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2007 Noteworthy News History Archive
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2007 Noteworthy News:

20071231

Money - Politics - Federal - Housing - Legislation - New Jersey - Georgia - California - Texas - Utah - Maryland - Nevada- Oregon - Washington - 2004 Election - US - Netherlands - "Lender Lobbying Blitz Abetted Mortgage Mess: Ameriquest Pressed For Changes in Laws; A Battle in New Jersey." ... "During the housing boom, the subprime industry succeeded at more than just writing mortgages. It also shot down efforts by some states to curtail risky lending to borrowers with spotty credit." ... "Ameriquest Mortgage Co. [ACC Capital Holdings], until recently one of the nation's largest subprime lenders, was at the center of those battles. Working with a husband-and-wife team of Washington lobbyists, it handed out more than $20 million in political donations and played a big role in persuading legislators in New Jersey and Georgia to relax tough new laws. Those victories, in turn, helped blunt efforts by other states to crack down on reckless lending, critics of the industry contend." ... "Home loans made by Ameriquest and other subprime lenders are defaulting now in large numbers, roiling global credit markets and sparking debate about whether regulators and lawmakers should have anticipated the mess and taken action. A close look at Ameriquest's lobbying and political donations shows how the subprime industry maneuvered to defeat legislation that might have contained some of the damage." ... "Data from federal and state campaign-finance records, Internal Revenue Service filings, and the National Institute on Money in State Politics show that from 2002 through 2006, Ameriquest, its executives and their spouses and business associates donated at least $20.5 million to state and federal political groups. In comparison, over the same time period, Countrywide Financial, another large subprime lender, gave about $2 million in campaign gifts, and spent an additional $6.7 million lobbying in Washington, records indicate." ... "Some of the giving by Ameriquest executives and associates was high-profile. [Republican] President Bush received more than $200,000 for his 2004 re-election campaign, and Ameriquest founder Roland Arnall and his wife, Dawn, contributed more than $5 million to political organizations that backed the president. Last year, [Republican] President Bush appointed Mr. Arnall ambassador to the Netherlands, and his wife took over as chairman of Ameriquest's parent company. California [Republican Governor] Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaigns received at least $1.4 million, along with stacks of tickets to a Rolling Stones concert that were used to lure big donors." ... "Last year, ACC Capital, its [Ameriquest Mortgage Company] parent company, agreed to pay $325 million to settle regulators' claims that it charged excessively high mortgage rates and didn't adequately disclose loan risks. Some of the state attorneys general who signed the settlement, including Greg Abbott of Texas, received campaign donations from the firm. Utah's attorney general, Mark Shurtleff, received a $1,000 contribution and Rolling Stones tickets." ... "Ameriquest also handed out Rolling Stones tickets to state legislators in Georgia, Maryland, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and California, according to ethics records and local news accounts." ... "Federal lawmakers didn't pose much of a threat to the subprime industry in recent years. Members of Congress received at least $645,000 in donations from Ameriquest and large sums from other big subprime lenders, Federal Election Commission records indicate." ... "ACC Capital, Ameriquest's parent company, and its executives gave more than $350,000 to Texas politicians in 2006, including $100,000 to [Republican Governor] Gov. Rick Perry, according to state records." -By Glenn R. Simpson -WSJ.com

20071227

Government - Corporations - Employee - Retirees - Health - Law - Politics - History - "U.S. Ruling Backs Benefit Cut at 65 in Retiree Plans." ... "The [Republican President Bush run] Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said Wednesday that employers could reduce or eliminate health benefits for retirees when they turn 65 and become eligible for Medicare." ... "The policy, set forth in a new regulation, allows employers to establish two classes of retirees, with more comprehensive benefits for those under 65 and more limited benefits — or none at all — for those older." ... "More than 10 million retirees rely on employer-sponsored health plans as a primary source of coverage or as a supplement to Medicare, and Naomi C. Earp, the commission’s chairwoman, said, “This rule will help employers continue to voluntarily provide and maintain these critically important health benefits.”" ... "But AARP and other advocates for older Americans attacked the rule. “This rule gives employers free rein to use age as a basis for reducing or eliminating health care benefits for retirees 65 and older,” said Christopher G. Mackaronis, a lawyer for AARP, which represents millions of people age 50 or above and which had sued in an effort to block issuance of the final regulation. “Ten million people could be affected — adversely affected — by the rule.”" ... "The new policy creates an explicit exemption from age-discrimination laws for employers that scale back benefits of retirees 65 and over. Mr. Mackaronis asserted that the exemption was “in direct conflict” with the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967." ... "Under the new rule, employers may, if they choose, provide retiree health benefits “only to those retirees who are not yet eligible for Medicare.” Likewise, the rule says, retiree health benefits can be “altered, reduced or eliminated” when a retiree becomes eligible for Medicare." ... "Further, employers will be able to reduce or eliminate health benefits provided to the spouse or dependents of a retired worker 65 or over, regardless of whether benefits for the retiree are changed." -By Robert Pear -NYTimes

20071220

Mitt Romney - Rudy Giuliani - Mike Huckabee - Tom Tancredo - Criminal - Illegal - Employer - Immigrants - Employees - Language - Terrorism - History - Colo - New York - Arkansas - US - Mexican - People - Noteworthy - 2008 Election - "GOP hopefuls run in a hypocrisy derby." ... "Everybody knows that [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] Mitt Romney was running - as [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] Rudy Giuliani put it - a "sanctuary mansion." But not many people know that he was not the only one." ... "No less an anti-immigrant zealot than [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Colorado Representative] Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.[Republican-Colorado]), the would-be President who built a failing campaign on the single issue of persecuting "criminal aliens" - as he is fond of calling undocumented immigrants - also has a few skeletons in his closet." ... "Listen to this: Five years ago, when Tancredo wanted to install a home theater and make other renovations in his house, he had no qualms hiring a contractor that - gasp! - also employed undocumented workers." ... "The man who had said, "[The face of illegal immigration] is the face of murder. It is the face of infiltration into the country of people who are coming to do us great harm," wasn't at all troubled by the fact that only two in the crew of five or six laborers spoke English." ... "[In 1994, then New York Republican Mayor Rudy Giuliani said] "If you come here and you work hard, and you happen to be in an undocumented status, you're one of the people who we want in this city," he told The New York Times in 1994." ... "While in Arkansas, he [Arkansas Republican Governor and 2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee] was instrumental in bringing a Mexican Consulate to Little Rock [Arkansas's capital]. That consulate issued thousands of identification forms that now, after he has become a presidential hopeful, Huckabee has begun to call "illegal immigrant identification cards."" ... "And do not forget that if he is elected President, he has vowed to expel the nation's estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants within 120 days, which comes to deporting 100,000 people per day." -By Albor Ruiz -NYDailyNews.com

20071219

Stephen Johnson - Mary E Peters - Dick Cheney - Government - Political - Gas - Auto - Makers - Fuel - Economy - Laws - Environmental - Health - Safety - American - People - Transportation - California - History - Global - Climate - Clean Air Act - "EPA blocks California bid to limit greenhouse gases from cars." ... "The [Republican President] Bush administration blocked efforts by California and 16 other states Wednesday to limit greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks, setting up a political and legal fight over whether states can take a lead role in combatting global warming." ... "[Republican President Bush's] Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson rejected California's request for a waiver from the federal government to impose its tough tailpipe emissions standards. The other states were poised to adopt similar rules if California's request was granted." ... "The states represent nearly half the U.S. [United States] population, and their laws would effectively require automakers to cut greenhouse gas emissions nationwide, despite [Republican] President Bush's rejection of mandatory national standards." ... "Johnson said Congress' passage of an energy bill this week that raises fuel economy standards for all cars and trucks to 35 miles per gallon by 2020 made the state laws unnecessary." ... "California officials said they believed Johnson had long ago decided to oppose the state's waiver, and said he was using the newly passed energy bill as an excuse. Nothing in the new law prevents states from taking stronger action, they said." ... ""I find this disgraceful," said [California Democratic Senator] Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.[Democratic-California], who helped write the fuel-economy law. "The passage of the energy bill does not give the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] a green light to shirk its responsibility to protect the health and safety of the American people from air pollution."" ... "It was the first time the EPA has flat-out denied a waiver request by California under the Clean Air Act. The law gives California special authority to set stronger standards because the state has a long history of smog and other air-quality problems." ... "California officials complained that EPA's decision-making process for the waiver was tainted months ago when documents revealed that Transportation Secretary Mary Peters led a lobbying campaign to urge lawmakers to call the EPA and oppose the waiver request." ... "Automakers have been meeting regularly at the White House to discuss the new fuel-economy standards. The Detroit News reported that [Republican] Vice President Dick Cheney met with the CEOs [Chief Executive Officers] of Chrysler and Ford this fall to try to influence the policy." -By Zachary Coile -SFGate.com
John Edwards - Ron Paul - Mike Huckabee - Noteworthy - Journalists - Politics - Corporations - Legislation - Telecom - Money - 2008 Election - "Media hostility toward anti-establishment candidates." ... "[2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate John] Edwards, [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate Ron] Paul and [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate Mike] Huckabee are obviously disparate in significant ways -- ideologically, temperamentally, and otherwise. But there is a vital attribute common to those three campaigns that explains the media's scorn: they are all, in their own ways, anti-establishment candidates, meaning they are outside and critical of the system of which national journalists are a critical part, the system which employs and rewards our journalists and forms the base of their identity and outlook. Any candidate who criticizes and opposes that system -- not in piecemeal ways but fundamentally -- will be, first, ignored and, then, treated as losers by the press." ... "It is very striking how little Edwards' substantive critique of our political system has penetrated into the national discourse. That's because the centerpiece of his campaign is a critique that is a full frontal assault on our political establishment. His argument is not merely that the political system needs reform, but that it is corrupt at its core -- "rigged" in favor of large corporate interests and their lobbyists, who literally write our laws and control the Congress. Anyone paying even casual attention to the extraordinary bipartisan effort on behalf of telecom immunity, and so many other issues driven almost exclusively by lobbyists, cannot reasonably dispute this critique." ... "Yet because that argument indicts the same Beltway culture of which our political journalists are an integral part, and further attacks the system's power brokers who are the friends, sources, and peers of those journalists, they instinctively react with confusion, scorn and hostility towards Edwards' campaign. They condescendingly dismiss it as manipulative populist swill, or cynically assume that it's just a ploy to distinguish himself by "moving left." In the eyes of our Beltawy press, the idea that our political system is "rigged" or corrupt must be anything other than true or sincerely held." ... "As Digby notes [**], Ron Paul is going to raise more money than any Republican candidate this quarter; he just topped the record for most money raised in a single day; and has now exceeded Howard Dean's 2004 quarter total when Dean was at the peak of his online fundraising prowess. Huckabee is now tied for the lead in national polls and is leading in several of the key early states. Yet our establishment media stars continue to sneer at these anti-establishment candidates as though they are aberrational jokes, and there is virtually no serious effort to understand the meaning of their success." ... "Worse, whenever these candidates are discussed, it almost never entails any discussion of the critiques they are making. Is Edwards right that corporations and lobbyists dictate legislation in Washington and that this state of affairs is profoundly anti-democratic and corrupt? Are Paul's criticisms of our bipartisan imperial policies and his warnings of resulting financial unsustainability (and increasing anti-Americanism) accurate? Is Huckabee's claim true that the GOP has obliterated the economic prospects of its own middle- and lower-middle-class followers?" -Glenn Greenwald -Salon
Secret - Alberto R Gonzales - David S Addington - Dick Cheney - Harriet E Miers - Torture - War - Crimes - Tapes- Censorship - Law- Politics - Military - Government - Intelligence - Terrorism- History - US - Iraq - "Bush Lawyers Discussed Fate of C.I.A.Tapes." ... "At least four top [Republican President Bush] White House lawyers took part in discussions with the Central Intelligence Agency between 2003 and 2005 about whether to destroy videotapes showing the secret interrogations of two operatives from Al Qaeda, according to current and former administration and intelligence officials." ... "The accounts indicate that the involvement of White House officials in the discussions before the destruction of the tapes in November 2005 was more extensive than [Republican President] Bush administration officials have acknowledged." ... "Those who took part, the officials said, included Alberto R. Gonzales, who served as White House counsel until early 2005; David S. Addington, who was the counsel to [Republican] Vice President Dick Cheney and is now his chief of staff; John B. Bellinger III, who until January 2005 was the senior lawyer at the National Security Council; and Harriet E. Miers, who succeeded Mr. Gonzales as White House counsel." ... "It was previously reported that some administration officials had advised against destroying the tapes, but the emerging picture of White House involvement is more complex. In interviews, several administration and intelligence officials provided conflicting accounts as to whether anyone at the White House expressed support for the idea that the tapes should be destroyed." ... "One former senior intelligence official with direct knowledge of the matter said there had been “vigorous sentiment” among some top White House officials to destroy the tapes. The former official did not specify which White House officials took this position, but he said that some believed in 2005 that any disclosure of the tapes could have been particularly damaging after revelations a year earlier of abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq." ... "The current and former officials also provided new details about the role played in November 2005 by Jose A. Rodriguez Jr., then the chief of the agency’s clandestine branch, who ultimately ordered the destruction of the tapes." ... "The officials said that before he issued a secret cable directing that the tapes be destroyed, Mr. Rodriguez received legal guidance from two C.I.A. [Central Intelligence Agency] lawyers, Steven Hermes and Robert Eatinger. The officials said that those lawyers gave written guidance to Mr. Rodriguez that he had the authority to destroy the tapes and that the destruction would violate no laws." ... "Current and former officials said the two lawyers informed the C.I.A.’s top lawyer, John A. Rizzo, about the legal advice they had provided." (1, 2) -By Mark Mazzetti and Scott Shane with contributions by David Johnston -NYTimes

20071218

Kevin Jeffrey Martin

Corporate

Government

Politics

Media

Communications

Broadcast

Radio

"FCC Loosens Newspaper-Broadcast Cross-Ownership Limits: Federal Communications Commission Voted Along Party Lines; Copps Expects Rule to Be Overturned." ... "To cries of " unfair" and "this vote is a sham" from a handful of protesters, the Federal Communications Commission voted along strict party lines Tuesday to loosen its newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership rule." ... "Democratic commissioner Michael Copps was the first commissioner to weigh in with a public statement in advance of that vote, saying that the FCC [Federal Communications Commission] was "just inking up a rubber stamp for another round of consolidation."" ... "[Republican President Bush's] FCC chairman Kevin Martin called it a relatively minor change that may help to "forestall erosion of local news coverage" and only loosens the rules where there are many voices and competition." ... "The move sets up a showdown with mostly Democratic senators who have pledged to nullify that vote, and the deicison will likely be taken to court by media activists opposing any more consolidation, or even broadcasters arguing that it has not gone far enough -- no other ownership rule was loosened, in contrast to the 2003 rule rewrite, the remand of which by a court the FCC is wrapping up." ... "The commission will presume that newspaper-broadcast combinations in the top 20 markets are in the public interest so long as eight independent voices, including newspapers, remain and the stations are not among the top four in the market. It will also allow newspaper-radio combinations but require no voices test." ... "Newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership would also be presumed to be in the public interest in markets smaller than the top 20 so long as at least seven hours of local news is added to a station that did not do it before, or if the station or newspaper is in financial distress." ... "The latter is defined as a station or newspaper that has gone dark at least four months before a waiver is filed for, or a station that has less than 4% of the audience, where there has been negative cash flow for at least three years (newspaper or station) and where no out-of-market buyer wants it." ... "Copps called the ruling a shiny gift for big media and a lump of coal for the rest. "Happy holidays," he said, adding that the change won't pass muster with either Congress or the courts." ... "Citing the congressional pushback, Democratic commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said the FCC "has never attempted such a brazen act of defiance against Congress. Like the Titanic, we are steaming at full speed despite repeated warnings of danger ahead. It might yet sink. We should have slowed down rather than put everything at risk."" ... "Adelstein said three out of five unelected bureaucrats should not be able to overrule the American people, whom, he added, weighed in passionately in public hearings against consolidation. "They danced, they sang, they read us poems," he said, as well as providing expert opinions." ... "Both Adelstein and Copps said Martin made last-minute changes to the proposal late Monday night and they indicated that the commission was now granting waivers to 42 combinations in the dark of night." ... "Josh Silver, executive director of Free Press, issued the following statement: "FCC chairman Kevin Martin is ignoring the public will and defying the [United States] U.S. Senate. His decision to gut longstanding ownership rules shows once again how the largest media companies -- with their campaign contributions and high-powered lobbyists -- are corrupting the policymaking process at the expense of local news coverage and independent voices."" ... "He continued, "Martin's FCC relied on slanted research and a rigged process to reach today's preordained outcome -- local media wrapped in a bow for Tribune, News Corp., Gannett and all the rest."" -By John Eggerton

