Kraven Moorehead

Apr 28, 6:27 PM (ET)

By MARK SHERMAN

WASHINGTON (AP) - The FBI secretly sought information last year on 3,501 U.S. citizens and legal residents from their banks and credit card, telephone and Internet companies without a court's approval, the Justice Department said Friday.

It was the first time the Bush administration has publicly disclosed how often it uses the administrative subpoena known as a national security letter, which allows the executive branch of government to obtain records about people in terrorism and espionage investigations without court approval.

Friday's disclosure was mandated as part of the renewal of the Patriot Act, the administration's sweeping anti-terror law.

The FBI delivered a total of 9,254 NSLs relating to 3,501 people in 2005, according to a report submitted late Friday to Democratic and Republican leaders in the House and Senate. In some cases, the bureau demanded information about one person from several companies.

The department also reported it received a secret court's approval for 155 warrants to examine business records last year, under a Patriot Act provision that includes library records. However, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has said the department has never used the provision to ask for library records.

The number was a significant jump over past use of the warrant for business records. A year ago, Gonzales told Congress there had been 35 warrants approved between November 2003 and April 2005.

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 01:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Republican "family values" in action
by kos
Fri Apr 28, 2006 at 07:53:09 AM PDT
Sex sells. The dam is already breaking.

The San Diego Tribune provides the outline:

A source close to the bribery case, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation, told the Union-Tribune that Mitchell Wade, who pleaded guilty in February to bribing Cunningham, told federal prosecutors that he periodically helped arrange for a prostitute for the then-congressman.

A limousine would pick up Cunningham and a prostitute and take them to the ADCS hospitality suite, Wade reportedly told investigators. Federal agents are investigating whether other legislators had similar arrangements with Wilkes or Wade, a business associate of Wilkes who ran his own defense contracting company, MZM Inc.

The CIA director appears to be implicated, and perhaps as many as half a dozen Republican congressmen could be snared in this sex scandal.

Last night on MSNBC's Scarborough Country, Dean Calbreath of the San Diego Union Tribune - which recently won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the Cunningham case - said that "as many as a half a dozen" members of Congress could ultimately be implicated in the prostitution scandal

And in the world of the Republicans' culture of corruption, even the limo company who drove the prostitutes around got lavishly rewarded:

I've learned from a well-connected source that those under intense scrutiny by the FBI are current and former lawmakers on Defense and Intelligence comittees--including one person who now holds a powerful intelligence post. I've also been able to learn the name of the limousine service that was used to ferry the guests and other attendees to the parties: Shirlington Limousine and Transportation of Arlington, Virginia. Wilkes, I've learned, even hired Shirlington as his personal limousine service.

It gets even more interesting: the man who has been identified as the CEO of Shirlington has a 62-page rap sheet (I recently obtained a copy) that runs from at least 1979 through 1989 and lists charges of petit larceny, robbery, receiving stolen goods, assault, and more. Curiously--or perhaps not so curiously given the company's connections--Shirlington Limousine is also a Department of Homeland Security contractor; according to the Washington Post, last fall it won a $21.2 million contract for shuttle services and transportation support.

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 12:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Red Lights on Capitol Hill?
Posted on Thursday, April 27, 2006. By Ken Silverstein.
Sources
The Wall Street Journal reported today that indicted former California Congressman Randall "Duke" Cunningham may not have limited his good times to partying on a rented yacht. It turns out the FBI is currently investigating two defense contractors who allegedly provided Cunningham with free limousine service, free stays at hotel suites at the Watergate and the Westin Grand, and free prostitutes.

The two defense contractors who allegedly paid most of the bills, said the Journal, were Brent Wilkes, the founder of ADCS Inc., and Mitchell Wade, the founder of MZM Inc.; both firms profited greatly from their connections with Cunningham. The Journal also suggested that other lawmakers might be implicated. I've learned from a well-connected source that those under intense scrutiny by the FBI are current and former lawmakers on Defense and Intelligence comittees—including one person who now holds a powerful intelligence post. I've also been able to learn the name of the limousine service that was used to ferry the guests and other attendees to the parties: Shirlington Limousine and Transportation of Arlington, Virginia. Wilkes, I've learned, even hired Shirlington as his personal limousine service.

