IRAQ
Constitutional Showdown On Iraq Occupation

On Nov. 26, President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki issued a "Declaration of Principles for a Long-Term Relationship of Cooperation and Friendship." The contentious issue has been the subject of five congressional hearings; the administration is attempting to pass the agreement in the wake of an expiring U.N. mandate without Congressional approval. During a hearing this week, the State Department Coordinator for Iraq, Adm. David Satterfield, refused to say whether it was "a constitutional requirement" for the administration to "consult with Congress...in the commitment of U.S. forces in a battle zone." As conservative columnist George Will noted, "Hundreds of such agreements, major (e.g., NATO) and minor (the Reagan administration's security commitment to the Marshall Islands and Micronesia), have been submitted to Congress." Frustrated with the administration's power grab, Rep. Bill Delahunt (D-MA) said that the Bush administration's rhetoric "creates the basis for a constitutional confrontation." Legislation has been introduced in both the House and Senate to bar the White House from making any such long-term deals with Iraq without congressional approval.

HOW WE ARRIVED HERE: The administration has repeatedly attempted to muddle the exact parameters of its commitment to Iraq. Initially, the Declaration of Principles committed the United States to helping "deter foreign aggression against Iraq" as well as "defending its democratic system against internal and external threats." After congressional outrage, the administration removed the "security guarantee." While the administration publicly opposes permanent bases in Iraq, Bush issued a signing statement to a defense authorization bill in January, saying he would disregard a provision that "bars funding for permanent bases in Iraq." Furthermore, last month, the White House said it does not view any U.S. military installations overseas as "permanent," even those present since World War II. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates wrote in the Washington Post this month that the agreement with Iraq was routine, used with "more than 115 nations." But as Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY) noted, "there is nothing routine about it or the situation in Iraq." Curiously, the agreement "won't prohibit combat missions either," he added.

AVOIDING CONGRESS: "It's the position of this Administration that they do not need to come before Congress to receive authorization?" Delahunt asked in the hearing. Satterfield replied, "That's correct." While there may no longer be a "security guarantee" in the agreement, "[s]uch an accord necessarily implicates the authority to fight" in Iraq and should thus be authorized by Congress, Delahunt observed. "The Iraqi/U.S. Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) would give the United States the 'authority to fight,'" explained Lawrence Korb of the Center for American Progress, making it broader than SOFAs with other nations. Oona Hathaway of the Yale Law School said that anything that includes an authority to fight -- which Satterfield implied the administration's agreement with Iraq would do -- "becomes an agreement that really must be submitted to Congress for approval either as a treaty or as a congressional-executive agreement." She added that the Strategic Forces Agreement, also part of the administration's Declaration of Principles, should be approved by Congress as an Article II treaty, as it "permits U.S. and coalition forces to assist in restraining extremists and outside actors."

IS IRAQ STILL A 'THREAT?': In a follow-up letter to Satterfield's testimony, Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey Bergner "reaffirmed the administration's position that it does not need international or congressional approval to conduct military operations around the world, particularly when going after terrorists." Bergner explained to Ackerman that Iraq military operations can continue past 2008 without a U.N. mandate "under the laws passed by Congress and the president's authority as commander in chief," referring to the 2002 resolution authorizing force against Saddam Hussein and the resolution passed after 9/11. These authorizations, Bergner said, permit "use of force" to "defend the national security of the United States," allowing indefinite combat operations in Iraq. Ackerman observed, "I don't think anybody argues today that Saddam Hussein is a threat. Is it the government of Iraq that's a threat?"

Under the Radar

IRAQ -- CONTRACTOR KBR SKIRTS TAXES THROUGH OFFSHORE HAVENS: The Boston Globe reports today that Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) -- until last year a subsidiary of Halliburton Corp. and the nation's top Iraq war contractor -- "has avoided paying hundreds of millions of dollars in federal Medicare and Social Security taxes by hiring workers through shell companies" based in the Caymen Islands. More than 21,000 employees -- 10,500 Americans -- are listed as employees of two companies there, one of which was established two months after Vice President Cheney's appointment as Halliburton's chief executive in 1995. In addition to the loss in tax revenue for Medicare and Social Security, "the practice enables KBR to avoid paying unemployment taxes in Texas," where the company's headquarters are located, which means that "workers hired through the Cayman Island companies cannot receive unemployment assistance should they lose their jobs." The Globe notes that "[o]ver the course of the five-year war" in Iraq, KBR's "tax bill would have been more than $500 million."

