Bush Administration // Current

Closing Down Gitmo

ANP: An interview with David Cole. Part 1 President-elect Barack Obama says closing down the detainee camp in Guantanamo Bay... more

Vierotchka
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'Rules of the road' set for oil shale drilling

I can't think of anything kind to say...... The Bush administration on Monday issued final rules setting parameters for... more

thornyisu
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Group takes quest for White House e-mails to D.C. Circuit

The Bush administration; they have scrubbed your phone calls, your e-mails, your affiliations, and they seem to remain above the... more

thornyisu
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Democrats shield automakers

ANP: The automobile lobby is back on Capitol Hill warming up to some of their best friends - Democrats.

Vierotchka
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Bush held the summit but, Obama will cut the deals

Pushed by President Bush, who convened the gathering (SUMMIT) at the suggestion of President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, the... more

wlwatkins
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A Done Deal: IRAQI Cabinet Approves Security Pact

Campbell Robertson, The New York Times: "The Iraqi cabinet voted overwhelmingly Sunday to approve the security agreement that sets the conditions for the Americans' continued presence in Iraq from Jan. 1 until the end of 2011. All but one of the 28 cabinet ministers who attended the two-and-a-half- hour session voted for the agreement and sent it to Parliament for consideration, a huge relief to the United States, which had been in intense negotiations with the Iraqis for nearly a year."

The draft approved Sunday requires coalition forces to withdraw from Iraqi cities and towns by the summer of 2009 and from the country by the end of 2011. An earlier version had language giving some flexibility to that deadline, with both sides discussing timetables and timelines for withdrawal, but the Iraqis managed to have the deadline set in stone, a significant negotiating victory. The United States has around 150,000 troops in Iraq.

Under the agreement, U.S. soldiers are still guaranteed immunity except in cases of serious felonies committed while off duty outside their bases.

The anti-American Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr had called for armed resistance against any agreement that allowed a continued U.S. presence in Iraq.

"I repeat my demand to the occupier to leave our land without keeping bases or signing agreements," Sadr said in a statement read to thousands of supporters at Friday prayers. "If they keep bases, then I would support honorable resistance."

Sistani is enormously influential among the majority Shiite population; in 2004, when he wanted to put pressure on the Americans to hold direct elections, he called upon his followers to march by the hundreds of thousands in a peaceful but powerful demonstration of force.

Dabbagh said of the Sadrists: "You cannot guarantee a 100 percent approval of anything. They are performing and they are practicing their role in Iraqi democracy right now and they are expressing their opinion in a peaceful way and not a violent way, which we encourage."Campbell Robertson, The New York Times: "The Iraqi cabinet voted overwhelmingly Sunday to approve the security agreement that... more

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1 day ago

Blackwater Busted?

By Jeremy Scahill After more than five years of rampant violence and misconduct carried out by the massive army of private... more

HolyCity2012
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45 responses

1 day ago

Memories of US Depression still sear

Stories from the elderly that endured the great depression is interesting, the one that I found important is Mr. Dickinson below.... more

wlwatkins
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7 responses

2 days ago

Democrats to WhiCte House: "Preserve your Records."

WASHINGTON – Senate Democrats on the Intelligence and Judiciary Committees last week told the White House to preserve all... more

middle_east
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4 days ago

When and how will Obama close Guantanamo?

Michael Ratner: Focus is on fate of hundreds detained at Guantanamo who will never be put on trial. As the world waits for... more

Vierotchka
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4 responses

5 days ago

A Quiet Windfall For U.S. Banks

The financial world was fixated on Capitol Hill as Congress battled over the Bush administration's request for a $700 billion... more

thornyisu
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6 days ago

When Camelot meets Guantanamo

The shock of new: the popular president-elect meets the all-time unpopular president at the White House. During his historic... more

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7 responses

6 days ago

More Iraqi demands on security deal

Bush administration makes concessions on agreement, but Iraq reluctant to approve troop agreement. Iraqi government has made... more

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6 responses

6 days ago

Nextgov: Search for White House e-mails could span administrations

American historians, may yet be able one day to sort what happened and why. Something all Americans have a right to know and... more

thornyisu
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7 days ago

Bush Administration Once Again Attempts To Block Release Of Prisoner Abuse Photos In ACLU Lawsuit

NEW YORK – The Bush administration petitioned a full appeals court late Thursday to reconsider a decision ordering the Defense Department to release photographs showing detainee abuse by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. In September, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ordered the government to release the photos as part of an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit seeking information on the abuse of prisoners held in U.S. custody overseas.

