Necessary News

All you need to know to sound brilliant

Justice Department: Out Of Sight, Out of Mind

• Backlogs are becoming the new home to cases alleging contractors and drugmakers of defrauded taxpayers out of billions of dollars. [Washington Post]
• More than 900 cases have built up over the past decade because the Justice Department has a hard time keeping up with the surge of chares brought by whistle-blowers.
• Although these cases have been building up forever, their has been renewed interest among lawmakers.
• The cases involve the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, rising health care payouts and privatization of government functions—all which offer the best opportunites to trick taxpayers.
• So how long do whistle-blowers tend to wait to hear whether the department will get involved?
• The process involves the Justice Department lawyers reviewing the cases under seal which could take around 14 months—or longer.
• And in many cases (about 3/4) get rejected.
• Most of the cases discuss whether companies knowingly sold defective products or overcharged federal agencies for items sold at home or offered to troops.
• And it doesn’t help that the 75-lawyer unit in Washington that reviews these cases are overloaded and understaffed.
• Only about 100 of the 300-400 cases filed each year actually are investigated by the team.

Cases in the backlog have put money in the bank for the Justice Department: Verdicts and settlements have returned nearly $13 billion to the U.S. government.

Recycled Chinese Torture Charts, False Confessions, and Gitmo

• Running an entire interrogation class on a chart showing the effects of “coercive management techniques” for possible use on prisoners, including “sleep deprivation,” “prolonged constraint,” and “exposure” was nothing out of the ordinary at Gitmo in 2002. [NY Times]
• The fact that the chart had been copied, word for word, from a 1957 Air Force study of Chinese Communist techniques used during the Korean War to obtain confessions was a revelation, some say even to the interrogators themselves.
• Chinese Communist techniques which lead to many false confessions, several from American prisoners.
• The only change made in the chart presented at Guantánamo was to drop its original title: “Communist Coercive Methods for Eliciting Individual Compliance.”
• “What makes this document doubly stunning is that these were techniques to get false confessions,” Senator Levin said at a hearing. “People say we need intelligence, and we do. But we don’t need false intelligence.”
• This document is the latest and most vivid evidence of how Communist interrogation methods have snuck their way into American efforts in Gitmo, but certainly not the first.
• There is some concern that these methods, since known to elicit false confessions in the past, could throw into question the validity of many interrogations at Gitmo, not to mention the morally reprehensible nature of these findings.

Decades old, inhumane torture methods proven to get false and unreliable information? That sure sounds like a solid basis for US policy.

When Is A Benchmark Not A Benchmark?

• According to a new report from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq has now met 15 out of the original 18 benchmarks on security, political and economic progress. [Washington Post]
• This report is in direct contradiction with other reports about the status of Iraq’s goals.
• You may remember the GAO report that came out last week; that report “cited little improvement in the ability of the Iraqi security forces to act independently of the U.S. military, and noted that key legislation passed by the Iraqi parliament had not been implemented while other crucial laws had not been passed.” [Washington Post]
• According to the Embassy report, Baghdad only has three remaining challenges: implementing laws governing the oil industry; disarming militias; and ongoing problems with Iraqi police forces.
• All other areas – upcoming elections, de-Baathification, the budget, the army – were rated “satisfactory.”
• What gives? It all depends on what your definition of “satisfactory” is.
• Example: De-Baathification. It’s true, the government passed legislation that grants amnesty for former members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath party. However, it’s also true the requests for amnesty are hopelessly backlogged and many Baath members have not been able to return to their jobs.
• Example: Elections. It’s true, the government passed a law saying October 1 will be election day this year. However, it’s also true no one has yet been able to agree on any of the rules for the election and experts say actual voting could be delayed by weeks.
• Rep. Mike McIntyre, who requested this Embassy assessment, “scoffed at the May report, which he says uses the false standard of determining whether progress on a goal is ‘satisfactory’ versus whether the benchmark has been met. He estimates that only a few of the 18 benchmarks have been fully achieved.” [AP]

The White House in recent months has said these benchmarks aren’t useful in evaluating Iraq’s progress, leaving us with that age-old question...how will we know when we’ve won?

