Since leaving the Department of Justice in the fall-out over the U.S attorney scandal, former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has had a little trouble finding work.

Well turn that frown upside down, Alberto, you've got a job.

From Bloomberg:

Former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who was forced from his job amid a controversy over the firings of federal prosecutors, has been hired to provide assistance to a special master on a patent case.

Gonzales will help former U.S. District Judge Layn R. Phillips oversee settlement talks in the case of a Texas company which claims banks such as Wells Fargo & Co., Citigroup Inc.'s Citibank and Bank of America Corp. are violating its patents for taking and transmitting digital images of checks.

Phillips, in an order signed yesterday, said he needed Gonzales's help because of the number of parties in the case and the "overall complexity of this litigation.''

. . . Special masters are hired in patent cases to help district judges with complex issues. In this case, Phillips was hired to handle settlement talks between DataTreasury Corp. and the banks.

Richard L. Skinner, the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security, revealed yesterday that his department had reopened the investigation into whether U.S. officials knew that Canadian citizen, Maher Arar would be tortured when he was turned over to Syria following his U.S. detainment. The investigation was reopened based on "new information," Skinner testified in his appearance before the House Subcommittee on International Relations, Human Rights and Oversight.

The Inspector General also revealed that the Department of Justice's own Office of Professional Responsibility has started an investigation into the role of the DoJ lawyers in the case.

From the New York Times:

A Justice Department spokesman, Peter A. Carr, said that its inquiry, by the department's Office of Professional Responsibility, was begun in March 2007 and was examining the role of department lawyers in expelling Maher Arar to Syria, which has long been identified by the State Department as habitually using torture on prisoners.

The DoJ Office of Professional Responsibility already has its hands full with a number of investigations into the Justice Department's role in Bush Administration scandals. OPR is currently investigating allegations of selective prosecution relating to the prosecutions of Don Siegelman ; John Yoo's torture memos; Monica Goodling's possible firing of an attorney because she'd heard a rumor that he might be gay; officials who gave legal approval to waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques; the role of Department of Justice attorneys in the authorization and oversight of the warrantless electronic surveillance program and of course the probe into the firings of U.S. Attorneys.

Phase II, the 200+ page Senate intelligence committee's report on pre-war intelligence in Iraq, has revealed the disconnect between what was espoused by Bush Administration officials in the days building up to the war in Iraq, and what was actually known. Besides the simple absence of intelligence, it has also been revealed that the Administration advanced arguments in contradiction of what the intelligence actually showed, in making its case for war.

We've covered Rumsfeld's false testimony to the House Armed Services Committee, and the general outcry from both sides of the aisle over the report.

Today, the LA Times has a good summary of excerpts from the report, which highlight the chasm between what was said by the President and Vice President, and what was actually known:

Statements in dozens of prewar speeches and interviews created the impression that Baghdad and Al Qaeda had forged a partnership. But the report concludes that such assertions "were not substantiated by the intelligence" being shown to senior officials at the time.

Claims that Sept. 11 hijacker Mohamed Atta had met with an Iraqi agent in Prague, for example, were dubious from the beginning and subsequently discounted. The idea that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had provided chemical and biological weapons training to Al Qaeda hinged on intelligence from a source who soon was discredited.

Bush officials strayed even further from the evidence in suggesting that Hussein was prepared to provide weapons of mass destruction to Al Qaeda terrorist groups -- a linchpin in the case for war.

In October 2002, for example, Bush warned in a key speech in Cincinnati that "secretly, and without fingerprints, [Hussein] could provide one of his hidden weapons to terrorists, or help them develop their own." The threat was repeated frequently in the run-up to war but was "contradicted by available intelligence information," the committee says.

On post-war prospects, the report contrasts the rosy scenarios conjured by Cheney and others with more sober intelligence warnings that were being presented to senior officials.

Cheney's prediction that U.S. forces would "be greeted as liberators" was at odds with reports from the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency, which warned nearly a year earlier that invading U.S. forces would face serious resistance from "the Baathists, the jihadists and Arab nationalists who oppose any U.S. occupation of Iraq."

Other findings show that it seems Pentagon officials were duped by known Iranian counterintelligence. From McClatchy:

A small group of Pentagon officials collected dubious intelligence on Iraq and Iran from Iranian exiles whom Defense Department counterintelligence investigators said might have "been used as agents of a foreign intelligence service ... to reach into and influence the highest levels of the U.S. government," the Senate Intelligence Committee reported Thursday.

The revelation raises questions about whether Iran may have tried to use a small cabal of officials in the Pentagon and in Vice President Dick Cheney's office to feed bogus intelligence on Iraq and Iran to senior policymakers in the Bush administration who were eager to oust the Iraqi dictator and who remain determined to combat what President Bush this week called an "existential" threat from Iran.

