2007 Archives

DON'T USE
WASHINGTON, September 25, 2007 —  >>
How We Did It
KATRINA WATCH CONTRACTS DATABASE: METHODOLOGY PAGE
WASHINGTON, August 31, 2007 —  >>
Team
KATRINA WATCH CONTRACTS DATABASE: TEAM PAGE
WASHINGTON, August 31, 2007 —  >>
Lesson from Durham
Few Checks on Prosecutorial Misconduct
WASHINGTON, August 31, 2007 — On June 16, the Disciplinary Hearing Commission of the North Carolina State Bar applied its maximum penalty to Mike Nifong, the Durham County prosecutor who attempted to frame three innocent students for a "crime" that did not occur. The commission disbarred Nifong, who, a day earlier, had announced that he would resign.  >>
The 700 (MHz) Club
When Lobbying the FCC, Sometimes Less is More
WASHINGTON, August 10, 2007 — In the run-up to a key FCC vote on rules governing the public airwaves, lobbyists logged nearly 600 meetings or conversations with agency officials, an analysis by The Center for Public Integrity reveals.  >>
Executive
Many States Fail Governors' Disclosures Survey
Top grade eludes all but one
WASHINGTON, July 19, 2007 — Twenty-one states fail to make basic information about the private financial interests of their governors available to the public, according to a six-month survey of state disclosure laws by the Center for Public Integrity. Four of those — Idaho, Michigan, Utah and Vermont — did not require governors to file financial disclosure reports at all.

Washington was the only state to receive an "A" grade in the Center's analysis because it provided the most information to the public on its governor's personal income and investments. Eight states scored in the "B" range, while 20 states received "Cs" or "Ds."

As the top elected officials in each state, governors sign legislation into law, recommend and approve state budgets, and have wide-ranging powers to appoint department and agency heads and fill board and commission positions. Requiring them to disclose their private financial ties could reveal possible conflicts of interest. >> >>
Executive
States Struggle to Regulate Gifts
Exceptions to laws provide loopholes
WASHINGTON, July 19, 2007 — How do states balance the role of lobbyists with the danger of improper influence? The Center for Public Integrity reviewed gift laws in all 50 states over four months, searching out and analyzing the relevant statutes and interviewing officials to untangle ethics and disclosure laws.

The survey found that every state monitors the exchange of gifts between lobbyists and officials in some way. The most stringent laws restrict both what officials can receive and what lobbyists can give, and require that all gifts be reported by one or both parties.

At least half the states expressly limit the gift-giving relationship between lobbyists and the governor, as well as lobbyists and state legislators. An additional five states limit lobbyists' gifts to state legislators without placing restrictions on lobbyists' gifts to governors. >> >>
Judicial
Most States Require Disclosures from High Court Judges
Private financial filings rarely seen by public
WASHINGTON, July 19, 2007 — Judges in the states' highest courts are required in all but three states to disclose some of their outside financial interests, a three-month study by the Center for Public Integrity has found. But these filings are rarely reviewed by the public, who may not even know they exist.

Center requests for copies of these documents were routinely met with surprise from the agencies that receive the filings. In some states, Center researchers were told that no one had ever asked to see the documents. All of the available filings are now on the Center's Web site.

While legislative and executive ethics agencies have made their records increasingly accessible to the public, judicial disclosure forms can be hard to track down.

The three states that do not require judges to report personal financial interests are Idaho, Montana and Utah. Four states — Alabama, Connecticut, Florida and Georgia — keep some filings confidential. Three other states — Alaska, Maryland and Nebraska — require an in-person appearance to view or receive copies of the disclosures.

Forty-seven states have some sort of financial disclosure rules for these judges. They all require judges to report some type of non-judicial income, while 39 ask judges to report any officer or director positions the judges hold in organizations. In 14 states, judges file disclosure forms similar to those required by governors and legislators. In 21 states, they use different filing forms.

