Bear Left!

Fact of the Week

**Fact of the Week**
In 1997, Karl Rove, when he was working for the nascent Bush presidential campaign, encouraged Enron to hire Ralph Reed as a consultant. Reed had just resigned as executive director of the Christian Coalition. The New York Times reports that "close associates" of Rove confirmed that the campaign wanted to ally Reed with the campaign without paying him directly. Reed earned between $10,000 and $20,000 per month during the term of his contract with Enron. As the Bush campaign hoped, he did not throw his support behind any rival presidential candidate. And the Bush campaign avoided any overt links to Reed. The job could have violated federal election laws if it was merely a way to compensate Reed for his work on the Bush campaign. Source: New York Times, 25 January 2002.

The Scandal that Has Left the Credibility of American Politics in Shreds: The rot around Enron is spread deep and wide (Andrew Gumbel, The Independent).
In a Sniper's Sights: Camp X-Ray is a sort of Caribbean gulag, and would raise concerns if another country ran it (Julian Borger, The Guardian).
GAO Vows to Sue for Cheney Files: The General Accounting Office may sue the White House to get the records of the Energy Task Force (Dana Milbank and Dan Morgan, Washington Post).
Missile Defense Shield: The Real Target: The real target of the missile defense program is the U.S. Treasury (Jerome Richard, CommonDreams.org).
Powell Asks Bush to Reverse Stand on War Captives: Secretary of State Powell wants all Taliban and Al Qaeda detainees to be prisoners of war (Katherine Seelye, New York Times).
Budget Reversal to Yield Deficit: The federal budget deficit will be $106 billion this fiscal year (Glenn Kessler, Washington Post).
Analysis of the Source of the Anthrax Attacks: Summary of publicly-known evidence about the perpetrators (Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, Federation of American Scientists).
Stephen R. Shalom Interviews Noam Chomsky: Chomsky talks about Afghanistan, terrorism, and alternatives to war (Z magazine).

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