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Bill Buzenberg interviews former Representative Lee H. Hamilton

The Center in the News . . .

A recent Council on Foreign Relations backgrounder titled U.S-Pakistan Military Cooperation cited the Center's Collateral Damage project, which found among its major findings that Pakistan was the largest recipient of U.S. military aid, receiving almost $5 billion since 9/11, with little in the form of federal oversight and accountability.

The House of Representatives recently amended the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). Among the newly expanded public provisions, White House task forces will be prohibited from operating in secrecy, transcripts or recordings of committee meetings will be electronically available, and advisory committee appointments must be made without regard to political affiliation or activity. The Center's Shadow Government project investigated FACA loopholes and several conflict of interest cases more than a year ago.

The Wall Street Journal featured the Center's latest analysis of the lobby spending by the pharmaceutical industry, health product manufacturers, and their trade groups. The Center found that the pharmaceutical manufacturers and their trade groups spent a record $168 million on federal lobbying last year, a 32 percent increase from 2006.

A new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), requested by the House Foreign Affairs Committee, tasked the Defense Department with providing greater oversight in the way it handles Pakistan reimbursement claims for coalition support funds (CSF), a program created after 9/11 to reimburse key U.S. allies in the global war on terror. In May 2007, the Center's Collateral Damage project found that post-9/11 U.S. military aid to Pakistan, totaling more than $5 billion, was subject to virtually no congressional oversight.

Washington Post national politics reporter Shailagh Murray in the paper's daily campaign 2008 blog, 'The Trail,' cited a Center interview with James A. Johnson, who recently resigned from Senator Obama's vice presidential search committee. In the interview, Johnson had "kind words" to say about veteran senator, and potential VP contender, Christopher Dodd.

On Thursday, the Senate Intelligence Committee released its Phase II report on prewar Iraq intelligence. Committee Chairman John D. (Jay) Rockefeller said: "It is my belief that the Bush administration was fixated on Iraq, and used the 9/11 attacks by Al Qaeda as justification for overthrowing Saddam Hussein. To accomplish this, top administration officials made repeated statements that falsely linked Iraq and Al Qaeda as a single threat and insinuated that Iraq played a role in 9/11. Sadly, the Bush administration led the nation into war under false pretenses." To read more about the Bush administration's false statements about the national security threat posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq, check out the Center's War Card project.

A Morning Call.com editorial cited a 2003 Center survey that ranked all 50 states' lobby disclosure laws. Until 2006, Pennsylvania had no lobbying law at all and was ranked 50th in the nation by the Center's survey. Currently, the legislature will consider a measure that would forbid gifts and entertainment from lobbyists to public officials.

Harry Shearer, actor, entertainer, musician, artist, and creator of the song 935 Lies - featured in his upcoming CD, Songs of the Bushmen - said in The Huffington Post, "Just in case Scott McClellan wasn't keeping count, the Center was: at least 935 falsehoods told by the president and his aides in the run-up to the [Iraq] war."

The Sunlight Foundation's SunSpots blog featured the "eye-popping reports" from the Center's Shadow Government project. The Center's Shadow Government project investigated a few federal advisory committees, part of a vast maze of committees, tasked with influencing federal government agencies on a variety of safety and policy issues, often done under secretive conditions with little public accountability.

Douglas Feith, President Bush's undersecretary of defense for policy from July 2001 to August 2005, was on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart May 12 and talked about the Iraq War. He said, "I think a lot of what the administration said was correct." The Center's Iraq War Card project, which documented 935 false statements made by Bush and six top administration officials in the two years following September 11, 2001, about the national security threat posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq, would prove otherwise.

Watch the world premier video of Harry Shearer's video "935 Lies." Shearer, best known for his work on The Simpsons, This is Spinal Tap, Le Show, Saturday Night Live, For Your Consideration and A Mighty Wind, unveiled a video satire based on the Center's Iraq War Card project, which documented the 935 false statements orchestrated by top Bush Administration officials in the two years following September 11, 2001, about the national security threat posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

The Sarasota Herald-Tribune's Kirsten Mitchell reported that Sen. Pete Domenici and 16 other Republican senators, who support the easing of offshore drilling restrictions on the Outer Continental Shelf for oil and gas, have received more than $3 million in campaign contributions from individuals and PACS affiliated with the oil and gas industry since Jan. 1, 2007.

