White quits as US Army Secretary
The civilian who oversees the US Army, Thomas White, has submitted his resignation. The Defense Dept. has not given a reason for the resignation nor the date it will be effective. Before being appointed by Pres. Bush in 2001, White worked 11 years for Enron, which filed one of the biggest bankruptcies in US history in December 2001. His most recent corporate job was vice chairman of Enron Energy Services, which allegedly traded millions of megawatts of electricity with other Enron divisions, artificially jacking up prices. Defense Sec. Donald Rumsfeld was reported to have a grudge against White for working behind his back last May to sustain the $11 billion Crusader artillery program which Rumsfeld cancelled. (Reuters)

Bush stays on war footing for re-election drive
Pres. Bush unveiled the central points of his re-election campaign on Apr. 24, mixing muscular rhetoric on the war against terror with economic optimism. Bush never strayed far from the theme of national security that will dominate his drive for a second term. After the conflict in Iraq, Bush warned other states and terrorist groups against challenging Washington.

In declaring an ongoing war on terror, Bush will be going to the country on a war footing even in the absence of any further looming conflicts, presenting Iraq as part of a process rather than a fixed event. However, the economy remains critical to Bush’s re-election hopes. He is devoting much of his energies in the short term to securing the backing of the Senate for his controversial multi-billion dollar tax cuts. They have already been cut by the House of Representatives from $726 billion over ten years to $550 billion, and Bush is battling the Senate to cut them further to $370 billion.

Bush said he was optimistic about the recovery of the economy. He conceded that there was “too much economic uncertainty today,” but absolved himself of blame. He said a recession was already in effect when he was elected and that Sept. 11, corporate scandals, and two wars had deepened the effect. (Times UK)

Police get power to check prints on the spot
Next month, more than a dozen Portland, OR police will carry handheld devices on the street that will allow them to instantly verify a person’s identity by analyzing their fingerprints. The technology captures fingerprints at the scene and remotely transmits them to a database. Police will run the prints against the FBI’s automated fingerprint database, and a database of seven Western states. If there is a match, the system returns the person’s name, date of birth, and mug shot directly to the officer’s handheld terminal. Then the officer can check the person’s criminal history and search for any outstanding warrants.

The device that will “save time and money” came from a $250,000 federal Community Oriented Policing Services grant. Within a year, the bureau intends to expand the pilot purchase of 15 to more than 300 terminals for all patrol officers—including those on horseback, bicycles, and motorcycles who do not have mobile computer terminals—with $650,000 set aside for the Portland police by the US Dept. of Justice. (The Oregonian)

Senators threaten universities critical of Israel with funding cuts
Sen.Rick Santorum (R-PA) has proposed a law that suggests cutting federal funding for US colleges and universities which permit students and staff to publicly criticize Israel. This practice of freedom of speech, Santorum claims, would be an act of “anti-Semitism.” Under the proposed bill, the federal funding formula under Title IX of the Higher Education Act will include “ideological diversity” as a prerequisite for federal funding. Santorum is also known for his support and sponsorship of the Syrian Accountability Act, which accuses Syria of backing ‘terrorism’ and developing weapons of mass destruction.

Santorum, along with other Republican Senators, invited representatives of several powerful Jewish organizations to convene on Capitol Hill to discuss the senators’ growing concern about mounting criticism of Israel on American campuses. (Palestine Media Center)

After ‘decline,’ US again capable of making nukes
The US has regained the capability to make nuclear weapons for the first time in 14 years and has restarted production of plutonium parts for bombs, the Energy Dept said Apr. 22. Under a Bush administration plan, the Energy Dept. is beginning limited production of plutonium parts for the stockpile of nuclear weapons and will begin laying plans for a new factory that could produce components for hundreds of weapons each year.

“It is a sign that after a long period of decline, the weapons complex is back and growing,” said Jon Wolfsthal, deputy director of the Carnegie Endowment for Intl. Peace. “To the average US citizen, it would be accurate to say we have restarted the production of nuclear weapons.” The Energy Dept. vehemently denied it is actually producing nuclear weapons and said it needs the capability of producing plutonium parts to ensure the reliability of the aging stockpile of US weapons. The effort to restart component production is going to take about two decades.

