Truth To Power

We've Moved!

2006-03-03T18:48:00.000-05:00

Truth to Power has moved...

We're now Muckraked at www.muckraked.com - and we're brighter, bigger and more beautiful than ever.

But we're still devoted to investigative journalism - and we've got the same mission statement:

We're dedicated to breaking news in all areas - from international politics to New York community concerns, from the fashion runway to the corporate boardroom.

Feel free to join us in the hunt for scoops by supplying us with plenty of your own... at tips@muckraked.com

UAE's Reputation: Smuggling Haven?

2006-02-24T17:05:00.000-05:00

In the midst of bipartisan outrage over the White House’s decision to allow a United Arab Emirates-owned company to oversee operations at U.S. ports, it’s worth considering the safety record of Dupai Ports World.

Most maritime experts attest to the firm’s solid reputation and Kim Petersen, head of SeaSecure, a U.S.-based maritime security company, and executive director of the Maritime Security Council told CNN, “This whole notion that Dubai is going to control or set standards for U.S. ports is a canard … is factually false.” Dubai Ports World, like all port owners, must abide by the Maritime Transportation Security Act passed by Congress in 2002 and International Ship and Port Facility Security codes enacted in 2004, he said. Both sets of security measures are enforced in the United States by the U.S. Coast Guard.

Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, the chairman of DP World, often recounts the days when his grandfather was a pearl diver to illustrate his country’s history in trading. “We are merchants, and we’ve been trading since the days of our ancestors,” he recently said. Unfortunately, over the last ten years, some merchants have used the country’s ports to trade weapons and to evade trading sanctions on Iran and other countries.

Since DP World is a state-run company, it seems reasonable to examine the record of the UAE. Although they have cooperated with the U.S. in the capture and arrest of several suspected terrorists, the country has a troubling history of weapons smuggling. Last year, the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, a non-partisan research institue, compiled a chronology of smuggling and illicit transfers that have occurred in the UAE:

1994 - 1995: Bukary Syed Abu (B.S.A.) Tahir, a Sri Lankan based in Dubai, allegedly organizes the transshipment of two containers of centrifuge components from Dubai to Iran, on behalf of A.Q. Khan, for $3 million.

October 1995: Seven persons are indicted by the United States for conspiring to export, without the required license, $500,000 of sensitive U.S. electronics to Iran between 1991 and 1994. Controlled goods, including encryption devices, were allegedly shipped via Hanofeel General Trading Est. of Dubai to Iran’s Tak Neda Co. Ltd. Elham Abrishami, of Afshein, Inc. in the U.S., pleads guilty in 1997.

1996: The German government warns its exporters that Iranian companies active in procurement for weapons programs are present in Dubai. Among the entities that arrange and finance technology transfers via front companies in Dubai are Iran’s State Purchasing Organization, and Bonyad Mostazafan and Janbazan Foundation.

June 1996: Dubai’s Guide Oil Equipment Company is identified in a U.S. court as a corporation that ships impregnated alumina, which can be used in the manufacture of nerve gas, through Dubai or the United Kingdom to Iran. In 1998 Abdol Hamid Rashidian and Henry Joseph Trojack are convicted for conspiring to ship impregnated alumina to Iran.

July 1996 - March 1998: IGI, Inc. sold $400,000 of poultry vaccine from the U.S. to Iran via Dubai, violating the U.S. embargo on Iran.

1997 - 1998: Pars Company Inc. of the U.S. exports two STX gas monitors to the U.A.E. and transships them to Iran. Pars Company did not obtain the required license for the monitors, which can be used in chemical and biological weapons production, and is fined $10,000. The U.S. Department of Commerce subsequently imposes a nine year denial of export privileges in 2002. The U.S. firm Industrial Scientific Corporation is also implicated, and pays a $30,000 fine.

1998: According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, Jabal Damavand General Trading Company of Dubai transfers U.S.-origin ferrography laboratory equipment to Iran without authorization. In 2002 the U.S. bans Jabal Damavand for ten years from engaging in any activity subject to the Export Administration Regulations.

March 1998: According to the U.S. government’s Iraq Survey Group (I.S.G.), the Iraqi Intelligence Service uses bribes to circumvent customs inspections in Dubai, which is a transshipment point for military equipment being sought from Romania.

May 1998: A new Sun Ultra Enterprise 1 Work Station is located in Iraq’s National Computer Center, which was involved in Iraq’s nuclear weapons program. Iraq claims to have imported workstations from the U.A.E. and Jordan.

May 1998 - June 1999: According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, Dubai’s Ibn Khaldoon Drug Store Est. participates in the unauthorized export of medical equipment from the U.S. to Iran, in contravention of the U.S. embargo. Ibn Khaldoon is ordered in 2004 to pay a $40,000 fine.

May 1998 - May 2002: Biocheck Inc. of the U.S. allegedly exports medical diagnostic kits without authorization to Iran via Italy and the U.A.E. Biocheck is later fined $32,000 by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and pays the U.S. Department of Commerce $22,500.

September 1998 - February 2001: NEC Engineers of India allegedly sends 10 shipments of materials used in the manufacture of rocket propellant and missiles to Dubai and Jordan without the required export license. Indian court documents state that the consignments, shipped for $791,343, “appear to have been diverted to Iraq for assisting their weapon building programme,” violating the U.N. embargo. NEC Engineers is accused of mis-declaring goods and attempting to export consignments in the name of associated companies. The Dubai companies Target General Land Transport and Indjo Trading are reportedly involved.

November 1998 - February 2000: Mohammad Farahbakhsh, co-owner and managing director of Dubai’s Diamond Technology LLC, allegedly tries to export U.S. computer items to Iran via Diamond Technology. The alleged purchaser is Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group, which is a branch of the Iranian Ministry of Defence and subject to U.S. sanctions for its involvement in cruise and ballistic missile development.

1998 - 2000: Mazyar Gavidel and his company Homa International Trading Corp. violate the U.S. trade embargo against Iran by illegally transferring approximately $2 million of laundered money through Dubai. Gavidel and Homa International are convicted by the U.S. in August 2002.

