How Painful Double Standards Can Be for HP

Patricia Dunn and company appeared before the House Energy and Commerce Committee to face the music on their little spy scandal at Hewlette-Packard. We all know the story: they hired private detectives who posed as members of HP's board of directors to obtain phone records and spying on journalists. The idea was to locate the source of an internal leak. Apparently it ended up looking more like something out of the keystone cops than a proper investigation.

In the end, they used tons of circumstantial evidence and some pretty funny antics to finger George Keyworth II, former science advisor to Ronald Regan and previous official at at Los Alamos. Said Mr. Keyworth's lawyer, "The analysis piles inference on innuendo to reach a predetermined and hopelessly flawed conclusion." Of the 18 page report that was produced by HP's investigators, the lawyer said, “It was developed through illegal and invasive means.”

Well gee. What's the big deal? This IS what we do now. It's about security, you see. HP executives were simply trying to protect investors. They were simply following the example set by our President.

I guess the congressmen were quite tough on today's visitors, nearly all of whom pleaded the 5th. Well, let the waterboarding begin, I say!

Guess it is safer for Congress to pick on exeuctives in an eleciton season than to fess up to one's own failings. If there is any moral to be taken from HP's story, it might be that it's OK to spy, just don't get caught, especially if you don't control Congress (like the President does)and especially if it is election time.

Thus far, HP has shown a higher level of accountability than our government. At least their people got fired. Certify that it is legal to tap into Americans' phone calls for the Bush Adminstration, and get a key to the executive bathroom over at the Justice Department.