So how lenient will Jack Abramoff's judge really be?

He'll find out on Sept. 4, which a judge in Washington today set as his sentencing date.

But don't expect that to be the end of the multi-year investigation of his lobbying ring. The feds expect him to keep up is cooperation, and possibly even testify at some point. Keep in mind that Abramoff has been cooperating from federal prison since he began serving time for his role in the separate fraud case in Florida.

Attorneys in the case came to an interesting agreement this week, according to a joint motion filed in federal court.

While the government anticipates that Mr. Abramoff's cooperation in the form of possible testimony will continue for the foreseeable future, the parties believe that they are in a position to inform the court about the full scope of his misconduct and cooperation, and that, consistent with the commitments in the plea agreement with Mr. Abramoff, sentencing in the near future in this case is appropriate.

Under his plea agreement, Abramoff can expect to receive a jail sentence of 9 1/2 to 11 years, and he is required to make restitution of $26.7 million to the IRS and to the Indian tribes he defrauded.

We just learned that the head of the U.S. Office of Special Council, whose office and home were raided by federal agents last month, had a habit of instructing employees to go online and post comments rebutting news stories that he perceived as negative, according to a report from CongressDaily

"That did go on," said a former employee who has been involved in the activity. "Bloch would suggest posting things in the comments section. ... There'd be a negative article about Scott's involvement on something ... and [the] comment would be something like 'This Bloch guy is doing a good job." Two former OSC employees have gone so far as to describe Bloch as thin-skinned and "obsessed" with his press coverage.

Admittedly, Bloch has gotten some bad press in recent years. The man running the office in charge of investigating whistle-blower complaints, Bloch himself came under investigation in 2005 for retaliating against whistle blowers.

Then the feds got involved, suspicious that he was obstructing justice when he had a firm called "Geeks on Call" delete a batch of office emails potentially related to the investigation.

Meanwhile, through it all, Bloch still found time to worry about what everyone is saying about him, especially in his home state.

The employee suggested at least one OSC worker posted comments on the Web sites of such publications as the Washington Post, Topeka Capital-Journal, and the Lawrence Journal World. The two Kansas-based publications have written about Bloch because he is from the state.

In another instance confirmed by CongressDaily, an OSC employee who has not served in the military identified himself as "A Combat Vet" in an online response to a July 13, 2007, article on GovernmentExecutive.com. In the article, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Republicans faulted Bloch for his use of personal e-mail to discuss agency business.

The anonymous posting said news organizations were devoting too little coverage to OSC's enforcement of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, which bars discrimination against people based on service in the armed services.

"Where is the coverage of USERRA?" the posting asked. "OSC helped my buddy out when he couldn't get his job back, and it doesn't seem like anybody is checking into how it helps veterans. ... Who the hell cares if Bloch sent an email about congresscritters goofing off and playing pattycake. This USERRA issue is a huge deal for us who served. Does anyone give a crap?"

TPMmuckraker has tracked Bloch's travails pretty closely over the past several months. We don't have any indication his underlings were posting comments here -- but it does make us curious.

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) has had enough of the great stonewaller himself, EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson.

In a letter today to Johnson, Waxman threatens to hold Johnson in contempt for failing to comply with congressional subpoenas requesting information on two recent controversial decisions by Johnson that overruled EPA's professional staff: his refusal to grant California a waiver to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles and his refusal to fully raise ozone standards.

Waxman, the chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent a similar letter threatening contempt to White House official Susan Dudley, in the Office of Management and Budget, for the White House's refusal to comply with a related subpoena.

You have neither complied with these subpoenas by their returnable date nor asserted any privilege to justify withholding documents from the Committee. In light of your actions, I am writing to inform you that the Committee will meet on June 20 to consider a resolution citing you for contempt of Congress. I strongly urge you to comply with the duly issued subpoenas.

The full text of the letters are here (pdf) and here (pdf).

More from Sharon Weinberger over at Wired regarding former Rep. Curt Weldon's ties to Russia.

We learned earlier this week that Weldon's under investigation in what is "an element of a broader U.S. Justice Department probe into what officials suspect are efforts by Russian-backed firms to gain influence or gather information in Washington."

Now Weinberger, who co-wrote a book about nuclear weapons, found this nugget in her notes. In 2006, Weldon told her that he met with Sergey Chemezov, a former KGB officer and then the head of Rosoboronexport, which handles Russian weapons exports.

"Chemezov offers--it's an amazing offer with Putin's support... there are countries in the Middle East that are approaching Russia to buy replacement weapons and spare parts. Chemezov is here to say, "We want to work with America to either establish either a joint company, or even an American company that would act as a front for weapons these nations want to buy. So American would not think we're going behind their back."

Weldon thought it was a great idea.

Weeks after FEMA attempted to confiscate the rest of their trailers used by victims of Hurricane Katrina, a CNN investigation found around $85 million in goods meant for those misplaced victims sat in warehouses for two years before being sent to other federal and state agencies. (CNN)

Lawyers for Texas death row inmate Charles Hood are claiming the judge and the prosecutor in Hood's 1990 double-murder trial were having an affair. The possible relationship was a violation of fair trial rights, and Hood should not be put to death, the legal team states. (New York Times)

Mark Brener, an operator of Emperors Club VIP escort service, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit prostitution crimes and money laundering, but did not agree to fully cooperate with investigators in related cases. It is unclear how Brener's lack of cooperation will affect the case of one of the club's customers, former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer. (Reuters)

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If the special-rate Countrywide loan that led to Jim Johnson's resignation from Barack Obama's VP screening team was shady, then there's a few other Washington insiders who may have some explaining to do.

A new article from Portfolio rattles off a list of top Washington officials, current and former, who also received discounted loans because they were personally approved by Countywide Financial's top exec Angelo Mozilo.

Senators Christopher Dodd, Democrat from Connecticut and chairman of the Banking Committee, and Kent Conrad, Democrat from North Dakota, chairman of the Budget Committee and a member of the Finance Committee, refinanced properties through Countrywide's "V.I.P." program in 2003 and 2004, according to company documents and emails and a former employee familiar with the loans.

Other participants in the V.I.P. program included former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Alphonso Jackson, former Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala, and former U.N. ambassador and assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke. Jackson was deputy H.U.D. secretary in the Bush administration when he received the loans in 2003. Shalala, who received two loans in 2002, had by then left the Clinton administration for her current position as president of the University of Miami. She is scheduled to receive a Presidential Medal of Freedom on June 19.

