Bad Deeds for 5-16-2007

Romney Calls for Doubling Guantanamo Population; Giuliani Says Use Whatever Interrogation Tactics Interrogators Can Think Of – Debating the treatment of foreign detainees at Tuesday night’s debate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said he thought the US should “double” the number of prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay Cuba. In the same exchange, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said he would support interrogators using a wide range of means to elicit confessions from suspected terrorists. Moderator Chris Wallace asked if Giuliani would support the use of waterboarding — a controversial interrogation tactic some say is torture because it makes detainees believe they are drowning. “Whatever they can think of,” Giuliani said.

Gonzales and Cheney’s Staff Tried to Take Advantage of Sick Attorney General – The former second-in-command at the Justice Department from 2003 through 2005 on Tuesday detailed a March 2004 incident in which top members of the Bush administration, including Alberto Gonzales and members of Vice President Dick Cheney’s staff, worked to subvert a legal certification process for the National Security Agency’s warrantless wiretapping program. In early March 2004, Ashcroft had been incapacitated, and was in the hospital, resulting in Comey serving as Acting Attorney General until Ashcroft was able to return to office. Subsequently, Gonzales, serving then as White House Counsel, and Andrew Card, former White House Chief of Staff, arrived at Ashcroft’s hospital bed, and asked the sick Attorney General to give his approval for the program.

Many VA Officials Who Received Bonuses Sat on Pay Review Boards – Documents show that 21 of 32 Veterans Affairs officials who received hefty performance bonuses last year also sat on the boards charged with recommending the payments, some of which went to senior officials involved in crafting a budget that came up $1.3 billion short and jeopardized veterans’ healthcare.

Dept. of Homeland Security is Breaking Privacy Laws – The Department of Homeland Security is breaking privacy laws by failing to tell the public all the ways it uses personal information to target passengers boarding flights entering or leaving the United States, according to a draft copy of a report to be issued tomorrow by the Government Accountability Office. A similar lack of disclosure has become an issue as U.S. and European officials attempt to renegotiate an agreement, due to expire in July, to share air passenger data, as EU officials are concerned that the data they already share are not adequately protected by the U.S. government.

Wolfowitz Violated Rules, Threatened Retaliation – World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz violated his contract, broke the bank’s code of conduct and trampled on numerous staff rules in arranging a promotion and a series of raises for his companion, a bank employee, according to a scathing report by an internal committee investigating the controversy. Although Wolfowitz and his dwindling circle of supporters claim he never thought he was doing anything wrong, the report cites testimony that Wolfowitz threatened retaliation against senior World Bank staff if his orders for the pay rises and promotions were revealed.

Hundreds of White House Edits to Privacy Board Report Spurs Resignation – One of the five members of the congressionally created Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board resigned in protest Monday over the more than 200 deletions and revisions ordered by White House lawyers and aides to the board’s first report, including the deletion of a passage on anti-terrorism programs that intelligence officials deemed potential intrusions on civil liberties. The White House has called the edits appropriate because the board remains legally under the supervision of the Executive Office.

Fox News Segment on Election Fraud Shows Only Black Voters – Fox News aired a segment on the potential for illegal voting in the South Carolina primary, featuring B-roll footage of exclusively black voters – classy and subtle.

California-Sized Area of Ice Melts in Antarctica – Warm temperatures melted an area of western Antarctica that adds up to the size of California in January 2005, scientists report. Satellite data collected by the scientists between July 1999 and July 2005 showed clear signs that melting had occurred in multiple distinct regions, including far inland and at high latitudes and elevations, where melt had been considered unlikely. “Antarctica has shown little to no warming in the recent past with the exception of the Antarctic Peninsula,” said Konrad Steffen of the University of Colorado, Boulder. “But now large regions are showing the first signs of the impacts of warming as interpreted by this satellite analysis.” Changes in the ice mass of Antarctica, Earth’s largest freshwater reservoir, are important to understanding global sea level rise. Large amounts of Antarctic freshwater flowing into the ocean also could affect ocean salinity, currents and global climate.

Regards,

Jim