the question -- when it comes to missing documents and e-mails and the Bush White House, do you see some sort of pattern here?
E-mail caffertyfile@cnn.com or go to cnn.com/caffertyfile.

Kind of like a compost heap, Wolf -- the more stuff you pile on it, the greater the odor that emanates from it.

BLITZER: OK. Jack, thank you for that.

CAFFERTY: You're welcome.

BLITZER: We'll get back to you soon. Up ahead, a comedian takes on a sitting U.S. senator. Former radio host Al Franken calls the Minnesota Republican incumbent, Norm Coleman, and I'm quoting now, "a cheerleader for President Bush." Franken is pondering a run for Coleman's seat. I'll ask Senator Coleman for his reaction . . .

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CNN * 18:00 ET
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0704/13/sitroom.02.html
THE SITUATION ROOM
Missing E-mails Scandal; Brazen Attack: Defiance After Iraq Parliament Building Bombing; Battle-Ready Aircraft?

Aired April 13, 2007 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

ED HENRY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, Kitty. There already were sharp questions about whether or not top White House aides had misused Republican political e-mail for official business, whether those e-mails also went missing, but now new allegations that perhaps official White House e-mail was lost, which could ratchet the pressure on the administration.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

HENRY (voice-over): Even as Democrats have Karl Rove in their sights over Republican National Committee e-mail that may have disappeared, fresh signs there could be a much bigger problem -- missing e-mail from the White House itself. A new report by a liberal watchdog group charges that over a two year period, official White House e-mail traffic for hundreds of days have simply vanished, in possible violation of the federal Presidential Records Act.

MELANIE SLOAN, CITIZENS FOR RESPONSIBILITY & ETHICS: There were, between March of 2003 and October of 2005, apparently over five million e-mail that were not preserved. And these are e-mail on the regular White House server.

HENRY: White House Spokeswoman Dana Perino stressed there is no indication the e-mails were intentionally lost. But she was careful not to dispute the group's allegations.

DANA PERINO, DEPUTY WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I'm not taking issue with their conclusions at this point . . .

. . . (END VIDEO TAPE)

Today, at Juan Cole's place, there's a story by a man who is being smeared as a "terrorist" -- according to some of the unreliable sources from which the American and Canadian governments get their hot tips.

Who is doing the smearing? Unsurprisingly, it's coming from government-associated (and, maybe even government-sponsored) (the Turkish government, in this case) right-wing terrorists and right-wing authoritarians, providing hot tips to the USA and Canada.

A well-meaning American customs official tells the victim, “Mr. Akçam, if you don’t retain an attorney and correct this issue, every entry and exit from the country is going to be problematic. We recommend that you do not travel in the meantime and that you try to get this information removed from your customs dossier.”

As Ryan Singel says, North America, though not quite Orwellian, is certainly Gilliamesque.

http://juancole.com/2007/04/detained-in-two-worlds-taner-akam-story.html

I generally find that epithets like "dhimmi-crat" and "re-thuglican" are at best silly, and more likely counterproductive to the goal of the silly rhetoric spouter.

However, I'm flexible, and after seeing her a couple of times, I'm willing to make an allowance for the term, "The Noron."

I'm convinced by "monigoo" http://web.archive.org/web/20000309200820/home.regent.edu/monigoo/rtside.htm