We told you yesterday about the ties between one of John McCain's top fundraisers and convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Well, there's more. Looks like Juan Carlos Benitez was helping Abramoff out with efforts to lobby for the Northern Mariana Islands.

Remember that storyline? The U.S. territory's local government hired Abramoff (and Benitez as well, we've learned) to help fend of criticism of the massive sweatshop industry on the islands.

Those sweatshops were especially lucrative -- and controversial -- because they allowed big-name companies to use a "Made in the USA" tag," even though they are filled with low-paid immigrants from across Asia.

Workers from China, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, were working below the local minimum wage, often seven days a week and up to 12 hours a day while living in shacks behind barbed wire and without plumbing, according to congressional testimony.

Let's look at the timeline -- we know that back in 2001 Benitez landed his big job (pdf) over at the Department of Justice with the help of a recommendation from Abramoff.

Specifically, the job Abramoff steered him into at DOJ was Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices. That's the office in charge of -- guess what? -- prosecuting sweatshop owners.

"This position gave Benitez authority over enforcing provisions of ... alleged unfair employment practices, issues of importance to Abramoff clients such as the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands," according to a 2006 Congressional report (pdf).

In 2002, Abramoff's firm took in $600,000 in lobbying fees from the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Efforts to crackdown on the sweatshops there stalled.

Benitez left the DOJ in 2003 and went to work for Cassidy and Associates, a top Washington lobbying firm. Within months -- by 2004 -- Benitez had registered to lobby for the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

Also in 2004, Abramoff went to work for Cassidy and Associates. But he soon left, as his name began popping up in news reports about corruption investigations.

So where did Benitez and Abramoff meet?

We're not sure, but it may have been in the late 1990s, when Abramoff was lobbying for a group called Future of Puerto Rico, Inc. which was pushing for a congressional vote on Puerto Rican statehood.

At the same time, Benitez was the legislative director for the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration in Washington.

Yesterday McCain announced that Benitez has bundled between $50,000 and $100,000 for his campaign. Maybe that's not massive money for today's campaigns, but it's interesting since McCain used to be talk so much about Abramoff and corrupt lobbyists. He doesn't do that as much anymore.

Wouldn't it be great if we could all take long, leisurely European vacations with our whole extended family -- and have the $23,000 tab paid for by Russian and Eastern European business moguls?

Unfortunately, it seems that former Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA) is among the only ones who actually gets to do that.

Ken Silverstein over at Harper's digs into the details of Weldon's January 2007 trip with ten family members (including his son's girlfriend and his daughter's boyfriend). They stopped in Moscow and Vienna (not cheap cities).

We're not sure the trip has anything to do with Weldon's new arms trafficking business. But there's a couple of interesting things to point out.

First, Weldon asked the notoriously lax House ethics committee for formal permission to take the trip before he went. He offered the lame explanation that the Russians and Serbs were paying for his trip because he was a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and it had nothing to do with his House seat.

But when he got the sense the committee wasn't buying that argument, he "withdrew" his request for a waiver on the gift rules.

In other words: Weldon apparently didn't get the answer he wanted, so he simply ignored the committee's advice and ethics rules and went anyway, with the tab being picked up by outside sponsors.

And here's another key aspect of the trip: the Serbian family who paid for part of it was the Karic Group, run by the Karic family, which is barred from entering the U.S. due to its close ties with the warmongering Milosevic regime.

That's the same Serbian group who just a few months later hired Weldon's inexperienced 29-year-old daughter to lobby for then to the tune of $240,000 a year.

The Weldon family sure is living the American dream.

Just a day after Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) challenged the Washington Post to produce the letters he'd allegedly written on official stationary seeking cash for the academic center bearing his name, the newspaper has come through -- posting four such missives on their website.

Rangel uses his congressional letterhead and says he wants to "schedule a meeting" to talk about the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service. The letters don't explicitly state that he is seeking money.

They include:

* March 2007 letter requesting a meeting with David Rockefeller; the Rockefeller Brothers Fund donated $50,000 to CCNY

* March 2007 letter requesting meeting with Maurice R. "Hank" Greenberg, chairman of C.V. Starr Foundation; the foundation donated $5 million to CCNY

* March 2007 letter requesting a meeting with Donald Trump; Trump has not donated to the project

* June 2005 letter to about 100 foundation leaders seeking "a dialogue with you on the funding of the Rangel Center concept in the coming weeks and months." The letter helped generate contributions totaling more than $1.6 million from four foundations.

As we've reported , former Attorney General John Ashcroft was on the Hill yesterday, testifying before the House Judiciary Committee.

