Fun in the Oval Office

The wheels of government may turn slowly, but they keep turning. In court papers filed today, attorneys for the House Judiciary Committee argued that the Bush administration's refusal to permit presidential advisers to testify before Congress last year about the firings of nine U.S. Attorneys was the largest expansion of executive privilege since Watergate. Doesn't the U.S. Attorneys thing seem like such a long time ago? Well, it wasn't. "Not since the days of Watergate have the Congress and the federal courts been confronted with such an expansive view of executive privilege as the one asserted by the current presidential administration and the individual defendants in this case," the court papers say, according to the Associated Press. The lawsuit was filed by the committee in March after Attorney General Michael Mukasey refused to bring contempt of Congress charges against Bush's chief of staff, Josh Bolten, and former White House counsel Harriet Miers for refusing to testify about whether the firings of the U.S. Attorneys were politically motivated. The White House contends that information is private and falls under the executive privilege doctrine, which allows the president to keep some communications private. The White House said Bush was not personally involved in deciding which U.S. prosecutors to fire, that communications on the matter were off-limits, and that Miers and Bolten were immune from prosecution because their refusal to comply with the subpoenas was at the administration's direction. The fun is sure to continue May 9 when the administration is scheduled to respond to the committee's filing.

Over there

At least the United States is not the only country twisting its principles to justify the Iraq war. Of course, that may not be a good thing. The Associated Press reported today that Britain's highest court has rejected a effort by two mothers of slain soldiers to force an inquiry into the legality of the war. The mothers, Rose Gentle and Beverley Clark, had contended that former Prime Minister Tony Blair acted illegally when he committed thousands of troops to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. They argued that Britain was required to conduct an inquiry under the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects the right to life. Clarke's son, David, died in March 2003 in a friendly fire incident near Basra and Gentle's son, Gordon, was killed by a roadside bomb in 2004, also in Basra. British Attorney General Peter Goldsmith raised questions about the war's legality in 2003 but later agreed that England had the right to go to war under United Nations resolutions. A committee of Law Lords at the House of Lords, England's highest court, issued a ruling Wednesday that the women's claims had properly been dismissed by two lower courts. The lords did not agree that the European convention applied to the case. "There is no basis for any inquiry into the circumstances of the sad deaths," the Lords said in a written ruling. Current Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said there will be an inquiry after all British troops have returned home.

Trying to tame Tehran

France has picked up the call to toughen sanctions on Iran's government after Tehran announced today that has started to install 6,000 centrifuges to accelerate its enrichment of uranium. "I fear that we will have to continue on the path of sanctions if we do not receive a response from the Iranians, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in Paris. Western nations have offered a package of incentives to persuade Iran to stop its nuclear development, which they suspect could lead to nuclear weapons. About 1,500 of the centrifuges are enough to build a small nuclear weapon, analysts say, according to the Reuters international news service. Iran insists its work is limited to the development of nuclear power for electricity, even though the country is the world's fourth leading oil exporter. In a televised speech today marking Iran's National Day of Nuclear Technology, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad said Western nations that tried to restrict Iran's nuclear ambitions had been defeated. "They imagined that by imposing political pressure and sanctions, Iran's economy will fall apart but we saw that this did not happen," Ahmedinejad said, according to Reuters. The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China, plan to meet in Shanghai next week to discuss increasing their incentives offer.

Kenya deal still undone

Realistically, nobody should be surprised that Kenya's top political leaders and rivals have hit another snag in forming the country's first coalition government. Talks deadlocked again today, the second time since Saturday's announcement that an agreement was imminent. This time, opposition leader Raila Odinga, designated to be Kenya's first prime minister in the evolving agreement, accused President Mwai Kibaki's Party of National Unity of reneging on an deal to divide cabinet posts and refused to attend a meeting with Kibaki. Kibaki's suspect re-election in December prompted a political crisis that threatened the very existence of the government. The normally peaceful country descended into tribal violence after Odinga, leader of the Orange Democratic Movement, contended that he won the presidential election. Kibaki disputed that but said large numbers of ballots had been destroyed and could not be recounted. The resulting violence killed more than 1,000 and displaced more than 300,000. Weeks of negotiations mediated by former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan ended with a power-sharing deal and calmed the violence. But Kibaki is fortunate to have reached a deal because Odinga's party seems to have some valid complaints about the process. Kibaki is fortunate to be able to stay in office under such conditions, and his reluctance to finalize the deal is understandable only because his second term will forever be tainted.

