Necessary News

All you need to know to sound brilliant

A.Q. Khan’s “Nuclear Wal-Mart” Might Be Back

• In 2004, President Bush said that the A.Q. Khan, Pakistani CEO of a nuclear black market with customers like Iran, North Korea and Libya, had been “brought to justice.” As we’ve discovered, Bush has a pretty funny definition of “justice.” [2004 Presidential Debates] via [Washington Monthly]
• The AP reports that A.Q. Khan has been released from house arrest in Pakistan, allowed to “meet friends and relatives either at his home or elsewhere in Pakistan” and is “virtually a free citizen.” [AP]
• As for the rest of his network? Most of them “haven’t even been charged with a crime.” [Washington Monthly]
• As Representative Gary Ackerman, chair of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia, said during a hearing on the topic last week , “what is most startling is not scope of Khan’s network, that stretched — far as we know — across 10 countries and involved at least 30 countries and middlemen, but that so few countries, companies or individuals have been held accountable.” [The Gavel]
• Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf has refused to turn over information about the AQ Khan network over to U.S. officials, and only reluctantly agreed to the house arrest. Musharraf “feared imprisoning Khan, a national hero, due not only to popular outrage but fear that Khan might disclose collaborators in Musharraf’s government.”
• The Bush Administration has let his stonewalling continue, and has even continued unconditional support of Musharraf. According to a Center for American Progress Report, “the administration continues to reward Pakistan financially and diplomatically despite strong evidence of high-level Pakistani knowledge of the network and despite the apparent ties to or sympathies with Islamic fundamentalism of members of the Pakistani nuclear establishment.” [American Progress]
• As Representative Sherman, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade says, “Musharraf’s protecting him, all of the records, all these payments were made through Pakistani banks, mostly with Pakistani government funds. Pakistan knows the very things we want to know.” [The Gavel]

Terrifyingly, Bush’s “justice” for A.Q. Khan looks a lot like his “justice” for Scooter Libby.

Breakin’ The Law: A Bush Recap

• It’s a sad truth: When Bush commuted Scooter Libby’s sentence on July 2nd, we were seeing red and spitting curses – but we were far from shocked. Fact is, the President has been bending – and breaking – the law in more ways than one since he took the Oval office. Take a look. [Mic Check]
• Signing Statements: Bush has used signing statements – caveats to bills that presidents tack on when they sign them into law – to amend more than 1,100 sections of legislation. That’s more than all other presidents combined. From torture to the USA Patriot Act, the administration has rarely missed an opportunity to create a loophole for itself once a new law is passed. For a more in-depth look, check out the award-winning coverage from the Boston Globe. [Boston Globe]
• Ignoring Subpoenas: On June 28th, the White House missed “the deadline for the White House ‘to turn over documents linked to Harriet E. Miers, the former White House counsel, and Sara M. Taylor, the former White House political director’ to Congress.” Instead, the White House this morning “asserted executive privilege” and “rejected lawmakers’ demands for documents that could shed light on the firings of federal prosecutors.” [Think Progress]
• Exempt, exempt, exempt: Last month, Dick Cheney argued that his office was “not part of the executive branch,” and thus did not have to comply with an executive order issued by Bush in 2003 that “requires all government agencies that are part of the executive branch to submit to oversight.” The President later tried to exempt himself, saying that “Although it doesn’t specifically say so, Bush’s order was not meant to apply to the vice president’s office or the president’s office.” [LA Times]

• “The Geneva Convention’s…Quaint:” Back in 2004, Michael Isikoff of Newsweek uncovered a White House memo written by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales that

  recommended “the Geneva Conventions not be applied to the conflict in Afghanistan.” Gonzales said the “new paradigm” of the war on terrorism “renders obsolete Geneva’s strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions.” [American Progress]

• Illegal Wiretapping. Under Bush, the National Security Agency illegally intercepted phone calls of countless Americans without court warrants – a direct violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Officials on both sides of the aisle disagreed with Bush’s overstepping the law. Just ask Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC), who said “The FISA Act was–created a court set up by the chief justice of the United States to allow a rapid response to requests for surveillance activity in the war on terror. I don’t know of any legal basis to go around that.” [Think Progress]

And...scene.

