Here's Why We Need a Truman Committee

I hate to write about something that's going to upset people so early in the morning, but how can anyone stomach the incompetence and the greed and the corruption of the political appointees of the Bush Administration?

A House investigative committee has learned that the American ambassador to Albania knew evidence of Chinese origins was being removed last year from an ammunition shipment before a U.S. contractor sent the material to Afghanistan, said Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the panel.

This month, Maj. Larry Harrison, a Pentagon official at the U.S. Embassy in Albania, told staff members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that Ambassador John L. Withers II held a late-night meeting with Albania's defense minister. After the Nov. 19 meeting, the order was given to Albanian officers "to remove all evidence of Chinese packaging" from the ammunition, Waxman said in a letter sent yesterday to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

In a June 9 appearance, Harrison told the committee that "the ambassador agreed that this would alleviate the suspicion of wrongdoing," Waxman wrote. Harrison also said "that he did not agree with the decision to remove the Chinese markings," Waxman said.

A federal grand jury on Friday indicted Efraim E. Diveroli, president of AEY Inc., the U.S. company involved, on 71 counts, including conspiracy to defraud the government on a $298 million U.S. Army contract to provide various types of ammunition to the government of Afghanistan.

Where do you start with something like that?

I hope Major Harrison's career doesn't come to an end because of this incident. Rarely does the person who speaks up and blows the whistle on the Bush Administration and their political appointees emerge unscathed from the act of thwarting their political goals and their rampant greed. Someone will likely take action against Harrison's career, and that's why we are seeing a military that is hollowed out, staffed with yes-men, and overrun by the God-boys who invite crazies to come to the Pentagon and give them briefings.

No matter how you look at this story, what emerges is a troubling incident of corruption and greed:

On March 27, The New York Times published an article that said Albanian documents showed that the Miami company had bought more than 100 million Chinese cartridges that were stored for decades in former cold war stockpiles.

Mr. Diveroli arranged to have them repacked in cardboard boxes, many of which split or decomposed after shipment to the war zones, according to the article. Different lots or types of ammunition were mixed. In some cases the ammunition was dirty, corroded or covered with a film.

The repackaging operation, carried out by an AEY subcontractor at the Rinas Airport in Tirana, has become the focus of the Congressional investigation.

According to the transcript excerpts released by the committee, Major Harrison told investigators that he did not agree with the decision to hide the boxes from the reporter, and said that he felt “very uncomfortable” during the meeting.

Major Harrison, who as the chief of the embassy’s office of defense cooperation was responsible for helping American efforts to train, equip and modernize Albania’s military, said that his suggestion to bar the reporter from visiting the Albania base was rejected.

In a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the committee’s chairman, Representative Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California, said Monday that there were signs that embassy officials in Tirana tried to cover up the November meeting once Mr. Waxman’s staff began an investigation into the arms company. The letter said the committee would seek to interview Mr. Withers and other embassy personnel.

This is the kind of thing that sets off warning bells. When Major Harrison realized what sort of ground he was standing on, he immediately took steps to protect himself--perhaps he already was savvy to how the Bush Administration treats people who get between them and their money:

After his hour-long interview, Harrison "expressed an interest in seeking advice of counsel" and a Pentagon attorney terminated the session, Waxman wrote. Three days later, Harrison's lawyer told the committee he needed at least two weeks to prepare for continuing the interview.

Waxman charged in his letter that "it appears" embassy officials kept from the committee information related to the ambassador's meeting in Albania. Harrison told the panel that he had "urged embassy officials to inform the committee," Waxman wrote, but embassy officials did not mention it in response to a prior request for information.

All this, so a few corrupt officials in Albania could dump Cold War-era ammunition into the hands of some Club-hopping trash from Florida, who could then make millions re-packaging it and sending it to the Middle East.

Perhaps the death penalty for war profiteers isn't harsh enough.

Waxman subpoenas FBI for Bush & Cheney Plame interviews

The House Oversight Committee on Monday - just days before Scotty McClellan will appear before the Judiciary Committee on Friday - subpoenaed records of the FBI's interviews with President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney during the investigation into the outing of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson in an act of political revenge after her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson wrote the now-famous New York Times op-ed in 2003 that brought up the issue of stroked intel to sell the war that aWol was intent on starting.

Waxman said that McClellan's book, "What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception," also raised suspicion that Dick Cheney had directed McClellan to "mislead the public."


