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20070730

Alberto R Gonzales - Secret - Government - Wiretapping - Torture - Intelligence - Law - Politics - Civil Liberties - Wis - Texas - Maine - "Gonzales's Truthfulness Long Disputed: Claims of Misstatements to Shield [Republican President] Bush Stretch Back a Decade." ... "When Alberto R. Gonzales was asked during his January 2005 confirmation hearing whether the Bush administration would ever allow wiretapping of U.S. citizens without warrants, he initially dismissed the query as a "hypothetical situation."" ... "But when [Wisconsin Democratic Senator] Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) pressed him further, Gonzales declared: "It is not the policy or the agenda of this president to authorize actions that would be in contravention of our criminal statutes."" ... "By then, however, the government had been conducting a secret wiretapping program for more than three years without court oversight, possibly in conflict with federal intelligence laws. Gonzales had personally defended the effort in fierce internal debates. Feingold later called his testimony that day "misleading and deeply troubling."" ... "Over the past 2 1/2 years, lawmakers have accused Gonzales of dissembling on many topics, including civil liberties abuses under the USA Patriot Act and his role in reviewing aggressive interrogation tactics. After a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in February 2006, Gonzales sent the panel a six-page, single-spaced letter to "clarify" six major points of testimony, including his erroneous claim that the Justice Department had never undertaken a legal analysis of domestic wiretapping." ... "Questions about Gonzales's willingness to shade the truth on Bush's behalf came to prominence in the 1996 episode in which Bush was excused from Texas jury duty in a drunken-driving case. Bush was then the state's governor, and Gonzales was his general counsel. If Bush had served, he probably would have had to disclose his own drunken-driving conviction in Maine two decades earlier." ... "The judge, prosecutor and defense attorney involved in the case have said that Gonzales met with the judge and argued that jury service would pose a potential conflict of interest for Bush, who could be asked to pardon the defendant. Gonzales has disputed that account. He made no mention of meeting with the judge in a written statement submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee." (1, 2) -By Dan Eggen and Amy Goldstein with contributions by Alice Crites -WashingtonPost

20070724

Alberto Gonzales - Law - Enforcement - Politics - US Attorneys - Spying - Civil Liberty - VT - Pennsylvania - "Senate panel questions Gonzales' credibility." ... "Democratic and Republican senators openly questioned Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' credibility Tuesday in hearings in which the top U.S. law enforcement officer denied his department had any morale problems and said he intended to remain in office to fix any shortcomings." ... "Gonzales testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on a series of hot-button issues, including the firing of eight U.S. attorneys and Gonzales' attempt to get his ailing predecessor to approve, from a hospital bed, a controversial plan for domestic eavesdropping." ... "[Vermont Democratic Senator] Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., set the tone in an opening statement when he said Gonzales has "a severe credibility problem."" ... "Leahy said the Bush administration had squandered the committee's trust "with a history of civil liberty abuses and cover-ups."" ... ""I don't trust you," Leahy told Gonzales." ... "Leahy was followed by a visibly angry [Republican Senator] Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the top Republican on the committee, who challenged Gonzales' role in the hospital-room scene in which then-attorney general John Ashcroft was asked to approve a wiretapping plan he had earlier rejected." ... ""It seems to me that it is just decimating, Mr. attorney general, as to both your judgment and your credibility," Specter said. "And the list goes on and on."" -Contributed to by Douglas Stanglin -AP -USATODAY

