TPMMuckraker
June 28, 2009 - July 4, 2009

Rumsfeld On Abandoning Geneva: 'All Of A Sudden, It Was Just All Happening'

Justin Elliott | July 3, 2009, 6:03PM

Donald Rumsfeld has finally said he's sorry. Sort of.

In an interview with biographer Bradley Graham, the former secretary of defense says he has regrets about the administration's controversial detainee policy.

The twist is that Rumsfeld doesn't regret the policy itself -- specifically the abandoning of the Geneva Conventions for detainees picked up in Afghanistan. Rather, he regrets how the policy was formulated.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (60) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (20)
Topics: Defense Department, Detainees, Donald Rumsfeld, Pentagon

Gerald Walpin

Mass Of New Docs Support White House Reasons For Firing AmeriCorps IG

Zachary Roth | July 3, 2009, 1:42PM

As we noted yesterday, the Washington Post has published the documents turned over by the Corporation for National and Community Service to a Senate committee reviewing the White House's firing of AmeriCorps IG. Conservatives had charged that the IG, Gerald Walpin, was canned for going too hard after an Obama ally.

We've taken a look through the documents, and it's fair to say they offer a pretty clear picture of how and why the CNCS board lost confidence in Walpin. They jibe closely with what the White House and the board have already said -- to us, among others -- about the deterioration of the relationship between the IG and his agency. And they also make clear that this deterioration had begun long before the Obama administration existed.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (11) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (24)
Topics: Barack Obama, Gerald Walpin

Gerald Walpin

WaPo Publishes Docs On AmeriCorps IG Firing

Zachary Roth | July 2, 2009, 6:17PM

Yesterday we told you about new documents which shed more light on the White House's decision to fire AmeriCorps inspector general Gerald Walpin.

And now, the Washington Post has published the complete set of documents, which were recently turned over by the Corporation for National and Community Service to a Senate committee reviewing the firing.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (2) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (11)
Topics: Barack Obama, Gerald Walpin

Barack Obama

CIA Again Delays Release Of Key Torture Report

Zachary Roth | July 2, 2009, 5:49PM

The release of the long-awaited CIA inspector general report on torture has been postponed once again.

The ACLU, which is suing to have the report released, just announced that the government is asking for yet another postponement on the date of the report's release -- this time, until August 31. The CIA had earlier said it would release the report June 19. That was then pushed back to June 26, and then again to July 1.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (6) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (3)
Topics: Barack Obama, CIA, Justice Department, Torture

Barack Obama

More Obama Secrecy -- This Time On Cheney's Plame Interview

Zachary Roth | July 2, 2009, 2:46PM

Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised at this point. But the latest example of the Obama administration mimicking the Bushies in opting for secrecy over openness feels like one of the most infuriating yet.

The Justice Department is declining to release Dick Cheney's interview with federal investigators looking into the Valerie Plame leak, arguing -- as it did under President Bush -- that doing so would discourage future high-level officials from cooperating with criminal investigations.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (37) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (26)
Topics: Barack Obama, CIA, Detainees, Dick Cheney, Justice Department, Torture, Valerie Plame

Detainees

Obama Won't Rule Out Indefinite Detention for Terror Suspects

Rachel Slajda | July 2, 2009, 1:50PM

President Obama will not rule out detaining terror suspects indefinitely, although he says it "gives me huge pause."

Obama, while saying he isn't comfortable using executive orders to detain prisoners, wouldn't rule it out during an interview with The Associated Press.

But he also said there are some detainees who don't fall neatly into existing categories for criminal prosecution in the United States or under international law. He said dealing with them is going to be one of the biggest challenges of his administration.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (8) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (4)
Topics: Barack Obama, Detainees, Guantanamo

AIPAC

AIPAC Spy Figure: "Zionist" Wanted Me Dead

Zachary Roth | July 2, 2009, 1:34PM

It looks like a jail sentence might not have been all that Larry Franklin, the former Pentagon official convicted of spying for Israel, had to fear in recent years.

Court documents filed last week suggest a Sopranos-like effort to get rid of Franklin, who had agreed to testify against two former AIPAC activists, CQ's Jeff Stein reports.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (3) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (9)
Topics: AIPAC

Barack Obama

Rep. Barton: Obama Should Be Worried About "Carbongate"

Pete Martin | July 2, 2009, 12:25PM

Yesterday we wrote about Environmental Protection Agency economist Al Carlin, the author of a report that casts doubt on climate change. Carlin's study wasn't taken as seriously by the agency as he'd been hoping -- perhaps because he's not a scientist, and because his bosses never asked him to produce it.