Ashcroft's testimony called into question the timeline of the CIA interrogations and suggested that perhaps torture began before it was authorized by the DOJ. But it also shed some light on the DOJ's thought process about the authorization of the interrogations to begin with.

It was during Ashcroft's years as attorney general that the infamous "torture" memos were written. The memos approved the use of waterboarding and other forms of interrogation as long as they did not "cause pain similar in intensity to that caused by death or organ failure."

While Ashcroft approved the memos initially, he later withdrew them out of concern that they overstepped the bounds of executive authority, a decision that he described this way:

It wasn't a hard decision for me to - when they came to me, and I came to the conclusion that these were genuine concerns - get about the business of correcting it.

Just one week ago the committee was host to the current Attorney General Michael Mukasey.

And just like Mukasey, Ashcroft was ever the artful dodger, citing a lack of memory, executive privilege or the classified nature of the information as reasons why he could not answer lawmakers' questions.

When asked asked repeatedly about waterboarding, Ashcroft described it as "very valuable," "not torture," and claimed that it "has happened three times."

"I have been aware of waterboarding," he stated in answer to questions on how he learned that the interrogation technique was being used. "I'm not sure how I am aware."

The former attorney general conceded his lack of recall as to the events in question during his opening remarks.

"It's been difficult . . . to distinguish between what I in fact recall as a matter of my own experience, and what I remember from the accounts of others," he said.

And indeed throughout the hearing, Ashcroft informed the committee that he couldn't remember. . . and that even if he could remember, he wouldn't tell them because of executive privilege.

One particularly rapid-fire stonewalling occurred during Rep. Linda Sanchez's (D-CA) five minutes of interrogation. It really can't be summed into words, so we have the clip here. Enjoy.

Yesterday we told you how Stephen Payne -- the guy caught on video by the Times of London apparently selling access to the White House -- seemed strangely absent from the Justice Department's database for registering foreign agents.

His company, Worldwide Strategic Partners, has a brochure claiming to do lobbying work for numerous countries. But the firm shows up nowhere in the DOJ database maintained under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

Payne claims that he spoke with a DOJ official who assured him that his contracts did not need to be registered.

We called DOJ to ask about that. They looked through their records and told us this:

"A preliminary search of our records indicates that the Justice Department's FARA Unit has issued no written, legal opinion to Worldwide Strategic Partners or to Mr. Payne concerning the activities of Worldwide Strategic Partners . . . We continue to search our records to determine whether or not there have ever been any verbal communications between the FARA Unit and Mr. Payne or Worldwide Strategic Partners specifically relating to the activities of Worldwide Strategic Partners."

Payne obviously has a lot of connections in Washington. But so far, if he's got a friend over at DOJ, that friend has not come forward to back him up.

Did the CIA start using torture before the DOJ authorized it in the infamous torture memos?

That's what it sounded like according to former Attorney General John Ashcroft, who was on the Hill yesterday testifying on interrogation techniques before the House Judiciary Committee.

It was during Ashcroft's years as attorney general that the infamous "torture" memos were written. The memos approved the use of waterboarding and other forms of interrogation as long as they did not "cause pain similar in intensity to that caused by death or organ failure." The first memo-- often called the Bybee memo -- was dated August 1, 2002 and was written by former Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo, who also testified before the Judiciary Committee in an earlier hearing in the series on torture.

But at least four months prior to the publication of that memo, the CIA captured al-Qaida operative Abu Zubaydah on March 28, 2002. Zubaydah's detention and interrogation has garnered much publicity, as it was thought to be especially brutal and involved waterboarding.

The CIA has long denied employing harsh interrogation techniques before it received authorization via the legal memos provided by the DOJ, but Ashcroft's testimony yesterday called that timeline into question, and raised the possibility that "the CIA started torturing at least one detainee before any of the memos were even written."

From Salon's War Room:

But during questioning, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., pointed out that the abuse of Zubaydah had reportedly begun weeks, if not months, earlier. "Did you offer legal approval of interrogation methods used at that time ... prior to August 2002?"

"I have no recollection of doing that at all," Ashcroft responded. He added that he did not remember anyone else at the Justice Department doing so either. He said later in the hearing that Zubaydah's interrogation "was done without the opinion that was issued on the first of August."

Video of the exchange below:

Newly revealed internal Army documents show that more deaths and injuries have been caused due to faulty electrical wiring in Iraq than previously thought. The documents show that the contractor responsible for the wiring, KBR, found a "systemic problem" in their work, contrary to the contractor's previous statements. (New York Times)

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) asked the Pentagon Thursday to release documents about the death of Pat Tillman. Waxman argued that the public and the Tillman family should be able to see documents relating to his friendly fire death. (AP)

Congress eased rules Wednesday over public disclosure of contributions and parties paid for by lobbyists. The new rules free lobbyists from filing disclosure statements by the end of the month. (Wall Street Journal)

Read more »

From the AP:

The second-in-command at the government's top whistle-blower office has quit in a dispute with his boss, whom he accused of putting "political agendas and personal vendettas" ahead of the agency's mission and independence.

