quote of the day from Charles L.
"Business - and life - is a chess game. You're asking yourself "What's the winning move?" - - Jeffrey Mayer
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"Business - and life - is a chess game. You're asking yourself "What's the winning move?" - - Jeffrey Mayer
"Business - and life - is a chess game. You're asking yourself "What's the winning move?" - - Jeffrey Mayer
"Business - and life - is a chess game. You're asking yourself "What's the winning move?" - - Jeffrey Mayer
DeLay Woes Prompt Rush to Refile Forms
Lawmakers Fear Ripples Over Ethics
By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 26, 2005; Page A01
Members of Congress are rushing to amend their travel and campaign records, fearing that the controversy over House Majority Leader Tom DeLay will trigger an ethics war that will bring greater scrutiny to their own travel and official activities.
Some offices have sharply limited staff travel, and some members are not traveling at all because of the intense review they believe they will face in coming months.
Lawmakers are paying old restaurant bills, filing missing forms and correcting erroneous ones as journalists and political opponents comb through records and DeLay (R-Tex.) attempts to answer questions about travel financing and his past relationships with lobbyists.
Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) wrote to the Federal Election Commission on April 15 to report that he had discovered that the Washington restaurant Signatures had not charged his credit card -- as he said he had directed -- for a 2003 fundraiser for 16 people that cost $1,846. The event was hosted by Jack Abramoff, a lobbyist and part-owner of the restaurant who is now under congressional and criminal investigation for his handling of millions of dollars in fees from Indian tribes. Abramoff was not at the event.
"I never thought about this event again until it was brought to my attention very recently that no payment or reimbursement for the event has ever appeared on our FEC report," Vitter wrote. He wrote to Signatures at the same time, directing the management to "charge my credit card today."
In another case, an aide to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had not reported a 2004 trip to South Korea until a Washington Post reporter asked her office about it. Eddie Charmaine Manansala, Pelosi's special assistant on East Asian affairs, filed a disclosure form for the $9,087 trip a few hours after the newspaper's inquiry and sent a note to the ethics committee saying, "I did not know I was supposed to file these forms and I apologize for its lateness."
Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) even asked the ethics committee to investigate him after a reporter for the newspaper Roll Call pointed out that a travel disclosure form from 2001 listed the lobbying firm Rooney Group International as paying for a $1,782 trip to Boston, which would be a violation of House rules.
Abercrombie's aides said they have since determined that the lobbying firm's expenses were reimbursed by the nonprofit group that Abercrombie addressed on the trip, the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts. House rules state that the prohibition against lobbyists paying for members' travel applies "even where the lobbyist . . . will later be reimbursed for those expenses by a non-lobbyist client."
DeLay's staff said he will turn over records -- including letters showing how his travel was arranged -- to the ethics committee, which is not currently functioning because of a dispute between the parties. The committee admonished DeLay three times last year for what it concluded was inappropriate official conduct.
House Republican aides said yesterday for the first time that they believe they will have to reverse or modify the ethics rules that were passed on a party-line vote in January and have caused Democrats to refuse to allow the ethics committee to organize. Republican leaders had been trying to avoid a new floor vote over the rules, but aides said they now are convinced that they need to get the committee going so that Democrats cannot accuse them of squelching an investigation of DeLay.
As reports about DeLay's travel with lobbyists mount, Republican leaders are attempting to shift attention to questionable activities of Democrats.
House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) warned on Sean Hannity's radio show last week that there are "four or five cases out there dealing with top-level Democrats," whom he did not name.
DeLay Woes Prompt Rush to Refile Forms
Lawmakers Fear Ripples Over Ethics
By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 26, 2005; Page A01
Members of Congress are rushing to amend their travel and campaign records, fearing that the controversy over House Majority Leader Tom DeLay will trigger an ethics war that will bring greater scrutiny to their own travel and official activities.
Some offices have sharply limited staff travel, and some members are not traveling at all because of the intense review they believe they will face in coming months.
Lawmakers are paying old restaurant bills, filing missing forms and correcting erroneous ones as journalists and political opponents comb through records and DeLay (R-Tex.) attempts to answer questions about travel financing and his past relationships with lobbyists.
Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) wrote to the Federal Election Commission on April 15 to report that he had discovered that the Washington restaurant Signatures had not charged his credit card -- as he said he had directed -- for a 2003 fundraiser for 16 people that cost $1,846. The event was hosted by Jack Abramoff, a lobbyist and part-owner of the restaurant who is now under congressional and criminal investigation for his handling of millions of dollars in fees from Indian tribes. Abramoff was not at the event.
"I never thought about this event again until it was brought to my attention very recently that no payment or reimbursement for the event has ever appeared on our FEC report," Vitter wrote. He wrote to Signatures at the same time, directing the management to "charge my credit card today."
In another case, an aide to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had not reported a 2004 trip to South Korea until a Washington Post reporter asked her office about it. Eddie Charmaine Manansala, Pelosi's special assistant on East Asian affairs, filed a disclosure form for the $9,087 trip a few hours after the newspaper's inquiry and sent a note to the ethics committee saying, "I did not know I was supposed to file these forms and I apologize for its lateness."
Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) even asked the ethics committee to investigate him after a reporter for the newspaper Roll Call pointed out that a travel disclosure form from 2001 listed the lobbying firm Rooney Group International as paying for a $1,782 trip to Boston, which would be a violation of House rules.
Abercrombie's aides said they have since determined that the lobbying firm's expenses were reimbursed by the nonprofit group that Abercrombie addressed on the trip, the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts. House rules state that the prohibition against lobbyists paying for members' travel applies "even where the lobbyist . . . will later be reimbursed for those expenses by a non-lobbyist client."
DeLay's staff said he will turn over records -- including letters showing how his travel was arranged -- to the ethics committee, which is not currently functioning because of a dispute between the parties. The committee admonished DeLay three times last year for what it concluded was inappropriate official conduct.
House Republican aides said yesterday for the first time that they believe they will have to reverse or modify the ethics rules that were passed on a party-line vote in January and have caused Democrats to refuse to allow the ethics committee to organize. Republican leaders had been trying to avoid a new floor vote over the rules, but aides said they now are convinced that they need to get the committee going so that Democrats cannot accuse them of squelching an investigation of DeLay.
As reports about DeLay's travel with lobbyists mount, Republican leaders are attempting to shift attention to questionable activities of Democrats.
House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) warned on Sean Hannity's radio show last week that there are "four or five cases out there dealing with top-level Democrats," whom he did not name.
DeLay Woes Prompt Rush to Refile Forms
Lawmakers Fear Ripples Over Ethics
By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 26, 2005; Page A01
Members of Congress are rushing to amend their travel and campaign records, fearing that the controversy over House Majority Leader Tom DeLay will trigger an ethics war that will bring greater scrutiny to their own travel and official activities.
Some offices have sharply limited staff travel, and some members are not traveling at all because of the intense review they believe they will face in coming months.
Lawmakers are paying old restaurant bills, filing missing forms and correcting erroneous ones as journalists and political opponents comb through records and DeLay (R-Tex.) attempts to answer questions about travel financing and his past relationships with lobbyists.
Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) wrote to the Federal Election Commission on April 15 to report that he had discovered that the Washington restaurant Signatures had not charged his credit card -- as he said he had directed -- for a 2003 fundraiser for 16 people that cost $1,846. The event was hosted by Jack Abramoff, a lobbyist and part-owner of the restaurant who is now under congressional and criminal investigation for his handling of millions of dollars in fees from Indian tribes. Abramoff was not at the event.
"I never thought about this event again until it was brought to my attention very recently that no payment or reimbursement for the event has ever appeared on our FEC report," Vitter wrote. He wrote to Signatures at the same time, directing the management to "charge my credit card today."
In another case, an aide to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had not reported a 2004 trip to South Korea until a Washington Post reporter asked her office about it. Eddie Charmaine Manansala, Pelosi's special assistant on East Asian affairs, filed a disclosure form for the $9,087 trip a few hours after the newspaper's inquiry and sent a note to the ethics committee saying, "I did not know I was supposed to file these forms and I apologize for its lateness."
Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) even asked the ethics committee to investigate him after a reporter for the newspaper Roll Call pointed out that a travel disclosure form from 2001 listed the lobbying firm Rooney Group International as paying for a $1,782 trip to Boston, which would be a violation of House rules.
Abercrombie's aides said they have since determined that the lobbying firm's expenses were reimbursed by the nonprofit group that Abercrombie addressed on the trip, the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts. House rules state that the prohibition against lobbyists paying for members' travel applies "even where the lobbyist . . . will later be reimbursed for those expenses by a non-lobbyist client."
DeLay's staff said he will turn over records -- including letters showing how his travel was arranged -- to the ethics committee, which is not currently functioning because of a dispute between the parties. The committee admonished DeLay three times last year for what it concluded was inappropriate official conduct.
House Republican aides said yesterday for the first time that they believe they will have to reverse or modify the ethics rules that were passed on a party-line vote in January and have caused Democrats to refuse to allow the ethics committee to organize. Republican leaders had been trying to avoid a new floor vote over the rules, but aides said they now are convinced that they need to get the committee going so that Democrats cannot accuse them of squelching an investigation of DeLay.
As reports about DeLay's travel with lobbyists mount, Republican leaders are attempting to shift attention to questionable activities of Democrats.
House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) warned on Sean Hannity's radio show last week that there are "four or five cases out there dealing with top-level Democrats," whom he did not name.
Bush, Saudi Fail to Reach Deal to Lower Gas Prices
Abdullah Relays Country's Plan to Boost Capacity
By Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 26, 2005; Page A03
CRAWFORD, Tex., April 25 -- President Bush and Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah emerged from their meeting here Monday with no agreement that would lower gasoline prices in the near term, although Saudi Arabia reiterated plans to increase oil production capacity in coming years in an effort to meeting fast-growing world demand.
Bush has pressed the Saudis in recent weeks to help lower gasoline prices soon by increasing crude oil production, but Abdullah and his delegation responded here by explaining their long-term strategy to invest $50 billion over five years in a plan that would eventually increase the kingdom's oil production capacity by close to 50 percent.
President Bush, left, talks and greets Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, right, during his arrival at Bush's ranch in a Thursday, April 25, 2002 photo in Crawford, Texas. Sky-high oil prices and the prickly issues of terrorism and democracy in the Middle East could provide tense moments between old friends when Crown Prince Abdullah visits President Bush at his Texas ranch Monday, April 25, 2005. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File) (Pablo Martinez Monsivais - AP)
"Clearly, the news that came out of the meeting today ought to be good news for the markets, and we would hope that and other factors would result in some positive news in terms of the price fronts," national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley said. "But as you know, these markets are complicated business."
The meeting at Bush's ranch came amid increasing concern about spiraling gasoline prices, which are helping to push the president's approval ratings to new lows. It also came as Saudi officials are seeking to further repair their relationship with the United States, which was badly damaged after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Fifteen of the 19 suspected terrorists were Saudi citizens.
Crude prices have been rising because increasing demand, particularly in the exploding economies of China and India, has pushed the world's ability to produce oil to its limits.
In previous years, Saudi Arabia, which has about a quarter of the world's oil reserves, had enough spare capacity to increase production significantly when demand spiked. But now the Saudis have little additional capacity, making oil markets jittery. Markets are concerned that a terrorist attack or other significant supply disruption could result in a shortage because of that lack of ability to make up for lost production.
The price of crude oil has hovered around $55 a barrel in recent weeks, more than double the price two years ago. Gasoline in the United States averages $2.22 a gallon, and some analysts predict that it will go higher in the summer.
The price hikes, said Adel al-Jubeir, foreign affairs adviser to Abdullah, are a result of a confluence of factors, including increased demand, limited refinery capacity, a lack of spare production capacity and the fear permeating the market because of the ongoing violence in Iraq.
"There is no shortage of crude oil," he said. "It would not make a difference if we put an extra 1.5 [million] to 2 million barrels of oil on the market."
Some oil policy experts agreed there is relatively little Saudi Arabia can do in the short run to lower oil prices. The country is producing about 9.5 million barrels of oil a day -- close to its nearly 11 million-barrel capacity.
"They are scared to death about the effect of long-term high prices," said David E. Long, a specialist on the Saudis and a former diplomat, explaining that such prices increase incentives for investment in alternative forms of energy, ultimately curbing demand for crude oil.
"The crown prince understands that it's very important to make sure the price is reasonable," Bush told reporters before the meeting. "A high oil price will damage markets, and he knows that."
Bush also made another plea for passage of his energy bill, which was first proposed in 2001 and won House approval last week. Some supporters of the measure said that if it had been enacted several years ago, oil prices would not be at their current level. Opponents dispute that, saying the legislation will do nothing to bring down prices. Bush acknowledged last week that his national energy policy would not lower gasoline prices anytime soon.
The atmosphere surrounding the meeting between Bush and Abdullah was free of much of the tension that surrounded their last session here, which took place just seven months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Bush greeted Abdullah with a warm handshake and traditional kisses on both cheeks, before slowly leading the 81-year-old Saudi leader up a walkway lined with Texas bluebonnets and into the meeting in an office at his ranch.
After the session, which included lunch, the two nations issued a joint statement in which they pledged continued cooperation in the war on terrorism, promised to work together toward a peaceful settlement between the Palestinians and Israel and expressed support for the Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon. The statement also praised the steps being taken toward democratic reforms in Saudi Arabia and announced the formation of a joint committee, to be headed by the U.S. secretary of state and the Saudi foreign minister, aimed at increasing educational, business and cultural exchanges between the two nations. The agreement also cited U.S. appreciation for the Saudi pledge to increase oil production.
"The fact is that we have in the international economy growth, we have new consumers -- large-scale consumers coming on," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters. "What the president is trying to do is make sure we have a long-term sustainable answer to this."
Bush, Saudi Fail to Reach Deal to Lower Gas Prices
Abdullah Relays Country's Plan to Boost Capacity
By Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 26, 2005; Page A03
CRAWFORD, Tex., April 25 -- President Bush and Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah emerged from their meeting here Monday with no agreement that would lower gasoline prices in the near term, although Saudi Arabia reiterated plans to increase oil production capacity in coming years in an effort to meeting fast-growing world demand.
Bush has pressed the Saudis in recent weeks to help lower gasoline prices soon by increasing crude oil production, but Abdullah and his delegation responded here by explaining their long-term strategy to invest $50 billion over five years in a plan that would eventually increase the kingdom's oil production capacity by close to 50 percent.
President Bush, left, talks and greets Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, right, during his arrival at Bush's ranch in a Thursday, April 25, 2002 photo in Crawford, Texas. Sky-high oil prices and the prickly issues of terrorism and democracy in the Middle East could provide tense moments between old friends when Crown Prince Abdullah visits President Bush at his Texas ranch Monday, April 25, 2005. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File) (Pablo Martinez Monsivais - AP)
"Clearly, the news that came out of the meeting today ought to be good news for the markets, and we would hope that and other factors would result in some positive news in terms of the price fronts," national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley said. "But as you know, these markets are complicated business."
The meeting at Bush's ranch came amid increasing concern about spiraling gasoline prices, which are helping to push the president's approval ratings to new lows. It also came as Saudi officials are seeking to further repair their relationship with the United States, which was badly damaged after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Fifteen of the 19 suspected terrorists were Saudi citizens.
Crude prices have been rising because increasing demand, particularly in the exploding economies of China and India, has pushed the world's ability to produce oil to its limits.
In previous years, Saudi Arabia, which has about a quarter of the world's oil reserves, had enough spare capacity to increase production significantly when demand spiked. But now the Saudis have little additional capacity, making oil markets jittery. Markets are concerned that a terrorist attack or other significant supply disruption could result in a shortage because of that lack of ability to make up for lost production.
The price of crude oil has hovered around $55 a barrel in recent weeks, more than double the price two years ago. Gasoline in the United States averages $2.22 a gallon, and some analysts predict that it will go higher in the summer.
The price hikes, said Adel al-Jubeir, foreign affairs adviser to Abdullah, are a result of a confluence of factors, including increased demand, limited refinery capacity, a lack of spare production capacity and the fear permeating the market because of the ongoing violence in Iraq.
"There is no shortage of crude oil," he said. "It would not make a difference if we put an extra 1.5 [million] to 2 million barrels of oil on the market."
Some oil policy experts agreed there is relatively little Saudi Arabia can do in the short run to lower oil prices. The country is producing about 9.5 million barrels of oil a day -- close to its nearly 11 million-barrel capacity.
"They are scared to death about the effect of long-term high prices," said David E. Long, a specialist on the Saudis and a former diplomat, explaining that such prices increase incentives for investment in alternative forms of energy, ultimately curbing demand for crude oil.
"The crown prince understands that it's very important to make sure the price is reasonable," Bush told reporters before the meeting. "A high oil price will damage markets, and he knows that."
Bush also made another plea for passage of his energy bill, which was first proposed in 2001 and won House approval last week. Some supporters of the measure said that if it had been enacted several years ago, oil prices would not be at their current level. Opponents dispute that, saying the legislation will do nothing to bring down prices. Bush acknowledged last week that his national energy policy would not lower gasoline prices anytime soon.
The atmosphere surrounding the meeting between Bush and Abdullah was free of much of the tension that surrounded their last session here, which took place just seven months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Bush greeted Abdullah with a warm handshake and traditional kisses on both cheeks, before slowly leading the 81-year-old Saudi leader up a walkway lined with Texas bluebonnets and into the meeting in an office at his ranch.
After the session, which included lunch, the two nations issued a joint statement in which they pledged continued cooperation in the war on terrorism, promised to work together toward a peaceful settlement between the Palestinians and Israel and expressed support for the Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon. The statement also praised the steps being taken toward democratic reforms in Saudi Arabia and announced the formation of a joint committee, to be headed by the U.S. secretary of state and the Saudi foreign minister, aimed at increasing educational, business and cultural exchanges between the two nations. The agreement also cited U.S. appreciation for the Saudi pledge to increase oil production.
"The fact is that we have in the international economy growth, we have new consumers -- large-scale consumers coming on," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters. "What the president is trying to do is make sure we have a long-term sustainable answer to this."
Bush, Saudi Fail to Reach Deal to Lower Gas Prices
Abdullah Relays Country's Plan to Boost Capacity
By Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 26, 2005; Page A03
CRAWFORD, Tex., April 25 -- President Bush and Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah emerged from their meeting here Monday with no agreement that would lower gasoline prices in the near term, although Saudi Arabia reiterated plans to increase oil production capacity in coming years in an effort to meeting fast-growing world demand.
Bush has pressed the Saudis in recent weeks to help lower gasoline prices soon by increasing crude oil production, but Abdullah and his delegation responded here by explaining their long-term strategy to invest $50 billion over five years in a plan that would eventually increase the kingdom's oil production capacity by close to 50 percent.
President Bush, left, talks and greets Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, right, during his arrival at Bush's ranch in a Thursday, April 25, 2002 photo in Crawford, Texas. Sky-high oil prices and the prickly issues of terrorism and democracy in the Middle East could provide tense moments between old friends when Crown Prince Abdullah visits President Bush at his Texas ranch Monday, April 25, 2005. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File) (Pablo Martinez Monsivais - AP)
"Clearly, the news that came out of the meeting today ought to be good news for the markets, and we would hope that and other factors would result in some positive news in terms of the price fronts," national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley said. "But as you know, these markets are complicated business."
The meeting at Bush's ranch came amid increasing concern about spiraling gasoline prices, which are helping to push the president's approval ratings to new lows. It also came as Saudi officials are seeking to further repair their relationship with the United States, which was badly damaged after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Fifteen of the 19 suspected terrorists were Saudi citizens.
Crude prices have been rising because increasing demand, particularly in the exploding economies of China and India, has pushed the world's ability to produce oil to its limits.
In previous years, Saudi Arabia, which has about a quarter of the world's oil reserves, had enough spare capacity to increase production significantly when demand spiked. But now the Saudis have little additional capacity, making oil markets jittery. Markets are concerned that a terrorist attack or other significant supply disruption could result in a shortage because of that lack of ability to make up for lost production.
The price of crude oil has hovered around $55 a barrel in recent weeks, more than double the price two years ago. Gasoline in the United States averages $2.22 a gallon, and some analysts predict that it will go higher in the summer.
The price hikes, said Adel al-Jubeir, foreign affairs adviser to Abdullah, are a result of a confluence of factors, including increased demand, limited refinery capacity, a lack of spare production capacity and the fear permeating the market because of the ongoing violence in Iraq.
"There is no shortage of crude oil," he said. "It would not make a difference if we put an extra 1.5 [million] to 2 million barrels of oil on the market."
Some oil policy experts agreed there is relatively little Saudi Arabia can do in the short run to lower oil prices. The country is producing about 9.5 million barrels of oil a day -- close to its nearly 11 million-barrel capacity.
"They are scared to death about the effect of long-term high prices," said David E. Long, a specialist on the Saudis and a former diplomat, explaining that such prices increase incentives for investment in alternative forms of energy, ultimately curbing demand for crude oil.
"The crown prince understands that it's very important to make sure the price is reasonable," Bush told reporters before the meeting. "A high oil price will damage markets, and he knows that."
Bush also made another plea for passage of his energy bill, which was first proposed in 2001 and won House approval last week. Some supporters of the measure said that if it had been enacted several years ago, oil prices would not be at their current level. Opponents dispute that, saying the legislation will do nothing to bring down prices. Bush acknowledged last week that his national energy policy would not lower gasoline prices anytime soon.
The atmosphere surrounding the meeting between Bush and Abdullah was free of much of the tension that surrounded their last session here, which took place just seven months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Bush greeted Abdullah with a warm handshake and traditional kisses on both cheeks, before slowly leading the 81-year-old Saudi leader up a walkway lined with Texas bluebonnets and into the meeting in an office at his ranch.
After the session, which included lunch, the two nations issued a joint statement in which they pledged continued cooperation in the war on terrorism, promised to work together toward a peaceful settlement between the Palestinians and Israel and expressed support for the Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon. The statement also praised the steps being taken toward democratic reforms in Saudi Arabia and announced the formation of a joint committee, to be headed by the U.S. secretary of state and the Saudi foreign minister, aimed at increasing educational, business and cultural exchanges between the two nations. The agreement also cited U.S. appreciation for the Saudi pledge to increase oil production.
"The fact is that we have in the international economy growth, we have new consumers -- large-scale consumers coming on," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters. "What the president is trying to do is make sure we have a long-term sustainable answer to this."
Report Finds No Evidence Syria Hid Iraqi Arms
By Dana Priest
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 26, 2005; Page A01
U.S. investigators hunting for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq have found no evidence that such material was moved to Syria for safekeeping before the war, according to a final report of the investigation released yesterday.
Although Syria helped Iraq evade U.N.-imposed sanctions by shipping military and other products across its borders, the investigators "found no senior policy, program, or intelligence officials who admitted any direct knowledge of such movement of WMD." Because of the insular nature of Saddam Hussein's government, however, the investigators were "unable to rule out unofficial movement of limited WMD-related materials."
The Iraq Survey Group's main findings -- that Hussein's Iraq did not possess chemical and biological weapons and had only aspirations for a nuclear program -- were made public in October in an interim report covering nearly 1,000 pages. Yesterday's final report, published on the Government Printing Office's Web site ( http://www.gpo.gov ), incorporated those pages with minor editing and included 92 pages of addenda that tied up loose ends on Syria and other topics.
U.S. officials have held out the possibility that Syria worked in tandem with Hussein's government to hide weapons before the U.S.-led invasion. The survey group said it followed up on reports that a Syrian security officer had discussed collaboration with Iraq on weapons, but it was unable to complete that investigation. But Iraqi officials whom the group was able to interview "uniformly denied any knowledge of residual WMD that could have been secreted to Syria," the report said.
The report, which refuted many of the administration's principal arguments for going to war in Iraq, marked the official end of a two-year weapons hunt led most recently by former U.N. weapons inspector Charles A. Duelfer. The team found that the 1991 Persian Gulf War and subsequent U.N. sanctions had destroyed Iraq's illicit weapons capabilities and that, for the most part, Hussein had not tried to rebuild them. Iraq's ability to produce nuclear arms, which the administration asserted was a grave and gathering threat that required an immediate military response, had "progressively decayed" since 1991. Investigators found no evidence of "concerted efforts to restart the program."
Administration officials have emphasized that, while the survey group uncovered no banned arms, it concluded that Hussein had not given up the goal of someday acquiring them.
Hussein "retained the intent and capability and he intended to resume full-scale WMD efforts once the U.N. sanctions were lifted," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said yesterday. "Duelfer provides plenty of rationale for why this country went to war in Iraq."
In one of the addenda released yesterday, investigators addressed the risk that Iraqi scientists will share their knowledge or material with other countries, particularly Syria and Iran, given previous contacts, financial inducements and professional opportunities. The report concluded that the risk exists but said "there is only very limited reporting suggesting that this is actually taking place and no reports that indicate scientists were recruited to work in a WMD program."
As for the possibility that insurgents in Iraq will draw on the expertise of Iraqi scientists to develop unconventional weapons for use against the United States and its coalition forces, the report describes these efforts so far as being "limited and contained by coalition action." The survey group was aware of only one scientist assisting terrorists or insurgents. He helped them fashion chemical mortar munitions.
The report found that missing equipment, however, "could contribute to insurgent or terrorist production of chemical or biological agents."
In most cases the equipment appeared to have been randomly looted, but in selected cases it appeared "to be taken away carefully," Duelfer said in an interview yesterday. Overall, though, "it's like going to a demolition derby for car parts," said Duelfer. The right equipment "is hard to get."
Four military personnel assigned to the survey group's mission perished in the violence that engulfed Iraq, and five others were seriously wounded, in a mission that cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
No further work is planned, although teams are on hand to be dispatched when credible reports of weapons material are received in Iraq. The report says, however, that continued reports of banned arms in Iraq "are usually scams or misidentification of materials or activities." It predicts that such reports will continue.
Although new information may be forthcoming, Duelfer said in an accompanying letter that he has "confidence in the picture of events and programs covered by this report."
"If there were to be a surprise in the future," he added, "it most likely would be in the biological weapons area" because the size of those facilities can be so small.
Duelfer also recommended that the United States release some of the scientists and technocrats who are still being held captive in Iraq strictly because of their work on Iraq's weapons programs dating back to the Gulf War. "Many have been very cooperative and provided great assistance in understanding the WMD programs" and Iraq's intentions, and have exhausted their knowledge of these subjects, he wrote. "In my view, certain detainees are overdue for release."
Of 300 individuals on a "blacklist" developed by U.S. military and intelligence officials before the war, 105 have been detained. But the list, said the report, was flawed. "Some very despicable individuals who should have been listed were not, while many technocrats and even opponents of the Saddam regime made the list and hence found themselves either in jail or on the run."
The Pentagon's Whitman said that he was unaware of any scientists who had been released recently because of Duelfer's appeal and that the Defense Department routinely reviews detainees' status to see "whether or not they are a threat to the coalition and Iraqi security forces and whether or not they continue to have intelligence value."
Report Finds No Evidence Syria Hid Iraqi Arms
By Dana Priest
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 26, 2005; Page A01
U.S. investigators hunting for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq have found no evidence that such material was moved to Syria for safekeeping before the war, according to a final report of the investigation released yesterday.
Although Syria helped Iraq evade U.N.-imposed sanctions by shipping military and other products across its borders, the investigators "found no senior policy, program, or intelligence officials who admitted any direct knowledge of such movement of WMD." Because of the insular nature of Saddam Hussein's government, however, the investigators were "unable to rule out unofficial movement of limited WMD-related materials."
The Iraq Survey Group's main findings -- that Hussein's Iraq did not possess chemical and biological weapons and had only aspirations for a nuclear program -- were made public in October in an interim report covering nearly 1,000 pages. Yesterday's final report, published on the Government Printing Office's Web site ( http://www.gpo.gov ), incorporated those pages with minor editing and included 92 pages of addenda that tied up loose ends on Syria and other topics.
U.S. officials have held out the possibility that Syria worked in tandem with Hussein's government to hide weapons before the U.S.-led invasion. The survey group said it followed up on reports that a Syrian security officer had discussed collaboration with Iraq on weapons, but it was unable to complete that investigation. But Iraqi officials whom the group was able to interview "uniformly denied any knowledge of residual WMD that could have been secreted to Syria," the report said.
The report, which refuted many of the administration's principal arguments for going to war in Iraq, marked the official end of a two-year weapons hunt led most recently by former U.N. weapons inspector Charles A. Duelfer. The team found that the 1991 Persian Gulf War and subsequent U.N. sanctions had destroyed Iraq's illicit weapons capabilities and that, for the most part, Hussein had not tried to rebuild them. Iraq's ability to produce nuclear arms, which the administration asserted was a grave and gathering threat that required an immediate military response, had "progressively decayed" since 1991. Investigators found no evidence of "concerted efforts to restart the program."
Administration officials have emphasized that, while the survey group uncovered no banned arms, it concluded that Hussein had not given up the goal of someday acquiring them.
Hussein "retained the intent and capability and he intended to resume full-scale WMD efforts once the U.N. sanctions were lifted," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said yesterday. "Duelfer provides plenty of rationale for why this country went to war in Iraq."
In one of the addenda released yesterday, investigators addressed the risk that Iraqi scientists will share their knowledge or material with other countries, particularly Syria and Iran, given previous contacts, financial inducements and professional opportunities. The report concluded that the risk exists but said "there is only very limited reporting suggesting that this is actually taking place and no reports that indicate scientists were recruited to work in a WMD program."
As for the possibility that insurgents in Iraq will draw on the expertise of Iraqi scientists to develop unconventional weapons for use against the United States and its coalition forces, the report describes these efforts so far as being "limited and contained by coalition action." The survey group was aware of only one scientist assisting terrorists or insurgents. He helped them fashion chemical mortar munitions.
The report found that missing equipment, however, "could contribute to insurgent or terrorist production of chemical or biological agents."
In most cases the equipment appeared to have been randomly looted, but in selected cases it appeared "to be taken away carefully," Duelfer said in an interview yesterday. Overall, though, "it's like going to a demolition derby for car parts," said Duelfer. The right equipment "is hard to get."
Four military personnel assigned to the survey group's mission perished in the violence that engulfed Iraq, and five others were seriously wounded, in a mission that cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
No further work is planned, although teams are on hand to be dispatched when credible reports of weapons material are received in Iraq. The report says, however, that continued reports of banned arms in Iraq "are usually scams or misidentification of materials or activities." It predicts that such reports will continue.
Although new information may be forthcoming, Duelfer said in an accompanying letter that he has "confidence in the picture of events and programs covered by this report."
"If there were to be a surprise in the future," he added, "it most likely would be in the biological weapons area" because the size of those facilities can be so small.
Duelfer also recommended that the United States release some of the scientists and technocrats who are still being held captive in Iraq strictly because of their work on Iraq's weapons programs dating back to the Gulf War. "Many have been very cooperative and provided great assistance in understanding the WMD programs" and Iraq's intentions, and have exhausted their knowledge of these subjects, he wrote. "In my view, certain detainees are overdue for release."
Of 300 individuals on a "blacklist" developed by U.S. military and intelligence officials before the war, 105 have been detained. But the list, said the report, was flawed. "Some very despicable individuals who should have been listed were not, while many technocrats and even opponents of the Saddam regime made the list and hence found themselves either in jail or on the run."
The Pentagon's Whitman said that he was unaware of any scientists who had been released recently because of Duelfer's appeal and that the Defense Department routinely reviews detainees' status to see "whether or not they are a threat to the coalition and Iraqi security forces and whether or not they continue to have intelligence value."
Report Finds No Evidence Syria Hid Iraqi Arms
By Dana Priest
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 26, 2005; Page A01
U.S. investigators hunting for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq have found no evidence that such material was moved to Syria for safekeeping before the war, according to a final report of the investigation released yesterday.
Although Syria helped Iraq evade U.N.-imposed sanctions by shipping military and other products across its borders, the investigators "found no senior policy, program, or intelligence officials who admitted any direct knowledge of such movement of WMD." Because of the insular nature of Saddam Hussein's government, however, the investigators were "unable to rule out unofficial movement of limited WMD-related materials."
The Iraq Survey Group's main findings -- that Hussein's Iraq did not possess chemical and biological weapons and had only aspirations for a nuclear program -- were made public in October in an interim report covering nearly 1,000 pages. Yesterday's final report, published on the Government Printing Office's Web site ( http://www.gpo.gov ), incorporated those pages with minor editing and included 92 pages of addenda that tied up loose ends on Syria and other topics.
U.S. officials have held out the possibility that Syria worked in tandem with Hussein's government to hide weapons before the U.S.-led invasion. The survey group said it followed up on reports that a Syrian security officer had discussed collaboration with Iraq on weapons, but it was unable to complete that investigation. But Iraqi officials whom the group was able to interview "uniformly denied any knowledge of residual WMD that could have been secreted to Syria," the report said.
The report, which refuted many of the administration's principal arguments for going to war in Iraq, marked the official end of a two-year weapons hunt led most recently by former U.N. weapons inspector Charles A. Duelfer. The team found that the 1991 Persian Gulf War and subsequent U.N. sanctions had destroyed Iraq's illicit weapons capabilities and that, for the most part, Hussein had not tried to rebuild them. Iraq's ability to produce nuclear arms, which the administration asserted was a grave and gathering threat that required an immediate military response, had "progressively decayed" since 1991. Investigators found no evidence of "concerted efforts to restart the program."
Administration officials have emphasized that, while the survey group uncovered no banned arms, it concluded that Hussein had not given up the goal of someday acquiring them.
Hussein "retained the intent and capability and he intended to resume full-scale WMD efforts once the U.N. sanctions were lifted," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said yesterday. "Duelfer provides plenty of rationale for why this country went to war in Iraq."
In one of the addenda released yesterday, investigators addressed the risk that Iraqi scientists will share their knowledge or material with other countries, particularly Syria and Iran, given previous contacts, financial inducements and professional opportunities. The report concluded that the risk exists but said "there is only very limited reporting suggesting that this is actually taking place and no reports that indicate scientists were recruited to work in a WMD program."
As for the possibility that insurgents in Iraq will draw on the expertise of Iraqi scientists to develop unconventional weapons for use against the United States and its coalition forces, the report describes these efforts so far as being "limited and contained by coalition action." The survey group was aware of only one scientist assisting terrorists or insurgents. He helped them fashion chemical mortar munitions.
The report found that missing equipment, however, "could contribute to insurgent or terrorist production of chemical or biological agents."
In most cases the equipment appeared to have been randomly looted, but in selected cases it appeared "to be taken away carefully," Duelfer said in an interview yesterday. Overall, though, "it's like going to a demolition derby for car parts," said Duelfer. The right equipment "is hard to get."
Four military personnel assigned to the survey group's mission perished in the violence that engulfed Iraq, and five others were seriously wounded, in a mission that cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
No further work is planned, although teams are on hand to be dispatched when credible reports of weapons material are received in Iraq. The report says, however, that continued reports of banned arms in Iraq "are usually scams or misidentification of materials or activities." It predicts that such reports will continue.
Although new information may be forthcoming, Duelfer said in an accompanying letter that he has "confidence in the picture of events and programs covered by this report."
"If there were to be a surprise in the future," he added, "it most likely would be in the biological weapons area" because the size of those facilities can be so small.
Duelfer also recommended that the United States release some of the scientists and technocrats who are still being held captive in Iraq strictly because of their work on Iraq's weapons programs dating back to the Gulf War. "Many have been very cooperative and provided great assistance in understanding the WMD programs" and Iraq's intentions, and have exhausted their knowledge of these subjects, he wrote. "In my view, certain detainees are overdue for release."
Of 300 individuals on a "blacklist" developed by U.S. military and intelligence officials before the war, 105 have been detained. But the list, said the report, was flawed. "Some very despicable individuals who should have been listed were not, while many technocrats and even opponents of the Saddam regime made the list and hence found themselves either in jail or on the run."
The Pentagon's Whitman said that he was unaware of any scientists who had been released recently because of Duelfer's appeal and that the Defense Department routinely reviews detainees' status to see "whether or not they are a threat to the coalition and Iraqi security forces and whether or not they continue to have intelligence value."
Filibuster Rule Change Opposed
By Richard Morin and Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, April 26, 2005; Page A01
As the Senate moves toward a major confrontation over judicial appointments, a strong majority of Americans oppose changing the rules to make it easier for Republican leaders to win confirmation of President Bush's court nominees, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll.
But by a 2 to 1 ratio, the public rejected easing Senate rules in a way that would make it harder for Democratic senators to prevent final action on Bush's nominees. Even many Republicans were reluctant to abandon current Senate confirmation procedures: Nearly half opposed any rule changes, joining eight in 10 Democrats and seven in 10 political independents, the poll found.
The wide-ranging survey also recorded a precipitous decline in support for the centerpiece of Bush's Social Security plan -- private or personal accounts -- despite the fact that the president and other administration officials have been stumping the country in a 60-day blitz to mobilize support. The Post-ABC poll found that a bare majority -- 51 percent -- opposed such accounts, while 45 percent supported them.
The poll also registered drops in key Bush performance ratings, growing pessimism about the economy and continuing concern about U.S. involvement in Iraq.
On the issue that has consumed the capital's political community this spring, four in 10 said that House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas, under fire for alleged ethics violations, should resign his leadership post, while a third of the public said he should remain in his job. Among the 36 percent who said they have been following the allegations against DeLay, nearly two in three said DeLay should step down.
Taken together, the findings suggest that Bush is off to a difficult start in his second term, with Democrats far less willing to accommodate him and his agenda than his reelection victory last November may have foreshadowed. Beyond that, the survey highlights the divisions within the Republican Party, whether that involves Bush's signature Social Security proposal or the intersection of religion and politics that has become a defining characteristic of today's GOP.
A total of 1,007 randomly selected adults were interviewed by telephone April 21-24 for this Post-ABC News poll. The margin of sampling error for the overall results is plus or minus three percentage points.
The survey found that Bush's overall job approval rating stood at 47 percent, matching his all-time low in Post-ABC News polls. Half disapproved of the job he is doing as president.
On several other key measures of performance, Bush's standing with the public was at or near new lows, with less than half the public supporting the way the president is handling the economy, energy policy and Iraq. Four in 10 approved of Bush's handling of the economy, down six points since the start of the year. Slightly more than a third of the public approved of Bush's energy policies, and Americans were more inclined to blame the president rather than oil companies or other countries for soaring gasoline prices.
Just over four in 10 -- 42 percent -- endorsed the way the president is dealing with the situation in Iraq, a slight increase from the all-time low in March of 39 percent. Almost six in 10 (58 percent) said the United States has gotten bogged down there, and 39 percent said they are confident Iraq will have a stable, democratic government in a year.
Bush continues to get strong marks on his handling of the campaign against terrorism, with 56 percent supporting his actions, down five points since January. But the survey also found that the sluggish economy has eclipsed terrorism on the public's list of top priorities, fueling Bush's drop in the polls.
Filibuster Rule Change Opposed
By Richard Morin and Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, April 26, 2005; Page A01
As the Senate moves toward a major confrontation over judicial appointments, a strong majority of Americans oppose changing the rules to make it easier for Republican leaders to win confirmation of President Bush's court nominees, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll.
But by a 2 to 1 ratio, the public rejected easing Senate rules in a way that would make it harder for Democratic senators to prevent final action on Bush's nominees. Even many Republicans were reluctant to abandon current Senate confirmation procedures: Nearly half opposed any rule changes, joining eight in 10 Democrats and seven in 10 political independents, the poll found.
The wide-ranging survey also recorded a precipitous decline in support for the centerpiece of Bush's Social Security plan -- private or personal accounts -- despite the fact that the president and other administration officials have been stumping the country in a 60-day blitz to mobilize support. The Post-ABC poll found that a bare majority -- 51 percent -- opposed such accounts, while 45 percent supported them.
The poll also registered drops in key Bush performance ratings, growing pessimism about the economy and continuing concern about U.S. involvement in Iraq.
On the issue that has consumed the capital's political community this spring, four in 10 said that House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas, under fire for alleged ethics violations, should resign his leadership post, while a third of the public said he should remain in his job. Among the 36 percent who said they have been following the allegations against DeLay, nearly two in three said DeLay should step down.
Taken together, the findings suggest that Bush is off to a difficult start in his second term, with Democrats far less willing to accommodate him and his agenda than his reelection victory last November may have foreshadowed. Beyond that, the survey highlights the divisions within the Republican Party, whether that involves Bush's signature Social Security proposal or the intersection of religion and politics that has become a defining characteristic of today's GOP.
A total of 1,007 randomly selected adults were interviewed by telephone April 21-24 for this Post-ABC News poll. The margin of sampling error for the overall results is plus or minus three percentage points.
The survey found that Bush's overall job approval rating stood at 47 percent, matching his all-time low in Post-ABC News polls. Half disapproved of the job he is doing as president.
On several other key measures of performance, Bush's standing with the public was at or near new lows, with less than half the public supporting the way the president is handling the economy, energy policy and Iraq. Four in 10 approved of Bush's handling of the economy, down six points since the start of the year. Slightly more than a third of the public approved of Bush's energy policies, and Americans were more inclined to blame the president rather than oil companies or other countries for soaring gasoline prices.
Just over four in 10 -- 42 percent -- endorsed the way the president is dealing with the situation in Iraq, a slight increase from the all-time low in March of 39 percent. Almost six in 10 (58 percent) said the United States has gotten bogged down there, and 39 percent said they are confident Iraq will have a stable, democratic government in a year.
Bush continues to get strong marks on his handling of the campaign against terrorism, with 56 percent supporting his actions, down five points since January. But the survey also found that the sluggish economy has eclipsed terrorism on the public's list of top priorities, fueling Bush's drop in the polls.
Filibuster Rule Change Opposed
By Richard Morin and Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, April 26, 2005; Page A01
As the Senate moves toward a major confrontation over judicial appointments, a strong majority of Americans oppose changing the rules to make it easier for Republican leaders to win confirmation of President Bush's court nominees, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll.
But by a 2 to 1 ratio, the public rejected easing Senate rules in a way that would make it harder for Democratic senators to prevent final action on Bush's nominees. Even many Republicans were reluctant to abandon current Senate confirmation procedures: Nearly half opposed any rule changes, joining eight in 10 Democrats and seven in 10 political independents, the poll found.
The wide-ranging survey also recorded a precipitous decline in support for the centerpiece of Bush's Social Security plan -- private or personal accounts -- despite the fact that the president and other administration officials have been stumping the country in a 60-day blitz to mobilize support. The Post-ABC poll found that a bare majority -- 51 percent -- opposed such accounts, while 45 percent supported them.
The poll also registered drops in key Bush performance ratings, growing pessimism about the economy and continuing concern about U.S. involvement in Iraq.
On the issue that has consumed the capital's political community this spring, four in 10 said that House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas, under fire for alleged ethics violations, should resign his leadership post, while a third of the public said he should remain in his job. Among the 36 percent who said they have been following the allegations against DeLay, nearly two in three said DeLay should step down.
Taken together, the findings suggest that Bush is off to a difficult start in his second term, with Democrats far less willing to accommodate him and his agenda than his reelection victory last November may have foreshadowed. Beyond that, the survey highlights the divisions within the Republican Party, whether that involves Bush's signature Social Security proposal or the intersection of religion and politics that has become a defining characteristic of today's GOP.
A total of 1,007 randomly selected adults were interviewed by telephone April 21-24 for this Post-ABC News poll. The margin of sampling error for the overall results is plus or minus three percentage points.
The survey found that Bush's overall job approval rating stood at 47 percent, matching his all-time low in Post-ABC News polls. Half disapproved of the job he is doing as president.
