The Political Chase

Leahy Finally Moves on WH Executive Privilege Claim

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT)

Did the rapture come and I missed it? Something finally woke Patrick Leahy up.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, ruled today that "White House claims of executive privilege and immunity in the Senate’s investigation of the mass firings of U.S. Attorneys are overbroad, unsubstantiated, and not legally valid."While it’s not clear to me what legal implications Leahy’s ruling may have other than procedural, at least the issue has been moved from cryogenic storage to a thawing table.

More than five months ago (June 13 and July 26) the Committee issued subpoenas to, amongst others, White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten, former White House political director Sara M. Taylor, former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, and White House deputy political director J. Scott Jennings. The White House promptly declared Executive Privilege to everything under the sun and refused to let most of those subpoena even appear before Congress to formally exert their claim. Limited testimony was given by Taylor and Jennings.

Since the White House thumbed its nose at Congress, other than exchanging strong letters and meaningless rhetoric, nothing has been done to challenge the administration’s claims. Of course, some of that inaction is directly related to Alberto Gonzales. The Justice Department is responsible for prosecuting contempt citations, and Bush ordered Gonzales to not allow any prosecutor to pursue contempt charges (iirc).

In his ruling today, Leahy said:

“I have given the White House’s claims of executive privilege and immunity careful consideration,” wrote Leahy. “I hereby rule that those claims are not legally valid to excuse current and former White House employees from appearing, testifying and producing documents related to this investigation. Accordingly, I direct Mr. Bolten, Mr. Rove, Ms. Taylor and Mr. Jennings to comply immediately with the Committees subpoenas by producing documents and testifying or face possible contempt citations.”

According to Roll Call (subscription), the Committee could issue contempt citations for each person that does not comply — including Karl Rove — as early as December 6. The House Judiciary Committee has already approve contempt citations, therefore the next step is for each committee to get full approval of their respective Houses. The House does not require a super-majority vote, therefore approval is all but assured. If a 60-vote super-majority approval is required in the Senate, my guess is Leahy’s citations will be DOA.

Mike Gravel may be president by the time Congress actually gets around to prosecuting anybody.

WH: We don’t want clarification of Geneva Conventions

In today’s White House press briefing, Dana Perino made it abundantly clear the administration’s interpretation and definition of torture is the sole authority, and the White House wants no input from the international community.

Perino wrongly stated all parties to the Geneva Conventions were supposed to apply their interpretations of the Conventions. When challenged that interpretation of the Conventions was the responsibility of the International Crimes Court, Perino said, “I don’t think we’re seeking their help.”

Click To Play

WH Confirms Opinions, Denies Torture

The White House has acknowledged the existence of legal opinions authorizing “enhanced interrogation techniques,” that were issued in early 2005 and in late 2005. However the existence of those opinions would surely not taint the pristine Bush-Cheney administration — Dana Perino has the chutzpah to still assert, just like her boss, they do not employ torture.

Perino did a soft-shoe shuffle over the whole issue at today’s White House Press Briefing. Paul Kiel has the details.

Judge Rules Against Craig

From Reuters:

A Minnesota judge on Thursday refused to let U.S. Senator Larry Craig take back the guilty plea he made after a sex sting arrest, making it likely the Idaho Republican will resign his Senate seat as planned.

Judge Charles Porter of the Hennepin County District Court ruled a week after Craig’s lawyers contended at a hearing that he had panicked and had been rushed into pleading guilty after an undercover officer arrested him in an airport men’s room.

Craig has said he would resign from the Senate but might reconsider if he could take back the plea and try to clear his name.

TPC Roundup - Iraq Funding $520M Per Day

HEADLINES

• Washington: Bush Wants $190B to Fund War; Judge Strikes Patriot Act Provisions
• Congress: Senate Approves Biden Plan to Petition Iraq
• Iraq: Bombing Waves Continue
• Nation: GAO Finds Northern US Border Vulnerable
• World: Israelis Kill Seven Palestinians

