Under the Radar
HUMAN RIGHTS -- REPORT FINDS EUROPEAN STATES KNEW ABOUT CIA BLACK SITES: Despite their assertions to the contrary, "many governments cooperated passively or actively" with the C.I.A. program to secretly abduct transport and detain suspected terrorists at so-called "black sites" across Eastern Europe, according to a new report released by the European Parliament yesterday. The report, which uncovered over 1,200 secret CIA flights into European airspace, is the result of a year-long investigation into the CIA's so-called "extraordinary rendition" program. The report strongly condemns the program, in which suspects are transported to secret detention centers in countries where they might face harsh interrogation methods, as "an illegal and systematic instrument," and describes the cooperation of European governments as a "deplorable legitimisation of that type of illegal procedure." The report draws its conclusions from conversations with NATO, European Foreign Ministers, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, some of whom it accuses of failing to cooperate with the investigation. President Bush only acknowledged the program in September, and the Justice Department is currently under pressure from the incoming Senate Judiciary Chair, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) to release long withheld documents on the program. Wrote Leahy to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales: "The American people deserve to have detailed and accurate information about the role of the Bush administration in developing the interrogation policies and practices that have engendered such deep criticism and concern at home and around the world."
AFGHANISTAN -- 'EXHORTING' NATO ALLIES NOT ENOUGH FOR AFGHANISTAN: The security situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated dramatically in the past year as Taliban forces and al-Qaeda have strengthened. Insurgent attacks have reached 600 per month, compared to 150 per month last year, and so far this year 3700 to 4000 people have died in "insurgent-related violence." Yesterday at the NATO summit in Latvia, President Bush "tacitly acknowledged that not all is well in Afghanistan," "and he exhorted allies to step up their cooperation or risk failure there." "For NATO to succeed," Bush said, "its commanders on the ground must have the resources and flexibility they need to do their jobs." "Yet the United States may not be able to depend on NATO to step up to this important task," the Center for American Progress' Caroline Wadhams writes. "Many NATO countries have opposed further involvement in Afghanistan. NATO is already 20 percent under strength in Afghanistan because countries will not commit more troop levels to the mission." For the mission to succeed, the U.S. will "need to increase its own commitment to this troubled mission in order to shore up the strength of the Afghan state." Specifically, U.S. troop levels should be doubled to 40,000 by redeploying 20,000 troops from Iraq to Afghanistan.
BUDGET -- ADMINISTRATION PLANS TO 'LET HER RIP' IN GIGANTIC NEW SPENDING BILL FOR IRAQ: The Pentagon plans to "ask for at least another $127 billion" in emergency funding for the Iraq war, military operations in Afghanistan and anti-terrorism efforts. The expected proposal, which "could be larger and broader than any since the Sept. 11 attacks," is again raising concern that the "emergency requests are increasingly being used to finance items that are not truly emergencies." Emergency requests bypass a good deal of routine congressional oversight, and incoming congressional leaders say they had been planning to limit the emergency spending "in favor of the regular federal budget process, which affords greater oversight and congressional control." The request is expected to be larger due to new rules laid out in an Oct. 25 memo by Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England. The memo said that military services could extend requests beyond Iraq and Afghanistan costs to "include a greater number of expenses more loosely tied to the actual wars, such as new military weapons systems and training exercises," the Los Angeles Times reports. "The England memo basically said, 'Let her rip,'" said Winslow Wheeler, director of the Straus Military Reform Project. "Anything goes, as long as you can put it under the pretext of not only Iraq or Afghanistan but the global war on terror." In September, the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service complained that "the distinction between what is war-related and what instead is part of the Department of Defense's ongoing transformation or modernization is less clear."