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2005 Government Archive:

20051231

US - International - Iraq - Secret - GOV - Terrorism - Intelligence - Telecommunications - E-Mail - Privacy - Politics - Media - Enforcement - "US investigates leak of spy program: Prosecutors focus on disclosure to New York Times." ... "The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into recent disclosures about a controversial domestic eavesdropping program that was secretly authorized by President Bush after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, officials said yesterday." ... "Justice Department prosecutors will focus on whether classified information about the program was unlawfully disclosed to The New York Times, which reported two weeks ago that Bush had authorized the National Security Agency to monitor the international telephone calls and e-mails of people in the United States without court-approved warrants, officials said." ... "The case is the latest in a series of clashes between the media and the Bush administration, which has aggressively enforced restrictions on classified information and has frequently complained about media disclosures related to terrorism or the war in Iraq." -By Dan Eggen -WashingtonPost via -BostonGlobe

20051230

Secret - Government - Intelligence - Civil Liberties - Privacy - Politics - Media - "Justice Dept. Opens Inquiry Into Leak of Domestic Spying." ... "The Justice Department said today that it had opened a criminal investigation into the disclosure of classified information about a secret National Security Agency program under which President Bush authorized eavesdropping on people in the United States without a court warrant." ... "The investigation apparently began in recent days following a formal referral from the agency regarding the leak, federal officials said on condition of anonymity." ... "The program, whose existence was revealed in an article in The New York Times on Dec. 16, has provoked sharp criticism from civil liberties groups, some members of Congress and some former intelligence officials who believe it circumvents the law governing national security eavesdropping." -By Scott Shane -NYTimes
Auto - Company - Retiree - History - Government - "How Bedrock Promises Of Security Have Fractured Across America: Companies are discarding traditional pensions -- or making government foot the bill. Delphi workers struggle with the changing landscape." ... "[Oct. 8,] That's when Delphi Chief Executive Robert S. "Steve" Miller, citing global competition and crippling "legacy costs," ushered the $28.6 billion-a-year company into one of the largest industrial bankruptcies in U.S. history. In short order, Miller called for slashing workers' compensation by almost two-thirds, threatened to void the company's union contracts, and hinted broadly that he would follow the playbook he had used elsewhere of pushing responsibility for paying the firm's pensions to the federal government and dumping its retiree health benefits altogether." ... "Delphi is at the cutting edge of a crisis that's engulfing the U.S. auto industry, much as it did steel and airlines. Its actions are adding to a gathering trend, a shift of economic risks once largely borne by business and government to the backs of working families." ... "Before the trouble is over, some believe, a corporate icon such as Ford Motor Co. or GM could be swept from the American landscape. So too could much of what remains of the already frayed relationship between millions of working people and their employers." -By Peter G. Gosselin -LAtimes

20051229

People - Government - Military - Terrorism - Civil Liberties - Politics - Illinois - Florida - Virginia - "U.S. Defends Conduct in Padilla Case: Supreme Court Asked To Overrule 4th Circuit." ... "A federal appeals court infringed on President Bush's authority to run the war on terror when it refused to let prosecutors take custody of "enemy combatant" Jose Padilla, the Justice Department said yesterday, as it urged the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene." ... "The sharply worded Justice Department filing was the latest salvo in an increasingly contentious battle over Padilla, a U.S. citizen arrested in Chicago [Illinois] in 2002 and initially accused of plotting to detonate a radiological "dirty bomb." Padilla was held for more than three years by the military before he was indicted last month in Miami [Florida] on separate criminal terrorism charges." ... "The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit refused last week to allow prosecutors to take custody of Padilla from the military and rebuked the Bush administration for its handling of the high-profile case. The Bush administration took strong issue yesterday with the Richmond-based [Virginia] court's decision and appealed it to the Supreme Court." -By Jerry Markon-WashingtonPost
Business - Accounting - Law - "SEC calls for clarity in executive pay." ... "Public companies in the US could have to provide investors with valuations of the pensions and stock options of senior executives as part of a far-reaching overhaul of the disclosure rules on executive pay by the Securities and Exchange Commission." ... "The chief US financial regulator is preparing the first update of its disclosure rules on executive pay in more than a decade, because of concerns that investors do not receive adequate information about compensation. An important requirement could focus on executives' pensions and options." ... "The median total pay of chief executives increased by 30 per cent in 2004, according to a survey of 1,522 chief executives by the Corporate Library, a corporate governance watchdog, published in October." -By Andrew Parker -FT.com via -MSNBC

20051228

Terrorism - Business - Politics - "Sept. 11 loan recipients weren't hurt by attacks." ... "Most companies interviewed about the government-backed Sept. 11 loans they received have told investigators they weren't hurt by the suicide attacks and didn't know they were getting terrorism assistance, an internal government investigation found." ... "The Small Business Administration's inspector general also reported Wednesday that lenders who doled out billions of dollars in such loans failed — 85% of the time — to document that recipients were actually hurt by the terrorism attacks and therefore eligible for the federal aid." -APvia -USATODAY
Government - Terrorism - Intelligence - Florida - Oregon - Ohio - Virginia - "Defense Lawyers in Terror Cases Plan Challenges Over Spy Efforts." ... "Defense lawyers in some of the country's biggest terrorism cases say they plan to bring legal challenges to determine whether the National Security Agency used illegal wiretaps against several dozen Muslim men tied to Al Qaeda." ... "The lawyers said in interviews that they wanted to learn whether the men were monitored by the agency and, if so, whether the government withheld critical information or misled judges and defense lawyers about how and why the men were singled out." ... "The expected legal challenges, in cases from Florida, Ohio, Oregon and Virginia, add another dimension to the growing controversy over the agency's domestic surveillance program and could jeopardize some of the Bush administration's most important courtroom victories in terror cases, legal analysts say." -By Eric Lichtblau and James Risen (1, 2) -NYTimes

20051227

Government - Military - Psychology - Health - "A Political Debate On Stress Disorder: As Claims Rise, VA Takes Stock." ... "The spiraling cost of post-traumatic stress disorder among war veterans has triggered a politically charged debate and ignited fears that the government is trying to limit expensive benefits for emotionally scarred troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan." ... "A total of 215,871 veterans received PTSD benefit payments last year at a cost of $4.3 billion, up from $1.7 billion in 1999 -- a jump of more than 150 percent." ... "Experts say the sharp increase does not begin to factor in the potential impact of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, because the increase is largely the result of Vietnam War vets seeking treatment decades after their combat experiences." (1, 2) -By Shankar Vedantam -WashingtonPost
Secret - Government - Law Enforcement - Law - Privacy - "U.S. secret surveillance up sharply since Sept. 11." ... "Federal applications for a special U.S. court to authorize secret surveillance rose sharply after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and the panel required changes to the requests at a even greater rate, government documents show." ... "The Justice Department's reports to the U.S. Congress on the surveillance court's activities show that the Bush administration made 5,645 applications for electronic surveillance and physical searches through 2004, the most recent year for which figures are available. In the previous four years, the court received a total of 3,436." -AlertNet.org/Newsdesk

20051226

Government - Military - Intelligence - Secret - Prisons - Civil Liberties - Privacy - Law - Media - Politics - "Fear destroys what bin Laden could not." ... "One wonders if Osama bin Laden didn't win after all. He ruined the America that existed on 9/11. But he had help." ... "If, back in 2001, anyone had told me that four years after bin Laden's attack our president would admit that he broke U.S. law against domestic spying and ignored the Constitution -- and then expect the American people to congratulate him for it -- I would have presumed the girders of our very Republic had crumbled." ... "Had anyone said our president would invade a country and kill 30,000 of its people claiming a threat that never, in fact, existed, then admit he would have invaded even if he had known there was no threat -- and expect America to be pleased by this -- I would have thought our nation's sensibilities and honor had been eviscerated." ... "If I had been informed that our nation's leaders would embrace torture as a legitimate tool of warfare, hold prisoners for years without charges and operate secret prisons overseas -- and call such procedures necessary for the nation's security -- I would have laughed at the folly of protecting human rights by destroying them." ... "If someone had predicted the president's staff would out a CIA agent as revenge against a critic, defy a law against domestic propaganda by bankrolling supposedly independent journalists and commentators, and ridicule a 37-year Marie Corps veteran for questioning U.S. military policy -- and that the populace would be more interested in whether Angelina is about to make Brad a daddy -- I would have called the prediction an absurd fantasy." -By Robert Steinback -Miami/Herald

20051224

Government - Terrorism - Law Enforcement - Law - Telecommunications - Business - Internet - Privacy - Politics - "Spy Agency Mined Vast Data Trove, Officials Report." ... "The National Security Agency has traced and analyzed large volumes of telephone and Internet communications flowing into and out of the United States as part of the eavesdropping program that President Bush approved after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to hunt for evidence of terrorist activity, according to current and former government officials." ... "The volume of information harvested from telecommunication data and voice networks, without court-approved warrants, is much larger than the White House has acknowledged, the officials said. It was collected by tapping directly into some of the American telecommunication system's main arteries, they said." ... "As part of the program approved by President Bush for domestic surveillance without warrants, the N.S.A. has gained the cooperation of American telecommunications companies to obtain backdoor access to streams of domestic and international communications, the officials said." ... "The government's collection and analysis of phone and Internet traffic have raised questions among some law enforcement and judicial officials familiar with the program." -By Eric Lichtblau and James Risen (1, 2) -NYTimes

20051223

Jerry Lewis - Randy "Duke" Cunningham - Government - Military - Money - Law - Politics - California - "Close ties make Rep. Lewis, lobbyist Lowery a potent pair." ... "From powerful positions on the House Appropriations Committee, California [Republican Representative] Rep. Jerry Lewis has greenlighted hundreds of millions of dollars in federal projects for clients of one of his closest friends, lobbyist and former [Republican Represenatative from California] state Congressman Bill Lowery." ... "Meanwhile, Lowery, the partners at his firm [Copeland Lowery Jacquez Denton & White] and their clients have donated 37 percent of the $1.3 million that Lewis' political action committee received in the past six years." ... "One of the defense companies that received federal contracts with [convicted California Republican Representative Randy "Duke"] Cunningham's support was a Lowery client [Brent Wilkes' ADCS Inc.]. And some of the money was disbursed when Cunningham was a member of the defense appropriations subcommittee and Lewis was the committee chairman." ... "Lowery, his partners and their spouses have contributed $135,000 to Lewis' campaigns and political action committee over the past decade, routinely giving the maximum allowed by law. Lowery also organizes and hosts Lewis fundraisers. And many of Lowery's defense-contractor clients contribute to Lewis as part of their lobbying strategy." ... "Taken together, they have contributed $480,000 to Lewis' political action committee since 2000." ... "Last year Lewis used some of that money to wow the Republican leadership with checks for $650,000 in "excess campaign funds" to help maintain Republican control of the House." ... "In 1999 Lewis became chairman of the defense appropriations subcommittee, which oversees more discretionary spending than any other congressional body." ... "Despite that early demonstration of fiscal toughness, earmarks in the defense bills exploded on Lewis' watch." ... "Many of the earmarks went to clients of Lowery's firm, which grew even more prosperous when Lewis' principal defense-earmarks gatekeeper, Letitia White, joined the firm in 2003." -By Jerry Kammer with contributions by Denise Davidson, Erin Hobbs and Peter Uribe -CopleyNews.com via -SignOnSanDiego.com
Secret - Government - Terrorism - Intelligence - Law - Privacy - History - Samuel Alito - "In 1984 memo, Alito defends domestic wiretaps." ... "As a Reagan administration lawyer, Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito argued that federal officials can't be sued for damages for wiretapping Americans without warrants in national security cases, a document released Friday showed." ... "Alito's position may complicate his prospects for confirmation because its disclosure comes amid an uproar over a four-year-old Bush administration counterterrorism operation that's been eavesdropping on Americans without court approval." ... "President Bush's argument that he has the legal and constitutional authority to direct the National Security Agency to conduct the secret domestic surveillance operation is almost certain to end up before the Supreme Court." -By Jonathan S. Landay -Knight Ridder via -MercuryNews
Government - Military - Terrorism - Civil Liberties - Politics - Florida - "Terror case challenges White House strategy: An appeals court refused the government's request to have Jose Padilla transferred to Florida for a criminal trial." ... "Suddenly, terror suspect Jose Padilla seems a lot more dangerous to the Bush administration." ... "It has nothing to do with his suspected involvement in Al Qaeda bomb plots, analysts say. Rather, the administration worries that the US Supreme Court might agree to hear Mr. Padilla's case and decide one of the most pressing constitutional issues in the war on terrorism. And by all appearances, government lawyers think they might lose." ... "The issue: Does President Bush have the power as commander in chief to order the open-ended military detention of US citizens that he deems enemy combatants?" -By Warren Richey -CSMonitor

20051222

Government - Law - Military - Terrorism - Alaska - Oil - Environment - Health - Education - Jobs - Money - "Senate Extends Patriot Act, Kills Alaska Drilling (Update1)." ... "The U.S. Senate broke a legislative logjam and cleared the way for its holiday departure last night with a series of short-term compromises that extended the Patriot Act and blocked drilling for oil in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge." ... "Democrats prevailed in getting Senate Republican leaders to abandon the oil-drilling plan, which was attached to the defense budget." ... "[House] Lawmakers passed a $142.5 billion budget for health, education and jobs programs that cuts funding from last year's spending plan, sending the measure to Bush for his signature. The House approved the measure 215-213 on Dec. 14." ... "The health budget reduces funding for the No Child Left Behind education initiative, special education and job training. It freezes funding for the National Institutes of Health and low- income heating assistance." -By Catherine Dodge -Bloomberg
Secret - Government - Terrorism - Intelligence - Telecommunications - EMail - Privacy - Politics - "Judges on Surveillance Court To Be Briefed on Spy Program." ... "The presiding judge of a secret court that oversees government surveillance in espionage and terrorism cases is arranging a classified briefing for her fellow judges to address their concerns about the legality of President Bush's domestic spying program, according to several intelligence and government sources." ... "Several members of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court said in interviews that they want to know why the administration believed secretly listening in on telephone calls and reading e-mails of U.S. citizens without court authorization was legal. Some of the judges said they are particularly concerned that information gleaned from the president's eavesdropping program may have been improperly used to gain authorized wiretaps from their court." (1, 2) -By Carol D. Leonnig and Dafna Linzer with contributions by Julie Tate -WashingtonPost
Karl Rove - Dick Cheney - Military - Environmental - Political - Business - "Department's Mission Was Undermined From Start." ... "[Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom] Ridge, who had won a Bronze Star as an infantry staff sergeant in Vietnam, knew he might be stepping into another quagmire at DHS. "Part of him was excited," said then-EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] Administrator Christine Todd Whitman. "Part of him thought it was a no-win situation."" ... "Clearly, he could not count on unlimited financial support. And working in the White House, he was already learning he could not count on absolute political support, either." ... "One stark example was the White House's blockade of a Ridge-supported plan to secure large chemical plants. After Sept. 11, Whitman had worked with Ridge on a modest effort to require high-risk plants --especially the 123 factories where a toxic release could endanger at least 1 million people -- to enhance security. But industry groups warned Bush political adviser Karl Rove that giving new regulatory power to the Environmental Protection Agency would be a disaster." ... ""We have a similar set of concerns," Rove wrote to the president of BP Amoco Chemical Co." ... "In an interagency meeting shortly before DHS's birth, White House budget official Philip J. Perry, who also happens to be Cheney's son-in-law, declared the Ridge-Whitman plan dead." (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) -By Christopher Lee with contributions by Spencer S. Hsu and Julie Tate -WashingtonPost
Government - Military - Terrorism - Civil Liberties - Politics - Florida - "Court Bars Transfer of Padilla To Face New Terrorism Charges." ... "A federal appeals court yesterday refused to authorize the transfer of "enemy combatant" Jose Padilla to face new criminal charges, issuing a strongly worded opinion rebuking the Bush administration and its handling of the high-profile terrorism case." ... "In issuing its denial, the court cited the government's changing rationale for Padilla's detention, questioning why it used one set of arguments before federal judges deciding whether it was legal for the military to hold Padilla and another set before the Miami [Florida] grand jury." ... "In requesting the transfer to Justice Department custody, the government suggested that the 4th Circuit vacate its ruling allowing Padilla to be held as an enemy combatant. But the 4th Circuit yesterday also refused to lift the earlier decision and suggested that the Justice Department request was made to avoid further judicial scrutiny." ... "The judges said prosecutors had left "an appearance that the government may be attempting to avoid consideration of our decision by the Supreme Court." They said they welcomed Supreme Court intervention because of the "enormous implications" of the Padilla case." -By Jerry Markon -WashingtonPost

