Hinchey to introduce censure resolutions

July 26, 2007
Hinchey to introduce censure resolutions

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey plans to introduce two resolutions in the House calling for the censure of President Bush, Vice President Cheney and other administration officials, the congressman's office announced on Thursday.

Hinchey's resolutions, companions to ones proposed by U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., seek to reprimand the Bush administration for misleading the American people about the reasons for invading Iraq, mismanaging the war and the military occupation of Iraq and abusing the Constitution through such practices as warantless surveillance.

Censure and Impeachment

July 23, 2007
Censure and Impeachment

Feingold is renewing and extending a call for censure that that the Wisconsin Democrat initially made in March, 2006. The senator now proposes one resolution censuring the president, the vice president and their aides for overstating the case that Saddam Hussein had WMDs, particularly nuclear weapons, and falsely implying a relationship with al Qaeda and links to 9/11; for failing to plan for the civil conflict and humanitarian problems that the intelligence community predicted; for over-stretching the Army, Marine Corps and Guard with prolonged deployments and for justifying U.S. military involvement in Iraq by repeatedly distorting the situation on the ground there. A second resolution would censure the administration for approving the illegal NSA warrantless wiretapping program, for promoting extreme policies on torture, the Geneva Conventions, and detainees at Guantanamo; and for refusing to recognize legitimate congressional oversight into the improper firings of U.S. Attorneys.

Gonzales Digs a Deeper Hole

July 24, 2007
Gonzales Digs a Deeper Hole

Specter later circled back to Gonzales on the matter, warning him: "My suggestion to you is you review your testimony to find out if your credibility has been breached to the point of being actionable," Specter said. The maximum penalty for being caught lying to Congress is five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 per count. Specter wryly noted to reporters during a break that there is a jail in the Capitol complex.

Senator Jay Rockefeller, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, who was involved in the briefings at the time of the hospital visit, said the so-called Gang of Eight — the eight top bipartisan members of Congress on intelligence issues — were not briefed about any sunset the program was facing, as Gonzales claimed. He also emphatically refuted Gonzales' statements that there was more than one program under discussion at the time and that the Gang of Eight had agreed the program was so important that if it had been allowed to lapse they were considering emergency legislation.

Diplomats Received Political Briefings

July 24, 2007
Diplomats Received Political Briefings

White House aides have conducted at least half a dozen political briefings for the Bush administration's top diplomats, including a PowerPoint presentation for ambassadors with senior adviser Karl Rove that named Democratic incumbents targeted for defeat in 2008 and a "general political briefing" at the Peace Corps headquarters after the 2002 midterm elections.

The briefings, mostly run by Rove's deputies at the White House political affairs office, began in early 2001 and included detailed analyses for senior officials of the political landscape surrounding critical congressional and gubernatorial races, according to documents obtained by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Delays in disabled pay, health care prompt suit

July 24, 2007
Delays in disabled pay, health care prompt suit

WASHINGTON — Frustrated by delays in health care, a coalition of injured Iraq war veterans is accusing the Department of Veterans Affairs of breaking the law by denying them disability pay and mental health treatment.

The class-action lawsuit, filed Monday in federal court in San Francisco, seeks broad changes in the agency as it struggles to meet growing demands from veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Suing on behalf of hundreds of thousands of veterans, it charges that the VA has failed servicemen and women on numerous fronts. It contends the VA failed to provide prompt disability benefits, failed to add staff to reduce wait times for medical care and failed to boost services for post-traumatic stress disorder.

Just What the Founders Feared: An Imperial President Goes to War

July 23, 2007
Just What the Founders Feared: An Imperial President Goes to War

The nation is heading toward a constitutional showdown over the Iraq war. Congress is moving closer to passing a bill to limit or end the war, but President Bush insists Congress doesn't have the power to do it. "I don't think Congress ought to be running the war," he said at a recent press conference. "I think they ought to be funding the troops." He added magnanimously: "I'm certainly interested in their opinion."

The war is hardly the only area where the Bush administration is trying to expand its powers beyond all legal justification. But the danger of an imperial presidency is particularly great when a president takes the nation to war, something the founders understood well. In the looming showdown, the founders and the Constitution are firmly on Congress's side.