January 1999: Abu Bakar Siddiqui, a British exporter of Pakistani origin and an alleged procurement agent for A.Q. Khan, allegedly attempts to ship special aluminum sheets to Dubai.

May 1999: British customs authorities reportedly seize up to 20 tons of components, including high-grade aluminum, believed to be ultimately destined for Pakistan. The cargo arrived from the U.S. and was allegedly about to be shipped to Dubai. The exporter is allegedly Siddiqui, who is convicted in the United Kingdom in 2001 for illegally exporting strategic materials to Pakistan, including high-strength aluminum bars.

2001: U.A.E. companies act as intermediaries in the partial delivery of fiber-optic and military communications contracts from South Korea to Iraq, according to the I.S.G.

2001: Dubai’s Ports, Customs & Free Zone Corporation is established to take over customs operations from the Dubai Ports Authority and Jebel Ali Free Zone Authority.

June 2001: Bef Corp. allegedly exports photo finishing equipment to SK of Dubai, which transships the equipment to Iran, in violation of U.S. sanctions.

September 2001: The U.A.E.’s Advance Technical Systems purchases $16,000 of military radar components from the U.S. and transships them to Pakistan after declaring that they were for the Bangladeshi Air Force. Following guilty pleas delivered in June 2003 for the illegal export of parts for howitzers, radars and armored personnel carriers, two U.S. citizens and one Pakistani are imprisoned.

October 2001: A U.A.E.-based firm acts as an intermediary to facilitate the trade in ballistic missile-related goods from China to Iraq, according to the I.S.G.

May 2002: The German government warns its exporters that since 1998 Iraq has been increasingly engaging in procurement activities through Dubai. Germany believes that North Korea has also increased its operations in Dubai.

August 2002: The U.S. firm Mercator, Inc. agrees a $30,000 settlement with the U.S. Department of Commerce, which had alleged that Mercator had exported chemicals to Dubai with the knowledge that they would be re-exported to Iran without prior authorization.

December 2002: The U.S. Navy accuses Dubai’s Naif Marine Services of smuggling to Iraq polymers that could be used to manufacture explosives.

January 2003: Spare parts for Mirage F-1 aircraft and Gazelle attack helicopters are transferred to Iraq. U.S. intelligence reportedly believes that parts were purchased from France by Dubai’s Al Tamoor Trading Co., and then smuggled to Iraq through at third country, reportedly Turkey.

May 2003 - February 2004: U.A.E.-based Diamond Technology LLC and its managing director Mohammad Farahbakhsh allegedly export a U.S. satellite communications system to Iran without the required license.

June 2003: 311 companies attend the third U.A.E. Trade Exhibition in Iran. Trade with Iran exchanged through Dubai’s ports was 12 billion dirhams in 2001, an increase from 4.3 billion in 1997.

October 2003: 66 triggered spark gaps, which can be used to detonate nuclear weapons, are shipped without the required license from the United States to Top-Cape Technology in South Africa. They are subsequently transshipped via Dubai to AJMC Lithographic Aid Society in Pakistan. In 2004 Asher Karni, an Israeli living in South Africa, pleads guilty to conspiring to export controlled commodities to Pakistan without validated export licenses. In 2005 the U.S. indicts Humayun Khan of the Pakistani company Pakland PME for violating export restrictions and being the ultimate purchaser.

October 2003: Five containers of centrifuge components, sent by B.S.A. Tahir and shipped through Dubai, are seized en route to Libya. The items are part of four shipments made by Malaysia’s Scomi Precision Engineering (SCOPE) between 2002 and 2003 to Dubai’s Aryash Trading Company. One of the four consignments lists the addressee as Gulf Technical Industries, but is diverted to Desert Electrical Equipment Factory, also based in Dubai.

October 2003: According to B.S.A. Tahir, the BBC China, the ship carrying the seized centrifuge components, was also transporting an aluminum casting and dynamo for Libya’s centrifuge workshop. The consignment was allegedly sent via Dubai by TUT Shipping on behalf of Gunas Jireh of Turkey.

October 2003: Two weeks after the seizure of the centrifuge components, B.S.A. Tahir arranges the transshipment to Libya, via Dubai, of an electrical cabinet and power supplier-voltage regulator on behalf of Selim Alguadis, an associate of A.Q. Khan.

December 2003: Hamid Fathaloloomy, principal of Dubai’s Akeed Trading Company, allegedly attempts to export U.S. pressure sensors to Iran.

April 2004: The U.A.E. freezes the accounts of SMB Computers as part of its investigation into B.S.A. Tahir, who is the Group Managing Director.

April 2004: Elmstone Service and Trading FZE is sanctioned for two years by the United States for transferring to Iran equipment and/or technology of proliferation significance since 1999.

August 2004: The U.S. indicts Khalid Mahmood, of Dubai, for breaking the U.S. embargo to Iran. Mahmood allegedly attempted to arrange the sale of forklift radiators from the U.S. to Iran, by concealing the final destination in the sale.

September 2004: The I.S.G. lists 20 U.A.E. firms that are suspected of having acted as intermediaries or front companies for Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, and says that the U.A.E. was a transit location for prohibited goods, with companies using deceptive trade practices. The I.S.G. also concludes that the U.A.E. and Iran were the most frequent destinations for Iraqi smuggled oil and owned the majority of smuggling vessels involved.

December 2004: The U.A.E. agrees to join the U.S.’ Container Security Initiative (C.S.I.), becoming the first country in the Middle East to do so. U.S. customs officials will be stationed in Dubai to help target and screen suspect cargo bound for the United States.

2005: More than 300 Iranian companies are known to have operated in Dubai’s Jebel Ali Free Zone.

May 2005: Dubai signs a Memorandum of Understanding with the U.S. to join the Megaports Initiative. Dubai will be the first government in the Middle East to participate in the scheme, which is intended to detect and seize shipments of radioactive material.