20070723

Turkey - European Union - United States - Israel - Religious - Military - History - Human Rights - Free Speech - "Turkey's ruling party wins big in parliamentary elections: Poll returns fuel fears that the Islamist-rooted AKP will seek to undermine the nation's secular principles." ... "Voters Sunday handed Turkey's Islamist-influenced ruling party a decisive victory in parliamentary elections, rewarding it for stewardship of the country's robust economy but raising the specter of bitter new quarrels over the feared erosion of Turkey's secular traditions." ... "The vote could have far-reaching consequences for Turkey's engagement with the West, including its drive to become the first Muslim-dominated country to join the European Union. Though secularist parties have been cool to that idea, the AKP has vowed to press ahead with the bid despite early rebuffs." ... "The moderate and officially secular country, which is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, is viewed as a strategic bridge to a Muslim world increasingly mistrustful of the West, particularly the United States. Successive Turkish governments have maintained close ties with Muslim neighbors even while pursuing divergent policies, such as a cordial relationship with Israel." ... "The AKP's resounding victory could fuel tensions with Turkey's powerful military, which considers itself the guardian of the secular system put in place 84 years ago by the country's founder, Kemal Ataturk." ... "Turkey's EU membership bid has not been enthusiastically received in Europe, in part because of concerns about the country's human rights record and its curbs on freedom of expression." (1, 2) -By Laura King -LAtimes

20070720

US - Global - Secret - Military - Intelligence - Terrorism - Torture - Prisons - Human Rights - Politics - "Bush bars CIA from using torture, but details remain cloudy." ... "[Republican] President Bush signed an executive order Friday barring the CIA [Central Intelligence Agency] from using torture, acts of violence and degrading treatment in the interrogation and detention of terrorism suspects, but human rights experts questioned its scope." ... "While Bush's order broadly outlines what the CIA can and cannot do to prisoners, and sets standards for what the agency must provide in terms of food and shelter for detainees, it says nothing about specific controversial interrogation techniques." ... "Some experts in human-rights law said Bush's order contains "loopholes" that would allow the CIA to continue using aggressive interrogation techniques that others would consider torture." ... "The Bush administration received heavy criticism globally over CIA interrogators using "water-boarding," which simulates drowning, and for allowing the CIA to operate secret prisons in Europe." ... "Some military and intelligence officials dispute that harsh interrogations have produced useful intelligence, contending that detainees will say whatever interrogators want to hear to stop their suffering. Moreover, they worry that U.S. military and intelligence officers will be subject to the same procedures if captured." -By William Douglas and Jonathan S. Landay -McClatchyDC.com

20070711

Alberto Gonzales - Civil Liberties - Law - Enforcement - Surveillance - Intelligence - Politics - NY - "Gonzales special prosecutor sought." ... "Democrats raised new questions Tuesday about whether Attorney General Alberto Gonzales knew about FBI violations of civil liberties when he told a Senate committee considering the renewal of the USA Patriot Act that no such problems occurred." ... "[New York Democratic Representative] Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said Gonzales should resign and a special prosecutor should be appointed." ... ""Providing false, misleading or inaccurate statements to Congress is a serious crime, and the man who may have committed those acts cannot be trusted to investigate himself," said Nadler, a longtime critic of the Patriot Act, which granted broad powers to law enforcement after the Sept. 11 attacks." ... "On April 27, 2005, while seeking renewal of the Patriot Act, Gonzales told the Senate Intelligence Committee, "There has not been one verified case of civil-liberties abuse" resulting from the law." ... "Six days earlier, the FBI had sent Gonzales a copy of a report that said its agents had obtained personal information to which they were not entitled." -AP -WashingtonPost-SeattleTimes

20070710

Secret - Alberto R Gonzales - Civil Liberties - Surveillance - Law - Phone - Internet - Finances - Terrorism - Intelligence - Politics - "Gonzales Was Told of FBI Violations: After Bureau Sent Reports, Attorney General Said He Knew of No Wrongdoing." ... "As he sought to renew the USA Patriot Act two years ago, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales assured lawmakers that the FBI had not abused its potent new terrorism-fighting powers. "There has not been one verified case of civil liberties abuse," Gonzales told senators on April 27, 2005." ... "Six days earlier, the FBI sent Gonzales a copy of a report that said its agents had obtained personal information that they were not entitled to have. It was one of at least half a dozen reports of legal or procedural violations that Gonzales received in the three months before he made his statement to the Senate intelligence committee, according to internal FBI documents released under the Freedom of Information Act." ... "The acts recounted in the FBI reports included unauthorized surveillance, an illegal property search and a case in which an Internet firm improperly turned over a compact disc with data that the FBI was not entitled to collect, the documents show. Gonzales was copied on each report that said administrative rules or laws protecting civil liberties and privacy had been violated." ... "The reports also alerted Gonzales in 2005 to problems with the FBI's use of an anti-terrorism tool known as a national security letter (NSL), well before the Justice Department's inspector general brought widespread abuse of the letters in 2004 and 2005 to light in a stinging report this past March." ... "The report sent to Gonzales on April 21, 2005, concerned a violation of the rules governing NSLs, which allow agents in counterterrorism and counterintelligence investigations to secretly gather Americans' phone, bank and Internet records without a court order or a grand jury subpoena." (1, 2) -By John Solomon -WashingtonPost