Waxman also wants the unredacted transcripts of FBI interviews with McClellan, former White House political adviser Karl Rove, Libby and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Justice Department spokesman Peter Carr said the department was reviewing the subpoena to determine how to respond. The committee set a deadline of noon next Monday for the Attorney General to respond.

McClellan wrote that Bush and Cheney directed him to "exonerate" Libby in his daily news briefings and that Cheney may have been among the senior White House officials who knew the truth but encouraged the former spokesman "to repeat a lie." McClellan also contended that Bush told him he'd authorized the leak of Plame's name.

Bush said in a 2004 news briefing that "If there's a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is. If the person has violated law, that person will be taken care of."

Last week, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Keith Nelson turned down the committee's request for the FBI reports on Bush and Cheney, saying that the committee's request "raises serious separation of powers" and confidentiality concerns.

However, Waxman said there were "no sound reasons" that the Justice Department couldn't release the documents. He's accused the Justice Department of blocking Fitzgerald from turning over the documents.

A spokesman for the Justice Department, Peter Carr, said the department was reviewing the committees subpoena to determine how to respond.

The two-year investigation by special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald into the outing of Plame yielded the conviction if I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby on charges of obstruction, perjury and lying to the FBI. Bush bought Libby's silence when he commuted the sentence but did not pardon him - had he pardoned him, he would have been immune from further prosecution and brought before the committee and forced to spill his guts about the whole rotten crew.

Turning our attention back to recruiting issues for a moment...

Regular readers know that I have a long history of writing about recruiting and retention and how those issues relate to overall readiness and ability to respond to real threats that might arise.

A central theme to this long-running hissy-fit has been the waivering of troops. When the fiscal year 2006 recruiting statistics were released, my jaw hit the floor when I saw that fully 17% were waivered. Once I got my head around the fact that practically one in five recruits were individuals who the recruiter would never have called back five years ago, I started digging a little deeper and found that not only are we admitting a bunch of hinky troops, the leadership is undermined and compromised to a staggering degree. Two years ago I started posting about a dearth of officers when I found out that the Army had 3500 unfilled Officer billets and the Army Reserves had 11,000 vacancies in the O-1 through O-3 (Lieutenants and Captains) ranks alone. Those numbers mean something to me, and I started studying the issues surrounding recruiting and retention.

The truth of the matter is, it is getting harder and harder for the military to make recruiting and retention goals. Twice in less than a year, a thousand recruiters have been involuntarily recalled to recruiting duty as huge pushes have been made to get the numbers up and make quotas. Stories of recruiters telling egregious lies are commonplace. In 2005, recruiting was halted for a day and everyone attended a retraining workshop after it came to light that recruiters were helping teenagers lie to their parents, coaching potential enlistees to lie when filling out official documents, offering advice on how to beat drug tests and, when all else failed, bullying. One recruiter at this time was caught on tape threatening a potential soldier with jail time if he failed to keep an appointment.

A year after that stand-down, recruiters were caught telling students that the war in Iraq was over and troops were coming home. The lying has continued and will continue. Operate from that assumption. Recruiters are salesmen, and they are peddling a product that isn't exactly flying off the shelves these days.

As the wars grind on and the the pool of potential recruits dwindles, and recruiters continue to operate under sharp scrutiny for the more excessive bullshit they floated, the use of waivers has increased as recruiters struggle to meet their recruiting goals. The number of recruits admitted to the Army after felony convictions has more than doubled every year for the last two years.

And this all has Henry Waxman asking questions.

Recruits were allowed to enlist after having been convicted of crimes including assault, burglary, drug possession and making terrorist threats.

The statistics were released by Rep. Henry Waxman, a California Democrat who chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

He has given the Pentagon a month to hand over up-to-date details on the number of waivers granted, reports on how the recruits have performed and information about how the waivers are related to meeting recruitment goals.

[Snip]

"There was a rapid rise in 2007 in the number of waivers the Army and Marine Corps granted to recruits convicted of serious felonies," Waxman said in a letter Monday to David Chu, the under-secretary of defense for personnel and readiness.

"I understand that there can be valid reasons for personnel waivers and recognize the importance of providing opportunities to individuals who have served their sentences and rehabilitated themselves.

"At the same time, concerns have been raised that the significant increase in the recruitment of persons with criminal records is a result of the strain put on the military by the Iraq war and may be undermining military readiness," he charged.