Katrina Corruption Watch

2006-02-24T17:03:00.000-05:00

It’s been almost six months since the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. The federal government has handed out billions in contracts ranging from over $500 million for the giant construction company Bechtel to provide short-term housing to people displaced by the hurricane to a $185 contract with RT’s Plumbing in New Iberia, LA to service portable toilets.

In the rush to respond to the crisis, FEMA and other federal agencies sidestepped normal protocol and gave out many no-bid contracts. Some of those deals have come under scrutiny due to the fact that insiders seemed to be profiting from the disaster - two of former FEMA director-turned-lobbyist Joseph Allbaugh’s corporate clients, Shaw Group and Halliburton, have reaped hundreds of millions in contracts. And Bechtel’s CEO, Riley P. Bechtel, was named by President Bush to his Export Council.

So, we decided to take a look at government figures involved in the Katrina recovery effort, primarily examining the political leaders in Louisiana and Mississippi and prominent members of the Louisiana Recovery Authority and the Mississippi Development Authority, to see if any of their companies or organizations have been awarded contracts related to the recovery. (*Note that these records do not take into account contracts awarded by the Department of Defense.) Here are the results:

Joe Allbaugh (former FEMA director)
- $348 million (Shaw Group)
- $178 million (Halliburton’s Kellogg Brown & Root)

Rosemary Barbour (married to Mississippi governor Haley Barbour’s nephew)
- $6.7 million (Alcatec LLC - install and maintain portable showers, deliver tents)

Jerry St. Pe (member of Governor’s Commission on Recovering, Rebuilding and Renewal in MS)
- $1.5 million (Northrop Grumman - various services)

Dan Packer (chair of Bring New Orleans Back commission
- $71,000 (Entergy - electric services to EPA and GSA)

Anthony Topazi (leader of Mississippi Development Authority’s Momentum Mississippi board)
- $49,403 (Mississippi Power - electrical utility services)

Jim Barksdale (head of Governor’s Commission on Recovering, Rebuilding and Renewal in MS)
- $32,121 (SRA International - hold pre-proposal conference)

Gray Swoope (deputy director and COO of the Mississippi Development Authority)
- $10,000 (Pearl River Community College - rent space in Poplarville, MS)

James Reiss (leader of Bring New Orleans Back commission)
- $2,600 (Smith & Associates Consulting - pallets in Gulfport, MS)

Joseph C. Canizaro (leader of Bring New Orleans Back commission)
- $0 (Galleria Operating - lease of office buildings in Metairie, LA)

What's Brownie Really Doing?

2006-02-17T09:51:00.000-05:00

Does Brownie's consulting firm really exist?

Former FEMA director Michael D. Brown, who recently testified on Capitol Hill regarding his role in the federal government's reaction to Hurrican Katrina, has reportedly started a disaster preparedness consulting firm. According to an AP story back in November:

"Brown said companies already have expressed interested in his consulting business, Michael D. Brown LLC" which Brown plans to run "from the Boulder [Colorado] area, where he lived before joining the Bush administration in 2001."

But it seems that Brown hasn't registered this business anywhere in the country - according to our research which consisted of checking a national database of incorporated businesses and our phone calls to the Secretary of States in Colorado, DC, Virginia and Maryland.

So, what's going on here? Is Brownie lying? Or is he actually working with another consultancy to win Katrina-related contracts from the government because he's embarassed that his reputation might damage the prospects for any company with his name in the title?

This Just In...

2006-02-16T08:46:00.000-05:00

FDA Reopens Probe Into Contaminated Soda

It's been 15 years since the FDA closed their investigation into soft drinks contaminated with cancer-causing chemical benzene. But the agency has reopened the probe amid evidence that the industry has failed to take care of the problem - recent tests have revealed levels of benzene from two and a half to five times above the World Health Organization limit for drinking water.

Benzene is considered a poisonous chemical shown to increase the risk of leukaemia and other cancers. The testing results were revealed by a former chemist for Cadbury Schweppes who decided to blow the whistle on the situation.

(CEE-Food Industry.com)

Prez's Pitch

"The Bush administration spent $1.4 billion in taxpayer dollars on 137 contracts with advertising agencies over the past two-and-a-half years, according to a Government Accountability Office report released by House Democrats Monday."

The Department of Defense spent the most on media contracts, with pacts worth $1.1 billion, according to the study. The Department of Health and Human Services spent more than $300 million, the Department of Treasury spent $152 million, and the Department of Homeland Security spent $24 million during the period.

The six largest recipients of ad and PR dollars were Leo Burnett USA, $536 million; Campbell-Ewald, $194 million; GSD&M, $179 million; JWT, $148 million; Frankel, $133 million; and Ketchum, $78 million. The agencies received more than $1.2 billion in media contracts, according to the report.

The PR and ad contracts included providing "expert advice and support in the development of several marriage-related research initiatives," an educational campaign regarding the "Medicare Modernization Act, and its coverage and benefits," and a contract regarding "message development that presents the Army's strategic perspective in the global war on terrorism," the study said.

(BrandWeek)

Comic Conceit

2006-02-07T11:49:00.000-05:00

Amid mounting speculation that Syria and other forces have been quietly orchestrating the riots and violence surrounding the infamous Danish cartoon of Mohammed, it's worth considering that history is full of imagery - both serious and satirical - of the prophet.

Check out this gallery of images of Mohammed, from medieval paintings to modern comic books. Among them is this 2002 editorial cartoon by Doug Marlette whose work is syndicated in hundreds of newspapers worldwide.

Where was the outrage then? Granted, newspapers did get a few thousand Emails from angry readers but there certainly wasn't rioting in the streets or the burning of U.S. embassies.

Memoir or Make-Believe?

2006-01-27T12:50:00.000-05:00

OK, folks. We're back from our trip to the corner bodega for toilet paper and Ramen Pride - and we brought along a little gift:

The Truth to Power Challenge

In the middle of watching Oprah's emasculation of James Frey yesterday and reading about the disclaimer slapped onto "Running Wth Scissors," we thought it would be worth taking another look at so many of the memoirs that have inundated our bookshelves in recent years. (Not that we've read any of them, mind you. We can barely get through the Post every morning.)