On several other key measures of performance, Bush's standing with the public was at or near new lows, with less than half the public supporting the way the president is handling the economy, energy policy and Iraq. Four in 10 approved of Bush's handling of the economy, down six points since the start of the year. Slightly more than a third of the public approved of Bush's energy policies, and Americans were more inclined to blame the president rather than oil companies or other countries for soaring gasoline prices.
Just over four in 10 -- 42 percent -- endorsed the way the president is dealing with the situation in Iraq, a slight increase from the all-time low in March of 39 percent. Almost six in 10 (58 percent) said the United States has gotten bogged down there, and 39 percent said they are confident Iraq will have a stable, democratic government in a year.
Bush continues to get strong marks on his handling of the campaign against terrorism, with 56 percent supporting his actions, down five points since January. But the survey also found that the sluggish economy has eclipsed terrorism on the public's list of top priorities, fueling Bush's drop in the polls.
Fla. Gun Law to Expand Leeway for Self-Defense
NRA to Promote Idea in Other States
By Manuel Roig-Franzia
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 26, 2005; Page A01
MIAMI -- It is either a Wild West revival, a return to the days of "shoot first and ask questions later," or a triumph for the "Castle Doctrine" -- the notion that enemies invade personal space at their peril.
Such dueling rhetoric marked the debate over a measure that Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) could sign as early as Tuesday. The legislation passed so emphatically that National Rifle Association backers plan to take it to statehouses across the nation, including Virginia's, over the next year. The law will let Floridians "meet force with force," erasing the "duty to retreat" when they fear for their lives outside of their homes, in their cars or businesses, or on the street.
NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said in an interview that the Florida measure is the "first step of a multi-state strategy" that he hopes can capitalize on a political climate dominated by conservative opponents of gun control at the state and national levels.
"There's a big tailwind we have, moving from state legislature to state legislature," LaPierre said. "The South, the Midwest, everything they call 'flyover land' -- if John Kerry held a shotgun in that state, we can pass this law in that state."
The Florida measure says any person "has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm."
Florida law already lets residents defend themselves against attackers if they can prove they could not have escaped. The new law would allow them to use deadly force even if they could have fled and says that prosecutors must automatically presume that would-be victims feared for their lives if attacked.
The overwhelming vote margins and bipartisan support for the Florida gun bill -- it passed unanimously in the state Senate and was approved 94 to 20 in the state House, with nearly a dozen Democratic co-sponsors -- have alarmed some national gun-control advocates, who say a measure that made headlines in Florida slipped beneath their radar.
"I am in absolute shock," Sarah Brady, chair of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, said in an interview. "If I had known about it, I would have been down there."
The lessons of history do not bode well for gun-control groups and their leaders, such as Brady, who became a crusader after President Ronald Reagan and her husband, then-White House press secretary James S. Brady, were seriously wounded in a 1981 assassination attempt.
Florida has a track record as a gun-law trendsetter. In the mid-1980s, the NRA chose Florida to launch a push for "conceal carry" or "right-to-carry" laws, which allow states to issue permits for residents to carry firearms. Democrat Bob Graham, who was then governor, vetoed the measure, but it was resurrected after he left office and was signed in 1987 by Gov. Bob Martinez, a Republican.
At the time, fewer than a dozen states had right-to-carry laws. Now there are 38.
LaPierre thinks the new Florida measure -- nicknamed the "Castle Doctrine" by its conceiver, Florida lobbyist Marion P. Hammer, a former NRA president -- can create the same momentum.
Fla. Gun Law to Expand Leeway for Self-Defense
NRA to Promote Idea in Other States
By Manuel Roig-Franzia
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 26, 2005; Page A01
MIAMI -- It is either a Wild West revival, a return to the days of "shoot first and ask questions later," or a triumph for the "Castle Doctrine" -- the notion that enemies invade personal space at their peril.
Such dueling rhetoric marked the debate over a measure that Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) could sign as early as Tuesday. The legislation passed so emphatically that National Rifle Association backers plan to take it to statehouses across the nation, including Virginia's, over the next year. The law will let Floridians "meet force with force," erasing the "duty to retreat" when they fear for their lives outside of their homes, in their cars or businesses, or on the street.
NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said in an interview that the Florida measure is the "first step of a multi-state strategy" that he hopes can capitalize on a political climate dominated by conservative opponents of gun control at the state and national levels.
"There's a big tailwind we have, moving from state legislature to state legislature," LaPierre said. "The South, the Midwest, everything they call 'flyover land' -- if John Kerry held a shotgun in that state, we can pass this law in that state."
The Florida measure says any person "has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm."
Florida law already lets residents defend themselves against attackers if they can prove they could not have escaped. The new law would allow them to use deadly force even if they could have fled and says that prosecutors must automatically presume that would-be victims feared for their lives if attacked.
The overwhelming vote margins and bipartisan support for the Florida gun bill -- it passed unanimously in the state Senate and was approved 94 to 20 in the state House, with nearly a dozen Democratic co-sponsors -- have alarmed some national gun-control advocates, who say a measure that made headlines in Florida slipped beneath their radar.
"I am in absolute shock," Sarah Brady, chair of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, said in an interview. "If I had known about it, I would have been down there."
The lessons of history do not bode well for gun-control groups and their leaders, such as Brady, who became a crusader after President Ronald Reagan and her husband, then-White House press secretary James S. Brady, were seriously wounded in a 1981 assassination attempt.
Florida has a track record as a gun-law trendsetter. In the mid-1980s, the NRA chose Florida to launch a push for "conceal carry" or "right-to-carry" laws, which allow states to issue permits for residents to carry firearms. Democrat Bob Graham, who was then governor, vetoed the measure, but it was resurrected after he left office and was signed in 1987 by Gov. Bob Martinez, a Republican.
At the time, fewer than a dozen states had right-to-carry laws. Now there are 38.
LaPierre thinks the new Florida measure -- nicknamed the "Castle Doctrine" by its conceiver, Florida lobbyist Marion P. Hammer, a former NRA president -- can create the same momentum.
Fla. Gun Law to Expand Leeway for Self-Defense
NRA to Promote Idea in Other States
By Manuel Roig-Franzia
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 26, 2005; Page A01
MIAMI -- It is either a Wild West revival, a return to the days of "shoot first and ask questions later," or a triumph for the "Castle Doctrine" -- the notion that enemies invade personal space at their peril.
Such dueling rhetoric marked the debate over a measure that Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) could sign as early as Tuesday. The legislation passed so emphatically that National Rifle Association backers plan to take it to statehouses across the nation, including Virginia's, over the next year. The law will let Floridians "meet force with force," erasing the "duty to retreat" when they fear for their lives outside of their homes, in their cars or businesses, or on the street.
NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said in an interview that the Florida measure is the "first step of a multi-state strategy" that he hopes can capitalize on a political climate dominated by conservative opponents of gun control at the state and national levels.
"There's a big tailwind we have, moving from state legislature to state legislature," LaPierre said. "The South, the Midwest, everything they call 'flyover land' -- if John Kerry held a shotgun in that state, we can pass this law in that state."
The Florida measure says any person "has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm."
Florida law already lets residents defend themselves against attackers if they can prove they could not have escaped. The new law would allow them to use deadly force even if they could have fled and says that prosecutors must automatically presume that would-be victims feared for their lives if attacked.
The overwhelming vote margins and bipartisan support for the Florida gun bill -- it passed unanimously in the state Senate and was approved 94 to 20 in the state House, with nearly a dozen Democratic co-sponsors -- have alarmed some national gun-control advocates, who say a measure that made headlines in Florida slipped beneath their radar.
"I am in absolute shock," Sarah Brady, chair of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, said in an interview. "If I had known about it, I would have been down there."
The lessons of history do not bode well for gun-control groups and their leaders, such as Brady, who became a crusader after President Ronald Reagan and her husband, then-White House press secretary James S. Brady, were seriously wounded in a 1981 assassination attempt.
Florida has a track record as a gun-law trendsetter. In the mid-1980s, the NRA chose Florida to launch a push for "conceal carry" or "right-to-carry" laws, which allow states to issue permits for residents to carry firearms. Democrat Bob Graham, who was then governor, vetoed the measure, but it was resurrected after he left office and was signed in 1987 by Gov. Bob Martinez, a Republican.
At the time, fewer than a dozen states had right-to-carry laws. Now there are 38.
LaPierre thinks the new Florida measure -- nicknamed the "Castle Doctrine" by its conceiver, Florida lobbyist Marion P. Hammer, a former NRA president -- can create the same momentum.
Bush Lies, America Cries
This just in: Global terrorism rates are higher than any time since 1985. Thanks, Dubya!
- By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Friday, April 22, 2005
Oh my God I feel so much safer. Don't you?
I mean, don't you feel so much more secure in your all-American gun-totin' oil-happy lifestyle now that we have wasted upward of $300 billion worth of your child's future education budget, along with 1,600 disposable young American lives and over 20,000 innocent Iraqi lives and about 10,000 severed American limbs and untold wads of our spiritual and moral currency, all to protect America from terrorism that is, by every account, only getting worse? Nastier? More nebulous? More anti-American?
Here's something funny, in a rip-your-patriotic-heart-out-and-spit-on-it sort of way: Just last week, BushCo's State Department decided to kill the publication of an annual report on international terrorism. Why? Well, because the government's top terrorism center concluded that there were more terrorist attacks in 2004 than in any year since 1985. Isn't that hilarious? Isn't that heartwarming? Your tax dollars at work, sweetheart.
Lest you forget, this is what they do. They trim. They edit. They censor. BushCo kills what they do not like and fudges negative data where they see fit and completely rewrites whatever the hell they want, and that includes bogus WMD reports and CIA investigations and dire environmental studies and scientific proofs about everything from evolution to abortion and pollution and clean air, right along with miserable unemployment data and all manner of research pointing up the ill health of the nation, the spirit, the world.
In other words, if BushCo doesn't like what comes out of their own hobbled agencies and their own funded studies, they do what any good dictatorship does: They annihilate it. Now that's good gummint!
Let's be clear: The obliteration of the National Counterterrorism Center report merely goes to prove what so many of us already know -- that BushCo's brutish and borderline traitorous actions since they leveraged 9/11 to blatantly screw the nation have done exactly nothing to stem the tide of terrorism -- and, in fact, have, by most every measure, apparently increased the threat of terrorism. In other words, the world is a more dangerous place because of George W. Bush. Is that clear enough?
Let's put it another way: Under Bush, in the past five years, the U.S. has made zero new friends. But we have made a huge number of new and increasingly venomous enemies. And no, they don't hate us because of our malls, Dubya. They don't hate us because of our freedoms. They don't hate us because of our low-cut jeans and our moronic 8 mpg Ford Expeditions or our corrupt Diebold voting system that snuck you into office.
They hate us, George, because of our policies. Anti-Muslim. Pro-Israel. Oil-uber-alles. Anti-U.N. Anti-Kyoto. Anti-planet. Pro-war. Pro-insularity. Pseudo-swagger. Bogus staged "town hall" meetings stocked with prescreened monosyllabic Bush sycophants. Ego. Empire.
But here's the truly sad part, the hideous and depressing and soul-shredding part about all those young kids in the U.S. military right now, all those mostly undereducated, lower-middle-class kids, most of whom aren't even old enough to buy beer and many of whom have barely had sex and many who got sucked into the military vortex in an honest attempt to help pay for a college education so they could go out and not find a decent job in this miserable economy. The sad part is all those kids in the military who've been trained/brainwashed to believe they are serving in Iraq to protect America's freedom, to protect us from, well, something dark, and sinister, and deadly. When in fact, they're not. Not even close.
The truth is, we were never under threat from Iraq. There were never any WMDs, and Bush knew it. Our military is protecting nothing so much as our access to future stores of petroleum, nothing so much as helping set up a giant police station in Iraq to ensure surrounding nations don't get all uppity about just who controls the rights to those oil fields.
So let's get honest and just ask it outright: Is this a worthy use of the massive bloated machine that is the U.S. military? Of the largest and most advanced fighting force in the world? To protect the flow of oil to the most gluttonous and wasteful and least accountable developed nation on the planet? Is this worth so many young American lives?
You already know the answer. Ask any oil exec. Any government economist. Any BushCo war hawk or auto manufacturer or the leaders of any major manufacturing industry. Ask the president himself. They all say the same thing: You're goddamn right it is.
Here, then, is the warped, convoluted irony: We went to war under the lie of a Saddam-fueled terrorism threat that never existed. We are at war, instead, to protect our oil and to establish regional control, an act that, in turn, has destabilized the Middle East even further and is actually inciting much of the very terrorism we were ostensibly there to battle in the first place, thus producing a level of anti-U.S. hatred not even a (still alive and apparently very chipper) Osama bin Laden could have wet dreamed. Isn't democracy fun?
We are not "spreading democracy" by invading Iraq. We are not giving a gift of a more peaceable Iraq to a grateful world. That is merely insidious Republican PR spin. Right now, the U.S. military is, in short, protecting your right to a $3 gallon of gas, which will soon be $4 and then maybe $5 and $6 as we are running out of the stuff faster than anyone thought and the fight for that which remains will only turn uglier and more violent and so I have to ask again, do you feel safer?
Because if you say yes, you are, quite simply, lying. Or delusional. Or you have had your brain edited by BushCo. Or those are some mighty powerful drugs you are obviously taking and you might wish to consider switching to aspirin and wine and Fleshbot.com.
They say that violence is the last refuge of a desperate nation. And violence under the guise of secrecy and outright lie such as BushCo has foisted upon the nation is the last refuge of a nation of thugs. Yes, I'm looking at you, Rummy. I'm looking at you, Cheney. I'm not looking at you, Karl Rove, because looking at you makes my colon clench and looking at you makes birds die and looking at you makes small children feel hopeless and lost, like the world is full of black venomous hate and bilious condescension that is aimed squarely at their heads, like a gun.
It's true. We are living in a nation run by overprivileged alcoholic frat boys and power-mad thugs. This much we know. This much we need to be reminded of, over and over again, until we finally wake up.
Ah, but there is good news. There is always good news. The good news is, they are now confiscating all cigarette lighters at the airport. In the name of safety. In the name of homeland security. In the name of America, apple pie, babies, puppies, Jesus and guns. Lighters are now forbidden on all air travel. I mean, thank God. I feel safer already.
Bush Lies, America Cries
This just in: Global terrorism rates are higher than any time since 1985. Thanks, Dubya!
- By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Friday, April 22, 2005
Oh my God I feel so much safer. Don't you?
I mean, don't you feel so much more secure in your all-American gun-totin' oil-happy lifestyle now that we have wasted upward of $300 billion worth of your child's future education budget, along with 1,600 disposable young American lives and over 20,000 innocent Iraqi lives and about 10,000 severed American limbs and untold wads of our spiritual and moral currency, all to protect America from terrorism that is, by every account, only getting worse? Nastier? More nebulous? More anti-American?
Here's something funny, in a rip-your-patriotic-heart-out-and-spit-on-it sort of way: Just last week, BushCo's State Department decided to kill the publication of an annual report on international terrorism. Why? Well, because the government's top terrorism center concluded that there were more terrorist attacks in 2004 than in any year since 1985. Isn't that hilarious? Isn't that heartwarming? Your tax dollars at work, sweetheart.
Lest you forget, this is what they do. They trim. They edit. They censor. BushCo kills what they do not like and fudges negative data where they see fit and completely rewrites whatever the hell they want, and that includes bogus WMD reports and CIA investigations and dire environmental studies and scientific proofs about everything from evolution to abortion and pollution and clean air, right along with miserable unemployment data and all manner of research pointing up the ill health of the nation, the spirit, the world.
In other words, if BushCo doesn't like what comes out of their own hobbled agencies and their own funded studies, they do what any good dictatorship does: They annihilate it. Now that's good gummint!
Let's be clear: The obliteration of the National Counterterrorism Center report merely goes to prove what so many of us already know -- that BushCo's brutish and borderline traitorous actions since they leveraged 9/11 to blatantly screw the nation have done exactly nothing to stem the tide of terrorism -- and, in fact, have, by most every measure, apparently increased the threat of terrorism. In other words, the world is a more dangerous place because of George W. Bush. Is that clear enough?
Let's put it another way: Under Bush, in the past five years, the U.S. has made zero new friends. But we have made a huge number of new and increasingly venomous enemies. And no, they don't hate us because of our malls, Dubya. They don't hate us because of our freedoms. They don't hate us because of our low-cut jeans and our moronic 8 mpg Ford Expeditions or our corrupt Diebold voting system that snuck you into office.
They hate us, George, because of our policies. Anti-Muslim. Pro-Israel. Oil-uber-alles. Anti-U.N. Anti-Kyoto. Anti-planet. Pro-war. Pro-insularity. Pseudo-swagger. Bogus staged "town hall" meetings stocked with prescreened monosyllabic Bush sycophants. Ego. Empire.
But here's the truly sad part, the hideous and depressing and soul-shredding part about all those young kids in the U.S. military right now, all those mostly undereducated, lower-middle-class kids, most of whom aren't even old enough to buy beer and many of whom have barely had sex and many who got sucked into the military vortex in an honest attempt to help pay for a college education so they could go out and not find a decent job in this miserable economy. The sad part is all those kids in the military who've been trained/brainwashed to believe they are serving in Iraq to protect America's freedom, to protect us from, well, something dark, and sinister, and deadly. When in fact, they're not. Not even close.
The truth is, we were never under threat from Iraq. There were never any WMDs, and Bush knew it. Our military is protecting nothing so much as our access to future stores of petroleum, nothing so much as helping set up a giant police station in Iraq to ensure surrounding nations don't get all uppity about just who controls the rights to those oil fields.
So let's get honest and just ask it outright: Is this a worthy use of the massive bloated machine that is the U.S. military? Of the largest and most advanced fighting force in the world? To protect the flow of oil to the most gluttonous and wasteful and least accountable developed nation on the planet? Is this worth so many young American lives?
You already know the answer. Ask any oil exec. Any government economist. Any BushCo war hawk or auto manufacturer or the leaders of any major manufacturing industry. Ask the president himself. They all say the same thing: You're goddamn right it is.
Here, then, is the warped, convoluted irony: We went to war under the lie of a Saddam-fueled terrorism threat that never existed. We are at war, instead, to protect our oil and to establish regional control, an act that, in turn, has destabilized the Middle East even further and is actually inciting much of the very terrorism we were ostensibly there to battle in the first place, thus producing a level of anti-U.S. hatred not even a (still alive and apparently very chipper) Osama bin Laden could have wet dreamed. Isn't democracy fun?
We are not "spreading democracy" by invading Iraq. We are not giving a gift of a more peaceable Iraq to a grateful world. That is merely insidious Republican PR spin. Right now, the U.S. military is, in short, protecting your right to a $3 gallon of gas, which will soon be $4 and then maybe $5 and $6 as we are running out of the stuff faster than anyone thought and the fight for that which remains will only turn uglier and more violent and so I have to ask again, do you feel safer?
Because if you say yes, you are, quite simply, lying. Or delusional. Or you have had your brain edited by BushCo. Or those are some mighty powerful drugs you are obviously taking and you might wish to consider switching to aspirin and wine and Fleshbot.com.
They say that violence is the last refuge of a desperate nation. And violence under the guise of secrecy and outright lie such as BushCo has foisted upon the nation is the last refuge of a nation of thugs. Yes, I'm looking at you, Rummy. I'm looking at you, Cheney. I'm not looking at you, Karl Rove, because looking at you makes my colon clench and looking at you makes birds die and looking at you makes small children feel hopeless and lost, like the world is full of black venomous hate and bilious condescension that is aimed squarely at their heads, like a gun.
It's true. We are living in a nation run by overprivileged alcoholic frat boys and power-mad thugs. This much we know. This much we need to be reminded of, over and over again, until we finally wake up.
Ah, but there is good news. There is always good news. The good news is, they are now confiscating all cigarette lighters at the airport. In the name of safety. In the name of homeland security. In the name of America, apple pie, babies, puppies, Jesus and guns. Lighters are now forbidden on all air travel. I mean, thank God. I feel safer already.
Bush Lies, America Cries
This just in: Global terrorism rates are higher than any time since 1985. Thanks, Dubya!
- By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Friday, April 22, 2005
Oh my God I feel so much safer. Don't you?
I mean, don't you feel so much more secure in your all-American gun-totin' oil-happy lifestyle now that we have wasted upward of $300 billion worth of your child's future education budget, along with 1,600 disposable young American lives and over 20,000 innocent Iraqi lives and about 10,000 severed American limbs and untold wads of our spiritual and moral currency, all to protect America from terrorism that is, by every account, only getting worse? Nastier? More nebulous? More anti-American?
Here's something funny, in a rip-your-patriotic-heart-out-and-spit-on-it sort of way: Just last week, BushCo's State Department decided to kill the publication of an annual report on international terrorism. Why? Well, because the government's top terrorism center concluded that there were more terrorist attacks in 2004 than in any year since 1985. Isn't that hilarious? Isn't that heartwarming? Your tax dollars at work, sweetheart.
Lest you forget, this is what they do. They trim. They edit. They censor. BushCo kills what they do not like and fudges negative data where they see fit and completely rewrites whatever the hell they want, and that includes bogus WMD reports and CIA investigations and dire environmental studies and scientific proofs about everything from evolution to abortion and pollution and clean air, right along with miserable unemployment data and all manner of research pointing up the ill health of the nation, the spirit, the world.
In other words, if BushCo doesn't like what comes out of their own hobbled agencies and their own funded studies, they do what any good dictatorship does: They annihilate it. Now that's good gummint!
Let's be clear: The obliteration of the National Counterterrorism Center report merely goes to prove what so many of us already know -- that BushCo's brutish and borderline traitorous actions since they leveraged 9/11 to blatantly screw the nation have done exactly nothing to stem the tide of terrorism -- and, in fact, have, by most every measure, apparently increased the threat of terrorism. In other words, the world is a more dangerous place because of George W. Bush. Is that clear enough?
Let's put it another way: Under Bush, in the past five years, the U.S. has made zero new friends. But we have made a huge number of new and increasingly venomous enemies. And no, they don't hate us because of our malls, Dubya. They don't hate us because of our freedoms. They don't hate us because of our low-cut jeans and our moronic 8 mpg Ford Expeditions or our corrupt Diebold voting system that snuck you into office.
They hate us, George, because of our policies. Anti-Muslim. Pro-Israel. Oil-uber-alles. Anti-U.N. Anti-Kyoto. Anti-planet. Pro-war. Pro-insularity. Pseudo-swagger. Bogus staged "town hall" meetings stocked with prescreened monosyllabic Bush sycophants. Ego. Empire.
But here's the truly sad part, the hideous and depressing and soul-shredding part about all those young kids in the U.S. military right now, all those mostly undereducated, lower-middle-class kids, most of whom aren't even old enough to buy beer and many of whom have barely had sex and many who got sucked into the military vortex in an honest attempt to help pay for a college education so they could go out and not find a decent job in this miserable economy. The sad part is all those kids in the military who've been trained/brainwashed to believe they are serving in Iraq to protect America's freedom, to protect us from, well, something dark, and sinister, and deadly. When in fact, they're not. Not even close.
The truth is, we were never under threat from Iraq. There were never any WMDs, and Bush knew it. Our military is protecting nothing so much as our access to future stores of petroleum, nothing so much as helping set up a giant police station in Iraq to ensure surrounding nations don't get all uppity about just who controls the rights to those oil fields.
So let's get honest and just ask it outright: Is this a worthy use of the massive bloated machine that is the U.S. military? Of the largest and most advanced fighting force in the world? To protect the flow of oil to the most gluttonous and wasteful and least accountable developed nation on the planet? Is this worth so many young American lives?
You already know the answer. Ask any oil exec. Any government economist. Any BushCo war hawk or auto manufacturer or the leaders of any major manufacturing industry. Ask the president himself. They all say the same thing: You're goddamn right it is.
Here, then, is the warped, convoluted irony: We went to war under the lie of a Saddam-fueled terrorism threat that never existed. We are at war, instead, to protect our oil and to establish regional control, an act that, in turn, has destabilized the Middle East even further and is actually inciting much of the very terrorism we were ostensibly there to battle in the first place, thus producing a level of anti-U.S. hatred not even a (still alive and apparently very chipper) Osama bin Laden could have wet dreamed. Isn't democracy fun?
We are not "spreading democracy" by invading Iraq. We are not giving a gift of a more peaceable Iraq to a grateful world. That is merely insidious Republican PR spin. Right now, the U.S. military is, in short, protecting your right to a $3 gallon of gas, which will soon be $4 and then maybe $5 and $6 as we are running out of the stuff faster than anyone thought and the fight for that which remains will only turn uglier and more violent and so I have to ask again, do you feel safer?
Because if you say yes, you are, quite simply, lying. Or delusional. Or you have had your brain edited by BushCo. Or those are some mighty powerful drugs you are obviously taking and you might wish to consider switching to aspirin and wine and Fleshbot.com.
They say that violence is the last refuge of a desperate nation. And violence under the guise of secrecy and outright lie such as BushCo has foisted upon the nation is the last refuge of a nation of thugs. Yes, I'm looking at you, Rummy. I'm looking at you, Cheney. I'm not looking at you, Karl Rove, because looking at you makes my colon clench and looking at you makes birds die and looking at you makes small children feel hopeless and lost, like the world is full of black venomous hate and bilious condescension that is aimed squarely at their heads, like a gun.
It's true. We are living in a nation run by overprivileged alcoholic frat boys and power-mad thugs. This much we know. This much we need to be reminded of, over and over again, until we finally wake up.
Ah, but there is good news. There is always good news. The good news is, they are now confiscating all cigarette lighters at the airport. In the name of safety. In the name of homeland security. In the name of America, apple pie, babies, puppies, Jesus and guns. Lighters are now forbidden on all air travel. I mean, thank God. I feel safer already.
Creeping Specter of World Economic Slowdown
DEBKAfile Special Financial Analyst
April 21, 2005, 8:23 AM (GMT+02:00)
Sharp falls in equity markets around the globe, the $10 oil price drop from an all time high and the falling-off of US bond yields from 4.60 to 4.25% – all add up to a tremor rippling across world markets that is generated by fear of a slowdown in the making..
This fear is succored by a dangerous combination of factors: an expanding trade deficit, rocketing oil and commodities prices, a weak American labor market and, most of all, looming stagflation (inflation plus recession).
International Monetary Fund (IMF) heads gathered last weekend in Washington voiced concerns about growth, especially in the United States, under the burden of expensive oil and the soaring US trade deficit, which surged in February to the new all-time record of $61 billion. Finance ministers and central bankers from Europe, America and Japan, are deeply disturbed by high oil prices. Although oil fell back this week from its record $60 a barrel to below $50, a barrel still costs 50% more than it did two years ago. This poses a real threat to economic growth rates in developed countries led by America, Europe and Japan.
What world economic experts find most disturbing is the hint of stagflation in the United States posed by rising inflation (caused by spiraling prices of commodities and oil), unemployment and a weak labor market. The most serious aspect of stagflation is that it has no surefire economic cure.
US Federal Reserve heads have been combating inflationary pressures by periodically raising short-term interest rates. At the same time, consumers’ confidence is weak, as shown by the March retail sales figures (which gained only by 0.3% – about half the consensus). American labor market figures likewise show only a modest monthly growth of above 100,000 new jobs. This produces the very conditions which are making the markets so unhappy: inflationary pressure coupled with economic slowdown. Pushing interest rates up any further could further depress growth
Financial markets’ fast reactions
Equity markets around the globe tumbled during last week hitting 5-month lows. The Japanese stock market, a long-time favorite of DEBKAfile’s financial market analyst, sold off Monday, April 18 by 4% against the background of three weeks of violent anti-Japanese protests across China. Any damage to dynamic Japanese-Chinese trade relations now standing at $168 billion could send the slowly-recovering Japanese economy into a slump.
American equity markets declined sharply four days in a row - then perked up slightly.
As the season of quarterly reports approaches, investors worry that companies’ profits may be disappointing and not justify current share prices.
The bond market has tip-tilted in the last two weeks. American 10-year bond yields plummeted from a high of 4.65% to 4.20% during Tuesday April 19 trading. This reflects the altered expectations of continuing aggressive rises in interest rates – some even estimating the next hike on May 3 to hit 0.5% instead of 0.25% as heretofore.
These expectations have taken a knock from fears of a world economic slowdown. Investors therefore went back to the cozy safety of long-term bonds. Long term interest rates dropped sharply in consequence.
Foreign exchange markets still in two minds .
The US dollar slid again last week after the strong support levels of $1.27-1.28 per euro held steady. The week began with the dollar decline reflected in weakness in stock markets and the fall in long-term American bonds yield. Monday, April 18, the euro went up by 1.25% from $1.2880 to 1.3040 per euro. In contrast, currencies associated with global economic growth like the Australian dollar slumped on symptoms of slowdown against the American dollar and other currencies. Investors were drawn by their concerns for the stability of financial markets into the traditional safe havens of the Swiss franc and gold.
All financial markets have become more volatile of late, chasing like stampeding cattle from one attraction to another. One senior investor describes the markets as being “engulfed by wave upon wave of tsunamis.” This manifestation is caused largely by the heavy involvement of hedge funds in financial markets. The hedge funds are excessively leveraged, which means they are financed by as much as ten times (!) their capital value and make frequent acute turns - even in intraday trading.
Summing up
The world’s finance ministers and central bankers are seriously troubled by the American economy’s structural problems, high oil prices and signs of global economic slowdown. But speeches aside, public iterations of concern have not translated so far into action to address urgent problems. Any further crises, like for instance a real estate recession, would make it even harder to take such action.
We therefore predict a hard time for equity markets, a consolidation period and possibly more declines in the future. Bond and foreign exchange markets may remain volatile:
10-year bond yield should move between 4.00-4.40%. The dollar is still groping for a support level between $1.27-$1.28 per euro and resistance levels of $1.31-1.32 per euro.
Israeli markets
Contrary to most world markets, Israel’s economic figures continue to be good with the state budget in surplus and low inflation (The March consumer price index, CPI, was 0.2%.) Local capital markets enjoy strong buy recommendations from major foreign investment houses, like Merrill Lynch and Deustche Bank, which recently advised holdings in Israeli markets to be increased to above their weight in the emerging market index. This is one reason why the Tel Aviv stock exchange has consolidated lately between 630-660 points (on the Tel Aviv 25 index), and has emerged almost unhurt by the last sell-off in world equity markets. The crucial resistance level stands at 664 points (an all-time high).
Until last week, the Israeli foreign exchange market benefited from dollar strength around the world, surging to 4.40 shekels. But in the last few days, the falling dollar has restored trade to the narrow range of 4.37-4.40 shekel per dollar. Shrinking rate differentials between the dollar and the shekel support some dollar strength in the long term.
But it must be emphasized that all trends depend heavily on the security situation. Any resurgence of Palestinian terrorist attacks or clashes with Israeli troops before or during pullbacks could turn Israeli capital markets right round and point them in a negative direction.
Creeping Specter of World Economic Slowdown
DEBKAfile Special Financial Analyst
April 21, 2005, 8:23 AM (GMT+02:00)
Sharp falls in equity markets around the globe, the $10 oil price drop from an all time high and the falling-off of US bond yields from 4.60 to 4.25% – all add up to a tremor rippling across world markets that is generated by fear of a slowdown in the making..
This fear is succored by a dangerous combination of factors: an expanding trade deficit, rocketing oil and commodities prices, a weak American labor market and, most of all, looming stagflation (inflation plus recession).
International Monetary Fund (IMF) heads gathered last weekend in Washington voiced concerns about growth, especially in the United States, under the burden of expensive oil and the soaring US trade deficit, which surged in February to the new all-time record of $61 billion. Finance ministers and central bankers from Europe, America and Japan, are deeply disturbed by high oil prices. Although oil fell back this week from its record $60 a barrel to below $50, a barrel still costs 50% more than it did two years ago. This poses a real threat to economic growth rates in developed countries led by America, Europe and Japan.
What world economic experts find most disturbing is the hint of stagflation in the United States posed by rising inflation (caused by spiraling prices of commodities and oil), unemployment and a weak labor market. The most serious aspect of stagflation is that it has no surefire economic cure.
US Federal Reserve heads have been combating inflationary pressures by periodically raising short-term interest rates. At the same time, consumers’ confidence is weak, as shown by the March retail sales figures (which gained only by 0.3% – about half the consensus). American labor market figures likewise show only a modest monthly growth of above 100,000 new jobs. This produces the very conditions which are making the markets so unhappy: inflationary pressure coupled with economic slowdown. Pushing interest rates up any further could further depress growth
Financial markets’ fast reactions
Equity markets around the globe tumbled during last week hitting 5-month lows. The Japanese stock market, a long-time favorite of DEBKAfile’s financial market analyst, sold off Monday, April 18 by 4% against the background of three weeks of violent anti-Japanese protests across China. Any damage to dynamic Japanese-Chinese trade relations now standing at $168 billion could send the slowly-recovering Japanese economy into a slump.
American equity markets declined sharply four days in a row - then perked up slightly.
As the season of quarterly reports approaches, investors worry that companies’ profits may be disappointing and not justify current share prices.
The bond market has tip-tilted in the last two weeks. American 10-year bond yields plummeted from a high of 4.65% to 4.20% during Tuesday April 19 trading. This reflects the altered expectations of continuing aggressive rises in interest rates – some even estimating the next hike on May 3 to hit 0.5% instead of 0.25% as heretofore.
These expectations have taken a knock from fears of a world economic slowdown. Investors therefore went back to the cozy safety of long-term bonds. Long term interest rates dropped sharply in consequence.
Foreign exchange markets still in two minds .
The US dollar slid again last week after the strong support levels of $1.27-1.28 per euro held steady. The week began with the dollar decline reflected in weakness in stock markets and the fall in long-term American bonds yield. Monday, April 18, the euro went up by 1.25% from $1.2880 to 1.3040 per euro. In contrast, currencies associated with global economic growth like the Australian dollar slumped on symptoms of slowdown against the American dollar and other currencies. Investors were drawn by their concerns for the stability of financial markets into the traditional safe havens of the Swiss franc and gold.
All financial markets have become more volatile of late, chasing like stampeding cattle from one attraction to another. One senior investor describes the markets as being “engulfed by wave upon wave of tsunamis.” This manifestation is caused largely by the heavy involvement of hedge funds in financial markets. The hedge funds are excessively leveraged, which means they are financed by as much as ten times (!) their capital value and make frequent acute turns - even in intraday trading.
Summing up
The world’s finance ministers and central bankers are seriously troubled by the American economy’s structural problems, high oil prices and signs of global economic slowdown. But speeches aside, public iterations of concern have not translated so far into action to address urgent problems. Any further crises, like for instance a real estate recession, would make it even harder to take such action.
We therefore predict a hard time for equity markets, a consolidation period and possibly more declines in the future. Bond and foreign exchange markets may remain volatile:
10-year bond yield should move between 4.00-4.40%. The dollar is still groping for a support level between $1.27-$1.28 per euro and resistance levels of $1.31-1.32 per euro.
Israeli markets
Contrary to most world markets, Israel’s economic figures continue to be good with the state budget in surplus and low inflation (The March consumer price index, CPI, was 0.2%.) Local capital markets enjoy strong buy recommendations from major foreign investment houses, like Merrill Lynch and Deustche Bank, which recently advised holdings in Israeli markets to be increased to above their weight in the emerging market index. This is one reason why the Tel Aviv stock exchange has consolidated lately between 630-660 points (on the Tel Aviv 25 index), and has emerged almost unhurt by the last sell-off in world equity markets. The crucial resistance level stands at 664 points (an all-time high).
Until last week, the Israeli foreign exchange market benefited from dollar strength around the world, surging to 4.40 shekels. But in the last few days, the falling dollar has restored trade to the narrow range of 4.37-4.40 shekel per dollar. Shrinking rate differentials between the dollar and the shekel support some dollar strength in the long term.
But it must be emphasized that all trends depend heavily on the security situation. Any resurgence of Palestinian terrorist attacks or clashes with Israeli troops before or during pullbacks could turn Israeli capital markets right round and point them in a negative direction.
Creeping Specter of World Economic Slowdown
DEBKAfile Special Financial Analyst
April 21, 2005, 8:23 AM (GMT+02:00)
Sharp falls in equity markets around the globe, the $10 oil price drop from an all time high and the falling-off of US bond yields from 4.60 to 4.25% – all add up to a tremor rippling across world markets that is generated by fear of a slowdown in the making..
This fear is succored by a dangerous combination of factors: an expanding trade deficit, rocketing oil and commodities prices, a weak American labor market and, most of all, looming stagflation (inflation plus recession).
International Monetary Fund (IMF) heads gathered last weekend in Washington voiced concerns about growth, especially in the United States, under the burden of expensive oil and the soaring US trade deficit, which surged in February to the new all-time record of $61 billion. Finance ministers and central bankers from Europe, America and Japan, are deeply disturbed by high oil prices. Although oil fell back this week from its record $60 a barrel to below $50, a barrel still costs 50% more than it did two years ago. This poses a real threat to economic growth rates in developed countries led by America, Europe and Japan.
What world economic experts find most disturbing is the hint of stagflation in the United States posed by rising inflation (caused by spiraling prices of commodities and oil), unemployment and a weak labor market. The most serious aspect of stagflation is that it has no surefire economic cure.
US Federal Reserve heads have been combating inflationary pressures by periodically raising short-term interest rates. At the same time, consumers’ confidence is weak, as shown by the March retail sales figures (which gained only by 0.3% – about half the consensus). American labor market figures likewise show only a modest monthly growth of above 100,000 new jobs. This produces the very conditions which are making the markets so unhappy: inflationary pressure coupled with economic slowdown. Pushing interest rates up any further could further depress growth
Financial markets’ fast reactions
Equity markets around the globe tumbled during last week hitting 5-month lows. The Japanese stock market, a long-time favorite of DEBKAfile’s financial market analyst, sold off Monday, April 18 by 4% against the background of three weeks of violent anti-Japanese protests across China. Any damage to dynamic Japanese-Chinese trade relations now standing at $168 billion could send the slowly-recovering Japanese economy into a slump.
American equity markets declined sharply four days in a row - then perked up slightly.
As the season of quarterly reports approaches, investors worry that companies’ profits may be disappointing and not justify current share prices.
The bond market has tip-tilted in the last two weeks. American 10-year bond yields plummeted from a high of 4.65% to 4.20% during Tuesday April 19 trading. This reflects the altered expectations of continuing aggressive rises in interest rates – some even estimating the next hike on May 3 to hit 0.5% instead of 0.25% as heretofore.
These expectations have taken a knock from fears of a world economic slowdown. Investors therefore went back to the cozy safety of long-term bonds. Long term interest rates dropped sharply in consequence.
Foreign exchange markets still in two minds .
The US dollar slid again last week after the strong support levels of $1.27-1.28 per euro held steady. The week began with the dollar decline reflected in weakness in stock markets and the fall in long-term American bonds yield. Monday, April 18, the euro went up by 1.25% from $1.2880 to 1.3040 per euro. In contrast, currencies associated with global economic growth like the Australian dollar slumped on symptoms of slowdown against the American dollar and other currencies. Investors were drawn by their concerns for the stability of financial markets into the traditional safe havens of the Swiss franc and gold.
All financial markets have become more volatile of late, chasing like stampeding cattle from one attraction to another. One senior investor describes the markets as being “engulfed by wave upon wave of tsunamis.” This manifestation is caused largely by the heavy involvement of hedge funds in financial markets. The hedge funds are excessively leveraged, which means they are financed by as much as ten times (!) their capital value and make frequent acute turns - even in intraday trading.
Summing up
The world’s finance ministers and central bankers are seriously troubled by the American economy’s structural problems, high oil prices and signs of global economic slowdown. But speeches aside, public iterations of concern have not translated so far into action to address urgent problems. Any further crises, like for instance a real estate recession, would make it even harder to take such action.
We therefore predict a hard time for equity markets, a consolidation period and possibly more declines in the future. Bond and foreign exchange markets may remain volatile:
10-year bond yield should move between 4.00-4.40%. The dollar is still groping for a support level between $1.27-$1.28 per euro and resistance levels of $1.31-1.32 per euro.
Israeli markets
Contrary to most world markets, Israel’s economic figures continue to be good with the state budget in surplus and low inflation (The March consumer price index, CPI, was 0.2%.) Local capital markets enjoy strong buy recommendations from major foreign investment houses, like Merrill Lynch and Deustche Bank, which recently advised holdings in Israeli markets to be increased to above their weight in the emerging market index. This is one reason why the Tel Aviv stock exchange has consolidated lately between 630-660 points (on the Tel Aviv 25 index), and has emerged almost unhurt by the last sell-off in world equity markets. The crucial resistance level stands at 664 points (an all-time high).
Until last week, the Israeli foreign exchange market benefited from dollar strength around the world, surging to 4.40 shekels. But in the last few days, the falling dollar has restored trade to the narrow range of 4.37-4.40 shekel per dollar. Shrinking rate differentials between the dollar and the shekel support some dollar strength in the long term.
But it must be emphasized that all trends depend heavily on the security situation. Any resurgence of Palestinian terrorist attacks or clashes with Israeli troops before or during pullbacks could turn Israeli capital markets right round and point them in a negative direction.
Bush seeks funding for Iraq, Afghanistan
CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) — President Bush is pushing Congress to provide more money for combat and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan — funds the Pentagon says it needs by the first week of May.
"I applaud the House and Senate for their strong support of my supplemental funding request for our troops serving on the front lines," Bush said Saturday in his radio address.
"This funding will help provide the weapons, ammunition, spare parts and equipment that our troops need to do their job," he said. "I urge Congress to come together to resolve their remaining differences, and send me a bill quickly."
House and Senate negotiators are expected to act soon to sort out differences between their versions of the $81 billion spending bill. Both versions would push the total cost of combat and reconstruction past $300 billion since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
They give the president much of the money he requested, but the bills differ slightly over what part would fund military operations and how much would go toward foreign aid. Other issues to be resolved include immigration laws, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, military death benefits and the fate of an aircraft carrier.
Bush, who is spending the weekend at his Texas ranch, also prodded Congress to support cuts to Medicaid, the health care program for the poor and disabled that is run by federal and state governments.
In February, Bush proposed $8.5 billion in Medicaid cuts over five years. But the Republican-controlled Congress, leery of making politically unpopular cuts, has not been much help.
Bush seeks funding for Iraq, Afghanistan
CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) — President Bush is pushing Congress to provide more money for combat and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan — funds the Pentagon says it needs by the first week of May.
"I applaud the House and Senate for their strong support of my supplemental funding request for our troops serving on the front lines," Bush said Saturday in his radio address.
"This funding will help provide the weapons, ammunition, spare parts and equipment that our troops need to do their job," he said. "I urge Congress to come together to resolve their remaining differences, and send me a bill quickly."
House and Senate negotiators are expected to act soon to sort out differences between their versions of the $81 billion spending bill. Both versions would push the total cost of combat and reconstruction past $300 billion since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
They give the president much of the money he requested, but the bills differ slightly over what part would fund military operations and how much would go toward foreign aid. Other issues to be resolved include immigration laws, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, military death benefits and the fate of an aircraft carrier.
Bush, who is spending the weekend at his Texas ranch, also prodded Congress to support cuts to Medicaid, the health care program for the poor and disabled that is run by federal and state governments.
In February, Bush proposed $8.5 billion in Medicaid cuts over five years. But the Republican-controlled Congress, leery of making politically unpopular cuts, has not been much help.
Bush seeks funding for Iraq, Afghanistan
CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) — President Bush is pushing Congress to provide more money for combat and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan — funds the Pentagon says it needs by the first week of May.
"I applaud the House and Senate for their strong support of my supplemental funding request for our troops serving on the front lines," Bush said Saturday in his radio address.