In another 12 states judges must file more than one form of financial disclosure. In these states, the filings are required by state law and by the states' adopted version of the American Bar Association's Model Code of Judicial Conduct.>>  >>
Center Spearheads Efforts to Disclose Broadband Data
Telco Deployment by ZIP Code at Issue in Legislation
WASHINGTON, June 27, 2007 — The Center for Public Integrity's efforts to shed light on local Internet availability are having an impact in the legislative and regulatory debate over broadband. For example, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, last month introduced S. 1492, the Broadband Data Improvement Act. The bill would require the FCC to supplement the information it currently collects about broadband deployment with more localized data, including ZIP code plus four digits.  >>
Katrina Contracts Worth $2.4 Billion Offer Profit Guarantees
Under increasingly popular procedure, critics say, companies have no incentive to control expenses
WASHINGTON, June 21, 2007 — Federal agencies responding to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita awarded more than $2.4 billion in contracts using a controversial form of pricing that critics say offers no incentive for cost savings.  >>
Anti-Terrorism Funds Enlisted in War on Drugs
Colombia collects millions, even as politicians are linked to brazen cartels and paramilitary groups
WASHINGTON, June 7, 2007 — What do "narcoterrorism" in Colombia and Islamist terrorism in the Middle East have in common? Very little, except that since the al Qaeda attacks of September 11, 2001, countries that vow to help the United States fight either one find it easier to attract large amounts of U.S. military training and aid. >>
Superfund Reports Embolden Democrats, Prompt Industry Criticism
Superfund Report by Douglas P. Guarino
WASHINGTON, June 4, 2007 — Center in the News: The following story appeared on InsideEPA.com on June 4, 2007:  >>
A Lobbying Bonanza
Indonesia hired well-connected firms to restore U.S. funding cut off after 1991 massacre
WASHINGTON, May 31, 2007 — A long string of human rights abuses had put Indonesia in a deep hole with the United States, but then the September 11 terrorists struck. Suddenly the hole got shallower. >>
Billions in Aid, With No Accountability
Pakistan receives the most post-9/11 U.S. military funding, yet has failed to ferret out al Qaeda, Taliban leaders
WASHINGTON, May 31, 2007 — The runaway winner of the post-9/11 race for new U.S. military aid dollars is Pakistan, but where did the money go? Human rights activists, critics of the Pakistani government and members of Congress all want to know, but most of the money — totaling in the billions — came through a Defense Department program subject to virtually no congressional oversight. >>
Sustaining an Unpopular Regime
In the Philippines, U.S. aid has helped bolster a government whose military is tied to extrajudicial killings
WASHINGTON, May 31, 2007 — A huge post-9/11 increase in U.S. military aid to the Philippines has helped counterterrorism efforts, but critics say there have been major downsides for a nation that's routinely criticized for human rights abuses. Among the accusations is that the strengthened Philippine military persecuted and killed scores of political activists.  >>
An Alliance Gone Bad
Thai government's cooperation in war on terror brought in U.S. dollars — and the CIA
BANGKOK, Thailand, May 31, 2007 — It was only two months before the 2003 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Bangkok — President Bush would be attending — and Thai soldiers and police had the building surrounded. Their mission: to nab one of the world's most wanted terror suspects, the man thought to be one of the masterminds behind the spectacular nightclub bombings in Bali that had killed more than 200 people a year earlier.  >>
A Repugnant Choice
In dealing with Uzbek dictator, U.S. buys access to air field — even after eviction
WASHINGTON, May 31, 2007 — Uzbekistan presents one of the clearest examples of the paradox confronting the United States in its war on terror: As it pursues Islamist extremists around the world, it sides with a repressive despot out of what is perceived as military necessity.  >>
Renditions vs. Rights
Jordan's apparent willingness to participate in transfers of suspects trumps poor record on human rights
WASHINGTON, May 30, 2007 — Jordan, according to a U.S. State Department request that Congress appropriate the country nearly $500 million in 2007 military aid, continues "to lead the way as a regional model for democracy, good governance, economic reform, and tolerance."  >>
An Interrogation Role Model
U.S. picked up tactics — including torture — from Israeli intelligence
TEL AVIV, Israel, May 30, 2007 — The King Hussein bridge is the most direct route from Amman to Jerusalem, but it was not a trip Marwan Ibrahim Mahmoud Jabour wanted to make — he had no choice. It was September 2006, and Jabour, a 30-year-old Jordanian engineer who says he made the mistake of going to Afghanistan in a fruitless attempt to join the jihad, had spent the last two years as a U.S. prisoner — possibly in Afghanistan but he wasn't sure, since his captors had never revealed the location. >>
Operation 'Targeted Killings'
U.S. shows signs of emulating controversial Israeli anti-terrorism policy
