MILITARY OVERSIGHT: SHADES OF TRUMAN UNFOLDING
In the early 1940's then Sen. Harry S. Truman led investigations that resulted in saving the country $15 billion (in 1940-era dollars) and saving the lives of untold numbers of U.S. soldiers, marines, sailors and airmen by uncovering inferior quality in equipment being built for the military during WWII. In January another Missourian is set to become the head of the House Armed Services Committee and he has laid it down that one of his first acts will be to reinstitute the Oversight and Investigations subcommittee that Republicans had disbanded and start launching investigations into corruption and war profiteering as well as policy.
Full Story At: http://tinyurl.com/uh6b8

IRAQ: CIA CHIEF PAINTS EXTREMELY BLEAK PICTURE
Saying, "Iraq's endemic violence is eating away at the state's ability to govern," CIA director Gen. Michael Hayden painted an extremely grim picture of a disintegrating Iraq in testimony at a U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee this week.
Full Story At: http://tinyurl.com/u6na3

CHANGE INDIA NUCLEAR DEAL SAY ARMS CONTROL EXPERTS
Arms control experts are clamoring that the Senate should alter certain parts of the U.S.-India nuclear cooperation agreement that passed the House last year but that will be taken up by the lame-duck Senate. As it is presently written the agreement would allow a nuclear-armed India, which has long standing ties with Iran, access to U.S. nuclear reactors and fuel for the first time in 30 years.
Full Story At: http://tinyurl.com/y2w93p

AFGHAN ATTACKS QUADRUPLED, REPORT SAYS
KABUL, Afghanistan - Insurgent activity in Afghanistan has risen fourfold this year, and militants now launch more than 600 attacks a month, a rising wave of violence that has resulted in more than 3,700 deaths in 2006, a bleak new report released this week found.
Full Story At: http://tinyurl.com/y6xjxe

SENATE COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS
Here is a run down on the new chairs of Senate committees and what committees freshman Senators have been assigned to.
Full Story At: http://tinyurl.com/t5vw7

JANUARY 3, 2007 SHOULD BE VETERANS DAY
The day the 110th Congress is sworn in should be a day of rejoicing for America's veterans. For six years America's veterans have heard one story and lived another. The Jekyll & Hyde, Republican-controlled Congress loudly proclaimed their support of veterans while voting their cost-cutting political agenda. There was little, if any, Congressional oversight as the Republican political appointees who run the Department of Veterans' Affairs (VA) knowingly requested inadequate healthcare budgets and implemented a program that prevented hundreds of thousands of qualified veterans from even enrolling for benefits.
Larry Scott At: http://tinyurl.com/txaq7

DID RUMSFELD EVER UNDERSTAND THE WAR?
In his resignation appearance with President Bush in the Oval Office, Donald Rumsfeld in referring to the Iraq war was quoted as stating, "this little understood, unfamiliar war, the first war of the 21st century... It is not well known, it was not well understood, it is complex for people to comprehend." I'm only an old retired lieutenant colonel and Vietnam vet. I have nothing profound or complex to say about the war in Iraq. But I do have a response to this pompous, imperious man, whom I believe is responsible along with President Bush, for most of the mistakes made in our fight against Al Qaeda.
Fred Seamon At: http://tinyurl.com/t3224

BOB GATES, HE'S BACK
Before the media goes overboard extolling the virtues of Bob Gates as the replacement for Don Rumsfeld, it is important to look back at Gates' record and reputation. Gates has some "splaining" to do. The press has forgotten that Bob Gates, during his time at CIA, acquired a reputation for trying to tailor intelligence to satisfy political masters in the Reagan White House. In addition, Bob Gates, a man of enormous intellect and a photographic memory, conveniently forgot salient facts and meetings surrounding the Iran Contra scandal.
Larry C. Johnson At: http://tinyurl.com/vn7zp