James Byrne's resignation as deputy to U.S. Special Counsel Scott Bloch is effective Saturday. Bloch is under federal investigation, accused of destroying evidence potentially showing he retaliated against his own staff.

"Upon my departure, I am obligated to note that the mission, independence and very existence of the Office of Special Counsel are--and shall remain--at risk unless and until this agency is afforded a presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed leader who is capable of putting OSC's mission and OSC's people ahead of political agendas and personal vendettas," Byrne, the deputy special counsel, wrote in a July 10 letter to Bloch that was obtained by The Associated Press.

"This agency, and the people whom we serve, deserve no less."

First Bob Schaffer says he didn't know.

Now he says he did.

Last year Colorado senate hopeful and former Representative Bob Schaffer (R) helped broker an oil deal between Aspect Energy, where he serves as vice president, and the Kurdish Regional Government in Iraq -- a deal the US State Department says undermines Iraqi security and US interests.

The U.S. government didn't want people like Schaffer and Aspect Energy and others going into Iraq and cutting deals directly with the Kurds because it would undermine the federal government in Baghdad, which was still debating how to share the country's oil reserves. President Bush for years has pushed Iraqis to pass a national law permitting foreign oil companies to invest in Iraq and providing a system for distributing those revenues.

Back on July 9, Schaffer insisted that he was completely unaware that his firm's deal was at odds with U.S. foreign policy. "We didn't experience any discouragement," Schaffer said at the time.

But reporters in Colorado have been kicking the tires on Schaffer's story and last Sunday, Schaffer's campaign manager, Dick Wadhams, started to back away from what Schaffer said.

Wadhams, however, refused to answer questions about whether Schaffer knew or should have known that State Department officials wanted the Iraqi government to work out a national oil policy before any contracts were awarded.

Now, as these oil deals are starting to get attention on Capitol Hill, Schaffer is changing his tune too.

He's now conceding that he did know about State Department opposition but is still insisting (correctly it seems) that Iraqi law didn't specifically forbid such deal.

The Pueblo Chieftain reports:

He acknowledged that U.S. officials in Baghdad did not want U.S. oil companies doing business directly with the Kurds, but said that under the country's new federal system, such a working relationship was allowed.

So why did Schaffer change his story now?

That might have something to do with this report from the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. The reporter started asking questions about Sen. Wayne Allard (R-CO) and found out that last year the senator asked the State Department about oil deals with the Iraqi Kurds in reference to Aspect Energy.

And on May 25th, 2007 the State Department responded to Allard in no uncertain terms ...

In that regard, we have conveyed to all parties, the Kurdish Regional Government, the central Iraqi Government, and international oil companies that signing deals before such a law is passed will complicate efforts of the parties to pass a good law. We strongly believe that having competing oil and gas investment laws will be both bad for companies and for Iraq.

Though the Allard story was published the day after Schaffer floated his new version of events, it seems likely that he may have gotten word that the story was coming.

We called Allard's office to ask whether he relayed the State Department's message to Schaffer last year. His spokesman was unsure.

"The senator communicates with former Congressman Schaffer [and others from the delegation] so much, I'm not sure of what he conversations he might have had at what time. So I don't want to be inaccurate and say he spoke with Mr. Schaffer about it at this time because I don't know," said Allard spokesman Steve Wymer.

Wymer said he'd get back to us if he hears anything else.

That answer's not surprising. Allard is retiring and, as a fellow Republican, presumably wants to see Schaffer win his seat in the Senate. If he does remember passing on the word to Schaffer, he probably isn't eager for that fact to come out.

U.S. Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) held a press conference today and blasted the Washington Post for their recent "foundless" article which alleged that Rangel had used official stationary to solicit funds for an academic center bearing his name from individuals with business before his committee.

Rangel denies that the recipients had business before his committee and challenged the Post "to show one line in any of the letters" that he sent "where there's a solicitation for funds."

He also demanded, and welcomed, a probe by the House ethics committee into the Post's allegations:

So to that extent. . . another potential headline is, "Rangel Insists That the Ethics Committee Investigate the Unfounded Charges," because, first of all, nobody that can read is going to bring any charges against me, including The Washington Post, which, of course, I encourage them to do it, because then they have to follow their own foundless story, and at least that gets some coverage on this in The Washington Post.

