The Daily MuckFamily members of Iraqis murdered by workers of defense contractor Blackwater have sued the company for wrongful death. Now lawyers for the Iraqis are claiming that Blackwater has shredded documents vital to federal investigations of the company. There is no word yet on an investigation by the Justice Department into the matter. (USA Today)
Defense lawyers of clients living overseas, but barred from the U.S. due to accusations of supporting terrorism, assume that the U.S. government is monitoring their e-mail or phone correspondence with the clients. These assumptions are causing lawyers rigorous travel and expense to meet with exiled clients. (New York Times)
After backing legislation last year calling for campaigns to pay charter rates on flights in an effort to level influence of lobbyists, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has been found to have used his wife’s corporate-owned jet last summer at about one-third the cost when his own campaign was strapped for cash. The Federal Election Commission tried to close the loophole McCain used to justify his actions, but the agency has been in turmoil since losing the required number of commissioners to enact such rules. (New York Times)
A new legal defense for prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay may emerge next month when Salim Ahmed Hamdan, former driver for Osama bin Laden, comes to trial. Hamdan’s attorneys claim the Yemeni has not cooperated with them because the 22-hour-a-day solitary confinement of the prison has rendered him mentally insane. Critics have long pointed to such conditions as ripe for such claims, while Pentagon officials argue the prison does not have solitary confinement, but rather “single-occupancy cells.” (New York Times)
Following an unsuccessful run for Congress in 2000 that left him short of funds, Sen. Barack Obama received a total of $112,000 for legal advice by a firm owned by Chicago entrepreneur Robert Blackwell Jr. A few months after the final payment from Blackwell, Obama requested the Illinois state government provide another Blackwell-owned company $50,000 in tourism grants. That company, specializing in table tennis events, eventually went on to win $320,000 in state grants between 2002 and 2004. (LA Times)
Investigators have evidence that Halliburton bribed the Nigerian government in connection with a million-dollar construction project of a natural-gas liquefaction plant. Halliburton officials defend themselves, pointing to a tax filing of payments also made in connection with a separate project of an offshore platform. (Wall Street Journal)
While American taxpayers foot the bill for the over $100 billion reconstruction effort in Iraq, an audit by the special inspector general for the rebuilding effort in Iraq reports that millions of dollars in infrastructure contracts have been lost because of inefficiencies and failures, including projects the U.S. government have deemed complete. The reports shows that 835 of the 47,321 projects were ended prematurely; 112 of them due to negligent execution. (Associated Press)
