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Bill Buzenberg interviews former Representative Lee H. Hamilton

The Center in the News . . .

A recent Council on Foreign Relations backgrounder titled U.S-Pakistan Military Cooperation cited the Center's Collateral Damage project, which found among its major findings that Pakistan was the largest recipient of U.S. military aid, receiving almost $5 billion since 9/11, with little in the form of federal oversight and accountability.

The House of Representatives recently amended the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). Among the newly expanded public provisions, White House task forces will be prohibited from operating in secrecy, transcripts or recordings of committee meetings will be electronically available, and advisory committee appointments must be made without regard to political affiliation or activity. The Center's Shadow Government project investigated FACA loopholes and several conflict of interest cases more than a year ago.

The Wall Street Journal featured the Center's latest analysis of the lobby spending by the pharmaceutical industry, health product manufacturers, and their trade groups. The Center found that the pharmaceutical manufacturers and their trade groups spent a record $168 million on federal lobbying last year, a 32 percent increase from 2006.

A new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), requested by the House Foreign Affairs Committee, tasked the Defense Department with providing greater oversight in the way it handles Pakistan reimbursement claims for coalition support funds (CSF), a program created after 9/11 to reimburse key U.S. allies in the global war on terror. In May 2007, the Center's Collateral Damage project found that post-9/11 U.S. military aid to Pakistan, totaling more than $5 billion, was subject to virtually no congressional oversight.

Washington Post national politics reporter Shailagh Murray in the paper's daily campaign 2008 blog, 'The Trail,' cited a Center interview with James A. Johnson, who recently resigned from Senator Obama's vice presidential search committee. In the interview, Johnson had "kind words" to say about veteran senator, and potential VP contender, Christopher Dodd.

On Thursday, the Senate Intelligence Committee released its Phase II report on prewar Iraq intelligence. Committee Chairman John D. (Jay) Rockefeller said: "It is my belief that the Bush administration was fixated on Iraq, and used the 9/11 attacks by Al Qaeda as justification for overthrowing Saddam Hussein. To accomplish this, top administration officials made repeated statements that falsely linked Iraq and Al Qaeda as a single threat and insinuated that Iraq played a role in 9/11. Sadly, the Bush administration led the nation into war under false pretenses." To read more about the Bush administration's false statements about the national security threat posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq, check out the Center's War Card project.

A Morning Call.com editorial cited a 2003 Center survey that ranked all 50 states' lobby disclosure laws. Until 2006, Pennsylvania had no lobbying law at all and was ranked 50th in the nation by the Center's survey. Currently, the legislature will consider a measure that would forbid gifts and entertainment from lobbyists to public officials.

Harry Shearer, actor, entertainer, musician, artist, and creator of the song 935 Lies - featured in his upcoming CD, Songs of the Bushmen - said in The Huffington Post, "Just in case Scott McClellan wasn't keeping count, the Center was: at least 935 falsehoods told by the president and his aides in the run-up to the [Iraq] war."

The Sunlight Foundation's SunSpots blog featured the "eye-popping reports" from the Center's Shadow Government project. The Center's Shadow Government project investigated a few federal advisory committees, part of a vast maze of committees, tasked with influencing federal government agencies on a variety of safety and policy issues, often done under secretive conditions with little public accountability.

Douglas Feith, President Bush's undersecretary of defense for policy from July 2001 to August 2005, was on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart May 12 and talked about the Iraq War. He said, "I think a lot of what the administration said was correct." The Center's Iraq War Card project, which documented 935 false statements made by Bush and six top administration officials in the two years following September 11, 2001, about the national security threat posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq, would prove otherwise.

Watch the world premier video of Harry Shearer's video "935 Lies." Shearer, best known for his work on The Simpsons, This is Spinal Tap, Le Show, Saturday Night Live, For Your Consideration and A Mighty Wind, unveiled a video satire based on the Center's Iraq War Card project, which documented the 935 false statements orchestrated by top Bush Administration officials in the two years following September 11, 2001, about the national security threat posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

The Sarasota Herald-Tribune's Kirsten Mitchell reported that Sen. Pete Domenici and 16 other Republican senators, who support the easing of offshore drilling restrictions on the Outer Continental Shelf for oil and gas, have received more than $3 million in campaign contributions from individuals and PACS affiliated with the oil and gas industry since Jan. 1, 2007.