20051221

Government - Political - Intelligence - Privacy - Law - History - "Limits to power: Restrictions on domestic spying were put in place for a reason." ... "It's an old argument. Back during the Vietnam War, government photographers went to the anti-war demonstrations and took pictures of the demonstrators. Protest leaders thought, probably correctly, that their phones were tapped. Even I, a reporter covering the protests, heard some odd clicking noises when I picked up the phone to make some calls. And, of course, FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover, who made his own laws, eavesdropped on Martin Luther King Jr., among others, though we didn't know it at the time." ... "Outside the law? John Mitchell, who was President Richard Nixon's Attorney General, argued that the government didn't need a warrant to tap the phone of any political dissenter it thought was a threat to national security, which certainly does sound like the secret police at work. But in 1972, the Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that Mitchell was wrong. Justice Lewis Powell, a Nixon appointee, wrote for the unanimous court that the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution protects Americans from "unreasonable searches and seizures" and that that freedom "cannot be properly guaranteed if domestic security surveillances are conducted solely at the discretion of the executive branch."" ... "President Bush obviously thinks the court was wrong, since he ordered the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2002 to begin eavesdropping on American citizens without a court-issued warrant." -By Bruce Morton -CNN
Secret - Government - Intelligence - "Surveillance-court judge quits in protest." ... "A federal judge has resigned from the court that oversees government surveillance in intelligence cases in protest of President Bush's secret authorization of a domestic spying program, according to two sources." ... "U.S. District Judge James Robertson, one of 11 members of the secret court set up by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, sent a letter to Chief Justice John Roberts Monday notifying him of his resignation without providing an explanation." ... "Two associates familiar with his decision said Tuesday that Robertson privately expressed deep concern that the warrantless surveillance program authorized by the president in 2001 was legally questionable." -By Carol D. Leonnig and Dafna Linzer -WashingtonPost via -SeattleTimes.NWsource

20051220

Government - Military - Intelligence - Total Information Awareness - Secrecy - Consumer - Telecommunications -Databases - Privacy - Law -West-Virginia - Dick Cheney - Terrorism - "Bush, Democrats swap charges over his approval of wiretaps." ... "The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, released a letter he wrote to Vice President Dick Cheney on July 17, 2003, the day he learned of the surveillance in a meeting with Cheney, three other lawmakers and the heads of the CIA and NSA. Rockefeller expressed deep misgivings and said the program reminded him of Total Information Awareness, a controversial Pentagon effort to mine credit-card data, cellphone calls and even bank withdrawals to spot terrorist activity." ... ""These concerns were never addressed, and I was prohibited from sharing my views with my colleagues" by secrecy laws, Rockefeller said Monday. He accused the president and his aides of "repeatedly misrepresenting the facts" in recent days and demanded a "full investigation into the legal and operational aspects of the program" now that the program has come to light." -By Todd J. Gillman -DallasNews.com via -SeattleTimes.NWsource
Government - Telecommunications- EMail - Intelligence - Law - West-Virginia - Cheney, Dick - "Democrats: Briefings weren't approvals for wiretapping." ... "Some Democrats say they never approved a domestic wiretapping program, undermining suggestions by President Bush and his senior advisers that the plan was fully vetted in a series of congressional briefings." ... ""I feel unable to fully evaluate, much less endorse, these activities," West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller, the Senate Intelligence Committee's top Democrat, said in a handwritten letter to Vice President Dick Cheney in July 2003. "As you know, I am neither a technician nor an attorney."" ... "Rockefeller is among a small group of congressional leaders who have received briefings on the administration's four-year-old program to eavesdrop — without warrants — on international calls and e-mails of Americans and others inside the United States with suspected ties to al-Qaeda." -AP via -USATODAY

20051219

Government - Military - Intelligence - Privacy - Law - Politics - "Bush's Snoopgate: The president was so desperate to kill The New York Times' eavesdropping story, he summoned the paper's editor and publisher to the Oval Office. But it wasn't just out of concern about national security." ... "The problem was not that the disclosures would compromise national security, as Bush claimed at his press conference. His comparison to the damaging pre-9/11 revelation of Osama bin Laden's use of a satellite phone, which caused bin Laden to change tactics, is fallacious; any Americans with ties to Muslim extremists-in fact, all American Muslims, period-have long since suspected that the U.S. government might be listening in to their conversations. Bush claimed that "the fact that we are discussing this program is helping the enemy." But there is simply no evidence, or even reasonable presumption, that this is so. And rather than the leaking being a "shameful act," it was the work of a patriot inside the government who was trying to stop a presidential power grab." ... "No, Bush was desperate to keep the Times from running this important story-which the paper had already inexplicably held for a year-because he knew that it would reveal him as a law-breaker." -By Jonathan Alter -MSNBC/Newsweek
Secret - Government - Terrorism - Intelligence - Civil Liberties - Privacy - Law - "Bush strongly defends eavesdropping program." ... "President Bush on Monday forcefully defended his administration's eavesdropping program for terror suspects living in the United States as an essential element of protecting Americans from a new enemy, and he said whoever unmasked the secret plan had committed a "shameful act."" ... "As Republicans joined Democrats in calling for a congressional inquiry into the domestic spying program, the president insisted he had the legal and constitutional authority to order surveillance. He said he was concerned about citizens' civil liberties but denied suggestions that he had abused the power of the presidency, and he vowed not to abandon the plan he approved after the 2001 terror attacks." ... ""To say `unchecked power' basically is ascribing some kind of dictatorial position to the president, which I strongly reject," Bush said. "I am doing what you expect me to do, and at the same time, safeguarding the civil liberties of the country."" -ChicagoTribune via -MercuryNews

20051218

Secret- Government - Terrorism - Intelligence - Privacy - Law - Wisconsin - "Bush, under fire, defends spy program: President says eavesdropping policy is 'vital'." ... "President Bush acknowledged yesterday that he has repeatedly authorized secret eavesdropping within the United States without obtaining warrants, a policy that some critics called illegal. The admission came one day after the president refused to address the issue." ... "Bush yesterday said he reauthorized the program more than 30 times since the Sept. 11 attacks and vowed to continue it despite criticism by some members of both political parties." ... "But Senator Russell Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat, urged the president to suspend the program immediately. Feingold said the program violates a law that requires a court order for such surveillance." -By Michael Kranish -Boston/Globe

20051217

Secret - Government - Terrorism - Privacy - Politics - Civil Liberties - Law - "Update 3: Bush Acknowledges Approving Eavesdropping." ... "President Bush said Saturday he has no intention of stopping his personal authorizations of a post-Sept. 11 secret eavesdropping program in the U.S., lashing out at those involved in revealing it while defending it as crucial to preventing future attacks." ... "Angry members of Congress have demanded an explanation of the program, first revealed in Friday's New York Times and whether the monitoring by the National Security Agency without obtaining warrants from a court violates civil liberties." -AP via -Forbes

20051216

Secret - Government - Military - Terrorism - EMail - Telecommunications - Law - Politics - History - "Bush Authorized Domestic Spying: Post-9/11 Order Bypassed Special Court." ... "President Bush signed a secret order in 2002 authorizing the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on U.S. citizens and foreign nationals in the United States, despite previous legal prohibitions against such domestic spying, sources with knowledge of the program said last night." ... "For more than four years, the NSA tasked other military intelligence agencies to assist its broad-based surveillance effort directed at people inside the country suspected of having terrorist connections, even before Bush signed the 2002 order that authorized the NSA program, according to an informed U.S. official." ... "The effort, which began within days after the attacks, has consisted partly of monitoring domestic telephone conversations, e-mail and even fax communications of individuals identified by the NSA as having some connection to al Qaeda events or figures, or to potential terrorism-related activities in the United States, the official said." ... "It has also involved teams of Defense Intelligence Agency personnel stationed in major U.S. cities conducting the type of surveillance typically performed by the FBI: monitoring the movements and activities -- through high-tech equipment -- of individuals and vehicles, the official said." -By Dan Eggen with contributions by Dafna Linzer and Peter Baker -WashingtonPost
Government - Secrets - Civil Liberties - Privacy - "Official: Bush authorized spying multiple times: Senior intelligence officer says President personally gave NSA permission." ... "President Bush has personally authorized a secretive eavesdropping program in the United States more than three dozen times since October 2001, a senior intelligence official said Friday night." ... "The disclosure follows angry demands by lawmakers earlier in the day for a congressional inquiry into whether the monitoring by the highly secretive National Security Agency violated civil liberties." (1, 2) -AP via -MSNBC
Secrecy - Politics- "Bush Issues Order to Ease Access to Government Information." ... "President Bush has issued an executive order directing federal agencies to improve public access to government information." ... "The order, signed by the president late Wednesday, follows five years of often bipartisan criticism of his administration on grounds of excessive secrecy, particularly since the 2001 terrorist attacks. It mandates some of the changes that have been proposed by members of Congress from both parties to strengthen the Freedom of Information Act." -By Scott Shane -NYTimes
Government - Terrorism - Law - Civil Liberties - Wisconsin- Idaho - "Senate may decide fate of Patriot Act's expiring provisions." ... "The Senate was still weighing a proposed accord with the House to extend the expiring 16 provisions of the law enacted in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. But that compromise appeared to lack the necessary votes to succeed." ... "The White House and its congressional allies prefer to let the provisions expire and hold Democrats responsible in next year's midterm elections rather than let opponents whittle away at the law." ... "But the critics, who include senators with such wide-ranging views as Democrat Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and Republican Larry Craig of Idaho, say they don't want the Patriot Act to expire — they just want enough time to improve the bill to the point where it doesn't infringe on American liberties." -USATODAY
US - World - Government - Secret - Telecommunications - Intelligence - Privacy - Terrorism - Law - "Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts." ... "Months after the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States to search for evidence of terrorist activity without the court-approved warrants ordinarily required for domestic spying, according to government officials." ... "Under a presidential order signed in 2002, the intelligence agency has monitored the international telephone calls and international e-mail messages of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people inside the United States without warrants over the past three years in an effort to track possible "dirty numbers" linked to Al Qaeda, the officials said. The agency, they said, still seeks warrants to monitor entirely domestic communications." ... "The previously undisclosed decision to permit some eavesdropping inside the country without court approval was a major shift in American intelligence-gathering practices, particularly for the National Security Agency, whose mission is to spy on communications abroad. As a result, some officials familiar with the continuing operation have questioned whether the surveillance has stretched, if not crossed, constitutional limits on legal searches." (1, 2, 3,4, 5) -By James Risen and Eric Lichtblau with contributions by Barclay Walsh -NYTimes

20051215

Government - Military - Terrorism - Intelligence - Prisons - Law - Arizona - "Bush backs down on proposed torture ban." ... "President Bush on Thursday abandoned his opposition to an anti-torture amendment by Sen. John McCain in the face of overwhelming support for the measure in Congress." ... "Bush backed down from a veto threat after being unable to muster support from one-third of either the House or Senate, even though his own Republican Party controls both chambers. The measure by McCain, R-Ariz., is attached to the annual defense spending bill that funds the war on terrorism." ... "The amendment says no one in U.S. government custody, whether prisoner of war or terrorist," shall be subject to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment," regardless of where the prisoner is being held." -By John Diamond with contributions by David Jackson -USATODAY

20051213

Hurricane Katrina - Disaster - Government - Politics - "Battle brews over a bigger military role: The Pentagon tilts toward taking more authority in major disasters - worrying governors, lawmakers." ... "The lessons learned from hurricane Katrina appear to be putting the Pentagon on a collision course with governors and lawmakers worried about the expanding role of the military in disaster response." ... "Gaining currency at the highest levels of the Pentagon is the idea that during a catastrophic event - either natural or terrorist - the Department of Defense should replace the Department of Homeland Security as the agency in charge of the federal response." ... "In many ways, the notion is limited, affecting only how the federal government deploys its own resources. Yet in a nation founded on a distrust of military control, any suggestion of giving the armed forces greater authority on American soil faces centuries-old skepticism. Moreover, it comes at a time when governors are already feeling besieged by an administration that, they feel, is too eager to wrest power from them." -By Mark Sappenfield -CSMonitor

20051212

Wireless - Telecommunications - Business - Law - "Cellphone rulings could mean billions in tax refunds." ... "Phone customers are due $9 billion in tax refunds and a 3% cut in wireless phone and long-distance bills, according to a series of federal court decisions." ... "But the federal government continues to collect the tax and requires so much paperwork for refunds that only big corporations are likely to benefit." ... "The Bush administration has not said whether it will appeal to the Supreme Court." -By Dennis Cauchon -USATODAY

20051210

Secret- Government - Wireless - Telecommunications - Technology - Law Enforcement - Law- New York - Texas - Maryland - Noteworthy - "Live Tracking of Mobile Phones Prompts Court Fights on Privacy." ... "Most Americans carry cellphones, but many may not know that government agencies can track their movements through the signals emanating from the handset." ... "In recent years, law enforcement officials have turned to cellular technology as a tool for easily and secretly monitoring the movements of suspects as they occur. But this kind of surveillance - which investigators have been able to conduct with easily obtained court orders - has now come under tougher legal scrutiny." ... "In the last four months, three federal judges have denied prosecutors the right to get cellphone tracking information from wireless companies without first showing "probable cause" to believe that a crime has been or is being committed. That is the same standard applied to requests for search warrants." ... "The rulings, issued by magistrate judges in New York, Texas and Maryland, underscore the growing debate over privacy rights and government surveillance in the digital age." (1, 2) -By Matt Richtel -NYTimes