Bush's unfortunate legacy

So-far unsuccessful final-year efforts by the Bush administration to achieve long-sought diplomatic successes in an effort to frame the 43rd president's legacy certainly leaves one impression — the most striking yet dubious accomplishment of his eight years in office has been his management of news coverage. Bush has held very few press conferences, when the president must give unrehearsed answers to reporters' questions, and only gives speeches in front of hand-picked audiences who are certain to applaud wildly at whatever he says. The issue comes up today because the Associated Press is reporting that Bush administration officials made four trips to the back to the press section of Air Force One during Sunday's flight from Moscow to convince journalists to put a positive spin on the president's inconclusive weekend summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Many of the comments were off the record and could not be quoted or repeated, the AP said. The administration apparently was concerned that initial reports from the summit were that President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin were unable to resolve differences on U.S. plans for a missile defense shield for eastern Europe and other issues. The differences have caused a dramatic cooling in relations between Russia and the United States, despite the personal relationship that developed between the two leaders. U.S. officials had hoped to reach an agreement with Russia on missile defense at the summit, but now concede that an agreement is unlikely before the end of Bush's second term in January. National security adviser Stephen Hadley said as much in response to reporters' questions on the flight. "What matters is that the two presidents have reached an agreement to set our two countries on the path for cooperation here," Hadley said. "And they can leave that to their respective successors." Other points of disagreement between Bush and Putin concerned U.S. support for plans to invite former Soviet republics Ukraine and Georgia to NATO and U.S. backing of an independent Kosovo.

Getting real about Iran

What was the point of the secretary of defense traveling to the Persian Gulf sultanate of Oman to assure its leader that the United States would continue to use diplomacy with Iran? Secretary Robert Gates was in Muscat, Oman's capital, today to affirm the U.S. commitment to negotiations to resolve disputes with Iran. "Although we keep all options open with regards to Iran, we remain committed to a diplomatic solution," Gates told Sultan Qaboos bin Said, according to a U.S. official who was with reporters on the flight home to Washington, the Reuters international news service reported. Oman, a U.S. ally, has expressed concern about the dangers of war with nearby Iran, a regional powerhouse. The United States is behind efforts by the United Nations to stop Iran's nuclear program and to block Iranian assistance to groups opposed to U.S. policy in Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan. But why would the United States want to negotiate now, rather than plunging into war as in Iraq and Afghanistan? Maybe Washington, which has toned down its saber rattling, is afraid that Iran won't be as easy to beat as Iraq and Aghanistan, where U.S. occupations already are five years old and face increasing criticism at home.

Blackwater rafting

It's hard to tell what message the U.S. government is trying to convey to Iraqis with the announcement Friday that the State Department would renew a $92 million contract with Blackwater, the security contractor whose personnel killed 17 civilians in a shooting incident in September. Disrespect? Disregard? Contempt? The U.S.-supported Iraqi government reacted with predictable dismay Saturday, with a top adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki calling the decision "bad news." Sami al-Askari said quite reasonably, it seems, that the United States should have waited until all investigations were completed. Blackwater is one of three companies contracted by the State Department to help provide security to diplomats, construction workers and government officials in Iraq. The September incident prompted changes in the way security contractors operate in Iraq. Now, a State Department official is required to ride with every private convoy and all vehicles must be equipped with video cameras. "I personally am not happy with this, especially because they have committed acts of aggression, killed Iraqis, and this has not been resolved yet positively for families of victims," al-Askari said. "The U.S. government has the right to choose what contractors its chooses, but Iraq should also have the right to allow or ban certain contractors from operating on its territory." The three security companies — Blackwater, Triple Canopy and DynCorp. — are immune from prosecution under Iraqi law.