The loans translate into money saved. For example, in Dodd's case, Portfolio calculates that "the lower rates save the senator about $58,000 on his Washington residence over the life of the loan, and $17,000 on the Connecticut home."

In the case of Conrad, he saved about $10,700 on a loan he took out for his $1.07 million home in Bethany Beach, Del. He also took out a loan on an investment property when he refinanced an eight-unit building he owns with his brothers in Bismarck, ND. That violated Countrywide's normal rules about only providing those loans for buildings of four units or fewer. However, "in an April 23, 2004, email, Mozilo encouraged an employee to 'make an exception due to the fact that the borrower is a senator.'"

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The other day we told you about the Russian not-for-profit group that was giving undisclosed payments to the wife of former Rep. Curt Weldon's chief of staff.

Weldon, a Pennsylvania Republican who lost his reelection bid in 2006, had sought federal grants for International Exchange Group, which was run by a Russian with ties to the Kremlin. IEG was involved in "promoting U.S.-Russia business exchange, including nonproliferation issues."

IEG popped up again this week. Over at Wired Sharon Weinberger, who recently co-wrote a book about nuclear weapons, pointed out another connection the group had to the U.S. government.

IEG signed a deal with the U.S. military's Missile Defense Agency back in 2004 promising to provide "Russian radar data" for use with the U.S. missile defense's early warning system.

From Wired:

But the entire structure of IEG was suspect, and smacked of conflict of interest: why should the U.S. government have to pay an openly Kremlin-linked nonprofit in order to ensure government cooperation?

It didn't pass the smell test with upper-level decision makers at the Pentagon, who halted the 2004 deal at the last minute.

Weldon's connection here is unclear. But he has promoted the Russian group and he's also a longtime supporter for the Defense Missile Agency.

Weldon has been under federal investigation for a couple of years concerning his actions on behalf of a natural-gas company, Itera International Energy LLC, which has longstanding connections to alleged Russian organized-crime figures. Weldon just dumped his last $80,000 in campaign money into his legal defense fund.

And the Wall Street Journal reported this week, the probe of Weldon may be "a broader U.S. Justice Department probe into what officials suspect are efforts by Russian-backed firms to gain influence or gather information in Washington."

Now it's official. The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform voted this morning to formalize the draft report that detailed convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff's influence peddling at the White House.

From the AP:

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that foreign terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay have rights under the Constitution to challenge their detention in U.S. civilian courts.

The justices handed the Bush administration its third setback at the high court since 2004 over its treatment of prisoners who are being held indefinitely and without charges at the U.S. naval base in Cuba. The vote was 5-4, with the court's liberal justices in the majority.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the court, said, "The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times."

Late Update: The court did not say that the prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay should be released.

It did, however, say that they can take their individual cases -- or petitions of habeas corpus -- into federal court.

Plain, old federal court. So you can expect to see a sudden, steady stream of accused terrorists in orange jumpsuits appearing alongside drug dealers and kiddie-porn downloaders.

The ruling could resurrect many detainee lawsuits that federal judges put on hold pending the outcome of the high court case. The decision sent judges, law clerks and court administrators scrambling to read Kennedy's 70-page opinion and figure out how to proceed. Chief Judge Royce C. Lamberth said he would call a special meeting of federal judges to address how to handle the cases.

Is this the end of secret prisons?

In another case of the CIA plucking a citizen from a foreign country based on suspicion, officials from Italy, Germany, Spain and Switzerland all cooperated in the effort to kidnap Egyptian cleric and terrorism suspect Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr from a Milan street in 2003. Nasr was released from an Egyptian prison in 2007, claiming he was tortured while there. (Associated Press)

Sens. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) have introduced legislation that would tighten laws on lobbyists that work for foreign-owned companies, requiring lobbying operations to disclose more aspects of those relationships than current law demands. The proposed review of foreign influence on American lobbying comes during an election season in which Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has come under scrutiny for employing several individuals on his campaign staff that have track records of foreign lobbying. (New York Times)

A senior British intelligence agent left top secret documents containing information on al Qaeda on a train, officials said Wednesday. The file was retrieved and given to the BBC. This comes after the loss of a laptop containing data on 600,000 recruits by Britain's Ministry of Defence, prompting critics to hurl charges of lax security at Prime Minister Gordon Brown. (Reuters)

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Does liking porn disqualify a judge from hearing a porn case?

Maybe so, in the case of Judge Alex Kozinski, the chief judge of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

Kozinski -- who is just one rung below the U.S. Supreme Court -- yesterday delayed the obscenity trial he was presiding over of Hollywood adult filmmaker Ira Isaacs, whose work includes scenes of bestiality and defecation. (Although Kozinski is an appeals court judge, he was sitting as the trial judge in this case.)

The Los Angles Times found the judge had a Web site with some pretty freakish scenes of his own, which he was sharing with friends and family.

Among the images on the site were a photo of naked women on all fours painted to look like cows and a video of a half-dressed man cavorting with a sexually aroused farm animal. He defended some of the adult content as "funny" but conceded that other postings were inappropriate.

Kozinski, 57, said that he thought the site was for his private storage and that he was not aware the images could be seen by the public, although he also said he had shared some material on the site with friends.

When a reporter from the Times asked the judge about the images, "the judge said he didn't think any of the material on his site would qualify as obscene."

"Is it prurient? I don't know what to tell you," he said. "I think it's odd and interesting. It's part of life."

He has since taken the site down.

Kozinski, appointed by President Regean in 1985, has been mentioned as a possible candidate for the U.S. Supreme Court. He is considered a judicial conservative on most issues.

When it comes to matters of porn and computer privacy, Kozinski is no hypocrite.

In September 2001, Kozinski was a fierce opponent of any effort by Washington bureaucrats to monitor his computer, prompting Leonidas Ralph Mecham, the director of the Administrative Office of the Courts, to remark to the New York Times that "Kozinski had shown 'great interest in keeping pornography available to judges,' especially of what Mr. Mecham called 'the more homosexual and exotic varieties.'"