It gets even more interesting: the man who has been identified as the CEO of Shirlington has a 62-page rap sheet (I recently obtained a copy) that runs from at least 1979 through 1989 and lists charges of petit larceny, robbery, receiving stolen goods, assault, and more. Curiously—or perhaps not so curiously given the company's connections—Shirlington Limousine is also a Department of Homeland Security contractor; according to the Washington Post, last fall it won a $21.2 million contract for shuttle services and transportation support. (I tried to contact Shirlington but was unable to get past their answering service.)

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 11:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Unforeseen Spending on Materiel Pumps Up Iraq War Bill
Senate to Take Up Measure as Military Fights to Keep Guns, Tanks Working

By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 20, 2006; Page A01

With the expected passage this spring of the largest emergency spending bill in history, annual war expenditures in Iraq will have nearly doubled since the U.S. invasion, as the military confronts the rapidly escalating cost of repairing, rebuilding and replacing equipment chewed up by three years of combat.

The cost of the war in U.S. fatalities has declined this year, but the cost in treasure continues to rise, from $48 billion in 2003 to $59 billion in 2004 to $81 billion in 2005 to an anticipated $94 billion in 2006, according to the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. The U.S. government is now spending nearly $10 billion a month in Iraq and Afghanistan, up from $8.2 billion a year ago, a new Congressional Research Service report found.

Buy This Photo

Army Chief of Staff Peter J. Schoomaker told Congress that the Pentagon did not "have a good prediction about what our battle losses would be." (By Sarah L. Voisin -- The Washington Post)

Graphic
The Rising Cost of War in Iraq
The annual cost of the Iraq War has nearly doubled, in part because of equipment costs.

News From Iraq
Al-Jafari to Give Up Nomination for Iraqi Prime Minister
Rove Gives Up Policy Post in Shake-Up
Unforeseen Spending on Materiel Pumps Up Iraq War Bill
Iraqi Prime Minister Says Resigning Is 'Out of the Question'
Iraqi Prime Minister Rules Out Stepping Down
More News
FULL REPORT: America at War

Special Report

Washington Post stories and multimedia reports about Iraq, Afghanistan, the War on Terror and more.

• Faces of the Fallen
• Veterans: In Their Own Words
• Afghan Reconstruction

» FULL COVERAGE

Who's Blogging?
Read what bloggers are saying about this article.
Wonkette, Politics for People with Dirty Minds
Think Progress
Fired Up! America | for responsible government, strong communities, and secure families.

Full List of Blogs (24 links) »

Most Blogged About Articles
On washingtonpost.com | On the web

Save & Share
Tag This Article

Saving options
1. Save to description:
Headline (required)
Subheadline
Byline

2. Save to notes (255 character max):
Subheadline Blurb None
3. Tag This Article

Annual war costs in Iraq are easily outpacing the $61 billion a year that the United States spent in Vietnam between 1964 and 1972, in today's dollars. The invasion's "shock and awe" of high-tech laser-guided bombs, cruise missiles and stealth aircraft has long faded, but the costs of even those early months are just coming into view as the military confronts equipment repair and rebuilding costs it has avoided and procurement costs it never expected.

"We did not predict early on that we would have the number of electronic jammers that we've got. We did not predict we'd have as many [heavily] armored vehicles that we have, nor did we have a good prediction about what our battle losses would be," Army Chief of Staff Peter J. Schoomaker recently told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Steven M. Kosiak, the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments' director of budget studies, said, "If you look at the earlier estimates of anticipated costs, this war is a lot more expensive than it should be, based on past conflicts."

The issue will be hotly debated next week when the Senate takes up a record $106.5 billion emergency spending bill that includes $72.4 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The House passed a $92 billion version of the bill last month that included $68 billion in war funding. That funding comes on top of $50 billion already allocated for the war this fiscal year.

The bill is the fifth emergency defense request since the Iraq invasion in March 2003. Senate Democrats say that, in the end, they will vote for the measure, which congressional leaders plan to deliver to President Bush by Memorial Day. But the upcoming debate will offer opponents of the war ample opportunity to question the Bush administration's funding priorities.

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 01:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A 'Concerted Effort' to Discredit Bush Critic
Prosecutor Describes Cheney, Libby as Key Voices Pitching Iraq-Niger Story

By Barton Gellman and Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, April 9, 2006; Page A01

As he drew back the curtain this week on the evidence against Vice President Cheney's former top aide, Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald for the first time described a "concerted action" by "multiple people in the White House" -- using classified information -- to "discredit, punish or seek revenge against" a critic of President Bush's war in Iraq.

