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Senators at Odds Over What Torture Compromise Would Allow
“A Republican senator who played a leading role in drafting new rules for U.S. interrogations of terrorism suspects said yesterday that he believes a compromise bill embraced by party leaders and the White House will bar some of the most extreme techniques said to have been used by the CIA.

“Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) named three measures that he said would no longer be allowed under a provision barring techniques that cause serious mental or physical suffering by U.S. detainees: extreme sleep deprivation, forced hypothermia and ‘waterboarding,’ which simulates drowning. He also said other ‘extreme measures’ would be banned. . . .

“Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), who wants to shepherd the detainee bill to congressional passage this week. . . declined to give a specific reading of it yesterday. Asked repeatedly on ABC’s ‘This Week’ what the legislation would allow, Frist said, ‘I’m not going to comment on individual techniques,’ and he condemned doing so.” (WPost)

Torture Victim Had No Link, Canada Told U.S.
“When the United States sent Maher Arar to Syria, where he was tortured for months, the deportation order stated unequivocally that Mr. Arar, a Canadian software engineer, was a member of Al Qaeda. But a few days earlier, Canadian investigators had told the F.B.I. that they had not been able to link him to the terrorist group. . . .

“Cases like that of Mr. Arar would not be affected by the compromise legislation on detainee treatment worked out between the White House and Republican senators last week, since it would have no effect on interrogation methods used by other countries. In fact, the proposed bill would strip non-Americans held overseas under United States control of the right to challenge their detention in federal court.” (NYTimes)

Libby plans to testify in CIA leak trial
“Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff plans to take the stand at his upcoming trial to tell jurors that he never lied to investigators in the CIA leak case, defense attorneys said Friday.

“I. Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby is charged with perjury, obstruction and lying to the FBI about his conversations in 2003 with reporters regarding Valerie Plame’s CIA job.

“Libby plans to testify about President Bush’s daily terrorism briefings and other classified information to persuade jurors that he had more important things on his mind at the time and didn’t remember his discussions with reporters, attorneys said in court papers filed Friday evening.” (AP)

Audit Scorches Bush’s Reading Program
“A scorching internal review of the Bush administration’s reading program says the Education Department ignored the law and ethical standards to steer money how it wanted.

“The government audit is unsparing in its review of how Reading First, a billion-dollar program each year, that it says has been beset by conflicts of interest and willful mismanagement. It suggests the department broke the law by trying to dictate which curriculum schools must use.

“It also depicts a program in which review panels were stacked with people who shared the director’s views and in which only favored publishers of reading curricula could get money.” (AP)

Veterans Affairs Officials Knew Budget Was Off by Billions
“Nearly a year before they asked Congress for another $3 billion in funding, Veterans Affairs officials knew in late 2004 that their budget was seriously out of whack, congressional investigators said in a report released yesterday.

“The Government Accountability Office also found that the VA badly underestimated how many soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan might seek medical and other services, in part because of problems in getting accurate information from the Pentagon.

“The VA relied on prewar data from the Defense Department in preparing its budget for fiscal 2005, even though the war was well under way, and estimated that 23,500 veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom would seek care that year. Instead, the number was four times greater, almost 100,000, the GAO study said.” (McClatchy)

Army Warns Rumsfeld It’s Billions Short
“The Army’s top officer withheld a required 2008 budget plan from Pentagon leaders last month after protesting to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld that the service could not maintain its current level of activity in Iraq plus its other global commitments without billions in additional funding.

“The decision by Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, the Army’s chief of staff, is believed to be unprecedented and signals a widespread belief within the Army that in the absence of significant troop withdrawals from Iraq, funding assumptions must be completely reworked, say current and former Pentagon officials.

“‘This is unusual, but hell, we’re in unusual times,’ said a senior Pentagon official involved in the budget discussions.” (LATimes)

Legal Aid Program Tried to Oust Auditor
“Directors of the government’s legal aid program for the poor secretly debated how to fire the auditor who exposed their expensive meals, use of limousine services and headquarters move to a ritzy neighborhood.

“Meeting transcripts obtained by The Associated Press show that Legal Services Corp. board members in 2005 and 2006 disparaged Inspector General Kirt West, whose job is to find fraud, waste and abuse.

In private, the board derided West as abusive, a character assassin, a shoddy investigator with a delusional staff and someone with a “fetish” for independence — even though independence is an inspector general’s hallmark.” (AP)

White House Blamed on Terror Bill
“While much of the attention on last week’s intraparty Republican dispute over the interrogation of terror suspects focused on a standoff between the White House and moderate Senate Republicans, Congressional Republicans and Democrats say the Bush administration’s continued misreading of Capitol Hill had at least as much to do with the scuffle. . . .

“In late July, sources said, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) pressed the White House to propose legislation before lawmakers left for the August recess, so that talks could begin during the break and allow the worst of the infighting to occur while the public wasn’t focused on Congress.” (Roll Call) (sub. req.)

NSA Suits Could Move to Secret Court
“A sprawling array of cases challenging the National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance of American’s domestic and international communications may be moved to an obscure secret court in Washington, if a pending bill to alter the nation’s surveillance law is voted on before the upcoming recess. . . .

“National security experts and civil liberties advocates assail the idea, saying it would diminish the chance that the government’s controversial snooping would face open judicial scrutiny.

“It remains unclear whether the bill will make it to the Senate floor for a vote, given that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist promised to adjourn the Senate by the end of September and that much of the Senate’s energy may stay focused on a controversial military commission bill and immigration proposals.” (Wired News)
Lobbyists’ Power Wanes as Election Day Nears
“Congress plans to recess at the end of this week and to return only briefly after the Nov. 7 elections to complete some odds and ends. Along the way, energy companies, physicians, small-business owners and high-tech firms — all favorites of the Republican majority — have been deprived of legislative victories….

“The National Restaurant Association sent nearly 700 restaurant owners to Capitol Hill to beg their representatives to pass a long list of measures, including bills that would permanently repeal the estate tax, create special health plans for small businesses and extend write-offs for restaurant improvements. But Steven C. Anderson, the restaurant association’s president, said, ‘If it doesn’t have the word ‘terrorism’ or ‘national security’ in it, I don’t think much is going to happen.'” (WaPo)

Miss. Lawmakers’ Bid Raises Eyebrows
“Two state lawmakers will make up to $1.2 million on a contract to help administer the state’s housing recovery grant program funded by the federal government but administered by the governor’s office. This isn’t happening in Louisiana, but it is in Mississippi.

“State Sen. Tommy Robertson of Moss Point and state Rep. Jim Beckett of Bruce, both Republicans, own a title company that submitted the lowest bid — $250 per homeowner — to finish the paperwork in two Gulf Coast counties for housing grants administered by the Mississippi Development Authority, the equivalent of the Louisiana Housing Authority, appointed by Republican Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour.” (The News Star (Lou.))

AP: Shuler-Linked Firm Pays Back Taxes
“A real estate brokerage house associated with Democratic House candidate Heath Shuler belatedly paid over $69,000 in unpaid taxes Friday after The Associated Press raised questions with the campaign.

“Shuler, a former star quarterback at the University of Tennessee, has a 20 percent stake in the Knoxville-based business, Heath Shuler Real Estate, which he founded with his brother, Benjie, in 1998. They sold it in 2003 to four men who formed HSRE and HSRE Properties but kept the football player’s name.” (AP)

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