I welcome Waxman's queries into this issue, and encourage Skelton and Levin to get involved with it as well. As it stands right now, the United States Army is facing a three-decade rebuilding process. Every single military topic discussed and decision made needs to be considered with that long term reality considered. This stuff isn't optional.

Whoops!

IOKIYAR doesn't apply to Roger Clemens, I guess:

WASHINGTON (AP) - The FBI has opened an investigation into whether baseball great Roger Clemens lied to Congress when he denied taking steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs.
Law enforcement officials say the inquiry will focus on whether Clemens or his former personal trainer Brian McNamee (MAC-nah-mee) lied when they testified under oath about the use of steroids.

In testimony Feb 13 , Clemens told Congress he never used either drug. McNamee testified that he injected the seven-time Cy Young Award winner with steroids and human growth hormone at least 16 times from 1998 to 2001.

The FBI inquiry was prompted by a request Thursday from the House Oversight Committee, which singled out statements by Clemens as possibly false.

Despite the shameful efforts of people like Darrell Issa and Dan Burton and Chris Shays to help Clemens out of a jam, the jam turned out to be the capper on a career that would have been a lock for the Hall of Fame. Would have been. As Chairman Waxman explained, now is not your time to argue with me on this.

If you're gonna ban Pete Rose for gambling, you have to ban anyone convicted of lying to Federal investigators about steroids because it's cheating to gain an unfair advantage. A gambler who can choose which player plays in a close game is cheating and a player who juices up is cheating as well. I support a lifetime ban, which means that said players can enter the Hall of Fame posthumously.

But with one of these babies: "*"

[Now if we can get a Justice Department willing to investigate high crimes and misdemeanors, we'll be in business.]

Having Condi for Lunch

Condi took a trip up the Hill on Thursday to testify in front of Representative Waxman's Oversight committee about the State Departments massive failures mismanaging Iraq and concealing relevant information from Congress.

Like the fictional five-year-old Alexander, she had a terrible, horrible, no-good, very-bad day.

She was visibly frustrated and on the defensive as she was questioned about the lack of control over the mercenary forces under contract to the State Department, as well as corruption at the highest levels of the Iraqi government. They also grilled her extensively about the myriad problems with the still-unfinished embassy project.

She became visibly frustrated at several points, including one intense exchange with Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT) about allegations of corruption that have been leveled against Nuri Kemal al-Maliki, the U.S. Puppet Prime Minister, who kaiboshed corruption investigations in April, when he decreed that all cabinet-level corruption investigations would only proceed with his approval. Critics say this amounts to blanket immunity for al-Maliki and his ministers.)

The most surreal moment of the whole spectacle had to be when Rice, pressed repeatedly to say whether she thought al-Maliki was covering up fraud and abuse, said she would not respond to rumors.

"To assault the prime minister of Iraq or anyone else in Iraq with here-to-date unsubstantiated allegations or lack of corroboration, in a setting that would simply fuel those allegations, I think, would be deeply damaging."

What a difference five years make, I guess.

In the run-up to the invasion, she had no qualms peddling "unsubstantiated allegations" to pave the way to invade the country and overthrow the government and unleash chaos. I'm not sure just how much more deeply the bitch could damage that country.

After it was over, Waxman was blunt in his assessment of her testimony. "I think there was a huge gap between what she said and reality."

I wonder what precipitated this?

After years of blowing off requests by Henry Waxman to appear before the Oversight Committee, which he has chaired since the 110th congress was seated in January, Condi has finally acquiesced.

I noticed this morning when I checked the committee schedule that the following entry had been quietly added:

Upcoming Hearings and Meetings

Hearing with Secretary Rice on Iraq

Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

Thursday, October 25, 2007, 10:00 AM at 2154 Rayburn House Office Building

I've been on pins and needles, awaiting this with bated breath.

But why the sudden change of heart after all this time? Rice's MO has been blatant contempt for Oversight, refusing to acknowledge that Representative Waxman's committee even has the right to question her.

I wonder if Henry let her now on the sly that he tired of her shenanigans, and if she didn't climb down off her high-horse, she would find herself hauled in front of the committee by the Sergeant of Arms? I can't imagine she had a Constantine-type conversion on a bridge.

Condi Continues her Contempt for Congress & Oversight

Representative Henry Waxman, Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, on Tuesday leveled charges that Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice has interfered with congressional investigations into corruption by the Iraqi government; as well as the activities of the mercenary security outfit Blackwater USA.

