John Solomon

John Solomon is the executive editor of the Washington Times. He was named to the position in January 2008, replacing the retiring Wesley Pruden.

Solomon had been the Associated Press's assistant bureau chief in Washington, DC, from 1999 to June 2005, when he was appointed to the new role of director of multimedia investigative reporting. In December 2006, Solomon left the AP to join the Washington Post, where he was in charge of an investigative unit.

"Solomon joined the AP in 1987 in Milwaukee. As news editor there, he supervised coverage of the Jeffrey Dahmer serial murders and an investigative project that revealed teachers who had molested children had been allowed to return to the classroom. In response to the investigative stories, the state of Wisconsin changed it laws to keep convicted molesters out of school for good.

"Solomon transferred in 1991 to Washington, where he has served as a reporter, editor of the bureau's enterprise team, news editor and assistant bureau chief. Solomon has played key roles in reporting and editing during some of the capital's biggest stories, including the Clinton-era fund-raising and impeachment scandals and the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

"Over the last several years, he has worked increasingly with AP's television, radio and online divisions to develop multi-formatted versions of his investigative stories," the AP wrote in June 2005.

The August 6, 2001, President's Daily Briefing Memo
On April 13, 2004, Solomon announced that there was a second, similar version of the memo which was presented on August 6, 2001, to President George W. Bush&mdash;the August 7, 2001, Senior Executive Intelligence Brief&mdash;which was presented a day later to senior government policy-makers:


 * Officials, who "would only discuss the senior executives' memo on condition of anonymity because it remain[ed] classified," reported that the August 7, 2001, brief did not mention:


 * "70 FBI investigations into possible al-Qaida activity that the president had been told of a day earlier in a top-secret memo titled Bin Laden Determined To Strike in U.S.,..."
 * "a threat received in May 2001 of possible attacks with explosives in the United States or that the FBI had concerns about recent activities like the casing of buildings in New York"

Solomon reported that "Some members of Congress on Monday said they were concerned that senior executive memos and other similar documents may have given policy-makers below Bush an incomplete picture of the terror threat at the time. ... But [Bush] administration officials said there was nothing sinister about the deletions because such memos are prepared for two different audiences. The CIA historically uses different standards for the president's daily intelligence update and the one for senior policy-makers, the officials said."

2003-2004

 * "FBI Bullet Analyses Flawed, Imprecise," Associated Press (FreePeltier.org), November 21, 2003.
 * "Bush Memo Included 3-Month-Old Threat Data," Associated Press (Guardian Unlimited (UK)), April 10, 2004.
 * "White House Releasing Bush's 2001 Brief," Associated Press (RedOrbit.com), April 10, 2004.
 * "Officials: Pre-9/11 Memo Excluded Data," Associated Press (Federation of American Scientists), April 13, 2004.
 * "Document suggests McVeigh not alone at bombing scene," San Diego Union-Tribune, April 20, 2004.

2005

 * "FBI Didn't Seek to Hire Terror Experts," Associated Press (San Francisco Chronicle), June 19, 2005.
 * "Rove learned CIA agent's name from Novak," Associated Press (Billings Gazette), July 15, 2005. re Karl Rove and Robert Novak
 * "Rove told Hadley about Cooper talk," Associated Press (Washington Times), July 17, 2005. re Stephen J. Hadley and Matthew Cooper
 * "GOP Paying Legal Bills of Bush Official," Associated Press (San Francisco Chronicle), August 11, 2005.
 * "Miller Agrees to Testify in CIA Leak Probe," Associated Press (ABC News), September 30, 2005. re Judith Miller
 * With Sharon Theimer, "DeLay, Successor Blunt Swapped Donations," Associated Press (ABC News), October 5, 2005. re Thomas D. DeLay and Roy Blunt
 * "Rove said to testify in CIA leak case," Associated Press (ABC News), October 6, 2005.
 * With Pete Yost, "Inaccurate Info May Help CIA Leak Probe," Associated Press (Guardian Unlimited (UK)), October 18, 2005.
 * "DeLay's staff tried to help Abramoff," Associated Press (ABC News), November 3, 2005. re Jack Abramoff
 * With Sharon Theimer, "Tribe says Abramoff told them to donate," Associated Press (Boston Globe), November 28, 2005.
 * With Pete Yost, "Abramoff said to claim close ties to Rove," Associated Press (The Mercury News), February 14, 2006.
 * "DeLay Office Knew Abramoff Arranged Trip," Associated Press (Washington Post), May 6, 2006.
 * "First Declassified Iraq Documents Released. Bush Administration Releases First Set of Declassified Documents From Iraq Before U.S. Invasion," Associated Press (ABC News), March 16, 2006.

Related SourceWatch Resources

 * Harry Reid (See section "Swiftboating Harry Reid".)
 * Treasongate: Beyond Karl Rove
 * Critical stories on Harry Reid by the AP's John Solomon