WASHINGTON

• “Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates asked Congress” on Wednesday “to approve an additional $42.3 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, bringing the Bush administration’s 2008 war funding request to nearly $190 billion — the largest single-year total for the wars so far,” the Washington Post reports. “The move came as Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the Army chief of staff and former top U.S. commander in Iraq, warned lawmakers that the Army is stretched dangerously thin because of current war operations and would probably have trouble responding to a major conflict elsewhere.”
• “A federal judge in Oregon ruled Wednesday that crucial parts of the USA Patriot Act were not constitutional because they allowed federal surveillance and searches of Americans without demonstrating probable cause,” the New York Times reports. “The ruling by Judge Anne L. Aiken of Federal District Court in Portland was in the case of Brandon Mayfield, a lawyer in Portland who was arrested and jailed after the Federal Bureau of Investigation mistakenly linked him to the Madrid train bombings in March 2004.”
• “President Bush said Wednesday that Afghanistan is becoming a safer, more stable country, thanks to the efforts of President Hamid Karzai,” AP reports. “‘Mr. President, you have strong friends here,’ Bush told Karzai after they met for about an hour at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel” in New York City. “‘I expect progress and you expect progress and I appreciate the report you have given me today.’”
• Bush and Karzai “agreed Wednesday on the need to work jointly to fight narcotics trafficking, terrorism and a resurgent Taliban, and on the necessity of international help with energy needs,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
• “Seeking to counter international pressure to adopt binding limits on greenhouse gas emissions, the Bush administration has been touting the success of three mandatory programs to curb U.S. energy consumption: gas mileage standards for vehicles, efficiency standards for home appliances and state laws requiring utilities to increase their use of renewable energy sources,” the Washington Post reports. “But for most of the Bush presidency, the White House has either done little to promote these measures or, in some cases, has actively fought against them.”
• “Despite signaling that he wants to see the controversial military prison at Guantanamo Bay shuttered, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that he has been unable to reach agreement within the executive branch on how to proceed with the closure,” The Hill reports. “In response to questions by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) during a Senate hearing, Gates said that disagreement is focused on where the United States should send the prisoners and what kind of legislation would be required to guarantee the rights of the most dangerous prisoners while protecting Americans.”

CONGRESS

• “The Senate found its first bipartisan consensus on the Iraq war Wednesday, dealing a minor rebuke to the Bush administration and a major boost to the long-shot White House run of Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.),” The Hill reports. “Biden’s amendment calling for a decentralized Iraqi government passed 75-23 and won over 26 Republicans, giving the Foreign Relations Committee chairman a shot in the arm as he headed to Wednesday night’s Democratic debate in New Hampshire.”
• “The Senate approved a resolution on Wednesday urging the Bush administration to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization,” the New York Times reports. “Since last month, the White House has been weighing whether to declare the Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist group or to take a narrower step focusing on only the Guard’s elite Quds Force.”
• “Deferring a showdown with President Bush, the House on Wednesday approved a stopgap spending bill to finance the operations of the federal government, including the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, through mid-November,” the New York Times reports. “Lawmakers of both parties said the step was necessary because Congress had not finished work on any of the 12 annual appropriations bills for the fiscal year that starts Monday.”
• “House and Senate Democratic leaders insisted Wednesday that no final decision has been made on the timing of the next supplemental spending bill to fund the Iraq War, one day after Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told liberal lawmakers that the measure is not likely to reach the House floor until 2008,” Roll Call  (sub. req.) reports. “‘While there has been discussion, there is no decision on that,’ Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said of the supplemental’s timing.”
• “Rep. Terry Everett, an eight-term Republican from an Alabama district with a focus on farming and military bases, said Wednesday he will retire when his current term expires,” AP reports. “Everett, 70, of Rehobeth, a former newspaper publisher and farmer, cited health reasons.”
• “Senator Larry E. Craig of Idaho on Wednesday backed away from his earlier decision to resign on Sept. 30 and said he would await a judge’s ruling on a motion to reverse his guilty plea in an undercover sex sting,” the New York Times reports. “Mr. Craig, a Republican, made the announcement after a court hearing on the motion.
• “Senate Democrats are trying to force President Bush to sign hate crimes legislation he has threatened to veto by attaching it to a massive bill funding the Defense Department and the Iraq war,” AP reports. “Writing violent attacks on gays into federal hate crime laws is related to the war because both are strikes against terrorism, according to a Republican senator and other supporters of the measure.”

IRAQ

• “Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki warned the U.N. General Assembly Wednesday that the continued flow of weapons, suicide bombers and terrorism funding into his country would result in ‘disastrous consequences’ for the region and the world,” AP reports. “Al-Maliki, who met with President Bush Tuesday, urged the international community and countries in the region to support Iraq’s national reconciliation process to rid terrorism from the country and bring peace to the region.”
• “A wave of bombings and shootings swept Iraq on Wednesday, killing at least 50 people and raising fears that al-Qaida had launched a promised new offensive,” AP reports. “The U.S. military acknowledged that violence was on the upswing and blamed it on the terror movement.”
• Gates “has ordered U.S. military commanders in Iraq to crack down on any abuses they uncover by private security contractors in the aftermath of a deadly shooting involving American guards that infuriated Iraqis,” the Los Angeles Times reports. “Gates took the step after concluding that the thousands of heavily armed private guards in Iraq who work for the Pentagon may not be adequately supervised by military officers.”
• “The American security contractor Blackwater USA has been involved in a far higher rate of shootings while guarding American diplomats in Iraq than other security firms providing similar services to the State Department, according to Bush administration officials and industry officials,” the New York Times reports. “Blackwater is now the focus of investigations in both Baghdad and Washington over a Sept. 16 shooting in which at least 11 Iraqis were killed.”
• “Pentagon officials suggested” on Wednesday “that U.S. civilian security contractors in Iraq fall under the Uniformed Code of Military Justice and could be prosecuted in military courts for offenses against Iraqis,” the Washington Times reports. “Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell told reporters that while U.S. civilians working in Iraq under Department of Defense contracts were not subject to Iraqi law, they could be held accountable under U.S. law.”
• “Iraqi and U.S. special forces have arrested at least 59 army officers and enlisted men accused in killings, bombings and kidnappings in the latest case linking elements of the Iraqi army to sectarian militias and criminal gangs, authorities announced Wednesday,” the Los Angeles Times reports.

