CORRUPTION
UPDATES 51
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1) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE:
Congressman queried about Abramoff ties
Investigation that centers on disgraced lobbyist heats up.
By Greg Gordon - McClatchy Washington Bureau
Published 12:00 am PDTThursday, April 26, 2007
In a burst of activity over the last week and a half, FBI agents and federal prosecutors have won a guilty plea from a former congressional aide, implicated two more members of the House and put the scandal surrounding onetime super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff's influence-peddling back into the headlines.
The pace of the inquiry, which now has bagged a veteran congressman, a deputy Cabinet secretary, a White House aide and eight others, appears to be accelerating.
is Rep. Tom Feeney, R-Fla., who said bureau agents have asked for details of a 2003 golf trip to Scotland that he took with Abramoff -- a trip that the House ethics committee recently ruled violated House rules.
Last week, FBI agents raided the home of Rep. John Doolittle, R-Roseville, in a search for business records of his wife, Julie, who has done work for Abramoff.
And on Tuesday, former congressional aide Mark Zachares pleaded guilty to helping Abramoff obtain government business and inside information in exchange for cash, gifts and job favors. Zachares was an aide to Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, when Young chaired the House Transportation Committee.
Abramoff may have provided the impetus for the flurry of public activity by cooperating extensively with investigators in return for promises of leniency as he tries to wriggle out of a prison sentence that could jail him for up to 30 years.
"He's talking so much he doesn't have time to eat," one lawyer involved in the matter quipped, insisting upon anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. "Everybody who had business dealings with the guy should be nervous."
Abramoff has yet to be sentenced in Washington, and prosecutors last month asked a federal judge in Miami to lighten the Florida sentence of five years and 10 months because of his continuing cooperation
Feeney is among those who might be nervous over the ex-lobbyist's chatter, said the knowledgeable lawyer. The third-term congressman reported accepting $5,643 for the golfing trip and wrote a check to the U.S. Treasury in that amount last January when the House ethics committee found it encroached on rules barring travel with lobbyists.
Zachares' punishment will likely be limited to two years in prison under a deal with the government that requires him and his wife, Cynthia, to cooperate with prosecutors.
Others to fall...include J. Steven Griles, the former No. 2 official at the Interior Department,...and David Safavian, a White House aide convicted of lying to an ethics official at the General Services Administration.
THE
COMMITTEE SAYS:
A few Heads Roll, and the System of Corruption Rolls On
I am of little faith in the Justice Department. Abramoff paid over 100 visits to the White House. Abramoff's web of corruption spanned Congress, the Senate, and the White House.
The Feds are seriously limiting the investigation to the small fry.
It seems likely the Feds are asking prematurely for the sentence reduction for Abtramoff in Florida. It smacks of favoritism. The deal goes like this, FEDS: "Tell us what we want to know, and no more, and you get out of Florida." ABRAMOFF: "OK."
Abramoff will snitch just enough to get his reduced sentences, but not enough to endanger Bush and the party leaders, and every member of the House and Senate. They all have their own "Abramoffs," if not Abramoff himself.
Ralph Reed, Grover Norquist, Rove, Delay, and a slew of Political Bribers hiding behind "non-profit" front groups have yet to cross the police blotter.
What's up, Feds? They were up to their necks in buying and selling influence.
Also
See:
Corruption Updates 13, 2nd article on the page, Report Details Abramoff Ties to White House:The convicted lobbyist and his associates had hundreds of contacts with the executive branch, a bipartisan House probe finds.”
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Griles
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2) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE :
Ex-House aide snared in Abramoff probe
By PETE YOST, Associated Press WriterTue Apr 24, 9:04 PM ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/abramoff_zachares&printer=1;_ylt=AngiGDBt_Cdnn
NRMVNIw.U2MwfIE
A former congressional aide pleaded guilty Tuesday to accepting tens of thousands of dollars in gifts from lobbyist Jack Abramoff in an influence-peddling scandal that has touched the White House, Interior Department and congressional Republicans.
Mark Zachares was the 11th person to be convicted in the Justice Department probe.
Zachares admitted engaging in official acts on Abramoff's behalf while working for Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, who chaired the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
Young's office declined to comment Tuesday.
He faces a maximum of five years in prison, but under federal sentencing guidelines will probably face two years or less.
After the court appearance, defense attorney Edward MacMahon declined to say whether Young was aware of what Zachares was doing on behalf of Abramoff.
