Rove Investigator Being, Ahem... Investigated

The guy's a ringer, another Bush fox guarding the hen house.

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LA Times: Rove Under Investigation
"We will take the evidence where it leads us," Scott J. Bloch, head of the Office of Special Counsel and a presidential appointee, said in an interview Monday. "We will not leave any stone unturned."
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Special Counsel Accused Of Intimidation in Probe
Contact With Investigators Controlled, Employees Say

By Elizabeth Williamson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 16, 2007; A21

A trouble-plagued whistle-blower investigation at the Office of Special Counsel -- whose duties include shielding federal whistle-blowers -- hit another snag this week when employees accused the special counsel of intimidation in the probe.

The Office of Personnel Management's inspector general has been investigating allegations by current and former OSC employees that Special Counsel Scott J. Bloch retaliated against underlings who disagreed with his policies -- by, among other means, transferring them out of state -- and tossed out legitimate whistle-blower cases to reduce the office backlog. Bloch denies the accusations, saying that under his leadership the agency has grown more efficient and receptive to whistle-blowers.

The probe is the most serious of many problems at the agency since Bloch, a Kansas lawyer who served at the Justice Department's Task Force for Faith-based and Community Initiatives, was appointed by President Bush three years ago. Since he took the helm in 2004, staffers at the OSC, a small agency of about 100 lawyers and investigators, have accused him of a range of offenses, from having an anti-gay bias to criticizing employees for wearing short skirts and tight pants to work.

The 16-month investigation has been beset by delays, accusations and counter-accusations. The latest problem began two weeks ago, when Bloch's deputy sent staffers a memo asking them to inform OSC higher-ups when investigators contact them. Further, the memo read, employees should meet with investigators in the office, in a special conference room. Some employees cried foul, saying the recommendations made them afraid to be interviewed in the probe.

This week, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, the Project on Government Oversight, the Government Accountability Project and Human Rights Campaign and a lawyer for the OSC employees protested in a letter to legislators and to Clay Johnson III, the Office of Management and Budget deputy who ordered the OSC probe.

The OSC's memo, the group said, "was only the latest in a series of actions by Bloch to obstruct" the investigation. "Other actions have included suggestions that all witnesses interviewed . . . provide Bloch with affidavits describing what they had been asked and how they responded."

Bloch's office responded with a statement: "Due to the fact that this is an ongoing investigation, OSC cannot comment on it other than to say we look forward to the speedy resolution. Special Counsel Bloch has been and continues to be recused from any decision-making in this investigation. The Office of Special Counsel has fully cooperated in the investigation, and any information to the contrary is reckless speculation."

But the same day the organizations went to the OMB and Congress, Bloch's new deputy, Jim Byrne, issued another employee memo -- not inspired by the complaint, he said.

"All OSC Employees: This e-mail communicates new procedures that will be used . . . in conducting the remainder of its investigative work in our agency. . . . The [investigators] will schedule interviews by directly contacting the employee with whom they wish to speak. The date, time, and place of the interviews will be arranged between the OIG and the employee. There is no longer a requirement to use OSC facilities for the interview. . . ." he wrote.

"All employees who are contacted by the OIG should cooperate fully with the investigators and provide information and testimony unless disclosure of the information is prohibited by law, regulation, or policy. All employees are permitted to be represented by personal counsel during their interview. . . .

"And, you are also welcome to directly contact me with any questions that you may have. We have nothing to hide."

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LA Times: Rove Under Investigation

Low-key office launches high-profile inquiry

The Office of Special Counsel will investigate U.S. attorney firings and other political activities led by Karl Rove.

By Tom Hamburger

Times Staff Writer

April 24, 2007

WASHINGTON — Most of the time, an obscure federal investigative unit known as the Office of Special Counsel confines itself to monitoring the activities of relatively low-level government employees, stepping in with reprimands and other routine administrative actions for such offenses as discriminating against military personnel or engaging in prohibited political activities.

But the Office of Special Counsel is preparing to jump into one of the most sensitive and potentially explosive issues in Washington, launching a broad investigation into key elements of the White House political operations that for more than six years have been headed by chief strategist Karl Rove.

The new investigation, which will examine the firing of at least one U.S. attorney, missing White House e-mails, and White House efforts to keep presidential appointees attuned to Republican political priorities, could create a substantial new problem for the Bush White House.

First, the inquiry comes from inside the administration, not from Democrats in Congress. Second, unlike the splintered inquiries being pressed on Capitol Hill, it is expected to be a unified investigation covering many facets of the political operation in which Rove played a leading part.