Critics say the Bush administration is going overboard in its investments in the nuclear weapons complex. The government is now spending about $6 billion annually on the nuclear weapons complex, 50 percent more than it did during the Cold War. (Los Angeles Times)

Dallas officer charged in fake drug case
Federal officials said Apr. 25 that Dallas police officer Mark Delapaz has been indicted for his role in fabricating drug evidence against innocent people. Accused of depriving people of their rights and making false statements to federal officials, he could face up to ten years in prison if convicted.

Paid police informants allegedly planted fake drugs—usually crushed billiard chalk packaged to resemble powder cocaine or other drugs—on innocent people, mostly Mexican nationals in working-class neighborhoods between Oct. 1999 and Jan. 2002. The victims were then arrested, charged with drug offenses, and held in jail—for several months in some cases.

The Dallas County district attorney has dismissed 80 cases because of the fake drugs scandal, which is being investigated by the FBI. Three of the former paid police informants have pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate civil rights and are cooperating in the investigation. The Dallas Police Dept.—which has suspended Delapaz—is waiting for the FBI to complete its work before their internal affairs division investigates Delapaz and conducts a hearing if the allegations stand. (UPI)

Ashcroft: illegal aliens can be held indefinitely
Attorney Gen. John Ashcroft has ruled that illegal immigrants who have no known links to terrorist groups can be detained indefinitely to address national security concerns. Ashcroft was ruling in the case of a Haitian immigrant who had won the right to be released on bail while awaiting a decision on his asylum claim. Ashcroft did not argue that the man was a security threat, but said that his release and that of others like him “would tend to encourage further surges of mass migration from Haiti by sea, with attendant strains on national security and homeland security resources.” Ashcroft described Haiti as a staging point for Pakistanis and Palestinians hoping to enter the United States illegally, a charge that was disputed by advocates for immigrants.

Because immigration judges are part of the Justice Dept., rulings made by Ashcroft serve as the basis for any decisions. The decision will have an immediate effect on Haitian immigrants in Florida. But Ashcroft said the nation’s immigration judges should rule similarly in bail hearings involving other illegal immigrants when the government provides evidence that extended detention is needed to protect the country.

It was unclear how widely the policy would be enforced. Outraged advocates for immigrants said it would impose unnecessary hardships on immigrants and asylum seekers who pose no security risk.

This policy shift is the latest effort by the Bush administration to use the detention of immigrants as a tool to address security concerns and prevent terrorist attacks. In March, officials said they would detain people from Iraq and 32 other countries who arrive at airports and border crossings seeking political asylum. The government has also detained dozens of immigrants without charge as material witnesses in terrorism cases.

This is the first time, however, that officials have decided to detain immigrants who have no links to terrorism in an effort to address broader security concerns. Until now, judges in bail hearings focused on whether each individual immigrant would pose a threat to local or national safety. Human rights groups sharply criticized the policy shift. (The New York Times)

Feds target activists for animal rights
Federal agents from the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF)—comprised of both state and federal agents—raided a Franklin Township, NJ house last week that served as the headquarters for the animal rights organization Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC). The group has conducted a years-long campaign against Huntingdon Life Sciences, a company whose laboratory in Franklin Township uses animals for research purposes. The attorney for SHAC vehemently denied that SHAC members are involved in criminal activity. The raid was part of a nationwide investigation into possible criminal activities by the group.

In another development last Apr. 23, the JTTF raided a home in Seattle as part of the same investigation. Agents are investigating suspected arson, violations of federal interstate commerce statutes, and “animal enterprise terrorism” by radical animal rights groups. The occupants of the Seattle home have been linked to animal rights organizations, though it was unclear whether SHAC is among them. (NJ Star-Ledger)

Federal lobbying by form e-mail endangered
The US Dept. of Agriculture Forest Service is currently considering a regulation that would let it ignore any public comments on its rule-making process sent to it through Web-based forms. The agency plans to implement technology to sort its e-mail and disregard duplicated messages. Pre-printed postcards and other more traditional form letters sent through the Post Office would also be rejected.

If the new plan takes effect, it will essentially disable the Web-based “action centers” that thousands of civil liberties, environmental, and other advocacy groups from across the political spectrum use to rally support for their efforts and help people contact lawmakers electronically. Digital civil liberties groups Electronic Frontier Foundation questions the legality as well as the advisability of such a move and said they would consider a legal challenge. It is also worried the plan could slip over to other agencies. (Medill News Service)

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