How was 9/11 money spent, lawmakers ask
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| Tue, 04-27-2004 - 3:26pm |
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/170760_terror17.html
How was 9/11 money spent, lawmakers ask
Tuesday, April 27, 2004
By CARL HULSE
THE NEW YORK TIMES
WASHINGTON -- The senior Democrats on the House and Senate appropriations committees pressed the White House yesterday for a full accounting of how the Bush administration had spent $40 billion in emergency money that was provided by Congress just days after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Building on a report that the White House had prepared for the invasion of Iraq by diverting $700 million from post-Sept. 11 emergency appropriations, the two lawmakers, Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia and Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin, said they had "numerous concerns" beyond the $700 million about the use of the emergency money.
"When the Congress provided the extraordinary authorities in response to the al-Qaida attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, it expected that tax dollars would be managed carefully so as to provide assistance to the victims of the attack, to secure our homeland and to improve our national security," the lawmakers said in a letter to the White House.
Byrd and Obey said that contrary to the requirements of law, there appeared to have been no consultation with Congress on how $20 billion specifically handed over to the president for his allocation had been distributed.
They also said the administration had not submitted required quarterly reports on the use of the entire $40 billion for almost a year.
In asking the White House to detail how the $40 billion had been spent, the lawmakers said, "Transparency in this regard is critical."
Bob Woodward reported in his new book, "Plan of Attack," that the administration had used $700 million to prepare for the Iraq invasion without telling Congress. The administration has said it complied with all spending laws and did not use the bulk of that $700 million until after the House and the Senate had passed resolutions authorizing force against Iraq.(me: Still, this wasn't what it was intended for.)
Republicans in charge of the appropriations committees, who have raised no objections to the spending, have said they were generally kept abreast of how the emergency money was being used.
Responding to yesterday's letter, a White House official said it was under review. But he expressed confidence that the administration had complied with the law.
"The president asked for, and Congress provided, unprecedented flexibility for funds to wage the war on terror in the wake of 9/11," said the official, Chad Kolton, a spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget. "Since then the administration has kept Congress fully informed about obligations from the emergency response fund."
Kolton said a more detailed response to the letter would be developed.
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James
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I wondered if the info. in Woodward's book would lead to an investigation. See how far this one goes.
(Haven't heard the outcome of the outing of the CIA agent's name.)
(Haven't heard the outcome of the outing of the CIA agent's name.)
Last I heard, they were still 'investigating' it.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/171326_cia30.html
Book deals with leak of CIA name
Former ambassador says the guilty party may be Cheney aide
Friday, April 30, 2004
By DAVID JOHNSTON AND RICHARD W. STEVENSON
THE NEW YORK TIMES
WASHINGTON -- Former Ambassador Joseph Wilson says in a new book that he believes the White House official behind the disclosure of his wife's identity as an undercover CIA officer was "quite possibly" Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby.
Wilson, however, offers no firm evidence to support his assertion, and the White House has denied it.
Wilson writes that Libby "evidently seized opportunities to rail openly against me" and was an "ardent neoconservative" who had the "motive and means" to conduct a covert inquiry to identify Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame.
Her name was disclosed by Robert Novak in his syndicated column in July after Wilson publicly criticized the Bush administration's handling of reports that Iraq had tried to buy uranium from the African nation of Niger.
Federal prosecutors are investigating who gave Novak the information about Plame; disclosure of an undercover officer's identity can be a crime.
The book, which is being published today by Carroll & Graf, is titled "The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed My Wife's CIA Identity -- A Diplomat's Memoir."
As to the leaker, Wilson does not limit his suspicions to Libby. He says that another person whose name "has most often been repeated to me" is Elliott Abrams.
Abrams is a former official in President Reagan's administration who became embroiled in the Iran-Contra affair and now works in the National Security Council.
Asked about Wilson's account, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said he was "simply not going to review or promote a book whose author has said his primary purpose is to pursue a political agenda to defeat the president."(me:
Thanks for the article.
>"Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby."<
>"Abrams is a former official in President Reagan's administration who became embroiled in the Iran-Contra affair and now works in the National Security Council."<
Whoever outed Valerie Plame I seriously doubt if the truth will ever be known. It was a conscious act of revenge, IMO. Novak may not even know where the go ahead to reveal her name came from.
OT I find it interesting these old Reagan/Bush snr. admin. keep popping up working for this admin.