Rangel's demand for an investigation by the ethics committee follows a similar request from the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington yesterday. According to Melanie Sloane, executive director for CREW, Rangel might have something to worry about.

"It's not a close call," she said to the Post. "He's clearly violated the rule against using the letterhead.

Lisa Graham Keegan, one of Sen. John McCain's top education advisers, is a forceful proponent of school vouchers and other market-based education policies.

But when it comes to managing money herself, she doesn't have a great track record.

Keegan was among four education advisers the McCain camp trotted out yesterday in a conference call with reporters to explain McCain's new education policy.

Nobody on the call asked her about her stint as CEO of the Education Leaders Council, a conservative non-profit, school-reform group that she led from 2001 to 2004.

With Keegan at the helm, the group began to prosper with money from Bush's No Child Left Behind law. The ELC raked in about $23.4 million in federal money, part of which it was later accused of mismanaging. An audit report(pdf) from the Department of Education's Inspector General ultimately recommended that the group give back about $500,000 in taxpayer dollars.

A large chunk of the earmarks and federal grants the group received were for a program to help schools with technological upgrades and getting curriculum in line with Bush's No Child Left Behind law.

Money management under Keegan became a source of tension when an internal audit in 2003 found Keegan was being paid a $235,000-a-year consulting fee and one of her aides from Arizona was paid $200,000 under a similar contract, according to an April 4, 2004 report in the Arizona Republic.

At least four board members out of 18 resigned shortly after the internal audit, according to the newspaper.

The Department of Education eventually got involved and concluded that the groups books were a mess with "weak or non-existent internal controls" that led to money spent on things not legally covered by the grant.

According to the audit (pdf):

Also, included in the questioned amounts were costs for alcoholic beverages, advertising, fundraising, and interest that are specifically unallowable under applicable cost principles.

A spokesman for McCain did not respond to a request for comment.

If this doesn't set the tone for former Attorney General John Ashcroft's testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on interrogation methods at Guantanamo, I don't know what does.

In his opening statement, Ashcroft admitted that he had "limited recollection" of the events pertinent to the committee's inquiry. Specifically, "it's been difficult . . . to distinguish between what I in fact recall as a matter of my own experience, and what I remember from the accounts of others."

Before these hearings commenced, I had but a limited recollection of many of the events pertinent to your inquiry. In attempting to prepare for this hearing, I have reviewed testimony from prior hearings, I've read portions of publications recounting some of the timely events, and I must admit, it's been difficult for me sometimes to distinguish between what I in fact recall as a matter of my own experience, and what I remember from the accounts of others. As a result, what I hope, what I say will be of value to the committee. Reliance on my statements and observations aught to be tempered by these awarenesses.

For smart guys, there sure seems to be an awful lot of lack of recall in the Bush administration.

Former Attorney General John Ashcroft left the Department of Justice more than three years ago, but he's still in the news and will be up on Capitol Hill this morning for testimony before the House Judiciary Committee.

This morning's Washington Post takes us back to to 2003 and shows how the White House insisted on getting its own man inside the DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel.

Then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft offered the White House a list of five candidates to lead the Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel in early 2003, but top administration officials summarily rejected them in favor of installing a loyalist who would provide the legal footing needed to continue coercive interrogation techniques and broadly interpret executive power, according to two former administration officials.

In an angry phone call hours after Ashcroft's list reached the White House, President Bush's chief of staff, Andrew H. Card Jr., quickly dismissed the candidates, all Republican lawyers with impeccable credentials, the sources said. He and White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales insisted that Ashcroft promote John Yoo, a onetime OLC deputy who had worked closely with Gonzales and vice presidential adviser David S. Addington to draft memos supporting a controversial warrantless wiretapping plan and detainee questioning techniques.

Ashcroft's refusal created a tense standoff and was the only time in the attorney general's tenure that Bush was called upon to resolve a personnel dispute, the sources said.

Ashcroft's testimony starts at 10 AM ET. We'll be watching and posting, so stay tuned for updates.

After perusing the Fundraising Disclosure filed by John McCain's camp yesterday, one particular name jumped out: Juan Carlos Benitez, a lobbyist, lawyer, and Jack Abramoff recommendation to a top post at the Justice Department.

Benitez was appointed as Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices in 2001, where he strongly supported former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales-- even after the firings of the eight U.S. Attorneys had been made public.

According the the disclosure, Benitez has raised raised between $50,000 and $100,000 for Sen. McCain's bid for the presidency.