NATION

• “A smuggler could easily carry radioactive material or other contraband across the northern border into the United States, government investigators have found,” AP reports. “The Government Accountability Office sent out investigators to test how easily they could transfer large red duffel bags at unguarded and unmonitored spots along the more than 5,000 miles of U.S.-Canada border.”
• “Facing pressure from religious groups, civil libertarians and members of Congress, the federal Bureau of Prisons has decided to return religious materials that had been purged from prison chapel libraries because they were not on the bureau’s lists of approved resources,” the New York Times reports. “The bureau had said it was prompted to remove the materials after a 2004 Department of Justice report mentioned that religious books that incite violence could infiltrate chapel libraries.”
• “More than half a year after disclosures of systemic problems at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and other military hospitals, the Pentagon’s promised fixes are threatened by staff shortages and uncertainty about how best to improve long-term care for wounded troops, according to a congressional report issued” on Wednesday, the Washington Post reports. “Army units developed to shepherd recovering soldiers lack enough nurses and social workers, and proposals to streamline the military’s disability evaluation system and to provide ‘recovery coordinators’ are behind schedule, according to the Government Accountability Office report.”

WORLD

• “Israeli forces killed seven Palestinians in an airstrike and ground assault Wednesday in the Gaza Strip, retaliating for a barrage of mortar and rocket fire into southern Israel,” the Los Angeles Times reports. “On the bloodiest day in Gaza since Israel declared it a ‘hostile territory’ last week, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that the military was ‘moving closer to a broad and complex operation’ in the enclave ruled by the Islamic movement Hamas.”
• “A year and a half after President Bush told top aides that he feared he might be forced someday to choose between acquiescing to Iran’s nuclear ambitions and ordering military action, the struggle to find an effective alternative — sanctions with real bite — is entering a new phase,” the New York Times reports. “The speech at the United Nations on Tuesday by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran is already being used by American officials in an effort to convince European allies that Iran’s leadership will respond only to a sharp new wave of economic pressure, far greater than anything it has endured so far.”
• “Pakistan’s top judge has ordered the immediate release of dozens of detained opposition supporters who have been taken into custody since the weekend,” BBC News reports. “Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry made the ruling after summoning police and government officials to court. He did so shortly after papers were filed naming” President Pervez Musharraf “to contest presidential elections on 6 October.”

Guilty Plea Interruptus

Forget the resignation announcement for now. Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) has decided he will stick around until Hennepin County, MN Judge Charles Porter rules on his case. Roll Call (sub. req.) reports the judge will likely not issue his ruling until next month.

If Judge Porter’s remarks and focus in the 40-minute hearing are indicative of his initial assessment, things may not look so good for the Senator. Judge Porter repeatedly questioned Craig’s attorney but only asked the prosecutor one procedural question. Furthermore, casting doubt on Craig’s motion to withdraw, Porter asked Craig’s attorney why he should withdraw the plea, followed by, “That’s what he did in in his petition — admit what he did.”

Strangely enough, Craig seems to think if the judge rules in his favor it will clear his name.

Today was a major step in the legal effort to clear my name,” Craig said in a statement. “The court has not issued a ruling on my motion to withdraw my guilty plea. For now, I will continue my work in the United States Senate for Idaho.

If the judge allows the plea to be withdrawn, it doesn’t end there. Instead, it starts all over. Craig would have to enter a not guilty plea and then face a jury trial.

I find it hard to believe Craig’s “good name” will be restored by any successful motion to withdraw or even if acquitted by a jury.

TPC Afternoon Roundup - Global Criticism

HEADLINES

• Washington: Press questions Bush’s language skills; Military tribunals to continue
• Congress: Iran sanctioned; Children’s health care program extended
• Supreme Court: Voter-ID laws and lethal injections to be reviewed
• Iraq: Pending legislation regulating private companies; Killing Insurgents via “Baiting Program”
• Nation: Violent crime increases
• World: Bush announces sanctions at U.N.; Monk demonstrations continue

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WASHINGTON

• “White House spokeswoman Dana Perino on Tuesday called a question that indicated President Bush might have trouble pronouncing foreign countries’ names “offensive,” the Hill reports. “The issue arose after the United Nations posted a draft of Bush’s speech to the General Assembly on its website, complete with phonetic spellings of countries that the president spoke about.”
• “A special military appeals court, overturning a lower court ruling, on Monday removed a legal hurdle that has derailed war crime trials for detainees at Guantanámo Bay, Cuba,” the New York Times reports. “The ruling allows military prosecutors to address a legal flaw that had ground the prosecutions to a halt.”
• “The Bush administration took the gloves off Monday in its fight over immigration enforcement, suing the state of Illinois for banning use of a federal system that checks whether workers are in the United States legally,” the Los Angeles Times reports. “The United States of America vs. the State of Illinois is the latest court battle the administration is waging with immigrant advocates and business groups over its crackdown on workers here illegally and the companies that hire them.”