20070706

Secret - US - Foreign - Government - Intelligence - Surveillance - Journalists - Academics - Telephone - Internet - Civil Liberties - Law - Politics - Michigan - "Court orders dismissal of U.S. wiretapping lawsuit: A divided appeals court says plaintiffs weren't harmed by surveillance program." ... "A U.S. appeals court has ordered the dismissal of a lawsuit against the U.S. National Security Agency for a wiretapping program because it said the plaintiffs haven't been hurt by the agency's actions." ... "A divided three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled today that the lawsuit, brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and a group of journalists, lawyers and academics, be sent back to a district court judge to be dismissed. In August 2006, Judge Anna Diggs Taylor of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan ruled the NSA program, which monitored telephone and Internet communications without court-ordered warrants, was illegal." ... "Judge Ronald Lee Gilman disagreed with the two-judge majority, arguing that the NSA program violates FISA [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court], which establishes wiretapping procedures, including warrants. "When faced with the clear wording of FISA ... the conclusion becomes inescapable that [the program] was unlawful," he wrote." ... "The appeals court ruled that the plaintiffs could not sue because they can't prove they were affected by the program, and at the same time, ruled that details about the program, including who was targeted, are state secrets." (1, 2) -By Grant Gross -Computerworld

20070703

Health - Worker - Safety - Environment - Civil Rights - Privacy - Law - Politics - NC - "House Balks at Bush Order for New Powers." ... "[Republican] President Bush this month is giving an obscure White House office new powers over regulations affecting health, worker safety and the environment. Calling it a power grab, Democrats running Congress are intent on stopping him." ... "The House voted last week to prohibit the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs from spending federal money on Executive Order 13422, signed by Bush last January and due to take effect July 24." ... "The order requires federal officials to show that private companies, people or institutions failed to address a problem before agencies can write regulations to tackle it. It also gives political appointees greater authority over how the regulations are written." ... "The House measure "stops this president or any president from seizing the power to rewrite almost every law that Congress passes, laws that protect public health, the environment, safety, civil rights, privacy and on and on," said [North Carolina Democratic Representative] Rep. Brad Miller, D-N.C., its sponsor." (1, 2) -By Jim Abrams -AP via -WashingtonPost

20070629

David Vitter - Trent Lott - Racism - Politics - Immigration - Legislation - Civil Rights - History - Mass - La - Ky - Miss - SC - Ala - 2008 Election - "Senate immigration bill fails; issue "is going to have to wait." ... "The political battles that helped bring down sweeping immigration legislation in the Senate are sure to rage on, although the bill is all but dead until after the 2008 elections." ... "[Massachusetts Democratic Senator] Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., one of the bill's architects, compared the fight with the Senate's long struggle for civil-rights legislation against segregationist opponents." ... ""You cannot stop the march for progress in the United States," he declared." ... "To that, [Louisiana Republican Senator] Sen. David Vitter, R-La., among the bill's most aggressive foes, snapped: "To suggest this was about racism is the height of ugliness and arrogance."" ... "Republicans on both sides acknowledged the immigration fight had riven the GOP. Republican Senate aides, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Senate Minority Whip [Mississippi Republican Senator] Trent Lott, R-Miss., was furious with Minority Leader [Kentucky Republican Senator] Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., over the leader's refusal to confront the bill's most implacable opponents, who had virtually commandeered the Senate floor, blocking introduction of amendments, refusing to offer amendments of their own, then complaining that an unfair process was preventing them from improving the bill." ... "Lott told McConnell that Sens. Vitter, [South Carolina Republican Senator] Jim DeMint, R-S.C., and [Alabama Republican Senator] Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., were becoming the uncompromising faces of the Republican Party, a prospect that could set them back for years as the Latino vote grows in power." -SeattleTimes.NWsource

