 |
HavenWorks.com/politics/archive/2004 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
/
/ Archive
/ 2004
ELECTION
2004
Romania
- "Romania's
presidential election: An unexpected victory for
the opposition candidate." ... "Inexperienced as they may be in the ways
of democracy, Romania's voters seem keen to explore it to the full. Two
weeks ago they elected a parliament without a clear majority. This week
they voted Traian Basescu, a plain-spoken former sea captain who has been
mayor of Bucharest since 2000, into the presidency. He will try to put
together a centre-right government in place of the outgoing socialist one.
If he fails, he may have to settle for cohabitation, or even call early
elections." -Economist
Bernard
Kerik - Rudolph
Giuliani - 
New
York
- 
Police
- 
Government
- 
Politics
- "Kerik
made millions from agency contractor: Homeland Security
nominee sat on board of stun-gun maker." ... "Bernard Kerik, [Republican]
President Bush's choice to run the Homeland Security Department, made $6.2
million by exercising stock options he received from a company that sold
stun guns to the department — and seeks more business with it." ... "Taser
International was one of many companies that received consulting advice
from Kerik after he left his job as New York City police commissioner in
2001, when he was earning $150,500 a year. Kerik remains on Taser's board
of directors, although the company and the White House said he planned
to sever the relationship." ... "Partnering with former New York Mayor
[Republican] Rudolph Giuliani and also operating independently, Kerik has
had business arrangements with manufacturers of prescription drugs, computer
software and bulletproof materials, as well as companies selling nuclear
power, telephone service, insurance and security advice for Americans working
abroad." ... "Kerik and other former New York City officials joined the
ex-mayor in Giuliani Partners, a consulting firm. In 2003, Kerik became
chief executive officer of an affiliate consulting company, Giuliani-Kerik."
-AP via -MSNBC
Romania
- "Romania's
dubious elections:One more dubious vote? The left
narrowly wins, but the result is disputed." ... "A little fraud in Romania
is, you might say, like a little snow in Siberia. Only to be expected,
not really worth a fuss. But claims of trickery in the November 28th elections
for parliament and president, however predictable, have been embarrassing
for both Romania and the European Union. In the first place, Romania is
on the verge of being promised membership of the EU in 2007. It should
be now demonstrating its capacity to meet in full the EU's high standards
of democracy. Second, a disputed election in Europe's backyard weakens
the EU's moral authority as it resists the outcome of a rigged presidential
vote in Romania's northern neighbour, Ukraine."
-Economist
- 
- 
- Tom
DeLay
- "GOP
Pushes Rule Change to Protect DeLay's Post." ...
"House Republicans proposed changing their rules last night to allow members
indicted by state grand juries to remain in a leadership post, a move that
would benefit Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) in case he is charged
by a Texas grand jury that has indicted three of his political associates,
according to GOP leaders." ... "House Republicans adopted the indictment
rule in 1993, when they were trying to end four decades of Democratic control
of the House, in part by highlighting Democrats' ethical lapses. They said
at the time that they held themselves to higher standards than prominent
Democrats such as then-Ways and Means Chairman Dan Rostenkowski (Ill.),
who eventually pleaded guilty to mail fraud and was sentenced to prison."
-By Charles Babington -WashingtonPost
ELECTION
2004 - Florida
- Ohio
- "In
Victory's Glow: Despite early exit polls to the contrary,
the President took Florida, Ohio and, in the end, the election. How the
Bush team orchestrated its nail-biting win and woke up to another four
years in charge." ... "Tuesday was the night the ghosts died in the Bush
White House. There was the ghost of his last campaign, which Bush lost
among voters but won in the court. There was the ghost of his father's
last campaign, when even winning a war was not enough to earn a second
term. And then there was the ghost of Tuesday afternoon, when the entire
Bush campaign team was haunted by the possibility that they had got it
all wrong, as the first exit polls came in and nothing, but nothing, was
going their way." ... "When it was finally over, the President who had
become a radical champion of democracy's power to change the world became
the living symbol of how it works. He made his decisions and moved on;
the voters made theirs, in one of the most extraordinary displays of political
passion seen in a generation. About 120 million voted, 15 million more
than in 2000, with Bush beating Senator John Kerry by about 51% to 48.5%."
-By Nancy Gibbs
-TIME.com
Tom
DeLay - 
- "Ethics
Panel Rebukes DeLay: Majority Leader Offered Favor
To Get Peer's Vote." ... "The House ethics committee admonished Majority
Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) last night for offering a political favor to
a Michigan lawmaker in exchange for the member's vote on last year's hard-fought
Medicare prescription drug bill." ... "After a six-month investigation,
the committee concluded that DeLay had told Rep. Nick Smith (R-Mich.) he
would endorse the congressional bid of Smith's son if the congressman gave
GOP leaders a much-needed vote in a contentious pre-dawn roll call on Nov.
22." -By Charles Babington -WashingtonPost
Larry
Franklin - 
Douglas
Feith - Criminal
Investigation - 
US
- 
Israel
- 
Italy
- 
Iran
- 
Military
- 
Intelligence
- 
History
- "Iran-Contra
II? Fresh scrutiny on a rogue Pentagon operation."