The Washington Post's Matthew Mosk reported that Steven A. Betts, a top presidential campaign fundraiser for Sen. John McCain, was one of several Arizona developers who benefited from McCain-engineered land swaps.

TheStreet.com's John Stout cited the Center's Buying of the President 2008 chapter on Stealth Campaigns in "How Much Does It Cost to Buy a Presidency?" Political non-profit groups, such as MoveOn.org and the American Leadership Project, "will probably play an important role in this presidential election," he said.

Staff

Bill Buzenberg Contact this person
Executive Director
Bill Buzenberg became executive director of the Center in December 2006. Most recently, as senior vice president of news at American Public Media / Minnesota Public Radio, Buzenberg launched such programming initiatives as American RadioWorks and Speaking of Faith. Buzenberg was vice president of news and information at National Public Radio from 1990 to 1997. Buzenberg joined NPR in 1978 as the first reporter to help start Morning Edition. For 11 years, he was a foreign affairs correspondent based mostly in Washington, D.C. He was named London bureau chief in 1986 and became NPR's first managing editor in 1989. He began his journalism career in newspapers, serving as city editor of the Colorado Springs Sun in the early 70s. He was co-editor of the memoirs of the late CBS News president Richard Salant: Salant, CBS, and the Battle for the Soul of Broadcast Journalism. A graduate of Kansas State University, Buzenberg has also studied at the University of Michigan as part of its mid-career professional journalism fellowship program, in the master's program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Bologna, Italy, and as a fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.

Jaime Amrhein Contact this person 
Editorial Intern
Jaime Amrhein is a senior at the University of Notre Dame, originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She is a history honors major and a minor in the Hesburgh Program for Public Service. Currently Amrhein is working on her senior thesis analyzing the 1928 presidential election in the South. She also studies Southern politics and voter representation as a research assistant for Professor John Griffin. Outside of her studies, Amrhein devotes most of her time to serving as co-president of the Notre Dame Habitat for Humanity Chapter.

Sara Bularzik Contact this person 
Copy Editor
Sara Bularzik joined the Center in April 2007. She graduated cum laude from American University in May 2007 with a bachelor's degree in print journalism and a minor in international relations. During her time at American University, Bularzik was a copy editor for the university newspaper and an editor of an online news magazine. She also held internship positions at Washingtonpost.com, Reporters Without Borders, and WAMU radio.

Steve Carpinelli Contact this person
Media Relations Manager
Steve Carpinelli assists the Center's communications department with media strategy, procedures, and public outreach efforts. Before joining the Center in 2006, he worked in the research and intelligence practice group at Public Strategies, Inc.'s Washington, D.C., office, focusing on client issues in the telecommunications, finance, manufacturing, health care, and technology sectors. Carpinelli has more than 10 years of experience in Washington public affairs, media relations, and crisis communications issues with policy makers, corporate executives, and all forms of the media. He graduated with honors from American University's School of International Service with a master's degree in international communication and policy.

Te-Ping Chen Contact this person 
Editorial Intern
Te-Ping Chen, originally hailing from Oakland, California, graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Brown University with a joint bachelor's degree in sociology and international relations. As an undergraduate, she worked extensively on electoral reform and voter-rights campaigns. In 2006, she began contributing freelance features to Rhode Island's alt-weekly, The Providence Phoenix, as well as opinion columns to the on-campus Brown Daily Herald. Since graduating in December 2007 as a California Truman Scholar, Chen has written for The Nation magazine's D.C.-based blog, J Street.

Lisa Chiu Contact this person
Staff Writer and American University Fellow
Lisa Chiu received a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, a master's degree in China studies from the University of Washington, Seattle, and a master's in journalism from American University. She has reported for The Orange County Register, The Arizona Republic, and The Seattle Times, and has been a copy editor at China Daily, China's English-language newspaper, and China Central Television International, both in Beijing. Chiu joined the Center in 2007 as a fellow from American University.

Travis Dunn Contact this person
Staff Writer
Travis Dunn joined the Center's staff in November 2007 to work on the Land Use Decisions Accountability Project, and he now heads the project's office in Easton, Maryland. Dunn previously was a reporter for The Star Democrat, a daily newspaper in Easton, where he received awards from the Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Association and the Chesapeake Associated Press News Association. He is a graduate of St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland, which is known for its distinctive "great books" curriculum.