Zachares agreed to cooperate with the government's continuing investigation and outside the courthouse MacMahon reinforced that point to reporters .
Zachares provided information to Abramoff about pending congressional actions on the reorganization of federal agencies into the Homeland Security Department.
In court, Zachares admitted that Abramoff and his lobbying team supplied him with $30,000 worth of tickets to sporting events and concerts on more than 40 occasions in 18 months from mid-2002 to early 2004.
Zachares accompanied Abramoff and six others including Rep. Tom Feeney (news, bio, voting record), R-Fla., on a $160,000 golf junket to Scotland in 2003
After the guilty plea, Feeney's office said only that the congressman "is anxious to discuss this matter at the appropriate time."
During the court proceeding, Justice Department attorney Richard Pilger disclosed that Zachares' wife also is in legal jeopardy.
Pilger said the government will offer an agreement not to prosecute Cynthia Zachares in exchange for her complete cooperation.
Zachares and Abramoff became professional acquaintances when Zachares worked for the attorney general in Saipan, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The island government paid Abramoff over $7 million for lobbying from 1996 to 2001.
In early 2002, Zachares accepted $10,000 in wire transfers from Abramoff as the two men discussed Zachares' Washington, D.C., employment prospects.
THE
COMMITTEE SAYS:
Abramoff Crony Guilty: His Boss the Congressman Next?
Naw.
Big fish swim, little fish fry.
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3) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE :
Gonzales Aide Floated Replacements Early On
By Dan Eggen and Paul Kane
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, April 14, 2007; A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/13/AR2007041301154_pf.html
The attorney general's former top aide identified five Bush administration insiders as potential replacements for sitting U.S. attorneys months before those prosecutors were fired, contrary to repeated suggestions from the Justice Department that no such list had been drawn up, according to documents released yesterday.
E-mails sent to the White House in January and May of 2006 by D. Kyle Sampson, then chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, name potential replacements for U.S. attorneys in San Diego, San Francisco, Little Rock and Grand Rapids, Mich.
Sampson told the Senate Judiciary Committee last month that on Dec. 7, when seven U.S. attorneys were sacked, "I did not have in mind any replacements for any of the seven who were asked to resign."
One document also raises new questions about the firing of prosecutor David C. Iglesias in New Mexico, who has testified that he felt pressured by Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) and Rep. Heather A. Wilson (R-N.M.) to speed up indictments of Democrats before last November's elections.
Two pages of handwritten notes by Monica M. Goodling, until recently Gonzales's senior counselor, include this criticism of Iglesias: "Domenici says he doesn't move cases." The notes are undated but appear amid a set of documents relating to meetings in February of this year.
Domenici called Gonzales or his deputy four times to complain about Iglesias, and Gonzales also fielded complaints about him last fall from Bush and Rove.
The documents show the evolution of March 6 testimony from William E. Moschella, the principal associate deputy attorney general, to a House subcommittee. Draft versions written just days before he appeared begin with a declaration that Justice "strongly opposes" efforts to revoke Gonzales's new authority to appoint interim U.S. attorneys without Senate confirmation. The scandal mushroomed in ensuing days, however, and Moschella's testimony was reshaped as the department backed down on the legislation.
Also released yesterday was a chart given to Gonzales in February that noted U.S. attorneys' political backgrounds and whether they were members of the Federalist Society, a coalition of conservative lawyers and legal scholars with close ties to the Bush administration.
THE
COMMITTEE SAYS:
Liars Inhabit all Offices of the Executive Branch
Gonzales, and his staff, lied in earlier testimony to Congress. This only came out in the emails, provoking Sampson's resignation, and Goodling's running for the protection of the fifth Amendment. Sampson lied, and directed Gonzales' cover up until he was busted red-handed. Goodling appears to be only partially implicated in the cover up, but directly implicated in the original crime: she coordinated the application of the White House's political hiring policy within the Justice Department.
Gonzales now says it was Sampson who suborned Congress. If this far-fetched notion is true, Gonzales should resign for losing control of his staff. In this atmosphere of fear and recrimination, Goodling's taking the Fifth reveals the depth of desperation her situation has taken her to.
If Sampson was following orders from Gonzales, which seems likely, the next question is who was directing Gonzales? Goodling represents the path presidential authority followed from the White House to Justice, and reveals the White House Offices that directed the removal and replacement process. Goodling represented the authority of Gonzales in her dealings with the White House, and coordinated the two. Goodling is the key to breaking this whole scandal right open, and she has run for the legal hills, leaving Gonzales and the White House exposed.
