Janis Joplin
Ball & Chain

I read this story this morning and thought about throughout the day. Here’s the deal:

Under the agreement, ITT will pay $50 million upfront in penalty fees to the Department of State and the United States, including a $28 million forfeiture fee. ITT will also be restricted from shipping devices to certain parties for at least one year.

The remainder $50 million fee will be suspended for five years as part of a deferred prosecution penalty. During this interim, the company will have the opportunity to reduce its fee on a dollar-for-dollar basis by investing in the development of more advanced night vision technology for the military.

So how much did ITT make on illegally providing classified equipment to China, Singapore and the UK??? It must have been a huge amount. And why are we STILL doing business with them??? They get to use $50 million of the fine to develop more advanced products???? Why??????? Why not have some other company do it???????????? This is screwed up if you ask me.

ITT, the leading provider of night vision technology for the military, agreed to plead guilty to illegally providing classified equipment to China, Singapore and the United Kingdom, the Department of Justice announced on Tuesday.

In the first criminal conviction of a defense contractor under the Arms Export Control Act, the company will plead guilty to the export of defense articles without a license and for making misleading statements in arms export reports.

“ITT’s exportation of this sensitive technology to China and other nations jeopardized our national security and the safety of our military men and women on the battlefield,” said Kenneth Wainstein, the assistant attorney general for the National Security Division, in a statement on Tuesday.

The agreement caps a bitter years-long investigation by the Department of Defense into the company’s practices - government officials accused ITT (nyse: ITT - news - people ) and its legal team of delaying the process and failing to fully cooperate.

More at Forbes

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An FBI agent was warned to keep quiet about the dismissal of a U.S. attorney after he told a newspaper her firing would hurt the agency’s ongoing investigations and speculated politics was involved, a U.S. Senate panel heard on Tuesday.

FBI Director Robert Mueller defended the handling of the incident, saying: “I do not believe it’s appropriate for our special agents in charge to comment to the media on personnel decisions that are made by the Department of Justice.”

“I profoundly disagree,” replied Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, who told the panel of the warning to the agent. “He (the agent) was simply saying that it would affect cases that were ongoing. And I think he’s entitled to his opinion.”

The exchange came as Mueller’s testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is ramping up its investigation into the firing last year of eight of the nation’s 93 U.S. attorneys.

The Bush administration contends the firings were justified. The mostly Democratic critics of the dismissals question whether the prosecutors were fired for political motives.

Full article at Boston.com

Leahy’s opening statement

Leahy questioning Mueller

A Pentagon spokesman said Tuesday that the exercises are aimed at reassuring friends and allies, not at raising tensions with Iran. “We are not interested in confrontation in the Gulf,” said Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman.
Liar Liar pants on fire……

Iran is showing off in the Gulf, also. Any bets on how long until we are at war??????

From the Daily Star

The US Navy on Tuesday began its largest demonstration of force in the Gulf since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, deploying two aircraft carriers and conducting simulated aerial attacks.

Russia and the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday urged Iran to comply with UN demands, with Moscow going on to warn Washington against military action and the Gulf emirate saying it will not be involved in a war on Tehran.

The maneuvers, involving the USS John C. Stennis, the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and their battle groups, were certain to increase tension with Iran.

A Pentagon spokesman said Tuesday that the exercises are aimed at reassuring friends and allies, not at raising tensions with Iran. “We are not interested in confrontation in the Gulf,” said Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman.

“The fact of the matter is - and the secretary has talked about this repeatedly - we have interest in the stability and security in the Gulf and the United States continues to reassure our allies in the region that we are good partners,” he said.

The UN Security Council tightened sanctions on Iran on Saturday over its refusal to halt uranium enrichment. The standoff between the Islamic Republic and the international community has raised fears among many Gulf Arabs of a military escalation in region.

“The UAE is an independent and sovereign state that rejects the use of its territories, air or regional waters to attack any country, especially if it is a neighbor and Muslim,” UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan told Arab newspaper Al-Hayat.

