by Frank James

A quick guided tour of some of the morning's most important or interesting, or both, Washington-related stories.

The House passed, with near unanimity, legislation to make private contractors accountable under U.S. law for alleged crimes committed in Iraq in reaction to reports that Blackwater USA's guards have repeatedly shot and killed Iraqi civilians.

The U.S. military reported that its investigation found that Blackwater USA security guards for the State Department were unprovoked when they opened fire last month, killing at least 14.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's most senior food-safety official acknowledged that the agency could improve by announcing recalls more quickly and said officials will begin a review of the nation's meat-packing plants to check safeguards against the e-coli bacteria.

Democratic and Republican lawmakers debated over what conclusions to draw from the revelation that the Bush Administration had issued secret memos to justify the Central Intelligence Agency's use of extreme interrogation techniques on terrorist suspects, with members of the majority expressing outrage and requesting the documents, saying the techniques amounted to torture, while lawmakers in the minority mostly supported the administration.

The Army is using anthropologists in Afghanistan and Iraq in an effort to understand the often subtle human dimensions of tribal and other cultural relationships but there is disapproval in academic circles as some scholars believe the social sciences could be misused or that academics may become confused with intelligence gatherers.

U.S. military officials said they captured six al Qaeda media operations in Iraq since June, also arresting 20 individuals allegedly engaged in propaganda.

In a dramatic change with what preceded them, the new military leaders in the Pentagon are openly questioning the Iraq mission and expressing great concern about the war's effect on the military's readiness, particularly the Army's.

The Bush Administration is proposing a means test for seniors enrolled in the Medicare Part D prescription-drug program which would require them to pay more money out-of- pocket, a plan likely to draw the ire of seniors and the AARP.

The farm bill has stalled in the Senate, partly because Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid doesn't has been unwilling or unable to force needed compromises among the Democratic Senate committee chairmen who play a role in agricultural policy.