- 'On November 6, 2008, President-elect Obama tapped Big
Pornography attorney David Ogden to establish his new U.S. Justice Department
team with nary a word of warning from the conservative legal watch.
-
- 'On January 5, 2009, President Obama nominated Ogden
for U.S. Justice Department Deputy Attorney General. His nomination hearing
was scheduled for February 5.
-
- 'On January 21, the Senate Judiciary Committee began
receiving formal 'Letters Received in Connection with the Nomination' (some
naming multiple persons and organizations). All 51 endorsed Ogden.
-
- 'On or about February 2, the conservative legal watch
alerted pro-family, anti-pornography activists of Ogden's record and hearing
scheduled for a few days later.
-
- 'What was that record? With Ogden's confirmation challenged,
Edward Whelan, of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, wrote, 'David Ogden
has advocated the interests of the porn industry [in] a child-pornography
case, Knox v. United States.' When Knox appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court,
President Clinton's Solicitor General, Drew Days, refused to defend his
conviction. Congress condemned Days by a Senate vote of 100-0 vote and
a House vote of 425-3. Congress then hired a private legal firm to support
Knox's conviction.
-
- 'The Senate, says Whelan, 'is now being asked to confirm
as Deputy Attorney General someone who advocated,' in Knox, the drastic
reduction in child-pornography laws 'that the Senate unanimously repudiated
16 years ago.' Jan LaRue, senior legal analyst with the American Civil
Rights Union, adds that Ogden has a 'track record on behalf of those who've
deluged America with pornography and against the federal laws he would
be sworn to enforce.'
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- 'Yet not one letter below included a single word about
Ogden's long and profitable tenure in the service of Big Pornography. Is
it possible that these guardians of the law and of children's safety were
just ignorant about Mr. Ogden's ties? As of now, not one has removed his
or her support.
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- 'The blue-ribbon list of endorsers includes Thomas Miller,
Iowa Attorney General; Douglas Gansler, Maryland Attorney General; Jo Ann
Harris, former Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division; Larry Thompson,
former Deputy Attorney General; Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick; and
- hold on for this - The National Women's Law Center and the National Center
for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC)!
-
- 'It has been my Washington experience that Ogden's Big
Pornography service would be known to many, if not most, of his endorsers.
And, as I said, all of the letters remain in place even after the much
belated reports of Ogden as a veteran pornography advocate.
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- 'The Ogden fiasco brings to mind my August 15, 1983 naming
to the FBI/DOJ 'Missing Children, Serial Murder Task Force,' a nascent
NCMEC. Our mission was to study 'The effect that pornography and sexology
may have upon societal violence in general and juvenile exploitation and
abuse in particular.' Our FBI/DOJ Task Force of 23 criminal justice experts
agreed on the need to collect evidence of 'pornography and its relationship/linkage
to child abuse, sexual exploitation, delinquency, and societal violence.'
-
- 'This FBI/DOJ/OJJDP Task Force was spiked from above
before we got out of the starting gate. Neither the NCMEC, the FBI nor
law enforcement collects on-site data on pornography's 'relationship/linkage
to child abuse, sexual exploitation, delinquency, and social violence.'
Big Pornography has powerful friends in the seats of power.