20051208

Government - Disaster - Hurricane Katrina - "FEMA Chief Was Warned In 2004." ... "FEMA's top official was told more than a year before Hurricane Katrina that the agency's emergency response teams were unprepared for a major disaster and were operating under outdated plans, documents show." ... "An 11-page memo to Michael Brown, former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, from June 2004 described teams of national response managers that were not prepared and were getting "zero funding for training, exercise or team equipment."" ... "Those responders "provide the only practical, expeditious option for the (FEMA) director to field a cohesive team of his best people to handle the next big one," wrote William Carwile, one of FEMA's federal coordinating officers." ... "Carwile told Senate aides in a meeting this week that his memo largely was ignored at FEMA's headquarters, as were four budget requests over an 18-month period for money for the teams." -AP via-CBSNews

20051207

Government - Education - Money - Seniors - "Court: Disabled Can't Escape Student Loans." ... "America's seniors and disabled cannot escape debts from old student loans, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday, freeing the government to pursue Social Security benefits as part of an effort to collect billions in delinquent loans." ... "The Bush administration had argued that the ability to withhold Social Security benefits is an important tool in the pursuit of $5.7 billion in student loan debt that is over 10 years old. Overall, outstanding loans total about $33 billion." -By Gina Holland -AP via -SFGate.com

20051206

GOV - Air - Water - Health - Politics - Business - Kentucky - "A fight over easing rules for reporting toxic emissions: The EPA plan would help small businesses reduce paperwork." ... "Gracie Lewis is on a crusade to save the Toxics Release Inventory, a trove of federal pollution data vital to helping her - and activists nationwide - win community battles for cleaner air and water." ... "Until a couple of years ago, Mrs. Lewis was at her wits' end over the stew of chemical odors wafting into her home from nearby factories in the industrial heart of Louisville, Ky. [Kentucky], a neighborhood known as "Rubbertown."" ... "Though she still smells them today, the city now has a plan for beating back toxic emissions, in part because of TRI data gathered annually by the Environmental Protection Agency, she says. With those crucial numbers in hand, she and other activists can ferret out companies releasing harmful chemicals. "Once we smell it, we call the odor hot line," she says." ... "But that ability to check the numbers may be changing as the EPA mulls over whether to lower the TRI reporting requirements. Small businesses have welcomed the proposal because it eliminates extra paperwork. But Lewis, environmentalists, and first responders have become part of a vocal national backlash since the changes were first proposed in September. These groups argue they would lose vital data and would not be able to hold polluters accountable." -By Mark Clayton -CSMonitor
Government - Military -Intelligence - Prisons - Telecommunications - Politics - "Government gets 5 "F's," 12 "D's" in last 9/11 report." ... "The federal government received failing and mediocre grades Monday from the former Sept. 11 commission, whose members said in a final report that the Bush administration and Congress have balked at enacting numerous reforms that could save American lives and prevent another terrorist attack on U.S. soil." ... "The group also said there has been little progress in forcing federal agencies to share intelligence and terrorism information and sharply criticized government efforts to secure weapons of mass destruction or establish clear standards for the proper treatment of U.S. detainees." ... "The panel also sharply criticized Congress for failing to enable first responders to communicate easily by setting aside part of the broadcast spectrum for their use. A pending budget bill would open part of the spectrum for first responders in 2009, but the Sept. 11 panel said that date is "too distant given the urgency of the threat."" -By Dan Eggen-WashingtonPost via -SeattleTimes.NWsource
Government - Politics - Nuclear - "9/11 Panel Criticizes U.S. Terror Response." ... "The members of the Sept. 11 commission gave dismal grades to the Bush administration and Congress on Monday in measuring the government's recent efforts to prevent terrorist attacks on American soil, concluding that the government deserved many more F's and D's than A's." ... "The new report by the 9/11 Public Discourse Project, a private group established by the commission's five Republicans and five Democrats when the panel formally went out of business last year, graded the government's response to the 41 recommendations made in the commission's final report 17 months ago." ... "There were 17 F's or D's - including an F to Congress for its failure to allocate the domestic antiterrorism budget on the basis of risk and a D for the government's effort to track down and secure nuclear material that could be used by terrorists." -By Philip Shenon -NYTimes

20051130

US - Iraq - Military - GOV - Secrets - "U.S. Military Covertly Pays to Run Stories in Iraqi Press: Troops write articles presented as news reports. Some officers object to the practice." ... "As part of an information offensive in Iraq, the U.S. military is secretly paying Iraqi newspapers to publish stories written by American troops in an effort to burnish the image of the U.S. mission in Iraq." ... "The articles, written by U.S. military "information operations" troops, are translated into Arabic and placed in Baghdad newspapers with the help of a defense contractor, according to U.S. military officials and documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times." ... "Many of the articles are presented in the Iraqi press as unbiased news accounts written and reported by independent journalists. The stories trumpet the work of U.S. and Iraqi troops, denounce insurgents and tout U.S.-led efforts to rebuild the country." ... "Though the articles are basically factual, they present only one side of events and omit information that might reflect poorly on the U.S. or Iraqi governments, officials said." (1, 2, 3) -By Mark Mazzetti and Borzou Daragahi -LAtimes

20051127

Government - Military - Intelligence - Terrorism - Privacy - Law - Civil Liberties - Politics - Oregon - "Pentagon Expanding Its Domestic Surveillance Activity: Fears of Post-9/11 Terrorism Spur Proposals for New Powers." ... "The Pentagon has pushed legislation on Capitol Hill that would create an intelligence exception to the Privacy Act, allowing the FBI and others to share information gathered about U.S. citizens with the Pentagon, CIA and other intelligence agencies, as long as the data is deemed to be related to foreign intelligence. Backers say the measure is needed to strengthen investigations into terrorism or weapons of mass destruction." ... "The proposals, and other Pentagon steps aimed at improving its ability to analyze counterterrorism intelligence collected inside the United States, have drawn complaints from civil liberties advocates and a few members of Congress, who say the Defense Department's push into domestic collection is proceeding with little scrutiny by the Congress or the public." ... ""We are deputizing the military to spy on law-abiding Americans in America. This is a huge leap without even a [congressional] hearing," Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore. [Oregon]), a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said in a recent interview." (1, 2) -By Walter Pincus with contributions by Dan Eggen -WashingtonPost

20051128

Samuel Alito - New York - Government - Military - Business - Politics - Secrets - "Alito dueled with government ethics chief: As Justice Department lawyer, court nominee fought over disclosure rules." ... "As a Justice Department lawyer, Samuel Alito quarreled with the head of the government ethics office over proposed requirements on personal financial disclosures, according to documents released Monday." ... "Alito's 1987 letter was issued around the time the ethics office said his boss, Attorney General Edwin Meese III, had violated financial disclosure requirements over a $60,000 investment with a businessman who was tied to Wedtech, a Bronx, N.Y. [New York], defense contractor that was caught up in a wide-ranging federal investigation." -AP via -MSNBC

20051122

Government - Terrorism- Civil Righs - "'Dirty' bomb suspect faces charges after three years." ... "The Bush administration on Tuesday reversed course on one of the most significant terrorism cases against an individual since the September 11 attacks, avoiding a showdown in the Supreme Court over whether it can indefinitely hold "enemy combatants" without the review of a court." ... "The indictment marks a big shift in a long-running case that has been criticised by civil rights groups, who claimed the government's detention of a US citizen without charge was a violation of the constitution." -By Stephanie Kirchgaessner -FT.com via -MSNBC
Government - Nuclear - Terrorism - Politics - "Dirty Bomb Suspect Padilla Indicted." ... "Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen held in a Navy brig as an enemy combatant for more than three years, was charged Tuesday with being part of a North American terror cell that sent money and recruits overseas to "murder, maim and kidnap."" ... "However, absent from the indictment were the sensational allegations made earlier by top Justice Department officials: that Padilla sought to blow up U.S. hotels and apartment buildings and planned an attack on America with a radiological "dirty bomb.""" ... "The charges are the latest twist in a case pitting the Bush administration's claim that the war on terrorism gives the government extraordinary powers to protect its citizens, on one side, against those who say the government can't be allowed to label Americans "enemy combatants" and hold them indefinitely without charges that can be fought in court." (1, 2) -By Mark Sherman -AP via-WashingtonPost

20051120

Dick Cheney - GOV - Military - Politics - "Powell aide: Torture 'guidance' from VP: Former staff chief says Cheney's 'flexibility' helped lead to abuse." ... "Retired U.S. Army Col. Larry Wilkerson, who served as former Secretary of State Colin Powell's chief of staff, told CNN that the practice of torture may be continuing in U.S.-run facilities." ... ""There's no question in my mind that we did. There's no question in my mind that we may be still doing it," Wilkerson said on CNN's "Late Edition."" ... "There's no question in my mind where the philosophical guidance and the flexibility in order to do so originated -- in the vice president of the United States' office," he said. "His implementer in this case was [Defense Secretary] Donald Rumsfeld and the Defense Department."" -CNN

20051118

US - Iraq - GOV - Business - North Carolina - Prison - "Ex-Convict Took Bribes in Iraq, U.S. Says." ... "A North Carolina man who was charged yesterday with accepting kickbacks and bribes as a comptroller and financial officer for the American occupation authority in Iraq was hired despite having served prison time for felony fraud in the 1990's." ... "The job gave the man, Robert J. Stein, control over $82 million in cash earmarked for Iraqi rebuilding projects." ... "Along with a web of other conspirators who have not yet been named, Mr. Stein and his wife received "bribes, kickbacks and gratuities amounting to at least $200,000 per month" to steer lucrative construction contracts to companies run by another American, Philip H. Bloom, an affidavit outlining the criminal complaint says." (1, 2) -By James Glanz -NYTimes

20051117

Idaho - New_Hampshire - Alaska - Illinois - Wisconsin - Colorado - Secret - GOV - Police - Intelligence - Civil Liberties - Library - Business - Health - Privacy - Politics - "Senators Vow To Block Patriot Act." ... "Half a dozen senators worried about civil liberties –three Democrats and three Republicans – said Thursday they will try to block the measure to renew the Patriot Act, CBS News correspondent Bob Fuss reports." ... "The most controversial parts of the law that vastly expanded FBI powers after 9/11 expire at the end of the year unless renewed. An agreement on a measure to do that between the House and Senate doesn't include some minimal new protections these senators want, including having a judge review broad secret warrants when the FBI seeks information from libraries, hospitals and banks." ... ""If further changes are not made, we will work to stop this bill from becoming law," GOP Sens. Larry Craig [Idaho], John Sununu [New Hampshire] and Lisa Murkowski [Alaska] and Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin [Illinois], Russ Feingold [Wisconsin] and Ken Salazar [Colorado] said in a letter to the Senate Judiciary and Intelligence committees." -AP -CBSNews

20051116

Dick Cheney - Secret - Energy - Law - Politics - Business - Environment - Alaska - "Document Says Oil Chiefs Met With Cheney Task Force." ... "A White House document shows that executives from big oil companies met with Vice President Cheney's energy task force in 2001 -- something long suspected by environmentalists but denied as recently as last week by industry officials testifying before Congress." ... "The document, obtained this week by The Washington Post, shows that officials from Exxon Mobil Corp., Conoco (before its merger with Phillips), Shell Oil Co. and BP America Inc. met in the White House complex with the Cheney aides who were developing a national energy policy, parts of which became law and parts of which are still being debated." ... "The executives were not under oath when they testified, so they are not vulnerable to charges of perjury; committee Democrats had protested the decision by Commerce Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) not to swear in the executives. But a person can be fined or imprisoned for up to five years for making "any materially false, fictitious or fraudulent statement or representation" to Congress." -By Dana Milbank and Justin Blum with contributions by Lucy Shackelford-WashingtonPost

20051115

GOV - Military - Money - "Senate approves $491 billion defense bill." ... "The Senate unanimously passed legislation on Tuesday authorizing $491.6 billion in defense programs, including policies on treatment of detainees likely to prompt a dispute with the House of Representatives." -Reuters
Government - Intelligence - Media - Politics - I. Lewis Libby - Dick Cheney - "Post reporter testifies in CIA leak probe." ... "Washington Post editor Bob Woodward testified that a senior Bush administration official told him about CIA operative Valerie Plame about a month before her identity was publicly exposed, the Post acknowledged Wednesday." ... "Woodward told Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, who is investigating the leak of Plame's identity, that the official talked to him about Plame in mid-June 2003, the Post said. Woodward and editors at the Post refused to identify the official other than to say it was not I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff." -AP via -SeattlePI.NWsource
Political - Government - Radio - TV - Media - Editorial - Money - History - "Report: Former CPB chair violated law: Is accused of trying to turn public radio, TV into GOP mouthpiece." .. "The former chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting broke federal law by interfering with PBS programming and appearing to use political tests in hiring the corporation's new president, internal investigators said Tuesday." .. "The corporation - which funnels hundreds of millions of federal dollars to National Public Radio, the Public Broadcasting Service and noncommercial radio and television stations - was created by Congress in the late 1960s to shield public broadcasting from political influence." .. "Specifically, the report said [Republican Kenneth Y.] Tomlinson violated the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 and ethical standards by dealing directly with one of the creators of the conservative-leaning "Journal Editorial Report," hosted by the editor of The Wall Street Journal editorial page." -AP via -MSNBC
Government- Science - Medical - Woman - Drugs - "FDA's Actions on Pill Faulted: A GAO report bolsters charges that the agency bowed to politics over a 'morning-after' drug." ... "Federal drug regulators compromised their usual science-based decision-making process when they ruled in 2004 against letting the "morning-after" birth control pill be sold without a prescription, congressional investigators said Monday." ... "A detailed report by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office bolstered critics' charges that the Food and Drug Administration had yielded to political pressure from social conservatives, who feared that easier access to the drug would encourage promiscuity." ... "GAO investigators also found that three separate FDA offices had recommended that Plan B be approved for sale without a prescription after reviewing data on safety and effectiveness. Two panels of outside advisors had reached the same conclusion at a joint meeting." (1, 2) -By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar -LAtimes
GOV- Television - Media - "The CPB's Report on Tomlinson." ... "Former Corporation for Public Broadcasting chairman Kenneth Tomlinson violated the law and his office's code of ethics, according to the agency's internal investigation." ... "Inspector General Kenneth Konz's report confirms that Tomlinson used "political tests" when he hired a new president and CEO to head the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Tomlinson chose Patricia Harrison, a former co-chair of the Republican National Committee, for the dual posts earlier this year." ... "Tomlinson, a Republican, ended his controversial tenure when he resigned from the CPB board on Nov. 3." -NPR /News
GOV - Television - Media - "U.S. Public TV's Ex-Chief Faulted by Internal Probe (Update2)." ... "The Corporation for Public Broadcasting's former chairman, Kenneth Tomlinson, improperly helped create a conservative news show for public television and pushed for Republican hires after discussions with the White House, an internal probe found." ... "Tomlinson personally intervened to help create ``The Journal Editorial Report'' as a counterbalance to ``NOW with Bill Moyers,'' the report said. In pushing to add the Journal show, which was unusually expensive at $4 million for its first season, Tomlinson told corporation staff ``not to interfere with his deal to bring a balancing program'' to PBS's Friday night programming, the report said." ... "Tomlinson also improperly hired a consultant with conservative ties to assess the political leanings of some guests on the Moyers show, the report said. It faulted Tomlinson for failing to consult with the corporation's board before signing the consultant's contract." -By Neil Roland -Bloomberg
GOV - Television - Media - "Report: PBS' ex-chairman violated ethics standards." ... "The former chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting [Republican Kenneth Y. Tomlinson] interfered with PBS programming and appeared to employ "political tests" in the hiring of the corporation's new president, internal investigators reported Tuesday." ... "The corporation, which funnels hundreds of millions of federal dollars to National Public Radio, the Public Broadcasting Service and other non-commercial radio and television stations, was set up by Congress in 1967 to shield public broadcasting from political influence." -AP via -USATODAY
GOV - Television - Media - "Former CPB Head Reportedly Broke Rules, Ethics Code." ... "The former chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting repeatedly violated the organization's contracting rules and code of ethics in his efforts to promote conservatives in the system, according to an internal investigation released today." ... "According to the report, Tomlinson failed to get board approval for his hiring of a consultant, Fred Mann, to monitor the political leanings of the guests on "Now With Bill Moyers" and three other programs. Mann, who divided guests into categories such as "pro-Bush" and "anti-Bush," was paid $20,200 for an analysis that was "not sophisticated," the report said." -By Matea Gold -LAtimes