20070628

Dick Cheney - Secret - Electronic - Communications - Surveillance - Terrorism - Politics - Vermont - Civil Liberties - Enforcement - "Bush won't supply subpoenaed documents." ... "The Senate committee investigating the Bush administration's controversial domestic wiretapping program subpoenaed the [Republican President Bush] White House, Vice President Dick Cheney's office and the Justice Department today for information regarding their legal justification for the warrantless secret surveillance." ... "The subpoenas by the Judiciary Committee set the stage for another legal and political battle between Senate Democrats and the administration over its counter-terrorism and law enforcement policies. Earlier subpoenas issued by Democratic lawmakers to current and former White House officials have essentially been ignored." ... "[Democratic Vermont Senator Patrick] Leahy noted that the Judiciary Committee was charged with oversight of the executive branch in the areas of constitutional protections and the civil liberties of Americans. "The warrantless electronic surveillance program directly impacts those responsibilities," Leahy wrote. "We cannot conduct this oversight without knowing the legal arguments the administration has used to justify interception of the communications of Americans without a warrant."" -By Terence Hunt -LAtimes

20070625

Torture - Terrorism - Detainees - Human Rights - Law - Education - Teens - "Scholars urge Bush to ban use of torture." ... "[Republican] President Bush was presented with a letter Monday signed by 50 high school seniors in the Presidential Scholars program urging a halt to "violations of the human rights" of terror suspects held by the United States." ... "The handwritten letter said the students "believe we have a responsibility to voice our convictions."" ... ""We do not want America to represent torture. We urge you to do all in your power to stop violations of the human rights of detainees, to cease illegal renditions, and to apply the Geneva Convention to all detainees, including those designated enemy combatants," the letter said." -AP via -SeattlePI

20070624

Ohio - Race - Politics - Law - Enforcement - 2004 Election - Civil Rights - Homes- "Ex-Justice official accused of aiding scheme to scratch minority voters." ... "Four days before the 2004 election, the Justice Department’s civil rights chief [under Republican President George Bush] sent an unusual letter to a federal judge in Ohio who was weighing whether to let Republicans challenge the credentials of 23,000 mostly African-American voters." ... "The case was triggered by allegations that Republicans had sent a mass mailing to mostly Democratic-leaning minorities and used undeliverable letters to compile a list of voters potentially vulnerable to eligibility challenges." ... "In his letter to U.S. District Judge Susan Dlott of Cincinnati [Ohio], Assistant Attorney General Alex Acosta argued that it would "undermine" the enforcement of state and federal election laws if citizens could not challenge voters’ credentials." ... "Former Justice Department civil rights officials and election watchdog groups charge that his letter sided with Republicans engaging in an illegal, racially motivated tactic known as "vote-caging" in a state that would be pivotal in delivering President Bush a second term in the White House" ... "The tactic ["vote caging"] entails sending mail stamped "do not forward" to voters’ homes and requiring a return receipt. Voters who do not sign for the letters or postcards can then be challenged at the polls or in pre-election hearings on grounds such as whether they meet legal residency or age requirements." ... "J. Gerald Hebert, a head of the Voting Rights Section in the early 1990s and now executive director of the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center, says the tactic is unfair for multiple reasons: it is often racially motivated; voters may be out of town or refuse to sign return receipts on letters from the GOP, and addresses may be inaccurate." -By Greg Gordon -McClatchyDC.com