... "On Friday evening, CBS News reported that the FBI [Federal Bureau
of Investigation ] is investigating a suspected mole in the Department
of Defense who allegedly passed to Israel, via a pro-Israeli lobbying organization
[AIPAC], classified American intelligence about Iran. The focus of the
investigation, according to [United States] U.S. government officials,
is Larry Franklin, a veteran Defense Intelligence Agency Iran analyst now
working in the office of the Pentagon's number three civilian official,
Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith." ... "The investigation
of Franklin is now shining a bright light on a shadowy struggle within
the [Republican President] Bush administration over the direction of U.S.
policy toward Iran. In particular, the FBI is looking with renewed interest
at an unauthorized back-channel between Iranian dissidents and advisers
in Feith's office, which more-senior administration officials first tried
in vain to shut down and then later attempted to cover up." ... "Franklin,
along with another colleague from Feith's office, a polyglot Middle East
expert named Harold Rhode, were the two officials involved in the back-channel,
which involved on-going meetings and contacts with Iranian arms dealer
Manucher Ghorbanifar and other Iranian exiles, dissidents and government
officials. Ghorbanifar is a storied figure who played a key role in embroiling
the Reagan administration in the Iran-Contra affair. The meetings were
both a conduit for intelligence about Iran and Iraq and part of a bitter
administration power-struggle pitting officials at [the Department of Defense]
DoD who have been pushing for a hard-line policy of "regime change" in
Iran, against other officials at the State Department and the CIA [Central
Intelligence Agency] who have been counseling a more cautious approach."
... "Reports of two of these meetings first surfaced a year ago in Newsday,
and have since been the subject of an ongoing investigation by the Senate
Select Committee on Intelligence. Whether or how the meetings are connected
to the alleged espionage remains unknown. But the FBI is now closely scrutinizing
them." ... "While the FBI is looking at the meetings as part of its criminal
investigation, to congressional investigators the Ghorbanifar back-channel
typifies the out-of-control bureaucratic turf wars which have characterized
and often hobbled Bush administration policy-making. And an investigation
by The Washington Monthly -- including a rare interview with Ghorbanifar
-- adds weight to those concerns. The meetings turn out to have been far
more extensive and much less under White House control than originally
reported. One of the meetings, which Pentagon officials have long characterized
as merely a "chance encounter" seems in fact to have been planned long
in advance by Rhode and Ghorbanifar. Another has never been reported in
the American press. The administration's reluctance to disclose these details
seems clear: the DoD-Ghorbanifar meetings suggest the possibility that
a rogue faction at the Pentagon was trying to work outside normal US foreign
policy channels to advance a "regime change" agenda not approved by the
president's foreign policy principals or even the president himself." ...
"The Italian Job" ... "The first meeting occurred in Rome [Italy's
capital] in December, 2001. It included Franklin, Rhode, and another American,
the neoconservative writer and operative Michael Ledeen, who organized
the meeting. (According to UPI, Ledeen was then working for Feith as a
consultant.) Also in attendance was Ghorbanifar and a number of other Iranians.
One of the Iranians, according to two sources familiar with the meeting,
was a former senior member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard who claimed
to have information about dissident ranks within the Iranian security services.
The
Washington Monthly has also learned from U.S. government sources that
Nicolo Pollari, the head of Italy's military intelligence agency, SISMI,
attended the meetings, as did the Italian Minister of Defense Antonio Martino,
who is well-known in neoconservative circles in Washington." ... "Alarm
bells about the December 2001 meeting began going off in U.S. government
channels only days after it occurred." ... "Since the late 1980s Ghorbanifar
has been the subject of two CIA "burn notices." The Agency believes Ghorbanifar
is a serial "fabricator" and forbids its officers from having anything
to do with him." -By Joshua
Micah Marshall, Laura Rozen,
and Paul Glastris with contributions by Claudio Lavanga
-WashingtonMonthly.com
Education
- Law
- Politics
- "Nation's
Charter Schools Lagging Behind, U.S. Test Scores Reveal."
... "The first national comparison of test scores among children in charter
schools and regular public schools shows charter school students often
doing worse than comparable students in regular public schools." ... "The
findings, buried in mountains of data the Education Department released
without public announcement, dealt a blow to supporters of the charter
school movement, including the [Republican President] Bush administration."
... "The data shows fourth graders attending charter schools performing
about half a year behind students in other public schools in both reading
and math." ... "Charters are expected to grow exponentially under the new
federal education law, No Child Left Behind, which holds out conversion
to charter schools as one solution for chronically failing traditional
schools." ... ""The scores are low, dismayingly low," said Chester E. Finn
Jr., a supporter of charters and president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation,
who was among those who asked the administration to do the comparison."
... "Charters are self-governing public schools, often run by private companies,
which operate outside the authority of local school boards, and have greater
flexibility than traditional public schools in areas of policy, hiring
and teaching techniques." (1 of 2)
-By Diana Jean Schemo
-NYTimes
- 
-
- "Najaf
battle a crucial test for Allawi: Clashes between
US troops and Sadr militiamen escalated Thursday, as the US surrounded
Najaf for possible siege." ... "The final stages for an assault on Moqtada
al-Sadr's militia in the holy city of Najaf are now in place." ... "For
Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, this is a crucial test of the strength
of his government, barely a month and a half old, and a first chance to
extend government authority over a key part of Iraq, most of which remains
under the control of armed militias and insurgents." -By
Scott Baldauf with contributions by James Brandon
-CSMonitor
ELECTION
2004 - "Kerry
vows freedom anew: In accepting nomination, he pledges
to improve security and rebuild alliances." ... "Promising ''a new birth
of freedom" for Americans facing economic uncertainty and security threats,
John Forbes Kerry accepted the Democratic presidential nomination last
night with a pledge to strengthen the US military and reform its intelligence
services, introducing himself as a Vietnam veteran who healed divisions
as a US senator and will unite a world uncertain about American power to
fight against terrorism." ... "''As president, I will bring back this nation's
time-honored tradition: the United States of America never goes to war
because we want to, we only go to war because we have to," Kerry, 60, told
a roaring Democratic audience bathed in red, white, and blue lights. ''With
confidence and determination, we will be able to tell the terrorists: You
will lose, and we will win. The future doesn't belong to fear; it belongs
to freedom."" ... "''I will be a commander in chief who will never mislead
us into war. I will have a vice president who will not conduct secret meetings
with polluters to rewrite our environmental laws. I will have a secretary
of defense who will listen to the advice of our military leaders. And I
will appoint an attorney general who will uphold the Constitution of the
United States," Kerry said, delighting the partisan audience in his most
direct attack on their favorite targets: George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald
H. Rumsfeld, and John D. Ashcroft, respectively." (1, 2,
3)
-By Patrick Healy -Boston/Globe
2004
ELECTION - "Clinton
to take key role in Kerry campaign." ... "Bill Clinton
will play a prominent role campaigning for Democratic challenger John Kerry
over the next three months, starting on Monday night with his speech at
the opening of his party's convention." ... "By contrast with the 2000
election when the Gore team had mixed feelings about Mr Clinton's contribution
and muted his role in the campaign, Mr Kerry and the 2004 Democratic leadership
are working up a busy programme for the former president." -By
James Harding and Joshua Chaffin -FT.com
2004
ELECTION - "Wavering
voters have doubts about Bush." ... "Persuadable
voters in a Associated Press poll taken by Ipsos-Public Affairs early this
month were more likely to say the country was headed down the wrong track
— 63% compared with 56% overall." ... "They were more likely to disapprove
of Bush's handling of the economy — 56% compared with 50% overall — and
more likely to disapprove of Bush's handling of other domestic issues like
health care and education — 59% to 52% overall. They also were more concerned
about the economy than voters generally." -AP
via -USATODAY
-
- 
- "Sudanese
slam genocide resolution." ... "Sudanese Arabs have
criticised a U.S. congressional resolution declaring genocide in the Darfur
region, while Darfuris asked what Washington would do to make it safe for
them to go back home." ... "hey do not understand anything," said Ismail
Gasmalseed on Friday, a 34-year-old driver in Khartoum." ... "The U.S.
