Long ago, in March, the Pentagon promised a report on its disclosure of information from Linda Tripp’s confidential security file to the media. By the time the middle of June rolled around, Congress had gotten restless. Gerald Solomon, chairman of the House Rules Committee, demanded to know when the Pentagon report would be issued. “By July 9,” came the reply.
Well, July 9 came and went, and still the Pentagon’s inspector general had issued no report. When, on July 10, Solomon demanded an explanation, he got a one-sentence middle finger in the face: “The inquiry is ongoing and a report will be issued at the time it is completed.”
Solomon was not pleased, and he vowed to take up the issue immediately with defense secretary Bill Cohen. Linda Tripp’s privacy was violated in a flagrant, inexcusable, and — most to the point — illegal way. The events of that violation took no more than a few hours. Yet the Pentagon’s investigation is now entering its fifth month.
As we noted back in May, Bill Clinton, in his first press conference as president-elect, responded forcefully to the Bush administration’s misuse of confidential records: “If I catch anybody doing it, I will fire them the next day. You won’t have to have an inquiry or rigmarole or anything else.”
What we have here, it appears, is a phony inquiry, a lot of rigmarole, and a cover-up. So we wait for answers. And wait.
