The Daily MuckThe Pentagon will inspect buildings handled by KBR, the embattled military contractor in Iraq, for poor electrical wiring. This comes in the wake of at least 13 Americans being electrocuted since the Iraq war began. (New York Times)
A federal appeals court has found that accusations against a Uighur Muslim being held at Guantanamo were based on bare and unverifiable claims. A unanimous panel overturned the Pentagon’s determination that the detainee was properly detained as an enemy combatant. The man, Huzaifa Parhat, has been held in Guantanamo for more than six years.(New York Times)
Jack Abramoff, the corrupt former lobbyist, has agreed to cooperate with the attorney general in Guam and has given information related to pending criminal charges for former Superior Court Administrator Tony Sanchez. Prosecutor Jeff Moots claims that the AG is planning to seek the dismisal of criminal charges against Abramoff in return for his cooperation. (KUAM News)
A former counterintelligence official has been nominated to be State Department inspector general. Thomas Betro is currently the director of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. (Government Executive)
The Florida attorney general filed a civil suit against Countrywide Financial Corp and its CEO Angelo Mozilo in an ever-growing wave of lawsuits. Countrywide and Mozilo are already facing suits in California and Illinois over supposed deceptive and unfair trade practices against borrowers. (Wall Street Journal)
The Iraqi government has filed suit against dozens of companies for over $10 billion over alleged kickbacks to Saddam Hussein’s government under the U.N. oil-for-food program. The government claims that the companies cheated the Iraqi people out of benefits from the U.N. program. (Reuters)
The RAND Corporation released a delayed report yesterday on planning issues for postwar Iraq. The report details an array of factors that troubled the American effort to stabilize Iraq, including improperly optimistic assumptions and unfounded faith in civilian authorities. (New York Times)
A former CIA operative who previously tried to warn the CIA on faulty intelligence in the run up to Iraq is now saying that the agency is ignoring evidence on Iran. The agent, who remains anonymous, asked a federal court Friday to declassify legal documents detailing suppression of evidence that Iran had suspended work on a nuclear bomb. (Washington Post)
A Syrian-born Canadian citizen’s lawsuit over civil rights violations by the U.S. government was thrown out on Monday. The man, Maher Arar, claims he was abused in an act of “extraordinary rendition” by the U.S. The court ruled that since he was never inside the U.S., the federal court could not hear his claims. (New York Times)