"This petition is a transparent attempt to delay accountability for the widespread abuse of prisoners held in U.S. custody abroad by keeping the public in the dark," said Amrit Singh, staff attorney with the ACLU. "These photographs demonstrate that the abuse of prisoners held in U.S. custody abroad was not aberrational and not confined to Abu Ghraib, but the result of policies adopted by the highest-ranking officials in the administration. The immediate release of these photos is critical to bringing an end to the Bush administration's torture policies and for preventing prisoner abuse in the future."

Since the ACLU's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request in 2003, the government has refused to disclose these images by attempting to radically expand the exemptions allowed under the FOIA for withholding records. The government claimed that the public disclosure of such evidence would generate outrage and would violate U.S. obligations towards detainees under the Geneva Conventions.

However, the appeals court rejected the government's attempt to use the FOIA as "an all-purpose damper on global controversy" and recognized the "significant public interest in the disclosure of these photographs" in light of government misconduct. The court also recognized that releasing the photographs is likely to prevent "further abuse of prisoners."

To date, more than 100,000 pages of government documents have been released in response to the ACLU's FOIA lawsuit. They are available online at: www.aclu.org/torturefoia

Many of these documents are also compiled and analyzed in "Administration of Torture," a book by ACLU attorneys Jameel Jaffer and Singh. More information is available online at: www.aclu.org/administrationoftorture

In addition to Jaffer and Singh, attorneys on the case are Alexander Abdo and Judy Rabinovitz of the national ACLU; Arthur Eisenberg and Beth Haroules of the New York Civil Liberties Union; Lawrence S. Lustberg and Jenny-Brooke Condon of the New Jersey-based law firm Gibbons P.C.; and Shayana Kadidal and Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights.

[Original Article from http://www.aclu.org/safefree/torture/37721prs20081107.html]NEW YORK – The Bush administration petitioned a full appeals court late Thursday to reconsider a decision ordering the... more

YesWeDid
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9 days ago

Chinese hack into White House network

Chinese hackers have penetrated the White House computer network on multiple occasions, and obtained e-mails between government... more

thornyisu
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4 responses

11 days ago

Court Blocks White House Push on Medicare Expenses

WASHINGTON — A federal court has blocked the Bush administration’s effort to save money on Medicare by paying for only the least expensive treatments for particular conditions.

Congress sets Medicare payment rates and never intended to give officials broad discretion to alter them, the court said in an important test case on Oct. 16.

The case, just now being scutinized by Medicare officials and consumer advocates, involved drugs used to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr. of Federal District Court here said the policy of paying for only “the least costly alternative” was not permitted under the Medicare law.

The administration’s position would give the health and human services secretary “enormous discretion” to determine the amount paid for every item and service covered by Medicare, without reference to the detailed formulas set by Congress, Judge Kennedy said. “This flies in the face of the detailed statutory provisions,” he added.

Over the years, Medicare officials have often tried to adopt regulations that allow them to consider cost in deciding whether the program should cover various goods and services. Health care providers, manufacturers and some patients’ advocates have resisted these efforts, saying that coverage decisions should be made based on clinical effectiveness and not cost.

“We are disappointed with the ruling and continue to believe that our policy is supported by the statute,” Peter L. Ashkenaz, a spokesman for the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said Monday. “We are still considering our options and next steps.”

Federal health officials said the decision would make it more difficult to rein in Medicare costs.

Judge Kennedy found that Medicare and some of its contractors had unlawfully limited payments for DuoNeb, an inhalation drug taken through a nebulizer, which turns the medicine into a fine mist.

The drug, made by Dey, a unit of Mylan Inc., makes breathing easier by opening up the bronchial tubes. A single dose provides a combination of two commonly prescribed bronchodilators, albuterol and ipratropium.

Congress set forth the touchstone for Medicare coverage in a 1965 law that created the program. The law generally prohibits payment for items and services that are “not reasonable and necessary for the diagnosis or treatment of illness or injury, or to improve the functioning of a malformed body member.”

If an item is covered, the payment rate is specified in other parts of the law.

The Bush administration argued that Medicare officials had the right to decide whether the expense incurred for a given item, not just the item itself, was “reasonable and necessary.”WASHINGTON — A federal court has blocked the Bush administration’s effort to save money on Medicare by paying for only... more