20051114

US - World - Mexico - US_Debt - Economy - "Greenspan says trade deficit may prove costly." ... "Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Monday that foreign investors likely will tire of bankrolling the bloated U.S. trade deficit but the economy's flexibility should help temper any fallout." ... "Greenspan's remarks, delivered via video link to a conference in Mexico, referred to the broadest measure of U.S. trade, the current account deficit, which swelled to a record $668 billion last year. The shortfall is financed mostly by foreign investors." -By Jeannine Aversa -AP via -USATODAY

20051111

Hurricane Katrina - Business - Politics - "FEMA Shirks Katrina Contract Vow." ... "Despite a month-old pledge, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has yet to reopen four of its biggest no-bid contracts for Hurricane Katrina work and won't do so until the contracts are virtually complete. A promise to hire more minority-owned firms also is largely unfulfilled." ... "The no-bid contracts for temporary housing, worth up to $100 million each, were given to Shaw Group Inc., Bechtel Corp., CH2M Hill Inc. and Fluor Corp. right after Katrina struck. Charges of favoritism helped prompt last month's pledge by FEMA acting director R. David Paulison, but now officials with the Homeland Security Department, which oversees FEMA, say the contracts won't be awarded again until February." (1, 2) -AP -CBSNews

20051109

People - Government - Food - Politics - "Religious groups push to protect food stamp program." ... "Religious leaders across the country are urgently working to save $844 million in food stamps as the House of Representatives considers cuts to the program this week. A House bill, if passed, would take food stamps from about 300,000 people." ... "Religious advocates for the poor see the proposed cuts as a moral issue and say that helping the poor is a teaching of all major world religions." ... ""Cutting food stamps and other programs for low-income people is just wrong," said the Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, a lobbying group for the hungry supported by more than 45 denominations and church agencies. "It is the Bible turned upside down. The House is saying it is showing fiscal concern but at the same time is planning about $70 billion in tax cuts, and almost all are for the wealthy."" -By Helen T. Gray -KnightRidder via -MercuryNews

20051106

US - World - Karl Rove - Political - Government - Radio - Television - Language - Media - "Rove friend is at center of inquiry." ... "Kenneth Tomlinson, who is also a close friend of Karl Rove, the White House political guru, was removed last week from the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting after its inspector general concluded an investigation that was critical of him. That examination looked at his efforts as chairman to seek more politically conservative programs on public radio and television in the United States." ... "But Tomlinson remains an important official as the chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, whose members include the secretary of state. It supervises the U.S. government's foreign broadcasting operations, including the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, Radio Sawa and Alhurra, transmits programs in 61 languages and says it has more than 100 million listeners each week." ... ""People involved in the inquiry said that investigators had already interviewed a significant number of officials at the agency and that if the accusations were substantiated, they could involve criminal violations." -By Stephen Labaton with contributions by Steven R. Weisman -NYTimes via -IHT.com

20051103

US_Debt. - Government - Money - "Senate defeats budget plan challenges: House panel moves ahead with spending cuts." ... "The Senate on Thursday turned back a handful of challenges to a closely-watched budget plan, passing a Republican-backed package estimated to produce net savings of around $36 billion over five years." ... "The federal budget deficit is expected to total $1.6 trillion over the five-year budget window. In fiscal 2006, which began Oct. 1, the Senate measures are expected to cut spending by $6 billion, while the deficit is projected to total more than $300 billion." ... "Congressional Republicans plan to move a tax-cut package that would reduce revenues by $70 billion over five years once they've wrapped up the spending package." -By William L. Watts -MarketWatch
US_Debt. - Government - Politics - "Congress is ignoring looming problems, experts say." ... "Even though the White House and Congress pledge to trim $39 billion to $50 billion in spending over the next five years, that's chickenfeed. The government spends more than $2.5 trillion every year." ... "Unfunded liabilities include everything from public debt to promised Medicare and Social Security benefits. In 2000 they totaled $20.4 trillion. By 2004, after President Bush and Congress increased spending and cut taxes, they reached $43.3 trillion." ... "When the government next reports these numbers on Dec. 15, the total is expected to reach $46 trillion to $50 trillion." ... "How much is $50 trillion? It's about $166,000 for each of the almost 300 million Americans." ... "The gross national debt is now more than $8 trillion." -By Kevin G. Hall -Knight Ridder via -MercuryNews

20051026

Hurricane Katrina - Hurricane Wilma - Disaster - Politics - "FEMA Extends Ex-Chief's Contract." ... "The former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Wednesday defended the agency's decision to keep him on the job another 30 days as a "completely legitimate thing to do."" ... "Michael Brown, who resigned under fire Sept. 12 after being heavily criticized for the federal government's slow reaction to the hurricane, told The Associated Press that he would help the agency complete its review of the response to Hurricane Katrina." ... "Brown initially was permitted to stay on the FEMA payroll for 30 days at his $148,000 annual salary. Chertoff defended the decision to extend Brown's employment for another 30 days during an interview Wednesday as he flew to view Hurricane Wilma's damage in Florida." -AP via -CBSNews

20051025

GOV - Consumer - Terrorism - "RFID Chips To Travel in U.S. Passports: U.S. passports issued after October 2006 will contain embedded radio frequency identification chips that carry the holder's personal data and digital photo. Terrorism and ID theft fears drive most consumer objections." ... "The passports will have 64 kilobyte RFID chip to permit adequate storage room in case additional data, or fingerprints or iris scan biometric technology is added in the future." ... "Consumer opposition for implanting RFID chips in passports has grown during the past year as fear that identity thieves could steal personal information embedded in the chip within the passport. The State Department this year received 2,335 comments on the project, and 98.5 percent were negative, mostly focusing on security and privacy concerns, and concerns about being identified by terrorists as a U.S. citizen." -By Laurie Sullivan -InformationWeek

20051024

Government - Intelligence - Law - Secrets - Privacy- "FBI Papers Indicate Intelligence Violations: Secret Surveillance Lacked Oversight." ... "The FBI has conducted clandestine surveillance on some U.S. residents for as long as 18 months at a time without proper paperwork or oversight, according to previously classified documents to be released today." ... "Records turned over as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit also indicate that the FBI has investigated hundreds of potential violations related to its use of secret surveillance operations, which have been stepped up dramatically since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks but are largely hidden from public view." ... "In other cases, agents obtained e-mails after a warrant expired, seized bank records without proper authority and conducted an improper "unconsented physical search," according to the documents." ... "The documents provided to EPIC focus on 13 cases from 2002 to 2004 that were referred to the Intelligence Oversight Board, an arm of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board that is charged with examining violations of the laws and directives governing clandestine surveillance. Case numbers on the documents indicate that a minimum of 287 potential violations were identified by the FBI during those three years, but the actual number is certainly higher because the records are incomplete." (1, 2) -By Dan Eggen-WashingtonPost

20051021

US - Iraq - Karl Rove - Government- Law - Media - Military - Politics- Secrets - "CIA Leak Queries Look at Disclosure Of Classified Data." ... "Yesterday, one former administration official said Karl Rove, the deputy White House chief of staff, had discussed former diplomat Joseph Wilson and the role of his wife, Ms. Plame, with White House staffers in 2003. That buttresses the possibility that Mr. Fitzgerald is investigating charges related to leaking classified information." ... "The former official said Mr. Rove had these discussions after Mr. Wilson went public with claims that the Bush administration had twisted intelligence to build support for the Iraq war. Mr. Rove discussed discrediting Mr. Wilson, the former official said, adding that Mr. Rove didn't necessarily name Ms. Plame or make her a key talking point in conversations with other White House officials." ... "The Plame investigation, originally sought by Central Intelligence Agency officials, began in September 2003 after her name appeared in the media in July. Critics, including Mr. Wilson, accused the White House of leaking her identity in an effort to undercut his claim that the administration had manipulated intelligence to support the Iraq war." -By John D. McKinnon, Anne Marie Squeo, and Joe Hagan -WSJ.com

20051006

Secret - US - Philippines - Emergency - Leandro Aragoncillo - Dick Cheney - Government - Military - Intelligence - Police - Politics - New Jersey - Law - "Spy Probe Widens to Years Suspect Was at White House: Ex-Marine Allegedly Sent Files to Philippine Opposition." ... "The Justice Department is investigating whether a naturalized U.S. citizen from the Philippines stole classified documents while he worked in the office of [Republican] Vice President Cheney and provided the information to opposition politicians in Manila [Philippines capital], [Republican] Bush administration officials said yesterday." ... "The possibility that Leandro Aragoncillo was passing the material while stationed as a U.S. Marine security official at the White House marks a dramatic expansion of the case against him and a former Philippine police official, Michael Ray Aquino. Both were arrested and charged in federal court in Newark [New Jersey] last month with sending classified information obtained this year to the Philippines -- more than two years after Aragoncillo left the White House and went to work as an FBI intelligence analyst." ... "Officials from the White House, Justice Department and FBI declined to comment late yesterday, other than to confirm that Aragoncillo first went to work at the White House in 1999, when [Democratic Vice President] Al Gore was vice president. ABC News reported last night that Aragoncillo had admitted taking classified documents while he worked in Cheney's office." ... "Joseph Estrada, the former Philippine president who was forced from office four years ago by mass demonstrations, has acknowledged receiving documents from Aragoncillo while the suspect was still in the Marines." ... "A document from late July reportedly detailed coup discussions at a secret conclave of about two dozen young army and naval officers in Manila. Another account, citing a clandestine source, described Arroyo calling an emergency meeting of her commanding generals to ensure their backing." (1, 2, 3) -By Dan Eggen and Alan Sipress -WashingtonPost

20051003

Government - Military - Police - Disaster - Terrorism - Politics- "GI's as postdisaster police? Think again." ... "The US military has long done more than fight wars. It's built roads, run jobs programs, snagged drug dealers, integrated schools, created the Internet, and provided hurricane relief. Why? It's seen as the government's only lean, mean, can-do machine." ... "Now President Bush asks if the military should also take the lead in domestic disasters, even serving as police - conducting arrests, searches, and seizures of American citizens." ... "But such concerns would not even need to be raised if Mr. Bush and Congress simply challenged an unspoken assumption: that the United States is incapable of having an organization that can act as effectively and efficiently in a time of major crisis as can the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard." ... "With the possibility of more frequent and powerful hurricanes as well as a major terrorist attack on a US city, the country needs a force dedicated specifically to disasters, but it's not the military."-CSMonitor

20051001

Hurricane Katrina - Disaster - "FEMA Discontinues $2,000-a-Household Benefit." ... "The Federal Emergency Management Agency has discontinued its $2,000-per-household emergency assistance program for victims of Hurricane Katrina, switching to a more regimented aid package intended to encourage families to leave shelters." ... "In the aftermath of the storm, FEMA gave displaced families a payment of $2,000, saying they could use the money for clothing, food or rental housing. More than 752,000 households signed up, collecting just over $1.5 billion, officials said." -By Eric Lipton -NYTimes

20050930

GOV - Business - Space - Privacy - "Review Leads to Upheaval in Spy Satellite Programs." ... "A high-level review led by John D. Negroponte, the new intelligence director, is stirring a major upheaval within the country's spy satellite programs, beginning with an overhaul of a $15 billion program plagued by delays and cost overruns." ... "In a terse announcement last week, the National Reconnaissance Office, responsible for developing and launching the devices, said only that a Boeing Company contract to provide the next generation of reconnaissance satellites, known as the Future Imagery Architecture, was being "restructured."" ... "But government officials and outside experts said Mr. Negroponte had ordered that Boeing stop work on a significant part of the project, involving satellites with powerful cameras, under a plan to shift the mission to Lockheed Martin, Boeing's chief competitor." -By Douglas Jehl -NYTimes

20050929

US - Government - UN - World - Computer - Telecommunications - "U.S. insists on keeping control of Web." ... "A senior U.S. official rejected calls on Thursday for a U.N. body to take over control of the main computers that direct traffic on the Internet, reiterating U.S. intentions to keep its historical role as the medium's principal overseer." ... "In 1998, the U.S. Commerce Department selected ICANN to oversees the Internet's master directories, which tell Web browsers and e-mail programs how to direct traffic. Internet users around the world interact with them everyday, likely without knowing it." ... "Although ICANN is a private organization with international board members, Commerce ultimately retains veto power." -APvia -BusinessWeek

20050927

Hurricane Katrina - Louisiana - New Orleans - Government - Disaster - "Brown Shifts Blame for Katrina Response." ... "Former FEMA director Michael Brown blamed others for most government failures in responding to Hurricane Katrina on Tuesday, especially Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin. He aggressively defended his own role." ... "Brown also said that in the days before the storm, he expressed his concerns that ``this is going to be a bad one'' in phone conversations and e-mails with President Bush, White House chief of staff Andy Card and deputy chief of staff Joe Hagin." ... "And he blamed the Department of Homeland Security - the parent agency for the Federal Emergency Management Agency - for not acquiring better equipment ahead of the storm." -By Lara Jakes Jordan -AP via -Guardian.co.uk

