http://www.inthesetimes.com/archives/tags/government+agencies/ In These Times features award-winning investigative reporting about corporate malfeasance and government wrongdoing, insightful analysis of national and international affairs, and sharp cultural criticism about events and ideas that matter. en-us Expression Engine jessica@inthesetimes.com seamus@inthesetimes.com Wed, 05 Jul 2006 05:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2690/europe_turns_a_blind_eye_to_the_cia/ Thirteen members of an E.U. Parliament probe arrived in Washington on May 10, seeking answers to allegations of CIA-operated secret flights and prisons in Europe. A reported 1,000 CIA flights have secretly crisscrossed Europe since 9/11, often transporting "terror suspects" to be interrogated in other countries, such as Egypt, where prisoners are routinely tortured. But when the Europeans came calling at the nation's capital, only low-level administration officials and four members of Congress (all Democrats) met with them face-to-face. Stonewalling from the Bush administration should be no surprise, but European government officials haven't been any more forthcoming. Javier Solana, the E.U.'s foreign policy chief, told the E.U. Parliament, "I have no information whatsoever that tells me with certainty that any… International Affairs War on Terror Europe Government Agencies David Moberg Thu, 27 Jul 2006 05:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2735/a_terrifying_distraction/ The arrest of seven men in Miami last month on specious terrorism charges smells strongly like a case of governmental entrapment. The men, six of whom are of Haitian descent, allegedly planned to blow up various targets--including government buildings and the Sears Tower in Chicago--but officials found no plans, explosives or any equipment whatsoever that could be used to effect the plot. In fact, the FBI informant who infiltrated the group posing as an al-Qaeda representative is the one who initiated the idea of blowing up government buildings. The seven men are charged with two counts of conspiring to support a foreign terrorist organization, one count of conspiring to destroy buildings by use of explosives and one count of conspiring… Government Agencies Civil Liberties Terrorism Race David Moberg Thu, 03 Aug 2006 05:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2769/police_torture_and_the_need_for_repair/ When the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) mobilized opposition to a bill naming one Chicago block in honor of the late Fred Hampton, the legislation died, despite vigorous support from African-American activists and politicians. Hampton, a Black Panther killed by police in an infamous 1969 raid, was popular among many in the black community because he aggressively challenged police brutality. Hampton's brazen assassination confirmed his complaint and transformed him into an international martyr. But the FOP said Hampton advocated cop killing and the bill for an honorific street died without any support from the city's white aldermen. More than three decades later, many white Americans remain unconvinced by blacks' complaints of police abuse. Those same differences likely explain why charges… Criminal Justice Government Agencies Race Corruption David Moberg Tue, 05 Sep 2006 05:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2779/sick_to_death_of_bush/ Trust me, George Bush says, perched on the remains of Geneva Conventions, the Constitution and habeas corpus. From this moral high ground, the United States is assuring the world that a new facility for researching a horror shop of weaponized infectious diseases will be used purely for defensive purposes. The National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center's (NBACC) $128 million, 160,000-square-foot facility is under construction at Fort Detrick, Md. There, the United States has already weaponized more than a dozen diseases--including anthrax, plague, botulism and ebola--and bioengineered war-friendly "improvements." Scientists are also using DNA-synthesizing techniques to fabricate genetically altered or man-made viruses, and to study the feasibility of creating germ weapons targeting particular ethnicities. "De facto, we are going to make… war and peace government agencies medical and health David Moberg Wed, 11 Oct 2006 06:40:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2847/halliburton_hearts_congress/ Feces in the soldiers' water. Blood on the mess hall floor. Expired and substandard food. $85,000 trucks with flat tires abandoned in the desert. Embroidered towels for twice the cost. More than $1 billion in "questionable charges." These are just a few of the allegations levied against Halliburton, and its subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR), by former employees, soldiers and their families as well as Pentagon and congressional investigators. Since the beginning of the war in Iraq, Halliburton has been working for the Pentagon under the Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (LOGCAP)--a multi-billion dollar agreement that guarantees the contractor receives a fixed profit based on the quote the company gives for tasks like food service, provisioning and outfitting of U.S.… Corporations Halliburton Iraq War Congress Government Agencies Military David Moberg Mon, 20 Nov 2006 05:00:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2889/doj_quashes_wiretapping_inquiries/ Though Maine resident Doug Cowie just celebrated his 75th birthday in October, it was only this past January that he retired from the Maine Public Utility Commission (PUC) where he worked for 18 years. It would be easy to think of Cowie as an innocuous grandfatherly type--particularly after his response when I told him some of his e-mails ended up in my spam folder: "Your what folder?"--but he is one of a growing number of Americans who are acting, in lieu of Congress, as the only check and balance on the Bush administration's domestic spying program. When USA Today published an article on May 11 alleging that the National Security Agency (NSA) had teamed up with major telecommunications companies to… Government Agencies Civil Liberties Activism David Moberg Mon, 04 Dec 2006 05:00:01 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2928/is_congress_gates_keeper/ Robert Gates, George W. Bush's choice to replace Donald Rumsfeld as Defense Secretary, is a trusted figure within the Bush family's inner circle. But there are lingering questions about whether Gates is a trustworthy public official. The 63-year-old Gates has long faced accusations of collaborating with Islamic extremists in Iran, arming Saddam Hussein's dictatorship in Iraq, and politicizing U.S. intelligence to conform with the desires of policymakers--three key areas that relate to his future job. The Bush administration is seeking to slip Gates through the congressional approval process by pressing for a confirmation before the new Democratic-controlled Senate is seated. In 1991, Gates got a similar pass when leading Democrats agreed to put "bipartisanship" ahead of oversight when President George… Congress Government: Administration Corruption Government Agencies David Moberg Mon, 05 Feb 2007 05:00:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3007/declassified_but_still_unavailable/ At the stroke of midnight on December 31, hundreds of millions of pages of secret government documents--including 270 million pages of FBI files--were instantly declassified, promising to shed light on everything from the Cuban Missile Crisis to government surveillance of antiwar and civil rights activists in the '60s and '70s. It was to be a "Cinderella moment," said the New York Times, for researchers of the government's secret history. But upon contacting the National Archives, researchers learned that declassification is not the same thing as release--none of the documents were publicly available for review. The confusion over the documents' status was understandable. The 2003 Executive Order that President Bush signed with great fanfare clearly stated that government documents more than… government agencies intelligence David Moberg Fri, 08 Jun 2007 05:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3217/entrapping_inflated_threats/ Abdul Kadir, one of the four men charged in an alleged terrorist plot to blow up a pipeline that fed fuel tanks at John F. Kennedy International Airport, is a former member of the Guyanese Parliament and former mayor of Linden, Guyana. The fuel line the group allegedly planned to sabotage originates in Linden, N.J. This Linden-Linden axis heavily implicates Kadir. I am being facetious of course. However, had law enforcement officials made this connection during their announcement of the plot in early June, there is little doubt the national media would have incredulously reported it as a credible link. In fact, the actual announcement was just marginally more credible. "Had the plot been carried out, it could have resulted… conspiracies government agencies national security David Moberg