Was Gannon in the WH press room BEFORE Talon News existed?

[tgnyc]

At Kos and elsewhere, we're hearing that Talon came into being in the last week of March, 2003, and Gannon started getting day passes to the WH a week later.

But this post shows that Gannon was in the White House as early as the END OF FEBRUARY. http://www.windsofchange.net/archives/003115.php#c45

Gannon's work had been published by GOPUSA as early as December, 2002. Was Gannon getting into the WH under the GOPUSA name even before Talon was formed?

[Sydnie]

1. Good question! I don't have the answer though. n/t

[pleft]

2. The question that Gannon refers to

on the Windsofchange website was asked at the 2/28/03 press briefing. If this is important, someone should save it.
-------------
Q There have been reports out of Maine that the children of deployed service personnel are being harassed as a result of their elementary school teacher's expression of anti-war views in the classroom. Could you comment on that?

MR. FLEISCHER: I'm not familiar with any specific report, but I can assure you that the President, in all instances, believes that it's important for all to honor and respect the first amendment.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/02/20030228-5.html

[pleft]

3. And.

Gannon's name on the Windsofchange.net website does link to the GOPUSA.COM website. I guess this does not PROVE that the person posting on the Windsofchange message board is, in fact, Guckert, but it certainly does seem likely.

[Festivito]

7. There is WH audio, now we must match picture AND AUDIO to him.

As revealing as his photos are, some could say it's not him?!?!? Here would we only have his voice to match.

He did make his post on March 5, 2003 03:26 AM. I wonder if he had a good night out that night.

[DulceDecorum]

11. It took me forever to find

Post #45 from Jeff Gannon on March 5, 2003 03:26 AM
This is a question I asked Ari Fleischer at a White House press briefing on Friday:

Q There have been reports out of Maine that the children of deployed
service personnel are being harassed as a result of their elementary school
teacher's expression of anti-war views in the classroom. Could you comment on
that?
MR. FLEISCHER: I'm not familiar with any specific report, but I can assure
you that the President, in all instances, believes that it's important for all
to honor and respect the first amendment.

Not the answer I was looking for, but at least I was able to get the issue in front of the mainstream press.


#46 from Barbara in Louisville on March 5, 2003 04:20 AM
Jeff Gannon, thanks for getting this issue in front of the mainstream press. If enough people will e-mail the president at [e-mail] maybe it will make a difference. The president wont see the e-mails, but somebody will, and hopefully will pass it on to the president or his immediate staff. I know the president is dealing right now with issues like Iraq etc. but he should realize that these are the children of the soldiers who will fight for this country if the war breaks out, and since the president thinks its of great importance to have a good education AND GOOD TEACHERS he should, and I'm sure he will be concerned about this issue.

The link to JEFF GANNON and BARBARA IN LOUISVILLE turn up Error 404
Baghdad Bob says: "Yes, those lying, imperialistic dogs have lied to you again. We do not have that page.
That web page is not even within 100 miles of this website. That web page is committing suicide because it has been shamed and Allah will roast its stomach in hell.
Look around. Do you see the page they claimed was here? No! But we will be sending so many files to them that their weak and stupid browsers will scream for our mercy. And we will show those browsers no mercy whatsoever. We will show no mercy because the infidel dogs of (none) who sent you looking for the file deserve no mercy. The bones of their programmers will be left to bleach in the terrible heat of the desert sun!

BARBARA IN LOUISVILLE used to be associated with
http://militarykids/
http://maineteachers/

[pleft]

13. the link on Gannon's

name works.

[DulceDecorum]

15. You must have healed it

The first four times I tried I got Error 404.

:yourock:

[Warpy]

4. The vast right wing conspiracy is starting to look smaller

and smaller, just a few wealthy SOBs who don't want to pay taxes using their money to fund a bunch of interconnected stink tanks and now web sites to attract hungry and unethical people, who are then amply rewarded.

The more we find threads and start tugging on them, the more the whole thing will start to unravel.

