Reaction Of Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.)
To The Planned Departure
Of Adm. John Poindexter
From His Pentagon Post
Thursday, July 31, 2003

“The problem is more than the fact that Admiral Poindexter was put in charge of these projects.  The problem is that these projects were just fine with the Administration until the public found out about them.  When Members of Congress pointed out these excesses -- from plans to electronically monitor all Americans, to a futures market for betting on when the next Americans or others would be killed in terrorist attacks – these ventures could not stand the scrutiny.  The lesson seems to be that you can do whatever you want quietly, so long as it doesn’t become a public embarrassment.  That is why the Administration still has a problem as far as the privacy rights of Americans are concerned, and simply removing Adm. Poindexter doesn’t fix that.”

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