The White House confirmed on Wednesday that leaders of France, Germany, and Britain lobbied President Bush over the controversial U.S. Air Force aerial refueling tanker contract. The contract was initially awarded to a European firm but has since been put back into competition by Defense Secretary Gates. (McClatchy)

Ceclia M. Grimes, the former lobbyist and friend of former Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA), will plead guilty to destroying records related to a federal probe of Weldon. Grimes is charged with the destruction of evidence and has a hearing scheduled for next week. (UPI)

IndyMac Bancorp is being investigated by the FBI for possible fraud. The FBI has revealed the investigation in light of the bank's collapse, but it is unknown how long the probe has been ongoing. Law enforcement says the investigation is focused on the company itself rather than the individuals who ran it. (AP)

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The White House has taken further steps to stamp out the scandal that erupted this week with the release of a video showing a Homeland Security adviser offering access to high-ranking officials in exchange for a big donation to Bush's future presidential library fund.

Talking to the New York Times, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino revealed new rules to prevent the appearance of any quid pro quo.

On Wednesday, Ms. Perino said Mr. Bush had asked that members of his foundation "do not inform him about anyone who has written a check, or decided not to write a check, until after he's no longer president."

That comes on the heels of a Bush library spokesman this week saying the library has decided not to accept foreign donations until after Bush leaves office in January. It remains unclear whether the library will disclose its donors, which is not required by law.

The library foundation, which is planned for the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, is expected to cost more than $200 million, most of which will be raised from donors. The library foundation has formed a fundraising committee, but formal fundraising has not yet begun, a library spokesman said.

So far, however, no one from the White House has told us what kind of relationship Bush has with the (now-former) Homeland Security adviser and longtime Bush fundraiser who was caught on video apparently peddling a cash-for-access deal.

It looks to us like the adviser, Stephen Payne, has known the president for at least 20 years.

So far, Perino has described Payne only as "somebody who's been involved in Texas politics for a long time and been a supporter of the Republican Party."

We already know that the the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility is investigating the alleged politically motivated prosecution in the case of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman (D). Today, TPMmuckraker independently verified that the OPR is looking into another complaint-- this one for prosecutorial misconduct-- involving the Northern District of Alabama's U.S. Attorney's office, specifically U.S. Attorney Alice Martin.

The new OPR investigation stems from a case involving Axion Corp., which was acquitted in October 2007 of violating the Arms Export Control Act. In an interview with TPMmuckraker this morning, Henry Frohsin, an attorney for Axion Corp., confirmed that they had sent a letter of complaint against Martin to the OPR on May 9. News of the investigation was first reported by Scott Horton, at the American Lawyer, citing anonymous sources.

"We consider this a serious case of prosecutorial misconduct that impacted the rights of the defendant," Frohsin, of the Birmingham office of Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell and Berkowitz, told us, "and we intend to rigorously pursue this matter with authorities at the Department of Justice."

Frohsin also stated that a DOJ attorney had been assigned to look into their complaint.

Martin has been with the Northern District of Alabama U.S. Attorney's office since September, 2001 and originally prosecuted a bid-rigging case against Siegelman, which was thrown out due to lack of evidence. U.S. Attorney Leura Canary started the successful, but disputed, prosecution of Siegelman for federal corruption -- but mysteriously recused herself from the case before it culminated. Both Martin and Leura Canary have been named in the affidavit of Republican lawyer, Jill Simpson, who claimed to have overheard a conversation assuring Siegleman's downfall, that occurred between William Canary, a wealthy Republican donor and Leura's husband, and the son of Siegelman's opponent in the governor race.*

Martin's case against Axion Corp., began in 2007 when the company was charged with violating the Arms Export Control Act by exchanging drawings for a Blackhawk helicopter part to a Chinese manufacturer.

According to an article on the case in the Birmingham News, one of the prosecution's own witnesses stated that the drawings Axion sent to the Chinese were not marked "with customary warnings barring it from being sent to trading partners subject to arms control laws." And according to the defense, the Black Hawk drawings were also available over the Internet-- excluding them from arms-control provisions:

"Hang on, I have not heard about that before," trial judge Johnson said as Alex Latifi lawyer James Barger cross-examined a government witness on the trial's fifth day. "These drawings are on the Internet?"

Despite their crumbling case, the prosecution refused to withdraw. Judge Inge Johnson of the Federal District Court of Birmingham threw out the case, writing that the "evidence was insufficient to sustain a conviction."

The defense later filed a claim for compensation from the government-- called a Hyde motion. The defense argued that the Justice Department engaged in wrongful prosecution, and they were entitled to whatever money they spent fighting the prosecution.

And Judge Johnson agreed, ordering the Justice Department to pay the legal expenses incurred by Axion in defending itself from federal prosecution in April 2008.

From the Birmingham News:

Latifi, an engineer trained at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, will be able to collect about $500,000 in expenses, said his Birmingham attorney, Henry Frohsin. Latifi contends that he was selected for prosecution under arms-export laws because of his ethnic background.

