Michael Atherton writes "Not that I'm adverse to conspiracy theories (I have a number of my own, including being the subject of a campaign contribution sting ;-) and not that it doesn't make me a little queasy defending the FBI, but has anyone considered that if the FBI had rock solid evidence don't you think that they might have discussed whether to hold off until after the election and then have decided that it was in the interests of an informed electorate that they should proceed with their investigation (not to mention that they might have compromised their case by waiting)."
Doug Mann responds: The FBI clearly stepped over the line. The FBI's raid and press releases clearly serve political ends. And the FBI has a long history of carrying out "investigations" that serve political, and not legitimate law enforcement aims, such as the cointelpro programs of the 1960s and 70s. If the FBI already had rock solid evidence of Zimmermann's guilt, what was the point of the early morning raid of DZ's' house? Did they find the smoking gun they were after? Did the FBI raid yield a shoe box full of money? A rack full of Armani suits? Did the seizure of bank DZ's bank records show mysterious or unusually large cash deposits? Did DZ's campaign records fail to account for thousands of dollars in small campaign contributions(which are not itemized in the public campaign finance report) ? Incidentally, there were no press releases about Brian Herron allegedly taking bribes before he was prepared to enter a plea of "guilty" to charges of felony extortion (18 July 2001). http://citypages.com/databank/22/1088/article9861.asp -Doug Mann, King Field, 8th ward Candidate for city council and Green Party member http://educationright.com/blog REMINDERS: 1. Be civil! Please read the NEW RULES at http://www.e-democracy.org/rules. If you think a member is in violation, contact the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:mpls@mnforum.org Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
