Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Friday that he will try to get a telecommunications immunity provision stripped when the Senate takes up the FISA rewrite.
"I'm going to try real hard to have a separate vote on immunity,'' Reid said on Bloomberg TV. "Probably we can't take that out of the bill, but I'm going to try."
A FISA rewrite including immunity passed the House earlier Friday, outraging several House Democrats, including House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) who called the bill "unacceptable."
House Democratic leadership supported the bill's passage.
The House passed a rewrite of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, 293 to 129, that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies.
The outcome is considered a win for the White House and loss for liberals.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) expressed his displeasure, calling the result "unacceptable."
"Every American deserves their day in court, and we deserve to learn the truth about the President
Congressmen whose districts border the Mississippi River are bracing for floods as tides that have ravaged Iowa and Minnesota in the past week start to head south.
Rep. Phil Hare (D-Ill.) met with volunteers today in his western Illinois district, holding a press conference with Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and local officials to address the threat.
Rep. Kenny Hulshof (R-Mo.), whose district borders Hare's across the river, is preparing a front-page section of his website to give constituents up-to-date information on the flooding, an idea his office got from Rep. Dave Loebsack (D-Iowa), according to Hulshof Legislative Director Aaron Smith.
Hulshof, who maintains a farm eight miles from the river, has a staffer in contact with the Army Corps of Engineers and the Federal Emergency Management Association, Smith said.
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Congressional computers containing information on global human rights activists and political dissidents were hacked by a source working from China, two congressmen alleged today.
Reps. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) and Chris Smith (R-N.J.) said at a press conference that computers belonging to several of their staffers were hacked from a Chinese I.P. address in 2006 and 2007.
"A source from China hacked into the computer of my foreign policy and human rights staff person, then the computers of my chief of staff, my legislative director, and my judiciary staff person," Wolf said. "On these computers was information about all of the casework I have done on behalf of political dissidents and human rights activists around the world."
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President Bush's approval rating has hit an new low, dropping to 25 percent in the most recent CBS News poll.
Bush now ranks 3rd all time in lowest approval rating, hovering above Richard Nixon's 24 percent in August 1974 and Harry Truman's 22 percent in February 1952. Bush's 67 percent disapproval rating, however, ranks slightly higher than both Nixon and Truman during their least popular rating.
The Iraq war continues to plague the president's popularity. Despite much touted "success" for the surge, 61 percent of respondents said Iraq will never be a stable democracy, up 8 percent since September. And 42 percent want troops out of Iraq within the year.
An overwhelming 83 percent of respondents said the country is on the wrong track.
Former Attorney General John Ashcroft and former White House lawyers John Yoo and David Addington will testify to the House Judiciary Committee on Bush Administration interrogation and torture policy following a long legal bout with the committee.
Earlier this morning the committee voted to subpoena Addington, a top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney and one of the legal architects of the administration's war on terror policies.
The AP reported earlier that Yoo and Ashcroft agreed late Monday to appear in front of the committee.
Under Secretary of Defense Douglas Feith, and former Assistant Attorney General Dan Levin will also testify.
Former CIA Director George Tenet has not yet agreed to appear, but is reportedly negotiating with the committee.
Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, has been picked by Defense Secretary Robert Gates to head all U.S. forces in the Middle East.
Army Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno will reportedly be nominated to replace Petraeus.
If confirmed by the Senate, Petraeus would replace Adm. William Fallon who resigned in March.
Fallon was pressured to resign after an Esquiremagazine article portrayed the Admiral as the lone voice within the military opposing a war with Iran.
At the press conference announcing the decision, Gates said he recommended Petraeus because he is "absolutely confident" Petraeus is "the best man for the job."
"I don't know anybody in the United States military better qualified to led that effort."
Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) hailed the Petraeus pick, saying he has "the utmost confidence [Petraeus's] leadership."
"Once confirmed, our nation will be fortunate to have General Petraeus guide our strategy to protect American interests in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and the wider region of the world," the Republican leader said.
Democratic leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) was less enthusiastic. Reid said the challenges facing the next President "will require fresh, independent and creative thinking and, if directed to by a new President, a commitment to implementing major changes in strategy."
"The Senate will carefully examine these nominations and I will be looking for credible assurances of a strong commitment to implementing a more effective national security strategy," Reid said.
President Bush told ABC News he approved specific techniques to be used by CIA interrogators against high value al Qaeda targets. Bush was responding to reports that senior administration officials met, discussed and approved of "enhanced interrogation techniques."
Bush told ABC Friday:
"Well we started to connect the dots in order to protect the American people."
"And yes, I'm aware our national security team met on the issue. And I approved."
Bush called the initial report this week that top administration officials had signed off on the "enhanced interrogation" not so "startling."
The Pentagon has told North Carolina Congressman Patrick McHenry (R) not to re-post video on his website that the lawmaker shot in Iraq during a March trip, the Charlotte Observer reported.
McHenry is accused by the veterans group Vote Vets of breaching operational security by videotaping and posting video from an enemy rocket attack. On the video McHenry says a rocket "hit just over my head" and mentions two other locations struck by rockets. Following the complaint, McHenry's office took down the video.
From the Charlotte Observer:
On Friday, his Web site featured a video shot in the fortified section of Baghdad known as the Green Zone. McHenry could be seen gesturing to a building behind him and saying that one of 11 rockets "hit just over my head." Then he named two other places struck by the rockets.
On Monday, a veterans group called VoteVets.org accused McHenry of giving away intelligence information that could have aided terrorist organizations in targeting the Green Zone.
"The bottom line is that whoever launched that strike could take the information McHenry provided and use it to kill Americans in the Green Zone," wrote Brandon Friedman, vice chairman of VoteVets.org, a veterans advocacy group that has called for troop withdrawal and promoted veterans for political office.
A Pentagon spokesman told the Observer visitors are "routinely briefed" on operational rules. "We do not as a matter of policy discuss attacks in a way that would provide the enemy any better understanding of the effectiveness of their attacks," the spokesman told the paper.
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