FEMA Ordered to Resume Katrina Payments
“Condemning the bureaucracy at the Federal Emergency Management Agency as ‘Kafkaesque,’ a federal judge Wednesday ordered the government to immediately resume housing payments to Gulf Coast residents who lost their homes to Hurricane Katrina.
“Barely six months after Katrina ravaged the region, FEMA began ending payments to several thousand families still in temporary housing and unable to return to their homes.
“U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon said the agency had violated the evacuees’ rights by not adequately explaining why it was ending the benefits, making it difficult for storm victims to appeal the decisions….
“Leon ordered the agency to explain its actions, restore short-term benefits to evacuees who had been cut off and give them the two months of housing payments they would have received after payments finally stopped in August 2006. The ruling affects 11,000 families, mostly in Louisiana and Texas.
“The judge cited letters from FEMA that gave contradictory explanations for decisions. He also described FEMA’s practice of conveying its decisions ‘cryptically ⦠by a code or phrase’ decipherable only after evacuees obtained a separate pamphlet explaining the codes.” (LAT, AP)
Strong Evidence Against Poland Despite Official Denials of Secret Prisons
“There is strong evidence that a secret CIA prison was set up in Poland and that airport officials accepted thousands of dollars in cash for landing fees for CIA planes, according to the European Parliament’s draft report on extraordinary rendition and secret prisons.
“Poland has long denied any involvement. In an interview with ABC News last year, the Polish Defense Minister denied the existence of any secret prison in his country….
“Yet the EU investigators conclude that in light of the evidence they found, ‘a temporary secret detention facility may have been located at the intelligence training centre at Stare Kiejkuty.'” (The Blotter)
Boeing Booking Rendition Flights?
“Since 2003, human-rights investigators and news media reports have described a Boeing Business Jet as one of the most-dreaded planes in the Central Intelligence Agency’s clandestine air force. The modified 737âa model rolled out in Renton in 2001âwas built for executive fun and comfort. But it is alleged to be the flagship of the CIA’s ‘extreme rendition’ squadron, ferrying suspected terrorists to secret agency prisons or countries where the U.S. is said to outsource torture.
“The use of this jet, with a 6,000-mile flying range and plush customized cabin, has until now been Boeing’s only connection to the prison airlifts. But a British author and an ex-prisoner’s attorney say that records uncovered by Spanish investigators show Boeing has a more direct roleâplanning and organizing the flights through a unit of its Seattle commercial airplane division.
“Boeing won’t confirm or deny the claim. But the Spanish documents, and an investigation by Amnesty International and the Council of Europe, indicate Boeing was making arrangements for as many as 1,000 rendition flights through 14 countries by four CIA planes, including that notorious Boeing Business Jet….
“The Bush administration has acknowledged transfers of Al Qaeda suspects to Guantánamo Bay but has denied the U.S. engages in torture-transfer flights. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in 2005 that the United States “does not use the airspace or the airports of any county” for such purposes. Senate Democrats, who take control in January, are promising a full investigation.” (Seattle Weekly)
Coalition Targets Convicted Lawmakers
“More than 20 citizen groups are urging the new Democratic leaders in Congress to include in any ethics reform the denial of pensions to lawmakers convicted of felonies….
“Currently, members of Congress don’t forfeit pensions unless convicted of crimes related to treason and espionage.
“As a result, former Rep. Randy ‘Duke’ Cunningham, R-Calif., who was sentenced last March to eight years in prison for accepting bribes from defense contractors, is entitled to an initial annual pension of as much as $64,000, according to calculations by the National Taxpayers Union.” (AP)
Democrats Reject Key 9/11 Panel Suggestion
“It was a solemn pledge, repeated by Democratic leaders and candidates over and over: If elected to the majority in Congress, Democrats would implement all of the recommendations of the bipartisan commission that examined the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
“But with control of Congress now secured, Democratic leaders have decided for now against implementing the one measure that would affect them most directly: a wholesale reorganization of Congress to improve oversight and funding of the nation’s intelligence agencies. Instead, Democratic leaders may create a panel to look at the issue and produce recommendations, according to congressional aides and lawmakers.” (WaPo)
Ryan Loses Pension; Gets Bail During Appeal
“A state board voted unanimously today to deny former Gov. George Ryan any part of his public pension because of his federal corruption conviction.
“Separately, in a brief ruling dated Tuesday and reported this morning, an appeals court found he could remain free pending the appeal of his conviction.” (Chicago Tribune)
Complaint Filed Against Cuban Lobbying Group
“A watchdog group has alleged a Cuban-American lobbying organization that favors tougher sanctions against Cuba broke Federal Election Commission regulations by having illegal links to a nonprofit group….
“Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics filed a complaint in September asserting that several members of the nonprofit Cuba Democracy Advocates Inc. had illegal links to the PAC, which is supposed to operate independently of any other organization.
“Leopoldo Fernández Pujals founded two nonprofit U.S. organizations in 2000 to oppose the communist government, using some of the proceeds of his $366 million sale of Spanish fast-food chain Telepizza in 1999, according to the FEC complaint.
“Those two organizations eventually became Cuba Democracy Advocates, and Fernández appointed Mauricio Claver-Carone as director and Miami-Dade car dealer Gus Machado as treasurer. Machado then went on to create the PAC and Claver-Carone became its Washington director.
“Claver-Carone and Machado, according to the complaint to the FEC, have ‘day-to-day operational control’ of both the PAC and Cuba Democracy Advocates.” (Miami Herald)
German Citizen’s Lawsuit Alleges Human Rights Abuses by Tenet
“A German citizen, who says he was put on a CIA plane and flown to Afghanistan where he says he was tortured for five months, is back in the U.S. this week to appeal the dismissal of his lawsuit against the former head of the CIA George Tenet and other officials….
“El-Masri says that in December 2003 he attempted to go to Macedonia for vacation. While trying to enter the country, he says, he was arrested and put on a CIA plane.
“After being held in a hotel room for 23 days, el-Masri was allegedly moved to the “Salt Pit” in Afghanistan where he says he was stripped, beaten and abused by CIA agents for months. Once the CIA realized it was a case of mistaken identity, they flew him back to Europe and dumped him on a path on top of a hill in Albania without charging him with any crime.” (The Blotter)
Anti-Clinton Donor Reported as Donor to Giuliani
“A leading organizer of a political action committee created to derail Senator Hillary Rodham Clintonâs presidential prospects is also a major contributor to Rudolph W. Giuliani, according to campaign finance reports.
“The organizer, Richard Collins, a principal figure behind the group Stop Her Now, has given $10,000 to Mr. Giulianiâs political action committee Solutions America over the last two years, according to campaign finance disclosure documents….
“Stop Her Now is among the newest of the so-called 527 advocacy groups whose prominence has grown in recent years. These partisan groups, known as 527s because of the tax code that governs them, have helped Democrats and Republicans raise enormous sums of money and energize their political bases….
“In the case of Stop Her Now, Mr. Collins, a wealthy Texas businessman, funneled $80,000 into the groupâs coffers in the last few months, making him the groupâs single largest donor in the third quarter of 2006, according to the disclosure documents.” (NY Times)