TEL AVIV, Israel, May 30, 2007 — One of Israel's most controversial anti-terrorism tactics has been its policy of targeted killings of suspects believed to be planning attacks. Since the start of the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, in the fall of 2000, dozens of members of the Palestinian groups such as Hamas, Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and Islamic Jihad have been assassinated by Israeli military and security forces. As American intelligence and armed forces continue to employ many Israeli counterterrorism and interrogation techniques, the question of whether targeted killings have become another arrow in the American quiver looms large.  >>
The Price of Independence: $1 Billion
Once-loyal Turkey passed up aid to maintain its own Iraq policy
WASHINGTON, May 30, 2007 — Despite an offer of $6 billion in cash from the United States in the weeks leading up to the 2003 Iraq invasion, the Turkish Parliament voted against allowing U.S. troops to use Turkish territory as a base for launching a northern front against Iraq. With that rejection, the United States quickly learned that Turkey was no longer the predictable NATO ally of the Cold War years.  >>
An Opportunity Seized
In its zeal to please U.S., Romania tramples foreigners' rights
BUCHAREST, Romania, May 24, 2007 — There are only a few hundred Muslim immigrants in Iaşi, a city of 350,000 that is Romania's second-largest metropolis, and few of them seem eager to talk about what happened in January 2005. That's when Romanian security forces converged on an Iaşi mosque and arrested five North African and Middle Eastern students enrolled at the local University of Medicine and Pharmacy on suspicion of being terrorists. >>
Anatomy of a Rendition
In cleric's abduction in Italy, the CIA all but left a calling card
MILAN, Italy, May 24, 2007 — Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, a Muslim cleric from Egypt also known as Abu Omar, had just stepped out of his home on via Conte Verde in Milan around noon on February 17, 2003, and was heading for prayers at the mosque when a military policeman confronted him. "Mi mostri il passaporto!" came the order. "I don't speak Italian," the cleric responded, so the officer, Luciano Pironi, repeated the question in English. "Show me your passport!"  >>
A Strained Alliance
Poland's cooperation with the U.S. brings internal and diplomatic disapproval
WARSAW, Poland, May 24, 2007 — To describe the tiny town of Szymany as an unlikely focus of the world's attention is an understatement. About 95 miles north of the Polish capital of Warsaw, it is little more than a crossroads with a few shops and houses along the main road in a region covered with dense woods. Enter the CIA, and thus the world's attention. >>
A Casualty in the War on Terror
Europe's relations with U.S. undermined by apparent complicity on CIA prisons
WASHINGTON, May 24, 2007 — One of the most significant fallouts from the U.S. war on terror has been the strain on America's historically strong relationship with Europe. Allegations of secret CIA prisons in Europe and European governments' complicity with the kidnappings of terror suspects (known as "extraordinary renditions") have irritated trans-Atlantic relations, stressed the NATO alliance and jeopardized U.S. national security priorities, including maintaining an international coalition in Iraq. >>
Post-9/11 Renditions: An Extraordinary Violation of International Law
Some say lack of due process in kidnappings and detention at secret prisons amounts to war crimes
PORTSMOUTH, England, May 22, 2007 — A plane lands in darkness and is directed to a far corner of an airfield, well out of public view. A group of men described as "masked ninjas" — wearing black overalls and hoods with slits for their eyes, nose and mouth — descend the aircraft steps and make their way to a nearby airport building. Inside a small room the detainee is waiting under armed guard, perhaps already blindfolded. He is immediately hooded as a process known as a "twenty-minute takeout" begins. Soon he is aboard the plane, on his way to another country to be harshly interrogated and possibly tortured.  >>
U.S. Treatment of Detainees Deplored
Critics denounce 'waterboarding' and other interrogation techniques banned by Geneva Conventions
PORTSMOUTH, England, May 22, 2007 — When a conservative talk-show host from radio station WDAY in Fargo, N.D., recorded an interview with Vice President Cheney in late October 2006, the broadcaster was just a small fish in a vast ocean of airwaves. Big scoops rarely came his way. Scott Hennen had interviewed Cheney several times for his weekday "Hot Talk" program but never before in the West Wing of the White House during the run-up to major midterm elections.  >>
Profiteering on Location
Djibouti's repressive regime, not its people, has prospered since 9/11
DJIBOUTI, May 22, 2007 — Allow us to introduce you to Djibouti, the United States' new East African ally in its campaign against terrorists: Its territory is slightly smaller than the state of New Hampshire. It is arid and torridly hot, 9,000 square miles of volcanic rock sticking out like a sore thumb on the Horn of Africa. It exports practically nothing that is locally produced and has almost no arable land. >>
A Society Consumed With Qat
Drug's soothing effects mask its true roles: revenue and control