Presently, both Sampson and Gonzales lied to Congress, and should be charged with lying, and conspiring to lie to Congress, as well as obstruction of Justice..
Ultimately, how much we will find out about the depth of White House political manipulation of the US attorneys office will depend on the outcome of the Constitutional fight brewing between Congress and the President over the emails, described in Article Two in Corruption Updates, above.
A Constitutional Crisis already existed prior to the US Attorney Scandal.
Yet Congress has done little to counter the Presidents's use of illegal authority, before or after the last election. The White House has broken numerous domestic and international laws. It has kidnapped, tortured, and detained people in secret, claiming authority denied by the Constitution. It seems we have little hope that the recent crimes of this Administration will be addressed, when its previous crimes haven't been addressed. Or do we?
The US Attorney Scandal only indirectly targeted the Constitution; its main target was the Democrats. The same Congress that has done almost nothing to protect our rights up to now, may well rise up to defend its party against an attack using US Attorneys. Congress' determination to protect the Constitution pales in comparison to their sense of political survival.
The emerging evidence is clear. Put together, these reports clearly prove that Gonzales and the White House worked up a plan to use US Attorneys, and Federal Law, to suppress the vote, pursue political prosecutions against enemies, and limit prosecutions against friends.
Partisan politics are only the tip of the iceberg; The Justice Department is point man for defending the President's claims to illegal, unconstitutional authority. The evidence is also clear that the Democrats were not stirred to action when Bush shredded the Constitution, but only when he targeted them.
Independent of that sad fact, the depth and seriousness of the misuse of the power of office by both Congress and The President requires the appointment of a special prosecutor with full power to investigate the politicization of all the executive branch agencies, not just the Justice Department.
This Special Prosecutor must also have the power to investigate all the Congressional Committees charged with oversight and funding the Executive Branch departments.
The only sure way to end this vortex of greed and corruption is to cut off the politicians food supply: The Endless Flow of Corporate and Special Interest Bribe Money. Contributions from All Non-Voting Sources must end. Political Party support to all candidates must be curbed to no more than 30% of the contributions Candidates collect from qualified voters.
The corporations and special interests must be pushed out of direct participation in our elections. The parties and politicians have become no more than the political focus points for the wealth and power of the special interests to control access to, and the policy of, our government. Our job is to turn our government back over to the voters.
The special interests in America can no longer be allowed to control our government. They must be limited to their due free speech rights. If they give a penny, it is bribery, not free speech. The politicians belong to the voters, not the special interests.
Politicians will not defend our Constitution until their political existence is more dependent on their own voters than Corporate Bribery. Until then, control of our government is no more than the prize of a political auction.
Also See:
Corruption Updates 43, 4th article on the page, "Gonzales Met With Top Aides On Firings:GONALES CAUGHT IN OPEN LIES TO CONGRESS"
Corruption Updates 48, Ninth article on the page, "Ex-Justice Official's Statements Contradict Gonzales on Firings"
Corruption Updates 54 , 2nd article on the page, "Fired U.S. attorneys are called some of the best"
Full List of Relate Stories: US Attorneys Used as Political Tools
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4) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE :
Wolfowitz Apologizes For 'Mistake'
At World Bank, Boos Over Pay for Girlfriend
By Karen DeYoung and Al Kamen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, April 13, 2007; A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/12/AR2007041201188_pf.html
World Bank President Paul D. Wolfowitz publicly apologized yesterday for the "mistake" of personally orchestrating a high-paying job and guaranteed promotions for a bank employee with whom he is romantically involved, as new details of his role in the arrangement emerged and staff members angrily demanded his resignation.
Wolfowitz attempted to address about 200 staffers gathered in the bank's central atrium but left after some began hissing, booing, and chanting "Resign. . . . Resign." He had approached the gathering after holding a news conference in which he said, "I made a mistake for which I am sorry."
...Wolfowitz directed personnel officials to give Shaha Riza, his longtime companion, an automatic "outstanding" rating and the highest possible pay raises during an indefinite posting at the State Department, as well as a promotion upon her return to the bank.
When he took over as bank president in June 2005, Wolfowitz insisted not only that Riza -- then a senior communications officer at the bank -- retain her job but also that he maintain "ongoing professional contact" with her, according to a knowledgeable source who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the legal issues involved.