-BroadcastingCable.com

Fed - Money - Politics - Investigate - Law - History - People's - Homes - Consumer - California - New York - Wyo - "Fed Shrugged as Subprime Crisis Spread." ... "Until the boom in subprime mortgages turned into a national nightmare this summer, the few people who tried to warn federal banking officials might as well have been talking to themselves." ... "Edward M. Gramlich, a Federal Reserve governor who died in September, warned nearly seven years ago that a fast-growing new breed of lenders was luring many people into risky mortgages they could not afford." ... "But when Mr. Gramlich privately urged Fed examiners to investigate mortgage lenders affiliated with national banks, he was rebuffed by Alan Greenspan, the Fed chairman." ... "In 2001, a senior Treasury official, Sheila C. Bair, tried to persuade subprime lenders to adopt a code of “best practices” and to let outside monitors verify their compliance. None of the lenders would agree to the monitors, and many rejected the code itself. Even those who did adopt those practices, Ms. Bair recalled recently, soon let them slip." ... "And leaders of a housing advocacy group in California, meeting with Mr. Greenspan in 2004, warned that deception was increasing and unscrupulous practices were spreading." ... "John C. Gamboa and Robert L. Gnaizda of the Greenlining Institute implored Mr. Greenspan to use his bully pulpit and press for a voluntary code of conduct." ... "“He never gave us a good reason, but he didn’t want to do it,” Mr. Gnaizda said last week. “He just wasn’t interested.”" ... "“The Federal Reserve could have stopped this problem dead in its tracks,” said Martin Eakes, chief executive of the center [Center for Responsible Lending]. “If the Fed had done its job, we would not have had the abusive lending and we would not have a [home] foreclosure crisis in virtually every community across America.”" ... "Mr. Greenspan and other Fed officials repeatedly dismissed warnings about a speculative bubble in housing prices. In December 2004, the New York Fed issued a report bluntly declaring that “no bubble exists.” Mr. Greenspan predicted several times — incorrectly, it turned out — that housing declines would be local but almost certainly not nationwide." ... " “Why are the most risky loan products sold to the least sophisticated borrowers?” Mr. Gramlich asked in a speech he prepared last August for the Fed’s symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyo[Wyoming]. “The question answers itself — the least sophisticated borrowers are probably duped into taking these products.”" (1, 2, 3) -By Edmund L. Andrews with contributions by Gretchen Morgenson -NYTimes
Colorado - Electronic - Voting Machines - Technology - Hacking - Elections - Federal - Politics - 2008 Election - "Colo. Bans Most Electronic Voting Machines: Security Risks, Inaccuracy Cited; Federal Certification Process Called "Inadequate"." ... "Colorado's top election official decertified electronic voting machines used in many of the state's largest counties Monday, calling into question equipment used in past elections in a move he said could have national implications." ... "Electronic voting machines used in [Colorado counties:] Denver, Arapahoe, Pueblo, Mesa and Elbert counties cannot be used in the next [2008] election because of problems with accuracy or security, Secretary of State Mike Coffman said." ... "A number of electronic scanners used to count ballots were also decertified, including a type used by Boulder County as well as more than three dozen small to mid-size counties around the state." ... "His decision affects six of Colorado's 10 most populous counties and three of the four equipment manufacturers allowed in the state." ... "The four systems are manufactured by Hart InterCivic, Premier Election Solutions - formerly known as Diebold Election Systems - Sequoia Voting Systems and Election Systems and Software [ES&S]." -By George Merritt -AP via -CBSNews

20071217

Chris Dodd - Corporate - Government - Spy - Law - Intelligence - Politics - Telephone - Internet - E-Mails - Electronic - Civil Liberties - 2008 Election - Foreign - American - Nevada - Conn - Wisc - VT - Mass - "Spy law showdown postponed until next year." ... "Congress won't decide until next year whether to pass a complex law that would let telephone and Internet companies off the hook from lawsuits alleging illicit cooperation with federal government spies." ... "In something of an unexpected move, U.S. Senate Majority Leader [Nevada Democratic Senator] Harry Reid took to the Senate floor on Monday evening and announced he would postpone debate on the so-called FISA Amendments Act [FISA: Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act]. That bill, which has already been approved in a closed-door meeting of the Senate Intelligence Committee, would grant such corporate immunity and make it easier for the feds to snoop on phone calls and e-mails involving foreigners and Americans without a warrant, drawing rampant criticism from civil liberties groups." ... "Earlier in the day, however, it appeared more certain that the Senate would move ahead with a vote to approve the controversial Senate measure, which would provide legal immunity to electronic communications providers that have allegedly opened up their networks to the National Security Agency and other federal spies since the September 11, 2001 attacks. Above vocal objections from some Democrats, the senators nevertheless voted 76-10 to limit debate and other stalling tactics related to the bill." ... "But in the end, last-minute rallying from Democrats opposed to the telecommunications immunity provisions applied the necessary pressure." ... "Perhaps most notably, [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and Connecticut Senator] Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), a presidential hopeful, devoted nearly the entire day to delivering one impassioned speech after another about his opposition to granting legal immunity to telecommunications companies accused of providing illegal assistance to government spying programs. Other influential Democratic senators, including [Wisconsin Democratic Senator] Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.), [Vermont Democratic Senator] Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), and [Massachusetts Democratic Senator] Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) echoed his concerns at various points during the day." -By Anne Broache -CNET

20071216

Secret - Surveillance - Terrorism - Crime - Telecommunications - Companies - Government - Legislation - Politics - Intelligence - Drug - Consumer - Wireless - Technology - United States - Global - Space - Colorado - New Jersey - "Wider Spying Fuels Aid Plan for Telecom Industry." ... "For months, the [Republican President] Bush administration has waged a high-profile campaign, including personal lobbying by President Bush and closed-door briefings by top officials, to persuade Congress to pass legislation protecting companies from lawsuits for aiding the National Security Agency’s warrantless eavesdropping program." ... "But the battle is really about something much bigger. At stake is the federal government’s extensive but uneasy partnership with industry to conduct a wide range of secret surveillance operations in fighting terrorism and crime." ... "The N.S.A.’s reliance on telecommunications companies is broader and deeper than ever before, according to government and industry officials, yet that alliance is strained by legal worries and the fear of public exposure." ... "To detect narcotics trafficking, for example, the government has been collecting the phone records of thousands of Americans and others inside the United States who call people in Latin America, according to several government officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the program remains classified. But in 2004, one major phone carrier balked at turning over its customers’ records. Worried about possible privacy violations or public relations problems, company executives declined to help the operation, which has not been previously disclosed." ... "In a separate N.S.A. [National Security Agency] project, executives at a Denver [Colorado] phone carrier, Qwest, refused in early 2001 to give the agency access to their most localized communications switches, which primarily carry domestic calls, according to people aware of the request, which has not been previously reported. They say the arrangement could have permitted neighborhood-by-neighborhood surveillance of phone traffic without a court order, which alarmed them." ... "The federal government’s reliance on private industry has been driven by changes in technology. Two decades ago, telephone calls and other communications traveled mostly through the air, relayed along microwave towers or bounced off satellites. The N.S.A. could vacuum up phone, fax and data traffic merely by erecting its own satellite dishes. But the fiber optics revolution has sent more and more international communications by land and undersea cable, forcing the agency to seek company cooperation to get access." ... "[An ATT engineer is claiming in a lawsuit that as early as February 2001,] “What he saw,” said Bruce Afran, a New Jersey lawyer representing the plaintiffs along with Carl Mayer, “was decisive evidence that within two weeks of taking office, the [Republican] Bush administration was planning a comprehensive effort of spying on Americans’ phone usage.”" (1, 2) -By Eric Lichtblau, James Risen, and Scott Shane -NYTimes

20071215

Hacking - Ohio - Voting Systems - Computers - Elections - Technology - Politics - 2008 Election - "Ohio Elections Official Calls Machines Flawed." ... "All five voting systems used in Ohio, a state whose electoral votes narrowly swung two elections toward [Republican] President Bush, have critical flaws that could undermine the integrity of the 2008 general election, a report commissioned by the state’s top elections official has found." ... "“It was worse than I anticipated,” the official, Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, said of the report. “I had hoped that perhaps one system would test superior to the others.”" ... "At polling stations, teams working on the study were able to pick locks to access memory cards and use hand-held devices to plug false vote counts into machines. At boards of election, they were able to introduce malignant software into servers." ... "Ms. Brunner proposed replacing all of the state’s voting machines, including the touch-screen ones used in more than 50 of Ohio’s 88 counties. She wants all counties to use optical scan machines that read and electronically record paper ballots that are filled in manually by voters." ... "The study released Friday found that voting machines and central servers made by Elections Systems and Software; Premier Election Solutions, formerly Diebold; and Hart InterCivic; were easily corrupted." -By Bob Driehaus -NYTimes

20071213

Noteworthy- Industrial - Government - Accounting - Environmental - Health - Safety - Politics - Air - Water - Ground - "EPA was pressured to weaken toxic report rules." ... "The [Republican President Bush] White House pressured the Environmental Protection Agency [EPA] to weaken requirements that companies annually disclose releases of toxic chemicals, congressional auditors say." ... "In a study scheduled to be released next week, the Government Accountability Office says the changes mean that industry will have to file 22,000 fewer reports each year, reducing an important public monitoring tool on industrial emissions." ... "The EPA rushed to complete the changes because of "pressure" from the White House Office of Management and Budget to reduce the regulatory burdens on industry, says the report obtained by The Associated Press. The White House overstated the cost-savings to industry of making the changes, it added." ... "For more than two decades, industries and businesses have had to disclose to the EPA the amount of toxic chemicals they produce, store and discharge into the air, water and ground." ... "Last December, the EPA reduced the amount of information that needed to be disclosed in the Toxic Release Inventory Report, or TRI, process." -By H. Josef Hebert -AP via -Chron

20071207

US - Iraq - Afghanistan - Military - Families - Politics - Poll - "Bush loses ground with military families." ... "Families with ties to the military, long a reliable source of support for wartime presidents, disapprove of [Republican] President Bush and his handling of the war in Iraq, with a majority concluding the invasion was not worth it, a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll has found." ... "The views of the military community, which includes active-duty service members, veterans and their family members, mirror those of the overall adult population, a sign that the strong military endorsement that the [Republican President Bush] administration often pointed to has dwindled in the war's fifth year." ... "Nearly six out of every 10 military families disapprove of Bush's job performance and the way he has run the war, rating him only slightly better than the general population does." ... "And among those families with soldiers, sailors and Marines who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan, 60% say that the war in Iraq was not worth the cost, the same result as all adults surveyed." ... "Military families are only slightly more patient: 35% are willing to stay until victory; 58% want the troops home within a year or sooner." ... "When military families were asked which party could be trusted to do a better job of handling issues related to them, respondents divided almost evenly: 39% said Democrats and 35% chose Republicans." -By Faye Fiore -LAtimes

20071206

Secret - Porter J Goss - Michael V Hayden - Military - Government - Terrorism - Intelligence - Videotapes - Censorship - Officers - Safety - Prisoner - Torture - War Crimes - Law - Politics - "C.I.A. Destroyed Tapes of Interrogations." ... "The Central Intelligence Agency in 2005 destroyed at least two videotapes documenting the interrogation of two Al Qaeda operatives in the agency’s custody, a step it took in the midst of Congressional and legal scrutiny about the C.I.A’s [Central Intelligence Agency] secret detention program, according to current and former government officials." ... "The videotapes showed agency operatives in 2002 subjecting terror suspects — including Abu Zubaydah, the first detainee in C.I.A. custody — to severe interrogation techniques. They were destroyed in part because officers were concerned that tapes documenting controversial interrogation methods could expose agency officials to greater risk of legal jeopardy, several officials said." ... "The C.I.A. said today that the decision to destroy the tapes had been made “within the C.I.A. itself,” and they were destroyed to protect the safety of undercover officers and because they no longer had intelligence value. The agency was headed at the time by Porter J. Goss. Through a spokeswoman, Mr. Goss declined this afternoon to comment on the destruction of the tapes." ... "The existence and subsequent destruction of the tapes are likely to reignite the debate over the use of severe interrogation techniques on terror suspects, and their destruction raises questions about whether C.I.A. officials withheld information about aspects of the program from the courts and from the Sept. 11 commission appointed by [Republican] President Bush and Congress. It was not clear who within the C.I.A. authorized the destruction of the tapes, but current and former government officials said it had been approved at the highest levels of the agency." ... "General [CIA Director, General Michael V Hayden] Hayden said in a statement that leaders of Congressional oversight committees were fully briefed on the matter, but some Congressional officials said notification to Congress had not been adequate." (1, 2) -By Mark Mazzetti with contributions by Eric Lichtblau and Scott Shane -NYTimes

20071205

US - Iran - Nuclear - Military - Intelligence - Politics - "Bush told in August that Iran nuke program 'may be suspended'." ... "[Republican] President Bush was told in August that Iran's nuclear weapons program "may be suspended," the White House said Wednesday, which seemingly contradicts the account of the meeting given by Bush Tuesday." ... "[Admiral] Adm. Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, told Bush the new information might cause intelligence officials to change their assessment of the Iranian program, but said analysts needed to review the new data before making a final judgment, White House press secretary Dana Perino said late Wednesday." ... ""Director McConnell said that the new information might cause the intelligence community to change its assessment of Iran's covert nuclear program, but the intelligence community was not prepared to draw any conclusions at that point in time, and it wouldn't be right to speculate until they had time to examine and analyze the new data," Perino said in a statement issued by the White House." ... "The new account from Perino seems to contradict the president's version of his August conversation with McConnell and raised new questions about why Bush continued to warn the American public about a threat from Iran two months after being told a new assessment was in the works." -By Ed Henry -CNN

20071204

Mike Huckabee - Women - Families - Law - Politics - History - Arkansas - Prison - Missouri - Crime - 2008 Election - "Mothers hold Huckabee partially responsible for daughters' murders." ... "[2008 Election Republican] Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said Tuesday that he is "heartbroken" over the pain suffered by the families of two women murdered in Kansas City [Missouri] more than six years ago." ... "Authorities say the two victims, Carol Shields and Sara Andrasek, were killed by the same man —Wayne DuMond, who was released from an Arkansas prison in 1999, a year before Shields' murder." ... "Their mothers say Huckabee is responsible, at least in part, for DuMond's release." ... ""What a fool," said Lois Davidson, Shields' mother. "Thinking he could rule the country when he couldn't even do a good job as governor of Arkansas."" ... "Janet Williams, Andrasek's mother: "Wayne DuMond should have never been on the streets in Missouri. ... When politics are involved, people get hurt, and Sara and Carol Shields paid the ultimate price with their lives."" ... "A jury sent DuMond to prison in 1985 for the rape of 17-year old Ashley Stevens, a distant relative of then-[Democratic Governor]Gov. Bill Clinton. While awaiting trial on the rape charge, DuMond was castrated — some say by assailants, other say he did the job himself." ... "But his conviction and imprisonment became a rallying point for Clinton critics and some Republicans in Arkansas, who said they believed DuMond was in prison because of the Clinton connection, and that he was actually innocent of the charges." ... "In 1996, then-[Republican Governor]Gov. Huckabee joined the discussion, saying he planned to commute DuMond's sentence to time served, in part because evidence in the case was "questionable."" ... "Some parole board members have since said they made the decision without pressure from Huckabee; others, though, said he had talked with them about his desire that DuMond be released." ... ""He made it obvious that he thought DuMond had gotten a raw deal and wanted us to take another look at it," former board member Charles Chastain said in 2001. "Some board members who were usually very tough about letting people out ... (later) voted in favor of him, and seemed eager to."" -By Dave Helling with contributions by DeAnn Smith -McClatchy
US - Iran - Nuclear - Military - Intelligence - Politics - Secret - History - "U.S. Finds Iran Halted Its Nuclear Arms Effort in 2003." ... "A new assessment by American intelligence agencies released Monday concludes that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and that the program remains frozen, contradicting a judgment two years ago that Tehran [Iran's capital] was working relentlessly toward building a nuclear bomb." ... "The conclusions of the new assessment are likely to reshape the final year of the [Republican President] Bush administration, which has made halting Iran’s nuclear program a cornerstone of its foreign policy." ... "The assessment, a National Intelligence Estimate that represents the consensus view of all 16 American spy agencies, states that Tehran is likely to keep its options open with respect to building a weapon, but that intelligence agencies “do not know whether it currently intends to develop nuclear weapons.”" ... "Iran is continuing to produce enriched uranium, a program that the Tehran government has said is intended for civilian purposes. The new estimate says that the enrichment program could still provide Iran with enough raw material to produce a nuclear weapon sometime by the middle of next decade, a timetable essentially unchanged from previous estimates." ... "But the new report essentially disavows a judgment that the intelligence agencies issued in 2005, which concluded that Iran had an active secret arms program intended to transform the raw material into a nuclear weapon. The new estimate declares instead with “high confidence” that the military-run program was shut in 2003, and it concludes with “moderate confidence” that the program remains frozen. The report judges that the halt was imposed by Iran “primarily in response to increasing international scrutiny and pressure.”" (1, 2) -By Mark Mazzetti -NYTimes

