Bush's Eternal Sunshine

"The judges were particularly concerned with government assertions that the evidence was reliable because it was repeated in separate documents and that officials would not have included the information if it were not dependable.

"'Lewis Carroll notwithstanding, the fact the government has 'said it thrice' does not make an allegation true,' wrote Judge Merrick B. Garland, quoting from Carroll's poem ' The Hunting of the Snark.'"

William Glaberson writes in the New York Times: "'This comes perilously close to suggesting that whatever the government says must be treated as true,' said the panel."

Georgetown law professor Marty Lederman blogs: "Even in its redacted form, this extraordinarily careful and detailed opinion, authored by Judge Garland and joined in full by both of his more conservative colleagues, offers a stark depiction of the most significant problems with the Bush Administration's detention policy--namely, that the military has relied upon a breathtakingly broad standard of who can be detained, and then has made particular detention decisions based on very speculative and thin evidence, even under that broad standard. The detention policy in practice, in other words, has been much more indiscriminate than any authority Congress afforded the President in the conflict against al Qaeda."

Meanwhile, the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights reports: "The United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Philip Alston, today called upon the United States to take immediate steps to improve its system of military justice and to ensure that the death penalty is applied fairly and justly in states such as Alabama and Texas. . . .

"In relation to prisoners in Guantánamo Bay, Alston called on the Government to release the results of investigations and autopsies into the deaths of five prisoners who died in 2006 and 2007. He condemned the unremitting failure to provide fair trial guarantees in the proceedings against six 'alien enemy combatants' and concluded that any death sentence imposed on the basis of such trials would clearly be in violation of international law.

"Alston also called on the Government to publish information on civilian casualties in its operations in Afghanistan and Iraq and to make it possible for US citizens, as well as Afghans and Iraqis, to follow the workings of the military justice system. Normal court systems have centralized dockets and easily-accessible rulings and judgments, but the military justice system does not."

From Alston's statement: "In different contexts, I was frequently told by Government officials that although they were unable to answer my specific questions, I should rest assured that there was accountability. Whether or not it does in fact exist, this 'private' or 'internal' accountability cannot take the place of genuine, public accountability. A Government open and accountable to its people is a foundational premise of a democratic state."

Iraq Watch

Michael R. Gordon writes in the New York Times: "The RAND Corporation issued a long-delayed report on Monday on problems in planning for postwar Iraq.

"The 273-page study, which was prepared for the United States Army, chronicles a wide range of factors that hampered the American effort to stabilize Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein."

In February, Gordon reported that the study had been completed in 2005, but that its "wide-ranging critique of the White House, the Defense Department and other government agencies was a concern for Army generals, and the Army has sought to keep the report under lock and key. . . .

"The study chided President Bush -- and by implication Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who served as national security adviser when the war was planned -- as having failed to resolve differences among rival agencies. 'Throughout the planning process, tensions between the Defense Department and the State Department were never mediated by the president or his staff,' it said."

I read that section of the report -- and interestingly enough, I couldn't find that particular phrase in the released version. Instead, here's what the report has to say:

"The dominance of a single set of assumptions about postwar Iraq suggests the absence of a robust interagency coordination process. Several U.S. government organizations . . . conducted separate studies of postwar possibilities. Looking back, some of these studies appear to have been reasonably prescient. The problem, therefore, was not that the U.S. government failed to plan for the postwar period. Instead, it was the failure to effectively coordinate and integrate these various planning efforts.

"Those functions normally fall to the National Security Council staff, which has overall responsibility for coordinating U.S. foreign and defense policies. . . .

"If the NSC staff failed to consider alternative scenarios that might pose differing requirements, neither did it provide strategic guidance on various aspects of U.S. policy during the postwar period. Repeated requests for policy guidance . . . went unanswered, leaving each agency to make its own assumptions about key aspects of the postwar period. Key questions, such as whether the U.S. postwar authority would be military or civilian in nature, went unanswered throughout the planning process. When the NSC finally did issue strategic guidance in late March 2003 . . . the war was already under way. . . .

"Above all, the NSC seems not to have mediated the persistent disagreement between the Defense Department and the State Department that existed throughout the planning process. Secretary of State Powell influenced a few key diplomatic decisions . . . but the Defense Department controlled most planning decisions.

"Richard Haass, then the Director of Policy Planning at the State Department, later stated that he realized the decision to confront Iraq had already been made in July 2002, despite continuing opposition from State. . . .

"The biggest failure of both military planning and the interagency process was the failure to assign responsibility and resources for providing security in the immediate aftermath of the war. . . .

"The failure is all the more glaring for the presence of countering advice available to planners."

Iraqi Oil Watch

Sabrina Tavernise and Andrew E. Kramer write in the New York Times: "Iraq announced Monday that it was opening six key oil production fields to more than 30 foreign companies, while delaying an announcement on a series of no-bid consulting contracts with a handful of Western oil companies."

"Iraq's oil minister, Hussain al-Shahristani . . . defended the way Iraq has handled the oil contracts, which have led to criticism in the Arab world and abroad, where suspicions run rampant that the United States-led invasion was at least partly about access to Iraq's oil."

Sudarsan Raghavan and Steven Mufson write in The Washington Post: "On Monday, the Bush administration denied a report in the New York Times that U.S. advisers to the Iraqi Oil Ministry had influenced the selection of companies for the short-term contracts.

"'These are Iraqi contracts. They were made by Iraqis, for Iraqis,' said Tom Casey, a State Department spokesman. 'And they weren't done at the behest of the United States or with a wink or a nudge or any kind of influence on our part.'"