20050926

Florida - Weather - Hurricane Katrina - Hurricane Rita - Medical - Nuclear - MIL - Disaster - "AP: Report Warned of Hurricane Health Woes." ... "Eight months before the devastation of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, an internal Homeland Security Department review warned that the nation was woefully unprepared for a medical disaster and lacked a coherent plan for taking charge of mass casualties." ... "Government medical teams had difficulty coordinating and delivering help during 2004 hurricanes in Florida, said the report obtained by The Associated Press. The report also said there was inadequate planning for dealing with a surge of patients during a disaster like a biological or nuclear attack." ... "It called for creation of a uniformed medical reserve corps, including specialists, fashioned after the National Guard." -By Cheryl Wittenauer -AP via-WashingtonPost
"Medical Readiness Responsibilities and Capabilities: A Strategy for Realigning and Strengthening the Federal Medical Response." -By Jeffrey Lowell, MD -The AP has a [PDF] copy of the January 3, 2005 official report. -AP

20050921

Government

Terrorism

Law

"Aide Was Reticent on Lobbying for Foreign Clients." ... "David H. Safavian, the Bush administration official arrested Monday, initially failed to disclose lobbying work he had done for several controversial foreign clients when he went before a Senate panel last year to be confirmed as chief of the White House's federal procurement office." ... "The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee held up Safavian's nomination for more than a year, in part because of lawmakers' concerns about lobbying work for two men later accused of links to suspected terrorist organizations, according to committee documents. Safavian did not disclose his firm's representation of the men until questioned in writing by the committee's staff, and initially failed to tell the panel he had registered as a foreign agent for two controversial African regimes." -By Susan Schmidt and R. Jeffrey Smith

-WashingtonPost

20050920

Hurricane Katrina - Government - Politics - "Bush Official Arrested in Corruption Probe." ... "The Bush administration's top federal procurement official resigned Friday and was arrested yesterday, accused of lying and obstructing a criminal investigation into Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff's dealings with the federal government. It was the first criminal complaint filed against a government official in the ongoing corruption probe related to Abramoff's activities in Washington." ... "The complaint, filed by the FBI, alleges that David H. Safavian, 38, a White House procurement official involved until last week in Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, made repeated false statements to government officials and investigators about a golf trip with Abramoff to Scotland in 2002." ... "It also contends that he concealed his efforts to help Abramoff acquire control of two federally managed properties in the Washington area." -By R. Jeffrey Smith and Susan Schmidt -WashingtonPost

20050915

Hurricane Katrina - New Orleans - Louisiana - Disaster - "President Discusses Hurricane Relief in Address to the Nation." [Below are selected portions of US President George W. Bush's speech from New Orleans, Louisiana]: ... "The Department of Homeland Security is registering evacuees who are now in shelters and churches, or private homes, whether in the Gulf region or far away. I have signed an order providing immediate assistance to people from the disaster area. As of today, more than 500,000 evacuee families have gotten emergency help to pay for food, clothing, and other essentials. Evacuees who have not yet registered should contact FEMA or the Red Cross. We need to know who you are, because many of you will be eligible for broader assistance in the future. Many families were separated during the evacuation, and we are working to help you reunite. Please call this number: 1-877-568-3317 -- that's 1-877-568-3317 -- and we will work to bring your family back together, and pay for your travel to reach them."

...

"Within the Gulf region are some of the most beautiful and historic places in America. As all of us saw on television, there's also some deep, persistent poverty in this region, as well. That poverty has roots in a history of racial discrimination, which cut off generations from the opportunity of America. We have a duty to confront this poverty with bold action. So let us restore all that we have cherished from yesterday, and let us rise above the legacy of inequality. When the streets are rebuilt, there should be many new businesses, including minority-owned businesses, along those streets. When the houses are rebuilt, more families should own, not rent, those houses. When the regional economy revives, local people should be prepared for the jobs being created."

...

"And to help lower-income citizens in the hurricane region build new and better lives, I also propose that Congress pass an Urban Homesteading Act. Under this approach, we will identify property in the region owned by the federal government, and provide building sites to low-income citizens free of charge, through a lottery. In return, they would pledge to build on the lot, with either a mortgage or help from a charitable organization like Habitat for Humanity. Home ownership is one of the great strengths of any community, and it must be a central part of our vision for the revival of this region."

...

"Four years after the frightening experience of September the 11th, Americans have every right to expect a more effective response in a time of emergency. When the federal government fails to meet such an obligation, I, as President, am responsible for the problem, and for the solution. So I've ordered every Cabinet Secretary to participate in a comprehensive review of the government response to the hurricane. This government will learn the lessons of Hurricane Katrina. We're going to review every action and make necessary changes, so that we are better prepared for any challenge of nature, or act of evil men, that could threaten our people." -President George W. Bush -WhiteHouse.gov

John Roberts - Sandra Day O'Connor - GOV - Politics - Secrets - "For Roberts, path to high court splits candor, caution: Democratic senators have struggled to glean Chief Justice nominee John Roberts's personal views." ... "As one of the most respected advocates practicing before the US Supreme Court, John Roberts held that a good lawyer should be able to argue either side of a case." ... "Now he's using a variation of that same strategy and all the skills he honed under intense High Court questioning to try to win Senate confirmation as the 17th chief justice of the United States." ... "His plan: reveal just enough information about his approach to judging to convince the senators of his integrity and constitutional expertise - but not enough to permit someone to forecast how he might vote once on the high court." ... "Roberts isn't just fighting for himself. If he is successful in holding that line he will help set the stage for the president's next high court nominee - the pick that will replace centrist Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and potentially swing the court to the right." -By Warren Richey -CSMonitor

20050914

Hurricane Katrina - Disaster - NY - VT - GOV - "Senate kills bid for Katrina commission." ... "Senate Republicans on Wednesday scuttled an attempt by Sen. Hillary Clinton to establish an independent, bipartisan panel patterned after the 9/11 Commission to investigate what went wrong with federal, state and local governments' response to Hurricane Katrina." ... "The New York Democrat's bid to establish the panel — which would have also made recommendations on how to improve the government's disaster response apparatus — failed to win the two-thirds majority needed to overcome procedural hurdles. Clinton got only 44 votes, all from Democrats and independent Sen. Jim Jeffords of Vermont. Fifty-four Republicans all voted no." ... "In a CNN/USA Today Gallup poll taken Sept. 8-11 [2005], 70% of those surveyed supported an independent panel to investigate the government's response to Katrina. Only 29% were opposed." -AP via -USATODAY
Hurricane Katrina - Disaster - - - - "President Says He's Responsible in Storm Lapses." ... "President Bush said on Tuesday that he bore responsibility for any failures of the federal government in its response to Hurricane Katrina and suggested that he was unsure whether the country was adequately prepared for another catastrophic storm or terrorist attack." ... ""Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government, and to the extent that the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility," Mr. Bush said in an appearance in the East Room with President Jalal Talabani of Iraq. "I want to know what went right and what went wrong."" ... "In response to a reporter who asked if Americans, in the wake of the hurricane, should be concerned about the government's ability to respond to another disaster or a terrorist attack, Mr. Bush said: "I want to know how to better cooperate with state and local government, to be able to answer that very question that you asked: Are we capable of dealing with a severe attack or another severe storm? And that's a very important question."" -By Elisabeth Bumiller and Richard W. Stevenson -NYTimes

20050913

Hurricane Katrina - Disaster - GOV- MIL - Transportation - Politics - Tennessee - "FEMA Convoy Gets Ice to Cities Not in Need." ... "About 200 tractor-trailer trucks with ice and water for victims of Hurricane Katrina took a convoluted, weeklong trip to a storage depot in Memphis [Tennessee], partly because of what the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers called ``miscommunication.''" ... "The drivers were sent to cities that didn't end up needing water or ice and were final directed to Memphis, said Corps spokesman Bob Anderson." -By Woody Baird -AP via -Guardian.co.uk

20050912

Hurricane Katrina - Disaster - Louisiana - New Orleans - GOV - Media- Politics - "U.S. won't ban media from New Orleans searches: CNN filed suit for right to cover search for bodies of Katrina victims." ... "Rather than fight a lawsuit by CNN, the federal government abandoned its effort Saturday to prevent the media from reporting on the recovery of the dead in New Orleans." ... "Joint Task Force Katrina "has no plans to bar, impede or prevent news media from their news gathering and reporting activities in connection with the deceased Hurricane Katrina victim recovery efforts," said Col. Christian E. deGraff, representing the task force." ... "U.S. District Court Judge Keith Ellison issued a temporary restraining order Friday against a "zero access" policy announced earlier in the day by Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, who is overseeing the federal relief effort in the city, and Terry Ebbert, the city's homeland security director." -CNN
Hurricane Katrina - Disaster - - "FEMA's Brown Resigns in Wake of Hurricane Response (Update1)." ... "Michael Brown resigned as director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency three days after being ousted from the Hurricane Katrina relief effort because of protests over his handling of the U.S.'s worst natural disaster." ... "Brown, 50, had come under fire from congressional lawmakers because of his lack of credentials and for what many described as a sluggish federal response to the hurricane." ... "Brown became a lightning rod for criticism partly because he had few qualifications for emergency management when he came to FEMA as deputy director in 2001. He became director in 2003. From 1991 to 2001 he was a commissioner for the International Arabian Horse Association, according to a 2001 White House announcement." -By Michael Forsythe -Bloomberg

20050910

Noteworthy - Government - Military - Terrorism - Civil Liberties - Politics - Illinois - "U.S. Can Confine Citizens Without Charges, Court Rules." ... "A federal appeals court yesterday backed the president's power to indefinitely detain a U.S. citizen captured on U.S. soil without any criminal charges, holding that such authority is vital during wartime to protect the nation from terrorist attacks." ... "The ruling, by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, came in the case of Jose Padilla, a former gang member and U.S. citizen arrested in Chicago [Illinois] in 2002 and a month later designated an "enemy combatant" by President Bush. The government contends that Padilla trained at al Qaeda camps and was planning to blow up apartment buildings in the United States. Padilla has been held without trial in a U.S. naval brig for more than three years, and his case has ignited a fierce battle over the balance between civil liberties and the government's power to fight terrorism since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. A host of civil liberties groups and former attorney general Janet Reno weighed in on Padilla's behalf, calling his detention illegal and arguing that the president does not have unchecked power to lock up U.S. citizens indefinitely." ... "The ruling limits the president's power to detain Padilla to the duration of hostilities against al Qaeda, but the Bush administration has said that war could go on indefinitely." -By Jerry Markon-WashingtonPost
Hurricane Katrina - Disaster - - "Shake-up at FEMA sends chief back to D.C.." ... "The Bush administration returned the chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to Washington on Friday amid widespread criticism of his oversight of the federal response to the hurricane catastrophe along the Gulf Coast." ... ""Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job," President Bush told appointee Michael Brown on Sept. 2 during a tour of the crippled region." ... "But with many members of Congress calling for Brown to be fired, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff on Friday appointed Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen to replace Brown as the principal federal official overseeing the government response in the affected states." -By Julie Mason -HoustonChronicle.com

20050908

Hurricane Katrina - Disaster - - - "How Reliable Is Brown's Resume? A TIME investigation reveals discrepancies in the FEMA chief's official biographies." ... "Before joining FEMA, his [Federal Emergency Management Agency director Michael Brown's] only previous stint in emergency management, according to his bio posted on FEMA's website, was "serving as an assistant city manager with emergency services oversight." The White House press release from 2001 stated that Brown worked for the city of Edmond, Okla., from 1975 to 1978 "overseeing the emergency services division." In fact, according to Claudia Deakins, head of public relations for the city of Edmond, Brown was an "assistant to the city manager" from 1977 to 1980, not a manager himself, and had no authority over other employees. "The assistant is more like an intern," she told TIME. "Department heads did not report to him."" -By Daren Fonda and Rita Healy with contributions by Jeremy Caplan, Carolina A. Miranda, Nathan Thornburgh, Levi Clark, Massimo Calabresi, and Mark Thompson -TIME.com
- Hurricane Katrina - Disaster - Louisiana - New Orleans - - Photos - - "Journalist Groups Protest FEMA Ban on Photos of Dead." ... "Forced to defend what some critics consider its slow response to the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said on Tuesday it does not want the news media to take photographs of the dead as they are recovered from New Orleans [Louisiana]." ... "FEMA, which is leading the rescue efforts, rejected requests from journalists to accompany rescue boats as they went out to search for storm victims, Reuters reported." ... "Rebecca Daugherty of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press said: "The notion that, when there's very little information from FEMA, that they would even spend the time to be concerned about whether the reporting effort is up to its standards of taste is simply mind-boggling. You cannot report on the disaster and give the public a realistic idea of how horrible it is if you don't see that there are bodies as well."" -EditorAndPublisher.com

20050907

- Hurricane Katrina - Disaster - Photos - Free Speech - - - "Media groups say FEMA censors search for bodies." ... "When U.S. [FEMA: Federal Emergency Management Agency] officials asked the media not to take pictures of those killed by Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, they were censoring a key part of the disaster story, free speech watchdogs said on Wednesday." ... ""It's impossible for me to imagine how you report a story whose subject is death without allowing the public to see images of the subject of the story," said Larry Siems of the PEN American Center, an authors' group that defends free expression." ... ""This is about managing images and not public taste or human dignity," [Columbia University's journalism school's Project for Excellence in Journalism director Tom] Rosenstiel said." (1, 2) -By Deborah Zabarenko-Reuters
Louisiana - New Orleans - Hurricane Katrina - - - "Katrina will cost 400,000 jobs; $53B more aid readied." ... "Hurricane Katrina will reduce employment by 400,000 people in coming months while trimming economic growth by as much as a full percentage point in the second half of the year, according to a Congressional Budget Office assessment obtained by The Associated Press." ... "With much of New Orleans still under water, President Bush readied a request for about $52 billion for relief and recovery along the Gulf Coast, and the White House indicated millions more would be needed later. Congressional officials said they expected to approve the next installment as early as Thursday, to keep the money flowing." -AP via -USATODAY
- - - - - Hurricane Katrina - Disaster - "Offers of Aid Immediate, but U.S. Acceptance Delayed for Days." ... "Offers of foreign aid worth tens of millions of dollars -- including a Swedish water purification system, a German cellular telephone network and two Canadian rescue ships -- have been delayed for days awaiting review by backlogged federal agencies, according to European diplomats and information collected by the State Department." ... "Since Hurricane Katrina, more than 90 countries and international organizations offered to assist in recovery efforts for the flood-stricken region, but nearly all endeavors remained mired yesterday in bureaucratic entanglements, in most cases, at the Federal Emergency Management Agency." -By Elizabeth Williamson-WashingtonPost

