The Daily Muck

The U.S. has just released 15 more Guantanamo Bay detainees, bringing the total number of detainees who have never been charged or tried to 485. This leaves approximately 290 detainees, of which the government plans to prosecute about 80 in military tribunals. A portion of the remaining 200 have been cleared for transfer provided some nation will accept them. 1 detainee has been convicted in the history of the Guantanamo system. (USA Today)

Despite the failures of the military tribunal system at Guantanamo, Defense Secretary Robert Gates says that his push to close the prison camp has run into “obstacles” from the administration’s lawyers and Dick Cheney. Cheney “opposes bringing detainees to the US under such a system, because they would receive greater legal rights.” (Financial Times)

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed an ethics complaint with the Senate alleging that senator Pete Domenici (R-NM) violated rules by “contacting the U.S. Attorney in Albuquerque, New Mexico, David C. Iglesias, and pressuring him about an ongoing corruption probe.” Now, Domenici wants to use campaign funds to pay his legal fees from the ethics investigation. (CREW)

Federal law enforcement has subpoenaed the financial records and employees of Rev. Al Sharpton’s 2004 presidential campaign. The FBI declined to comment but Carl Redding, Sharpton’s chief of staff for eight years during the 1990s, said “it was like a sting or a raid… they converged on everybody.” (Chicago Tribune)

Senator Hillary Clinton has called for a formal government investigation into the alleged gang rape and forced detention of a KBR employee in the Green Zone. In a letter to Condoleeza Rice, Clinton demanded that the government act “immediately.” (ABC’s “The Blotter”)

Congressional auditors from theGovernment Accountability Office have found that the Bush administration “pressured the Environmental Protection Agency to weaken requirements that companies annually disclose the release of toxic chemicals.” This will result in 22,000 fewer reports each year and impede efforts to monitor industrial emissions. (Boston Globe)

Despite the fact that the Bush administration “has stepped up diplomatic efforts in hot spots such as the Middle East and North Korea” and “Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has called for an expanded U.S. diplomatic presence in ‘critical emerging areas,'” the State Department has announced that diplomatic posts will be cut by 10 percent next year because of heavy staffing demands in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Washington Post)

CIA Director Michael Hayden had to be rescued from reporters yesterday while attending Dick Cheney’s holiday party. Hayden, who has frustrated lawmakers with his shifting explanations of his knowledge about the destroyed CIA tapes, escaped a grilling from reporters when he shouted to David Addington, “save me!” (Washington Post)

A recent vote by Potrero, California residents to remove planning board members who support plans for Blackwater’s mercenary outpost near the Mexican border may not be enough to block the private military contractor. Blackwater remains undeterred and the real vote is said to rest with the county board of supervisors next year. (San Diego Union Tribune)

Attorney General Michael Mukasey favors the Senate Intelligence Committee’s surveillance bill, which would not require individual court orders for surveillance of foreign targets overseas and, unlike the House and Senate Judiciary Committee versions, would protect telecom companies from lawsuits. (LA Times)

Leaders of the House of Representatives have ordered an investigation into the recent arrests and sexual exhibitionism among congressional pages. “Two Republicans on the board overseeing the page program resigned last week after blaming House Clerk Lorraine Miller, the day-to-day administrator of the program, for failing to immediately notify them of inappropriate conduct.” (USA Today)