CONGRESS

• “Congress signaled its disapproval of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with a vote Tuesday to tighten sanctions against his government and a call to designate his army a terrorist group,” the AP via TPM reports. “The overwhelming bipartisan vote of 397 - 16 “reflected lawmakers’ long-standing nervousness about Tehran’s intentions in the region, particularly toward Israel _ a sentiment fueled by the pro-Israeli lobby whose influence reaches across party lines in Congress.”
• “Congressional Democrats unveiled legislation Tuesday to keep the government running until mid-November, giving them more time to bridge gaping differences with President Bush over the budget,” the AP via TPM reports. “the bill temporarily extends health coverage for children from low-income families as Congress and Bush wrangle over how much to expand the program, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP.”
• “Republicans are decrying what they say are changes to newly enacted Senate earmark rules eliminating a ban on new earmarks being inserted into authorizing bills during conference,” Roll Call reports (sub. req.). GOP Members also complain “that key disclosure requirements that mandate Members publicly disclose who their earmarks will benefit and what the purpose of the spending is have been seriously weakened.”

SUPREME COURT

• “The Supreme Court agreed today to consider whether voter-identification laws unfairly keep poor people and members of minority groups from going to the polls,” the New York Times reports. “The justices will hear arguments from an Indiana case, in which a federal district judge and a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in January upheld a state law requiring, with certain exceptions, that someone wanting to vote in person in a primary or general election present a government-issued photo identification.”
• The Court also “agreed today to hear constitutional challenges brought by two death-row inmates in Kentucky, who assert that the state’s lethal-injection procedures amount to cruel and unusual punishment, the New York Times reports. “The step could have the effect of postponing executions across the country scheduled to be performed by lethal injection, the method is used by nearly all states with a death penalty, as well as by the federal government.”

IRAQ

• “The Iraqi interior ministry has said it has drafted legislation regulating private security companies following a shooting allegedly involving a US firm,” the BBC reports. “The new code would require contractors to be subject to Iraqi law and to be monitored by the Iraqi government.”
• “Under a program developed by a Defense Department warfare unit, Army snipers have begun using a new method to kill Iraqis suspected of being insurgents, using fake weapons and bomb-making material as bait and then killing anyone who picks them up, according to testimony presented in a military court,” the New York Times reports. “The existence of the classified ‘baiting program,‘ as it has come to be known, was disclosed as part of defense lawyers’ efforts to respond to murder charges the Army pressed this summer against three members of a Ranger sniper team.”
• “Sunni extremists appear to have begun a systematic campaign to assassinate police chiefs, police officers and other Interior Ministry officials throughout Iraq, with at least 10 attacks in the last 48 hours,” the New York Times reports. “Eight policemen have been killed, among them the police chief of Baquba in Diyala Province.”

NATION

• “Violent crime in the United States rose more than previously believed in 2006, continuing the most significant increase in more than a decade, according to an FBI report released yesterday, the Washington Post reports. “The FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program found that robberies surged by 7.2 percent and homicides rose 1.8 percent from 2005 to 2006. Violent crime overall rose 1.9 percent.”
• “Investigators used a ruse to question a man later charged with aiding terrorists, an FBI agent testified Tuesday at a hearing over admissibility of the conversation and a search of the defendant’s luggage,” the AP reports. “FBI agent Michael Scherck said he and another law enforcement officer approached Ehsanul Sadequee as he got off a flight from Atlanta to New York on Aug. 18, 2005, and told him they wanted to talk to him about passenger complaints that he had acted suspiciously on the plane.” Instead, “Scherck said that in fact there were no complaints, but investigators wanted biographical information from Sadequee as part of a terrorism probe involving him.