20050905

Hurricane Katrina - Disaster - Louisiana - - "Red Tape Snarls Katrina Volunteers." ... "From all corners of this country, hundreds of would-be rescuers are wending their way to the beleaguered Gulf Coast in buses, vans and trailers. But government red tape has hampered many who ache to help Katrina's victims." ... "Louisiana's Jefferson Parish is desperate for relief, but parish President Aaron Broussard says officials of the Federal Emergency Management Agency turned back three trailer trucks of water, ordered the Coast Guard not to provide emergency diesel fuel and cut emergency power lines." ... "Why? FEMA has not explained. But the outraged Broussard said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" that the agency needs to bring in all its "force immediately, without red tape, without bureaucracy, act immediately with common sense and leadership, and save lives."" ... "The government says it is doing the best it can in the face of a massive and complicated disaster." (1, 2, 3) -AP via -CBSNews

20050904

Hurricane Katrina - Disaster - - "Macabre scene ahead as water drained: Officials urge people to focus on the future, not dwell on failures." ... "Government officials have faced harsh criticism for the failure to prepare for and handle the chaos that gripped the storm-battered region after Hurricane Katrina." ... "Much of the criticism has come from Republican and conservative leaders, and President Bush himself called the federal response unacceptable." ... ""Shameful" was the adjective used by Bill Kristol, editor of the conservative Weekly Standard, on Fox News Sunday . "We've been not well-governed for the past week."-By Samantha Levine -HoustonChronicle.com

20050902

Alaska - New York - Washington - Oregon - GOV - Transportation - "Alaska's $223 Mln `Bridge to Nowhere' Envied in U.S. Northwest." ... "Alaska's Gravina Island is home to 50 people and more than 350 Sitka black-tailed deer. Under the U.S. highway bill passed last month, this group will get a $223 million bridge taller than the Brooklyn Bridge in New York." ... "The funding is among $1.04 billion that Alaska lawmakers secured for transportation projects, making the state the envy of its neighbors in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. The states of Washington and Oregon, with a combined population 15 times that of Alaska's 650,000, each received about $500 million sought by lawmakers for transportation projects in their home states under the bill signed by President George W. Bush on Aug. 10." -By Peter Robison -Bloomberg

20050826

- - "C.I.A. Report Said to Fault Pre-9/11 Leadership." ... "A long-awaited C.I.A. inspector general's report on the agency's performance before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks includes detailed criticism of more than a dozen former and current agency officials, aiming its sharpest language at George J. Tenet, the former director, according to a former intelligence officer who was briefed on the findings and another government official who has seen the report." ... "Mr. Tenet is censured for failing to develop and carry out a strategic plan to take on Al Qaeda in the years before 2001, even after he wrote in a 1998 memo to intelligence agencies that "we are at war" with it, they said, speaking about the highly classified report on condition of anonymity." ... "The findings place [C.I.A. director] Mr. Goss in a delicate position. As chairman of the House Intelligence Committee in the years before the attacks, he influenced intelligence policies and monitored intelligence agencies. As leader of the joint Congressional inquiry into the attacks, he joined in requesting the inspector general's inquiry nearly three years ago." -By Scott Shane and James Risen -NYTimes

20050825

- - - - - Civil Liberties - Connecticut - "Suit Seeks to Bar FBI Library Data Access." ... "The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit to block the FBI from obtaining records from an organization possessing information about library patrons." ... "The civil liberties advocacy group released a government-censored version of the lawsuit Thursday. The case originally was filed under seal Aug. 9 in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport, Conn. [Connecticut], because the law under which the FBI acted bars the organization or its attorneys from "disclosing to any person" that the FBI has demanded information." ... "ACLU Associate Legal Director Anne Beeson said the FBI and Justice Department had censored the document and allowed release of that version." -By Michael J. Sniffen -AP via -LAtimes

20050818

Ohio - - - - - "Governor of Ohio Is Charged With Breaking Ethics Law." ... "Gov. Bob Taft, scion of Ohio's most famous Republican family, was charged yesterday with violating state ethics law by failing to report 52 gifts, including golf outings, hockey tickets and meals, on his annual financial disclosure reports." ... "The charges, all misdemeanors, bring the first prosecution of a major political figure stemming from a widening investigation of Thomas Noe, a rare-coin dealer, Republican fund-raiser and friend of Mr. Taft. State officials have accused Mr. Noe of mishandling and possibly stealing millions of dollars from a state workers' compensation fund." -By James Dao -NYTimes

20050815

Ohio - - - - - "Cost of Ohio's probe into scandals is $6.5M." ... "As a result of the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation's troubled $50 million rare-coin venture and failed Bermuda hedge fund that lost $215 million, state government officials are investing in forensic accountants, lawyers, financial consultants, and appraisers." ... "The price tag is estimated at $6.5 million and growing because of the widening scope of investigations into the bureau's investments and some of Ohio's leading political figures, including Gov. Bob Taft." ... "There are already two convictions, three grand juries, 144 bureau investment managers under review, 420,561 pages of coin-fund records, and as much as $13 million missing from the coin funds managed by Tom Noe, the prominent Republican contributor at the center of the scandal." -By Joshua Boak -ToledoBlade.com

20050806

- Telecommunications - - - "FCC frees DSL providers from regulations: Firms no longer have to lease lines to their competitors." ... "The Federal Communications Commission ruled Friday that Internet DSL providers like SBC will no longer be required to lease high-speed lines to independent rivals." ... "Phone companies like SBC have been required to lease wholesale access to their high-speed lines to competing Internet providers, which number about 4, 000 nationwide. On Friday, the FCC ruled that DSL providers were in the business of information services and not bound by the higher regulatory requirements placed on telecommunications companies." -By Ryan Kim -SFGate.com

- Telecommunications - - - "FCC: Phone giants may charge rivals more for line access: Bells win freedom from Net rate rules." ... "The Federal Communications Commission voted 4-0 Friday to scrap regulations that forced phone companies to let competitors rent space at discounted rates on networks that deliver high-speed Internet service." ... "The vote means SBC Communications Inc. and other Baby Bells can raise the price they charge competitors such as EarthLink Inc. That change may help phone companies challenge the cable providers that dominate the $15.6 billion market for high-speed Web access." -Bloomberg

20050803

US - Iraq - Rove - Government - Intelligence - Politics - Ralston - "2 Aides to Rove Testify in C.I.A. Leak Inquiry." ... "Two aides to Karl Rove, the senior White House adviser, testified last Friday before a federal grand jury investigating whether government officials illegally disclosed the identity of an undercover C.I.A. operative, according to a person who has been officially briefed on the case." ... "The aides, Susan B. Ralston and Israel Hernandez, were asked about grand jury testimony given on July 13 by Matthew Cooper, a reporter for Time magazine, the person who was briefed said. Mr. Cooper has said that he testified about a July 11, 2003, conversation with Mr. Rove in which the C.I.A. officer was discussed." ... "At one point, the aides were asked why Mr. Cooper's call to Mr. Rove was not entered in Mr. Rove's office telephone logs. There was no record of the call, the person who has been briefed said, because Mr. Cooper did not call Mr. Rove directly, but was transferred to his office from a White House switchboard." ... "The aides have worked closely with Mr. Rove, screening his calls and coordinating his activities with other White House officials. Mr. Hernandez had been an aide to President Bush since his successful campaign for governor of Texas in 1994, and Ms. Ralston is known as one of Mr. Rove's most trusted associates." ... "Mr. Fitzgerald has focused on whether in the identification of the officer, Valerie Wilson, there was a deliberate effort to retaliate against her husband, Joseph C. Wilson IV, for his criticism of the Bush administration's policy on Iraq." -By David Johnston -NYTimes

20050801

- - "Medicaid insures historic number." ... "The nation has so vastly extended taxpayer-funded Medicaid to the working poor this decade that it has produced the biggest expansion of a government entitlement since the Great Society was launched in the 1960s, a USA TODAY analysis has found." ... "With little notice, the medical care program paid by federal and state taxpayers has grown from covering 34 million people in 1999 to 47 million in 2004, an examination of government data shows." ... "About 100 million people — 1 in 3 — now have government coverage through Medicaid, Medicare, the military and federal employee health plans. More than 10 million others are eligible for Medicaid but have not signed up." -By Dennis Cauchon -USATODAY
- - - WalMart - "Welfare reform opens Medicaid to millions." ... "The expansion of Medicaid to cover the working poor has fundamentally broadened the nation's safety net and changed the lives of low-wage workers in the USA. It also has put enormous strain on federal and state finances and made taxpayers the health insurance provider for millions of workers at Wal-Mart, McDonald's and other low-wage employers." ... "Medicaid and the related Children's Health Insurance Program covered an average of 46.8 million Americans a day in 2004, up more than 13 million from when welfare reform passed in 1997. The program covered 61 million people at some time during 2004, nearly 20 million more than in 1997." -By Dennis Cauchon -USATODAY

20050727

IL - - - Homes - "Developers win big at Navy sites: Glenview, Ft. Sheridan projects hailed by Kirk." ... "The Navy's final plan for Ft. Sheridan will free up about 45 acres for private development, protect pristine bluffs and replace hundreds of dilapidated housing units for military families, [Illinois Republican] U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk said Tuesday." ... " Under the military's recent public-private partnership initiatives, the federal government retains land for housing but allows developers to build the houses and lease them back." -By M. Daniel Gibbard -ChicagoTribune

20050722

- Karl Rove - Dick Cheney - - - - Secrets - "Rove, Libby Accounts in CIA Case Differ With Those of Reporters." ... "Two top White House aides have given accounts to a special prosecutor about how reporters first told them the identity of a CIA agent that are at odds with what the reporters have said, according to people familiar with the case." ... "Lewis ``Scooter'' Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, told special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald that he first learned from NBC News reporter Tim Russert of the identity of Central Intelligence Agency operative Valerie Plame, the wife of former ambassador and Bush administration critic Joseph Wilson, one person said. Russert has testified before a federal grand jury that he didn't tell Libby of Plame's identity, the person said." ... "White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove told Fitzgerald that he first learned the identity of the CIA agent from syndicated columnist Robert Novak, according a person familiar with the matter. Novak, who was first to report Plame's name and connection to Wilson, has given a somewhat different version to the special prosecutor, the person said." -By Richard Keil -Bloomberg

20050721

- Karl Rove - - - Secrets - "Plame's Identity Marked As Secret: Memo Central to Probe Of Leak Was Written By State Dept. Analyst." ... "A classified State Department memorandum central to a federal leak investigation contained information about CIA officer Valerie Plame [a.k.a. Valerie Wilson] in a paragraph marked "(S)" for secret, a clear indication that any Bush administration official who read it should have been aware the information was classified, according to current and former government officials." ... "The paragraph identifying her as the wife of former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV was clearly marked to show that it contained classified material at the "secret" level, two sources said. The CIA classifies as "secret" the names of officers whose identities are covert, according to former senior agency officials." ... "Karl Rove, President Bush's deputy chief of staff, has testified that he learned Plame's name from [journalist Robert] Novak a few days before telling another reporter she worked at the CIA and played a role in her husband's mission, according to a lawyer familiar with Rove's account." (1, 2) -By Walter Pincus and Jim VandeHei -WashingtonPost

20050719

- - - [PDF] - "The Military Power of the People's Republic of China." -DefenseLink.mil/news

20050629

- Kentucky - - - "Ten Commandments - and 2 split rulings." ... "The U.S. Supreme Court has issued sharply divergent rulings in two separate cases on the display of the Ten Commandments on government property." ... "In the two decisions, both 5-to-4 rulings, the court said Monday that the display of the Ten Commandments in a park at the Texas State Capitol was proper - but that the displays of the Ten Commandments in two county courthouses in Kentucky were so overtly religious as to be impermissible." ... "The two rulings conveyed the message that disputes over such religious displays must be decided case by case and that the specific facts are all-important." -NYTimes via -IHT.com

20050628

- - - - - - "President Addresses Nation, Discusses Iraq, War on Terror." -President George W. Bush -Whitehouse.gov
- - - - - Dick Cheney - "Audit questions $1.4b in Halliburton bills: Expenses at issue from Iraq contracts." ... "Internal Pentagon audits have flagged about $1.4 billion in expenses submitted by Halliburton Co. for services the firm is providing in Iraq, charges that include $45 cases of soda, $100-per-bag laundry service, and several months preparing at least 10,000 daily meals for a US military base that the troops did not need and ultimately went to waste, according to a report released yesterday by congressional Democrats." ... "The Defense Contract Audit Agency, which reviews Pentagon contracting, identified $1.03 billion in Halliburton invoices that it questioned as excessive, and an additional $442 million in expenses the company reported that the agency deemed to be insufficiently documented, according to the report." ... "The report, which House and Senate Democrats made public yesterday, gives a broad overview of questionable costs racked up by the energy conglomerate once led by Vice President Dick Cheney." -By Rick Klein -Boston/Globe

20050622

Mitchell Wade - Randy "Duke" Cunningham - Virgil H Goode Jr - Money - Government - Politics - MZM - Workers - Secret - Military - Intelligence - California - Nevada - Va - Fla - "Workers say MZM founder pressed them to give to PAC." ... "Mitchell Wade, founder of the defense contracting firm MZM Inc., pressured employees to donate to a political fund that benefited [California Republican Representative] Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham and other members of Congress, according to three former employees of the company." ... "Wade, who took a $700,000 loss on the purchase of Cunningham's Del Mar home and allows the congressman to stay on his yacht while in Washington, demanded employees make donations to the company's political action committee, MZM PAC, they said." ... "Many companies have PACs, but campaign finance laws prohibit employers from pressuring workers to contribute to the PAC. They may encourage contributions, but not compel them." ... "In the past week, Wade resigned the posts of president and chief executive officer of the company, turning over those duties to Chief Operating Officer Frank Bragg, company sources said. Wade remains the primary shareholder of the privately held, Nevada-licensed company, sources added." ... "The resignations came after the Union-Tribune reported that Wade had purchased and then sold Cunningham's Del Mar house at a loss of $700,000 and has allowed the Rancho Santa Fe Republican to stay aboard his yacht, called the Duke-Stir, while in the nation's capital. The FBI and a federal grand jury are investigating the matter." ... "Little public information exists on what MZM – a name based on the first names of Wade's children Matthew, Zachary and Morgan – does for the government. Former employees, however, say much of its work is with three defense intelligence operations:" ... "Counter Intelligence Field Activity, a highly secretive program created in 2002 by a Pentagon directive that focuses on gathering intelligence to avert attacks like the ones on Sept. 11, 2001." ... "The Army National Ground Intelligence Center in Charlottesville, [Virginia] Va., whose mission is to provide soldiers with battlefield intelligence." ... "The U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command at Ft. Belvoir, [Virginia] Va., just outside Washington, which also provides battlefield intelligence." ... "MZM has been seeking to increase its contracts with the Central Command, which oversees military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the Special Operations Command, both based at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, [Florida] Fla., according to former employees." ... "They and other former MZM employees questioned the way Wade solicited contracts from Defense Department intelligence agencies during the time they worked for the company." ... "They also expressed concerns about Wade's dealings with three House members who received a large portion of the money disbursed by MZM's PAC. The three – all Republicans – are Cunningham and Reps. Virgil Goode of Virginia and Katherine Harris of Florida." ... "One of the former MZM employees quoted Wade as describing his congressional strategy this way: "The only people I want to work with are people I give checks to. I own them."" -By Marcus Stern with contributions by Jerry Kammer -SignOnSanDiego.com

