United States News Digest
Kerry Campaign Continues To Flail; LaRouche Still Excluded
Here is a round-up of news from the sinking Kerry campaign; as Lyndon LaRouche warned, Kerry and the Democrats will fail unless he is brought into the picture:
* Do the Democrats Really Think It's All About Money? According to news reports May 21, the presumptive Democratic Party nominee John Kerry is considering delaying accepting the party nomination, in order to gain time to raise and spend more private contributions!
While basking in their record fundraising resultsKerry raised $30 million compared to Bush's $15 million last month, and has raised more than any other Democrat running for President everthe DNC Kerry-handlers don't think it's enough. They are upset that if Kerry accepts the nomination at the late July convention, he will have to stop raising and spending private money, and simply rely on the $75 million granted him by the government. But his rival, Republican George Bush, will have an additional five weeks to raise private money, before he is nominated, and is subject to the same rules.
Having decided money is the crucial thing, Kerry's advisers are looking into bizarre options, such as having Kerry delay his acceptance of the nomination, or having the Democratic Convention delay taking a formal vote, and vote later by mail or proxy. No one knows if the FEC would accept any of these options. There's a chance such a move would jeopardize the $14 million the FEC is supposed to provide to finance the Convention!
* McCain as Kerry's Running Mate?
Apparently, saying "me, too," to the policies of George W. Bush is not enough for presumptive Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry. Now, it is said, he wants a Republican for a running mate, specifically Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz). And, there is a lot of enthusiasm for McCain among other top Democrats, even some who have been mentioned as possible running mates themselves. Former Sen. Bob Kerrey (DNE) said that McCain "would not have to leave his party. He could remain a Republican, would be given some authority over selection of cabinet people. The only thing he would have to do is say 'I'm not going to appoint any judges who would overturn Roe v. Wade.'" Kerry himself is said to be interested in McCain, and the two are reported to be good friends. When McCain defended Kerry from an attack by Dick Cheney in March he was returning the favor. Kerry had defended him from George W. Bush's attacks during the 2000 Republican primary campaign. McCain, himself, has repeatedly denied, publicly, that he is interested in the VP spot with Kerry, but when he was recently asked if he and Kerry had discussed it, he paused before answering, "No, we really haven't."
* Kerry Meets Nader
John Kerry met with Ralph Nader for an hour, on May 19, not asking him to bow out, but delicately requesting help. In an interview immediately afterwards, Nader praised Kerry as "very Presidential." "He has a very confident demeanor. I've noticed it on TV."
Nader criticized Kerry's advisers: "The more he cuts the reins of his advisers, the better he's going to do.... His own instincts are less cautious than Bob Shrum's."
A new Democratic group was announced on Wednesday, called the National Progress Fund, with the stated purpose of enticing Nader supporters to support Kerry by promising to help push many of their issues.
Democrats Demand End of Outsourcing Contracts
Four leading Senate and House Democrats, in a May 18 letter to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, blasted the Administration for its March 10 decision to outsource Pentagon oversight of Iraq rebuilding contracts, charging that "significant conflicts of interest" had resulted from allowing contractors to "police" themselves.
Already, in "numerous" cases, contracts awarded by the Administration to a small group of private contractors, have been "plagued by fraud, waste, and abuse," said the members of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee and House Government Reform Committee. In this light, "the Pentagon should have redoubled its own oversight efforts," they wrote.
"Instead, on March 10, 2004, the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) announced that it was outsourcing the oversight of these contracts by awarding $129 million worth of new 'management' contracts to the same small group of contractors that is doing much of the reconstruction work in Iraq."
"These contractors are being asked to carry out essential government oversight functions.... It is not appropriate for contractors to exercise these functions particularly in view of significant conflicts of interest among these companies."
"The bottom line is that this kind of oversight system cannot work and that the Pentagon should not abdicate its oversight responsibilities over multibillion dollar contracts."
The letter was sent by Sens. Byron Dorgan (ND) and Ron Wyden (Ore), and Reps. Henry Waxman (Calif) and John Dingell (Mich), who issued a report titled, "Contractors Overseeing Contractors: Conflicts of Interest Undermine Accountability in Iraq."
The lawmakers said they will shortly be proposing amendments to the Defense authorization bills in the Senate and House, "which would require that these contracts be terminated, and that the Pentagon carry out its own oversight responsibilities."
Pentagon Suspends More Payments to Halliburton
The Defense Department, citing excess meal costs of more than 19%, and "numerous" incomplete files and bills from KBR's subcontractors, said, on May 17, it has suspended $159.5 million in meal charges submitted by Halliburton's KBR unit for feeding U.S. soldiers and other personnel at more than 50 military cafeterias in Iraq and Kuwait. The suspension, which the Pentagon said was done "to protect the Army's financial interests," came out of its ongoing audit sharply critical of KBR's meal billings.
