In this issue:

Youth More Interested in Elections Than Ever Before

DeLay Probe Stalls

Ohio GOP Senator: 'Bring the Troops Home Alive'

Ashcroft Lobbying for Patriot Act May Have Violated Law

Nader Touring 'Swing States' To Hurt Dem Ticket

Zell Miller Denies He Is an 'Angry Nut'

Kerry Calls on Bush To Release PFIAB Intelligence Report

Cheney's 'Preventive War' Called 'Failed Doctrine'

Senate Democrats Hold Hearing on Halliburton

From Volume 3, Issue Number 38 of EIR Online, Published Sep. 21, 2004

United States News Digest

Youth More Interested in Elections Than Ever Before

A front-page story in the Sept. 15 New York Times cites polls in the spring and summer, from the Harvard Institute of Politics, the Pew Research Center, and MTV, all showing that young people say they plan to vote at a rate that will far eclipse the low turnout of 2000. There are 40.6 million potential voters aged 18 to 29, or one in five, a bigger group than the 50-to-65-year-old bracket.

Helped by millions of dollars from "527" committees for voter registration drives, Democrats say the pool of new young voters is swinging their way. Republicans are spending $10 million through college groups directed at registration and turnout. A spokeswoman for the College Republican National Committee claims they have enlisted 30,000 volunteers at campuses. The New York Times story, datelined Portland, points out that in 2000, the Oregon race was decided by 6,765 votes. In Wisconsin, where it was decided by 5,708 votes, 74,000 new voters, most of them young, have been registered since 2000, most by the New Voters Project.

Over the past 30 years, there has been a steady decline in youth turnout, with one big uptick: the election of Clinton in 1992.

DeLay Probe Stalls

The two heads of the House Ethics Committee, Joel Hefley (R-Colo) and Allan Mollohan (D-WVa) have been unable to agree on how to proceed on the complaint filed by Rep. Chris Bell (D-Texas), last June, against House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), according to the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call Sept. 15. As a result, under the committee's rules, they have thrown the decision on whether or not to proceed to an official investigation of DeLay to the full committee, which is divided evenly between Democrats and Republicans. One of the committee's five Republicans would have to vote with the Democrats to launch a full investigation. A 5-5 deadlock would mean no investigation. Democratic sources told Roll Call that the vote could be as early as next week.

In the event of a deadlock, the complaint could be carried over into the next Congress, but Bell will no longer be a member, and Hefly won't be chairman of the committee, a situation, Roll Call says, that would likely result in another deadlock. "The Republicans on the committee know DeLay would not survive a full investigation so they're trying to protect their party boss," said Eric Burns, Bell's spokesman.

Ohio GOP Senator: 'Bring the Troops Home Alive'

"We need a policy, a plan, and a timetable to get out of Iraq, not to lose Iraq, but to leave Iraq," asserted Sen. Mark Dayton (D-Minn), a member of the Armed Services Committee, in a Sept. 13 speech on the Senate floor. Citing the recent escalating attacks in Iraq, Dayton insisted, "It's time that the people of Iraq become responsible for Iraq," adding, "If you want to support our troops, bring them home alive," Minneapolis Star Tribune reported Sept. 14.

Dayton, who voted against the 2002 Congressional resolution authorizing the war in Iraq, said he is requesting that Sen. John Warner (R-Va), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, hold immediate oversight hearings on Iraq, including the Bush Administration's timetable for continuing involvement, and on the real cost of the war. "The American people deserve the truth," he said. "This Congress deserves the facts."

Ashcroft Lobbying for Patriot Act May Have Violated Law

A statement issued on Sept. 14 by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich), the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said that a new GAO study shows that Attorney General John Ashcroft spent over $200,000 on his travels around the country to promote the Patriot Act. Ashcroft travelled to 32 cities, holding meetings with mostly hand-picked audiences, to try to drum up support for the Act, following passage in the House of Representatives of a bipartisan amendment, sponsored by Rep. Butch Otter (R-Idaho), which would have cut back the powers used by the FBI and DOJ under the Patriot Act. As EIW reported at the time, Ashcroft even travelled to Otter's home district to publicly lobby Otter's constituents against restricting the Patriot Act.

