United States News Digest
The Coming Fall of Dick Cheney: Subpoenas Haunting the White House
See this week's InDepth, for the Congressional and Justice Department actions zeroing in on Dick Cheney, Halliburton, and bogus intelligence from the Iraqi National Congress.
Two-Front Criminal Probe of Tom DeLay
The FBI and a Texas prosecutor are each now conducting separate criminal investigations into House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's vast fundraising and lobbying machine. Republicans Rep. Frank Wolf (Va.) and Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), are calling for a Congressional investigation. While the national and Texas probes are focussed initially on separate sets of individuals and alleged crimes, they are digging into overlapping aspects of what is known as "DeLay, Inc."
The FBI investigation, and the demands for a Congressional probe, concern the looting of Indian tribes by lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his associate Michael Scanlon. Abramoff was the principal organizer and fundraiser for Tom DeLay's original election-funding group, Americans for a Republican Majority (ARMPAC), created in 1994. Scanlon was DeLay's aide and chief public spokesman until joining Abramoff in private lobbying a few years ago.
Travis County District Attorney Ronald Earle is investigating the illegal use of corporate donations, through ARMPAC's spinoff, Texans for a Republican Majority (TRMPAC), to grab control of the Texas legislature in the 2002 elections. DeLay then secured the legislature's passage of a scheme to redraw the Texas Congressional Districts so as to increase the hold of Republicans, and DeLay personally, over the U.S. House of Representatives.
Representing Tom DeLay's influence in Washington, Abramoff and Scanlon reportedly took some $45 million in fees from several Indian tribes in recent years. The Choctaws in Mississippi paid Abramoff $10 million, and also contributed to DeLay's Texas scheme, TRMPAC. Another casino tribe, the Barona Band of California, donated thousands to DeLay's Texas group. Indictments are expected soon in the Texas case, in which the Speaker of the Texas house of Representatives, DeLay's man Tom Craddick, is most deeply embroiled.
Detroit Terror Case Is Out of Control
In the latest effort to contain the damage in a Detroit prosecution, once proclaimed as a major victory in the war on terrorism, Attorney General John Ashcroft on Feb. 28 appointed a "special attorney" to investigate prosecutorial misconduct.
Craig Morford, a Federal prosecutor from Cleveland, has been designated as the equivalent of a special prosecutor, who will report to the Deputy Attorney General, not to Ashcroft. He is authorized "to conduct in the Eastern District of Michigan any kind of legal proceedings, civil or criminal, including Grand Jury proceedings and proceedings before United States Magistrates which United States Attorneys are authorized to conduct," according to a statement issued by Ashcroft.
In the Detroit case, two Arab men were convicted of conspiracy to support terrorism; one was convicted of document fraud, and one was acquitted. The judge is now considering throwing out the conviction, because of prosecutorial misconduct which included withholding of evidence, and threatening a defense lawyer with an unfounded criminal investigation. The lead prosecutor in that case has been transferred out of Detroit, and he is suing Ashcroft and other DOJ officials. "The whole thing is clearly a mess," says former DOJ official Michael Greenberger.
Senate Takes Up the JOBS Act
On March 3, the Senate began work on a bill which is claimed, by both parties, to address the loss of manufacturing jobs. The Jumpstart Our Business Strength (JOBS) Act mostly addresses international tax provisions in order to satisfy a World Trade Organization complaint against the United States, but it also includes provisions intended to give American corporations incentives not to outsource jobs to other countries, including rewarding manufacturers who keep operations in the United States by lowering the top corporate income tax rate. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), speaking to reporters on March 2, said, "We can compete [globally] if we have a taxing environment and a regulation environment that allows our manufacturers to have a level playing field."
Democrats see the bill as an opportunity to critique President Bush's economic record. Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (S.D.) said that the bill "will give us a key opportunity to talk directly about jobs, how we can create them; to pass a bill that would put emphasis on manufacturing jobs in particular; but to discourage outsourcing and to ensure that if you have a job, you're going to get paid for it, especially if you work overtime."
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