Email Shows Rove’s Role in Fate of Prosecutors
“Almost every Wednesday afternoon, advisers to President Bush gather to strategize about putting his stamp on the federal courts and the United States attorneysâ offices. The group meets in the Roosevelt Room and includes aides to the White House counsel, the chief of staff, the attorney general and Karl Rove, who also sometimes attends himself. Each of them signs off on every nomination.” (NY Times)
Prosecutors Assail Gonzales During Meeting
“Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales endured blunt criticism Tuesday from federal prosecutors who questioned the firings of eight United States attorneys, complained that the dismissals had undermined morale and expressed broader grievances about his leadership, according to people briefed on the discussion. Several of the prosecutors said the dismissals caused them to wonder about their own standing and distracted their employees, according to one person familiar with the discussions.” (NY Times)
Sampson in Hot Seat: Dems Want to Know Who Was Behind…
“When former Justice Department official Kyle Sampson testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee today, he will face stern questions about his and his colleaguesâ role in trying to circumvent Senate confirmation of U.S. attorneys. The House and Senate recently passed bills to overturn language allowing the attorney general to appoint U.S. attorneys indefinitely without Senate confirmation, but questions remain as to how and why the provision was inserted in the USA Patriot Act reauthorization bill.” (The Hill)
Attorneygate in Guam
“Before Attorneygate, there was Guam. Back in the spring of 2002, when Guam’s then-Governor, Carl Gutierrez, found himself in the cross-hairs of a federal corruption probe, he hired disgraced über-lobbyist Jack Abramoff to force out the US territory’s longtime acting US Attorney, Frederick Black. ‘I don’t care if they appoint bozo the clown, we need to get rid of Fred Black,’ Abramoff wrote to colleagues in March 2002.” (The Nation)
Senate Advances e-Campaign Filing System
“The Senate on Wednesday took its first step toward requiring Senate candidates to file campaign finance reports electronically, something that’s been mandatory for House and presidential candidates for years. Not so with Senate campaign fundraising and spending reports, which typically take days or even weeks to even show up on paper in the FEC’s public records viewing room â much less online.” (Associated Press)
Increase May Mean Longer Army Tours
“Sustaining the U.S. troop increase in Iraq beyond this summer will not be possible without keeping some Army combat brigades in the war zone for up to 16 months — much longer than the standard year-long tour, a top U.S. general in charge of the military’s rotation plans said yesterday. Air Force Gen. Lance Smith, head of U.S. Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, also said that if the increase of more than 28,000 combat and support troops continues until February, there is a “high probability” that some Army units would have less than a year at home between combat rotations.” (Washington Post)
New Justice System is a Work in Progress
“In the last few weeks, the two most famous prisoners at the Guantánamo Bay naval base responded to proceedings against them by admitting their guilt. But because of the unusual circumstances of the two admissions, it is not clear yet that either one is truly representative of the system the administration has established, legal experts said.” (NY Times)
Evidence on Padilla Found in a Safehouse
“A key piece of evidence in the case against Brooklyn-born Jose Padilla, an alleged terrorism operative, came from an Afghan man who told the CIA he found it in an Al Qaeda safehouse, according to new court filings. The man, unknown to the CIA at the time, drove up to the agency’s installation in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in a pickup truck containing “stacks of papers and other office materials” found in the house occupied by a group of Arabs, according to a CIA document.” (Boston Globe)