The Prize: To the investigator who uncovers the best lies in the most memoirs, lunch at Michael's with an actual book agent.

So, here's a list of memoirs to start. Over the next few days, we'll start adding details that are worth verifying from each one. Just Email me at msbaram@yahoo.com

My Friend Leonard (James Frey)
* DOES LEONARD EXIST? (There's speculation that Frey lifted much of his material from dead novelist Eddie Little's "Steel Toes" and "Another Day in Paradise")
* ARE THERE 6 GIOVANNI DI PAOLO WORKS AT THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO?
* WAS FREY A DOORMAN AT A BAR ON CHICAGO AVE?
* DID THE CHICAGO BULLS EVER BEAT THE KNICKS BY 30 POINTS (AND UP BY 18 AT THE HALF)?

More, Now, Again: A Memoir of Addiction (Elizabeth Wurtzel)
* DID WURTZEL GET COCAINE DELIVERED TO HER IN THE LOBBY WHILE SHE WAS LIVING AT THE DOUBLEDAY EDITORIAL OFFICES?

Lighting Up: How I Stopped Smoking, Drinking and Everything Else I Love in Life Except Sex (Susan Shapiro)

Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood (Koren Zailckas)
* DID 6 AOP SORORITY PLEDGES GET SO DRUNK THAT TWO OF THEM WERE HOSPITALIZED AND THE SYRACUSE CHAPTER WAS CLOSED?

Magical Thinking (Augusten Burroughs)

Running With Scissors (Augusten Burroughs)

Another Bullshit Night in Suck City: A Memoir (Nick Flynn)

The Sexual Life of Catherine M. (Catherine Millet)

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (Dave Eggers)

The Kiss (Kathryn Harrison)

Liar's Club (Mary Karr)
* KARR GOES INTO AMAZING DETAIL ABOUT ASPECTS OF HER LIFE AS A 9-YEAR-OLD (SEE REVIEW IN MENTAL HELP NET'S BOOKSTORE) - HOW MANY ARE TRUE?

Out of Time (James Fountain)

Teacher Man: A Memoir (Frank McCourt)

Angela's Ashes (Frank McCourt)

Girls of Tender Age: A Memoir (Mary-Ann Tirone Smith)

Oh, The Glory of It All (Sean Wilsey)

My Life (Bill Clinton)

How to Make Love Like a Porn Star (Jenna Jameson)

Goat: A Memoir (Brad Land)

Chronicles, Vol. 1 (Bob Dylan)

Jarhead: A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles (Tony Swofford)

True Notebooks (Mark Salzman)

The Secret Life of Cowboys (Tom Groneberg)

I Bought Andy Warhol (Richard Polsky)

Stolen Lives: Twenty Days in A Desert Jail [Oprah's Book Club] (Malika Oufkir)

Personal History (Katharine Graham)

It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life (Lance Armstrong)

The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression (Andrew Solomon)

Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (Anthony Bourdain)

The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band (Tommy Lee)

Glenn Beck Mocked Asians

2006-01-19T13:48:00.000-05:00

Glenn Beck, the new face of CNN, was accused of offending Asian Americans while hosting a radio show in New Haven, CT and for ridiculing a man who called in to complain, according to the 10/20/95 Hartford Courant. Here's a suggestion for Beck's new colleagues at CNN: Don't share Chinese take-out with him!

"Under pressure from activist groups, a New Haven-area radio station agreed Thursday to apologize for broadcasting a sketch that offended Asian Americans and for ridiculing a man who called to complain.

The agreement with New Haven- based WKCI-FM was called an important victory by a coalition of four Asian-American groups, which represent one of Connecticut's smallest but quickly growing ethnic groups.

The negotiations between the station and the groups began as the result of a call to the station in August from Zhihan Tong, a 28-year- old computer network technician. Tong was driving from his New Haven-area home to his job in Danbury when he tuned in to the station, commonly known as KC101, for a traffic report. Instead, he heard Alf Papineau, the morning show's executive producer, pretending to speak Chinese to a bewildered Asian-American owner of a Chinese restaurant supposedly for sale... When Tong telephoned WKCI- FM to protest the broadcast as a racial slur, disc jockeys Glenn Beck and Pat Grey made fun of him. The two played a gong in the background several times, and Papineau, the executive producer, mocked a Chinese accent." [emphasis added]

New CNN Star!

2006-01-18T13:12:00.000-05:00

Prior to cancelling Crossfire, CNN President Jonathan Klein stated that the program is no longer relevant to a nation seeking information, not opinion. Stating that he wishes to move CNN away from "head butting," Klein has pointed to CNN's tsunami and hurricane Katrina coverage as evidence of the news channel's dedication to reporting the news and not commenting on it.

Almost sounds too good to be true.

As CNN ratings continue to sink, it seems Klein has had a change of heart. In CNN's latest attempt to outfox Rupert Murdoch, it was announced today that, "Glenn Beck, a radio personality heard on nearly 200 Clear Channel Communications stations nationwide, is joining CNN Headline News to host "Glenn Beck," a topical talk show. Beck, a former alcoholic and drug addict who became a Mormon in 2000, recently referred to hurricane survivors in New Orleans as "scumbags" and said he "hates" 9/11 families. A CNN spokesman stated, "At Headline News, Glenn Beck will air out of New York and be an unconventional look at the news of the day featuring Beck's often amusing perspective."

I'm already laughing out loud.

This Just In...

2006-01-17T12:07:00.000-05:00

FBI on NSA Data: 'Calls to Pizza Hut'
"We'd chase a number, find it's a schoolteacher with no indication they've ever been involved in international terrorism - case closed," says one ex-FBI official about some of the thousands of names, telephone numbers and addresses forwarded to the agency by the National Security Agency. "After you get a thousand numbers and not one is turning up anything, you get some frustration."