"This funding will help provide the weapons, ammunition, spare parts and equipment that our troops need to do their job," he said. "I urge Congress to come together to resolve their remaining differences, and send me a bill quickly."
House and Senate negotiators are expected to act soon to sort out differences between their versions of the $81 billion spending bill. Both versions would push the total cost of combat and reconstruction past $300 billion since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
They give the president much of the money he requested, but the bills differ slightly over what part would fund military operations and how much would go toward foreign aid. Other issues to be resolved include immigration laws, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, military death benefits and the fate of an aircraft carrier.
Bush, who is spending the weekend at his Texas ranch, also prodded Congress to support cuts to Medicaid, the health care program for the poor and disabled that is run by federal and state governments.
In February, Bush proposed $8.5 billion in Medicaid cuts over five years. But the Republican-controlled Congress, leery of making politically unpopular cuts, has not been much help.
$280b tobacco penalty blocked
Appeals court rejects US request
By Hilary Roxe, Associated Press | April 21, 2005
WASHINGTON -- An appeals court won't reconsider its decision barring the Justice Department from seeking $280 billion in a lawsuit against cigarette companies.
In a vote yesterday the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit was split, 3 to 3, on whether to reconsider the case, according to a Justice Department spokesman.
Officials said the government has not decided whether to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.
''In the wake of the tied vote . . . the United States will carefully review its options and make a determination in the near future as to what course of action it will pursue," Associate Attorney General Robert D. McCallum Jr. said.
In the case -- filed in 1999 under a federal racketeering statute, RICO -- the government is alleging that cigarette makers conspired for decades to deceive the public about the dangers of smoking. A trial began in US District Court in September.
The Justice Department last month asked the full court to reconsider a panel's 2-to-1 decision that the government could not seek the huge penalty. The panel decided that the government was limited to ''forward-looking" remedies, and that ''disgorgement" -- seeking money allegedly earned through fraudulent means -- was not such a remedy.
US District Judge Gladys Kessler still could impose restrictions on the tobacco companies, such as limiting marketing or requiring the industry to finance public health campaigns or smoking cessation programs.
But Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, said the decision puts the government in a ''rather untenable position."
''It lost the majority of its expected damages out of this case," he said. ''On the other hand, it can't simply pick up its marbles and go home."
The Justice Department has spent more than $135 million on the case, filed under the Clinton administration.
William V. Corr, executive director of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, urged the government to appeal the disgorgement decision and said the ruling ''has a significant impact on the government's ability to use the RICO law against major corporate wrongdoing in all industries."
Failing to appeal could also leave ''major questions about the remedies that are available to Judge Kessler," Corr said.
Representatives of the cigarette companies did not return phone calls or had no immediate comment on the effect of the decision.
The appeals court decision also could weaken the government's hand in any settlement talks with cigarette makers, Turley said.
''Disgorgement was the 800-pound gorilla in the closet," he said. ''I think that 800-pound gorilla is now a midsize chimpanzee."
The defendants in the lawsuit are Philip Morris USA Inc. and its parent, Altria Group Inc.; R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.; Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co.; British American Tobacco Ltd.; Lorillard Tobacco Co.; Liggett Group Inc.; Council for Tobacco Research-USA; and the Tobacco Institute.
Altria shares fell 22 cents to $63.90 on the New York Stock Exchange, while Reynolds American Inc., which owns Reynolds Tobacco and Brown & Williamson, lost 5 cents to $77.90, and Lorillard owner Loews Corp. fell 46 cents to $70.25.
$280b tobacco penalty blocked
Appeals court rejects US request
By Hilary Roxe, Associated Press | April 21, 2005
WASHINGTON -- An appeals court won't reconsider its decision barring the Justice Department from seeking $280 billion in a lawsuit against cigarette companies.
In a vote yesterday the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit was split, 3 to 3, on whether to reconsider the case, according to a Justice Department spokesman.
Officials said the government has not decided whether to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.
''In the wake of the tied vote . . . the United States will carefully review its options and make a determination in the near future as to what course of action it will pursue," Associate Attorney General Robert D. McCallum Jr. said.
In the case -- filed in 1999 under a federal racketeering statute, RICO -- the government is alleging that cigarette makers conspired for decades to deceive the public about the dangers of smoking. A trial began in US District Court in September.
The Justice Department last month asked the full court to reconsider a panel's 2-to-1 decision that the government could not seek the huge penalty. The panel decided that the government was limited to ''forward-looking" remedies, and that ''disgorgement" -- seeking money allegedly earned through fraudulent means -- was not such a remedy.
US District Judge Gladys Kessler still could impose restrictions on the tobacco companies, such as limiting marketing or requiring the industry to finance public health campaigns or smoking cessation programs.
But Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, said the decision puts the government in a ''rather untenable position."
''It lost the majority of its expected damages out of this case," he said. ''On the other hand, it can't simply pick up its marbles and go home."
The Justice Department has spent more than $135 million on the case, filed under the Clinton administration.
William V. Corr, executive director of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, urged the government to appeal the disgorgement decision and said the ruling ''has a significant impact on the government's ability to use the RICO law against major corporate wrongdoing in all industries."
Failing to appeal could also leave ''major questions about the remedies that are available to Judge Kessler," Corr said.
Representatives of the cigarette companies did not return phone calls or had no immediate comment on the effect of the decision.
The appeals court decision also could weaken the government's hand in any settlement talks with cigarette makers, Turley said.
''Disgorgement was the 800-pound gorilla in the closet," he said. ''I think that 800-pound gorilla is now a midsize chimpanzee."
The defendants in the lawsuit are Philip Morris USA Inc. and its parent, Altria Group Inc.; R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.; Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co.; British American Tobacco Ltd.; Lorillard Tobacco Co.; Liggett Group Inc.; Council for Tobacco Research-USA; and the Tobacco Institute.
Altria shares fell 22 cents to $63.90 on the New York Stock Exchange, while Reynolds American Inc., which owns Reynolds Tobacco and Brown & Williamson, lost 5 cents to $77.90, and Lorillard owner Loews Corp. fell 46 cents to $70.25.
$280b tobacco penalty blocked
Appeals court rejects US request
By Hilary Roxe, Associated Press | April 21, 2005
WASHINGTON -- An appeals court won't reconsider its decision barring the Justice Department from seeking $280 billion in a lawsuit against cigarette companies.
In a vote yesterday the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit was split, 3 to 3, on whether to reconsider the case, according to a Justice Department spokesman.
Officials said the government has not decided whether to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.
''In the wake of the tied vote . . . the United States will carefully review its options and make a determination in the near future as to what course of action it will pursue," Associate Attorney General Robert D. McCallum Jr. said.
In the case -- filed in 1999 under a federal racketeering statute, RICO -- the government is alleging that cigarette makers conspired for decades to deceive the public about the dangers of smoking. A trial began in US District Court in September.
The Justice Department last month asked the full court to reconsider a panel's 2-to-1 decision that the government could not seek the huge penalty. The panel decided that the government was limited to ''forward-looking" remedies, and that ''disgorgement" -- seeking money allegedly earned through fraudulent means -- was not such a remedy.
US District Judge Gladys Kessler still could impose restrictions on the tobacco companies, such as limiting marketing or requiring the industry to finance public health campaigns or smoking cessation programs.
But Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, said the decision puts the government in a ''rather untenable position."
''It lost the majority of its expected damages out of this case," he said. ''On the other hand, it can't simply pick up its marbles and go home."
The Justice Department has spent more than $135 million on the case, filed under the Clinton administration.
William V. Corr, executive director of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, urged the government to appeal the disgorgement decision and said the ruling ''has a significant impact on the government's ability to use the RICO law against major corporate wrongdoing in all industries."
Failing to appeal could also leave ''major questions about the remedies that are available to Judge Kessler," Corr said.
Representatives of the cigarette companies did not return phone calls or had no immediate comment on the effect of the decision.
The appeals court decision also could weaken the government's hand in any settlement talks with cigarette makers, Turley said.
''Disgorgement was the 800-pound gorilla in the closet," he said. ''I think that 800-pound gorilla is now a midsize chimpanzee."
The defendants in the lawsuit are Philip Morris USA Inc. and its parent, Altria Group Inc.; R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.; Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co.; British American Tobacco Ltd.; Lorillard Tobacco Co.; Liggett Group Inc.; Council for Tobacco Research-USA; and the Tobacco Institute.
Altria shares fell 22 cents to $63.90 on the New York Stock Exchange, while Reynolds American Inc., which owns Reynolds Tobacco and Brown & Williamson, lost 5 cents to $77.90, and Lorillard owner Loews Corp. fell 46 cents to $70.25.
Greenspan warns again about budget deficits
By Jeannine Aversa, Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Bloated budget deficits pose a danger to the nation's long-term economic health, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned anew Thursday.
He said the danger is that deficits will keep rising as a percentage of total national output, and "unless that trend is reversed, at some point these deficits would cause the economy to stagnate or worse."
He issued a fresh call to policymakers to move swiftly to get the government's fiscal house in order.
"Under existing tax rates and reasonable assumptions about other spending ... projections make clear that the federal budget is on an unsustainable path, in which large deficits result in rising interest rates and ever-growing interest payments that augment deficits in future years," Greenspan said in prepared testimony to the Senate Budget Committee, .
Greenspan reiterated his call for some type of automatic government spending controls.
"In my judgment, the necessary choices will be especially difficult to implement without the restoration of a set of procedural restraints on the budget-making process," he said.
President Bush has pledged to cut the budget gap in half by 2009. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated the 2005 budget shortfall will be around $400 billion, including money for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Fed chief has long urged renewing so-called pay-go provisions that compel lawmakers to show how they will pay for any spending initiatives or tax cuts.
Greenspan said the approaching surge of retirees adds urgency to the need to deal with budget constraints in light of uncertainty about the scale of looming medical and retirement costs.
"These uncertainties — especially our inability to identify the upper bound of future demands for medical care — counsel significant prudence in policy-making," Greenspan said, adding that policymakers "need to err on the side of prudence when considering new budget initiatives."
He repeated that the United States may already be in a position where it cannot meet commitments made to the baby boom generation and urged benefit cuts, if needed, be made as soon as possible.
"If existing promises need to be changed, those changes should be made sooner rather than later," he said.
Much of Greenspan's testimony echoed prior cautions he has made to Capitol Hill lawmakers and he stressed that steps to fix the problem are essential.
"As the latest projections from the (Bush) administration and the Congressional Budget Office suggest, our budget position is unlikely to improve substantially in the coming years unless major deficit-reducing actions are taken," the Fed chief said.
He only briefly touched on the economy's current performance, saying "activity appears to be expanding at a reasonably good pace," an assessment he has made repeatedly this year.
His comments come as some private economists are concerned about the extent to which high energy prices will crimp economic activity.
Greenspan warns again about budget deficits
By Jeannine Aversa, Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Bloated budget deficits pose a danger to the nation's long-term economic health, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned anew Thursday.
He said the danger is that deficits will keep rising as a percentage of total national output, and "unless that trend is reversed, at some point these deficits would cause the economy to stagnate or worse."
He issued a fresh call to policymakers to move swiftly to get the government's fiscal house in order.
"Under existing tax rates and reasonable assumptions about other spending ... projections make clear that the federal budget is on an unsustainable path, in which large deficits result in rising interest rates and ever-growing interest payments that augment deficits in future years," Greenspan said in prepared testimony to the Senate Budget Committee, .
Greenspan reiterated his call for some type of automatic government spending controls.
"In my judgment, the necessary choices will be especially difficult to implement without the restoration of a set of procedural restraints on the budget-making process," he said.
President Bush has pledged to cut the budget gap in half by 2009. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated the 2005 budget shortfall will be around $400 billion, including money for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Fed chief has long urged renewing so-called pay-go provisions that compel lawmakers to show how they will pay for any spending initiatives or tax cuts.
Greenspan said the approaching surge of retirees adds urgency to the need to deal with budget constraints in light of uncertainty about the scale of looming medical and retirement costs.
"These uncertainties — especially our inability to identify the upper bound of future demands for medical care — counsel significant prudence in policy-making," Greenspan said, adding that policymakers "need to err on the side of prudence when considering new budget initiatives."
He repeated that the United States may already be in a position where it cannot meet commitments made to the baby boom generation and urged benefit cuts, if needed, be made as soon as possible.
"If existing promises need to be changed, those changes should be made sooner rather than later," he said.
Much of Greenspan's testimony echoed prior cautions he has made to Capitol Hill lawmakers and he stressed that steps to fix the problem are essential.
"As the latest projections from the (Bush) administration and the Congressional Budget Office suggest, our budget position is unlikely to improve substantially in the coming years unless major deficit-reducing actions are taken," the Fed chief said.
He only briefly touched on the economy's current performance, saying "activity appears to be expanding at a reasonably good pace," an assessment he has made repeatedly this year.
His comments come as some private economists are concerned about the extent to which high energy prices will crimp economic activity.
Greenspan warns again about budget deficits
By Jeannine Aversa, Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Bloated budget deficits pose a danger to the nation's long-term economic health, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned anew Thursday.
He said the danger is that deficits will keep rising as a percentage of total national output, and "unless that trend is reversed, at some point these deficits would cause the economy to stagnate or worse."
He issued a fresh call to policymakers to move swiftly to get the government's fiscal house in order.
"Under existing tax rates and reasonable assumptions about other spending ... projections make clear that the federal budget is on an unsustainable path, in which large deficits result in rising interest rates and ever-growing interest payments that augment deficits in future years," Greenspan said in prepared testimony to the Senate Budget Committee, .
Greenspan reiterated his call for some type of automatic government spending controls.
"In my judgment, the necessary choices will be especially difficult to implement without the restoration of a set of procedural restraints on the budget-making process," he said.
President Bush has pledged to cut the budget gap in half by 2009. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated the 2005 budget shortfall will be around $400 billion, including money for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Fed chief has long urged renewing so-called pay-go provisions that compel lawmakers to show how they will pay for any spending initiatives or tax cuts.
Greenspan said the approaching surge of retirees adds urgency to the need to deal with budget constraints in light of uncertainty about the scale of looming medical and retirement costs.
"These uncertainties — especially our inability to identify the upper bound of future demands for medical care — counsel significant prudence in policy-making," Greenspan said, adding that policymakers "need to err on the side of prudence when considering new budget initiatives."
He repeated that the United States may already be in a position where it cannot meet commitments made to the baby boom generation and urged benefit cuts, if needed, be made as soon as possible.
"If existing promises need to be changed, those changes should be made sooner rather than later," he said.
Much of Greenspan's testimony echoed prior cautions he has made to Capitol Hill lawmakers and he stressed that steps to fix the problem are essential.
"As the latest projections from the (Bush) administration and the Congressional Budget Office suggest, our budget position is unlikely to improve substantially in the coming years unless major deficit-reducing actions are taken," the Fed chief said.
He only briefly touched on the economy's current performance, saying "activity appears to be expanding at a reasonably good pace," an assessment he has made repeatedly this year.
His comments come as some private economists are concerned about the extent to which high energy prices will crimp economic activity.
Dow sinks to 2005 low as inflation fears rise
NEW YORK (AP) — Blue-chip stocks tumbled to fresh 2005 year lows Wednesday as a jump in consumer prices fanned inflation fears and overshadowed better-than-expected earnings from companies such as Caterpillar and Intel.
According to preliminary results, the Dow closed down 115.05, or 1.14%, at 10,012.36. The Dow last closed below 10,000 on Oct. 26.
Broader gauges were also lower. The Standard & Poor's 500 index slid 15.28, or 1.33%, to 1,137.50. The Nasdaq composite index lost 18.60, or 0.96%, to 1,913.76.
With 1,200 companies releasing earnings this week, investors have plenty of corporate news to sift through, but the economy remains in the spotlight. Stocks sank after the release of the Federal Reserve's "Beige Book" survey, which reported expansion of business activity from late February to early April, but "uneven progress" in some parts of the country, and higher inflation.
Dow sinks to 2005 low as inflation fears rise
NEW YORK (AP) — Blue-chip stocks tumbled to fresh 2005 year lows Wednesday as a jump in consumer prices fanned inflation fears and overshadowed better-than-expected earnings from companies such as Caterpillar and Intel.
According to preliminary results, the Dow closed down 115.05, or 1.14%, at 10,012.36. The Dow last closed below 10,000 on Oct. 26.
Broader gauges were also lower. The Standard & Poor's 500 index slid 15.28, or 1.33%, to 1,137.50. The Nasdaq composite index lost 18.60, or 0.96%, to 1,913.76.
With 1,200 companies releasing earnings this week, investors have plenty of corporate news to sift through, but the economy remains in the spotlight. Stocks sank after the release of the Federal Reserve's "Beige Book" survey, which reported expansion of business activity from late February to early April, but "uneven progress" in some parts of the country, and higher inflation.
Dow sinks to 2005 low as inflation fears rise
NEW YORK (AP) — Blue-chip stocks tumbled to fresh 2005 year lows Wednesday as a jump in consumer prices fanned inflation fears and overshadowed better-than-expected earnings from companies such as Caterpillar and Intel.
According to preliminary results, the Dow closed down 115.05, or 1.14%, at 10,012.36. The Dow last closed below 10,000 on Oct. 26.
Broader gauges were also lower. The Standard & Poor's 500 index slid 15.28, or 1.33%, to 1,137.50. The Nasdaq composite index lost 18.60, or 0.96%, to 1,913.76.
With 1,200 companies releasing earnings this week, investors have plenty of corporate news to sift through, but the economy remains in the spotlight. Stocks sank after the release of the Federal Reserve's "Beige Book" survey, which reported expansion of business activity from late February to early April, but "uneven progress" in some parts of the country, and higher inflation.
Dozens of bodies discovered in two Iraq locations
BAGHDAD (AP) — The bodies of more than 50 people have been recovered from the Tigris River and have been identified, President Jalal Talabani said Wednesday. He said the bodies were believed to have been those of hostages seized in a region south of Baghdad earlier this month.
"We have the full names of those who were killed and those criminals who committed these crimes," Talabani said.
AFP/Getty Images
In a separate discovery, another 19 Iraqis were shot to death and left lined up against a bloodstained wall in a soccer stadium in the town of Haditha, about 140 miles northwest of Baghdad, an Iraqi reporter and residents said.
Talabani did not specify when or where the bodies were recovered from the Tigris. However, he gave the information in response to a question about the search for hostages reportedly seized from the area around Madain, 14 miles south of Baghdad.
Shiite leaders and government officials claimed last week that Sunni militants had abducted as many as 100 Shiite residents from the area and were threatening to kill them unless all Shiites left. But when Iraqi forces moved into the town of about 1,000 families over the weekend, they found no captives, and residents said they had seen no evidence anyone had been seized.
"Terrorists committed crimes there. It is not true to say there were no hostages. There were. They were killed, and they threw the bodies into the Tigris," Talabani said. "We have the full names of those who were killed and those criminals who committed these crimes."
In Haditha, taxi drivers Rauf Salih and Ousama Halim said they rushed to the stadium after hearing gunshots and found the bodies lined up against a wall. The reporter and other residents counted 19 bodies and said all appeared to have been shot.
Residents said they believed the victims — all men in civilian clothes — were soldiers abducted by insurgents as they headed home for a holiday marking the birthday of the prophet Muhammad.
The reporter did not see any military identification documents on the bodies and it was not possible to verify the claim, which may have been based on a previous incidents, including one in October when insurgents ambushed and executed about 50 unarmed Iraqi soldiers as they were heading home from a U.S. military training camp northeast of Baghdad.
U.S. and Iraqi military forces had no report of any killings at the stadium.
Militant violence has surged in the past week, especially in Baghdad, with explosions often going off one after another in the morning. (Related video: Violence in Baghdad)
The first car bomb exploded near a U.S. convoy in an area of western Baghdad where the notorious Abu Ghraib prison is located, setting an oil tanker on fire, said police Maj. Moussa Abdulkarim. Two Iraqis were killed and five wounded, said Hussam Abdulrazaq, an official at the nearby al-Yarmouk Hospital. The U.S. military had no immediate information on the incident.
The two other car bombs exploded in southern Baghdad. One missed a police convoy but hit a civilian car, killing two Iraqis and wounding four, said police Capt. Falah al-Muhamadwai. The other exploded in a parking lot near Bilat al-Shuhada police station in Dora area, wounding four civilians, said police Lt. Hassan Falah.
In Sadr city, a poor section of eastern Baghdad, gunmen in a speeding car fired on policeman Ali Talib as he walked toward his car, killing him, said Col. Hussein Abdulwahid of the local police force. In another part of east Baghdad, gunmen attacked a Health Ministry car, killing the driver and wounding an unidentified passenger, said police Col. Hassan Jaloub.
South of the city, one policeman was killed and two were seriously wounded when their patrol was hit by a roadside bomb in the town of Mowailha, said police Capt. Muthana AL-Furati.
On Tuesday night, an attack by a suicide car bomber near an American patrol in southern Baghdad killed two U.S. soldiers and wounded four, said Lt. Col. Clifford Kent, a spokesman for America's 3rd Infantry Division. Seven Iraqi civilians also were wounded, an official at Al-Yarmouk Hospital said.
In the southern city of Basra, Abdulal al-Batat, a former aide to Saddam Hussein's half brother, Sabawi Ibrahimal-Hassan, was killed Tuesday by gunmen outside his home, said police Lt. Col. Karim al-Zaydi.
Al-Hassan, who was suspected of financing insurgents after U.S. troops ousted Saddam in 2003, was captured in Syria and turned over to Iraqi authorities in February.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq, the nation's most feared terror group, claimed responsibility for Tuesday's worst attack, a suicide bombing near an army recruitment center in Baghdad that police said killed at least six Iraqis and wounded 44.
The weeklong surge in violence comes as Shiite and Kurdish leaders try to form a Cabinet that will also include members of Iraq's Sunni minority, believed to form the backbone of the insurgency. Talibani told reporters that officials hope to announce the new government Thursday.
On Tuesday, the U.S. military said it regretted an incident in which a Shiite legislator linked to a radical anti-American cleric was briefly held at a checkpoint by American soldiers.
Fattah al-Sheik tearfully told parliament he had been handcuffed and humiliated at a U.S. checkpoint on his way to work. He claimed an American soldier kicked his car, mocked the legislature, handcuffed him and held him by the neck. The assembly demanded a U.S. apology and prosecution of the soldier involved.
A U.S. military statement said its initial investigation indicated that al-Sheik got into an altercation with a coalition translator at the checkpoint. U.S. soldiers tried to separate them and "briefly held on to the legislator," while preventing another member of al-Sheik's party from getting out of his car.
"We have the highest respect for all members of the Transitional National Assembly. Their safety and security is critically important," U.S. Brig. Gen. Karl R. Horst said in the statement. "We regret this incident occurred and are conducting a thorough investigation."
Al-Sheik's small party has been linked to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who led uprisings against the U.S.-led coalition in 2004. On his way home after the session, gunmen fired on al-Sheik's convoy, but he escaped unharmed, police and his party said.
Dozens of bodies discovered in two Iraq locations
BAGHDAD (AP) — The bodies of more than 50 people have been recovered from the Tigris River and have been identified, President Jalal Talabani said Wednesday. He said the bodies were believed to have been those of hostages seized in a region south of Baghdad earlier this month.
"We have the full names of those who were killed and those criminals who committed these crimes," Talabani said.
AFP/Getty Images
In a separate discovery, another 19 Iraqis were shot to death and left lined up against a bloodstained wall in a soccer stadium in the town of Haditha, about 140 miles northwest of Baghdad, an Iraqi reporter and residents said.
Talabani did not specify when or where the bodies were recovered from the Tigris. However, he gave the information in response to a question about the search for hostages reportedly seized from the area around Madain, 14 miles south of Baghdad.
Shiite leaders and government officials claimed last week that Sunni militants had abducted as many as 100 Shiite residents from the area and were threatening to kill them unless all Shiites left. But when Iraqi forces moved into the town of about 1,000 families over the weekend, they found no captives, and residents said they had seen no evidence anyone had been seized.
"Terrorists committed crimes there. It is not true to say there were no hostages. There were. They were killed, and they threw the bodies into the Tigris," Talabani said. "We have the full names of those who were killed and those criminals who committed these crimes."
In Haditha, taxi drivers Rauf Salih and Ousama Halim said they rushed to the stadium after hearing gunshots and found the bodies lined up against a wall. The reporter and other residents counted 19 bodies and said all appeared to have been shot.
Residents said they believed the victims — all men in civilian clothes — were soldiers abducted by insurgents as they headed home for a holiday marking the birthday of the prophet Muhammad.
The reporter did not see any military identification documents on the bodies and it was not possible to verify the claim, which may have been based on a previous incidents, including one in October when insurgents ambushed and executed about 50 unarmed Iraqi soldiers as they were heading home from a U.S. military training camp northeast of Baghdad.
U.S. and Iraqi military forces had no report of any killings at the stadium.
Militant violence has surged in the past week, especially in Baghdad, with explosions often going off one after another in the morning. (Related video: Violence in Baghdad)
The first car bomb exploded near a U.S. convoy in an area of western Baghdad where the notorious Abu Ghraib prison is located, setting an oil tanker on fire, said police Maj. Moussa Abdulkarim. Two Iraqis were killed and five wounded, said Hussam Abdulrazaq, an official at the nearby al-Yarmouk Hospital. The U.S. military had no immediate information on the incident.
The two other car bombs exploded in southern Baghdad. One missed a police convoy but hit a civilian car, killing two Iraqis and wounding four, said police Capt. Falah al-Muhamadwai. The other exploded in a parking lot near Bilat al-Shuhada police station in Dora area, wounding four civilians, said police Lt. Hassan Falah.
In Sadr city, a poor section of eastern Baghdad, gunmen in a speeding car fired on policeman Ali Talib as he walked toward his car, killing him, said Col. Hussein Abdulwahid of the local police force. In another part of east Baghdad, gunmen attacked a Health Ministry car, killing the driver and wounding an unidentified passenger, said police Col. Hassan Jaloub.
South of the city, one policeman was killed and two were seriously wounded when their patrol was hit by a roadside bomb in the town of Mowailha, said police Capt. Muthana AL-Furati.
On Tuesday night, an attack by a suicide car bomber near an American patrol in southern Baghdad killed two U.S. soldiers and wounded four, said Lt. Col. Clifford Kent, a spokesman for America's 3rd Infantry Division. Seven Iraqi civilians also were wounded, an official at Al-Yarmouk Hospital said.
In the southern city of Basra, Abdulal al-Batat, a former aide to Saddam Hussein's half brother, Sabawi Ibrahimal-Hassan, was killed Tuesday by gunmen outside his home, said police Lt. Col. Karim al-Zaydi.
Al-Hassan, who was suspected of financing insurgents after U.S. troops ousted Saddam in 2003, was captured in Syria and turned over to Iraqi authorities in February.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq, the nation's most feared terror group, claimed responsibility for Tuesday's worst attack, a suicide bombing near an army recruitment center in Baghdad that police said killed at least six Iraqis and wounded 44.
The weeklong surge in violence comes as Shiite and Kurdish leaders try to form a Cabinet that will also include members of Iraq's Sunni minority, believed to form the backbone of the insurgency. Talibani told reporters that officials hope to announce the new government Thursday.
On Tuesday, the U.S. military said it regretted an incident in which a Shiite legislator linked to a radical anti-American cleric was briefly held at a checkpoint by American soldiers.
Fattah al-Sheik tearfully told parliament he had been handcuffed and humiliated at a U.S. checkpoint on his way to work. He claimed an American soldier kicked his car, mocked the legislature, handcuffed him and held him by the neck. The assembly demanded a U.S. apology and prosecution of the soldier involved.
A U.S. military statement said its initial investigation indicated that al-Sheik got into an altercation with a coalition translator at the checkpoint. U.S. soldiers tried to separate them and "briefly held on to the legislator," while preventing another member of al-Sheik's party from getting out of his car.
"We have the highest respect for all members of the Transitional National Assembly. Their safety and security is critically important," U.S. Brig. Gen. Karl R. Horst said in the statement. "We regret this incident occurred and are conducting a thorough investigation."
Al-Sheik's small party has been linked to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who led uprisings against the U.S.-led coalition in 2004. On his way home after the session, gunmen fired on al-Sheik's convoy, but he escaped unharmed, police and his party said.
Dozens of bodies discovered in two Iraq locations
BAGHDAD (AP) — The bodies of more than 50 people have been recovered from the Tigris River and have been identified, President Jalal Talabani said Wednesday. He said the bodies were believed to have been those of hostages seized in a region south of Baghdad earlier this month.
"We have the full names of those who were killed and those criminals who committed these crimes," Talabani said.
AFP/Getty Images
In a separate discovery, another 19 Iraqis were shot to death and left lined up against a bloodstained wall in a soccer stadium in the town of Haditha, about 140 miles northwest of Baghdad, an Iraqi reporter and residents said.
Talabani did not specify when or where the bodies were recovered from the Tigris. However, he gave the information in response to a question about the search for hostages reportedly seized from the area around Madain, 14 miles south of Baghdad.
Shiite leaders and government officials claimed last week that Sunni militants had abducted as many as 100 Shiite residents from the area and were threatening to kill them unless all Shiites left. But when Iraqi forces moved into the town of about 1,000 families over the weekend, they found no captives, and residents said they had seen no evidence anyone had been seized.
"Terrorists committed crimes there. It is not true to say there were no hostages. There were. They were killed, and they threw the bodies into the Tigris," Talabani said. "We have the full names of those who were killed and those criminals who committed these crimes."
In Haditha, taxi drivers Rauf Salih and Ousama Halim said they rushed to the stadium after hearing gunshots and found the bodies lined up against a wall. The reporter and other residents counted 19 bodies and said all appeared to have been shot.
Residents said they believed the victims — all men in civilian clothes — were soldiers abducted by insurgents as they headed home for a holiday marking the birthday of the prophet Muhammad.
The reporter did not see any military identification documents on the bodies and it was not possible to verify the claim, which may have been based on a previous incidents, including one in October when insurgents ambushed and executed about 50 unarmed Iraqi soldiers as they were heading home from a U.S. military training camp northeast of Baghdad.
U.S. and Iraqi military forces had no report of any killings at the stadium.
Militant violence has surged in the past week, especially in Baghdad, with explosions often going off one after another in the morning. (Related video: Violence in Baghdad)
The first car bomb exploded near a U.S. convoy in an area of western Baghdad where the notorious Abu Ghraib prison is located, setting an oil tanker on fire, said police Maj. Moussa Abdulkarim. Two Iraqis were killed and five wounded, said Hussam Abdulrazaq, an official at the nearby al-Yarmouk Hospital. The U.S. military had no immediate information on the incident.
The two other car bombs exploded in southern Baghdad. One missed a police convoy but hit a civilian car, killing two Iraqis and wounding four, said police Capt. Falah al-Muhamadwai. The other exploded in a parking lot near Bilat al-Shuhada police station in Dora area, wounding four civilians, said police Lt. Hassan Falah.
In Sadr city, a poor section of eastern Baghdad, gunmen in a speeding car fired on policeman Ali Talib as he walked toward his car, killing him, said Col. Hussein Abdulwahid of the local police force. In another part of east Baghdad, gunmen attacked a Health Ministry car, killing the driver and wounding an unidentified passenger, said police Col. Hassan Jaloub.
South of the city, one policeman was killed and two were seriously wounded when their patrol was hit by a roadside bomb in the town of Mowailha, said police Capt. Muthana AL-Furati.
On Tuesday night, an attack by a suicide car bomber near an American patrol in southern Baghdad killed two U.S. soldiers and wounded four, said Lt. Col. Clifford Kent, a spokesman for America's 3rd Infantry Division. Seven Iraqi civilians also were wounded, an official at Al-Yarmouk Hospital said.
In the southern city of Basra, Abdulal al-Batat, a former aide to Saddam Hussein's half brother, Sabawi Ibrahimal-Hassan, was killed Tuesday by gunmen outside his home, said police Lt. Col. Karim al-Zaydi.
Al-Hassan, who was suspected of financing insurgents after U.S. troops ousted Saddam in 2003, was captured in Syria and turned over to Iraqi authorities in February.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq, the nation's most feared terror group, claimed responsibility for Tuesday's worst attack, a suicide bombing near an army recruitment center in Baghdad that police said killed at least six Iraqis and wounded 44.
The weeklong surge in violence comes as Shiite and Kurdish leaders try to form a Cabinet that will also include members of Iraq's Sunni minority, believed to form the backbone of the insurgency. Talibani told reporters that officials hope to announce the new government Thursday.
On Tuesday, the U.S. military said it regretted an incident in which a Shiite legislator linked to a radical anti-American cleric was briefly held at a checkpoint by American soldiers.
Fattah al-Sheik tearfully told parliament he had been handcuffed and humiliated at a U.S. checkpoint on his way to work. He claimed an American soldier kicked his car, mocked the legislature, handcuffed him and held him by the neck. The assembly demanded a U.S. apology and prosecution of the soldier involved.
A U.S. military statement said its initial investigation indicated that al-Sheik got into an altercation with a coalition translator at the checkpoint. U.S. soldiers tried to separate them and "briefly held on to the legislator," while preventing another member of al-Sheik's party from getting out of his car.
"We have the highest respect for all members of the Transitional National Assembly. Their safety and security is critically important," U.S. Brig. Gen. Karl R. Horst said in the statement. "We regret this incident occurred and are conducting a thorough investigation."
Al-Sheik's small party has been linked to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who led uprisings against the U.S.-led coalition in 2004. On his way home after the session, gunmen fired on al-Sheik's convoy, but he escaped unharmed, police and his party said.
Bolton Often Blocked Information, Officials Say
Iran, IAEA Matters Were Allegedly Kept From Rice, Powell
By Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, April 18, 2005; Page A04
John R. Bolton -- who is seeking confirmation as the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations -- often blocked then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and, on one occasion, his successor, Condoleezza Rice, from receiving information vital to U.S. strategies on Iran, according to current and former officials who have worked with Bolton.
In some cases, career officials found back channels to Powell or his deputy, Richard L. Armitage, who encouraged assistant secretaries to bring information directly to him. In other cases, the information was delayed for weeks or simply did not get through. The officials, who would discuss the incidents only on the condition of anonymity because some continue to deal with Bolton on other issues, cited a dozen examples of memos or information that Bolton refused to forward during his four years as undersecretary of state for arms control and international security.
Two officials described a memo that had been prepared for Powell at the end of October 2003, ahead of a critical international meeting on Iran, informing him that the United States was losing support for efforts to have the U.N. Security Council investigate Iran's nuclear program. Bolton allegedly argued that it would be premature to throw in the towel. "When Armitage's staff asked for information about what other countries were thinking, Bolton said that information couldn't be collected," according to one official with firsthand knowledge of the exchange.
Intra-agency tensions are common in Washington, and as the undersecretary of state in charge of nuclear issues, Bolton had a lot of latitude to decide what needed to go to the secretary. But career officials said they often felt that his decisions, and policy views, left the department's top diplomat uninformed and fed the long-running struggles inside the agency.
Bolton's time at the State Department under Rice has been brief. But authoritative officials said Bolton let her go on her first European trip without knowing about the growing opposition there to Bolton's campaign to oust the head of the U.N. nuclear agency. "She went off without knowing the details of what everybody else was saying about how they were not going to join the campaign," according to a senior official. Bolton has been trying to replace Mohamed ElBaradei, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, who is perceived by some within the Bush administration as too soft on Iran.
Publicly, Rice has staunchly defended Bolton's credentials and urged the Senate to quickly confirm him. But privately, officials said, she has kept him out of key discussions on Iran since taking over in January.
Bolton's staff spent the weekend answering dozens of follow-up queries from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which is conducting his confirmation hearings. Nominees traditionally refrain from responding to questions outside that process, and the State Department has not directly commented on allegations and testimony in recent weeks from former officials who characterized Bolton as a bully who has sought the removal of intelligence analysts who challenged him on facts and evidence related to weapons of mass destruction.
Bolton's supporters argue that his blunt style and hard-line views make him ideally suited to serve U.S. interests at the United Nations. His opponents argue that Bolton's demeanor and disdain for the United Nations will make it difficult for the White House to achieve its goals there.
Democrats on the foreign relations panel blocked a vote on Bolton last week and are hoping that new information might persuade Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee (R-R.I.) or others to vote against him.
A vote is scheduled for tomorrow, and Republicans on the committee indicated yesterday that they will support him. But they also expressed deep concern over the charges against Bolton in recent weeks.
Testimony last Tuesday by former State Department intelligence chief Carl W. Ford Jr. had left several of them shaken after he described Bolton as a "serial abuser" who picked on junior officers who dared to challenge him. Chafee had said that Ford's testimony was strong but that it did not show a pattern.
But, yesterday, Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) said the allegations were beginning to pile up.
"If there's nothing more that comes out, I will vote for Bolton," Hagel told CNN's "Late Edition." But Hagel also said that he was "troubled with more and more allegations, revelations, coming about his style, his method of operation," including charges that Bolton had intimidated a member of Hagel's staff who had worked briefly under Bolton at the State Department's Nonproliferation Bureau.
In February 2003, Bolton reportedly accused the young career official, Rexon Ryu, of concealing information and of insubordination when he failed to produce a copy of a cable he had written about the work of U.N. inspectors in Iraq. Ryu's immediate superiors investigated the charge and found it baseless. But Bolton wanted Ryu removed from his duties, officials said.
Just weeks before the incident, Ryu had been among a small number of State Department officials who accompanied Powell to CIA headquarters to review the presentation Powell would give to the U.N. Security Council on Iraq's alleged weapons programs. Officials said Ryu had been instrumental in getting the most controversial allegations out of Powell's speech.
Much of the debate about Bolton has centered on his management style, his staunch criticisms of the United Nations and his hard-line approaches on Iran and North Korea.
But testimony gathered by the Senate panel in preparation for Bolton's confirmation hearings has also detailed a private channel to the CIA and how he sought to stifle career analysts from voicing dissent about the intelligence he was receiving. Bolton's chief of staff, Frederick Fleitz, is on loan to Bolton from the CIA's Weapons Intelligence, Nonproliferation and Arms Control Center, known as WINPAC. Fleitz told Senate staff members during an April 7 interview that he goes back to the agency's headquarters from time to time and reports to supervisors there and to Bolton.
Neil Silver, who directs the Office for Strategic Proliferation and Military Affairs at the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, told Senate staff members earlier this month that his office was surprised when a CIA analysis on "China's commitment to proliferation" showed up for Bolton in 2002 without a request filed through his office. Silver assumed that Fleitz had heard about the analysis through associates at the CIA because its conclusions had not been agreed to within the intelligence community. Silver's office, which is supposed to provide policymakers with a complete picture of intelligence that could affect directives, attached an alternative view for Bolton to see.
That decision brought immediate complaints from Fleitz, who told Silver that it was "unprofessional" to circulate the dissent.
Thomas Fingar, who runs the State Department's intelligence bureau, which is the official liaison between the department and the rest of the intelligence community, told the Senate committee on April 8 that Fleitz had asked that a clearance request for controversial intelligence on Cuba be made through WINPAC.
Often those requests go through the National Intelligence Council (NIC), but it became public during last week's hearings that Bolton had clashed with the council officer in charge of Latin America.
Bolton came up against resistance from Fingar's bureau and, later, from the national intelligence officer on Latin America over a speech he gave in May 2002 suggesting that Cuba had a biological weapons program.
The former national intelligence officer told the committee that he received an abusive e-mail from Fleitz after he had raised objections with the Senate staff about the Cuba speech. The former officer and his boss then, Stuart Cohen, who ran the NIC in 2002, said Bolton tried to get the officer removed from his job after the incident.
Ford, who ran the State Department's intelligence bureau before Fingar, also said that Bolton had sought the removal of Christian Westermann, the bureau analyst who had also challenged the ambiguous intelligence Bolton wanted to make public about Cuba.
When Westermann shared his dissenting view about the intelligence, he was ordered to Bolton's office and berated, Ford and Westermann said. Ford and Silver said Bolton wanted Westermann removed from his job at the intelligence bureau. Bolton denied that he tried to have anyone fired but said that the national intelligence officer and Westermann had acted inappropriately.
Bolton Often Blocked Information, Officials Say
Iran, IAEA Matters Were Allegedly Kept From Rice, Powell
By Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, April 18, 2005; Page A04
John R. Bolton -- who is seeking confirmation as the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations -- often blocked then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and, on one occasion, his successor, Condoleezza Rice, from receiving information vital to U.S. strategies on Iran, according to current and former officials who have worked with Bolton.
In some cases, career officials found back channels to Powell or his deputy, Richard L. Armitage, who encouraged assistant secretaries to bring information directly to him. In other cases, the information was delayed for weeks or simply did not get through. The officials, who would discuss the incidents only on the condition of anonymity because some continue to deal with Bolton on other issues, cited a dozen examples of memos or information that Bolton refused to forward during his four years as undersecretary of state for arms control and international security.
Two officials described a memo that had been prepared for Powell at the end of October 2003, ahead of a critical international meeting on Iran, informing him that the United States was losing support for efforts to have the U.N. Security Council investigate Iran's nuclear program. Bolton allegedly argued that it would be premature to throw in the towel. "When Armitage's staff asked for information about what other countries were thinking, Bolton said that information couldn't be collected," according to one official with firsthand knowledge of the exchange.
Intra-agency tensions are common in Washington, and as the undersecretary of state in charge of nuclear issues, Bolton had a lot of latitude to decide what needed to go to the secretary. But career officials said they often felt that his decisions, and policy views, left the department's top diplomat uninformed and fed the long-running struggles inside the agency.
Bolton's time at the State Department under Rice has been brief. But authoritative officials said Bolton let her go on her first European trip without knowing about the growing opposition there to Bolton's campaign to oust the head of the U.N. nuclear agency. "She went off without knowing the details of what everybody else was saying about how they were not going to join the campaign," according to a senior official. Bolton has been trying to replace Mohamed ElBaradei, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, who is perceived by some within the Bush administration as too soft on Iran.
Publicly, Rice has staunchly defended Bolton's credentials and urged the Senate to quickly confirm him. But privately, officials said, she has kept him out of key discussions on Iran since taking over in January.
Bolton's staff spent the weekend answering dozens of follow-up queries from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which is conducting his confirmation hearings. Nominees traditionally refrain from responding to questions outside that process, and the State Department has not directly commented on allegations and testimony in recent weeks from former officials who characterized Bolton as a bully who has sought the removal of intelligence analysts who challenged him on facts and evidence related to weapons of mass destruction.
Bolton's supporters argue that his blunt style and hard-line views make him ideally suited to serve U.S. interests at the United Nations. His opponents argue that Bolton's demeanor and disdain for the United Nations will make it difficult for the White House to achieve its goals there.
Democrats on the foreign relations panel blocked a vote on Bolton last week and are hoping that new information might persuade Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee (R-R.I.) or others to vote against him.
A vote is scheduled for tomorrow, and Republicans on the committee indicated yesterday that they will support him. But they also expressed deep concern over the charges against Bolton in recent weeks.
Testimony last Tuesday by former State Department intelligence chief Carl W. Ford Jr. had left several of them shaken after he described Bolton as a "serial abuser" who picked on junior officers who dared to challenge him. Chafee had said that Ford's testimony was strong but that it did not show a pattern.
But, yesterday, Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) said the allegations were beginning to pile up.
"If there's nothing more that comes out, I will vote for Bolton," Hagel told CNN's "Late Edition." But Hagel also said that he was "troubled with more and more allegations, revelations, coming about his style, his method of operation," including charges that Bolton had intimidated a member of Hagel's staff who had worked briefly under Bolton at the State Department's Nonproliferation Bureau.