But the bank ethics committee, citing conflict of interest regulations, ruled that she had to leave the institution. It agreed to give her a pre-departure promotion to compensate for the career disruption. Until yesterday, Wolfowitz and his aides had insisted that "all arrangements concerning Shaha Riza were made at the direction of the bank's board of directors." Bank sources said, however, that neither the board nor the ethics committee was aware of the terms of the final agreement.
Riza left the State Department last year for a position at the U.S. government-funded Foundation for the Future. She remains on the bank payroll with a net salary of $193,590.
Wolfowitz was passing near the gathering after his news conference as the association's president, Alison Cave, was reading a statement demanding that he "act honorably and resign."
Cave invited Wolfowitz to the microphone. He repeated his apology and said he would abide by the board's decision, and he left as staff members began hissing and chanting. Hundreds of comments criticizing Wolfowitz, posted on the organization's internal Web site, were released by the Government Accountability Project, a whistle-blower organization.
THE
COMMITTEE SAYS:
Wolfowitz Whore Paid By Government
When you get paid money because you fuck someone, you are a whore. I cannot condemn that, unless the john (Wolfie) is stealing my money to pay the Whore. He did, and that not only deserves condemnation, but prosecution.
Wolfiwitz's behavior is not unexpected. This is the man who was pivotal in bringing us into the Iraq war. His lies and corruptions paved our way to that failed neo-con project.
And like all of Bush's Loyal, but Incompetent Crooks, he was being kicked upstairs by the boss, before being kicked out by the people.
And Surprise! Wolfie is having the same degree of success at the World Bank as he had in Iraq: Chaos.
The irony of this is the Orwellian double-speak of Wolfie: His theme at the World Bank was fighting corruption.
Apparently he is only fighting the corruption of his enemies, and not the corruption of this Administration, nor his own personal corruptions.
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5) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE :
Wolfowitz Dictated Girlfriend's Pay Deal
World Bank Board Weighs Its Options
By Karen DeYoung and Krissah Williams
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, April 14, 2007; A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/13/AR2007041300788_pf.html
World Bank President Paul D. Wolfowitz personally dictated the terms under which the bank gave what it called his "domestic partner" substantial pay raises and promotions in exchange for temporarily leaving her job there during his tenure, according to documents released by the bank's executive board yesterday.
Wolfowitz joined the bank in 2005 after working at the Pentagon, where as deputy defense secretary he was a principal architect of the Iraq war.
In a memo to the bank's vice president for human resources dated Aug. 11, 2005, Wolfowitz wrote, "I now direct you to agree to a proposal which includes the following terms and conditions." Riza was to be "detailed to an outside institution of her choosing while retaining Bank salary and benefits." She was to receive an immediate raise with approximate annual increases of 8 percent.
By 2010, when Wolfowitz's five-year term expired, she would reach a salary of $244,960, significantly above the maximum of $226,650 allowable for her pay grade.
In a memo dated Sept. 9, 2005, Wolfowitz aide Robin Cleveland, a former White House official he brought with him to the bank, wrote that Wolfowitz had hired an outside counsel to review the agreement since Dañino, the general counsel, worked for the bank and thus had a conflict of interest.
THE
COMMITTEE SAYS:
Wolfie Steals for Love, Greed, and Party
Wolfowitz dismissed the World Bank Counsel because he worked for the bank, and therefore had a "Conflict of Interest?"
You've got to be kidding. The Bank Counsel's job was, and is, to represent the Bank.
Wolfie dismissed the Counsel because he honestly represented the Bank's interests and rules. To Wolfie this was conflicting with his interest in paying his whore.
Rather than act honestly and ethically, Wolfie pursued his whore pay plan by trying to quash honest resistance to his misuse of office to steal money. Thus the dismissal of the Bank's attorney. Thus "ordering" Bank employees to approve his whore pay. Thus his lies to the press about how the Board approved his illegal whore pay.
Now he has been totally busted and exposed for the lying, cheating theif he is.
And like all of Bush's liars, they cling to office like a tick holds on in a pig's ass.Wolfie and Bush are failing to acknowledge or admit their open lies, or take any responsibility for their actions even after they are exposed.
The press, our corporate lying press, will not objectively analyze and compare the facts, and weigh in on who is lying about the whore pay, let alone Bush's mammoth lies that led to the war, and continue unabated to this day.
Wolfiwitz or the Bank is lying about the whore pay, but the "free press" can't or won't tell us which one is lying.
This is sad, but should not surprise anyone. Our Corporate press has done this before. They passed Wolfies lies about Iraq on to the people as truth, and share responsibility for the war with Wolfie and his criminal crew.