Congress approved the resolution on Thursday and its supporters hope it
will help mobilise the international community to protect Africans in Darfur
from Arab militias." ... "But the accusation of genocide is highly controversial.
The United Nations has declared the situation in Darfur the world's worst
humanitarian crisis but has not called it a genocide, which would force
it to take action." -By Nima Elbagir-Reuters
-
- 
- 
- "Halliburton
unit's Iran role probed." ... "The investigation
centers on Halliburton Products and Services Ltd., a subsidiary registered
in the Cayman Islands and headquartered in Dubai that provides oil field
services in Iran. The unit's operations in Iran included [US Vice President]
Cheney's stint as CEO from 1995 to 2000, when he frequently urged the lifting
of such sanctions." ... "Current law forbids US companies from doing business
with countries considered by the US government to be sponsors of terror.
The list includes Iran, North Korea, Cuba and Sudan. However, numerous
US companies operate indirectly in Iran under strict guidelines requiring
that their subsidiaries have a foreign registry and no US employees, and
act independently of the parent company. At issue is whether Halliburton's
subsidiary met those criteria." --LAtimes
via -Boston/Globe
-
-
-
- "US
group admits to criminal probe over Iran." ... "Halliburton,
the oilfield services company formerly headed by US Vice-President Dick
Cheney, has disclosed that a Treasury Department probe into its business
dealings with Iran had been elevated to a criminal investigation. The company
acknowledged that it had been subpoenaed by a grand jury in the southern
district of Texas to present documents related to a Cayman Islands subsidiary
that serves the Iranian National Oil Company." -By
Joshua Chaffin -FT.com
-
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- "Poor
Relations With Iran Turning Worse." ... "The Bush
administration is pressing Britain, France and Germany for strong measures
against Iran in response to its violation of a nonproliferation agreement
reached with the three last fall, a State Department official said Wednesday."
... "The issue is part of a deepening American concern over recent Iranian
activities that range from weapons programs to terrorism. To head off a
potential crisis, some analysts believe the administration should work
harder to promote a dialogue with Iran." ... "The United States believes
Iran is developing nuclear weapons, a view reinforced by Iran's recent
decision to resume construction of centrifuges. This is a key step in the
development of a uranium-based bomb, one that Iran promised the Europeans
last fall that it would not take." -By George Gedda
-AP via -Newsday.com
Stephen
Cambone - Torture
- Prisons
- Classified
- Military
- Intelligence
- US
- Iraq
- 
Afghanistan
- Noteworthy
- "Implausible
Denial II." ... "On Saturday, May 15--twenty-four
hours after The Nation published "Implausible
Denial"--The New Yorker posted on its website Seymour Hersh's latest
Abu Ghraib-related investigative report. Its central revelation: The interrogations
at [Iraq prison] Abu Ghraib were part of a highly classified Special Access
Program (SAP) code-named Copper Green, authorized by [Republican President
Bush's] Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and ultimately overseen by Under
Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Stephen Cambone. Originally a joint
[Central Intelligence Agency] CIA-Pentagon program in Afghanistan that
utilized highly trained Special Operations personnel, Copper Green eventually
expanded to Iraq, Hersh reports, where Cambone decided it would begin using
non-Special Operations personnel--including military intelligence officers
and other military personnel--to begin questioning prisoners whose status
was outside the program's original brief. The CIA objected and withdrew
from the program, while Cambone apparently tasked [Major General] Maj.