20050615

- - - - "Former Bush Aide Who Edited Reports Is Hired by Exxon." ... "Philip A. Cooney, the former White House staff member who repeatedly revised government scientific reports on global warming, will go to work for Exxon Mobil this fall, the oil company said yesterday." ... "Mr. Cooney resigned as chief of staff for President Bush's environmental policy council on Friday, two days after documents obtained by The New York Times revealed that he had edited the reports in ways that cast doubt on the link between the emission of greenhouse gases and rising temperatures." ... "A former lawyer and lobbyist with the American Petroleum Institute, the main lobbying group for the oil industry, Mr. Cooney has no scientific training." -By Andrew C. Revkin -NYTimes

20050608

Doc Hastings

Jack Abramoff

Tom DeLay

Money

Politics

Federal

Law

Investigation

Clothing

Factories

Workers

Human Rights

Seattle

Washington

Texas

Northern Mariana Islands

"House Ethics Chief Is Tied to Lobby Figures." ... "Newly disclosed lobbying records and other documents show that the chairman of the House ethics committee, [Washington Republican Representative] Doc Hastings, a Washington State Republican, has had a close relationship for years with lobbyists at the Seattle[ Washington]-based law firm that is at the center of ethics accusations involving [Texas Republican Representative] Tom DeLay, the House majority leader." ... "The records from the law firm, Preston Gates & Ellis, show that the firm's former star lobbyist, Jack Abramoff, a close friend of Mr. DeLay who is now the focus of a federal corruption investigation, boasted to a client in the mid-1990's that the firm had "excellent" ties to Mr. Hastings. The firm repeatedly billed the client for meetings and telephone conversations between Mr. Abramoff's lobbying team and Mr. Hastings's staff." ... "... Preston Gates pressed Mr. Hastings and his staff several years ago for help on behalf of Mr. Abramoff's most important lobbying client at the time, the government of the Northern Mariana Islands, a small American commonwealth in the Pacific, in blocking the imposition of the federal minimum wage on the islands' clothing factories; human rights groups have long described the factories as sweatshops." ... "Federal Election Commission records show that the firm and its partners have been consistent campaign contributors to Mr. Hastings, donating more than $14,000 since he entered Congress a decade ago, $1,000 of that from Mr. Abramoff." ... "The firm's billing records show that after lobbying contacts on behalf of the Northern Marianas in 1996, Mr. Hastings placed statements in The Congressional Record in opposition to the minimum-wage proposal; he praised the islands' government for "moving in the right direction toward self-sufficiency."" (1, 2) -By Philip Shenon

-NYTimes

20050605

- - - - - - - - Secrets - Kansas - "Panel to weigh beefed-up Patriot Act: Move would broaden FBI wiretap powers." ... "The Senate Intelligence Committee will meet behind closed doors this week to consider legislation that could dramatically expand the government's police powers under the USA Patriot Act, including a little-discussed provision to enlarge the FBI's ability to wiretap people who it suspects are national security threats." ... "The proposal, in a draft bill sponsored by committee chairman Pat Roberts, Republican of Kansas, would lift one of the last restrictions on special warrants the FBI can obtain through a secret court originally set up to monitor foreign spies: that the information the bureau wants must be related to international terrorism or foreign intelligence." ... "Instead, the FBI could use the warrants, which bypass normal constitutional safeguards, to look for evidence of unrelated crimes that it could use to get suspects off the street. The wiretap provision is one of three major additions in the draft bill, which would reauthorize the Patriot Act, the package of enhanced law enforcement powers enacted after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001." ... "If the bill became law, it also would give FBI agents the power to write their own subpoenas without permission from a judge, allowing them to seize records from hotels, banks, and Internet service providers." -By Charlie Savage -Boston/Globe

20050603

- - - "SEC expected to introduce fewer regulations." ... "The Securities and Exchange Commission is likely to introduce fewer new regulations under Christopher Cox's chairmanship compared to his predecessor, and may strike a new tone on enforcement, people familiar with the chief US financial watchdog said on Thursday." ... "SEC insiders also said Mr Cox, the congressman nominated by President George W Bush to replace William Donaldson, was expected to forge a new unity among the three Republican commissioners at the SEC if he is confirmed by the Senate." -By Andrew Parker -FT.com

20050602

- - - - Secrets - "Former FBI agents debate Felt's ethics: Some see betrayal -- others say that he acted heroically." ... "Those who disagree with what [former FBI deputy director W. Mark] Felt did question his motives, and believe he betrayed his government and violated the FBI tradition of not revealing investigative findings to the public until the case has been resolved." ... "It was 1972, and then-President Richard Nixon was mired in a scandal his administration was desperately trying to cover up. The head of the FBI was L. Patrick Gray, an outsider Nixon had picked after Hoover's death. Gray would be implicated in the Watergate scandal." ... "Felt, a career agent and the FBI's No. 2 official, was in charge of running the investigation -- a probe that Nixon had secretly ordered the CIA to thwart." ... ""If Felt looked around and said, 'There is nowhere else to turn,' then I would like to think that history would judge him as a conflicted individual determined to do the right thing," [Retired FBI Agent George] Grotz said of Felt's decision to leak aspects of his investigation to the [Washington] Post." -By Stacy Finz -SFGate.com

20050525

Scott J Bloch - Gay - Government - Employees - Human - Rights - Enforcement - Politics - "Official Says Law Doesn't Cover Gays: Counsel Cites Lack of Authority to Enforce Discrimination Ban." ... "Special counsel Scott J. Bloch told a Senate panel yesterday that he lacks the legal authority to enforce the [Republican President] Bush administration's ban on discrimination against federal employees based on sexual orientation." ... "If a federal manager fires, reassigns or takes some other action against an employee simply because that employee is gay, there is nothing in federal law that would permit the Office of Special Counsel to protect the worker, Bloch testified before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs subcommittee on oversight of government management, the federal workforce and the District of Columbia." ... "Since taking office in January 2004, the Bush appointee has been accused of failing to enforce a long-standing policy against bias in the federal workplace based on sexual orientation, unnecessarily reorganizing the OSC to try to run off internal critics, and arbitrarily dismissing some personnel complaints and whistle-blower disclosures in an effort to claim reductions in backlogs." -By Christopher Lee -WashingtonPost

20050521

Homes - - "Greenspan Sees Bubbles in Housing: The Fed chief perceives extreme overpricing in many local markets, but not nationwide." ... "Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Friday that some regional housing markets were showing signs of unsustainable speculation and "froth" and that there were "a lot" of local housing bubbles." ... "The central banker went beyond his comments in February by describing how he saw "very significant acceleration" in the turnover of U.S. homes, partly because of purchases of second homes. He said speculation in both the housing and mortgage markets had accelerated." -By Annette Haddad -LAtimes

20050512

- North Carolina - - - - - "D.C. Scare Puts Alert System to the Test: Washington's Terror Alert System Put to the Test by Plane Scare; Ridge Praises Quick Response." ... "The terror alert system in the nation's capital was put to the test by a small plane that flew within three miles of the White House [Wednesday, May 11th], leading to the frantic evacuation of government buildings." ... "Alert levels at the White House and Capitol were raised to their highest state Wednesday when the Cessna 152 crossed into restricted air space and failed to respond to a Homeland Security helicopter scrambled to stop it. Military jets fired four warning flares at the single-engine aircraft, which was carrying a pilot and a student pilot flying from Pennsylvania to North Carolina, before it turned away from the national landmarks." (1, 2, 3) -By Lara Jakes Jordan, Mark Scolforo, Erin Gartner and Mark Sherman -AP via -ABCNEWS.com

20050511

New York - - - - - "New York mayor orders police, fire to work together under protocol." ... "A day after police and fire officials clashed over how to respond to biological, chemical or radiological attacks, Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned that anyone who doesn't follow the city's new emergency protocol will be out of a job." ... ""We're going to have everybody working together to protect the people of the City of New York, and anybody who doesn't feel that they can do that doesn't have to, but they just can't work here," Bloomberg told reporters on Tuesday." -By Sara Kugler -AP via -Newsday.com

20050510

Tom Ridge

John Ashcroft

Terrorism

Intelligence

Politics

Military

Government

Attorney

FBI

"Ridge reveals clashes on alerts." ... "The [Republican President] Bush administration periodically put the USA on high alert for terrorist attacks even though then-Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge argued there was only flimsy evidence to justify raising the threat level, Ridge now says." ... "Ridge, who resigned [February] Feb. 1, said Tuesday that he often disagreed with administration officials who wanted to elevate the threat level to orange, or "high" risk of terrorist attack, but was overruled." ... "Ridge said he wanted to "debunk the myth" that his agency was responsible for repeatedly raising the alert under a color-coded system he unveiled in 2002." ... "The level is raised if a majority on the President's Homeland Security Advisory Council favors it and President Bush concurs. Among those on the council with Ridge were Attorney General John Ashcroft, FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation] chief Robert Mueller, CIA [Central Intelligence Agency] director George Tenet, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell." -By Mimi Hall

-USATODAY

- - - - - - "Senate passes war-spending bill 100-0: Bush 'looks forward' to signing $82 billion legislation." ... "The $76 billion in war spending drives the U.S. cost for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with other global antiterror efforts, to more than $300 billion since the September 11, 2001, terror attacks. Most of that has been spent on the 2-year-old war in Iraq." ... "Also in the package are provisions increasing the death benefit for U.S. service members from $12,000 to $100,000; raising the maximum life insurance benefit for service members from $250,000 to $400,000; and authorizing $100,000 payments for troops who lose a limb or suffer some other traumatic injury." -CNN

20050505

- - - Telecommunications - "SBC pushes ahead with video despite franchise laws." ... "SBC Communications (SBC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) has charted a collision course with local governments with its plans to launch a video television service late this year without seeking local franchise agreements." ... "SBC, the second-largest U.S. telecommunications company, plans to offer video to 18 million homes over the next three years, using a combination of new technology and existing telephone wires, in a plan it calls "Project Lightspeed."" (1, 2) -By Justin Hyde -Reuters

20050504

- - - "Audits find flaws in U.S. handling of Iraq deals." ... "The United States has carelessly, and possibly fraudulently, handled some Iraqi money meant for rebuilding and poorly managed billions of dollars of U.S.-funded contracts, said U.S. audits released on Wednesday." ... "In one area of Iraq alone, nearly $100 million in cash used for rebuilding was unaccounted for. Incompetence by U.S. procurement staff ranged from contractors being paid twice to files being misplaced." (1, 2) -Reuters

20050503

- "End not in sight for interest rate hikes." ... "Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and his colleagues, sticking to a course of gradually raising rates, nudged up the federal funds rate by one-quarter of a percentage point, to 3 percent. It was the eighth increase of that size since the Fed began to tighten credit last June, and it left the rate at the highest level since the fall of 2001." -By Jeannine Aversa -AP via -BusinessWeek

20050501

- - - - "US social security is among least generous." ... "US Social Security is one of the least generous public pension systems in advanced countries, providing an employee on average earnings a pension after tax of 51 per cent of pre-retirement income, a comparative study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development shows." ... "The average employee in an advanced country can expect a government pension of 70 per cent of his or her after-tax earnings at retirement compared with 39 per cent for an equivalent US citizen." -By Chris Giles -FT.com

20050421

- "First U.S. Intel Director Sworn In." ... "John Negroponte won easy approval by the Senate on Thursday to become the nation's first national intelligence director, a job created last year to better coordinate the nation's spy agencies following the Sept. 11 attacks and other intelligence blunders." ... "Negroponte will take over the task of giving Bush a daily briefing on intelligence matters, probably beginning next week, presidential spokesman Scott McClellan said." ... "Negroponte, 65, has called this his "most challenging assignment" in more than 40 years of government service." (1, 2) -AP via -CBSNews

20050420

- - - - "Panel Says Reporters Need Shield Law." ... "A new federal shield law must be enacted to defend reporters' right to protect their confidential sources, a panel of journalists said Tuesday." ... "The presentation at the annual meeting of the Newspaper Association of America came as one of the panelists, New York Times Senior Writer Judith Miller, lost a key court battle over her refusal to testify about conversations she had had with government officials about the identity of an undercover CIA agent." ... "``What's at stake here is the public's right to know,'' Miller said. ``I can't work in the area of national security and intelligence, covering terrorism, unless people who are not authorized to speak to me feel that they can come to me and tell me things. ... It's at the heart of investigative reporting, it's at the heart of national security reporting, and it's at the heart of what we do as journalists.''" -By Beth Fouhy -AP via -Guardian.co.uk

20050419

Oklahoma City Bombing
- - Food - "Government Issues 12 New Food Pyramids: Out With the Old Food Pyramid, in With 12 New Ones As Government Re-Evaluates Dietary Guidelines." ... "The government flipped the 13-year-old food pyramid on its side Tuesday, added a staircase for exercise and offered a dozen different models, all aimed at helping Americans trim their waistlines." ... "Criticism of the new pyramid stood in contrast to praise that greeted the more detailed "Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005," released by the government in January. Developed by a panel of scientists and doctors using the latest research, the 70-page booklet served as the basis for the pyramid's makeover." ... "The guidelines' message was to choose foods packed with the most nutrition and the least calories; for example, bread made from whole-grain flour instead of white flour." (1, 2, 3) -By Libby Quaid with contributions by John Heilprin -AP via -ABCNEWS.com

MyPyramid.gov

20050417

- - - Tom DeLay - Florida - Travel - "The Foreign Junket: Who Paid for the Malaysia Trip?" ... "On Aug. 30, 2001, then majority whip Tom DeLay, his wife, his staff and two Florida Republican House members arrived in Malaysia on what was billed as an educational trip." ... "A Heritage senior fellow who was on the trip tells TIME that it wasn't Heritage. He says that Belle Haven Consultants, a for-profit, Hong Kong-based firm linked to the Malaysian government, played a key role. "Heritage had nothing to do with it," says the senior fellow, former Wyoming Senator Malcolm Wallop. "Belle Haven did."" ... "It would be a violation of House ethics rules if a group other than the official sponsor paid for a trip for a member of Congress." -By Massimo Calabresi -TIME.com

