The Political Chase

TPC Round Up - Cover-Ups, Tasers, and Staged Rallies

HEADLINES

• State Department Official Investigated for Cover-Up
• NSA Claims No Warantless Wiretapping
• Democrats Demand Troop Withdrawal Deadline
• U.S and British Officials Downplay Iraq Differences
• Immigrants Protest at Capitol
• Student Protestor Tasered at Kerry Speech
• Rice Scolds U.N. over Iran Strategy

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WASHINGTON

“Howard J. Krongard, the State Department’s inspector general, has repeatedly thwarted investigations into contracting fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan, including construction of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, and censored reports that might prove politically embarrassing to the Bush administration, the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform charged” on Tuesday “in a 13-page letter,” the Washington Post reports. See TPC related post.

“The National Security Agency has not conducted wiretapping without warrants on the telephones of any Americans since at least February, the nation’s top intelligence officer told Congress on Tuesday,” the New York Times reports. “Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, told the House Judiciary Committee that since he took office that month, the government has conducted electronic surveillance only after seeking court-approved warrants.” See TPC related post.

“President Bush, cheered on by Iraq war veterans and their families on the White House’s South Lawn, urged lawmakers Tuesday to back his plan to withdraw some troops from Iraq but keep at least 130,000 through next summer or longer,” AP reports. “‘I ask the United States Congress to support the troop levels and the strategies I have embraced,’ Bush said, to loud cheers and chants of ‘USA! USA!’”

“President Bush defended himself Tuesday defended himself from criticism by former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, who said Bush has not been a good shepherd of the economy,” according to a FOX News interview with the president. “Our fiscal record is admirable and good. After all, the deficit as a percentage of GDP is low relative to the 30-year average. It’s about 1.5 percent of GDP which is good, and we submitted a budget that shows we can get to balance.” See TPC related post.

“Internal discord in the office of U.S. Attorney Rachel Paulose has led to an investigation of complaints that she retaliated against dissenters,” the Star-Tribune reports. “The internal upheaval that roiled the upper ranks of the U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota last spring has prompted an investigation by an independent federal agency that looks into whistleblower and discrimination complaints involving federal employees.” TPC reported on Ms. Paulrose back in April as the DOJ scandal was unfolding.

CONGRESS

“Unable to garner enough Republican support, Senate Democratic leaders said” on Tuesday “that they are abandoning a bipartisan effort to bring U.S. troops home from Iraq by next spring,” the Washington Post reports. Instead, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid, D-Nev., “will again push for a firm deadline, this time June 2008, along with a stronger effort at cutting off war funding.” See TPC related post.

“Four new Senate Republicans signaled Tuesday that they may vote for a Democratic amendment aimed at giving U.S. troops in Iraq more time at home between deployments, helping Democrats inch closer to a rare victory on the conduct of the Iraq war,” The Hill reports. “The talks came amid tense backroom negotiations over the terms of the Iraq debate in the Senate, which is expected to dominate the floor schedule during the next two weeks. ”

Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., House Minority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., “and 11 other members of Congress have been subpoenaed to testify in the trial of a defense contractor charged with bribing jailed” former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, R-Calif.,, USA Today reports. “All of the lawmakers said they do not intend to comply with the subpoenas.”

“Even as Senate Democrats on Tuesday softened demands that the White House provide thousands of documents in advance of a hearing to confirm Michael Mukasey as attorney general, they warned that it remained highly improbable that a vote on his installation would occur before the October recess,” Roll Call (sub. req.) reports. “The White House has asked Democrats to complete the confirmation process by Oct. 8 — a date on which Democrats said they are unlikely to meet.”

The House Federal Workforce Subcommittee split along party lines yesterday “over proposed legislation that would ban discrimination against federal employees and job applicants based on sexual orientation.” the Washington Post reports. “Republicans asked for a roll call, and Democrats, as the majority party, prevailed, 5 to 3.

“Twelve years after conservative Republicans in Congress were blamed for shutting down the government, they are introducing legislation to ensure that government continues to function no matter what,” The Hill reports. “Anticipating a showdown with Democrats that could force government offices to close, President Bush is backing the legislation.”