A 2003 report by the Pentagon's Counterintelligence Field Activity, the Senate committee said, concluded that Michael Ledeen, the American civilian who brokered the contacts through Manucher Ghorbanifar, an Iranian exile whom the CIA in 1984 labeled a "fabricator," and other Iranians "was likely unwitting of any counterintelligence issues related to his relationship with Mr. Ghorbanifar." [Emphasis ours.]

Saudi financier Gaith Pharaon was indicted by the Justice Department for his alleged role in the BCCI scandal and is still wanted by the FBI. But no matter. The U.S. military has handed him an $80 million contract to supply jet fuel to American military bases in Afghanistan. (ABC)

An adviser to Sen. John McCain confirms that the GOP nominee now supports President Bush's warrantless wiretapping policy, and that telecom companies involved in complying should not face ramifications. McCain's view of the eavesdropping program seems to have shifted in recent weeks. (New York Times and Washington Post)

After weeks of wrangling with San Diego officials and community members, Blackwater Worldwide opened its 61,000-square-foot training facility in the Otay Mesa-area of San Diego. Members of the defense contractor wasted no time beginning their combat training. (San Diego Union-Tribune)

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Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is making himself scarce for the National Republican Congressional Committee's annual fundraising award dinner with President Bush on June 18.

The Hill speculates that McCain is attempting to distance "himself from the man he wants to replace," but as we noted yesterday there's another attendee who McCain might want to avoid.

The dinner with President Bush is part of a two-day celebration for winners of the NRCC's "Republican Congressional Medal of Distinction." Springboro, Ohio, City Councilman Michael W. Hemmert will be one of the people accepting this distinction, despite two sets of drug charges (cocaine and marijuana) for which he's currently receiving treatment in lieu of conviction.

The NRCC declined to comment when we asked if Hemmert was still invited to the event.

As we've been reporting, Phase II of the Senate intel committee's report on pre-war intelligence on Iraq has been released, and all day lawmakers have been issuing statements of shock and incredulity.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), a member of the authoring Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, called today for a review of whether then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's testimony to Congress was true, given the information in the report.

Specifically cited are quotes from Rumsfeld's testimony to the House Armed Services Committee on September 18 and 19, 2002:

They now have massive tunneling systems... They've got all kinds of thing that have happened in the period when the inspectors have been out. So the problem is greater today. And the regime that exists today in the U.N. is one that has far fewer teeth than the one you are describing.
   -- Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Testimony before the House Armed Services Committiee, September 18, 2002

Even the most intrusive inspection regime would have difficulty getting at all of [Saddam Hussein's] weapons of mass destruction. Many of his WMD capabilities are mobile; they can be hidden from inspectors no matter how intrusive. He has vast underground networks and facilities and sophisticated denial and deception techniques
   -- Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Testimony before the House Armed Services Committiee, September 18, 2002

[W]e simply do not know where all or even a large portion of Iraq's WMD facilities are. We do know where a fraction of them are. . .[O]f the facilities we do know, not all are vulnerable to attack from the air. A good many are underground and deeply buried. . .
   -- Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Testimony before the House Armed Services Committiee, September 19, 2002.

On page 50 the report states it's conclusion after investigating these statements from Rumsfeld:

The Secretary of Defense's statement that the Iraqi government operated underground WMD facilities that were not vulnerable to conventional airstrikes because they were underground and deeply buried was not substantiated by available intelligence information. [Emphasis ours.]

Wyden had a thing or two to say about Rumfeld's "not substantiated" testimony:

This is stunning: the Secretary of Defense, testifying before Congress about whether or not ground forces would be strategically necessary in a war against Iraq, said that the Executive Branch "knew" something that it did not know.

The intelligence available at the time made this clear, and two months later a report prepared specifically for Secretary Rumsfeld directly contradicted what he told the Committee. As far as I know, neither Rumsfeld nor anyone else from his office made any attempt to contact the Committee and correct the public record, and the result was that Congress and the American people were misled on a question of the utmost importance. I do not think that this is a matter that Congress can afford to ignore and I hope that the Armed Services Committee will take a serious look at Secretary Rumsfeld's statements.

We'll be bringing you more from Phase II, but please, keep your comments and observations coming.

We posted yesterday on Rep. Dana Rohrabacher's curious reduction of torture to frat-boy-like panty raids, in a House subcommittee hearing on the FBI's role in interrogations of detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

Transcript excerpts are great, but video clips are better. . .

The long wait is over. Phase II, the Senate intel committee's report on pre-war intelligence on Iraq, is out.