20071203

United States - Debt - Government - Fiscal - Politics - People - Parents - Accounting - History - Homeowners - Japan - China - Britain - Saudi Arabia - Oil - Countries - "National Debt Grows $1 Million a Minute." ... "Like a ticking time bomb, the national debt is an explosion waiting to happen. It's expanding by about $1.4 billion a day -- or nearly $1 million a minute." ... "What's that mean to you?" ... "It means almost $30,000 in debt for each man, woman, child and infant in the United States." ... "Even if you've escaped the recent housing and credit crunches and are coping with rising fuel prices, you may still be headed for economic misery, along with the rest of the country. That's because the government is fast straining resources needed to meet interest payments on the national debt, which stands at a mind-numbing $9.13 trillion." ... "And like homeowners who took out adjustable-rate mortgages, the government faces the prospect of seeing this debt -- now at relatively low interest rates -- rolling over to higher rates, multiplying the financial pain." ... "The national debt -- the total accumulation of annual budget deficits -- is up from $5.7 trillion when [Republican] President Bush took office in January 2001 and it will top $10 trillion [$10,000,000,000,000.00] sometime right before or right after he leaves in January 2009." ... "Foreign governments and investors now hold some $2.23 trillion -- or about 44 percent -- of all publicly held U.S. debt. That's up 9.5 percent from a year earlier." ... "Japan is first with $586 billion, followed by China ($400 billion) and Britain ($244 billion). Saudi Arabia and other oil-exporting countries account for $123 billion, according to the Treasury." ... "Democrats are blaming the runup in deficit spending on [Republican President] Bush and his Republican allies who controlled Congress for the first six years of his presidency." (1, 2, 3) -By Tom Raum -AP via -ChicagoTribune
Noteworthy - Housing - Consumers - Employed - People - Fla - "Foreclosure gridlock threatens economy: Millions 'in limbo' face possible default as adjustable mortgages reset." ... "Like a lot of Americans, Anne Violette is having trouble with her mortgage." ... "Violette, a self-employed photographer, moved to Delray Beach, Fla. [Florida], in 2004 and bought a home with a 30-year fixed-rate loan. A year later, she said, a friend in the mortgage industry sold her on the idea of refinancing with an adjustable-rate mortgage that saved her hundreds of dollars a month." ... "Violette said her problems began when she learned that the rate on her loan could nearly double, despite assurances that it would not rise more than a half-percent a year for the first three years. Eventually her monthly payments rose by $900, and she was unable to keep up. She began making calls to the lender, moving from one department to another, to see if she could work out a payment plan." ... "“They say, 'I’m sorry, but we can’t restructure your loan until you’re caught up,'” she said. “But I keep saying, ‘I can never be caught up until you restructure my loan.'”" ... "After more phone calls, Violette found a bank representative who agreed to help modify her mortgage. That was in August. The bank had her house appraised, but then she got a letter from another bank saying they had taken over her loan. In October, she called the first bank to find out where things stood and learned that the title company she used when she bought the house is out of business and that her loan is "in limbo," she said." ... "As consumers watch home prices slump and their equity melt away, some economists fear the housing recession could spill over to the broader economy." ... "25Over the next four years, some $1.5 trillion in mortgages are scheduled to reset, according to an analysis by Credit Suisse." (1, 2, 3, 4) -By John W. Schoen -MSNBC

20071130

Business - Government - Politics - 2008 Election - Family - Health - Safety - Environment - Air - Water - Soil - Labor - Animal - Farmers - Energy - Transportation - Automakers - Consumer - History - "Business Lobby Presses Agenda Before ’08 Vote." ... "Business lobbyists, nervously anticipating Democratic gains in next year’s elections, are racing to secure final approval for a wide range of health, safety, labor and economic rules, in the belief that they can get better deals from the [Republican President] Bush administration than from its successor." ... "Hoping to lock in policies backed by a pro-business administration, poultry farmers are seeking an exemption for the smelly fumes produced by tons of chicken manure. Businesses are lobbying the Bush administration to roll back rules that let employees take time off for family needs and medical problems. And electric power companies are pushing the government to relax pollution-control requirements." ... "The Federal Register typically grows fat with regulations churned out in the final weeks of any administration. But the push for such rules has become unusually intense because of the possibility that Democrats in 2009 may consolidate control of the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives for the first time in 14 years." ... "At the Transportation Department, trucking companies are trying to get final approval for a rule increasing the maximum number of hours commercial truck drivers can work. And automakers are trying to persuade officials to set new standards for the strength of car roofs — standards far less stringent than what consumer advocates say is needed to protect riders in a rollover." ... "At the Interior Department, coal companies are lobbying for a regulation that would allow them to dump rock and dirt from mountaintop mining operations into nearby streams and valleys." ... "Some of the biggest battles now involve rules affecting the quality of air, water and soil." (1, 2) -By Robert Pear -NYTimes

20071129

Rudy Giuliani - Terrorism - Money - Politics - US - Qatar - Military - Intelligence - Osama bin Laden - Law - Enforcement - 2008 Election - "Giuliani's Ties to Qatar Raise Questions for Mr. 9/ll." ... "Contracts awarded to [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] Rudy Giuliani's private security firm in the Gulf state of Qatar were overseen by a government minister suspected of harboring the al Qaeda terrorist who planned the 9/ll attacks, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, according to security consultants in the region." ... "Since 2005, Giuliani Partners and its Giuliani Security & Safety (GS&S) unit has provided security consulting and advice in Qatar through contracts overseen by the country's Interior Ministry, which is currently run by a member of the royal family who has long been accused of supporting al Qaeda, according to security consultants familiar with the area." ... "The current interior minister, Sheik Abdullah Bin Khalid al-Thani, was suspected of sheltering Mohammed at his farm and tipping him off to the arrival of CIA [Central Intelligence Agency] and FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation] teams coming to arrest the al Qaeda strategist back in 1996, according to the National Security Council's former chief counterterrorism adviser and ABC News consultant Richard A. Clarke, former CIA agent Robert Baer and a 2004 Congressional Research Service report." ... "Khalid al-Thani is also believed to have welcomed Osama bin Laden on two visits to the farm, according to an Oct. 10, 2007 CRS study." ... "The firm's work in Qatar was too close for comfort to former law enforcement agents familiar with the country." ... ""We have a guy who could be president who's taking money from the same accounts that harbored terrorists," said Baer, the former CIA agent." -By Marcus Baram -ABCNEWS.com

20071128

Noteworthy - Scott Bloch - Karl Rove - Military - Government - Computer - Intelligence - Company - Hacking - 2006 Election - Politics - Employee - Justice - Investigation - Kan - "Head of Rove Inquiry in Hot Seat Himself: Bloch Used Private Company, Geeks on Call, to Delete Files On His Office Computer." ... "The head of the federal agency investigating [Republican President Bush's former aide] Karl Rove's White House political operation is facing allegations that he improperly deleted computer files during another probe, using a private computer-help company, Geeks on Call." ... "TScott Bloch runs the Office of Special Counsel, an agency charged with protecting government whistleblowers and enforcing a ban on federal employees engaging in partisan political activity. Mr. Bloch's agency is looking into whether Mr. Rove and other White House officials used government agencies to help re-elect Republicans in 2006." ... "TAt the same time, Mr. Bloch has himself been under investigation since 2005. At the direction of the White House, the federal Office of Personnel Management's inspector general is looking into claims that Mr. Bloch improperly retaliated against employees and dismissed whistleblower cases without adequate examination." ... "TRecently, investigators learned that Mr. Bloch erased all the files on his office personal computer late last year. They are now trying to determine whether the deletions were improper or part of a cover-up, lawyers close to the case said." ... "In an interview, the 49-year-old former labor-law litigator from Lawrence, Kan., confirmed that he contacted Geeks on Call but said he was trying to eradicate a virus that had seized control of his computer." ... "Mr. Bloch believes the White House may have a conflict of interest in pressing the inquiry into his conduct while his office investigates the White House political operation." ... "Depending on circumstances, erasing files or destroying evidence in a federal investigation can be considered obstruction of justice." ... "Mr. Bloch had his computer's hard disk completely cleansed using a "seven-level" wipe: a thorough scrubbing that conforms to Defense Department data-security standards. The process makes it nearly impossible for forensics experts to restore the data later. He also directed Geeks on Call to erase laptop computers that had been used by his two top political deputies, who had recently left the agency." -By John R. Wilke -WSJ.com

20071124

United States - Iraq - Military - Politics - Economic - History - "Ex-coalition leader says Bush failed to have plan: Sanchez: It's time to withdraw troops, let Iraq take responsibility." ... "Retired Army [Lieutenant General] Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who led coalition forces through the first critical year of Iraq's insurgency, said Saturday in a nationally broadcast radio address that [Republican] President Bush had failed to "devise a strategy for victory" and that the time had come to withdraw U.S. troops." ... "In the Democratic rebuttal to Bush's weekly radio address, Sanchez offered conditional support to a House war funding bill that requires combat troops to be out of Iraq by the end of 2008." ... "As the coalition commander, Sanchez said in Saturday's broadcast, he personally witnessed "the administration's failure to devise a strategy for victory in Iraq that employed, in a coordinated manner, the political, economic, diplomatic and military power of the United States. That failure continues today."" ... "He predicted it would take at least a decade to reverse the damage done to the Army's ability to fight future wars." ... "The service, he added, is at its "lowest level"of force readiness since Vietnam." -By Sig Christenson -MySanAntonio.com via -Chron

20071122

Secret - Rudolph W Giuliani - California - Money - Election - Law - Politics- 2008 Election - New York - Jet - Poor - Countries - "Publicity-shy Giuliani backer in spotlight: Backer of plan many Democrats think could sink their chances at presidency." ... "Paul E. Singer is the founding partner of one of the oldest hedge funds around. And while he has become a major donor to Republican and conservative causes in recent years, he has largely managed to stay out of the limelight, even avoiding having his picture appear in newspapers." ... "But this year Mr. Singer became one of the biggest supporters of [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] Rudolph W. Giuliani’s presidential campaign, making his jet available to Mr. Giuliani, while Mr. Singer and workers at his companies have donated $200,000 to the campaign. And he became the largest individual backer of a California ballot initiative that many Democrats believe could sink their chances of winning the presidency." ... "Suddenly, the normally low-profile Mr. Singer, a New Yorker, found himself singled out by Democrats intent on beating back the California effort before it gained any steam." ... "Howard Dean, the chairman of the Democratic Party, questioned “Paul Singer’s involvement in this dirty trick aimed at stealing the White House.” A group of Democrats filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission charging that Mr. Singer had been acting on behalf of Mr. Giuliani in his efforts to change the California law — which Mr. Singer and the campaign deny. And the Democratic National Committee drew attention to the part of Mr. Singer’s business that involves buying the debt of poor countries at a discount and then seeking repayment in full — prompting an article in The Times of London labeling his firm, Elliott Associates, a “vulture fund.”" (1, 2) -By Michael Cooper and Leslie Wayne -NYTimes via -MSNBC
Iraq - United States - Saudi Arabia - Libya - Syria - Military - Terrorism - Computer - Intelligence - Religious - Politics - "Foreign Fighters in Iraq Are Tied to Allies of U.S.." ... "Saudi Arabia and Libya, both considered allies by the United States in its fight against terrorism, were the source of about 60 percent of the foreign fighters who came to Iraq in the past year to serve as suicide bombers or to facilitate other attacks, according to senior American military officials." ... "The data come largely from a trove of documents and computers discovered in September, when American forces raided a tent camp in the desert near Sinjar, close to the Syrian border. The raid’s target was an insurgent cell believed to be responsible for smuggling the vast majority of foreign fighters into Iraq." ... "The most significant discovery was a collection of biographical sketches that listed hometowns and other details for more than 700 fighters brought into Iraq since August 2006." ... "The records also underscore how the insurgency in Iraq remains both overwhelmingly Iraqi and Sunni. American officials now estimate that the flow of foreign fighters was 80 to 110 per month during the first half of this year and about 60 per month during the summer. The numbers fell sharply in October to no more than 40, partly as a result of the Sinjar raid, the American officials say." ... "In contrast to the comparatively small number of foreigners, more than 25,000 inmates are in American detention centers in Iraq. Of those, only about 290, or some 1.2 percent, are foreigners, military officials say." ... "About four out of every five detainees in American detention centers are Sunni Arab, even though Sunni Arabs make up just one-fifth of Iraq’s population." (1, 2) -By Richard A. Oppel Jr. -NYTimes

20071120

Dick Cheney - Karl Rove - I Lewis "Scooter" Libby - Intelligence - Law- Politics - Book - "McClellan blames Bush for CIA leak deceit: Former spokesman says both president and vice president involved." ... "Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan blames [Republican] President Bush and [Republican] Vice President Dick Cheney for efforts to mislead the public about the role of White House aides in leaking the identity of a CIA [Central Intelligence Agency] operative." ... "In an excerpt from his forthcoming book ["What Happened"], McClellan recount the 2003 news conference in which he told reporters that aides Karl Rove and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby were "not involved" in the leak involving operative Valerie Plame." ... ""There was one problem. It was not true," McClellan writes, according to a brief excerpt released Monday. "I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest-ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice president, the president's chief of staff and the president himself."" ... "Bush's chief of staff at the time was Andrew Card." -AP via -MSNBC

20071115

Alphonso Jackson - Criminal - Corporate - Federal - Housing - Politics - Law - New Orleans - Louisiana - Georgia - Virgin Islands - SC - "A Helping Hand." ... "By all accounts, Housing Secretary Alphonso Jackson is a tough, hands-on manager who gets what he wants. "He's not flying at the 50,000-feet level," says a former senior official in the Housing and Urban Development Department. "He is definitely into the weeds." Yet when it comes to dealing with contracts at HUD, Jackson insists he never gets involved -- "I don't mess" with contracts, he said in a sworn interview with federal investigators last year. But his record as secretary, and as deputy secretary before that, suggests otherwise." ... "Behind the scenes, Jackson has helped to arrange lucrative contract work running into the hundreds of thousands of dollars for friends and associates who went to work at HUD-controlled housing authorities in New Orleans [Louisiana] and the Virgin Islands, according to people familiar with his actions. Indeed, one of Jackson's good friends, Atlanta [Georgia] lawyer Michael Hollis, appears to have been paid approximately $1 million for managing the troubled Virgin Islands Housing Authority. Before landing at the authority, some sources said, Hollis had no experience in running a public housing agency." ... "Jackson's past efforts to aid his friends are causing him no end of headaches. For several months, a federal grand jury, Justice Department prosecutors, the FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation], and the HUD inspector general's office have been exploring Jackson's role in contracting decisions at the housing department. According to people familiar with the investigation, federal agents are focusing on Jackson's relationship with one friend in particular, William Hairston, a stucco contractor from Hilton Head Island, S.C. [South Carolina.]" ... "In interviews several weeks ago with National Journal, Hairston acknowledged that Jackson had helped him land a lucrative job around January 2006 at the Housing Authority of New Orleans, or HANO. HUD and a former HANO official have said that Hairston was paid about $485,000 for working as a construction manager at HANO during an 18-month period. As it turns out, new information uncovered by National Journal suggests that Hairston was paid even more than that. HSD, a Georgia company that was affiliated with Hairston, was paid $186,280 under a direct contract with HUD, federal procurement records show. A HUD document identified Hairston as a representative of HSD." ... "Federal investigators are digging deep into Jackson's relationship with Hairston, a sometime golfing buddy of the secretary's. According to the people familiar with the inquiry, federal investigators are also reviewing allegations that Hairston did work on Jackson's vacation home in Hilton Head." ... "Simply put, investigators are exploring whether Jackson lied when he said he did not get involved in HUD contracting. Federal criminal investigators would not comment on their inquiry." ... "At least four associates of Jackson have benefited from contracts awarded at the New Orleans and Virgin Islands housing authorities." -By Edward T. Pound -NationalJournal

20071113

Veterans - Mental - Health - Science - "The Veteran Suicide Epidemic: A CBS News Investigation Uncovers A Suicide Rate For Veterans Twice That Of Other Americans." ... "Beyond the individual loss, it turns out little information exists about how widespread suicides are among these who have served in the military. There have been some studies, but no one has ever counted the numbers nationwide." ... "So CBS News did an investigation - asking all 50 states for their suicide data, based on death records, for veterans and non-veterans, dating back to 1995. Forty-five states sent what turned out to be a mountain of information." ... "And what it revealed was stunning." ... "In 2005, for example, in just those 45 states, there were at least 6,256 suicides among those who served in the armed forces. That’s 120 each and every week, in just one year." -By Armen Keteyian -CBSNews

20071111

US - Iraq - Criminal - Business - Military - Politics - Accounting - "Broken Supply Channel Sent Weapons for Iraq Astray." ... "As the insurgency in Iraq escalated in the spring of 2004, American officials entrusted an Iraqi businessman with issuing weapons to Iraqi police cadets training to help quell the violence." ... "By all accounts, the businessman, Kassim al-Saffar, a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war, did well at distributing the Pentagon-supplied weapons from the Baghdad Police Academy armory he managed for a military contractor. But, co-workers say, he also turned the armory into his own private arms bazaar with the seeming approval of some American officials and executives, selling AK-47 assault rifles, Glock pistols and heavy machine guns to anyone with cash in hand — Iraqi militias, South African security guards and even American contractors." ... "“This was the craziest thing in the world,” said John Tisdale, a retired Air Force master sergeant who managed an adjacent warehouse. “They were taking weapons away by the truckload.”" ... "Activities at that armory and other warehouses help explain how the American military lost track of some 190,000 pistols and automatic rifles supplied by the United States to Iraq’s security forces in 2004 and 2005, as auditors discovered in the past year." ... "These discoveries prompted criminal inquiries by the Pentagon and the Justice Department, and stoked fears that the arms could fall into enemy hands and be used against American troops. So far, no missing weapons have been linked to any American deaths, but investigators say that in a country awash with weapons, it may be impossible to trace where some ended up." ... "While the Pentagon has yet to offer its own accounting of how the weapons channel broke down, it is clear from interviews with two dozen military and civilian investigators, contracting officers, warehouse managers and others that military expediency sometimes ran amok, the lines between legal and illegal were blurred and billions of dollars in arms were handed over to shoestring commands without significant oversight." ... "Some investigators said that because military suppliers to the war zone were not required to record serial numbers, it was unlikely that the authorities would ever be able to tell where the weapons went." ... "Many of those weapons were issued when [General] Gen. David H. Petraeus, now the top American commander in Iraq, was responsible for training and equipping Iraqi security forces in 2004 and 2005. " (1, 2, 3) -By Eric Schmitt and Ginger Thompson with contributions by Margot Williams and James Glanz -NYTimes