20070621

Bradley Schlozman - Civil Rights - Government - Women - Employees - Race - Politics - "Political Hiring in Justice Division Probed." ... "Karen Stevens, Tovah Calderon and Teresa Kwong had a lot in common. They had good performance ratings as career lawyers in the Justice Department's civil rights division. And they were minority women transferred out of their jobs two years ago -- over the objections of their immediate supervisors -- by [Republican] Bradley Schlozman, then the acting assistant attorney general for civil rights." ... "Schlozman ordered supervisors to tell the women that they had performance problems or that the office was overstaffed. But one lawyer, Conor Dugan, told colleagues that the recent Bush appointee had confided that his real motive was to "make room for some good Americans" in that high-impact office, according to four lawyers who said they heard the account from Dugan." ... "Schlozman has acknowledged in sworn congressional testimony that he had boasted of hiring Republicans and conservatives, but he denied taking improper actions against the division's career officials. That account was challenged by six officials in the division who said in interviews that they either overhead him making brazen political remarks about career employees or witnessed him making personnel decisions with apparent political motivation." ... ""When he said he didn't engage in political hiring, most of us thought that was just laughable," said one lawyer in the section, referring to Schlozman's June 5 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. "Everything Schlozman did was political. And he said so."" (1, 2) -By Carol D. Leonnig with contributions by Julie Tate -WashingtonPost

20070613

China - Sports - Business - Child - Poverty - Human Rights - Law - Politics - "Ahead of Olympics, China faces charges of child labor: The negative publicity comes at a sensitive moment for Beijing as it seeks to burnish its international image." ... "When a British-based labor consortium charged this week that factory workers as young as 12 are toiling to produce gear and souvenirs licensed by Beijing [China's capital] for its 2008 Olympics, China's reaction was swift." ... "Beijing officials announced they would deal "seriously" with factories that violate China's "very strict" labor codes. But the negative publicity – along with other reports that the problem goes beyond production of Olympic-related memorabilia – comes at a sensitive moment for Beijing as it seeks to burnish its international image ahead of the games." ... "Some observers say that the latest reports represent a weak point in China's otherwise strong record of enforcing child labor laws – especially at a time when child labor is on the decline worldwide." ... "Playfair Alliance, which targets sporting goods and athletic merchandise, reported this week that child labor in China is not limited to a few factories making Olympic souvenirs but may be a growing, potentially widespread problem spurred by increasing labor shortages and rural poverty." (1, 2, 3) -By Kathleen E. McLaughlin -CSMonitor

20070612

2008 Election - Government - Wiretap - Freedom - Military - Terrorism - Torture - Law - History - "Disaffected conservatives set a litmus test for '08: Want vow to curb presidential power." ... "A new political group recently asked [Republican 2008 election Presidential candidate] Mitt Romney to promise not to wiretap Americans without a judge's approval or to imprison US citizens without a trial as "enemy combatants." When Romney declined to sign their pledge, the group denounced him as "unfit to serve as president."" ... "Such rhetoric might be expected from liberal activists. But these critics, who call their organization American Freedom Agenda, are hardly leftists. They represent what they insist is a growing group of disaffected conservatives who are demanding that the Republican Party return to its traditional mistrust of concentrated government power." ... ""Mitt Romney's ignorance of the Constitution's checks and balances and protections against government abuses would have alarmed the Founding Fathers and their conservative philosophy," said Bruce Fein, one of the group's co founders and a Reagan administration attorney, in a press release last month attacking Romney for not signing the pledge." ... "The American Freedom Agenda, which intends to put all candidates in both parties to the same test, is aiming to revive a strand of conservatism that they say has been drowned out since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The conservative principle of limited government, they say, means not just cutting the budget, but imposing checks and balances on those who wield power." ... "... Fein argued the country would be more secure if the presidency adhered to checks on its power. Such [Republican President] Bush administration policies as authorizing harsh interrogation techniques despite laws and treaties forbidding torture, he said, "are making us more vulnerable" by inflaming anti-American sentiment and "creating new generations of jihadists."" -By Charlie Savage -Boston/Globe