There are two parts to the report, and you can read them here (warning: big .pdfs):

"Report on Whether Public Statements Regarding Iraq by U.S. Government officials Were Substantiated by Intelligence Information"

"Report on Intelligence Activities Relating to Iraq Conducted by the Policy Counterterrorism Evaluation Group and the Office of Special Plans Within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy"

There's a lot there, and as we read through it these next few hours (days), we'd welcome any insights from readers who are doing the same. You can flag sections you think are particularly interesting or relevant in the comments section below.

At a congressional hearing on the many illegal immigration detention centers around the U.S., Julie Myers, assistant secretary of the Dept. of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau, said the agency will do a better job of reporting detainee deaths. The hearing was in response to Washington Post's series on the detention centers. (Washington Post)

Alleged planner of the 9/11 attacks Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, as well as four other co-conspirators, will face arraignment today at Guantanamo Bay. Mohammed is the most high-profile figure to appear before the controversial war-crimes tribunal at Gitmo. As has been the norm with similar cases at Gitmo, Mohammed's lawyers are claiming the trial was rushed in front of a judge for political reasons. (Associated Press)

A federal jury found Illinois political fundraiser, real estate kingpin and Barack Obama-supporter Antonin "Tony" Rezko guilty on 16 of 24 counts of corruption, mostly related to his dealings while an adviser to Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D). (Associated Press)

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As the Bush years wind to a close, and administration officials slink back to jobs in the private sector, the road ahead of Daniel Gonzalez, the chief of staff for Kevin J. Martin, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, seems bleak.

From the New York Times:

Hoping to pursue a career in an entirely different field from telecommunications, Mr. Gonzalez invested in a small energy company three years ago and then joined the company's board in 2006. The company, law enforcement officials say, turns out to have been a fraudulent venture that took more than $54 million from investors.

In what looks to be a Ponzi scheme, Gonzalez personally guaranteed bank loans to the company of over $10 million, even though his personal worth was only in the hundreds of thousands, the banks allege. Gonzales disputes that allegation.

The energy company, MCube Petroleum, was founded by Robert Miracle, who appears to have a more checkered past than he presented to investors. Gonzalez's involvement with the company, began when he was introduced to Miracle by a childhood friend.

Mr. Miracle, who was born in 1960, represented himself as a seasoned businessman. In a company overview, he said he had more than 20 years of experience at Toyota and NASA and served as an adviser to Frank G. Wells, the former president of Disney.

But an affidavit by a criminal investigator for the Internal Revenue Service said that Mr. Miracle had never worked for Mr. Wells, and that in 1994, Mr. Miracle had been convicted of felony theft in Oregon for stealing textbooks from a community college. The affidavit said that, rather than working at Disney, Mr. Miracle might have been involved in reselling textbooks from universities.

Through his lawyer, Miracle denies any wrongdoing:

Mr. Miracle's lawyer, Greg Hollon, denied that his client had committed fraud. "We are confident that when the whole story is heard, and all of the facts of this matter properly understood, he will be vindicated," Mr. Hollon said. He added he could not discuss the details of the case because of the pending criminal investigation.

While it seems possible that Gonzalez was the victim of a con by Miracle, the question of why he would ever personally guarantee $10 million in company loans remains unknown.

Friends and colleagues are puzzled about why he took such a large risk. Asked why his client would guarantee a promissory note of $10 million when his net worth was so much smaller, Mr. Willey said, "I cannot give an answer."

It's been a tough year already for the National Republican Congressional Committee, which is charged with getting Republicans elected to the House: embezzlement by its treasurer, crushing losses in usually reliable GOP districts, an inability to find quality candidates. It's so bad House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) had to put NRCC Chairman Tom Cole (R-OK) on a very short leash.

Apparently not short enough.

Coles's NRCC will be honoring Springboro, Ohio, City Councilman Michael W. Hemmert later this month with a "Republican Congressional Medal of Distinction," an award he will accept in a two-day celebration culminating in a dinner with President George W. Bush, despite two sets of drug charges (cocaine and marijuana) for which he's currently receiving treatment in lieu of conviction.

From Dayton Daily News:

On May 27, Hemmert, 53, of Springboro, was granted treatment in lieu of conviction on two sets of charges of possession of cocaine and marijuana and a single count of possession of drug paraphernalia during a hearing in Warren County Common Pleas Court . . .

. . . He resigned his council seat Feb. 14 after the Greater Warren County Drug Task Force seized cocaine, marijuana and two cars during the first of two searches of his home. Hemmert was arrested after a second search on March 13 netted more cocaine and marijuana, and a special prosecutor was appointed. Warren County Prosecutor Rachel Hutzel acknowledged Hemmert had helped her raise campaign funds.

