Page 4A
East Oregonian
Wednesday, February 7, 2018
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Publisher
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Managing Editor
TIM TRAINOR
Opinion Page Editor
Founded October 16, 1875
OTHER VIEWS
Nunes’ nothingburger
G
ertrude Stein once said of
campaign) on opposition research
her hometown of Oakland,
on Trump. The memo also claims
California, “There is no there
this relationship was not disclosed to
there.” That about says it for Devin
the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance
Nunes’ notorious memo, too.
Court when the Justice Department
By this I do not mean that
applied for a surveillance warrant on
Nunes, R-Calif., chairman of the
Page.
House Intelligence Committee, has
That’s a significant omission
uncovered no potential wrongdoing
that already seems to have led to
Bret
in his 3 ½-page memo, which was
Stephens Ohr’s demotion, according to Fox
declassified Friday over vehement
News. Then again, the Nunes memo
Comment
objections from senior FBI and
has its own “material omissions,”
Justice Department officials. More
according to an adamant and
about the possible wrongdoing in a moment. enraged FBI. Who do you find more
The important questions, however, are:
credible: Nunes or FBI Director Christopher
First, did the FBI have solid reasons
Wray?
to suspect that people in Donald Trump’s
Nor does the Nunes memo claim that
campaign had unusual, dangerous and
the information provided by the FBI to the
possibly criminal ties to Moscow?
foreign intelligence court was, in fact, false.
Second, did this suspicion warrant
The closest it gets is a quote from ex-FBI
surveillance and investigation by the FBI?
Director James Comey saying the Steele
The answers are yes and yes, and nothing dossier was “salacious and unverified,” and
in the Nunes memo changes that — except
then noting the anti-Trump bias of various
to provide the president with a misleading
officials involved in the case.
pretext to fire deputy attorney general Rod
Come again? The Stormy Daniels
Rosenstein and discredit Robert Mueller’s
story is also salacious and almost
probe.
certainly accurate. “Unverified” is not a
Let’s review. Paul Manafort, the Trump
synonym for “untrue.” And since when
do pundits who make a living from their
campaign chairman until August 2016, is
opinions automatically equate “bias” with
credibly alleged to have received $12.7
dishonesty?
million in “undisclosed cash payments”
The larger inanity here is the notion
from then-Ukrainian President Viktor
that the FBI tried to throw the election to
Yanukovych, a Russian stooge. Had
Clinton, when it was the Democrats who
Manafort not been exposed, he might have
complained bitterly at the time that the
gone on to occupy a position of trust in the
opposite was true.
Trump administration, much as Reagan
“It has become clear that you possess
campaign manager Bill Casey wound up
explosive information about close ties and
running the CIA. He would then have been
coordination between Donald Trump, his
easy prey to Russian blackmail.
George Papadopoulos, the young adviser top advisers and the Russian government,”
who pleaded guilty last year to lying to
Harry Reid, then the Senate minority leader,
the FBI, spent his time on the campaign
angrily wrote to James Comey in late
trying to make overtures to Russia. In May
October 2016. “The public has a right to
2016 he blabbed to an Australian diplomat
know this information.”
that Moscow had political dirt on Hillary
Maybe so. But the G-Men kept quiet
Clinton — information that proved true and about their investigations, and Trump
was passed on to U.S. intelligence. This was won the election. How that represents
the genesis of an FBI counterintelligence
evidence of a sinister deep-state conspiracy
investigation, as the Nunes memo itself
is a question for morons to ponder. As
admits.
for Devin Nunes, he has, to adapt an old
And then there’s Carter Page, the man
line, produced evidence of a conspiracy
at the center of the Nunes memo. By
so small. In modern parlance we’d call it a
turns stupid (his Ph.D. thesis was twice
nothingburger, but the bun is missing, too.
rejected), self-important (he has compared
■
himself to the Rev. Martin Luther King
Bret Stephens in a columnist for the New
Jr.), and money-hungry (a suspected
York Times.
Russian agent who tried to recruit him in
2013 was recorded saying he “got hooked
on Gazprom”), Page happens also to be
highly sympathetic to the Putin regime.
The Russian phrase for such characters is
polezni durak — useful idiot. No wonder
he was invited to give a commencement
speech at a Russian university in summer
2016. That’s how assets are cultivated in the
world of intelligence.