Is the White House Going to Close Guantanamo? Or Just Move it?

• White House officials are tentatively approaching Congress to try to find a ” legal path to shutting down the Guantánamo detention facility” that would allow the U.S. government to indefinitely detain “foreign terrorism suspects on American soil.” In other words, move Guantánamo here.
• The detention centers at Guantanamo are a “lawless environment” that “has dangerously tarnished the reputation of the United States abroad” and, in the words of former Secretary of State Colin Powell, given cover to “bad people and authoritarian figures” to “hide their own misdeeds.” [Progress Report]
• The new legislative solution would divide the detainees into three groups: high level targets would be transfered to brigs in the U.S. and detained indefinitely, mid-level suspects would transferred and given trials, and the remainder would be sent back to their home countries. [NY Times]
• This strategy is currently being pushed within the administration by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
• Those not so crazy about it? Vice President Dick Cheney and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales who claim that, “moving the detainees to the United States would invite crippling legal challenges and undermine the broader counter-terrorism effort.”
• Check out Center For American Progress’s suggestion: close Guantanamo, move the detainees to Fort Leavenworth, KS, and try them in court under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. [American Progress]

Watch carefully.

Unhealthy Spending Habits At The CDC

• The Centers for Disease Control may know medicine, but they’re not so hot when it comes to managing money. A new congressional report details some of the ways the CDC spends taxpayer dollars. You may want to avert your eyes — it ain’t pretty. [CBS News] [CDC Report]
• $1.7 million: To provide medical experts to advise soap operas and other TV dramas about how to make medical plots more accurate.
• $9.8 million: Furniture for the new Arlen Specter Headquarters. Crunching the numbers, that works out to $12,000 per person who works in the building.
• $106 million: A new visitors’ center in AtlantaGeorgia. Did we mention the CDC already has a visitors’ center, built in 1996?
• $2,000: A rotating light show for the CDC fitness center.
• $3,500: Two zero-gravity chairs for the CDC fitness center.
• $500: Honorarium for porn star Bobby Blake to attend a safe-sex seminar
• $269: A campaign to fight syphilis. The syphilis rate responded to the campaign by going up 68%.

Ain’t no party like a CDC party!

Waiting For Sunshine: Government Agencies Stonewalling FOIA Requests

• The Law: The Freedom of Information Act protects the right of Americans to access non-classified government records. Signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson and taking effect July 4, 1967, the law says that when a citizen makes a Freedom of Information Act request, the government agency has 20 days to respond and must provide the documents in a timely manner. Agencies are legally required to release records, unless they fall under one of nine specific exemptions.
• The Reality: A new study conducted by a research group called National Security Archive shows this is not the case. To get around the law, agencies make people wait…and wait…and wait for documents. [NY Times]
• It’s deliberate. A study conducted earlier this year showed that, under the Bush White House, “26 federal agencies were processing fewer FOIA requests, making petitioners wait much longer for responses and releasing less information than they were nine years ago.” [USA Today]
• Fact: Five government agencies have pending requests older than 15 years. (The Justice Department, which is supposed to oversee the prompt compliance of FOIA requests by the other agencies, itself has 4 requests older than 15 years.) [National Security Archive]
• Fact: Ten government agencies “misrepresented” their backlog of FOIA requests in their reports to Congress. For example, the Justice Department claimed to be caught up to 2003, but a check found they have requests going back to 2001.
• Fact: The State Department is the biggest culprit, with at least 10 requests dating back to 1991 or earlier.
• Context: Eric Newton, of the Knight Foundation, said it best: “The Internet grew to adulthood in less time than it has taken our federal governmnet to deal with these outstanding Freedom of Information requests.”
• Government: Sens. John Cornyn (R., TX) and Patrick Leahy (D., VT) are fighting for legislation to force agencies to respond to FOIA requests more quickly. Sen. John Kyl (R., AZ) is fighting against it.

