FBI Forensic Analysts under Investigation for Falsifying Tests
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
	Faulty, and in some cases falsified, forensic work by FBI experts has raised questions about the validity of 100 criminal cases in the District of Columbia since the mid-1970s.   A legal review was launched earlier this year after a DC court overturned the conviction of Donald E. Gates, who served 28 years in prison for a rape and murder he did not commit. FBI analyst Michael Malone, who testified at Gates’ 1981 trial that one of his hairs scientifically matched a hair found on the body of Georgetown student Catherine Schilling, is one of a half dozen forensic specialists whose testimony and work have come under scrutiny.   Patricia Riley, special counsel to U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen Jr., has said her review of other cases has not turned up any indication that more convictions could be thrown out. Riley said her office performed a “preliminary review” of 78 of the cases and found “no misconduct,” according to The Washington Post. Nothing has been said so far about the remaining 22 cases to be reviewed.   Overturning Gates’ conviction as a result of DNA evidence marked the first time the U.S. Attorney’s office in DC had done such a thing. -Noel Brinkerhoff   Suspicions about FBI Analysts Growing (by Keith L. Alexander, Washington Post) Prosecutor Reflects on Wrongful Conviction in D.C. Killing (by Keith L. Alexander, Washington Post) Wrongly Imprisoned, Donald Gates Adjusts to Freedom after 28 Years (by Keith L. Alexander, Washington Post) Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward (National Research Council of the National Academies)

House Impeaches Judge Thomas Porteous…Only 15th in 207 Years
Monday, March 15, 2010
	Not a single member of the House of Representatives objected to the impeachment of Judge G. Thomas Porteous, making him the 15th judge indicted by Congress since the founding of the country. Lawmakers voted 412-0, 410-0, 416-0 and 423-0 on the four articles of impeachment brought against Porteous, who serves on the U.S. District Court in New Orleans.   The 16-year veteran of the federal bench has been accused of hiding relationships with lawyers who represented clients in Porteous’ court. The impeachment articles say he accepted money, meals and other gifts from attorneys and a bail bond company, and that he lied in a personal bankruptcy filing. Porteous was appointed by President Bill Clinton.   A 12-member Senate committee will now try Porteous, but it will take a two-thirds vote of the full Senate to have him removed.   Of the 15 judges to be impeached since 1803, five have been in the last 25 years. The most recent case was that of George H.W. Bush appointee Samuel Kent of Texas, who resigned before he could be tried. Kent is currently serving a prison serve for obstruction of justice after being accused of sexual abuse. -Noel Brinkerhoff   Impeached Judge Thomas Porteous Will Be Tried by Senate Committee (by John Kelly, New Orleans Times-Picayune) Judge Thomas Porteous Impeached by U.S. House of Representatives (by Bruce Alpert, New Orleans Times-Picayune) Judge Thomas Porteous: Summary of 4 Articles of Impeachment Approved (by Bruce Alpert, New Orleans Times-Picayune) Imprisoned Judge Tries to Continue Collecting $174,000 Salary (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov) Federal Officials Impeached (Wikipedia)

Pentagon Propaganda Machine Rolls on in Afghanistan
Sunday, March 14, 2010
	When is a city not a city? When the media actually does its homework and stops taking the Department of Defense at its word.   In February, the U.S. and NATO allies launched a major offensive against the Taliban, during which troops had the task of taking back Marja in Helmand province. Beginning with an Associated Press article on February 2, the American media began parroting the same “fact:” that Marja was a city of 80,000 people. This representation gave readers the impression that American soldiers would be confronting the Taliban in urban warfare.   But Gareth Porter with Inter Press Service has pointed out: “Marja is not a city or even a real town, but either a few clusters of farmers’ homes or a large agricultural area covering much of the southern Helmand River Valley.”   The disinformation first reported by the AP came from the U.S. Marines, who pushed the notion that American forces would be taking on 400 to 1,000 insurgents “holed up” in the “southern Afghan town of 80,000 people.”   The AP also reported that the “town” was 80 square miles in size, which would have made Marja larger than Washington, DC.   In addition, on March 9, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates paid a visit to Now Zad, another town in Helmand, which Marines have fought hard to liberate from the Taliban. To demonstrate the success of the U.S. military mission, Gates walked down a street in Now Zad and chatted with shopkeepers. Gates described Now Zad as a former “ghost town, a no-go zone” where now “stores are opening, people are returning.” However, in the words of Anne Gearan of the Associated Press, “Gates' walk, with armed guards in front of and behind him and soldiers dressed for battle posted all along his short route, also showed the limitations of the U.S. and NATO military campaign.”   As for the reborn town of Now Zad, which was once the second most populous town in Helmand, so far only 2,500 of its 30,000 former residents have returned -Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky   Fiction of Marja as City was U.S. Information War (by Gareth Porter, Inter Press Service) Size Doesn’t Matter: Missing the Point of ISAF’s Failure in Marja (by Josh Mull, The Seminal) Gates Walks Town that was a “No-Go Zone” Weeks Ago(by Annie Gearan, Associated Press)

