MADISON

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Continental frigates triumph over the Barbary States

We'll Meet Again

Let's say goodbye with a smile, dear,
Just for a while, dear, we must part.
Don't let the parting upset you,
I'll not forget you, sweetheart.

We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when,
But I know we'll meet again, some sunny day.
Keep smiling through, just like you always do,
'Til the blue skies drive the dark clouds far away.

So will you please say hello to the folks that I know,
Tell them I won't be long.
They'll be happy to know that as you saw me go,
I was singing this song.

After the rain comes the rainbow,
You'll see the rain go, never fear,
We two can wait for tomorrow,
Goodbye to sorrow, my dear.

Melody - and text Ross Parker, Hughie Charles

Leahy Prepared to Launch Committee Probe of Interrogation Program

CQ TODAY MIDDAY UPDATE
April 22, 2009 – 12:42 p.m.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy said Wednesday that if Republicans do not back an independent commission to investigate the George W. Bush administration’s detainee interrogation program, he will launch a committee probe.

“If we can’t get a bipartisan commission to do this then we’ll do it in the usual way,” Leahy said.

The Senate Intelligence Committee has its own investigation under way. The Armed Services Committee released a lengthy report Tuesday on the interrogation program.

Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, has been a leading proponent of establishing an independent commission, but Republicans oppose it.

President Obama on Tuesday signaled a new openness to an independent commission, and said he preferred that to individual committee investigations.

Republicans at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing challenged Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton over Obama’s comments about potential prosecution of former administration officials over interrogation issues.

“I’m greatly concerned about reports that the administration may have changed our policy on investigating and possibly prosecuting former administration officials,” said ranking Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida. “This is an extremely negative development, when we need to work together to counter extremist Islamic militants who seek our destruction.”

Voltaire - 1694/1778

"It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."

CQ Homeland Security

Behind the Lines for Tuesday, May 5, 2009 — 3 P.M.

By David C. Morrison, Special to Congressional Quarterly

Courts and rights: A federal judge yesterday denied defense attorneys’ request for a third mistrial in the Liberty City Six case, despite increasing signs of disarray in the jury, The Associated Press reports. The top CIA lawyer in charge of overseeing the agency’s terror interrogation program says his stance on certain harsh techniques was misrepresented in a Senate hearing, The Washington Times tells. A Yemeni court has sentenced four men to up to three years in jail for joining al Qaeda and plotting attacks, Reuters reports.

CQ Homeland Security

Defense Acquisition Overhaul Bill Next Up in Senate

CQ TODAY MIDDAY UPDATE
May 5, 2009 – 1:33 p.m.

The Senate will take up legislation to overhaul the Pentagon weapons acquisition process this week after it completes work on housing legislation, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid , D-Nev., confirmed Tuesday.

While no deal has yet been made to limit amendments on the floor, the leadership is hoping that relatively few amendments will allow the bill to pass the Senate this week, the spokesman said. Lawmakers were expected to finish the housing bill late Tuesday.

Sens. Claire McCaskill , D-Mo., and Tom Coburn , R-Okla., said they would offer amendments. McCaskill said she expected her amendments to be supported by leadership and therefore adopted into the bill.

Regarding whether his amendments have support among leadership, Coburn said, “I haven’t asked.”

The House Armed Services panel is set to mark up its version of the bill May 7. The Senate Armed Services Committee approved its version April 2.

Those looking to change the bill are concerned that enforcement mechanisms in the bill are too lax, jeopardizing its chances of properly fixing how the Defense Department manages its multitrillion-dollar program portfolio.

Defense acquisitions experts and watchdog groups have criticized the bill, focusing on several changes the Senate committee made in its markup, many at the request of the Pentagon.

The goal is to conference and clear the legislation before the end of this work period.

“I’m eager to get this legislation on my desk before Memorial Day so that we can start getting on track to spending all our money wisely,” President Obama said in an April 30 statement after meeting at the White House with leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services committees.

According to the Government Accountability Office, defense contracting has run $296 billion over budget for the military’s 96 largest weapons programs since those programs began.

Life is a trial for Chinese lawyer

Gao Zhisheng, once officially honored for his work, grew bolder in taking on officials. The secret police are thought to have him.
By Barbara Demick - May 5, 2009
on

Reporting from Beijing — For the family of Gao Zhisheng, a maverick lawyer under house arrest for years after confronting the Communist Party head-on, security was so tight that police sometimes sat in the bedroom of their Beijing apartment, insisting the lights remain on all night so they could keep an eye on them.

In order to keep the family incommunicado, authorities forbade telephones or Internet access. When Gao's 15-year-old daughter went to school, her classmates were not allowed to carry cellphones lest she borrow one to make a call.

After more than four years under surveillance, Gao's wife managed to slip out of the apartment in mid-January with their daughter and 5-year-old son. They traveled nearly 2,000 miles by bus, train, motorcycle and on foot to reach Thailand, from where they were allowed to fly to the United States.

The 45-year-old Gao disappeared weeks later and is presumed to be in the custody of Chinese secret police.

"We know nothing. We don't even know if he is alive or dead," said his wife, Geng He, in a tearful telephone interview. In the last month, she has talked to members of Congress, the press and human rights groups about what happened to her family.

Her story speaks to the unbearable pressure Beijing continues to apply on its citizens, even savvy lawyers, who cross an unstated line by taking on taboo causes.

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