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2005 Government
News History Archives
ARCHIVES NEWS
Government News History
Archives
Government
Archives
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
- 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
-
-
-
-
- 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
-
- 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
-
-
- 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