Wolf Blitzer just interviewed John McCain. I turned the volume down because I don’t care what the idiot has to say. But leading into the interview, Blitzer said something to the effect “Senator McCain will be here before he rushes to congress to vote on the Iraq bill.” He wasn’t there this morning to vote…..why? Because he’s too fucking busy running for President. Sorry, but I don’t think I should have to be paying this guy to run for President. I don’t think he should be able to pick and chose what bills he’ll RUSH back to congress to vote for and which ones he really doesn’t give a shit about. You’re being PAID TO VOTE ON ALL OF THEM!!!!!!!! And I’d say this about anyone who holds a congressional seat and is running for President. Who of us can decide what projects we want to do at work and which we don’t……what days we’ll show up and what days we won’t. Here’s who didn’t vote this morning:
Biden (D-DE)
Brownback (R-KS)
Enzi (R-WY)
Johnson (D-SD)
McCain (R-AZ)

Gee three of the five not voting are out campaigning. Who knows where Enzi is….maybe hunting with the Shooter. We know where Johnson is. I got a message for you three……..do your fucking job! The one we’re paying you to do NOW!

The other thing is, Arlen Specter was just on spewing his bullshit again. I am soooooo angry that the media is giving this guy face time. Why???? They keep interviewing him about the problem HE created…..yet they don’t ask him anything about that aspect of the story. Every time I see his face I want to throw up.

I guess I need to turn the damn tube off for a couple days and give it a rest. Like my brother says, too much MSM will make you insane.

Too friggin bad!

From SFGate.com

Former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld cannot be tried on allegations of torture in overseas military prisons, a federal judge said Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan threw out a lawsuit brought on behalf of nine former prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan. He said Rumsfeld cannot be held personally responsible for actions taken in connection with his government job.

The lawsuit contends the prisoners were beaten, suspended upside down from the ceiling by chains, urinated on, shocked, sexually humiliated, burned, locked inside boxes and subjected to mock executions.

Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights First had argued that Rumsfeld and top military officials disregarded warnings about the abuse and authorized the use of illegal interrogation tactics that violated the constitutional and human rights of prisoners.

“Despite the horrifying torture allegations,” Hogan wrote, he could find no case law supporting the lawsuit, which he previously had described as unprecedented.

Truly, how long can our military survive this useless war?

From Military.com

WASHINGTON - The Marine Corps is recalling 1,800 reservists to active duty, citing a shortage of volunteers to fill some jobs in Iraq.

Members of the branch’s Individual Ready Reserve (IRR) will get letters this week notifying them of plans to mobilize them involuntarily for a year, said Lt. Col. Jeff Riehl of Marine manpower and reserve affairs.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates last week approved the action, under which reservists would report for duty in October and deploy to Iraq early next year, Riehl said.

From the 1,800 called, officials hope to get 1,200 Marines for aviation maintenance, logistics support, combat arms and several other skills needed for the early 2008 rotation into Iraq.

The ready reserves are service members who have left active duty but still have time remaining on their eight-year military obligations. Generally, Marines enlist for four years, then serve another four either in the regular Reserves, where they are paid and train periodically, or in the IRR, in which they do not drill but can be involuntarily recalled.

President Bush last July authorized the recall from the Marine IRR of up to 2,500 at one time. Like the Army, the Marines have had to call considerably larger numbers of people to get the number they want, because some don’t pass muster and others ask for deferments, delays or exemptions due to family issues, medical reasons and other issues.

This is the second call-up under Bush’s order. The Marines in December called 150 in search of 100 people with infantry, logistics, communications and other skills, though they only ended up with 69. They are deploying in July.

There are about 60,000 Marines in the IRR, but the Corps has decided to exempt from call-up those who are either in their first year or last year of reserve status. As a result, the pool of available Marines is about 25,000, said Maj. Steven O’Connor, a Marine Corps spokesman.

Riehl said a plan to increase the Marine Corps’ overall size could eventually help erase future shortfalls.