20050412

- - - - - "Bolton's Fitness for UN Post Challenged at Hearing (Update4)." ... "John Bolton, President George W. Bush's nominee for ambassador to the United Nations, appears likely to win Senate confirmation even as a former State Department official testified today that Bolton abused subordinates and put the integrity of U.S. intelligence at risk." ... "Carl Ford, former head of the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that Bolton sought to have a State Department analyst and a CIA analyst fired in 2002 for refusing to approve a Bolton speech mentioning potential biological weapons in Cuba. Bolton was forced to change the speech." -By Jeff St.Onge ed. by Joe Winski -Bloomberg

20050407

- - - Civil Liberties News - "Patriot Act: What's not known feeds debate: Bush officials say that controversial law-enforcement powers are working, and should be extended." ... "Time isn't easing concerns over the enhanced law-enforcement powers of the USA Patriot Act, judging by the debate that's firing up on Capitol Hill over the renewal of its expiring provisions." ... "President Bush calls the Patriot Act an invaluable tool in the war on terror, but, until this week, little was known about where, why, or how often the law has been applied." ... "Last week, Montana became the fifth state to pass a resolution critical of the Act. Since 2001, more than 375 local governments have passed resolutions criticizing the law or declaring "civil liberties safe zones" in a bid to discourage cooperation with the law." -By Gail Russell Chaddock -CSMonitor

20050406

- - - - "Americans to need passports to return from Mexico, Canada." ... "Americans will be required to show U.S. passports when they re-enter the United States from Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean by 2008 under proposed new rules announced Tuesday by the State and Homeland Security departments." ... "The new policy, which would be phased in by 2008 and is designed to thwart terrorists from exploiting the relative ease of travel in North America, means that Americans who lack U.S. passports would have to obtain them to travel between the United States and neighboring nations. It also will require Mexicans and Canadians to present passports or another official document to enter this country, with details to be determined." -By Edwin Garcia with contributions by AP and WashingtonPostvia MercuryNews
- - - - Tom DeLay - "A 3rd DeLay Trip Under Scrutiny: 1997 Russia Visit Reportedly Backed by Business Interests." ... "A six-day trip to Moscow in 1997 by then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) was underwritten by business interests lobbying in support of the Russian government, according to four people with firsthand knowledge of the trip arrangements." ... "DeLay reported that the trip was sponsored by a Washington-based nonprofit organization. But interviews with those involved in planning DeLay's trip say the expenses were covered by a mysterious company registered in the Bahamas that also paid for an intensive $440,000 lobbying campaign." ... "The 1997 Moscow trip is the third foreign trip by DeLay to be scrutinized in recent weeks because of new statements by those involved that his travel was directly or indirectly financed by registered lobbyists or a foreign agent." -By R. Jeffrey Smith and James V. Grimaldi with contributions by Susan Schmidt, Lucy Shackelford, Alice Crites and Madonna Lebling -WashingtonPost

20050401

- - "Berger to plead guilty to taking classified material." ... "Sandy Berger, who was the top national security aide to former President Clinton, has agreed to plead guilty to taking classified documents from the National Archives, the Justice Department says." ... "The plea agreement, if accepted by a judge, ends a bizarre episode in which the man who once had access to the government's most sensitive intelligence was accused of sneaking documents out of the Archives in his clothing." -AP via -USATODAY

20050331
20050331

- - - - - Archives - Secrets - "Guarding the Past: The Archivist's Mild Manner Belies the Uproar Over His New Job." ... "They're: Sniping at Allen Weinstein from ivory towers." ... "Suggesting he could become an accomplice in presidential coverups." ... "Many historians are wondering if Weinstein will make sure that the [National] Archives' documents of great historical value -- especially supersensitive presidential papers -- are open and available to all scholars or if he will engage in some sort of politically motivated subterfuge." ... "A host of historians are also disturbed by the way that Weinstein got his job in the first place. In a surprising move, Weinstein was chosen last spring while John Carlin -- a Clinton appointee and a former governor of Kansas -- was still in office. Nearly two dozen professional organizations, including the American Historical Association, cried foul. The groups worried about "the politicization of the office," [history professor Jon] Wiener says." ... ""My concern was about the process being subverted," says Bruce Craig of the National Coalition for History, an advocacy group for the profession. "There is a law." The 1984 law, which created the National Archives and Records Administration, stipulated that the archivist will serve an indefinite term and can be removed only if the president gives a reason to Congress." ... "So far, President Bush has not given any reason for Carlin's dismissal and Weinstein's appointment." ... "Some historians suggest the ouster occured because Bush believed he might lose the 2004 election and was concerned that his father's presidential papers -- and his own -- could fall into unfriendly hands. "All presidents want their secrets protected," Wiener says. "It's the archivist who is in the middle."" (1, 2, 3, 4) -By Linton Weeks -WashingtonPost
- - - - [PDF] - "The Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction." ... "Report to the President of the United States." ... "With this letter, we transmit the report of the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction. Our unanimous report is based on a lengthy investigation, during which we interviewed hundreds of experts from inside and outside the Intelligence Community and reviewed thousands of documents. Our report offers 74 recommendations for improving the U.S. Intelligence Community (all but a handful of which we believe can be implemented without statutory change). But among these recommendations a few points merit special emphasis." ... "We conclude that the Intelligence Community was dead wrong in almost all of its pre-war judgments about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. This was a major intelligence failure. Its principal causes were the Intelligence Community's inability to collect good information about Iraq's WMD programs, serious errors in analyzing what information it could gather, and a failure to make clear just how much of its analysis was based on assumptions, rather than good evidence. On a matter of this importance, we simply cannot afford failures of this magnitude." ... "After a thorough review, the Commission found no indication that the Intelligence Community distorted the evidence regarding Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. What the intelligence professionals told you about Saddam Hussein's programs was what they believed. They were simply wrong." -Co-Chairmen: Laurence H. Silberman and Charles S. Robb - 3.4MB, 618 page report via -AP.org

20050330

- - - Autos - "GM in fuel cell deal with government: Auto manufacturer says it has inked $88M pact to build fleet of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles by 2009." ... "General Motors Corp. Wednesday said it signed an $88 million deal with the Department of Energy to build a fleet of 40 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and further develop the technology." -Reuters via -CNN

20050328

- - - Telecommunications- "Supreme Court to Hear Case on Cable's Regulatory Duties." ... "The case revolves around a ruling issued in 2002 by the Federal Communications Commission that the service provided by cable companies should be defined as an "information service," and not a "telecommunications service," which is the designation given to traditional telephone companies." ... "Companies with the "information service" designation do not have to comply with regulations requiring them to lease lines to competitors, or meet certain service standards and state public utility requirements." -By Matt Richtel -NYTimes
- - - Telecommunications - "What's A Cable Modem, And Who Decides?" ... "The appeals court ruled in October 2003 that cable modems are akin to telecommunications providers, which meant that they would have to open their lines to rival Internet service providers." ... "The appeals court had followed its own earlier interpretation of the federal statute, the Telecommunications Act. In the interim, however, the FCC had issued in 2002 a "declaration" that cable modem service should be considered an information service, which freed the big cable companies like Time Warner (nyse: TWX - news - people ) and Comcast (nasdaq: CMCSA - news - people ) from the all-comers obligation that applies to telecommunications providers such as SBC Communications (nyse: SBC - news - people ) and Verizon Communications (nyse: SBC - news- people )." -By Dan Ackman -Forbes

20050325

- - - - Telecommunications - "FCC unplugs states' rules on 'naked' DSL: update A deeply divided Federal Communications Commission suspended on Friday state rules forcing phone providers to offer "naked" DSL, in the commission's first serious look at the controversial issue. " ... "The ruling kicks off an investigation into naked DSL--selling broadband access by digital subscriber line without attaching it to other services, such as a local phone line." ... "Proponents of the state rules say naked DSL keeps the Bells in check, promotes competition and holds broadband prices under control. BellSouth said the market is better served by not letting states set up a confusing maze of regulatory regimes." ... "Aside from users of naked DSL services, an FCC decision would also affect "cord-cutters," a group of about 20 million U.S. residents who don't have local phone lines and go solo instead with their cell phones. As a result of the FCC ruling, cord-cutters may have to buy a local phone line to get DSL." -By Ben Charny -CNET /News

20050322

- - - - - - Secrets - "New EPA Mercury Rule Omits Conflicting Data: Study Called Stricter Limits Cost-Effective." ... "When the Environmental Protection Agency unveiled a rule last week to limit mercury emissions from U.S. power plants, officials emphasized that the controls could not be more aggressive because the cost to industry already far exceeded the public health payoff." ... "What they did not reveal is that a Harvard University study paid for by the EPA, co-authored by an EPA scientist and peer-reviewed two other EPA scientists had reached the opposite conclusion." ... "That analysis estimated health benefits 100 times as great as the EPA did, but top agency officials ordered the finding stripped from public documents, said a staff member who helped develop the rule. Acknowledging the Harvard study would have forced the agency to consider more stringent controls, said environmentalists and the study's author." (1, 2) -By Shankar Vedantam -WashingtonPost

20050317

- - Water - Nevada - "U.S. probes nuclear dump documents." ... "Government employees may have falsified documents related to the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project in Nevada, the Energy Department said Wednesday. The disclosure could jeopardize the project's ability to get a federal permit to operate the dump." ... "The department said the questionable data involved computer modeling for water infiltration and climate at the Yucca site, which is 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas." ... "[Nevada state Nuclear Projects director Bob] Loux said potential water transport -- the issue that some of the questionable work apparently involved -- is critical for the proposed waste repository." ... "Water is "the key mechanism at Yucca Mountain both in terms of infiltrating into the site and in terms of letting radioactivity release into the biosphere," Loux said." -AP via -CNN

20050315

- US_Debt. - "Under Criticism, Greenspan Defends Backing Bush Tax Cuts." ... "Mr. Greenspan, who has come under fire from Democrats for supporting President Bush's goal of partly privatizing Social Security, said he supported Mr. Bush's tax cuts because almost all budget analysts were forecasting trillions of dollars in surpluses that never materialized." ... "As events turned out, federal deficits rose as tax revenues plunged for three years in a row and spending grew on everything from war costs in Afghanistan and Iraq to education and homeland security. What was expected to be a $5.6 trillion surplus by 2011 is now expected to be at least a $4 trillion deficit by 2015 if Mr. Bush's tax cuts are made permanent." -By Edmund L. Andrews -NYTimes

20050308

- - "Agencies Watch for Al Qaeda Spies: Counterintelligence officials are concerned that Al Qaeda operatives may have tried to get jobs at the CIA and other agencies to spy on U.S. efforts." ... "U.S. counterintelligence officials are increasingly concerned that Al Qaeda sympathizers or operatives may have tried to get jobs at the CIA and other U.S. agencies in an effort to spy on American counterterrorist efforts." ... "So far, about 40 Americans who sought positions at U.S. intelligence agencies have been red-flagged and turned away for possible ties to terrorist groups, the officials said. Several such applicants have been detected at the CIA." ... "Also, three senior counterintelligence officials said they feared terrorist groups may be trying to place an "insider" in America's fast-growing counterterrorist planning and operational networks as part of a long-term strategy to compromise U.S. intelligence efforts." ... "The CIA director, Porter J. Goss, last month gave the White House plans to increase by 50% the number of CIA clandestine officers and analysts in an effort to improve intelligence on terrorist groups and the spread of weapons of mass destruction." -By Bob Drogin-LAtimes via KTLA

20050306

- - - "Rule Change Lets C.I.A. Freely Send Suspects Abroad to Jails." ... "The Bush administration's secret program to transfer suspected terrorists to foreign countries for interrogation has been carried out by the Central Intelligence Agency under broad authority that has allowed it to act without case-by-case approval from the White House or the State or Justice Departments, according to current and former government officials." ... "The unusually expansive authority for the C.I.A. to operate independently was provided by the White House under a still-classified directive signed by President Bush within days of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the officials said." ... "The process, known as rendition, has been central in the government's efforts to disrupt terrorism, but has been bitterly criticized by human rights groups on grounds that the practice has violated the Bush administration's public pledge to provide safeguards against torture." ... "In providing a detailed description of the program, a senior United States official said that it had been aimed only at those suspected of knowing about terrorist operations, and emphasized that the C.I.A. had gone to great lengths to ensure that they were detained under humane conditions and not tortured." (1, 2) -By Douglas Jehl and David Johnston -NYTimes

20050220

- - "Bush's New Intelligence Czar: John Negroponte faces intrigue, subterfuge and shadowy fighters. And that's just in Washington." ... "After more than 40 years, serving under every President since Kennedy in such trouble spots as Vietnam, Honduras and Iraq, U.S. ambassador to Iraq John Negroponte, 65, is the consummate diplomat—discreet, deliberate and always careful choosing his words, whether in English, French, Greek, Spanish or Vietnamese." ... "As the government's new intelligence czar and the President's primary intelligence adviser—a position created late last year by Congress after fierce lobbying by the 9/11 commission and families of the 9/11 victims—Negroponte has the job of making sure that the kinds of intelligence stumbles that led up to 9/11 and the sorts of miscalculations about Iraq's WMD programs don't happen again. Or, as Bush put it more delicately when announcing Negroponte's nomination, of ensuring "that our intelligence agencies work as a single, unified enterprise."" ... "That is easier said than done. If confirmed by the Senate, Negroponte would oversee parts of 15 different agencies, including the CIA, the FBI, the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security, agencies whose willingness to share closely guarded secrets is notoriously poor and whose suspicion of one another is strong." -By Daniel Eisenberg with Timothy J. Burger, Massimo Calabresi, Matthew Cooper, Elaine Shannon, Douglas Waller, Aparisim Ghosh, Charles Crain and Marguerite Michaels 20050228 -TIME.com

20050218

- - - - WalMart - "Feds Investigating Wal-Mart Settlement." ... "Federal investigators will review a $135,540 settlement the government reached with Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's biggest retailer, over accusations that the company violated child labor laws." ... "The investigation was sought by Rep. George Miller. The California Democrat had criticized the deal made public Feb. 12 because it provided that Wal-Mart would receive 15 days notice in most cases before the Labor Department investigated employee complaints of wage and hour violations." ... "Miller, the top Democrat on the House Education and Workforce Committee, said the two-week window could give Wal-Mart a chance to sweep violations under the rug." -By Erica Werner -APvia -Wired

20050216

Jim Nicholson - Politician - Lawyer - Government - Military - Health - "Profile: Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson." ... "Jim Nicholson, the former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, succeeded Anthony Principi as secretary of Veterans Affairs." ... "Nicholson, a former Republican National Committee chairman (1997-01), has served as the ambassador to the Holy See since August 2001. He graduated from West Point and became a decorated Vietnam War veteran, lawyer and successful home developer in Colorado before chairing the RNC." ... "The Department of Veterans Affairs is the second largest in the federal government, with more than 220,000 employees who oversee health care and benefit programs for the country's 25 million military veterans." -ABCNEWS.com

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