DETAINEES IN DESPAIR

The Washington Post’s Dana Priest and Amy Goldstein have part two in a series that started Sunday on detained U.S. immigrants. These immigrants are sent to obscure compounds run by the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement arm.

The 33,000 detainees look to have fewer legal rights and medical care than even people at maximum-security prisons or Guantanamo Bay. This is despite the fact that most have never been convicted of a crime.  Most are accused of either overstaying visas or abetting criminal actions. Priest and Goldstein argued in part one that this is what happens when government, as embodied in the post-9/11 Dept. of Homeland Security, conflates immigration with terrorism.  Read Priest and Goldstein here.  MB

 MILITARY’S COOL NEW GEAR

The Washington Post’s Walter Pincus delves into the projects behind the $3.3 billion that the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Project Agency is requesting from Congress. These include computerized maps that are already being used in Baghdad and other new technology designed for urban warfare. The array of sensor and radar programs even includes a computerized language translation system. It’s less clear whether the Pentagon has this stuff ready for the battlefield — or whether it’s really just a bunch of cool ideas.  Read Pincus here.  MB

 INTEL AGENCIES DUKE IT OUT

Quick — name the 16 U.S. intelligence agencies. Let’s hope Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, can. McConnell, who already has power over personnel at the 16 agencies, may soon get the power of the purse through a presidential order. 

The Wall Street Journal’s Siobhan Gorman explains that McConnell’s position got its considerable clout from a law following 9/11 commission recommendations for a stronger interagency process. Most in Washington praised the 9/11 commission. But faithfully implementing their plan for intelligence sharing continues to spark fierce bureaucratic battles between the Pentagon, CIA, FBI and Dept. of Homeland Security.  Read Gorman here.  MB

 YOU JUST WAIT

And eventually everything calms down and you can get back to business as usual.  Based on James Risen’s report in the New York Times, that’s what appears to have happened with Blackwater USA, the private security contractor with the largest role in protecting U.S. personnel and resources in Iraq.  Eight months ago Blackwater guards were involved in a shooting incident in Baghdad — the infamous Nisour Square shootout — which ended with 17 Iraqi civilians dead.  Word was that Blackwater would lose their security contract and that those responsible for wrongful deaths in Iraq would be prosecuted in the U.S. or in Iraq.  But the State Department has renewed its contract with Blackwater and no one — except the Iraqi people — has paid a price.  Read Risen here.  EH

 OLD HABITS DIE HARD

And unfortunately, that means that citizens may more easily.  Jerry Markon of the Washington Post reports today that the rivalry between the FBI and the ATF — now both part of the Justice Department — is leading to duplicated missions, wasted resources, and competing investigations.  Their agents shout at each other at crime scenes about who’s in control.  Observers say that both agencies are focused on investigating crimes, but that with a little more "adult supervision" they could accomplish much more.  Let’s hope Mr. Mukasey gets to his Saturday paper.  Read Markon here.  EH

 PREVENTIVE JOURNALISM WATCH: FUEL PRICES AND MASS TRANSIT

When gas prices were hurtling upwards, most journalists wrote about (brace yourself) the fact that gas prices were high.  A few stretched themselves enough to address consumer pain and to ask vaguely whether Americans would give up "their love of SUVs" or start using mass transit.  Then, within the space of a week or so we learn that Americans react to economic laws just like everybody else.  Dee Ann Durbin and Tom Krisher of the Associated Press tell us about the spike in demand for small, fuel-efficient cars, leaving manufacturers low on inventory.  Clifford Krause of the New York Times reports on the growth of mass transit use, noting that rising fuel costs are taxing mass transit systems — not to mention the fact that most were unprepared for the rise in ridership.  These articles are better late than never, but for the most part, the trend toward smaller cars, mass transit, and subsequent carbon reductions are an untouched story.  Who is going to look ahead?

 CHARLIE PETERS ON BASEBALL VS. THE BUREAUCRACY

Speaking of bureaucracy, the Washington Nationals baseball team is trying to find enough parking space for fans coming to its new stadium.  It looked into the possibility of using an empty federal garage nearby.  The team’s owners got the city to pay for the stadium; now they want to get the government to provide parking.  So it is difficult to have any sympathy for their problem.  Still, here is the list of agencies that, according to the Washington Post’s Marc Fisher, must grant permission for the use of the garage:  the Federal Protectors Service; the Department of Justice; the General Services Administration; the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; and five different offices of the Department of Transportation. 

And since part of the document that Fisher relied on for this story was redacted "to protect national security," it seems likely that intelligence agencies were also involved.

[excerpted from The Washington Monthly.  Used by permission.]

 THE GOLDEN ROAD TO UNLIMITED DEVOTION?

China is committing $10 billion to building highways and infrastructure in Congo "in exchange for lucrative mining concessions," according to Stephanie McCrummen in the Washington Post.  Chinese companies will make a profit and the PRC will be perceived — if all goes well — as a bringer of prosperity to a major African country.  China — not the World Bank, nor the IMF, and certainly not the United States of America, which could afford to underwrite many more such projects if we weren’t hemmorhaging money to pay for "post-war" reconstruction in Iraq.  True, the U.S. is not sitting idly — for example, a major project for Indian infrastructure is underway.  But China seems to have a lock on projects that kick-start economies in Africa, bringing foreign policy and economic benefits to China from that continent for decades to come.  This is the way empires have been built since Rome was great.  Put in more prosaic terms, you have to spend money to make money.  Major countries that neglect these kinds of overseas investments may soon enough see their own infrastructure crumbling.

Ned Hodgman

 SECOND-IN-LINE (NON-EXECUTIVE PAID CONSULTANT) TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

The House Judiciary Committee should immediately subpoena David Addington, John Ashcroft, and John Yoo.  These citizens recently advised the Congress through legal counsel that they will not respond to Congress’s invitation to testify about secrecy and torture in the Bush administration.  Thus the Vice President, through his intellectual Cerburus (Vice Presidential Chief of Staff Addington) is thumbing his nose at the Constitution, the separation of powers, and basic democratic values.  As long as he is allowed to do this, former officials such as Ashcroft, Yoo, Harriet Miers and others will avoid their own civic and constitutional responsibilities.  If the House does not act decisively, the repercussions for Congress’s investigative powers may be fundamental and long-lasting. Read more »

 CHARLIE PETERS ON PREVENTIVE JOURNALISM

As we mourn the fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq, the question begs:  How could we have averted this tragic folly?  As a journalist, I have naturally thought about what our profession could have done.  It seems clear to me that an enterprising reporter could have discovered  that the (alleged) evidence of WMD was manufactured, out of date, or relied on extremely dubious sources like the aptly named "Curveball."

I ask myself why we seem to find out what’s wrong only when a disaster has happened.  After the coal mine explodes, we learn that proper safety procedures weren’t being followed.  And only after a Hurricane Katrina do we learn how unprepared we were for a natural disaster.  To encourage the media to find out in time instead of too late, Understanding Government is offering a $50,000 award for preventive journalism, for the best article that identifies inept leaders, misguided policies, and bureaucratic bungling in time to prevent another disaster.

– Charles Peters

Nominations are accepted through June 30, 2008.  For more information, please click here.