Credit Where Credit Isn't Due

Ben Feller writes for the Associated Press: "President Bush on Monday signed legislation to pay for the war operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for the rest of his presidency and beyond, hailing the $162 billion plan as a rare product of bipartisan cooperation.

"'This bill shows the American people that even in an election year, Republicans and Democrats can come together to stand behind our troops and their families,' Bush said in an Oval Office ceremony. . . .

"The GI Bill measure, authored by Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., had such extraordinary support from both Democrats and Republicans that White House objections were easily overridden. The bill also allows veterans to transfer their benefits to their spouse or a child, an idea Bush has championed.

"The White House tried much harder to kill the effort to extend unemployment benefits as part of the war funding bill. But Bush's administration ultimately supported the compromise version, which requires people to have worked for 20 weeks in order to be eligible for the extended payments."

But here's Bush's version of reality: "The bill is a result of close collaboration between my administration and members of both parties on Capitol Hill. I appreciate the hard work of my Cabinet -- especially the leaders of Defense and State, and Veterans Affairs, the Office of National Drug Control Policy, as well as OMB. I want to thank House and Senate leadership and leaders of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees. I am particularly grateful to Congressmen Boehner, Hoyer, Obey, and Lewis. And I want to thank members who worked hard for the GI Bill expansion -- especially Senators Webb and Warner, Graham, Burr, and McCain."

When Keith Olbermann asked Webb on MSNBC last night if he was bothered by how Bush took and gave credit, Webb replied: "I think it's safe to say there was a good deal of cooperation among Republicans and Democrats -- it just didn't include the administration."

Olbermann: "Did either the president or Sen. McCain ever really get on board with this? . . . "

Webb: "No, neither of them really did get on board."

Steve Benen blogs: "Bush praised five senators this morning for their leadership. One (McCain) fought against the bill and then didn't bother to vote on it. Two (Graham and Burr) fought against the bill and voted against it. Chuck Hagel was an original sponsor of the bill, the president ignored him altogether."

Signing Statement Watch

Robert Brodsky writes for Government Executive: "The White House and congressional leaders have announced most of the appointees to the long-awaited Commission on Wartime Contracting. The bipartisan team is charged with investigating virtually all war-related contracts, including funds devoted to reconstruction, logistical support for coalition forces, and security and intelligence functions.

"The commission is the brainchild of Sens. Jim Webb, D-Va., and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. The freshmen senators co-wrote the provision creating the panel, which was included in the 2008 National Defense Authorization Act and signed into law in January. . . .

"The White House's cooperation with the panel is an about-face from its earlier public stance.

"Shortly after signing the defense authorization, Bush issued a signing statement that said he did not have to abide by four provisions in the legislation, including the one creating the commission. At the time, Bush said the provisions could inhibit his 'ability to carry out his constitutional obligations to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, to protect national security, to supervise the executive branch, and execute his authority as commander in chief.'

"Webb immediately pushed back, criticizing the statement as an 'impingement on the rights' of Congress and said the Senate would 'march forward in an expeditious manner' to create the panel. Webb's office said the White House seems to have dropped its objections and plans to cooperate with the panel. . . .

"The commission is modeled after the Truman committee, which conducted hundreds of hearings and investigations into government waste during and after World War II."

For more about that signing statement, see my Jan. 30 column, Bush Thumbs Nose at Congress.

Missile Defense Watch

The Washington Post editorial board writes: "The Bush administration may have radically shifted its foreign policy more than once in the past seven years, but it has been foolishly consistent in one endeavor: the overzealous pursuit of missile defense. Before and after Sept. 11, 2001, without regard for technological failures or the mixed results of testing, the administration has relentlessly and recklessly sought to build and deploy interceptors in Alaska and Europe and on ships. . . .

"Now the State Department is trying to seal agreements with Poland and the Czech Republic for a second interceptor base and a large radar station before President Bush leaves office. . . .

"The House and the Senate have passed legislation that rightly links funding to a certification by the secretary of defense that the missile interceptors have passed rigorous testing. That testing will not be completed until at least 2010. Provided its effectiveness is proven, a European missile defense system may be worth building. But it is time for the Bush administration to stop its deploy-at-all costs crusade."

McClellan Watch

Scott Lindlaw writes for the Associated Press: "McClellan has incorporated some crowd-pleasing titles of books he imagines his former White House comrades writing:

"'I Upped Halliburton's Income . . . ' by Dick Cheney.

"'The Lies I Told, to Whom and Why,' by Karl Rove.

"'Well, Paaaaaardon Me!' by Scooter Libby, convicted in the case of the leaked identity of a CIA operative, and perhaps hoping for a presidential pardon.

"The jokes loosened up a crowd of 550 San Franciscans in the middle of a work day -- and appeared to crack up McClellan himself."

Bush's Great Love

Ben Feller writes for the Associated Press: "Here was President Bush in shirt sleeves, sweat-soaked, out on a summer's day, doing one of his favorite things as leader of the country.

" Hosting Tee Ball. . . .

"Out here in the grass, there's no talk of Bush's record-low approval ratings, or depressing gas prices, or nuclear showdowns with Iran. Bush had signed a bill just hours earlier to keep two wars running for the rest of his term and beyond. Somehow, it no longer even feels like the same day."

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Cartoon Watch

John Sherffius, Jeff Danziger and Jimmy Margulies on the Iraqi oil deals.