Bluntly and repeatedly, Fitzgerald placed Cheney at the center of that campaign. Citing grand jury testimony from the vice president's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Fitzgerald fingered Cheney as the first to voice a line of attack that at least three White House officials would soon deploy against former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV.

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 09:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Former Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff was sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison on March 29, after pleading guilty to fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy to bribe public officials in a deal that requires him to cooperate in an investigation into his dealings with members of Congress. Sources familiar with the federal probe have told The Post that half a dozen lawmakers are under scrutiny, along with Hill aides, former business associates and government officials.

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 09:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Ex-Bush Aide Denies Calls on Phone Jamming

By KATHARINE WEBSTER
Associated Press Writer

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) -- A former White House political director denied Tuesday that he or anyone on his staff spoke with New England Republicans about a phone-jamming scheme designed to keep New Hampshire Democrats from voting in 2002.

Ken Mehlman, now chairman of the Republican National Committee, acknowledged that local GOP officials had called a White House operative in the days surrounding the election. But he said none of the conversations involved the phone-jamming incident.

"As White House political director during the 2002 election cycle, my staff and I regularly communicated with competitive congressional campaigns and Republican Party organizations," Mehlman said.

On Nov. 5, 2002, repeated hang-up calls jammed telephone lines at a Democratic get-out-the-vote center during a New Hampshire Senate race in which Republican John Sununu defeated Democrat Jeanne Shaheen, 51 percent to 46 percent.

Phone records introduced in court show that Bush campaign operative James Tobin, who recently was convicted in the case, made two dozen calls to the White House within a three-day period around Election Day 2002 - as the phone jamming operation was finalized, carried out and then abruptly shut down. At the time, Tobin was New England chairman of Bush's re-election campaign and a top regional official of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

The Justice Department has secured three convictions in the case but hasn't accused any White House or national Republican officials of wrongdoing, nor made any allegations suggesting party officials outside of New Hampshire were involved. The phone records of calls to the White House were exhibits in Tobin's trial

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 09:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Lacking Biolabs, Trailers Carried Case for War
Administration Pushed Notion of Banned Iraqi Weapons Despite Evidence to Contrary

By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 12, 2006; Page A01

On May 29, 2003, 50 days after the fall of Baghdad, President Bush proclaimed a fresh victory for his administration in Iraq: Two small trailers captured by U.S. and Kurdish troops had turned out to be long-sought mobile "biological laboratories." He declared, "We have found the weapons of mass destruction."

The claim, repeated by top administration officials for months afterward, was hailed at the time as a vindication of the decision to go to war. But even as Bush spoke, U.S. intelligence officials possessed powerful evidence that it was not true.

U.S. officials asserted that Iraq had biological weapons factories in trailers, even after a Pentagon mission found them unsuited for that role. (By Pfc. Joshua Hutcheson Via Associated Press)

Two Iraqi trailers captured by U.S. and Kurdish troops became a center-piece of U.S. claims that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. But shortly after the fall of Baghdad, an internal report showed the trailers had nothing to do with banned weapons.

A secret fact-finding mission to Iraq -- not made public until now -- had already concluded that the trailers had nothing to do with biological weapons. Leaders of the Pentagon-sponsored mission transmitted their unanimous findings to Washington in a field report on May 27, 2003, two days before the president's statement.

The three-page field report and a 122-page final report three weeks later were stamped "secret" and shelved. Meanwhile, for nearly a year, administration and intelligence officials continued to publicly assert that the trailers were weapons factories.

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 08:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

More Human Remains Found Near Trade Center

AP Photo/MARK LENNIHAN

More U.S. Video






Advertisement




NEW YORK (AP) -- Construction workers near the World Trade Center discovered 74 more bone fragments on a damaged skyscraper being prepared for demolition, the largest discovery of human remains since cleanup of the building began last fall, officials said.

Investigators reviewing emergency calls from the morning of the terrorist attacks also identified eight more recordings of emergency dispatches and 911 calls from the towers that had previously been overlooked.

Most of the bone fragments discovered over the weekend were found mixed with gravel that had been raked to the sides of the roof of the former Deutsche Bank building, which suffered extensive damage when the twin towers collapsed on Sept. 11, 2001.

