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A Bush Administration Enron-doer Bites The Dust
Special Report: A Bush Administration Enron-doer Bites The Dust
By Scoop Editor Alastair Thompson
Today Army Secretary Thomas E. White submitted his resignation as Secretary of the Army. The effective date of his resignation is to be determined, and the announcement was made with a minimum of fanfare. See…Secretary Of The Army Thomas E. White Resigns for the announcement.
Unsurprisingly no reasons are given for the former Enron executive's sudden decision to step down.
IMAGE: Thomas E. White's Stock Sales – Click To Enlarge
However Scoop can fill in this vacuum rather nicely with a series of reports from our very own Jason Leopold, a Californian journalist whose run-in with the Army Secretary became a cause celebre last year, and whose vindication today ought, with any justice, lead to his winning a Pulitzer.
The resignation of White followed a startling series of contortions in the U.S. media.
Arguably the moment of catharsis in the sorry saga came when the columnist left-leaning Americans love to love - the New York Times' Paul Krugman - was forced in dubious circumstances by the editorial board of the NYT to make an apology to White about a smoking gun email unearthed by Leopold, and referred to by Krugman in a column.
Krugman's apology eventually led to the retraction of a huge Scoop about Thomas White published in Salon.com. The withdrawal was followed by several unwarranted scathing character assassinations of Leopold.
It was at this stage that Scoop readers were introduced to Leopold's plight and Scoop's editors are delighted to have been able to assist Leopold in clearing his name over the following weeks.
For the definitive version of this whole sorry saga see Buddy Grizzard's Media Meltdown: The Jason Leopold Saga (Guerilla News Network). To cut to the chase in Grizzard's epic, he concluded his investigation saying:
'After all the blood and tears, fact is White has never denied writing the now infamous email. And DoD spokesman Halbig has not denied that Leopold attempted to seek verification for the email.In the end, Salon's spiking of the story can only be described as questionable at best, cowardly at worst. And now, with Krugman's confirmation that the source vouched for the authenticity of the email, it seems the right thing to do would be for the Times to retract its correction, and for Salon to shelve its inquest into Leopold and get back to investigating White.
As Salon editor Scott Rosenberg originally wrote, "Why is this man still serving in what is presumably a highly important position during wartime?"'
The following series of links provide much more detail about this remarkable story.
For the article that kicked off the controversy see…
US Army Secretary Helped Cook Enron's Books
For scans of the documents used as source material in the above investigation see…
The Thomas E. White Affair – The Documents
For Jason Leopold's fightback against his accusers, Salon's reply and reader feedback see…
Jason Leopold – Shafted By The New York Times
Salon.com's Response to Jason Leopold & His Reply
Reader Feedback To Jason Leopold’s Story
Several more articles on Thomas E. White by Leopold and
published since …
Rumsfeld Has Other Plans For Thomas White
Press Silent As US Army Is Entrusted To Wrongdoer
Enron and the Dodgy $8 million Army Fortress Scam
SEC
Should Probe Sale Of Army Secretary’s Mansion
And finally for a new and recent Scoop from Leopold on the Californian Energy Crisis (followed up by two members of Congress and the LA Times) see…
FERC Conversation With Wall St May Violate Fed Law
Alastair Thompson
Scoop Publisher
Alastair Thompson is the co-founder of Scoop. He is of Scottish and Irish extraction and from Wellington, New Zealand. Alastair has 24 years experience in the media, at the Dominion, National Business Review, North & South magazine, Straight Furrow newspaper and online since 1997. He is the winner of several journalism awards for business and investigative work.
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