Pull up a chair — you may need it. David Addington, Dick Cheney’s Chief of Staff, has indicated he might testify before the House Judiciary Committee.
Anyone familiar with Cheney’s Cheney, a commonly used reference to Addington, will know that Addingtion even acknowledging the Congress exists is completely out of character for the notorious [...]
Prompted by ABC’s recent exposure of the White House torture review program, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers invited five top Bush administration officials (former and current) to a hearing to review the administration’s "torture policies and other potential abuses of executive power."
Conyers sent letters to David Addington, John Ashcroft, Doug Feith, Daniel Levin, [...]
Crybabies throwing a temper-tantrum because they’re not getting their way.
From The Hill:
House Republicans Thursday left the chamber ahead of a vote seeking to hold White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers in contempt of Congress for refusing to testify before a panel investigating the firing of several United [...]
Who may show up (or not) at the House Judiciary Committee hearing* today on the interrogation of detainees and the CIA’s destruction of related videotapes may turn out to be as interesting as any testimony that may be given. Committee Chairman Conyers sent letters on December 7th requesting information from [...]
Rep. John Conyers (D-MI)
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers responded to Attorney General Michael Mukasey’s refusal last week to appear before his committee this week regarding the CIA destroying videotapes of detainee interrogations. Although Judge Mukasey may have interpreted Conyers’ request as an opportunity for them to get acquainted — Mukasey being [...]
CBS’s Bob Schieffer asks Sen. Jay Rockefeller, “Why were the tapes destroyed?” Rockefeller takes a long pause, leans forward, begins to speak but stumbles. He then takes a deep sigh, and is obviously uncomfortable about what to say — there is no good answer — finally, he musters up, “You can speculate…”
Schieffer did not [...]
(Update below)
An article in the Washington Post today provides previously undisclosed information about when and who in Congress was briefed on the administration’s torture policies, and raises several questions congressional leaders need to address, especially Democratic leaders.
In September 2002, four members of Congress met in secret for a first [...]
(Update below)
The White House is blocking efforts by Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald and Congress to continue investigating the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson. Furthermore, the Washington Post gives the appearance it is trying to help the White House by reporting misleading information and keeping the matter as low-key [...]
It is not an overstatement to say that Henry Waxman has tenaciously carried out his responsibilities as Chairman of House Committee on Oversight and Government reform. The Post has a rather robust piece on Waxman, the White House’s "worst nightmare."
So, how about Waxman’s predecessor? Zip. Tom Davis admits he didn’t do any oversight.
"For the [...]
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) and Sub-Committee Chair Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) demanded the release of secret legal opinions issued by the Justice Department that authorized the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the CIA.
Conyers and Nadler also demanded that Steven Bradbury, the acting head of the Office of Legal Counsel “be made available [...]
Trying to portray Blackwater as non-partisan, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) did everything but that when he questioned Erik Prince, CEO of Blackwater, in today’s Blackwater hearing about Prince’s strong family ties to the Republican Party and George Bush.
Issa asked Prince several questions about his sister, Betsy DeVos, a former Michigan Republican Party Chairwoman. Was she [...]
In addition to fighting insurgents and more recently al-Qaeda in Iraq, one of the primary missions of the U.S. military has been to deter the civil war related violence in Iraq — that is to say, protecting the civilian population. Moreover, many casualties, if not the majority, are attributable to the detonation of IED’s the [...]
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) made a ludicrous accusation that Democrats in the House Oversight and Government Reform Hearing on Blackwater were repeating “the MoveOn.org attack on General Petraeus’s patriotism.” The only time General Petraeus’s name was mentioned was when Rep. John Tierney (D-MA) said the use of private contractors in the Iraq war “seems to [...]
(Update below)
This past Friday, seven House Republicans asked Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-MI) to postpone a Blackwater USA hearing scheduled for tomorrow until the State Department and the U.S.-Iraq Joint Commission release their reports.
I bet they do want the investigation delayed until after those reports are “revealed.” Cheney probably needs a [...]
The State Department issued a statement late yesterday in response to Rep. Henry Waxman’s (D-MI) letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice regarding Blackwater’s scheduled
There seems to be some misunderstanding with regard to this matter. All information requested by the committee has been or is in the process of being provided.
Blackwater has been [...]
You are currently browsing the The Political Chase weblog archives for 'Oversight' tag.
Longer entries are truncated. Click the headline of an entry to read it in its entirety.
The Political Chase is powered by WordPress 2.5.1 and Unnamed 1.23 by Xu Yiyang
Entries (RSS) and Comments (RSS)