Rockefeller Accuses Gonzales of perjury

July 20, 2007
Rockefeller Accuses Gonzales of perjury

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy threatened yesterday to request a perjury investigation of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, as Democrats said an intelligence official's statement about a classified surveillance program was at odds with Gonzales's sworn testimony.

The latest dispute involving public remarks by Gonzales concerned the topic of a March 10, 2004, White House briefing for members of Congress. Gonzales, in congressional testimony Tuesday, said the purpose of the briefing was to address what he called "intelligence activities" that were the subject of a legal dispute inside the administration.

Documents Contradict Gonzales Senate Testimony

July 26, 2007
Documents Contradict Gonzales Senate Testimony

"Not the TSP?" responded Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-NY). "Come on. If you say it's about other, that implies not. Now say it or not."

"It was not," Gonzales answered. "It was about other intelligence activities."

A four-page memo from the national intelligence director's office says the White House briefing with the eight lawmakers on March 10, 2004, was about the terror surveillance program, or TSP.

Judiciary Committee OK's contempt citations

July 26, 2007
Judiciary Committee OK's contempt citations

WASHINGTON -- The House Judiciary Committee voted yesterday to issue contempt citations for two of President Bush's closest aides, moving nearer to a constitutional confrontation with the White House over access to information about the dismissal of nine US attorneys.

The panel voted along party lines, 22 to 17, to issue citations to Joshua Bolten, White House chief of staff, and Harriet Miers, former White House counsel. Both refused to comply with committee subpoenas after Bush declared that documents and testimony related to the prosecutor firings are protected by executive privilege.

DeFazio asks, but he's denied access to classified information

July 20, 2007
DeFazio asks, but he's denied access to classified information

WASHINGTON -- Oregonians called Peter DeFazio's office, worried there was a conspiracy buried in the classified portion of a White House plan for operating the government after a terrorist attack.

As a member of the U.S. House on the Homeland Security Committee, DeFazio, D-Ore., is permitted to enter a secure "bubbleroom" in the Capitol and examine classified material. So he asked the White House to see the secret documents.

On Wednesday, DeFazio got his answer: DENIED.

US military needs 'image makeover' in Iraq

July 21, 2007
US military needs 'image makeover' in Iraq

"It's not just a matter of putting the right spin' on US military actions, because words alone won't win public support," he said.

"Instead, US forces need to take the right actions if they want to get the local support that's crucial to America's counterinsurgency efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Among the study's recommendations for the armed forces were "manage civilian expectations by not making promises they can't keep," and "monitor civilian satisfaction through town hall meetings."

Former Texas exec pleads guilty to military contract kickbacks

July 21, 2007
Former Texas exec pleads guilty to military contract kickbacks

ROCK ISLAND, Ill. — A second former executive of a global logistics company has pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to receiving kickbacks on Iraq war contracts and lying to federal investigators.

Kevin Andre Smoot, 43, faces up to 15 years in prison and $500,000 in fines after pleading guilty Friday to making a false statement and violation of the Anti-Kickback Act before U.S. District Judge Michael M. Mihm.

GAO: Iraqi Oil Sector in Tatters

July 20, 2007
GAO: Iraqi Oil Sector in Tatters

Even after spending $2.7 billion in U.S. reconstruction funds, Iraq's oil sector has failed to achieve any of the goals to boost production, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office.

Indeed, the highest production levels were reached back in 2004 and have not been equaled since then. In addition, the State Department's oil data for Iraq may dramatically overstate the actual production levels by as much as $5.5 billion a year, because of inadequate metering, corruption, theft, and sabotage. Security remains the biggest of the challenges, but future investment will be difficult as well.

Vacationing while Baghdad boils

July 21, 2007
Vacationing while Baghdad boils

Back in May, a group of Republican lawmakers, understandably agitated by the very real possibility that President Bush was driving them over a cliff, met with their lame-duck leader at the White House. They voiced their strong concerns about the Iraq disaster and warned Bush about the '08 political repercussions.

Then one GOP congressman lashed out at Bush over reports that members of the Iraqi Parliament were planning to exercise their new-won freedom by actually going on vacation for the entire month of August - despite the fact that a war was raging around them, and despite the fact that they had enacted none of the crucial "benchmark" legislation that Bush first asked for back in January.

