In a letter to members of Congress today, 112 organizations are calling for action on legislation to protect whistleblowers at federal agencies.

The effort was spearheaded by the Government Accountability Project, Public Citizen, the Project On Government Oversight, and the Union of Concerned Scientists. The group also includes the American Civil Liberties Union, Society of Professional Journalists, American Association of Small Business Owners, and Consumers Union.

The House and Senate have passed whistleblower protection bills authored by House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii). The 112 organizations are calling on the two chambers to conference those bills and vote on a final version.

 

"Government workers who warn us of waste, fraud and abuse should be protected, not punished,

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) said that the House Judiciary Committee would be willing to arrest Karl Rove if the former White House official doesn't testify about his role in the firing of nine U.S. attorneys in 2006.

Wasserman Schultz, in an interview on MSNBC Tuesday, echoed the demand of House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) that Rove would not be allowed to invoke executive privilege to avoid testifying. Rove could not invoke the privilege since he said he did not have conversations with the president about the attorneys' firing, Wasserman Schultz said.

Asked by MSNBC host Dan Abrams if the committee would go far as having Rove arrested, Wasserman said it would.

"Well, if that's what it takes," she said. "I mean we really cannot allow the co-equal branch of government, the legislative branch, to be trampled upon by the executive branch. The founding fathers established three branches of government. We are a co-equal branch, and this is an administration that essentially has ignored and disrespected the role of the legislative branch for far too long."

Rove said Sunday that the Judiciary Committee has refused to take up offers by his lawyer and the Bush administration that would allow the committee to find the information it's seeking without Rove's testimony.

Watch Wasserman Schultz's interview below.

A New York man who laundered bribes for former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.) was sentenced to more than eight years in a federal prison, the Associated Press reports.

Thomas Kontogiannis had pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering. Prosecutors said that he had helped Cunningham launder hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to Cunningham from defense contractors.

Cunningham, who pleaded guilty in 2005 to accepting about $2.4 million in bribes, is serving more than eight years in prison.

Two contractors also linked to Cunningham have been convicted on charges that they gave kickbacks to Cunningham for help in obtaining government contracts.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that the United States' military needs to prepare to for the threats of "smaller, irregular forces" that have spurred on military conflicts in the past 25 years.

In a speech at the Heritage Foundation on Tuesday, Gates said that another major American conventional ground operation is unlikely in the near-future.

"[I]t is hard to conceive of any country confronting the United States directly in conventional terms -- ship to ship, fighter to fighter, tank to tank -- for some time to come," he said. "The record of the past quarter century is clear: the Soviets in Afghanistan, the Israelis in Lebanon, the United States in Somalia, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Smaller, irregular forces -- insurgents, guerrillas, terrorists -- will find ways, as they always have, to frustrate and neutralize the advantages of larger, regular militaries."

Gates added that the United States has strength in its Navy and Air Force, which can defeat "any -- repeat, any -- adversary who committed an act of aggression."
"It is true that we would be hard-pressed to launch a major conventional ground operation elsewhere in the world at this time - but where would we sensibly do that?" he said.

Gates welcomed more scrutiny of military spending, especially when money is used for war and not to modernize forces.

"First, I believe that any major weapons program, in order to remain viable, will have to show some utility and relevance to the kind of irregular campaigns that, as I mentioned, are most likely to engage America's military in the coming decades," he said.

He said that programs such as the Army's Future Combat Systems, which calls for a group of manned and unmanned forces working together, must demonstrate its value for the "irregular challenges" the country will face to justify its cost, which could exceed $200 billion.