And FBI director Robert S. Mueller III was concerned enough about the legality of the eavesdropping program that he asked senior administration officials about "whether the program had a proper legal foundation," but deferred to Justice Department legal opinions, an official said.

In FBI field offices, the NSA material was often considered unproductive, leading some agents to joke that a new bunch of tips meant more "calls to Pizza Hut," said one official. (New York Times)

Who's Investigating the Missing Billions?
Very little has been done to get to the bottom of the scandal of overbilling by contractors in Iraq. It's been over a year and a half since the Constitutional Provisional Authority stopped running the country amid several audits that uncovered lax oversight of contractors and the disappearance of billions in funds. The Justince Department and a special inspector general haven't done a thing to recover the money "suspected of disappearing through fraud and price gouging in reconstruction."

The CPA which lasted from April 2003 to June 2004 was allocated more than $38 billion in U.S. and Iraqi funds and it spent $19.7 billion of U.N.-administered Iraqi oil money. (BTW, former head of CPA Paul Bremer is John Stewart's guest tonight on the Daily Show.)

The Defense Contract Audit Agency says that it has "performed 1,373 audits in support of Iraq reconstruction contracting activity." But those audits weren't aimed specifically at fraud, requiring auditors "to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the contractor submissions and supporting data are free of material misstatement."

Another option, which the government has not used, is to intervene in suits filed by individuals who know of misused money under the False Claims Act. The Justice Department declined to intervene in the one Iraq-related suit in which it announced a decision. That case was filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, VA by a former employee of Custer Battles (awarded $38 million in contracts), who claims that the company overcharged the government for security services performed at Baghdad Airport. That case is still pending. (Wall Street Journal)

The Wheel Deal?

2006-01-17T08:47:00.000-05:00

Amid the confusion felt by Medicare recipients over new rules that went into effect this year, some wheelchair users are experiencing their own bumps in the road.

Due to millions of tax dollars lost to fraudulent claims, Medicare established new interim rules that limit subsidies for power wheelchairs and scooters, making it difficult for some legitimate claimants by adding on extra paperwork. And suppliers claim that they're burdened by some of the new regulations - the multibillion-dollar power mobility industry gets plenty of money from the program. Medicare subsidies — which pay 80 percent of the cost of a motorized wheelchair or a scooter — soared from $289 million in 1999 to more than $1.2 billion in 2003.

In recent years, the industry has been beset with fraudulent claims. Recent FBI investigations in Kansas City, California, Michigan and Texas suggest that hundreds of millions of dollars in bogus billings were filed with Medicare before the reforms. The claims mainly involved power wheelchairs, which cost the program $5,000 compared with $2,000 for scooters. (Kansas City Star)

Deadly Train Crash Haunts Town

2006-01-16T09:44:00.000-05:00

All too often, reporters engage in assignment ADD: They latch onto the latest, noisiest scandal for a day or a week and then quickly drop it once the next big thing comes along. Yet readers are often left frustrated, wanting to know what happened in the wake of a particular event or scandal and curious about the long-term repercussions.

Today, Jenny Jarvie in the Los Angeles Times does an admirable job following up on just such a story - last year's deadly train crash in Graniteville, SC, which released chlorine gas into the environment.

Last January, a Norfolk Southern train loaded with pressurized chlorine gas crashed into a parked train, killing nine people and injuring 240. It also forced over 5,000 residents of the small town to flee the poisonous gas. Although, South Carolina's Department of Health and Environmental Control has carried out extensive testing of Graniteville's soil, air and water and found no evidence of chlorine gas, residents have health problems.

"Within 48 hours of the crash, the department conducted an epidemiological assessment of about 300 people. Nearly 80% experienced symptoms such as severe coughing, burning eyes, chest pains, skin rashes, headaches, dizziness and nausea. Jerry Gibson, director of the department's Bureau of Disease Control, said a follow-up of half of those people in the summer found that 80% continued to experience symptoms."

Whistleblower Warned

2006-01-12T10:19:00.000-05:00

Ex-NSA Official Told: Don't Testify

Russ Tice, a former intelligence officer with the National Security Agency who claims to be a source for the New York Times' expose last month, has been warned that he should not testify to Congress about accusations of illegal activity at NSA because of the secrecy of the programs involved.

On January 9, Tice received a letter from Renee Seymour, director of NSA special access programs, clearly emphasizing that he should not testify about secret electronic intelligence programs because members and staff of the House and Senate intelligence committees do not have the proper security clearances for the secret intelligence.

Mr. Tice said he was not part of the classified NSA program disclosed by the New York Times last month that intercepted telephone, e-mail and other communications involving U.S. citizens without a warrant from a special court. He did work on special access programs related to electronic intelligence gathering at the NSA and DIA, where he took part in space systems communications, non-communications signals, electronic warfare, satellite control, telemetry, sensors and special capability systems.

However, he told ABC News on Tuesday that he was a source for the New York Times.

"As far as I'm concerned, as long as I don't say anything that's classified, I'm not worried," he said. "We need to clean up the intelligence community. We've had abuses, and they need to be addressed."

Now, Tice's credibility is being challenged, with reports that he was fired by the NSA after failing a psychological evaluation. Last May, when he was let go, Rebecca Carr of Cox News service tried to get to the bottom of it. "The National Security Agency fired a high level intelligence official just days after he publicly urged Congress to pass stronger protections for federal whistleblowers facing retaliation," she wrote.

Carr added that "Tice has been at the odds with the agency since he reported suspicions that a female co-worker at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), was a spy for the People's Republic of China." And it appears that he's been punished by the agency before, suspending his security clearances in June 2003 and ordering him to maintain the agency's vehicles by pumping gas and cleaning them, along with an order to unload furniture at its warehouse.

Then, the NSA ordered Tice to undergo an unscheduled psychological evaluation, after which a "Defense Department psychologist concluded that Tice suffered from psychotic paranoia." Tice later wrote that he "did this even though he admitted that I did not show any of the normal indications of someone suffering from paranoia." As noted on CBS News' Public Eye blog, government whistleblowers in the past have been forced to undergo psychological testing.

