Capitol Hill would clamp down on accountability ... with Democratic elected officials shouting in unison ... proactive in finding out what we all want to know: where the hell is it?
Clause 7: No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time.
Condi Rice Needs a Geography Lesson
From today's Progress Report...
National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice told CBS' Face the Nation she had no details about the President's alleged decision to secretly divert $700 million from Afghanistan operations to Iraq war planning without approval from Congress. However, she did say circumventing Congress was acceptable because Afghanistan and Iraq are "within the entire region." While she might have been referring to official military regions, her answer was deliberately evasive. The fact is, Asia and the Mideast are separate geographic regions - more than 1400 miles separate Kabul and Baghdad, which means by Rice's logic, Austin, Texas is in the same region as Nicaragua. In fact, the U.S. State Department has two separate bureaus and two separate Assistant Secretaries of State to deal with Iraq and Afghanistan. Her answer also ignores the fact that fighting Al Qaeda in Afghanistan (as approved by Congress) had nothing to do with invading Iraq.
http://www.davidsirota.com/blogarchive/2004_04_18_davidsirota_archive.html#108250001704787023- BUSH DELIBERATELY USED VAGUE LANGUAGE IN DOCUMENTS TO HIDE SECRET MOVE: The White House issued two legally mandated updates to Congress about where the 9/14/01 supplemental funds were being spent. Both covered portions of the time Bush made his $700 million order. But in these documents, instead of telling Congress money was going to Iraq, the White House deliberately used vague and evasive language. For instance, in both of its updates to the Appropriations Committee, the Administration only said it had used monies for "increased situational awareness" and "increased worldwide posture" – and did not mention Iraq at all.