Much has been made over the past few months by some Republicans in Congress about whether terrorism suspects arrested overseas by U.S. military forces must be read their legal rights and the answer has been largely no.

It turns out that the issue was debated at least as far back as early 2004 when American forces captured ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, according to a document released late Friday night under Freedom of Information Act requests by the American Civil Liberties Union.

A few weeks after the former Iraqi leader was captured hiding in a hole in Tikrit, a memorandum was sent to the FBI’s general counsel, Valerie Caproni, discussing whether Saddam would have to be advised of his legal rights.

The FBI’s counterterrorism division said the primary reason the FBI would be interrogating him would be for “intelligence purposes” rather than for trying him in a U.S. court.

“Significantly, we are aware of no current intent to try Hussein in an United States court,” the memorandum said. “Accordingly, we conclude that the interrogation team is not legally obligated to advise Hussein of his legal rights, which are generally afforded criminal defendants in the United States under Miranda v. Arizona.”

However, the FBI lawyers offered two caveats: if the U.S. government changed its position about trying Saddam in an American court or if the Justice Department or other “political entities with proper authority” who were involved with his interrogation believed he should be advised of his rights.

The memorandum also advised the FBI that Saddam was given “Enemy Prisoner of War” status under the Geneva III Convention which barred any coercion, physical or mental torture to obtain information and required that he be given proper food, water, clothing, showers, sanitary conditions and medical attention while detained.

The four-page document also noted that Iraqi law did not require advising Saddam of his rights nor did the statute creating the tribunal to try him.

Since then, some Republicans have questioned Obama administration officials about whether soldiers on the battlefield are being required to read Miranda rights to suspects they pick up.

FBI Director Robert Mueller in September denied that they were advising captured foreign suspects of those rights and said he did not believe that the issue was causing problems.

“I do believe, sir, if you ask the commanders in the field in Afghanistan or Iraq to determine whether or not the issue of whether or not you give Miranda warnings has ever interfered with their ability to do their job, I think they would say no,” Mueller told Senator Jeff Sessions during a congressional hearing.

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- Photo credit: Reuters/Nikola Solic (Saddam Hussein during his trial)

Beau Biden, son of the vice president, says he is considering running for his dad’s Senate seat but hasn’t made a decision yet.

“I’ve been away from my family for a year, first things first,” Biden said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” after returning from Iraq with the Army National Guard. “There’s time to make that decision.”

“Look, am I considering it? Absolutely. Absolutely,” Biden, who is Delaware’s attorney general, said. “But I’ll be making the decision in due course.”

President Barack Obama is still likely weeks away from a decision on a new Afghanistan strategy.

A BBC report last night created a bit of a stir in saying that the Obama administration had told the British government that it would soon announce a troop increase that “could exceed 40,000.”

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs roundly denied it — “I’ve seen the report. It’s not true, either generically or specifically.”

Beau Biden, the not-yet candidate for senator, had some wise words on the Iraq and Afghan wars: “Understand that they’re two different wars. What works in Iraq doesn’t necessarily mean it will work in Afghanistan. They are fundamentally different places.”

Closed-door meetings on healthcare legislation continue on Capitol Hill focused on resolving differences among the various bills.

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Photo credit: Reuters/Pool (Vice President Joe Biden talks with son Beau Biden in Iraq in July)

President Barack Obama courts autoworkers in Ohio and union leaders in Pennsylvania on Tuesday.

Obama meets workers at a General Motors plant in Lordstown, Ohio, and later addresses a convention of the AFL-CIO labor federation in Pittsburgh.

Vice President Joe Biden is in Iraq for visits with U.S. troops and Iraqi leaders.

Back in Washington, Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, briefs lawmakers on the war in Afghanistan.

And Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus is still pushing to finalize his panel’s proposal for reforming the U.S. healthcare system this week.

A USA Today poll published on Tuesday showed Americans split over healthcare reform, even after Obama’s pitch to a joint session of Congress last week. The poll said 50 percent favored reform and 47 percent opposed it.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Tuesday Obama is committed to getting the U.S. fiscal house in order once the economy is on a solid footing.

He said Obama could do that without breaking his campaign pledge not to raise taxes on people earning less than $250,000 per year.

“We can get our fiscal house in order, we can go back as a country to a point where we’re living within our means, without violating that fiscal commitment,” Geithner told ABC’s “Good Morning America” program.

Geithner said the U.S. economy was not yet in a real recovery.

“We define recovery, and the president will define a recovery, as people back to work, people able to get a job again, business investing again,” he said. “And we are not at the point where we can say that yet.”

He said the administration was eager to unwind the huge investments it made in U.S. banks, automakers and other businesses as it struggled to prevent economic collapse.

“The government had to do some deeply offensive things to help contain the damage,” he said. “And we will get out of that as quickly as we can.”

“We’re not going to keep a penny in the financial system or in the U.S. economy longer than we think is absolutely necessary,” Geithner said, but he acknowledged it would take more than a year.

Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer told CNN that Geithner was to blame for the problem because he did not act as an effective regulator of New York’s financial institutions while he was head of the New York Federal Reserve Bank.