Judge Kozinski said Mr. Mecham's comment about ''homosexual'' Web sites appeared to refer to an incident in 1998 when one of his law clerks downloaded a Web site for a San Francisco gay bookstore and the Administrative Office complained. ''I don't think we need bureaucrats in Washington looking over our shoulders for this kind of thing,'' Judge Kozinski said.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals based in San Francisco has a long tradition of being the country's most liberal. It's backed medical marijuana and struck the words "Under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance.

So the feds are not only looking into former Rep. John Sweeney (R-NY), but also his ex-wife?

That's sure how it looks, since they subpoenaed files about Sweeney and the fundraising firm run by his wife, Gayle Ford Sweeney - who was married to the upstate New York Republican until shortly after he left office in 2006.

As speculation mounts that John Sweeney is the latest target in Jack Abramoff's lobbying ring, the New York Times noted that Abramoff investigators have found a pattern of money funneled to Congressional spouses.

Take Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA). The FBI raided his house last year and he's opting not to run for reelection. Doolittle's wife, Julie, was running a one-person company that got large payments from campaign funds and PACs run by Doolittle. In addition, Abramoff's firm paid Doolittle's wife, Julie, $67,600 to plan an event that was ultimately canceled.

Or look at Tom Delay, the former Rep. from Texas. His wife was running a group called the Delay Foundation for Kids. It's donors? Well, whaddya know. They were a diverse set of special interest who appeared to be seeking favors from Tom Delay.

Sweeney's wife was campaign and fundraising consultant who got a cut of the money raised for her husband.

She was also taking a salary from Sweeney's friend and lobbyist Bill Powers's firm. And she left Sweeney just a few months after voters kicked him out of office.

We'll be interested in hear what the feds find in all that paperwork.

The Jack Abramoff investigation is a gift that keeps on giving.

Nearly three years after the feds flipped the corrupt Washington lobbyist, we've learned just today that former U.S. Rep. John Sweeney (R-NY) may be the next lawmaker in the cross hairs of the feds' ongoing investigation.

Sweeney's ties to Abramoff over the years may have been overshadowed by Sweeney's more colorful scandals that repeatedly involved booze and women half his age.

In 2001, Sweeney was among a handful of lawmakers who took a trip to the Northern Marianas -- Abramoff's infamous client -- and failed to disclose that the trip was privately funded. While there he parroted Abramoff's favorite line -- that reports of sweatshops there were overblown.

In March 2006, DOJ investigators pulled some of Sweeney's financial records from the House clerk and reviewed them along with a handful of others linked to Abramoff.

Back then, when records showed Sweeney had taken $2,000 from Abramoff's firm, he gave that money away to a local hospital to publicly cleanse himself of ties to the convicted felon.

With the latest news that the feds have raided the firm of Sweeney's political mentor, Bill Powers, has the Abramoff investigation zeroed in on Sweeney? The New York Times suggested as much today, but it cited no source for that proposition. So it's not immediately clear what the connection is between Sweeney and Powers and Abramoff. Powers was a chairman of the state GOP throughout the 1990s, and Sweeney was one of his executive directors before being elected to Congress. The New York papers are reporting Sweeney may have steered big federal grants to Powers' clients while Sweeney was still in Congress.

By the way, Sweeney's then wife (now ex-wife) went to work for Powers' firm a few years after he was elected to Congress, and left the firm shortly after he lost his reelection bid. More on that shortly.

Success in Iraq is critical to U.S. national interests, which is why we've insisted on sending our best and brightest civilians there: loyal Republicans, young GOP political operatives, and in the case of Owen Cargol, a man who fancies himself "a rub-your-belly, grab-your-balls, give-you-a-hug, slap-your-back, pull-your-dick, squeeze-your-hand, cheek-your-face, and pat-your-thigh kind of guy."

As Inside Higher Ed reports today, Cargol resigned back in April as the first chancellor of the American University in Iraq, apparently for health reasons, but he'd been forced out of a previous position as president of Northern Arizona University after just four months for allegedly sexually harassing a NAU employee:

Cargol's 2001 resignation stemmed from allegations made by a Northern Arizona employee who alleged that Cargol, while naked in a locker room, grabbed the employee's genitals, the Arizona Republic reported. In a subsequent e-mail to the employee, Cargol described himself as "a rub-your-belly, grab-your-balls, give-you-a-hug, slap-your-back, pull-your-dick, squeeze-your-hand, cheek-your-face, and pat-your-thigh kind of guy."

The American University in Iraq, located in Sulaimaniya in the Kurdish-controlled north, was heralded as a progressive step towards democratization. It selected Cargol as its first chancellor in 2007, though why is unclear since, as Inside Higher Ed notes, his "checkered past. . . could have been revealed to university organizers in a simple Google search."

AU-I is a private, non-profit institution, but it was started with $10.5 million from the U.S. government and its board --which hired Cargol -- is stacked with prominent names:

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani is chairman of the Board of Regents; and Barham Salih, Iraq's deputy prime minister, is president of the Board of Trustees. Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq and a counselor to former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, sits on the board. So too does Fouad Ajami, head of Middle Eastern studies at Johns Hopkins University.

Agresto, the new interim chancellor, brings his own bona fides. As detailed in Imperial Life in the Emerald City, Agresto has close connections to Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney's wife, Lynne Cheney, with whom Agresto served during a stint at the National Endowment for the Humanities. A self-described neoconservative who was "mugged by reality" in Iraq, Agresto "knew next to nothing about Iraq's educational system" when he arrived with orders to rebuild it, The Washington Post reported.

How Agresto and his colleagues came to select Cargol to head AU-Iraq is unclear, but Cargol's decision to reinvent himself as an administrator in the Middle East preceded his work in Iraq. Before he took the chancellor's post, Cargol was provost of Abu Dhabi University, a private institution in the United Arab Emirates.

We've enjoyed cataloging the dubious record of former Rep. John Sweeney (R-NY).

Maybe he's best known for helping to instigate the "Brooks Brothers Riot" with other Republicans during the Florida recount in December 2000.

Yet at home in upstate New York, he has also been accused of beating his wife, getting conspicuously drunk with college kids, drunk driving and taking free trips from Jack Abramoff.

Now he may be getting roped directly into the Jack Abramoff investigation, as the feds are looking into whether he steered a series of grants to his longtime friend and lobbyist Bill Powers, an elder statesmen of the New York State GOP.

The New York Times reports:

Federal law enforcement agents have raided the offices of an influential lobbying firm in Albany as part of the latest investigation connected to the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal in Washington.