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6) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE :
U.S. Decides Against Freeing 5 Iranian Agents
Administration Resists Tehran's Pressure, State Department Recommendation
By Robin Wright
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 14, 2007; A12
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/13/AR2007041301282_pf.html
After intense internal debate, the Bush administration has decided to hold on to five Iranian Revolutionary Guard intelligence agents captured in Iraq, overruling a State Department recommendation to release them, according to U.S. officials.
At a meeting of the president's foreign policy team Tuesday, the administration decided the five Iranians will remain in custody and go through a periodic six-month review used for the 250 other foreign detainees held in Iraq, U.S. officials said. The next review is not expected until July, officials say.
The five, seized in a Jan. 11 raid by U.S. forces in the Kurdish city of Irbil, are at the center of increasing tensions between Washington and Tehran. The decision is certain to further irritate Tehran, which has ratcheted up pressure on the United States and on its allies and even its friends in the Iraqi government to win freedom for the Irbil five.
Since the capture, Iran has threatened not to attend a key meeting in Egypt next month of Iraq's neighbors -- as well as the United States and international groups involved in Iraq -- that Washington hopes will foster cooperation on Iraq. Without Iran, which exerts great influence in Iraq, the meeting could have only a marginal impact, according to Iraqi officials and Middle East experts.
The January raid on Iran's liaison office in Irbil was the second by U.S. troops. In December, U.S. troops in Baghdad nabbed Brig. Gen. Mohsen Chirazi, the No. 3 official in the Revolutionary Guard's elite Quds Force, and Col. Abu Amad Davari. They were soon released under Iraqi government pressure.
In January, the United States again targeted two high-ranking Iranians, including Gen. Minojahar Frouzanda, the Revolutionary Guard intelligence chief, and Mohammed Jafari, deputy head of Iran's National Security Council, U.S. officials say. They eluded capture.
The administration's decision comes at an awkward time. Washington is about to send a fourth message to Iran asking for information on the whereabouts of former FBI agent Robert A. Levinson, who has been missing since he flew to Iran's Kish Island five weeks ago.
THE
COMMITTEE SAYS:
US Continues to Hold Iranian Diplomats Hostage: Watch Out
The Post Article above defines the Iranians as Revolutionary Guard intelligence agents. Iran claims they are diplomats. As diplomats and secret agents are interchangeable parts, it is hard to tell the difference. Valerie Plame comes to mind. But they are neither agents or diplomats at this point, for they have become pawns in Bush's insane foreign policy.
They are either hostages, held in hope of being used as leverage to force Iran to obedience, or their detention is intended to provoke Iran into war. Neither of these scenarios will bear fruit for the Bush Administration.
Iran will not significantly alter its interactions with Iraq, nor will it comply with Bush's demand to halt enrichment for the sake of a few diplomatic agents. Neither will it respond to give Bush justification to attack Iran. The only effect of Kidnapping the Iranians has been to further discredit American foreign policy.
Bush will have to create his own pretext for expanding the war to Iran, or use the Israelites as proxies. Iran will not significantly alter its relationship with Iraq. Expect the opposite: the relationship between Iran and Iraq will expand and strengthen, offering guidance to other oil nations about how to resist American Military and Corporate power.. Nor will Iran comply with Bush's illegal demand to halt enrichment. Bullying 3rd world countries has been losing effectiveness since Cuba, and is not a responsible path to global security.
In a broader context, our raid on the Urbal Consulate, and the capture of its staff, has undermined international law as well as the safety of all diplomats around the world. But it is an improvement in Bush's diplomatic style; it is less than an illegal invasion, and more than a pouting silence. Bush is evolving his diplomatic style. Rather than silence or war, Bush has now added kidnapping to his Diplomatic tool kit.
Bush's kidnapping of Iranian diplomats is an act of ignorant desperation. Desperate, because American influence is rapidly deteriorating across the middle east. Our repudiation of the Palestinian election demonstrated what we really think about democracy. American disdain for democracy is mirrored by our support of the Dictator Mubarak as he crushes the last traces of democracy in Egypt. The experiences of Egypt and Palestine compared with our words have exposed America's hypocrisy to the whole world. The world is aware that, despite the power of our propaganda, it is not democracy we are spreading across the world on the points of our bayonets. It is tyranny.
