The Orrin Hatch Files
Republicans Spent 70 Million of YOUR tax dollars, with Democrat support, to discover if Monica Swallowed, ONLY 3 Million of YOUR tax dollars to Investigate 9/11, and now Orrin Hatch supports an Attorney General who lied under oath. ...WHY?
Orrin Hatch: Taking A Leak On Justice
What did he know and when did he know it?
Leak of CIA data angers officials
Sen. Hatch denies revealing secrets
By John Diamond and Jill Zuckman
[HATCH'S FAULT]
Washington Bureau Published September 14, 2001 WASHINGTON -- A senior senator's disclosure of highly classified information about the U.S. terrorism investigation has infuriated Bush administration officials and led to a clampdown on how much the White House will share with lawmakers.
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, told reporters hours after terrorists crashed hijacked jetliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon that U.S. intelligence had intercepted a telephone call from a suspect reporting to his handler that the targets in New York City and near Washington had been hit.
"They have an intercept of some information that includes people associated with [Osama] bin Laden who acknowledged a couple of targets were hit," Hatch told The Associated Press. He made similar comments to ABC News and said the information had come from officials at the CIA and FBI.
Electronic intercepts represent some of the most sensitive intelligence possessed by the government. U.S. officials rarely discuss their content because to do so would reveal to adversaries, including foreign governments, that American intelligence had penetrated their sensitive communications.
Hatch's disclosure, with the possibility it would tip off terrorists that their communications had been compromised, left senior officials of the administration dumbfounded and angry.
"Well, that helps a lot!" exclaimed one official, who added an expletive for emphasis, after learning of Hatch's comments.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, without mentioning Hatch's name, said Wednesday that such public statements risk undermining the investigation into Tuesday's attacks by terrorists.
"It's important to underline that, when people deal with intelligence information and make it available to people who are not cleared for that classified information, the effect is to reduce the chances that the United States government has to track down and deal with the people who have perpetrated the attacks on the United States and killed so many Americans," Rumsfeld told reporters.
He described "people who ought to know better" who would disclose such information as being "willing to violate federal criminal statutes and willing to frustrate our efforts to track down and deal with terrorists."
A Pentagon official said Rumsfeld was concerned by Hatch's comments as well as others.
In an interview with the Tribune, Hatch testily denied he had disclosed any classified information.
"I have been here 25 years and I have never violated a classified matter, and I never will," Hatch said. He said no one with the Bush administration had contacted him about his comments about the telephone intercept.
Hatch has not been the only lawmaker to emerge from classified briefings this week and discuss sensitive information.
One side effect of such leaks, said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), has been that the administration's briefings in Room 407 of the Capitol, a secure facility, have become gradually less informative.
Amid all of the leaking, McCain said, "I can understand then why we go to these meetings in 407 and I receive much less information than I do from turning on the television set."
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) called the briefings "a colossal waste of time."
Copyright © 2001, Chicago Tribune
Non-working link points to:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-109140370sep14.story?co
Supporting Obstruction of Justice Is Wrong
Republicans and Democrats Teach Children
to Lie
Bush, key senator still backing Gonzales
By LARA JAKES JORDAN
WASHINGTON - The White House and a key Republican senator reaffirmed support Saturday for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales even as Democrats questioned his credibility for apparently misrepresenting his role in firing eight federal prosecutors.
Critics said the latest document disclosure — more than 280 pages of e-mails, calendar notations and other documents sent to Congress late Friday — bolstered their case for Gonzales' ouster.
Yet one longtime ally who largely has kept quiet about the attorney general's fate issued a statement of support.
Hatch Supports Gonzales Lying Under Oath
"He has always been straightforward and honest with me," said Sen. Orrin Hatch (news, bio, voting record), R-Utah. "So, unless there is clear evidence that the attorney general deliberately lied or misled Congress, I see no reason to call for his resignation."
Gonzales has said he participated in no discussions and saw no memos about plans to carry out the firings on Dec. 7 that Democrats contend were politically motivated.