In February 2003, Bolton reportedly accused the young career official, Rexon Ryu, of concealing information and of insubordination when he failed to produce a copy of a cable he had written about the work of U.N. inspectors in Iraq. Ryu's immediate superiors investigated the charge and found it baseless. But Bolton wanted Ryu removed from his duties, officials said.
Just weeks before the incident, Ryu had been among a small number of State Department officials who accompanied Powell to CIA headquarters to review the presentation Powell would give to the U.N. Security Council on Iraq's alleged weapons programs. Officials said Ryu had been instrumental in getting the most controversial allegations out of Powell's speech.
Much of the debate about Bolton has centered on his management style, his staunch criticisms of the United Nations and his hard-line approaches on Iran and North Korea.
But testimony gathered by the Senate panel in preparation for Bolton's confirmation hearings has also detailed a private channel to the CIA and how he sought to stifle career analysts from voicing dissent about the intelligence he was receiving. Bolton's chief of staff, Frederick Fleitz, is on loan to Bolton from the CIA's Weapons Intelligence, Nonproliferation and Arms Control Center, known as WINPAC. Fleitz told Senate staff members during an April 7 interview that he goes back to the agency's headquarters from time to time and reports to supervisors there and to Bolton.
Neil Silver, who directs the Office for Strategic Proliferation and Military Affairs at the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, told Senate staff members earlier this month that his office was surprised when a CIA analysis on "China's commitment to proliferation" showed up for Bolton in 2002 without a request filed through his office. Silver assumed that Fleitz had heard about the analysis through associates at the CIA because its conclusions had not been agreed to within the intelligence community. Silver's office, which is supposed to provide policymakers with a complete picture of intelligence that could affect directives, attached an alternative view for Bolton to see.
That decision brought immediate complaints from Fleitz, who told Silver that it was "unprofessional" to circulate the dissent.
Thomas Fingar, who runs the State Department's intelligence bureau, which is the official liaison between the department and the rest of the intelligence community, told the Senate committee on April 8 that Fleitz had asked that a clearance request for controversial intelligence on Cuba be made through WINPAC.
Often those requests go through the National Intelligence Council (NIC), but it became public during last week's hearings that Bolton had clashed with the council officer in charge of Latin America.
Bolton came up against resistance from Fingar's bureau and, later, from the national intelligence officer on Latin America over a speech he gave in May 2002 suggesting that Cuba had a biological weapons program.
The former national intelligence officer told the committee that he received an abusive e-mail from Fleitz after he had raised objections with the Senate staff about the Cuba speech. The former officer and his boss then, Stuart Cohen, who ran the NIC in 2002, said Bolton tried to get the officer removed from his job after the incident.
Ford, who ran the State Department's intelligence bureau before Fingar, also said that Bolton had sought the removal of Christian Westermann, the bureau analyst who had also challenged the ambiguous intelligence Bolton wanted to make public about Cuba.
When Westermann shared his dissenting view about the intelligence, he was ordered to Bolton's office and berated, Ford and Westermann said. Ford and Silver said Bolton wanted Westermann removed from his job at the intelligence bureau. Bolton denied that he tried to have anyone fired but said that the national intelligence officer and Westermann had acted inappropriately.
Bolton Often Blocked Information, Officials Say
Iran, IAEA Matters Were Allegedly Kept From Rice, Powell
By Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, April 18, 2005; Page A04
John R. Bolton -- who is seeking confirmation as the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations -- often blocked then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and, on one occasion, his successor, Condoleezza Rice, from receiving information vital to U.S. strategies on Iran, according to current and former officials who have worked with Bolton.
In some cases, career officials found back channels to Powell or his deputy, Richard L. Armitage, who encouraged assistant secretaries to bring information directly to him. In other cases, the information was delayed for weeks or simply did not get through. The officials, who would discuss the incidents only on the condition of anonymity because some continue to deal with Bolton on other issues, cited a dozen examples of memos or information that Bolton refused to forward during his four years as undersecretary of state for arms control and international security.
Two officials described a memo that had been prepared for Powell at the end of October 2003, ahead of a critical international meeting on Iran, informing him that the United States was losing support for efforts to have the U.N. Security Council investigate Iran's nuclear program. Bolton allegedly argued that it would be premature to throw in the towel. "When Armitage's staff asked for information about what other countries were thinking, Bolton said that information couldn't be collected," according to one official with firsthand knowledge of the exchange.
Intra-agency tensions are common in Washington, and as the undersecretary of state in charge of nuclear issues, Bolton had a lot of latitude to decide what needed to go to the secretary. But career officials said they often felt that his decisions, and policy views, left the department's top diplomat uninformed and fed the long-running struggles inside the agency.
Bolton's time at the State Department under Rice has been brief. But authoritative officials said Bolton let her go on her first European trip without knowing about the growing opposition there to Bolton's campaign to oust the head of the U.N. nuclear agency. "She went off without knowing the details of what everybody else was saying about how they were not going to join the campaign," according to a senior official. Bolton has been trying to replace Mohamed ElBaradei, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, who is perceived by some within the Bush administration as too soft on Iran.
Publicly, Rice has staunchly defended Bolton's credentials and urged the Senate to quickly confirm him. But privately, officials said, she has kept him out of key discussions on Iran since taking over in January.
Bolton's staff spent the weekend answering dozens of follow-up queries from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which is conducting his confirmation hearings. Nominees traditionally refrain from responding to questions outside that process, and the State Department has not directly commented on allegations and testimony in recent weeks from former officials who characterized Bolton as a bully who has sought the removal of intelligence analysts who challenged him on facts and evidence related to weapons of mass destruction.
Bolton's supporters argue that his blunt style and hard-line views make him ideally suited to serve U.S. interests at the United Nations. His opponents argue that Bolton's demeanor and disdain for the United Nations will make it difficult for the White House to achieve its goals there.
Democrats on the foreign relations panel blocked a vote on Bolton last week and are hoping that new information might persuade Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee (R-R.I.) or others to vote against him.
A vote is scheduled for tomorrow, and Republicans on the committee indicated yesterday that they will support him. But they also expressed deep concern over the charges against Bolton in recent weeks.
Testimony last Tuesday by former State Department intelligence chief Carl W. Ford Jr. had left several of them shaken after he described Bolton as a "serial abuser" who picked on junior officers who dared to challenge him. Chafee had said that Ford's testimony was strong but that it did not show a pattern.
But, yesterday, Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) said the allegations were beginning to pile up.
"If there's nothing more that comes out, I will vote for Bolton," Hagel told CNN's "Late Edition." But Hagel also said that he was "troubled with more and more allegations, revelations, coming about his style, his method of operation," including charges that Bolton had intimidated a member of Hagel's staff who had worked briefly under Bolton at the State Department's Nonproliferation Bureau.
In February 2003, Bolton reportedly accused the young career official, Rexon Ryu, of concealing information and of insubordination when he failed to produce a copy of a cable he had written about the work of U.N. inspectors in Iraq. Ryu's immediate superiors investigated the charge and found it baseless. But Bolton wanted Ryu removed from his duties, officials said.
Just weeks before the incident, Ryu had been among a small number of State Department officials who accompanied Powell to CIA headquarters to review the presentation Powell would give to the U.N. Security Council on Iraq's alleged weapons programs. Officials said Ryu had been instrumental in getting the most controversial allegations out of Powell's speech.
Much of the debate about Bolton has centered on his management style, his staunch criticisms of the United Nations and his hard-line approaches on Iran and North Korea.
But testimony gathered by the Senate panel in preparation for Bolton's confirmation hearings has also detailed a private channel to the CIA and how he sought to stifle career analysts from voicing dissent about the intelligence he was receiving. Bolton's chief of staff, Frederick Fleitz, is on loan to Bolton from the CIA's Weapons Intelligence, Nonproliferation and Arms Control Center, known as WINPAC. Fleitz told Senate staff members during an April 7 interview that he goes back to the agency's headquarters from time to time and reports to supervisors there and to Bolton.
Neil Silver, who directs the Office for Strategic Proliferation and Military Affairs at the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, told Senate staff members earlier this month that his office was surprised when a CIA analysis on "China's commitment to proliferation" showed up for Bolton in 2002 without a request filed through his office. Silver assumed that Fleitz had heard about the analysis through associates at the CIA because its conclusions had not been agreed to within the intelligence community. Silver's office, which is supposed to provide policymakers with a complete picture of intelligence that could affect directives, attached an alternative view for Bolton to see.
That decision brought immediate complaints from Fleitz, who told Silver that it was "unprofessional" to circulate the dissent.
Thomas Fingar, who runs the State Department's intelligence bureau, which is the official liaison between the department and the rest of the intelligence community, told the Senate committee on April 8 that Fleitz had asked that a clearance request for controversial intelligence on Cuba be made through WINPAC.
Often those requests go through the National Intelligence Council (NIC), but it became public during last week's hearings that Bolton had clashed with the council officer in charge of Latin America.
Bolton came up against resistance from Fingar's bureau and, later, from the national intelligence officer on Latin America over a speech he gave in May 2002 suggesting that Cuba had a biological weapons program.
The former national intelligence officer told the committee that he received an abusive e-mail from Fleitz after he had raised objections with the Senate staff about the Cuba speech. The former officer and his boss then, Stuart Cohen, who ran the NIC in 2002, said Bolton tried to get the officer removed from his job after the incident.
Ford, who ran the State Department's intelligence bureau before Fingar, also said that Bolton had sought the removal of Christian Westermann, the bureau analyst who had also challenged the ambiguous intelligence Bolton wanted to make public about Cuba.
When Westermann shared his dissenting view about the intelligence, he was ordered to Bolton's office and berated, Ford and Westermann said. Ford and Silver said Bolton wanted Westermann removed from his job at the intelligence bureau. Bolton denied that he tried to have anyone fired but said that the national intelligence officer and Westermann had acted inappropriately.
I don't know how many of you ever watch the stock channel, but they have a clown on there by the name of Kudlow ( he at one time worked for the Nixon administration) .
For the past 5 years I've been watching this moron spew forth his republican stance. The economy is great...super.
This guy must be doing puppy uppers.
He has been totally wrong over this period.
Yet, he never misses a beat when it comes to policies put forth by the current administration and good ol Greenspan.
As of today, the stock market is down more than 200 points from where it was pre-9-11-01
GM and Ford anre in the toilet, IBM is crying poor mouth, the trade deficit and Federal budget are higher that a kite,gas prices keep climbing.yet this idiot keeps spinning like a top.
How do we get people like him off the air!
I don't know how many of you ever watch the stock channel, but they have a clown on there by the name of Kudlow ( he at one time worked for the Nixon administration) .
For the past 5 years I've been watching this moron spew forth his republican stance. The economy is great...super.
This guy must be doing puppy uppers.
He has been totally wrong over this period.
Yet, he never misses a beat when it comes to policies put forth by the current administration and good ol Greenspan.
As of today, the stock market is down more than 200 points from where it was pre-9-11-01
GM and Ford anre in the toilet, IBM is crying poor mouth, the trade deficit and Federal budget are higher that a kite,gas prices keep climbing.yet this idiot keeps spinning like a top.
How do we get people like him off the air!
I don't know how many of you ever watch the stock channel, but they have a clown on there by the name of Kudlow ( he at one time worked for the Nixon administration) .
For the past 5 years I've been watching this moron spew forth his republican stance. The economy is great...super.
This guy must be doing puppy uppers.
He has been totally wrong over this period.
Yet, he never misses a beat when it comes to policies put forth by the current administration and good ol Greenspan.
As of today, the stock market is down more than 200 points from where it was pre-9-11-01
GM and Ford anre in the toilet, IBM is crying poor mouth, the trade deficit and Federal budget are higher that a kite,gas prices keep climbing.yet this idiot keeps spinning like a top.
How do we get people like him off the air!
Trade deficit hits all-time high in Feb.
From wire reports
WASHINGTON — The U.S. trade deficit, exacerbated by surging imports of oil and textiles, soared to an all-time high of $61.04 billion in February.
The Commerce Department said the February imbalance was up 4.3% from the $58.5 billion trade gap in January as a small $50 million rise in U.S. exports of goods and services was swamped by a $2.58 billion increase in imports.
The monthly shortfall was greater than the median estimate of $59 billion from analysts. The unexpectedly large jump in the trade gap is likely to cause analysts to trim their estimates for first-quarter economic growth.
U.S. exports continued to be strong, exceeding $100 billion for the third consecutive month. Higher shipments of industrial supplies and materials and consumers goods more than offset declines in capital goods and autos.
Imports set records in several categories — including autos and auto parts, consumer goods and industrial supplies and materials — in a sign of strong U.S. demand.
A jump in average monthly crude oil import prices to $36.85 a barrel propelled the value of petroleum and product imports to the second highest level on record, despite the lowest volume of crude oil in a year.
Overall imports from China dipped to $17.0 billion in February, the lowest level since June, and the U.S. trade deficit with China also fell to $13.9 billion, the lowest since May.
However, in a sector causing political difficulties for the Bush administration, imports of clothing and textiles from the Asian manufacturing giant jumped 9.8% in February following the end of U.S. import quotas in January.
Total clothing and textile imports from China for the first two months of 2005 surged 62.4% from the same period last year.
American textile and clothing manufacturers are lobbying the administration to limit imports of Chinese textile and clothing goods to ward off a flood of products now that global quotas have expired.
Trade deficit hits all-time high in Feb.
From wire reports
WASHINGTON — The U.S. trade deficit, exacerbated by surging imports of oil and textiles, soared to an all-time high of $61.04 billion in February.
The Commerce Department said the February imbalance was up 4.3% from the $58.5 billion trade gap in January as a small $50 million rise in U.S. exports of goods and services was swamped by a $2.58 billion increase in imports.
The monthly shortfall was greater than the median estimate of $59 billion from analysts. The unexpectedly large jump in the trade gap is likely to cause analysts to trim their estimates for first-quarter economic growth.
U.S. exports continued to be strong, exceeding $100 billion for the third consecutive month. Higher shipments of industrial supplies and materials and consumers goods more than offset declines in capital goods and autos.
Imports set records in several categories — including autos and auto parts, consumer goods and industrial supplies and materials — in a sign of strong U.S. demand.
A jump in average monthly crude oil import prices to $36.85 a barrel propelled the value of petroleum and product imports to the second highest level on record, despite the lowest volume of crude oil in a year.
Overall imports from China dipped to $17.0 billion in February, the lowest level since June, and the U.S. trade deficit with China also fell to $13.9 billion, the lowest since May.
However, in a sector causing political difficulties for the Bush administration, imports of clothing and textiles from the Asian manufacturing giant jumped 9.8% in February following the end of U.S. import quotas in January.
Total clothing and textile imports from China for the first two months of 2005 surged 62.4% from the same period last year.
American textile and clothing manufacturers are lobbying the administration to limit imports of Chinese textile and clothing goods to ward off a flood of products now that global quotas have expired.
Trade deficit hits all-time high in Feb.
From wire reports
WASHINGTON — The U.S. trade deficit, exacerbated by surging imports of oil and textiles, soared to an all-time high of $61.04 billion in February.
The Commerce Department said the February imbalance was up 4.3% from the $58.5 billion trade gap in January as a small $50 million rise in U.S. exports of goods and services was swamped by a $2.58 billion increase in imports.
The monthly shortfall was greater than the median estimate of $59 billion from analysts. The unexpectedly large jump in the trade gap is likely to cause analysts to trim their estimates for first-quarter economic growth.
U.S. exports continued to be strong, exceeding $100 billion for the third consecutive month. Higher shipments of industrial supplies and materials and consumers goods more than offset declines in capital goods and autos.
Imports set records in several categories — including autos and auto parts, consumer goods and industrial supplies and materials — in a sign of strong U.S. demand.
A jump in average monthly crude oil import prices to $36.85 a barrel propelled the value of petroleum and product imports to the second highest level on record, despite the lowest volume of crude oil in a year.
Overall imports from China dipped to $17.0 billion in February, the lowest level since June, and the U.S. trade deficit with China also fell to $13.9 billion, the lowest since May.
However, in a sector causing political difficulties for the Bush administration, imports of clothing and textiles from the Asian manufacturing giant jumped 9.8% in February following the end of U.S. import quotas in January.
Total clothing and textile imports from China for the first two months of 2005 surged 62.4% from the same period last year.
American textile and clothing manufacturers are lobbying the administration to limit imports of Chinese textile and clothing goods to ward off a flood of products now that global quotas have expired.
The remains of two more US soldiers were found in the wreckage of a helicopter that crashed in Afghanistan, raising the number killed to 18, the military said today. The VH-47 Chinook went down during a sandstorm on Wednesday about 80 miles south of the capital Kabul.
The remains of two more US soldiers were found in the wreckage of a helicopter that crashed in Afghanistan, raising the number killed to 18, the military said today. The VH-47 Chinook went down during a sandstorm on Wednesday about 80 miles south of the capital Kabul.
The remains of two more US soldiers were found in the wreckage of a helicopter that crashed in Afghanistan, raising the number killed to 18, the military said today. The VH-47 Chinook went down during a sandstorm on Wednesday about 80 miles south of the capital Kabul.
EPA cancels controversial pesticide study
By John Heilprin, Associated Press Writer | April 9, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday canceled a controversial study using children to measure the effect of pesticides after Democrats said they would block Senate confirmation of the agency's new head.
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Stephen Johnson, as EPA's acting administrator, ordered an end to the planned study, a reversal from the agency's position just a day earlier when it said it would await the advice of outside scientific experts.
The aim of the study, Johnson said, was to fill data gaps on children's exposure to household pesticides and chemicals. He suspended it last November after ethical questions were raised by scientists within EPA and by environmentalists.
Over the study's two years, EPA had planned to give $970 plus a camcorder and children's clothes to each of the families of 60 children in Duval County, Fla., in what critics of the study noted was a low-income minority neighborhood.
EPA also had agreed to accept $2 million for the $9 million "Children's Health Environmental Exposure Research Study" from the American Chemistry Council, a trade group that represents chemical makers.
"I have concluded that the study cannot go forward, regardless of the outcome of the independent review. EPA must conduct quality, credible research in an atmosphere absent of gross misrepresentation and controversy," Johnson said Friday. "I am committed to ensuring that EPA's research is based on sound science with the highest ethical standards."
Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., had joined with Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., in demanding the study's cancellation as a condition for confirming Johnson's nomination by President Bush.
"I am very pleased that Mr. Johnson has recognized the gross error in judgment the EPA made when they concocted this immoral program to test pesticides on children," Boxer said.
"The CHEERS program was a reprehensible idea that never should have made it out of the boardroom, and I am just happy that it was stopped before any children were put in harms way," Boxer said, adding that she would continue to oppose any testing of toxins on humans.
EPA cancels controversial pesticide study
By John Heilprin, Associated Press Writer | April 9, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday canceled a controversial study using children to measure the effect of pesticides after Democrats said they would block Senate confirmation of the agency's new head.
ADVERTISEMENT
Stephen Johnson, as EPA's acting administrator, ordered an end to the planned study, a reversal from the agency's position just a day earlier when it said it would await the advice of outside scientific experts.
The aim of the study, Johnson said, was to fill data gaps on children's exposure to household pesticides and chemicals. He suspended it last November after ethical questions were raised by scientists within EPA and by environmentalists.
Over the study's two years, EPA had planned to give $970 plus a camcorder and children's clothes to each of the families of 60 children in Duval County, Fla., in what critics of the study noted was a low-income minority neighborhood.
EPA also had agreed to accept $2 million for the $9 million "Children's Health Environmental Exposure Research Study" from the American Chemistry Council, a trade group that represents chemical makers.
"I have concluded that the study cannot go forward, regardless of the outcome of the independent review. EPA must conduct quality, credible research in an atmosphere absent of gross misrepresentation and controversy," Johnson said Friday. "I am committed to ensuring that EPA's research is based on sound science with the highest ethical standards."
Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., had joined with Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., in demanding the study's cancellation as a condition for confirming Johnson's nomination by President Bush.
"I am very pleased that Mr. Johnson has recognized the gross error in judgment the EPA made when they concocted this immoral program to test pesticides on children," Boxer said.
"The CHEERS program was a reprehensible idea that never should have made it out of the boardroom, and I am just happy that it was stopped before any children were put in harms way," Boxer said, adding that she would continue to oppose any testing of toxins on humans.
EPA cancels controversial pesticide study
By John Heilprin, Associated Press Writer | April 9, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday canceled a controversial study using children to measure the effect of pesticides after Democrats said they would block Senate confirmation of the agency's new head.
ADVERTISEMENT
Stephen Johnson, as EPA's acting administrator, ordered an end to the planned study, a reversal from the agency's position just a day earlier when it said it would await the advice of outside scientific experts.
The aim of the study, Johnson said, was to fill data gaps on children's exposure to household pesticides and chemicals. He suspended it last November after ethical questions were raised by scientists within EPA and by environmentalists.
Over the study's two years, EPA had planned to give $970 plus a camcorder and children's clothes to each of the families of 60 children in Duval County, Fla., in what critics of the study noted was a low-income minority neighborhood.
EPA also had agreed to accept $2 million for the $9 million "Children's Health Environmental Exposure Research Study" from the American Chemistry Council, a trade group that represents chemical makers.
"I have concluded that the study cannot go forward, regardless of the outcome of the independent review. EPA must conduct quality, credible research in an atmosphere absent of gross misrepresentation and controversy," Johnson said Friday. "I am committed to ensuring that EPA's research is based on sound science with the highest ethical standards."
Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., had joined with Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., in demanding the study's cancellation as a condition for confirming Johnson's nomination by President Bush.
"I am very pleased that Mr. Johnson has recognized the gross error in judgment the EPA made when they concocted this immoral program to test pesticides on children," Boxer said.
"The CHEERS program was a reprehensible idea that never should have made it out of the boardroom, and I am just happy that it was stopped before any children were put in harms way," Boxer said, adding that she would continue to oppose any testing of toxins on humans.
Duracell battery plant in N.C. to be shut down
April 9, 2005
Gillette Co. disclosed it will close its Duracell battery factory in Lexington, N.C., costing 280 employees their jobs and resulting in about a 4-cent-a-share charge for 2005. The plant largely makes high-power lithium batteries, but declining sales of film-based cameras and the increasingly popularity of digital cameras powered by alkaline or rechargeable batteries has eaten into sales, the company said in a securities filing. Gillette said the closure will result in cash-related costs of $29 million, plus additional noncash asset-impairment related costs.
Duracell battery plant in N.C. to be shut down
April 9, 2005
Gillette Co. disclosed it will close its Duracell battery factory in Lexington, N.C., costing 280 employees their jobs and resulting in about a 4-cent-a-share charge for 2005. The plant largely makes high-power lithium batteries, but declining sales of film-based cameras and the increasingly popularity of digital cameras powered by alkaline or rechargeable batteries has eaten into sales, the company said in a securities filing. Gillette said the closure will result in cash-related costs of $29 million, plus additional noncash asset-impairment related costs.
Duracell battery plant in N.C. to be shut down
April 9, 2005
Gillette Co. disclosed it will close its Duracell battery factory in Lexington, N.C., costing 280 employees their jobs and resulting in about a 4-cent-a-share charge for 2005. The plant largely makes high-power lithium batteries, but declining sales of film-based cameras and the increasingly popularity of digital cameras powered by alkaline or rechargeable batteries has eaten into sales, the company said in a securities filing. Gillette said the closure will result in cash-related costs of $29 million, plus additional noncash asset-impairment related costs.
Cleanup fund is almost cleaned out
Money to redevelop brownfields sites could be depleted by year-end
By Susan Diesenhouse, Globe Correspondent | April 9, 2005
In downtown Worcester next month, construction will begin on a 122,000-square-foot laboratory that will rise on a site contaminated by a century of metal processing. With $700,000 in loans from the state Brownfields Redevelopment Fund, the developer, Gateway Park LLC, is cleaning up 11 acres where it plans to build an approximately $100 million, 1 million-square-foot mixed-use complex.
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''We couldn't have gone forward without the fund's assistance," said Craig Blais, vice president of the Worcester Business Development Corp., a private, nonprofit agency that is developing the project in partnership with Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Last year in Boston, on a site where factories produced lead paint and then computer parts, the new 125-room Hampton Inn & Suites hotel opened, the first phase of the $140 million Crosstown Center project. Early on, a $50,000 brownfields fund loan was used to determine the project's feasibility and to secure financing.
''The loan was critical in defining costs and reassuring lenders," said developer Kirk Sykes.
But new projects seeking loans from the brownfields fund, which are used to assess the extent of contamination and begin cleanup, may find the coffers depleted. Janet Hookailo, spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Development Finance Agency, a state authority that manages the fund, said, ''At our current rate of activity, we think the fund could possibly run out by the end of 2005."
Senator Mark C. Montigny, a Democrat from New Bedford, has filed a bill that, if passed, could provide an infusion of $30 million by July 1, when fiscal year 2006 begins.
''There's a shortage of land for development, especially in older cities, because sites are environmentally unsafe," Montigny said. ''Restoring the fund to assist more commercial and residential development helps municipalities keep tax revenues balanced, reuses land, and is a major jobs-creation initiative."
Since the fund was established in 1999 with $30 million, it has provided loans and grants to help redevelop contaminated sites statewide that might otherwise be abandoned or endanger public health. But Montigny anticipates a struggle to pass his funding bill.
''We're just emerging from a fiscal crisis that saw billions in cuts, so there are legitimate competing interests," he said. ''I sense some resistance from the Romney administration; I hope I'm wrong."
The administration's Executive Office of Environmental Affairs considers the fund a success, said spokeswoman Corbie Kump.
''We'd like to see it re-funded but we can't say when," she said. ''There's about $3.1 million left, enough to continue operating for one more year."
For developers, ''The fund is about reducing risk," said David Begelfer, chief executive of the state chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties.
Developers are increasingly attracted to previously used sites because of the scarcity of build-able land, especially in urban areas.
But risks abound. Before investing, a developer must know the extent of the contamination, and the cleanup cost.
''If you find too many unanticipated environmental problems it can kill a project financially," said Sykes.
Cleanup fund is almost cleaned out
Money to redevelop brownfields sites could be depleted by year-end
By Susan Diesenhouse, Globe Correspondent | April 9, 2005
In downtown Worcester next month, construction will begin on a 122,000-square-foot laboratory that will rise on a site contaminated by a century of metal processing. With $700,000 in loans from the state Brownfields Redevelopment Fund, the developer, Gateway Park LLC, is cleaning up 11 acres where it plans to build an approximately $100 million, 1 million-square-foot mixed-use complex.
ADVERTISEMENT
''We couldn't have gone forward without the fund's assistance," said Craig Blais, vice president of the Worcester Business Development Corp., a private, nonprofit agency that is developing the project in partnership with Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Last year in Boston, on a site where factories produced lead paint and then computer parts, the new 125-room Hampton Inn & Suites hotel opened, the first phase of the $140 million Crosstown Center project. Early on, a $50,000 brownfields fund loan was used to determine the project's feasibility and to secure financing.
''The loan was critical in defining costs and reassuring lenders," said developer Kirk Sykes.
But new projects seeking loans from the brownfields fund, which are used to assess the extent of contamination and begin cleanup, may find the coffers depleted. Janet Hookailo, spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Development Finance Agency, a state authority that manages the fund, said, ''At our current rate of activity, we think the fund could possibly run out by the end of 2005."
Senator Mark C. Montigny, a Democrat from New Bedford, has filed a bill that, if passed, could provide an infusion of $30 million by July 1, when fiscal year 2006 begins.
''There's a shortage of land for development, especially in older cities, because sites are environmentally unsafe," Montigny said. ''Restoring the fund to assist more commercial and residential development helps municipalities keep tax revenues balanced, reuses land, and is a major jobs-creation initiative."
Since the fund was established in 1999 with $30 million, it has provided loans and grants to help redevelop contaminated sites statewide that might otherwise be abandoned or endanger public health. But Montigny anticipates a struggle to pass his funding bill.
''We're just emerging from a fiscal crisis that saw billions in cuts, so there are legitimate competing interests," he said. ''I sense some resistance from the Romney administration; I hope I'm wrong."
The administration's Executive Office of Environmental Affairs considers the fund a success, said spokeswoman Corbie Kump.
''We'd like to see it re-funded but we can't say when," she said. ''There's about $3.1 million left, enough to continue operating for one more year."
For developers, ''The fund is about reducing risk," said David Begelfer, chief executive of the state chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties.
Developers are increasingly attracted to previously used sites because of the scarcity of build-able land, especially in urban areas.
But risks abound. Before investing, a developer must know the extent of the contamination, and the cleanup cost.
''If you find too many unanticipated environmental problems it can kill a project financially," said Sykes.
Cleanup fund is almost cleaned out
Money to redevelop brownfields sites could be depleted by year-end
By Susan Diesenhouse, Globe Correspondent | April 9, 2005
In downtown Worcester next month, construction will begin on a 122,000-square-foot laboratory that will rise on a site contaminated by a century of metal processing. With $700,000 in loans from the state Brownfields Redevelopment Fund, the developer, Gateway Park LLC, is cleaning up 11 acres where it plans to build an approximately $100 million, 1 million-square-foot mixed-use complex.
ADVERTISEMENT
''We couldn't have gone forward without the fund's assistance," said Craig Blais, vice president of the Worcester Business Development Corp., a private, nonprofit agency that is developing the project in partnership with Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Last year in Boston, on a site where factories produced lead paint and then computer parts, the new 125-room Hampton Inn & Suites hotel opened, the first phase of the $140 million Crosstown Center project. Early on, a $50,000 brownfields fund loan was used to determine the project's feasibility and to secure financing.
''The loan was critical in defining costs and reassuring lenders," said developer Kirk Sykes.
But new projects seeking loans from the brownfields fund, which are used to assess the extent of contamination and begin cleanup, may find the coffers depleted. Janet Hookailo, spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Development Finance Agency, a state authority that manages the fund, said, ''At our current rate of activity, we think the fund could possibly run out by the end of 2005."
Senator Mark C. Montigny, a Democrat from New Bedford, has filed a bill that, if passed, could provide an infusion of $30 million by July 1, when fiscal year 2006 begins.
''There's a shortage of land for development, especially in older cities, because sites are environmentally unsafe," Montigny said. ''Restoring the fund to assist more commercial and residential development helps municipalities keep tax revenues balanced, reuses land, and is a major jobs-creation initiative."
Since the fund was established in 1999 with $30 million, it has provided loans and grants to help redevelop contaminated sites statewide that might otherwise be abandoned or endanger public health. But Montigny anticipates a struggle to pass his funding bill.
''We're just emerging from a fiscal crisis that saw billions in cuts, so there are legitimate competing interests," he said. ''I sense some resistance from the Romney administration; I hope I'm wrong."
The administration's Executive Office of Environmental Affairs considers the fund a success, said spokeswoman Corbie Kump.
''We'd like to see it re-funded but we can't say when," she said. ''There's about $3.1 million left, enough to continue operating for one more year."
For developers, ''The fund is about reducing risk," said David Begelfer, chief executive of the state chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties.
Developers are increasingly attracted to previously used sites because of the scarcity of build-able land, especially in urban areas.
But risks abound. Before investing, a developer must know the extent of the contamination, and the cleanup cost.
''If you find too many unanticipated environmental problems it can kill a project financially," said Sykes.
Rift emerges in GOP after Schiavo case
By Nina J. Easton, Globe Staff | April 9, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Top conservative leaders gathered here a week after Terri Schiavo's death to plot a course of action against the nation's courts, but much of their anger was directed at leading Republicans, exposing an emerging crack between the party's leadership and core supporters on the right.
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Conservative leaders criticized President Bush for failing to speak out strongly against removing the feeding tube from Schiavo, the 41-year-old incapacitated woman who died March 31. They blamed the president's brother, Governor Jeb Bush of Florida, for failing to employ State Police powers to take control of Schiavo. They condemned comments by Senate majority leader Bill Frist of Tennessee and Vice President Dick Cheney expressing support for the nation's judges.
And yesterday they issued an ''action plan" to take their crusade for control of the nation's courts well beyond Senate debates over judicial nominees, pressing Congress to impeach judges and defund courts they consider ''activist" and to limit the jurisdiction of federal courts over some sensitive social matters -- a strategy opposed by many leading Senate Republicans.
''This is not a Democrat- Republican issue; it is a liberal-conservative issue," Rick Scarborough, a Baptist minister and chair of the Judeo-Christian Council for Constitutional Restoration, sponsor of the gathering, said in an interview. ''It's about a temporal versus eternal value system. We are not going away."
The strategy session of more than 200 conservative activist leaders, in the works since February, was organized by a multifaith roster that included Protestant evangelicals such as the Rev. Jerry Falwell and home school activist Michael Farris, Catholics such as former Vatican ambassador Raymond L. Flynn, and Jews such as Rabbi Daniel Lapin, who runs the group Toward Tradition.
While conservatives have long accused liberal judges of making, rather than interpreting, laws, Massachusetts' adoption of gay marriage last year and Schiavo's death last week have magnified their fury. Whereas before they complained about ''judicial arrogance," speakers this week accused courts of ''gang violence" and waging ''unholy war" -- and drew applause when they called for the removal of judges who believe that interpretations of the US Constitution should change with the times. Representative Lamar Smith, Republican of Texas and a member of the House Judiciary Committee, called the situation ''a crisis."
Just five months ago, religious conservatives were a critical voting bloc for President Bush. Since then, they have become increasingly restless, first over the White House's reluctance to pursue a constitutional ban on gay marriage because of fears over a shortage of votes in Congress, and now over the failure of President Bush and Governor Bush to save Schiavo's life.
''Jeb Bush should have issued an executive order and brought her into state custody. He had the authority," said former chief justice Roy S. Moore of Alabama, who has become a celebrity of the right since being ousted for defying a court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the Alabama Judicial Building.
Rift emerges in GOP after Schiavo case
By Nina J. Easton, Globe Staff | April 9, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Top conservative leaders gathered here a week after Terri Schiavo's death to plot a course of action against the nation's courts, but much of their anger was directed at leading Republicans, exposing an emerging crack between the party's leadership and core supporters on the right.
ADVERTISEMENT
Conservative leaders criticized President Bush for failing to speak out strongly against removing the feeding tube from Schiavo, the 41-year-old incapacitated woman who died March 31. They blamed the president's brother, Governor Jeb Bush of Florida, for failing to employ State Police powers to take control of Schiavo. They condemned comments by Senate majority leader Bill Frist of Tennessee and Vice President Dick Cheney expressing support for the nation's judges.
And yesterday they issued an ''action plan" to take their crusade for control of the nation's courts well beyond Senate debates over judicial nominees, pressing Congress to impeach judges and defund courts they consider ''activist" and to limit the jurisdiction of federal courts over some sensitive social matters -- a strategy opposed by many leading Senate Republicans.
''This is not a Democrat- Republican issue; it is a liberal-conservative issue," Rick Scarborough, a Baptist minister and chair of the Judeo-Christian Council for Constitutional Restoration, sponsor of the gathering, said in an interview. ''It's about a temporal versus eternal value system. We are not going away."
The strategy session of more than 200 conservative activist leaders, in the works since February, was organized by a multifaith roster that included Protestant evangelicals such as the Rev. Jerry Falwell and home school activist Michael Farris, Catholics such as former Vatican ambassador Raymond L. Flynn, and Jews such as Rabbi Daniel Lapin, who runs the group Toward Tradition.
While conservatives have long accused liberal judges of making, rather than interpreting, laws, Massachusetts' adoption of gay marriage last year and Schiavo's death last week have magnified their fury. Whereas before they complained about ''judicial arrogance," speakers this week accused courts of ''gang violence" and waging ''unholy war" -- and drew applause when they called for the removal of judges who believe that interpretations of the US Constitution should change with the times. Representative Lamar Smith, Republican of Texas and a member of the House Judiciary Committee, called the situation ''a crisis."
Just five months ago, religious conservatives were a critical voting bloc for President Bush. Since then, they have become increasingly restless, first over the White House's reluctance to pursue a constitutional ban on gay marriage because of fears over a shortage of votes in Congress, and now over the failure of President Bush and Governor Bush to save Schiavo's life.
''Jeb Bush should have issued an executive order and brought her into state custody. He had the authority," said former chief justice Roy S. Moore of Alabama, who has become a celebrity of the right since being ousted for defying a court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the Alabama Judicial Building.
Rift emerges in GOP after Schiavo case
By Nina J. Easton, Globe Staff | April 9, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Top conservative leaders gathered here a week after Terri Schiavo's death to plot a course of action against the nation's courts, but much of their anger was directed at leading Republicans, exposing an emerging crack between the party's leadership and core supporters on the right.
ADVERTISEMENT
Conservative leaders criticized President Bush for failing to speak out strongly against removing the feeding tube from Schiavo, the 41-year-old incapacitated woman who died March 31. They blamed the president's brother, Governor Jeb Bush of Florida, for failing to employ State Police powers to take control of Schiavo. They condemned comments by Senate majority leader Bill Frist of Tennessee and Vice President Dick Cheney expressing support for the nation's judges.
And yesterday they issued an ''action plan" to take their crusade for control of the nation's courts well beyond Senate debates over judicial nominees, pressing Congress to impeach judges and defund courts they consider ''activist" and to limit the jurisdiction of federal courts over some sensitive social matters -- a strategy opposed by many leading Senate Republicans.
''This is not a Democrat- Republican issue; it is a liberal-conservative issue," Rick Scarborough, a Baptist minister and chair of the Judeo-Christian Council for Constitutional Restoration, sponsor of the gathering, said in an interview. ''It's about a temporal versus eternal value system. We are not going away."
The strategy session of more than 200 conservative activist leaders, in the works since February, was organized by a multifaith roster that included Protestant evangelicals such as the Rev. Jerry Falwell and home school activist Michael Farris, Catholics such as former Vatican ambassador Raymond L. Flynn, and Jews such as Rabbi Daniel Lapin, who runs the group Toward Tradition.
While conservatives have long accused liberal judges of making, rather than interpreting, laws, Massachusetts' adoption of gay marriage last year and Schiavo's death last week have magnified their fury. Whereas before they complained about ''judicial arrogance," speakers this week accused courts of ''gang violence" and waging ''unholy war" -- and drew applause when they called for the removal of judges who believe that interpretations of the US Constitution should change with the times. Representative Lamar Smith, Republican of Texas and a member of the House Judiciary Committee, called the situation ''a crisis."
Just five months ago, religious conservatives were a critical voting bloc for President Bush. Since then, they have become increasingly restless, first over the White House's reluctance to pursue a constitutional ban on gay marriage because of fears over a shortage of votes in Congress, and now over the failure of President Bush and Governor Bush to save Schiavo's life.
''Jeb Bush should have issued an executive order and brought her into state custody. He had the authority," said former chief justice Roy S. Moore of Alabama, who has become a celebrity of the right since being ousted for defying a court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the Alabama Judicial Building.
Civil Rights Agency Cuts Budget by 9%
Auditors Balk at Reviewing Books
By Darryl Fears
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 9, 2005; Page A03
The financially strapped U.S. Commission on Civil Rights voted yesterday to lay off employees, order a staff furlough and close two of six regional offices to save about $800,000.
The decision to cut about 9 percent of the budget was followed by news that at least four auditing firms had declined to examine the commission's financial affairs because of the poor conditions of its records and because the agency has not had an audit in 12 years, according to commission member Peter N. Kirsanow.
The seven-member commission agreed to submit to an audit two weeks ago to put its finances in order and persuade Congress to approve a budget increase. The budget has fluctuated between $8 million and $9 million for more than a decade. As inflation rose, its staff fell from about 100 to 67 today.
The announcements were a major blow for the agency that was once called the conscience of the federal government, but they were not unexpected. The commission, which is deeply in debt, failed to pay $75,000 in rent last year and did not honor a $188,000 partial payment to employees who won an equal-opportunity complaint against it.
Civil Rights Agency Cuts Budget by 9%
Auditors Balk at Reviewing Books
By Darryl Fears
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 9, 2005; Page A03
The financially strapped U.S. Commission on Civil Rights voted yesterday to lay off employees, order a staff furlough and close two of six regional offices to save about $800,000.
The decision to cut about 9 percent of the budget was followed by news that at least four auditing firms had declined to examine the commission's financial affairs because of the poor conditions of its records and because the agency has not had an audit in 12 years, according to commission member Peter N. Kirsanow.
The seven-member commission agreed to submit to an audit two weeks ago to put its finances in order and persuade Congress to approve a budget increase. The budget has fluctuated between $8 million and $9 million for more than a decade. As inflation rose, its staff fell from about 100 to 67 today.
The announcements were a major blow for the agency that was once called the conscience of the federal government, but they were not unexpected. The commission, which is deeply in debt, failed to pay $75,000 in rent last year and did not honor a $188,000 partial payment to employees who won an equal-opportunity complaint against it.
Civil Rights Agency Cuts Budget by 9%
Auditors Balk at Reviewing Books
By Darryl Fears
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 9, 2005; Page A03
The financially strapped U.S. Commission on Civil Rights voted yesterday to lay off employees, order a staff furlough and close two of six regional offices to save about $800,000.
The decision to cut about 9 percent of the budget was followed by news that at least four auditing firms had declined to examine the commission's financial affairs because of the poor conditions of its records and because the agency has not had an audit in 12 years, according to commission member Peter N. Kirsanow.
The seven-member commission agreed to submit to an audit two weeks ago to put its finances in order and persuade Congress to approve a budget increase. The budget has fluctuated between $8 million and $9 million for more than a decade. As inflation rose, its staff fell from about 100 to 67 today.
The announcements were a major blow for the agency that was once called the conscience of the federal government, but they were not unexpected. The commission, which is deeply in debt, failed to pay $75,000 in rent last year and did not honor a $188,000 partial payment to employees who won an equal-opportunity complaint against it.
Officials Fail To Track Lobbying, Report Says
Research Group Cites Billions Spent, but Spotty Regulation
By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 8, 2005; Page E01
Washington's lobbying industry has mushroomed over the past decade but the government has fallen behind in keeping track of the billions of dollars a year that lobbyists spend, according to a study by the nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity.
Lobbying expenditures in Washington have at least doubled in the past six years, the center reported. Last year, corporations, labor unions and interest groups spent more than $3 billion trying to influence the federal government, up from $1.6 billion in 1998.
At the same time, the center said, enforcement of lobbying regulations has been lax. The center estimated that at least 14,000 disclosure documents required under a 10-year-old lobbying law were not filed over the period, including documents that should have come from 49 of the nation's 50 largest lobbying firms.
"Neither the House nor Senate offices responsible for keeping records on K Street's activities have audit or investigative powers," said Roberta Baskin, the center's executive director. "It is impossible, for example, to determine how many lobbyists there actually are in Washington."
The center's report gives only a partial picture of the size and scope of contemporary lobbying. It tallied the spending of registered lobbyists who directly contacted lawmakers and administration officials. That calculation, while accurate as far as it goes, leaves out the faster-growing and probably larger forms of indirect lobbying such as stirring up local contacts from the "grass roots" and buying newspaper, radio and TV ads.
Nevertheless, the report begins to quantify what lawmakers and lobbyists have long suspected: Lobbying is growing very rapidly and largely in the shadows.
The market for lobbyists is so robust that former members of Congress now routinely become lobbyists when they retire or are defeated -- a career change that was rare as recently as 20 years ago. The center estimated that about 250 former members of Congress and heads of federal agencies are registered to lobby, as are more than 2,000 other former senior government officials.
Total spending by registered lobbyists from 1998 through mid-2004 was $13 billion. The more than $5.4 billion in projected spending on lobbying in 2003 and 2004 was about twice the amount spent by candidates for federal office -- the people who are lobbied most often -- according to the center.