State Department officials have repeatedly told the Oversight Committee that details of corruption in the Iraqi government could not be provided to the committee because the information is treated as a “state secret” and can not be revealed to the public (nor, apparently to our elected representatives).

"You are wrong to interfere with the committee's inquiry," Waxman said in a letter to Rice. "The State Department's position on this matter is ludicrous," added Waxman, a vocal opponent of the Bush administration's Iraq policies.

The State Department did not comment on the letter or Waxman’s comments, but in the past, Rice’s State Department has blown off the requests of the committee, and attempted to dismiss Waxman as “partisan” and inconsequential.

In the case of Blackwater, which was involved in an apparently unprovoked attack on civilians that left at least 11 civilians dead, the company insists that, as they contract their mercenaries to provide security for State Department employees in Iraq, they can not hand over documents and cooperate with Congress without prior approval of the State Department, which will not give it.

"Congress has a constitutional prerogative to examine the impacts that corruption within the Iraqi ministries and the activities of Blackwater may have on the prospects for political reconciliation in Iraq," Waxman wrote to Rice.

Along with the latest letter Waxman wrote to Rice and released to the press, a letter from the State Deparment’s Contracting Officer, Kiazan Moneypenny, to Blackwater, which confirms the obstruction Waxman accuses the State Department of engaging in: "I hereby direct Blackwater to make no disclosure of documents or information ... unless such disclosure has been authorized in writing by the contracting officer." Undeterred by the stonewalling, Waxman has scheduled a hearing on the Blackwater matter for October 2.

Rice has been overtly contemptuous of congressional oversight, ignoring requests to appear before committees, answer questions or even acknowledge that Congress indeed has a legitimate oversight role. With her star waning, and her influence in the White House virtually nil, might she find herself escorted before the committee by the Sergeant of Arms of the House?

Waxman Investigating the IG for State

House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform charged today in a 13-page letter that Howard J. Krongard, the Inspector General for the State Department has exhibited a persistent tendency to censor reports that might embarrass the administration, and has repeatedly thwarted investigations of the State Department. The letter was signed by Chairman Henry Waxman and released today by the committee.

The Oversight Committee based the charges on the testimony of seven current and former members of the IG’s staff, including two former senior officials who spoke on the record with no stipulation of anonymity. The letter clarifies that the charges are not limited to a single unit, but that the pattern is pervasive, affecting all three divisions of the IG’s office – audits, investigations and inspections.

…The letter charged that Krongard "interfered with ongoing investigations to protect the State Department and the White House from political embarrassment." It said that "your strong affinity with State Department leadership and your partisan political ties have led you to halt investigations, censor reports and refuse to cooperate with law enforcement agencies."

…Waxman accused Krongard of refusing to send investigators to Iraq and Afghanistan to investigate $3 billion worth of State Department contracts; preventing his investigators from cooperating with a Justice Department probe into waste and fraud in the construction of the U.S. embassy in Iraq; using "highly irregular" procedures to personally exonerate the embassy's prime contractor of labor abuses; interfering in the probe of a close friend of former White House adviser Karl Rove; censoring reports on embassies to prevent full disclosure to Congress; and refusing to publish critical audits of State's financial statements.

Inspectors General are supposed to be independent and objective investigators of waste, fraud and abuse, rather than ideology-driven agenda whores. Of course, the Bush maladministration has stood this notion on it’s head and applied a test of partisanship to everything. Prior to the appointment of Krongard, the IG for State had traditionally been a Foreign Service officer. Krongard was previously employed by an international law firm and had been general counsel for Deloitte & Touche

Emails of exchanges between staff members discussing Krongard’s decision to stonewall the Justice Department on the embassy investigation.

"Wow, as we all [k]now that is not the normal and proper procedure," an investigator wrote to Assistant IG John A. DeDona. DeDona forwarded the e-mail to the Deputy IG, William E. Todd, saying, "I have always viewed myself as a loyal soldier but hopefully you sense my frustration in my voicemail yesterday."

Todd wrote back: "I know you are very frustrated. John, you need to convey to the troops the truth, the IG told us both Tuesday to stand down on this and not assist, that needs to be the message."

DeDona responded: "Unfortunately, under the current regime, the view within INV [the office of investigations] is to keep working the BS cases within the beltway, and let us not rock the boat with more significant investigations."