U.S. Budget Deficit Grows $1 Million Every 11 Seconds
Friday, March 12, 2010
	Between enormous expenditures and sagging revenues, the U.S. government in February managed to enlarge the deficit by $1 million every 11 seconds. February went down as the worst ever for monthly shortfalls, at $220.9 billion. This total was 14% higher than February 2009, which set the previous record. February is traditionally a bad month for deficits because that is when the government sends out tax refund checks.   The government is on pace to set the record for annual budget deficits, with 2010 figuring to be $1.56 trillion. Last year, it was $1.4 trillion. Things probably won’t get better in 2011, which is expected to post at least a $1 trillion gap. If this happens, it will mark the first time in U.S. history that the country endured three straight years of $1 trillion-plus deficits. -Noel Brinkerhoff   U.S. Monthly Budget Deficit Balloons to a Record (by Meena Thiruvengadam and Jeff Bater, Wall Street Journal) Budget Deficit Sets Record in February (by Martin Crutsinger, Associated Press) Monthly Treasury Statement (Financial Management Service) (pdf)

The Payday Lender Senator: Corker of Tennessee
Thursday, March 11, 2010
	Having received thousands of dollars in contributions from the $6.5 billion-a-year payday lending industry, U.S. Senator Bob Corker (R-Tennessee) has worked to keep payday lenders out of new legislation that seeks to crack down on the financial industry.   The Senate is considering the creation of a new consumer protection agency that could go after debt collectors and other predatory financial companies, but not businesses that issue short-term, high interest loans to individuals short on cash before their next paycheck. The payday loan industry was a part of the new plan until Corker convinced Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Connecticut), chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, to water down the language affecting companies like Check Into Cash.   That business was founded by W. Allan Jones of Tennessee, a longtime friend and financial supporter of Corker. Check Into Cash is the country’s third-largest payday-lending chain. Jones, his relatives and employees have given $31,000 to Corker since 2001.   Senator Richard Durbin (D-Illinois) is pushing legislation to cap the annual interest rate for payday loans at 36%. The typical current rate is 421%. -Noel Brinkerhoff   Corker Shaping Payday Loan Rules in Financial Reform Package (by Dave Flessner, Chattanooga Times Free Press) A Consumer Bill Gives Exemption on Payday Loans (by Sewell Chan, New York Times) Senator Corker Donor Could Benefit From Payday-Lender Exemption (by Jonathan D. Salant and Phil Mattingly, Bloomberg) Senators Owned Stock in Bailed-Out Banks (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)

Army vs. Lockheed Martin in Battle to Cancel Missile Defense System
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
	The U.S. Army doesn’t want it, but the Department of Defense is saying: Yes, you do. The Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) would be scuttled if Army commanders had their way, saying the missile defense program is too costly to develop, with a price tag of $19 billion. However, Pentagon officials and others in the Obama administration want MEADS, which is being developed in partnership with Germany and Italy, because killing the program could upset relations with the two European allies.   While Army staff insist the missile defense is too expensive to keep working on, Defense Department personnel argue it would be too expensive to stop development. That’s because the contract that the Pentagon signed with Lockheed Martin and other defense contractors would require the government to pay $550 million to $1 billion in penalties to the companies.   MEADS is intended to replace the aging Patriot missile system, which has been around since the 1980s. -Noel Brinkerhoff   Pentagon Resists Army's Desire to Stop Development of MEADS Missile System (by Craig Whitlock, Washington Post)