If cocaine use doesn't stop the GOP, some silly little thing like probation isn't going to stop Hemmert from receiving his award:

Provided Hemmert notifies his probation officer before leaving, "he shouldn't have any problem traveling," Scott McVey, administrator of the Warren County Common Pleas Court, said on Tuesday, June 3.

It should be pointed out that these NRCC "awards" are usually part of a fund-raising scheme: give us some money and we'll give you an award. It's not clear whether that's the case with Hemmert's award, but it isn't his first dinner with President Bush:

"I will be attending my second President's Dinner on Wed., June 18, 2008. This is considered the 'Event in Washington, DC' each year," Hemmert said in an e-mail press release. . .

. . .Medal recipients also tour the Capitol and take a cruise on the Potomac River "aboard the luxury ship Odyssey III," according to the itinerary. Two years ago, Hemmert said he got within 15 feet of President Bush.

As witty TPM Reader TC pointed out, maybe this "trip" will give Hemmert more than just a "contact high" with the President.

Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine was on Capitol Hill this morning to testify to the House Subcommittee on International Relations, Human Rights and Oversight, about his report on the FBI's role in detainee interrogations, released two weeks ago.

While some saw the hearing as a long-awaited chance for a serious examination of the torture techniques at Guantanamo Bay, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), the ranking Republican on the subcommittee, took an almost frat-boy glee in the torture details. In a statement of just 13 minutes, Rohrabacher managed to use the phrase "panties on [someone's] head" eight times.

But perhaps more significantly, he managed to work it into a comical (if this wasn't so serious) jab at Inspector General Fine:

ROHRABACHER: Let me -- I don't know what's -- I have never interrogated someone, either a criminal, which the FBI has to deal with, with the criminals, domestically, nor have I interrogated someone who's a foreign enemy, unless, of course, we include the people who have sat on this side...

FINE: I'll tell you what -- I was going to add that one.

(LAUGHTER)

ROHRABACHER: I won't ask you to wear anything on your head.

(LAUGHTER)

So I don't know what is -- what is effective and what's not. I do see here things that seem to be fraternity boy pranks and hazing pranks that I do not -- they might be unacceptable, but they certainly don't fit into the category of torture, which is the word that's been bandied around here.

More hazing after the jump.

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House Intelligence Chairman Silvestre Reyes (D-TX) may have agreed to a compromise on a deal to rewrite the nation's electronic surveillance laws.

A report in Congress Daily says Reyes is "fine" with the Republican-brokered deal that would "leave it up to the secret FISA court to grant retroactive legal immunity" to telecoms that helped the Bush administration's warrantless conduct surveillance on U.S. citizens.

But an aide for Reyes appeared to backpedal, saying Reyes still supported a proposal being pushed by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) to shift the decision-making about immunity from the secret FISA courts to traditional federal courts.

As TPM just reported, the Senate intelligence committee is releasing the much delayed Phase II report, which details and analyzes the pre-war intelligence on Iraq. We've prepped you for this before, but we think it's for real this time.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports that a sister of Rep. William Jefferson is facing imminent indictment:

U.S. Attorney Jim Letten is expected to announce this afternoon that 4th District Assessor Betty Jefferson, an elder sister of U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, has been indicted on fraud-related charges by a federal grand jury. At least one other sibling, the previously indicted Mose Jefferson, is also expected to face additional charges, sources close to the case said.

Letten has scheduled a news conference for 2 p.m. He declined to comment.
Sources close to the investigation say the charges are the culmination of a probe into charities run by members of the Jefferson family and their allies. In a rare move, the FBI announced it was investigating the nonprofits after a 2006 Times-Picayune story revealed apparent self-dealing at them.

Jefferson is still fighting his own federal corruption charges.

From the AP:

Federal prosecutors are no longer seeking stiffer prison sentences for former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman and former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy.

Prosecutors filed a motion this week with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals asking that their appeals of the sentences be dropped. Their appeal had sought a longer prison term than Siegelman's more than seven-year sentence and Scrushy's almost seven-year sentence.

The longer sentences that had been originally requested in the prosecutors' appeal were 30 years for Siegelman, and 25 years for Scrushy.

Late last week, Siegelman received a surge of support from a bi-partisan group of 54 former state attorneys general when they filed a friend of the court brief with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in support of Siegelman's appeal of his conviction.

On Monday, Richard Scrushy filed his appeal with the 11th Circuit, requesting the court throw out his conviction in the corruption case that snared him and Siegelman, arguing that there was a lack of evidence and that jurors improperly communicated by e-mail.