His schedule, however, shows he attended at least one hour long meeting, on Nov. 27, where he approved a detailed plan to execute the prosecutors' firings. Continue reading at:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070325/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/fired_prosecutors
Orrin Hatch: Part of the Problem or Solution?
He certainly seems to be involved in a lot of stuff
"Terrorists are waiting for the Democrats here to take control, let things cool off and then strike again." Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), quoted by the Salt Lake Tribune.
Where Did Orrin Hatch Get His 9/11 Information?
And CNN's terrorism analyst Peter Bergen reports that he did have pilots in his organization.
U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch says there's some evidence that Osama Bin Laden's organization might have been behind the attacks. He told CNN about an earlier along with a word of warning to Afghanistan's Taliban rulers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN ORRIN HATCH (R), UTAH: The Taliban have been harboring Osama Bin Laden. Osama Bin Laden has said that it is the duty of every Muslim to kill Americans. There's every indication that he has been behind some of the attacks against American installations.
And we happen to know just today that we've got information that indicates that representatives who are affiliated with Osama Bin Laden were actually saying over the airwaves that, the private airwaves at that, that they had hit two targets.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0109/12/se.05.html
Revealing Picture of Hatch Appears on the Internet
Hatch Caught in Embarrassing Online Tryst with Publisher of Stolen Democratic
Documents
WASHINGTON - March 5 - Twice in the days before right wing activist Kay
Daly published stolen Democratic documents on her web site, Senator Orrin
Hatch appeared on fringe internet radio shows with her. On October 29,
2003, he appeared on her Free Republic radio “Daly Show” and
on November 11, 2003, he appeared on another Free Republic radio show with
her. Manuel Miranda appeared on Ms. Daly’s radio show just two weeks
earlier.
Kay Daly was the first person to publish complete versions of the stolen documents. Miranda still denies leaking the stolen documents. Orrin Hatch denies having any knowledge of the stolen documents. Their appearances on the internet-broadcast radio shows days before she obtained the documents calls into question their denials.
It is highly unusual that a sitting United States Senator, the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, would appear on two fringe internet radio broadcasts in two weeks. The same could be said for a top staffer in the Senate Leader’s office, especially in the busy days leading up to the Republicans’ faux filibuster.
For reasonable observers, it is hard to believe that the timing of these events is purely coincidental. This is one reason a criminal investigation is absolutely necessary. Continue at:
http://www.commondreams.org/news2004/0305-01.htm
Orrin Hatch, Software Pirate?
Hatch Condemns Software Theft , Then Steals Some Himself
By Leander Kahney
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) suggested Tuesday that people who download copyright materials from the Internet should have their computers automatically destroyed.
But Hatch himself is using unlicensed software on his official website, which presumably would qualify his computer to be smoked by the system he proposes.
The senator's site makes extensive use of a JavaScript menu system developed by Milonic Solutions, a software company based in the United Kingdom. The copyright-protected code has not been licensed for use on Hatch's website.
"It's an unlicensed copy," said Andy Woolley, who runs Milonic. "It's very unfortunate for him because of those comments he made."
Hatch on Tuesday surprised a Senate hearing on copyright issues with the suggestion that technology should be developed to remotely destroy the computers of people who illegally download music from the Net. Continue at:
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,59305,00.html
Orrin Hatch's Aide Improperly Got Democratic Memos
Had staffer "improperly accessed" Democratic documents?
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top U.S. Senate Republican expressed "deep regret" on Tuesday in announcing that an internal investigation of computer records found one of his staffers had "improperly accessed" Democratic documents.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch said he placed the staffer on administrative leave with pay pending a separate probe by the Senate sergeant at arms, Bill Pickle.
Hatch, who had initially ridiculed the allegations, also said a former staffer "may also have been involved," but declined to identify either person by name.
(snip)
Hatch said the staffer who got access to the memos denied giving them to the news media and it remained unclear how reporters got them.
The disclosure came a week after congressional law enforcement authorities began looking into what Democrats called an apparent computer theft of 14 staff memos critical of President Bush's embattled judicial nominees.
Link no longer available:
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/politics/politics-congress-memos.html
There is more, however we believe the hypocrisy has been presented.
Dahbud Mensch, 25 March 2007