WORLD

• Addressing the United Nations General Assembly today, President Bush “chided nations to live up to the rights and freedoms the United Nations promised six decades ago, announced new sanctions on Myanmar and denounced the governments of Belarus, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria and Zimbabwe as ‘brutal regimes,’ ” the New York Times reports. The president “called on members of the United Nations to do more to support nascent democracies and to oppose autocratic and tyrannical governments.”
• “Tens of thousands of Buddhist monks and supporters today defied a government warning in Myanmar and returned to the streets for an eighth day of peaceful antigovernment protests, the New York Times reports. “For the first time since protests began on Aug. 19, the government began to issue warnings and to move security forces into positions in Yangon, the largest city and former capital.”
• “Iranians on Tuesday called the combative introduction of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad by the head of Columbia University “shameful” and said the harsh words only added to their image of the United States as a bully,” AP reports. “In a region where the tradition of hospitality outweighs personal opinions about people, many here thought Columbia University President Lee Bollinger’s aggressive tone — including telling Ahmadinejad that he exhibited the signs of a ‘petty and cruel dictator’ — was over the top.”
• Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto criticized U.S. support for President Gen. Pervez Musharraf as a strategic miscalculation,” the Los Angeles Times reports. “Backing Musharraf, a close U.S. ally who seized power in a 1999 coup, makes the fight against extremists operating along the Pakistani-Afghan border more difficult, she said today.”

SCANDALS

• A Minnesota judge will be hearing Sen. Larry Craig’s petition to overturn his guilty plea on a disorderly conduct charge in Minneapolis on Wednesday, but the Idaho Republican will not be at the hearing,” CNN reports. ” ‘I have been advised not to. I will not be attending,’ Craig said.”

TPC Roundup - Congressional Bombs and Syrian Bombs

HEADLINES

• Washington: Bush No Comment on Syria, Will Veto Child Health Bill
• Washington: Bush “Received B in Econ 101, A in Keeping Taxes Low”
• Congress: Iraq War Funding Bill Fails, Senate Condemns MoveOn.org
• Iraq: Blackwater Unprovoked According to Iraq Probe
• Nation: Thousands March Protesting “Jena 6″

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WASHINGTON

• “Israel’s decision to attack Syria on Sept. 6, bombing a suspected nuclear site set up in apparent collaboration with North Korea, came after Israel shared intelligence with President Bush this summer indicating that North Korean nuclear personnel were in Syria, U.S. government sources said,” the Washington Post reports. “The Bush administration has not commented on the Israeli raid or the underlying intelligence.”
• President Bush threatened yesterday, “to veto a bill expanding a popular children’s health insurance program, calling it “a step toward federalization of health care,” the New York Times reports. “The program expires Sept. 30, and Congress is on the verge of renewing it by providing coverage to an additional 4 million children over the 6.6 million already enrolled — at an additional cost of $35 billion over five years.”
• “President Bush pointedly declined on Thursday to discuss an Israeli airstrike in northern Syria,” the New York Times reports. “Mr. Bush did, however, warn North Korea that the United States expected it to dismantle its nuclear weapons programs and to stop selling weapons or expertise abroad, as it promised to do this year.”
• “Sidestepping the turmoil in the housing market and the credit problems associated with it, President Bush said Thursday that the nation’s economy was strong and would remain so if Congress steered clear of tax increases,” the Los Angeles Times reports. “But he would not rate the risk of recession, saying, ‘You need to talk to economists. I think I got a B in Econ 101. I got an A, however, in keeping taxes low.’”
• “President Bush acknowledged “some unsettling times” in the country’s troubled housing and credit markets, while Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke offered more assurances steps would be taken to curb the fallout,” the Boston Globe reports. “The housing slump, the worst in 16 years, is likely to drag on well into 2008, when the nation will be voting for a new president. Home foreclosures - now at record highs - and delinquencies are likely to get worse, Bernanke told the House Financial Services Committee yesterday.”
• Bush “plans to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in New York on Monday during the U.N. General Assembly meetings, the White House said,” Reuters reports. “The meeting will be to ‘continue discussions on helping the Palestinian Authority and on issues related to an eventual two-state solution of Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace and security,’ White House National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said on Thursday.”

CONGRESS

• “Underscoring his resolve,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid “revived a proposal to cut off funding for most U.S. military operations in Iraq by next summer — the most drastic antiwar measure in the legislative mix, and the biggest long shot for passage,” the Washington Post reports. “With only a few votes changing since May 16, when similar language died on a 67 to 29 vote.”
• “Congress gave final approval Thursday to legislation designed to transform the Food and Drug Administration from a passive monitor to an active detective seeking out medications that have been approved for sale but turn out to be hazardous — a problem linked to an estimated 15,000 deaths a year,” the Los Angeles Times reports. “The drug-safety provisions were the centerpiece of a massive bill that also would renew industry user fees that fund the FDA’s review of medications and medical devices submitted for approval.”
• “Democrats are disappointed they have been unable to force President Bush to change course in Iraq, but they will keep pushing — with or without Republican help,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said Thursday, CNN reports. “GOP senators have filibustered every Democratic-led push to bring troops home from Iraq.”
• The Senate on Thursday “overwhelmingly condemned the liberal anti-war group MoveOn.org for its newspaper ad that last week accused the top U.S. general in Iraq of lying and misrepresenting the situation on the ground, a measure on which Democratic leaders had refused to allow a vote last week,” the Washington Times reports. “The nonbinding measure, offered by Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican, passed by a vote of 72-25, with 24 Democrats and one independent, Bernard Sanders of Vermont, voting against it.”
• “The FBI has taped conversations between Republican Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska and an oil company executive who has pleaded guilty to bribery, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation,” CNN reports. “The calls were between Stevens, who is up for re-election in 2008, and Bill Allen, then CEO of oilfield services firm VECO Corp., the source said Thursday.”
• “A Washington watchdog group on Thursday asked the Justice Department to investigate Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.) for possible tax violations and improper use of his House office and staff,” the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. “Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW) filed the complaint here just two days after declaring Scott among the 25 ‘most corrupt’ congressmen here for mingling personal and campaign interests, failing repeatedly to pay personal and business taxes and, as one of his former aides claimed, using his House staff to work on his campaign.”

