by Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Satyam Khanna, Matt Corley, Ali Frick, Benjamin Armbruster, and Matt Duss

NATIONAL SECURITY

Inheriting Bush's Mess

So far, the 2008 election has focused on growing challenges at home, including the fallout from the sub-prime mortgage crisis, escalating gas prices, and health care for millions of uninsured. But another leading policy challenge for the next administration is cleaning up the mess from the Bush administration's national security policies and making a clean break from the past seven years. Speaking at the Center for American Progress yesterday, Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) offered a vision for moving forward: "Military power alone will not achieve the great objectives that are going to be required to meet these new 21st century challenges; it's going to require a 21st century framework of thinking, of policymaking, of structure." Hagel suggested that "reintroducing America to the world will be as important as any one thing this next President has to do, because if we lose the next generation of the world, the problems will then be so immense that we will never be able to get out from under them." Hagel's view is rare among conservatives, most of whom continue to march in lockstep with President Bush's disastrous national security policies. Acknowledging that Iraq continues to be mired in violence, Hagel stressed once again that "there is no military solution in Iraq, [and] the military guys understand that more than anyone, because we put all the burden on them. All the burden on them."

NO END IN SIGHT IN IRAQ: American troops continued to bear that burden this week as they pushed further into Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood. The intense house-to-house combat, with Americans essentially fighting on behalf of one Shi'a political party against another, is more proof of the failure of the Bush administration's policy of military occupation. Humanitarian groups have reported that "entire sections of Sadr City have been largely abandoned by civilians fleeing" the fighting. Additionally, more residents were warned to leave their houses, signaling another new push deeper into the neighborhood. U.S. forces have also begun to see an uptick in violence in Iraq's Anbar province, which threatens the fragile gains of the tribal "awakening" strategy which has been a centerpiece of the surge. Despite attempts by conservative war supporters to present every piece of Iraqi government legislation as a major breakthrough, there is no indication yet that Iraqis are prepared to make the compromises necessary to establish a sustainable political order.

STRAIN ON THE MILITARY: Illustrating the massive burden that the continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have put on U.S. military readiness, Gen. Richard A. Cody stated in congressional testimony last month that "operational requirements and lack of training time between deployments have affected the Army's preparedness for the full spectrum of military missions." Cody testified that "the current demand for our forces in Iraq and Afghanistan exceeds the sustainable supply and limits our ability to provide ready forces for other contingencies." On Thursday, USA Today reported that, according to Pentagon records, "more than 43,000 U.S. troops listed as medically unfit for combat in the weeks before their scheduled deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan since 2003 were sent anyway." According to statistics based on health assessment forms filled out by medical personnel at military installations, "the number of troops who[m] doctors found non-deployable but who were still sent to Iraq or Afghanistan fluctuated from 10,854 in 2003, down to 5,397 in 2005, and back up to 9,140 in 2007." The war continues to put a strain on U.S. taxpayers. This week, Congress is considering a bill worth $195 billion to fund military and diplomatic operations in Iraq and Afghanistan into next spring. This legislation could also include a new "G.I. bill modernization bill," written by Hagel and Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA), which would dramatically increase benefits given to veterans to pay for college. President Bush has thus far declined to support the G.I. bill legislation, and the Pentagon claims it would "harm" retention rates.

THE CONTINUING AL QAEDA THREAT: America's heavy investment in Iraq comes at the cost of ignoring threats emerging from Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas, where al Qaeda is believed to have found shelter as it continues to plan violence against Americans. Citing the State Department's Country Reports on Terrorism, 2007, released last week, the New York Times reported that "terrorist attacks against noncombatants more than doubled in Pakistan from 2006 to 2007, reflecting the growing violence in the country’s turbulent tribal areas and new bombings against Pakistani government officials and security services." Amb. Dell Dailey, the State Department's top counterterrorism official, also stated in a press conference on the report that "core elements of al Qaeda are adaptable and resilient, and al Qaeda and associated networks remain our greatest terrorist threat to the United States and its partners." A new report from the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee noted that the United States has yet to develop a communications plan to counter extremist messages on the Internet. "Because the Internet's easy access makes it possible for al-Qaida and other terrorist sympathizers to spread their beliefs and recruit new followers, the government needs a coordinated and thorough response that it currently lacks." This, unfortunately, is another burden that the Bush administration will pass along to the next.