Gen. Geoffrey Miller, former Guantánamo Bay interrogations chief,
with "Gitmo-izing" Iraq's prison system." ... "What may be more surprising
than the revelations in Hersh's piece is the fact that leads to the Abu
Ghraib skullduggery were hidden in plain sight--and that the Pentagon press
corps all but ignored them. Though Cambone has been an exceptionally sub
rosa figure in his position as DoD's intelligence chief, on November 21,
2003, he sat down for a rare on-record meeting over breakfast with the
Defense Writers Group. Again in contrast to his May 11 comments, in which
he cast himself as a benign bureaucrat largely out of the loop, his November
comments offer a glimpse into the mechanics of how Cambone's office was
assertively taking the lead in coordinating intelligence operations in
Iraq." ... "Noting first that his office has "one group of people over
to do an assessment" and that another was getting ready to go, Cambone
said that "the requirement for an increased level of intelligence support
became increasingly evident as we went through a period between early July/late
August.... In that late August time frame, a delegation went over there
from the Department and included people from the CIA to look at how we
were structured, whether we had proper arrangement at the division level,
whether that information, as it was being compiled at the divisional level,
was being moved from that level up to the CJTF-7 [Combined Joint Task Force-7]
level in an expeditious manner."" ... "Cambone further stated that the
group "came back with a list of somewhere close to eighty or ninety recommendations,"
and went on to describe a rapid infusion of personnel and technology for
intelligence-related endeavors. He also noted that the Director of Central
Intelligence, George Tenet, had "made a number of adjustments in his complement
of people in Iraq" as part of a "concerted effort to lash up much more
tightly the work that is done in the context of the CIA activities with
those being done by the Department to ensure there is [a] cross-flow of
information and cooperation."" ... "Cambone's remarks at the breakfast
also bring into potentially clearer focus the role in Abu Ghraib of [Lieutenant
General] Lieut. Gen. William "Jerry" Boykin, his deputy for intelligence
and warfighting support. "It is an office," Cambone says of Boykin's shop,
"that is designed to assure the types of capabilities we have just been
talking about here, whether it is people, or it is resources, or it is
material, or it is information, is moved forward to the people who need
it at various levels of command and operation in order for them to execute
their mission."" -By Jason
West -TheNation.com
US
- Afghanistan
- Military
- Terrorism
- Prisoner- War
Crimes Act - Human
Rights - Death
Penalty - Politics
- "Memos
Reveal War Crimes Warnings: Could Bush administration
officials be prosecuted for 'war crimes' as a result of new measures used
in the war on terror? The White House's top lawyer thought so." ... "The
White House's top lawyer warned more than two years ago that U.S. officials
could be prosecuted for "war crimes" as a result of new and unorthodox
measures used by the Bush administration in the war on terrorism, according
to an internal White House memo and interviews with participants in the
debate over the issue." ... "The concern about possible future prosecution
for war crimes-and that it might even apply to Bush adminstration
officials themselves- is contained in a crucial portion of an internal
January
25, 2002, memo by White House counsel Alberto Gonzales
obtained by NEWSWEEK. It urges President George Bush declare the
war in Afghanistan, including the detention of Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters,
exempt from the provisions of the Geneva Convention." ... "In the memo,
the White House lawyer focused on a little known 1996 law passed by Congress,
known as the War Crimes Act, that banned any Americans from committing
war crimes-defined in part as "grave breaches" of the Geneva Conventions.
Noting that the law applies to "U.S. officials" and that punishments
for violators "include the death penalty," Gonzales told Bush that
"it was difficult to predict with confidence" how Justice Department prosecutors
might apply the law in the future. This was especially the case given that
some of the language in the Geneva Conventions-such as that outlawing "outrages
upon personal dignity" and "inhuman treatment" of prisoners-was "undefined.""
... "One key advantage of declaring that Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters
did not have Geneva Convention protections is that it "substantially reduces
the threat of domestic criminal prosecution under the War Crimes Act,"
Gonzales wrote." -By Michael Isikoff
-MSNBC/Newsweek
Stephen
Cambone - Torture
- Prison
- Military
- Intelligence
- Police
- Human
Rights - Law
- Politics
- US
- 
Syria
- Iraq
- "Knowledge
of Abusive Tactics May Go Higher." ... "Army intelligence
officers suspected that a Syrian and admitted jihadist who was detained
at [Iraq's] Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad [Iraq's capital] knew about
the illegal flow of money, arms and foreign fighters into Iraq. But he
was smug, the officers said, and refused to talk. So last November, they
devised a special plan for his interrogation, going beyond what Army rules
normally allowed." ... "An Army colonel [Thomas M. Pappas] in charge of
intelligence-gathering at the prison, spelling out the plan in a classified
cable to the top [United States] U.S. military officer in Iraq, said interrogators
would use a method known as "fear up harsh," which military documents said
meant "significantly increasing the fear level in a security detainee."
The aim was to make the 31-year-old Syrian think his only hope in life
was to talk, undermining his confidence in what they termed "the Allah
factor."" ... "According to the plan, interrogators needed the assistance
of military police supervising his detention at the prison, who ordinarily
play no role in interrogations under Army regulations. First, the interrogators
were to throw chairs and tables in the man's presence at the prison and
"invade his personal space."" ... "Then the police were to put a hood on
his head and take him to an isolated cell through a gantlet of barking
guard dogs; there, the police were to strip-search him and interrupt his
sleep for three days with interrogations, barking and loud music, according
to Army documents. The plan was sent to [Lieutenant General] Lt. Gen. Ricardo
Sanchez." ... "Congressional testimony by Defense Department and Army officials
over the past two weeks has highlighted the fact that the abuses in Iraq
-- which mostly occurred in the last quarter of 2003 -- came at a time
of heightened pressures in Washington for more robust intelligence-gathering,
because of proliferating attacks on U.S. forces and the dwindling intelligence
on Saddam Hussein's suspected weapons of mass destruction." ... "Although
no direct links have been found between the documented abuses and orders
from Washington, Pentagon officials who spoke on the condition that they
not be named say that the hunt for data on these two topics was coordinated
during this period by Defense Undersecretary Stephen A. Cambone, the top
U.S. military intelligence official and long one of the closest aides to
[Republican President Bush's] Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld."
... ""We've got no proof that a person in authority told them to do this
activity," [Lieutenant General] Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander, the Army's deputy
chief of staff, said on May 11." ... "But three directives in particular
have already begun to attract congressional scrutiny: The first is a classified
report by Army [Major General] Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller on [September]
Sept. 9, 2003, demanding that the military police at Abu Ghraib be dedicated
and trained to set "the conditions for the successful interrogation and
exploitation of internees/detainees." The report, which Cambone has testified
was presented to his deputy William Boykin, contained five recommendations
spelling out how this was to occur and reported it had already begun."