IRAQ

• “Iraq’s Ministry of Interior has concluded that employees of a private American security firm fired an unprovoked barrage in the shooting last Sunday in which at least eight Iraqis were killed and is proposing a radical reshaping of the way American diplomats and contractors here are protected,” the New York Times reports. “In the first comprehensive account of the day’s events, the ministry said that security guards for Blackwater USA, a company that guards all senior American diplomats here, fired on Iraqis in their cars in midday traffic.”
• “Iraq wants to tighten control over security contractors after a deadly shooting incident involving the U.S. firm Blackwater, ending their long immunity from Iraqi prosecution, the Interior Ministry said” today, Reuters reports. “Spokesman Major-General Abdul-Kareem Khalaf said the ministry had drafted legislation giving it wider powers over the contractors and calling for ’severe punishment for those who fail to adhere to the…guidelines on how they should operate.’”
• “Military officials said Thursday that contracts worth $6 billion to provide essential supplies to American troops in Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan–including food, water and shelter–were under review by criminal investigators, double the amount the Pentagon had previously disclosed,” the New York Times reports. “In addition, $88 billion in contracts and programs, including those for body armor for American soldiers and materiel for Iraqi and Afghan security forces, are being audited for financial irregularities, the officials said.”
• “The first cases of cholera appeared in Baghdad on Thursday, in a sign the epidemic that has already sickened thousands in northern Iraq is now spreading more widely in a population made vulnerable by war to a normally preventable disease,” the New York Times reports. “The World Health Organization and Iraqi Red Crescent Society reported two cases here and Iraqi television reported another case, in a 7-month-old baby, in Basra, far to the south.”

NATION

• “Tens of thousands of chanting marchers descended on the small Louisiana town of Jena on Thursday to protest the treatment of six black teenagers who allegedly beat a white classmate after a series of racially tinged incidents at the local high school,” the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports. “Hailing from as far as England, protesters arrived at sunrise by the busload to rally behind the ‘Jena Six,’ as the accused teens have come to be known, in a legal case that has drawn worldwide attention.”
• “Prominent Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu violated federal election laws by reimbursing several donors for the political checks they wrote, and extracted campaign donations from others by threatening to cut their ties with a highly lucrative Ponzi scheme he oversaw, according to a criminal complaint filed by the Justice Department” on Thursday, the Washington Post reports. “A federal fraud case that the U.S. attorney for New York’s Southern District unsealed against Hsu suggests for the first time why he in a short period of time became one of the nation’s most prolific bundlers of campaign funds.”
• “A big overhang of property will bring U.S. house prices down further, but it is too early to say if the economy will plunge into recession, former Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan was quoted as saying” today, Reuters reports. “Greenspan said in an interview with Austrian magazine Format that low interest rates in the past 15 years were to blame for the house price bubble, but that central banks were powerless when they tried to bring it under control.”
• “A federal grand jury has subpoenaed House records connected to a one-time aide to” former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, “who has been caught up in the Jack Abramoff influence-peddling scandal,” AP reports. “The subpoena involving Ed Buckham was issued to the chief administrative officer of the House by a grand jury in Washington.”

WORLD

• “Hundreds of Islamists chanting slogans against Pakistan’s military leader rallied outside the Supreme Court” today “as judges heard petitions challenging President Gen. Pervez Musharraf right to run for re-election,” AP reports. “Opposition parties have promised to stage anti-Musharraf street protests across Pakistan” today, “claiming it would be illegal for the general, who seized power in a 1999 coup, to run.”
• “A bomb attack” today “against a convoy of French troops killed one soldier and caused many casualties among Afghans near the blast, while heavy fighting in southern Afghanistan killed about 75 Taliban fighters, officials said,” AP reports. “The attack in western Kabul blew the windows out of a civilian bus and set at least one vehicle on fire.”