TORTURE -- FEDERAL JUDGE ORDERS CIA TO TURN OVER 2002 TORTURE MEMO: In an "unusual" move outside the executive branch, U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein of New York yesterday ordered the CIA "to submit to the court a 2002 memo said to specify harsh interrogation methods used on suspected terrorists held abroad." Hellerstein said that next week he intends to review the memo "to decide if it has appropriately been withheld from public view." The Aug. 1, 2002 memo, written by then-Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel deputy John Yoo, focused on the specific interrogation techniques that were deemed "legally permissible" at the CIA and "include[d] discussion of waterboarding." "Hellerstein had previously ruled that the memo could be properly withheld by the government because it was subject to attorney-client privilege. But in his order yesterday, Hellerstein said in his order yesterday that he had not given 'sufficient consideration' to several factors, including evidence from the American Civil Liberties Union that all or part of the memo may have been 'incorporated into official practice and policy.'" "CIA agents waterboarded prisoners because this memo told them that they could," said Jameel Jaffer, the ACLU's national security project director. "The memo is being withheld not for legitimate security reasons, but in order to protect government officials from accountability for their decisions," he added. MEDIA -- ONLY TWO NEWS NETWORKS WILLING TO EXPLAIN ROLES IN PENTAGON PROPAGANDA PROGRAM: On April 20, the New York Times published a blockbuster exposé revealing a secret Pentagon program that used retired military analysts to "generate favorable news coverage of the administration's wartime performance." Though the analysts often had "ties to military contractors vested in the very war policies" they assessed on air, their potential conflicts of interest were "hardly ever disclosed to the viewers." Soon after the Times published its article, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) wrote letters to the heads of ABC News, CBS News, CNN News, Fox News Channel, and NBC News asking for "specifics about each outlet's policies surrounding the hiring and vetting of military analysts reporting on the Iraq War."  Politico reported yesterday that only ABC's David Westin and CNN’s Jim Walton have responded to DeLauro’s questions. In his response, Westin asserted that ABC News had "acted responsibly and has served its audience well." Though the responses lacked genuine self-examination, it represented more than the other networks even attempted, proving that the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz was right when he said "the networks are ducking this one, big time." In the week after the story broke, the Project for Excellence in Journalism found that "out of approximately 1,300 news stories, only two touched on the Pentagon analysts scoop -- both airing on PBS's 'NewsHour.'"   ADMINISTRATION -- REPORT: CRANDALL CANYON MINE MANAGER SHOULD FACE CRIMINAL CHARGES: A Congressional investigation released yesterday concluded that the "general manager and possibly other senior staff members at the Crandall Canyon Mine near Huntington, Utah, where nine miners died last August, withheld information from federal officials that could have prevented the disaster and should face a criminal inquiry." Rep. George Miller (D-CA), who led the investigation, said the company concealed information about an earlier collapse in the mine involving the same high-risk techniques and said last August's deaths were avoidable. "Aside from initially ignoring clear warnings, mine operators later seemed to have tried to play down the significance of those warnings, the investigation found." In March, an Inspector General's report found that the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) "was negligent in carrying out its responsibilities to protect the safety of its miners" at the time of the Crandall Canyon disaster. Nevertheless, this year President Bush renamed MSHA chief Richard Stickler for another term as acting assistant secretary, even though his nomination had been twice rejected by the Senate.

As gas and crude oil costs jumped to record highs yesterday, USA Today has released a survey showing that these increasing costs are pushing "Americans to drive less for the first time in nearly three decades, squeezing family budgets and causing major shifts in driving habits." Seventy-one percent say gas prices are a "financial hardship," up from 47 percent in March 2004. The American Petroleum Institute, Big Oil's main lobbying group, "has embarked on a multiyear, multimedia, multimillion-dollar campaign” to convince voters that "rising energy prices are not the producer's fault and that government efforts to punish the industry, especially with higher taxes, would only make pricing problems worse." The Senate Democrats unveiled the Consumer-First Energy Act of 2008, a bill to address the root causes of high gas prices. Major oil companies "are getting away with murder" and "gouging" consumers as the price of oil continues to soar, Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) said. Two months after "the Pentagon announced in March that Maj. Gen. Jay W. Hood would become the senior American officer based in Pakistan," the military "has quietly canceled the assignment. General Hood, a 33-year Army veteran, "was excoriated in the Pakistani news media for one of his previous jobs: commander of the United States prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba." "Hezbollah fighters seized control of rival pro-government strongholds in Beirut on Friday as gunbattles rocked the Lebanese capital for a third day, propelling the nation dangerously close to all-out civil war." Hezbollah has also forced the shutdown of all media forced the shutdown of all media belonging to the family of parliamentary leader Saad Hariri. "Credit card delinquency rates in the United States are growing as expenses have risen and options for borrowing have narrowed," according to Moody’s Investors Service. Delinquencies "hit 4.53 percent in February, a four-year high." Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), the ranking Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, is coming under scrutiny for his "ties to the mortgage industry and the Alabama real estate market, and the generous campaign donations he receives from financial services companies." Critics say that these interests have "distorted his perspective and led him to delay critical legislative remedies." And finally: MSNBC's Chris Matthews is 62 years old, and rumors of him coloring his hair "have abounded for years." Politico's Anne Schroeder now has the proof. (More proof here.)

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Ignoring a veto threat, the House approved "an ambitious plan to rescue hundreds of thousands of homeowners at risk of foreclosure by helping them trade exotic loans with rapidly rising monthly payments for more affordable mortgages backed by the federal government."

NEW YORK: "Hundreds of lawyers across the state have been illegally granted state pension benefits by school districts, towns and other governmental entities," says Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo (D).

MISSOURI: Missouri House passes "a contentious resolution asking for a constitutional amendment to require an official photo ID to cast a ballot."

ENVIRONMENT: Eight Western states derail a plan to import nuclear cleanup waste from Italy and bury it in Utah.

THINK PROGRESS: Elizabeth Edwards: "Most preventable cause of unnecessary suffering" is lack of health insurance.

ATTACKERMAN: In 2006, a military analyst involved in the Pentagon propaganda program told then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, "You are the leader. You are our guy."

MEDIA MATTERS: On Fox News, Neil Cavuto's on-air graphic claims the projected cost of the House's housing bill is $297 billion more than it actually is.

CATO AT LIBERTY: The Weekly Standard's Michael Goldfarb claims that Americans should be indifferent to the impact U.S. policy has on al-Qaeda recruiting.

"But let's be honest about stop-loss. This is sort of a myth of the left."
-- Ret. Lt. Col. Ralph Peters, 4/10/08

VERSUS

"The number of soldiers forced to remain in the Army involuntarily under the military's controversial 'stop-loss' program has risen sharply since the Pentagon extended combat tours last year."
-- LA Times, 5/9/08