The committee subpoenaed the work product for the embassy report which Krongard personally drafted, that exonerated the contractor building the new embassy in Iraq, First Kuwaiti General Trade and Contracting Co. The company was accused of horribly abusive labor practices, including holding employees against their will, but Krongard let First Kuwaiti off the hook with a mere six pages of vague, handwritten notes, showing that he interviewed only six employees – who were selected by First Kuwaiti. "Contrary to established investigative procedures, you allowed the subject of the investigation, First Kuwaiti, to select the employees you interviewed," Waxman charged. He added that the interview notes “did not show how thoroughly each employee was interviewed.”

Waxman charges that Krongard has, by his actions, created a “dysfunctional office environment” and that he routinely berated and belittled personnel, treated career government professionals contemptuously, and fostered an environment where people actually feared coming to work. The letter asserts that the high turnover in the department – which has resulted in only seven of 27 investigator positions currently filled – is due to the feckless leadership of Krongard.

Just when you think Dick Cheney has bottomed out, he digs deeper into the pit of perfidy, hubris and arrogance

Dick Cheney finds oversight of his office so distasteful that he has gone so far as to attempt to abolish the office within the National Archives that oversees the dissemination of national security information and is charged with protecting sensitive national security information.

Yes, children, you read that right. Rather than comply with the rule of law, Cheney just tried to make the problem go away entirely by eliminating the Information Security Oversight Office that wanted to keep tabs on the national security information tht his minions have amply displayed they can’t be trusted with.

The ISOO is a small shop, about 25 people work there. They have been trying to get information from Cheney for years, and he has stonewalled. When the ISOO got pushy, Cheney tried to just make them go away.

What, exactly, is that fat bastard hiding?

The Oversight Committee has learned that over the objections of the National Archives, Vice President Cheney exempted his office from the presidential order that establishes government-wide procedures for safeguarding classified national security information. The Vice President asserts that his office is not an “entity within the executive branch.”

As described in a letter from Chairman Waxman to the Vice President, the National Archives protested the Vice President's position in letters written in June 2006 and August 2006. When these letters were ignored, the National Archives wrote to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in January 2007 to seek a resolution of the impasse. The Vice President's staff responded by seeking to abolish the agency within the Archives that is responsible for implementing the President's executive order.

In his letter to the Vice President, Chairman Waxman writes: "I question both the legality and wisdom of your actions. ... [I]t would appear particularly irresponsible to give an office with your history of security breaches an exemption from the safeguards that apply to all other executive branch officials."

A fact sheet prepared by Chairman Waxman describes other instances in which the Vice President's office has sought to avoid oversight and accountability.

I have had quite enough from this imperialist prick. If he doesn’t resign for “health reasons” in the immediate future, Congress needs to grow a pair and get behind Dennis Kucinich who has introduced Articles of Impeachment against him.

Not a member of the Executive Branch my ass. Impeach his ass and see how far he can make that argument fly.

The Must-Have Accessory for Spring: Oversight

In a span of fifteen minutes today, a whole slew of subpoenas will be considered for a variety of current and former administration officials, including Condoleeza Rice, Andrew Card and Monica Goodling.

There are so many oversight opportunities to choose from that Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid have appointed staffers to keep track of what fights are being picked and why. Seriously. They have had to appoint scandal coordinators.

Since Democrats assumed control of Congress in January, they have hired more than 200 investigative staffers for key watchdog committees. They include lawyers, former reporters and congressional staffers who left oversight committees that had all but atrophied during the six years that the GOP controlled Congress and the White House. They have already begun a series of inquiries on subjects ranging from allegations of administration meddling in federal scientists' work on global warming and the General Services Administration's alleged work for Republican campaigns to how disproved claims that Iraq had purchased nuclear material from Niger evolved into a case for war.

Democrats have been emboldened, investigators say, by their House and Senate judiciary committee colleagues' inquiries into the firings of U.S. attorneys. Last week's day-long testimony by Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, some Democrats said, was a reminder of how rare Cabinet-level grillings had become on Capitol Hill. By the end of today, the Senate Judiciary Committee alone is set to authorize subpoenas for 15 people in the inquiry on the prosecutor dismissals.

"Oversight is just as important, if not more important, than legislation," said Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The new investigations illustrate just how many questions went unanswered in the six years when Democrats "couldn't hold hearings, we couldn't compel information . . . all we could do was ask for it," he said.