[DulceDecorum]

16. The GOPUSA Right Wing

GOPUSA's logo -- the GOPUSA Right Wing -- takes its roots from the strength, power, and freedom represented by America's bald eagle and the love of aviation and aerospace engineering of GOPUSA's co-founder, president, and CEO, Dr. Robert R. Eberle.
The logo was always intended to be an eagle or an eagle's wing, but the idea of making the logo abstract, and not simply a direct picture or drawing, was a guiding parameter in the design process.
What started out as a drawing of an eagle in flight evolved into a focus on simply the wing, and then eventually, an abstract rendering of that wing. The result is GOPUSA's Right Wing. It is distinct, unique, and something that has come to represent the vision of GOPUSA, even if observers aren't really sure what it is.
http://www.gopusa.com/company/logo.shtml

AWARDS AND HONORS
Ranked #3 Best Political Newsletter Site in the Nation by Campaigns and Elections Magazine
July 2001
Awarded the Golden Web Award by The International Association of Web Masters and Designers
July 2001
Awarded the Conservative Excellence Award by FreeConservatives.com
June 2001
Recipient of the Bookmark It Web Site Award by Young Politicians of America
January 2001
Recognized as the Conservative Site of the Day by Enter State Right
January 15, 2001
http://www.gopusa.com/company/awards.shtml

Since ENTER STATE RIGHT was the first to endorse GOPUSA,
they got checked out first.

Colophon
Enter Stage Right is a non-profit journal published from Sudbury, Ontario, Canada and founded and edited by Steve Martinovich. Our name refers to the often pronounced theatrical nature of politics. As Frank Zappa once said, "Politics is the entertainment branch of industry."
http://www.enterstageright.com/about.htm

A Personal Story of Transformation
By Steven Martinovich
I was not always the strident conservative that you have been reading for the last few months. At one point in my life I was a member of the Liberal Party of Canada at several different levels. I steadfastly supported the policies and principles of men like Pierre Trudeau, John Turner (forgive me, I was young), Jean Chrétien, and David Peterson.
<snip>
During the same time I worked as Sports Editor for Lambda, Laurentian's newspaper. During my tenure at that position, I got the idea of writing a weekly conservative column to combat what I saw as the militant leftist activism that is present at many universities, Laurentian included. It was written under a pseudonym (Gord Gekko) and every week I took a different group to task for what I saw as being just plain wrong. I cannot tell you how many letters I got (mostly opposed to my views) and how much controversy I sometimes raised in the pages of that newspaper….it was fun.

(So THAT'S where GannonGuckert got his ideas from.)

How does one reconcile the fact that I was being increasingly conservative and still a member of the Liberals? Good question. It was not easy. I attempted to reconcile the two by fighting for policies that reflected my beliefs. You don't have to imagine to know that that approach failed rather miserably. As left as the main party can be, the youth wing is usually even more left. I won very few victories. The parties were good though…Liberals can really party.
http://www.enterstageright.com/static/history.htm

Have you seen the thread on Quinn Gilespie,
the PR firm that ran the Bush AND the Kerry campaigns?
Lots of weirdness there.

I think I found the Key to the Gannon scandal!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=1589943

[sadiesworld]

5. .

[DulceDecorum]

6. Gannon appears on the GOPUSA Director & Officers page

Talon News and GOPUSA both claimed that Jeff Gannon was a graduate of the “Pennsylvania State University System.” Guckert attended West Chester University, which is a member of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education.

While Guckert and Talon News publisher Bobby Eberle, who also owns GOPUSA.com, both disavow any connection between Guckert and GOPUSA, AVN.com discovered a cached version of Gannon’s bio on GOPUSA.com’s “Directors and Officers” page.

Guckert’s connection to GOPUSA should have disqualified him from being issued a press pass to the White House press galleries, and in fact, Guckert was denied a “hard pass,” a permanent pass to the Congressional galleries because he could not prove that Talon News was associated with GOPUSA.
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:C_LgJy3BXlwJ:www.gopusa.com/bios/jeffgannon.shtml%20&hl=en


XXX
AVN.com is a "naughty" site
and you are liable to see a little bit more anatomy than is absolutely necessary.
The article where this extract came from is:

February 11, 2005
Gay Adult Domain Names Help to Out Alleged Republican Propagandist
By: Scott Ross

[pleft]

9. Dailykos thread

I just registered at the dailykos so I will have to wait 24 hours to post there. Could someone please add this information to this diary?
It is the diary that includes the timeline which has Gannon in the Whitehouse in April.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/2/16/05241/0536

[Walt Starr]

8. OMFG, could Guckert be part of the reason Ari resigned?

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

This just keeps getting weirder and weirder, and as the Great Doctor Hunter S. Thompson said, "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!"

[tgnyc]

10. Guckert claimed to be "suprised" at the announcement of Ari's

departure. He was so sad, he took a photo of the cake from the going away party and sent it to something called probush.com.

http://www.probush.com/farewell_cake.htm

[DulceDecorum]

12. I cannot put my hand on it just now BUT

I am pretty sure that I have seen articles that left me with the strong impression that Ari was not exactly what one might call a ladies man.

