United States News Digest
GOP Rules: DeLay Must Resign as Leader if Indicted
In a front-page story March 25, headlined "GOP Rule Could Force DeLay Aside," the Capitol Hill newspaper, Roll Call reports that "Republican Conference rules state that a member of the elected leadership who has been indicted on a felony of at least two years in prison must temporarily step down from the post. He or she may return to the job if found not guilty or if the charges are reduced below a felony or dismissed."
The Roll Call article says that House Majority leader, Tom DeLay might be indicted in the Travis County, Texas investigation of a political group he founded, Texans for a Republican Majority (TRMPAC).
It also noted that many Republican House members were not aware of the rule, which was passed in 1993.
As EIW reported in its March 16 issue (#11), an investigation in Travis County, Texas, has DeLay in its sights. EIW also reported that DeLay's money-bags and fundraising wizard, Jack Abramoff, is the subject of multiple probes of Indian-tribe gambling arrangements in which Abramoff is accused of extracting huge payments from the tribes. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va) has asked the Justice Department to investigate Abramoff's activities.
Senate Dems Blast De-Baathification, Chalabi
A delegation of Senate Democrats, led by Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich) called for UN involvement in reaching a political settlement in Iraq. Levin told reporters on March 18, reporting back from a just-concluded trip to Iraq, that "UN involvement is essential to getting the support of the Iraqi communities ... because of the international pressure which the United Nations involvement would bring to bear on those three communities to try to reach a settlement." This means, he said, making the UN a full partner in the process, "and that means we're going to have to give up some of the political power and the political clout that we have to involve the international community."
The delegation, which also included Senators Jay Rockefeller (WVa), Jack Reed (RI), and Jeff Bingaman (NM), emphasized the importance of bringing the Sunni population of Iraq back into the process, something which, they say, has been obstructed by the presence of Ahmed Chalabi on the Iraqi Governing Council. Rockefeller commented that he found it "incomprehensible that Chalabi is in charge of de-Ba'athification," in other words," he said, "who makes it and who doesn't." Bingaman called him "the most divisive individual in Iraq," and his presence "does not inspire confidence, certainly, among the Sunni community, and, indeed, among many others." He added that the process "is seen by the Sunni community as a way to suppress them.... As a result, there are thousands of teachers who can't teach, thousands of professionals that can't participate in the economic and social life of Iraq."
Army Finally Releases Mental-Health Report
The Army finally released the mental-health survey of its troops in Iraq, which, although completed on Dec. 16, 2003, it was not released until March 25. The survey was conducted in response to a request from Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, after a spike of five suicides of soldiers, last July.
Colonel Virgil Patterson, the leader of the team that conducted the survey, and a social work consultant to the Army Surgeon General, reported that the survey of 756 soldiers, 82% of whom had been involved in combat operations, found that 77% reported low or no stress, and 82% did not screen positive for mental-health impairment. However, 50% reported low personal morale, and 72% reported low unit morale. The low morale was attributed to both combat and operation stresses, including the austere living conditions prevalent in the months after the invasion, and soldiers not knowing what the end dates of their deployments would be. The survey also found that mental-health services were often not available for soldiers in the field because of logistical problems and soldiers not knowing what services were available.
As for the suicide rate, there were 23 suicides among U.S. forces in Iraq from April to December of last year, for a rate of 17.3 per 100,000. The overall Army rate was 12.8 per 100,000, only slightly higher than the historical average of 11.9 per 100,000. Colonel Bruce Crow, a psychologist member of the team, said that in all cases, these figures were lower than for equivalent segments of the civilian population. The team will be returning to Iraq this spring for a follow-up survey and expects to find improved conditions because the troops have been provided with infrastructure that was unavailable to them last summer, and because mental-health services have been made more available as a result of recommendations made by the team.
Lives Lost Due To Chalabi-Linked Contract
The New York Times on March 22, in a front-page article, quoted two senior American Army officers in Iraq on the serious effects on the attempt to field an "Iraqi army," of the forced cancellation of the contract to equip this army, which had been given to Nour, Inc. a company closely linked to Ahmed Chalabi, liar and would-be U.S. puppet dictator of Iraq. The Army awarded a $327-million contract to Nour, but then cancelled after six of the losing bidders complained that Nour did not have the means to execute the contract. Chalabi, a convicted embezzler who is closely tied to the Pentagon neo-conservatives who ran the Iraq war, reportedly received a $2-million fee for helping Nour get the contract. There is an investigation to see if fraud was involved in getting the contract.