TPC Roundup - Managing Iraq with Filibusters

HEADLINES

• Republicans Support Bush with Filibusters
• Bush Wants Expansion of Warrantless Wiretaps
• Pentagon Report Highlights Failures in Iraq
• Agency Looking to Enhance Import Controls
• Rice, Palestinian and Israeli Leaders Hold Peace Conference

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CONGRESS

• “Senate Republicans” on Wednesday “rejected a bipartisan proposal to lengthen the home leaves of U.S. troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, derailing a measure that war opponents viewed as one of the best chances to force President Bush to accelerate a redeployment of forces,” the Washington Post reports. “The proposal, sponsored by Sens. James Webb (D-Va.) and Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), failed on a 56 to 44 vote, with 60 votes needed for passage — a tally that was virtually identical to a previous vote in July.” See TPC related post.
• “A Republican filibuster in the Senate” on Wednesday “shot down a bipartisan effort to restore the right of terrorism suspects to contest in federal courts their detention and treatment, underscoring the Democratic-led Congress’s difficulty with terrorism issues,” the Washington Post reports. “The 56 to 43 vote fell short of the 60 needed to cut off debate and move to a final vote on the amendment to the Senate’s annual defense policy bill.” See TPC related post. 
• “The Food and Drug Administration would gain new authority to ensure the safety of prescription drugs, including the power to mandate label changes that warn of newly emerging risks, under a bill passed Wednesday by the House,” AP reports. “The bill, heralded as the most significant drug safety legislation in more than 40 years, passed on a 405-7 vote.”  
• “A bill to offer legal status to illegal immigrant students who have graduated from high school was revived this week in the Senate, the first effort to advance a piece of broad immigration legislation that failed in June,” the New York Times reports. Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., “who is an author of the student measure, said Wednesday that he would try this week to offer it as an amendment to the military authorization bill under debate in the Senate.”
• “The House on Wednesday passed a 15-year extension of a program to aid the insurance industry in the event of a terrorist attack,” AP reports. “The measure, passed 312-110, is aimed at ensuring that developers can get insurance against losses from potential attacks.”
• “House Republican leaders will launch a new offensive in the fight over earmark reform” this morning, “seeking to expand earmark disclosure requirements to tax and authorization bills,” The Hill reports. “Currently, only earmarks in appropriations bills are subject to new transparency requirements.”

WASHINGTON

• “President Bush said Wednesday he wants Congress to expand and make permanent a law that temporarily gives the government more power to eavesdrop without warrants on suspected foreign terrorists,” the Washington Post reports. “Without such action, Bush said, ‘our national security professionals will lose critical tools they need to protect our country.’” See TPC related post.
• “U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns is expected to resign” today “to clear the way for a Senate campaign in 2008, giving Republicans a welcome dose of good political news,” the Washington Post reports. “President Bush plans a White House announcement” this morning “with Johanns, a senior administration official said Wednesday. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the announcement has not been made, would not confirm that Johanns is resigning.”
• “The Bush administration, acknowledging a moral obligation, intends to sharply increase the number of Iraqi refugees it will admit to the United States next year, a senior State Department official said Wednesday,” AP reports. “So far this year, 900 have been given refuge in this country, Ellen Sauerbrey, an assistant secretary of State, told the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom at a hearing on Capitol Hill.”
• “The Bush administration on Wednesday appointed two senior officials to clear bureaucratic roadblocks blamed by Washington for the painfully slow pace of admitting Iraqi refugees to the United States,” Reuters reports.

IRAQ

• “In another sign of U.S. struggles in Iraq, the target date for putting Iraqi authorities in charge of security in all 18 provinces has slipped yet again, to at least July,” AP reports. “The delay, noted in a Pentagon report to Congress on progress and problems in Iraq, highlights the difficulties in developing Iraqi police forces and the slow pace of economic and political progress in some areas. ”
• “Violence in Iraq has fallen to its lowest level since before a 2006 mosque attack which unleashed reprisal sectarian killings, the number two commander of U.S. forces in Iraq said” today, Reuters reports. “Lieutenant-General Raymond Odierno said attacks in Baghdad had also fallen about 50 percent since January, just before Washington began pouring 30,000 extra troops into Iraq to try to drag the nation back from the brink of civil war.”
• “A suicide car bomber blew himself up Wednesday and wounded four civilians while trying to hit an Iraqi army base in the northern city of Mosul, an Iraqi army officer said,” AP reports.
• “Iraq’s Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki proposed on Wednesday forming a cabinet of technocrats to replace his splintering national unity government and called for greater powers to push through his nominations,” Reuters reports. “Maliki’s 16-month-old government, which included Sunni and Shi’ite Arabs, Kurds, Islamists and secularists, has unravelled since a dozen Sunni and Shi’ite ministers quit.”
• “The United States and Iraq will form a joint commission to look into allegations that private guards protecting American diplomats killed Iraqi civilians and to review the U.S. Embassy’s security practices,” AP reports. “The size and composition of the commission have yet to be determined but its members are charged with assessing the results of both U.S. and Iraqi investigations of Sunday’s incident.”
• “The shooting incident involving private security guards in Baghdad on Sunday that left at least eight Iraqis dead has revealed large gaps in the laws applying to such armed contractors,” the New York Times reports. “Early in the period when Iraq was still under American administration, the United States government unilaterally exempted its employees and contractors from Iraqi law… thus the thousands of heavily armed private soldiers in Iraq operate with virtual immunity from Iraqi and American law.”
• “U.S. soldiers detained an Iranian” today “who was part of a commercial delegation visiting the northern Iraqi city of Sulaimaniya, an Iraqi government official in Baghdad said,” Reuters reports. “The official said U.S. forces detained the man at his hotel in Sulaimaniya, a city in Iraq’s largely autonomous region of Kurdistan.”