The Pentagon announced charges against Binyam Mohammed for allegedly conspiring to use dirty bombs to target buildings in the U.S. Defense lawyers for Mohammed are claiming political motives are behind the Pentagon's efforts to expedite the trial. Mohammed was also denied repatriation rights to be tried in his native Britain. (LA Times)

On March 11, the Office of Congressional Ethics was created, but had to wait 120 days (July 9) to officially begin operations. Yet the office still lacks in staff, board members and office space, rendering a start on July 9 unlikely. Neither Democratic nor Republican leaders offered explanations. (Roll Call sub. req.)

Audits of state and local police officers find that the failure to notify federal authorities about contact with possible terrorist suspects is rampant. Police are asked to report matches to suspects on watch lists, but an estimated 8 to 10 matches go unreported everyday. (USA Today)

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In a speech yesterday to the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee in Washington, Condoleezza Rice did a little saber-rattling on Iran, in a tone the New York Times described as "unusually sharp":

"We would be willing to meet with them but not while they continue to inch toward nuclear weapons under the cover of talks," she told the group, a pro-Israel lobby known by its acronym, Aipac. "The real question isn't why won't the Bush administration talk to Iran. The real question is why won't Iran talk to us."

How much do Rice's comments reflect President Bush's views? It's long been known that few senior officials have the ear of the President like his secretary of state and former national security adviser. But former presidential press secretary Scott McClellan put a finer point on it in little noticed but exceptional criticisms of Rice in his new memoir, What Happened, published this week:

My later experiences with Condi led me to believe she was more interested in figuring out where the president stood and just carrying out his wishes while expending only cursory effort in helping him understand all the considerations and potential consequences.

McClellan marveled at her ability to remain at the center of the Iraq-policy decision makers since the administration's earliest days, yet rarely receive much criticism about the handling of the war.

Over time, however, I was stuck by how deft she is at protecting her reputation. No matter what went wrong, she was somehow able to keep her hands clean, even when the problems related to matters under her direct purview, including the WMD rationale for war in Iraq, the decision to invade Iraq, the sixteen words in the State of the Union address, and postwar planning and implementation of the strategy in Iraq.

Although she had been the presidents top foreign policy advisor and coordinator of his national security team, she has largely allowed responsibility for all these matters to fall on people like former CIA Director George Tenant, Paul Bremer and Don Rumsfeld.

But it was her relationship with the President that was the controlling influence on her own decision-making, McClellan asserts:

In private she complimented and reinforced Bush's instincts rather than challenging and questioning them. As far as I could tell from internal meeting and discussions, Condi invariably fell in line with the president's thinking.

As a result, McClellan suggests historians may not be kind to Rice.

If, as president Bush likes to say, results really do matter, then history will likely judge her harshly as the person responsible for overseeing a number of the defining -- and, at least in the short term, ill-fated -- policies of the Bush administration.

A lot of eyebrows were raised by the Pentagon's decision last week to remove a judge presiding over a key war crimes tribunal at Guantanamo Bay.

Defense attorneys say the military judge was removed because he'd made several rulings in favor of the defendant, a Canadian national named Omar Khadr who was detained at the age of 15 in Afghanistan in 2002.

The military may also be pushing to convene Guantanamo's first terrorism trial -- sure to be a cable TV news event -- at the height of the presidential election season this fall, defense attorneys say.

Now the military brass is getting defensive about the judge's removal.

The Miama Herald reports:

Chief judge Marine Col. Ralph Kohlmann said he was making the rare public statement because last week's dismissal of Col. Peter Brownback raised questions about the independence of military officers presiding over tribunals at the Guantanamo Bay Navy base in Cuba.

"Any suggestion that my detailing of another military judge was driven by or prompted by any decisions or rulings made by Colonel Brownback is incorrect," Kohlmann said in the statement e-mailed to reporters.

Kohlmann said the Army decided by February to let Brownback's active-duty service orders expire.

But that struck many observers as odd, since Brownback had offered to remain on the case as long as needed and had received three annual extensions during the past few years.

Kohlmann said the Army made its decision "based on a number of manpower management considerations" unrelated to the tribunals.

The Herald also notes the rising tension between the judge and the military prosecutors in the case.

At a May 8 hearing, Brownback said that he had "badgered, beaten and bruised" by prosecutors to set a trial date. But he refused to do so before they satisfied defense requests for access to potential evidence, even threatening to suspend the proceedings unless the detention center provided records of Khadr's confinement.

The judge's removal and the taint of political interference has sparked a lot of controversy in Canada, where there is growing pressure for the government to demand Khadr's repatriation if the case is not soon resolved.

Editorial writers at the Globe and Mail, a Toronto-based national newspaper, appeared skeptical of the Army's explanation.

Given what is at stake for the United States in this trial that is to test the new military-commissions process, given the request from the chief judge that Col. Brownback stay on, and given the strange timing after years of extensions, this explanation is not enough to allay the impression of political interference.

