by TChris

It’s a crime to lie to Congress (although, sadly, it isn’t a crime for Congress to lie to us). Will anything happen to the oil executives who apparently lied when they testified (albeit not under oath, for reasons that are now obvious) that nobody from their companies met with Vice President Cheney’s energy task force?

[A White House] document, obtained this week by The Washington Post, shows that officials from Exxon Mobil Corp., Conoco (before its merger with Phillips), Shell Oil Co. and BP America Inc. met in the White House complex with the Cheney aides who were developing a national energy policy, parts of which became law and parts of which are still being debated.

Back when Bernie Kerik withdrew as Bush's nominee for Homeland Security Chief, there were allegations of misconduct.

The New York Times today reports:

New Jersey officials said yesterday that Bernard B. Kerik abused his position as New York City correction commissioner in the late 1990's by accepting tens of thousands of dollars from a construction company that he was helping to pursue business with the city. They say the company has long had ties to organized crime.

After Kerik withdrew his name from consideration for HSC Chief, the New Jersey Gaming Commission began an investigation.

by TChris

Where do you suppose officials in the Iraqi government would have gotten the idea that it's acceptable to torture detainees?

Iraq's government said Tuesday that it had ordered an urgent investigation of allegations that many of the 173 detainees American troops discovered over the weekend in the basement of an Interior Ministry building in a Baghdad suburb had been tortured by their Iraqi captors. A senior Iraqi official who visited the detainees said two appeared paralyzed and others had some of the skin peeled off their bodies by their abusers.

by TChris

The FBI thinks environmental activists (and animal rights activists) are the most serious domestic terrorist threat facing the US, so it isn’t surprising that it took 50 FBI agents to raid the home of a 27 year old environmentalist who, it turns out, hadn’t violated any laws. The FBI thought Josh Connole was responsible for vandalizing SUV’s at dealerships in the Los Angeles area. He was arrested and held for four days before (to the FBI’s embarrassment) the real culprit was discovered. (TalkLeft background here.)

An assistant U.S. attorney had advised the FBI that it lacked probable cause to arrest Connole, but Special Agent Edward Ochotorena arrested him anyway. FBI agents were following Connole when they noticed that he was going toward a Pomona police station. Ochotorena arrested Connole for “officer safety” reasons (apparently believing it’s unsafe to allow environmentalists into a police building), but Connole was actually going to the police station to report that he was being followed.

Ochotorena should have realized his error and immediately released Connole, particularly after the AUSA chewed him out for making the bogus arrest.

The Washington Post reports that reporter Bob Woodward was deposed by Patrick Fitzgerald on Monday for two hours. The big news is that Woodward was told by a "senior Administration official" about Joseph Wilson's wife working for the CIA as an analyst in weapons of mass destruction in mid-June, 2003.

My bet: Woodward's source is the State Department or CIA official mentioned in Paragraph 6 or 7 (and 33)of the Indictment against Libby. If it's the State Department official, it could be David Wurmser, John Hannah or Fred Fleitz. David Wurmser seems to me to be the most likely.

6. On or about June 11 or 12, 2003, the Under Secretary of State orally advised LIBBY in the White House that, in sum and substance, Wilson's wife worked at the CIA and that State Department personnel were saying that Wilson's wife was involved in the planning of his trip.

7. On or about June 11, 2003, LIBBY spoke with a senior officer of the CIA to ask about the origin and circumstances of Wilson's trip, and was advised by the CIA officer that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA and was believed to be responsible for sending Wilson on the trip.

by Last Night in Little Rock

On Monday, the FCC's new regulation requiring Internet Service Providers and VoIP services to enable law enforcement to have a backdoor to eavesdrop goes into effect with 18 months to comply, as noted on CNET.com. CNET notes that the final order (pdf) was the result of years of lobbying by the FBI and DEA, altough its justification is terrorism investigations.

The regulation was issued in September as noted here.

The breadth and vagueness of the order concerns many.

Last week I put up a request for a new laptop. 24 hours later, an incredibly generous reader of TalkLeft purchased the exact one I had asked for. It just arrived this afternoon. It is so awesome, just 2.8 pounds and it's got everything I could want.

I am going to spend the next several hours getting acquainted with the new laptop. To my generous donor, thank you so much, and I'll be sending you a handwritten thank you note in the morning.

For the rest of you, here's an open thread.

by TChris

Update: Mother Jones reports on proposals to protect CPB from political influence.

....

Original post:

It’s old news that Kenneth Tomlinson, the former chair of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, violated federal law as he pursued his mission to rescue public radio and television from the “leftist” slant that he and other extremists on the right perceived. As TalkLeft reported here, CPB’s board of directors forced Tomlinson’s resignation after reviewing the confidential findings prepared by CPB’s inspector general. Now the “scathing” report has been finalized and it’s no longer confidential. (The IG's lengthy report, in pdf format, is here.)

[T]he report said that Mr. Tomlinson violated federal law by being heavily involved in getting more than $4 million in money for a program featuring the conservative editorial writers of The Wall Street Journal. The board is prohibited from getting involved in programming decisions, but the investigators found that Mr. Tomlinson had pushed hard for the program, "The Journal Editorial Report," even as some staff officials at the corporation raised concerns over its cost.

Say hello to Torture Is Not Us by American Progress (hoster of the excellent blog Think Progress), an action site to support the John McCain anti-torture amendment.

One crucial consideration: If the McCain Amendment passes, it must include the CIA. Like the Graham-Levin amendment on detainees, it is part of a larger 2006 military spending package. Bush and Cheney have threatened vetoes if the McCain Amendment passes in a form that excludes the CIA.

I'm not sure I can support the McCain Amendment with the Levin-Graham amendment as part of the package. Particularly, because as I wrote here, no habeas for them could become precedent for no habeas for us, as early as tomorrow, when the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold its second hearing on the dreadfulStreamlined Procedures Act.

Pajamas Media, the new blog-news-opinion collaboration, is having a big roll-out in New York tomorrow. They also will be announcing their new name. With $3.5 million in private financing on board, they are going top drawer.

While most of the participating blogs lean right, they did secure David Corn and Marc Cooper and I suspect more will join as it becomes better known and should it become successful.

Spain announced today it will probe allegations that the CIA used an airport near Mallorca to transfer Ghost Air detainees destined for overseas interrogation facilities.

The Spanish government had no knowledge of the alleged flights but a judge was investigating them, [Spanish Interior Minister Jose Antonio] Alonso told Spanish television channel Telecinco.

"If it were confirmed that this is true, we would be looking at very serious, intolerable deeds because they break the basic rules of treating people in a democratic legal and political system," he said.

The Senate Judiciary Committee today rejected the Jeff Bingaman amendment on habeas relief for detainees by a vote of 44 - 54. The Graham-Levin amendment was approved 84-14.

I just received a copy of the Amendment. My initial take is that while ithe compromise version is a modest improvement on the original Graham amendment, the Graham-Levin substitute would, like the original, eliminate habeas for Guatanamo detainees, overturn the Rasul decision, and also likely prevent the Supreme Court from ruling on the merits of the Hamdan case.

Kudos to Sen. Dick Durbin, whom I'm told, voted for the Bingaman Amendment and against the compromise.

More later.