Investigations

This must be a first. Congressman Charlie Rangel is asking the House ethics committee to investigate... Charlie Rangel. The Democrat has been under fire over allegations that he misused his office and, well, Rangel appears want to get to the bottom of it. It's certainly a great bit of politicking.

House rules require the ethics committee to initiate an investigation if a sitting House member files a formal complaint with the panel. Fearing political retribution, members rarely file complaints against each other, and ethics experts say they have never heard of a lawmaker filing a complaint against himself.

Rangel is accused of shady fund raising for a college center in Harlem bearing his name. He insists he didn't break any ethics rules and promises the probe will prove it.

But there's a catch. Another Rangel scandal is brewing and oddly enough the congressman doesn't seem to want that one investigated at all. If he's got nothing to hide, while he's at it why not ask for a probe into the other accusations? That issue, raised by the New York Times, centers around Rangel using a rent-controlled NYC apartment as office space. The ethics committee could choose to conduct that investigation on its own.

New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine may be wishing he steered clear of an ex-girlfriend that continues to be in legal trouble.

Carla Katz is under federal investigation for her management of the Communication Workers of America Local 1034, the largest state-worker union, The Star-Ledger reports today. The criminal inquiry is being conducted by the office of U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie, who the paper says is thought by some to be a leading GOP contender to challenge Corzine in next year's gubernatorial election. A Christie spokesman would neither confirm not deny whether a subpoena was issued or if an investigation is under way.

The New York Post says investigators from the Newark US Attorney's Strike Force unit - which investigates union corruption and organized crime - showed up at CWA headquarters in Washington, wanting the financial and management records of Katz.

Federal agents served a subpoena on the national headquarters of the CWA in Washington on Tuesday, three people familiar with the subpoena told the Ledger. Sources said authorities are focusing on an internal CWA probe that recently accused the Katz of misappropriating union money.

Katz and her attorney Paul Fishman said Wednesday they were not aware of any federal probe.

"I hadn't heard that, but it wouldn't surprise me given all the reprehensible things the national union has done," Fishman told the Ledger.

Brian Ross and Rhonda Schwartz of ABC News reported yesterday that the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations will hear a statement from a former bank employee that outed hundreds of extremely wealthy Americans who were hiding money in banks in Lichtenstein. Ross and Schwartz cite D.C. sources that say a number of Americans implicated in the matter have been subpoenaed and have informed the committee, which is chaired by Senator Carl Levin, that they will plead the fifth.

Five years ago, acting in direct violation of Liechtenstein's bank secrecy laws, a clerk named Heinrich Kieber sold bank records to tax authorities throughout Europe and the United States. Authorities in Italy then published a list of all the names. Germany has already convicted several of its citizens that evaded millions of dollars in taxes.

Kieber is in hiding, which is why his testimony was videotaped. Last month Bloomberg looked into Kieber's own checkered past.

Tsk, tsk, President Bush, for grounding another one of your administration officials from testifying about Plamegate.

Bush has once again asserted executive privilege to prevent Attorney General Michael Mukasey from having to comply with a House Government Oversight Committee subpoena for material on the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity. Panel Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., held off a contempt vote for Mukasey, but not for too long. He last week told Karl Rove he couldn't testify, either.

Waxman's committee wants documents of FBI interviews of Vice President Dick Cheney over the Plame affair. It also would like to see documents involving conversations between special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald and Cheney, and notes from the 2003 State of the Union address, during which Bush uttered those "16 words" about Saddam Hussein allegedly trying to obtain yellowcake from Niger. Waxman asked for the documents over a year ago, then subpoenaed them when the White House ignored the request.

Waxman rejected Mukasey's suggestion that Cheney's FBI interview on the CIA leak should be protected by the privilege claim - and therefore not turned over to the panel.

"We'll act in the reasonable and appropriate period of time," Waxman, D-Calif., said. This unfounded assertion of executive privilege does not protect a principle; it protects a person ... If the vice president did nothing wrong, what is there to hide?"

The Hill's Alexander Bolton reports that Democratic Representative Henry Waxman may introduce a bill that would keep political advisers from officially serving in the White House. Members of Congress already operate under similar conditions. The law would prevent another Karl Rove-type hybrid official. Rove guided President Bush's 2004 reelection while earning a salary as a member of the president's staff.

Waxman asked rhetorically, "Why should we be using taxpayer dollars to have a person solely in charge of politics in the White House? Can you imagine the reaction if each member of Congress had a campaign person paid for with taxpayer dollars?"

I can imagine that reaction--there would be no reaction because Waxman is talking about a nuance very few voters understand. Rove's move into the White House in 2000 was widely unprecedented (and ignored).

In his book The Architect journalist Wayne Slater explained the inherent conflict of interest.

Fascinating story today about one Obama supporter using all the resources at her disposal (vast, as it turns out) to figure out who's behind the "Obama is a Muslim" chain mails. But the Post probably should have skipped this part.

Allen was ideally suited to embark on such a difficult hunt. She boasts two doctorates, one in classics from Cambridge University and the other in government from Harvard University, and won a $500,000 MacArthur "genius" award at the age of 29. Last year she joined the faculty of the institute, the only African American and one of a handful of women at the elite research center, where she works alongside groundbreaking physicists, mathematicians and social scientists. They don't have to teach, and they face no quotas on what they publish. Their only mandate is to work in the tradition of Einstein, wrestling with the most vexing problems in the universe.