The Times provides no source for the Abramoff link. Other reports do not explicity tie in the raid with Abramoff, but note the DOJ investigation is run from Washington rather than Albany.

From the Albany Times Union

A federal criminal investigation is focusing on the relationship of lobbyist William D. Powers and former U.S. Rep. John E. Sweeney in connection with a series of federal grants that were steered to Powers' clients, according to several people familiar with the probe.
...

Several people familiar with the case said it is centered on a period when Powers' clients received the earmarks while Sweeney's then-wife, Gayle, was working for Powers' Albany-based lobbying firm.

The FBI swarmed the Albany office of the lobbying firm run by Powers, a former head of the New York Republican Party and longtime patron to both Sweeney and former New York Gov. George Pataki.

Double-parking their cars, about 15 agents descended on the State Street suite of the former party official, William Powers, and herded the employees into a room while the agents searched for files.

Sweeney appears to be getting most of the investigators' attention. The New York Daily News reports:

The agents issued grand jury subpoenas for records about the firm; ex-Republican Rep. John Sweeney; Sweeney's campaign committee and leadership PAC; Sweeney's ex-wife, Gayle, who worked for Powers; and Gayle Sweeney's former fund-raising firm, Creative Consulting. The Daily News obtained copies of the subpoenas and the FBI confirmed being at the offices.

Abramoff is set for sentencing in September. Does this suggest that three-year-old investigation still has legs?

Just when we thought the Gibbons' saga was over, it all starts again.

Throughout his very messy and public divorce with his wife of 22 years, Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons has repeatedly denied having an affair -- despite being seen cavorting around town with two married women half his age and a suspicious friendship he had struck up with Kathy Karrasch, a neighbor of the Gibbonses and the estranged wife of a Reno podiatrist.

But the Reno Gazette-Journal uncovered documents this week that reveal that in just 6 weeks the governor exchanged 867 personal text messages with Karrasch, making their relationship seem a little more than friendly:

With the intense volume of messages between March 3, 2007 and April 9, 2007, Gibbons wracked up $130 in cell phone charges for the state, which he promptly reimbursed when his chief of staff brought the personal messages to his attention. The text messages occurred throughout the day and night, on weekends and work days.

On one Friday, for example, Gibbons exchanged 160 text messages with Karrasch starting at 8:30 a.m. and ending at 11:45 p.m. On another night, Gibbons exchanged 91 messages between midnight and 2 a.m. with her.

The records also revealed 42 phone calls between Gibbons and Karrasch, mostly on the weekends and evenings. The records include two lengthy phone calls during working hours.

In a sensational motion filed two weeks ago by her attorney, Dawn Gibbons had attempted to unseal the couples' divorce proceeding, and accused her husband of having an "infatuation and involvement" with the unnamed woman who "for years stalked the man who could give her the public persona and prestige that apparently she craves."

On Monday of this week, the attorneys for Jim and Dawn Gibbons released a joint statement and stated that, "[t]he parties have agreed that there will be no further Public comment from either side while the parties attempt to resolve issues related to the divorce action."

Retired Army Lt. Levonda J. Selph pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday for directing a $12 million building contract to a confidant in exchange for $4,000 cash and a trip to Thailand. Selph has promised to cooperate in the pending investigation. The contractor was not named in the court documents. (Associated Press)

As the Iraqi and American governments wrangle over the depth of mission and length of time American forces will stay present in Iraq, one crucial point of negotiation involves the presence of defense companies in the country. While contractors have come under intense scrutiny in Baghdad, especially after the massacre of 17 Iraqis at the hands of Blackwater guards last year, the U.S. government is requesting immunity from Iraqi law for the private companies. (AFP)

Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) sent a letter to Sec. of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday asking her about the department's position on the future of defense contracts with the likes of Blackwater, and how much the U.S. military plans to lean on the private, largely unregulated companies in Iraq and elsewhere. (Washington Independent)

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A convicted hedge fund manager, set to start his 20-year prison term next week, disappeared into the night, in what investigators suspect is a faked suicide.

The Wall Street Journal reports this morning that Samuel Israel III, the former chief of Bayou Management LLC, disappeared on Tuesday. His car was found near Bear Mountain Bridge over Hudson River, with an enigmatic message written in dust on his car: "suicide is painless."

Despite the ominous note, no body has been recovered and no witnesses saw anyone jump from the bridge:

[Bruce] Cuccia, [a New York state police investigator] said that, since 1980, more than 40 people have jumped to their deaths from the bridge, which marks one of the deepest points of the Hudson River. He said it would be impossible to survive the 150-foot fall.

The bodies of almost all jumpers are found quickly, Mr. Cuccia said. "I will be satisfied in a few days that if the body doesn't come up, he didn't jump," he said.

U.S. Marshalls have taken over the case and launched an international manhunt, a sign that Israel is indeed the latest white-collar criminal to go on the run:

Police in 2006 found one fugitive money manager, Kirk Wright, 37, living in Miami Beach. He had disappeared after his hedge fund collapsed, costing investors $150 million. A federal jury recently found him guilty of defrauding thousands of investors in International Management Associates, including many professional football players.

Mr. Wright had claimed the fund was performing well, when it was actually losing money, and he was spending client's money on jewelry, real estate, cars and a wedding. Over Memorial Day weekend, shortly after being brought to an Atlanta jail, he hanged himself.

In another instance, in January 2006, shortly before being sentenced for stealing at least $27 million from investors, hedge-fund manager Angelo Haligiannis had double-parked his Jeep Cherokee in Manhattan, cut off his ankle monitor and fled. Last fall the 35-year-old was arrested in a luxurious resort on the Greek island of Crete, vacationing with his wife and daughter.

Also last year, Michael Berger, who defrauded clients of his Manhattan Investment Fund, was arrested by Austrian police, driving toward Salzburg five years after he had originally disappeared. Betting that technology and Internet stocks would fall in the late 1990s, Mr. Berger lost roughly $400 million when his hedge fund collapsed in 2000.

If Israel did not in fact jump from the bridge, this will be the second faked suicide attempt for Bayou. Early in the federal investigation, a note was found in the empty offices of the company by a beleaguered investor. The note, penned by Daniel Marino the firm's chief financial officer, began: "This is my suicide note and confession." Marino never attempted suicide.