20071110

Los Angeles - California - Police - Government - Mapping - Religious - Peoples - Race - Civil Libertarians - Scientific - Terrorism - Intelligence - Law - "LAPD defends Muslim mapping effort: Police call program an effort to improve relations with Islamic community. Civil libertarians criticize profiling while other skeptics note that population is dispersed and defies easy classification." ... "The [Los Angeles, California] LAPD's plan to map Muslim communities in an effort to identify potential hotbeds of extremism departs from the way law enforcement has dealt with local anti-terrorism since 9/11 and prompted widespread skepticism Friday." ... "In a document reviewed Friday by The Times, the LAPD's Los Angeles Police Department's counter-terrorism bureau proposed using U.S. census data and other demographic information to pinpoint various Muslim communities and then reach out to them through social service agencies." ... "LAPD officials said that it is crucial for them to gain a better understanding of isolated parts of the Muslim community. Those groups can potentially breed violent extremism, the LAPD said in its plan." ... ""This is not . . . targeting or profiling," Police Chief William J. Bratton said Friday in defending the program. "It is an effort to understand communities," he said." ... "But the effort sparked an outcry from civil libertarians and some Muslim activists, who compared the program to religious profiling." ... "Others noted that the effort faces enormous practical difficulties. The U.S. Census Bureau is barred by law from asking people for their religious affiliation. As a result, there is no scientific data on the size of the nation's Muslim population, let alone its location, with estimates of the population nationwide ranging from about 1.4 million adults in a Pew Research Center study this year to the 7 million or more claimed by some community organizations." ... "Census data on ancestry also would not yield accurate Muslim estimates, because significant numbers of ethnic Iranians are Jewish and many ethnic Lebanese, Palestinians and Syrians are Christians." (1, 2) -By Richard Winton, Teresa Watanabe, and Greg Krikorian with contributions by Jean-Paul Renaud -LAtimes

20071109

Secret - Women - Health - Money - People - Accounting - Consumer - Law - "Health insurer tied bonuses to dropping sick policyholders." ... "One of the [California] state's largest health insurers set goals and paid bonuses based in part on how many individual policyholders were dropped and how much money was saved." ... "Woodland Hills [California]-based Health Net Inc. avoided paying $35.5 million in medical expenses by rescinding about 1,600 policies between 2000 and 2006. During that period, it paid its senior analyst in charge of cancellations more than $20,000 in bonuses based in part on her meeting or exceeding annual targets for revoking policies, documents disclosed Thursday showed." ... "The revelation that the health plan had cancellation goals and bonuses comes amid a storm of controversy over the industry-wide but long-hidden practice of rescinding coverage after expensive medical treatments have been authorized." ... "These cancellations have been the recent focus of intense scrutiny by lawmakers, state regulators and consumer advocates. Although these "rescissions" are only a small portion of the companies' overall business, they typically leave sick patients with crushing medical bills and no way to obtain needed treatment." ... "The bonuses were disclosed at an arbitration hearing in a lawsuit brought by Patsy Bates, a Gardena [California] hairdresser whose coverage was rescinded by Health Net in the middle of chemotherapy treatments for breast cancer." ... "Health Net had sought to keep the documents secret even after it was forced to produce them for the hearing, arguing that they contained proprietary information and could embarrass the company." (1, 2) -By Lisa Girion -LAtimes
John McCain - Rudolph Giuliani - Bernard Kerik - US - Iraq - Police - Military - Torture - Prisoner - Law - Politics - 2008 Election - New York - World - Religion - "McCain questions Giuliani's judgment." ... "[2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate John] McCain told reporters he had never approved of [former New York City, New York police commissioner Bernard] Kerik as a candidate for head of the DHS [Department of Homeland Security]." ... ""I went to Baghdad [Iraq's capital] shortly after the initial victory and met in Baghdad with Bremer, Sanchez and Kerik was there,” McCain said referencing former L. Paul Bremmer and [Lieutenant General] Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez. “Kerik was supposed to be there to help train the police force. He stayed two months and one day just left.”" ... ""That's why I never would have supported him to be the head of Homeland Security because of his irresponsible act when he was over there in Baghdad to try to help train the police."" ... "McCain also rebuked the [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate Rudolph Giuliani and former] New York mayor for his unwillingness to categorize water boarding as torture." ... ""He doesn't understand. He doesn't have the experience or judgment to lead this nation," McCain, a former prisoner of war, told reporters." ... ""I mean this is a defining issue about America. It means that he clearly does not understand the moral implications of torturing someone and what it does to our standing in the world and what it does to our ability to win this struggle to win radical Islamic extremism," he continued." -By Sareena Dalla -CNN

20071102

Nancy Nord - Children - Safety - Politics - Government - Consumer - Law - Enforcement - Manufacturer - Travel - Money - China - Spain - US - San Francisco - California - New Orleans - Louisiana - SC - "Industries Paid for Top Regulators' Travel: Two Heads of Product Safety Agency Accepted Trips From Manufacturer Groups." ... "The chief of the Consumer Product Safety Commission and her predecessor have taken dozens of trips at the expense of the toy, appliance and children's furniture industries and others they regulate, according to internal records obtained by The Washington Post. Some of the trips were sponsored by lobbying groups and lawyers representing the makers of products linked to consumer hazards." ... "The records document nearly 30 trips since 2002 by the agency's acting chairman, Nancy Nord, and the previous chairman, Hal Stratton, that were paid for in full or in part by trade associations or manufacturers of products ranging from space heaters to disinfectants. The airfares, hotels and meals totaled nearly $60,000, and the destinations included China, Spain, San Francisco [California], New Orleans [Louisiana] and a golf resort on Hilton Head Island, S.C. [South Carolina.]" ... "Consumer groups and lawmakers intensified their criticism of the CPSC this summer after several highly publicized recalls of Chinese-made toys that contained hazardous levels of lead. Critics have long charged that the agency has become too close to regulated industries, opting for "voluntary" standards and repeatedly choosing not to take legal action against businesses that refuse to recall dangerous products." ... "Government-wide travel regulations state that officials from agencies such as the CPSC should not accept money for travel from nonfederal sources if the payments "would cause a reasonable person . . . to question the integrity of agency programs or operations."" ... ""This is a blatant violation of the ethics code," said Craig Holman, an expert on governmental ethics law for the nonprofit consumer advocacy group Public Citizen." ... "The records show that Nord and Stratton repeatedly accepted gift travel for events from industries subject to CPSC enforcement." (1, 2, 3) -By Elizabeth Williamson -WashingtonPost

20071030

Nancy A Nord - Children - Safety - Politics - Manufacturing - Industry - Consumer - Law - Enforcement - Government - "Strengthening of Consumer Agency Opposed by Its Boss." ... "The top official for consumer product safety has asked Congress in recent days to reject legislation that would strengthen the agency that polices thousands of consumer goods, from toys to tools." ... "On the eve of an important Senate committee meeting to consider the legislation, Nancy A. Nord, the acting chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, has asked lawmakers in two letters not to approve the bulk of legislation that would increase the agency’s authority, double its budget and sharply increase its dwindling staff." ... "Ms. Nord opposes provisions that would increase the maximum penalties for safety violations and make it easier for the government to make public reports of faulty products, protect industry whistleblowers and prosecute executives of companies that willfully violate laws." ... "The measure is an effort to buttress an agency that has been under siege because of a raft of tainted and dangerous products manufactured both domestically and abroad. In the last two months alone, more than 13 million toys have been recalled after tests indicated lead levels of almost 200 times the safety ceiling." ... "Ms. Nord’s opposition to key elements of the legislation is consistent with the broadly deregulatory approach of the [Republican President] Bush administration." ... "She opposed making it easier to bring criminal prosecutions of companies that knowingly sell defective products and also criticized a measure that would make it easier for the commission to publicly disclose reports of faulty products." -By Stephen Labaton -NYTimes
Michael B Mukasey - Rudolph W Giuliani - John McCain - Prisoner - Torture - Law - Opinion - Classified - Government - Politics- Intelligence - History - New York - Arizona - "Mukasey Unsure About Legality of Waterboarding." ... "In an effort to quell growing doubts in the Senate about his nomination as [Republican President Bush's] attorney general, Michael B. Mukasey on Tuesday declared that waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques “seem over the line or, on a personal basis, repugnant to me” and promised to review the legality of all such techniques if confirmed." ... "But Mr. Mukasey told Senate Democrats he could not offer an opinion on whether waterboarding, which simulates drowning, is illegal torture because he has not been briefed on the details of the classified technique and does not want to suggest that Central Intelligence Agency officers who have used such techniques may be in “personal legal jeopardy.”" ... "Mr. Mukasey noted that Congress had not explicitly banned the use of waterboarding by the Central Intelligence Agency, though the method was outlawed for use by the military in the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005. That left room for interpretation as to whether waterboarding or any other technique is prohibited as “cruel, inhuman, or degrading” treatment, he wrote." ... "All 10 Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee wrote to Mr. Mukasey last week asking that he clarify his position on waterboarding. “Your unwillingness to state that waterboarding is illegal may place Americans at risk of being subject to this abusive technique,” the senators wrote." ... "Last week, after [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York mayor, said he wasn’t sure about waterboarding because he thought “the liberal media” might not have described it properly, [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] Senator John McCain of Arizona, who was tortured himself as a prisoner in North Vietnam, shot back." ... "“All I can say is that it was used in the Spanish Inquisition, it was used in Pol Pot’s genocide in Cambodia, and there are reports that it is being used against Buddhist monks today,” Mr. McCain said." -By Scott Shane -NYTimes
US - Iraq - Military - Government - Law - Politics - Blackwater - Criminal - Business - "Exclusive: ABC News Obtains Text of Blackwater Immunity Deal: State Department Grants Immunity to Guards Investigated for Shooting Iraqi Civilians." ... "ABC News has learned the exact wording of the immunity deal the State Department granted Blackwater security guards involved in a September shooting incident that left 17 Iraqis dead." ... "The security guards were given a limited immunity called "use immunity" in exchange for giving sworn statements about their involvement in the Sept. 16 shooting incident." ... "The wording of the immunity is included at the beginning of the Blackwater guards' sworn statements, which have been obtained by ABC News." ... "In each of the statements, the guards begin by saying "I understand this statement is being given in furtherance of an official administrative inquiry," and that, "I further understand that neither my statements nor any information or evidence gained by reason of my statements can be used against me in a criminal proceeding, except that if I knowingly and willfully provide false statements or information, I may be criminally prosecuted for that action under 18 United States Code, Section 1001."" ... "The immunity deal was granted in the immediate aftermath of the shooting by State Department officials in Iraq who were under intense pressure to quickly explain what happened in the face of allegations by Iraqi officials that the contractors murdered civilians in cold blood." ... "The immunity granted to the Blackwater guards is more limited in scope than so-called "transactional immunity" which would prevent any proscution for the alleged crimes. But the immunity granted to the guards means that anything said in the statements -- and anything learned as a result of the statements -- cannot be used by prosecutors." ... ""It's a nightmare for prosecutors," said legal expert Eugene Fidell. " (1, 2) -By Jonathan Karl and Kirit Radia -ABCNEWS.com

20071026

Humanity - Global - Environmental - Science - Disaster - Politics - UN - Earth - Climate - Animals- Rivers - "Environmental failures 'put humanity at risk': · UN report bemoans lack of urgency by governments· Five-year study involved more than 1,400 scientists." ... "The future of humanity has been put at risk by a failure to address environmental problems including climate change, species extinction and a growing human population, according to a new UN report." ... "In a sweeping audit of the world's environmental wellbeing, the study by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) warns that governments are still failing to recognise the seriousness of major environmental issues." ... "The study, involving more than 1,400 scientists, found that human consumption had far outstripped available resources. Each person on Earth now requires a third more land to supply his or her needs than the planet can supply, it finds." ... "Meanwhile, biodiversity is seriously threatened by the impact of human activities: 30% of amphibians, 23% of mammals and 12% of birds are under threat of extinction, while one in 10 of the world's large rivers runs dry every year before it reaches the sea." ... "The report - entitled Global Environment Outlook: Environment for Development - reviews progress made since a similar study in 1987 which laid the groundwork for studying environmental issues affecting the planet." ... "It addresses a number of areas where environmental degradation is threatening human welfare and the planet, including water, over-fishing and biodiversity - where the UNEP says a sixth, human-induced, extinction is under way." -By Martin Hodgson -Guardian.co.uk

20071022

Noteworthy - Kids- Environmental - Safety - Human - Industrial - Science - Politics - Consumer - Manufacturer - Law - History - "Tests reveal high chemical levels in kids' bodies." ... "Michelle Hammond and Jeremiah Holland were intrigued when a friend at the Oakland Tribune asked them and their two young children to take part in a cutting-edge study to measure the industrial chemicals in their bodies." ... ""In the beginning, I wasn't worried at all; I was fascinated," Hammond, 37, recalled." ... "But that fascination soon changed to fear, as tests revealed that their children -- Rowan, then 18 months, and Mikaela, then 5 -- had chemical exposure levels up to seven times those of their parents." ... ""[Rowan's] been on this planet for 18 months, and he's loaded with a chemical I've never heard of," Holland, 37, said. "He had two to three times the level of flame retardants in his body that's been known to cause thyroid dysfunction in lab rats."" ... "The technology to test for these flame retardants -- known as polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) -- and other industrial chemicals is less than 10 years old." ... "Environmentalists call it "body burden" testing, an allusion to the chemical "burden," or legacy of toxins, running through our bloodstream. Scientists refer to this testing as "biomonitoring."" ... "Most Americans haven't heard of body burden testing, but it's a hot topic among environmentalists and public health experts who warn that the industrial chemicals we come into contact with every day are accumulating in our bodies and endangering our health in ways we have yet to understand." ... ""We are the humans in a dangerous and unnatural experiment in the United States, and I think it's unconscionable," said Dr. Leo Trasande, assistant director of the Center for Children's Health and the Environment at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City." ... "Trasande says that industrial toxins could be leading to more childhood disease and disorders." ... ""We are in an epidemic of environmentally mediated disease among American children today," he said. "Rates of asthma, childhood cancers, birth defects and developmental disorders have exponentially increased, and it can't be explained by changes in the human genome. So what has changed? All the chemicals we're being exposed to."" ... "The Environmental Protection Agency does not require chemical manufacturers to conduct human toxicity studies before approving their chemicals for use in the market." -By Jordana Miller -CNN

20071021

US - Guantanamo Bay - Cuba - Political - Military - Prisoner - Terrorism - Secret - Law - 2008 Election - "Pressure Alleged in Detainees' Hearings: Ex-Prosecutor Says Pentagon Pushing 'Sexy' Cases in '08." ... "Politically motivated officials at the Pentagon have pushed for convictions of high-profile detainees ahead of the 2008 elections, the former lead prosecutor for terrorism trials at Guantanamo Bay [Cuba] said last night, adding that the pressure played a part in his decision to resign earlier this month." ... "Senior defense officials discussed in a September 2006 meeting the "strategic political value" of putting some prominent detainees on trial, said Air Force Col. Morris Davis. He said that he felt pressure to pursue cases that were deemed "sexy" over those that prosecutors believed were the most solid or were ready to go." ... "Davis said his resignation was also prompted by newly appointed senior officials seeking to use classified evidence in what would be closed sessions of court, and by almost all elements of the military commissions process being put under the Defense Department general counsel's command, something he believes could present serious conflicts of interest." ... ""There was a big concern that the election of 2008 is coming up," Davis said. "People wanted to get the cases going. There was a rush to get high-interest cases into court at the expense of openness."" -By Josh White -WashingtonPost

20071020

Alberto Gonzales - Karl Rove - Randy "Duke" Cunningham - Criminal - US Attorneys - Politics - Government - Law - Hatch Act - Washington - 2004 Election - New Mexico - San Diego - California - "Gonzales could be prosecuted, McKay says." ... "The U.S. Inspector General may recommend criminal prosecution of [Republican President Bush's] departed Attorney General Alberto Gonzales at the conclusion of an investigation, possibly as early as next month, the fired former U.S. attorney for Western Washington told a Spokane audience Friday." ... "His refusal to open a federal criminal investigation into voter fraud allegations in Gov. Chris Gregoire’s razor-thin victory over Republican challenger Dino Rossi in 2004 [election] may be the reason he was fired, John McKay told the Federal Bar Association." ... "Appointed by President Bush in October 2001 to the top law enforcement job in western Washington, McKay said he believes he and seven other U.S. attorneys were fired last December by Gonzales for political reasons, perhaps with former White House chief of staff Karl Rove pulling strings." ... "Gonzales “lied about” reasons for the firings when questioned under oath in July by the Senate Judiciary Committee and now has hired a lawyer and is refusing to answer questions from the Inspector General, McKay said." ... "“There was a conspiracy to politicize the Justice Department,’’ the former U.S. attorney said, “and they did not get away with it.”" ... "[Former New Mexico U.S. Attorney David] Iglesias has filed a Hatch Act complaint, alleging Rove and other White House officials may have violated that federal law in his firing." ... "[Former San Diego, California U.S. Attorney Carol] Lam has said she believes her firing was tied her office’s aggressive investigation of Rep. [California Republican Representative] Randy “Duke” Cunningham, a Republican congressman who later pleaded guilty to conspiracy and tax evasion." -By Bill Morlin -SpokesmanReview.com
Noteworthy - Global - Climate - Disaster - Environment - Water - "Rising seas threaten 21 mega-cities." ... "Cities around the world are facing the danger of rising seas and other disasters related to climate change." ... "More than one-tenth of the world's population, or 643 million people, live in low-lying areas at risk from climate change, say U.S. and European experts." -AP via -Yahoo