This Just In...

2006-01-11T11:32:00.000-05:00

Ex-Congressional Aide Makes Plea Deal

In non-Abramoff Congressional corruption news: Brett Pfeffer, a former aide to Louisiana Representative William Jefferson, has reached a plea deal with prosecutors and is expected to plead guilty today at U.S. District Court in Alexandria, VA to bribery of public officials and conspiracy.

Prosecutors have been investigating Jefferson in connection with a telecommunications deal he was trying to arrange in Nigeria. The investigation has looked into Jefferson's dealings with a privately held technology company, iGate Inc. in Louisville, Ky., which was seeking telecommunications contracts in Nigeria.

The FBI raided Jefferson's home in August and the Maryland home of Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar. (The Associated Press)

Chavez Would Be Shocked

Labor legend Cesar Chavez's heirs at the UFW (United Farm Workers) "run a web of tax-exempt organizations that exploit his legacy and invoke the harsh lives of farmworkers to raise millions of dollars in public and private money," reports Miriam Pawel in a four-part series in the Los Angeles Times.

Among the non-labor projects run by the dozen tax-exempt organizations in the Farm Worker Movement: owning a top-ranked radio station in Phoenix and running a political campaign in support of an Indian casino and lobby for gay marriage. As an example of the union's distance from the lives of farmworkers, Pawel talks to many of them including Isai Rios, who migrated with his father to a camp in Carlsbad to work in the strawberry fields. The native of Oaxaca, Mexico lives in a shack made of plastic sheets tied to tomato stakes. He's never heard of the UFW. (Los Angeles Times)

Frey on Larry King Tonight

And definitely catch Larry King at 9pm. The alter kocker has "A Million Little Pieces" author James Frey on to discuss the recent investigation into his fabricated criminal record by our friends over at The Smoking Gun (Goldberg - you were OK on Tucker Carlson last night even though you sounded kinda hoarse... and sit up straight! You were slouching.)

Frey's response to the story: "So let the haters hate, let the doubters doubt, I stand by my book, and my life, and I won’t dignify this bullshit with any sort of further response." A million little pieces... of bullshit, perhaps?

This Just In...

2006-01-10T10:11:00.000-05:00

Iraqi Journalist Seized by U.S. Troops

On Sunday, American troops hunting insurgents blasted their way into the home of Ali Fadhil, an Iraqi journalist who won the Foreign Press Association young journalist of the year award two months ago. He was hooded, taken away for questioning, and released hours later.

Dr. Fadhil has been working in recent months on a documentary about claims that tens of millions of dollars of Iraqi funds maintained by American and British authorities have been misused or misappropriated. During their raid of his home, troops took several videotapes related to the project which is being produced by Guardian Films and will be aired on British TV's Channel 4.

Here's an audio clip from Dr. Fadhil describing the raid.

(The Guardian)

The Money Merry-Go-Round

The potential new House Republican leaders, Roy Blunt (Missouri) and John Boehner (Ohio), have their own web of connections to K Street.

Both men's political action committees hired Jim Ellis, who was recently indicted along with former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. DeLay's PAC gave Blunt's committee a $150,000 donation in 2000, and Blunt's PAC gave $10,000 to DeLay's non-profit foundation that same year. Both lawmakers' PACs have employed Alexander Strategy Group, a Georgetown-based firm whose partners include former Abramoff and DeLay associates.

Blunt served as the Republicans' official liason to K Street, rounding up 200 lobbyist at one meeting to discuss issues with top Republicans including Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. Boehner met weekly with leading lobbyists to enlist their support and discuss strategy during his four years as House Republican Conference chairman, from 1995 to 1998.

Blunt is close to the tobacco industry; in 2002 he tried to insert language aiding his biggest campaign donor - Philip Morris - into the bill creating the Homeland Security Department. And he later married the company's lobbyist Abigail Perlman.

(Bloomberg News)

This Just In...

2006-01-09T10:19:00.000-05:00

Abramoff Just "The Middle Guy"

It's not just Jack. Investigators are looking at the lobbyist as just "the middle guy" in a complex web of corruption, which suggests that the FBI has bigger targets in sight, an agency official tells Time magazine.

And here's an indication of how big the case is: "The FBI has 13 field offices across the country working on the case, with two dozen agents assigned to it full time and roughly the same number working part time. "We are going to chase down every lead," Chris Swecker, head of the FBI's criminal division, told Time."

Meanwhile, Arianna Huffington points out the Guam connection, which was reported last year by the LA Times. In that case, a US grand jury opened an investigation into Abramoff over two years ago, but the federal prosecutor looking into the lobbyist's work on behalf of companies employing Guam workers in "sweatshop conditions" was removed by the Bush administration.

Mining Mishaps

In a great example of hard-hitting local coverage, the Charlotte, W.V. Sunday Gazette-Mail has an excellent series of stories looking at what went wrong at the Sago mine and reporting that miners across the country face greater risks because of personnel cuts and organizational problems in the rescue system.

Unkempt Garden State

It's no surprise to anyone with half an interest in New Jersey politics, but State Senator Raymond J. Lesniak's web of influence is pretty sticky, according to the New York Times.

Here's the nub of the problem which is all-too-common in the Garden State's legislature:

"At the heart of that nexus is Mr. Lesniak's law firm, Weiner Lesniak, based in Parsippany. In the past decade, it has done legal work for scores of New Jersey municipalities, collecting millions of dollars. In many instances, the contracts awarded to Mr. Lesniak's firm came after the senator or his allies offered campaign contributions or other political support to local officials who decide who will get the work, a fact that Mr. Lesniak acknowledges."

Choice quote is Lesniak's response: "Are you supposed to hire people who donated to your opponent?"

Justice At Last?

And an appeals court in Kiev began proceedings today on the case of the long-unsolved murder of Ukranian journalist Georgy Gongadze. A crusading reporter, who exposed corruption in the country's political system, Gongadze disappeared on September 16, 2000. Two months later, his body -- with the head cut off -- was found in a woodland near Kiev.