Joe Eaton Contact this person
Staff Writer
Before he joined the Center's staff in 2008, Joe Eaton was a staff writer at Washington City Paper and a reporter at The Roanoke Times. He has written for Salon.com, USA Today, and The (Baltimore) Sun. Eaton graduated from the University of Michigan with a bachelor's degree in English and earned a master's degree in journalism from the University of Maryland.

Bridget Gallagher Contact this person
Director of Development
Bridget Gallagher brings 10 years of experience as a development professional back to the Center, where she previously served as associate director of development. Gallagher has implemented hands-on major gifts cultivation, proposal writing, and prospect research strategies as a staff member and consultant for advocacy, arts, media/journalism, and educational organizations locally and nationally. Her experience encompasses development and management for organizations including the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra in Michigan, The Doe Fund in New York City, and a political party in Anchorage, Alaska, where she served as executive director from 2003-2004. Gallagher hails from Michigan and holds a bachelor's degree in philosophy and English from the University of Michigan-Dearborn.

Caitlin Ginley Contact this person
Staff Writer and Soles Fellow
Caitlin Ginley joined the Center in July 2007 as the University of Delaware's 10th James R. Soles Fellow. She graduated cum laude in May 2007 with a bachelor's degree in English and political science, concentrating in journalism. She worked for two years on the editorial staff of the university's award-winning student newspaper, The Review, and was an intern for Delaware Today magazine and Court TV.

M. Asif Ismail Contact this person
Project Coordinator
In addition to editing The Public i, Ismail currently heads the Center's investigation into the pharmaceutical industry. During his eight-year stint at the Center, Ismail has reported on a number of issues, including stem cell research, human cloning, the Enron scandal, and Pentagon contracts. He earned a master's degree in journalism from American University in Washington, D.C., a master of philosophy in Middle Eastern studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, and a bachelor's and master's in English literature from the University of Calicut in Kerala, India. Ismail worked for The Times of India in New Delhi and the Khaleej Times in Dubai prior to joining the Center.

Josh Israel Contact this person
Project Coordinator
Josh Israel joined the Center in 2006. Previously, he spent four years working as director of research on Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist/historian Nick Kotz's acclaimed book Judgment Days: Lyndon Baines Johnson, Martin Luther King Jr., and the Laws that Changed America, and six months as an aide to a Virginia state legislator. Israel is a 1999 magna cum laude graduate of Brandeis University and was a 2004 Political Leadership Program Fellow at the University of Virginia's Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership.

Caroline Jarboe Contact this person
Development Associate
Caroline Jarboe came to the Center in 2007 after eight years at National Public Radio, where she most recently served as senior development associate, and a year as development manager for the Self Reliance Foundation/Hispanic Communications Network. At NPR, Jarboe worked with the nation's major private foundations, and she was a central development staff member in charge of writing about NPR's news coverage plans. She graduated from Tulane University with a bachelor's degree in American studies and received a master's degree from the University of Houston's Creative Writing Program. Under her maiden name Caroline Langston, Jarboe is a widely published writer and essayist, a winner of the Puschart Prize, and a commentator for NPR's All Things Considered.

David E. Kaplan Contact this person 
ICIJ Director
David E. Kaplan was named ICIJ director in April 2008. Over a 30-year career, he has investigated organized crime, terrorist groups, corporate polluters, corrupt law enforcement officials, neo-Nazis, the banking industry, and the intelligence community. Kaplan worked previously as chief investigative correspondent for U.S. News & World Report and as one of two senior editors at the San Francisco-based Center for Investigative Reporting. He has reported from two dozen countries and is a former Fulbright scholar in Japan. Among his books are YAKUZA, widely considered the standard reference on the Japanese mafia; and Fires of the Dragon, on the murder of journalist Henry Liu. Kaplan's stories have won or shared more than 15 awards, including honors from Investigative Reporters and Editors, the American Bar Association, Overseas Press Club, and World Affairs Council.