Given the profile and his relative
proximity to team Trump, it would have
been professionally negligent of the FBI not
to keep tabs on him. Yet the bureau obtained
a surveillance warrant only after Page had
left the campaign and shortly before the
election, and it insisted throughout the
campaign that Trump was not a target of
investigation. How that represents an affront
to American democracy is anyone’s guess.
The memo does seem to have
uncovered conflicts of interest at the Justice
Department, most seriously by then-
Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce
Ohr, whose wife was working for Fusion
GPS (and thus, by extension, the Clinton
Republicans and those
‘attacks’ on the FBI
he news is filled with reports
recent are several who contracted
that Republicans in Washington
serious illnesses while aiding
are “attacking” the FBI over the
recovery efforts in Washington, New
Trump-Russia investigation.
York and Pennsylvania immediately
The Washington Post recently
after the September 11 terrorist
compiled a collection of statements
attacks.
by GOP lawmakers under the
That kind of selflessness and
heading “Republicans launch attack
dedication is clearly not what
after attack on the FBI.” The New
Republicans are criticizing.
Byron
York Times ran a news analysis
What Republicans are
York
headlined “Trump’s Unparalleled
condemning is the FBI leadership’s
Comment
War on a Pillar of Society: Law
conduct in the Trump and Clinton
Enforcement.”
probes. For example, in the case
Those words have been echoed many,
of the much-discussed House Intelligence
many times by various talking heads on
Committee memo released last week,
television.
Republicans (accurately) portrayed an FBI
But have Republicans really been
leadership that made common cause with an
attacking the FBI? The bureau is a big
opposition research project paid for by the
organization — about 35,000 people. It
Hillary Clinton campaign right in the middle
does many different things. A more accurate
of a 2016 presidential election — and then
way to describe what Republicans are
ferociously resisted congressional oversight.
doing is that they are condemning the FBI
An agency that does that can expect some
leadership’s handling of two of the most
criticism, if its actions ever come to light.
heavily politicized investigations in years
“It’s quite obvious that the Intelligence
— the Trump-Russia probe and the Hillary
Committee is only questioning the decisions
Clinton email investigation. All that proves
made by a small number of FBI officials
is that when law enforcement wades into
at the highest levels,” said committee
politics, it becomes the target of sometimes
spokesman Jack Langer. “In fact, we’ve
intense political criticism.
been hearing from a large number of FBI
That is an entirely different thing from
employees, both active and retired, who
have asked us to continue the oversight work
attacking the FBI as an institution or
we’re doing.”
attacking the role it plays in government.
For all the good it does, the FBI has
The FBI does enormously valuable,
sometimes heroic things. It breaks up terrorist made some horrendous mistakes. After the
post-9/11 anthrax attacks, for example, the
rings and catches killers and bank robbers
bureau focused its search for the perpetrator
and kidnappers and embezzlers and all sorts
on an Army scientist named Steven Hatfill.
of bad actors in our society. It investigates
complex crimes that victimize large numbers There was a lot of pressure on the FBI
of Americans. Its agents sometimes give their to solve the case, and there was a lot of
headquarters involvement. But Hatfill was
lives to protect the public.
innocent. Nevertheless, the FBI chased him
The FBI has a Hall of Honor that
relentlessly, destroying his reputation and
recognizes agents who have been killed in
ability to make a living. Only after years
the line of duty. Thirty-six agents have been
did the FBI turn toward another suspect,
killed “as the result of a direct adversarial
who killed himself before charges could be
force or at or by the hand of an adversary.”
The most recent was murdered in 2008 while filed. The FBI had to pay Hatfill millions in
damages.
executing an arrest warrant on violent drug
The bureau, led by then-director Robert
traffickers in Pennsylvania.
Mueller, didn’t seem terribly sorry about
Another 30 FBI employees are honored
it. When the Justice Department “formally
for having died in the performance of their
exonerated Hatfill, and paid him $5.82
duty, although not necessarily in direct
million in a legal settlement,” columnist Carl
confrontation with a criminal. The most
Cannon wrote last year, “Mueller could not
be bothered to walk across the street to attend
the press conference announcing the case’s
resolution. When reporters did ask him about
it, Mueller was graceless. ‘I do not apologize
for any aspect of the investigation,’ he said,
adding that it would be erroneous ‘to say
there were mistakes.’”