Iran is waving the flag of defiance in our face. Their Victory in deposing the Dictator we imposed on them, the Shah, offers the middle east a shining example of how to end American Control, and is inspiring people around the world to seek freedom from American supported dictators.
The gravity of the situation is illustrated by The Saudi King's speech before the Arab League Summit, a few weeks back, where he declared our occupation of Iraq illegal, and called for the end of foreign interference in the middle east.
Bush's "diplomacy" by threats, war, kidnapping and torture has accelerated the middle east's inevitable trajectory to independence. Bush's criminal approach to middle eastern diplomacy is assuring that the "new," independent middle east will have a deep well of hatred for America. Bush has not only failed in his objective to impose American Military Power in the heart of the middle east, he has put our power there on the path to extinction, and laid the foundation for long term hostility between the middle east and America. This is very amusing to China, India and Russia, and offers them fertile grounds for expanding their influence into the middle east.
The Post's description of the Iranians as "agents" is reminiscent of their treatment of the Administration's unsubstantiated WMD claims that led to the Iraqi war. The Post, and the rest of the Corporate Press, are still printing the words of the Bush Administration without testing their statements for truthfulness, just like they did before the war. Bush may be right; the Iranian diplomats may be spys: Bush said Valerie Plame was an intelligence agent, and he was right.
And since Bush has seized the power to decide who is guilty, the Post is merely reporting the Administration's legal finding. If Bush does not have the power to decide who is guilty, then the Post is once again passing off Administration propaganda as fact, and supporting the President's Crimes. Like during the whole run up to the war.
As it is, our "free" press has little to say about a President who has claimed the power to secretly kidnap, endlessly detain, and torture anyone he wants. Using these illegal powers to kidnap diplomats is almost normal.
Also
See:
Corruption Updates 34 , 4th article on the page, "BUSH KIDNAPPING ON TRIAL IN GERMANY"
Corruption Updates 25 , 4th article on the page, "ITALY CHIEF OF INTELLIGENCE, 25 CIA OPERATIVES INDICTED FOR KIDNAPPING"
Corruption Updates 45 , 3rd article on the page, "Is a U.S.-Iran War Inevitable?"
Corruption Updates 51 , 6th article on the page, "U.S. Decides Against Freeing 5 Iranian Agents"
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7) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE :
A Letter Is No Substitute for a Personal Chat, Waxman Tells Rice
By Al Kamen
Friday, April 13, 2007; A15
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/12/AR2007041202082_pf.html
The tussling between Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, shows no signs of letting up.
A couple of weeks ago, Waxman sent a letter to Rice saying she hadn't responded to his many letters requesting information about the administration's bogus claims that Iraq wanted to buy uranium from Niger, how it handled classified information and such. So Waxman invited her to come up to the Hill on April 18 to talk about this.
The State Department last week issued what a spokesman called a "thorough and comprehensive" reply that should "obviate the need" for a hearing.
Apparently not. Waxman has written back saying he wants specific answers about what Rice knew and when she knew it about the Niger uranium claim and other issues.
THE
COMMITTEE SAYS:
Waxman Pressures Rice on WMD lies by Bush
This is old news. It is a fact that Bush lied about the Niger-Iraq connection, then betrayed an American Spy to cover up his lie. His lackey Libby took the fall, and the Corporate Press put the matter to bed without making the people aware that Bush was responsible for the WMD lies, and the betrayal of Plame. Enter Waxman.
Fitzgerald interviewed Bush and Cheney during his Spy Investigation. They admitted to him that Bush Authorized outting Plame's secret identity. ("we didn't commit a crime, we secretly declassified her, and pretended to leak her identity") This interview proves that Bush lied about WMD and the war, and betrayed his Constitutional duty attempting to discredit anyone who spoke the truth about the impending war. The facts are all lined up. Can Waxman put them together?
Waxman needs to get Rice to testify under oath, then compare her testimony with the Bush-Cheney interview. She will either lie, and be subject to prosecution, or she will tell the truth, and the public will finally be made fully aware of the depth of the President's lies and treachery that led us to war.