Police have recently recovered $100 million of the $400 million lost by investors through Bayou. Both Israel and Marino were convicted on fraud charges in 2005 and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Last week the Senate intel committee released their report on pre-war intelligence in Iraq, which confirmed the disconnect between intelligence information espoused by Bush Administration officials and what was actually known.

The parameters of Phase II were negotiated between Senate Republicans and Democrats, for years, so it was maybe doomed to be a document with glaring omissions. But as damning as parts of the report were (Rumsfeld's false testimony, etc.) it probably could have been a lot worse for the executive branch, had not large swaths of White House communications been excluded from the scope of the investigations.

As Walter Pincus of the Washington Post writes, "the panel did not review 'less formal communications between intelligence agencies and other parts of the Executive Branch.'"

Which basically means that only the speeches and public press statements by senior officials, fell within the purview of the intel. committee's investigation. As Pincus points out, that leaves out a number of the other ways the administration misled the public before going into Iraq:

One obvious target for such an expanded inquiry would have been the records of the White House Iraq Group (WHIG), a group set up in August 2002 by then-White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr.

The group met weekly in the Situation Room. Among the regular participants (many have since left or changed jobs) were Karl Rove, the president's senior political adviser; communications strategists Karen Hughes, Mary Matalin and James R. Wilkinson; legislative liaison Nicholas E. Calio; and policy aides led by national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and her deputy, Stephen J. Hadley, as well as I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Cheney's chief of staff.

As former White House press secretary Scott McClellan wrote in his recently released book, What Happened, the Iraq Group "had been set up in the summer of 2002 to coordinate the marketing of the war to the public."

"The script had been finalized with great care over the summer," McClellan wrote, for a "campaign to convince Americans that war with Iraq was inevitable and necessary." [Emphasis ours]

Beyond rehashing sentiments of the Senate intel. committee's purposeful stonewalling and foreshortening of the investigation, Fred Kaplan at Slate
takes a different read on the line "less formal communications between intelligence agencies and other parts of the executive branch." Kaplan believes the line addresses the covert pressure the White House placed on the CIA to play up its pro-war intelligence:

Another intriguing point, made fleetingly in the Senate report's preface, is that the committee reviewed "only finished analytic intelligence documents"--not "less formal communications between intelligence agencies and other parts of the executive branch."

In other words (though the authors don't put it in these terms), the committee once again evaded the key question of whether the White House pressured the Central Intelligence Agency into hardening its October 2002 NIE on Iraq.

Unless this question is addressed, the report is beside the point. Its full, ungainly title is "Report on Whether Public Statements Regarding Iraq by U.S. Government Officials Were Substantiated by Intelligence Information." If those same government officials politicized the intelligence information, then the report only perpetuates the sham. (I am not saying this is the case, only that the committee should have investigated whether it is--should have reviewed those "less formal communications.")
[Emphasis ours]

In sum, while Phase II shed light on the "lies," or "misstatements," or "misinformation," or "whatever-you-want-to-call-it," of the administration's public claims in the days leading up to the Iraq war, it still leaves much to be desired in terms of scope and accountability.

Indicted CIA spook Kyle "Dusty" Foggo wants to get away for a little while, to travel with his wife and two kids on a five-week vacation to Austria this summer.

Unfortunately for the former CIA executive director, he has a couple dozen felony charges against him that remain unresolved, accusing him of fraud, conspiracy, money laundering and making false statements.

So when Foggo asked U.S. District Judge James Cacheris of Virginia to give him back his passport and let him leave the country, the judge last week flat-out rejected him.

Not that Foggo's attorneys didn't try to make the case:

"Mr. Foggo has served the U.S. government with distinction for 23 years in the Central Intelligence Agency ("CIA") and prior to his indictment had no criminal record."

(They added in a footnote, however, that "the details of nearly all aspects of Mr. Foggo's distinguished service to this country are classified, including honors and awards received.")

Prosecutors in the case opposed Foggo's request, noting the risk that the former spy could simply not return to stand trial in the U.S. He's currently out of jail on a $200,000 bond.

"There is no family emergency that necessitates his travel. ... Foggo acknowledges that the European vacation he wishes to take is strictly elective."

They also said the request seemed pricey, considering Foggo had claimed he was too poor to stand trial in the initial venue on the West Coast.

A five-week European vacation for Foggo and his entire family - especially given current foreign exchange rates - also seems inconsistent with Foggo's prior argument in favor of transferring this case from the Southern District of California, where Foggo maintained that he was too impoverished to try this (three-week) case.

A lot has changed since Foggo used to allegedly get free trips to Scotland and Hawaii, compliments of Brent Wilkes, the friend and contractor who got multimillion-dollar Iraq-related contracts with Foogo's help.

What started as an FBI investigation into suspicious payments to an unconfirmed nominee for an Air Force position, has grown to include seven contracts between the Pentagon and two tax-exempt defense firms in Pennsylvania.

In 2007, the FBI began an internal investigation after an article in the Washington Post revealed that the Air Force had used Commonwealth Research Institute (CRI) to pay Charles Riechers, a senior civilian who was waiting on finalization of his White House nomination to principal deputy assistant secretary for acquisition.

In October 2007, Riechers was found dead in an apparent suicide.

Since then, the scope of the federal investigation has broadened, and the FBI and Pentagon's Defense Criminal Investigative Service issued subpoenas in April to CRI and its parent company, Concurrent Technologies.

Those subpoenas are seeking information about at least seven contracts between the two non-profits and the Pentagon. From the Post:

Contracting documents obtained by The Post show that four of the contracts, worth up to $130 million, were awarded to Concurrent over several weeks in May and June 2002. Investigators also are examining a Concurrent deal in 2006 that was worth up to $45 million.

Investigators also want to know about two CRI deals, one from 2003 worth up to $10 million and another awarded without competition in 2006 that is worth up to $45 million.

All seven contracts were awarded by the Department of the Interior's National Business Center. The center has an interesting track record on non-competitive contracts:

The Pentagon has used that center for billions of dollars in purchases in recent years, though audits have found that the center often awarded contracts without competition or checks to determine whether prices were reasonable. One audit in late 2006 found that the center "routinely violated rules designed to protect U.S. Government interests."

Perhaps one more interesting twist to the story, involves the $226 million in earmarks that CRI and Concurrent have received in recent years, through Rep. John Murtha (D-PA).

The federal corruption probe of former Rep. Curt Weldon's office is grinding on. Turns out one of the Russian businessmen the Pennsylvania Republican was promoting was giving undisclosed payments to his chief of staff's wife.

