In an interview with the Associated Press, Rear Adm. Mark Buzby confirmed that the U.S. Naval base in Guantanamo houses a secret prison set apart from the detention center already known to the public. Camp 7 houses 15 "high value detainees" who, according to the military, need to be segregated from other prisoners in order to prevent them "from retaliating against long-term detainees who have talked to interrogators." (AP)

In light of allegations that a former treasurer for the National Republican Congressional Committee, Christopher Ward, engaged in "financial irregularities" while doing work for the committee, four GOP Congressional campaigns have cut ties (sub. req.) with the consultant. Ward had been the treasurer for each of the campaigns. Meanwhile, yesterday House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO) sought to downplay the scandal, saying that it will be "a very short-term distraction." (Roll Call, The Politico)

Lawyers for Majid Khan, the former suburban Baltimore high school student, U.S. resident, and current Guantanamo Bay detainee (since 2003), have amassed more than 500 pages of top-secret notes taken from visits with Khan at Guantanamo. The attorneys assert that this material includes evidence that their client was subjected to "systematic torture" in secret CIA prisons that was videotaped. The Senate Intelligence Committee will review this evidence in a closed session on Friday. (Time)

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and a top NATO commander delivered a critical assessment of the alliance nations' efforts in the war in Afghanistan. Making the situation worse is another near-record Afghan opium harvest and significant rise in marijuana cultivation. (Washington Post, US News & World Report)

Representative Henry Waxman has urged Stephen Johnson, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, to abandon an "unsound proposal" that allows large polluting facilities that lack pollution controls to be constructed near national parks and wilderness areas. Waxman is also curious why Johnson ignored his own staffers' concerns that the rule would "allow for significant degradation' of air quality in our national parks." (GovernmentExecutive.com, Committee on Oversight and Government Reform)

Environmental groups and some lawmakers are concerned that $2.6 billion in oil drilling bids announced by the Interior Department yesterday will jeopardize the habitats of polar bears, walruses, and bowhead whales in Alaska's Chukchi Sea. Last month, the Fish and Wildlife Service of the Interior Department "missed a court-ordered deadline for deciding whether to declare polar bears a threatened species while the department's Minerals Management Service went ahead with the lease sale" to oil companies. (Washington Post)

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has concluded that workers at Hallmark Meat Packing in Chino, California committed "egregious violations" of federal animal care regulations. The USDA was prompted to act when last week the Humane Society released video footage taken by an undercover employee that showed workers "using chains to drag cows unable to stand; shoving and rolling crippled cows with forklifts; and rampant use of electric prods to drive infirm animals to slaughter." (Washington Post)