Former police workers Nikolai Protasov, Valery Kostenko and Alexander Popovich are suspects and their former superior, police General Alexei Pukach, was accused in in absentia and put on the wanted list. But Gongadze's family thinks that the true masterminds of the murder are still at large. (The judge turned down their request to have the case re-investigated)

You Can Quote Him On That!

2006-01-06T10:28:00.000-05:00

"The time has come that the American people know exactly what their Representatives are doing here in Washington. Are they feeding at the public trough, taking lobbyist-paid vacations, getting wined and dined by special interest groups? Or are they working hard to represent their constituents? The people, the American people, have a right to know … I say the best disinfectant is full disclosure, not isolation."

- Tom Delay, 1995

Mourn the Miners

2006-01-04T09:22:00.000-05:00

All Americans should pause for a few minutes to take a moment of silence for the miners who lost their lives in West Virginia.

Although the number of coal mine fatalities has dropped to record lows and the mining industry has managed to keep employee deaths to fewer than 50 every year since 1993, it's still a dangerous place to work. (See Mine Safety Watch)

In 2004, the Sago Mine, near Tallmansville, W.Va., reported an injury rate that was three times that of similar-size underground mines across the country, the Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette reported.

U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration data shows that during the last six months of 2005, the mine also reported a dozen accidental roof falls, the newspaper said. During their last three complete examinations of the Sago Mine, MSHA inspectors cited the company for more than 180 violations.

The Tallmansville, West Virginia mine where 12 workers lost their lives was cited by inspectors for 46 alleged violations of federal mine health and safety rules during an 11-week review that ended Dec. 22, according to records. The more serious alleged violations, resulting in proposed penalties of at least $250 each, involved steps for safeguarding against roof falls, and the mine's plan to control methane and breathable dust. The mine received 208 citations from MSHA during 2005, up from 68 citations in 2004.

Did Jack and George Shake Hands?

2006-01-03T19:20:00.000-05:00

That's one of the questions circulating around the Beltway today: Did President Bush ever meet Jack Abramoff?

In the wake of the lobbyist's guilty plea, White House spokesman Scott McLellan said that he could not say whether they had ever met. Well, he could have just done a quick Nexis search and found a Bob Novak column from 1999, describing a June 22 fundraiser for then-candidate Bush at the Washington Hilton Hotel's grand ballroom.

Among the co-chairmen raising $25,000 for the event: Jack Abramoff.

Blogging the Evidence

2005-12-30T11:46:00.000-05:00

Numerous bloggers in the UK have been courting arrest - and breaking that country's wall of silence - by mass publishing the leaked US/UK/Uzbekistan Torture Memos.

The memos, which outline the rendition and torture of US-arrested prisoners in Uzbekistan, come from the correspondences of former British ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray.

Here are some of the most compelling sections of Murray's memo:

1. We receive intelligence obtained under torture from the Uzbek intelligence services, via the US. We should stop. It is bad information anyway. Tortured dupes are forced to sign up to confessions showing what the Uzbek government wants the US and UK to believe, that they and we are fighting the same war against terror.

2. I gather a recent London interdepartmental meeting considered the question and decided to continue to receive the material. This is morally, legally and practically wrong. It exposes as hypocritical our post Abu Ghraib pronouncements and fatally undermines our moral standing. It obviates my efforts to get theUzbek government to stop torture they are fully aware our intelligence community laps up the results.

3. We should cease all co-operation with the Uzbek Security Services they are beyond the pale. We indeed need to establish an SIS presence here, but not as in a friendly state.

10. I will not attempt to hide my utter contempt for such casuistry, nor my shame that I work in and organisation where colleagues would resort to it to justify torture. I have dealt with hundreds of individual cases of political or religious prisoners in Uzbekistan, and I have met with very few where torture, as defined in the UN convention, was not employed. When my then DHM raised the question with the CIA head of station 15 months ago, he readily acknowledged torture was deployed in obtaining intelligence. I do not think there is any doubt as to the fact.

18. It seems to me that there are degrees of complicity and guilt, but being at one or two removes does not make us blameless. There are other factors. Plainly it was a breach of Article 3 of the Convention for the coalition to deport detainees back here from Baghram, but it has been done. That seems plainly complicit.

Tap, Tap, Tap...

2005-12-29T11:31:00.000-05:00

In 2004, there were 347 wire-tap orders authorized in New York state, which constitutes the majority of orders authorized for individual states in the U.S. during that period. (California was 2nd with 180 and New Jersey was 3rd with 144. And there were 730 orders authorized for the federal jurisdiction.) Thanks to Mark Schaver's Depth Reporting blog for pointing me in the right direction with this info.

In New York, those numbers represent a 6% increase compared to the orders issued in 2003. (For the federal jurisdiction, they represent a 26% increase.)

To obtain those orders, authorities cited New York state's Criminal Procedure Law Article 700 (which establishes stringent requirements for the issuance of eavesdropping and video surveillance warrants).

What do those numbers mean? In New York, the numbers are broken down by county but what stands out is the increase in people intercepted by Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's office (1,108 in 2004, almost triple the number in 2003). By comparison, the number of people intercepted by the NY Organized Crime Task Force fell from 1,821 to only 213. (Hey, with all these mobsters like Bonnano boss Joseph Massino getting busted in 2003, whaddya expect?)

Meanwhile, Spitzer's orders keep getting more expensive. The sole order authorized in 2004 cost $1 million compared to the $334,000 per-order cost of the three orders authorized in 2003.

Now, what type of surveillance are we talking about? Overwhelmingly, most of it was wire (telephone, cellphone) compared to oral (such as microphone eavesdrop) and electronic (computer, fax, pager). This may be the Age of the Internet but the number of electronic intercepts actually fell by half over the two years.

So, watch what you say... and keep typing.

This Just In...