DJIBOUTI CITY, Djibouti, May 22, 2007 — In less than a quarter of an hour every day, life in Djibouti City all but comes to a standstill. It begins just after an Ethiopian Airlines flight lands at 1 p.m. at Djibouti-Ambouli International Airport, bringing the 11 to 12 tons of qat Djiboutians consume daily. Qat, a leaf harvested from the homonymic tree that grows widely in Ethiopia and Yemen, is used commonly in the Horn of Africa, in the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula, and more recently in the Somali expatriate community in London. Chewed raw, it produces a mild hallucinogenic effect that, for a few hours, puts you gently out of business. >>
An Incentive to Clamp Down
With U.S. prodding, 3 East African nations get tough on terrorist suspects — even when evidence is lacking
NAIROBI, Kenya, May 22, 2007 — The United States ambassador to Kenya was frustrated. It was almost eight months after suicide bombers blew up part of a resort hotel at almost exactly the same time other terrorists tried to shoot down an Israeli airliner taking off from nearby Mombasa-Moi International Airport — yet no one had been convicted. >>
Allegiance Rewarded
Ethiopia reaps U.S. aid by enlisting in war on terror and hiring influential lobbyists
WASHINGTON, May 22, 2007 — One dramatic act sets Ethiopia apart from the array of countries with poor human rights records that have become United States counterterrorism allies since the September 11, 2001, attacks: With U.S. backing, it invaded a neighboring country and overthrew a Taliban-like Islamist movement. >>
Collateral Damage
U.S. hands out vast sums of money to combat terrorism while ignoring human rights records; lobbying key to funding flows
WASHINGTON, May 22, 2007 — Five years after the September 11, 2001 attacks, the influence of foreign lobbying on the U.S. government, as well as a shortsighted emphasis on counterterrorism objectives over broader human rights concerns, have generated staggering costs to the U.S. and its allies in money spent and political capital burned. >>
Superfund Today
Massive undertaking to clean up hazardous waste sites has lost both momentum and funding
WASHINGTON, May 18, 2007 — Communities across America face a daunting threat from hazardous waste sites — some near neighborhoods and schools — 27 years after the federal government launched the landmark Superfund program to wipe out the problem, a Center for Public Integrity investigation has found. >>
Superfund Progress Drops Off Under Bush
Focus on tougher sites blamed for decline in cleanups, but critics point to less funding and closer ties to industry
WASHINGTON, May 18, 2007 — By every significant measure, the pace of the Superfund program's progress and success in cleaning up the nation's worst toxic waste sites has declined in the past six years — and the decline has sparked a heated political debate. >>
EPA Document Lists Firms Tied to Superfund Sites
100 companies — and federal agencies — are connected to 40 percent of the worst toxic waste dumps
WASHINGTON, May 18, 2007 — About 100 companies and the federal government are connected to more than 40 percent of America's most dangerously contaminated toxic waste sites, according to an analysis of a controversial and confidential government document obtained by the Center for Public Integrity. >>
EPA diverts money from shared Superfund pool
Little-known change that helps agency meet funding challenges scrutinized
WASHINGTON, May 18, 2007 — The Environmental Protection Agency has diverted $709 million collected from possible Superfund polluters over the past seven years to special accounts, putting hundreds of millions of dollars out of reach of other Superfund sites waiting for cleanup.  >>
Human Exposure 'Uncontrolled' at 114 Superfund Sites
EPA secrecy about sites' toxic dangers extends even to senators' inquiries
WASHINGTON, May 18, 2007 — Scattered across the country, from New Jersey to California, are 114 toxic waste sites where the federal government has determined that the threat to humans from dangerous and sometimes carcinogenic substances is "not under control."  >>
Bankrupt Companies Avoid More Than $700 Million in Cleanup Costs
When firms fail, the government collects pennies on the dollar for Superfund site work
WASHINGTON, May 18, 2007 — Four companies connected by the Environmental Protection Agency to some of America's worst toxic waste sites have escaped more than half a billion dollars in pollution cleanup costs by declaring bankruptcy, potentially passing the tab onto taxpayers. >>
Contaminated, But Still Not Off-Limits
High levels of likely carcinogen found at New Jersey brook that the EPA calls safe for recreational use
WASHINGTON, May 18, 2007 — For the past eight years, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has assured residents of South Plainfield, N.J., that it is safe to swim in Bound Brook, even though the stream runs alongside a Superfund site — the EPA's designation for the country's worst toxic waste sites. >>
Close Connections
EPA pays at least three firms to clean up pollution they may have helped create
WASHINGTON, May 10, 2007 — At least three companies that the Environmental Protection Agency has linked to hazardous waste sites have landed government contracts to clean up their own sites, according to an investigation by the Center for Public Integrity. >>