Good News, Bad News

BURGER KING WITH A SIDE OF MACARONI?

Burger King launched a new healthier kids meal that is sure to light up any parent’s eye. The meal features a 4-ounce serving of Kraft macaroni and cheese, low-fat milk and Fresh Apple Fries, which are uncooked apple slices shaped like French fries and served with low-fat caramel dipping sauce. The price — $3.49. [LA Times]

Good News

Finally Burger King has a product on their menu that isn’t over 2,000 calories.

Bad News

I’m sure I speak for every kid in America when I say—they are not having it ‘their’ way Burger King (or did you forget your name?)

Quote Of The Day

“I apply the Abraham Lincoln test for moral casuistry: “If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.” Well, then, if waterboarding does not constitute torture, then there is no such thing as torture.”

— journalist Christopher Hitchens, who had himself waterboarded in order to experience “as nearly as possible what real waterboarding might be like.” [Vanity Fair] [Think Progress]

Speed Round

SENDING MORE TROOPS...

President Bush is weighing whether to send more troops to Afghanistan. Bush said it has been a “tough month” in Afghanistan, where more U.S. and NATO troops died during the past two months than in Iraq. [AP]

...BUT WE DON’T HAVE ENOUGH

In the meantime, Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said yesterday that more U.S. troops are needed in Afghanistan, but he doesn’t have enough to send thanks to the war in Iraq. [Washington Post]

COLUMBIA

Former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and three American captives have been freed from FARC. [CNN]

GAS PRICES ARE HIGH

How high are they? Gas prices are so high that in Kentucky, a woman was arrested for trading sex for $100 gas cards. [Fox News]

CONTRACTORS

Iraq’s foreign minister this week told reporters that the U.S. had agreed to “lift immunity for foreign security contractors operating in Iraq, making them subject to prosecution under Iraqi law, according to Iraqi politicians.” [NY Times]

SHAKE IT UP

In ’08 news, John McCain’s campaign “announced a shakeup at the top Wednesday, in the wake of growing Republican concern about its ability to compete against Barack Obama.” Most notable, senior adviser Steve Schmidt will take over day-to-day operations, in an attempt to stop “unforced errors in the campaign.” [CNN]

SO WHICH IS IT?

The Pentagon and Medicare make you carry your Social Security number around in your wallet with you by putting it on your mandatory ID cards…but the Federal Trade Commission says Americans should never carry their Social Security Numbers around with them because of the risk of ID theft. [Yahoo]

BETTER AID TO AFRICA

The U.N. is calling for more international aid to Africa, where funds should be used to boost doctors’ salaries and bolster the recruitment and training of medical staff, where there is now a shortage of 2.3 million physicians, nurses and midwives worldwide, with the biggest shortfall in sub-Saharan Africa. [Reuters]

TO ALL THE KATIE COURIC HATERS

So, she may not be the force she displayed on the Today Show but the CBS Evening News anchor was awarded the coveted Edward R. Murrow award for best newscast. [Perez Hilton]

SLOW RISE OF OIL

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has forecast that the world’s oil supply will rise more slowly than expected over the next five years, potentially leading to continued high prices. [ABC]

SAMUEL SURRENDERS

The fugitive hedge-fund swindler who faked suicide on a Hudson River bridge and went on the run to avoid a prison sentence surrendered yesterday in Mass. [LA Times]

35%

Americans who believe a terrorist attack somewhere in the United States is likely over the next several weeks, the lowest number since post-9/11 was started. [CNN]

FIREFIGHTERS

National Guard troops are being deployed to help with wildfires across CA. This is the first time since 1977 that the Guard has been deployed to ground-based fire fighting duty in California.[MSNBC]