Innocent Torture Victim Couldn’t Accept Award Because He’s Still on No-Fly List
“Syrian torturers could find nothing to implicate Canadian Maher Arar in al-Qaida or any other terrorist ties. An official Canadian government report agreed with that finding and recommended that Arar be compensated for his 10 months in a Syrian prison.
“Still, Arar remains on the U.S. government terror watch list. And the United States has not admitted fault for holding him incommunicado for a week, then, five days after his first telephone call, putting him on a private jet and flying him to the Syrian prison.
“Arar and his American lawyer, Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, were invited to Washington on Wednesday to receive human rights awards from the rights advocates Institute for Policy Studies. Ratner came from his New York headquarters to accept for the center, a longtime campaigner against torture and other abuses.
“Because the watch list will not let Arar enter the United States, he had to stay in Canada and participate by telephone in a discussion of his case and of the U.S. law signed Tuesday by President Bush on treatment and prosecution of detainees.” (AP)
Bob Ney, Guilty but Still at Capitol
“Representative Bob Ney is headed to prison early next year after pleading guilty to charges of accepting tens of thousands of dollars in illegal gifts from lobbyists. Until then, Mr. Ney, a six-term Republican from Ohio, has a comfortable place to bide his time.
“His Congressional office â the one that he has effectively acknowledged selling to the highest bidder â is open for business.
â’The office of Congressman Bob Ney,’ his telephone receptionist said in a cheery voice Tuesday morning, as if nothing had happened to her boss, the first member of Congress to confess to crimes involving the corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff….
In entering a guilty plea last week, Mr. Ney said in a statement that he would resign within a âfew weeksâ but wanted to remain in Congress for now âto make sure my staff members are O.K. and that any open constituent matters and obligationsâ are dealt with.
“Mr. Lawler was critical of skeptics who question whether Mr. Ney, whose most recent disclosure forms suggest that his only major asset is a second home in Greece worth $100,000 to $250,000, is holding on in Congress mostly because he wants to cash his final paychecks.
“‘I donât know why people donât accept his explanation at face value,’ the lawyer said.
“The refusal to resign means that Mr. Ney can continue to draw on his $165,200-a-year salary, equivalent to $3,176 for each week he remains in the House, and his Congressional expense account, and to make use of a suite of offices on Capitol Hill, as well as four offices in his district in southeastern Ohio.” (NY Times)
Doolittle Joins Weldon in Believing WMD Will Be Found in Iraq
“Rep. John Doolittle [R-CA] visited the Stonehouse Restaurant in Nevada City on Tuesday and expressed optimism about his campaign….
“Doolittle discussed war in Iraq, the economy and other topics at the banquet held at the upper level of the restaurant. He said he ‘still believe(s) they will find the WMD’ in Iraq and added there were other reasons to invade the country.” (The Union (Calif.))
3 Marines Face Courts-Martial on Charges
“Three Camp Pendleton Marines will face courts-martial on murder and kidnapping charges in the death of an Iraqi man in the town of Hamdania, but will not face the death penalty, the Marine Corps said Wednesday.
“The three were among seven Marines and one Navy corpsman charged with kidnapping and killing 52-year-old Hashim Ibrahim Awad last April….
“Gen. James Mattis, the commanding general in the case, has not announced a decision on whether the squad leader, Sgt. Lawrence G. Hutchins III, will go to trial and what charges he will face. Three other Marines also have been referred to courts-martial.” (AP)
Milbank Tells Olbermann About Further Page Rumors
“[On] MSNBC, Washington Post reporter Dana Milbank told Keith Olbermann that ‘there are rumors now about a third [page scandal], this one involving a 16-year-old girl.’
“Milbank later noted that ‘political news is starting to sound more and more like youâre reading the police blotter, with Ney last week, the eighth guilty plea or conviction in the Abramoff case, piled on top of Scooter Libby and Tom DeLay and Curt Weldon. It goes on and on. And, of course, the punchline is that President Bush has declared this to be National Character Counts Week.'” (Think Progress)
Louisiana Page Not Central to Inquiry, Lawmaker Says
“The former Congressional page from Louisiana whose e-mail exchanges with Representative Mark Foley set off a Capitol Hill scandal was neither exposed to nor aware of the sexually explicit instant messages that ultimately led to Mr. Foleyâs resignation, the lawmaker who sponsored the page said.
“Representative Rodney Alexander, Republican of Louisiana, said Wednesday that the page, who lives in his district, was not familiar with Mr. Foleyâs pattern of conduct and should not be a focal point of the investigation.” (NY Times)
Page Reform Delayed By Pre-election Politics
“…three weeks out from Foleyâs resignation, it seems that reform has gotten bogged down in pre-election politics. Charges of politicizing the page program continue to fly as reform ideas â including a package developed by Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) that was sent to the chairmen of two House committees â canât move forward until Congress returns for a lame-duck session….
“Hereâs where reform efforts stand right now: The idea of sending the pages home immediately seems to have been taken off the table, and the Clerk of House has set up a hotline for current or former pages to use to report any concerns regarding their safety and security. But it seems that other ideas are being shelved as those who oversee the page program wait for the completion of the various investigations of the system, Foley and the second Member â believed to be retiring Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.).” (Roll Call)
Beauprez Ad Has Illegal Classified Info
“Information in an attack ad run by Rep. Bob Beauprez against his Democratic opponent for governor used illegal confidential information from a federal law enforcement database, Colorado authorities said Wednesday.
“The Colorado Bureau of Investigation launched a criminal investigation into the ad after gubernatorial candidate Bill Ritter’s campaign raised the possibility that the databases were illegally accessed because the information could not be verified through public records.
“Director Robert Cantwell said the information came from the National Crime Information Center, a federal database available only to law-enforcement officials….
“Use of the federal criminal database for any purpose other than law enforcement is a crime punishable by fines and up to a year in prison.” (AP)
Time Excerpts from David Kuo’s New Book
“The President’s staff didn’t just bad-mouth the faith-based office behind closed doors. Their political indifference also kept us from getting the funding we needed so badly. No episode captured that more clearly than the 2001 negotiations over the President’s $1.7 trillion tax cut. In those final negotiations with the Senate and House, the White House voluntarily dropped a centerpiece of the President’s compassion promise: a provision to allow 80% of Americans to get credit for their charitable contributions….
“None of [the broken promises to evangelicals] had stopped the White House from trumpeting the changes as hugely significant and leading religious conservatives to believe they were highly consequential. Christian conservatives trusted President Bush. After two years in the White House, I had come to realize that regardless of where the President’s heart lay on the matter, the back-office Republican political machine was able to take Evangelicals for granted–indeed, often viewed them with undisguised contempt–and still get their votes. G.O.P. operatives trusted that Christian conservatives would see the President more as their Pastor in Chief than anything else.” (Time)
Rep. Lewis Is House’s Top Recipient of Lobbyist Donations
“When the list was finished, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands) came out on top, ahead of all his House peers. But this was one triumph no one in his office was celebrating.
“Lewis, according to an analysis released Wednesday, got more campaign cash from lobbyists than any of his colleagues did….
“Lewis’ No. 1 ranking was based on a study issued by Public Citizen, a Washington watchdog, of how much money special interests had given to members of Congress. The group advocates public financing of campaigns….
“Lewis raked in more than $700,000 from lobbyists between January 1999 and December 2005.” (LA Times)
VA Worker Sentenced for Taking Kickbacks
“A Veterans Affairs employee was sentenced to nearly four years in prison for taking more than $115,000 in kickbacks on the purchase of red tape — actual red tape.” (AP)