20070611

Military - Terrorism - Law - Civil Liberty - Politics - "Court Says Military Cannot Hold 'Enemy Combatant'." ... "In a stinging rejection of one of the Bush administration’s central assertions about the scope of executive authority to combat terrorism, a federal appeals court ordered the Pentagon to release a man being held as an enemy combatant." ... "“To sanction such presidential authority to order the military to seize and indefinitely detain civilians," Judge Diana Gribbon Motz wrote, “even if the President calls them ‘enemy combatants,’ would have disastrous consequences for the Constitution — and the country.”" ... "“We refuse to recognize a claim to power,” Judge Motz added, “that would so alter the constitutional foundations of our Republic.”" ... "Judge Motz stressed that the court analysis was limited to those who have substantial connections to the United States and are seized and detained within its borders." -By Adam Liptak -NYTimes

20070608

Secret - US - Poland - Romania - Germany - Italy - Egypt - Military - Intelligence - Terrorism - Torture - Prisons - Human Rights - Law - Politics - "CIA jails in Europe 'confirmed'." ... "A Council of Europe investigator says he has evidence to prove the CIA ran secret jails in Poland and Romania to interrogate "war on terror" suspects." ... "Dick Marty, a Swiss senator, has been investigating CIA operations on behalf of the European human rights body." ... "In his new report, released on Friday, Mr Marty says secret CIA prisons "did exist in Europe from 2003 to 2005, in particular in Poland and Romania"." ... "The governments of both countries have strongly denied any involvement. A spokesman for the CIA told the BBC that "the CIA's counter-terror operations have been lawful, effective, closely reviewed, and of benefit to many people -including Europeans - by disrupting plots and saving lives"." ... "Mr Marty says he drew on multiple sources and used his own intelligence methods to investigate the CIA's "extraordinary renditions", the process under which terror suspects were transported around the world for interrogation." ... ""Some European governments have obstructed the search for the truth and are continuing to do so by invoking the concept of 'state secrets'.... This criticism applies to Germany and Italy, in particular," he said." ... "His report came as the first criminal trial over the CIA "extraordinary renditions" opened in Italy. Twenty-five CIA agents and a US Air Force colonel are on trial in their absence, accused of kidnapping an Egyptian terror suspect and sending him to Egypt, where he was allegedly tortured." -BBC/News

20070607

Cheney - Secret - Surveillance - Politics - Phone - E-Mail - United States - - Intelligence - Liberty - Law - Health - "Official: Cheney Urged Wiretaps: Stand-In for Ashcroft Alleges Interference." ... "[Republican] Vice President Cheney told Justice Department officials that he disagreed with their objections to a secret surveillance program during a high-level White House meeting in March 2004, a former senior Justice official told senators yesterday." ... "The meeting came one day before White House officials tried to get approval for the same program from then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft, who lay recovering from surgery in a hospital, according to former deputy attorney general James B. Comey." ... "Comey's disclosures, made in response to written questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee, indicate that Cheney and his aides were more closely involved than previously known in a fierce internal battle over the legality of the warrantless surveillance program. The program allowed the National Security Agency to monitor phone calls and e-mails between the United States and overseas." ... "Comey said that Cheney's office later blocked the promotion of a senior Justice Department lawyer, Patrick Philbin, because of his role in raising concerns about the surveillance." ... "The disclosures also provide further details about the role played by then-White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales. He visited Ashcroft in his hospital room and wrote an internal memorandum on the surveillance program shortly afterward, according to Comey's responses. Gonzales is now the attorney general." ... ""Mr. Comey has confirmed what we suspected for a while -- that White House hands guided Justice Department business," said Sen. [New York Democratic Senator] Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.). "The vice president's fingerprints are all over the effort to strong-arm Justice on the NSA program, and the obvious next question is: Exactly what role did the president play?"" (1, 2) -By Dan Eggen with contributions by Amy Goldstein -WashingtonPost