The chief of staff, Russell Caso, pleaded guilty to conspiracy in December, but the actual source of the cash given to his wife was not identified. Today's Wall Street Journal reports that the money came from a group called the International Exchange Group, run by Vladimir Petrosyan.

The not for profit group paid $19,000 to Caso's wife, mostly for editing work that was never done. The Journal reports that Petrosyan, a prominent Russian with ties to the Kremlin, was a fixture around Weldon's office on Capitol Hill.

Mr. Petrosyan, who was the "general secretary" of the group, "met frequently and sought official action from" then-Rep. Weldon, the Caso plea statement alleges. Mr. Weldon directed Mr. Caso to seek U.S. government backing for projects involving biological and chemical weapons and he "made presentations to various executive branch agencies, including to high-level officials in the Departments of State and Energy and the National Security Council."

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Jeremy Scahill, author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army reports for The Nation on the shadowy Blackwater's growing foray into the world of private espionage.

The privatization of intelligence has grown dramatically under President Bush, with Washington paying $42 billion annually in private intelligence contracts, compared to just $17.5 billion in 2000. As Scahill points out, it means that 70% of the U.S. intelligence budget is going to private companies, which creates an interesting market for government operatives.

Erik Prince, founder of Blackwater, started Total Intelligence Solutions in April 2006 in order to capitalize on this growing demand for privatized intelligence services:

"Total Intel brings the...skills traditionally honed by CIA operatives directly to the board room," [Blackwater's vice chair Cofer] Black said when the company launched. "With a service like this, CEOs and their security personnel will be able to respond to threats quickly and confidently -- whether it's determining which city is safest to open a new plant in or working to keep employees out of harm's way after a terrorist attack."

As Scahill writes, Total Intel's leadership "reads like a Who's Who of the CIA 'war on terror'":

In addition to the twenty-eight-year CIA veteran Black, who is chair of Total Intelligence, the company's executives include CEO Robert Richer, the former associate deputy director of the agency's Directorate of Operations and the second-ranking official in charge of clandestine operations.

From 1999 to 2004, Richer was head of the CIA's Near East and South Asia Division, where he ran clandestine operations throughout the Middle East and South Asia. As part of his duties, he was the CIA liaison with Jordan's King Abdullah, a key US ally and Blackwater client, and briefed George W. Bush on the burgeoning Iraqi resistance in its early stages.

Scahill points out there are drawbacks to this kind of free-market approach to national security and intelligence:

In Iraq, Blackwater has banked on the idea that it is a sort of American Express card for the occupation. But for the future, Prince has a different corporate model, as he indicated in his speech. "When you send something overseas, do you use FedEx or the postal service?" he asked.

There are serious problems with this analogy. When you send something by FedEx, you can track your package and account for its whereabouts at all times. You can have your package insured against loss or damage. That has not been the case with Blackwater. The people who foot the sizable bill for its "services" almost never know, until it is too late, what Blackwater is doing, and there are apparently no consequences for Blackwater when things go lethally wrong. "We are essentially a robust temp agency," Prince told his fans in Michigan. He's right about that one. A temp agency serving the most radical privatization agenda in history.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development ignored warnings of a looming subprime loan collapse in the U.S. housing market, sticking with outdated policies that allowed Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to net billions by providing low-cost loans. (Washington Post)

Human Rights Watch is reporting over two-thirds of detainees at Guantanamo Bay have shown signs of mental health problems because of their living conditions. Many of the prisoners, the report claims, have already been cleared for release or not charged at all yet continue to be held in cramped cells for nearly 22 hours a day. (Reuters)

As the Bush administration attempts to negotiate with Congress for retroactive immunity for telecom companies that complied with government-ordered warrantless wiretapping, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) is demanding further review of a potential waiver for the companies. "It seems to me that it'd be very difficult to grant retroactive immunity when you don't even know for sure what you're giving retroactive immunity for," Specter said Monday, sharing a view unpopular among Republicans. (Washington Independent)

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Late this afternoon the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released six photographs cited in today's report that show President Bush meeting with jailed uber-lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

The pictures contradict the White House's previous statements that the President met with Abramoff only two times:

While the Committee obtained no evidence that Mr. Abramoff ever personally lobbied the President or that the President personally directed an action in response to a request by Mr. Abramoff, the Committee did receive evidence that Mr. Abramoff met the President and was photographed with him six times. Four of the six photographs occurred at political receptions.

In a statement today, the White House spokesman Tony Fratto responded to the House committee report "There's nothing new of any significance in it. it is warmed-up leftovers. It confirms what has become clear in all of this -- Abramoff was spectacularly unsuccessful in influencing administration policy."

The photos released by the committee actually look like black and white photo copies of the originals. They are very dark and grainy. We have lightened the picture below to make it more discernible. It is, according to the committee, a photo of Mr. Abramoff, Pam Abramoff, President Bush, and First Lady Laura Bush taken at a December 10, 2001, Hanukkah party at the White House.

The rest of the photos are below the fold:

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As we previously reported, Gov. Jim Gibbons (R-NV) has been going through a very messy divorce with the First Lady, Dawn Gibbons.

Two weeks ago, Dawn made not-so-veiled threats to implicate the governor in one or more scandals by opening their divorce proceedings to the public.

But in a joint statement released today from Gov. Gibbons and Dawn Gibbons' attorneys, it seems that the future-former First Lady has had a change of heart:

     JOINT STATEMENT BY COUNSEL
     (Gibbons Matter)

The Governor and The First Lady have entered into an agreement to suspend litigation activities in an attempt to resolve issues regarding the divorce action filed by the Governor. While they are in negotiations, no court documents will be filed.

     The First Lady has agreed to move to the guest house on the Mansion grounds and the Governor shall reside in the Mansion.

     The Governor and the First Lady will share the Public Areas of the Mansion for their respective Public Duties with their respective staff coordinating the scheduling with each other.

     The parties have agreed that there will be no further Public comment from either side while the parties attempt to resolve issues related to the divorce action.

     Dated June 9, 2008

     CALVIN R. X. DUNLAP      GARY SILVERMAN

Scott McClellan will go to Capitol Hill to testify next week about his allegation that Vice President Cheney "directed" him to lie about who leaked CIA a operative's identity.