Well, sure enough, the Iraqi Parliament will be on vacation for the entire month of August - and the White House, ever protective of its clients, is insisting that the hiatus is no big deal.

On Friday, Bush press secretary Tony Snow confirmed the news, and at first sought to minimize it by saying that the Iraqis were going on vacation "just like the U.S. Congress is." That was a creative defense, to suggest that if the Democratic-run Congress opted to go on vacation, then the Iraqi Parliament should feel free to do the same. Somehow, that feels like a false equivalence. Last I checked, the Iraqi Parliament was sitting on some bills that were crucial to the government's survival, while people were being blown up in the streets. And, last I checked, the Bush administration and its dwindling band of enablers were urging the Iraqis to make some real progress in time for Gen. David Petraeus' September report.

Bush could face first veto override: Health care for low income children

July 22, 2007
Bush could face first veto override: Health care for low income children

Now, almost 10 years later, President Bush is threatening to veto federal legislation that would renew the same partnership — the State Children's Health Insurance Program — and expand it to cover more of the nation's nearly 9 million uninsured children.

If he follows through on that threat, Bush could face a first in his presidency: a veto override.

The bill is considered Washington's most important legislation this year on health coverage.

Iraq unions vow 'mutiny' over oil law

July 20, 2007
Iraq unions vow 'mutiny' over oil law

BAGHDAD, July 20 (UPI) -- Iraq's unions say the draft oil law is a threat and threaten "mutiny" if Parliament approves the bill.

"This law cancels the great achievements of the Iraq people," Subhi al-Badri, head of the Iraqi Federation of Union Councils, told the al-Sharqiyah TV station. He referred specifically to laws that nationalized Iraq's oil sector.

Iraq holds 115 billion barrels of proven reserves, the third largest in the world, and likely much more when the country is fully explored.

Iraq Oil Benchmark Won't Be Met

July 20, 2007
Iraq Oil Benchmark Won't Be Met

A confidential intelligence report prepared for U.S. officials this week concludes a key U.S. benchmark of progress in Iraq, a law to divide oil revenues equitably among the provinces, "will not be agreed by September, even if cosmetic legislation is put in place."

An agreement on how to divide oil profits among Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish areas is one of 18 key benchmarks of progress to be reviewed by the U.S. in September.

Teen Sex Rates Stop Falling

July 22, 2007
Teen Sex Rates Stop Falling

After decreasing steadily and significantly for more than a decade, the percentage of teenagers having intercourse began to plateau in 2001 and has failed to budge since then, despite the intensified focus in recent years on encouraging sexual abstinence, according to new analyses of data from a large federal survey.

The halt in the downward trend coincided with an increase in federal spending on programs focused exclusively on encouraging sexual abstinence until marriage, several experts noted. Congress is currently debating funding for such efforts, which receive about $175 million a year in federal money and have come under fire from some quarters for being ineffective.

UK drops 'war on terror'

July 22, 2007
UK drops 'war on terror'

What had just been narrowly averted, he said, was not a new jihadist act of war but instead a criminal act. As if to underscore the point, Brown instructed his ministers that the phrase "war on terror" was no longer to be used and, indeed, that officials were no longer even to employ the word "Muslim" in connection with the terrorism crisis.

In remarks to reporters, Brown's new home secretary, Jacqui Smith, articulated the basic message. "Let us be clear," she said, "terrorists are criminals, whose victims come from all walks of life, communities and religions."

Time: How to Leave Iraq

July 19, 2007
Time: How to Leave Iraq

As the White House and Congress bicker over timetables and benchmarks, intelligence estimates and report cards, the real question is the one neither camp is facing very well: How do we leave in a way that maximizes the good that we can still achieve and minimizes the damage that will inevitably occur? The best strategic minds in both parties have argued for months that the answer is essentially to muddle our way out, cut our losses carefully and try to salvage what we can from a mission gone bad. Even under the rosiest scenarios, the U.S. will suffer a humbling blow to its prestige as it leaves Iraq and the Sunni-Shi'ite civil war intensifies. But with the debacle would come some dividends. Done judiciously, a pullback from the war would start restoring America's ability to advance its interests and deter aggression beyond Iraq.

