United States News Digest
Kerry Charges Swift Boat Group Doing Bush's Dirty Work
Speaking Aug. 19 before the International Association of Fire Fighters' 47th Biennial Convention in Boston, Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry lambasted the television ad put out by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which claims he lied about his war record in Vietnam. More than 30 years ago, Kerry said, "I learned an important lessonwhen you're under attack, the best thing to do is turn your boat into the attacker. That's what I intend to do today."
The Swift Boat Veterans group aren't telling the truth, he said. "They're not interested in the truth. They didn't even exist until I won the nomination for President." Who are they? "They're funded by hundreds of thousands of dollars from a Republican contributor out of Texas. They're a front for the Bush campaign. And the fact that the President won't denounce what they're up to tells you everything you need to knowhe wants them to do his dirty work." Kerry asserted that official Navy reports documented his service in Vietnam 30 years ago, for which he was awarded the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, and three Purple Hearts. "Thirty years ago, this was the plain truth. It still is. And I still carry the shrapnel in my leg from a wound in Vietnam." Challenging Bush directly, Kerry said, "If [Bush] wants to have a debate about our service in Vietnam, here is my answer: 'Bring it on.'"
During the same speech, Kerry stated that "the situation in Iraq is a mess. That is the President's responsibility, and he owes the American people an answer." He also told the firefighters that should he be elected President, "I will work my heart out for you, and I will never let you down."
'Corrective Action' Recommended Against Boykin
A Defense Department Inspector General's report recommends that "appropriate corrective action be taken with regard to Army Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin. Boykin, who figures prominently in the Abu Ghraib torture scandal, and serves as military assistant to neo-con Steve Cambone, had said in speeches at 23 religious-oriented events since January of 2002, that George Bush was placed in the Presidency by God; that radical Muslims hate America because it "will never abandon Israel," and that the war on terrorism was an "enduring battle" against Satan. He charged that a "demonic presence" lay behind the actions of radical Muslims.
The report has not yet been officially released by the Pentagon, although it is dated Aug. 5. It states that Boykin violated three internal regulations: failing to obtain clearance for his remarks; failing to clarify that his remarks were personal rather than official; failing to report that a religious group sponsoring him had reimbursed him for his travel costs. According to the Washington Post Aug. 19, the report doesn't comment on Boykin's inclusion of religion as part of his explanation of military counterterrorism efforts.
Acting Army Secretary Les Brownlee has not yet made a decision on how to act on the report's recommendations. The Senate Armed Services Committee led by Sen. John Warner (R-Va) has a copy of the report, and plans to review it this week. Earlier this year, both Warner and Michigan Sen. Carl Levin (D) had called for Boykin to step down while the inquiry into his activities proceeded.
Fay Report on Abu Ghraib Torture Whitewashes Higher-Ups
A soon-to-be-released report by Maj. Gen. George Fay on prisoner abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison charges that there was improper conduct among the soldiers of the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade and civilian contractors and CIA officers. According to a leak published in the New York Times and USA Today Aug. 19, military medical personnel who saw or heard of the abuses while giving treatment to the detainees, and didn't report it, were also cited. But, the Fay report states that no one above the rank of colonel was culpable in this case.
An unnamed Pentagon official said however, that the report cites the role of Justice Department officials, and recommends further investigation of their actions. But the source didn't say who these officials were or what they did.
Other inquiries are ongoing, such as that by former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger, which is expected to examine whether high-ranking Pentagon officials set clear interrogation rules for Iraq. Another investigation led by the Navy Inspector General will look at the handling of prisoners and interrogations throughout the military.
House Republican Slams Iraq War as Unjustified
Rep. Doug Bereuter (R-Neb), a senior member of the House International Relations Committee, slammed the Iraq war as "not justified" and said the situation in Iraq has deteriorated into "a dangerous, costly mess," the Lincoln (Neb.) Journal Star reported Aug. 18. Bereuter, who, in 2002, had supported the House resolution authorizing President Bush to go to war against Iraq, broke with the Administration: "I've reached the conclusion, retrospectively, now that the inadequate intelligence and faulty conclusions are being revealed, ... it was a mistake to launch that military action," Bereuter wrote in a letter to constituents.
"I believe that launching the pre-emptive military action was not justified," he added, because it was premised on "tenuous or insufficiently corroborated intelligence used to conclude that Saddam maintained a substantial WMD arsenal."
Bereuter is retiring from Congress, effective Sept. 1.
Kerry Hits Bush Administration on Veterans' Health Care
In an Aug. 18 speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Cincinnati, Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry delivered a strong attack on the Bush-Cheney Administration's gouging of veterans' health-care programs. Referring to Bush's speech two days ago, Kerry said that "in recent days, you have heard from some who claimed that the job is getting done for veterans. Well, just saying that the job is getting done doesn't make it so. The job will be done when 500,000 veterans are not excluded from the VA [Veterans Administration] health-care system," Kerry said. "The job will be done when we're not closing VA hospitals, so that veterans have difficulty reaching the very care that they need. The job will be done when veterans are not asked for increasing co-payments, enrollment fees, and other charges that shift the burden of care to other veterans and drive more than a million veterans out of the system. The job will be done when 400,000 military retirees get real concurrent receipts [referring to efforts to deduct veterans' disability payments from military pensions]. The job will be done when there are no homeless veterans on the streets of America."
Kerry also criticized Bush's plan for redeploying U.S. troops abroad, by attacking in particular the plan to reduce troop strength in South Korea, at a time "when North Korea has probably never been more dangerous at any time since the end of the Korean War."
Goss Would Allow CIA in Domestic Covert Operations
Rep. Porter Goss (R-Fla), President Bush's nominee to become Director of Central Intelligence, introduced legislation on June 16 that would give the President authority to order the CIA to conduct domestic operations, overturning the 1947 ban on CIA operations inside the United States.
A former CIA General Counsel, Jeffrey Smith, described Goss's proposed legislation as a "dramatic" change in the guidelines that have governed the CIA for over half a century. "This language on its face would have allowed President Nixon to authorize the CIA to bug the Democratic National Committee headquarters," Smith said. "I can't imagine what Porter had in mind." No one at the CIA or at the White House admitted to any knowledge of Goss's proposal, Newsweek said, in a story posted on its website Aug. 11.
The Newsweek story also reports that some Congressional staffers speculate that if Congress creates a new position of Director of National Intelligence, Goss has an understanding with the administration that he will be moved into that position.
Baltimore Sun Blasts Police-State Measures
"J. Edgar Hoover would be pleased," that FBI agents are monitoring and interrogating suspected individuals, who might be protesters at the New York City Republican National Convention, and infiltrating their organizations, said the Baltimore Sun, in its lead editorial Aug. 17. This policy has been developing since Sept. 11, 2001, since Ashcroft has won new powers from Congress, the paper said.
Senate Hearings on Abu Ghraib To Resume
At the opening of an Aug. 17 hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee on the 9/11 recommendations, Committee Chairman John Warner (R-Va) announced that the panel will hold a hearing on Sept. 9, on the prisoner-abuse scandal in Iraq. The hearing is to cover two Pentagon reports which, Warner said, he expects to be completed by that time: the "Fay-Jones" investigation into the role of military intelligence, and the report of the Schlesinger-Brown Commission, appointed by Defense Secretary Rumsfeld.
In response to a query from Warner, Rumsfeld said he expects the two reports to be finished by that date.
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