... "The second is an [October] Oct. 12 classified memo signed by Sanchez
that demanded a "harmonization" of military policing and intelligence work
at Abu Ghraib for the purpose of ensuring "consistency with the interrogation
policies . . . and maximiz[ing] the efficiency of the interrogation.""
... "The memo, obtained by The Washington Post, also states "it is imperative
that interrogators be provided reasonable latitude to vary their approach,"
depending on a detainee's background, strengths, resistance and other factors.
It also explicitly demands humane treatment and requires that any dogs
present during the interrogations be muzzled." ... "The third is a [November]
Nov. 19 memo from Sanchez's office that formally placed the two key Abu
Ghraib cellblocks where the abuses occurred under the control of Pappas
and his 205th Military Intelligence Brigade. It was 11 days later, after
this memo placed the military police responsible for "security of detainees
and base protection" in Pappas's hands, that he sought, in his memo to
Sanchez, to draw military police explicitly into applying pressure on the
Syrian." ... "The fact that prison interrogations were so directly controlled
by these military directives, as well as the apparent cultural sophistication
of some of the abuses, has already led some lawmakers to conclude that
much more experienced and senior officers were involved than the seven
military police now charged by the Army with wrongdoing. " (1, 2,
3)
-By R. Jeffrey Smith with contributions by Rajiv Chandrasekaran
and Sewell Chan -WashingtonPost
Stephen
Cambone - Torture
- Prisons
- Military
- Intelligence
- Police
- Human
Rights - Law
- Politics
- Feith
- 
Rhode
Island - 
Virginia
- US
- Iraq
- Guantánamo
Bay - 
Cuba
- Noteworthy
- "Implausible
Denial." ... "Writing in the December 16, 2002, edition
of The Nation, I broke the news--and explored the concerns many
in the [United States] US intelligence community had--about [Republican
President Bush's] Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's quiet success in
prevailing upon Congress to authorize the creation of a new senior position
at the Pentagon,the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence. Several
months later, in the pages of the Columbia Journalism Review, I
followed up with a piece devoted to the media's utter lack of interest--perhaps
best demonstrated by the absence of any reporter from a farcical confirmation
hearing--in the new Under Secretary himself, Stephen Cambone." ... "Despite
his status as the Pentagon's über-intelligence authority, in the initial
days of the breaking [Iraq prison] Abu Ghraib scandal Cambone was virtually
invisible. When Rumsfeld was called to the Hill to testify before the Armed
Services Committee on May 7, however, Cambone was unexpectedly summoned
to the witness table from his chair behind Rumsfeld. That cameo appearance
resulted in a more expansive return appearance on May 11, in which Cambone
less than deftly tried to undermine Abu Ghraib investigator [Major General]
Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba. (Cambone disputed the general's conclusion that
military intelligence units effectively controlled the prison's military
police detachment.) Cambone also reacted adversely to [Rhode Island Democratic]
Senator Jack Reed's assertion (confirmed by Taguba) that recommendations
made in a report on improving intelligence collection at Abu Ghraib by
then-chief Guantánamo Bay [Cuba] interrogator [Major General] Maj.
Gen. Geoffrey Miller clearly called for the use of [Military Police] MPs
in interrogations, which helped create an environment that begot the subsequent
abuse and torture in the tiers. As a May 12 Washington Post editorial
points out, Cambone's office approved interrogation practices that are
in direct violation of the Geneva Conventions." ... "At the May 11 hearings,
Cambone and another senior Defense Department official, Army intelligence
chief [Lieutenant General] Lieut. Gen Keith Alexander, essentially cast
themselves as mere Pentagon representatives fielding questions about Abu
Ghraib--and not as men who might bear any responsibility for what they
desperately tried to cast as an aberrant and isolated incident. Yet many
of their assertions on May 11 are in fact contradicted by statements they
made before the same committee a month before, as well as a year-old memo
outlining the responsibilities of Cambone's office." ... "The Under Secretary
of Defense for Intelligence, or OUSD(I) in Pentagonese, was originally
conceived by Rumsfeld as a centralizing measure, a way to give him "one
dog to kick" rather than a "whole kennel" of individual civilian and uniformed
defense intelligence agencies. In choosing the person responsible for ostensibly
bringing unprecedented order and control to the Pentagon's spy shops, the
Secretary chose Cambone, a man with no intelligence experience but a favored
protégé and loyal partisan who had served on Rumsfeld's ballistic
missile threat commission and worked with the neoconservative Project for
the New American Century. Previously principal deputy to Under Secretary
for Policy Doug Feith (and, in that capacity, liaison between Feith and
the ideological intelligence analysis unit that would later morph into
the notorious Office of Special Plans), Cambone went out of his way in
his confirmation hearings to say that he would closely "consult and coordinate"
with Feith to "insure [that Department of Defense] DoD-related intelligence
activity supports the goals" of the Pentagon's policy shop." ... "Two months
after Cambone's confirmation, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz described
his new portfolio in a detailed internal Pentagon memo. Reflecting the
seriousness and specificity of Cambone's mission, an organizational chart
appended to the memo shows a generic under secretary with six deputies,
including one for warfighting and operations, whose duties include specific
liaison with the intelligence elements of each of the armed services, each
individual combatant command, and the under secretary for policy. The document
itself explicitly states that Cambone's office will, among other things:"
... "provide oversight and policy guidance for all DoD intelligence activities;
provide policy oversight of all the intelligence organizations within the
DoD, to include ensuring these organizations are manned, trained, equipped
and structured to support the missions of the Department; provide
assessments of and advice [to] the Secretary and CJCS [Chairman, Joint
Chiefs of Staff] on the adequacy of military intelligence performance;
exercise management and oversight of all DoD counterintelligence and security
activities; coordinate DoD intelligence and intelligence-related policy,
plans, programs, requirements and resource allocations; oversee provision
of intelligence support and involvement in information operations, focused
on assessments in support of operations." ... "None of this should leave
much to the imagination, especially when it comes to policies and practices
pertaining to the dimensions of human intelligence collection that involve
interrogations conducted by military intelligence. Yet when asked by [Virginia
Republican] Senator John Warner if his office has "overall responsibility
for policy concerning the handling of detainees," Cambone dodged with a
"not precisely, sir," effectively denying any responsibility as set forth
in his charge by Wolfowitz. Rather, Cambone said, he only reactively "became
involved in this issue from the perspective of assuring there was a flow
of intelligence back to the commands and done in an efficient and effective
way."" -By Jason
West -TheNation.com
James
Inhofe - Torture
- Politician
- US
- Military
- Prisoners
- Photographs
- Iraqi
- Human
Rights - Lawmakers
- 
Oklahoma
- "GOP
[Republican] senator labels abused prisoners 'terrorists':
Other lawmakers disavow comment." ... "A Republican member of the Senate
Armed Services Committee dismissed Tuesday the outrage over the abuse of
Iraqi prisoners by [United States] U.S. troops, saying Iraqis depicted
in widely broadcast photographs probably had "blood on their hands."" ...
