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Pentagon Restricting Testimony in Congress
“The Pentagon has placed unprecedented restrictions on who can testify before Congress, reserving the right to bar lower-ranking officers, enlisted soldiers, and career bureaucrats from appearing before oversight committees or having their remarks transcribed, according to Defense Department documents. Robert L. Wilkie , a former Bush administration national security official who left the White House to become assistant secretary of defense for legislative affairs last year, has outlined a half-dozen guidelines that prohibit most officers below the rank of colonel from appearing in hearings, restricting testimony to high-ranking officers and civilians appointed by President Bush.” (Boston Globe)

Politics Could Cloud Election Panel’s Work
“The six-person Federal Election Commission, which enforces campaign-finance laws, is entering the presidential election season with three temporary commissioners who have not been confirmed by the Senate, two commissioners whose terms have expired but who have not been replaced, and one vacancy. As a result, most of the commissioners who are now passing judgment on campaign-finance fights will also be looking ahead to their own confirmation battles — a process that threatens to intensify the politics surrounding an agency that was set up to resolve disputes over election rules in a bipartisan manner.” (Boston Globe)

FBI Chief: Justice Department Didn’t Meddle in Political Matters
“FBI Director Robert S. Mueller said Wednesday he is confident that nobody in the Justice Department exerted any undue political influence on any of the high-visibility public corruption cases of recent years, citing a ‘firewall’ of career professionals at Justice who keep political appointees at bay. Mueller would not comment on behind-the-scenes complaints that the department was slow to approve the prosecution of targets in the corruption case of former Rep. Randy ‘Duke’ Cunningham.” (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Dems Shift Focus in Prosecutor’s Probe
“Democrats are shifting their attention on the botched firings of eight federal prosecutors from Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ fitness to head the Justice Department to the White House role in the dismissals. In the three weeks since Gonzales testified before a Senate committee, the department disclosed that it is investigating whether his former White House liaison, Monica Goodling, weighed the political affiliations of those she considered hiring as entry-level prosecutors.” (Associated Press)

CIA Cited for Not Disclosing Covert Action
“The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence said yesterday that the CIA violated the law last year when it failed to inform the panel of “a significant covert action activity.’ ‘Despite agency explanations that the failure was inadvertent, the committee is deeply troubled over the fact that such an oversight could occur, whether intentionally or inadvertent,’ the panel said in its report on the fiscal 2008 intelligence authorization bill released late yesterday.” (Washington Post)

White House Vets Privacy Report
“The White House played an active role in vetting a new report to Congress from an oversight panel on civil liberties and national security, even as civil libertarians and the former chairmen of the 9/11 commission have faulted the panel for not making a more critical analysis of administration anti-terror programs. Critics say the report’s somewhat cursory review of the civil rights impacts of anti-terror programs highlights the problem of placing an oversight board in the executive office of the president, and Congress is considering legislation to strengthen its independence.” (Roll Call)

White House: Give Wolfowitz Fair Hearing
“Embattled World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz deserves a ‘fair process and a fair hearing of the facts’ surrounding his involvement in arranging a promotion and pay package for his girlfriend, the White House said Wednesday. Wolfowitz will use extra time to respond to a report by a special bank panel that accuses him of circumventing conflict-of-interest rules when he arranged for the compensation package. Wolfowitz was given two extra days — until Friday — to provide his response.” (Associated Press)

Doolittle Alleges Intimidation by Feds
“California Rep. John Doolittle, under scrutiny in the Jack Abramoff congressional corruption case, charged Wednesday that the government tried to strong-arm his wife to get him to admit to committing a crime. When he wouldn’t, FBI agents searched his home to intimidate and pressure him and his wife, Doolittle said.” (Associated Press)

Rohrbacher Rues Support for Abramoff
“Amid new Justice Department activity in the Jack Abramoff case, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) says he regrets a personal favor for the fallen lobbyist, a friend of more than 20 years. Rohrabacher said if he knew back in 2000 what he knows now about Abramoff’s illegal activities, he would not have agreed to serve as a reference for Abramoff’s loan application for $60 million to purchase SunCruz Casinos. Abramoff is serving time in jail for wire fraud relating to a false claim that he and a partner had $23 million to purchase the fleet, whose former owner was murdered.” (The Hill)

Report Details Reading Program Conflicts
“Officials who gave states advice on which teaching materials to buy under a federal reading program had deep financial ties to publishers, according to a congressional report Wednesday. The report, compiled by Senate Education Committee Chairman Edward Kennedy (D-MA), details how officials contracted by the government to help run the program were at the same time drawing pay from publishers that benefited from the reading initiative.” (Associated Press)

US Infrastructure Found to Be in Disrepair
“Airports, roads, rail, bridges and other transit infrastructure are deteriorating across the U.S. because of insufficient investment, according to a report. Chicago needs $6 billion to bring its subways into good repair, says the report to be released today by the Urban Land Institute and Ernst & Young LLP. Rehabilitation or replacement of the Tappan Zee Bridge north of New York City could cost as much as $14.5 billion. And in Atlanta, current rush-hour trips by car could take 75% longer by 2030.” (Wall Street Journal)

Analysts Suggest Afghan Government is Rocky
“At a Carnegie Endowment for International Peace conference this morning in Washington, expert analysts argued that transition in Afghanistan hasn’t been going nearly as smoothly as some accounts have suggested. In the time of political transition that has followed America’s 2001 invasion of the country, ministries have been ‘doled out as if they are door prizes,’ the result of which is a political system that has ‘encouraged nepotism and intense rivalries,’ said William Maley, director of the Asia-Pacific College of Diplomacy at the Australian National University.” (US News)

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