"We will take the evidence where it leads us," Scott J. Bloch, head of the Office of Special Counsel and a presidential appointee, said in an interview Monday. "We will not leave any stone unturned."

Bloch declined to comment on who his investigators would interview, but he said the probe would be independent and uncoordinated with any other agency or government entity.

The decision by Bloch's office is the latest evidence that Rove's once-vaunted operations inside the government, which helped the GOP hold the White House and Congress for six years, now threaten to mire the administration in investigations.

The question of improper political influence over government decision-making is at the heart of the controversy over the firing of U.S. attorneys and the ongoing congressional investigation of the special e-mail system installed in the White House and other government offices by the Republican National Committee.

All administrations are political, but this White House has systematically brought electoral concerns to Cabinet agencies in a way unseen previously.

For example, Rove and his top aides met each year with presidential appointees throughout the government, using PowerPoint presentations to review polling data and describe high-priority congressional and other campaigns around the country.

Some officials have said they understood that they were expected to seek opportunities to help Republicans in these races, through federal grants, policy decisions or in other ways.

A former Interior Department official, Wayne R. Smith, who sat through briefings from Rove and his then-deputy Ken Mehlman, said that during President Bush's first term, he and other appointees were frequently briefed on political priorities.

"We were constantly being reminded about how our decisions could affect electoral results," Smith said.

"This is a big deal," Paul C. Light, a New York University expert on the executive branch, said of Bloch's plan. "It is a significant moment for the administration and Karl Rove. It speaks to the growing sense that there is a nexus at the White House that explains what's going on in these disparate investigations."

The 106-person Office of Special Counsel has never conducted such a broad and high-profile inquiry in its history. One of its primary missions has been to enforce the Hatch Act, a law enacted in 1939 to preserve the integrity of the civil service.

Bloch said the new investigation grew from two narrower inquiries his staff had begun in recent weeks.

One involved the fired U.S. attorney from New Mexico, David C. Iglesias.

The other centered on a PowerPoint presentation that a Rove aide, J. Scott Jennings, made at the General Services Administration this year.

That presentation listed recent polls and the outlook for battleground House and Senate races in 2008. After the presentation, GSA Administrator Lorita Doan encouraged agency managers to "support our candidates," according to half a dozen witnesses. Doan said she could not recall making such comments.

The Los Angeles Times has learned that similar presentations were made by other White House staff members, including Rove, to other Cabinet agencies. During such presentations, employees said they got a not-so-subtle message about helping endangered Republicans.

White House spokesman Scott M. Stanzel said the Hatch Act did not prohibit providing informational briefings to government employees.

Responding to a letter of complaint to the White House from 25 Democratic senators, Stanzel said: "It is entirely appropriate for the president's staff to provide informational briefings to appointees throughout the federal government about the political landscape in which they implement the president's policies and priorities."

However, questions have emerged about the PowerPoint presentations, including whether Doan's comments crossed the line and whether the presentations violated rules limiting political activity on federal property.

Whether legal or not, the multiple presentations revealed how widely and systematically the White House sought to deliver its list of electoral priorities.

In the course of investigating the U.S. attorney matter and the PowerPoint presentations, Democratic congressional investigators discovered e-mails written by White House personnel using accounts maintained by the Republican National Committee.

For example, they discovered that Jennings, a special assistant to the president and deputy director of political affairs in the White House, was using an e-mail with the domain name of "gwb43.com" that the RNC maintained.

That domain name showed up in e-mail communications from Jennings about how to replace U.S. Atty. H.E. "Bud" Cummins III of Arkansas to make room for Timothy Griffin, a Rove protege, in such a way as to "alleviate pressure/implication that Tim forced Bud out."

Another Jennings e-mail using the RNC account requested that department officials meet with a former New Mexico campaign advisor who wanted to "discuss the U.S. Atty situation there."

The growing controversy inspired him to act, Bloch said.

"We are acting with dispatch and trying to deal with this because people are concerned about it … and it is not a subject that should be left to endless speculation," he said.

tom.hamburger@latimes.com

FBI In Talks With GOP Rep Feeney In Abramoff Scandal

FBI asks Tom Feeney about trip with Abramoff

Early edition: Feeney's office said the congressman is cooperating voluntarily.

By ANITA KUMAR
Published April 23, 2007

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WASHINGTON - The FBI has asked U.S. Rep. Tom Feeney for information about his dealings with Jack Abramoff as part of its ongoing investigation into the lobbyist convicted of defrauding clients.

FBI agent Kevin Luebke refused to say whether Feeney, a Republican from the Orlando area, is under federal investigation.