Ellen Borakove, spokeswoman for the city medical examiner, said workers still had more than 100 yards of material to rake through and said she wouldn't be surprised by the discovery of additional remains.

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 10:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Radioactive Steam Escapes From Ill. Plant

GODLEY, Ill. (AP) -- Steam containing radioactive tritium escaped from a valve at an Exelon Corp. plant even as company officials met with local residents to discuss efforts to clean up earlier leaks.

About 500 gallons of water pooled on the grounds of the Braidwood Generating Station as the steam condensed Thursday, and some of it flowed into a ditch that lies between the plant and the village of Godley, company spokesman Craig Nesbit told the Chicago Tribune for a story on its Web site.

Tests showed no detectable levels of tritium in the water in the ditch, although levels measured in the water pooled on plant grounds were more than twice federal drinking and groundwater limits, Nesbit said. He said more precise testing would be conducted.

The company created a dirt berm around the ditch and placed a bladder in the ditch to create a dam, Nesbit said.

Tritium is a radioactive form of hydrogen commonly found in ground water but is more concentrated in water used in nuclear reactors. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, exposure to tritium increases the risk of developing cancer.

The Braidwood plant, located about 60 miles southwest of Chicago, has sent millions of gallons of tritium-tainted water into the ground in several leaks dating back to 1996. When Thursday's release happened, Exelon officials were meeting with residents to discuss plans to clean up earlier leaks.

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 10:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Wanted: More women, minorities for fishing
LONDON, April 2 (UPI) -- The British government is spending $33 million for a 10-year campaign to attract more minorities and women to fishing.

About 4 million people enjoy a quiet afternoon on the river bank each year, but the government has determined that today's fishermen are too white, too male and too middle-aged, the Sunday Telegraph reported.

The Environment Agency will use money raised each year by the sale of fishing licenses to pay for a new leaflet entitled "10 things you should know about angling."

"Angling does not discriminate against gender, race, age or athletic ability" and the "Government is interested in angling in the context of social inclusion in deprived urban areas," the leaflet says.

There are also pilot programs, such as an effort in Swansea that taught Muslim women and children to fish by experts from the Salmon and Trout Association.

Critics of the program say the funds would be better spent on increasing biodiversity in rivers by safeguarding otters, kingfishers and native crayfish instead of "socially engineering" fishing.

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 09:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Urine ‘bombs’ could bring $1,000 fines
Friday, March 31, 2006
DISPATCH STATE SERVICE

Pitching portable potties along Ohio’s roadsides could bring a fine of up $1,000 under a bill introduced this week by a state lawmaker.

Sen. Kimberly A. Zurz, DGreen, was prompted to introduce the bill by an Ohio Department of Transportation study that found that nearly 1 million containers of urine are dumped annually along roads.

Dumping potentially dangerous litter would carry a maximum fine of $1,000 and a minimum fine of $150. State law currently classifies all litter the same and sets a maximum fine of $150.

Repeat violators who discard "trucker bombs" would face higher fines and potential driver’s license suspensions under Zurz’s bill.

"This bill cracks down on those who believe Ohio’s highways are their own personal bathroom," she said in a statement.

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 09:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Former mogul champ peddling underwear
Kari Traa, the Norwegian freestyle skier who's won Olympic and World Cup gold before deciding to retire, now plans to peddle underwear. And she's getting state support to help sell her G-strings.
Kari Traa intends to use her name and fame to sell fancy underwear.She announced her retirement from competitive freestyle skiing this winter.

Traa, 32, told newspaper VG on Monday that she's putting all her energy now into Kari Traa AS, the company she's formed to market a new collection of women's underwear.

"Today, nearly everyone has an Ulvang sock at home," said Traa, referring to the wool sock collection launched by former cross-country skiing champion Vegard Ulvang. "My goal is that everyone will soon have some Traa underpants also."

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 09:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mooresville Woman Finds Virgin Mary Seashell

POSTED: 3:53 pm EST March 31, 2006
UPDATED: 4:23 pm EST March 31, 2006

MOORESVILLE, N.C. -- A Mooresville woman found a seashell with the likeness of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus while walking on Wrightsville Beach.

Kathy Snow found the shell, shown on the right, in March 2005. Since then, she has shown it to several people, and everyone agrees that the Virgin mother's likeness is in the shell.

