WASHINGTON

ACCUSED ‘GOP PLANT’ JOURNALIST QUITS UNDER FIRE

A White House reporter for a conservative Web site has resigned after he was accused of using a pseudonym and having ties to Internet sites that appear to promote prostitution.

Late last month, liberal groups, including the press watchdog organization Media Matters, accused Jeff Gannon of Talon News of being a GOP-affiliated plant. News accounts noted Mr. Gannon’s friendly questioning of President Bush and asked how Mr. Gannon managed access to White House briefings even though his request for Capitol Hill credentials was rejected.

In recent days, the allegations against Mr. Gannon became more serious and sordid. Some reports suggested that Mr. Gannon’s true name is James Guckert. One posted on the liberal blog, DailyKos, noted that a company with ties to the reporter had registered a trio of Internet domain names: hotmilitarystud.com, militaryescorts.com, and militaryescortsm4m.com.

In a message posted Tuesday on his personal Webpage, Mr. Gannon wrote, “The voice has gone silent. Because of the attention being paid to me I find it is no longer possible to effectively be a reporter for Talon News. In consideration of the welfare of me and my family, I have decided to return to private life.”

The editor in chief of Talon News and a Republican activist from Texas, Robert Eberle, issued a statement yesterday saying he has accepted Mr. Gannon’s resignation and is seeking his replacement.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

AVIATION OFFICIALS REPORTEDLY WARNED BEFORE 9/11

A previously undisclosed report of the 9/11 commission showed that leading up to September 11, 2001, federal aviation officials were warned dozens of times about Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda and in some cases cautioned specifically about hijackings and suicide operations, the New York Times reported on its Web site last night.

The newspaper said the report, completed last August, indicated that aviation officials had been “lulled into a false sense of security” and the growing threat of terrorism failed to prompt them to upgrade security procedures. The Federal Aviation Administration is chided in the report for failing to pursue security moves that could have changed the events of September 11, 2001.

The public release of the full, classified version of the report, originally called for by 9/11 commission members, was blocked for the last five months by the Bush administration, according to the Times report. Among the report’s findings was that the FAA received 52 intelligence reports from their security branch that mentioned Mr. Bin Laden or Al Qaeda from April to September 10, 2001.

“We had a lot of information about threats,” an FAA spokeswoman, Laura Brown, told the Times. “But we didn’t have information about means or methods that would have enabled us to tailor any countermeasures.”

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

SOUTH

JUDGE NIXES YALE LAW GRAD CLERKSHIPS

A federal judge in Alabama has informed Yale Law School that he will not consider its graduates for clerkships until the school reverses its policy banning military recruiters from campus. The decision by the judge, William Acker Jr. of Birmingham, follows a court ruling last week, which found unconstitutional a federal law known as the Solomon Amendment, which requires universities to admit the recruiters.

“Please let your students and faculty know that I will not consider any YLS applicants for a judicial clerkship unless or until YLS changes its mind or the Solomon Amendment is found by the Second Circuit or by the Supreme Court to be constitutional and enforceable against YLS,” Judge Acker wrote in a letter dated Monday to the dean of the school, Harold Koh.

In the letter, which was released by Judge Acker’s chambers, he did not say precisely what upset him about the recruiting ban, which stems from the military’s policy of dismissing service members who are openly homosexual. The judge, who is a Yale Law graduate, described his move as “an act of loyalty” to the school.

A spokeswoman for Yale Law School had no comment on the decision.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun