NDN Blog

The Washington Post reports on the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency’s holding program for non- Mexican illegal immigrants. A record 26,500 non-Mexican immigrants are currently being detained for weeks and possibly years in the facilities that according to the ACLU, and other groups currently challenging the conditions there, lack adequate clothing, medical services, and legal council. Facilities such as the $65 million “tent city” in Raymondville, Texas, are being expanded as the ICE struggles to find more funding and space to lease in order to meet the influx of new detainees.

The $65 million tent city, built hastily last summer between a federal prison and a county jail, marks both the success and the limits of the government's new policy of holding captured non-Mexicans until they are sent home. Previously, most such detainees were released into the United States before hearings, and a majority simply disappeared.

The new policy has led to a dramatic decline in border crossings by non-Mexicans, according to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

But civil liberties and immigration law groups allege that out of sight, the system is bursting at the seams. In the Texas facility, they say, illegal immigrants are confined 23 hours a day in windowless tents made of a Kevlar-like material, often with insufficient food, clothing, medical care and access to telephones. Many are transferred from the East Coast, 1,500 miles from relatives and lawyers, virtually cutting off access to counsel.

His opponet from Cato talked about Europe and Shaq, so it was certainly an interesting debate.  Simon continued to make a case for a new economic strategy for the 21st century.  Click on the picture below to read the wrapup and watch video of the entire exchange.

Updating Travis's post from yesterday on the topic, here's Senator Obama introducing his resolution:

In an effort to save face for the White House, Republican leaders in the Senate are trying to peel away Republican support for the anti-surge non-binding reolutions proposed by Joe Biden, Carl Levin and John Warner, among others. 

The new effort by President Bush’s allies, including Senators John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, is aimed at blocking two nonbinding resolutions directly critical of the White House that had appeared to be gaining broad support among Democrats and even some Republicans.

Republicans skeptical of the troop buildup said some of their colleagues had begun to suggest that opponents of the White House plan ran the risk of undermining Lt. Gen. David L. Petraeus, the new military commander in Iraq, as well as Mr. Bush.

“There is a lot of pressure on people who could be with us not to be with us,” said Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, the co-author of one resolution along with Senators John W. Warner, Republican of Virginia, and Ben Nelson, Democrat of Nebraska.

As an alternative to that measure and another broadly backed by Democrats, Mr. McCain and Mr. Graham, along with Senator Joeseph I. Leiberman, the independent Democrat from Connecticut, are trying to enlist support for a resolution that would set benchmarks for the Iraqi government and describe the troop increase as a final chance for the United States to restore security in Baghdad.

The senators have been joined in their effort by the Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Senator John Cornyn of Texas and Senator David Vitter of Louisiana.

The NYT is picking up the Bush Administration's claim that the abduction and subsequent killing of 5 US soldiers on January 20th was the work of Iranian trained and supported fighters. 

An Iraqi knowledgeable about the investigation said four suspects had been detained and questioned. Based on those interviews, investigators have concluded that as they fled Karbala with the abducted Americans, the attackers used advanced devices to monitor police communications and avoid the roads where the police were searching.

The suspects have also told investigators that “a religious group in Najaf” was involved in the operation, the Iraqi said, in a clear reference to the Mahdi Army, the militia controlled by the breakaway Shiite cleric, Moktada al-Sadr. If that information holds up, it would dovetail with assertions by several Iraqi officials that Iran is financing and training a small number of splinter groups from the Mahdi Army to carry out special operations and assassinations.

This apparently growing cooperation between Iran and radical Shiite militia elements further complicates the work of US troops and increases the likelihood of eventual conflict between American and Iranian forces.  Also troubling, was the attackers ability to impersonate American troops and travel without harassment by Iraqi forces, raising questions of loyalty:

An American military official said all possibilities were being explored, with the focus on whom the United States can trust, even among senior Iraqi officials, in the Karbala area.

“We’ve got to be very careful as to who we define as our allies, and who we trust and who we don’t,” the military official said. “Was the governor involved? Were the Iraqi police that were on guard complicit or just incompetent?”

Meanwhile, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is challenging the President's nominee for the #2 position at State, John Negroponte, over Iran policy:

“Do you think we are drifting toward a military confrontation with Iran?” demanded Senator Chuck Hagel, Republican of Nebraska.

“I don’t think that has to be, Senator,” Mr. Negroponte replied. “I think we would strongly prefer that the issues between us and Iran be resolved peacefully.”

Mr. Negroponte maintained that an emboldened Iran could harm American interests in the region.

“We don’t believe that their behavior, such as supporting Shia extremists in Iraq, should go unchallenged,” said Mr. Negroponte, who is now the director of national intelligence.

Sectarian violence is up dramatically, and as long as that is the case, Iran will continue to defend Shiites in Iraq.  Attacks against Shiites are being timed to coincide with the Shiite holiday of Ashura, and are taking place around the country, including in Baghdad, with ever-greater weaponry and lethality:

Attackers using bombs, rockets and guns killed at least 60 Shiite worshipers Tuesday as they observed their most sacred holiday, Iraqi officials said...

A roadside bomb in the sprawling Shiite enclave of Sadr City struck an Ashura procession, killing seven people and wounding 23, Salih said.

In other neighborhoods, gunmen fired Katyusha rockets at processions and used machine guns to attack passing buses heading to Karbala, Salih added. He said at least three people died in those incidents.

If there is any good news, it is that Saudi and Iranian leaders are working together to try and stabalize Lebanon and head off war there:

Leaders of Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed party trying to overthrow Lebanon’s government, have recently visited the Saudi king in Riyadh, according to officials who attended the meeting. And Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi chief security adviser, has met with his Iranian counterpart, Ali Larijani, in Riyadh and Tehran to try to stop Lebanon’s slide into civil war.

“The only hope is for the Iranians and Saudis to go further in easing the situation and bringing people back to the negotiating table,” said Radwan Sayyed, an adviser to Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.

The Saudi-Iranian efforts have put Washington in an awkward position, since it is trying to reduce Iran’s regional influence. But since a stable Lebanon is also an American priority, American officials have watched the efforts without interfering.

Who is the new big bad lobbying organization?  You're probably not the only one suprised to learn it's the American Humane Society:

Many people may consider the Humane Society of the United States a pussycat. But with 10 million donors and a $120 million budget, it is becoming a tiger among Washington's interest groups.

I sure didn't.  But the man who deftly deflected criticism of even the President's most misguided policies during President Bush's first term seems to have dealt a crushing blow to the Scooter Libby defense team:

Ari Fleischer, the former White House press secretary, recounted to a jury on Monday his experience at an unusual lunch on July 7, 2003, during which he said that I. Lewis Libby Jr. passed on detailed information about the identity of a Central Intelligence Agency operative.

The lunch in the White House mess for senior staff took place three days before the date that Mr. Libby had sworn he first learned about the C.I.A. officer, Valerie Wilson, from reporters.

Mr. Fleischer was the fifth prosecution witness to provide damaging testimony in the form of an account that conflicted with the version Mr. Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, told a grand jury and investigators.

Mr. Fleischer’s day on the stand provided a riveting moment because of the detailed description of the conversation, which he said occurred in his last week at the White House and was the only time Mr. Libby had ever asked him to lunch.

Mr. Fleischer said that after casual talk about his new career and the fact that he and Mr. Libby were both fans of the Miami Dolphins, the conversation turned to the controversy then swirling around whether President Bush had used false information in his State of the Union address about Iraqi efforts to obtain uranium in Africa.

The day before the lunch, Joseph C. Wilson IV, a former ambassador, had written an Op-Ed article in The New York Times that said he had taken a trip to Niger at the behest of Mr. Cheney’s office and had determined there was no truth to the assertion in the State of the Union speech that Saddam Hussein had recently tried to buy uranium ore in Africa.

“Ambassador Wilson was sent by his wife,” Mr. Fleischer testified that Mr. Libby told him, disputing the notion that he had been sent by Mr. Cheney. “His wife works for the C.I.A.”

Mr. Fleischer also said that Mr. Libby used the woman’s maiden name, Valerie Plame, and that she worked at the agency’s bureau that dealt with efforts to curtail the proliferation of weapons.

“He said it was hush-hush, on the Q.T. and that most people didn’t know it,” Mr. Fleischer testified.

