Top Air Force brass said to be under FBI probe
The U.S. Air Force’s highest-ranking officer and his predecessor are the subjects of an FBI investigation into the handling of a $49.9 million dollar contract for the Thunderbirds, an air demonstration squadron, ABC News reported on Thursday. The network quoted law enforcement officials as saying the Federal Bureau of Investigation was investigating allegations that Gen. Michael Moseley and Gen. John Jumper helped to steer a Thunderbird contract to a friend, retired Air Force Gen. Hal Hornburg. (Reuters)
Cunningham: I’m Ready for My Close-Up, Mr. Investigator
Slammed in the press by federal investigators for failing to cooperate with multiple corruption inquiries, former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-CA), now in federal prison, has consented to begin helping prosecutors, his lawyer says. (North County Times)
Abramoff Scandal Gets First Jury Trial
The government prosecution of former White House contracting official David Safavian heads to court next week. (WSJ)
In the Black(water)
Washington has shelled out more than $30 million to the Blackwater USA security firm since its men deployed after Katrina hit. Under contract with the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Federal Protective Service, Blackwater’s men are ostensibly protecting federal reconstruction projects for FEMA. Documents show that the government paid Blackwater $950 a day for each of its guards in the area. Interviewed by The Nation last September, several of the company’s guards stationed in New Orleans said they were being paid $350 a day. That would have left Blackwater with $600 per man, per day to cover lodging, ammo, other overhead–and profits. (Nation)
In Georgia, Rudy Helps Ralph Rally the Righteous
Rudy Giuliani’s always liked to help out strange characters. He hired Bernard Kerik for his consulting firm. Now he’s campaigned for Ralph Reed, the mucked-up religio-conservative running for Georgia’s lieutenant governorship. (NYTimes)
BellSouth calls for a retraction of report it cooperated with NSA
BellSouth asked USA TODAY on Thursday to “retract the false and unsubstantiated statements” about the company that it contends were in a May 11 story about a database of domestic calling records maintained by the National Security Agency. USA TODAY first contacted BellSouth more than five weeks ago. On the night before the story was published, the newspaper described the story in detail to BellSouth, and the company did not challenge the newspaper’s account. The company’s official response at that time: “BellSouth does not provide any confidential customer information to the NSA or any governmental agency without proper legal authority.” (USA Today)
Legal Loophole May Get AT&T Off the Hook for NSA Program
AT&T may have been allowed to violate customer’s privacy if Attorney General John Ashcroft wrote them a letter saying it was okay. (CNet)
Hayden’s Big Day
The verdict: the man knows how to speak a lot without saying much at all. But there were some nuggets: he implicitly criticized the Bush administration’s behavior before the war. And he explicitly criticized the Pentagon’s former Office of Special Plans, headed by former Undersecretary of Defense of Policy Douglas Feith, “for not adequately filtering intelligence data when reaching conclusions about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and about links between Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida. Displaying a gift for metaphor, Hayden said: ‘I’ve got three great kids, but if you tell me, `Go out and find all the bad things they’ve done, Hayden,’ I can build you a pretty good dossier, and you’d think they were pretty bad people because that was what I was looking for and that’s what I’d build up.'” (Reuters, NY Times, WaPo, Salon)
Kentucky Governor’s Pardon Stands
The Kentucky Supreme Court on Thursday invalidated a string of indictments charging members of Gov. Ernie Fletcher’s administration with rewarding political supporters with state jobs, leaving only the misdemeanor counts against the governor himself. Fletcher had pardoned his entire administration â other than himself â for any charges that could result from a probe into allegations of hiring misconduct. (AP)
House Ethics Panel, Justice Dept. to Run Parallel Probes
The committee’s surprise decision Wednesday to open inquiries into allegations that the congressmen accepted bribes — as well as a third, wider-ranging probe — was meant to tamp down criticism that the panel is dysfunctional and that the House is not policing the ethical lapses of its members. But some are concerned the House inquiries may interfere with the Justice Department’s investigations. (WaPo)
Harman Resists Push Off Spy Panel
Rep. Jane Harman, who has gained national prominence as the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, is fighting to hold on to the job amid indications she will be rotated off the panel next year.
Replacing Harman with Hastings, an African American, may help Pelosi cement her own political standing, particularly with the Congressional Black Caucus. But Hastings could be a problematic pick for the Democrats. Before becoming a member of Congress, he was forced to surrender his job as a federal judge after being indicted in 1981 on bribery charges. He was acquitted by a jury in 1983, but was impeached in 1988 by the House for conspiracy and making false statements in that same bribery case. Hastings was removed from the bench by the Senate the following year. That action did not prevent him from running for public office, however, and he was elected to the House in 1992. (LA Times, War&Piece)
Panic Slowly Gripping Congress Over Spreading Corruption Probes
Previously, members of Congress thought they were following the rules as long as donations they received were legal. Now, members are worried that Justice is looking at possible connections between campaign contributions and official action. (Boston Globe)
German Alleging CIA Abuses Has Suit Nixed
A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by a German man who said he was illegally detained and tortured in overseas prisons run by the CIA, ruling that a lawsuit would improperly expose state secrets. The ruling hands a victory to the Bush administration, which intervened in the civil lawsuit to prevent exposure of its tactics in the war on terrorism. (AP)