Federal agents also have asked the St. Petersburg Times for an email sent to the newspaper by Feeney's office describing a golfing trip the congressman took with Abramoff to Scotland in 2003.

Feeney did not return calls for comment Monday. But his Washington office released a statement to the Times late Monday.

"Rep. Feeney considers this an embarrassing episode in his 17-year career as an elected official and an expensive lesson for him as a public servant," according to the statement.

Feeney is one of three House members who accompanied Abramoff to Scotland on trips that included rounds of golf at the legendary Royal & Ancient Golf Club at St. Andrews.

The others are: former Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, who is serving prison time for corruption, and former House Republican leader Tom DeLay, indicted in Texas for alleged improper fundraising, is under investigation.

"The Justice Department has been investigating activity surrounding Jack Abramoff," according to Feeney's statement. "The Justice Department has contacted Rep. Feeney to request more information regarding this matter and he is pleased to voluntarily cooperate."

The FBI contacted the Times last week to ask for the February 2006 email that Feeney's then chief of staff Jason Roe wrote to the newspaper in response to a series of questions about interactions between Feeney and Abramoff. The Times has referred the FBI's request to its attorney.

Roe, now deputy campaign manager for presidential candidate Mitt Romney, said Monday he has not been contacted by the FBI and has no knowledge of an investigation. But, he said, he was not surprised to hear federal agents are asking questions.

"I'm sure they're doing due diligence," he said. "I guess it would be my expectation they would look into everything" associated with Abramoff.

Feeney, 48, who spent a decade in the Florida Legislature where he was speaker of the House, has paid $23,000 in legal fees this year - more than any other expense - according to his latest campaign finance reports.

"Rep. Feeney anticipates voluntarily cooperating with the Justice Department in any further investigation of this trip and looks forward to promptly resolving this matter," according to Feeney's statement.

The U.S. House announced in January that Feeney violated its rules by apparently letting Abramoff pay for the trip to Scotland. Feeney agreed to pay the cost of the trip - $5,643 - to the U.S. Treasury.

Feeney said he thought a conservative think tank - the National Center for Public Policy Research - was paying for the trip. He said he learned later from newspaper reporters that Abramoff may have paid in violation of House rules that forbid members from taking free trips from lobbyists and asked the ethics committee to investigate.

"Any assertion that this office knew Abramoff paid for the Scotland trip is a g--d----- lie," Roe wrote in the email being sought by the FBI. The email was quoted in a newspaper article last year.

Records and media reports show lawmakers - including Ney and DeLay - have helped Abramoff with his lobbying.

Last week, Rep. John Doolittle, R--Calif., gave up his coveted seat on the House Appropriations Committee after the FBI raided his home.

In last year's email, Roe vehemently denied any improper relationship with Abramoff as a result of the trip.

"Tom has never written a letter for Abramoff. Abramoff has never been in our office. Abramoff has never asked anything of us," Roe wrote in the email. "There is no accusation of a quid pro quo. No quid pro quo exists."

Feeney received $4,000 from Abramoff and three of his clients but recently gave the $1,000 from Abramoff to charity. Money also went the other direction: Feeney paid the tab at Abramoff's Washington restaurant, Signatures, at least three times, twice when the costs were more than $2,000, according to Feeney's campaign finance reports.

Times researcher Angie Drobnic Holan contributed to this report. Times staff writer Anita Kumar can be reached at akumar@sptimes.com or 202-463-0576.

Islamic Center Hit By Fire

Wednesday, April 11, 5:17 a.m.

By Ryan Leckey

Click for larger image

Fire broke out at the Islamic Center of Schuylkill in Mechanicsville.

Flames ripped through an Islamic center in Schuylkill County Wednesday morning and now members of that place of worship plan to come together to see how they can repair the damage.

Flames broke out at the Islamic Society of Schuylkill County in Mechanicsville around 12:30 a.m. Wednesday. It's located just outside of Pottsville.

From the outside, there is not much damage visible, but inside the damage on the walls tells the tale of what happened.

"The cafeteria has all been burned, lots of damage in that area. The entire building has smoke damage and water damage," said Islamic society priest Shiraz Mansoor.

Click for larger image

Portions of the interior were heavily damaged.

The Islamic Society has been in the borough of Mechanicsville for around 20 years.

Firefighters managed to save the second floor from flames where worship takes place, however it still has heavy smoke and water damage.