The center extrapolated 2004 lobbying expenditures based on mid-year filings, which are the latest that are fully available.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce spent more on lobbying than any other group over the six-year period, $193 million, the center said. Altria Group Inc., Verizon Communications Inc., General Electric Co. and Edison Electric Institute each laid out more than $100 million over the same period.
State and local governments and universities were also big spenders on lobbying. From 1998 to mid-2004 those groups spent almost $600 million, the center said. Every state and six U.S. territories hired lobbyists, as did 300 universities.
The nation's top lobbying firms included three law firms, Patton Boggs LLP, Piper Rudnick (now DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary) and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP. Interpublic Group of Companies Inc. and WPP Group PLC, which own several lobbying firms, were No. 1 and No. 2 in the list of lobbying firms, the center said.
The economics of influence peddling suggest that lobbying will probably continue to expand rapidly because it often pays off. Since 1998, for example, Lockheed Martin Corp. spent roughly $89 million on lobbying and received $94 billion in government contracts.
"That's more than a thousand percent return on its investment," Baskin said, a higher profit than can be found in almost any other realm.
The center attributed the increase in lobbying to legislative gridlock, which has forced interests to push harder to get what they want, to frequent turnover among congressional leaders, which has necessitated extra attentiveness by lobbying groups, and to the growing evidence that "money talks" in legislation and regulation.
At the same time, the center bemoaned the state of lobbying disclosure. Over the six-year period, nearly 300 individuals, companies and associations lobbied without first registering as is required by law, the report said. More than 2,000 registrations were filed late. Of the 250 top lobbying firms, 210 failed to file one or more necessary documents. At least one in five companies that lobby failed to file required forms.
Baskin blamed part of that problem on the government's lack of staff to oversee disclosure rules. The Senate Office of Public Records employs 11 people and the House equivalent employs fewer than 35 people, the center reported. By contrast, the Federal Election Commission, which enforces campaign finance laws, has 391 employees.
Officials Fail To Track Lobbying, Report Says
Research Group Cites Billions Spent, but Spotty Regulation
By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 8, 2005; Page E01
Washington's lobbying industry has mushroomed over the past decade but the government has fallen behind in keeping track of the billions of dollars a year that lobbyists spend, according to a study by the nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity.
Lobbying expenditures in Washington have at least doubled in the past six years, the center reported. Last year, corporations, labor unions and interest groups spent more than $3 billion trying to influence the federal government, up from $1.6 billion in 1998.
At the same time, the center said, enforcement of lobbying regulations has been lax. The center estimated that at least 14,000 disclosure documents required under a 10-year-old lobbying law were not filed over the period, including documents that should have come from 49 of the nation's 50 largest lobbying firms.
"Neither the House nor Senate offices responsible for keeping records on K Street's activities have audit or investigative powers," said Roberta Baskin, the center's executive director. "It is impossible, for example, to determine how many lobbyists there actually are in Washington."
The center's report gives only a partial picture of the size and scope of contemporary lobbying. It tallied the spending of registered lobbyists who directly contacted lawmakers and administration officials. That calculation, while accurate as far as it goes, leaves out the faster-growing and probably larger forms of indirect lobbying such as stirring up local contacts from the "grass roots" and buying newspaper, radio and TV ads.
Nevertheless, the report begins to quantify what lawmakers and lobbyists have long suspected: Lobbying is growing very rapidly and largely in the shadows.
The market for lobbyists is so robust that former members of Congress now routinely become lobbyists when they retire or are defeated -- a career change that was rare as recently as 20 years ago. The center estimated that about 250 former members of Congress and heads of federal agencies are registered to lobby, as are more than 2,000 other former senior government officials.
Total spending by registered lobbyists from 1998 through mid-2004 was $13 billion. The more than $5.4 billion in projected spending on lobbying in 2003 and 2004 was about twice the amount spent by candidates for federal office -- the people who are lobbied most often -- according to the center.
The center extrapolated 2004 lobbying expenditures based on mid-year filings, which are the latest that are fully available.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce spent more on lobbying than any other group over the six-year period, $193 million, the center said. Altria Group Inc., Verizon Communications Inc., General Electric Co. and Edison Electric Institute each laid out more than $100 million over the same period.
State and local governments and universities were also big spenders on lobbying. From 1998 to mid-2004 those groups spent almost $600 million, the center said. Every state and six U.S. territories hired lobbyists, as did 300 universities.
The nation's top lobbying firms included three law firms, Patton Boggs LLP, Piper Rudnick (now DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary) and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP. Interpublic Group of Companies Inc. and WPP Group PLC, which own several lobbying firms, were No. 1 and No. 2 in the list of lobbying firms, the center said.
The economics of influence peddling suggest that lobbying will probably continue to expand rapidly because it often pays off. Since 1998, for example, Lockheed Martin Corp. spent roughly $89 million on lobbying and received $94 billion in government contracts.
"That's more than a thousand percent return on its investment," Baskin said, a higher profit than can be found in almost any other realm.
The center attributed the increase in lobbying to legislative gridlock, which has forced interests to push harder to get what they want, to frequent turnover among congressional leaders, which has necessitated extra attentiveness by lobbying groups, and to the growing evidence that "money talks" in legislation and regulation.
At the same time, the center bemoaned the state of lobbying disclosure. Over the six-year period, nearly 300 individuals, companies and associations lobbied without first registering as is required by law, the report said. More than 2,000 registrations were filed late. Of the 250 top lobbying firms, 210 failed to file one or more necessary documents. At least one in five companies that lobby failed to file required forms.
Baskin blamed part of that problem on the government's lack of staff to oversee disclosure rules. The Senate Office of Public Records employs 11 people and the House equivalent employs fewer than 35 people, the center reported. By contrast, the Federal Election Commission, which enforces campaign finance laws, has 391 employees.
Officials Fail To Track Lobbying, Report Says
Research Group Cites Billions Spent, but Spotty Regulation
By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 8, 2005; Page E01
Washington's lobbying industry has mushroomed over the past decade but the government has fallen behind in keeping track of the billions of dollars a year that lobbyists spend, according to a study by the nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity.
Lobbying expenditures in Washington have at least doubled in the past six years, the center reported. Last year, corporations, labor unions and interest groups spent more than $3 billion trying to influence the federal government, up from $1.6 billion in 1998.
At the same time, the center said, enforcement of lobbying regulations has been lax. The center estimated that at least 14,000 disclosure documents required under a 10-year-old lobbying law were not filed over the period, including documents that should have come from 49 of the nation's 50 largest lobbying firms.
"Neither the House nor Senate offices responsible for keeping records on K Street's activities have audit or investigative powers," said Roberta Baskin, the center's executive director. "It is impossible, for example, to determine how many lobbyists there actually are in Washington."
The center's report gives only a partial picture of the size and scope of contemporary lobbying. It tallied the spending of registered lobbyists who directly contacted lawmakers and administration officials. That calculation, while accurate as far as it goes, leaves out the faster-growing and probably larger forms of indirect lobbying such as stirring up local contacts from the "grass roots" and buying newspaper, radio and TV ads.
Nevertheless, the report begins to quantify what lawmakers and lobbyists have long suspected: Lobbying is growing very rapidly and largely in the shadows.
The market for lobbyists is so robust that former members of Congress now routinely become lobbyists when they retire or are defeated -- a career change that was rare as recently as 20 years ago. The center estimated that about 250 former members of Congress and heads of federal agencies are registered to lobby, as are more than 2,000 other former senior government officials.
Total spending by registered lobbyists from 1998 through mid-2004 was $13 billion. The more than $5.4 billion in projected spending on lobbying in 2003 and 2004 was about twice the amount spent by candidates for federal office -- the people who are lobbied most often -- according to the center.
The center extrapolated 2004 lobbying expenditures based on mid-year filings, which are the latest that are fully available.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce spent more on lobbying than any other group over the six-year period, $193 million, the center said. Altria Group Inc., Verizon Communications Inc., General Electric Co. and Edison Electric Institute each laid out more than $100 million over the same period.
State and local governments and universities were also big spenders on lobbying. From 1998 to mid-2004 those groups spent almost $600 million, the center said. Every state and six U.S. territories hired lobbyists, as did 300 universities.
The nation's top lobbying firms included three law firms, Patton Boggs LLP, Piper Rudnick (now DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary) and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP. Interpublic Group of Companies Inc. and WPP Group PLC, which own several lobbying firms, were No. 1 and No. 2 in the list of lobbying firms, the center said.
The economics of influence peddling suggest that lobbying will probably continue to expand rapidly because it often pays off. Since 1998, for example, Lockheed Martin Corp. spent roughly $89 million on lobbying and received $94 billion in government contracts.
"That's more than a thousand percent return on its investment," Baskin said, a higher profit than can be found in almost any other realm.
The center attributed the increase in lobbying to legislative gridlock, which has forced interests to push harder to get what they want, to frequent turnover among congressional leaders, which has necessitated extra attentiveness by lobbying groups, and to the growing evidence that "money talks" in legislation and regulation.
At the same time, the center bemoaned the state of lobbying disclosure. Over the six-year period, nearly 300 individuals, companies and associations lobbied without first registering as is required by law, the report said. More than 2,000 registrations were filed late. Of the 250 top lobbying firms, 210 failed to file one or more necessary documents. At least one in five companies that lobby failed to file required forms.
Baskin blamed part of that problem on the government's lack of staff to oversee disclosure rules. The Senate Office of Public Records employs 11 people and the House equivalent employs fewer than 35 people, the center reported. By contrast, the Federal Election Commission, which enforces campaign finance laws, has 391 employees.
An Old U.S. Foe Rises Again in Iraq
Shiite Mahdi Army Growing Bolder in South
By Anthony Shadid
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, April 8, 2005; Page A01
GHARAF, Iraq -- Over the loudspeakers set up in this small town in a backwater of southern Iraq, the commands came in staccato bursts. "Forward!" a man clad in black shouted to the militiamen. "March!"
Column after column followed through the dusty, windswept square. Some of the marchers wore the funeral shawls of prospective martyrs. Others were dressed in newly pressed camouflage. Together, their boots beat the pavement like a drum as they goose-stepped or double-timed in place.
___ Postwar Iraq ___
_____ Request for Photos_____
Duty In Iraq
We want to give you the opportunity to show firsthand what it is like to live and work in Iraq.
_____ Latest News _____
• An Old U.S. Foe Rises Again in Iraq
• Talabani Offers Amnesty to Insurgents
• Iraqi Catholics Mourn John Paul
• More Coverage
_____ U.S. Military Deaths _____
Faces of the Fallen
Portraits of U.S. service members who have died in Iraq since the beginning of the war.
Over their heads flew the Iraqi flag, banners of Shiite Muslim saints and a portrait of their leader, Moqtada Sadr -- symbols of their militia, the Mahdi Army, twice subdued by the U.S. military last year but now openly displaying its strength in parts of the south.
"At your service, Sadr! At your service, Moqtada!" the men chanted in formation. "We hear a voice calling us!"
"The tanks do not terrify us," others joined in. "We're resisting! We're resisting!"
The military parade this week lasted an hour, long enough for 700 men brandishing swords, machetes and not a few guns to pass a viewing stand of turbaned clerics and townspeople gathered in front of low-slung brick buildings.
It was also long enough for the militiamen to deliver the message that has distinguished their organization from Iraq's other Shiite groups -- implacable hostility toward the U.S. occupation. They delivered it far beyond the purview of the U.S. military, in one of the many towns and cities in southern Iraq where the Mahdi Army has emerged as kingmaker, and where the lines between authority and lawlessness are still ambiguous.
Iraq's most prominent religious leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, stepped between the Mahdi Army and the U.S. military in Najaf last August, ending fighting that destroyed parts of Iraq's most sacred Shiite city. Since then, an uneasy truce has held there and in Karbala, another holy city, and in the vast Baghdad slum known as Sadr City.
U.S. military officials say they believe the toll they inflicted during last year's fighting sapped the young cleric's support. While still a threat, the militia is less so than when it first took up arms in April 2004, the officials say.
"We believe Moqtada's militia is generally marginalized, and there is little to be gained from taking a military role," said Lt. Col. Bob Taylor, chief intelligence officer for the 3rd Infantry Division, which oversees Baghdad. "But it could still be a threat."
Beyond Baghdad, though, Iraqis see a new boldness in the militia in cities like Nasiriyah, Basra and Amarah, all south of the capital and all patrolled by foreign forces allied with the United States.
In Basra, the Mahdi Army is widely viewed as the force that can put more armed men in the street than any other. Amarah remains its stronghold. In Nasiriyah, it has struck an alliance with the secular police chief, who views the group as a counterweight to other militias.
"The silent majority is not with him, but the majority of active people are," said Ayatollah Mohammed Taqi Mudarrassi, a cleric in Karbala, referring to Sadr. "If you count the ballot boxes, the balance is with the moderates. If you count those in the streets, it's the opposite."
The enduring appeal of Sadr's militia speaks to the forces still shaping Iraq: nationalism, religion and guns.
An Old U.S. Foe Rises Again in Iraq
Shiite Mahdi Army Growing Bolder in South
By Anthony Shadid
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, April 8, 2005; Page A01
GHARAF, Iraq -- Over the loudspeakers set up in this small town in a backwater of southern Iraq, the commands came in staccato bursts. "Forward!" a man clad in black shouted to the militiamen. "March!"
Column after column followed through the dusty, windswept square. Some of the marchers wore the funeral shawls of prospective martyrs. Others were dressed in newly pressed camouflage. Together, their boots beat the pavement like a drum as they goose-stepped or double-timed in place.
___ Postwar Iraq ___
_____ Request for Photos_____
Duty In Iraq
We want to give you the opportunity to show firsthand what it is like to live and work in Iraq.
_____ Latest News _____
• An Old U.S. Foe Rises Again in Iraq
• Talabani Offers Amnesty to Insurgents
• Iraqi Catholics Mourn John Paul
• More Coverage
_____ U.S. Military Deaths _____
Faces of the Fallen
Portraits of U.S. service members who have died in Iraq since the beginning of the war.
Over their heads flew the Iraqi flag, banners of Shiite Muslim saints and a portrait of their leader, Moqtada Sadr -- symbols of their militia, the Mahdi Army, twice subdued by the U.S. military last year but now openly displaying its strength in parts of the south.
"At your service, Sadr! At your service, Moqtada!" the men chanted in formation. "We hear a voice calling us!"
"The tanks do not terrify us," others joined in. "We're resisting! We're resisting!"
The military parade this week lasted an hour, long enough for 700 men brandishing swords, machetes and not a few guns to pass a viewing stand of turbaned clerics and townspeople gathered in front of low-slung brick buildings.
It was also long enough for the militiamen to deliver the message that has distinguished their organization from Iraq's other Shiite groups -- implacable hostility toward the U.S. occupation. They delivered it far beyond the purview of the U.S. military, in one of the many towns and cities in southern Iraq where the Mahdi Army has emerged as kingmaker, and where the lines between authority and lawlessness are still ambiguous.
Iraq's most prominent religious leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, stepped between the Mahdi Army and the U.S. military in Najaf last August, ending fighting that destroyed parts of Iraq's most sacred Shiite city. Since then, an uneasy truce has held there and in Karbala, another holy city, and in the vast Baghdad slum known as Sadr City.
U.S. military officials say they believe the toll they inflicted during last year's fighting sapped the young cleric's support. While still a threat, the militia is less so than when it first took up arms in April 2004, the officials say.
"We believe Moqtada's militia is generally marginalized, and there is little to be gained from taking a military role," said Lt. Col. Bob Taylor, chief intelligence officer for the 3rd Infantry Division, which oversees Baghdad. "But it could still be a threat."
Beyond Baghdad, though, Iraqis see a new boldness in the militia in cities like Nasiriyah, Basra and Amarah, all south of the capital and all patrolled by foreign forces allied with the United States.
In Basra, the Mahdi Army is widely viewed as the force that can put more armed men in the street than any other. Amarah remains its stronghold. In Nasiriyah, it has struck an alliance with the secular police chief, who views the group as a counterweight to other militias.
"The silent majority is not with him, but the majority of active people are," said Ayatollah Mohammed Taqi Mudarrassi, a cleric in Karbala, referring to Sadr. "If you count the ballot boxes, the balance is with the moderates. If you count those in the streets, it's the opposite."
The enduring appeal of Sadr's militia speaks to the forces still shaping Iraq: nationalism, religion and guns.
An Old U.S. Foe Rises Again in Iraq
Shiite Mahdi Army Growing Bolder in South
By Anthony Shadid
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, April 8, 2005; Page A01
GHARAF, Iraq -- Over the loudspeakers set up in this small town in a backwater of southern Iraq, the commands came in staccato bursts. "Forward!" a man clad in black shouted to the militiamen. "March!"
Column after column followed through the dusty, windswept square. Some of the marchers wore the funeral shawls of prospective martyrs. Others were dressed in newly pressed camouflage. Together, their boots beat the pavement like a drum as they goose-stepped or double-timed in place.
___ Postwar Iraq ___
_____ Request for Photos_____
Duty In Iraq
We want to give you the opportunity to show firsthand what it is like to live and work in Iraq.
_____ Latest News _____
• An Old U.S. Foe Rises Again in Iraq
• Talabani Offers Amnesty to Insurgents
• Iraqi Catholics Mourn John Paul
• More Coverage
_____ U.S. Military Deaths _____
Faces of the Fallen
Portraits of U.S. service members who have died in Iraq since the beginning of the war.
Over their heads flew the Iraqi flag, banners of Shiite Muslim saints and a portrait of their leader, Moqtada Sadr -- symbols of their militia, the Mahdi Army, twice subdued by the U.S. military last year but now openly displaying its strength in parts of the south.
"At your service, Sadr! At your service, Moqtada!" the men chanted in formation. "We hear a voice calling us!"
"The tanks do not terrify us," others joined in. "We're resisting! We're resisting!"
The military parade this week lasted an hour, long enough for 700 men brandishing swords, machetes and not a few guns to pass a viewing stand of turbaned clerics and townspeople gathered in front of low-slung brick buildings.
It was also long enough for the militiamen to deliver the message that has distinguished their organization from Iraq's other Shiite groups -- implacable hostility toward the U.S. occupation. They delivered it far beyond the purview of the U.S. military, in one of the many towns and cities in southern Iraq where the Mahdi Army has emerged as kingmaker, and where the lines between authority and lawlessness are still ambiguous.
Iraq's most prominent religious leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, stepped between the Mahdi Army and the U.S. military in Najaf last August, ending fighting that destroyed parts of Iraq's most sacred Shiite city. Since then, an uneasy truce has held there and in Karbala, another holy city, and in the vast Baghdad slum known as Sadr City.
U.S. military officials say they believe the toll they inflicted during last year's fighting sapped the young cleric's support. While still a threat, the militia is less so than when it first took up arms in April 2004, the officials say.
"We believe Moqtada's militia is generally marginalized, and there is little to be gained from taking a military role," said Lt. Col. Bob Taylor, chief intelligence officer for the 3rd Infantry Division, which oversees Baghdad. "But it could still be a threat."
Beyond Baghdad, though, Iraqis see a new boldness in the militia in cities like Nasiriyah, Basra and Amarah, all south of the capital and all patrolled by foreign forces allied with the United States.
In Basra, the Mahdi Army is widely viewed as the force that can put more armed men in the street than any other. Amarah remains its stronghold. In Nasiriyah, it has struck an alliance with the secular police chief, who views the group as a counterweight to other militias.
"The silent majority is not with him, but the majority of active people are," said Ayatollah Mohammed Taqi Mudarrassi, a cleric in Karbala, referring to Sadr. "If you count the ballot boxes, the balance is with the moderates. If you count those in the streets, it's the opposite."
The enduring appeal of Sadr's militia speaks to the forces still shaping Iraq: nationalism, religion and guns.
Reason unclear as Carter out of pope delegation
By Baltimore Sun | April 7, 2005
WASHINGTON -- President Bush arrived in Rome last night for Pope John Paul II's funeral, bringing with him a delegation of US dignitaries -- as well as a public-relations headache over a botched invitation to former President Jimmy Carter.
Bush will appear at the pontiff's funeral tomorrow with former Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton. But Carter, the first president to invite a pope to the White House, will not be there.
Neither the White House nor the former president's staff in Georgia can agree on exactly why Carter -- who made history with a reception for Pope John Paul II at the White House in 1979 -- won't be attending. The White House says Carter refused its invitation. Carter allies explain his absence as the result of either a miscommunication or a White House snub.
''I'm very disappointed he isn't going," said Mary Hoyt, Rosalynn Carter's former press secretary, recalling the Carters' warmth for the pope. ''I think he belongs there."
A statement from Carter's office earlier this week said the former president had asked the White House whether he could join the US delegation at the funeral but was told that space was limited and other US dignitaries were eager to attend.
The White House said that it had extended an invitation and noted that the Vatican, not the White House, limited the US delegation to five people. Laura Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice round out the US delegation.
Carter tried to end the flap in a statement yesterday: ''There has been no dissension between me and the White House concerning the pope's funeral," he said.
But some see Carter, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and an outspoken opponent of the Iraq war, as deliberately excluded.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan rejected claims that Carter had been rebuffed.
Gerald Ford is the only other living former president not attending the funeral. The 91-year-old's health is fragile, and his doctors have told him to limit his travel.
Reason unclear as Carter out of pope delegation
By Baltimore Sun | April 7, 2005
WASHINGTON -- President Bush arrived in Rome last night for Pope John Paul II's funeral, bringing with him a delegation of US dignitaries -- as well as a public-relations headache over a botched invitation to former President Jimmy Carter.
Bush will appear at the pontiff's funeral tomorrow with former Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton. But Carter, the first president to invite a pope to the White House, will not be there.
Neither the White House nor the former president's staff in Georgia can agree on exactly why Carter -- who made history with a reception for Pope John Paul II at the White House in 1979 -- won't be attending. The White House says Carter refused its invitation. Carter allies explain his absence as the result of either a miscommunication or a White House snub.
''I'm very disappointed he isn't going," said Mary Hoyt, Rosalynn Carter's former press secretary, recalling the Carters' warmth for the pope. ''I think he belongs there."
A statement from Carter's office earlier this week said the former president had asked the White House whether he could join the US delegation at the funeral but was told that space was limited and other US dignitaries were eager to attend.
The White House said that it had extended an invitation and noted that the Vatican, not the White House, limited the US delegation to five people. Laura Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice round out the US delegation.
Carter tried to end the flap in a statement yesterday: ''There has been no dissension between me and the White House concerning the pope's funeral," he said.
But some see Carter, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and an outspoken opponent of the Iraq war, as deliberately excluded.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan rejected claims that Carter had been rebuffed.
Gerald Ford is the only other living former president not attending the funeral. The 91-year-old's health is fragile, and his doctors have told him to limit his travel.
Reason unclear as Carter out of pope delegation
By Baltimore Sun | April 7, 2005
WASHINGTON -- President Bush arrived in Rome last night for Pope John Paul II's funeral, bringing with him a delegation of US dignitaries -- as well as a public-relations headache over a botched invitation to former President Jimmy Carter.
Bush will appear at the pontiff's funeral tomorrow with former Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton. But Carter, the first president to invite a pope to the White House, will not be there.
Neither the White House nor the former president's staff in Georgia can agree on exactly why Carter -- who made history with a reception for Pope John Paul II at the White House in 1979 -- won't be attending. The White House says Carter refused its invitation. Carter allies explain his absence as the result of either a miscommunication or a White House snub.
''I'm very disappointed he isn't going," said Mary Hoyt, Rosalynn Carter's former press secretary, recalling the Carters' warmth for the pope. ''I think he belongs there."
A statement from Carter's office earlier this week said the former president had asked the White House whether he could join the US delegation at the funeral but was told that space was limited and other US dignitaries were eager to attend.
The White House said that it had extended an invitation and noted that the Vatican, not the White House, limited the US delegation to five people. Laura Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice round out the US delegation.
Carter tried to end the flap in a statement yesterday: ''There has been no dissension between me and the White House concerning the pope's funeral," he said.
But some see Carter, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and an outspoken opponent of the Iraq war, as deliberately excluded.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan rejected claims that Carter had been rebuffed.
Gerald Ford is the only other living former president not attending the funeral. The 91-year-old's health is fragile, and his doctors have told him to limit his travel.
Lenders too big, Greenspan warns
More controls urged for Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae
By Associated Press | April 7, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan yesterday urged Congress to restrict the multibillion-dollar holdings of the mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, warning their huge debt could imperil US financial markets. His admonition lent support to an effort to tighten controls on the government-sponsored companies, following accounting scandals.
The Fed chairman told a Senate committee it might not be enough just to create a strong regulator for the companies, which hold or guarantee more than 45 percent of all US mortgage loans.
Proposed legislation would set up a regulatory agency with power to compel the companies to sell any assets deemed not to be in line with their mission of making homeownership more widely available. The measures would not limit the size of the companies' portfolios, which together have grown to $1.5 trillion. They also have issued $1.8 trillion in debt.
''Without restrictions on the size of [their] balance sheets, we put at risk our ability to preserve safe and sound financial markets in the United States, a key ingredient of support for homeownership," Greenspan said. Portfolio restrictions would not affect mortgage rates, because so many big banks and other lenders compete with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, he said.
While the companies' stock prices have fallen as a result of the accounting turmoil, Greenspan said that ''mortgage markets have functioned well." Senator Charles Schumer, disputed that notion. ''It almost defies belief that mortgage rates won't go up," said Schumer, a New York Democrat.
Congress created the companies to inject money into the home-loan market, keeping mortgage rates lower. The companies buy mortgages from banks and bundle the loans into securities for sale to investors worldwide.
Regulators last year accused Fannie Mae of manipulating earnings to meet Wall Street targets. The Securities and Exchange Commission ordered the company to restate earnings back to 2001, a correction that could reach $11 billion. In 2003, Freddie Mac was found to have misstated earnings by $5 billion for 2000-2002.
Lenders too big, Greenspan warns
More controls urged for Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae
By Associated Press | April 7, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan yesterday urged Congress to restrict the multibillion-dollar holdings of the mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, warning their huge debt could imperil US financial markets. His admonition lent support to an effort to tighten controls on the government-sponsored companies, following accounting scandals.
The Fed chairman told a Senate committee it might not be enough just to create a strong regulator for the companies, which hold or guarantee more than 45 percent of all US mortgage loans.
Proposed legislation would set up a regulatory agency with power to compel the companies to sell any assets deemed not to be in line with their mission of making homeownership more widely available. The measures would not limit the size of the companies' portfolios, which together have grown to $1.5 trillion. They also have issued $1.8 trillion in debt.
''Without restrictions on the size of [their] balance sheets, we put at risk our ability to preserve safe and sound financial markets in the United States, a key ingredient of support for homeownership," Greenspan said. Portfolio restrictions would not affect mortgage rates, because so many big banks and other lenders compete with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, he said.
While the companies' stock prices have fallen as a result of the accounting turmoil, Greenspan said that ''mortgage markets have functioned well." Senator Charles Schumer, disputed that notion. ''It almost defies belief that mortgage rates won't go up," said Schumer, a New York Democrat.
Congress created the companies to inject money into the home-loan market, keeping mortgage rates lower. The companies buy mortgages from banks and bundle the loans into securities for sale to investors worldwide.
Regulators last year accused Fannie Mae of manipulating earnings to meet Wall Street targets. The Securities and Exchange Commission ordered the company to restate earnings back to 2001, a correction that could reach $11 billion. In 2003, Freddie Mac was found to have misstated earnings by $5 billion for 2000-2002.
Lenders too big, Greenspan warns
More controls urged for Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae
By Associated Press | April 7, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan yesterday urged Congress to restrict the multibillion-dollar holdings of the mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, warning their huge debt could imperil US financial markets. His admonition lent support to an effort to tighten controls on the government-sponsored companies, following accounting scandals.
The Fed chairman told a Senate committee it might not be enough just to create a strong regulator for the companies, which hold or guarantee more than 45 percent of all US mortgage loans.
Proposed legislation would set up a regulatory agency with power to compel the companies to sell any assets deemed not to be in line with their mission of making homeownership more widely available. The measures would not limit the size of the companies' portfolios, which together have grown to $1.5 trillion. They also have issued $1.8 trillion in debt.
''Without restrictions on the size of [their] balance sheets, we put at risk our ability to preserve safe and sound financial markets in the United States, a key ingredient of support for homeownership," Greenspan said. Portfolio restrictions would not affect mortgage rates, because so many big banks and other lenders compete with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, he said.
While the companies' stock prices have fallen as a result of the accounting turmoil, Greenspan said that ''mortgage markets have functioned well." Senator Charles Schumer, disputed that notion. ''It almost defies belief that mortgage rates won't go up," said Schumer, a New York Democrat.
Congress created the companies to inject money into the home-loan market, keeping mortgage rates lower. The companies buy mortgages from banks and bundle the loans into securities for sale to investors worldwide.
Regulators last year accused Fannie Mae of manipulating earnings to meet Wall Street targets. The Securities and Exchange Commission ordered the company to restate earnings back to 2001, a correction that could reach $11 billion. In 2003, Freddie Mac was found to have misstated earnings by $5 billion for 2000-2002.
CDC criticizes US plan to destroy nerve agent
Says byproduct may retain traces
By Associated Press | April 7, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The US Army's plan to destroy VX nerve agent stockpiled in Indiana and ship the chemical byproduct to New Jersey to be dumped in the Delaware River may not completely remove all traces of the deadly chemical, the government says.
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The plan ''has raised concerns and questions about potential impacts on public health and the environment," the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said yesterday.
US Representative Robert Andrews, Democrat of New Jersey, one of several lawmakers critical of the plan, urged the Army to abandon its proposal.
The Army will destroy the VX nerve agent stockpiled at the Newport Chemical Depot in western Indiana and then store the byproduct there until a decision is made on how to treat and dispose of it. The Army expects the 1,269 tons of VX to be destroyed in 2½ years.
The VX -- a liquid that can kill a healthy adult male with a single pinpoint droplet -- has been stockpiled at the depot since it was created in the 1960s.
The VX neutralization at the depot is expected to result in 4 million gallons of a chemical byproduct called hydrolysate, which would require additional treatment at DuPont's Chambers Works plant in Deepwater, N.J., before it is dumped into the Delaware River.
The CDC report is critical in several areas, including the possibility of traces of VX still being present in the byproduct that would not be harmful to humans but could harm fish. There was no information showing that the DuPont plant is capable of treating traces of VX nerve agent or other compounds in the chemical byproduct, the CDC said.
CDC criticizes US plan to destroy nerve agent
Says byproduct may retain traces
By Associated Press | April 7, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The US Army's plan to destroy VX nerve agent stockpiled in Indiana and ship the chemical byproduct to New Jersey to be dumped in the Delaware River may not completely remove all traces of the deadly chemical, the government says.
ADVERTISEMENT
The plan ''has raised concerns and questions about potential impacts on public health and the environment," the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said yesterday.
US Representative Robert Andrews, Democrat of New Jersey, one of several lawmakers critical of the plan, urged the Army to abandon its proposal.
The Army will destroy the VX nerve agent stockpiled at the Newport Chemical Depot in western Indiana and then store the byproduct there until a decision is made on how to treat and dispose of it. The Army expects the 1,269 tons of VX to be destroyed in 2½ years.
The VX -- a liquid that can kill a healthy adult male with a single pinpoint droplet -- has been stockpiled at the depot since it was created in the 1960s.
The VX neutralization at the depot is expected to result in 4 million gallons of a chemical byproduct called hydrolysate, which would require additional treatment at DuPont's Chambers Works plant in Deepwater, N.J., before it is dumped into the Delaware River.
The CDC report is critical in several areas, including the possibility of traces of VX still being present in the byproduct that would not be harmful to humans but could harm fish. There was no information showing that the DuPont plant is capable of treating traces of VX nerve agent or other compounds in the chemical byproduct, the CDC said.
CDC criticizes US plan to destroy nerve agent
Says byproduct may retain traces
By Associated Press | April 7, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The US Army's plan to destroy VX nerve agent stockpiled in Indiana and ship the chemical byproduct to New Jersey to be dumped in the Delaware River may not completely remove all traces of the deadly chemical, the government says.
ADVERTISEMENT
The plan ''has raised concerns and questions about potential impacts on public health and the environment," the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said yesterday.
US Representative Robert Andrews, Democrat of New Jersey, one of several lawmakers critical of the plan, urged the Army to abandon its proposal.
The Army will destroy the VX nerve agent stockpiled at the Newport Chemical Depot in western Indiana and then store the byproduct there until a decision is made on how to treat and dispose of it. The Army expects the 1,269 tons of VX to be destroyed in 2½ years.
The VX -- a liquid that can kill a healthy adult male with a single pinpoint droplet -- has been stockpiled at the depot since it was created in the 1960s.
The VX neutralization at the depot is expected to result in 4 million gallons of a chemical byproduct called hydrolysate, which would require additional treatment at DuPont's Chambers Works plant in Deepwater, N.J., before it is dumped into the Delaware River.
The CDC report is critical in several areas, including the possibility of traces of VX still being present in the byproduct that would not be harmful to humans but could harm fish. There was no information showing that the DuPont plant is capable of treating traces of VX nerve agent or other compounds in the chemical byproduct, the CDC said.
Flawed FBI Probe Of Bombing Used A Secret Warrant
Conyers Seeks Wider Inquiry
By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 7, 2005; Page A03
The Justice Department is acknowledging for the first time that the FBI used a secret search warrant to copy and seize material -- including DNA samples -- from the home of Brandon Mayfield, a Portland, Ore., man who was wrongly arrested and jailed last year in connection with the March 2004 train bombings in Madrid.
In statements and testimony this week, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and other Justice officials have also said that some of the special powers used to spy on Mayfield were strengthened by the USA Patriot Act, the anti-terrorism law facing fresh scrutiny from Congress.
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In a background briefing with reporters Tuesday, two senior Justice Department officials maintained that the FBI could have taken Mayfield's belongings and conducted surveillance on him even without the Patriot Act because he was under suspicion in a prominent international terrorism case.
But Mayfield's attorney said that may not be true, and the disclosures prompted Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) to ask the Justice Department's inspector general to expand his ongoing investigation of the case.
Mayfield, a convert to Islam, was arrested May 6 after the FBI concluded that his fingerprint was on a bag of detonators connected to the bombings two months earlier in Madrid, which killed nearly 200 people. He was freed two weeks later, after the FBI admitted it had bungled the fingerprint analysis. Mayfield is suing the federal government.
The Justice Department previously declined to confirm Mayfield's contention that his house had been ransacked in a covert search.
But in a March 24 letter to Mayfield, sent as part of the ongoing lawsuit, the department acknowledged that during clandestine searches of his home the FBI made copies of computer drives and documents, and that "ten DNA samples were taken and preserved on cotton swabs and six cigarette butts were seized for DNA analysis." Authorities took approximately 355 digital photographs.
Finally, the letter said, "Mr. Mayfield is also hereby notified that he was the target of electronic surveillance and other physical searches authorized pursuant to FISA" -- the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which governs such warrants and was expanded under the Patriot law.
Flawed FBI Probe Of Bombing Used A Secret Warrant
Conyers Seeks Wider Inquiry
By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 7, 2005; Page A03
The Justice Department is acknowledging for the first time that the FBI used a secret search warrant to copy and seize material -- including DNA samples -- from the home of Brandon Mayfield, a Portland, Ore., man who was wrongly arrested and jailed last year in connection with the March 2004 train bombings in Madrid.
In statements and testimony this week, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and other Justice officials have also said that some of the special powers used to spy on Mayfield were strengthened by the USA Patriot Act, the anti-terrorism law facing fresh scrutiny from Congress.
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In a background briefing with reporters Tuesday, two senior Justice Department officials maintained that the FBI could have taken Mayfield's belongings and conducted surveillance on him even without the Patriot Act because he was under suspicion in a prominent international terrorism case.
But Mayfield's attorney said that may not be true, and the disclosures prompted Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) to ask the Justice Department's inspector general to expand his ongoing investigation of the case.
Mayfield, a convert to Islam, was arrested May 6 after the FBI concluded that his fingerprint was on a bag of detonators connected to the bombings two months earlier in Madrid, which killed nearly 200 people. He was freed two weeks later, after the FBI admitted it had bungled the fingerprint analysis. Mayfield is suing the federal government.
The Justice Department previously declined to confirm Mayfield's contention that his house had been ransacked in a covert search.
But in a March 24 letter to Mayfield, sent as part of the ongoing lawsuit, the department acknowledged that during clandestine searches of his home the FBI made copies of computer drives and documents, and that "ten DNA samples were taken and preserved on cotton swabs and six cigarette butts were seized for DNA analysis." Authorities took approximately 355 digital photographs.
Finally, the letter said, "Mr. Mayfield is also hereby notified that he was the target of electronic surveillance and other physical searches authorized pursuant to FISA" -- the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which governs such warrants and was expanded under the Patriot law.
Flawed FBI Probe Of Bombing Used A Secret Warrant
Conyers Seeks Wider Inquiry
By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 7, 2005; Page A03
The Justice Department is acknowledging for the first time that the FBI used a secret search warrant to copy and seize material -- including DNA samples -- from the home of Brandon Mayfield, a Portland, Ore., man who was wrongly arrested and jailed last year in connection with the March 2004 train bombings in Madrid.
In statements and testimony this week, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and other Justice officials have also said that some of the special powers used to spy on Mayfield were strengthened by the USA Patriot Act, the anti-terrorism law facing fresh scrutiny from Congress.
_____Free E-mail Newsletters_____
• Today's Headlines & Columnists
See a Sample | Sign Up Now
• Daily Politics News & Analysis
See a Sample | Sign Up Now
• Federal Insider
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• Breaking News Alerts
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In a background briefing with reporters Tuesday, two senior Justice Department officials maintained that the FBI could have taken Mayfield's belongings and conducted surveillance on him even without the Patriot Act because he was under suspicion in a prominent international terrorism case.
But Mayfield's attorney said that may not be true, and the disclosures prompted Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) to ask the Justice Department's inspector general to expand his ongoing investigation of the case.
Mayfield, a convert to Islam, was arrested May 6 after the FBI concluded that his fingerprint was on a bag of detonators connected to the bombings two months earlier in Madrid, which killed nearly 200 people. He was freed two weeks later, after the FBI admitted it had bungled the fingerprint analysis. Mayfield is suing the federal government.
The Justice Department previously declined to confirm Mayfield's contention that his house had been ransacked in a covert search.
But in a March 24 letter to Mayfield, sent as part of the ongoing lawsuit, the department acknowledged that during clandestine searches of his home the FBI made copies of computer drives and documents, and that "ten DNA samples were taken and preserved on cotton swabs and six cigarette butts were seized for DNA analysis." Authorities took approximately 355 digital photographs.
Finally, the letter said, "Mr. Mayfield is also hereby notified that he was the target of electronic surveillance and other physical searches authorized pursuant to FISA" -- the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which governs such warrants and was expanded under the Patriot law.
Counsel to GOP Senator Wrote Memo On Schiavo
Martinez Aide Who Cited Upside For Party Resigns
By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 7, 2005; Page A01
The legal counsel to Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) admitted yesterday that he was the author of a memo citing the political advantage to Republicans of intervening in the case of Terri Schiavo, the senator said in an interview last night.
Brian H. Darling, 39, a former lobbyist for the Alexander Strategy Group on gun rights and other issues, offered his resignation and it was immediately accepted, Martinez said.
Martinez, the GOP's Senate point man on the issue, said he earlier had been assured by aides that his office had nothing to do with producing the memo. "I never did an investigation, as such," he said. "I just took it for granted that we wouldn't be that stupid. It was never my intention to in any way politicize this issue."
Martinez, a freshman who was secretary of housing and urban development for most of President Bush's first term, said he had not read the one-page memo. He said he inadvertently passed it to Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), who had worked with him on the issue. After that, officials gave the memo to reporters for ABC News and The Washington Post.
Harkin said in an interview that Martinez handed him the memo on the Senate floor, in hopes of gaining his support for the bill giving federal courts jurisdiction in the Florida case in an effort to restore the brain-damaged Florida woman's feeding tube. "He said these were talking points -- something that we're working on here," Harkin said.
The mystery of the memo's origin had roiled the Capitol, with Republicans accusing Democrats of concocting the document as a dirty trick, and Democrats accusing Republicans of trying to duck responsibility for exploiting the dying days of an incapacitated woman.
Conservative Web logs have challenged the authenticity of the memo, in some cases likening it to the discredited documents about Bush's National Guard service that CBS News reported last fall.
The staff of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, at the request of a Democrat, spent a week trying to determine the memo's origin and had come up empty, said an official involved in the investigation.
The unsigned memo -- which initially misspells Schiavo's first name and gives the wrong number for the pending bill -- includes eight talking points in support of the legislation and calls the controversy "a great political issue."
"This legislation ensures that individuals like Terri Schiavo are guaranteed the same legal protections as convicted murderers like Ted Bundy," the memo concludes.
It asserts that the case would appeal to the party's core supporters, saying: "This is an important moral issue and the pro-life base will be excited that the Senate is debating this important issue."
The document was provided to ABC News on March 18 and to The Post on March 19 and was included in news reports about congressional intervention in the Schiavo case. Bush returned from an Easter vacation in Texas and signed the bill shortly after 1 a.m. on March 21
Counsel to GOP Senator Wrote Memo On Schiavo
Martinez Aide Who Cited Upside For Party Resigns
By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 7, 2005; Page A01
The legal counsel to Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) admitted yesterday that he was the author of a memo citing the political advantage to Republicans of intervening in the case of Terri Schiavo, the senator said in an interview last night.
Brian H. Darling, 39, a former lobbyist for the Alexander Strategy Group on gun rights and other issues, offered his resignation and it was immediately accepted, Martinez said.
Martinez, the GOP's Senate point man on the issue, said he earlier had been assured by aides that his office had nothing to do with producing the memo. "I never did an investigation, as such," he said. "I just took it for granted that we wouldn't be that stupid. It was never my intention to in any way politicize this issue."
Martinez, a freshman who was secretary of housing and urban development for most of President Bush's first term, said he had not read the one-page memo. He said he inadvertently passed it to Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), who had worked with him on the issue. After that, officials gave the memo to reporters for ABC News and The Washington Post.
Harkin said in an interview that Martinez handed him the memo on the Senate floor, in hopes of gaining his support for the bill giving federal courts jurisdiction in the Florida case in an effort to restore the brain-damaged Florida woman's feeding tube. "He said these were talking points -- something that we're working on here," Harkin said.
The mystery of the memo's origin had roiled the Capitol, with Republicans accusing Democrats of concocting the document as a dirty trick, and Democrats accusing Republicans of trying to duck responsibility for exploiting the dying days of an incapacitated woman.
Conservative Web logs have challenged the authenticity of the memo, in some cases likening it to the discredited documents about Bush's National Guard service that CBS News reported last fall.
The staff of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, at the request of a Democrat, spent a week trying to determine the memo's origin and had come up empty, said an official involved in the investigation.
The unsigned memo -- which initially misspells Schiavo's first name and gives the wrong number for the pending bill -- includes eight talking points in support of the legislation and calls the controversy "a great political issue."
"This legislation ensures that individuals like Terri Schiavo are guaranteed the same legal protections as convicted murderers like Ted Bundy," the memo concludes.
It asserts that the case would appeal to the party's core supporters, saying: "This is an important moral issue and the pro-life base will be excited that the Senate is debating this important issue."
The document was provided to ABC News on March 18 and to The Post on March 19 and was included in news reports about congressional intervention in the Schiavo case. Bush returned from an Easter vacation in Texas and signed the bill shortly after 1 a.m. on March 21
Counsel to GOP Senator Wrote Memo On Schiavo
Martinez Aide Who Cited Upside For Party Resigns
By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 7, 2005; Page A01
The legal counsel to Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) admitted yesterday that he was the author of a memo citing the political advantage to Republicans of intervening in the case of Terri Schiavo, the senator said in an interview last night.
