by Frank James
A quick guided tour of some of the morning's most important or interesting (or both) Washington-related stories.
Saudi Arabia has angered U.S. officials for what is perceived as its counterproductive role in Iraq through a lack of support for its neighbor's Shiite-led government and the steady flow of jihadists into Iraq from the oil-rich kingdom.
Jordan appealed for international help to deal with 750,000 Iraqi refugees it said it said is costing $1 billion a year.
As Senate Democrats called for a perjury probe into Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Robert Mueller contradicted Gonzales by telling Congress that the warrantless wiretapping program was why Gonzales made a controversial 2004 visit to the hospital bed of then Attorney General John Ashcroft.
The U.S. and Europe agreed to expand a counterterrorism data-sharing program, adding to the amount of information on passengers traveling to the U.S. airlines will share with the Homeland Security Department.
Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama's foreign-relations dispute was bound to happen as the two Democratic presidential candidates jockey for an edge.
Sen. Hillary Clinton's foreign-relations experience was questioned as some critics said being a well-traveled former First Lady is different than having the presidential level international experience.
Fred Thompson, the actor and former senator from Tennessee who is expected to announce his presidential candidacy, has been attempting to burnish his conservative credentials through Internet writings that have been picked up in the conservative part of blogosphere.
New questions emerged in the Afghanistan death of soldier Pat Tillman, a former NFL football star, with the disclosure that Army medical examiners and investigators were suspicious of the fatal friendly-fire wounds he received, which appeared to be inflicted at much closer range than indicated by the Army's official version of the incident which took his life.
Inside-the-Beltway Republicans fear that their political fortunes haven't changed since the last election and that they could lose even more seats and fail to keep the White House in the 2008 elections.
NASA said it would investigate reports that astronauts were allowed to fly shortly after drinking alcohol, potentially threatening flight safety. The report came the same day NASA said a computer destined for the International Space Station was sabotaged.
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Comments
The public is not interested in a perjury probe into the testimony of Gonzo. The public presumes Congress has some work to do. Get at it. Now is the time to put your legislation up and make the Republicans vote against it. You are being defined as a "do nothing" Congress and deserve the title.
Posted by: c. perry | July 27, 2007 9:21 AM
Speaking of swamp gas, if we allow BP to continue to pollute our Great Lake Michigan, we do not deserve to enjoy such a jewel in our front yard. I hope the Tribune will continue to feature this story vigorously. How reckless can a state that shares such a natural, and beautiful resource damage it, violate it. I hope the great State of Indiana will come to its senses and re-write that contract with British Petroleum and tell them to spend some of their profits to haul that waste to some safe and protected location, away from our drinking water.
Thank you.
Posted by: Don Fitzgerald | July 27, 2007 9:31 AM
The Saudi Arabian Government's reactions to Bush's actions are just one more example of the ineptnesss of the Bush Administration. Dubya not only can't get the Saudis to at least be neutral, the Saudis are, at a minimum, allowing their citizens to go into Iraq to fight against us. All of the borders surrounding Iraq are porous enough to allow men, weapons and bombs into Iraq that are killing our troops!
We are 4 1/2 years into an unnecessary war that was predicated & conducted on miscaluclation after obfuscation after half truths after no truth.
Generals to privates to politicians to the President all say there will be no peace in Iraq that is not preceded by a Iraqi Government political solution. And not is that not happening, it is going in the wrong direction as the Iraqi Government goes on vacation while our soldiers fight on.
The only thing that will be accomplished in the next 6 weeks of the Dr. Strangelove like name "surge" is a lot more people will be killed.
Posted by: Doug Zook | July 27, 2007 9:58 AM
Make no mistake about it--the Hillary vs. Barack debate is the US presidential debate.
The Republicans are not going to have a viable candidate, especially since the onces they are putting up are ardently in support of the Iraq war.
And make no mistake about it. Jordan is asking for "international help" but what they really mean is US help. They want us to add their $1 billion a year refugee tab to our $250 billion a year Iraq tab.
To them, it looks like peanuts. And they have a point. Americans are so anxious to give all their money to the Iraqis, why wouldn't they support them in Jordan too.
Posted by: Helena | July 27, 2007 10:37 AM
The NYT article is just the tip of the iceberg on the Saudis. See here for a primer:
www.asecondlookatthesaudis.com
Posted by: Bill in Chicago | July 27, 2007 12:27 PM