""I'm probably not the only one up at this table that is more outraged
by the outrage than we are by the treatment," [Oklahoma Republican Senator]
Sen. James Inhofe said during a hearing on the [Iraqi] Abu Ghraib prison
scandal. (Full
story)" ... "[Republican] President Bush and other top U.S. officials
and leading Republicans have condemned the abuse of Iraqis held at the
Baghdad[Iraq's capital]-area prison, once a notorious torture chamber under
ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein." ... "Though he [Inhofe] called the
soldiers charged with abusing Iraqi prisoners "seven bad people," he added,
"I am also outraged that we have so many humanitarian do-gooders right
now crawling all over these prisons looking for human rights violations
while our troops, our heroes, are fighting and dying."" -With
contributions by Ed Henry -CNN
Richard
Pombo
- Government
- Animal
- 
Land
- Law
- Politics
- 
California
- "Profile:
Rep. Richard Pombo." ... "Congressman [Richard Pombo,
California Republican] finds fault with federal environmental rules." ...
"He chairs the House Resources Committee, which drafts many of the nation's
most important environmental laws and oversees 700 million acres of public
land. The budgets of the Forest Service, the National Park Service and
other land management agencies must be vetted by his panel. In Washington,
he's as powerful a player on environmental issues as the Interior Secretary
or the Environmental Protection Agency administrator." ... "Last week,
his committee began the first of several hearings on proposed changes to
the Endangered Species Act. For the last 12 years, Pombo has been on a
mission to rewrite the law, which he argues saves few species and tramples
on the rights of farmers, ranchers and other landowners." ... "Pombo's
selection as Resources Committee chairman last year frightened the nation's
largest environmental groups, which have long clashed with the congressman.
Now those groups are gearing up to challenge Pombo and block his effort
to rewrite the Endangered Species Act." ... ""He doesn't believe in the
Endangered Species Act," said Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra
Club. "He doesn't believe we should protect our wildlife heritage."" -By
Zachary Coile -SFGate.com
-
-
- 2004
ELECTION - "Unleashing
the Cheney factor: Joint 9/11 appearance with Bush
highlights debate about V.P.'s role." ... "When President Bush and Vice
President Cheney sit down together on Thursday for their long-anticipated
meeting with the 9/11 commission, it will cap a week that has, like no
other in Mr. Bush's presidency, been dominated by the White House's No.
2 man." ... "It was Mr. Cheney who used such red-meat language against
Democratic presidential contender John Kerry in a speech Monday that the
president of the host college publicly objected to "the content and tone"
of the vice president's remarks and offered Senator Kerry a similar speaking
engagement." ... "It is Cheney who is at the center of a long-anticipated
Supreme Court case, argued Tuesday, over his energy task force - and the
breadth of the zone of privacy in which the executive branch of government
may operate. Cheney has long advocated restoration of the White House's
powers to pre-Watergate levels." -By Linda Feldmann
-CSMonitor
-
-
- "House
OKs Speedy Elections if Attacked." ... "Under the
legislation, the House speaker could declare "exceptional circumstances"
when 100 or more seats in the 435-seat body are left vacant by a catastrophic
event, triggering special elections in affected districts that must be
held within 45 days." ... "While the final vote was decisive, many Democrats
warned that speeding up elections was not enough and, at a time of terrible
crisis, could expose Congress to weeks of lacking the manpower or the authority
to act. Many sought a constitutional amendment that would allow temporary
appointments of lawmakers before elections could be held." ... "Some warned
of the executive branch, possibly headed by a Cabinet secretary if the
president is killed, assuming dictatorial powers."
-AP via -ABCNEWS.com
- -
- "Saudi
envoy: Oil policy standard, not a deal: Calls U.S.
politics: 'Your seasonal tribal warfare'." ... "Saudi Arabia's ambassador
to the United States stood firm that his country made no secret deals with
the White House to try to drive down gas prices to help re-elect President
Bush and sought to reassure Democratic contender Sen. John Kerry." ...
""I really don't see what is the big deal," Prince Bandar bin Sultan told
reporters Wednesday after a White House meeting with national security
adviser Condoleezza Rice." ... ""Unless somebody would like to see the
oil prices stay high, then nobody should complain."" -By
John King -CNN
- 
- 
- 
- "High
court mulls Mexican truck access." ... "A Bush administration
lawyer told the Supreme Court yesterday that the president must be able
to open America's roads to Mexico's trucks without delays for an environmental
study." ... "But a lawyer for labor and environmental organizations cautioned
justices that ''we're talking about tens of thousands of trucks" packing
US roads after a two-decade moratorium ends." ... "Some of those trucks
are older and may be pollution-causing safety hazards, said the organizations'
lawyer, Jonathan Weissglass." -By Gina Holland
-AP via -Boston/Globe
ELECTION
2004 - "4
potential running mate picks hit trail with Kerry."