From AP:

McClellan's lawyers said he has accepted House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers' invitation to testify June 20. The attorneys said McClellan will appear and be sworn during the proceedings.

McClellan said he was misled by others, possibly including Cheney, about the role of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby in the leak and has said publicly that Bush and Cheney "directed me to go out there and exonerate Scooter Libby."

Back when the Jack Abramoff scandal was exploding across Washington in 2005 and 2006, the White House went to great lengths to publicly distance itself from the Republican uberlobbyist -- even though anyone who knew anything about Republican politics knew Abramoff was hard-wired into the very fabric of the modern GOP.

Following Abramoff's guilty plea in January 2006, President Bush said, "I don't know him." A White House spokesperson stated that Abramoff had only attended "a couple of holiday receptions . . . then a few staff-level meetings on top of that." And through a spokesperson, Rove said that he "remembers they had met at a political event in the 1990s. ... Since then, he would describe him as a casual acquaintance." Later, we learned that Rove and Abramoff met on D.C. street corners, Jack in his limo, to avoid detection in White House phone and visitor logs.

But the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform report issued today detailing the ties between Abramoff and the Bush White House specifically stated that the White House's own investigation into Abramoff's contacts there had been cursory at best.

This evidence suggests that the White House failed to conduct even the most basic internal investigation of the White House relationship with Mr. Abramoff before making public statements characterizing the connection between Mr. Abramoff and the White House.

In reality, the Committee uncovered extensive contacts between Abramoff team and the White House, including access to Rove and direct influence on White House policy, from unseating Department of Interior official Alan Stayman to affecting nominating processes:

One action that White House officials took at the request of Mr. Abramoff was to intervene to force the removal of a State Department official, Alan Stayman. In a previous position at the Office of Insular Affairs in the Department of the Interior, Mr. Stayman had advocated positions opposed by the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, then a client of Mr. Abramoff. Mr. Stayman was appointed to his position at the Department of State during the Clinton Administration.

In a recent Committee deposition, Monica Kladakis, then-Deputy Associate Director in the White House Office of Presidential Personnel (OPP), confirmed that OPP became involved in Mr. Stayman's removal after White House officials were contacted by Mr. Abramoff's team.

The White House led the committee in 2006 to believe that the extent of the Abramoff connections existed only between Abramoff and Rove's mutual secretary, Susan Ralston. Ralston was painted to be the whole of Abramoff's connection to the White House and her resignation was the culmination of a 4-day investigation by the White House, described by the deputy press secretary as a "thorough" review of the matter.

But in the Committee's examination of Ralston's relevant correspondence, specific electronic conversations shed light on Ralston's role as a conduit between Abramoff and Rove, rather than a stopping point.

One example of the Abramoff team's access to the White House regarding the nomination process is a February 20, 2001, e-mail from Susan Ralston to Matt Schlapp to let him know that Jack Abramoff had called Karl Rove a few days earlier to discuss appointments at OIA.

According to this e-mail, Mr. Abramoff had heard that Esther Kia'aina was going to be
considered for a position and "wanted to let Karl know that he didn't think this was a good idea."

Ms. Ralston continued, "Karl asked that you return his call." Ms. Kia'aina was not appointed to a position at OIA.

Beyond nominations and appointments, Abramoff, through Rove, also played a hand in creating White House policy:

On a number of occasions, White House officials used information Mr. Abramoff provided in policy deliberations. For example, in September 2002, when Matt Schlapp, then-Deputy White House Political Director, asked Ms. Ralston if Karl Rove wanted "Fred Radewagon to get strong consideration" for appointment to the position of Director of OIA. Ms. Ralston replied minutes later with the note, "Definitely not Radewagon. Here's the intel I got on him."

The rest of her e-mail quotes directly, without attribution, from an e-mail Jack Abramoff had sent her the previous month. In this e-mail, Ms. Ralston passed on information from Mr. Abramoff to support her assertion that Mr. Rove would not support Mr. Radewagon. Mr. Radewagon did not get the appointment.

The term "fruit" was used as a code word for tickets to sporting events or concerts between Jennifer Farley, former White House Associate Director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, and Kevin Ring, a lobbyist for Jack Abramoff's firm, according to today's draft report from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

On December 12, 2002, Ms. Farley asks Mr. Ring, "Do you have any kind of fruit tonight?" Mr. Ring responds, "No games tonight." In another e-mail exchange about an issue of interest to one of Mr. Ring's clients, Ms. Farley stated, "Let me know about the fruit in the middle of the basket." Mr. Ring responded, "The fruit is going to happen. Just trying to make sure it is picked on the right day."

In another email, Ring asked: "All set to use the fruit on a new date?"

Abramoff's team of lobbyists and White House officials often shared dinner, drinks and good stadium seats, according to the report. Records from Abramoff's firm obtained by the committee show that his team members met with White House officials over meals or drinks 186 times, billing the firm's clients for these meetings on 156 occasions. Many meetings took place at "expensive Washington restaurants such as Oceanaire, Bistro Bis, and the Oval Room."

Who exactly picked up the tab? That's still pretty hazy.

In most cases, the documents and billing records did not provide any evidence as to whether the White House officials paid for their share of the meals and drinks. ... The Committee in many cases also could not reach any conclusion about who paid for the meals and tickets.

However, the Committee's 32-page report did feel compelled to note that:

The acceptance of meals and gifts by White House officials would raise concerns about White House officials' compliance with federal laws regarding the solicitation and acceptance of gifts.

At least three White House officials refused to answer some questions from the Committee and instead invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

Susan Ralston, Karl Rove's then-personal assistant who had previously held a similar position with Abramoff, requested tickets to seven events and was given tickets to nine, including Wizards, Capitals, and Orioles games, as well as concerts by Bruce Springsteen and Andrea Bocelli, according to documents from Abramoff's firm obtained by the committee.

When asked about that, Ralston "did not answer these questions and indicated that she would invoke her Fifth Amendment rights if compelled to respond," according to the committee report.

Matt Kirk, the former Deputy Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs, also refused to answer any questions from the committee. Documents from Abramoff's firm obtained by the committee show he was given tickets to a Wizards game and to the NCAA basketball tournament.

Abramoff's firm had 27 contacts with Farley. She was provided with "fruits" to three events, two Orioles games and a Yanni concert, the firm's records show.