Major Gen. Charles Swannack, Jr., 82nd Airborne commander, praised Iraqi security forces, but said the effort to organize them had faltered because of a lack of combat gear for police, border units, and the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps, and said some recruits may have lost their lives as a result. Brigadier Gen. Carter Ham, coalition commander for Northern Iraq, said, "There are training, organizational and equipment shortfalls in the Iraqi security forces. There's no question about that." [Source: New York Times, 3-22-01][pbg]
Kerry Calls 1970s' FBI Surveillance a 'Badge of Honor'
Documents released on March 23 show extensive FBI surveillance of Democratic Presidential pre-candidate John Kerry in the early 1970s, when he was a leader of the anti-Vietnam War movement, following his return as a veteran from Vietnam. The documents, which are heavily redacted, nonetheless mention Kerry's name on every other page, according to news reports. Kerry is quoted as saying that he was "surprised and offended to learn of the extent of the FBI surveillance."
The Los Angeles Times reports that Kerry, as a leader of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, was monitored for one year. "Revealed on page after page of FBI reports is the portrait of John Kerry at age 27 speaking with courage and conviction, leading veterans to Washington for peaceful protests," said Kerry spokesman David Wade. "That the Hoover FBI and Nixon White House paid such attention of John Kerry is both a badge of honor and a reminder of that difficult pre-Watergage era in our history," Wade said.
This period of the early 1970s was precisely the time in which the FBI was scheming to assassinate Lyndon LaRouche, and attempted at least one such assassination. LaRouche has termed his later imprisonment by George H.W. Bush as a "badge of honor."
Pentagon IG Releases Report on Iraq Contracting
A report issued by the Pentagon Inspector General's office at the end of March on Iraqi reconstruction contracts found problems in this issuing of the contracts. For example, the Department of Defense did not plan for the acquisition support that the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance required to perform its mission. As a result, supplies and services were quickly acquired and contracting rules were either circumvented or liberally interpreted. Such lack of planning resulted in no staffing assigned to assist in developing requirements and avoiding Federal Acquisition Regulations in order to award contacts to specific people, inadequately documenting contract files, and little or no surveillance on time and materials contracts.
The report concluded that the contracting personnel did not make good faith efforts to document or ensure that the government interest was protected, and asks for a review and appropriate administrative action against those who did not follow the contracting procedures.
Bush Administration Plans Overseas Troop Redeployments
Unnamed Pentagon officials told the March 25 Washington Post, that as many as half of U.S. 71,000 troops in Germany will be withdrawn. Defense Under Secretary Doug Feith is the architect of the global realignment plan, which is reportedly nearing approval. Large concentrations of troops will be reduced and replaced by more "spartan" bases, including in Bulgaria and in Central Asia. About 15,000 troops will be withdrawn from Asiaprimarily Japan and South Koreaand the plan also calls for an expansion of military ties with Singapore and Thailand, which the Post does not specify. One objective of the new military plan is to carry out joint training and deepen military ties to "allies" in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Africa, and Southeast Asia.
Feith felt he had to officially deny that the forces were being removed from Germany to "punish" the Germans for their lack of support for the Iraq invasion. He said the German authorities had been kept informed, although German military attaché Col. Carsten Jacobson said his understanding was the cuts would be in the 20%-30% range. Some fighter aircraft now at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany may also be moved to the Middle East.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, asked about the Post story at a Pentagon press briefing, said that all such media accounts are nothing more than speculation, as no decisions have yet been made about the repositioning of U.S. troops in different countries.
JOBS Bill Caught Up in Overtime Dispute
Senate Democrats are pondering their next move on legislation to overturn the Bush Administration's new overtime rules, after the GOP filed cloture on a bill to prevent the Democrats from offering an amendment on the Senate floor to protect overtime pay. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) told reporters on March 23, that the underlying bill, which is to make tax-law changes to satisfy a World Trade Organization complaint, and has been on the floor since March 3, "should not be a bill that the other side dumps their outbasket of favorite initiatives on."
As a result of the WTO complaint, the European Union is imposing tariffs on U.S. manufactured goods that, the Republicans argue, is costing U.S. jobs. "While this bill is being played politics with by the other side, we're stopping the chances of creating jobs in America," blustered Senate Finance Committee chairman Charles Grassley (R-Iowa). When asked why he did not want a vote on the overtime amendment, Grassley replied "What I'm interested in doing is preserving jobs and creating jobs so that workers will have a job first, because you have to have a job before you worry about overtime."
Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) charged that the Republicans don't want a vote because they know the amendment would pass. In fact, similar language passed both Houses by bipartisan majorities, last year, and but it was removed in the conference committee on the fiscal year 2004 omnibus appropriations bill, under pressure from the White House. Daschle said what the Democrats want re-vote because "it was wrong for the conference to override actions in both the House and the Senate on overtime."
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