Government Misconduct

Critics of the war crimes tribunal at Guantanamo Bay have consistently assailed the coerced confessions that may be used as evidence against the defendants and have repeatedly charged that the prisoners' severe isolation causes mental illnesses that make them unable to aid in their own defense. Now, the critics add, evidence has emerged to show that the government advised interrogators to destroy their notes to evade legal consequences for their actions.

A cousin and top deputy of executed former President Saddam Hussein denied opening fire on Iraqi civilians during a Shiite uprising in 1991 but acknowledged executing an Iranian national accused of sabotage. Ali Hassan Majid is known as "Chemical Ali" for ordering poison gas attacks on Kurds, a crime for which he has been sentenced to death. He is among 15 Hussein-era officials on trial for the 1991 crackdown that led to the killing of tens of thousands of Shiite Muslims. Majid disputed witness accounts that he and Iraqi soldiers opened fire on peaceful Shiite protesters in Basra, saying he targeted gunmen.

A House committee issued a subpoena for FBI reports from interviews with President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney in the investigation into the leak of Valerie Plame's CIA identity. The subpoena to Atty. Gen. Michael B. Mukasey from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is the latest move by Congress to shed light on Cheney's precise role in the leak. The committee, led by Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills), has been trying to get FBI interviews of Bush and Cheney since last year.

The House Judiciary Committee subpoenaed Atty. Gen. Michael B. Mukasey for transcripts of interviews with President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and former presidential advisor Karl Rove during the federal inquiry into the leak of then-CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity. The subpoena requests all documents from the office of former Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald relating to interviews of Bush, Cheney and their aides that were conducted outside the presence of a grand jury investigating the leak.

As Robert Mugabe was inaugurated Sunday to a new five-year term as Zimbabwe's president, critics and analysts warned that his pattern of violent revenge against opponents could be repeated in coming months in an attempt to destroy his chief rival's party. The announcement of Mugabe's inauguration at the State House in Harare and the issuing of invitations were so hasty that both came several hours before the results of Friday's one-man presidential runoff were released.

Disgraced former President Alberto Fujimori should not be held responsible for human rights crimes committed during his time in office, the man who ran his feared counterinsurgency network said in court Monday.

A Chilean judge indicted a deputy of former dictator Augusto Pinochet and two others over the 1987 disappearance of five leftists believed murdered and hurled into the ocean from a helicopter. They were the last people known to have disappeared at the hands of the 1973-90 regime. Magistrate Mario Carroza indicted former deputy army commander and junta member Santiago Sinclair, former army secret intelligence service head Hugo Prado and Col. Marcelo Bustos, who is still in the military, over the disappearances.

Pentagon oversight agency officials forced changes to unfavorable reports on defense contracts, hid contractor overbilling and attempted to hinder an investigation, the Government Accountability Office reported. Pressure from contractors and senior officials of the Defense Contract Audit Agency led to changes in initial reports, the GAO said in an 80-page report. The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, which requested the inquiry, said Boeing Co. and Northrop Grumman Co. were on the list.

When Bush administration officials at the Justice Department dismissed nine U.S. attorneys in 2006, there were various theories as to why the prosecutors were being let go. They were too soft on the death penalty. They did not prosecute enough illegal immigrants. They did not go after enough Democrats. On Monday, the Justice Department's internal watchdog hinted at perhaps the most sensational justification yet -- perceived homosexuality.

In a state with more tundra than turnpikes, Alaska's Ted Stevens is a political force. The former chairman and now ranking Republican on the influential U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, Stevens is known as a master of pork barrel politics, with a record of channeling billions of federal dollars to his home state. He has brought home so much federal funding, in fact, that the cash has been given a special name: Stevens money.