Thursday Afternoon Federal Newscast

A senior administration official says President Obama is prepared to accept some Taliban involvement in Afghanistan’s political future. The assessment comes from an official who has been involved with the president’s discussions with his war council. The Associated Press reports the President is inclined to send only as many U.S. troops to Afghanistan as are needed to keep al-Qaida at bay. Aides say the president’s final decision on Afghanistan strategy and troop levels is still at least two weeks away.

The military’s highest court is scheduled to hear the appeal of a former Army dog handler convicted in the abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. The case of former Sgt. Michael Smith is the first one connected to the scandal to go before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces in Washington. Smith was among 11 low-ranking soldiers convicted after photographs of naked Abu Ghraib detainees in humiliating positions shocked the world in 2004. He was sentenced in 2006 to 179 days in prison and reduced in rank to private.

Officials familiar with the case are offering a possible reason why authorities found no explosives when they arrested an Afghan immigrant accused of plotting a terror attack in New York City. The officials say Najibullah Zazi contacted accomplices in the city while making a cross-country drive from Denver. The contacts raised fears that he was sending instructions to purchase bomb making materials. One possibility agents are considering for the lack of explosives is that Zazi detonated the bombs in a test-run. He denies the allegations and has pleaded not guilty.

The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission says that the government must find more bandwidth for mobile devices. Julius Genachowski says the government is tripling the amount of spectrum available for commercial uses. The problem is, wireless traffic is expected to increase 30 times because of online video and other applications. The Washington Post reports the FCC will review the existing spectrum and encourage the development of new technologies to use it more efficiently.

Democrats are happy about a Congressional Budget Office report that shows the health care reform bill would actually help reduce the federal deficit. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says the Finance Committee will vote Tuesday on the 10-year, $829-billion proposal that would expand coverage to 94 percent of eligible Americans. Finance is the fifth and last of the congressional panels to debate health care.

With the Afghan war now in its ninth year, the Afghan capital has seen its second major attack in less than a month. Officials say 15 civilians and two Afghan police officers were killed in a car bomb attack outside the Indian Embassy. At least 76 people were wounded. The Taliban are claiming responsibility. They say the embassy was the target, but did not say why. A suicide attack against the embassy last year killed more than 60 people, and the road in front of it has been barricaded since.

The defense authorization bill has passed the House of Representatives. The massive defense bill contains a number of changes in laws affecting federal employees’ sick leave, annuity calculations, redeposit provisions for employees returning to the federal workforce, and stronger whistleblower protections. The legislation also eliminates the National Security Personnel System for Department of Defense employees and provides a number of improvements in health care and housing programs for military service members and their families.

The Office of Federal Procurement Policy is, once again, trying to improve the data quality of the Federal Procurement Data System-Next Generation. In its latest attempt, OFPP is asking agencies by Jan. 5 to submit their fiscal 2009 report that includes agency certification of the completeness and accuracy of its data, a description of activities to assure data input is accurate and a summary of its policies and procedures to measure and report data accuracy.

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