20071019

Water - Emergency - Weather - Environment - History - Farm- Animals - Food - Georgia - Alabama - North Carolina - Tennessee - Kentucky - "Southeast drought hits crisis point." ... "Outdoor watering bans already cover the northern third of Georgia and dozens of cities, counties and towns in surrounding states. Farmers are selling cattle because pastures have dried up. Alabama's Elmore County had to bring in floating pumps and barges to extend its water intake pipe farther out into shrinking Lake Martin. Georgia might have to do the same at Lake Lanier, Atlanta's main water source." ... "Although rain is due today across parts of the region, it will barely dampen the 16-month drought. Through September, it is the region's driest year in 113 years of record-keeping. In five of the six worst-hit states, rain totals this year are close to a foot below normal." ... "It is the driest year on record for North Carolina and Tennessee, second-driest in Alabama and third-driest in Kentucky. A tree-ring study this summer of Tennessee's rainfall history shows this is the third-driest year for the state in at least 350 years, behind only 1839 and 1708." -By Patrick O'Driscoll and Larry Copeland with contributions by Jordan Schrader, Marty Roney, Leon Alligood, Ron Barnett, Jessie Halladay, Matt Reed, and Jennie Coughlin -USATODAY

20071018

US - Iraq - Kuwait - Charles E Williams - Howard Krongard - Military - Government - Construction- Corporation - Criminal - "Criminal probe into U.S. Embassy in Iraq construction." ... "A mortar shell smashed into the hulking new U.S. [United States] Embassy that's under construction in Baghdad [Iraq's capital] last May, damaging a wall and causing minor injuries to people inside the building. It also exposed enormous problems in the management of what's become a $592 million government construction project." ... "The State Department contractor in charge of the project, James L. Golden, attempted to alter the scene of the blast, according to government officials familiar with the incident. The State Department inspector general prevented Department officials from investigating the incident, according to interviews and documents." ... "A congressional committee is examining whether the walls of the still-unfinished embassy complex, which are supposed to be blast-resistant, performed as they should have during the mortar attack." ... "U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker banished Golden from Iraq, but he continues to oversee the construction of the embassy in Baghdad; to be the liaison with the contractor, Kuwait-based First Kuwaiti General Trading and Contracting Co.; and to supervise other projects for the State Department's Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO) bureau." ... "McClatchy Newspapers has also learned that:" ... "— Aspects of the embassy's construction are the subject of at least one U.S. government criminal investigation, according to officials in Congress and the administration." ... "— In order to rush the project, the long-time head of OBO, retired Army Maj. Gen. [Major General] Charles Williams, signed a waiver in July 2005 allowing a sole-source contract to be awarded to First Kuwaiti." ... "In a letter to State Department Inspector General Howard Krongard last month, [California Democratic Representative Henry] Waxman said that former and current staff members in Krongard's office told the committee that he'd refused to help investigate alleged wrongdoing by First Kuwaiti and an unnamed top State Department official." -By Warren P. Strobel and Jonathan S. Landay -McClatchyDC.com
Randy "Duke" Cunningham - Brent Wilkes - Jerry Lewis - Duncan Hunter - Tom DeLay - Roy Blunt - Dennis Hastert - Money - Politics - Lawmakers - Travel - Flying - Government - Military - Intelligence - San Diego - California - Texas - Missouri - Hawaii - Florida - Nevada - Idaho - Illinois - "Witness: Contractor Gave Lawmaker Perks." ... "[Former California Republican Representative Randy "Duke"] Cunningham, a San Diego Republican who held seats on the powerful House intelligence and defense appropriations committees, was elected to eight terms before resigning in 2005. He pleaded guilty that year to accepting $2.4 million in bribes from [Brent] Wilkes and others and is serving an eight-year prison sentence." ... "[Wilkes nephew and employee Joel] Combs testified Wednesday that his uncle communicated with other prominent lawmakers, including California Republicans Jerry Lewis and Duncan Hunter, former House Majority Leader [Republican] Tom DeLay of Texas, Republican Whip [Missouri Representative] Roy Blunt, and Sen. Daniel Inouye, a Hawaii Democrat." ... "But the relationship with Cunningham was at the center of Wilkes' success in Washington, and Combs said his uncle worked to keep the lawmaker happy - efforts that included staking his nephew money to purposely lose in poker games with the lawmaker." ... "Combs recalled dinners at Washington's fancy Capital Grille restaurant, shooting lessons, and trips to Florida, Las Vegas [Nevada] and Idaho provided by Wilkes for the congressman from 1998 until 2002. During that period, Cunningham made calls to Pentagon officials on Wilkes' behalf and helped secure about $90 million in federal contracts for Wilkes' company." ... "The perks included a $20,000 stay in a private villa at a resort in Hawaii, where Wilkes, Combs and the congressman went diving - an expedition captured in an underwater video that was played for jurors. Combs said he also hired women from an escort service for his uncle and the congressman." ... "Wilkes also paid to fly Cunningham and former House Speaker [Illinois Republican Representative] Dennis Hastert from a golf outing in Palm Springs [California] to San Diego [California] for a reception and then back to Washington on private jets, Combs testified." -By Allison Hoffman -AP via -Guardian.co.uk

20071013

Government - Surveillance - Phone - Company - Terrorism - Intelligence - Law - Politics - Colorado - New York - "Former CEO Says U.S. Punished Phone Firm: Qwest Feared NSA Plan Was Illegal, Filing Says." ... "A former Qwest Communications International executive, appealing a conviction for insider trading, has alleged that the government withdrew opportunities for contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars after Qwest refused to participate in an unidentified National Security Agency program that the company thought might be illegal." ... "Former chief executive Joseph P. Nacchio, convicted in April of 19 counts of insider trading, said the NSA approached Qwest more than six months before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to court documents unsealed in Denver [Colorado] this week." ... "Details about the alleged NSA program have been redacted from the documents, but Nacchio's lawyer said last year that the NSA had approached the company about participating in a warrantless surveillance program to gather information about Americans' phone records." ... "Nacchio's account, which places the NSA proposal at a meeting on Feb. 27, 2001, suggests that the [Republican President] Bush administration was seeking to enlist telecommunications firms in programs without court oversight before the terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon. The Sept. 11 attacks have been cited by the government as the main impetus for its warrantless surveillance efforts." ... "Kurt Opsahl, senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said: "It's inappropriate for the government to be awarding a contract conditioned upon an agreement to an illegal program. That truly is what's going on here."" (1, 2) -By Ellen Nakashima and Dan Eggen with contributions by Richard Drezen -WashingtonPost

20071011

Secret - Government - Phone - Network - Spying - Intelligence - Law - Terrorism - Money - Politics - "Documents: Qwest was targeted: 'Classified info' was not allowed at ex-CEO's trial." ... "The National Security Agency and other government agencies retaliated against Qwest because the Denver telco refused to go along with a phone spying program, documents released Wednesday suggest." ... "The documents indicate that likely would have been at the heart of former CEO Joe Nacchio's so-called "classified information" defense at his insider trading trial, had he been allowed to present it." ... "The secret contracts - worth hundreds of millions of dollars - made Nacchio optimistic about Qwest's future, even as his staff was warning him the company might not make its numbers, Nacchio's defense attorneys have maintained. But Nacchio didn't present that argument at trial." ... "The documents suggest U.S. District Judge Edward Nottingham refused to allow Nacchio to present the argument about retaliation. Nottingham also said Nacchio would have to take the stand to raise the classified defense." ... "Nacchio was convicted last spring on 19 counts of insider trading for $52 million of stock sales in April and May 2001, and sentenced to six years in prison. He's free pending appeal." ... "The topic itself is redacted each time it appears in the hundreds of pages of documents, but there is mention of Nacchio believing the request was both inappropriate and illegal, and repeatedly refusing to go along with it." ... "The NSA contract was awarded in July 2001 to companies other than Qwest." ... "USA Today reported in May 2006 that Qwest, unlike AT&T and Verizon, balked at helping the NSA track phone calling patterns that may have indicated terrorist organizational activities. Nacchio's attorney, Herbert Stern, confirmed that Nacchio refused to turn over customer telephone records because he didn't think the NSA program had legal standing." ... "The documents maintain that Nacchio met with top government officials, including [Republican] President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and then-National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice in 2000 and early 2001 to discuss how to protect the government's communications network." -By Sara Burnett And Jeff Smith -RockyMountainNews.com

20071009

Secret - Osama bin Laden - TV - Web - Communications - Terrorist - Surveillance - Company - Military - Intelligence- Politics - "Leak Severed a Link to Al-Qaeda's Secrets: Firm Says [Republican President Bush's] Administration's Handling of Video Ruined Its Spying Efforts." ... "A small private intelligence company that monitors Islamic terrorist groups obtained a new Osama bin Laden video ahead of its official release last month, and around 10 a.m. on Sept. 7, it notified the Bush administration of its secret acquisition. It gave two senior officials access on the condition that the officials not reveal they had it until the al-Qaeda release." ... "Within 20 minutes, a range of intelligence agencies had begun downloading it from the company's Web site. By midafternoon that day, the video and a transcript of its audio track had been leaked from within the Bush administration to cable television news and broadcast worldwide." ... "The founder of the company, the SITE Intelligence Group [Search for International Terrorist Entities], says this premature disclosure tipped al-Qaeda to a security breach and destroyed a years-long surveillance operation that the company has used to intercept and pass along secret messages, videos and advance warnings of suicide bombings from the terrorist group's communications network." ... ""Techniques that took years to develop are now ineffective and worthless," said Rita Katz, the firm's 44-year-old founder, who has garnered wide attention by publicizing statements and videos from extremist chat rooms and Web sites, while attracting controversy over the secrecy of SITE's methodology. Her firm provides intelligence about terrorist groups to a wide range of paying clients, including private firms and military and intelligence agencies from the United States and several other countries." ... "She spoke first with White House counsel Fred F. Fielding, whom she had previously met, and then with Joel Bagnal, deputy assistant to the president for homeland security. Both expressed interest in obtaining a copy, and Bagnal suggested that she send a copy to Michael Leiter, who holds the No. 2 job at the National Counterterrorism Center." (1, 2) -By Joby Warrick -WashingtonPost

20071004

Noteworthy - US - Iraq- Religious - Freedom - Censorship - Military - Politics - Thanksgiving - "Are U.S. troops being force-fed Christianity? A watchdog group alleges that improper evangelizing is occurring within the ranks." ... "At Speicher base in Iraq, US Army Spec. Jeremy Hall got permission from a chaplain in August to post fliers announcing a meeting for atheists and other nonbelievers. When the group gathered, Specialist Hall alleges, his Army major supervisor disrupted the meeting and threatened to retaliate against him, including blocking his reenlistment in the Army." ... "Months earlier, Hall charges, he had been publicly berated by a staff sergeant for not agreeing to join in a Thanksgiving Day prayer." ... "On Sept. 17, the soldier and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) filed suit against Army Maj. Freddy Welborn and US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, charging violations of Hall's constitutional rights, including being forced to submit to a religious test to qualify as a soldier." ... "The MRFF plans more lawsuits in coming weeks, says Michael "Mikey" Weinstein, who founded the military watchdog group in 2005. The aim is "to show there is a pattern and practice of constitutionally impermissible promotions of religious beliefs within the Department of Defense."" ... "For Mr. Weinstein – a former Air Force judge advocate and assistant counsel in the Reagan White House – more is involved than isolated cases of discrimination. He charges that several incidents in recent years – and more than 5,000 complaints his group has received from active-duty and retired military personnel – point to a growing willingness inside the military to support a particular brand of Christianity and to permit improper evangelizing in the ranks. More than 95 percent of those complaints come from other Christians, he says." ... "Weinstein insists, however, that there are improper actions at high levels that not only infringe on soldiers' rights but, at a very dangerous time, also send the wrong message to people in the Middle East that those in the US military see themselves engaged in Christian warfare." -By Jane Lampman -CSMonitor
Alberto R Gonzales - David S Addington - Dick Cheney - John Yoo - Secret- Torture - War Crimes - Law - Politics - Terrorism - Government - Intelligence - Prison - Psychological - Health - Human Rights - US - World - History - "Secret U.S. Endorsement of Severe Interrogations." ... "When the Justice Department publicly declared torture “abhorrent” in a legal opinion in December 2004, the [Republican President] Bush administration appeared to have abandoned its assertion of nearly unlimited presidential authority to order brutal interrogations." ... "But soon after Alberto R. Gonzales’s arrival as attorney general in February 2005, the Justice Department issued another opinion, this one in secret. It was a very different document, according to officials briefed on it, an expansive endorsement of the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the Central Intelligence Agency." ... "The new opinion, the officials said, for the first time provided explicit authorization to barrage terror suspects with a combination of painful physical and psychological tactics, including head-slapping, simulated drowning and frigid temperatures." ... "Mr. Gonzales approved the legal memorandum on “combined effects” over the objections of James B. Comey, the deputy attorney general, who was leaving his job after bruising clashes with the White House. Disagreeing with what he viewed as the opinion’s overreaching legal reasoning, Mr. Comey told colleagues at the department that they would all be “ashamed” when the world eventually learned of it." ... "Later that year, as Congress moved toward outlawing “cruel, inhuman and degrading” treatment, the Justice Department issued another secret opinion, one most lawmakers did not know existed, current and former officials said. The Justice Department document declared that none of the C.I.A. interrogation methods violated that standard." ... "The classified opinions, never previously disclosed, are a hidden legacy of [Republican] President Bush’s second term and Mr. Gonzales’s tenure at the Justice Department, where he moved quickly to align it with the White House after a 2004 rebellion by staff lawyers that had thrown policies on surveillance and detention into turmoil." ... "Associates at the Justice Department said Mr. Gonzales seldom resisted pressure from [Republican] Vice President Dick Cheney and David S. Addington, Mr. Cheney’s counsel, to endorse policies that they saw as effective in safeguarding Americans, even though the practices brought the condemnation of other governments, human rights groups and Democrats in Congress. Critics say Mr. Gonzales turned his agency into an arm of the Bush White House, undermining the department’s independence." ... "The interrogation opinions were signed by Steven G. Bradbury, who since 2005 has headed the elite Office of Legal Counsel at the Justice Department. He has become a frequent public defender of the National Security Agency’s domestic surveillance program and detention policies at Congressional hearings and press briefings, a role that some legal scholars say is at odds with the office’s tradition of avoiding political advocacy." ... "The Bush administration had entered uncharted legal territory beginning in 2002, holding prisoners outside the scrutiny of the International Red Cross and subjecting them to harrowing pressure tactics. They included slaps to the head; hours held naked in a frigid cell; days and nights without sleep while battered by thundering rock music; long periods manacled in stress positions; or the ultimate, waterboarding." ... "Never in history had the United States authorized such tactics. While President Bush and C.I.A. officials would later insist that the harsh measures produced crucial intelligence, many veteran interrogators, psychologists and other experts say that less coercive methods are equally or more effective." ... "With virtually no experience in interrogations, the C.I.A. had constructed its program in a few harried months by consulting Egyptian and Saudi intelligence officials and copying Soviet interrogation methods long used in training American servicemen to withstand capture. The agency officers questioning prisoners constantly sought advice from lawyers thousands of miles away." ... "“We were getting asked about combinations — ‘Can we do this and this at the same time?’” recalled Paul C. Kelbaugh, a veteran intelligence lawyer who was deputy legal counsel at the C.I.A.’s Counterterrorist Center from 2001 to 2003." ... "Mr. Kelbaugh said the questions were sometimes close calls that required consultation with the Justice Department. But in August 2002, the department provided a sweeping legal justification for even the harshest tactics." ... "That opinion, which would become infamous as “the torture memo” after it was leaked, was written largely by John Yoo, a young Berkeley law professor serving in the Office of Legal Counsel." ... "Mr. Yoo’s memorandum said no interrogation practices were illegal unless they produced pain equivalent to organ failure or “even death.”" (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) -By Scott Shane, David Johnston, and James Risen -NYTimes

20070928

Burma[Myanmar] - Military - Police - Politics - History - Religious - "Nine dead after troops fire into crowds of democracy protesters: · Mayhem as crackdown gathers pace on 10th day of protests · Civilians take to streets after hundreds of monks arrested." ... "Burmese troops and riot police battled to put an end to the 10th consecutive day of protests against the country's military dictatorship that has maintained an iron grip on power for 45 years, firing automatic weapons into crowds of pro-democracy demonstrators in Rangoon after they flouted warnings to clear the streets or face "extreme action"." ... "A Japanese photographer, Kenji Nagai, 50, was among at least nine people killed in the fierce clashes. Thousands of protesters played a deadly game of cat and mouse with the police and troops, continually dispersing as they were attacked and reforming to taunt the security forces who used teargas, baton charges and live ammunition against them." ... "Fewer monks were seen on the streets yesterday as up to 500 had been arrested and many others confined to their quarters by soldiers who raided six monasteries around the capital from dawn onwards. Leaders of the National League for Democracy were also rounded up." ... "Pools of blood remained in monastery dormitories and stairwells where the troops had smashed in windows and doors, and beat the young novices as they lay sleeping. In some raids shots were fired and a senior abbot at Moe Ngway monastery was said to have died later in the afternoon." ... "The ferocity of the attacks on the monks, the ransacking of monasteries that saw Buddhist relics vandalised and gold looted, according to diplomatic sources, shocked ordinary Burmese people, who revere the clergy." -By Ian MacKinnon -Guardian.co.uk