This whole thing is such a crying shame. Fog of war my ass.

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Pat Tillman’s family firmly rejected the Defense Department’s findings into the former NFL star’s friendly-fire death in Afghanistan, calling for congressional investigations into what they see as broad malfeasance and a cover-up.

“Perhaps subpoenas are necessary to elicit candor and accuracy from the military,” his family said in a statement Monday night, after hearing the results of the latest probes.

The men who shot Tillman have always claimed the April 22, 2004, incident was a terrible mistake in the fog of war, and the Army officially agreed Monday, declining to press charges.

But possible punishments still hang over several high-ranking officers who allegedly botched the investigations and key administrative tasks.

Nine Army officers, including four generals, made errors in reporting the friendly fire death to their superiors and to the Tillman family, the Pentagon said. Defense officials said one or more of those officers who provided misleading information as the military investigated could be charged with a crime.

A central issue in the case is why the Army waited about five weeks from the time it suspected Tillman’s death was friendly fire until it told his family. Several officers have testified they wanted to wait until the early investigations were complete, but regulations required the Army to notify family members if friendly fire was even suspected.

More at YahooNews

SANTA ANA, Calif. - Prosecutors cast engineer Chi Mak as a secret foreign agent who used his position at a U.S. defense contractor to steal military secrets for China. Defense attorneys say Mak is a devoted American who would never harm his adopted country. Those two portrayals will be presented to a jury as Mak’s federal trial starts Tuesday.

Mak, a U.S. citizen since 1985, is charged with conspiracy to export U.S. defense secrets to China, possession of property in aid of a foreign government and failure to register as a foreign agent. He could get more than 50 years in prison if convicted.

As a top engineer at Power Paragon, an Anaheim-based subsidiary of the nation’s sixth-largest defense company, L-3 Communications, Mak helped develop some of the most advanced and closely guarded naval technology in the world, including silent-running propulsion systems that can make submarines virtually undetectable.

But prosecutors say Mak was also working for his native China from 1983 until his arrest two years ago, stealing hundreds of documents about a number of defense systems.

Mak, 66, allegedly took documents from Power Paragon, copied them to computer disks and encrypted them with the help of his brother, Tai Mak, and nephew, Billy Mak, before trying to pass them to a Chinese contact.

Tai Mak and his wife, Fuk Heung Li, were arrested in October 2005 at Los Angeles International Airport as they prepared to travel to Hong Kong and China.

Hidden in their luggage were encrypted disks containing copies of documents on a submarine propulsion system, according to court papers.

More at YahooNews

From The Satirical Political Report. I love this website!

Although dead for the last 13 years, Richard Milhous Nixon has announced yet another, and presumably final comeback, in order to reclaim his title as the most reckless and corrupt President in U.S. history.

Speaking from his privately-gated community in hell, Nixon stated that he thought he was through with politics, but that he felt compelled to run again “since the Bush gang has made my Administration look like a bunch of juvenile delinquents.”

Nixon further asserted that “although Bush has dramatically eclipsed my records for corruption and constitutional violations, Bush’s statistics should have an asterisk, since they were obviously accomplished with the aid of steroids.”

The man known as “Tricky Dick” also claimed that “after waterboarding, Watergate doesn-t look so bad. Hell, you guys thought Haldeman and Ehrlichman were a coupla- tough Krauts, but when it comes to Nazis, this Rove guy seems to be the real deal.”

Nixon, the only President to have resigned under cloud of scandal, added that while he invaded Cambodia, Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office and the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee, he had the good sense not to stick his nose into the hornet’s nest of the Middle East.

The 37th President also emphasized that he was merely obsessed with “destroying my political enemies, not the entire eco’system.”

Nixon also expressed jealousy for the high-tech environmnent in which Bush gets to do his modern-day dirty work: “It’s a lot easier to delete e-mails than those damn reel-to-reel tapes.”

But the man the press loved to hate couldn-t resist getting one more dig in at his tormentors: “After Bush, you only wish you had me to kick around again.”