But his cause has become a favorite of right-wingers, who suddenly believe science to be sacred, and are charging that the Obama administration is "suppressing" a report whose conclusions it dislikes. The anti-regulatory Competitive Enterprise Institute first publicized Carlin's report last week. Since then, Carlin has discussed his "findings" with Glenn Beck on Fox News, and on Monday, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) called for a criminal investigation into the issue.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (21) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (9)
Topics: Barack Obama, Global Warming, James Inhofe, Right-wing extremism

CIA

Ex-CIA Officer Charged With Sexual Assault

Rachel Slajda | July 1, 2009, 12:11PM

The CIA's former station chief in Algeria has been indicted on sexual assault charges, the Washington Post reports.

Andrew Warren, who was the CIA's top officer in the North African country, was charged with drugging and assaulting a Muslim woman in his official residence in February 2008. The charge carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Warren had been sent back to America when the investigation was announced in January. At the time, the Justice Department was looking into assault allegations from two women. When they investigated his home, they found tapes of him engaged in sex acts, one with an apparently semi-conscious woman. The CIA says he has been fired.

Warren has said sex with both women was consensual.

Here are the details of the allegations:

The woman who made the 2008 allegation told investigators that she had known Warren for several months and that he invited her to his residence on Feb. 17 and gave her a tour. She said that after drinking two apple martinis, she suddenly felt paralyzed, though she could speak and see, authorities wrote in court documents.
The woman was then sexually assaulted, she told authorities. An investigator with the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service wrote in court papers that the woman's symptoms were consistent with being drugged.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (8) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (7)
Topics: CIA

Gerald Walpin

Fired IG's Office Produced Newsletter With Racial And Sexual Jokes

Zachary Roth | July 1, 2009, 11:55AM

We reported recently that, according to two board members for the Corporation for National and Community Service, the firing of the agency's inspector general was initiated by the board, which had developed serious concerns about the IG's performance. Conservatives had been accusing the White House of firing the IG, Gerald Walpin, for conducting an aggressive investigation into an Obama ally.

And today the Washington Post offers more detail about what caused the board to lose confidence in Walpin, based on documents turned over by CNCS to lawmakers reviewing the firing.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (20) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (5)
Topics: Gerald Walpin

Global Warming

Climate Skeptic: "I Was Hoping People At EPA Would Pay Attention" To My Work

Zachary Roth | July 1, 2009, 8:43AM

Conservatives are jumping up and down over a report by an EPA analyst expressing skepticism about climate change, which, they claim, was suppressed by agency brass because it didn't conform to Obama administration orthodoxy on global warming. The story has sparked explosive claims, on Fox News and other right-wing outlets, that the EPA censored scientific data for political reasons. And Monday, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) called for an outright criminal investigation into the matter.

But it's hard to blame EPA for not paying much attention to the study. And it's more than a little ironic that DC Republicans have chosen its author as their new standard-bearer in the defense of pure science against politics. Because the author, EPA veteran Al Carlin, is an economist, not a climate scientist. EPA says no one at the agency solicited the report. And Carlin appears to have taken up the global warming topic largely as a hobby on his own time. In fact, a NASA climatologist has called the report -- whose existence was first publicized last week by the industry-funded Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) -- "a ragbag collection of un-peer reviewed web pages, an unhealthy dose of sunstroke, a dash of astrology and more cherries than you can poke a cocktail stick at."

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (75) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (19)
Topics: EPA, Global Warming, Right-wing extremism

Defense Contractors

Book: Rumsfeld Didn't Cut Weapons Programs Because Of 'His Own Financial Situation'

Justin Elliott | June 30, 2009, 6:45PM

Here's an intriguing detail from the new 685-page tome on Donald Rumsfeld, Bradley Graham's By His Own Rules: The Ambitions, Successes, and Ultimate Failures of Donald Rumsfeld: Several Rumsfeld associates say the defense secretary didn't order any cuts of major weapons programs early in his tenure because of financial stakes he held in the defense business.

Rumsfeld valued his personal fortune at between $50 to $210 million at the beginning of the Bush Administration. The problem was many of the securities he held were in companies that did business with the DOD, which could put Rumsfeld in violation of government ethics rules.