Brian H. Darling, 39, a former lobbyist for the Alexander Strategy Group on gun rights and other issues, offered his resignation and it was immediately accepted, Martinez said.
Martinez, the GOP's Senate point man on the issue, said he earlier had been assured by aides that his office had nothing to do with producing the memo. "I never did an investigation, as such," he said. "I just took it for granted that we wouldn't be that stupid. It was never my intention to in any way politicize this issue."
Martinez, a freshman who was secretary of housing and urban development for most of President Bush's first term, said he had not read the one-page memo. He said he inadvertently passed it to Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), who had worked with him on the issue. After that, officials gave the memo to reporters for ABC News and The Washington Post.
Harkin said in an interview that Martinez handed him the memo on the Senate floor, in hopes of gaining his support for the bill giving federal courts jurisdiction in the Florida case in an effort to restore the brain-damaged Florida woman's feeding tube. "He said these were talking points -- something that we're working on here," Harkin said.
The mystery of the memo's origin had roiled the Capitol, with Republicans accusing Democrats of concocting the document as a dirty trick, and Democrats accusing Republicans of trying to duck responsibility for exploiting the dying days of an incapacitated woman.
Conservative Web logs have challenged the authenticity of the memo, in some cases likening it to the discredited documents about Bush's National Guard service that CBS News reported last fall.
The staff of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, at the request of a Democrat, spent a week trying to determine the memo's origin and had come up empty, said an official involved in the investigation.
The unsigned memo -- which initially misspells Schiavo's first name and gives the wrong number for the pending bill -- includes eight talking points in support of the legislation and calls the controversy "a great political issue."
"This legislation ensures that individuals like Terri Schiavo are guaranteed the same legal protections as convicted murderers like Ted Bundy," the memo concludes.
It asserts that the case would appeal to the party's core supporters, saying: "This is an important moral issue and the pro-life base will be excited that the Senate is debating this important issue."
The document was provided to ABC News on March 18 and to The Post on March 19 and was included in news reports about congressional intervention in the Schiavo case. Bush returned from an Easter vacation in Texas and signed the bill shortly after 1 a.m. on March 21
Between this and the Burger case, I think I'll start watching the Michael Jackson trial !!
Disillusioned in the Heartland
On Thursday afternoon, March 31, within hours of the death of Terry Schiavo, the FBI approached an entirely surprised Georgia Rucker in the forgotten little town of Herington, Kan., an hour or so southwest of Topeka.
The agents asked Rucker for the keys to a cracker box of a house she was trying to sell on South Second Street. They told her they were searching for possible explosives. Naturally, she obliged. Unconcerned by what they might find, Rucker went and had her hair done while she waited for them to finish. "I didn't think it was possible for there to be anything there," she told a reporter from the Daily Union in nearby Junction City.
Rucker was wrong. The FBI soon called in the Topeka bomb squad, evacuated the immediate neighborhood, and cordoned off a three-block area. They worked through the night and into the next day. As Rucker learned, this is the house in which Terry Nichols lived at the time of the Oklahoma City bombing.
Although the FBI on the scene would not confirm that its agents found anything, ABC News and others were told by Oklahoma City's FBI office that explosive devices had indeed been found. The news spin, at least what little surfaced in a period of predictable news frenzy, was that the FBI was embarrassed for not having found this old material 10 years prior.
As has happened all too often in the past, however, seeming FBI incompetence provides a cover for a much more troubling story. The story, as high-level forensic economist Stephen Dresch relates it, revolves around an extraordinary figure, Gregory Scarpa Jr., a convicted mobster now serving hard time at the federal super max in Florence, Colo.
Readers may remember Scarpa from multiple Emmy-winner Peter Lance's book, "Cover-Up." As Lance relates, Scarpa cooperated with the Justice Department in the summer of 1996 by scheming to rout the calls of jailmate Ramzi Yousef through to the FBI. Unfortunately for the United States, Yousef often used two obscure languages that the FBI could not translate quickly enough, if at all.
[A letter I received two weeks ago from a purported NSA insider identified the key language as Baluchi, Yousef's native tongue. Again, reportedly, Yousef's final transmission on the subject translated as follows, "What had to be done has been done, TWA 800 (last two words unintelligible)."]
What is undeniable is that the day after TWA Flight 800 blew up off the coast of Long Island, Yousef asked for a mistrial, citing the now prejudicial environment post-explosion. He was denied. By allowing him to communicate overseas, however, the Justice Department may well have unwittingly assisted Yousef in his effort to destroy that ill-fated plane.
No one doubts that his allies were capable of it. Indeed, Yousef had bombed a plane in the Philippines, killing a passenger and almost blowing the plane out of the air. He also served as the mastermind of the first World Trade Center bombing and was convicted for the same. His uncle, Khalid Shiekh Muhammad, with whom he communicated from his New York jail, was the mastermind of 9-11.
Possibly to silence him, the Justice Department cut Scarpa no slack for his help with Yousef and deep-sixed him in Colorado for 40 years, a severe sentence for a non-lethal RICO charge. On March 1, 2005, Scarpa called Dresch, who was consulting with an attorney on a related case. Scarpa informed Dresch that an unnamed inmate had made him aware of a cache of explosives to be used in an act of domestic terrorism, possibly on the 10th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, April 19.
Dresch surmised, correctly as it turned out, that the inmate was Terry Nichols, the convicted Oklahoma City bomber, and he immediately contacted the FBI by both phone and fax, as well as Massachusetts Congressman William Delahunt with whom Dresch had been working on an FBI-related matter. The FBI visited Scarpa at the prison on March 3, two days later. Having been burned once, this time Scarpa insisted on a written cooperation agreement before he talked.
The following day, an FBI polygraph expert flew in from D.C. and administered what Dresch's own expert calls an "absurdly flawed examination." The FBI expert claimed that Scarpa was lying. Scarpa immediately called Dresch's associate and insisted that she and Dresch visit him.
It should be noted that the FBI's current chief counsel, Valerie Caproni, was the Clinton Justice official who oversaw Scarpa's work with Yousef. To thicken the plot, it was also Caproni who illegally ordered the FBI to take the TWA Flight 800 investigation away from the National Transportation Safety Board and who arranged the prosecution of James and Elizabeth Sanders for James' reporting on the TWA Flight 800 investigation. The absurdly compromised Caproni has any number of reasons for keeping Scarpa out of the light.
On March 10, Dresch and his associate met with Scarpa for seven hours. He gave them a letter from Nichols that provided a highly detailed description of the cached bomb making material – nitromethane, blasting caps, kine-pak, etc. Nichols had told Scarpa that he hid this second cache 10 years ago to be used as a follow up to the Oklahoma City blast.
Nichols' apparent goal in sharing this information was to bust the man who allegedly supplied the material, a reported FBI informant named Roger Moore. Nichols also wanted to expose the FBI's role in supplying Moore the material, presumably in a sting gone awry. Nichols was certain that Moore's fingerprints would be on the material.
No longer trusting the FBI, Dresch worked through a contact, who had high-level Homeland Security connections. Together, they improvised an arrangement for Scarpa, and on March 11, Dresch laid out the offer. Scarpa relented and provided Dresch with the address of the house and detailed descriptions of the location of the cache within it.
Dresch went to Herington the following day and found the house to be vacant and for sale. His well-connected contact had not followed through, however, on retrieving the material and giving Scarpa credit where due. Only later did the contact claim that his people were surveilling the site waiting for someone to retrieve the material. It would take nearly three more weeks, the day of Schiavo's death, for the FBI to go in.
On Saturday, I called Jeff Lanza, the FBI public affairs officer on the scene, whom I have met on at least a few occasions. I left a message, asking him to confirm whether the Scarpa information led to the activity at Nichols' former home. His office paged him. Two days later he has yet to get back to me.
Lanza, however, made a point of telling the Junction City paper, as paraphrased, "that the FBI did not receive a tip leading them to search ... but rather had received the information during an investigation." But either Lanza or Gary Johnson of the FBI's Oklahoma City office is not on message. "Johnson," writes ABC News, "said the discovery was prompted by a recent tip."
In any case, when I visited the house on Saturday morning, there were neither media, nor police, anywhere to be seen. The Scarpa story is one that many people don't want told – Valerie Caproni, chief among them. And from the looks of things, they may be succeeding.
Between this and the Burger case, I think I'll start watching the Michael Jackson trial !!
Disillusioned in the Heartland
On Thursday afternoon, March 31, within hours of the death of Terry Schiavo, the FBI approached an entirely surprised Georgia Rucker in the forgotten little town of Herington, Kan., an hour or so southwest of Topeka.
The agents asked Rucker for the keys to a cracker box of a house she was trying to sell on South Second Street. They told her they were searching for possible explosives. Naturally, she obliged. Unconcerned by what they might find, Rucker went and had her hair done while she waited for them to finish. "I didn't think it was possible for there to be anything there," she told a reporter from the Daily Union in nearby Junction City.
Rucker was wrong. The FBI soon called in the Topeka bomb squad, evacuated the immediate neighborhood, and cordoned off a three-block area. They worked through the night and into the next day. As Rucker learned, this is the house in which Terry Nichols lived at the time of the Oklahoma City bombing.
Although the FBI on the scene would not confirm that its agents found anything, ABC News and others were told by Oklahoma City's FBI office that explosive devices had indeed been found. The news spin, at least what little surfaced in a period of predictable news frenzy, was that the FBI was embarrassed for not having found this old material 10 years prior.
As has happened all too often in the past, however, seeming FBI incompetence provides a cover for a much more troubling story. The story, as high-level forensic economist Stephen Dresch relates it, revolves around an extraordinary figure, Gregory Scarpa Jr., a convicted mobster now serving hard time at the federal super max in Florence, Colo.
Readers may remember Scarpa from multiple Emmy-winner Peter Lance's book, "Cover-Up." As Lance relates, Scarpa cooperated with the Justice Department in the summer of 1996 by scheming to rout the calls of jailmate Ramzi Yousef through to the FBI. Unfortunately for the United States, Yousef often used two obscure languages that the FBI could not translate quickly enough, if at all.
[A letter I received two weeks ago from a purported NSA insider identified the key language as Baluchi, Yousef's native tongue. Again, reportedly, Yousef's final transmission on the subject translated as follows, "What had to be done has been done, TWA 800 (last two words unintelligible)."]
What is undeniable is that the day after TWA Flight 800 blew up off the coast of Long Island, Yousef asked for a mistrial, citing the now prejudicial environment post-explosion. He was denied. By allowing him to communicate overseas, however, the Justice Department may well have unwittingly assisted Yousef in his effort to destroy that ill-fated plane.
No one doubts that his allies were capable of it. Indeed, Yousef had bombed a plane in the Philippines, killing a passenger and almost blowing the plane out of the air. He also served as the mastermind of the first World Trade Center bombing and was convicted for the same. His uncle, Khalid Shiekh Muhammad, with whom he communicated from his New York jail, was the mastermind of 9-11.
Possibly to silence him, the Justice Department cut Scarpa no slack for his help with Yousef and deep-sixed him in Colorado for 40 years, a severe sentence for a non-lethal RICO charge. On March 1, 2005, Scarpa called Dresch, who was consulting with an attorney on a related case. Scarpa informed Dresch that an unnamed inmate had made him aware of a cache of explosives to be used in an act of domestic terrorism, possibly on the 10th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, April 19.
Dresch surmised, correctly as it turned out, that the inmate was Terry Nichols, the convicted Oklahoma City bomber, and he immediately contacted the FBI by both phone and fax, as well as Massachusetts Congressman William Delahunt with whom Dresch had been working on an FBI-related matter. The FBI visited Scarpa at the prison on March 3, two days later. Having been burned once, this time Scarpa insisted on a written cooperation agreement before he talked.
The following day, an FBI polygraph expert flew in from D.C. and administered what Dresch's own expert calls an "absurdly flawed examination." The FBI expert claimed that Scarpa was lying. Scarpa immediately called Dresch's associate and insisted that she and Dresch visit him.
It should be noted that the FBI's current chief counsel, Valerie Caproni, was the Clinton Justice official who oversaw Scarpa's work with Yousef. To thicken the plot, it was also Caproni who illegally ordered the FBI to take the TWA Flight 800 investigation away from the National Transportation Safety Board and who arranged the prosecution of James and Elizabeth Sanders for James' reporting on the TWA Flight 800 investigation. The absurdly compromised Caproni has any number of reasons for keeping Scarpa out of the light.
On March 10, Dresch and his associate met with Scarpa for seven hours. He gave them a letter from Nichols that provided a highly detailed description of the cached bomb making material – nitromethane, blasting caps, kine-pak, etc. Nichols had told Scarpa that he hid this second cache 10 years ago to be used as a follow up to the Oklahoma City blast.
Nichols' apparent goal in sharing this information was to bust the man who allegedly supplied the material, a reported FBI informant named Roger Moore. Nichols also wanted to expose the FBI's role in supplying Moore the material, presumably in a sting gone awry. Nichols was certain that Moore's fingerprints would be on the material.
No longer trusting the FBI, Dresch worked through a contact, who had high-level Homeland Security connections. Together, they improvised an arrangement for Scarpa, and on March 11, Dresch laid out the offer. Scarpa relented and provided Dresch with the address of the house and detailed descriptions of the location of the cache within it.
Dresch went to Herington the following day and found the house to be vacant and for sale. His well-connected contact had not followed through, however, on retrieving the material and giving Scarpa credit where due. Only later did the contact claim that his people were surveilling the site waiting for someone to retrieve the material. It would take nearly three more weeks, the day of Schiavo's death, for the FBI to go in.
On Saturday, I called Jeff Lanza, the FBI public affairs officer on the scene, whom I have met on at least a few occasions. I left a message, asking him to confirm whether the Scarpa information led to the activity at Nichols' former home. His office paged him. Two days later he has yet to get back to me.
Lanza, however, made a point of telling the Junction City paper, as paraphrased, "that the FBI did not receive a tip leading them to search ... but rather had received the information during an investigation." But either Lanza or Gary Johnson of the FBI's Oklahoma City office is not on message. "Johnson," writes ABC News, "said the discovery was prompted by a recent tip."
In any case, when I visited the house on Saturday morning, there were neither media, nor police, anywhere to be seen. The Scarpa story is one that many people don't want told – Valerie Caproni, chief among them. And from the looks of things, they may be succeeding.
Between this and the Burger case, I think I'll start watching the Michael Jackson trial !!
Disillusioned in the Heartland
On Thursday afternoon, March 31, within hours of the death of Terry Schiavo, the FBI approached an entirely surprised Georgia Rucker in the forgotten little town of Herington, Kan., an hour or so southwest of Topeka.
The agents asked Rucker for the keys to a cracker box of a house she was trying to sell on South Second Street. They told her they were searching for possible explosives. Naturally, she obliged. Unconcerned by what they might find, Rucker went and had her hair done while she waited for them to finish. "I didn't think it was possible for there to be anything there," she told a reporter from the Daily Union in nearby Junction City.
Rucker was wrong. The FBI soon called in the Topeka bomb squad, evacuated the immediate neighborhood, and cordoned off a three-block area. They worked through the night and into the next day. As Rucker learned, this is the house in which Terry Nichols lived at the time of the Oklahoma City bombing.
Although the FBI on the scene would not confirm that its agents found anything, ABC News and others were told by Oklahoma City's FBI office that explosive devices had indeed been found. The news spin, at least what little surfaced in a period of predictable news frenzy, was that the FBI was embarrassed for not having found this old material 10 years prior.
As has happened all too often in the past, however, seeming FBI incompetence provides a cover for a much more troubling story. The story, as high-level forensic economist Stephen Dresch relates it, revolves around an extraordinary figure, Gregory Scarpa Jr., a convicted mobster now serving hard time at the federal super max in Florence, Colo.
Readers may remember Scarpa from multiple Emmy-winner Peter Lance's book, "Cover-Up." As Lance relates, Scarpa cooperated with the Justice Department in the summer of 1996 by scheming to rout the calls of jailmate Ramzi Yousef through to the FBI. Unfortunately for the United States, Yousef often used two obscure languages that the FBI could not translate quickly enough, if at all.
[A letter I received two weeks ago from a purported NSA insider identified the key language as Baluchi, Yousef's native tongue. Again, reportedly, Yousef's final transmission on the subject translated as follows, "What had to be done has been done, TWA 800 (last two words unintelligible)."]
What is undeniable is that the day after TWA Flight 800 blew up off the coast of Long Island, Yousef asked for a mistrial, citing the now prejudicial environment post-explosion. He was denied. By allowing him to communicate overseas, however, the Justice Department may well have unwittingly assisted Yousef in his effort to destroy that ill-fated plane.
No one doubts that his allies were capable of it. Indeed, Yousef had bombed a plane in the Philippines, killing a passenger and almost blowing the plane out of the air. He also served as the mastermind of the first World Trade Center bombing and was convicted for the same. His uncle, Khalid Shiekh Muhammad, with whom he communicated from his New York jail, was the mastermind of 9-11.
Possibly to silence him, the Justice Department cut Scarpa no slack for his help with Yousef and deep-sixed him in Colorado for 40 years, a severe sentence for a non-lethal RICO charge. On March 1, 2005, Scarpa called Dresch, who was consulting with an attorney on a related case. Scarpa informed Dresch that an unnamed inmate had made him aware of a cache of explosives to be used in an act of domestic terrorism, possibly on the 10th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, April 19.
Dresch surmised, correctly as it turned out, that the inmate was Terry Nichols, the convicted Oklahoma City bomber, and he immediately contacted the FBI by both phone and fax, as well as Massachusetts Congressman William Delahunt with whom Dresch had been working on an FBI-related matter. The FBI visited Scarpa at the prison on March 3, two days later. Having been burned once, this time Scarpa insisted on a written cooperation agreement before he talked.
The following day, an FBI polygraph expert flew in from D.C. and administered what Dresch's own expert calls an "absurdly flawed examination." The FBI expert claimed that Scarpa was lying. Scarpa immediately called Dresch's associate and insisted that she and Dresch visit him.
It should be noted that the FBI's current chief counsel, Valerie Caproni, was the Clinton Justice official who oversaw Scarpa's work with Yousef. To thicken the plot, it was also Caproni who illegally ordered the FBI to take the TWA Flight 800 investigation away from the National Transportation Safety Board and who arranged the prosecution of James and Elizabeth Sanders for James' reporting on the TWA Flight 800 investigation. The absurdly compromised Caproni has any number of reasons for keeping Scarpa out of the light.
On March 10, Dresch and his associate met with Scarpa for seven hours. He gave them a letter from Nichols that provided a highly detailed description of the cached bomb making material – nitromethane, blasting caps, kine-pak, etc. Nichols had told Scarpa that he hid this second cache 10 years ago to be used as a follow up to the Oklahoma City blast.
Nichols' apparent goal in sharing this information was to bust the man who allegedly supplied the material, a reported FBI informant named Roger Moore. Nichols also wanted to expose the FBI's role in supplying Moore the material, presumably in a sting gone awry. Nichols was certain that Moore's fingerprints would be on the material.
No longer trusting the FBI, Dresch worked through a contact, who had high-level Homeland Security connections. Together, they improvised an arrangement for Scarpa, and on March 11, Dresch laid out the offer. Scarpa relented and provided Dresch with the address of the house and detailed descriptions of the location of the cache within it.
Dresch went to Herington the following day and found the house to be vacant and for sale. His well-connected contact had not followed through, however, on retrieving the material and giving Scarpa credit where due. Only later did the contact claim that his people were surveilling the site waiting for someone to retrieve the material. It would take nearly three more weeks, the day of Schiavo's death, for the FBI to go in.
On Saturday, I called Jeff Lanza, the FBI public affairs officer on the scene, whom I have met on at least a few occasions. I left a message, asking him to confirm whether the Scarpa information led to the activity at Nichols' former home. His office paged him. Two days later he has yet to get back to me.
Lanza, however, made a point of telling the Junction City paper, as paraphrased, "that the FBI did not receive a tip leading them to search ... but rather had received the information during an investigation." But either Lanza or Gary Johnson of the FBI's Oklahoma City office is not on message. "Johnson," writes ABC News, "said the discovery was prompted by a recent tip."
In any case, when I visited the house on Saturday morning, there were neither media, nor police, anywhere to be seen. The Scarpa story is one that many people don't want told – Valerie Caproni, chief among them. And from the looks of things, they may be succeeding.
Lawmaker wants list of companies exporting US oil
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With gasoline and crude oil prices at record highs, a U.S. lawmaker wants the Commerce Department to release the names of American companies that are shipping U.S. petroleum products to other countries.
Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon -- often a critic of big oil firms -- says information on the 268 million barrels of U.S. petroleum products exported in 2004 is needed as Congress considers a broad energy bill.
He sent a letter on Monday to Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez asking for the list of oil companies after the department's Census Bureau, which tracks petroleum exports, refused to provide the data.
"Information about the export of gasoline, diesel and aviation fuels as well as other petroleum products out of the U.S. is directly relevant to the coming Congressional debate on how to address our nation's dependence on imports of oil and other petroleum products," Wyden said in his letter.
The United States consumes about 20.8 million barrels of petroleum a day, with imports accounting for about 58 percent of supply. However, about 1 million barrels of U.S. oil petroleum products are exported daily.
Charles Kincannon, who heads the Census Bureau, told Wyden last week that he could not release the export information to an individual member of Congress.
The Census Bureau's acting general counsel later told Wyden's staff that only committees of Congress have the authority to obtain such information.
The general counsel also said federal law exempts from disclosure shippers' export declarations, unless the commerce secretary determines that such exemptions would be contrary to the national interest.
"I believe the national interest justifies you authorizing the release of the (oil) exporters' names," Wyden wrote to Gutierrez.
The senator, who is a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, also said there was no basis in the law to deny his request for the names of petroleum exporters on the grounds the request did not come from a congressional committee.
While the Census Bureau wants to keep information about oil exporting companies secret, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration lists on its website monthly information on U.S. companies importing oil and petroleum products.
The Energy Department data includes the name of each importing company, how many barrels of petroleum product or oil were purchased and from what country and the U.S. port where it was delivered.
Lawmaker wants list of companies exporting US oil
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With gasoline and crude oil prices at record highs, a U.S. lawmaker wants the Commerce Department to release the names of American companies that are shipping U.S. petroleum products to other countries.
Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon -- often a critic of big oil firms -- says information on the 268 million barrels of U.S. petroleum products exported in 2004 is needed as Congress considers a broad energy bill.
He sent a letter on Monday to Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez asking for the list of oil companies after the department's Census Bureau, which tracks petroleum exports, refused to provide the data.
"Information about the export of gasoline, diesel and aviation fuels as well as other petroleum products out of the U.S. is directly relevant to the coming Congressional debate on how to address our nation's dependence on imports of oil and other petroleum products," Wyden said in his letter.
The United States consumes about 20.8 million barrels of petroleum a day, with imports accounting for about 58 percent of supply. However, about 1 million barrels of U.S. oil petroleum products are exported daily.
Charles Kincannon, who heads the Census Bureau, told Wyden last week that he could not release the export information to an individual member of Congress.
The Census Bureau's acting general counsel later told Wyden's staff that only committees of Congress have the authority to obtain such information.
The general counsel also said federal law exempts from disclosure shippers' export declarations, unless the commerce secretary determines that such exemptions would be contrary to the national interest.
"I believe the national interest justifies you authorizing the release of the (oil) exporters' names," Wyden wrote to Gutierrez.
The senator, who is a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, also said there was no basis in the law to deny his request for the names of petroleum exporters on the grounds the request did not come from a congressional committee.
While the Census Bureau wants to keep information about oil exporting companies secret, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration lists on its website monthly information on U.S. companies importing oil and petroleum products.
The Energy Department data includes the name of each importing company, how many barrels of petroleum product or oil were purchased and from what country and the U.S. port where it was delivered.
Lawmaker wants list of companies exporting US oil
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With gasoline and crude oil prices at record highs, a U.S. lawmaker wants the Commerce Department to release the names of American companies that are shipping U.S. petroleum products to other countries.
Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon -- often a critic of big oil firms -- says information on the 268 million barrels of U.S. petroleum products exported in 2004 is needed as Congress considers a broad energy bill.
He sent a letter on Monday to Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez asking for the list of oil companies after the department's Census Bureau, which tracks petroleum exports, refused to provide the data.
"Information about the export of gasoline, diesel and aviation fuels as well as other petroleum products out of the U.S. is directly relevant to the coming Congressional debate on how to address our nation's dependence on imports of oil and other petroleum products," Wyden said in his letter.
The United States consumes about 20.8 million barrels of petroleum a day, with imports accounting for about 58 percent of supply. However, about 1 million barrels of U.S. oil petroleum products are exported daily.
Charles Kincannon, who heads the Census Bureau, told Wyden last week that he could not release the export information to an individual member of Congress.
The Census Bureau's acting general counsel later told Wyden's staff that only committees of Congress have the authority to obtain such information.
The general counsel also said federal law exempts from disclosure shippers' export declarations, unless the commerce secretary determines that such exemptions would be contrary to the national interest.
"I believe the national interest justifies you authorizing the release of the (oil) exporters' names," Wyden wrote to Gutierrez.
The senator, who is a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, also said there was no basis in the law to deny his request for the names of petroleum exporters on the grounds the request did not come from a congressional committee.
While the Census Bureau wants to keep information about oil exporting companies secret, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration lists on its website monthly information on U.S. companies importing oil and petroleum products.
The Energy Department data includes the name of each importing company, how many barrels of petroleum product or oil were purchased and from what country and the U.S. port where it was delivered.
Lawmaker wants list of companies exporting US oil
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With gasoline and crude oil prices at record highs, a U.S. lawmaker wants the Commerce Department to release the names of American companies that are shipping U.S. petroleum products to other countries.
Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon -- often a critic of big oil firms -- says information on the 268 million barrels of U.S. petroleum products exported in 2004 is needed as Congress considers a broad energy bill.
He sent a letter on Monday to Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez asking for the list of oil companies after the department's Census Bureau, which tracks petroleum exports, refused to provide the data.
"Information about the export of gasoline, diesel and aviation fuels as well as other petroleum products out of the U.S. is directly relevant to the coming Congressional debate on how to address our nation's dependence on imports of oil and other petroleum products," Wyden said in his letter.
The United States consumes about 20.8 million barrels of petroleum a day, with imports accounting for about 58 percent of supply. However, about 1 million barrels of U.S. oil petroleum products are exported daily.
Charles Kincannon, who heads the Census Bureau, told Wyden last week that he could not release the export information to an individual member of Congress.
The Census Bureau's acting general counsel later told Wyden's staff that only committees of Congress have the authority to obtain such information.
The general counsel also said federal law exempts from disclosure shippers' export declarations, unless the commerce secretary determines that such exemptions would be contrary to the national interest.
"I believe the national interest justifies you authorizing the release of the (oil) exporters' names," Wyden wrote to Gutierrez.
The senator, who is a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, also said there was no basis in the law to deny his request for the names of petroleum exporters on the grounds the request did not come from a congressional committee.
While the Census Bureau wants to keep information about oil exporting companies secret, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration lists on its website monthly information on U.S. companies importing oil and petroleum products.
The Energy Department data includes the name of each importing company, how many barrels of petroleum product or oil were purchased and from what country and the U.S. port where it was delivered.
Lawmaker wants list of companies exporting US oil
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With gasoline and crude oil prices at record highs, a U.S. lawmaker wants the Commerce Department to release the names of American companies that are shipping U.S. petroleum products to other countries.
Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon -- often a critic of big oil firms -- says information on the 268 million barrels of U.S. petroleum products exported in 2004 is needed as Congress considers a broad energy bill.
He sent a letter on Monday to Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez asking for the list of oil companies after the department's Census Bureau, which tracks petroleum exports, refused to provide the data.
"Information about the export of gasoline, diesel and aviation fuels as well as other petroleum products out of the U.S. is directly relevant to the coming Congressional debate on how to address our nation's dependence on imports of oil and other petroleum products," Wyden said in his letter.
The United States consumes about 20.8 million barrels of petroleum a day, with imports accounting for about 58 percent of supply. However, about 1 million barrels of U.S. oil petroleum products are exported daily.
Charles Kincannon, who heads the Census Bureau, told Wyden last week that he could not release the export information to an individual member of Congress.
The Census Bureau's acting general counsel later told Wyden's staff that only committees of Congress have the authority to obtain such information.
The general counsel also said federal law exempts from disclosure shippers' export declarations, unless the commerce secretary determines that such exemptions would be contrary to the national interest.
"I believe the national interest justifies you authorizing the release of the (oil) exporters' names," Wyden wrote to Gutierrez.
The senator, who is a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, also said there was no basis in the law to deny his request for the names of petroleum exporters on the grounds the request did not come from a congressional committee.
While the Census Bureau wants to keep information about oil exporting companies secret, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration lists on its website monthly information on U.S. companies importing oil and petroleum products.
The Energy Department data includes the name of each importing company, how many barrels of petroleum product or oil were purchased and from what country and the U.S. port where it was delivered.
Lawmaker wants list of companies exporting US oil
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With gasoline and crude oil prices at record highs, a U.S. lawmaker wants the Commerce Department to release the names of American companies that are shipping U.S. petroleum products to other countries.
Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon -- often a critic of big oil firms -- says information on the 268 million barrels of U.S. petroleum products exported in 2004 is needed as Congress considers a broad energy bill.
He sent a letter on Monday to Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez asking for the list of oil companies after the department's Census Bureau, which tracks petroleum exports, refused to provide the data.
"Information about the export of gasoline, diesel and aviation fuels as well as other petroleum products out of the U.S. is directly relevant to the coming Congressional debate on how to address our nation's dependence on imports of oil and other petroleum products," Wyden said in his letter.
The United States consumes about 20.8 million barrels of petroleum a day, with imports accounting for about 58 percent of supply. However, about 1 million barrels of U.S. oil petroleum products are exported daily.
Charles Kincannon, who heads the Census Bureau, told Wyden last week that he could not release the export information to an individual member of Congress.
The Census Bureau's acting general counsel later told Wyden's staff that only committees of Congress have the authority to obtain such information.
The general counsel also said federal law exempts from disclosure shippers' export declarations, unless the commerce secretary determines that such exemptions would be contrary to the national interest.
"I believe the national interest justifies you authorizing the release of the (oil) exporters' names," Wyden wrote to Gutierrez.
The senator, who is a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, also said there was no basis in the law to deny his request for the names of petroleum exporters on the grounds the request did not come from a congressional committee.
While the Census Bureau wants to keep information about oil exporting companies secret, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration lists on its website monthly information on U.S. companies importing oil and petroleum products.
The Energy Department data includes the name of each importing company, how many barrels of petroleum product or oil were purchased and from what country and the U.S. port where it was delivered.
3rd DeLay Trip Under Scrutiny
1997 Russia Visit Reportedly Backed by Business Interests
By R. Jeffrey Smith and James V. Grimaldi
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, April 6, 2005; Page A01
A six-day trip to Moscow in 1997 by then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) was underwritten by business interests lobbying in support of the Russian government, according to four people with firsthand knowledge of the trip arrangements.
DeLay reported that the trip was sponsored by a Washington-based nonprofit organization. But interviews with those involved in planning DeLay's trip say the expenses were covered by a mysterious company registered in the Bahamas that also paid for an intensive $440,000 lobbying campaign.
Lobbyist Julius "Jay" Kaplan, left, shown with Naftasib's Marina Nevskaya and Alexander Koulakovsky, reportedly met with Rep. Tom DeLay in Moscow. (Gregg Hilton -- American Foreign Policy Council)
_____Flow Chart_____
• Anatomy of a Trip: Details on how money flowed from a Russian oil company, through lobbyists to a nonprofit organization that covered the expenses of Tom DeLay's 1997 trip to Russia.
It is unclear precisely how the money was transferred from the Bahamian-registered company to the nonprofit.
The expense-paid trip by DeLay and four of his staff members cost $57,238, according to records filed by his office. During his six days in Moscow, he played golf, met with Russian church leaders and talked to Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, a friend of Russian oil and gas executives associated with the lobbying effort.
DeLay also dined with the Russian executives and two Washington-based registered lobbyists for the Bahamian-registered company, sources say. One of those lobbyists was Jack Abramoff, who is now at the center of a federal influence-peddling and corruption probe related to his representation of Indian tribes.
House members bear some responsibility to ensure that the sponsors for their travel are not masquerading for registered lobbyists or foreign government interests, legal experts say. House ethics rules bar the acceptance of travel reimbursement from registered lobbyists and foreign agents.
In this case, travel funds did not come directly from lobbyists; the money came from a firm, Chelsea Commercial Enterprises Ltd., that funded the lobbying campaign, according to the sources. Chelsea was coordinating the effort with a Russian oil and gas company -- Naftasib -- that has business ties with Russian security institutions, the sources said.
Aides to DeLay, who is now the House majority leader, said that despite the presence during the trip of the two registered lobbyists, DeLay thought the nonprofit organization -- the National Center for Public Policy Research -- was funding the trip on its own. Suggestions to the contrary have come to light in media reports only in the past few weeks, an aide said.
"The trip was initiated by the National Center," spokesman Dan Allen said, "and they were the ones who organized it, planned it and paid for it." Sources connected to the trip say, however, that Abramoff, acting at the behest of his Russian-connected client, Chelsea, brought the idea to the center.
Questions on Three Trips
The 1997 Moscow trip is the third foreign trip by DeLay to be scrutinized in recent weeks because of new statements by those involved that his travel was directly or indirectly financed by registered lobbyists or a foreign agent.
Media attention focused on DeLay's travel last month after The Washington Post reported on DeLay's participation in a $70,000 expense-paid trip to London and Scotland in 2000 that sources said was indirectly financed in part by an Indian tribe and a gambling services company. A few days earlier, media attention had focused on a $106,921 trip DeLay took to South Korea in 2001 that was financed by a tax-exempt group created by a lobbyist on behalf of a Korean businessman.
DeLay on March 18 portrayed criticism of his trips and close ties to lobbyists as the product of a conspiracy to "destroy the conservative movement" by attacking its leaders, such as himself. "This is a huge, nationwide, concerted effort to destroy everything we believe in," DeLay told supporters at the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian group.
The three foreign trips at issue share common elements. The sponsor of the Moscow trip, the Capitol Hill-based National Center for Public Policy Research, also sponsored the later London trip. The center is a conservative group that solicits corporate, foundation and individual donations.
Also, Abramoff not only joined DeLay in Moscow but also helped organize DeLay's subsequent London trip. Abramoff also filed expense reports indicating he paid for some of DeLay's hotel bill in London, according to a copy obtained by The Post.
Edwin A. Buckham, who was DeLay's chief of staff in 1997 and then became a Washington lobbyist for major corporations, participated in two of the three trips. In 1997, he visited Moscow twice -- once with DeLay -- and on one of these trips he returned via Paris aboard a Concorde jet with a ticket he told the Associated Press in 1998 had been financed by the National Center.
Buckham also joined DeLay on the Korea trip. Buckham did not respond to messages left by The Post.
Untangling the origin of the Moscow trip's financing is complicated by questions about the ownership and origins of Chelsea, the obscure Bahamian-registered company that financed the lobbying effort in favor of the Russian government that targeted Republicans in Washington in 1997 and 1998. Those involved in this effort also prepared and coordinated the DeLay visit, individuals with direct knowledge about it said.
In that period, prominent Russian businessmen, as well as the Russian government, depended heavily on a flow of billions of dollars in annual Western aid and so had good reason to build bridges to Congress. House Republicans were becoming increasingly critical of U.S. and international lending institutions, such as the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and the International Monetary Fund, which were then investing heavily in Russia's fragile economy.
Unlike some House conservatives who scorn such support as "corporate welfare," DeLay proved to be a "yes" vote for institutions bolstering Russia in this period. For example, DeLay voted for a bill that included the replenishment of billions of dollars in IMF funds used to bail out the Russian economy in 1998.
A DeLay aide said he tried to reform these institutions through the legislative process. DeLay voted to fund these agencies because their financing was usually included in appropriation bills that he generally supported, the aide said. They also noted that OPIC had the strong backing of the energy industry, including companies from Texas that received OPIC financing.
Meetings in Moscow
The Russian campaign is detailed in disclosures filed with the House by lobbyists. Those records state that Chelsea, with an address listed variously as a post office box on the British island of Jersey -- a tax haven off the French coast -- or a law firm in the Bahamas, paid at least $440,000 to fund lobbying aimed at building "support for policies of the Russian government for progressive market reforms and trade with the United States," according to lobbying registration documents.
The Washington offices of two lobbying and law firms collected the fees. Preston Gates Ellis and Rouvelas Meeds LLP -- where Abramoff then worked -- received $260,000 in 1997 and less than $10,000 in 1998; Cadwalader Wickersham and Taft LLP was paid $180,000 in 1997 and less than $10,000 annually for the next three years, according to the registrations. Their listed lobbying targets included members of the House and Senate and officials of the State Department and the Agency for International Development.
"One of the functions of the lobbying effort was to encourage U.S. policymakers to visit Russia and to learn more about Russia," Ellen S. Levinson, a lobbyist then working on the Chelsea account at Cadwalader, said in an e-mailed response to questions.
She said Preston Gates used its "contacts with policy institutes and congressional offices" to arrange these trips. Preston Gates said in a written statement that it does not comment on its work for clients.
In a Cadwalader memo dated May 6, 1997, and obtained by The Post from another source, Levinson depicted the DeLay trip as one of six organized that year as part of the lobbying effort. Others included an "advance team" that visited Moscow later that month and a visit by "think tank" experts in June. A copy of the memo was sent to Abramoff.
A total of six members of the two lobbying firms participated in these trips, according to those involved. Levinson and two Preston Gates lobbyists were members of the "advance team."
During the third visit, Cadwalader lobbyist Julius "Jay" Kaplan joined DeLay and Abramoff at a "fancy dinner" in Moscow, according to one of those present -- a circumstance first reported last month in an article about the trip in National Journal's Congress Daily.
Breaking with traditional practice for congressmen traveling overseas, DeLay did not contact the State Department in advance or meet with officials at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow regarding his meeting with Chernomyrdin, according to a department spokeswoman who said she checked with 10 people at the embassy then or responsible for facilitating congressional trips.
Allen, DeLay's spokesman, said the State Department was not contacted because "the National Center was responsible for the arrangements on the trip, including setting up the meetings. Beyond that, members of Congress aren't required to have the State Department present at meetings with leaders from other countries."
Last month, Amy Ridenour, director of the National Center, posted a statement on her organization's Web site in response to questions about DeLay's trip to Russia stating that the center itself had "sponsored and paid" for all the expenses associated with it. Ridenour and her husband also took part in the visit.
But a person familiar with planning for the trip said Abramoff -- who has long been close to DeLay -- approached the National Center with the idea for the trip on behalf of Kaplan and his client, Chelsea. That person said the expenses by the center were in turn replenished by "an American trust account affiliated with a law firm" that the person declined to name.
Kaplan declined to be quoted for this article, citing what he called "lawyer-client privilege." But another person with direct knowledge about the trip arrangements said that it was Chelsea -- which had the registered Washington lobbyists in its employ -- that "gave the money to NCPPR to pay for the trip."
This person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect his business interests, added: "I didn't see anything wrong there. All these foundations get money from somewhere, and they give it out." Moreover, the source said, "this was the Russians' way of doing business then -- moving money from one firm to another."
Who Financed Travel?
The question is: Who stood behind Chelsea, and thus ultimately financed the trip? A regular office for the firm could not be located by The Post, in Moscow or at its two listed addresses; its Bahamian registration ended in 2000, officials there said. Efforts by The Post to find the three men -- one Belgian, one British, one Russian -- named in lobbying registrations as Chelsea investors or owners in lobbying disclosures were unsuccessful.
A spokeswoman for Cadwalader, Paula Zirinsky, said the firm had no contact information for anyone from Chelsea, because "persons that worked on that matter have not been with the firm since 1997." Jonathan Blank, managing partner of the Washington office for Preston Gates, similarly said his firm had no current contact information for Chelsea.
In interviews, however, five individuals with direct knowledge of the lobbying effort separately described executives of a diversified Russian energy firm known as Naftasib as being intimately involved in the lobbying.
Naftasib, which oversees interests in mining, oil and gas, construction and other enterprises from a four-story unmarked building in downtown Moscow, says it is a separate company from Chelsea but acknowledges seeking to cultivate friends in Washington in 1997.
In a written statement issued Friday in response to questions from The Post, Marina Nevskaya, Naftasib's deputy general manager, explained that her firm "wanted to foster better understanding between our country and the United States, and felt that if these trips were successful they would foster a better overall climate that could ultimately benefit Naftasib as well as other Russian enterprises."
Nevskaya said her company "did not finance in any manner" the DeLay trip or the others described in Levinson's memo. But she said Naftasib "did host and pay for some dinners for participants in some of the trips, organized a few other special events . . . and may have provided minor courtesies, such as some auto pickups and dropoffs for some visitors during one or more of the trips."
She also acknowledged providing "advice about trip logistics" before they occurred and meeting trip participants. Nevskaya did not offer details, but those involved in organizing DeLay's trip said he met with Nevskaya and was escorted around Moscow by the general manager of Naftasib, Alexander Koulakovsky. DeLay has also met with Nevskaya and Koulakovsky in Washington since then, according to several sources with direct knowledge of the contact.
During the June 1997 trip to Moscow by "think tank" experts -- one of the scheduled visits listed in Levinson's memo -- several participants said they got the impression that Preston Gates was the organizer, Naftasib was the ultimate financier and that the trip was a dry run for DeLay's visit.
"It was done through or under the auspices of NCPPR," said Bart Adams, a North Carolina journalist who joined the expense-paid trip. But he said he recalls hearing that "the money was coming from a Russian oil company."
David Lowe, an official at the National Endowment for Democracy, said he was recruited to join the trip by the Preston Gates firm; former Senate aide James P. Lucier, who also was on the trip, said Naftasib's executives played such a large role that they "seemed to be the clients of Preston Gates," a claim the firm denies. "Some American investment or tie was the end goal," said a third participant, "and the plan was to bring over some congressmen" later.
A publicist who works for Abramoff attorney Abbe David Lowell said Abramoff did lobby for Chelsea but not for Naftasib. The publicist said Abramoff thought "bringing a greater understanding of Russia to American decision makers was and is good for America."
The efforts by Naftasib's executives to curry favor among Republicans -- including DeLay -- sowed controversy at the time among conservatives. A journal published by a Washington think tank, the American Foreign Policy Council, claimed within a few days after DeLay's trip ended that it was actually "sponsored" by Naftasib. The journal -- the Russian Reform Monitor -- also highlighted what it characterized as Naftasib's tight connections to the Russian security establishment.
The journal quoted promotional literature for Naftasib that described the firm as a major shareholder in Gazprom, the state-controlled oil and gas giant. The literature also said Natfasib's largest clients were the ministries of defense and internal affairs. The literature also states that Nevskaya was an instructor at a school for Russian military intelligence officers. She declined to address those claims in response to questions from The Post.
Steve Biegun, who was then a senior Russia expert for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and later served as executive secretary to the National Security Council during President Bush's first term, said he deliberately blocked a meeting that Nevskaya sought with Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), then the committee chairman.
"They were a client of the lobbying firm Preston Gates," said Biegun, who is now a Ford Motor Co. vice president for international governmental affairs. "I made some calls . . . and got enough warning signs" to ensure that Helms avoided dealing with the firm. Biegun said the information he obtained from his sources was "nothing that would stand up in court" but he worried that in this period, "a lot of unsavory figures from Russia were buying their way into meetings and getting their pictures taken, to put on the wall back in Moscow."
