The Washington Post editorial board takes HUD Secretary Jackson to task today over his “anecdotal” story about issuing contracts based on political views: “Either Mr. Jackson broke the law and then lied about it, or he lied that he had broken the law. Which of those actions makes him fit to be secretary of housing and urban development?”
The Bush administration has once again refused to give the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) access to terrorism suspects being held secret detention centers.
Government officials said that investigators “are examining the activities of several members of the House Appropriations Committee, including Representative Jerry Lewis, the California Republican and chairman of the panel that wields influence over government spending.”
“Today, if the Defense Department were a private business it would be involved in a major scandal.” A new report by Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities finds that the “Defense Department’s accounting practices are in such disarray” that defense officials can’t track the military’s equipment or how they spend defense dollars every year.
The top U.S. spokesperson in Iraq yesterday acknowledged that attacks on Iraqi civilians in the last 10 weeks were “about 80% higher than the level of violence late last year. In the last 24 hours there had been 85 attacks around the nation.” Read more
