United States News Digest
Intelligence Reform Bill Dies a Second Death
On Nov. 20, the Speaker of the House of Representatives Dennis Hastert pulled the "compromise" intelligence reform bill off the House floor, so that it could not be voted onand the House then recessed. EIR's assessment is that the hype that the intelligence bill was going to pass was a myth, even though cheerleaders like Republican-in-Democratic-clothing Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and other "insiders" were promising it had bipartisan support. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist explained that "there is not general agreement" between the White House and Pentagonan understatement!
A very senior intelligence source told EIR that there is an open fight between Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. Rumsfeld absolutely opposes the centralization of budget authority under a National Director of Intelligence, where the Pentagon would give up sole control of billions of dollars for intelligence agencies like the NSA, etc. But Cheney unexpectedly stabbed Rumsfeld in the back at a Cabinet meeting, and backed putting the budget control under the NDI.
Democrat Jane Harman (Calif), ranking member of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, was frustrated over the failure of the bill, and even tried to overcome the opposition from the Republican pro-Rumsfeld die-hards like Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif), by telling them that the language about budget control had been "drafted by the counsel to the Vice President of the United States"!
EIR's source questioned whether this Cheney-Rummy rift was a sign that Rumsfeld is on his way out.
The Uncounted Wounded from Iraq
The official casualty counts from the war in Iraq that are provided on a daily basis by the Pentagon, tell only a small part of the story. As of Nov. 24, the count stood at 1,230 dead and more than 9,326 wounded. However, the count of wounded only includes those wounded as a result of hostile action. Not reported are the thousands more who are injured or become ill as a result of disease or accident or stress. CBS's "60 Minutes" reported, on Nov. 21, that the Defense Department told them that that number amounts to 15,000 total evacuations for non-combat reasons. Most go to the Army hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, but only 20% ever return to their units in Iraq. "Among the 80% who don't return, are GIs who suffered crushing bone fractures; scores of spinal injuries; heart problems by the hundreds; and a slew of psychiatric cases," said "60 Minutes."
John Pike, of the website Globalsecurity.org, thinks the actual number may be higher. "You have to say that the total number of casualties due to wounds, injury, [and] disease would have to be somewhere in the ball park of over 20, maybe 30,000," he said. The Pentagon doesn't include them in casualty counts because accidents and illness occur regardless of military operations. But in these cases, one would have to think that medical problems have to be more frequent under the conditions in Iraq. "Soldiers and Marines are going to get sick. They're going to get into accidents. But there's going to be more disease, more accidents, more psychiatric stress in Iraq than if they were back here," said Pike.
The individuals on whom "60 Minutes" focussed tend to support that view. One was a truck driver in Iraq who lost a leg in a convoy accident; another is a combat veteran who was not physically wounded but has been psychologically wounded by what he saw and did; and the third is a soldier who was paralyzed when the road collapsed under the Bradley armored vehicle he was riding in, and it tumbled into the Tigris River. None of these three soldiers is classed as a combat casualty, but their lives have been irrevocably changed, nonetheless.
GAO Launches Investigation of Election Irregularities
Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee announced on Nov. 23 that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) "has reviewed the concerns expressed in our letters and has found them of sufficient merit to warrant further investigation." The referenced letters, sent on Nov. 5 and 8, called for the GAO to investigate voting technology and irregularities in the Nov. 2 elections, including tens of thousands of voter complaints logged on Election Day.
"On its own authority," the Democrats say, "the GAO will examine the security and accuracy of voting technologies, distribution and allocation of voting machines, and the counting of provisional ballots." They add that they will provide to the GAO, copies of more than 57,000 complaints of Election Day incidents reported to the Judiciary Committee.
However, despite the positive spin put on the GAO's action in the press release, a source close to the Committee said that they had been "stiffed" by the GAO, probably as a result of heavy political pressure from the Republicans. The source called this a "private label" investigation, referring to the fact that the GAO will do an investigation "on its own authority." This means that the investigation is not in response to the specifics as spelled out in the Nov. 5 and 8 letters. The significance of this, is that, first, the GAO is not required to have a series of consultations with the Judiciary Committee Democrats, as would be the case if this were in response to the letter; and second, it also narrows the scope, and allows the GAO to maintain complete control of the process.