2005-12-29T10:20:00.000-05:00

At this very moment, it's possible we're being monitored
It turns out that until Tuesday (12/27/05), the NSA installed permanent cookies on the computers of Internet users who visited the NSA's Website. (By coincidence, we were there on Tuesday, which means that we just made it into the club.) And these were persistent cookies - they didn't expire until 2035 whereas most cookies are automatically deleted when surfers close their browsers. An NSA spokesman said that it was a mistake and that they disabled the cookies as soon as they were notified.
Yahoo

So, where's our check?
The Pentagon has been paying journalists to contribute pro-U.S. articles and stories to Websites that they've set up to target browsers in the Balkans and parts of North Africa (Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, Mauritania and Morocco). Now, an internal review has determined that the propagandistic sites are perfectly legal. This comes on top of last month's revelation that the Pentagon has been paying Lincoln Group, a private contractor, to plant positive stories written by U.S. troops in Iraqi newspapers.
Los Angeles Times

You don't know Jack... until now
"The biggest congressional corruption scandal in generations" is how The Washington Post is referring to the Jack Abramoff affair. The 47-year-old lobbyist received millions from Indian tribes, which he used to fly Congressmen on golf trips to Scotland, and to secure box seats at football games and concert tickets for them among other things. After returning $150,000 in contributions he'd received over the years from Abramoff, Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.), head of the Senate Appropriations panel's Interior subcommittee, thundered: "I hope he goes to jail and we never see him again. I wish he'd never been born, to be right honest with you."

Some highlights:

- Along with disgraced Angolan rebel leader Jonas Savimbi, Abramoff organized a "convention" of anticommunist guerrillas from Laos, Nicaragua and Afghanistan in a remote part of Angola. (But even among friends, Abramoff got into trouble and he was fired after a dispute over the handling of the $3 million budget).

- During the 1980s, Abramoff assisted the apartheid South African government, which secretly paid $1.5 million a year to the International Freedom Foundation, a nonprofit group that Abramoff operated out of a townhouse in the 1980s, according to sworn testimony to the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Abramoff reportedly used South African soldiers while filming the anti-communist movie, "Red Scorpion," which he produced in 1989.

- Abramoff liked to mimic Michael Corleone in "The Godfather" during a scene when the mobster rejects a crooked politician's demand for a cut of the action: "Senator, you can have my answer now if you like. My offer is this: nothing."

It's Hell Below

2005-12-28T14:55:00.000-05:00

Yesterday's New York Times story on Freeport-McMoran was one of the best investigative feature stories I've read in a long time.

Devastating in its simple recitation of the facts, the piece exposed the mining company's complicity with Indonesia's military (whose human rights record is so poor that the U.S. government stopped dealing with them for 12 years) to protect its operations in that country. In addition to making payoffs to individual generals and colonels, Freeport-McMoran also reportedly spied on its environmental critics, who have denounced the mine's ruinous impact on the country's forests and rivers.

It's also worth checking out a Q&A with the story's authors, Jane Perlez and Kirk Johnson. The piece is part of their series on gold mining around the world and its impact on communities, the environment and the global economy.

Since the 1998 election cycle, Freeport McMoran has contributed $195,000 to Republican congressional committees and $27,635 to Democratic congressional committees. And Chairman James R. Moffett, whose total compensation in 2004 was $9.5 million, gave a few thousand dollars to the Bush campaign in 2004.

It's Nice to Know...

2005-12-27T16:23:00.000-05:00

that the NSA is looking out for our 4th Amendment protections.

As quoted on their Website:

"Americans expect NSA to conduct its missions within the law. But given the inherently secret nature of those missions, how can Americans be sure that the Agency does not invade their privacy? The 4th Amendment of the Constitution demands it... oversight committees within all three branches of the U.S. government ensure it... and NSA employees, as U.S. citizens, have a vested interest in upholding it. Respecting the law is only a part of gaining Americans' trust."

Striking Reality

2005-12-22T14:35:00.000-05:00

As the trains get ready to roll again (and our feet finish thawing out from this morning's 1.5 hour hike from Brooklyn), it's a good time to reflect on the true stories behind the 2005 NYC transit strike.

Sure, we're all a little annoyed at the transit workers (retiring at 55 with a pension is a distant fantasy for most of us) after a few days of enduring frigid temperatures and commuter chaos. And plenty of us are all too familiar with scenes like this:

But let's not forget that we're talking about the MTA, one of the most mismanaged agencies in the state (i.e. getting screwed out of tens of millions of $ by mobbed-up contractors for the work on their headquarters building at 2 Broadway back in 2002. Projected cost: $140 million, Actual cost: $845 million).

Here's another example:

The MTA is paying a few consultants over $500 an hour apiece to provide advice to their human resources department, according to MTA documents reviewed by The Investigators.

As of March 2004 (through February 2007), the MTA has a $303,000 contract with Hay Group, a Philadelphia-based consulting firm. These are the billing rates for some of Hay Group's staffers - S. Nissenfeld: $550/hour, H. Resnick $525-595/hour, R. Porter: $500-540/hour. These expenditures don't include out-of-pocket expenses such as traveling expenses, office supplies, computer services, etc.

Here's some suggested HR advice: Fire the consultants!

No wonder union members are aggravated - the MTA has been using private contractors (some of whom don't work for the Mob) for years. And some of these firms don't treat their workers too well.

Let's take a look at some of them. Darcon Construction Corp. has been cited for OSHA violations (that's the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration). Another firm, Rotondo Contracting, was penalized by the Department of Labor in 2000 for not paying overtime to their workers. And in June 2004, one worker was killed and two injured when a six-foot foundation collapsed at one of Rotondo's construction sites in Queens.

Welcome

2005-12-22T12:56:00.000-05:00

Welcome to our first, fumbling effort to put together a blog.

Expect plenty of remodeling in the next few months.

Over a few Irish coffees, I'll come up with a better motto but for now:

This blog will be devoted to investigative journalism - our team consists of an investigator and an ink-stained wretch who are disgusted with the quality of most mainstream journalism.

We're dedicated to breaking news in all areas - from international politics to New York community concerns, from the fashion runway to the corporate boardroom.

Feel free to join us in the hunt for scoops by supplying us with plenty of your own...