And apparently the DOJ immediately started covering its tracks:

Johnson's ruling also said the government has withdrawn its request for a certification from the court endorsing the asset seizure as having had a reasonable cause. That eliminates any chances for Axion's lawyers to demand a hearing to examine the Justice Department's memos, legal papers and investigative methods, said Frohsin, a lawyer with the Birmingham office of Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz.

[Late Update]: This post has been changed from its original form to reflect the accurate roles of Alice Martin and Leura Canary in the prosecution of Don Siegelman.

Stephen Payne, the Bush supporter caught on tape offering access for cash, claims his firm has done a lot of work for foreign governments and politicians, but neither he nor his firm show up much in the DOJ database that tracks registered foreign agents.

For example, one of the firm's brochures claims they did extensive work for Azerbaijan, including:

Arranged for the President of Azerbaijan to visit the U.S. and meet with President Bush -- a task the Azeri Government had been trying to do over the past three years

Arranged a private phone call between the Vice President of the United States and the President of Azerbaijan, prior to the Azeri Elections in November 2005

That sounds a lot like working for a foreign agent. The brochure also maintains that the firm did work for Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and an Uzbek opposition leader -- and alleged terrorist -- called Muhammad Salih.

Yet the only place Payne or Worldwide Strategies shows up in the DOJ database is for some work that Payne did for Pakistan a few years ago under the name of a firm called Team Eagle, also known as Team Barakat, according to the database maintained under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

Payne told UPI that he spoke with the Department of Justice about this work and a DOJ official assured him that he did not have to register, in part because they were "commercial" contracts.

"I believe that we are in compliance with FARA regulations," Payne wrote in his e-mail to UPI. "We did not need to FARA register as the basis for our work was commercial projects in these countries. We checked with the Department of Justice's FARA division and were informed that we did not need to register for these commercial projects."

Officials over at DOJ read that this morning, too, and they're not entirely sure what Payne's talking about.

"We have seen the media reports about Mr. Payne's assertion and, at this time, we are attempting to determine whether or not they are accurate," DOJ spokesman Dean Boyd told TPMmuckraker.

Maybe the investigation into Payne will help explain what that's all about.

First we heard about how Texas-based Hunt Oil might have gotten a behind-the-scenes thumbs up to forge an oil deal with the Kurdish Regional Government in Iraq.

We say behind-the-scenes because officially the White House and State Department opposed all oil deals with the Kurds until the Iraqi federal government in Baghdad reached a deal on oil-revenue sharing. (which they haven't yet)

Last week we told you about how Bob Schaffer, the Republican candidate for Senate from Colorado, helped forge a deal between Aspect Energy, where he worked, and the Kurds at about the same time last fall.

Now several lawmakers want the State Department's Inspector General to investigate the matter.

From the AP:

Any behind-the-scenes meddling would have violated administration policy, which was to discourage the business dealings until Baghdad passed a law that would fairly divide the nation's oil resources among the various provinces. The hydrocarbon law is widely seen as necessary to prevent sectarian tensions once Iraq boosts its oil production.

"We are concerned that U.S. policy regarding these oil contracts has not been clearly defined, communicated, or consistently implemented by the Iraqi government, the Kurdistan Regional Government and international oil companies seeking to do business in Iraq," the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Harold Geisel, the State Department's acting inspector general.

The letter was signed by [Sen. Carl Levin] Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, as well as Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer of New York, John Kerry of Massachusetts and Claire McCaskill of Missouri.

Late Update: Read more for the text of the entire letter.

Read more »

We've seen a lot of assertions of executive privilege in the last few months-- from Karl Rove to Stephen Johnson -- but now Attorney General Michael Mukasey has claimed executive privilege on behalf of President Bush.

Mukasey's letter to House Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) last night, pre-empted a vote this morning on contempt of Congress stemming from the White House's refusal to release FBI documents relating to the Valerie Plame leak scandal. The documents were subpoenaed by Committee on June 16.

From the Mukasey's letter to Bush:

I am greatly concerned about the chilling effect that compliance with the Committee's subpoena would have on future White House deliberations and White House cooperation with future Justice Department investigations.

Hmmm. Where have we heard that before?

U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) hasn't been having the best week. The House Ways and Means Committee Chairman relinquished his rent-controlled campaign office yesterday, after intense scrutiny in the wake of a New York Times article that exposed his holding of four rent-controlled apartments. And today, the congressman is facing the possibility of a House ethics probe after a Washington Post piece published yesterday, revealed he's been soliciting donations from corporations with business interests in front of his committee for an academic center that bears his name.