"I just had my doubts, and nobody did anything to allay them," Biegun said. "I did not know who either of them really were."
Asked to comment, Blank, Preston Gates's Washington managing partner, said in a written statement: "Chelsea was our only client. Naftasib was not our client. We did work with Naftasib representatives when their interests coincided with our client's." Blank added that "we are confident that the individuals still with the firm who were involved at the time acted ethically, appropriately, and in service of the client."
3rd DeLay Trip Under Scrutiny
1997 Russia Visit Reportedly Backed by Business Interests
By R. Jeffrey Smith and James V. Grimaldi
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, April 6, 2005; Page A01
A six-day trip to Moscow in 1997 by then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) was underwritten by business interests lobbying in support of the Russian government, according to four people with firsthand knowledge of the trip arrangements.
DeLay reported that the trip was sponsored by a Washington-based nonprofit organization. But interviews with those involved in planning DeLay's trip say the expenses were covered by a mysterious company registered in the Bahamas that also paid for an intensive $440,000 lobbying campaign.
Lobbyist Julius "Jay" Kaplan, left, shown with Naftasib's Marina Nevskaya and Alexander Koulakovsky, reportedly met with Rep. Tom DeLay in Moscow. (Gregg Hilton -- American Foreign Policy Council)
_____Flow Chart_____
• Anatomy of a Trip: Details on how money flowed from a Russian oil company, through lobbyists to a nonprofit organization that covered the expenses of Tom DeLay's 1997 trip to Russia.
It is unclear precisely how the money was transferred from the Bahamian-registered company to the nonprofit.
The expense-paid trip by DeLay and four of his staff members cost $57,238, according to records filed by his office. During his six days in Moscow, he played golf, met with Russian church leaders and talked to Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, a friend of Russian oil and gas executives associated with the lobbying effort.
DeLay also dined with the Russian executives and two Washington-based registered lobbyists for the Bahamian-registered company, sources say. One of those lobbyists was Jack Abramoff, who is now at the center of a federal influence-peddling and corruption probe related to his representation of Indian tribes.
House members bear some responsibility to ensure that the sponsors for their travel are not masquerading for registered lobbyists or foreign government interests, legal experts say. House ethics rules bar the acceptance of travel reimbursement from registered lobbyists and foreign agents.
In this case, travel funds did not come directly from lobbyists; the money came from a firm, Chelsea Commercial Enterprises Ltd., that funded the lobbying campaign, according to the sources. Chelsea was coordinating the effort with a Russian oil and gas company -- Naftasib -- that has business ties with Russian security institutions, the sources said.
Aides to DeLay, who is now the House majority leader, said that despite the presence during the trip of the two registered lobbyists, DeLay thought the nonprofit organization -- the National Center for Public Policy Research -- was funding the trip on its own. Suggestions to the contrary have come to light in media reports only in the past few weeks, an aide said.
"The trip was initiated by the National Center," spokesman Dan Allen said, "and they were the ones who organized it, planned it and paid for it." Sources connected to the trip say, however, that Abramoff, acting at the behest of his Russian-connected client, Chelsea, brought the idea to the center.
Questions on Three Trips
The 1997 Moscow trip is the third foreign trip by DeLay to be scrutinized in recent weeks because of new statements by those involved that his travel was directly or indirectly financed by registered lobbyists or a foreign agent.
Media attention focused on DeLay's travel last month after The Washington Post reported on DeLay's participation in a $70,000 expense-paid trip to London and Scotland in 2000 that sources said was indirectly financed in part by an Indian tribe and a gambling services company. A few days earlier, media attention had focused on a $106,921 trip DeLay took to South Korea in 2001 that was financed by a tax-exempt group created by a lobbyist on behalf of a Korean businessman.
DeLay on March 18 portrayed criticism of his trips and close ties to lobbyists as the product of a conspiracy to "destroy the conservative movement" by attacking its leaders, such as himself. "This is a huge, nationwide, concerted effort to destroy everything we believe in," DeLay told supporters at the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian group.
The three foreign trips at issue share common elements. The sponsor of the Moscow trip, the Capitol Hill-based National Center for Public Policy Research, also sponsored the later London trip. The center is a conservative group that solicits corporate, foundation and individual donations.
Also, Abramoff not only joined DeLay in Moscow but also helped organize DeLay's subsequent London trip. Abramoff also filed expense reports indicating he paid for some of DeLay's hotel bill in London, according to a copy obtained by The Post.
Edwin A. Buckham, who was DeLay's chief of staff in 1997 and then became a Washington lobbyist for major corporations, participated in two of the three trips. In 1997, he visited Moscow twice -- once with DeLay -- and on one of these trips he returned via Paris aboard a Concorde jet with a ticket he told the Associated Press in 1998 had been financed by the National Center.
Buckham also joined DeLay on the Korea trip. Buckham did not respond to messages left by The Post.
Untangling the origin of the Moscow trip's financing is complicated by questions about the ownership and origins of Chelsea, the obscure Bahamian-registered company that financed the lobbying effort in favor of the Russian government that targeted Republicans in Washington in 1997 and 1998. Those involved in this effort also prepared and coordinated the DeLay visit, individuals with direct knowledge about it said.
In that period, prominent Russian businessmen, as well as the Russian government, depended heavily on a flow of billions of dollars in annual Western aid and so had good reason to build bridges to Congress. House Republicans were becoming increasingly critical of U.S. and international lending institutions, such as the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and the International Monetary Fund, which were then investing heavily in Russia's fragile economy.
Unlike some House conservatives who scorn such support as "corporate welfare," DeLay proved to be a "yes" vote for institutions bolstering Russia in this period. For example, DeLay voted for a bill that included the replenishment of billions of dollars in IMF funds used to bail out the Russian economy in 1998.
A DeLay aide said he tried to reform these institutions through the legislative process. DeLay voted to fund these agencies because their financing was usually included in appropriation bills that he generally supported, the aide said. They also noted that OPIC had the strong backing of the energy industry, including companies from Texas that received OPIC financing.
Meetings in Moscow
The Russian campaign is detailed in disclosures filed with the House by lobbyists. Those records state that Chelsea, with an address listed variously as a post office box on the British island of Jersey -- a tax haven off the French coast -- or a law firm in the Bahamas, paid at least $440,000 to fund lobbying aimed at building "support for policies of the Russian government for progressive market reforms and trade with the United States," according to lobbying registration documents.
The Washington offices of two lobbying and law firms collected the fees. Preston Gates Ellis and Rouvelas Meeds LLP -- where Abramoff then worked -- received $260,000 in 1997 and less than $10,000 in 1998; Cadwalader Wickersham and Taft LLP was paid $180,000 in 1997 and less than $10,000 annually for the next three years, according to the registrations. Their listed lobbying targets included members of the House and Senate and officials of the State Department and the Agency for International Development.
"One of the functions of the lobbying effort was to encourage U.S. policymakers to visit Russia and to learn more about Russia," Ellen S. Levinson, a lobbyist then working on the Chelsea account at Cadwalader, said in an e-mailed response to questions.
She said Preston Gates used its "contacts with policy institutes and congressional offices" to arrange these trips. Preston Gates said in a written statement that it does not comment on its work for clients.
In a Cadwalader memo dated May 6, 1997, and obtained by The Post from another source, Levinson depicted the DeLay trip as one of six organized that year as part of the lobbying effort. Others included an "advance team" that visited Moscow later that month and a visit by "think tank" experts in June. A copy of the memo was sent to Abramoff.
A total of six members of the two lobbying firms participated in these trips, according to those involved. Levinson and two Preston Gates lobbyists were members of the "advance team."
During the third visit, Cadwalader lobbyist Julius "Jay" Kaplan joined DeLay and Abramoff at a "fancy dinner" in Moscow, according to one of those present -- a circumstance first reported last month in an article about the trip in National Journal's Congress Daily.
Breaking with traditional practice for congressmen traveling overseas, DeLay did not contact the State Department in advance or meet with officials at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow regarding his meeting with Chernomyrdin, according to a department spokeswoman who said she checked with 10 people at the embassy then or responsible for facilitating congressional trips.
Allen, DeLay's spokesman, said the State Department was not contacted because "the National Center was responsible for the arrangements on the trip, including setting up the meetings. Beyond that, members of Congress aren't required to have the State Department present at meetings with leaders from other countries."
Last month, Amy Ridenour, director of the National Center, posted a statement on her organization's Web site in response to questions about DeLay's trip to Russia stating that the center itself had "sponsored and paid" for all the expenses associated with it. Ridenour and her husband also took part in the visit.
But a person familiar with planning for the trip said Abramoff -- who has long been close to DeLay -- approached the National Center with the idea for the trip on behalf of Kaplan and his client, Chelsea. That person said the expenses by the center were in turn replenished by "an American trust account affiliated with a law firm" that the person declined to name.
Kaplan declined to be quoted for this article, citing what he called "lawyer-client privilege." But another person with direct knowledge about the trip arrangements said that it was Chelsea -- which had the registered Washington lobbyists in its employ -- that "gave the money to NCPPR to pay for the trip."
This person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect his business interests, added: "I didn't see anything wrong there. All these foundations get money from somewhere, and they give it out." Moreover, the source said, "this was the Russians' way of doing business then -- moving money from one firm to another."
Who Financed Travel?
The question is: Who stood behind Chelsea, and thus ultimately financed the trip? A regular office for the firm could not be located by The Post, in Moscow or at its two listed addresses; its Bahamian registration ended in 2000, officials there said. Efforts by The Post to find the three men -- one Belgian, one British, one Russian -- named in lobbying registrations as Chelsea investors or owners in lobbying disclosures were unsuccessful.
A spokeswoman for Cadwalader, Paula Zirinsky, said the firm had no contact information for anyone from Chelsea, because "persons that worked on that matter have not been with the firm since 1997." Jonathan Blank, managing partner of the Washington office for Preston Gates, similarly said his firm had no current contact information for Chelsea.
In interviews, however, five individuals with direct knowledge of the lobbying effort separately described executives of a diversified Russian energy firm known as Naftasib as being intimately involved in the lobbying.
Naftasib, which oversees interests in mining, oil and gas, construction and other enterprises from a four-story unmarked building in downtown Moscow, says it is a separate company from Chelsea but acknowledges seeking to cultivate friends in Washington in 1997.
In a written statement issued Friday in response to questions from The Post, Marina Nevskaya, Naftasib's deputy general manager, explained that her firm "wanted to foster better understanding between our country and the United States, and felt that if these trips were successful they would foster a better overall climate that could ultimately benefit Naftasib as well as other Russian enterprises."
Nevskaya said her company "did not finance in any manner" the DeLay trip or the others described in Levinson's memo. But she said Naftasib "did host and pay for some dinners for participants in some of the trips, organized a few other special events . . . and may have provided minor courtesies, such as some auto pickups and dropoffs for some visitors during one or more of the trips."
She also acknowledged providing "advice about trip logistics" before they occurred and meeting trip participants. Nevskaya did not offer details, but those involved in organizing DeLay's trip said he met with Nevskaya and was escorted around Moscow by the general manager of Naftasib, Alexander Koulakovsky. DeLay has also met with Nevskaya and Koulakovsky in Washington since then, according to several sources with direct knowledge of the contact.
During the June 1997 trip to Moscow by "think tank" experts -- one of the scheduled visits listed in Levinson's memo -- several participants said they got the impression that Preston Gates was the organizer, Naftasib was the ultimate financier and that the trip was a dry run for DeLay's visit.
"It was done through or under the auspices of NCPPR," said Bart Adams, a North Carolina journalist who joined the expense-paid trip. But he said he recalls hearing that "the money was coming from a Russian oil company."
David Lowe, an official at the National Endowment for Democracy, said he was recruited to join the trip by the Preston Gates firm; former Senate aide James P. Lucier, who also was on the trip, said Naftasib's executives played such a large role that they "seemed to be the clients of Preston Gates," a claim the firm denies. "Some American investment or tie was the end goal," said a third participant, "and the plan was to bring over some congressmen" later.
A publicist who works for Abramoff attorney Abbe David Lowell said Abramoff did lobby for Chelsea but not for Naftasib. The publicist said Abramoff thought "bringing a greater understanding of Russia to American decision makers was and is good for America."
The efforts by Naftasib's executives to curry favor among Republicans -- including DeLay -- sowed controversy at the time among conservatives. A journal published by a Washington think tank, the American Foreign Policy Council, claimed within a few days after DeLay's trip ended that it was actually "sponsored" by Naftasib. The journal -- the Russian Reform Monitor -- also highlighted what it characterized as Naftasib's tight connections to the Russian security establishment.
The journal quoted promotional literature for Naftasib that described the firm as a major shareholder in Gazprom, the state-controlled oil and gas giant. The literature also said Natfasib's largest clients were the ministries of defense and internal affairs. The literature also states that Nevskaya was an instructor at a school for Russian military intelligence officers. She declined to address those claims in response to questions from The Post.
Steve Biegun, who was then a senior Russia expert for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and later served as executive secretary to the National Security Council during President Bush's first term, said he deliberately blocked a meeting that Nevskaya sought with Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), then the committee chairman.
"They were a client of the lobbying firm Preston Gates," said Biegun, who is now a Ford Motor Co. vice president for international governmental affairs. "I made some calls . . . and got enough warning signs" to ensure that Helms avoided dealing with the firm. Biegun said the information he obtained from his sources was "nothing that would stand up in court" but he worried that in this period, "a lot of unsavory figures from Russia were buying their way into meetings and getting their pictures taken, to put on the wall back in Moscow."
"I just had my doubts, and nobody did anything to allay them," Biegun said. "I did not know who either of them really were."
Asked to comment, Blank, Preston Gates's Washington managing partner, said in a written statement: "Chelsea was our only client. Naftasib was not our client. We did work with Naftasib representatives when their interests coincided with our client's." Blank added that "we are confident that the individuals still with the firm who were involved at the time acted ethically, appropriately, and in service of the client."
3rd DeLay Trip Under Scrutiny
1997 Russia Visit Reportedly Backed by Business Interests
By R. Jeffrey Smith and James V. Grimaldi
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, April 6, 2005; Page A01
A six-day trip to Moscow in 1997 by then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) was underwritten by business interests lobbying in support of the Russian government, according to four people with firsthand knowledge of the trip arrangements.
DeLay reported that the trip was sponsored by a Washington-based nonprofit organization. But interviews with those involved in planning DeLay's trip say the expenses were covered by a mysterious company registered in the Bahamas that also paid for an intensive $440,000 lobbying campaign.
Lobbyist Julius "Jay" Kaplan, left, shown with Naftasib's Marina Nevskaya and Alexander Koulakovsky, reportedly met with Rep. Tom DeLay in Moscow. (Gregg Hilton -- American Foreign Policy Council)
_____Flow Chart_____
• Anatomy of a Trip: Details on how money flowed from a Russian oil company, through lobbyists to a nonprofit organization that covered the expenses of Tom DeLay's 1997 trip to Russia.
It is unclear precisely how the money was transferred from the Bahamian-registered company to the nonprofit.
The expense-paid trip by DeLay and four of his staff members cost $57,238, according to records filed by his office. During his six days in Moscow, he played golf, met with Russian church leaders and talked to Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, a friend of Russian oil and gas executives associated with the lobbying effort.
DeLay also dined with the Russian executives and two Washington-based registered lobbyists for the Bahamian-registered company, sources say. One of those lobbyists was Jack Abramoff, who is now at the center of a federal influence-peddling and corruption probe related to his representation of Indian tribes.
House members bear some responsibility to ensure that the sponsors for their travel are not masquerading for registered lobbyists or foreign government interests, legal experts say. House ethics rules bar the acceptance of travel reimbursement from registered lobbyists and foreign agents.
In this case, travel funds did not come directly from lobbyists; the money came from a firm, Chelsea Commercial Enterprises Ltd., that funded the lobbying campaign, according to the sources. Chelsea was coordinating the effort with a Russian oil and gas company -- Naftasib -- that has business ties with Russian security institutions, the sources said.
Aides to DeLay, who is now the House majority leader, said that despite the presence during the trip of the two registered lobbyists, DeLay thought the nonprofit organization -- the National Center for Public Policy Research -- was funding the trip on its own. Suggestions to the contrary have come to light in media reports only in the past few weeks, an aide said.
"The trip was initiated by the National Center," spokesman Dan Allen said, "and they were the ones who organized it, planned it and paid for it." Sources connected to the trip say, however, that Abramoff, acting at the behest of his Russian-connected client, Chelsea, brought the idea to the center.
Questions on Three Trips
The 1997 Moscow trip is the third foreign trip by DeLay to be scrutinized in recent weeks because of new statements by those involved that his travel was directly or indirectly financed by registered lobbyists or a foreign agent.
Media attention focused on DeLay's travel last month after The Washington Post reported on DeLay's participation in a $70,000 expense-paid trip to London and Scotland in 2000 that sources said was indirectly financed in part by an Indian tribe and a gambling services company. A few days earlier, media attention had focused on a $106,921 trip DeLay took to South Korea in 2001 that was financed by a tax-exempt group created by a lobbyist on behalf of a Korean businessman.
DeLay on March 18 portrayed criticism of his trips and close ties to lobbyists as the product of a conspiracy to "destroy the conservative movement" by attacking its leaders, such as himself. "This is a huge, nationwide, concerted effort to destroy everything we believe in," DeLay told supporters at the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian group.
The three foreign trips at issue share common elements. The sponsor of the Moscow trip, the Capitol Hill-based National Center for Public Policy Research, also sponsored the later London trip. The center is a conservative group that solicits corporate, foundation and individual donations.
Also, Abramoff not only joined DeLay in Moscow but also helped organize DeLay's subsequent London trip. Abramoff also filed expense reports indicating he paid for some of DeLay's hotel bill in London, according to a copy obtained by The Post.
Edwin A. Buckham, who was DeLay's chief of staff in 1997 and then became a Washington lobbyist for major corporations, participated in two of the three trips. In 1997, he visited Moscow twice -- once with DeLay -- and on one of these trips he returned via Paris aboard a Concorde jet with a ticket he told the Associated Press in 1998 had been financed by the National Center.
Buckham also joined DeLay on the Korea trip. Buckham did not respond to messages left by The Post.
Untangling the origin of the Moscow trip's financing is complicated by questions about the ownership and origins of Chelsea, the obscure Bahamian-registered company that financed the lobbying effort in favor of the Russian government that targeted Republicans in Washington in 1997 and 1998. Those involved in this effort also prepared and coordinated the DeLay visit, individuals with direct knowledge about it said.
In that period, prominent Russian businessmen, as well as the Russian government, depended heavily on a flow of billions of dollars in annual Western aid and so had good reason to build bridges to Congress. House Republicans were becoming increasingly critical of U.S. and international lending institutions, such as the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and the International Monetary Fund, which were then investing heavily in Russia's fragile economy.
Unlike some House conservatives who scorn such support as "corporate welfare," DeLay proved to be a "yes" vote for institutions bolstering Russia in this period. For example, DeLay voted for a bill that included the replenishment of billions of dollars in IMF funds used to bail out the Russian economy in 1998.
A DeLay aide said he tried to reform these institutions through the legislative process. DeLay voted to fund these agencies because their financing was usually included in appropriation bills that he generally supported, the aide said. They also noted that OPIC had the strong backing of the energy industry, including companies from Texas that received OPIC financing.
Meetings in Moscow
The Russian campaign is detailed in disclosures filed with the House by lobbyists. Those records state that Chelsea, with an address listed variously as a post office box on the British island of Jersey -- a tax haven off the French coast -- or a law firm in the Bahamas, paid at least $440,000 to fund lobbying aimed at building "support for policies of the Russian government for progressive market reforms and trade with the United States," according to lobbying registration documents.
The Washington offices of two lobbying and law firms collected the fees. Preston Gates Ellis and Rouvelas Meeds LLP -- where Abramoff then worked -- received $260,000 in 1997 and less than $10,000 in 1998; Cadwalader Wickersham and Taft LLP was paid $180,000 in 1997 and less than $10,000 annually for the next three years, according to the registrations. Their listed lobbying targets included members of the House and Senate and officials of the State Department and the Agency for International Development.
"One of the functions of the lobbying effort was to encourage U.S. policymakers to visit Russia and to learn more about Russia," Ellen S. Levinson, a lobbyist then working on the Chelsea account at Cadwalader, said in an e-mailed response to questions.
She said Preston Gates used its "contacts with policy institutes and congressional offices" to arrange these trips. Preston Gates said in a written statement that it does not comment on its work for clients.
In a Cadwalader memo dated May 6, 1997, and obtained by The Post from another source, Levinson depicted the DeLay trip as one of six organized that year as part of the lobbying effort. Others included an "advance team" that visited Moscow later that month and a visit by "think tank" experts in June. A copy of the memo was sent to Abramoff.
A total of six members of the two lobbying firms participated in these trips, according to those involved. Levinson and two Preston Gates lobbyists were members of the "advance team."
During the third visit, Cadwalader lobbyist Julius "Jay" Kaplan joined DeLay and Abramoff at a "fancy dinner" in Moscow, according to one of those present -- a circumstance first reported last month in an article about the trip in National Journal's Congress Daily.
Breaking with traditional practice for congressmen traveling overseas, DeLay did not contact the State Department in advance or meet with officials at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow regarding his meeting with Chernomyrdin, according to a department spokeswoman who said she checked with 10 people at the embassy then or responsible for facilitating congressional trips.
Allen, DeLay's spokesman, said the State Department was not contacted because "the National Center was responsible for the arrangements on the trip, including setting up the meetings. Beyond that, members of Congress aren't required to have the State Department present at meetings with leaders from other countries."
Last month, Amy Ridenour, director of the National Center, posted a statement on her organization's Web site in response to questions about DeLay's trip to Russia stating that the center itself had "sponsored and paid" for all the expenses associated with it. Ridenour and her husband also took part in the visit.
But a person familiar with planning for the trip said Abramoff -- who has long been close to DeLay -- approached the National Center with the idea for the trip on behalf of Kaplan and his client, Chelsea. That person said the expenses by the center were in turn replenished by "an American trust account affiliated with a law firm" that the person declined to name.
Kaplan declined to be quoted for this article, citing what he called "lawyer-client privilege." But another person with direct knowledge about the trip arrangements said that it was Chelsea -- which had the registered Washington lobbyists in its employ -- that "gave the money to NCPPR to pay for the trip."
This person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect his business interests, added: "I didn't see anything wrong there. All these foundations get money from somewhere, and they give it out." Moreover, the source said, "this was the Russians' way of doing business then -- moving money from one firm to another."
Who Financed Travel?
The question is: Who stood behind Chelsea, and thus ultimately financed the trip? A regular office for the firm could not be located by The Post, in Moscow or at its two listed addresses; its Bahamian registration ended in 2000, officials there said. Efforts by The Post to find the three men -- one Belgian, one British, one Russian -- named in lobbying registrations as Chelsea investors or owners in lobbying disclosures were unsuccessful.
A spokeswoman for Cadwalader, Paula Zirinsky, said the firm had no contact information for anyone from Chelsea, because "persons that worked on that matter have not been with the firm since 1997." Jonathan Blank, managing partner of the Washington office for Preston Gates, similarly said his firm had no current contact information for Chelsea.
In interviews, however, five individuals with direct knowledge of the lobbying effort separately described executives of a diversified Russian energy firm known as Naftasib as being intimately involved in the lobbying.
Naftasib, which oversees interests in mining, oil and gas, construction and other enterprises from a four-story unmarked building in downtown Moscow, says it is a separate company from Chelsea but acknowledges seeking to cultivate friends in Washington in 1997.
In a written statement issued Friday in response to questions from The Post, Marina Nevskaya, Naftasib's deputy general manager, explained that her firm "wanted to foster better understanding between our country and the United States, and felt that if these trips were successful they would foster a better overall climate that could ultimately benefit Naftasib as well as other Russian enterprises."
Nevskaya said her company "did not finance in any manner" the DeLay trip or the others described in Levinson's memo. But she said Naftasib "did host and pay for some dinners for participants in some of the trips, organized a few other special events . . . and may have provided minor courtesies, such as some auto pickups and dropoffs for some visitors during one or more of the trips."
She also acknowledged providing "advice about trip logistics" before they occurred and meeting trip participants. Nevskaya did not offer details, but those involved in organizing DeLay's trip said he met with Nevskaya and was escorted around Moscow by the general manager of Naftasib, Alexander Koulakovsky. DeLay has also met with Nevskaya and Koulakovsky in Washington since then, according to several sources with direct knowledge of the contact.
During the June 1997 trip to Moscow by "think tank" experts -- one of the scheduled visits listed in Levinson's memo -- several participants said they got the impression that Preston Gates was the organizer, Naftasib was the ultimate financier and that the trip was a dry run for DeLay's visit.
"It was done through or under the auspices of NCPPR," said Bart Adams, a North Carolina journalist who joined the expense-paid trip. But he said he recalls hearing that "the money was coming from a Russian oil company."
David Lowe, an official at the National Endowment for Democracy, said he was recruited to join the trip by the Preston Gates firm; former Senate aide James P. Lucier, who also was on the trip, said Naftasib's executives played such a large role that they "seemed to be the clients of Preston Gates," a claim the firm denies. "Some American investment or tie was the end goal," said a third participant, "and the plan was to bring over some congressmen" later.
A publicist who works for Abramoff attorney Abbe David Lowell said Abramoff did lobby for Chelsea but not for Naftasib. The publicist said Abramoff thought "bringing a greater understanding of Russia to American decision makers was and is good for America."
The efforts by Naftasib's executives to curry favor among Republicans -- including DeLay -- sowed controversy at the time among conservatives. A journal published by a Washington think tank, the American Foreign Policy Council, claimed within a few days after DeLay's trip ended that it was actually "sponsored" by Naftasib. The journal -- the Russian Reform Monitor -- also highlighted what it characterized as Naftasib's tight connections to the Russian security establishment.
The journal quoted promotional literature for Naftasib that described the firm as a major shareholder in Gazprom, the state-controlled oil and gas giant. The literature also said Natfasib's largest clients were the ministries of defense and internal affairs. The literature also states that Nevskaya was an instructor at a school for Russian military intelligence officers. She declined to address those claims in response to questions from The Post.
Steve Biegun, who was then a senior Russia expert for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and later served as executive secretary to the National Security Council during President Bush's first term, said he deliberately blocked a meeting that Nevskaya sought with Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), then the committee chairman.
"They were a client of the lobbying firm Preston Gates," said Biegun, who is now a Ford Motor Co. vice president for international governmental affairs. "I made some calls . . . and got enough warning signs" to ensure that Helms avoided dealing with the firm. Biegun said the information he obtained from his sources was "nothing that would stand up in court" but he worried that in this period, "a lot of unsavory figures from Russia were buying their way into meetings and getting their pictures taken, to put on the wall back in Moscow."
"I just had my doubts, and nobody did anything to allay them," Biegun said. "I did not know who either of them really were."
Asked to comment, Blank, Preston Gates's Washington managing partner, said in a written statement: "Chelsea was our only client. Naftasib was not our client. We did work with Naftasib representatives when their interests coincided with our client's." Blank added that "we are confident that the individuals still with the firm who were involved at the time acted ethically, appropriately, and in service of the client."
WASHINGTON, April 5 - The wife and daughter of Tom DeLay, the House majority
leader, have been paid more than $500,000 since 2001 by Mr. DeLay's
political action and campaign committees, according to a detailed review of
disclosure statements filed with the Federal Election Commission and
separate fund-raising records in Mr. DeLay's home state, Texas.
Most of the payments to his wife, Christine A. DeLay, and his only child,
Dani DeLay Ferro, were described in the disclosure forms as "fund-raising
fees," "campaign management" or "payroll," with no additional details about
how they earned the money. The payments appear to reflect what Mr. DeLay's
aides say is the central role played by the majority leader's wife and
daughter in his political career.
Mr. DeLay's national political action committee, Americans for a Republican
Majority, or Armpac, said in a statement on Tuesday that the two women had
provided valuable services to the committee in exchange for the payments:
"Mrs. DeLay provides big picture, long-term strategic guidance and helps
with personnel decisions. Ms. Ferro is a skilled and experienced
professional event planner who assists Armpac in arranging and organizing
individual events."
Mrs. Ferro has managed several of her father's re-election campaigns for his
House seat.
His spokesman said that Mr. DeLay had no additional comment. Although
several members of Congress employ family members as campaign managers or on
their political action committees, advocacy groups seeking an overhaul of
federal campaign-finance and ethics laws say that the payments to Mr.
DeLay's family members were unusually generous, and should be the focus of
new scrutiny of the Texas congressman.
Mr. DeLay, whose position as majority leader makes him the
second-most-powerful House member, has offered a vigorous public defense in
recent weeks to a flurry of ethics accusations from Democratic lawmakers and
campaign watchdog groups, including charges that he violated House rules on
travel. The executive director of Americans for a Republican Majority and a
major fund-raiser for the committee were indicted in Texas last year on
charges of illegal fund-raising, and prosecutors there have refused to rule
out the possibility of charges against Mr. DeLay in the continuing inquiry.
In recent weeks, public interest groups have called on the House ethics
committee and the Justice Department to review lavish, privately financed
overseas trips for Mr. DeLay and his aides, including a 1997 trip to Russia
that was underwritten by a conservative education group closely linked to a
powerful Republican lobbyist who often boasted of his influence with the
majority leader.
The payments to Mr. DeLay's family have continued into 2005; the latest
monthly disclosure filed by Americans for a Republican Majority shows Mrs.
DeLay was paid was paid $4,028 last month, while Mrs. Ferro received $3,681.
Earlier statements show that the two women received similar monthly fees
from the political action committee throughout 2003 and 2004.
Mrs. DeLay has been involved in her husband's political career and his
fund-raising operations in Washington and Texas. In an interview in 2003
with Roll Call, a newspaper on Capitol Hill, a spokesman for Mr. DeLay
explained Mrs. DeLay's role as "the final signoff of Tom's travel schedule,
what events he attends and what his name appears on."
Mrs. Ferro has also helped manage Mr. DeLay's charity operations. Financial
disclosure statements filed by Mr. DeLay's House campaign committees, which
are separate from Americans for a Republican Majority, show that Mrs. Ferro
and her political consulting firm, Coastal Consulting of Sugar Land, Tex.,
received $222,000 from 2001 through last year, reflecting her role in the
re-election campaigns.
Although there has been no suggestion from prosecutors that Mrs. Ferro is
under investigation by the grand jury in Austin, her records were subpoenaed
in the inquiry, which is focused on the fund-raising activities of Texans
for a Republican Majority, a state political action committee modeled on
Americans for a Republican Majority. Mrs. Ferro received about $30,000 in
fund-raising and consulting fees from Texans for a Republican Majority, the
committee's records show.
"It's DeLay Inc. " said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for
Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a research group that has closely
monitored Mr. DeLay and his campaign fund-raising and expenditures. "If it's
not illegal, it certainly is inappropriate for members of Congress to use
their positions to enrich their families."
Larry Noble, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics and a
former general counsel of the Federal Election Commission, said that
"questions are raised anytime a politician puts close family members on the
payroll."
Republican lawmakers can point to prominent Democrats whose campaign and
political action committees have provided lucrative jobs or consulting
contracts to family members. Representative Howard L. Berman of California,
the ranking Democrat on the House ethics committee from 1997 to 2003, paid
$50,000 from his campaign accounts last year to a consulting firm owned by
his brother, according to disclosure forms. Disclosure statements also show
that Senator Barbara Boxer, another California Democrat, directed $15,000
from her political action committee in 2003 to a consulting firm run by her
son.
Several public interest groups have called in recent weeks for the House
ethics committee or another body that may be examining his finances to open
an investigation of Mr. DeLay, focused in part on his privately financed
overseas travels, including the 1997 trip to Moscow and a 2000 trip to
Britain. Questions about the trips' financing were first raised in March in
an article in the National Journal.
Mr. DeLay has denied that he violated House rules in accepting the 2000 trip
from a conservative education group associated with one of the city's most
powerful Republican lobbyists, Jack Abramoff.
The nonprofit education group, the National Center for Public Policy
Research, has said it received large contributions from Mr. Abramoff's
clients about the time of the trips, although it has denied that the
donations were redirected to finance Mr. DeLay's travels.
The trip to Moscow, according to the American Foreign Policy Council report,
was backed by the energy companies that had ties to the Russian government
and that were trying to build support in Washington for Russian
privatization efforts and trade policies.
Mr. DeLay met with Russian business and political leaders. House financial
disclosure statements show that Mr. DeLay's travel costs totaled $9,029 and
that the costs for five members of his staff totaled $55,033. It listed the
sponsor as the National Center for Public Policy Research.
Bobby R. Burchfield, a lawyer for Mr. DeLay, declined to comment, as did the
National Center for Public Policy Research. Jonathan Blank, managing partner
at Preston Gates & Ellis in Washington, said the firm had represented
Chelsea but would not discuss whether the organization had helped pay for
Mr. DeLay's trip.
Dan Allen, a spokesman for Mr. DeLay, said the congressman had filed forms
stating that the Moscow and Britain trips were paid by the National Center
for Public Policy Research.
WASHINGTON, April 5 - The wife and daughter of Tom DeLay, the House majority
leader, have been paid more than $500,000 since 2001 by Mr. DeLay's
political action and campaign committees, according to a detailed review of
disclosure statements filed with the Federal Election Commission and
separate fund-raising records in Mr. DeLay's home state, Texas.
Most of the payments to his wife, Christine A. DeLay, and his only child,
Dani DeLay Ferro, were described in the disclosure forms as "fund-raising
fees," "campaign management" or "payroll," with no additional details about
how they earned the money. The payments appear to reflect what Mr. DeLay's
aides say is the central role played by the majority leader's wife and
daughter in his political career.
Mr. DeLay's national political action committee, Americans for a Republican
Majority, or Armpac, said in a statement on Tuesday that the two women had
provided valuable services to the committee in exchange for the payments:
"Mrs. DeLay provides big picture, long-term strategic guidance and helps
with personnel decisions. Ms. Ferro is a skilled and experienced
professional event planner who assists Armpac in arranging and organizing
individual events."
Mrs. Ferro has managed several of her father's re-election campaigns for his
House seat.
His spokesman said that Mr. DeLay had no additional comment. Although
several members of Congress employ family members as campaign managers or on
their political action committees, advocacy groups seeking an overhaul of
federal campaign-finance and ethics laws say that the payments to Mr.
DeLay's family members were unusually generous, and should be the focus of
new scrutiny of the Texas congressman.
Mr. DeLay, whose position as majority leader makes him the
second-most-powerful House member, has offered a vigorous public defense in
recent weeks to a flurry of ethics accusations from Democratic lawmakers and
campaign watchdog groups, including charges that he violated House rules on
travel. The executive director of Americans for a Republican Majority and a
major fund-raiser for the committee were indicted in Texas last year on
charges of illegal fund-raising, and prosecutors there have refused to rule
out the possibility of charges against Mr. DeLay in the continuing inquiry.
In recent weeks, public interest groups have called on the House ethics
committee and the Justice Department to review lavish, privately financed
overseas trips for Mr. DeLay and his aides, including a 1997 trip to Russia
that was underwritten by a conservative education group closely linked to a
powerful Republican lobbyist who often boasted of his influence with the
majority leader.
The payments to Mr. DeLay's family have continued into 2005; the latest
monthly disclosure filed by Americans for a Republican Majority shows Mrs.
DeLay was paid was paid $4,028 last month, while Mrs. Ferro received $3,681.
Earlier statements show that the two women received similar monthly fees
from the political action committee throughout 2003 and 2004.
Mrs. DeLay has been involved in her husband's political career and his
fund-raising operations in Washington and Texas. In an interview in 2003
with Roll Call, a newspaper on Capitol Hill, a spokesman for Mr. DeLay
explained Mrs. DeLay's role as "the final signoff of Tom's travel schedule,
what events he attends and what his name appears on."
Mrs. Ferro has also helped manage Mr. DeLay's charity operations. Financial
disclosure statements filed by Mr. DeLay's House campaign committees, which
are separate from Americans for a Republican Majority, show that Mrs. Ferro
and her political consulting firm, Coastal Consulting of Sugar Land, Tex.,
received $222,000 from 2001 through last year, reflecting her role in the
re-election campaigns.
Although there has been no suggestion from prosecutors that Mrs. Ferro is
under investigation by the grand jury in Austin, her records were subpoenaed
in the inquiry, which is focused on the fund-raising activities of Texans
for a Republican Majority, a state political action committee modeled on
Americans for a Republican Majority. Mrs. Ferro received about $30,000 in
fund-raising and consulting fees from Texans for a Republican Majority, the
committee's records show.
"It's DeLay Inc. " said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for
Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a research group that has closely
monitored Mr. DeLay and his campaign fund-raising and expenditures. "If it's
not illegal, it certainly is inappropriate for members of Congress to use
their positions to enrich their families."
Larry Noble, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics and a
former general counsel of the Federal Election Commission, said that
"questions are raised anytime a politician puts close family members on the
payroll."
Republican lawmakers can point to prominent Democrats whose campaign and
political action committees have provided lucrative jobs or consulting
contracts to family members. Representative Howard L. Berman of California,
the ranking Democrat on the House ethics committee from 1997 to 2003, paid
$50,000 from his campaign accounts last year to a consulting firm owned by
his brother, according to disclosure forms. Disclosure statements also show
that Senator Barbara Boxer, another California Democrat, directed $15,000
from her political action committee in 2003 to a consulting firm run by her
son.
Several public interest groups have called in recent weeks for the House
ethics committee or another body that may be examining his finances to open
an investigation of Mr. DeLay, focused in part on his privately financed
overseas travels, including the 1997 trip to Moscow and a 2000 trip to
Britain. Questions about the trips' financing were first raised in March in
an article in the National Journal.
Mr. DeLay has denied that he violated House rules in accepting the 2000 trip
from a conservative education group associated with one of the city's most
powerful Republican lobbyists, Jack Abramoff.
The nonprofit education group, the National Center for Public Policy
Research, has said it received large contributions from Mr. Abramoff's
clients about the time of the trips, although it has denied that the
donations were redirected to finance Mr. DeLay's travels.
The trip to Moscow, according to the American Foreign Policy Council report,
was backed by the energy companies that had ties to the Russian government
and that were trying to build support in Washington for Russian
privatization efforts and trade policies.
Mr. DeLay met with Russian business and political leaders. House financial
disclosure statements show that Mr. DeLay's travel costs totaled $9,029 and
that the costs for five members of his staff totaled $55,033. It listed the
sponsor as the National Center for Public Policy Research.
Bobby R. Burchfield, a lawyer for Mr. DeLay, declined to comment, as did the
National Center for Public Policy Research. Jonathan Blank, managing partner
at Preston Gates & Ellis in Washington, said the firm had represented
Chelsea but would not discuss whether the organization had helped pay for
Mr. DeLay's trip.
Dan Allen, a spokesman for Mr. DeLay, said the congressman had filed forms
stating that the Moscow and Britain trips were paid by the National Center
for Public Policy Research.
WASHINGTON, April 5 - The wife and daughter of Tom DeLay, the House majority
leader, have been paid more than $500,000 since 2001 by Mr. DeLay's
political action and campaign committees, according to a detailed review of
disclosure statements filed with the Federal Election Commission and
separate fund-raising records in Mr. DeLay's home state, Texas.
Most of the payments to his wife, Christine A. DeLay, and his only child,
Dani DeLay Ferro, were described in the disclosure forms as "fund-raising
fees," "campaign management" or "payroll," with no additional details about
how they earned the money. The payments appear to reflect what Mr. DeLay's
aides say is the central role played by the majority leader's wife and
daughter in his political career.
Mr. DeLay's national political action committee, Americans for a Republican
Majority, or Armpac, said in a statement on Tuesday that the two women had
provided valuable services to the committee in exchange for the payments:
"Mrs. DeLay provides big picture, long-term strategic guidance and helps
with personnel decisions. Ms. Ferro is a skilled and experienced
professional event planner who assists Armpac in arranging and organizing
individual events."
Mrs. Ferro has managed several of her father's re-election campaigns for his
House seat.
His spokesman said that Mr. DeLay had no additional comment. Although
several members of Congress employ family members as campaign managers or on
their political action committees, advocacy groups seeking an overhaul of
federal campaign-finance and ethics laws say that the payments to Mr.
DeLay's family members were unusually generous, and should be the focus of
new scrutiny of the Texas congressman.
Mr. DeLay, whose position as majority leader makes him the
second-most-powerful House member, has offered a vigorous public defense in
recent weeks to a flurry of ethics accusations from Democratic lawmakers and
campaign watchdog groups, including charges that he violated House rules on
travel. The executive director of Americans for a Republican Majority and a
major fund-raiser for the committee were indicted in Texas last year on
charges of illegal fund-raising, and prosecutors there have refused to rule
out the possibility of charges against Mr. DeLay in the continuing inquiry.
In recent weeks, public interest groups have called on the House ethics
committee and the Justice Department to review lavish, privately financed
overseas trips for Mr. DeLay and his aides, including a 1997 trip to Russia
that was underwritten by a conservative education group closely linked to a
powerful Republican lobbyist who often boasted of his influence with the
majority leader.
The payments to Mr. DeLay's family have continued into 2005; the latest
monthly disclosure filed by Americans for a Republican Majority shows Mrs.
DeLay was paid was paid $4,028 last month, while Mrs. Ferro received $3,681.
Earlier statements show that the two women received similar monthly fees
from the political action committee throughout 2003 and 2004.
Mrs. DeLay has been involved in her husband's political career and his
fund-raising operations in Washington and Texas. In an interview in 2003
with Roll Call, a newspaper on Capitol Hill, a spokesman for Mr. DeLay
explained Mrs. DeLay's role as "the final signoff of Tom's travel schedule,
what events he attends and what his name appears on."
Mrs. Ferro has also helped manage Mr. DeLay's charity operations. Financial
disclosure statements filed by Mr. DeLay's House campaign committees, which
are separate from Americans for a Republican Majority, show that Mrs. Ferro
and her political consulting firm, Coastal Consulting of Sugar Land, Tex.,
received $222,000 from 2001 through last year, reflecting her role in the
re-election campaigns.
Although there has been no suggestion from prosecutors that Mrs. Ferro is
under investigation by the grand jury in Austin, her records were subpoenaed
in the inquiry, which is focused on the fund-raising activities of Texans
for a Republican Majority, a state political action committee modeled on
Americans for a Republican Majority. Mrs. Ferro received about $30,000 in
fund-raising and consulting fees from Texans for a Republican Majority, the
committee's records show.
"It's DeLay Inc. " said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for
Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a research group that has closely
monitored Mr. DeLay and his campaign fund-raising and expenditures. "If it's
not illegal, it certainly is inappropriate for members of Congress to use
their positions to enrich their families."
Larry Noble, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics and a
former general counsel of the Federal Election Commission, said that
"questions are raised anytime a politician puts close family members on the
payroll."
Republican lawmakers can point to prominent Democrats whose campaign and
political action committees have provided lucrative jobs or consulting
contracts to family members. Representative Howard L. Berman of California,
the ranking Democrat on the House ethics committee from 1997 to 2003, paid
$50,000 from his campaign accounts last year to a consulting firm owned by
his brother, according to disclosure forms. Disclosure statements also show
that Senator Barbara Boxer, another California Democrat, directed $15,000
from her political action committee in 2003 to a consulting firm run by her
son.
Several public interest groups have called in recent weeks for the House
ethics committee or another body that may be examining his finances to open
an investigation of Mr. DeLay, focused in part on his privately financed
overseas travels, including the 1997 trip to Moscow and a 2000 trip to
Britain. Questions about the trips' financing were first raised in March in
an article in the National Journal.