We’d like to see someone try that at our office. “Sure, I’ll get right back to you on that...in 15 years.”

Good News, Bad News

More news from the Alzheimer’s front: “Difficulty identifying common smells such as lemon, banana and cinnamon may be the first sign of Alzheimer’s disease, according to a study that could lead to scratch-and-sniff tests to determine a person’s risk for the progressive brain disorder.” The discovery could be a welcome development in the battle against an incurable disease that currently affects more than 5 million Americans. [AP]

GOOD NEWS

That rotting banana in the fridge ain’t no thang.

BAD NEWS

You’ve got Alzheimer’s.

Quote Of The Day

“The president cannot use a signing statement to rewrite the words of a statute nor can he use a signing statement to selectively nullify those provisions he does not like.”

— Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA), on the President’s use of signing statements. “The top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee quietly reintroduced a bill before Congress recessed last week aimed at reining in President Bush’s ability to modify laws to his whims.” [Raw Story]

Speed Round

AUDIO: BUSH ON THE COMMUTATION

President Bush says he thought hard about the decision to commute Scooter Libby’s sentence, that he stands by the decision, and that all options are on the table regarding a full pardon. [Transcripts]

AUDIO: JOE WILSON, ON THE LIBBY COMMUTATION

Needless to say, Ambassador Joe Wilson (whose CIA agent wife, Valerie Plame, was outed by the Bush administration) is less than pleased about Libby walking free. Also, he explains how Libby’s purjury interfered with the investigation. [Transcripts]

TERROR

5: Total number of physicians now thought to be part of the foiled terror plot in London and Glasgow. [AP]

JAPAN

A Japanese government official is forced to resign after commenting that he thought the U.S. made the right decision in dropping The Bomb. [NY Times]

KIDS TODAY

A surprising new study finds kids who stay in neglectful or abusive homes do better than those placed in foster care. [USA Today]

DARFUR

The government-backed Janjaweed in Sudan have a new method in their genocide arsenal: Weaponized Rape. [Washington Post]

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER

The Maryland State Board of Education says yes, it’s okay to include homosexuality and gender identification in sex-ed. [Washington Post]

A PRETTY PENNY

Apple sells its new iPhone for twice what it costs to make it. [Bloomberg]

‘BOUT TIME

After four years, the Pentagon gets a clue and purchases 20,000 mine-resistant vehicles for the troops in Iraq to combat protect them from the number one killer there, roadside bombs. [AP]

SAD

Israeli soldiers accidentally shoot and kill a Palestinian boy with a toy gun, mistaking him for a gunman. [Al-Jazeera]

NICE MOVE, MASS

Massachusetts becomes the first state to institute mandatory health insurance, in an attempt to secure affordable coverage for every resident. [NPR]

ISLAMOFACISM

A favorite word of George W. Bush’s, it has just been added to the Oxford English Dictionary along with Islamophobe, Islamophobic and jihadi.[Raw Story]

TRAGEDY

A clash at a Mosque in Pakistan leaves 9 dead. [AP]

NOW YOU SEE IT, NOW YOU DON’T

Global warming’s being blamed for a disappearing lake in Chile. [AP]

UNDER THE BANNER OF SMOKE

According to local firefighters, a wildfire in Utah could burn all summer. [AP]

CONSUMED WITH CONSUMPTION

Remember the TB guy? The one who got on the plane? It’s totally not as bad as we thought. [USA Today]

TOUGH TIMES IN KANSAS

Dorothy would be wishing she was in Oz: flood + 42,000 gallons of spilled oil = one slimey town. [AP]