Financial planning

News that the FBI is investigating 14 mortgage lenders and investment banks for allegedly making improper sub-prime loans to homebuyers and for other practices that have triggered or exacerbated the nation's housing crisis raises some interesting questions. FBI Director Robert Mueller said Thursday that more than 1,000 mortgage fraud investigations had been opened in all 50 states. "There is not a state that does not have some investigation," Mueller told reporters in Hawaii, according to the Associated Press. "It is a substantial problem but we've been through problems like this in the past." He did not name any of the companies, nor did he mention what investigation tools would be used. But what does the FBI plan to do, beyond the cooperation with the Security and Exchange Commission that Mueller discussed today? Will everything be done using records, or will agents be going to banks and lenders to question employees and officers? Will suspects be taken to secret locations for interrogation? Will waterboarding or other invasive interrogation techniques be employed? An anxious nation wants to know.

Turf war

What, exactly, do you think it will take for the federal government to get prepared for a catastrophic attack on the United States? If the Sept. 11 attacks -- when three planes were hijacked and flown hundreds of miles unimpeded until they crashed into major buildings (including the Pentagon), killing thousands -- weren't enough, just what will it take? Today's report from the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves should give all Americans pause. Officials at the Pentagon get paid a lot of money to work every day figuring out how to protect this country -- they probably have thousands of people devoted to this very subject -- and they don't have a plan for what to do in case of a chemical, biological or nuclear attack. "We looked at their plans - they're totally unacceptable," commission chairman Arnold Punaro, a retired Marine Corps major general, said yesterday after reviewing strategies developed by U.S. Northern Command, according to the Reuters international news agency. "You couldn't move a Girl Scout unit with the kind of planning they're doing," Punaro said. Northern Command is the Pentagon unit, created after the Sept. 11 attacks, dedicated to homeland defense. But the commission says the military has not dedicated sufficient resources to prepare for such a role, despite the creation of Northern Command after the 9/11 attacks. Why not? Well, the commission says one reason is tension between the federal government and the states over who will be in charge of the nation's response. Great. The future of the country is in doubt because of a turf war between government agencies? Hello? Isn't there somebody in charge in Washington?

Kenya talks

The top U.S. diplomat in Africa said today that Kenya's main political parties locked in a deadly dispute over the outcome of the Dec. 27 election should agree to share power and form a coalition government. Jendayi Frazer made the statement as negotiators from the two parties prepared to meet Thursday for a second day of talks brokered by former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Three-member teams from President Mwai Kibaki's Party of National Unity and opposition leader Raila Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement are trying to resolve a dispute that began with the Dec. 27 balloting and has descended into ethnic clashes and anarchy that threaten the country's roles as a major port and desirable tourist destination. Kibaki says he won the election for a second term but Odinga claims he won the vote and the election was stolen from him. Since the election, violence has broken out along tribal lines in normally peaceful Kenyan towns pitting members of Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe against members of the Luo, Luhya and Kalenjin tribes who back Odinga. Britain, France, Germany, Italy and the European Union declared their support for Annan's mediation effort yesterday at a meeting in London, the Reuters international news service reported.

CIA ABCs

Okay, does everyone understand now? The United States doesn't torture terrorism suspects and the question of whether waterboarding is torture is moot because the CIA doesn't do that anymore. It that clear? That depends on what "that" means. Or, so says new U.S. Attorney Michael Mukasey, who told Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) in a letter Tuesday that the CIA's current interrogation methods are legal and that's what matters. "The interrogation techniques currently authorized in the CIA program comply with the law," Mukasey wrote in the letter, according to the Reuters international news service. "Waterboarding is not, and may not be, used in the current program," the letter said. Mukasey's refusal to answer whether he considered waterboarding illegal nearly derailed his confirmation hearings last year, and the replacement for Bush's friend Alberto Gonzales pledged to review the interrogation program. But Mukasey's letter said he would not give his judgment about the interrogation method, in which water is used to make detainees feel they are drowning. "As a general matter, I do not believe that it is advisable to address difficult legal questions, about which responsible minds can and do differ, in the absence of concrete facts and circumstances," the letter said. Leahy rejected Mukasey's assertion. Mukasey is scheduled to testify before Leahy's panel today. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, who was the nation's first director of national intelligence from 2005-2007, said in an interview published last week that waterboarding had been used but not during his term as spy chief. The issue is part of the uproar in Washington over the destruction of videotapes said to depict the use of waterboarding in interrogations of at least one suspected al-Qaida terrorist in 2002. Mukasey ordered the Justice Department to investigate the destruction of the tapes but has rejected calls for an independent counsel.