Now, Waxman said, what to tackle next "is something we're always thinking about."

Since the Democrats came to power, nearly 100 research and investigation staffers have been hired to investigate potential violations of congressional rules and federal and state laws. As part of the new culture of accountability that the Democrats campaigned on (and which is our raison d’etre) the Democrats are pushing forward with investigations.

The subpoenas are about to fly. I do believe the events of this week are going to be a hell of a lot of fun to watch.

Waxman has reached his limit...

Representative Waxman’s patience is at an end. Condoleeza Rice has blown him off and ignored his respectful requests that she appear before the Oversight Committee he chairs and answer questions about the false claims of a Niger-Iraq connection that was used as justification for a pre-emptive war against Iraq.

Now that Condoleeza Rice has officially blown off the Oversight Committee (Rep. Waxman sent a letter last month, in which he requested she appear on April 17^th) the full Oversight Committee will convene on Wednesday, 25 April to consider compelling testimony with subpoenas.

If subpoenaed, will Ms. Rice ignore that, too? Will it go that far? (I would pay to see it.) Ignore a subpoena and the Capitol Police can arrest you and deliver you to the committee.

Next week is going to be very interesting indeed.

Now see, the U.S. attorney thing was - IS - a big deal...

There are a few sites I haven’t been visiting lately because I was more than a little put-off by the blasé attitude of the site-owners toward the U.S. Attorney purge. When I ran up against posts that had a "who cares?" tone, my answer was "I do!" and I left. For the most part, I haven't been back to those sites. I don't seek out aggravation and annoyances. I'll venture back eventually. maybe once Gonzo is, well, gonzo...

Here is the thing about the Purge: It is a big deal. It always was a big deal. That it wasn’t a big deal to some people – people who I had always thought to be dedicated to the Constitution and the rule of law – just left a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.

I could not – can not – understand how anyone can just accept turning the Department of Justice into the department of “Just Us.” There is too much at stake. The very lynchpin of our Republic is in peril.

That is a big deal. Probably the biggest deal of my lifetime.

A big deal that is getting bigger.

The White House acknowledged yesterday that e-mails dealing with official government business may have been lost because they were improperly sent through private accounts intended to be used for political activities. Democrats have been seeking such missives as part of an investigation into the firing of eight U.S. attorneys.

Administration officials said they could offer no estimate of how many e-mails were lost but indicated that some may involve messages from White House senior adviser Karl Rove, whose role in the firings has been under scrutiny by congressional Democrats.

A lot of White House staffers it seems have violated the Presidential Records Act by using those outside email accounts. (Those accounts are for political correspondence. Anyone else get an Irony Alert?) Not only did they circumvent the PRA, they also used those unofficial email accounts to discuss the political purge of the eight United States attorneys.

The nongovernmental accounts were accidentally discovered by Democrats when the Justice Department released hundreds of documents related to the prosecutor firings.

One exchange showed deputy White House political director J. Scott Jennings sending an e-mail titled "USATTY" to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' then-chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, from an address with a gwb43.com domain name.

"Does a list of all vacant, or about to be vacant, US Attorney slots exist anywhere?" Jennings wrote on Dec. 3 from his political account. Replied Sampson, a few minutes later: "My office. Want me to send to you tomorrow?"

Jennings had also communicated with Sampson and other Justice Department officials in August from his RNC-supplied address about how to install the administration's preferred replacement, onetime Rove aide Tim Griffin, for Arkansas U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins.

In one, Jennings passed on a strategy he said was suggested by Cummins, to have Griffin come on as an attorney in the Little Rock office until Cummins finalized his post-government plans. Jennings said the plan would "alleviate pressure/implication that Tim forced Bud out."

I have taken a few moments and communicated my concerns to both of my Senators, my Congressman and Representative Waxman’s Oversight Committee (contact information for every federal elected official is available in the left-hand sidebar – utilize it). It would probably be a pretty good idea if you did so too.

Waxman Won’t be Ignored

The days of Condi dismissing the oversight committee are numbered. By my count, there are about 18 left…

Congressman Waxman let it be known today that ignoring him would not make him go away.

On 12 March, 2007, Congressman Waxman reopened an investigation into the specious allegations of lies about yellowcake Uranium and aluminum centrifuge tubes. At that time, the Congressman sent a letter to Secretary of State Rice that should have made it clear he wants answers (even if she was distracted by thoughts of shoeshopping).