Clinton, Obama Beat Every Republican in Presidential Poll

July 19, 2007
Clinton, Obama Beat Every Republican in Presidential Poll

NEW YORK — Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton now holds a slight lead over top Republican Rudy Giuliani for the first time in a hypothetical 2008 presidential matchup. In fact, to varying degrees, Clinton and fellow Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama beat every Republican candidate they are tested against in the latest FOX News Poll.

General slams GOP senators on Iraq policy

July 18, 2007
General slams GOP senators on Iraq policy

Retired Maj. Gen. John Batiste, former division commanding general in Iraq, said he was "disappointed" in the way most Republican senators voted to oppose the Democrat-backed legislation that passed the U.S. House of Representatives last week. President George W. Bush is expected to veto the measure.

"Our incredible all-volunteer force cannot sustain the current pace and America desperately needs a focused Middle East strategy," Batiste said. "Conservatives never have stood for using our military for nation building or refereeing civil wars, and unfortunately politicians like many Republicans in the Senate are getting away from that. Their vote was inconsistent with a true, conservative, pro-military policy."

Batiste has angered Republican legislators in the U.S. Congress with his testimony in a highly charged congressional hearing on developments in the war.

Two U.S. soldiers face murder charge

July 19, 2007
Two U.S. soldiers face murder charge

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Two U.S. soldiers have been charged with premeditated murder in the death of an Iraqi near the northern city of Kirkuk last month, the U.S. military said Thursday.

Marine Cpl. Trent D. Thomas was convicted of kidnapping and conspiracy to commit offenses, including murder.

The charges were brought against Sgt. Trey A. Corrales of Texas and Spc. Christopher P. Shore of Georgia, following "reports of the alleged wrongdoing made by fellow soldiers to military authorities," a military statement said.

Court: VA Must Pay Agent Orange Victims

July 19, 2007
Court: VA Must Pay Agent Orange Victims

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- An appeals court chastised the Department of Veterans Affairs on Thursday and ordered the agency to pay retroactive benefits to Vietnam War veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange and contracted a form of leukemia.

"The performance of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs has contributed substantially to our sense of national shame," the opinion from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals read.

Clinton hits back at Pentagon

July 20, 2007
Clinton hits back at Pentagon

WASHINGTON - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton hit back Friday at a Pentagon aide who charged that her questions about Iraq withdrawal planning have the effect of helping the enemy - calling the accusation a spurious dodge of a serious issue.

Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner for president, had asked the Pentagon to detail how it is planning for the eventual withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Iraq. She first raised the issue in May, pointing out that whenever troops leave, it will be no simple task to transport the people, equipment, and vehicles out of Iraq, possibly through hostile territory.

Iraq War Costs Approach $567 Billion

July 19, 2007
Iraq War Costs Approach $567 Billion

July 19 (Bloomberg) -- The cost of the war in Iraq will exceed the half-trillion dollar mark once Congress completes its work on a defense measure for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, the Congressional Research Service said in a report.

"If Congress approves these requests, total funding would reach about $567 billion for Iraq, $157 billion for Afghanistan" with the remainder for enhanced U.S. homeland security, CRS analyst Amy Belasco said in a July 16 report released yesterday.

Spending for the effort against terrorism since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks is on a course to reach $758 billion after the House and Senate complete work on their respective bills and negotiators agree on a final version later this year, the report said.

Boston Globe: Lesser evils and an exit strategy

July 10, 2007
Boston Globe: Lesser evils and an exit strategy

It is pointless for Bush to go on complaining that the commanding general in Iraq, David Petraeus, needs more time to make his clear-and-hold operations in Baghdad work, or that the electoral anxieties of congressional incumbents should not determine US policy in Iraq. A virtue of the democratic system Bush has sought to export to the Middle East is that, at regular intervals, it allows the people to call their representatives to account.

Kansas Eagle: Time for a new phase in Iraq

July 10, 2007
Kansas Eagle: Time for a new phase in Iraq

Bush argued in January that the surge would give the Iraqi government breathing space to accomplish key goals, such as holding provisional elections and agreeing on power-sharing arrangements. But the Iraqi leaders have failed to meet any of those benchmarks -- nor do they seem willing to do the hard work and compromise needed to achieve them.