Sentencing Reform Reduces Prison Population without Increasing Crime
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
	It is possible to get criminals out of prison and keep them from returning to a life of crime, argue reformers calling for changes in prison sentencing. A new report from The Sentencing Project cites statistics from four states where lawmakers and corrections officials have reduced prison populations and at the same time lowered crime rates.   According to Downscaling Prisons: Lessons from Four States, Kansas, Michigan, New Jersey and New York figured out ways to help convicts instead of just throwing them behind bars. New York lowered its prison population by 20%, Michigan 12%, New Jersey 19% and Kansas 5%.   Leaders in these four states successfully moved thousands of prisoners into drug rehab programs and/or improved parole systems that kept felons from resorting to old ways and landing back in jail. The most common strategy was to reduce mandatory sentencing for drug offenses.   This accomplishment came while other states using the same old incarceration methods saw their inmate totals grow by 40% or more between 2001 and 2008. Those states were West Virginia (57%), Minnesota (51%), Arizona (49%), Kentucky (45%), Florida (44%) and Indiana (41%). -Noel Brinkerhoff   States Begin to Fix Our Prison System (by David Swanson, Public Record) Downscaling Prisons: Lessons from Four States (by Judith Greene and Marc Mauer, Sentencing Project) (pdf) The State of Sentencing 2009: Developments in Policy and Practice (by Nicole D. Porter, Sentencing Project) (pdf)

Judge Allows Torture Lawsuit against Donald Rumsfeld to Proceed
Monday, March 08, 2010
	Two Americans who claim they were tortured in Iraq have been allowed to move forward with their lawsuit against former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Donald Vance and Nathan Ertel say they were detained and interrogated in 2006 while working for Shield Group Security (SGS), an Iraqi-owned security firm. Vance and Ertel say they became suspicious that SGS employees were illegally providing weapons to private Iraqis, and they reported what they had seen to the FBI and other U.S. government officials. However, they were themselves labeled “security detainees” and held incommunicado by the U.S. military. Vance and Ertel allege that they were thrown into cages, strip searched and questioned using “physically and mentally coercive tactics” before being released.   Rumsfeld is the subject of the suit because he approved the techniques used at the bases where Vance and Ertel were held, and “that individuals who issue an order to engage in unconstitutional conduct can themselves be held liable for that conduct. In other words, a superior officer may be considered personally involved in a constitutional violation when his subordinates carried out such a violation pursuant to his policy directive.”   Although two of Vance’s and Ertel’s counts against Rumsfeld were thrown out, U.S. District Judge Wayne Andersen allowed the third one to go forward. Anderson said the two plaintiffs submitted enough testimony to warrant hearing evidence of exactly what happened, adding his ruling “represents a recognition that federal officials may not strip citizens of well settled constitutional protections against mistreatment simply because they are located in a tumultuous foreign setting.” -Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky   Judge Refuses to Dismiss Suit Against Rumsfeld (by Jordan Weissmann, The BLT) Ill. Judge Won't Toss Torture Suit Naming Rumsfeld (by Mike Robinson, Associated Press) Donald Vance and Nathan Ertel v. Donald Rumsfeld (U.S. District Court, Northern District Illinois) (pdf) Testimony of Donald Vance at Senate Democratic Policy Committee Hearing (pdf)

Obama Administration Withdraws Plans for Yucca Mountain Nuclear Dump
Sunday, March 07, 2010
	Twenty three years after the federal government targeted it as the nation’s underground dump for nuclear waste, Yucca Mountain, Nevada, is headed for closure. President Barack Obama followed through on his campaign promise to shut down the controversial site by instructing the U.S. Department of Energy to formally withdraw its license application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the final step that would have led to Yucca Mountain being approved to accept waste from nuclear reactors around the country.   Concerns over the risk of radiation leaking from the underground repository into water supplies produced heated opposition from politicians in Nevada, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D). As the top man in the Senate, Reid’s cutoff of funding for the project and the Energy Department’s pulling of its license application “with prejudice” makes it unlikely Yucca will ever open for business.   However, Nevada officials won’t rest easy until Congress amends the federal law adopted in 1987 that officially listed Yucca Mountain as the country’s sole repository for nuclear waste.   The Obama administration is forming a commission to study other possible solutions for storing the waste that’s been piling up for decades. Former Democratic congressman Lee Hamilton and one-time national security advisor Brent Scrowcroft will lead the 18-month effort. Also, the Energy Department is merging the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, which oversaw Yucca Mountain, with the Office of Nuclear Energy. -Noel Brinkerhoff   Yucca Mountain Foes Hail Historic Step to Kill Nuclear Waste Depository (by Lisa Mascaro, Las Vegas Sun) Obama to Zero Out Yucca Mountain Funding, Pull License (by Lisa Mascaro, Las Vegas Sun)