March 30, 2007

Earlybird Roundup

U.S. Attorneys. Yesterday's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee from Kyle Sampson directly contradicted statements from his old boss, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, about his knowledge of the dismissals of eight federal prosecutors, the Washington Post reports. (Slate suggests that Sampson "tried to stand by his man today. But he just couldn't.") Also, CongressDailyAM reports "that he had once suggested that U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald should be fired in the midst of his Special Counsel CIA leak probe."

Iraq, Part I. The Boston Globe reports on the looming showdown between the White House and Congress over the supplemental war funding bill that includes a withdrawal timetable for U.S. troops in Iraq. The Senate passed the bill Thursday, 51 to 47, on the heels of a similar House bill.

Iraq, Part II. A deadly wave of violence worsened yesterday, with more than 100 people killed in a series of attacks, "including a series of bombings and reprisals in the northern city of Tal Afar in which more than 140 people were killed in two days," the New York Times reports.

Guantanamo Bay. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said yesterday "that he had been pressing others in the Bush administration to move war crimes trials of suspected terrorists from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to courts inside the U.S. because the military tribunals may appear tainted in the eye of the international community," the Los Angeles Times reports. He added, "I felt that no matter how transparent, no matter how open the trials, if they took place at Guantanamo, in the international community they would lack credibility." The Supreme Court takes up a case on detainee rights today.

Posted at 9:51 AM
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