City Adrift: New Orleans Before and After Katrina
A New Book by the Center
WASHINGTON, May 2, 2007 — It was a stunning example of complete civic breakdown, witnessed by the entire nation. In less than 24 hours, levees engineered to block floodwaters ruptured, and more than 100 billion gallons surged into the streets of New Orleans. America watched in horror as every system that might have protected the city from Hurricane Katrina failed. More than 1,400 Louisianans died; hundreds of thousands more were displaced by the catastrophe, and now, more than a year later, we're still piecing together how this could have happened. And could it happen again? >>
Superfund's Shell Game
As ownerships change, companies' environmental liabilities sometimes get lost in the shuffle
WASHINGTON, April 26, 2007 — The Center's investigation into Superfund and companies with ties to America's worst toxic waste sites found several cases of mergers, spinoffs, buyouts and bankruptcies that resulted in avoiding Superfund liabilities. >>
Lobbying the EPA Takes Money — and Connections
71 companies spent more than $1 billion and hired former agency officials
WASHINGTON, April 26, 2007 — Companies linked to more than 600 of the nation's most dangerous toxic waste sites have spent more than $1 billion lobbying Congress, the Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies in the federal government from 1998 through 2005, a Center for Public Integrity investigation has found. >>
Industry Sponsors EPA Travel
Special interests spent nearly $12 million on trips for agency officials
WASHINGTON, April 26, 2007 — Hundreds of companies and organizations bankrolled nearly $12 million in trips for Environmental Protection Agency employees, according to a study by the Center for Public Integrity of EPA travel disclosed between October 1997 and March 2006. >>
Project Item
In Political Contributions, Zell Leans Right and Wife Leans Left
Nearly 70 percent of prospective Tribune Co. owner's donations to Republicans
WASHINGTON, April 4, 2007 — Samuel Zell, real estate mogul, billionaire and the new owner of the Tribune Co., has dispensed more than $100,000 in political contributions since the 1998 election cycle, the majority of which has supported Republican causes, according to an analysis of Federal Election Commission records by the Center for Public Integrity. >>
Spending on Lobbying Thrives
Drug and health products industries invest $182 million to influence legislation
WASHINGTON, April 1, 2007 — Manufacturers of pharmaceuticals, medical devices and other health products spent nearly $182 million on federal lobbying from January 2005 through June 2006, a Center for Public Integrity study of disclosure records shows. >>
Radiation Panel Fairness Questioned
Ailing Cold War veterans say compensation program biased
WASHINGTON, March 29, 2007 — Fourteen months after the fact, Dr. Henry Anderson and Richard Espinosa say they still aren't sure why they were removed from the Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health, a presidential panel that helps the government weigh claims for compensation by current and former nuclear weapons workers. >>
Network of 900 Advisory Panels Wields Unseen Power
Concerns raised about secrecy, industry influence and political interference
WASHINGTON, March 29, 2007 — They counsel the Department of Defense on terrorism, help the National Institutes of Health dispense billions of dollars in grants and vet proposed food safety rules for the Department of Agriculture. They weigh in on human rights, climate change, Medicare, Social Security, sexual assault in the military, prescription drugs, national parks, child abuse and countless other subjects. >>
Pakistan's $4.2 Billion 'Blank Check' for U.S. Military Aid
After 9/11, funding to country soars with little oversight
WASHINGTON, March 27, 2007 — In the three years after the September 11 terrorist attacks, U.S. military aid to Pakistan soared to $4.2 billion from $9.1 million in the three years before the attacks — a 45,000 percent increase — boosting Pakistan to the top tier of countries receiving this type of funding. >>
Video: Dan Rather Reports
Race to the White House — Talking Politics at Princeton University
WASHINGTON, March 7, 2007 — The Center's Bill Hogan talks money and campaigning on HDNet's Dan Rather Reports, "Race to the White House — Talking Politics at Princeton University," which aired on February 27. To purchase the entire program on DVD once it is available, visit the HDNet store.  >>
Center's Suit To Get Broadband Data Draws Industry Interest, Comment
AT&T;, Verizon Intervene in Center's Suit Against FCC
WASHINGTON, January 19, 2007 — The Center for Public Integrity is leading an effort to find out more about which companies are providing high-speed Internet access throughout the United States so that citizens have a better understanding of their service options. >>
With Change on the Horizon, Privately Funded Travel Plummets
Trips by lawmakers and staffers decline by nearly 50 percent, recent data show
WASHINGTON, January 3, 2007 — As the House of Representatives prepares to vote Thursday on sweeping changes to its gift and travel rules, new data show that members of Congress and their aides are accepting privately funded trips at a precipitously declining rate. >>

 
 
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