Known to Republican critics as the "Monument to Me," the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at the City College of New York, caused controversy when Rangel gave it a $1.9 million earmark last year to start it.

Now, in an effort to raise more cash for the center, Rangel has been writing fundraising letters on his official House stationary to business leaders like Donald Trump and Hank Greenberg, former head of AIG, an current CEO of C.V. Starr & Co. If accurate, Rangel's fundraising letters violate a House rule that specifically bans the endorsement implied by the use of congressional stationary.

Rangel has raised $12 million for the project according to college officials interviewed by the Post. And not all of that has come from private donors:

The congressman has corralled more federal money as well, securing two Department of Housing and Urban Development grants totaling $690,500 to help renovate the college-owned Harlem brownstone that will house the center, according to HUD and school officials.

In response to Rangel's private fundraising, the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the House minority leader have separately requested a probe from the House ethics committee. According to Melanie Sloane, executive director for CREW, Rangel's actions are obviously unethical:

"It's not a close call," she said. "He's clearly violated the rule against using the letterhead."

Salim Hamdan, one of the most famous detainees at Guantanamo Bay, gave testimony yesterday at his trial about his life at the prison. He told his disturbing account as his defense lawyers claimed he must be moved for the facility in order to focus on his trial. (New York Times)

The House Judiciary Committee will hold hearings on one of Rep. Dennis Kuchinich's (D-OH) articles of impeachment. But Democrats said the hearing would not lead to a vote on impeachment but is instead only an "election year review" of President Bush's reasoning to take the country to war in Iraq. (AP)

A new report shows that Angelo Mozilo, CEO of Countrywide Financial, gave special deals on loans to people other than just senators and star athletes. This "Friends of Angelo" group also featured, among others, a California state appeals court judge, who just happened to toss out a case against Countrywide in August of 2004. (Portfolio)

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Globetrotter Stephen Payne has left his post as a Department of Homeland Security adviser.

The Department told him told him he could no longer serve on its top advisory committee. Publicly, the department didn't say why, according to UPI:

"The department asked him to step down" from his post on the Secure Borders and Open Doors Subcommittee of the Homeland Security Advisory Council, [Department spokeswoman Laura] Keehner said, declining to comment on the reasons.

Payne was appointed to the committee last year, where he served along with government officials, academics and others from the private sector.

Certainly his ouster had something to do with the video of Payne apparently offering to help a Kazakh politician arrange high-level meetings with Bush administration officials in exchange or large donations to the Bush presidential library fund.

But there's also Payne's apparent claim that he "transformed" an Uzbeck man named Mohammad Salih from an "accused terrorist" to a "U.S. ally."

In a brochure from Payne's firm, Worldwide Strategic Partners, the group claims that its work on behalf of Salih included:

-- Worked with the White House and the Department of State and Justice to facilitate the removal of Mr. Salih's name from the terrorist watch list and the waving of the Interpol Warrant for his arrest

-- Worked with the White House, Department of State, Justice, Homeland Security and Treasury, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and key Congressional Leaders -- to provide Mr. Salih with a U.S. Visa.

We can see why that's not really the kind of guy Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff would want advising him.

If a meeting with the vice president in Washington might cost about $600,000, getting the vice president to actually go visit a far-flung central Asian country might run you up to $2 million.

That's the suggestion buried in the string of emails we received today from Homeland Security adviser Stephen Payne.

Payne was caught on tape by the Times of London offering to set up meetings with high-level Bush administration officials in exchange for large payments to the future Bush library fund. In that video and the emails we obtained, Payne was talking with a Kazakh politician known as Eric Dos, whose real name is Yerzhan Dosmukhamedov.

In the emails and the video, Dos claims that back in 2006, the Kazakh government paid Payne's firm, Worldwide Strategic Partners, $2 million with the understanding that he would secure a visit from the vice president.

Cheney visited the country's capital in May 2006 and had dinner with the president, Nursultan A. Nazarbayev. The visit was part of a broader effort to cozy up to central Asian countries and keep them independent from Moscow. They are also considering a pipeline that would allow European markets to access central Asian oil and natural gas.

While there, Cheney heartily endorsed the government, despite a spotty human rights record and questions about the legitimacy of the 2005 elections there.

Dos makes reference to the payment and the trip while talking about the logistics of transferring money.

[Note: The emails quoted here were lifted directly from the document provided by Payne and contain a lot of spelling errors.]

I am also telling them that transfer can do well. It did work when you successfully brought VP Cheaney to Kazakhstan in 2006. Corect me if I said wrong, last time the Kazakh govt through KMG or whatever entity transferred directly to Worldwide Strategic and then some of it was transferred to Bush's people? Was it to the Bush Sr library or foundation? or what? or did your company just pass it on to Cheaney's people?

