US Sponsored Secret Renditions in East Africa
“A network of U.S. allies in East Africa secretly have transferred to prisons in Somalia and Ethiopia as many as 150 people who were captured in Kenya while fleeing the recent war in Somalia, according to human rights advocates here. Kenyan authorities made the arrests as part of a U.S.-backed, four-nation military campaign in December and January against Somalia’s Islamist militias, which Bush administration officials have linked to al-Qaida.” (McClatchy)
Iraqi Who Promoted False Intel. Protected By Germany
“The Iraqi defector known as Curveball, whose fabricated stories of ‘mobile biological weapons labs’ helped lead the U.S. to war four years ago, is still being protected by the German intelligence service, an ABC News investigation has found. Intelligence sources, who provided ABCNews.com with the first known photo of the man, say he has been resettled in a small town near the Munich headquarters of the German service, which has continued to honor its original commitment made when he fled Iraq in 1999.” (ABC’s The Blotter)
Abramoff’s Guam Link Further Examined
United States Reps. George Moller (D-CA) and Nick Rahall (D-WV) have requested a congressional probe to further examine convicted lobbyst Jack Abramoff’s relationship to the Pacific country of Guam and connection to the firing of US attorney Frederick A. Black. (Kuam News) Black, who was investigating Abramoff’s financial ties to Guam in 2002, was one of eight prosecutors fired by the Justice Department in what critics are calling a politically-motivated purge. Shortly after Black’s firing, the probe examinining Abramoff’s Guam ties died down. (Think Progress)
Efforts Underway to Streamline Campaign Finance Reports
Standing alone among the majority of campaign finance reports, whose work is primarily done electronically, the Senate rules still require candidates to file reports by hand, a process which many complain is overly cumbersome and time-wasting. In a Senate hearing today, legislators will decide whether to update the system to allow candidates to keep track of their records through computer databases. (The Washington Post)
Government Documents Hidden From View
“More than 1 million pages of historical government documents — a stack taller than the U.S. Capitol — have been removed from public view since the September 2001 terror attacks, according to records obtained by The Associated Press. Some of the papers are more than a century old.” (Associated Press)