-
- Note the Letters Received in Connection with the Nomination
below:
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- February 6, 2009 - National Congress of American Indians
- February 4, 2009 - Todd Zubler, WilmerHale
- February 4, 2009 - Todd R. Steggerda, WilmerHale
- February 4, 2009 - Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General,
State of Iowa
- February 4, 2009 - Robert F. Hoyt
- February 3, 2009 - Leadership Conference on Civil Rights
- [American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO),
Americans for Democratic Action, Asian American Justice Center, Association
of Community Organizations for Reform Now, Black Leadership Forum, Inc.,
Campaign for America's Future, Human Rights Campaign, Lawyers' Committee
for Civil Rights Under Law, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational
Fund, NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc., NARAL Pro-Choice
America, National Abortion Federation, National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP), National Congress of American Indians, National
Health Law Program, National Partnership, National Senior Citizens Law
Center, People for the American Way, The Judge David L. Bazelon Center
for Mental Health Law]
- February 2, 2009 - Reginald J. Brown, WilmerHale
- January 27, 2009 - National District Attorneys Association
- January 27, 2009 - Douglas F. Gansler, Attorney General,
State of Maryland
- January 27, 2009 - Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of
America (CADCA)
- January 26, 2009 - National Sheriff's Association
- January 26, 2009 - Christine Gregoire, Governor, State
of Washington
- January 26, 2009 - Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association
- January 26, 2009 - Beth S. Brinkmann, Morrison Foerster;
former Assistant to the Solicitor General
- January 25, 2009 - Major Cities Chiefs Association
- January 25, 2009 - Jo Ann Harris, Attorney At Law; former
Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division
- January 23, 2009 - Larry Thompson, former Deputy Attorney
General
- January 23, 2009 - Deval Patrick, Governor, State of
Massachusetts
- January 23, 2009 - National Women's Law Center
- January 23, 2009 - National Narcotic Officers' Association
Coalition
- January 23, 2009 - Peter Keisler, Sidley Austin LLP,
former Assistant Attorney General, Civil Division; former Acting Attorney
General
- January 23, 2009 - Michael E. Horowitz, Cadwalader Wickersham
& Taft LLP; Commissioner, U.S. Sentencing Commission
- January 23, 2009 - Jamie S. Gorelick, WilmerHale, former
Deputy Attorney General
- January 23, 2009 - Manus Cooney
- January 23, 2009 - Paul T. Cappuccio, Executive Vice
President and General Counsel, TimeWarner; former Associate Deputy Attorney
General
- January 23, 2009 - Boys and Girls Clubs of America
- January 23, 2009 - Anti-Defamation League
- January 23, 2009 - H. Thomas Wells, Jr., Maynard Cooper
& Gale PC
- January 22, 2009 - James Robinson, Cadwalader, Wickersham
and Taft LLP; former Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division
- January 22, 2009 - Daniel Price, former Assistant to
the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economic
Affairs
- January 22, 2009 - Partnership for a Drug-Free America
- January 22, 2009 - Police Executive Research Forum
- January 22, 2009 - National Association of Police Organizations,
Inc.
- January 22, 2009 - Daniel Levin, White & Case; former
Acting Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel; former Assistant
U.S. Attorney
- January 22, 2009 - Bill Lann Lee, Lewis, Feinberg, Lee,
Renaker & Jackson, P.C.; former Assistant Attorney General
- January 22, 2009 - Judge Advocates General [MG Michael
Nardotti, USA (Ret.); MG Kenneth Gray, USA (Ret.); RADM Harold Grant, JAGC,
USN (Ret.); Maj Gen Nolan Sklute, USAF (Ret.); Maj Gen Andrew Egeland,
USAF (Ret.); BGen Michael Wholley, USMC (Ret.); MG Walter Huffman, USA
(Ret.); RADM John Hutson, JAGC, USN (Ret.); BGen Joseph Composto, USMC
(Ret.); RADM Donald Guter, JAGC, USN (Ret.); RADM Thomas Connelly, JAGC,
USN (Ret.); RADM Steven Horton, JAGC, USN (Ret.)]
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- January 22, 2009 - Kenneth Geller, Mayer Brown LLP, former
Deputy Solicitor General
- January 22, 2009 - Stuart M. Gerson, former Assistant
Attorney General, Civil Division
- January 22, 2009 - Fraternal Order of Police
- January 22, 2009 - John B. Bellinger, III
- January 22, 2009 - American Psychological Association
- January 21, 2009 - Seth Waxman, WilmerHale; former Solicitor
General
- January 21, 2009 - Daniel E. Troy, Senior Vice President
and General Counsel, GlaxoSmithKline
- January 21, 2009 - Richard Taranto, Farr & Taranto;
former Assistant to the Solicitor General
- January 21, 2009 - Carter S. Phillips, Sidley Austin
LLP; former Assistant to the Solicitor General
- January 21, 2009 - National Center for Victims of Crime
- January 21, 2009 - National Center for Missing and Exploited
Children
- January 21, 2009 - Carolyn Lamm, White and Case
- January 21, 2009 - David C. Frederick, Kellogg, Huber,
Hansen, Todd, Evans & Figel, P.L.L.C.; former Assistant to the Solicitor
General
- January 21, 2009 - Rachel L. Brand, WilmerHale
- January 21, 2009 - Jeffrey M. Blum, Attorney at Law
- 'Some parting questions: Was President Obama ever warned
about Ogden's Big Pornography ties? Were opposing letters from pro-family,
anti-pornography law watchdogs purged from above, or never sent? Is the
Ogden fiasco linked to the foiling of our FBI/DOJ plan to examine pornography's
role in our 'Missing Children, Serial Murder Task Force' in 1983?'
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