The Washington Post's Matthew Mosk reported that Steven A. Betts, a top presidential campaign fundraiser for Sen. John McCain, was one of several Arizona developers who benefited from McCain-engineered land swaps.

TheStreet.com's John Stout cited the Center's Buying of the President 2008 chapter on Stealth Campaigns in "How Much Does It Cost to Buy a Presidency?" Political non-profit groups, such as MoveOn.org and the American Leadership Project, "will probably play an important role in this presidential election," he said.

The Center for Public Integrity Correction Policy

The Center for Public Integrity is dedicated to ensuring that all material disseminated by the Center is accurate and reliable. If the Center does make a mistake of fact or substance, we will quickly and transparently correct it and explain the correction. Minor errors of spelling or punctuation will be corrected on the site without notice.

If you believe you have found an inaccuracy in a Public Integrity publication, please let us know.

All corrections will be noted in the story and on the corrections page.

Year: 2006

Posted Wednesday, June 06, 2007 2:18 PM
In "An Interrogation Role Model" published May 30, 2007, it was incorrectly stated that Mordechai Vanunu was put on public trial. Vanunu's trial was held behind closed doors, with only his verdict being made public.

Posted Tuesday, December 05, 2006 2:30 PM
Since publishing the database for "Campaign Consultants: the Price of Democracy" on Sept. 26, 2006, the Center identified an additional vendor as a political consultant. Updated statistics in the story, "A Wealth of Advice," reflect the new information. The vendor, InfoCision Management Corporation, received $62 million for phone banks and fundraising services. The Center had not previously identified this vendor as a consultant. The Center also identified additional payments to LUC Media, increasing its total from $195,000 to $7.3 million and to Feather Larson Synhorst, increasing its total amount from $21 million to $26.9 million.

These additions increased the overall percentages paid to phone consultants from 3 percent to 7 percent and reduced the percentages for two categories: media (from 67 percent to 65 percent), and direct mail (from 17 percent to 16 percent).

Posted Thursday, October 12, 2006 9:30 AM
In "States Outpace Congress in Upgrading Lobbying Laws" and its corresponding chart, "State Legislator Revolving Door Provisions," published March 1, 2006, it was incorrectly stated that 20 states had a one-year cooling-off period before legislators can become lobbyists. New Mexico does not have a one-year cooling-off period before legislators can become lobbyists, which brings the total down one to 19. In fact, legislators are specifically exempted from the state revolving door provision that applies to other public officials.

Posted Tuesday, August 29, 2006 1:35 PM
Clarification: In "Public Service, Personal Gain in Delaware" published May 20, 2000, it was not stated that the Delaware Alternative Power Corp. has been inactive since 1992, years before Delaware Sen. Harris B. McDowell III's Senate Energy committee was reviewing the state's 1999 energy deregulation bill. The company, he said, never did any business in the state of Delaware. "I don't do any business in Delaware, specifically to avoid a conflict." McDowell said. He continued to list the Delaware Alternative Power Corp. on his annual financial disclosure report through 2001 in an effort "to err on the side of caution," according to documents filed with the state's Public Integrity Commission.

Posted Wednesday, June 14, 2006 3:33 PM
Clarification: In "Flouting the Rule on Lobbyist-Paid Travel" posted June 12, Powell, Goldstein, Frazer and Murphy was described as a Washington lobby shop. It is also a law firm.

Posted Tuesday, June 06, 2006 7:30 PM
In "Top Gun of Travel" published June 5, 2006, it was incorrectly stated that Rep. Howard McKeon, R-Calif., accepted a trip to Italy sponsored by General Atomics, because of a filing error by McKeon's office. His staffer, Brandi Ballou took the trip.

Posted Monday, June 05, 2006 5:17 PM
In the chart "Who Are the Top Travelers?" published June 5, 2006, the sponsor of the trip of Rep. William Thomas (R-Calif.) was incorrectly listed as Korea-U.S. Exchange Council/U.S.-Malaysia Exchange Assn. The sponsor was the American Enterprise Institute; Vail Valley Foundation.