P2P-Zone  

Go Back   P2P-Zone > Political Asylum
FAQ Members List Calendar Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

Political Asylum Publicly Debate Politics, War, Media.

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
Old 30-09-06, 07:21 AM   #1
multi
Thanks for being with arse
 
multi's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: The other side of the world
Posts: 10,343
Default Inspector general goes missing from Pentagon

WASHINGTON - Contractor overbilling. Detainee abuses. Flagrant government corruption.

There's no shortage of work these days for the Pentagon's inspector general, the Department of Defense watchdog who oversees the Pentagon and its massive budget. And yet the position -- one of the most important oversight jobs in all of federal government -- has gone vacant for more than a year.

Now, sources tell NBC News, bureaucratic in-fighting and resistance from a prominent U.S. senator have stalled and possibly scuttled the confirmation of a hard-charging prosecutor who was nominated months ago for the top job.

In June, President Bush nominated a new Pentagon inspector general, choosing a federal prosecutor with a reputation for aggressively prosecuting terrorists. But congressional sources say his nomination is in peril, delayed by Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and infighting by the acting Pentagon inspector general. The upshot, the sources say, is that the Pentagon will likely continue to operate without a top watchdog for months to come -- even as wars rage in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Pentagon's budget swells to more than $400 billion a year.

The nominee is David Laufman, an Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. Laufman is a former CIA analyst and Justice Department lawyer with a reputation for smarts. Laufman was the lead prosecutor for Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, an American citizen who was convicted of aiding al-Qaida and conspiring to assassinate President Bush. Laufman also helped to prosecute the controversial case of the so-called Virginia Jihadists, a group of Islamic radicals living in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., who trained with paintball guns and wanted to conduct violent jihad overseas.

But Levin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, has publicly questioned Laufman's independence. And Levin's staff director confirms that the senator has helped stall any action on the nomination at least until November, when the lame-duck congressional session begins.

"We met with him and we still have concerns," says Richard DeBobes, the Democratic Staff Director of the Senate Armed Services Committee. DeBobes says the senator is concerned that Laufman could "cozy up to" the secretary of defense and consult with him before issuing an investigation or report that deals with national security matters.
More..
__________________

i beat the internet
- the end boss is hard
multi is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump






All times are GMT -6. The time now is 11:58 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
© www.p2p-zone.com - Napsterites - 2000 - 2024 (Contact grm1@iinet.net.au for all admin enquiries)