It Takes A Thief

Since the government wasn't going to get the goods on ACORN, CAIR, or the scientists who were promoting climate change panic someone else did. Their methods may not have been strictly legal, but there probably wasn't any other way.

It all began with two young amateur investigators Hannah Giles and James O'Keefe, who posed undercover with a video camera and caught employees of the ACORN organization at several locations agreeing to assist them with a criminal enterprise, involving defrauding the government and importing underage girls for prostitution. It was an unlikely method of investigative journalism, but it worked. Giles and O'Keefe not only got important information; they found evidence of possible criminal conduct. If law enforcement had tried a stunt of this sort they would have been guilty of entrapment and the evidence would have been thrown out.

More importantly if law enforcement had found reason to conduct a serious investigation it is likely that political forces would have smothered it. So it was up to outsiders who could not be stopped by political pressure, and who were not subject to the rules controlling law enforcement agencies to do the job. They were the only ones who could obtain the evidence and get the message out.

Shortly after the ACORN videos hit the public a book entitled "Muslim Mafia" appeared because two other enterprising citizens also went undercover and obtained information on the CAIR organization that it did not want in the public eye. In the process they collected a large number of documents that form the basis of their exposé, which CAIR is now demanding that they return, and have apparently obtained a court order backing this demand.

In this instance law enforcement would have been able to perform a similar investigation because there would have been no entrapment defense. However, no one has done so, despite numerous allegations that CAIR is involved in improper activities, its status as an "unindicted co-conspirator" in Hamas funding case, and the fact that several former CAIR officials have been convicted or deported after being charged with fraud, embargo violations, or aiding terrorist training.

Now, on November 20, 2009 it was revealed that a hacker obtained access to the University of East Anglia (England) computers and downloaded information that purportedly shows that scientists were actively engaged in promoting misinformation about "global warming."  One of the emails obtained in the data contained the statement that I've just completed Mike's Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) and from 1961 for Keith's to hide the decline.  t seems an obvious case of falsification of data and backs other information that points in the direction that the whole thing was fraudulent from the start.

Phil Jones, head of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit, confirmed that there was a hacker involved and asserted that it was illegal for someone to hack into the system. Perhaps it was illegal, but what were the scientists involved doing? Is it illegal to defraud the public with falsified data in order to obtain research grants, or perhaps worse. And what about the government officials who were perpetuating the fraud, perhaps knowingly? Do Nancy Pelosi, Al Gore and company really believe this stuff, or did they just concoct it for personal profit?

Contrast these three successful "investigations" with what happened when AmeriCorps inspector general, Gerald Walpin, investigated reports that former NBA star Kevin Johnson had misused portions of $800,000 in federal AmeriCorps money provided to St. Hope, a Sacramento, California non-profit school that Johnson headed for several years. Johnson was also an ardent supporter of Barack Obama. The White House fired Walpin on June 10, 2009. Clearly, he was on to something. The truth of it may never be known because we can be sure that the executive branch will do everything in its power to suppress the information Walpin had developed and was developing.
Johnson is currently serving as mayor of Sacramento, but could face criminal charges if there was sufficient evidence of some of the allegations against him, which included incidents of sexual misconduct

At present Hannah Giles James O'Keefe, are the subject of investigations and lawsuits. Dave Gaubatz and Paul Sperry, who wrote Muslim Mafia are also facing legal problems. And, of course, Gerald Walpin was fired. Our unidentified hacker has avoided these entanglements so far because he or she is unknown. I'm hoping it that remains that way.

So what is wrong with this picture? Quite frankly, these intrepid investigators should be receiving public acclamations, rewards and medals of freedom for their activities. Instead they are in trouble or are hiding out to avoid it. And worse still, the perpetrators of the dastardly deeds they discovered are likely to skate off Scot-free. If things were being handled properly the only investigations and lawsuits would be turned in the opposite direction.

Whoever was ultimately responsible for firing Gerald Walpin was for all practical purposes covering up a crime under color of authority, and perhaps did so purposefully. The investigations of Giles and O'Keefe are also effectively attempts to suppress evidence of wrongdoing. When the Muslim Mafia papers were ordered returned the judge was in effect giving evidence back to a criminal suspect and thereby preventing them from coming to trial. Instead the papers should have been turned over to an independent prosecutor or grand jury. The same should have been done in the other cases as well.

Now, Andrew Breitbart , who worked with Giles and O'Keefe, has revealed that he is in possession of additional tapes, and not just of ACORN.
He is demanding that ACORN be investigated or the tapes will be released when they can have the greatest effect on the 2010 election. The Columbia Journalism Review suggested that this was an attempt to blackmail the US attorney general.  I agree, but without such measures AG Eric Holder cannot be counted on to do his job.  Breitbart's actions may actually forestall any additional actions against Giles and O'Keefe, while forcing the investigation that should have happened years ago.

It might actually have been better for Breitbart to hold on to the tapes and release them as an October surprise. After all, if Holder agrees to an investigation, he will probably turn it into a whitewash. Obama can then claim that it was all a case of dirty tricks by the "vast rightwing conspiracy." In any event, Holder would not do anything unless someone was holding a figurative sword over his head. His conflict of interest in the pending terrorist trials in New York shows that he cares little for the ethics that are supposed to govern legal professionals. Meanwhile, Obama worked with ACORN for years and probably will be implicated in something if the full information comes out.

By now it should be obvious to the American public that a lot of what happened in the 2008 election, and for years before was really a case of left-wing conspiracy. Breitbart may be holding the key to blowing the lid off of a case of rampant corruption. Let's hope that he has hired an excellent bodyguard. It is likely that he will need it.