-Caveat Lector-
July 1999
Clinton Uses IRS To Punish Critics
by Larry Klayman Judicial Watch
Imagine you founded an organization
dedicated to the preservation of basic
principles upon which this country has
thrived. Issues like individual freedom,
personal responsibility, and ethics in
journalism. Not horrible terms, and not
even so much because you wanted to
antagonize those who didn’t share your
view; rather, because you firmly believed
in these principles as a means by which an
orderly society should function.
Imagine then if you lived under a
government which didn’t share your
principles, and because they didn’t, they
decided -- as arbitrarily as you would
choose a movie -- that they would send an
investigatory body like the IRS into your
offices to interrogate you without cause.
Try to envision a group of these detached
individuals camped in your office, rifling
through your personal papers, admitting to
you that it was a political inquiry, and then
making claims to be compiled into formal
charges against you. What you’ve just
heard is what the Western Journalism
Center went through with its own
government -- the Clinton Administration.
Perhaps one of the most startling and
disturbing accounts of the Nixon
Presidency, beyond Water-gate itself, was
Nixon, on tape, discussing with chilling
detachment, plans to use the IRS to
threaten political opponents. In 1974, this
was a landmark and most egregious breach
of the public trust. Today, despite the
Clintons’ systematic testing of Americans’
threshold of tolerance, the song does, and
must, remain the same.
The story of the Western Journalism center
started with a simple, if bulky, White
House document and ended in a $10
million lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch
against the IRS for abuse of power. Like
any good story, it takes the requisite twists
and turns, often leaving the viewer or
reader befuddled as to how people placed
in a position of trust can bring themselves
to act as they do.
The Communication Stream of Conspiracy
Commerce, a 331-page manifesto and
brainchild of Associate White House
Counsel Jane Sherburne and the DNC,
was circulated to select reporters in a
tortured effort to describe how the “right
wing” conveyed “fringe” stories into
mainstream American media. In essence,
this document was an effort to “alert”
friendly journalists that such a
“conspiracy” was being promulgated by
certain groups dissatisfied with the moral
lapses of the Clinton White House. In
short, it was an enemies list.
Joseph Farah, an award-winning journalist
and former editor of The Sacramento
Union, founded the Western Journalism
Center in 1991. A credentialed publisher of
numerous periodicals that specialize in
investigative reporting, WJC’s efforts have
been the focus of articles in The Wall
Street Journal, The Washington Post,
Investors Business Daily, and dozens of
other publications.
Armed with its breadth of prior success,
WJC began investigating the
circumstances surrounding Vince Foster’s
death -- circumstances widely reported to
be, at minimum, slightly unusual. Taking
out ads in The Washington Times, New
York Times, Washington Post and Los
Angeles Times, WJC raised major
questions and inconsistencies about
Foster’s death -- echoing the sentiments of
journalist Christopher Ruddy, whose
services WJC retained in furtherance of
their investigation.
These ads met with considerable success
and attention -- and set off what has
inexcusably become old saw to the Clinton
Administration -- paranoia followed by
brutal, systematic effort to silence its critics
through intimidation.
In December 1994, Associate White House
Counsel Sherburne prepared a
memorandum that outlined strategies to
use against individuals and organizations
perceived to be adversaries of the Clinton
Administration. The memo also assigned
staff members to carry out these strategies
-- and specifically identified the Western
Journalism Center for having investigated
Foster’s death. WJC was the only news
organization targeted for action.
In July 1996, after absorbing months of
swirling rumors of a pending audit, Joe
Farah answered a knock on his door at the
Western Journalism Center. Thomas
Cedarquist, an IRS official and one of his
chief defendants in Judicial Watch’s
lawsuit on behalf of WJC, strode in and
announced that, having seen the WJC’s
work on 60 Minutes, he had arbitrarily
decided (as this Administration does) that
WJC was a political (not a non-profit)
organization. Cedarquist confirmed he and
others in Washington were going to
challenge WJC’s tax-exempt status and
audit their 1995 tax returns.
Farah was asked about his affiliation with
Christopher Ruddy, a thorn in the side of
the administration, and why WJC chose to
work with him. Nearly every query posed
to Farah was related to a story or
developing story concerning the White
House -- an IRS search completely devoid
of concern for money. Rightfully
exasperated, Farah questioned the tactics
of the agency and received the following
rejoinder from Cedarquist: “Look, this is a
political case, and the decision will be
made at the national level.”
Over the course of the investigation of
WJC, nearly 20 conservative organizations
-- including the Heritage Foundation, NRA
and Citizens Against Government Waste --
felt the close, touch of the Clinton audit
machine.
Even more oddly, the media who knew of
the Communication Stream of Conspiracy
Commerce never saw any pattern
developing that would signify an
orchestrated White House effort -- much
less actually troubled themselves to report
it. Meanwhile, the WJC’s offices were
being broken into, with, mysteriously,
nothing stolen. Their phone messages were
apparently being monitored, and some of
these developments happened to coincide
with WJC breakthroughs in Clinton
investigations.
The scrutiny of the WJC by the IRS lasted
nine months. WJC employees lost their
jobs and livelihoods. Finally, in October
1996, Farah exposed these corrupt
practices in a piece in The Wall Street
Journal, and the tide began to turn.
Margaret Milner-Richardson, IRS
commissioner and close friend of first lady
Hillary Rodham Clinton, abruptly
resigned. The New York Post attributed her
departure to political audits of conservative
organizations. Some began to probe these
rampant abuses, and the audit of the
Western Journalism Center was
“concluded” -- a verdict of “no
wrongdoing” rendered in May 1997.
Under the Taxpayer Bill of Rights enacted
by Congress, Farah requested his case file
from the IRS so he could review its
contents. In keeping with the Clinton
Administration standard practice, these
rights were trampled in a terse refusal to
turn over the documents -- the IRS
frivolously citing “government privilege”
as a means of keeping Mr. Farah from
seeing justification for what had nearly
bankrupted his organization.
But Farah would not be deterred. On
behalf of WJC, Judicial Watch, a public
interest watchdog group, filed a $10 million
lawsuit against Ms. Richardson, Mr.
Cedarquist, numerous unidentified agents
involved in this case and the IRS itself. We
are determined to ensure that Mr. Farah
sees justice in this case, and that every
American is free to express his or her First
Amendment-protected views without
vicious, detached harassment from its own
government.
For all the baying we hear from the left of
the travesties of Richard Nixon, they and
this White House have elevated abuse of
power to a new art form that, if unchecked,
will perpetuate itself to unfathomable lows
in the future. Nixon was an amateur
compared with the criminal enterprise that
continues to be run out of this White
House. By this standard, citizens who
elected their government will have no
protection from those assigned to protect
them. That is the blasphemy we must
examine, and do our level best to stop.
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Kaddish, Kaddish, Kaddish, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*Mike Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~~~~~~~ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day.
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