Since 2003,I have written 16 letters to you, either in your capacity as National Security Advisor or Secretary of State.

According to Committee records, you have satisfactorily

responded to only five of those l6 letters. Those five were co-signed by Republicans.

Under the Bush Administration, several agencies followed a policy of not responding to minority party requests.

Although I do not agree with this policy, I presume that you were also following it when you decided not to respond to my requests for information.

I am now renewing my requests as the chairman of the chief oversight committee in the U.S. House of Representatives.

(She blew off that March 12 letter as well.)

So the Congressman sent another along today, and attached a copy of the March 12 letter, and told her she is expected to appear before the committee on 18 April. (.pdf warning)

Talk about missing the point...

Everyone is all atwitter about the use of RNC email servers to coordinate the political purge of U.S. Attorneys by members of the Department of Justice.

While everyone is debating how many angels can dance on the head of a pin i.e. whether executive privilege is waived when non-secured servers are used, I am focusing on that other word…

Non-secured.

Read that as “hackable.”

If there is even a 1% chance that any issue of national security could have been revealed to hostile interests, Congressman Waxman should seize the RNC servers and they should be examined thoroughly by experts in computer forensics.

And oh yeah – everyone can shut the hell up about the Republicans being the party of virile national security when they will sell out security to cheat at politics.

Reining in a Rogue Elephant

To my (admittedly wonkish) way of thinking, the most exciting RSS feed these days is the one coming from Representative Waxman’s House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Representative Waxman and the Oversight Committee today (Monday, March 26, 2007) informed both the Republican National Committee and the Chairman of the Bush-Cheney ’04 campaign that they are not to destroy any email records they may be in possession of, in light of the evidence that certain high-ranking public officials (*cough* Karl Rove *cough*) have used non-official email servers to conduct the business of the government and avoid scrutiny and transparency in government affairs, and have most likely acted in ways that violate the Presidential Records Act.

One thing is for certain – the mendacity and hubris of this administration is staggering. If their actions were not so consequential for the rest of us, it would almost be funny – but as that is not the case, they are simply appalling on an epic scale.

Spychodrama

Treason: 1. Violation of allegiance toward one's country or sovereign, especially the betrayal of one's country by waging war against it or by consciously and purposely acting to aid its enemies. 2. A betrayal of trust or confidence. --American Heritage Dictionary

Valerie Plame testified before Representative Waxman's Oversight Committee today.

Wow. What a woman. I'm glad she was out there working for me for those two decades, and pissed that her career was cut short. That kind of asset is not found by running an advert in the Sunday paper.

After a life in the shadows, she spoke out and spoke up publicly today, in a voice that was strong and clear.

She is angry, and justifiably so.

"I know I am here under oath, and I am here to say that I was covert," she said.

I served the United States loyally and to the best of my ability as a covert operations officer for the Central Intelligence Agency.

I worked on behalf of the national security of our country, on behalf of the people of the United States until my name and true affiliation were exposed in the national media on July 14, 2003, after a leak by administration officials.

Today, I can tell this committee even more. In the run-up to the war with Iraq I worked in the counter proliferation division of the CIA -- still as a covert officer whose affiliation with the CIA was classified.

....While I helped to manage and run secret worldwide operations against this WMD target from CIA headquarters in Washington, I also traveled to foreign countries on secret missions to find vital intelligence.

That a vital security asset was compromised for political reasons is tantamount to treason. I want satisfaction here.

No one approached her before her name was made public. Knowing a little something about how covert operations work, it is extremely fortunate that her outing did not cost an asset on foreign soil his or her life. No one involved in this sorry spectacle though that was worthy of consideration.

According to her testimony, when she saw her name in print in the Novak column, she felt like she had been “hit in the gut.”

When asked how she felt about Rove telling Chris Matthews that she was “fair game” she did not personalize the insult – she said she would feel awful about hearing of the outing of any CIA agent.

No one involved in risking her life and the lives of her team has apologized or expressed any misgivings. But it is obvious what happened - she was expendable because her husband had the audacity to report the truth about what he didn't find in Africa.

The Vice President went Wrath-of-Khan, scorched-earth insane with rage. All that mattered was punishing that bastard Joe Wilson. The welfare of the nation be damned. And that is an impeachable offense. Will the Democrats in Congress get on with it already?