Even 'The Watergate Paper' Asks 'The Question'...
While the Infamous '12-Hour Gap' Expands to a Three (& a half) Day Gap!
By Brad Friedman on 7/25/2005, 6:32pm PT  

WaPo's Dan Froomkin joins the growing chorus today of pundits and prognosticators asking "The Question" about what George W. Bush knew and when he knew it.

We covered yesterday's explosion of voices asking that same question, but Froomkin adds to the mix by taking a fairly detailed look back at the under-reported stories from over a year ago when both Bush and Cheney were questioned in the case by Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald.

He also discusses the growing questions now surrounding the 12-Hour Gap between the time Alberto Gonzales, then head White House Counsel, was told to by DoJ to inform the White House of the investigation --- so they wouldn't destroy any evidence --- and the time that he actually, formally, told the White House. As it turns out, of course, Gonzales didn't "formally" instruct the WH until 12 hours after he learned of the investigation, but he did manage to tell White House Chief of Staff, Andy Card about it. Just to be friendly, we guess.

But The Carpet Bagger today is reporting that the 12-Hour Gap which gave the White House a heads-up to start the shredding machines, may in fact have been a Three Day Gap if one goes back and looks at the dates of a few of the scant contemporaneous reports of the investigation's start up. [UPDATE: MSNBC is reporting that that may actually be a Three and a half Day Gap. The story of the investigation was first reported by MSNBC some 84 hours before Gonzales "officially" informed the White House.]

On all of this, Froomkin takes an appropriate shot at both his own WaPo and the rest of the delinquent Mainstream Corporate Media which failed to do their job for the American People long ago on all of these matters...

Don't remember any of that? Not your fault. It didn't get much ink.

But it's getting a lot of attention today. Why? Possibly because press coverage of the Bush administration, in the first term, failed to sufficiently heed some developments that, in retrospect, seem worthy of more attention.

Something similar happened when the Downing Street Memo first came to light in May. That memo suggested among other things that Bush was already set on invading Iraq long before acknowledging as much in public. In that case, it took the American mainstream press more than a month to acknowledge that it was a story worth writing about again, even though it was, technically, old news.

Froomkin's got many more useful links on all of the above.

(Hat tip to DU's understandinglife for the heads-up!)

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