Archive - Nov 2, 2009

• Karzai announced as winner of Afghanistan’s presidential election
• Defense Department continues controversial deals with war contractor KBR
• Justice Dept. documents show conditions at secret CIA jails
• Changes to lobbyist rules may lead to less transparency
• Youth PROMISE Act aims to decrease youth incarceration

• Clinton asks Palestinians to drop settlement freeze precondition to peace talks
• Victim of extraordinary rendition can’t sue US
• Catholic Diocese must make public sex abuse case records
• Former Argentine dictator on trial for crimes against humanity
• Afghan was veterans lobby Congress opposing military action there
• Violence continues in Pakistan – UN scales back

Today Hamid Karzai was announced as the winner of Afghanistan's presidential election. The news came after long hours of discussion by the Independent Election commission of Afghanistan and it follows the announcement of Karzai's chief opponent Abdullah Abdullah that he is dropping out of the race - he cited the likelihood of fraud in the run-off process. Karzai will now lead the country for another five years. FSRN’s Kabul based reporter Mujahid Jawad has more.

Defense contractors will soon outnumber troops in Iraq, says a Defense Department official in charge of contracting.  This news came as a Defense Department Audit reveals that the massive military contractor, KBR, is overcharging the US government and maintaining inflated contractor levels in Iraq. FSRN’s Leigh Ann Caldwell reports.

When FBI agents arrived at one secret CIA jail in 2002, they found prisoners who were “manacled to the ceiling and subjected to blaring music around the clock.” This is according to documents released by The Department of Justice late last week. However, despite the harsh conditions the DOJ decided not to prosecute - including one case in which a detainee was threatened with a power drill and a gun.

The documents offer a rare insight into the CIA’s secret detention centers and other facilities that were set up after 9/11.

We're joined by Alex Abdo, a legal fellow with the American Civil Liberties Union's National Security Project. The ACLU filed the Freedom of Information Act lawsuit that led to the release of the documents.

Government watchdogs say there's an increase in lobbyists terminating their registrations with the federal government, which could lead to less transparency about who's trying to influence Congress and the White House. According to a study released today by OMB Watch and the Center for Responsive Politics, there were more than 1400 lobbyists who terminated their federal registrations during the second quarter of this year. That’s compared to just 300 in the same period last year. And while the number of these so-called "deregistrations" is up, the number of newly registered lobbyists is also down. Lee Mason is the director of Nonprofit Speech Rights for OMB Watch. He spoke to FSRN earlier today.

"We think the evidence is really kind of inconclusive, except to say that there was a significant spike in that second quarter. We can draw some inferences from the activity that was going on in that period. Certainly the health care debate was going on. There was a lot going on around climate change. So there might have been a lot of lobbyist activities and there was a reason there were a lot of lobbyists engaged in communications during that period – equally that might account for the number of deregistrations. Maybe as the bills got closer and closer to being passed many of the lobbyists decided to terminate their registrations with different clients."

But, Lee adds, the report does show that the requirements for reporting lobbyist information are weak and need to be improved.

“We made a number of recommendations to the administration about what we would like to see listed on the forms that would really clearly identify who was registering, what kind of client they’re working with and when is the termination really a termination of your registration and we think that they should probably have another category."

OMB Watch says people who have terminated their registrations as lobbyists could still be doing the same job, but under other titles, like senior advisor. Researchers say the de-registrations could be an unintended consequence of the Obama Administration's executive order enacted earlier this year which placed restrictions on former lobbyists who wanted to work for the White House. Another restriction limited lobbyists' communications with the White House while the stimulus and TARP funds were being allocated. To see a copy of the report, go to opensecrets.org.

In response to what some call a “broken” juvenile justice system, legislation is making its way through Congress that would help teens avoid gangs and incarceration. The Youth PROMISE Act allows communities to form local councils made up of representatives from law enforcement schools, social service groups and faith-based organizations. These councils would develop plans for youth crime prevention and intervention programs for their communities.  FSRN'S Karen Miller has more.