Scandal

May 14, 2008 -- (Washington, DC) - Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI), Rep. Linda Sánchez (D-CA), Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law, and Reps. Artur Davis (D-AL) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) sent a letter to Robert Luskin, attorney for former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, clarifying the committee's request for Rove to testify.

Last week, Luskin responded to the committee's request with a letter stating that Rove would respond to written questioning.    » read more »

05/10/2008 -- Boston, Massachusetts – Today, Senator John Kerry, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relation’s Committee’s Middle East Subcommittee, called for Foreign Relations Committee hearings on the State Department’s decision to renew Blackwater’s no bid contract for private security in Iraq.

Blackwater is today under continued grand jury investigation, and a top House Committee has asked the I.R.S. to investigate Blackwater’s controversial tax practices. The New York Times today revealed that even after Blackwater became the focus of several different investigations, “the State Department did not even open talks with two companies, DynCorp International and Triple Canopy, to see if they could take over from Blackwater.”    » read more »

12 May 2008 -- Two former U.S. State Department officials say the Bush administration has done little to fight corruption in Iraq. In testimony to a congressional panel Monday, they said administration policy has allowed corruption to fester - an accusation the State Department vehemently denies.

George W. Bush with John and Cindy McCain: Photo by Talk Radio News Service (CC)

Arthur Brennan briefly served as director of the State Department's Office of Accountability and Transparency in Baghdad last year.    » read more »

May 6, 2008 -- Tonight, John McCain will attend a fundraiser for his presidential campaign in Michigan. According to the invitation, he will be joined by the chair of his Michigan Victory 08 committee, John Rakolta, Jr., and McCain Michigan co-chairman Robert Liggett.

John McCain: Photo by Kyle Tsui (CC)

What the invitation does not say, however, is that Rakolta and Liggett were two of the key backers of an organization that helped finance an ad that compared Democrats to Adolf Hitler in the 2006 election.    » read more »

May 7, 2008 -- Washington, DC - Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers issued a subpoena to David Addington, chief of staff to the vice president, compelling him to testify before the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties on June 26 at 10 a.m. Former Deputy Assistant Attorney General John C. Yoo, who has agreed to testify voluntarily, will testify on that day as well.

The subpoena and its cover letter are below:

David Addington subpoena - page 1

David Addington subpoena - page 2    » read more »

Subcommittee Authorizes Subpoena for Addington

May 6, 2008 -- (Washington, DC)- Today, the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties heard testimony from a panel of witnesses who agreed that there is no "ticking time bomb" that justifies harsh interrogation techniques that were approved in Bush Administration legal memos.

Protest sign, Washington, D.C.: Photo by Giovanni Variottinelli (CC)    » read more »

April 17, 2008 -- (Washington, DC)- Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) and Committee Members Linda Sánchez (D-CA), Artur Davis (D-AL), and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) announced three critical actions in the Committee's investigation into allegations of selective or poltiically-motivated prosecution in the Justice Department.

Karl Rove protesters: Photo by Ted Swedenburg (CC)    » read more »

20 April 2008 -- The New York Times newspaper reports the Pentagon used military analysts working for U.S. television networks to generate favorable coverage of the war in Iraq and other issues.

The newspaper Sunday said the analysts were invited to private briefings with senior military leaders, taken on tours of Iraq and given access to classified intelligence.

Fox News gift store at Houston airport: Photo by ario_j (CC)

The Times also said viewers were not made aware that most of the analysts have ties to military contractors. Many of the analysts are retired high-ranking military officials.    » read more »

Rome Should Seek Extradition of 26 Americans in Cleric’s Abduction

(Milan, April 16, 2008) – The alleged kidnappers of an Egyptian cleric in 2003 will go on trial in Milan on April 16 in what is the first ever legal challenge to the CIA’s controversial rendition program, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch urged the newly-elected Italian government to seek the extradition of 26 American CIA agents implicated in the abduction.

CIA and Italian military intelligence personnel are believed responsible for abducting Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, who is known as Abu Omar, from a Milan street on February 17, 2003. He was then transferred to Egypt, where, Nasr claims, he was badly tortured in detention.    » read more »

April 11, 2008 -- Washington, DC -- House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) today invited several current and former Administration officials to a May 6 hearing to explore the development and legal approval of Bush administration torture policies and other potential abuses of executive power.

John Ashcroft: Photo by World Economic Forum (CC)    » read more »

April 10, 2008 -- WASHINGTON, DC— Today, Senator Edward M. Kennedy released the following statement in response to new reports that high-ranking members in the Bush Administration authorized the use of torture in CIA interrogations.

“Today’s press reports bring yet another astonishing disclosure about the Bush administration and its use of torture.

Anti-Bush, anti-torture protester: Photo by jarnocan (CC)    » read more »

April 09, 2008 -- Oversight Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman today issued a subpoena to compel EPA to provide unredacted copies of documents involving the White House that have been improperly withheld from the Committee regarding EPA’s decision to reject California’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles.

Tailpipe emissions: Photo by Simone Ramella (CC)

The subpoena compels production of approximately 100 EPA documents involving the White House. Chairman Waxman released the following statement:    » read more »

4/6/2008 -- "After the events of the last few days, Mark Penn has asked to give up his role as Chief Strategist of the Clinton Campaign; Mark, and Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates, Inc. will continue to provide polling and advice to the campaign.

Geoff Garin and Howard Wolfson will coordinate the campaign's strategic message team going forward."

Source: Hillary Clinton campaign

Garbage In – Garbage Out: Politically Driven Assumptions Lead to Misleading Results

WASHINGTON (March 14, 2008) -- EPA’s just-released analysis of Senate Bill S. 2191 (“Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act of 2008”) hides the key conclusions of its own experts, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).    » read more »

March 14, 2008 -- WASHINGTON, DC— Today, Senator Edward M. Kennedy sent the following letter to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, requesting a report on all detainee interrogation videotapes, transcripts, and related documents that have been created or destroyed by the Department.

Senator Kennedy has previously made similar requests to the Attorney General and to the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. His letter also asks Secretary Gates to take appropriate steps to guarantee the preservation of all interrogation tapes in the Department’s effective control.    » read more »