20070604

Bradley Schlozman - Government - US Attorney - Politics - 2006 Election - Missouri - Civil Rights - "Justice official is said to have favored GOP loyalists." ... "In March 2006, [Bradley] Schlozman was given an interim appointment as the U.S. attorney in Kansas City [Missouri], replacing [then U.S. Attorney Todd] Graves." ... "Less than a week before the November [2006] election, Schlozman obtained indictments of four members of the liberal activist group Assn. of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, for allegedly submitting fraudulent voter registrations. The Justice Department election manual says prosecutors should refrain generally from bringing cases just before elections, out of concern that the charges could affect voting." ... "ACORN itself had brought the case to the attention of authorities after discovering that some of its employees were making up names of registrants as part of a voter-registration drive." ... "Schlozman's office, apparently in a hurry to file the case, got one of the names on the indictments wrong." ... ""It seems to me that the only way that could have happened was if the subject of the investigation had not been interviewed. It seems to me they were in such a rush to indict these people that they didn't bother to interview them first," said Robert Kengle, another former Justice voting rights official." ... "Missouri Republicans seized on the charges in the final days of the campaign. Nevertheless, Missouri voters narrowly elected Democrat Claire McCaskill over Republican incumbent Jim Talent, a victory that sank GOP hopes of maintaining control of Congress." ... "In April, the suit was dismissed by a federal judge, who ruled that the government failed to produce any evidence of fraud or that any Missouri resident had been denied the right to vote because of the alleged registration deficiencies." -By Richard B. Schmitt -LAtimes
Bradley Schlozman - Goodling - Gonzales - Government - US Attorney - Civil Rights - Politics - Missouri - "DOJ Probes Turn to Civil Rights Division: Judiciary Committee to question ex-official [Bradley] Schlozman while internal investigation looks at hiring practices." ... "Schlozman will testify Tuesday about his activities not only in the Civil Rights Division but also in his brief stint as interim U.S. Attorney in the Western District of Missouri, where he replaced Todd Graves -- one of nine U.S. Attorneys to have been fired by the Justice Department last year." ... "In particular, Democrats plan to press Schlozman about his role in the hiring of career attorneys into the voting and appellate sections of the Civil Rights Division, and whether Schlozman inappropriately considered the political loyalties of candidates -- a potential violation of the Hatch Act and civil service laws governing federal hiring." ... "The allegations are similar to the admission last month by Monica Goodling, the former senior adviser to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, that she had inappropriately taken politics into account in making hiring decisions for career federal prosecutors and immigration judges." ... "Congress, of course, isn't the only body reviewing Schlozman's tenure at the Civil Rights Division. Last week the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility and Office of the Inspector General, which are conducting a joint investigation into the U.S. Attorney firings, announced that they had broadened their probe to include allegations of politicization in hiring at the Civil Rights Division." -By Jason McLure -LegalTimes.com via -Law.com

20070602

2008 Election - Rudy Giuliani - Gay - Civil Rights - Abortion - Law - Children - Religious - Politics - "Will Rudy Split The GOP? Borger: [Republican Presidential candidate Rudy] Giuliani's Social Views Could Spur Mass Defections If He's The Nominee." ... "The unity of GOP Inc. has been the key to electoral success, and Republicans know it. Only now, the once predictable alliance is on the verge of unraveling, largely because of one unruly presidential candidate —Rudy Giuliani." ... "He's pro-abortion rights, pro-gun control, and pro-gay civil rights. He's been married three times and is publicly feuding with his children." ... "He says he'd appoint "strict constructionists [judges]," which is a backdoor way of winking at the antiabortion forces. And about a month ago, at the first GOP presidential debate, he simply shrugged when asked how he would feel if Roe v. Wade were repealed. That would be "OK," he said; then again, he added, it would be "OK" if it remained on the books, too." ... "Giuliani finally decided to come clean and look a tad less craven — stating his pro-abortion rights views as a natural extension of the nation's "big tent" social agenda." ... "The bet is that social conservatives care about issues other than abortion." ... "Not if you're James Dobson, the head of the religious conservatives in Focus on the Family. Even beyond abortion, he considers Rudy to be, well, immoral, and, worst of all, "the darling of the media." Giuliani's private life, Dobson says, is a disqualifier." ... ""Unlike some other Republican presidential candidates, Giuliani appears not to have remorse for cheating on his wife." (Paging Newt Gingrich, who at least apologized for his philandering!) Dobson even posted a clear signal to his flock: "I cannot — and will not — vote for Rudy Giuliani in [election] 2008."" -By Gloria Borger -CBSNews