A Federal law passed in 2002 explicitly prohibits Federal funds from being used by any executive branch agency—including the Justice Department—to lobby the public for support, or defeat, of legislation pending before the Congress.

Nader Touring 'Swing States' To Hurt Dem Ticket

Republican Party-backed "Independent" Presidential candidate Ralph Nader, at a breakfast meeting with journalists on Sept. 10, announced that he is launching a campaign tour through Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, in retaliation against Democrats for trying to keep him off the ballot in many states.

The Wall Street Journal, in an editorial Sept. 14, defended Nader, in his complaint that Democratic officials are "abusing" their power in trying to keep him off the ballot—by forcing him to comply with state petition requirements.

Zell Miller Denies He Is an 'Angry Nut'

Sen. Zell Miller (D-Ga) contended, in a Sept. 13 Wall Street Journal op-ed, that he's not "an angry nut" or a "psychopath," but rather, he was being "serious" in his rant at the Republican National Convention against Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry. "Democrat" Miller continued to bluster that the next President can't get "squeamish" at the U.S. role of being what he calls a "liberating," not occupying, force in the world. He blasted former President Jimmy Carter for his "nasty" letter, printed in the Sept. 8 Washington Post, denouncing Miller for "unprecedented disloyalty," in his "rabid and mean-spirited" speech. Miller also defended Dick Cheney's proposed defense cuts as Defense Secretary in the Bush I Administration.

Kerry Calls on Bush To Release PFIAB Intelligence Report

Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry participated in a memorial for 9/11 victims and their families at the Boston City Opera Sept. 11, after which, he issued a statement urging President Bush to release a 2001 report by his Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, headed by Gen. Brent Scowcroft. The PFIAB report is said to have determined that U.S. intelligence agencies should be restructured, and answer to just one national intelligence chief.

"The White House has held this important report under wraps for nearly three years while resisting efforts to strengthen the intelligence services that are essential to preventing terrorist attacks and protecting our nation," Kerry said. "What is the White House hiding? Why shouldn't the Congress and the American people be able to fully consider General Scowcroft's recommendations?"

Cheney's 'Preventive War' Called 'Failed Doctrine'

Titled, "Preventive War: A Failed Doctrine," the Sept. 12 New York Times began its lead Sunday editorial by referring to the "badly discredited doctrine of preventive war," saying that Vice President Dick Cheney hit a new low last week, when he asserted that electing Democrat John Kerry President would invite a new attack on the U.S. The Times reviewed the undesirability of basing foreign policy on "hypothetical enemies," adding that, "Mr. Cheney is also wrong to disparage law-enforcement cooperation with allies as an important weapon in this war [against al-Qaeda]. Instead, he promises more preventive, offensive wars against hypothetical dangers like Iraq...."

Senate Democrats Hold Hearing on Halliburton

On Sept. 10, the Senate Democratic Policy Committee held its second hearing on contracting in Iraq (the first one was held in early 2004), focussed largely on Halliburton's conduct. The primary motivation for the hearing, as stated by several Senators attending it, is that the Republican-controlled Senate is still refusing to hold oversight hearings on contracting in Iraq. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) reported that he has requested hearings by the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee three times, "and we couldn't get a response, even though we did a lot of work on diploma mills, and credit card charges ... but Halliburton didn't seem to be the subject we could spend any time on."

The hearing also featured new information on Halliburton's corruption and the favoritism it as received from the Pentagon. Sheryl Tappan, a former Bechtel employee who was responsible for writing contract proposals, described how the second Iraq oil field contract was awarded, last January, to Halliburton on the basis of a fictitious contract competition, locking out other competitors, such as Bechtel, from even bidding on the contract. The first oil field contract, of course, had also been awarded to Halliburton, in secret, about two weeks before the U.S. invasion.

Marie DeYoung, a former Army officer who worked for Halliburton in Bosnia and in Kuwait, on logistics and subcontracts, described how Halliburton's subcontracting procedures actually place at risk the security of U.S. troops. DeYoung revealed how, in one subcontract, Halliburton was paying a Kuwaiti company $1.1 million per month for fuel trucks when they could have been acquired directly from the vendor for $200,000 per month. She reported that Halliburton made no attempt to recover the cost overruns from that subcontract.

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