Friday Afternoon Federal Newscast – April 16

The Afternoon Federal Newscast is a daily compilation of the stories you hear Daily Debrief hosts Chris Dorobek and Amy Morris discuss throughout their show each day. The Newscast is designed to give FederalNewsRadio.com users more information about the stories you hear on the air.

• Internal CIA e-mails show the former agency head, Porter Goss, agreed with a top aide’s 2005 decision to destroy videotapes of the harsh interrogation of a terror suspect, a controversial action that remains the focus of an FBI investigation. The documents show that, despite Goss’ apparent agreement, CIA officials almost immediately began worrying they’d done something wrong. The e-mails also indicate that President George W. Bush’s White House counsel, Harriet Miers, hadn’t been informed of the tapes’ destruction and was “livid” to find out later.
• A former senior executive at the National Security Agency was charged Thursday with lying and obstruction of justice in an investigation of leaks of classified information to a newspaper. Federal prosecutors said Thomas Drake, 52, served as a source for many articles about the NSA in an unidentified newspaper, including articles that contained classified information. A federal indictment filed in Maryland charges that Drake used a nongovernment e-mail account to transmit classified and unclassified information. Authorities also charge that Drake lied to federal agents about what he’d done. The indictment does not identify the reporter, the newspaper or the subject matter of the stories. It says the stories were published between February 2006 and November 2007.
• The Pentagon will adopt a broad policy governing how privately owned guns can be carried or stored at military installations following the shooting deaths of 13 people last year at Fort Hood, Texas. A disgruntled Army doctor is charged in the deaths. Maj. Nidal Hasan had little or no access to military firearms in his job as a psychologist, but was able to buy two handguns and bring them onto the base. Defense Secretary Robert Gates ordered this week that a new comprehensive policy be developed to cover all branches of the military and its bases and offices. The standardized policy would replace or buttress a patchwork of regulations adopted by each service or individual military installation.
• Legislation to speed the government’s response to open records requests is a step closer to becoming law. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted Thursday to send the Faster FOIA Act of 2010 to the full Senate. The measure would create a commission to investigate government delays in responding to Freedom of Information Act requests and recommend ways to get information out faster. The legislation’s lead sponsors, Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, say FOIA delays are a long-standing problem. They have been seeking a FOIA commission for years.
• The Treasury Department says three big companies still living on federal bailout money will see cash salaries for 225 of their top earners limited in 2010 so that only five of those executives will be making cash salaries above $500,000. The Treasury Department said that would be a reduction from 69 officials in this group who were earning cash salaries above $500,000 in 2009. The three firms involved are General Motors and its financing arm GMAC and insurance giant American International Group.
• The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has uncovered what could be a fourth major disposal area for World War I-era munitions and chemical weapons in the nation’s capital. Digging was suspended April 8 as a precaution at the site in the pricey Spring Valley neighborhood near American University after workers pulled smoking glassware from the pit, project manager Dan Noble said Thursday. Preliminary tests show the glassware was contaminated with the toxic chemical arsenic trichloride. Officials will review safety procedures before digging continues.
• A Camp Pendleton Marine ” target=”_blank”>has relaunched his Facebook page criticizing President Barack Obama’s health care policy after prompting a controversy over free speech that won him the support of the American Civil Liberties Union. Sgt. Gary Stein took down his “Armed Forces Tea Party” page on Tuesday after he was called back to base. Stein, 24, of Temecula said his superiors asked him to review Defense Department policy on political activities after they learned he was scheduled to give an interview to MSNBC about his Facebook page. Stein relaunched the page Wednesday. By Thursday, it had nearly 500 fans and had received a flurry of comments, most praising him.

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