Conservative Prime Minister admits his own might be guilty, I am not surprised
Wed Mar 05, 2008 at 04:44:51 PM PDT
Harper says Obama leak might have been illegal
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Let's remember folks that harper has paid people like Luntz and Rove surrogates to design, dig and dish dirt on Liberal opponents. harper is currently mired in a mess of his own (he and his people bribed a dying man and his wife with an insurance policy) so I suspect he's trying to polish his image.
harper is a Canadian R-thug with extreme leanings on the far, far right. harper is one of the few right wingers and bush supporters left on the international political stage. He is trying to save face, no more, no less.
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From the article;
"Prime Minister Stephen Harper says leaks from his government that rocked Barack Obama's U.S. presidential campaign were “blatantly unfair” — and may have been illegal.
Mr. Harper announced Wednesday that an internal security team has been called into the Foreign Affairs Department to investigate one of the leaks."
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But he stopped short of two opposition requests: calling in the RCMP; and investigating the source of the original leak last week that triggered what's being referred to as “NAFTAgate.”
A U.S. news report has said that the first leak, to Canada's CTV network, came from Mr. Harper's office.
Mr. Harper didn't address the original leak, but said the government will use “every legal and every investigative technique necessary” to find the source of a second leak — of a private Canadian diplomatic memo — to a U.S. media outlet.
The leaked memo says Mr. Obama's economic adviser dismissed his boss's tough talk about renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement as political posturing. The adviser says his private remarks were unfairly characterized, but the damage has been done.
Mr. Obama, the Democratic front-runner, saw his poll numbers in Ohio sputter amid attacks on his integrity from fellow Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican rival John McCain. He lost Tuesday's democratic primary in the key state.
“This kind of leaking of information is completely unacceptable. In fact, it may well be illegal,” Mr. Harper told the House of Commons.
“It is not useful, it is not in the interests of the government of Canada — and the way the leak was executed was blatantly unfair to Senator Obama and his campaign.
“Based on what (investigators) find, and based on legal advice, we will take any action that is necessary to get to the bottom of this matter.”
Government officials have said they will not seek out the source of the original leak.
NDP Leader Jack Layton is asking Harper to call on the Mounties to find out how the leaks occurred, and whether the Security of Information Act or any other privacy legislation was breached.
“There can be no doubt about it: the leak from within the Canadian government has had an impact now on the American elections,” Mr. Layton said Wednesday.
“That is about the worst thing a country could do to another country — to have an effect on their democratic process. . . If Mr. Harper isn't willing to call in the RCMP that confirms our suspicion that this was intentional.”
The incident has allowed Mr. Obama's opponents within the Democratic and Republican parties to paint him as a hypocrite.
Republican nominee John McCain would surely use the incident this fall if he winds up facing Mr. Obama, Mr. Layton said.
“(This) has certainly helped the Republicans,” he said. “Senator McCain has grabbed hold of it, and he's running with it with a great level of joy.”
Mr. Layton said Canadians would never accept Americans interfering in our elections, and we shouldn't tamper with theirs.
He said the incident is far more serious than another one last year in which the government called in the RCMP.
A temporary employee at Environment Canada was arrested in his office and marched out in handcuffs for allegedly leaking details of a government climate-change plan to the media.
Mr. Layton said that's small potatoes compared with inflicting political damage on one of the three contenders to lead the world's biggest superpower, and Canada's neighbour and largest trading partner.
“He's unwilling to treat it with the level of serious attention that he did when there was a junior bureaucrat at environment. . . He called in the RCMP on that one.”
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