Senate GOP Gives Frist More Power Over Committee Slots
The Senate Republican conference changed its rules on Nov. 17, to giver Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn) greater power, according to The Hill Nov. 23. Under the new rule, passed by secret ballot by a vote of only 27 to 26, Frist will be able to fill half of all vacancies on "A" committees. The 12 "A" committees include those most sought after, such as Agriculture, Armed Services, Appropriations, Finance, and Judiciary. The other half will be chosen by seniority, the traditional way Republicans award committee slots. Senators Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, John McCain of Arizona, Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, and Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania openly fought the change, which was proposed by the former Republican leader, Trent Lott of Mississippi.
The rules of the Senate Democratic Caucus already allow its leadership to make all committee assignments.
Defense Department Wants To Take Over Covert Ops
President Bush has requested that the CIA and the Defense Department come up with a plan, within 90 days, to hand over CIA covert and paramilitary operations to the DOD, as was recommended by the 9/11 Commission, according to the New York Times Nov. 23. The Times cites unnamed officials as saying that civilians in the Pentagon, including Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Stephen Cambone, are pushing this.
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reported Nov. 24 that the Pentagon has drafted an order, which has not yet been adopted, telling the military's Special Operations Forces (SOF) to be prepared to conduct clandestine operations against terrorist organizations in the Middle East and Asia; this is described as part of the push by Rumsfeld and his aides to give the SOF more involvement in missions traditionally carried out by CIA.
As EIR has reported many times, Rumsfeld created special operations "hunter-killer" teams after 9/11, within the military, to capture or kill suspected terrorists, all the while claiming that the CIA was not sufficiently aggressive to carry out these missions.
Auditor Says Withhold 15% from Halliburton
Stuart Bowen, Special Inspector General for Iraq reconstruction, insisted in a memorandum to Army auditors and commanders that he believed U.S. contract laws that require a 15% withholding if certain conditions are not met, should be invoked against Halliburton unit Kellogg Brown and Root. Based on their "limited audit work," Bowen said he supported military auditors' recommendations made last August for the Army to implement the withholding, which documented that KBR had not substantiated billings of $1.82 billion out of $4.3 billiona whopping 42%for logistical work in Iraq. "We agree with U.S. Army Materiel Command and DCAA [Defense Contract Audit Agency] positions [on the withholding issue]," said Bowen in the memo. If implemented, the withholding could cost Halliburton an estimated $60 million per month.
Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) demanded Congress halt Halliburton's rip-off scheme: "When will the Republican Congress stop covering up Halliburton's wrongdoing and end this abuse of taxpayer dollars?," he said in statement.
Gitmo Prisoner Asks for Ruling on Military Tribunals
Federal Judge James Robertson blocked the trial of Guantanamo detainee Salim Ahmed Hamdan, ruling on Nov. 8 that President Bush did not have the power to bypass the Congressionally created military courts and create military tribunals (or commissions) to try suspected terrorists. All such trials are now on hold. Hamdan's lawyers are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene immediately, to decide the legality of the trials being conducted by military commissions.
The Bush Administration has argued that the President has virtually unlimited power, using his inherent Commander-in-Chief powers in time of war, to declare prisoners to be enemy combatants, to create tribunals, and even to order torture and to ignore treaty obligations. But Judge Robertson noted that when Franklin Roosevelt created a military tribunal to try Nazi saboteurs during World War II, he did this based upon a Congressional Declaration of War, and on the Congressionally established Articles of Warthe predecessor of today's Uniform Code of Military Justice.
The government has appealed Robertson's ruling to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, but Hamdam's lawyers, led by Navy Commander Charles Swift, are seeking to bypass the Appeals Court and to go directly to the Supreme Court, saying that it is the proper court to decide a question of this gravity. "Our country has a pressing need to know that those implicated in [the war on terrorism] are being treated in the way that Constitution, our statutes, and the laws of war demand," Hamdan's lawyers wrote.
Miller Gets Desk Job at the Pentagon
Major General Geoffrey Miller, who ran the Guantanamo Bay prison for captives from Afghanistan from October 2002 through March 2004, was deployed to Abu Ghraib outside Baghdad in August 2003, with orders to implement the "successful" torture techniques he had used at Guantanamo, following guidelines from the Cheney/Gonzales/Addington et al. team. The filmed torture at Abu Ghraib followed, mostly in October and November, but Miller was never charged, and was even given full-time control over the Iraqi prisons in March 2004.
Miller is now to be the Army's assistant chief of staff for installation management, overseeing housing and support for Army bases. This seems harmless enough, but it is not yet clear if Miller is being promoted, or "kicked upstairs."
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