"We'll just have to get over it and work together in getting the place good again," added Shiraz Monsoor.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

Emergency meeting probes alleged RCMP cover-up

Emergency meeting probes alleged RCMP cover-up
Canadian Press

OTTAWA — A Liberal MP is calling for a public inquiry into what he calls a “culture of corruption” in senior RCMP ranks amid allegations of obstruction and cover-up and the resignation of one senior Mountie.

Borys Wrzesnewskyj, a member of the Commons public accounts committee, says a full probe is needed after RCMP officers alleged fraud and abuse in the management of their pension and insurance plans.

A senior Mountie has stepped down and the committee was holding an emergency meeting away from public eyes on Thursday morning to plan its next steps.

RCMP Sergeant Natalie Deschenes said the deputy commissioner in charge of human resources, Barb George, offered to quit her post and the resignation was accepted. Ms. George had yet to be reassigned.

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A House of Commons committee will consider a motion Thursday to force ex-RCMP commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli and other former senior and current RCMP officers to testify after some of their colleagues alleged fraud Wednesday in the management of their pension plans.

The hard-hitting accusations came in testimony before the committee Wednesday, as serving and retired officers alleged that senior Mounties tried to block probes into management of the RCMP's pension and insurance plans.

In a scathing report last fall, Auditor General Sheila Fraser found millions in inappropriate charges to the pension and insurance plans.

Conservative MP and public accounts committee member John Williams said the panel expects former commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli to testify within a week.

Mr. Wrzesnewskyj said Thursday “the lid's off” now and more meetings must be held to set the stage for a full public inquiry into the matter.

“And then hopefully a public inquiry will do the digging that's required,” he said.

“This culture of corruption at the top echelons of the RCMP has to be addressed.”

Mr. Zaccardelli resigned as commissioner in December after delivering contradictory testimony to another Commons committee about the Maher Arar affair.

The former top Mountie was harshly criticized before the public accounts committee Wednesday.

“While trying to expose these wrongdoings, which were both criminal and code-of-conduct violations, I had face-to-face meetings and complaints up to and including Commissioner Zaccardelli,” Ron Lewis, a retired RCMP staff sergeant told the MPs.

“I was met with inaction, delays, roadblocks, obstruction and lies. The person who orchestrated most of this cover-up was Commissioner Zaccardelli.”

Mr. Zaccardelli told CBC News that the allegations were baseless, and that no money was missing from the RCMP funds.

The Mounties had asked Ottawa municipal police to conduct a criminal investigation of possible fraud, but Crown attorneys concluded in 2005 there was no point in laying charges because the evidence was likely too weak to obtain convictions.

Ms. Fraser said she was assured by the municipal police that there was no interference from the RCMP. But she also observed that the lead investigator reported directly to a senior RCMP officer, raising a potential public perception of bias.

At the public accounts committee, several officers testified they were stonewalled by more than one senior executive, including Mr. Zaccardelli, when they tried to raise questions about the pension and insurance plans with RCMP leadership.

“The RCMP has had a small groups of managers who, through their actions and inactions, are responsible for serious breaches in our core values, the RCMP code of conduct and even the criminal code,” said Chief Superintendent Fraser Macaulay.

He testified that he was transferred to work with the Defence Department for two years after he asked too many questions.

Sergeant Steve Walker said: “Every core value and rule of ethical conduct that I held to be true and dear as a rank-and-file member of the RCMP has been decimated and defiled by employees at the highest levels of the RCMP.”

Members of the committee appeared shocked by the allegations against the high-ranking members of the force.

“I'm a lawyer and I tell you they would be in court if it was anyone else, and packing a tooth brush for prison,” said Conservative MP Brian Fitzpatrick.

Said Liberal Shawn Murphy: “The cover-up is worse than the crime.”

The Strange Hire of Monica Goodling

While everyone's attention is focused on Monica Goodling's invocation of the Fifth, emails and Executive subornation of an objective process in how the DOJ selects its targets for prosecution, the larger point - Executive appointments, job qualifications and how failing to meet those qualifications lead to mistakes.

For starters, we all know that she went to the hithertofore unheard of Messiah College, which, judging from its website, is on the social conservative frige.

Messiah College

At Messiah College our mission is to educate men and women toward maturity of intellect, character and Christian faith in preparation for lives of service, leadership and reconciliation in church and society.

I guess Monica kinda missed the lofty goals of that statement, but that is pretty much what conservatives do - talk big in order to achieve personal gain.

So anyway, we learn from the Regent U. website that Monica is a 1999 graduate of that law school.

We also know that Regent is operated by nutty social conservative Pat Robertson, and is definitely not imbued with a mainstream curriculum.