... "Max Cleland was the most ferocious. John Edwards, with a tan that
only enhanced his telegenic good looks, sounded the most silky smooth --
if oddly subdued. Bob Graham and Bill Nelson drew laughter and applause
from voters but did not rouse them to their feet." ... "In recent days,
the Democratic ''veepstakes" -- that shadowy process by which Senator John
F. Kerry is sizing up possible running mates -- took on a decidedly public
cast this week as those four southern politicians (all senators save Cleland,
a former senator from Georgia) spoke at campaign events and Kerry fund-raisers
alongside the prospective presidential nominee." (1, 2)
-By Patrick Healy
-Boston/Globe
ELECTION
2004 - "Kerry,
Bush launch rival television ads." ... "Just as John
Kerry launched two campaign ads Wednesday intended to help voters become
familiar with him, President Bush's campaign unveiled a commercial calling
the Democrat more liberal than Ted Kennedy or Hillary Rodham Clinton."
... "Kerry says in one of his new ads: "My priorities are jobs and health
care. My commitment is to defend this country." In the other, the presumptive
nominee says he would "reach out to the international community in sharing
the burden" in Iraq." -By Liz Sidoti
-AP via -Boston/Globe
-
- 
- 
- 
- 
-
- "Powell
urges coalition leaders to keep troops in Iraq."
... "Secretary of State Colin Powell said Tuesday the U.S.-led coalition
in Iraq remains strong despite decisions by Spain and Honduras to pull
out their troops. Later, the Dominican Republic announced that it also
would withdraw its troops." ... "Powell told reporters that leaders of
13 coalition countries with whom he spoke by telephone Monday and Tuesday
"all expressed steadfast support" for their respective troop commitments."
... "Among the leaders Powell spoke with was Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart
Sathirathai." ... "In addition to Surakiart, Powell spoke with leaders
of El Salvador, Dominica, Norway, Denmark, Hungary, Portugal, Poland, Bulgaria,
Holland, Romania, the Philippines and Ukraine." -By
George Gedda -AP
via -SFGate.com
-
-
- ELECTION
2004 - "Poll
Shows New Gains for Bush: Lead Over Kerry Widens
On Issues of Security." ... "President Bush holds significant advantages
over John F. Kerry in public perceptions of who is better equipped to deal
with Iraq and the war on terrorism, and he has reduced the advantages his
Democratic challenger held last month on many domestic issues, according
to a Washington Post-ABC News Poll." ... "In a matchup, Bush held a lead
of 48 percent to 43 percent over Kerry among registered voters, with independent
Ralph Nader at 6 percent. In early March, shortly after he effectively
wrapped up the Democratic nomination, Kerry led Bush by 48 percent to 44
percent." (1, 2)
-By Richard Morin and Dan Balz with contributions
by Claudia Deane -WashingtonPost
-
-
- 
- ELECTION
2004 -
- "Kerry
hits alleged Bush-Saudi deal: Seizes on account in
journalist's book." ... "The latest inside account of the Bush administration
has provided fresh fodder for John F. Kerry's campaign, with the presumptive
Democratic nominee yesterday condemning the president for reportedly allowing
the Saudis to maintain high gasoline prices until just before the fall
election, when they would be cut to boost the US economy." ... "Kerry said
the deal, reported in "Plan of Attack," the new book by Washington Post
editor Bob Woodward, and mentioned in his appearance Sunday on the CBS
program "60 Minutes," was "fundamentally wrong" and "outrageous and unacceptable
to the American people." A day earlier, the Massachusetts senator condemned
Bush for withholding details about Iraqi war planning from Secretary of
State Colin L. Powell, again relying on Woodward's account of the administration's
war planning." -By Glen Johnson -Boston/Globe
- "Victory
for Roh's party in South Korea vote." ... "South
Korea's political landscape changed radically on Thursday as voters handed
control of parliament to a progressive liberal party, backed by the suspended
President Roh Moo-hyun, that was formed five months ago." ... "The opposition
Grand National party - associated with the country's business community
and traditional ruling elite - lost control of parliament but avoided the
annihilation it feared, winning about 121 seats." ... "The GNP's popularity
has been declining for months after it emerged that the party had received
millions of dollars of secret funds from the country's chaebol business
groups, such as Samsung and LG." -By Andrew Ward
-FT.com
-
- "South
Koreans Vote Heavily for Impeached Leader's Party."
... "In a sharp political backlash against last month's impeachment of
President Roh Moo Hyun, South Koreans voted heavily today for congressional
candidates of Mr. Roh's party, according to surveys of voters by South
Korea's three largest broadcasting networks." ... "If the forecasts hold
up, the president and the Parliament will be of the same party for the
first time since democracy was restored here in 1987. Mr. Roh has four
more years in his term, and the legislators were elected today to four-year
terms." ... "In the vote, the Grand National Party avoided electoral disaster
largely through determined campaigning by Park Geun Hye, the new party
chairman. Ms. Park learned her political skills in the 1970's, when her
father, Park Chung Hee, an army general, ruled South Korea with dictatorial
powers." -By James Brooke -NYTimes
via -AltaVista-News
- 
- 
- "Cheney
Warns China About Hong Kong: Policy There Linked
to Taiwan, He Says." ... "Linking two contentious issues in U.S.-Chinese
relations, Vice President Cheney warned China's leaders Wednesday that
any efforts by Beijing to thwart democracy in Hong Kong would likely reinforce
the budding movement in Taiwan to formally separate from China." ... "Cheney's
message, which was described, on condition of anonymity, by a senior administration
official, echoed the arguments of recently reelected Taiwanese President
Chen Shui-bian, who has vowed to draft a new constitution for the island
by 2006. In the talks, Cheney reiterated the long-standing U.S. position
that there is "one China," a statement prominently mentioned in China's
state media." -By Glenn Kessler and Edward Cody -WashingtonPost
- "U.N.