20070531

Alberto Gonzales - Monica Goodling - Government - Employees - Political - Enforcement - Immigration - Civil Rights - US Attorneys - "Justice Dept. probes its hirings: Investigating for bias toward conservatives." ... "The Justice Department has launched an internal investigation into whether [Republican President George] Bush administration officials violated civil service rules by favoring conservative Republicans when hiring lawyers in the Civil Rights Division, the department disclosed yesterday in a letter to Congress." ... "The probe will also examine whether the administration illegally used a political litmus test when vetting candidates for non-partisan positions elsewhere in the Justice Department, according to the heads of the department's offices of inspector general and professional responsibility." ... "The disclosure that the two watchdogs are focusing on the Civil Rights Division marks an expansion to a new arena of the Justice Department of an ongoing investigation into whether politics played a role in the firing of nine US attorneys in 2006. The probe has widened to encompass allegations that the administration has used its control of the Justice Department to gain a partisan edge." ... "Under federal law, officials may not take political affiliation into account when hiring career professionals, permanent, non-partisan employees who stay on when an administration changes. But last week, a former aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Monica Goodling, told Congress that she had "crossed the line" by attempting to block liberal applicants from being hired as career assistant prosecutors and immigration judges." ... "In April, a group of Justice officials sent an anonymous letter to Congress alleging that political appointees were systematically screening out applicants who had worked for liberal groups or Democrats, thereby "politicizing the non-political ranks of Justice Department employees, offices which are consistently and methodically being eroded by partisan politics."" ... "Current and former career attorneys say that the changes had a particularly dramatic impact on the Civil Rights Division, which is charged with enforcing voting-rights and anti discrimination laws on behalf of minorities. Critics alleged that the administration was seeking to blunt the division's aggressiveness by hiring conservative activists to decide how and when to enforce the laws." -By Charlie Savage -Boston/Globe

20070527

Ala - Terrorism - Law - Enforcement - Politics - Free Speech - Liberty - Military- Environmentalist - Animal - Abortion - "Ala. terror Web site angers activists." ... "The Alabama Department of Homeland Security has taken down a Web site it operated that included gay rights and anti-war organizations in a list of groups that could include terrorists." ... "The Web site identified different types of terrorists, and included a list of groups it believed could spawn terrorists. The list also included environmentalists, animal rights advocates and abortion opponents." ... "The site included the groups under a description of what it called "single-issue" terrorists. That group includes people who feel they are trying to create a better world, the Web site said. It said that in some communities, law enforcement officers consider certain single issue groups to be a threat." -By Bob Johnson -AP via -Yahoo

20070523

Monica M Goodling - Alberto R Gonzales - Kyle Sampson - Paul J McNulty- Political - US Attorneys - Jobs - Civil Rights - Environment- "Officials Describe Interference by Former Gonzales Aide." ... "When Jeffrey A. Taylor, interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, wanted to hire a new career prosecutor last fall, he had to run the idea past Monica M. Goodling, then a 33-year-old aide to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales." ... "The candidate was Seth Adam Meinero, a Howard University law school graduate who had worked on civil rights cases at the Environmental Protection Agency and had served as a special assistant prosecutor in Taylor's office." ... "Goodling stalled the hiring, saying that Meinero was too "liberal" for the nonpolitical position, said according to two sources familiar with the dispute." ... "The tussle over Meinero, who was eventually hired at Taylor's insistence, led to a Justice Department investigation of whether Goodling improperly weighed political affiliation when reviewing applicants for rank-and-file prosecutor jobs, the sources said." ... "Goodling's public troubles began in mid-March, when [Kyle] Sampson disclosed to Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty and others that the plan to fire the U.S. attorneys had begun more than two years earlier in the White House, contrary to what McNulty and another official had testified to Congress." (1, 2) -By Dan Eggen and Carol D. Leonnig with contributions by Amy Goldstein and Jerry Markon -WashingtonPost

20070520

Hans von Spakovsky - Government - US Attorneys - Civil Rights - Poor - Race - Law - Politics- Georgia -