Today Mueller is, of course, the special
counsel investigating the Trump-Russia
affair. But one could list a number of other
non-heroic episodes under different directors
in the bureau’s history, starting with the first,
J. Edgar Hoover.
So the FBI has deserved its share of
criticism over the years. And that goes double
when the bureau intrudes into politics. So
no, Republicans are not attacking the FBI
writ large. But when the nation’s premier
investigative agency, with all its formidable
law enforcement powers, jumps in the middle
of hot political disputes, no one should be
surprised when things get political.
■
Byron York is chief political correspondent
for The Washington Examiner.
T
YOUR VIEWS
B2H: Where are the benefits?
Mitch Colburn has a terrible job.
He’s paid to make Idaho Power’s B2H
transmission line sound like a good project,
good for Umatilla County, good for all of
Oregon. Because there’s nothing good to
say, he labels critics’ facts as “opinions,”
which he responds to with “information,”
mostly the company’s public relations
window dressing.
Where is Mr. Colburn’s information
about benefits? Jobs: None. Additional
energy delivered to Umatilla County: None.
Here’s his information: Some
transmission towers will be only 140 feet
high, not 190. That’s a benefit? In special
places, clear cuts will be only 150 feet wide,
not 250. Another benefit? Only half as many
access roads will be needed. That’s a mere
200 roads, not 400. To protect views of the
Oregon Trail in Baker County, towers will
be painted brown so shining steel won’t be
so obnoxious. Do we all feel better now?
Not likely.
These 140- to 190-foot towers, planted
on clear cuts as wide as eight-lane highways,
will scar the skylines of five eastern Oregon
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the
East Oregonian editorial board. Other
columns, letters and cartoons on this page
express the opinions of the authors and
not necessarily that of the East Oregonian.
counties from the Idaho border to Boardman,
Oregon. That’s information, not opinion.
Idaho Power has been meeting with
stake holders and property owners. Yes.
In La Grande more than 300 people have
turned out. Every person in attendance
said “No” to the B2H. Why? Because the
B2H will cross prime farm land, endanger
ecosystems, invade private property and
impact the Oregon Trail. That’s information,
not opinion.
The “need” for the controversial B2H,
whether it should be built at all, is currently
being analyzed by the Oregon Public
Utilities Commission. Idaho Power has
been proposing this line since 2007. Is that
good? No. In the last 10 years the electric
utility industry has changed as much as the
telephone industry. Trade publications use
terms like “dramatic changes,” “tectonic
shifts” and “death spiral” to describe the
industry’s shift away from transmission
lines. Idaho Power is still pursuing the same
old plans to build the B2H — the equivalent
of telephone poles for landlines — while
in Iowa, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Virginia,
West Virginia, and Oregon long-planned
transmission line projects, once deemed
“essential,” have been canceled. That’s
information, not opinion.
Mr. Colburn has a terrible job. Yes. That’s
my opinion.
Lois Barry
La Grande
Is BMCC rodeo arena
best use of money?
Why is so much money, possibly
upwards of $10-12 million, being spent
on a rodeo venture at the Pendleton Blue
Mountain Community College? I understand
that it would help the college animal science
program, but why something this big, and
expensive, and this dependent on county
and city for future use? BMCC isn’t about
Pendleton Round-Up or rodeos. BMCC
surely isn’t about being a tourist attraction
or fundraiser for the city. It is only a
community college.
BMCC is about education. It is a
community college for students to either
earn a degree for great employment or
credits to enter into a college of higher
learning. A community college is available
for everyone in the Umatilla County area.
The cost of attending BMCC is
ridiculously expensive as it is. The cost of
credits alone is increasing from $97 per
credit to $104 per credit this coming year!
“Lack of funding at the state level forces
community colleges to place an unfair
burden on the backs of students in the form
of tuition increases,” a news release from
BMCC stated. Put your knee high boots on
because the cow poop is getting deep!
Why not use the above money BMCC
President Cam Preus has such wonderful
future spending plans for; why not invest
money into county grants for all the students
that depend on getting degrees through
BMCC and are residents of our county to
help cover classroom literature for example?
BMCC is Blue Mountain Community
College, not a Blue Mountain Pendleton
Round-Up Rodeo Event Grounds to rent out
and a college rodeo team. The community,
since it includes a BMCC located in the
Hermiston area also, is about community
of Umatilla County, not just one city and is
not supposed to be involved in the tourist
business. I’m just sayin’.
Bernie Sanderson
Hermiston
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