Second Justice inquiry of waterboarding revealed revauthorization

An internal watchdog office at the Justice Department is investigating whether Bush administration attorneys violated professional standards by issuing legal opinions that authorized the CIA to use waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques, officials disclosed Friday.

H. Marshall Jarrett, counsel for the Office of Professional Responsibility, wrote in a letter to Democratic lawmakers that his office is investigating the circumstances surrounding Justice documents that established a legal basis for the CIA's interrogation program, including a now-infamous memo from August 2002 that narrowly defined torture and has since been rescinded by the department.

The inquiry is the second publicly disclosed Justice investigation related to the CIA's use of waterboarding, a type of simulated drowning that is considered torture by most human-rights groups and legal scholars.

Attorney General Michael Mukasey in January assigned a special U.S. attorney to investigate whether CIA officials committed crimes by destroying videotapes that show the interrogations of two high-level Al-Qaida detainees, including one who was waterboarded.

The Office of Professional Responsibility is not empowered to conduct criminal investigations, but it can recommend them. The results of its investigations are usually confidential. But in his letter Monday to Sens. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., Jarrett wrote that investigators will consider releasing the results of the torture-related probe publicly "because of the significant public interest in this matter."

ARIZONA LAWMAKER IS INDICTED IN SCAM

Rep. Rick Renzi, a Republican who represents a vast region of Arizona, has been indicted on charges of using his office to enrich himself through a complex land swap scam, federal prosecutors said Friday in Phoenix. Renzi has long denied wrongdoing.

The prosecutors said a grand jury returned a 35-count indictment accusing Renzi, 49, and two former associates of extortion, wire fraud, money-laundering and various conspiracies. Renzi is accused of using his position on the House Natural Resources Committee to shepherd legislation that would enable him and James W. Sandlin, 56, a Texas real estate investor to swap tracts of property for land owned by the federal government. The deal allegedly netted Sandlin about $4.5 million.

The indictment said that Renzi and Sandlin concealed at least $733,000. Renzi and another defendant, Andrew Beardall, 36, of Rockville, Md., are also accused of embezzling more than $400,000 from an account in an Arizona insurance business owned by the Renzi family.

'VIRTUAL FENCE' GETS FINAL APPROVAL

A 28-mile "virtual fence" that will use radars and surveillance cameras to try to catch people entering the country illegally has gotten final government approval.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced approval of the fence on Friday. The fence, built by the Boeing Co., uses technology the government plans to extend to other areas of the Arizona border, as well as to sections of Texas. The projects could get underway as early as this summer, said department spokeswoman Laura Keehner.

FINES RISE FOR HIRING ILLEGAL WORKERS

The government will raise by 25 percent the fines it levies against employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants, officials said. It is the first boost in fines in nearly a decade.

Currently, fines range from $275 to $11,000 depending on the offense. The agency says some penalties could include at least six months in jail.

COMPANIES RESISTING WIRETAP ORDERS?

Two top Bush administration officials said some telecommunications companies are resisting wiretapping orders for terrorists because a surveillance law expired nearly a week ago.

National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell and Attorney General Michael Mukasey made the assertion in a letter to Congress, the latest salvo in a rhetorical war between the White House and Capitol Hill over the law's expiration and the refusal of House Democrats to adopt a Senate-passed bill in its place.

The House has passed its own version. Democrats want to work out the differences between the bills rather than accept the Senate's version, which is the only one that provides retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies that wiretapped American phone and computer lines at the government's request but without the permission of a secret court. President Bush has vowed to veto any surveillance bill that does not protect the companies from civil lawsuits that allege violations of privacy.

NEWS SERVICES