Also
See:
Corruption Updates 34, 12th article on page, "ROVE TRAITOR TO AMERICA:ROVE SNITCHED OFF SECRET AGENT FOR POLITICAL GAIN" (Plame Scandal)
Rove Abstracts
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8) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE :
Rove E-Mail Sought by Congress May Be Missing
RNC Took Away His Access to Delete Files in 2005
By Michael Abramowitz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 13, 2007; A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/12/AR2007041202408_pf.html
A lawyer for the Republican National Committee told congressional staff members yesterday that the RNC is missing at least four years' worth of e-mail from White House senior adviser Karl Rove that is being sought as part of investigations into the Bush administration, according to the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
GOP officials took issue with Rep. Henry Waxman's account of the briefing and said they still hope to find the e-mail as they conduct forensic work on their computer equipment. But they acknowledged that they took action to prevent Rove -- and Rove alone among the two dozen or so White House officials with RNC accounts -- from deleting his e-mails from the RNC server. Waxman (D-Calif.) said he was told the RNC made that move in 2005.
In a letter to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, Waxman said the RNC lawyer, Rob Kelner, also raised the possibility that Rove had personally deleted the missing e-mails, all dating back to before 2005.
The disclosures helped fan the controversy over what the White House has acknowledged to be the improper use of political e-mail accounts to conduct official government business.
Democrats are suspicious that Rove and other senior officials were using the political accounts, set up by the RNC, to avoid scrutiny from Congress. E-mails already in the public record suggest that at least some White House officials were mindful of a need not to discuss certain matters within the official White House e-mail system.
Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, accused the White House of lying about the matter. He was joined by the ranking Republican on the committee, Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), in calling on the White House to join Congress in setting up a "fair and objective process for investigating this matter."
"You can't erase e-mails, not today," Leahy said in an angry speech on the Senate floor. "They've gone through too many servers. Those e-mails are there -- they just don't want to produce them. It's like the infamous 18-minute gap in the Nixon White House tapes
The disclosures came as White House counsel Fred F. Fielding rejected demands for a compromise on providing testimony and records to Congress related to the prosecutor firings. The White House has proposed allowing Rove and other aides to be interviewed privately, without a transcript and not under oath.
E-mails from Rove and other White House officials potentially figure in a number of congressional investigations. Democrats are seeking the RNC e-mails as part of an effort to determine the extent of Rove's role in firing the U.S. attorneys and the alleged politicization at the General Services Administration.
. Waxman said the RNC indicated that it had destroyed all e-mail records from White House officials in 2001, 2002 and 2003.
In 2004, the RNC exempted White House officials from its policy of purging all e-mail after 30 days, so any lost e-mail after that date would have been presumably deleted by a White House official.
According to Waxman, Kelner told his staff that the RNC commenced a program in 2005 that took away Rove's ability to personally delete his e-mails. GOP officials said that was done only to preserve records for possible use in legal settings, not out of any concern that Rove would seek to scrub his e-mail account.
Erasing an e-mail message beyond hope of retrieval is not easy, experts said.
THE
COMMITTEE SAYS:
Crucial Rove EMails Deleted
If these emails are really gone beyond retrieval, Rove's role in a number of crimes may never be fully known.
It's likely that Rove used the RNC "private" accounts to shield his use of presidential power for political purposes from oversight and prosecution. Rove's "lost" emails detail his role in a number of dishonorable, if not illegal misuses of office including the politicization of the US Attorneys' Office, and trading influence for bribes with Abramoff.
Rove also participated in trumping up, and manipulating the WMD lies that led us to war. Rove met secretly on hundreds of occasions with Abramoff at the White House, and Ken Lay of Enron.
Rove used, and is using the power of the White House to Politicize every department in the Executive Branch.
Rove is deeply submerged in turning the US Attorneys Office into a plum for political allies, and tools of party ambition rather than defenders of the Rule of Law.
Rove's secret emails will be interesting reading if recovered.
Also
See:
Corruption Updates 49 , 2nd article on the page, "White House E-Mail Lost in Private Accounts"
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Rove
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Plame
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9) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE :
Administration Seeks to Expand Surveillance Law
By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 14, 2007; A03
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/13/AR2007041301932_pf.html
The Bush administration yesterday asked Congress to make more non-citizens subject to intelligence surveillance and to authorize the interception of foreign communications routed through the United States.
Currently, under the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, individuals have to be associated with a foreign terrorism suspect or a foreign power to fall under the auspices of the FISA court, which can grant the authority to institute federal surveillance. The White House proposes expanding potential targets to include non-citizens believed to possess, transmit or receive important foreign intelligence information, as well as those engaged in the United States in activities related to the purchase or development of weapons of mass destruction.
The proposed revisions to FISA would also allow the government to keep information obtained "unintentionally," unrelated to the purpose of the surveillance, if it "contains significant foreign intelligence." Currently such information is destroyed unless it indicates threat of death or serious bodily harm.