Analysis from PoliticsTV:

And more on the return of Ari Fleischer from Dana Milbank.

Following up on an armor shortage story we blogged on last week, Army and Marine Corp leaders are testifying before the House Armed Service Committee, and their quotes (from the WAPO) are shocking:

"The response would be slower than we might like, we would not have all of the equipment sets that ordinarily would be the case, and there is certainly risk associated with that" 

-Marine Corps commandant, Gen. James Conway

"my concerns [regarding readiness[ are increased over what they were in June."

"To meet combatant commanders' immediate wartime needs, we pooled equipment from across the force to equip soldiers deploying in harm's way.  This practice, which we are continuing today, increases risk for our next-to-deploy units and limits our ability to respond to emerging strategic contingencies."

-Army Chief of Staff Peter J. Schoomaker

The Bush Administration seems perpetually doomed to repeat its mistakes, and VoteVets new ad speaks to the consequences of this most recent reckless decision:

Anthony Shadid in the WAPO frames the answer, following the shocking news that the usually eager to please Kuwait is pulling out of a US-led naval exercise in the Persian Gulf:

"The United States is the first to be blamed for the rise of Iranian influence in the Middle East," said Khaled al-Dakhil, a Saudi writer and academic. "There is one thing important about the ascendance of Iran here. It does not reflect a real change in Iranian capabilities, economic or political. It's more a reflection of the failures on the part of the U.S. and its Arab allies in the region."

Added Eyal Zisser, head of the Middle Eastern and African Studies Department at Tel Aviv University in Israel: "After the whole investment in democracy in the region, the West is losing, and Iran is winning."

It isn't a good day for US prestige when a Saudi academic and an Israeli academic agree that America is to blame for rising Iranian influence in the Middle East.

Shadid goes on to recognize the transformative combination of the US removing Iran's enemies from power without thinking-through the consequences and Iran's success in using military and humanitarian aid to support proxies in Lebanon, the Palestinian Territories and Iraq.

Iran has found itself strengthened almost by default, first with the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan to Iran's east, which ousted the Taliban rulers against whom it almost went to war in the 1990s, and then to its west, with the American ouster of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, against whom it fought an eight-year war in the 1980s...

Across the region, Iran has begun to exert influence on fronts as diverse as its allies: the formerly exiled Shiite parties in Iraq and their militias; Hezbollah, a Lebanese group formed with Iranian patronage after Israel's 1982 invasion; and the cash-strapped Sunni Muslim movement of Hamas in the Palestinian territories.

"I disagree with Iranian policy, but you have to give the Iranians credit," said Abdullah al-Shayji, a political science professor and head of Kuwait University's American Studies Unit. "You have to appreciate that they have an agenda, they're planning for it, they seize the opportunity, they see an American weakness and they are capitalizing on it."

In Iraq the consequences of unchecked Iranian power are clear:

...U.S. officials say Iran is providing Shiite militias with sophisticated projectiles capable of penetrating U.S. armored vehicles and backing those forces in a gathering civil war against Sunni Arabs. One commander of the Mahdi Army, a Shiite militia that U.S. military officials now identify as the greatest security threat in Iraq, said that however much he might dislike Iran, he was eagerly anticipating the delivery of 50 rocket-propelled grenades to Basra.

Look for Bush Administration officials to lash out at Iran for providing powerful weapons to Shiite militias like the Mahdi Army.  But don't look for those same people to apologize for their inexcusable lack of foresight...

Repudiated by voters, President Bush turned to an executive order to increase his control of federal agencies and the actions they take.  Particularly targeting the EPA and OSHA, the President's directive will require all agencies to submit important guidance documents to a Bush political appointee, prior to publication.  That means the Bush Administration practice of having hacks protect favored industries is now codified:

Peter L. Strauss, a professor at Columbia Law School, said the executive order “achieves a major increase in White House control over domestic government.”

“Having lost control of Congress,” Mr. Strauss said, “the president is doing what he can to increase his control of the executive branch.”

Representative Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California and chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said: “The executive order allows the political staff at the White House to dictate decisions on health and safety issues, even if the government’s own impartial experts disagree. This is a terrible way to govern, but great news for special interests.”