NATIONAL SECURITY -- DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY MARKS ITS FIFTH ANNIVERSARY: Today, President Bush will deliver remarks commemorating the formation of the Department of Homeland Security five years ago this week. The department was initially established when President Bush signed the Homeland Security Act on Nov. 25, 2002, but didn't assume "operational control" of its incoming agencies and offices until March 1, 2003. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff says that "the bottom line" of the department's first half decade is that "America is safer and more secure than it was five years ago." But "former officials, private-sector partners and independent analysts say the evolving 208,000-worker, $38 billion agency remains hindered by a crisis-of-the-moment environment, in which the rush to fulfill each new mandate or meet every threat undermines its ability to hold a strategic course and deliver promised results." Center for American Progress Senior Fellow P.J. Crowley notes that numerous issues have "hampered" the department over the past five years, including the fact that it "has yet to decide what is important, why and what to do about it" while often putting "politics ahead of security."  

MILITARY -- SOLDIER ALLEGES PROMOTION BLOCKED BECAUSE OF HIS ATHEISM: Spc. Jeremy Hall said yesterday "that his promotion was blocked because he had claimed in a lawsuit that the Army was violating his right to be an atheist." Hall filed a lawsuit against Maj. Paul Welborne and Defense Secretary Robert Gates last September, alleging "that Welborne threatened to pursue military charges against Hall and to block his reenlistment because he was trying to hold a meeting of atheists and non-Christians in Iraq." The suit "was dropped last month so the new allegations" of retaliation "could be included." Hall says his platoon sergeant, in explaining why his promotion was blocked, had told him that he "would be 'unable to put aside his personal convictions and pray with his troops' and would have trouble bonding with them if promoted to a leadership position." The new lawsuit, filed jointly with the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, claims that Gates "permits a military culture in which officers are encouraged to pressure soldiers to adopt and espouse fundamentalist Christian beliefs."

Think Fast

A new Army mental health report finds that the percentage of troops "reporting depression in Afghanistan was higher than that in Iraq." Mental health problems in general were higher than that in Iraq, and "mental health problems in general were higher than they had previously been in Afghanistan."

At the weekly meeting of conservative leaders at the American for Tax Reform, former White House aide Tim Goeglein, who resigned after acknowledging repeated instances of plagiarism, "received three rounds of applause from the packed room, including one standing ovation, as he asked for their forgiveness."

"The Veterans Affairs Department estimates that on any given night last year, 154,000 veterans were homeless, about a 20 percent decrease from 195,827 in the agency's 2006 estimate."

Big industries are waging "an intense lobbying effort to block new, tougher limits on air pollution that is blamed for hundreds of heart attacks, deaths and cases of asthma, bronchitis and other breathing problems." The groups met with the White House in "a last-ditch effort to keep the health standard unchanged."

Despite cooperating with the author of new biographical article in Esquire magazine, Centcom commander Adm. William Fallon is now disavowing the piece as "poison pen stuff." The article -- which said that the White House may relieve Fallon of his position as early as this summer -- is being discussed at the Pentagon, reports the Washington Post.

"Black Americans still trail whites on such basics as income, education and health," according to a new study by the National Urban League. The study found that three times as many African-Americans as whites live below the poverty line, while African-Americans are twice as likely to be jobless.

Lawyers for Jamie Leigh Jones argued in federal court yesterday that her case should be "tried in court, not settled in private arbitration." Jones is suing defense contractor KBR over an alleged gang rape she suffered in 2005, but the company insists her contract binds her to settle all claims through arbitration.

And finally: Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) is not known to be fashionable. Last Friday, however, when on a train to Philadelphia with one of his aides, Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA), and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Schumer joked that he has a French tailor. "His name is Jay-Cay Pennay!" shouted Schumer, giving a faux francophilic pronunciation of JC Penney. Schumer also confirmed that he does all his shopping at "Tarjay," also known as Target.

Good News

Yesterday, the House passed The Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2007, which "would help end the stigma of mental illness and create greater access for people needing mental health and addiction treatment."

State Watch

Yesterday, the House passed The Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2007, which "would help end the stigma of mental illness and create greater access for people needing mental health and addiction treatment."

Blog Watch

THINK PROGRESS: President Bush claims "America is in the lead" on climate change.

SADLY NO: Anti-feminist writer Charlotte Allen claims Hurricane Katrina was the "best thing to happen to New Orleans."

TV DECODER: The Mike Huckabee Show?

MEDIA MATTERS: On Fox News, conservative pollster Frank Luntz said "Jimmy Carter was the first female president."

Daily Grill

"We share a common goal: making health care more affordable and accessible for all Americans. The best way to achieve that goal is by expanding consumer choice, not government control."
-- President Bush, 1/28/08

VERSUS

"[N]early two-thirds (64%) [of the American public] say there is not enough regulation when it comes to limiting the price of prescription drugs."
-- USA Today/Kaiser Family Foundation/Harvard School of Public Health poll, March 2008