So Rumsfeld had to divest some of these assets -- a whole lot of them, it turned out. And during that process, which went "slowly," Graham reports, Rumsfeld simply put off canceling any major weapons programs, a move some on his staff apparently expected him to make. Rumsfeld's specific thinking is unclear.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (13) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (24)
Topics: Defense Contractors, Defense Department, Donald Rumsfeld, Pentagon

Mark Sanford

Sanford Admits More Trysts With Lover

Rachel Slajda | June 30, 2009, 12:14PM

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, who originally admitted to meeting his Argentine mistress four times in the past year, told the AP that the number is more like seven.

Apparently there were five meetings in the last year, including "two multi-night stays" in New York. That's the first time he's admitted to trysts on U.S. soil.

There were also two more meetings before the. The two first met in 2001.

The AP interview was, unsurprisingly, "lengthy" and "emotional."

Late update: The AP has released more of the interview. Looks like Sanford attempted to end the relationship earlier this year (or at least, that's what he told his wife). After asking her several times, Sanford got permission from his wife to go to New York, meet his lover and end the affair in person. He took along a "trusted spiritual adviser" as a chaperone for an evening of church, dinner and no overnight stay.

Then, of course, he ended up in Argentina.

Also of note: One of those pre-2008 meetings was over coffee during the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (53) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (32)
Topics: Mark Sanford, Sex

Mitch McConnell

"The Commission Has Been Road-Blocked": Republicans' War On The FEC

Pete Martin and Zachary Roth | June 30, 2009, 9:13AM

Last fall, James Ross, a New York City resident and a donor to several Democratic organizations, received an unusual letter. "Your name has been put in our database," Ross was told. "We are monitoring all reports of a wide variety of leftist organizations. As your name appears in subsequent reports, it is our intent to publicize your involvement in your local community. Should any of these organizations be found to be engaged in illegal or questionable activity, it is our intent to publicize your involvement with those activities."

The letter was signed by Howard Rich, a publicity-shy New York real-estate investor and the founder of the conservative activist group Americans for Limited Government. Rich and his group were accused by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee of illegally using Federal Election Commission disclosure reports to obtain the names and addresses of political donors in order to discourage them from making contributions -- a violation of election law. In April, three of the FEC's six commissioners voted to open an investigation into the matter. But the commission's three Republicans opposed a probe. The FEC deadlocked 3-3, and no action was taken against Rich.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (37) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (53)
Topics: Barack Obama, FEC, Mitch McConnell

Mark Sanford

#EmailFail: Lt. Gov. Hires Swift Boat Operative to Nudge Sanford From Office

Rachel Slajda | June 29, 2009, 4:09PM

All sex aside, the Sanford scandal offers plenty of political intrigue.

If Gov. Mark Sanford resigns, Lt. Gov. André Bauer would get to run as an incumbent in 2010 -- a definite leg up -- and his supporters have been pushing hard for Sanford's resignation. But some of them have been pushing the wrong people.

The NYT obtained an email from one of Bauer's political consultants, Chris LaCivita, a former media consultant for the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. He sent the email, which mentioned his efforts to oust Sanford, to fellow GOP operative Curt Anderson.

"André Bauer is my client; I've been working this since Monday," the email read. "I need to get this guy (Sanford) out."

Unfortunately, Anderson isn't exactly sympathetic to Bauer's ambitions, as he's a close friend of one of his likely opponents, Attorney General Henry McMaster.

"On this, I can't help you," Anderson replied. "Henry McMaster has been a friend of mine for almost 20 years." Anderson, by the way, is also one of Michael Steele's political consultants.

Note to LaCivita: Better check those email lists.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (4) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (2)
Topics: Mark Sanford

John Conyers

UPDATED: What Did John Conyers Know About His Wife's Corruption?

Zachary Roth | June 29, 2009, 2:32PM

Ever since Monica Conyers, the president pro tem of the Detroit city council, pleaded guilty last week to bribery charges, our major interest here at TPMmuckraker has been in whether her husband, U.S. Rep. John Conyers, is implicated in his wife's confessed wrongdoing.

No evidence has emerged to suggest that he is -- but at a minimum, there's reason to take a close look.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (20) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (3)
Topics: House Judiciary, John Conyers

Karl Rove

Health-Care Market Characterized By Consolidation, Not Competition

Zachary Roth | June 29, 2009, 12:50PM

As Congress gets set to take up health-care reform, there's a crucial piece of data that hasn't received nearly the prominence in the debate that it deserves.

Defenders of the status quo on health care like to point out that a public option will destroy the system of robust free-market competition that currently exists.
Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), speaking earlier this month on Fox News, called President Obama's plan the "first step in destroying the best health care system the world has ever known." A public option, Shelby added, would "destroy the marketplace for health care."