Democrats Want Investigation
of Reporter Using Fake Name
NY Times
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
Published: February 11, 2005
Two Democrats in Congress are pressing for investigations into
how a Washington reporter who used a pseudonym managed to gain
access to the White House and had access to classified documents
that named Valerie Plame as a C.I.A. operative.
The Democrats, Representatives John Conyers Jr. of Michigan
and Louise M. Slaughter from Rochester, wrote yesterday to
Patrick Fitzgerald, the independent prosecutor appointed in the
Plame case, seeking an investigation into how the reporter, James
D. Guckert, who used the name Jeff Gannon, had access to
classified documents that revealed the identity of Ms. Plame.
Until Wednesday when he resigned, Mr. Guckert worked for
TalonNews.com, a Web site operated by Robert Eberle, a Texas
Republican. Mr. Guckert said in a March 2004 interview with his
own news service, in which he was referred to as Mr. Gannon, that
the classified document had been "easily accessible." The two
Democrats questioned how a person with "dubious qualifications"
had access to such a document. The Democrats also wrote to the
Secret Service seeking an explanation of how someone using a
pseudonym was cleared to enter the White House daily press
briefings as well as a presidential news conference last month.
They said in their letter that allowing such a person in "appears
to deviate significantly from heightened security measures you
have employed recently."
Mr. Guckert resigned from Talon saying he had been harassed by
liberals on the Internet. Bloggers grew suspicious of him after
President Bush called on him at the news conference and the
reporter suggested that Democrats had "divorced themselves from
reality." Spearheaded by a Web site called Media Matters For
America, the bloggers discredited him.
Mr. Guckert told CNN yesterday that he had been receiving
threats and hate mail. He said he used the pseudonym Gannon
because it was "easier to pronounce and remember."
Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary, told
reporters yesterday that Mr. Bush did not know who Mr. Guckert
was. Mr. McClellan said that Mr. Guckert entered the White House
under his real name and "like anyone else, showed that he was
representing a news organization that published regularly, and so
he was cleared two years ago to receive daily passes, just like
many others are."
Mr. Guckert was denied credentials to cover Capitol Hill,
where press gallery workers said that his application indicated
Talon was not his main source of income and that they could not
verify its legitimacy.
Karl Frisch, a spokesman for Ms. Slaughter, said: "This is a
guy who could not get credentialed by the House or the Senate
press galleries, and yet managed to get into the White House and
question the president" and have access to a top-secret
document.
He added: "To imply he has no connection to the White House is
just not credible."
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