[Zan_of_Texas]

14. Anybody up for constructing a timeline on Gannon/Guckert?

It might be interesting.

GANNON/GUCKERT & PLAME - TIMELINE

8/31/1999 to 3/30/2000
invoices for website from Paul to Gannon/Guckert to build the male escort websites http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/02/man-called-jeff.html

Feb 2002
Joe Wilson is asked to go to Niger, and does so to investigate claims of yellowcake uranium. New York Times, "What I Didn't Find in Africa," by Joseph C. Wilson 4th
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0706-02.htm

January 2003
Bush makes reference to the famous "16 words" in his State of the Union address.

????
When was Gannon rejected for a Capitol Hill pass?

??March 2003??(or was it earlier?)
Gannon starts coming to White House press gaggles (some say he has been attending for 3 years, some say two)

May 19, 2003
"(CBS) White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, the public face of the Bush administration through two wars and a terrorist attack, said Monday he will resign in July to enter the private sector. "I love this job," Fleischer told reporters at his informal Monday morning briefing. "I believe deeply about President Bush as a man and I believe deeply in his policies, but it's my time to go."

He would not speculate on who would take his place, but presidential aides said deputy press secretary Scott McClellan was the likely successor, although there are other possibilities. Fleischer said he wanted to leave the hard-driving job before Mr. Bush's re-election campaign geared up. "I want to do something more relaxing — like dismantle live nuclear weapons," he quipped.

...Fleischer clashed at times with the White House press corps and had an uneasy relationship with some senior Bush aides, but he said the departure was his idea. He notified Mr. Bush of his decision Friday. The president ended the conversation "by kissing me on the head," the spokesman said. ...

Fleischer, 42, got married six months ago. He said he wanted to go on the speaking circuit and maybe do some writing.
"White House Spokesman to Quit," CBS News, May 19, 2003 http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/05/19/politics/main554484.shtml

July 6, 2003
Joe Wilson writes a piece in the New York Times contradicting Bush claims of yellowcake in Niger. New York Times, "What I Didn't Find in Africa," by Joseph C. Wilson 4th
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0706-02.htm

July 14, 2003
One week after the Wilson piece is published, Novak outs Plame, writing: "Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction."
"Mission to Niger," Robert Novak http://www.townhall.com/columnists/opinionalert-popup.html

September 29, 2003
Clifford May tries to provide cover for Novak, writing: "On July 14, Robert Novak wrote a column in the Post and other newspapers naming Mr. Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, as a CIA operative. That wasn't news to me. I had been told that — but not by anyone working in the White House. Rather, I learned it from someone who formerly worked in the government and he mentioned it in an offhand manner, leading me to infer it was something that insiders were well aware of." "Spy Games: Was it really a secret that Joe Wilson's wife worked for the CIA?" by Clifford D. May, National Review http://www.nationalreview.com/may/may200309291022.asp

Oct 6, 2003 - Gannon (Talon News) writes an article about Wilson
"It is still unknown as to the reason Wilson was sent on the February 2002 mission to Niger, but allowed that it could have been at his wife's suggestion. Some have suggested that his clear partisanship cast doubt on the findings in his report." THIS LINK NO LONGER WORKS <http://www.gopusa.com/news/2003/october/1006_wilson_blasts.shtml> QUOTED AT DAILY KOS, spiderleaf's chronology, http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/1/31/122222/689

October 28, 2003
Gannon (Talon) publishes his interview with Wilson. (Anybody have any ideas how Gannon would've gotten an exclusive like this?!?!?!)

"WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- Ambassador Joe Wilson, the man at the heart of the White House/CIA leak controversy, recently sat down with Talon News for an exclusive interview to discuss his mission to Africa to investigate Iraq's desire to purchase uranium for weapons, the leak of his wife's position within the CIA, the foreign policy of President Bush and his administration, and a host of other issues. ...

TN: An internal government memo prepared by U.S. intelligence personnel details a meeting in early 2002 where your wife, a member of the agency for clandestine service working on Iraqi weapons issues, suggested that you could be sent to investigate the reports. Do you dispute that? ...

TN: You have mentioned that you are not partisan. Doesn't that appear to be the case considering the candidates you've supported?