NATION

• “Leaders of the agency responsible for protecting consumers from faulty products said Wednesday that Congress should increase their budget and power in the wake of huge recalls of lead-contaminated toys,” AP reports. “The testimony from Consumer Product Safety Commission officials came as Mattel Inc., producer of 1.5 million of the 13.2 million toys recalled in the past month, said its tests found lead levels in paint in recalled toys as high as 200 times the accepted safety ceiling.”
• “Federal authorities are expected to file civil charges against current or former employees at several brokerage firms in connection to a years-long investigation into abusive stock lending, people familiar with the matter said,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “The civil complaint by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which also may involve the filing of criminal fraud charges, could come as soon as today, these people said.”
• “Spurred by the Internet and a popular disc jockey’s nationwide urban radio program, tens of thousands of people are expected to descend on a sleepy rural Louisiana town to protest what they say are excessive criminal charges against six black teenagers involved in a schoolyard brawl,” the Washington Post reports. “About 500 tour buses bearing thousands of riders were scheduled to depart from cities across the United States in the wee hours today for Jena, La., about 230 miles northwest of New Orleans.”
• “At the close of a two-day hearing on charges that Special Forces soldiers murdered an Afghan man near his home last October, it is increasingly evident that the Army is also examining itself and how it is fighting the war in Afghanistan,” the New York Times reports. “A Special Forces colonel presiding over the hearing must determine whether sufficient evidence exists to recommend courts-martial for the two soldiers accused of killing the man, Nawab Buntangyar, who had been identified as an ‘enemy combatant,’ while he walked unarmed outside his home near the Pakistan border. ”

WORLD

• “Palestinian leaders sought details” today “from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice about the goals of what they hope will be a breakthrough Mideast peace conference, but the talks were overshadowed by Israel’s declaration of Hamas-run Gaza as ‘hostile territory,’” AP reports. “The Palestinians want the conference, tentatively set for November, to yield an outline for a peace deal, complete with timetable, while Israel wants a vaguer declaration of intent.”
• “A powerful car bomb in a Christian neighborhood just east of Beirut killed a Christian lawmaker from the governing coalition and six others Wednesday evening,” the New York Times reports. “It was the latest in a deadly string of bombings that have rocked Lebanon’s teetering political order as the country prepares to select a new president.” 
• “President Gen. Pervez Musharraf will seek a new five-year term in a presidential election set for Oct. 6, officials said” today, “even as opponents urged the courts to stop him from running and vowed to quit Parliament in protest,” AP reports. “After the U.S.-allied leader signaled his plan to resign as army chief if re-elected, the Election Commission announced that the ballot by federal and provincial lawmakers would be held Oct. 6.”
• “Al Qaeda’s second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri urged Sudanese Muslims in a video posted” today “to fight a force of African Union and U.N. peacekeepers set to deploy to Sudan’s volatile western region of Darfur,” Reuters reports. “In an 80-minute compilation video that touched on a several conflicts, Zawahri criticised Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir’s decision to accept a U.N. resolution that lays the ground for a 26,000-strong joint AU-U.N. operation.”

SCANDALS

• “Besieged Rep. Jerry Weller (R-Ill.) is expected to announce as early as today that he is retiring from Congress, weeks after a Chicago newspaper exposed potentially questionable land deals in Central America,” Roll Call  (sub. req.) reports. “Republican sources confirmed late Wednesday that Weller will not seek an eighth term but were uncertain as to when he would announce his decision…Earlier this month, the Chicago Tribune published an investigation into Weller’s Nicaraguan land deals, suggesting that Weller has bought and sold several beachfront properties that he did not disclose on his financial disclosure forms. Weller was a strong advocate of the Central America Free Trade Agreement, which critics note provides protections to land investors in Central America — including Weller.”
• “The House Ethics Committee announced an investigation Wednesday of” California Rep. Bob Filner’s (D) “run-in with a baggage worker at Dulles International Airport last month,” AP reports. “The incident resulted in misdemeanor assault and battery charges against the congressman.”

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 s