Bush, Reportedly, Woos HP’s Dunn; Offers Position To Aid Surveillance Program
White House Impressed With Covert Program; Seeks Dunn To Oversee Pretexting Of Congress Before Big Votes In Fall
Sources are telling The Garlic that, beginning late yesterday afternoon, the White House has been in talks with Hewlett Packard Chairwoman Patricia Dunn and, reportedly, have offered her a position to aid and oversee various surveillance programs.
Included in the surveillance programs that Dunn would work on, the White House is looking at conducting a special “pretexting” programs on Congress, prior to what is expected to be big, significant battles to approve and legitimize the President’s wiretapping and torture policies.
“Boy, we could have used her here this week,” gushed Dan Bartlett, Counselor to the President. ““Perhaps we could have gotten a ‘heads-up’ on Colin Powell sandbagging the President.”.
Bartlett, who is responsible for all aspects of President Bush’s strategic communications planning and the formulation of policy and implementation of the President's agenda, is referencing a letter sent by Powell, the former Secretary of State and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to Senator John McCain (R-AZ) yesterday.
McCain, who along with Senator John W. Warner (R-VA) and Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), are rebuffing the President and his proposed policies for interrogating and trying enemy combatants, which some say would “gut” the Geneva Convention rules.
Powell blasted the President, writing to McCain that “The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism,” To redefine Common Article 3 would add to those doubts. Furthermore, it would put our own troops at risk.”
In an afternoon press conference, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow offered that Powell was “confused” and defended the President and his right to define the torture practices employed by the military and CIA.
President is said to be “very impressed” with Dunn’s instincts
All of this came against the backdrop of something rarely seen in the nation’s capital over the past six-years - President Bush visiting Congress, to personally lobby the lawmakers to back his torture policies.
With a number of key votes upcoming in the Congress, for the President’s wiretapping and torture program, as well as the Fall Midterm elections, the addition of Dunn to the surveillance staff is viewed as a coup by many in the White House and intelligence community.
The President is said to be “very impressed” with Dunn’s instincts, that when trouble with her board leaking information arose, she snapped into action by “pretexting” their telephone and computer records.
With her high tech background, the White House is confident that Dunn will be able to handle the highly sophisticated surveillance equipment, a significant step up from the spying techniques she employed at Hewlett Packard.
Dunn, when the HP Spying Scandal broke into the news, defended her actions, echoing the President, saying that employees who tolerated leaks were “appeasers” and was preparing to lobby Congress for greater surveillance powers when the call from the White House came.
Dunn resigned as Chairwoman, effective in January, over the spying scandal, but remains as Director with the company
The move to snare Dunn is also seen as a bridge-builder by the White House, to Silicon Valley and the high-tech community, after the incident this summer when President Bush made a surprise visit to the Redmond headquarters of Microsoft, to push founder and Chairman Bill Gates out of his position, as part of new Chief of Staff Josh Bolten’s sweep of the White House.
“Any day,” said
Impressed with her instincts in dealing with leaks, President Bush is reportedly giving the "thumbs up" as to bringing embattled Hewlett Packard Chairwoman Patricia Dunn on to the White House staff, to aid the President in his surveillance programs
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