20070927

US - Iraq - Global - Military - Politics - "Army is worn too thin, says general: Calls force not ready to meet new threats." ... "The Army's top officer, General George Casey, told Congress yesterday that his branch of the military has been stretched so thin by the war in Iraq that it can not adequately respond to another conflict - one of the strongest warnings yet from a military leader that repeated deployments to war zones in the Middle East have hamstrung the military's ability to deter future aggression." ... "In his first appearance as Army chief of staff, Casey told the House Armed Services" ... "Committee that the Army is "out of balance" and "the current demand for our forces exceeds the sustainable supply. We are consumed with meeting the demands of the current fight and are unable to provide ready forces as rapidly as necessary for other potential contingencies."" ... "Officials said Casey, who appeared along with Army Secretary Pete Geren, personally requested the public hearing - a highly unusual move that military analysts said underscores his growing concern about the health of the Army, America's primary fighting force." ... "Casey's testimony yesterday sent a clear message: If [Republican] President Bush or Congress does not significantly reduce US forces in Iraq soon, the Army will need far more resources - and money - to ensure it is prepared to handle future security threats that the general warned are all but inevitable." ... ""As we look to the future, national security experts are virtually unanimous in predicting that the next several decades will be ones of persistent conflict," Casey told the panel, citing potential instability caused by globalization, humanitarian crises, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction." -By Bryan Bender -Boston/Globe

20070926

Myanmar[Burma] - Military - Police - Politics - History - Religious - "Police Clash With Monks in Myanmar." ... "The government of Myanmar [Burma] began a violent crackdown today after tolerating more than a month of ever-larger protests in cities around the country, clubbing and tear-gassing protesters, firing shots into the air and arresting hundreds of the monks who are at the heart of the demonstrations." ... "Despite threats and warnings by the authorities and despite the beginnings of a violent response, tens of thousands of chanting, cheering protesters flooded the streets, witnesses reported. Monks were in the lead, “like religious storm troopers,” as one foreign diplomat described the scene." ... "Though the crowds were large and energetic, they were smaller than on previous days, apparently in part because of the deployment of armed soldiers to prevent monks from leaving some of the main temples." ... "But it appeared that an attempt by the military to halt the protests through warnings, troop deployments and initial bursts of violence had not succeeded. Analysts said that the next steps in the crackdown might be yet more aggressive and widespread." ... "Tens of thousands of people were reported to be demonstrating in the streets of Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city." ... "The demonstrations have grown from several hundred people protesting a fuel price rise in mid-August to as many as 100,000 Sunday, led by tens of thousands of monks in the largest and most sustained antigovernment protests since 1988." ... "That earlier peaceful uprising was crushed by the military, which shot into crowds, killing an estimated 3,000 people. It was during the turmoil a decade ago that the current military junta took power in Myanmar, and it has maintained its grip by arresting dissidents, quashing political opposition and using force and intimidation to control the population." -By Seth Mydans -NYTimes

20070925

US - Iraq - Military - Intelligence - Accounting - Politics - Terrorism - Crime - Database - "What Defines a Killing as Sectarian? U.S. Military Teams Analyze and Tally Each Civilian Death." ... "On Sept. 1, the bullet-riddled bodies of four Iraqi men were found on a Baghdad [Iraq's capital] street. Two days later, a single dead man, with one bullet in his head, was found on a different street. According to the U.S. military in Iraq, the solitary man was a victim of sectarian violence. The first four were not." ... "Such determinations are the building blocks for what the [Republican President] Bush administration has declared a downward trend in sectarian deaths and a sign that its war strategy is working. They are made by a specialized team of soldiers who spend their nights at computer terminals, sifting through data on the day's civilian victims for clues to the motivations of killers." ... "Apparent contradictions are relatively easy to find in the flood of bar charts and trend lines the military produces. Civilian casualty numbers in the Pentagon's latest quarterly report on Iraq last week, for example, differ significantly from those presented by the top commander in Iraq, Gen. David H. Petraeus, in his recent congressional testimony. Petraeus's chart was limited to numbers of dead, while the Pentagon combined the numbers of dead and wounded -- a figure that should be greater. Yet Petraeus's numbers were higher than the Pentagon's for the months preceding this year's increase of U.S. troops to Iraq, and lower since U.S. operations escalated this summer." ... "The charts are difficult to compare: Petraeus used monthly figures on a line graph, while the Pentagon computed "Average Daily Casualties" on a bar chart, and neither included actual numbers." ... "In an Iraq assessment released this month, the Government Accountability Office said it "could not determine if sectarian violence had declined" since the U.S. troop buildup began in the spring and saw no decrease in overall attacks against civilians as of the end of July." ... "The U.S. intelligence community considers more than numbers in making its war assessments. "What the Iraqis perceive" about their country and their daily lives "may be more important than what the numbers are," said a senior intelligence official, who discussed the subject on the condition of anonymity. Even so, he said, intelligence officials found contradictions in the available statistics as they wrote last month's National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq, whose conclusions were somewhat less optimistic than the military's." (1, 2) -By Karen DeYoung -WashingtonPost

20070924

Pakistan - Military- Police - Politics - "Musharraf arrests opposition leaders: Police raids round up politicians planning demonstrations against the President; politicians fear democratic process has broken down." ... "Opposition leaders were arrested over the weekend in Pakistan as General Pervez Musharraf extended his crackdown on dissent ahead of a presidential election." ... "Heavy police raids rounded up politicians, who had been planning to spearhead demonstrations in the [Pakistan] capital of Islamabad this week against Gen. Musharraf's re-election plans. Leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League, the party of exiled former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, and some religious party chiefs were taken away. All were members of an opposition coalition, the All Parties Democratic Movement, that has vowed to end the rule of Gen. Musharraf, who is both president and head of Pakistan's military." ... "Imran Khan, the cricketer turned politician, warned that democratic process has broken down in Pakistan." ... ""This is descending into a complete banana republic," he said in an interview. "Whatever obstacles come into Musharraf's way, he is determined to remove them. And all for one reason: to stay in power," he said." ... "Similarly to this weekend's pre-emptive crackdown, the government took no chances when Mr. [Nawaz] Sharif tried to return from seven years of exile earlier this month. He was deported immediately on landing at Islamabad airport. His party activists were arrested and all roads leading to the airport were sealed off to ensure that no crowds turned out to greet him." -By Saeed Shah -TheGlobeAndMail.com

20070922

Government - Electronic - Surveillance - Data - Travelers - Flying - Driving - Reading - People - Civil Liberties - US - International - San Francisco - California - Alaska - Terrorism- Intelligence - Politics - Law - "Collecting of Details on Travelers Documented: U.S. Effort More Extensive Than Previously Known." ... "The U.S. government is collecting electronic records on the travel habits of millions of Americans who fly, drive or take cruises abroad, retaining data on the persons with whom they travel or plan to stay, the personal items they carry during their journeys, and even the books that travelers have carried, according to documents obtained by a group of civil liberties advocates and statements by government officials." ... "The personal travel records are meant to be stored for as long as 15 years, as part of the Department of Homeland Security's effort to assess the security threat posed by all travelers entering the country. Officials say the records, which are analyzed by the department's Automated Targeting System, help border officials distinguish potential terrorists from innocent people entering the country." ... "Officials yesterday defended the retention of highly personal data on travelers not involved in or linked to any violations of the law. But civil liberties advocates have alleged that the type of information preserved by the department raises alarms about the government's ability to intrude into the lives of ordinary people. The millions of travelers whose records are kept by the government are generally unaware of what their records say, and the government has not created an effective mechanism for reviewing the data and correcting any errors, activists said." ... "The activists alleged that the data collection effort, as carried out now, violates the Privacy Act, which bars the gathering of data related to Americans' exercise of their First Amendment rights, such as their choice of reading material or persons with whom to associate. They also expressed concern that such personal data could one day be used to impede their right to travel." ... ""The federal government is trying to build a surveillance society," said John Gilmore, a civil liberties activist in San Francisco whose records were requested by the Identity Project, an ad-hoc group of privacy advocates in California and Alaska. The government, he said, "may be doing it with the best or worst of intentions. . . . But the job of building a surveillance database and populating it with information about us is happening largely without our awareness and without our consent."" (1, 2) -By Ellen Nakashima with contributions by Julie Tate -WashingtonPost

20070920

Iraq - US - Government - Blackwater - Company - Military - Law - Politics - "Where Military Rules Don't Apply: Blackwater's Security Force in Iraq Given Wide Latitude by State Dept.." ... "Blackwater USA, the private security company involved in a Baghdad [Iraq's capital] shootout last weekend, operated under [Republican President Bush's] State Department authority that exempted the company from U.S. military regulations governing other security firms, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials and industry representatives." ... "In recent months, the State Department's oversight of Blackwater became a central issue as Iraqi authorities repeatedly clashed with the company over its aggressive street tactics. Many U.S. and Iraqi officials and industry representatives said they came to see Blackwater as untouchable, protected by State Department officials who defended the company at every turn." ... "The State Department allowed Blackwater's heavily armed teams to operate without an Interior Ministry license, even after the requirement became standard language in Defense Department security contracts. The company was not subject to the military's restrictions on the use of offensive weapons, its procedures for reporting shooting incidents or a central tracking system that allows commanders to monitor the movements of security companies on the battlefield." ... "A one-paragraph subsection to a 2004 edict issued by the Coalition Provisional Authority, the now-defunct U.S. occupation government, granted contractors immunity from the Iraqi legal process. This edict is still in effect. Congress has moved to establish guidelines for prosecuting contractors under U.S. law or the Uniform Code of Military Justice, but the issue remains unresolved." ... "The use of private security skyrocketed in Iraq after the March 2003 invasion because of troop shortages and growing violence. U.S. authorities have no idea how many hired guns operate in the country; estimates range from 20,000 to 50,000 or higher." ... "Over the past year, the military has issued a series of "fragos," or fragmentary orders, designed to impose greater accountability on security contractors operating under Defense Department contracts. Blackwater was not covered because it reported to the State Department." ... "None of the new orders applied to Blackwater, which has received $678 million in State Department contracts since 2003 and operates under the department's authority." ... "Blackwater is not required to report its movements to the military." (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) -By Steve Fainaru with contributions by Joshua Partlow, Megan Greenwell, and Julie Tate-WashingtonPost
Secret- Phone - E-Mail - Surveillance - Company - Consumer- Lawsuit - Politics - Terrorism - Government - Intelligence - San Francisco - California - "Case Dismissed? The secret lobbying campaign your phone company doesn't want you to know about." ... "The nation’s biggest telecommunications companies, working closely with the [Republican President Bush] White House, have mounted a secretive lobbying campaign to get Congress to quickly approve a measure wiping out all private lawsuits against them for assisting the U.S. intelligence community’s warrantless surveillance programs." ... "The campaign—which involves some of Washington's most prominent lobbying and law firms—has taken on new urgency in recent weeks because of fears that a U.S. appellate court in San Francisco [California] is poised to rule that the lawsuits should be allowed to proceed." ... "If that happens, the telecom companies say, they may be forced to terminate their cooperation with the U.S. intelligence community—or risk potentially crippling damage awards for allegedly turning over personal information about their customers to the government without a judicial warrant." ... "But critics say the language proposed by the White House—drafted in close cooperation with the industry officials—is so extraordinarily broad that it would provide retroactive immunity for all past telecom actions related to the surveillance program. Its practical effect, they argue, would be to shut down any independent judicial or state inquires into how the companies have assisted the government in eavesdropping on the telephone calls and e-mails of U.S. residents in the aftermath of the September 11 terror attacks." ... "Among those coordinating the industry’s effort are two well-connected capital players who both worked for President George H.W. Bush: Verizon general counsel William Barr, who served as attorney general under 41, and AT&T senior executive vice president James Cicconi, who was the elder Bush's deputy chief of staff." ... "Working with them are a battery of major D.C. lobbyists and lawyers who are providing "strategic advice" to the companies on the issue, according to sources familiar with the campaign who asked not to be identified talking about it. Among the players, these sources said: powerhouse Republican lobbyists Charlie Black and Wayne Berman (who represent AT&T and Verizon, respectively), former GOP senator and U.S. ambassador to Germany Dan Coats (a lawyer at King & Spaulding who is representing Sprint), former Democratic Party strategist and one-time assistant secretary of State Tom Donilon (who represents Verizon), former deputy attorney general Jamie Gorelick (whose law firm also represents Verizon) and Brad Berenson, a former assistant White House counsel under President George W. Bush who now represents AT&T." (1, 2, 3) -By Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball -MSNBC /Newsweek

20070918

Howard J Krongard - US - Iraq - Afghanistan - Military - Accounting - Law - Government - Employees - Blackwater - Money - Politics - California- "State Dept. Official Accused of Blocking Inquiry." ... "A top House Democrat began an inquiry on Tuesday into accusations that the State Department's inspector general repeatedly interfered with investigations into fraud and abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan, including security defects at the new United States Embassy in Baghdad [Iraq's capital]." ... "[Democratic] Representative Henry A. Waxman of California, the chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent the inspector general, Howard J. Krongard, a 14-page letter spelling out accusations made by several current and former employees of Mr. Krongard's office who documented their charges with e-mail messages." ... ""One consistent element in these allegations is that you believe your foremost mission is to support the [Republican President] Bush administration, especially with respect to Iraq and Afghanistan, rather than act as an independent and objective check on waste, fraud and abuse on behalf of U.S. taxpayers," Mr. Waxman wrote. He invited Mr. Krongard to respond to the accusations at a committee hearing on Oct. 16." ... "Mr. Waxman told Mr. Krongard that he had been accused of impeding an investigation of a security company suspected of "illegally smuggling weapons into Iraq." The Associated Press reported that the unnamed company was Blackwater." -By David Stout with contributions by Brian Knowlton -NYTimes

20070912

US - Intelligence - Politics - Terrorism- Germany- Overseas - Telephone - E-Mail - Secret - Electronic - Surveillance - Law - Connecticut - "Spy Master Admits Error: Intel czar Mike McConnell told Congress a new law helped bring down a terror plot. The facts say otherwise." ... "In a new embarrassment for the [Republican President] Bush administration's top spymaster, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell is withdrawing an assertion he made to Congress this week that a recently passed electronic-surveillance law helped U.S. authorities foil a major terror plot in Germany." ... "The temporary measure, signed into law by President Bush on Aug. 5, gave the U.S. intelligence community broad new powers to eavesdrop on telephone and e-mail communications overseas without seeking warrants from the surveillance court. The law expires in six months and is expected to be the subject of intense debate in the months ahead. On Monday, McConnell—questioned by [Connecticut Independent Democratic Senator] Sen. Joe Lieberman—claimed the law, intended to remedy what the White House said was an intelligence gap, had helped to “facilitate” the arrest of three suspects believed to be planning massive car bombings against American targets in Germany. Other U.S. intelligence-community officials questioned the accuracy of McConnell's testimony and urged his office to correct it. Four intelligence-community officials, who asked for anonymity discussing sensitive material, said the new law, dubbed the "Protect America Act,” played little if any role in the unraveling of the German plot." ... "Late Wednesday afternoon, McConnell issued a statement acknowledging that "information contributing to the recent arrests [in Germany] was not collected under authorities provided by the 'Protect America Act'."" ... "The developments were cited by Democratic critics on Capitol Hill as the latest example of the Bush administration's exaggerated claims—and contradictory statements—about ultrasecret surveillance activities." (1, 2, 3) -By Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball -MSNBC /Newsweek
Noteworthy - Government - Debt - Legislation - Politics - 2008 Election - "Senate panel okays $850 billion debt increase." ... "The Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday approved an $850 billion increase in U.S. borrowing authority to $9.815 trillion in order to avoid a default as the government nears its credit limit of $8.965 trillion." ... "The amount approved by the finance panel would allow the government to continue borrowing into 2009, well after next year's presidential and congressional elections [in 2008]." -Reuters via -ABCNEWS.com

20070911

Secret - Federal - Health - Safety - Consumer - Law - Politics - Food - Drug - Traffic - Manufacturers - Companies - "Stealth Rules War Pits Lawyers Versus Companies." ... "Official Washington loves the word ``stealth.'' It connotes intrigue and secrecy, making the term well understood in a capital where spies and invisible fighter jets aren't all that's sneaking around." ... "At least that's how the nation's trial lawyers view the [Republican President] Bush administration's increasing use of federal health and safety regulations as a line of defense for manufacturers trying to fend off multimillion-dollar liability claims from consumers in state courts." ... "The fine print of a 2006 U.S. Food and Drug Administration rule on prescription labeling that preempts, or overrides, state laws is proving to be a powerful weapon in the courtroom at a time when Merck & Co. is fighting thousands of lawsuits from consumers claiming they were harmed by its drug Vioxx." ... "Since 2005, federal agencies, including the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Department of Homeland Security have issued more than a dozen rules that stress the primacy of federal law." ... "Plaintiff attorneys, who have been watching the trend with alarm, say eliminating the option of suing a company at the state level will result in weaker federal regulations, more cost to the government for consumers' medical bills, and a usurping of congressional authority." ... "The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a hearing for tomorrow: ``Regulatory Preemption: Are Federal Agencies Usurping Congressional and State Authority?''" -By Cindy Skrzycki -Bloomberg
US - Iraq - Military - Safety - Politics - Lawmakers - Va - "Senate grills Petraeus on Iraq strategy." ... "GOP [Republican] lawmakers including some of the party's most respected voices on foreign policy demonstrated at the hearings that they are not quietly following the [Republican President Bush] White House script. In some instances, their criticism was almost as scathing as that of the most hostile Democrats." ... "And [Virginia Republican Senator] Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), the former chairman of the Armed Services Committee and a former secretary of the Navy, sharply dismissed [U.S. Ambassador Ryan] Crocker's talk of reaching a national reconciliation in Iraq." ... ""That's what's been said at this table for a long time, sir," Warner said. "And ... it hasn't happened."" ... "Warner, one of the Senate's most influential policymakers when it comes to the military, urged [General David] Petraeus to tell the president if he disagrees with him on his strategy." ... ""I hope in the recesses of your heart," Warner said, "that you know that strategy will continue the casualties, stress on our forces, stress on military families, stress on all Americans."" ... "Finally, Warner concluded with a question: "Are you able to say at this time, if we continue what you have laid before the Congress here as a strategy, do you feel that that is making America safer?"" ... "Petraeus said the strategy is the best course for achieving U.S. objectives in Iraq." ... ""Does that make America safer?" pushed Warner." ... "Said Petraeus, "Sir, I don't know, actually. I have not sat down and sorted it out in my own mind."" (1, 2) -By Jill Zuckman -ChicagoTribune
US - Iraq - Military - Intelligence - Accounting - Politics - "Numbers cast doubt on U.S. claims: Analysts questioning military counts of civilian casualties." ... "Gen. David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker emphasized signs of progress in Iraq during their presentation to Congress on Monday and frequently interpreted events in the most optimistic light while downplaying more troubling signs." ... "A review of war statistics provides a number of examples in which the officials' analysis seemed incomplete." ... "For example, Petraeus placed a heavy emphasis on U.S. military figures showing a 45 percent drop in civilian deaths in Iraq since the peak of sectarian violence in December 2006 and a 55 percent drop in killings that the military judged "ethno-sectarian." But the December 2006 time frame that Petraeus used for the comparison was a high point in sectarian violence that predated the U.S. troop "surge."" ... "[Republican] President Bush announced the surge in January and the first U.S. troops under the strategy arrived in Iraq in late February. By then, violence already had subsided somewhat from the unprecedented levels of sectarian strife that racked Baghdad in 2006. Also, in previous years, there has been a surge of violence in Iraq during Ramadan, the monthlong Islamic holiday that begins later this week." ... "Analysts inside and outside the government, including the General Accountability Office in a recent report, also have questioned the military's counting of civilian casualties." ... "The Associated Press counted 1,809 civilian deaths in August, its second-highest monthly total this year." -By Mike Dorning with contributions by Aamer Madhani -ChicagoTribune

