Scandal

WASHINGTON, DC- In a speech on the Senate floor today, U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) discussed the one-year anniversary of the so-called “surge” and our current policy in Iraq. Senator Casey also addressed President Bush’s signing statement accompanying the Defense Authorization bill in which the President made clear his intent to ignore significant sections of the bill dealing with the war in Iraq as well as a commission to review abuses in wartime contracting.    » read more »

January 31, 2008 -- Washington, DC – Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D-DE) issued the following statement on the President’s signing statement asserting that he is not bound by the provision in the 2008 Defense Authorization Act that bars the use of appropriated funds in this Act for the construction of permanent American military bases and U. S. control over Iraqi oil resources:    » read more »

January 30, 2008 -- "I had hoped today would provide more clarity on so many critical issues. Instead, we heard references to legal opinions, justifications, and facts that remain hidden from Congress and the American people.

It is a hallmark of our democracy that we say publicly what the laws are and what conduct they prohibit. We have seen what happens when hidden decisions rendered in secret memos are withheld from the people’s elected representatives and from the American people. It erodes our civil liberties and undermines our values as a nation of laws.    » read more »

30 January 2008 -- The board of the French bank Societe Generale has decided to keep chairman Daniel Bouton in his post despite increasing pressure for his resignation following a $7 billion trading scandal at the institution.

The board of directors announced the unanimous decision after crisis talks Wednesday. The board had called the meeting to discuss a strategy to avoid further upheaval that could lead to a hostile takeover of the bank.    » read more »

29 January 2008 -- Prosecutors filed preliminary charges Monday against a French trader accused of causing multi-billion dollars losses to France's second largest bank in allegedly illicit speculation.    » read more »

January 23, 2008 -- [Washington, D.C.] – All ten Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee today sent a letter, written by Assistant Majority Leader and Judiciary Committee member Dick Durbin (D-IL), to Attorney General Michael Mukasey asking that he provide an opinion as to whether the interrogation technique known as waterboarding is illegal under U.S. law.    » read more »

January 23, 2008 -- WASHINGTON, DC— Today, Senator Edward M. Kennedy and nine Senate colleagues sent the following letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey, asking him to clarify his positions on waterboarding and other interrogation techniques.    » read more »

January 22, 2008 -- "For the last five years, lower courts have been considering whether the powerful, politically connected financial institutions at the center of the Enron fraud will have to answer to investors for what they did. And now we have the final answer from the Supreme Court. They will not.    » read more »

17 January 2008 -- A report issued by a U.S.-based human rights group is criticizing the Justice Department for failing to hold private security contractors operating in Iraq and Afghanistan responsible for acts of violence. The report was released Wednesday in Washington.

The report by the New York-based Human Rights First says private security contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan are not being held accountable for excessive use of force, which has given rise to what the group calls "shoot first, ask questions later, or never."    » read more »

January 11, 2008 -- Maybe it was the strain of doing three debates in five days, or the pressure of facing a second must-win primary in a week, but last night John McCain took his "do anything to win" campaign mentality to a new low. During last night's debate in South Carolina, McCain tried to position himself as an agent of change by bragging about Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff being in prison and claiming that "he will tell you, and his lobbyist cronies, of the change I made" in Washington. [Fox News Debate, 1/10/08]    » read more »

According to reports, Blackwater Worldwide released riot control gas on U.S. troops in 2005

January 11, 2008 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) today sent the following letter to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, calling on him to respond to reports that Blackwater Worldwide allegedly dispersed CS gas, a riot control substance, in an intersection populated by U.S. military personnel and Iraqi civilians in 2005.    » read more »

11 January 2008 -- The human rights group Amnesty International staged protests around the world Friday to mark the sixth anniversary of the first arrival of detainees at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The group is demanding the prison be shut down. Meanwhile, a U.S. appeals court in Washington has ruled against four British men who allege they were tortured during their detention at Guantanamo.    » read more »

Parliament Approval Key to Ending Culture of Impunity for Serious Abuses

(New York, January 9, 2008) – Iraq’s parliament should approve legislation to end immunity for foreign private security contractors, Human Rights Watch said today. The legislation would effectively rescind Order 17 of the now-defunct, US-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), which grants foreign contractors and their non-Iraqi employees immunity from Iraqi criminal prosecution.    » read more »

Renews His Call For a Special Counsel to be Appointed

January 2, 2008 -- Washington, DC – The Department of Justice announced today that it would open a full criminal investigation into the destruction of CIA interrogation videotapes.

On December 9, 2007, Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D-DE) was the first to call on Attorney General Michael Mukasey to appoint a Special Counsel to investigate the CIA's destruction of the tapes. Today, Sen. Biden renewed his call for a Special Counsel and issued the following statement:    » read more »

Date Set As November 4, 2008

December 20, 2007 -- (JACKSON, Mississippi) – Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour was officially notified Thursday that a vacancy exists in the office of United States Senator for Mississippi due to the resignation of Senator Trent Lott and set November 4, 2008, as the date for a special election to fill Lott’s unexpired term.    » read more »