Envoy to Iraq Calls for New Interim Government: Continued
Violence Could Upset Election Plans, Brahimi Warns." ... "U.N. special
envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, wrapping up a mission to Iraq to help devise a new
plan for creating a democratic Iraqi government, said today that the U.S.-led
occupation administration could hand over power as scheduled on June 30
to a new interim government but he acknowledged that the current unrest
in the country could upset plans for elections to follow that transfer
of power." ... "Speaking to reporters in Baghdad, Brahimi said, "The security
situation has to improve significantly for these elections to take place
in an acceptable environment," according to a transcript of his remarks.
Nonetheless, he reiterated the need to push forward with that vote next
January." (1, 2)
-By Mark Stencel-WashingtonPost
-
- "Bush
endorses 'courageous' Sharon plan to withdraw from part the West Bank."
... "Breaking with long-standing U.S. policy, President Bush on Wednesday
endorsed Israel's retention of part of the West Bank in any final peace
settlement with the Palestinians. In a show of support for Israel's leader
that brought immediate condemnation from the Palestinians, Bush also ruled
out Palestinian refugees ever returning to Israel." ... "An elated Israeli
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said his plan would create "a new and better
reality for the state of Israel."" ... "But minutes after Bush spoke, Palestinian
Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia said in Ramallah that "he is the first president
who has legitimized the (Israeli) settlements in Palestinian territories.""
-Barry Schweid -AP
via -SFGate.com
- "Taiwan's
parties finalise plans for election recount." ...
"Under presiding judge Wu Ching-yuan, both parties hammered out an agreement
on the scope and the procedures for the recount yesterday. "All the major
points of disagreement are solved now," said Jaclyn Tsai, head of [opposition
candidate] Mr Lien's legal team. Wellington Koo, [the president] Mr Chen's
lawyer, said he expected the recount to begin in mid-May." ... "The recount
is expected to take up to four days, Mr Koo said. It was therefore unlikely
to be finished before Mr Chen's inauguration for his second term on May
20." -By Kathrin Hille
-FT.com
-
- "Taiwan
Riot Police Battle Election Protesters." ... "Riot
police officers fought with demonstrators and used water cannons mounted
on armored cars as a large rally turned unexpectedly violent here on Saturday
night in front of the presidential palace." ... "A crowd estimated by organizers
at 300,000 and by the police at 100,000 assembled peacefully on Saturday
afternoon to call for a parliamentary investigation into a shooting incident
that wounded President Chen Shui-bian on the eve of elections here last
month, and may have helped him win re-election." ... "On March 20, President
Chen won a second four-year term by fewer than 30,000 votes out of 13 million
cast, defeating Mr. Lien of the Nationalist Party and his running mate,
James Soong of the People First Party. The president had been grazed across
the abdomen the day before by a bullet while standing in an open Jeep in
a motorcade through his hometown, Tainan." ... "The Nationalists have suggested
that presidential aides inside the Jeep may have staged the shooting, in
a bid to bolster Mr. Chen's support." -By Keith Bradsher
-NYTimes
-
-
- "Japan
court rules against shrine visits, PM unbowed." ...
"A Japanese court ruled on Wednesday that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi
had violated the constitution by visiting a shrine honouring Japan's military
war dead, a landmark ruling on his annual pilgrimages that have angered
China and other Asian neighbours." ... "But Koizumi vowed to keep visiting
Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, where war criminals are among those honoured and
which critics at home and abroad regard as a symbol of Japan's past militarism."
-By Masayuki Kitano -Reuters
-
-
- "Attack
on expectant mom a crime against 2: Relatives of
Peterson, other victims attend bill signing." ... "President Bush signed
legislation Thursday making it a separate crime to harm a fetus during
the commission of a violent federal crime against a pregnant woman, and
he declared that, with the new law, the United States was "building a culture
of life."" ... "The Unborn Victims of Violence Act protects a fetus at
any stage of its development. The measure does not deal with abortion but
at its foundation it deals with the central question in the abortion debate:
At what point does an embryo or a fetus deserve full protection of the
law as a living person?" ... "Advocates of abortion rights fear it will
be used to establish precedent that could undercut those rights, established
in 1973 by the Supreme Court in Roe vs. Wade." -By
James Gerstenzang-LAtimes
via -SFGate.com
-
-
- "Sept.
11 Panel Scrutinizing Past Testimony." ... "The staff
of the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks is conducting
a detailed review of all discrepancies found in public and private statements
by Condoleezza Rice and Richard A. Clarke in drawing up questions for Ms.
Rice when she testifies before the panel, probably next week, commission
officials said Wednesday." ... "The White House, they said, is hoping to
limit any political damage to the president by having Ms. Rice testify
quickly in the hope of ending the furor over the accusations made by Mr.
Clarke, Mr. Bush's former counterterrorism director." ... "Mr. Clarke said
in testimony before the commission last week and in his new best-selling
memoir that the Bush administration — and Ms. Rice, in particular — largely
ignored threats by Al Qaeda before the Sept. 11 attacks." (1, 2)
-By Philip Shenon and Doublas Jehl -NYTimes
via -Google-News
2004
ELECTION -
-
- "Political
titles play an unusual role in this campaign." ...
"The influential role that serious, issues-based books are playing is unusual,
historians and political scientists say. "I can't think of anything close
to this happening during a campaign, at least in the 20th century," says
James Campbell, a political science professor at the State University of
New York at Buffalo." ... "The hottest book is Against All Enemies:
Inside America's War on Terror by Richard Clarke. The counterterrorism
expert served in the Reagan, Clinton and both Bush administrations. He
says the current administration paid too little attention to the threat
of terrorism before Sept. 11 and made terrorism more of a threat by going
to war in Iraq." -By Mark Memmott
-USATODAY
Rove
- 
Abramoff
- 
Ralston
- 
DeLay
-