Ms. Farley's attorney told the Committee that Ms. Farley would not respond to questions on the following subjects: "First, what benefits she may or may not have been offered; and, two, any communications between Ms. Farley and any member of the so-called Abramoff team."

The report also mentions Ken Mehlman, former Bush campaign manager and RNC chairman. The firm's documents say the Abramoff team had designated tickets for Mr. Mehlman for a U2 concert in June 2001. The Committee sent Mehlman a letter asking about the concent and it got no response.

In his interview with the Committee, Mr. Mehlman said that he did not respond to this letter on the advice of his attorney. Mr. Mehlman also indicated that he did not recall having accepted tickets from the Abramoff team to the June 15, 2001, U2 concert, and said, "My recollection is that I didn't attend. I don't think I attended." He further stated: "I've been to a lot of concerts. I've been to U2 concerts. ... I don't remember going to that concert."

John McCain's campaign has taken down a web page that listed lobbyist Carlos Bonilla as an economic advisor.

Bonilla, a former special assistant to the president for economic policy, was included in today's report about White House ties with Jack Abramoff as one of the White House officials who received tickets from convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff's firm.

A McCain aide said Bonilla was dropped from the campaign a few weeks ago when McCain implemented a tougher conflict-of-interest policy barring most active lobbyists from his team. Bonilla is a senior vice president with the Washington Group.

Campaign workers thought they had already removed the web page, the aide said. It was removed after the page was brought to the campaign's attention by TPMmuckraker.

Bonilla joined the McCain campaign in July 2007. He did not return a phone call for comment today.

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released a "proposed" report this morning finding that Jack Abramoff did indeed have "personal contact with President Bush" and that Abramoff and cohorts were "held in high regard" by White House officials.

The proposed report also finds that Abramoff and his associates "influenced some White House actions" and gave White House officials "expensive tickets and meals."

The report (.pdf), technically a draft of the committee's findings, will be marked up and voted on by committee members in a meeting on Thursday.

We'll be looking through the report and bringing you updates, but in a first read through here are some findings that stuck out.

Abramoff and team gave gifts to Carlos Bonilla, at the time a Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and now an economic policy advisor for John McCain:

On October 18, 2001, Kevin Ring sent an unknown number of tickets to an unknown event to Mr. Bonilla by courier. In addition, in response to an offer from Kevin Ring, Mr. Bonilla requested and was provided with two tickets to sit in the Abramoff suite for the November 20, 2001, Washington Wizards game.

The report confirms much of what was already known about the Abramoff-led effort to oust Department of Interior official Alan Stayman, Abramoff's nemesis on issues involving his client, the Mariana Islands:

One action that White House officials took at the request of Mr. Abramoff was to intervene to force the removal of a State Department official, Alan Stayman. In a previous position at the Office of Insular Affairs in the Department of the Interior, Mr. Stayman had advocated positions opposed by the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, then a client of Mr. Abramoff. Mr. Stayman was appointed to his position at the Department of State during the Clinton Administration.

In a recent Committee deposition, Monica Kladakis, then-Deputy Associate Director in the White House Office of Presidential Personnel (OPP), confirmed that OPP became involved in Mr. Stayman's removal after White House officials were contacted by Mr. Abramoff's team.

Late Update: McCain Camp: Advisor Linked to Abramoff No Longer with Campaign

A lawyer for Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr says he was shown an operations manual that ordered interrogators to destroy notes, or any other evidence that would have signified harsh treatment which could be used by suspects in their trial defense. Khadr's lawyer said he will use the manual to seek a dismissal of charges against his client. (Associated Press)

A German citizen is suing the German government to force the extradition of 13 CIA agents who allegedly kidnapped and tortured him. Mistaken for a terrorism suspect, Khaled al-Masri was abducted in Macedonia on Dec. 31, 2003 and taken to Afghanistan where he was tortured and probed for four months before his release in Albania. (Associated Press)

Despite public outcry,and a new majority Party, a study led by the Associated Press and assisted by two watchdog groups, the Sunlight Foundation and Taxpayers for Common Sense, found the earmark process in Washington D.C. is as strong as ever. A total of 11,234 earmarks at $14.8 billion ran through congressional bills this year, according the study. (Associated Press)

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The system designed to keep corporate cash from secretly slipping into the hands of doctors who do highly influential medical research isn't working very well.

Even at the nation's top institutions - such as Harvard - and affecting the most vulnerable populations - children with psychiatric problems.

A front-page story in Sunday's New York Times reports that a Congressional probe found some top child psychiatrists earning more than $1 million in often undisclosed consulting fees from drug firms.

What's most troubling about the investigation is that the these individual doctors and their public advocacy for certain drugs for mentally ill children "has helped fuel an explosion in the use of powerful antipsychotic medicines in children."

Dr. [Joseph] Biederman is one of the most influential researchers in child psychiatry and is widely admired for focusing the field's attention on its most troubled young patients. Although many of his studies are small and often financed by drug makers, his work helped to fuel a controversial 40-fold increase from 1994 to 2003 in the diagnosis of pediatric bipolar disorder, which is characterized by severe mood swings, and a rapid rise in the use of antipsychotic medicines in children. The Grassley investigation did not address research quality.

Biederman, who works at Harvard Medical School's department of psychiatry, received $1.6 million in consulting fees from drug makers from 2000 to 2007 but for years did not report much of this income to university officials, according to information given congressional investigators.

While there are rules for disclosing such payments, there's virtually no enforcement of those guidelines.

"It's really been an honor system thing," said Dr. Robert Alpern, dean of Yale School of Medicine. "If somebody tells us that a pharmaceutical company pays them $80,000 a year, I don't even know how to check on that."

While the probe, led by Sen. Charles Grassley, (R-IA) is scrutinizing the system for disclosing such payments, there is no effort to examine whether these payments may have influenced the doctors' research.

As the Times notes: "The Grassley investigation did not address research quality."

Controlling for bias is especially important in such work, given that the scale is subjective, and raters often depend on reports from parents and children, several top psychiatrists said.

More broadly, they said, revelations of undisclosed payments from drug makers to leading researchers are especially damaging for psychiatry.

"The price we pay for these kinds of revelations is credibility, and we just can't afford to lose any more of that in this field," said Dr. E. Fuller Torrey, executive director of the Stanley Medical Research Institute, which finances psychiatric studies. "In the area of child psychiatry in particular, we know much less than we should, and we desperately need research that is not influenced by industry money.