American leaders must now focus on how to draw down U.S. troops and prepare for an eventual withdrawal, as outlined last year by the Iraq Study Group.

Sacramento Bee: There are no options for a graceful exit

July 15, 2007
Sacramento Bee: There are no options for a graceful exit

In these circumstances, as James Fearon of Stanford University wrote in the March/April edition of Foreign Affairs, "U.S. military intervention in Iraq is thus unlikely to produce a government that can survive by itself whether the troops stay 10 more months are 10 more years."

There are no options for a graceful exit. The choice is among unpalatable alternatives. Republicans and Democrats in Congress increasingly understand this. The problem is that President Bush still doesn't, and he is the one who must do the planning for a safe, orderly disengagement.

Detroit Free Press: Time to Pull Out

July 13, 2007
Detroit Free Press: Time to Pull Out

"There is no near-term answer," Daniel Goure, vice president of the Lexington Institute, a military policy research group, told the Associated Press. "Does that mean that you can't win this thing? This is winnable -- in about 10 years. But you could lose it ... in about an hour and a half."

It is time to start getting America out of Iraq, to stop debating whether the glass is half empty or half full, and start to drain it.

Top GOP Senators Only Talk Against the War

July 18, 2007
Top GOP Senators Only Talk Against the War

Anyone searching for the highest forms of invertebrate life need look no further than the floor of the U.S. Senate last week and this. These spineless specimens go by various names -- Republican moderates; respected senior Republicans; Dick Lugar, John Warner, Pete Domenici, George Voinovich.

They have seen the folly of our course in Iraq. The mission, they understand, cannot be accomplished. The Iraqi government, they discern, is hopelessly sectarian.

In wisdom, they are paragons. In action, they are nullities.

Ex-Cheney Aide Gets 10 Years in Prison in Spy Case

July 18, 2007
Ex-Cheney Aide Gets 10 Years in Prison in Spy Case

NEWARK, New Jersey (Reuters) - A former White House official who took top secret documents from U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's office and gave them to opposition figures in the Philippines was sentenced on Wednesday to 10 years in prison.

Philippine-born Leandro Aragoncillo, a U.S. citizen and former Marine, pleaded guilty last year to taking the documents that included details on threats against U.S. government interests and military personnel in the Philippines.

Leader of Al Qaeda group in Iraq was fictional

July 18, 2007
Leader of Al Qaeda group in Iraq was fictional

As the titular head of the Islamic State in Iraq, an organization publicly backed by Al Qaeda, Baghdadi issued a steady stream of incendiary pronouncements. Despite claims by Iraqi officials that he had been killed in May, Baghdadi appeared to have persevered unscathed.

On Wednesday, a senior American military spokesman provided a new explanation for Baghdadi's ability to escape attack: He never existed.

Brigadier General Kevin Bergner, the chief American military spokesman, said the elusive Baghdadi was actually a fictional character whose audio-taped declarations were provided by an elderly actor named Abu Adullah al-Naima.

Taliban growing stronger in Afghanistan

July 18, 2007
Taliban growing stronger in Afghanistan

LONDON (Reuters) - NATO countries are not giving the international force securing Afghanistan enough support and there are worrying signs that the Taliban are growing stronger, a detailed study by Britain's parliament has found.

The report, by the House of Commons Defence Committee, highlighted a series of concerns, from a lack of training for Afghan police and armed forces to an unclear policy on eradicating the country's vast opium poppy fields.

But the chief preoccupation was a lack of support from other NATO countries to provide more troops to the 36,000-strong ISAF mission and evidence that violence, including Iraq-style suicide bombings, was growing as Taliban and al Qaeda-linked insurgents expand their sphere of influence outwards from the south.

Fight for control of Iraq's oil reserves

July 18, 2007
Fight for control of Iraq's oil reserves

"We will lose control over Iraqi oil. The social progress in Iraq will be curtailed substantially, because the oil companies want huge profits; they are not concerned about the environment, wages, or living conditions," he warned. "We will wait to see the reaction of the Iraqi people."

Baghdad has reacted angrily to the union's campaign, issuing arrest warrants for al Assadi and his fellow leaders, and refusing to recognise the 26,000-strong confederation of workers.