Quiet please

What's the deal with the Congress repeatedly interrupting President Bush's State of the Union speech last night with wild applause? They always do that -- no matter how inappropriate, no matter the president. But why? This guy is probably the worst president ever -- his popularity is in the toilet, the country has lost a lot of credibility, the executive branch is undermining the Bill of Rights, the economy is falling apart -- so what's the thing? And the speech? Things are great in Iraq, the economy is strong, the country needs more tax cuts. What, exactly, is the disconnect here? The Congress interrupted Bush's speech 70 times with applause. Perhaps the assembled lawmakers were not applauding the speech at all, but were clapping because they appreciate the fancy joint chamber, the fancy furniture, the government-paid cars, the $5,000 suits they get to wear. Fine tailors all around. Do you think they're getting paid too much? This is the guy who devoted the 2003 State of the Union speech to Saddam Hussein and Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, and took the country to war on false pretenses. Applause? Maybe they're happy, ecstatic even -- like most of the country -- that it's almost over.

Kenya hopes fade

The disintegration of society in Kenya continued unabated today as gangs of Kikuyu and Luo youth rampaged in western towns. Today, young people from the Kikuyu tribe, the same tribe as embattled president Mwai Kibaki, squared off against young people from the Luo tribe, which includes opposition leader Raila Odinga, in the western tourist town of Naivasha. Kenya has convulsed with ethnic violence since the closely contested Dec. 27 presidential election, which Odinga claims Kibaki stole. International observers have questioned the vote count, and Odinga has demanded that Kibaki resign and hold new elections. More than 85 have died in the past five days, according to the Washington Post. Post-election violence has claimed close to 800 lives and displaced hundreds of thousands in Kenya, which had been a stable democracy seen as a model for other emerging African nations. The Kibaki-Odinga dispute has apparently awakened long-simmering tribal rivalries among the Kikuyu tribe, which has long ruled Kenya, and the Luo and Kalenjin tribes, which backed Odinga. The initial optimism that surrounded last week's arrival of mediator Kofi Annan of Ghana, the former U.N. secretary-general, who arranged the first meeting between Kibaki and Odinga since the December balloting, appears to be fading.

Under pressure

News from the Middle East today is that Israel will resume fuel shipments to the Gaza Strip, the renegade Palestinian territory that broke away from the Palestinian Authority last year, the BBC is reporting. Restoring the fuel supply should help relieve a looming humanitarian crisis in the 1.5-million population territory, from which Israel withdrew in 2005. Israel had been blockading Gaza in response to daily artillery fire from militants directed at the nearby Israeli city of Sderot, but enough is enough. If authorities in the Gaza Strip, now controlled by the terror group Hamas, which still denies Israel's right to exist, cannot stop the shelling, the Israeli Army must do it. But to inflict more suffering on the people of the Gaza Strip seems pointless and cruel. Israel obviously believes Hamas is encouraging or at least tolerating the rocket attacks, which is probably true. The suffering of Gaza Strip residents does not motivate Hamas to resolve the crisis, but Israel should not be so callous. Plus, Israel is powerful enough to deal with the threat without endangering the lives of hundreds of thousands of residents. Of course, the threat has eased in recent days with the breaching of the Egyptian border, which had been closed since the Hamas takeover, and the free movement of Gaza Strip residents to Egyptian cities to buy supplies. Israel's decision to allow fuel shipments came at a hearing of the Israeli Supreme Court on a lawsuit brought by human rights groups opposed to the blockade.