“The New York Fed is what got us to where we are because they permitted this leverage,” Spitzer said. “Tim Geithner, when he was up for secretary of the Treasury, said, ‘I have never been a regulator.’ He didn’t understand what his job was as president of the New York Fed.”

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Photo credit: Reuters/John Gress (Presidential candidate Obama addresses autoworkers Feb. 13, 2008, in Wisconsin); Reuters/Hyungwon Kang (Protesters pester Geithner at a congressional hearing Sept. 10, 2009)

With President Barack Obama off in Italy during a weeklong diplomatic foray, Vice President Joseph Biden has the stage on Wednesday for an announcement of the administration’s agreement with the hospital industry for $155 billion in savings over a decade to help pay for a planned healthcare overhaul.

For Biden, it is a rare chance to gain the administration spotlight by design, rather than because of his famously loose lips and periodic departures from the Team Obama script.

He strayed again over the weekend when he told ABC News the administration misread the economy upon entering office. Obama, in a round of interviews with U.S. television networks on Tuesday, was forced to backtrack and explain those comments.

Biden’s expertise is in foreign policy, not domestic issues such as healthcare, and Obama has acknowledged as much by giving him the lead in dealing with Iraq and a prominent role on issues like Russian relations. Biden kicked off his role in Iraq with a surprise visit there over the July 4th holiday weekend.

The announcement on the hospital deal, which follows a deal with drug makers, comes as the administration hunts for ways to cover the cost of a healthcare overhaul with an expected price tage of at least $1 trillion.

After calling for Middle East peace and saying he believed in a dialogue with Islam, President Barack Obama ended his first international tour with a surprise trip to Iraq.

Obama took off from Istanbul and, instead of heading home to Washington, traveled to Iraq for a quick visit. He was due to meet U.S. commanders and troops and will speak to Iraqi leaders by telephone. Poor weather in the area caused him to scratch plans to take a helicopter to meet Iraqi leaders in person.

The White House said Obama — who won strong support during the presidential campaign for vowing to wind down the unpopular war in Iraq — would tell Iraqi leaders that there are political solutions to their challenges.

After his foray into foreign policy, Obama will be returning to Washington to deal with the recession at home. But he should be coming home in good spirits — recent polls show Americans are more optimistic about the economy and the direction of their country since Obama took office.

The latest New York Times/CBS News poll showed two-thirds of those surveyed approved of Obama’s overall job performance. Thirty-nine percent said they felt the country was going in the right direction — the highest since Feb. 2005 at the beginning of former President George W. Bush’s first term.

The big question: Did Obama have time to watch the men’s NCAA title basketball game on Monday night? If he didn’t see it live, maybe he’ll see a recording on Air Force One on his way back home. He’ll be sure to be happy to discover that his prediction was right. The North Carolina Tar Heels did indeed go all the way to win the title in a 89-72 rout of Michigan State.

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Photo credits: REUTERS/Umit Bektas (Obama waves as he boards Air Force One in Turkey) ; REUTERS/Rebecca Cook (University of North Carolina Tar Heels’ Dany Green holds up NCAA championship trophy)

Seasoned U.S. diplomat Chris Hill showed some jitters on Wednesday over being nominated as next U.S. ambassador to Iraq.

“I just don’t want to screw it up,” said Hill, in fairly undiplomatic language at a confirmation hearing in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

As new U.S. ambassador, Hill would oversee the drawdown of U.S. troops.

Hill has faced some opposition as next U.S. ambassador to Iraq but he had a fairly smooth hearing on Wednesday.

Critics Arizona Sen. John McCain and Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback, who have questioned Hill’s lack of Middle East experience and whether he was tough enough in talks with North Korea, were not on the panel.

Hill is currently the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs and has also served as ambassador to Poland, Macedonia and South Korea. He was also envoy on six-nation talks over scrapping North Korea’s nuclear program.

The veteran diplomat is expected to clear a vote by the panel next week but opponents could seek to delay a vote on the Senate floor.

The panel’s chairman, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry and top Republican Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar urged Hill’s confirmation as soon as possible.

While showing some apprehension over his new posting, Hill said he was looking forward to a family reunion in Iraq. His son is stationed with the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency in Iraq.

Hill told senators he hoped he hadn’t blown his son’s cover by revealing that.

REUTERS/Jo Yong-Hak  (U.S. nuclear envoy Christopher Hill speaks to reporters in Seoul)

The White House puts its focus back on the economy today, with a day-long conference to talk about how the money from the economic stimulus package is being spent.

President Barack Obama is due to speak at the “Recovery Act Implementation Conference” at 11:00 EDT (1500 GMT). He is expected to talk about the need to make sure all the money spent as part of the stimulus is transparent and used efficiently. Later in the day he will speak and take questios at a business roundtable.

The timing is perfect: a Reuters survey showed U.S. unemployment will approach 10 percent as the country endures its worst recession since World War Two.

Obama will also have to tread into diplomatic waters this afternoong as he meets with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi. One topic of conversation is the recent confrontation between Chinese and U.S. naval vessels in the South China Sea.

The two are also expected to talk about the global economic crisis, including the touchy topic of the value of the Chinese yuan against the dollar.