20070910

United States - Afghanistan- Pakistan - Osama bin Laden - Terrorism - Intelligence - Law - Enforcement - Politics - "Intelligence officials contradict White House on bin Laden." ... "Contradicting [Republican] President Bush's counter-terrorism adviser, U.S. intelligence and law enforcement chiefs and a Cabinet member said Monday that Osama bin Laden remained the most dangerous terrorist threat to the United States six years after the 9-11 attacks." ... "Eliminating the threat that the al Qaida leader and his inner circle pose from their sanctuary in Pakistan's remote tribal region bordering Afghanistan "is our number one priority," Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell told a Senate committee." ... "The assessments by McConnell, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and FBI Director Robert Mueller came a day after White House homeland security adviser Frances Fragos Townsend called bin Laden "a man on the run from a cave who is virtually impotent other than these tapes."" ... "Townsend was commenting on the release of the first bin Laden video in nearly three years, which surfaced Friday on the Internet." ... "McConnell recalled that a comprehensive U.S. intelligence assessment issued in July warned that the gravest terrorist threat to the United States for the next three years is bin Laden and the plots to attack American targets that he and his lieutenants are hatching in their sanctuary in Pakistan." -By Jonathan S. Landay -McClatchyDC.com

20070909

US - Iraq - Afghanistan - Iran - Military - Media - Marketing - Intelligence - Politics - Ill - "Among Top Officials, 'Surge' Has Sparked Dissent, Infighting." ... "For two hours, [Republican] President Bush listened to contrasting visions of the U.S. future in Iraq. Gen. David H. Petraeus dominated the conversation by video link from Baghdad [Iraq's capital], making the case to keep as many troops as long as possible to cement any security progress. Adm. William J. Fallon, his superior, argued instead for accepting more risks in Iraq, officials said, in order to have enough forces available to confront other potential threats in the region." ... "The polite discussion in the White House Situation Room a week ago masked a sharper clash over the U.S. venture in Iraq, one that has been building since Fallon, chief of the U.S. Central Command, which oversees Middle East operations, sent a rear admiral to Baghdad this summer to gather information. Soon afterward, officials said, Fallon began developing plans to redefine the U.S. mission and radically draw down troops." ... "One of those plans, according to a Centcom officer, involved slashing U.S. combat forces in Iraq by three-quarters by 2010. In an interview, Fallon disputed that description but declined to offer details. Nonetheless, his efforts offended Petraeus's team, which saw them as unwelcome intrusion on their own long-term planning. The profoundly different views of the U.S. role in Iraq only exacerbated the schism between the two men." ... "Fallon, who took command of Centcom in March, worried that Iraq was undermining the military's ability to confront other threats, such as Iran. "When he took over, the reality hit him that he had to deal with Afghanistan, the Horn of Africa and a whole bunch of other stuff besides Iraq," said a top military officer." ... "Fallon was also derisive of Iraqi leaders' intentions and competence, and dubious about the surge. "He's been saying from Day One, 'This isn't working,' " said a senior administration official. And Fallon signaled his departure from Bush by ordering subordinates to avoid the term "long war" -- a phrase the president used to describe the fight against terrorism." ... "To Bush aides, [defense secretary Robert] Gates did not seem fully on board with the president's strategy, either. As a member of the congressionally chartered Iraq Study Group before his selection to head the Pentagon, Gates embraced proposals to scale back the U.S. presence in Iraq. Now that he was in the Cabinet, he kept his own counsel." ... "Another new arrival in the [Republican President Bush's] West Wing set up a rapid-response PR unit hard-wired into Petraeus's shop. Ed Gillespie, the new presidential counselor, organized daily conference calls at 7:45 a.m. and again late in the afternoon between the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department, and the U.S. Embassy and military in Baghdad to map out ways of selling the surge." ... "From the start of the Bush plan, the White House communications office had been blitzing an e-mail list of as many as 5,000 journalists, lawmakers, lobbyists, conservative bloggers, military groups and others with talking points or rebuttals of criticism. Between Jan. 10 and last week, the office put out 94 such documents in various categories -- "Myths/Facts" or "Setting the Record Straight" to take issue with negative news articles, and "In Case You Missed It" to distribute positive articles or speeches." ... "Petraeus was doing his part in Baghdad, hosting dozens of lawmakers and military scholars for PowerPoint presentations on why the Bush strategy had made gains." ... "Some visitors suspected a skewed picture. "We only saw things that reinforced their message that the surge was working," said [Illinois Democratic Representative] Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.)." (1, 2, 3, 4) -By Peter Baker, Karen DeYoung, Thomas E. Ricks, Ann Scott Tyson, Joby Warrick and Robin Wright with contributions by Julie Tate -WashingtonPost

20070906

Noteworthy - Government - Debt - Money - Accounting - Politics - "Brother, Can You Spare $9 Trillion? Mark Knoller On The Nation's Historic, And Rising, Debt." ... "Few took notice, but for the first time in U.S. history last Friday, the national debt hit an all-time high of $9 trillion." ... "To be exact, the total liabilities of the U.S. Government hit $9,005,648,561,262.70, according to the Bureau of the Public Debt at the Treasury Department." ... "But Mr. [Republican President] Bush almost never mentions the national debt. On the day he took office, the debt stood at $5.727 trillion. That means it has increased by 57 percent on his watch. So far." -By Mark Knoller -CBSNews
US - Iraq- Military - Intelligence - Politics - "Experts Doubt Drop In Violence in Iraq: Military Statistics Called Into Question." ... "The U.S. military's claim that violence has decreased sharply in Iraq in recent months has come under scrutiny from many experts within and outside the government, who contend that some of the underlying statistics are questionable and selectively ignore negative trends." ... "Reductions in violence form the centerpiece of the Bush administration's claim that its war strategy is working. In congressional testimony Monday, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, is expected to cite a 75 percent decrease in sectarian attacks. According to senior U.S. military officials in Baghdad, overall attacks in Iraq were down to 960 a week in August, compared with 1,700 a week in June, and civilian casualties had fallen 17 percent between December 2006 and last month. Unofficial Iraqi figures show a similar decrease." ... "Others who have looked at the full range of U.S. government statistics on violence, however, accuse the military of cherry-picking positive indicators and caution that the numbers -- most of which are classified -- are often confusing and contradictory. "Let's just say that there are several different sources within the administration on violence, and those sources do not agree," Comptroller General David Walker told Congress on Tuesday in releasing a new Government Accountability Office report on Iraq." ... "Senior U.S. officers in Baghdad disputed the accuracy and conclusions of the largely negative GAO report, which they said had adopted a flawed counting methodology used by the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency. Many of those conclusions were also reflected in last month's pessimistic National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq." ... "The intelligence community has its own problems with military calculations. Intelligence analysts computing aggregate levels of violence against civilians for the NIE puzzled over how the military designated attacks as combat, sectarian or criminal, according to one senior intelligence official in Washington. "If a bullet went through the back of the head, it's sectarian," the official said. "If it went through the front, it's criminal."" (1, 2) -By Karen DeYoung -WashingtonPost
US - Iraq - Military - Police - Politics - "Iraqi Army Unable To Take Over Within A Year, Report Says: Breakup of National Police Is Urged." ... "Iraq's army, despite measurable progress, will be unable to take over internal security from U.S. forces in the next 12 to 18 months and "cannot yet meaningfully contribute to denying terrorists safe haven," according to a report on the Iraqi security forces published today." ... "The report, prepared by a commission of retired senior U.S. military officers, describes the 25,000-member Iraqi national police force and the Interior Ministry, which controls it, as riddled with sectarianism and corruption. The ministry, it says, is "dysfunctional" and is "a ministry in name only." The commission recommended that the national police force be disbanded." ... "The report expresses concern about what it calls the massive U.S. military logistical "footprint" in Iraq and its effect on perceptions and problems. "The unintended message conveyed is one of 'permanence,' an occupying force, as it were," the report says. It recommends reconsideration of "efficiency, necessity . . . and cost" and calls for "significant reductions, consolidations and realignments" of U.S. forces." ... "Although the administration has said repeatedly that security improvements will create "breathing space" for Iraqi sectarian and political forces to move toward national reconciliation, the commission turns that equation on its head, saying that long-term security advances are impossible without political progress." ... "Despite all that remains to be done on the military front, it says, "the single most important event that could immediately and favorably affect Iraq's direction and security is political reconciliation. . . . Sustained progress within the Iraqi Security Forces depends on such a political agreement." All progress, it concludes, "seems to flow from this most pressing requirement."" (1, 2) -By Karen DeYoung -WashingtonPost

20070831

E-Mail - Computer - Tech - Company - Government - Communications - Archive - Presidential Records Act - Law - Politics - California - "Bush E-Mail Mystery Deepens: White House Won't Name Tech Contractor." ... "The [Republican President Bush] White House will not identify a private company which appears to be involved in the disappearance of millions of White House e-mails." ... "According to the White House, at least five million e-mails were not properly archived and may be lost forever, in apparent violation of the Presidential Records Act. The post-Watergate law states that communications relating to official activity in the offices of the president and vice president are owned by the American public and cannot be destroyed." ... "The firm worked for the Information Assurance Directorate, under the White House chief information officer, [California Democratic Representative Henry] Waxman said he was told." -By Justin Rood -ABCNEWS.com
US - Iraq - Military - Intelligence - Political - Marketing - Lawmakers - Va - Calif - Nev - "Lawmakers Describe 'Being Slimed in the Green Zone'." ... "The sheets of paper seemed to be everywhere the lawmakers went in the Green Zone, distributed to Iraqi officials, U.S. officials and uniformed military of no particular rank. So when [Virginia Democratic Representative] Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.) asked a soldier last weekend just what he was holding, the congressman was taken aback to find out." ... "In the soldier's hand was a thumbnail biography, distributed before each of the congressmen's meetings in Baghdad, which let meeting participants such as that soldier know where each of the lawmakers stands on the war. "Moran on Iraq policy," read one section, going on to cite some the congressman's most incendiary statements, such as, "This has been the worst foreign policy fiasco in American history."" ... "The bio of [California Democratic Representative] Rep. Ellen O. Tauscher (D-Calif.) -- "TAU (rhymes with 'now')-sher," the bio helpfully relates -- was no less pointed, even if she once supported the war and has taken heat from liberal Bay Area constituents who remain wary of her position. "Our forces are caught in the middle of an escalating sectarian conflict in Iraq, with no end in sight," the bio quotes." ... ""This is beyond parsing. This is being slimed in the Green Zone," Tauscher said of her bio." ... "Brief, choreographed and carefully controlled, the codels (short for congressional delegations) often have showed only what the Pentagon and the [Republican President] Bush administration have wanted the lawmakers to see. At one point, as Moran, Tauscher and [Nevada Republican Representative] Rep. Jon Porter (R-Nev.) were heading to lunch in the fortified Green Zone, an American urgently tried to get their attention, apparently to voice concerns about the war effort, the participants said. Security whisked the man away before he could make his point." ... "Tauscher called it "the Green Zone fog."" ... ""Spin City," Moran grumbled. "The Iraqis and the Americans were all singing from the same song sheet, and it was deliberately manipulated."" -By Jonathan Weisman -WashingtonPost

20070830

Federal - Electronic - Surveillance - Intelligence - Telecom - Internet - Terrorism - Law - "Point, Click ... Eavesdrop: How the FBI Wiretap Net Operates." ... "The FBI has quietly built a sophisticated, point-and-click surveillance system that performs instant wiretaps on almost any communications device, according to nearly a thousand pages of restricted documents newly released under the Freedom of Information Act." ... "The surveillance system, called DCSNet, for Digital Collection System Network, connects FBI wiretapping rooms to switches controlled by traditional land-line operators, internet-telephony providers and cellular companies. It is far more intricately woven into the nation's telecom infrastructure than observers suspected." ... "DCSNet is a suite of software that collects, sifts and stores phone numbers, phone calls and text messages. The system directly connects FBI wiretapping outposts around the country to a far-reaching private communications network." ... "Many of the details of the system and its full capabilities were redacted from the documents acquired by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, but they show that DCSNet includes at least three collection components, each running on Windows-based computers." ... "The $10 million DCS-3000 client, also known as Red Hook, handles pen-registers and trap-and-traces, a type of surveillance that collects signaling information -- primarily the numbers dialed from a telephone -- but no communications content. (Pen registers record outgoing calls; trap-and-traces record incoming calls.)" ... "DCS-6000, known as Digital Storm, captures and collects the content of phone calls and text messages for full wiretap orders." ... "A third, classified system, called DCS-5000, is used for wiretaps targeting spies or terrorists." (1, 2, 3) -By Ryan Singel -Wired

20070827

China - Environmental - Health - Politics - Air - Land - Water - Coal - Weather - Science - Industrial - History- International - South Korea - Japan - USA - California - Los Angeles - EU - Sports - Children - "As China Roars, Pollution Reaches Deadly Extremes." ... "No country in history has emerged as a major industrial power without creating a legacy of environmental damage that can take decades and big dollops of public wealth to undo." ... "But just as the speed and scale of China’s rise as an economic power have no clear parallel in history, so its pollution problem has shattered all precedents. Environmental degradation is now so severe, with such stark domestic and international repercussions, that pollution poses not only a major long-term burden on the Chinese public but also an acute political challenge to the ruling Communist Party. And it is not clear that China can rein in its own economic juggernaut." ... "Public health is reeling. Pollution has made cancer China’s leading cause of death, the Ministry of Health says. Ambient air pollution alone is blamed for hundreds of thousands of deaths each year. Nearly 500 million people lack access to safe drinking water." ... "Chinese cities often seem wrapped in a toxic gray shroud. Only 1 percent of the country’s 560 million city dwellers breathe air considered safe by the European Union. Beijing [China's capital] is frantically searching for a magic formula, a meteorological deus ex machina, to clear its skies for the 2008 Olympics." ... "Environmental woes that might be considered catastrophic in some countries can seem commonplace in China: industrial cities where people rarely see the sun; children killed or sickened by lead poisoning or other types of local pollution; a coastline so swamped by algal red tides that large sections of the ocean no longer sustain marine life." ... "China is choking on its own success. The economy is on a historic run, posting a succession of double-digit growth rates. But the growth derives, now more than at any time in the recent past, from a staggering expansion of heavy industry and urbanization that requires colossal inputs of energy, almost all from coal, the most readily available, and dirtiest, source." ... "China’s problem has become the world’s problem. Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides spewed by China’s coal-fired power plants fall as acid rain on Seoul, South Korea [capital], and Tokyo [Japan's capital]. Much of the particulate pollution over Los Angeles [California, USA] originates in China, according to the Journal of Geophysical Research." -By Joseph Kahn and Jim Yardley -NYTimes