The [Canadian Prime Minister] Stephen Harper government insists it wants to let the process work, but as the judge's removal suggests, this is a questionable process.

We're still at it trying to figure out which lawmaker was behind that $3.6 million earmark that led to last week's conviction of a Denver businessman on charges of criminal fraud.

As we told you last week, we think it might have been Colorado Republican Senate candidate Bob Schaffer.

Schaffer was in Congress when the earmark was awarded to the little-known not-for-profit founded by Bill Orr, who was convicted last week. And when Schaffer left Congress, he went on to become a director for Orr's group, the National Alternative Fuels Foundation, where his political buddy Scott Shires was treasurer. Shires pleaded guilty and testified against Orr.

Today we called Thomas Vanek, a former staffer for the House Science Committee's subcommittee on energy and environment, who testified at Orr's trial. He oversaw the authorization of the $3.6 million earmark back in October 2000.

I asked Vanek whether Orr received any help from members of Congress in securing the earmark.

"He may have gotten a member of Congress or two involved to get a thumbs up. I don't recall," said Vanek, who is now a senior policy advisor at the Department of Energy in Washington.

More specifically, I asked, do you think Bob Schaffer could have been involved in the earmark?

"He may well have been involved. Typically there would be a member involved. I'd say it's certainly possible. Likely? Who knows," Vanek said.

There's not much documentation tagged to earmarks, especially back then. Often influence is excercized verbally rather than on paper. With almost eight years distance, determining precisely who was involved back then is tough.

Usually, lawmakers are eager to take credit for bringing millions of dollars back home. But that's not the case here. We've contacted all eight members of the Colorado Congressional delegation from 2000, including the two we couldn't track down last week: former Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell and former Rep. Joel Hefley, both Republicans.

None of the lawmakers recalled any involvement with the National Alternative Fuels Foundation or its $3.6 million earmark.

So that leaves Schaffer. We've been calling everyday for a week now, but nobody from his campaign has gotten back to us.

Why doesn't Bob Schaffer want to talk about that earmark?

Former Rep. Ernest Istook (R-OK) says he was "as surprised and as shocked as anyone" to learn that his former chief of staff pleaded guilty yesterday in Jack Abramoff's lobbying ring.

The Washington Post reports:

"I have not seen the charges and I have no information about them," said Istook, who left the House to launch an unsuccessful bid for governor of Oklahoma in 2006. He is now a fellow at the Heritage Foundation. "I have met with the FBI. They did not share any details about the case, but they told me I am not a target of their investigation. I will continue to cooperate with them fully."

That's interesting, since prosecutors say Istook, the former chairman of the appropriations subcommitee for transportation, got on the phone with Jack Abramoff and, according to Abramoff, "basically asked what we want in the transportation bill."

A preliminary analysis by Taxpayers for Common Sense found at least six of Abramoff's firm's clients received earmarks from the 2004 transportation appropriations bill, which was written by Istook's subcommittee.

It's been several years since President Bush, Cheney and others sat down with investigators to talk about who leaked the cover of CIA operative Valerie Plame.

And Congress is still trying to find out what they said.

In the wake of former White House press secretary Scott McClellan's book published this week, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, is reiterating his request for access to documents related to those interviews.

Waxman writes a letter today to Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey:

New revelations by fonner White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan raise additional questions about the actions of the President and the Vice President. Mr. McClellan has stated that "[t]he President and Vice President directed me to go out there and exonerate Scooter Libby." He has also asserted that "the top White House officials who knew the truthincluding Rove, Libby, and possibly Vice President Cheney - allowed me, even encouraged me, to repeat a lie." It would be a major breach of trust if the Vice President personally directed Mr. McClellan to mislead the public. ... The Committee is conducting an important investigation to answer questions that Mr. Fitzgerald's criminal inquiry did not address. As I explained at the Committee's hearing last year, the purpose of the Committee's investigation is to examine:

(1) How did such a serious violation of our national security occur?
(2) Did the White House take appropriate investigative and disciplinary steps after the breach occurred?
And
(3) what changes in White House security procedures are necessary to prevent future violations of our national security from occurring?

Read more for the complete text of the letter.

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The United States has used as many as 17 ships, or "floating prisons," to interrogate prisoners, a British rights group alleges. The Pentagon denies the claims, yet an official said it was possible U.S. Navy ships had temporarily held combatants during moves to more permanent locations. (AFP)

The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) continues its report of two mothers' frustrating search for answers regarding the deaths of their sons, both former guards for private defense company Blackwater, while working in Iraq. Read part one of the account here. (The Plain Dealer)

Lawyers for Gitmo-detainee Omar Khadr are claiming the judge presiding over Khadr's case, Judge Army Col. Peter Brownback, will be replaced due to favorable rulings the judge made for the defense. But Marine Col. Ralph Kohlmann, chief judge in the U.S. war crimes court at Guantanamo, the removal happened for reasons unrelated to the Khadr case. Khadr is suspected of killing an American soldier during a firefight in Afghanistan. (Reuters)

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Remember that young Bush campaign worker who landed a job in the NASA public affairs office, where he was accused of blocking the country's top scientists from talking publicly about global warming?