Now for the fun part - she goes on to be the DOJ spokeswoman - as a 1999 law graduate. Here's an example of her work, her public face on the Hamdi case:

Scolds Supreme Court

Finally, at the time all hell broke loose, this seven year lawyer (?) was Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' senior counsel and White House liaison.

I'm trying to square these appointments with the notion of competent governance. The fevered pronunciations of doom by this administration would dictate that an important slot like this be filled by someone with experience and gravitas, someone of proven competence whose advice could be relied on by the AG - not some inexperienced, weirdly trained neophyte whose law credentials are weak and who was selected in order to toss a banquet of bones to the noisy fringe of the party.

By high bitrate

Post-modern corruption in Israel

Haaertz
Israel
Last update - 09:00 23/03/2007

Post-modern corruption

By Gideon Samet

The crime stories at the top echelons are becoming totally bizarre. The record to date, a president suspected of rape, now seems to have been taken over by the story of Abraham Hirchson. The sins of Aryeh Deri, who only a few years ago occupied a strong place at the top of the hit parade, are nothing compared to his. The investigation of the finance minister looks like a late installment in a series where the scriptwriter goes crazy so that bored viewers won't leave. The fear is that in this situation the people in their living rooms won't get excited even if in the next installment the police commissioner is accused of pedophilia.

This is a penetration of post-modernism into the arena of corruption. As in the theory that rejects a distinction between high and low culture, it seems the criterion for examining the sins of senior officials is becoming blurred. Money in envelopes that, according to the suspicions, are transferred by an emissary to a Filipina worker in the finance minister's residence. The theft
of of tens of millions of shekels in the course of more than a decade. A suitcase of dollars for funding "Marches of the Living" to the death camps is seized on the way out of Poland. Is there no limit to the vulgarity of the scriptwriter?

Everything is presumed until proven. But until then, it is definitely becoming conceivable to investigators and to viewers of the cheap crime series that such things are possible. In a legendary anecdote from 40 years ago, an MK showed the education minister a police confirmation that he had emerged clean in an investigation. It's interesting that I don't have such a confirmation, said Zalman Aran, sarcastically.

Now anything goes. Crime reporters tell of the chairman of the Knesset Labor faction, Yoram Marciano, who is suspected of assault in a nightclub, that he doesn't know what they want from him and is threatening them even before receiving a note from the police. Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman removed himself from office in 1996 the moment the attorney general informed him of an investigation on the matter of false testimony to the police. Jackie Matza and Shula Zaken, the head of the Tax Authority and the prime minister's bureau chief, have been suspended from their jobs. Maybe because they don't have a bloc of supporters in the ruling party at a time when the prime minister himself, who is sitting on a cardboard chair, is stuck in investigations.

What has happened to allow the finance minister to remain in his job during a shocking investigation? Perhaps what has happened is that these investigations are no longer so shocking.

There is also a stench of post-modernism because this influential thesis despises what it has called the "super-text." It rejects unequivocal statements that try to dictate norms and decide what is permitted and what is forbidden. So that during the overly long period in which it has been flourishing at universities in the West, philosophy departments have removed Plato and Aristotle from the curriculum, for example, because they are considered white and arrogant tyrants of thought.

Although the criminal law is clear, the climate in Israel still favors blurred rules when it comes to people at the top. So that the question of whether Moshe Katsav has to leave the President's Residence during the course of the investigation remains hanging in the compressed air. And now the finance minister.

Of course he has to leave immediately. By the conclusion of the investigation. What, is there no life without Hirchson? This week Amnon Strashnov, the former district court judge and judge advocate general, proposed that no investigative proceedings take place against the prime minister ("by all the Lindenstrausses, the Yoav Yitzhakis") until he is out of office. This is folly
that is trying to turn the vagueness surrounding the status of VIPs under investigation into law. By nature, it is itself wrapped in amazing post-modernism. And will a finance minister under investigation continue? And a president?

So many people have been dragged into the investigation rooms that it seems as though we are really doing well. The opposite is the case. We are not doing at
all well if such a long line is forming there. Those who are panicking should take a valium. This matter has to be taken to the clear end, whether or not it is bitter.

Conyers, Sanchez to seek subpoenas for Rove, Miers

By Klaus Marre

March 20, 2007

The House Judiciary Committee announced Tuesday that Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) and Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law Chairwoman Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) would seek the authority to subpoena White House adviser Karl Rove and former White House counsel Harriet Miers. The subcommittee will meet Wednesday to consider the subpoenas for Rove, Miers and three other administration officials. In addition, the panel will also discuss subpoenaing White House and Department of Justice documents.