And they provide for compelling telecommunications companies and e-mail providers to cooperate with investigations while protecting them from being sued by their subscribers. The legal protection would be applied retroactively to those companies that cooperated with the government after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The proposed changes do not address the controversial intelligence program, initiated in October 2001 and first disclosed in December 2005, that monitors communications between people in the United States and other countries when one party is suspected of having terrorist connections, according to senior administration officials.
The White House also threatened to veto a Senate version of the annual intelligence authorization bill, primarily over provisions that require a response within 15 days to Senate intelligence committee requests for particular documents, and reports to all committee members upon the initiation of extraordinarily sensitive activities, under threat of withholding funds. Under current practice, only committee chairmen and vice chairmen are told of such activities.
THE
COMMITTEE SAYS:
Criminal Searches to Expand Under Dems?
Well, the Dems went along with a "Patriot Act" that is patently Unconstitutional, a war that is a crime against humanity, and refuse to impeach a President who has openly claimed to be above the law.
The Law:
The specific words of the Fourth Amendment of The Constitution are:
“...and No warrant shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
The president has no authority to interfere with this Constitutionally mandated standard. Nor does Congress, nor the Courts.
Their jobs are to enforce the Constitution, not hiding behind it to steal our treasure, while Bush steals our Rights.
Also
See:
Corruption Updates 16, 1st article on page, “BUSH TRAINING CONGRESS TO OBEDIENCE: PROBLEM TEACHING THEM TO ROLL OVER WHEN THEY ARE ASLEEP
Corruption Updates 23, 8th article on page, “Harmon Calls Wiretapping Illegal”
Corruption Updates 25 , 8th article on the page, "FBI CHIEF DEFYS CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT: REFUSAL TO DISCLOSE ILLEGAL PROGRAM REVEALS ONGOING CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS: SENATORS, MEDIA SEEM UNAWARE OF DEPTH OF CRISIS
Corruption Updates 29, 2nd article on page, “White House Claims Secret Policy Power”
Corruption Updates 31, 6th article on page, 1-17-07, “Secret Court to Govern Warrantless Taps
Corruption Updates 36, 5th article on page, “Privacy Board OKs Eavesdropping Programs"
Read more Articles about Unconstitutional Presidential Power
An Interesting Video Report from ABC news is Most Informative on the Actual workings of the program to Illegally Search Americans; Click the Link below:
"The Whistleblower:"
March 7, 2007, Mark Klein, an ATT tech in SF, blows the lid off NSA totality of Domestic spying
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10) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE :
Lenders Misusing Student Database
Improper Searches Raise Privacy Fears
By Amit R. Paley
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 15, 2007; A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/14/AR2007041401444_pf.html
Some lending companies with access to a national database that contains confidential information on tens of millions of student borrowers have repeatedly searched it in ways that violate federal rules, raising alarms about data mining and abuse of privacy, government and university officials said.
The improper searching has grown so pervasive that officials said the Education Department is considering a temporary shutdown of the government-run database to review access policies and tighten security. Some worry that businesses are trolling for marketing data they can use to bombard students with mass mailings or other solicitations.
Critics say the $85 billion-a-year industry has cozied up to government and university officials who are in a position to help lenders.
This month, a previously obscure Education Department official named Matteo Fontana was suspended after the revelation that he owned more than $100,000 worth of stock in a student loan company while he worked in a unit that helped oversee the industry -- and the student loan database. The stock holding raised questions about a possible violation of conflict-of-interest rules.
The database, known as the National Student Loan Data System, was created in 1993 to help determine whether students are eligible for student aid and to assist in collecting loan payments. About 29,000 university financial aid administrators and 7,500 loan company employees have access to it.
...Theresa S. Shaw, chief operating officer of the department's Office of Federal Student Aid, which manages the database, said lenders have been mining it for student data with increasing frequency, according to three participants at the meeting. In the department's hierarchy, Shaw ranks above Fontana.
"She said the data mining had gotten out of control, and they were trying to tone it down," said Eileen K. O'Leary, director of student aid and finance at Stonehill College in Massachusetts, who was at the Feb. 26 session. "They'd seen the mining for a few years, but now they felt it had grown exponentially."
THE
COMMITTEE SAYS:
Add Education: Everything Bush Touches Turns to Pain for Average Americans,
Profit for Criminal Corporations
Also
See:
Corruption Updates 4, 2nd article on page, “Special Interests and Politicians Play, Our Education System Melts Away"
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