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The Daily Muck
The 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)
Josh
Zachary
Abramoff agrees to cooperate with Mckasey? A marriage of bush justice made in heaven.
And will he escape his country club quarters before the election? Or will bush be called on to lay out a pardon because they will have trouble releasing him before 01/20/09?
July 1, 2008 9:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
The Uighur Muslim, Huzaifa Parhat, jailed on bare and unverifiable evidence spent six years and counting in Guantanmo, but Jack Abramhoff plans to be released for cooperating with mr mckasey about stealing many millions from our treasury. A better idea would be to put mr Abramhoff in Guantanmo and release Mr Parhat.
July 1, 2008 10:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
Jack meet USA Black . . . Tom Delay and third of Congress will be moving to Dubai by this year's end to avoid time in stir.
July 1, 2008 10:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
KBR and Halliburton are run by criminals of the lowest order. Anyone associated with them, Cheney included, should be investigated and treated as traitors if found to have profited from war profiteering. There would be a hell of a lot of bodies swinging from yardarms if any office had the guts to actually investigate.
July 1, 2008 11:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hmmm, why aren't I breathing a sigh of relief that the Pentagon has agreed to inspect KBR-built showers? Maybe because they have made it clear that enforcing these crony-run contracting companies is absolutely not on their docket. Remember when the story broke that KBR provided contaminated wastewater to the troops to shower in? Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said,
"Everywhere you go they make it perfectly clear that you don’t want to drink the water, so I’m a little surprised myself that this is an issue. As I understand it, the bottled water, which is what you’re supposed to be drinking in Iraq, had no issues whatsoever in the testing that was done. Evidently, there was some issue with some of the other water that was, I guess, primarily meant for washing. But I think our encouragement is always — for journalists and warfighters alike is read the signs and just drink the bottled water"
Which entirely dismisses the fact that they were given the water to SHOWER IN. And that it was the rejected WASTEWATER from their reverse osmosis purification process (meaning CONCENTRATED with pathogens. Do we really expect the Pentagon to fairly assess the shower situation and enforce consequences on KBR? I have been collecting e-signatures on a petition that I intend to send the Pentagon and the Presidential candidates to express how badly America wants consequences to be upheld to these contractors: http://progressivefuture.org/contractor-accountability/petition?id4=BLTP
July 1, 2008 1:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Is there any legal justification at all for saying that a man detained while at an airport in the United States was never in the United States? I can't fathom what the majority was thinking.
It's probably up to Congress to award Arar his just compensation, because we know the fascists on the Supreme Court will uphold the decision.
July 1, 2008 4:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
This decision raises disturbing questions about US Justice; if you're a foreigner it doesn't apply to you especially if it involves rendition.
Arar was arrested at JFK and held in a detention centre in Brooklyn both of which I believe are part of the USA. To deny him access to justice, and for Condoleeza Rice to admist the US were wrong but not to give an apology, demonstrates that the US has scant regard for others in the world.
Look at the message this sends out especially to people in the middle east.
Not a good day for the Land of the Free.
July 2, 2008 5:49 AM | Reply | Permalink