Victims of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi schme, which drew in as much as $65 billion, will have a chance to speak in court today as the 70-year-old former Nasdaq stock market chairman is expected to plead guilty to a massive fraud.

Madoff arrived early at the Manhattan federal courthouse, looking grim as he was escorted past a horde of photographers and TV crews. The plea headring is scheduled to start at 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT).

In Baghdad, the Iraqi reporter who hurled his shoes at former President George W. Bush was sentenced to three years in prison. A lawyer for Muntazer al-Zaidi, who earned instant worldwide fame when he threw his shoes at the U.S. leader and called him a dog at a news conference, criticized the verdict as being too harsh.

The shoe throwing was called a “barbaric act” by the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maslik, who was standing next to bush at the news conference and tried to block the second shoe from hitting Bush.

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-Photo credits: REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton (Madoff enters federal court house on Thursday;REUTERS/Saba Al-Bazee (Monument of a shoe built for al-Zaidi in Tirkrit, Iraq)

President Obama makes no small plans. One day after announcing the biggest budget deficit since World War Two, Obama flies to a Marine base in North Carolina to announce a withdrawal timetable for troops in Iraq.

Obama envisions an end to combat operations by August 2010, though a force of around 50,000 will remain. That’s too many for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a fellow Democrat, but former Republican presidential rival John McCain thinks it’s about right.

The Iraq news should provide a welcome change of focus from the economy, which continues to be terrible. Government data showed the U.S. economy contracted more sharply than estimated in the fourth quarter, with gross domestic product falling at an annual rate of 6.2 percent. The Treasury Department has said it will convert its $25 billion stake in Citigroup to regular shares, giving it 36 percent ownership of the troubled banking giant. Citi’s shares are down 19 percent in premarket trading.

What about the other troubled banking giant? Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis flew to New York yesterday so state attorney general Andrew Cuomo could press him to release a list of employees who got bonuses in 2008. Lewis said he cooperated, but the AG’s office said otherwise.

How did Lewis get to the meeting? He flew in a $50 million private jet, according to ABC News.

One bit of good news: it’s almost the weekend.

Photo credit: REUTERS/Mohammed Ameen (U.S. forces in Baghdad, Feb. 20)

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For Detroit’s struggling automakers, the wait continues.

There will be no word on the fate of the struggling industry’s financial bailout at least until President George W. Bush is safely home later on Monday after ducking shoes in Iraq and visiting U.S. troops in Afghanistan, the White House says.
.

Most analysts and observers are expecting White House action soon to help the carmakers after the Senate’s failure last week to approve a $14 billion bailout that could avert catastrophic failures and millions of job losses in a recession-wracked economy.

But White House spokesman Dana Perino said there was no timetable for a decision.

The future of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich also hangs in the balance. He remains in office but largely out of sight nearly a week after being charged with putting President-elect Barack Obama’s U.S. Senate seat up for sale.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said Sunday she heard there was a possibility he would step aside on Monday, but Blagojevich spokesman Lucio Guerrero said there would be no resignation.

One thing is certain: Obama will hold a news conference at 5 p.m. EST (2200 GMT) to name members of his energy and environmental team, and he will face more questions about who on his staff might have talked to Blagojevich about the U.S. Senate seat.

Obama is expected to name Nobel physics laureate Steven Chu as energy secretary and former Environmental Protection Agency chief Carol Browner to head a new council to coordinate White House energy, climate and environment policies.

Obama is also expected to name Lisa Jackson, chief of staff for New Jersey’s governor, to run the EPA, and Nancy Sutley, a deputy mayor of Los Angeles, as head of the White House Council on environmental quality.

Sen. Ken Salazar of Colorado, who once practiced as an environmental lawyer, is a leading contender for secretary of the interior.

Meanwhile, Reuters and Politico, the Washington political newspaper, have done a deal to distribute each other’s political, government and business news to subscribers in the United States and worldwide

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Photo credit: Reuters/Ali Jarekji (Saudi men read about shoe attack on Bush in Iraq)

Defense Secretary Robert Gates is leading a double life these days.
 
Maybe that’s not so tough for a former spymaster but it does make for some awkward moments.
 
As the only member of President George W. Bush’s Cabinet asked to stay on under Barack Obama, Gates has to juggle working for the current White House and preparing for the next administration with the president-elect’s transition team.
 
“There’s only one commander-in-chief at a time and so I’m not forgetting at all, for a second, who is the president until noon on Jan. 20,” the former CIA director stressed to reporters on board his plane as he flew to Afghanistan this week.
 
But Gates admitted his dual role did “create some occasional awkwardnesses.”
 
Sometimes, he recounted, he has to say: “I would love to come to this meeting at the White House but I actually have a meeting with the transition.”
 
Gates made clear he had never missed a meeting with Bush.
 
But he added: “Let’s just say that if I’m faced with a choice between attending a principals’ meeting on an issue that I think is not particularly hot and meeting with the transition folks, I’ll opt for the latter.”

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Photo credit: Reuters/Pool (Gates shakes hands with U.S. Air Force officials at a base in Kyrgyzstan on Dec. 11)