His name was George C. Deutsch and he was one of several officials accused a couple years ago of manipulating the public disclosure of scientific research about climate change.

Well, NASA's own inspector general looked into the matter and -- whaddya know -- the Bush administration's critics were right.

A 48-page report from the agency's own watchdog, released yesterday, concluded that political appointees in the NASA press office were downplaying scientific conclusions about global warming by withholding certain press releases and limiting reporters' access to top scientists who might veer off message.

"Our investigation," the report said, "found that during the fall of 2004 through early 2006, the NASA Headquarters Office of Public Affairs managed the topic of climate change in a manner that reduced, marginalized or mischaracterized climate change science made available to the general public."

The report said most evidence supported contentions that politics was "inextricably interwoven" into operations at the public affairs office in that period and that the pattern was inconsistent with the statutory responsibility to communicate findings widely, "especially on a topic that has worldwide scientific interest."

The NASA press office came under scrutiny a couple years ago after the agency's leading climate scientist, James E. Hansen, and other agency employees, publicly complained about restrictions imposed on their public comments and distortions of their scientific conclusions.

What today's story leaves out are some great details about the characters involved in shielding the public from the taxpayer-funded science.

Deutsch, who got his job at age 23 and once told a Web designer to add the word "theory" at every mention of the Big Bang, resigned after revelations the he had lied on his resume and did not, in fact, graduate from Texas A&M University.

How'd he get such a prominent position? According to the Times:

Mr. Deutsch, 24, was offered a job as a writer and editor in NASA's public affairs office in Washington last year after working on President Bush's re-election campaign and inaugural committee, according to his résumé.

Another political appointee, Dean Acosta, who was NASA's deputy assistant administrator for public affairs and now works in the private sector of the aerospace industry, criticized the IG's report about his former office.

"My entire career has been dedicated to open and honest communications," Mr. Acosta, who now is director of communications for the Boeing space-exploration business, wrote in an e-mail message. "The inspector general's assertions are patently false. The report itself does nothing but raise questions about a three-year investigation that has yielded nothing but flimsy allegations aimed at hard-working public servants."

In the federal court papers, he's known only as "Lobbyist C."

But prosecutors description of the man who funneled illegal favors to John Albaugh, the former chief of staff for U.S. Rep Ernest Istook (R-OK), sounds pretty familiar.

After checking our records, we'd say that lobbyist is most likely Kevin Ring, the former Abramoff underling who took the Fifth Amendment before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee in 2005 rather than answer a series of questions from lawmakers. (The AP agrees.)

Ring worked for Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA) from 1993 to 1998 and later worked for the Senate Judiciary Committee, then the Conservative Action Team (co-founded by Doolittle), before he joined Jack Abramoff at Greenberg, Traurig LLP in 2001.

Ring quit is lobbying post the same day the FBI raided Doolittle's home in April 2007.

After years of rumors of philandering with a neighbor and an alleged sexual assault of a 32-year-old woman in a parking garage, news of Gov. Jim Gibbons (R-NV) divorce from his wife of 22 years does not come as a great surprise. But after the governor's attempt to evict the First Lady from the Governor's mansion and a lot of name-calling, estranged wife Dawn Gibbons is now making not-so-veiled threats to implicate the governor in one or more scandals.

So what incriminating information might she have? Quite a lot it turns out. Because Dawn Gibbons was closely involved in at least two of the scandals which have been dogging Gibbons for almost two years.

A few examples after the jump ...

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Federal prosecutors may have their sites on former Rep. Ernest Istook (R-OK) after getting a guilty plea from his former chief of staff.

Istook was not accused of any criminal conduct. But the court papers charging Istook's former chief of staff, John Albaugh, portray Istook as an apparent participant in Abramoff's influence peddling scheme.

From the federal information court document:

On or about March 19, 2003, at the suggestion of defendant ALBAUGH, [Istook] called Abramoff, thanking him in advance for use of one of his FedEx suites for an upcoming fundraising event. During that call, [Istook] also asked Abramoff which particular projects Firm B's clients wanted in the transportation bill. Abramoff thereafter sent an email to the lobbyists on his team telling them that [Istook] had "basically asked what we want in the transportation bill" and instructed the lobbyists to "make sure we load up our entire Christmas list."