While Allen was already an expert on the mechanics of politics, she fast began to learn the mechanics of the Internet. She discovered, for instance, that the recipe for launching a chain e-mail attack is not as simple as typing it up and hitting the send button to a long list of recipients. It takes effort to seed a chain mail that spreads as widely as the Obama missive, explained Jeff Bedser, president of the Internet Crimes Group, a company that helps corporations battle such broadsides. "Lighting that fire, getting something to have momentum, takes work," he said.

Sheesh, two doctorates, works at Harvard and dumb about the internet. Not exactly a good start there. Or as Rich Lowry put it:

And one of the most vexing problems in the universe, which Allen has decided to pursue in the tradition of Einstein, is the origin of a number of e-mails claiming that Barack Obama is a Muslim. Using the advanced research tools at her disposal, the razor-sharp Allen found...a couple of posters on the Free Republic website, plus a former political rival of Obama's who sends out zillions of e-mails to reporters every day.

Bottom line, it's called Free Speech and the internet is a great enabler of all kinds of speech, especially the free kind. How do you stop smears? By speaking up yourself of course. If the smear is a lie, it will be found out (by the internet, natch), if not, you're in trouble. I really don't see anything that needs fixing here. Your mileage may vary.

On Tuesday military officials testified before a House Committee about a huge military contract somehow awarded to a company run by a 22-year-old man from Miami Beach to provide arms to coalition troops in Afghanistan, despite the fact that Diveroli is on a State Department watch list designed to monitor suspected international arms dealers. A $298 million contract was issued to Efraim Diveroli's company, AEY. AEY and a supplier the company worked with were also on the list.

In March, The New York Times published a story about how Diveroli's company, with only a handful of employees, managed to become a successful military contractor. The company, AEY, then supplied ammunition to coalition forces operating in Afghanistan that was more than 40 years old and "in decomposing packaging". That ammunition was cobbled together from aging stockpiles in old Communist bloc and China.

Committee Chairman Henry Waxman lashed out at the contracts saying, "It appears that anyone--no matter how inexperienced or unqualified--can win a lucrative federal contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars." He added that it was "hard to imagine a less-qualified company than AEY." Officials from the defense department could not confirm whether or not AEY is currently supplying troops in Iraq.

Although he was invited, Diveroli did not testify. He cited his fifth amendment right not to incriminate himself, which Waxman accepted because last week Diveroli and three other associates were indicted in Miami on a variety of fraud charges.

Daily Kos somehow got a copy released to them from the campaign:

Not really any big deal, now the astrologers can go to town. I guess the big holdup must have been the campaign worrying that everyone would find out his mom's name is "Stanley"

Jim Geraghty at NRO who's been on the case sifting out the rumors, adds this about the modernity of this document:

Obama himself probably has a dog-eared yellowing copy in a desk drawer somewhere; this document is what he or someone authorized by him was given by the state out of its records. Barring some vast conspiracy within the Hawaii State Department of Health, there is no reason to think his birth certificate would have any different data.

And that should be it for that. Now about that "Whitey" video...

Having conquered the media adoration circuit, the Scott McClellan book tour winds its way up to Capitol Hill next week, for an appearance before the House Judiciary Committee to testify in a hearing into the Valerie Plame leak case. Not content to let the conclusions of a Federal prosecutor or the admission of the actual leaker be the final word on the subject, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) wants the former White House Press Secretary to testify about the role of top White House Officials, including Vice-President Dick Cheney, in potentially misleading the public about the Administration's role in making the former CIA operative's name public. In his book, "What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception," McClellan says that Cheney, Karl Rove, and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, misled him about their role in the affair, causing him to make false statements to the press from the White House podium. Libby was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice charges for his role in the leak and later had his 30 month prison sentence commuted by President Bush.

McClellan's testimony will shed some light on the inner workings of the White House during the intense media frenzy surrounding the Plame case, but it will likely not reveal anything new about the actual leak. Former Assistant Secretary of State Richard Armitage has admitted publicly that he was the source for reporter Bob Novak's infamous column that first identified Plame as a CIA employee. However, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald only indicted Libby for lying to the grand jury investigating the leak. Despite an intensive investigation, Rove was never charged. But Conyers will not let the matter rest, and the charges in McClellan's book provide a fresh opportunity for him to try and make the blame for the Plame scandal stick to a higher profile Administration official. The truth in this case is already known, making further investigation nothing but a partisan search for an alternate history.

A 50-page, redacted version of a Department of Homeland Security report detailing the detention and rendition (sending foreign terror suspects to torture-friendly third countries for interrogation) of Canadian engineer Maher Arar by the U.S. to Syria - where he was subsequently tortured for 1 year - was released today after a U.S. official testified the government would reopen the case.

The U.S., believing Arar was Al Qaeda, detained him during a layover at JFK Airport in New York City in September 2002. The story of his ordeal can be found here. He was held in solitary confinement for nearly two weeks, interrogated, and denied "meaningful access" to a lawyer, his lawyers say.

The U.S. sent him to his birth country, Syria, where he says he was interrogated and tortured without charge, and forced to falsely confess attending a training camp in Afghanistan. After being returned to Canada after Syria decided he was of no use, Arar wasn't charged with a crime in either the U.S. or Canada. Arar sued both governments for wrongful removal.

The chief of internal investigations at DHS told Congress today that his office is re-examining the conclusions of a probe that exonerated our government in Arar's treatment because, after new information surfaced, his office couldn't rule out the idea that maybe, just maybe, the U.S. sent Arar to Syria specifically to be tortured. The Justice Department is investigating.