A Pentagon spokeswoman said that the "Tiger Team" of investigators and auditors appointed by KBR found that excess meal costs amounted to more than 19.4% of the actual price charged to the Army for meals.
In an audit released May 14, Pentagon auditors blasted KBR's "inadequate" billing system for all its Iraq contracts, citing "deficiencies" that resulted in billings "not prepared in accordance with applicable law and regulations and contract terms." In one of its harsher rebukes, the Defense Contract Audit Agency said KBR had "no documented mechanism" for making sure that its subcontractors billed properly and followed the terms of their contract.
In response to the suspension, Halliburton threatened to withhold payments from the subcontractors who actually run the dining halls.
The next move could be for the Pentagon to disapprove payment, meaning KBR would have to write off at least $160 million. The Army Field Support Command has the final say.
U.S. State Dept. Human Rights Report Released
The U.S. Department of State released its annual report on the promotion of human rights May 18, admitting that the prisoner-abuse scandal was a huge "cloud" over its mission, which admission was trumpeted by foreign press, including the Telegraph of London and China's Xinhua.
The report summarizes actions taken by the U.S. in 101 countries to promote freedom and to end abuses, including torture. Lorne Craner, U.S. Assistant. Secretary of State responsible for promoting human rights and democracy, admitted that the awful images of the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison "hampered" the U.S.'s ability to promote human rights. Craner commented: "We got things wrong and we are going to fix it."
Senate Democrats Want To Reopen Haynes Nomination
Senators Ted Kennedy (D-Mass) and Richard Durbin (D-Ill) have asked the Senate Judiciary Committee to reopen confirmation hearings for William Haynes, the current Defense Department General Counsel, who has been nominated for a seat on the already reactionary Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, the Washington Post reported May 18.
In a May 11 letter to Committee chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Durbin noted that Haynes "has been a central official in crafting the Bush Administration's counter-terrorism policy, especially with respect to interrogation practices, detention of enemy combatants and establishment of military tribunals." Both Durbin and Kennedy have submitted questions to Haynes, which he has not answered.
In March, the Judiciary Committee approved Haynes' nomination on a straight party-line vote; however, because of the deadlock on other controversial nominations, it has not yet gone to the Senate floor.
EIR has been advised that Senate Democrats are also now looking into reports that Haynes, along with Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Doug Feith, was a prime mover in the effort to declare that the Geneva Conventions should be abandoned, or "reinterpreted," to allow for much harsher methods of interrogation.
Haynes, who has never in his life tried a case in Federal court, was General Counsel of the Army under Cheney's tenure as Secretary of Defense from 1990 to 1993.
Chalabi Will Get No More Money
Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on May 18, that his longtime Iraqi sidekick Ahmed Chalabi has received, this month, his last payment from the U.S. government for the Iraqi National Congress. The filthy INC was getting $340,000 per month from the Defense Intelligence Agency; the total received, since payments began in 2000 are somewhere between $22-40 million, for a program that kept a steady flow of raw sewage passing for "intelligence reports" into the DoD, in order to start the Iraq war. Now Chalabi has been cut off.
Conrad Black Hit with Civil RICO Suit
Charging that Lord Conrad Black had used Hollinger International, Inc., as "a cash cow to be milked of every drop of cash," Richard Breeden, the former chairman of the Securities Exchange Commission, who was brought in to head a Special Committee of the HII Board investigating possible fraud and corruption, filed a 175-page fraud and corruption RICO suit against Lord Black, his wife Amiel, and two other confederates.
The Civil Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations suit was brought in Chicago, nominally the headquarters of HII. It seeks $484.5 million in recompense, $380.6 million in damages, and $103.9 million in prejudgment interest. As Breeden's investigation is still underway, the figures may grow.
The revolt against Black, who used much of his cash flow to fund neo-conservative causes such as the Hudson Institute, American Enterprise Institute, and, especially, Hollinger Board member Richard Perle, has seriously undermined their capabilities. Although Perle is not named as a defendant in the RICO suit, it is notable that an arm of HII, Hollinger Digital LLC, is cited for recompense for having paid millions of dollars in inappropriate bonuses to executives. Perle ran Hollinger Digital, and interwove it with others on the Defense Policy Board, as well as the Jewish Institute for National Affairs (JINSA).
Republicans Can't Get Budget Through Congress
Senate Majority Leader Frist abruptly postponed the vote on the budget resolution, on May 20, until June, due to infighting among Republicans. The four holdouts are Sens. John McCain (Ariz), Olympia Snowe (Maine), Susan Collins (Maine), and Lincoln Chafee (RI), who insist that any new tax cuts be paid for by spending cuts or new tax increases.
President Bush went to Capitol Hill for a pep talk to restore spirits in the fracturing Republican Party. Afterwards, according to the Washington Post May 21, "participants filed past a bank of microphones to announce that they were unified in support of Bush and that there had been no dissent expressed at the meeting. Bush took no questions."
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