Mr. DeLay has denied that he violated House rules in accepting the 2000 trip
from a conservative education group associated with one of the city's most
powerful Republican lobbyists, Jack Abramoff.
The nonprofit education group, the National Center for Public Policy
Research, has said it received large contributions from Mr. Abramoff's
clients about the time of the trips, although it has denied that the
donations were redirected to finance Mr. DeLay's travels.
The trip to Moscow, according to the American Foreign Policy Council report,
was backed by the energy companies that had ties to the Russian government
and that were trying to build support in Washington for Russian
privatization efforts and trade policies.
Mr. DeLay met with Russian business and political leaders. House financial
disclosure statements show that Mr. DeLay's travel costs totaled $9,029 and
that the costs for five members of his staff totaled $55,033. It listed the
sponsor as the National Center for Public Policy Research.
Bobby R. Burchfield, a lawyer for Mr. DeLay, declined to comment, as did the
National Center for Public Policy Research. Jonathan Blank, managing partner
at Preston Gates & Ellis in Washington, said the firm had represented
Chelsea but would not discuss whether the organization had helped pay for
Mr. DeLay's trip.
Dan Allen, a spokesman for Mr. DeLay, said the congressman had filed forms
stating that the Moscow and Britain trips were paid by the National Center
for Public Policy Research.
Big-Game Hunting Brings Big Tax Breaks
Trophy Donations Raise Questions in Congress
By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 5, 2005; Page A01
GERING, Neb. -- The ibex head was jammed next to the moose, whose velvety antlers brushed against a rare red lechwe and an African bongo. Below them were several preserved bobcats, and at the far end of the storage container stood endangered leopards, frozen in lifelike mid-prowl.
In all, there were more than 800 big-game and exotic animals piled into an old railroad car behind the Wyobraska Wildlife Museum, a modest and lightly visited facility here, far from any population center. It was just one of four large containers packed with animal mounts and skins -- trophies shot on expedition or safari to places such as South Africa, Mongolia and game-hunting parks in Texas.
Some of the 3,000 mounts in storage at the museum. (Humane Society Of The United States)
Most of the animals are destined for auction, often at bargain-basement prices, but they're in Gering largely because they remain surprisingly valuable to one group in particular -- the hunters who shot them and had them preserved.
Often appraised for many times their market value, the trophies can yield hefty income tax deductions if nonprofit organizations agree to accept them as charitable gifts. And the Wyobraska museum and others have been more than willing.
According to critics in Congress, top officials at natural history museums and animal rights advocates, this form of charitable giving allows wealthy hunters to go on big-game expeditions essentially at taxpayers' expense -- an arrangement so blatant that one animal trophy appraiser advertises his services under the headline: "Hunt for Free." The taxpayer subsidies also encourage hunters to track down and shoot the largest, fittest and rarest of the world's animals, the critics say.
Nobody knows how many trophy mounts are donated yearly to nonprofit collections, or how much tax revenue is being lost to the charitable deductions. But at the Wyobraska museum, the floodgates are open wide.
Records show that in 2000, Wyobraska took in mounts worth $1.4 million. In 2004, the museum's curator said, the value of donations grew to more than $5 million, even though display rooms and storage containers were already overflowing. The entire stuffed menagerie of 800 animals in the rail car out back arrived just last year.
Big-game hunters, whose interests are actively promoted in Washington by the politically powerful Safari Club International, have been quietly donating animal mounts to nonprofit groups for years. The public benefits, hunting advocates say, because visitors get to see animals they would otherwise never encounter. The Safari Club also says revenue from big-game hunting gives nations an incentive to encourage conservation.
Whether the public is being served or fleeced by donations such as these will be the subject of a Senate Finance Committee hearing Tuesday. Its chairman, Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), has been investigating possible abuses in how art and other "non-cash donations" are appraised and donated to nonprofits, and he sees trophy animals as a prime example.
"The phoniness of this kind of donation calls out for congressional action," said Grassley, after learning about the flow of mounts to Wyobraska and other museums, adding that the issue is "in the Finance Committee's cross hairs."
What makes charitable giving so popular with big-game hunters is that their trophies are being appraised at top dollar, often using a donor-friendly "cost of replacement" method that estimates how much a hunter would have to pay to track down the same quarry again.
But the Internal Revenue Service allows this approach only when no market exists to establish a fair market price, and the tax agency has taken the position that there is such a market in big-game trophies. Officials note, for instance, that the Lolli Brothers auction company in Macon, Mo., holds four large taxidermy auctions a year, selling thousands of big-game trophy mounts to businesses and sportsmen. Auctioneer Jim Lolli said the mounts have become something of a commodity, and winning bids are generally 10 to 20 percent of the appraised values.
"A hunter or a museum will tell me the value of an elk is appraised at $10,000, and I'll have to tell them they'll be lucky to get $1,000," Lolli said. "But they have that paper with the big appraisal, so it takes some convincing."
One of the more active appraisers is Robert Bruce Duncan, founder of the Chicago Appraisers Association. According to Wyobraska museum curator Mike Boone, almost all the animals given to his museum in 2004 came via Duncan, who both values the mounts and arranges the donation.
Big-Game Hunting Brings Big Tax Breaks
Trophy Donations Raise Questions in Congress
By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 5, 2005; Page A01
GERING, Neb. -- The ibex head was jammed next to the moose, whose velvety antlers brushed against a rare red lechwe and an African bongo. Below them were several preserved bobcats, and at the far end of the storage container stood endangered leopards, frozen in lifelike mid-prowl.
In all, there were more than 800 big-game and exotic animals piled into an old railroad car behind the Wyobraska Wildlife Museum, a modest and lightly visited facility here, far from any population center. It was just one of four large containers packed with animal mounts and skins -- trophies shot on expedition or safari to places such as South Africa, Mongolia and game-hunting parks in Texas.
Some of the 3,000 mounts in storage at the museum. (Humane Society Of The United States)
Most of the animals are destined for auction, often at bargain-basement prices, but they're in Gering largely because they remain surprisingly valuable to one group in particular -- the hunters who shot them and had them preserved.
Often appraised for many times their market value, the trophies can yield hefty income tax deductions if nonprofit organizations agree to accept them as charitable gifts. And the Wyobraska museum and others have been more than willing.
According to critics in Congress, top officials at natural history museums and animal rights advocates, this form of charitable giving allows wealthy hunters to go on big-game expeditions essentially at taxpayers' expense -- an arrangement so blatant that one animal trophy appraiser advertises his services under the headline: "Hunt for Free." The taxpayer subsidies also encourage hunters to track down and shoot the largest, fittest and rarest of the world's animals, the critics say.
Nobody knows how many trophy mounts are donated yearly to nonprofit collections, or how much tax revenue is being lost to the charitable deductions. But at the Wyobraska museum, the floodgates are open wide.
Records show that in 2000, Wyobraska took in mounts worth $1.4 million. In 2004, the museum's curator said, the value of donations grew to more than $5 million, even though display rooms and storage containers were already overflowing. The entire stuffed menagerie of 800 animals in the rail car out back arrived just last year.
Big-game hunters, whose interests are actively promoted in Washington by the politically powerful Safari Club International, have been quietly donating animal mounts to nonprofit groups for years. The public benefits, hunting advocates say, because visitors get to see animals they would otherwise never encounter. The Safari Club also says revenue from big-game hunting gives nations an incentive to encourage conservation.
Whether the public is being served or fleeced by donations such as these will be the subject of a Senate Finance Committee hearing Tuesday. Its chairman, Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), has been investigating possible abuses in how art and other "non-cash donations" are appraised and donated to nonprofits, and he sees trophy animals as a prime example.
"The phoniness of this kind of donation calls out for congressional action," said Grassley, after learning about the flow of mounts to Wyobraska and other museums, adding that the issue is "in the Finance Committee's cross hairs."
What makes charitable giving so popular with big-game hunters is that their trophies are being appraised at top dollar, often using a donor-friendly "cost of replacement" method that estimates how much a hunter would have to pay to track down the same quarry again.
But the Internal Revenue Service allows this approach only when no market exists to establish a fair market price, and the tax agency has taken the position that there is such a market in big-game trophies. Officials note, for instance, that the Lolli Brothers auction company in Macon, Mo., holds four large taxidermy auctions a year, selling thousands of big-game trophy mounts to businesses and sportsmen. Auctioneer Jim Lolli said the mounts have become something of a commodity, and winning bids are generally 10 to 20 percent of the appraised values.
"A hunter or a museum will tell me the value of an elk is appraised at $10,000, and I'll have to tell them they'll be lucky to get $1,000," Lolli said. "But they have that paper with the big appraisal, so it takes some convincing."
One of the more active appraisers is Robert Bruce Duncan, founder of the Chicago Appraisers Association. According to Wyobraska museum curator Mike Boone, almost all the animals given to his museum in 2004 came via Duncan, who both values the mounts and arranges the donation.
Big-Game Hunting Brings Big Tax Breaks
Trophy Donations Raise Questions in Congress
By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 5, 2005; Page A01
GERING, Neb. -- The ibex head was jammed next to the moose, whose velvety antlers brushed against a rare red lechwe and an African bongo. Below them were several preserved bobcats, and at the far end of the storage container stood endangered leopards, frozen in lifelike mid-prowl.
In all, there were more than 800 big-game and exotic animals piled into an old railroad car behind the Wyobraska Wildlife Museum, a modest and lightly visited facility here, far from any population center. It was just one of four large containers packed with animal mounts and skins -- trophies shot on expedition or safari to places such as South Africa, Mongolia and game-hunting parks in Texas.
Some of the 3,000 mounts in storage at the museum. (Humane Society Of The United States)
Most of the animals are destined for auction, often at bargain-basement prices, but they're in Gering largely because they remain surprisingly valuable to one group in particular -- the hunters who shot them and had them preserved.
Often appraised for many times their market value, the trophies can yield hefty income tax deductions if nonprofit organizations agree to accept them as charitable gifts. And the Wyobraska museum and others have been more than willing.
According to critics in Congress, top officials at natural history museums and animal rights advocates, this form of charitable giving allows wealthy hunters to go on big-game expeditions essentially at taxpayers' expense -- an arrangement so blatant that one animal trophy appraiser advertises his services under the headline: "Hunt for Free." The taxpayer subsidies also encourage hunters to track down and shoot the largest, fittest and rarest of the world's animals, the critics say.
Nobody knows how many trophy mounts are donated yearly to nonprofit collections, or how much tax revenue is being lost to the charitable deductions. But at the Wyobraska museum, the floodgates are open wide.
Records show that in 2000, Wyobraska took in mounts worth $1.4 million. In 2004, the museum's curator said, the value of donations grew to more than $5 million, even though display rooms and storage containers were already overflowing. The entire stuffed menagerie of 800 animals in the rail car out back arrived just last year.
Big-game hunters, whose interests are actively promoted in Washington by the politically powerful Safari Club International, have been quietly donating animal mounts to nonprofit groups for years. The public benefits, hunting advocates say, because visitors get to see animals they would otherwise never encounter. The Safari Club also says revenue from big-game hunting gives nations an incentive to encourage conservation.
Whether the public is being served or fleeced by donations such as these will be the subject of a Senate Finance Committee hearing Tuesday. Its chairman, Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), has been investigating possible abuses in how art and other "non-cash donations" are appraised and donated to nonprofits, and he sees trophy animals as a prime example.
"The phoniness of this kind of donation calls out for congressional action," said Grassley, after learning about the flow of mounts to Wyobraska and other museums, adding that the issue is "in the Finance Committee's cross hairs."
What makes charitable giving so popular with big-game hunters is that their trophies are being appraised at top dollar, often using a donor-friendly "cost of replacement" method that estimates how much a hunter would have to pay to track down the same quarry again.
But the Internal Revenue Service allows this approach only when no market exists to establish a fair market price, and the tax agency has taken the position that there is such a market in big-game trophies. Officials note, for instance, that the Lolli Brothers auction company in Macon, Mo., holds four large taxidermy auctions a year, selling thousands of big-game trophy mounts to businesses and sportsmen. Auctioneer Jim Lolli said the mounts have become something of a commodity, and winning bids are generally 10 to 20 percent of the appraised values.
"A hunter or a museum will tell me the value of an elk is appraised at $10,000, and I'll have to tell them they'll be lucky to get $1,000," Lolli said. "But they have that paper with the big appraisal, so it takes some convincing."
One of the more active appraisers is Robert Bruce Duncan, founder of the Chicago Appraisers Association. According to Wyobraska museum curator Mike Boone, almost all the animals given to his museum in 2004 came via Duncan, who both values the mounts and arranges the donation.
Sunday, April 3, 2005 6:01 p.m. EDT
Saint's Prophecy: Only Two Popes Remain
When the cardinals of the world pick John Paul II's successor, they may well be choosing the next-to-last pope.
The pope who then follows this choice in the Chair of St. Peter will be the last pope, and after his reign Rome will be destroyed.
Such has been the prophecy of St. Malachy, an Irish bishop who at his death in 1148 A.D. was discovered to have left behind a prophetic list of all future popes beginning with Pope Celestine II, whose papacy began in 1143 A.D.
Malachy included a single line in Latin identifying a characteristic of each pope.
Historians say Malachy's prediction – wherein he listed just 112 popes – has been amazingly accurate.
According to his list, there are just two more popes after the late John Paul II.
Here are the seven last popes as identified from St. Malachy's list:
106. Pius XII 1939 - 1958
Eugenio Pacelli
Pastor Angelicus
Translated: An Angelic Shepherd
107. John XXIII 1968 - 1963
Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli
Pastor Et Natua
Translated: Pastor and Mariner
108. Paul VI 1963 - 1978
Giovanni Battista Montini
Flos Florum
Translated: Flower of Flowers
109. John Paul I 1978 - 1978
Albino Luciani
De Medietate Lunae
Translated: Of the Half Moon
110. John Paul II 1978 - 2005
Karol Jozef Wojtyla
De Labore Solis
Translated: From the Toil of the Sun
111. The next pope
"Gloria Olivae"
Translated: The Glory of the Olive
112. The last pope!
"Petrus Romanus"
Translated: Peter the Roman
Wrote St. Malachy of the last pope: "In extreme persecution, the seat of the Holy Roman Church will be occupied by Peter the Roman, who will feed the sheep through many tribulations, at the term of which the city of seven hills will be destroyed, and the formidable Judge will judge the people. The End."
According to his biographer St. Bernard of Clairvaux, in his book "Life of Saint Malachy," the saint was known to have the gift of prophesy and had even predicted the exact day and hour of his own death. Saint Malachy was canonized in 1190 by Pope Clement III.
While in Rome in 1139, Saint Malachy is said to have gone into a trance and received a vision in which he foresaw all the popes from the death of Innocent II until the end of time.
Afterward he wrote a few words about each pope and gave the manuscript to Pope Innocent II, who is said to have deposited it in Vatican Archives, where it lay forgotten until it was discovered in 1590 and published. At the time, some questioned its authenticity and it has been the subject of debate ever since.
The manuscript contains 112 prophecies, which scholars have matched with each of the 110 popes and anti-popes since Innocent II .
Here are the prophecies for the most recent popes:
Paul VI. The words of the 108th prophecy are "Flos Florum" (Flower of Flowers). The 108th pope after Innocent II was Paul VI (1963-78). His coat of arms included three fleurs-de-lis (iris blossoms).
John Paul I. The 109th is "De Medietate Lunae" (Of the Half Moon). The corresponding pope was John Paul I (1978-78), who was born in the diocese of Belluno (beautiful moon) and was baptized Albino Luciani (white light). He became pope on August 26, 1978, when the moon appeared exactly half full. It was in its waning phase. He died the following month, soon after an eclipse of the moon.
John Paul II. The 110th is "De Labore Solis" (Of the Solar Eclipse, or From the Toil of the Sun). The corresponding pope was John Paul II (1978-2005). John Paul II was born on May 8, 1920 during an eclipse of the sun. Like the sun, he came out of the East (Poland). Like the sun, he visited countries all around the globe.
Today the final two prophecies are yet to be fulfilled:
The 111th prophecy is "Gloria Olivae" (The Glory of the Olive). The meaning of the olive is unclear. The Order of Saint Benedict – not St. Malachy – has claimed that this pope will come from its ranks and Saint Benedict himself prophesied that before the end of the world his Order, known also as the Olivetans, will triumphantly lead the Catholic Church in its final fight against evil.
The 112th prophecy says, "In the final persecution of the Holy Roman Church there will reign Petrus Romanus (Peter the Roman), who will feed his flock amid many tribulations; after which the seven-hilled city will be destroyed and the dreadful Judge will judge the people.
Sunday, April 3, 2005 6:01 p.m. EDT
Saint's Prophecy: Only Two Popes Remain
When the cardinals of the world pick John Paul II's successor, they may well be choosing the next-to-last pope.
The pope who then follows this choice in the Chair of St. Peter will be the last pope, and after his reign Rome will be destroyed.
Such has been the prophecy of St. Malachy, an Irish bishop who at his death in 1148 A.D. was discovered to have left behind a prophetic list of all future popes beginning with Pope Celestine II, whose papacy began in 1143 A.D.
Malachy included a single line in Latin identifying a characteristic of each pope.
Historians say Malachy's prediction – wherein he listed just 112 popes – has been amazingly accurate.
According to his list, there are just two more popes after the late John Paul II.
Here are the seven last popes as identified from St. Malachy's list:
106. Pius XII 1939 - 1958
Eugenio Pacelli
Pastor Angelicus
Translated: An Angelic Shepherd
107. John XXIII 1968 - 1963
Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli
Pastor Et Natua
Translated: Pastor and Mariner
108. Paul VI 1963 - 1978
Giovanni Battista Montini
Flos Florum
Translated: Flower of Flowers
109. John Paul I 1978 - 1978
Albino Luciani
De Medietate Lunae
Translated: Of the Half Moon
110. John Paul II 1978 - 2005
Karol Jozef Wojtyla
De Labore Solis
Translated: From the Toil of the Sun
111. The next pope
"Gloria Olivae"
Translated: The Glory of the Olive
112. The last pope!
"Petrus Romanus"
Translated: Peter the Roman
Wrote St. Malachy of the last pope: "In extreme persecution, the seat of the Holy Roman Church will be occupied by Peter the Roman, who will feed the sheep through many tribulations, at the term of which the city of seven hills will be destroyed, and the formidable Judge will judge the people. The End."
According to his biographer St. Bernard of Clairvaux, in his book "Life of Saint Malachy," the saint was known to have the gift of prophesy and had even predicted the exact day and hour of his own death. Saint Malachy was canonized in 1190 by Pope Clement III.
While in Rome in 1139, Saint Malachy is said to have gone into a trance and received a vision in which he foresaw all the popes from the death of Innocent II until the end of time.
Afterward he wrote a few words about each pope and gave the manuscript to Pope Innocent II, who is said to have deposited it in Vatican Archives, where it lay forgotten until it was discovered in 1590 and published. At the time, some questioned its authenticity and it has been the subject of debate ever since.
The manuscript contains 112 prophecies, which scholars have matched with each of the 110 popes and anti-popes since Innocent II .
Here are the prophecies for the most recent popes:
Paul VI. The words of the 108th prophecy are "Flos Florum" (Flower of Flowers). The 108th pope after Innocent II was Paul VI (1963-78). His coat of arms included three fleurs-de-lis (iris blossoms).
John Paul I. The 109th is "De Medietate Lunae" (Of the Half Moon). The corresponding pope was John Paul I (1978-78), who was born in the diocese of Belluno (beautiful moon) and was baptized Albino Luciani (white light). He became pope on August 26, 1978, when the moon appeared exactly half full. It was in its waning phase. He died the following month, soon after an eclipse of the moon.
John Paul II. The 110th is "De Labore Solis" (Of the Solar Eclipse, or From the Toil of the Sun). The corresponding pope was John Paul II (1978-2005). John Paul II was born on May 8, 1920 during an eclipse of the sun. Like the sun, he came out of the East (Poland). Like the sun, he visited countries all around the globe.
Today the final two prophecies are yet to be fulfilled:
The 111th prophecy is "Gloria Olivae" (The Glory of the Olive). The meaning of the olive is unclear. The Order of Saint Benedict – not St. Malachy – has claimed that this pope will come from its ranks and Saint Benedict himself prophesied that before the end of the world his Order, known also as the Olivetans, will triumphantly lead the Catholic Church in its final fight against evil.
The 112th prophecy says, "In the final persecution of the Holy Roman Church there will reign Petrus Romanus (Peter the Roman), who will feed his flock amid many tribulations; after which the seven-hilled city will be destroyed and the dreadful Judge will judge the people.
Sunday, April 3, 2005 6:01 p.m. EDT
Saint's Prophecy: Only Two Popes Remain
When the cardinals of the world pick John Paul II's successor, they may well be choosing the next-to-last pope.
The pope who then follows this choice in the Chair of St. Peter will be the last pope, and after his reign Rome will be destroyed.
Such has been the prophecy of St. Malachy, an Irish bishop who at his death in 1148 A.D. was discovered to have left behind a prophetic list of all future popes beginning with Pope Celestine II, whose papacy began in 1143 A.D.
Malachy included a single line in Latin identifying a characteristic of each pope.
Historians say Malachy's prediction – wherein he listed just 112 popes – has been amazingly accurate.
According to his list, there are just two more popes after the late John Paul II.
Here are the seven last popes as identified from St. Malachy's list:
106. Pius XII 1939 - 1958
Eugenio Pacelli
Pastor Angelicus
Translated: An Angelic Shepherd
107. John XXIII 1968 - 1963
Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli
Pastor Et Natua
Translated: Pastor and Mariner
108. Paul VI 1963 - 1978
Giovanni Battista Montini
Flos Florum
Translated: Flower of Flowers
109. John Paul I 1978 - 1978
Albino Luciani
De Medietate Lunae
Translated: Of the Half Moon
110. John Paul II 1978 - 2005
Karol Jozef Wojtyla
De Labore Solis
Translated: From the Toil of the Sun
111. The next pope
"Gloria Olivae"
Translated: The Glory of the Olive
112. The last pope!
"Petrus Romanus"
Translated: Peter the Roman
Wrote St. Malachy of the last pope: "In extreme persecution, the seat of the Holy Roman Church will be occupied by Peter the Roman, who will feed the sheep through many tribulations, at the term of which the city of seven hills will be destroyed, and the formidable Judge will judge the people. The End."
According to his biographer St. Bernard of Clairvaux, in his book "Life of Saint Malachy," the saint was known to have the gift of prophesy and had even predicted the exact day and hour of his own death. Saint Malachy was canonized in 1190 by Pope Clement III.
While in Rome in 1139, Saint Malachy is said to have gone into a trance and received a vision in which he foresaw all the popes from the death of Innocent II until the end of time.
Afterward he wrote a few words about each pope and gave the manuscript to Pope Innocent II, who is said to have deposited it in Vatican Archives, where it lay forgotten until it was discovered in 1590 and published. At the time, some questioned its authenticity and it has been the subject of debate ever since.
The manuscript contains 112 prophecies, which scholars have matched with each of the 110 popes and anti-popes since Innocent II .
Here are the prophecies for the most recent popes:
Paul VI. The words of the 108th prophecy are "Flos Florum" (Flower of Flowers). The 108th pope after Innocent II was Paul VI (1963-78). His coat of arms included three fleurs-de-lis (iris blossoms).
John Paul I. The 109th is "De Medietate Lunae" (Of the Half Moon). The corresponding pope was John Paul I (1978-78), who was born in the diocese of Belluno (beautiful moon) and was baptized Albino Luciani (white light). He became pope on August 26, 1978, when the moon appeared exactly half full. It was in its waning phase. He died the following month, soon after an eclipse of the moon.
John Paul II. The 110th is "De Labore Solis" (Of the Solar Eclipse, or From the Toil of the Sun). The corresponding pope was John Paul II (1978-2005). John Paul II was born on May 8, 1920 during an eclipse of the sun. Like the sun, he came out of the East (Poland). Like the sun, he visited countries all around the globe.
Today the final two prophecies are yet to be fulfilled:
The 111th prophecy is "Gloria Olivae" (The Glory of the Olive). The meaning of the olive is unclear. The Order of Saint Benedict – not St. Malachy – has claimed that this pope will come from its ranks and Saint Benedict himself prophesied that before the end of the world his Order, known also as the Olivetans, will triumphantly lead the Catholic Church in its final fight against evil.
The 112th prophecy says, "In the final persecution of the Holy Roman Church there will reign Petrus Romanus (Peter the Roman), who will feed his flock amid many tribulations; after which the seven-hilled city will be destroyed and the dreadful Judge will judge the people.
Popped car hood brings jail
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Two men traveling on Interstate 380 ended up in jail because the hood of their car popped open.
The men were heading south of I-380 on Tuesday when the hood open and covered the windshield, the Linn County sheriff's office said.
Instead of pulling over to fix the problem, the men stuck their heads out the windows so they could see the road and kept going at about 55 mph, officials said.
Two Linn County deputies on patrol took note, and pulled them over.
They arrested the driver, Travis Williams, 25, of Cedar Rapids, on suspicion of driving under suspension, and no proof of insurance. The passenger, Brandon Calmese, 27, of Cedar Rapids, was arrested on a parole violation warrant from Illinois.
Both men were taken to jail. Williams was released Thursday afternoon. Calmese remained in jail on the Illinois warrant.
"It's a little bit hard to drive with the hood of the car laid over the window," Sheriff Don Zeller said.
Popped car hood brings jail
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Two men traveling on Interstate 380 ended up in jail because the hood of their car popped open.
The men were heading south of I-380 on Tuesday when the hood open and covered the windshield, the Linn County sheriff's office said.
Instead of pulling over to fix the problem, the men stuck their heads out the windows so they could see the road and kept going at about 55 mph, officials said.
Two Linn County deputies on patrol took note, and pulled them over.
They arrested the driver, Travis Williams, 25, of Cedar Rapids, on suspicion of driving under suspension, and no proof of insurance. The passenger, Brandon Calmese, 27, of Cedar Rapids, was arrested on a parole violation warrant from Illinois.
Both men were taken to jail. Williams was released Thursday afternoon. Calmese remained in jail on the Illinois warrant.
"It's a little bit hard to drive with the hood of the car laid over the window," Sheriff Don Zeller said.
Popped car hood brings jail
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Two men traveling on Interstate 380 ended up in jail because the hood of their car popped open.
The men were heading south of I-380 on Tuesday when the hood open and covered the windshield, the Linn County sheriff's office said.
Instead of pulling over to fix the problem, the men stuck their heads out the windows so they could see the road and kept going at about 55 mph, officials said.
Two Linn County deputies on patrol took note, and pulled them over.
They arrested the driver, Travis Williams, 25, of Cedar Rapids, on suspicion of driving under suspension, and no proof of insurance. The passenger, Brandon Calmese, 27, of Cedar Rapids, was arrested on a parole violation warrant from Illinois.
Both men were taken to jail. Williams was released Thursday afternoon. Calmese remained in jail on the Illinois warrant.
"It's a little bit hard to drive with the hood of the car laid over the window," Sheriff Don Zeller said.
Court approves additional investment in US Airways
By Matthew Barakat, Associated Press
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A bankruptcy judge on Thursday approved plans by a second regional airline to invest $125 million in bankrupt US Airways, moving the carrier closer to obtaining the financing it needs to emerge from Chapter 11 protection.
The court also extended until May 31 a deadline for US Airways to file a reorganization plan.
Under the terms of a deal announced Tuesday, Republic Airways Holding, which operates regional carriers Chautauqua and Republic airlines, would get at least a 19% share in the reorganized company in return for its investment.
The transaction ensures that US Airways would use Republic for some of its regional flights under the US Airways Express banner.
US Airways can also obtain an additional $110 million under the deal by selling some of its regional jets to Republic and by selling flight slots — 113 at Reagan National Airport near Washington, D.C., and 24 at New York's LaGuardia Airport.
But US Airways would reserve the right to lease those slots back from Republic, and also has the option to buy them back at a later date.
US Airways reached a similar deal in February with an affiliate of regional carrier Air Wisconsin Airlines, in which US Airways received $125 million in return for a promise to use Air Wisconsin as a regional carrier.
When US Airways filed for bankruptcy reorganization last year — its second filing in two years — it estimated it would need $250 million in new financing to successfully emerge.
The company now estimates it will need $350 million, and its deal with Republic is contingent on finding another investor to provide the remaining $100 million.
Court approves additional investment in US Airways
By Matthew Barakat, Associated Press
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A bankruptcy judge on Thursday approved plans by a second regional airline to invest $125 million in bankrupt US Airways, moving the carrier closer to obtaining the financing it needs to emerge from Chapter 11 protection.
The court also extended until May 31 a deadline for US Airways to file a reorganization plan.
Under the terms of a deal announced Tuesday, Republic Airways Holding, which operates regional carriers Chautauqua and Republic airlines, would get at least a 19% share in the reorganized company in return for its investment.
The transaction ensures that US Airways would use Republic for some of its regional flights under the US Airways Express banner.
US Airways can also obtain an additional $110 million under the deal by selling some of its regional jets to Republic and by selling flight slots — 113 at Reagan National Airport near Washington, D.C., and 24 at New York's LaGuardia Airport.
But US Airways would reserve the right to lease those slots back from Republic, and also has the option to buy them back at a later date.
US Airways reached a similar deal in February with an affiliate of regional carrier Air Wisconsin Airlines, in which US Airways received $125 million in return for a promise to use Air Wisconsin as a regional carrier.
When US Airways filed for bankruptcy reorganization last year — its second filing in two years — it estimated it would need $250 million in new financing to successfully emerge.
The company now estimates it will need $350 million, and its deal with Republic is contingent on finding another investor to provide the remaining $100 million.
Court approves additional investment in US Airways
By Matthew Barakat, Associated Press
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A bankruptcy judge on Thursday approved plans by a second regional airline to invest $125 million in bankrupt US Airways, moving the carrier closer to obtaining the financing it needs to emerge from Chapter 11 protection.
The court also extended until May 31 a deadline for US Airways to file a reorganization plan.
Under the terms of a deal announced Tuesday, Republic Airways Holding, which operates regional carriers Chautauqua and Republic airlines, would get at least a 19% share in the reorganized company in return for its investment.
The transaction ensures that US Airways would use Republic for some of its regional flights under the US Airways Express banner.
US Airways can also obtain an additional $110 million under the deal by selling some of its regional jets to Republic and by selling flight slots — 113 at Reagan National Airport near Washington, D.C., and 24 at New York's LaGuardia Airport.
But US Airways would reserve the right to lease those slots back from Republic, and also has the option to buy them back at a later date.
US Airways reached a similar deal in February with an affiliate of regional carrier Air Wisconsin Airlines, in which US Airways received $125 million in return for a promise to use Air Wisconsin as a regional carrier.
When US Airways filed for bankruptcy reorganization last year — its second filing in two years — it estimated it would need $250 million in new financing to successfully emerge.
The company now estimates it will need $350 million, and its deal with Republic is contingent on finding another investor to provide the remaining $100 million.
Medicare Monthly Premium Rising To $89.20 in 2006
By Ceci Connolly
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 1, 2005; Page A25
Medicare payments to physicians jumped 15 percent last year, an unexpectedly large increase that prompted Bush administration officials yesterday to announce that monthly premiums for America's seniors will rise to $89.20 in 2006, $1.50 more than initially projected.
The unusually sharp spike was caused primarily by lengthier office visits, more complex imaging such as MRI scans and doctors administering more lab tests and treatments in their offices instead of at a hospital.
"There's no question many of these things can help prevent complications of serious chronic diseases and keep patients out of the hospital," said Mark B. McClellan, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. But he expressed concern that that is not the case in every instance.
The CMS laid out the costs in a letter yesterday to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission.
Monthly premiums for Medicare Part B, which covers outpatient services, were $66.60 last year and rose to $78.20 for 2005. In its March 23 report, the Medicare Board of Trustees projected an increase of $9.50 a month, but it now will be $11.
Medicare Monthly Premium Rising To $89.20 in 2006
By Ceci Connolly
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 1, 2005; Page A25
Medicare payments to physicians jumped 15 percent last year, an unexpectedly large increase that prompted Bush administration officials yesterday to announce that monthly premiums for America's seniors will rise to $89.20 in 2006, $1.50 more than initially projected.
The unusually sharp spike was caused primarily by lengthier office visits, more complex imaging such as MRI scans and doctors administering more lab tests and treatments in their offices instead of at a hospital.
"There's no question many of these things can help prevent complications of serious chronic diseases and keep patients out of the hospital," said Mark B. McClellan, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. But he expressed concern that that is not the case in every instance.
The CMS laid out the costs in a letter yesterday to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission.
Monthly premiums for Medicare Part B, which covers outpatient services, were $66.60 last year and rose to $78.20 for 2005. In its March 23 report, the Medicare Board of Trustees projected an increase of $9.50 a month, but it now will be $11.
Medicare Monthly Premium Rising To $89.20 in 2006
By Ceci Connolly
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 1, 2005; Page A25
Medicare payments to physicians jumped 15 percent last year, an unexpectedly large increase that prompted Bush administration officials yesterday to announce that monthly premiums for America's seniors will rise to $89.20 in 2006, $1.50 more than initially projected.
The unusually sharp spike was caused primarily by lengthier office visits, more complex imaging such as MRI scans and doctors administering more lab tests and treatments in their offices instead of at a hospital.
"There's no question many of these things can help prevent complications of serious chronic diseases and keep patients out of the hospital," said Mark B. McClellan, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. But he expressed concern that that is not the case in every instance.
The CMS laid out the costs in a letter yesterday to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission.
Monthly premiums for Medicare Part B, which covers outpatient services, were $66.60 last year and rose to $78.20 for 2005. In its March 23 report, the Medicare Board of Trustees projected an increase of $9.50 a month, but it now will be $11.
President Nominates Cheney's Son-in-Law
By John Mintz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 1, 2005; Page A25
President Bush has nominated Vice President Cheney's son-in-law, a prominent Washington lawyer who represents companies in the homeland security field, to be the general counsel of the Department of Homeland Security.
Philip J. Perry, who is married to Cheney daughter Elizabeth Cheney Perry, is a partner at the Washington law office of Latham & Watkins, and has represented Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin Corp. in dealing with the department.
President Nominates Cheney's Son-in-Law
By John Mintz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 1, 2005; Page A25
President Bush has nominated Vice President Cheney's son-in-law, a prominent Washington lawyer who represents companies in the homeland security field, to be the general counsel of the Department of Homeland Security.
Philip J. Perry, who is married to Cheney daughter Elizabeth Cheney Perry, is a partner at the Washington law office of Latham & Watkins, and has represented Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin Corp. in dealing with the department.
President Nominates Cheney's Son-in-Law
By John Mintz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 1, 2005; Page A25
President Bush has nominated Vice President Cheney's son-in-law, a prominent Washington lawyer who represents companies in the homeland security field, to be the general counsel of the Department of Homeland Security.
Philip J. Perry, who is married to Cheney daughter Elizabeth Cheney Perry, is a partner at the Washington law office of Latham & Watkins, and has represented Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin Corp. in dealing with the department.
First quarter one of worst for stocks
By Matt Krantz, USA TODAY
What many investors had hoped would be another year of revival for stocks is shaping up to be one that most would like to forget.
All three major indexes are deep in the red for 2005 and on Thursday closed out one of Wall Street's worst first quarters in years.
First quarter one of worst for stocks
By Matt Krantz, USA TODAY
What many investors had hoped would be another year of revival for stocks is shaping up to be one that most would like to forget.
All three major indexes are deep in the red for 2005 and on Thursday closed out one of Wall Street's worst first quarters in years.
First quarter one of worst for stocks
By Matt Krantz, USA TODAY
What many investors had hoped would be another year of revival for stocks is shaping up to be one that most would like to forget.
All three major indexes are deep in the red for 2005 and on Thursday closed out one of Wall Street's worst first quarters in years.
March job gains weakest in eight months
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Employers created 110,000 jobs in March, the smallest gain in eight months, as the number of manufacturing jobs contracted and retailers shed workers, the Labor Department said on Friday.
The surprisingly weak March jobs number was barely half the 220,000 that economists had forecast. In addition, it followed downwardly revised new-job totals of 243,000 in February and 124,000 in January instead of 262,000 and 132,000, respectively, as the government had previously reported.
The unemployment rate, however, which is calculated from a separate survey, declined to 5.2% from 5.4%.
The last month in which there were fewer new jobs was July last year, when only 83,000 were created.
March job gains weakest in eight months
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Employers created 110,000 jobs in March, the smallest gain in eight months, as the number of manufacturing jobs contracted and retailers shed workers, the Labor Department said on Friday.
The surprisingly weak March jobs number was barely half the 220,000 that economists had forecast. In addition, it followed downwardly revised new-job totals of 243,000 in February and 124,000 in January instead of 262,000 and 132,000, respectively, as the government had previously reported.
The unemployment rate, however, which is calculated from a separate survey, declined to 5.2% from 5.4%.
The last month in which there were fewer new jobs was July last year, when only 83,000 were created.
March job gains weakest in eight months
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Employers created 110,000 jobs in March, the smallest gain in eight months, as the number of manufacturing jobs contracted and retailers shed workers, the Labor Department said on Friday.
The surprisingly weak March jobs number was barely half the 220,000 that economists had forecast. In addition, it followed downwardly revised new-job totals of 243,000 in February and 124,000 in January instead of 262,000 and 132,000, respectively, as the government had previously reported.
The unemployment rate, however, which is calculated from a separate survey, declined to 5.2% from 5.4%.
The last month in which there were fewer new jobs was July last year, when only 83,000 were created.
In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth and populated the
Earth with broccoli, cauliflower and spinach, green and yellow and red
vegetables of all kinds, so Man and Woman would live long and healthy lives.
Then using God's great gifts, Satan created Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream and
Krispy Creme Donuts. And Satan said, "You want chocolate with that?" And
Man said, "Yes!" and Woman said, "and as long as you're at it, add some
sprinkles." And they gained 10 pounds. And Satan smiled.
And God created the healthful yogurt that Woman might keep the figure that
Man found so fair. And Satan brought forth white flour from the Wheat, and
sugar from the cane and combined them. And Woman went from size 6 to size 14.
So God said, "Try my fresh green salad." And Satan presented
Thousand-Island Dressing, buttery croutons and garlic toast on the side.
And Man and Woman unfastened their belts following the repast.
God then said, "I have sent you heart healthy vegetables and olive oil in
which to cook them." And Satan brought forth deep fried fish and
chicken-fried steak so big it needed its own platter. And Man gained more
weight and his cholesterol went through the roof.
God then created a light, fluffy white cake, named it "Angel Food Cake,"
and said, "It is good." Satan then created chocolate cake and named it "Devil's Food."
God then brought forth running shoes so that His children might lose those
extra pounds. And Satan gave cable TV with a remote control so Man would not
have to toil changing the channels. And Man and Woman laughed and cried
before the flickering blue light and gained pounds.
Then God brought forth the potato, naturally low in fat and brimming with
nutrition. And Satan peeled off the healthful skin and sliced the starchy
center into chips and deep-fried them. And Man gained pounds.
God then gave lean beef so that Man might consume fewer calories and still
satisfy his appetite. And Satan created
McDonald's and its 99-cent double cheeseburger. Then said, "You want fries
with that?" And Man replied, "Yes! And super size them!" And Satan said,
It is good." And Man went into cardiac arrest.
God sighed and created quadruple bypass surgery.
Then Satan created HMOs.
Thought for the day .....
There is more money being spent on breast implants and Viagra today than on
Alzheimer's research. This means that by 2040, there should be a large
elderly population with perky boobs and huge erections and absolutely no
recollection of what to do with them.
In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth and populated the
Earth with broccoli, cauliflower and spinach, green and yellow and red
vegetables of all kinds, so Man and Woman would live long and healthy lives.
Then using God's great gifts, Satan created Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream and
Krispy Creme Donuts. And Satan said, "You want chocolate with that?" And
Man said, "Yes!" and Woman said, "and as long as you're at it, add some
sprinkles." And they gained 10 pounds. And Satan smiled.
And God created the healthful yogurt that Woman might keep the figure that
Man found so fair. And Satan brought forth white flour from the Wheat, and
sugar from the cane and combined them. And Woman went from size 6 to size 14.
So God said, "Try my fresh green salad." And Satan presented
Thousand-Island Dressing, buttery croutons and garlic toast on the side.
And Man and Woman unfastened their belts following the repast.
God then said, "I have sent you heart healthy vegetables and olive oil in
which to cook them." And Satan brought forth deep fried fish and
chicken-fried steak so big it needed its own platter. And Man gained more
weight and his cholesterol went through the roof.
God then created a light, fluffy white cake, named it "Angel Food Cake,"
and said, "It is good." Satan then created chocolate cake and named it "Devil's Food."
God then brought forth running shoes so that His children might lose those
extra pounds. And Satan gave cable TV with a remote control so Man would not
have to toil changing the channels. And Man and Woman laughed and cried
before the flickering blue light and gained pounds.
Then God brought forth the potato, naturally low in fat and brimming with
nutrition. And Satan peeled off the healthful skin and sliced the starchy
center into chips and deep-fried them. And Man gained pounds.
God then gave lean beef so that Man might consume fewer calories and still
satisfy his appetite. And Satan created
McDonald's and its 99-cent double cheeseburger. Then said, "You want fries
with that?" And Man replied, "Yes! And super size them!" And Satan said,
It is good." And Man went into cardiac arrest.
God sighed and created quadruple bypass surgery.
Then Satan created HMOs.
Thought for the day .....
There is more money being spent on breast implants and Viagra today than on
Alzheimer's research. This means that by 2040, there should be a large
elderly population with perky boobs and huge erections and absolutely no
recollection of what to do with them.
In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth and populated the
Earth with broccoli, cauliflower and spinach, green and yellow and red
vegetables of all kinds, so Man and Woman would live long and healthy lives.
Then using God's great gifts, Satan created Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream and
Krispy Creme Donuts. And Satan said, "You want chocolate with that?" And
Man said, "Yes!" and Woman said, "and as long as you're at it, add some
sprinkles." And they gained 10 pounds. And Satan smiled.
And God created the healthful yogurt that Woman might keep the figure that
Man found so fair. And Satan brought forth white flour from the Wheat, and
sugar from the cane and combined them. And Woman went from size 6 to size 14.
So God said, "Try my fresh green salad." And Satan presented
Thousand-Island Dressing, buttery croutons and garlic toast on the side.
And Man and Woman unfastened their belts following the repast.
God then said, "I have sent you heart healthy vegetables and olive oil in
which to cook them." And Satan brought forth deep fried fish and
chicken-fried steak so big it needed its own platter. And Man gained more
weight and his cholesterol went through the roof.
God then created a light, fluffy white cake, named it "Angel Food Cake,"
and said, "It is good." Satan then created chocolate cake and named it "Devil's Food."
God then brought forth running shoes so that His children might lose those
extra pounds. And Satan gave cable TV with a remote control so Man would not
have to toil changing the channels. And Man and Woman laughed and cried
before the flickering blue light and gained pounds.
Then God brought forth the potato, naturally low in fat and brimming with
nutrition. And Satan peeled off the healthful skin and sliced the starchy
center into chips and deep-fried them. And Man gained pounds.
God then gave lean beef so that Man might consume fewer calories and still
satisfy his appetite. And Satan created
McDonald's and its 99-cent double cheeseburger. Then said, "You want fries
with that?" And Man replied, "Yes! And super size them!" And Satan said,
It is good." And Man went into cardiac arrest.
God sighed and created quadruple bypass surgery.
Then Satan created HMOs.
Thought for the day .....
There is more money being spent on breast implants and Viagra today than on
Alzheimer's research. This means that by 2040, there should be a large
elderly population with perky boobs and huge erections and absolutely no
recollection of what to do with them.