Now, it's for sale on e-Bay. Snow said she started bidding Thursday night at $25,000. The auction stays active for 10 days.

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 09:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Nuke plant gets new locks after keys lost Mon Apr 3, 10:43 AM ET

BERLIN (Reuters) - German authorities are changing 150 locks at a nuclear power plant after its owner said they had lost keys to a security area, a ministry spokesman in the south western state of Baden-Wuerttemberg said on Monday.

Plant operator EnBW said that in spite of intensive searches and questioning it had not been able to recover 12 keys for its Philippsburg plant after discovering they were lost in March.

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 08:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

China 'may cut US debt holdings'

US-Chinese trade relations are coming under increasing strain
China may reduce the amount of US bonds it holds as part of its foreign exchange reserves, an influential official has reportedly said.
The remarks, made by Parliamentary vice-chairman Cheng Siwei, triggered a fall in the US dollar against leading currencies in European trading.

China is a major funder of US debt, holding about £260bn (£149bn) in US Treasury bonds - second only to Japan.

Any reduction in China's dollar assets could hit the US economy.

Should China cut its US dollar holdings, this could drive up long-term yields on US bonds, which could in turn put pressure on interest rates.

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 08:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

DeLay says he'll resign
U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, the once-powerful Texas Republican, plans to resign from Congress and will drop his re-election bid, citing a desire to keep his House seat in Republican hands. "I refuse to allow liberal Democrats an opportunity to steal this seat with a negative personal campaign," DeLay said in a video announcement released today.

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 08:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

India Nuclear Deal May Face Hard Sell
Rice Set to Defend Landmark Accord She Orchestrated Without Congress

By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, April 3, 2006; Page A01

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice flew into New Delhi a year ago and set in motion a revolution in U.S. policy on nuclear weapons and relations with India.

She didn't tip her hand publicly during the brief stop, sticking to bland expressions of "a new relationship" with "great potential." The outlines of her plan were known by only a handful of people in the U.S. government.

Rice, Straw Press Iraqis to Forge Unity
BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 2 -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw flew here together in an unannounced visit Sunday and made a dramatic appeal to feuding Iraqi politicians to quickly form a national unity government before the country fractures further along...

Graphic
The Accord
President Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh signed a nuclear accord last summer.

Four months later, on July 18, President Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh approved a landmark accord at the White House.

Beyond the invasion of Iraq, few of Bush's decisions have as much potential to shake the international order than his deal with India, supporters and opponents agree. The debate over the deal has pitted against each other two powerful national security goals -- the desire to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and the desire to counter the rise of China, in this case by accelerating New Delhi's ascent as a global power.

After three decades of treating India as a pariah because it used a civilian nuclear program to produce fissile material for weapons, Bush decided the United States would forgive the transgression. India would be able to buy foreign-made nuclear reactors if it opened its civilian facilities to international inspections -- while being allowed to substantially ramp up its ability to produce materials for nuclear weapons.

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 04:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

U.S. Plan to Build Iraq Clinics Falters
Contractor Will Try to Finish 20 of 142 Sites

By Ellen Knickmeyer
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, April 3, 2006; Page A01

BAGHDAD -- A reconstruction contract for the building of 142 primary health centers across Iraq is running out of money, after two years and roughly $200 million, with no more than 20 clinics now expected to be completed, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says.

The contract, awarded to U.S. construction giant Parsons Inc. in the flush, early days of reconstruction in Iraq, was expected to lay the foundation of a modern health care system for the country, putting quality medical care within reach of all Iraqis.

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 04:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Story out of Poland:

Ex-con sues prison for orgasms

A former prison inmate is suing the state for the excess of orgasms he claims he had in prison. The inmate worked in a chamber with vibrating equipment used for concrete block production. "I pressed the equipment with my hips, very hard, it vibrated. I ejaculated every dozen minutes or so, and now I am infertile. I simply had too many orgasms," says the ex-inmate in his letter to a prison administrator. Prison administrator Franciszek Tarasewicz said the ex-inmate's claim took him by surprise, but he is going to treat the matter seriously. "The inmate wants to discuss with me the amount of money he feels we owe him due to his health deterioration," says Tarasewicz. "I admit it is the most extraordinary complaint that has ever been lodged with us."

Posted by Kraven Moorehead at 12:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)