Wilson: Including Bush. When Ed Gillespie was running around doing his little schpiel, he knew that I contributed to the Bush campaign but decided he would selectively use information on candidates I have supported to bolster a case that simply cannot be made. I contributed to the Bush campaign, the Gore campaign, and I contributed to the campaign of Ed Royce on several occasions. He is a conservative Republican from Orange County, California, and I have contributed to a number of other candidates. I contributed to the Kerry campaign after I made my trip out to Niger -- well after that. Almost a year and a half after that. But I will tell you this: I reserve the right to participate in the political process of my country just like any other citizen.

I was named ambassador to Gabon by George Herbert Walker Bush. One of the highlights of my professional career was serving a charges d'affair in Baghdad in the run up to the gulf war. When I came back to Washington and was introduced to the war cabinet, President Bush introduced me as a true American hero, and I take great pride in that.

TN: Your activities of late have some suggesting that there's certainly a partisan motivation. "Wilson Talks about Niger Mission; Blasts Bush Foreign Policy," by Jeff Gannon, Talon News, October 28, 2003
<http://mensnewsdaily.com/archive/newswire/nw03/talonnews/1003/102803-wilson.htm>

Thanks to spiderleaf at dailykos for some of these leads, compiled in January 2005! For more, go there: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/1/31/122222/689

~~~~~~~~~
This is a work in progress -- feel free to add dates and sources.



Oh, ON EDIT adding Fleischer departure above, and - let's add the chronology daily kos did on GOPUSA
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/2/16/05241/0536

GOPUSA TIMELINE

* September 27 1999, GOPUSA3-DOM Created

December 1999, GOPUSA (according to Bobby Eberle, see interview) started as a Web-design company for Republican candidates. Not much activity and lacking success they reevaluated direction in Spring 2000.

September 2000, the GOPUSA became Internet news/information/commentary company.

November 2000, following election, Bruce Eberle, starts Election Integrity 2000 (later known as MillionsofAmericans.com). In the following two weeks, 335,656 petitions delivered to Sec. of State Katherine Harris in support of Bush. In later articles, they claim that 600,000 petitions were gathered. (more on activities in box below)

March 29, 2003, Talon News registers its domain name

April 1, 2003, the site goes live

April 3, 2003{???}, Guckert goes to work in White House..

September 2003, GOPUSA Conference

March 24, 2004 merger of www.millionsofamerican.com with www.gopusa.com (see letter below)

[Zan_of_Texas]

17. Link correction to above.

July 14, 2003
One week after the Wilson piece is published, Novak outs Plame, writing: "Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction."
"Mission to Niger," Robert Novak <http://www.townhall.com/columnists/robertnovak/rn20030714.shtml>

[DulceDecorum]

20. Jeff Gannon: From dKosopedia, the free political encyclopedia

http://www.dkosopedia.com/index.php/Jeff_Gannon

[xultar]

18. Randi had the timeline Talon news was created 3 to 5 days prior to his

first visit to the WHPR.

[Contrary1]

19. Send this on to Keith O.,

He was still talking about Gannon/Guckert last night. He
seems to be our only way of getting the truth out lately.

[mod mom]

21. May I just say: I LOVE YOU GUYS! Keep up the great work! nt

[tgnyc]

22. More on my original post, including the transcript

of the WH briefing questions asked that day

www.intelligencesquad.com/id107.html

[RuleofLaw]

23. I just listened to the WH press briefing of 2/.28/03

And I am almost 100% sure that it is Jeff Gannon asking the questions about students being harassed by anti-war teachers.

That will put him in the White House, before his news service was in existence.

[tgnyc]

24. Kos and Atrios are on it now.

Our colleagues are getting into it in the comments sections.

[Quakerfriend]

25. God Bless all of you TRUE patriots!

This story is so important on so many levels and I am in awe of all of you who have worked to bring the TRUTH to light! You are the only REAL investigative journalists!

For some strange reason, I feel like this is the last straw with this regime. I believe that this could lead to their unraveling, finally!!

Keep up the excellent work!:9

[hector459]

26. God, you guys are great!! Who needs the MSM? Just figure out a way

to get the message to those who are being "played like a fiddle" by these right wing thugs and you'll have it made.

[Rose Siding]

27. The WH press corp would know when he started, wouldn't they?

Why, when the EP story was saying it was after he started with Talon, didn't ANY of them cop to it?

Milbank even said on KO that he *and other* reporters think they recall that he had a hard pass- with photo id and he thought that somebody would look into that.

Bloggers weren't IN the press room to see what kind of pass he had on, so why aren't any of the bigs picking up on these inconsistencies?