20070819

US - Foreign - Government - Military - Intelligence - Money - Politics - Law - "Defense Agency Proposes Outsourcing More Spying: Contracts Worth $1 Billion Would Set Record." ... "The Defense Intelligence Agency [DIA] is preparing to pay private contractors up to $1 billion to conduct core intelligence tasks of analysis and collection over the next five years, an amount that would set a record in the outsourcing of such functions by the Pentagon's top spying agency." ... "The proposed contracts, outlined in a recent early notice of the DIA's plans, reflect a continuing expansion of the Defense Department's intelligence-related work and fit a well-established pattern of [Republican President] Bush administration transfers of government work to private contractors." ... "The DIA did not specify exactly what it wants the contractors to do but said it is seeking teams to fulfill "operational and mission requirements" that include intelligence "Gathering and Collection, Analysis, Utilization, and Strategy and Support."" ... "The DIA's action comes a few months after CIA [Central Intelligence Agency] Director Michael V. Hayden, acting under pressure from Congress, announced a program to cut the agency's hiring of outside contractors by at least 10 percent. The CIA's effort was partly provoked by managers' frustration that officials with security clearances were frequently resigning to earn higher pay with government contractors while performing the same work -- a phenomenon that led lawmakers to complain that intelligence contract work was wasting money." ... "The DIA is the country's major manager and producer of foreign military intelligence, with more than 11,000 military and civilian employees worldwide and a budget of nearly $1 billion. It has its own analysts from the various services as well as collectors of human intelligence in the Defense HUMINT Service. DIA also manages the Defense attaches stationed in embassies all over the world." ... "Unlike the CIA, the DIA outsources the major analytical products known as all-source intelligence reports, a senior intelligence official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity." (1, 2) -By Walter Pincus -WashingtonPost
US - Iraq - Afghanistan - Military - Computer - Training - "Army cuts time spent on training: Aims to bolster front lines quickly." ... "The US Army, struggling to cope with stepped-up operations and extended deployments of its soldiers to Iraq [and Afghanistan], has shortened the duration of several of its bedrock training courses so that troops can return to fighting units on the front lines more quickly, according to senior training officials." ... "One training course that is considered the "first step" in educating newly minted sergeants -- the noncommissioned officers considered the backbone of Army units -- has been cut in half to 15 days. Meanwhile, an intensive program designed to prepare young officers for advanced leadership has been compressed from eight months to less than five months so that the Army can fill positions in constant demand from commanders in the Middle East." ... "In a series of interviews in recent weeks, Army training officials expressed confidence that soldiers are able to master the skills they need to perform their jobs, and stressed that their units are gaining invaluable, real-time experience in both wars. But they also acknowledged that it is becoming increasingly difficult to prepare them for all the missions they are assigned, such as tank crews and artillery battalions that are participating in patrols and counterinsurgency operations." ... "To help compensate for less time in the classroom, the Army has established a growing number of mobile training teams. These small groups of instructors, relying on computers and other advancements, bring some training courses to soldiers in the field." -By Bryan Bender -Boston/Globe
American - Liberty - Law - Politics - Government - Electronic - Surveillance - Business - Communications- Foreign - Intelligence - "Concern Over Wider Spying Under New Law." ... "Broad new surveillance powers approved by Congress this month could allow the [Republican President] Bush administration to conduct spy operations that go well beyond wiretapping to include — without court approval — certain types of physical searches on American soil and the collection of Americans' business records, Democratic Congressional officials and other experts said." ... "Several legal experts said that by redefining the meaning of “electronic surveillance,” the new law narrows the types of communications covered in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as FISA, by indirectly giving the government the power to use intelligence collection methods far beyond wiretapping that previously required court approval if conducted inside the United States." ... "These new powers include the collection of business records, physical searches and so-called “trap and trace” operations, analyzing specific calling patterns." ... "Yet Bush administration officials have already signaled that, in their view, the president retains his constitutional authority to do whatever it takes to protect the country, regardless of any action Congress takes. At a tense meeting last week with lawyers from a range of private groups active in the wiretapping issue, senior Justice Department officials refused to commit the administration to adhering to the limits laid out in the new legislation and left open the possibility that the president could once again use what they have said in other instances is his constitutional authority to act outside the regulations set by Congress." ... "At the meeting, Bruce Fein, a Justice Department lawyer in the [Republican President] Reagan administration, along with other critics of the legislation, pressed Justice Department officials repeatedly for an assurance that the [Republican President Bush] administration considered itself bound by the restrictions imposed by Congress. The Justice Department, led by Ken Wainstein, the assistant attorney general for national security, refused to do so, according to three participants in the meeting. That stance angered Mr. Fein and others. It sent the message, Mr. Fein said in an interview, that the new legislation, though it is already broadly worded, “is just advisory. The president can still do whatever he wants to do. They have not changed their position that the president’s Article II powers trump any ability by Congress to regulate the collection of foreign intelligence.”" (1, 2) -By James Risen and Eric Lichtblau -NYTimes
Karl Rove - Christopher Shays - Government - Money - Political - Media - Marketing - Employees - Hatch Act - Law - 2004 Election - 2006 Election - Connecticut - "How Rove Directed Federal Assets for GOP Gains: [Republican President] Bush Adviser's Effort to Promote the President and His Allies Was Unprecedented in Its Reach." ... "Thirteen months before President Bush was reelected [in the 2004 election], chief strategist Karl Rove summoned political appointees from around the government to the Old Executive Office Building. The subject of the Oct. 1, 2003, meeting was "asset deployment," and the message was clear:" ... "The staging of official announcements, high-visibility trips and declarations of federal grants had to be carefully coordinated with the White House political affairs office to ensure the maximum promotion of Bush's reelection agenda and the Republicans in Congress who supported him, according to documents and some of those involved in the effort." ... ""The White House determines which members need visits," said an internal e-mail about the previously undisclosed Rove "deployment" team, "and where we need to be strategically placing our assets."" ... "Under Rove's direction, this highly coordinated effort to leverage the government for political marketing started as soon as Bush took office in 2001 and continued through last year's congressional elections [2006 election], when it played out in its most quintessential form in the coastal Connecticut district of [Republican Representative] Rep. Christopher Shays, an endangered Republican incumbent. Seven times, senior administration officials visited Shays's district in the six months before the election -- once for an announcement as minor as a single $23 government weather alert radio presented to an elementary school. On Election Day, Shays was the only Republican House member in New England to survive the Democratic victory." ... "The U.S. Office of Special Counsel and the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee are investigating whether any of the meetings violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits government employees from using federal resources for election activities." (1, 2, 3) -By John Solomon, Alec MacGillis and Sarah Cohen -WashingtonPost

20070818

Secret - Government - Wiretapping - Intelligence - Law - Civil Liberties - Politics - "Secret Court Asks For White House View on Inquiry: ACLU Seeking Rulings Issued On Warrantless Wiretapping." ... "A secret U.S. intelligence court has ordered the [Republican President] Bush administration to register its views about a records request by the American Civil Liberties Union, which wants the court to release a series of pivotal orders issued earlier this year about the National Security Agency's wiretapping program." ... "The ACLU has asked the court for copies of orders it issued in January related to the NSA's warrantless surveillance program, which had been operated without court oversight since late 2001 and which has been the focus of fierce congressional debate." ... "The group is also seeking a copy of one or more court orders issued in the spring that, according to administration officials and congressional Republicans, concluded that parts of the program are illegal." -By Dan Eggen -WashingtonPost

20070817

Karl Rove - Political - Government - Money - Law - 2002 Election - 2004 Election - 2006 Election - "Commerce, Treasury funds helped boost GOP campaigns." ... "Top Commerce and Treasury Departments officials appeared with Republican candidates and doled out millions in federal money in battleground congressional districts and states after receiving White House political briefings detailing GOP election strategy." ... "Political appointees in the Treasury Department received at least 10 political briefings from July 2001 to August 2006, officials familiar with the meetings said. Their counterparts at the Commerce Department received at least four briefings — all in the election years of 2002, 2004 and 2006." ... "The House Oversight Committee is investigating whether the White House's political briefings to at least 15 agencies, including to the Justice Department, the General Services Administration and the State Department, violated a ban on the use of government resources for campaign activities." ... "Under the Hatch Act, Cabinet members are permitted to attend political briefings and appear with members of Congress. But Cabinet members and other political appointees aren't permitted to spend taxpayer money with the aim of benefiting candidates." ... "The briefings are part of the legacy of [Republican President Bush's] White House political adviser Karl Rove, who announced this week that he's stepping down at the end of the month to spend more time with his family." -By Marisa Taylor and Kevin G. Hall -McClatchyDC.com

20070816

Secret - Military - Government - Space - Aircraft - Surveillance - Imagery - Technology - Law - Enforcement - Intelligence - Liberty - Politics - "Domestic Use of Spy Satellites To Widen: Law Enforcement Getting New Access To Secret Imagery." ... "The Bush administration has approved a plan to expand domestic access to some of the most powerful tools of 21st-century spycraft, giving law enforcement officials and others the ability to view data obtained from satellite and aircraft sensors that can see through cloud cover and even penetrate buildings and underground bunkers." ... "A program approved by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security will allow broader domestic use of secret overhead imagery beginning as early as this fall, with the expectation that state and local law enforcement officials will eventually be able to tap into technology once largely restricted to foreign surveillance." ... "But the program, described yesterday by the Wall Street Journal, quickly provoked opposition from civil liberties advocates, who said the government is crossing a well-established line against the use of military assets in domestic law enforcement." ... ""They want to turn these enormous spy capabilities, built to be used against overseas enemies, onto Americans," [Center for National Security Studies director Kate] Martin said. "They are laying the bricks one at a time for a police state."" -By Joby Warrick -WashingtonPost
Federal - Military - Surveillance - Intelligence - Secrets - Law - Politics - "U.S. Defends Surveillance to 3 Skeptical Judges." ... "Three federal appeals court judges hearing challenges to the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs appeared skeptical of and sometimes hostile to the Bush administration’s central argument Wednesday: that national security concerns require that the lawsuits be dismissed." ... "“Is it the government’s position that when our country is engaged in a war that the power of the executive when it comes to wiretapping is unchecked?” Judge Harry Pregerson asked a government lawyer. His tone was one of incredulity and frustration." ... "Gregory G. Garre, a deputy solicitor general representing the administration, replied that the courts had a role, though a limited one, in assessing the government’s assertion of the so-called state secrets privilege, which can require the dismissal of suits that could endanger national security. Judges, he said, must give executive branch determinations “utmost deference.”" ... "“Litigating this action could result in exceptionally grave harm to the national security of the United States,” Mr. Garre said, referring to the assessment of intelligence officials." ... "The appeals concern two related questions that must be answered before the merits of the challenges can be considered: whether the plaintiffs can clearly establish that they have been injured by the programs, giving them standing to sue; and whether the state secrets privilege requires dismissal of the suits on national security grounds." -By Adam Liptak -NYTimes

20070815

US - Iran - Iraq - Dick Cheney - Media - Politics - Intelligence - "Cheney urging strikes on Iran." ... "[Republican] President Bush charged Thursday that Iran continues to arm and train insurgents who are killing U.S. soldiers in Iraq, and he threatened action if that continues." ... "[Republican] Vice President Dick Cheney several weeks ago proposed launching airstrikes at suspected training camps in Iran run by the Quds force, a special unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to two U.S. officials who are involved in Iran policy." ... "The debate has been accompanied by a growing drumbeat of allegations about Iranian meddling in Iraq from U.S. military officers, administration officials and administration allies outside government and in the news media. It isn't clear whether the media campaign is intended to build support for limited military action against Iran, to pressure the Iranians to curb their support for Shiite groups in Iraq or both." ... "Nor is it clear from the evidence the administration has presented whether Iran, which has long-standing ties to several Iraqi Shiite groups, including the Mahdi Army of radical cleric Muqtada al Sadr and the Badr Organization, which is allied with the U.S.-backed government of Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, is a major cause of the anti-American and sectarian violence in Iraq or merely one of many. At other times, administration officials have blamed the Sunni Muslim group al Qaida in Iraq for much of the violence." ... "Maliki is on a three-day visit to Tehran [Iran's capital], during which he was photographed Wednesday hand in hand with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad." -By Warren P. Strobel, John Walcott and Nancy A. Youssef -McClatchyDC.com
US - International - Secret - Government - Phone- Wiretapping - Internet - Intelligence - Database - Technology - Law - San Francisco - California - "NSA Judge: 'I feel like I'm in Alice and Wonderland'." ... "Spectators lined up outside the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco [California] starting at noon to guarantee a seat at a much-anticipated legal showdown over the government's secret wiretapping program." ... "The hearing involves two cases: one aimed at AT&T for allegedly helping the government with a widespread datamining program allegedly involving domestic and international phone calls and internet use; the other a direct challenge to the government's admitted warrantless wiretapping of overseas phone calls." ... "Jon Eisenberg, (right [photo at Wired.com]) an Oakland-based [California] attorney, is arguing on behalf of a now-defunct Islamic charity Al-Haramain and its lawyers, who claim to have been accidentally given a Top Secret log of their own phone conversations, which they say proves the government illegally eavesdropped on them without warrants." ... "The courtroom filled quickly with more than 20 attorneys in the courtroom well, and 80 spectators seated and standing. Another 40 filed into an overflow courtroom, including Mark Klein, the former AT&T engineer who provided internal company documents to the EFF. Those documents allegedly show that AT&T built a secret spying room for the NSA in its San Francisco internet switching center. " ... "The government says the purported log of calls between one of the Islamic charity directors and two American lawyers is classified Top Secret and has the SCI level, meaning that it is "secure compartmented information." That designation usually applies to surveillance information" -By Kevin Poulsen -Wired

20070814

Government - Military - Intelligence - Terrorism - Psychological - Torture - Prison - Political - History - Criminal - Justice - Human - Rights - War Crimes - Health - Science - New York - SC - "US Gov't broke Padilla through intense isolation, say experts: Despite warnings, officials used 43 months of severe isolation to force Jose Padilla to tell all he knew about Al Qaeda." ... "When suspected Al Qaeda operative Jose Padilla was whisked from the criminal justice system to military custody in June 2002, it was done for a key purpose – to break his will to remain silent." ... "As a US citizen, Mr. Padilla enjoyed a right against forced self-incrimination. But this constitutional guarantee vanished the instant [Republican] President Bush declared him an enemy combatant." ... "For a month, agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation had been questioning Padilla in New York City [New York] under the rules of the criminal justice system. They wanted to know about his alleged involvement in a plot to detonate a radiological "dirty bomb" in the US. Padilla had nothing to say. Now, military interrogators were about to turn up the heat." ... "Padilla was delivered to the US Naval Consolidated Brig in Charleston, S.C. [South Carolina], where he was held not only in solitary confinement but as the sole detainee in a high-security wing of the prison. Fifteen other cells sat empty around him." ... "The purpose of the extraordinary privacy, according to experts familiar with the technique, was to eliminate the possibility of human contact. No voices in the hallway. No conversations with other prisoners. No tapping out messages on the walls. No ability to maintain a sense of human connection, a sense of place or time." ... "In essence, experts say, the US government was trying to break Padilla's silence by plunging him into a mental twilight zone." ... "Those who haven't experienced solitary confinement can imagine that life locked in a small space would be inconvenient and boring. But according to a broad range of experts who have studied the issue, isolation can be psychologically devastating. Extreme isolation, in concert with other coercive techniques, can literally drive a person insane, these experts say. And that makes it a potential instrument of torture, they add." ... "The new Army Field Manual bars the use of isolation to achieve psychological disorientation through sensory deprivation. "Sensory deprivation is defined as an arranged situation causing significant psychological distress due to a prolonged absence, or significant reduction, of the usual external stimuli and perceptual opportunities," the manual states. "Sensory deprivation may result in extreme anxiety, hallucinations, bizarre thoughts, depression, and anti-social behavior. Detainees will not be subject to sensory deprivation."" ... "Despite the tough words, the field manual offers only a general prohibition. So-called coercive interrogation methods – including isolation – have been specially authorized for certain units in the military and the Central Intelligence Agency." ... "The technique is not new. The Soviets used isolation and sensory deprivation to identify and discredit political dissidents. US prisoners of war confessed to nonexistent war crimes in the Korean War after similar treatment. " (1, 2, 3, 4) -By Warren Richey -CSMonitor
US - Sudan - Iran - China - Mitt Romney - Oil - Money - People - Human Rights - 2008 Election - Massachusetts - California - Iowa - Nevada - "Romney portfolio has link to Sudan: The GOP candidate's trustee has recently sold other potentially controversial holdings." ... "[2008 election] Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney divested from companies doing business in Iran, but he still holds stock in an oil company that does business in Sudan -- where the government is accused of sponsoring genocide -- his financial disclosure report filed Monday shows." ... "Romney, the wealthiest presidential contender, is worth $190 million to $250 million, with investments spread among stocks, treasuries and high-end funds. R. Bradford Malt, Romney's attorney, acts as sole trustee of what until Monday was a blind trust, and makes investment decisions." ... "His wealth is key to his candidacy. As he did when he successfully ran for Massachusetts governor in 2002, he is dipping into his accounts. He has lent his presidential campaign more than $9 million." ... "According to the report, Romney holds stock in China Petroleum and Chemical (also known as SinoPec), an oil supply company that has dealings in Sudan, according to an organization dedicated to ending the genocide in the African nation's Darfur region." ... "[Republican] President Bush has denounced the killings of tens of thousands of civilians in Darfur [Sudan] and declared that genocide is being committed. California and early-voting Iowa are among the states where officials have urged divestment." ... "The report shows that Romney has numerous offshore holdings." ... "His biggest single holding appears to have been MGM Mirage, owners of a major casino in Las Vegas [Nevada]." (1, 2) -By Dan Morain -LAtimes
Government - Army - Scientist - Lawsuit - Journalist - Enforcement - Anthrax - Terrorism - Privacy - Politics - "5 Reporters Ordered to Testify About Government Sources." ... "Five reporters must testify about their law enforcement sources in a former Army scientist’s lawsuit against the Justice Department, a federal judge in Washington ruled yesterday." ... "The suit, filed by Steven J. Hatfill, a bioterrorism expert, contends that the government violated the federal Privacy Act by providing journalists with information about him in the F.B.I.’s investigation of the deadly anthrax mailings in 2001." ... "“Denying civil litigants access to the identity of government officials who have allegedly leaked information to reporters would effectively leave Privacy Act violations immune from judicial condemnation,” Judge Walton wrote, “while leaving potential leakers virtually undeterred from engaging in such misbehavior.”" -By Adam Liptak -NYTimes

20070812

China - US - Surveillance - Cameras - Computer - Technology - Company - Freedom - Politics - Police - Peoples - Behavior - Law - "