t r u t h o u t | 02.14
Maya Schenwar | 333,000 US Casualties: Are They Covered?
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021408J.shtml
Truthout's Maya Schenwar reports: "The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
will treat about 333,000 sick and injured veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan
wars in 2009, according to VA statistics released last week. That number is
a 14 percent increase over this year's casualty total. Yet, despite the Bush
administration's promises to prioritize the VA even as other domestic departments'
funds are cut, its annual budget request for next year places more financial
burdens than ever on many returning soldiers."
Obama's Economic Plan Is a Pitch to the Working Class
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021408K.shtml
Peter Slevin and Shailagh Murray report for The Washington Post, "Sen. Barack
Obama offered a detailed prescription for the ailing US economy Wednesday,
answering skeptics who contend he has not matched his inspirational talk with
a mastery of policy and targeting voters in crucial primaries in Wisconsin,
Ohio and Texas."
The New York Times | Time to Vote Contempt
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021408L.shtml
The editors of The New York Times write: "Alberto Gonzales may be out, but
the country is still waiting for a full accounting of how he and his White
House patrons cynically politicized the Justice Department. Congress is rightly
asking questions about the actions of yet another United States attorney: New
Jersey's Christopher J. Christie. The House also needs to stop procrastinating
and vote to hold witnesses in contempt for refusing to testify in the wider
scandal."
Bush Vows to Veto Interrogation Limits
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021408M.shtml
David M. Herszenhorn, of The New York Times, reports: "The Senate voted Wednesday
to ban waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods that have been used
by the Central Intelligence Agency against high-level terrorism suspects. The
vote, following House passage of the measure in December, set up a confrontation
with President Bush, who has threatened to veto it."
Defendants' Lawyers Fear Loss of Potential Evidence at Guantanamo Bay
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021408N.shtml
Josh White, of The Washington Post, reports, "Lawyers representing military
detainees at Guantanamo Bay have expressed concern that the government has
violated a federal court order by losing or erasing several years' worth of
digital video recordings that could shed light on the legality of detainee
treatment."
Senate Ethics Committee Admonishes Larry Craig
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021408O.shtml
Carl Hulse reports for The New York Times, "Senator Larry E. Craig was admonished
by his colleagues on Wednesday for conduct that reflected poorly on the Senate
as the result of his arrest and guilty plea last summer in an undercover sex
sting in a men's bathroom at the Minneapolis airport."
Thousands of New Prisoners Overwhelm Iraqi System
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021408P.shtml
Solomon Moore reports for The New York Times: "The increase in American troops
in Iraq over the past year has been accompanied by waves of new Iraqi detainees,
inundating the country's already overburdened prisons and courts, American
officials said Wednesday. American advisers say Iraq's nascent justice system
does not have enough prison beds, investigative judges or lawyers to absorb
the thousands of suspects that have been detained since last summer by the
augmented American and Iraqi security forces. More than half of the 26,000
prisoners are still awaiting trial, and some have languished for years, American
officials said."
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