It's not clear what KMG is referring to here, although there is a large oil and gas firm in Kazakistan called Kazmunaigas, which goes by the acronym KMG

A brochure from Payne's firm says Payne accompanied Cheney on the vice president's 2006 trip to Kazakhstan. A spokesman for Vice President Cheney's office did not respond to a request for comment.

In the email Payne provided us, Payne was emphatic that he had no idea what Dos was talking about.

Let me be clear on these issues you just raised -- "Cheney's people" were not paid anything as a result of his visit to KZ -- he came to KZ because he wanted to -- no other reason...I personally, as you know, have given and raised over a million for the Republican party over the past several years -- but these donations are never tied to any specific request or Govt. action.

Payne apparently wanted to talk directly and ended his email with: "we need to visit by phone asap -- what number should I call you on?"

Doug Feith was on the Hill today to testify about the interrogation techniques in Guantanamo. Joining him before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties was his nemesis, Philippe Sands, who goes back a ways with Feith.

As Spencer Ackerman blogs at the Washington Independent, Feith started off the hearing denying the statements made in Sand's book, and then got right down to alleging that the Guantanamo interrogators were rogue agents:

After going back and forth with Feith--in which Feith conceded there were indeed abuses in Defense Dept. detention and interrogation operations-- Rep. Bobby Scott (D.-Va) asked why the abusers might think they could torture detainees. "I don't believe they necessarily did think they did" had authority to torture, Feith said. "Some people do bad things."

[Late Update]: According to Ackerman, Feith also spent a fair amount of time, detailing the "great care" given to the interpretation of the 2002 memo written by Jim Haynes:

"I imagine one could apply these things in an inhumane fashion," Feith replied. "'Removal of clothing' is different from 'naked.' ... It could be done in a humane way. . . They could be used in a way that could violate the [Geneva] Convention," he explained, "they could be used in a way consistent with the Convention."

Cecelia Grimes, the lobbyist and "very good friend" of former Rep. Curt Weldon, has been charged with destroying evidence relating to the federal investigation of the former Pennsylvania congressman.

According to the court documents filed today, Grimes "placed her Blackberry device in a trash can near an Arby's restaurant in Southeastern Pennsylvania. . . for the purpose of keeping the FBI from reviewing certain of her emails."

But apparently Grimes creative disposal of evidence only extended to fast-food restaurants.

She also tossed the grand-jury subpoenas, Amtrak receipts, American airline boarding passes, and fourteen RSVP cards for a dinner honoring Weldon, which call for responses to be sent to Grimes. The FBI "surreptitiously retrieved" the garbage bags containing the documents from the trash cans next to Grimes' house.

[Late Update]: In October, 2006, it was revealed that Weldon was under federal investigation for his alleged nepotism activities, notably his lucrative arrangements for his daughter. He lost re-election that November, and has since been working as a Chief Strategic Officer for Defense Solutions-- an organization that has also come under media scrutiny for its shady arms deals.

Cecelia Grimes has been tied to Curt Weldon's investigation before. Back in 2004, Ken Silverstein reported that Curt's family had an uncanny ability to get hired by large defense companies.

In January 2006, Silverstein reported that Weldon's ties also seemed to extend to more than just family-- also helping, his close friend Cecelia Grimes. Grimes was realtor turned lobbyist at Grimes and Young, a small lobbyist firm comprised of only herself and Cynthia Young. Curiously, Young is the daughter-in-law of Rep. Bill Young (R-FL).

According to Silverstein's piece, Grimes was retained by Oto Melara, a subsidary of an Italian defense firm with a $20,000 annual retainer. Weldon had previously championed the causes of Finmeccanica, Oto Merelara's parent company, in legislation before the House Armed Services Committee, on which he used to be vice-chair.

The Homeland Security adviser accused of selling access to the White House provided TPMmuckraker with a string of emails that he says prove he did nothing wrong.

Stephen Payne says he never meant to suggest that meetings with high-level Bush administration officials were contingent on big contributions to the future Bush library fund.

He says the Times of London tried to "entrap me into alleging that an illegal relationship could be established."

He says these five pages of emails show how the Kazakh politician he met with was trying to pressure him into an illegal arrangement.

Payne starts out with the July 1 email he received from a man known as Eric Dos, a Kazakh politician whom Payne said he first met on a pipeline project in 2005.

Dos wrote in the email that he wanted to arrange high-level Washington meetings for the former president of Kyrgystan, Asker Akayev, who now lives in Moscow.

[Note: The emails quoted here were lifted directly from the document provided by Payne and contain a lot of spelling errors.]