The alleged telephone call is at odds with Istook's own account of his contacts with Abramoff. He told a reporter in April 2006 that he'd never spoken to Abramoff on the phone:

In response to the Abramoff association, Istook referred to the Abramoff scandal as "shameful, pure and simple" and said Abramoff was never in his office, spoke to him on the phone, or had any relationship with him other than a few conversations.

"Jack Abramoff is a criminal," Istook said. "When I found out he was a criminal, not only did I give away what he had personally donated to me, I went the extra mile. I gave away any money from anyone that had any vague sort of connection to him."

"The point is, I don't think you can judge people by the fact that someone who contributed to them was a wrongdoer," Istook said. "The question is, did I do anything improper, and I did not."

The court papers charging Albaugh include several instances where Istook, referred to as "Representative 4," received benefits from Abramoff's lobbying firm.

At Albaugh's request, the prosecutors said, a lobbyist from Abramoff's firm hosted a fundraising dinner for Istook at Abramoff's Signatures restaurant. The congressman's campaign did not reimburse the lobbyist or disclose the cost -- about $10,000 -- as an in-kind contribution on financial disclosure forms, prosecutors said.

At Albaugh's request, Jack Abramoff provided $5,000 "to satisfy the initial funding obligation of a political action committee established by [Istook]," according to the filing.

Also at Albaugh's request, lobbyist from Abramoff's firm helped arrange for Istook to use luxury suites an American Idol concert event and later for a Washington Redskins football game. Itsook's campaign did not reimburse the lobbyists until more than two years later, after the Abramoff scandal was attracting attention in the press, prosecutor noted.

Istook left the House in 2007 after an unsuccessful bid for the Oklahoma governor's office.

Federal prosecutors have a new helper in their investigation of the Jack Abramoff scandal.

The former chief of staff to Rep. Ernest Istook (R-OK) pleaded guilty in federal court today and agreed to cooperate.

According to a Department of Justice press release:

John C. Albaugh, 41, entered his plea to a one count criminal information today in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, before Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle. At sentencing on Sept. 17, 2008, Albaugh faces up to five years in prison, a fine of $250,000, and supervised release following his release from prison. As part of a plea agreement, Albaugh has agreed to cooperate with the ongoing investigation into the activities of former Washington, D.C., lobbyist Jack Abramoff and others.

A former chief of staff for an Oklahoma congressman is the latest figure caught up in prosecution of Jack Abramoff's lobbying ring.

John Albaugh, the former chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Ernest Istook (R-OK), has been charged with a conspiracy to defraud the House of Representatives, taking perks and doling out official favors:

John Albaugh is accused of accepting gifts in return for official favors. The charge is outlined in a criminal information filed in federal court on Friday. Such documents are normally entered as part of a plea deal. A court hearing was set for Monday afternoon.

According to the criminal information, Albaugh accepted tickets to George Strait and Tim McGraw concerts.

In one email, a lobbyist from Abramoff's firm told Albaugh: "You're going to eat for free off our clients"

After Istook was named chairman of the Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee, a fellow lobbyist emailed a lobbyist from Abramoff's firm (identified in the Information only as Lobbyist C) and said "[t]hat's good for us!! Hello Albaugh,' according to the court papers.

The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) documents the struggle of two mothers forced to digest the deaths of their sons in Iraq. But the sons were not in the U.S. military; they were members of private security outfit Blackwater. (The Plain Dealer)

As the Bush administration heads out of office, they have notified federal agencies that today is the deadline to propose new regulations, nearly eight months before a successor takes the office. On its face it's a rare good government measure from this White House, but critics claim the policy ensures the next occupant will have a difficult time changing the regulations made by the Bush Administration. (The Boston Globe)

The Chicago Tribune takes a further look into the conditions illegal immigrants face in detention centers around the United States. This follows the Washington Post's four-part series on the subject weeks ago. (Chicago Tribune and Washington Post)

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Could the U.S. ultimately end up privatizing its entire mission in Iraq?

That's what the latest round of contracts the U.S. government plans to let out in the coming months might suggest.

As Walter Pincus reports in today's Washington Post, the new contracts underscore the non-military involvement the U.S. is undertaking as public pressure mounts to reduce troop numbers

One contract could essentially begin to privatize the process of training the Iraqi security forces by hiring "mentors" to do what the U.S. military has struggled unsuccessfully to do for the past five years.

The proposals reflect multiyear commitments. The mentor contract notes that the U.S. military "desires for both Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Defense to become mostly self-sufficient within two years," a time outside some proposals for U.S. combat troop withdrawal. ... The mentors will assist an U.S. military group that previously began to implement what are described as "core processes and systems," such as procurement, contracting, force development, management and budgeting, and public affairs.

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