IRAQ

“The top two American military and diplomatic officials in Iraq sought to play down differences over Iraq policy as they met with senior British officials on Tuesday, at a time of mounting pressure here for the withdrawal of Britain’s remaining 5,200 soldiers from southern Iraq,” the New York Times reports. “At a news conference with Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker, Gen. David H. Petraeus sought to ease strains that developed this month when British commanders withdrew the 500-man contingent that comprised their last remaining troops in central Basra.”

“The U.S. military has introduced ‘religious enlightenment’ and other education programs for Iraqi detainees, some of whom are as young as 11, Marine Maj. Gen. Douglas M. Stone, the commander of U.S. detention facilities in Iraq, said yesterday, the Washington Post reports. “Stone said such efforts, aimed mainly at Iraqis who have been held for more than a year, are intended to “bend them back to our will” and are part of waging war in what he called ‘the battlefield of the mind.’ ”

“A preliminary Iraqi report on a shooting involving an American diplomatic motorcade said Tuesday that Blackwater security guards were not ambushed, as the company reported, but instead fired at a car when it did not heed a policeman’s call to stop, killing a couple and their infant,” the New York Times reports. “The report, by the Ministry of Interior, was presented to the Iraqi cabinet and, though unverified, seemed to contradict an account offered by Blackwater USA that the guards were responding to gunfire by militants.”

“A vast internal migration is radically reshaping Iraq’s ethnic and sectarian landscape, according to new data collected by thousands of relief workers, but displacement in the most populous and mixed areas is surprisingly complex, suggesting that partitioning the country into semiautonomous Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish enclaves would not be easy,” the New York Times reports. “In Baghdad alone there are now nearly 170,000 families, accounting for almost a million people, that have fled their homes.”

NATION

“About 1,000 highly skilled legal immigrants, carrying placards and wearing T-shirts emblazoned with American flags, rallied Tuesday at the Capitol to protest long delays and vast bureaucratic backlogs in the immigration system,” the New York Times reports. “The immigrants, including doctors, medical technicians and computer engineers from India and China, came from as far as California and Washington State to call on Congress to provide more permanent visas for highly educated immigrants and more resources for the overburdened immigration system.”

“Video of police Tasering a persistent questioner of Sen. John Kerry became an Internet and TV sensation Tuesday, generating fierce debate about free speech and the motives of the college student involved — a known prankster who often posts practical jokes online,” AP reports. “University of Florida President Bernie Machen said Monday’s takedown, in which the student loudly yelled, ‘Don’t Tase me, bro’ was ‘regretful.’”

“Advocacy groups sued the FBI and the Department of Justice on Tuesday for failing to turn over records they requested on surveillance in the Muslim-American community,” AP reports. “The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the Muslim groups, alleges that the FBI has turned over only four pages of documents to community leaders, despite a Freedom of Information Act request filed more than a year ago. The documents were not related to surveillance.”

WORLD

“U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice scolded the U.N.’s atomic watchdog agency” today “over its Iran strategy and called for diplomacy with ‘teeth’ to end Tehran’s nuclear plans,” Reuters reports. “While repeating the U.S. stand that ‘all options’ remained on the table — a reference to military action against Tehran — Rice sought to ease fresh concerns over talk of war.”

“A multinational force commanded and led by British troops has launched a major offensive against the Taleban in the southern Afghan province of Helmand,” BBC News reports. “The operation involves about 700 men, mostly infantry and engineers. ”

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan “refused on Tuesday to rule out the possibility of military operations into northern Iraq to root out armed Kurdish separatist groups that he said had taken refuge in the border region,” the New York Times reports. “Mr. Erdogan also criticized some Western countries for what he called their increasingly hawkish stance against Iran.”

“Pro-Taliban militants in northwest Pakistan attacked a military checkpost” today “and captured seven paramilitary soldiers,” Reuters reports. “The raid was the latest in a series of bloody militant attacks on security forces and abductions of soldiers since July, when a pact with militants broke down and commandos stormed a radical mosque in Islamabad.”