Sarah Laskow Contact this person
Staff Writer
Sarah Laskow, a researcher for Buying of the President, joined the Center in August 2006. She holds a bachelor's degree in literature from Yale University and has worked with Chile Pepper magazine, the West Africa bureau of The New York Times, and National Public Radio. At Yale, Laskow was a founding editor of The (Yale) Hippolytic and senior editor of The New Journal, the magazine about Yale and New Haven.

Tuan Le Contact this person
Web Developer
Tuan Le came to the Center in 2007 and has worked in a variety of environments, ranging from high-energy startups to blue-chip corporations to nonprofit organizations. Some of the responsibilities and roles he has held include project manager, team leader, and web developer. His background is as varied as his experience, but he specializes in web technologies that include ASP.NET, SQL, AJAX, and CSS.

Jeremy Lewis Contact this person
Development Associate
Jeremy Lewis joined the Center in November 2007. He earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Washington, Seattle, in 2005 and currently is pursuing a master's of public administration with a focus on nonprofit management from George Washington University. Most recently Lewis worked for a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm assisting in high-dollar fundraising. Prior to that, he was a communications and governmental affairs intern at Amnesty International.

Kristen Lombardi Contact this person
Staff Writer
Kristen Lombardi joined the Center's staff in November 2007. She has worked as a journalist for 12 years, mainly at alternative newsweeklies. Most recently, she was a staff writer and investigative reporter at The Village Voice, where she provided groundbreaking coverage of the 9/11 health crisis. Her work has explored such social issues as the family courts, criminal justice, and child abuse. Lombardi's investigative reports as a staff writer for The Phoenix were widely credited with helping to expose the clergy sexual-abuse scandal in Boston and were recognized by the Columbia Journalism Review and other publications. Her investigative reporting has been honored by the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, the New England Press Association, and The Livingston Awards, and she was awarded a fellowship from the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma for her coverage of abuse, public health, and mental illness. Lombardi graduated with high honors from the University of California at Berkeley and has a master's degree in journalism from Boston University.

Mary Beth Lombardo Contact this person 
Editorial Intern
Mary Beth Lombardo will be starting her senior year at the University of Delaware this fall, studying political science, history, and economics. She is a staff reporter for the UD campus newspaper, The Review, serves as an undergraduate teaching assistant, and is an avid soccer player. She has recently completed a semester of research on female governors across the country, focusing on Governor Ruth Ann Minner of Delaware. She is currently writing a senior thesis on the effects of geographic targeting in political advertising during the 2004 elections. Lombardo is a volunteer at Howard County General Hospital and with the Soccer Association of Columbia/Howard County. She has previously worked at a construction law firm in Columbia, Maryland, her hometown.

Ellen McPeake Contact this person
Chief Operating Officer
Ellen McPeake returned to the Center in November 2007 as its chief operating officer. She has spent most of her life in the nonprofit sector, working for such groups as the Center for Law and Social Policy, the Mental Health Law Project, Public Citizen, and most recently Greenpeace, as its chief operating officer. McPeake majored in international management at Georgetown University.

Aaron Mehta Contact this person 
Editorial Intern
Aaron Mehta graduated with honors from Tufts University in 2007 with a bachelor's degree in history and communications. Hailing from the Boston area, he has worked for a national political convention, for the legal watchdog group CREW in Washington, and on several Massachusetts-based campaigns. Most recently, he filled the role of research and policy director for the John Connolly City Council race in Boston. Mehta is also an amateur musician and freelance editor in his free time. An editor of his high school paper and a former columnist for The Tufts Daily, he is excited to be returning to journalism.

Jillian Olsen Contact this person 
Editorial Intern
Jillian Olsen, a San Francisco Bay Area native, graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University in June 2008. In addition to a bachelor's degree in comparative politics, she spent at least as much time studying various forms of journalism: sports writing with Filip Bondy of the New York Daily News, international journalism with Barbara Demick with the Los Angeles Times, investigative reporting with James Grimaldi of The Washington Post, and multiplatform journalism with Craig Duff of The New York Times. Olsen continued her education in the media with a senior thesis on the independent press in Africa. Equally passionate about performing, she completed a minor in dance and served two years as artistic director of BodyHype Dance Company, one of Princeton's premier student-run arts groups. Having spent last summer in Beijing and Tokyo expanding her language skills, Olsen is looking forward to a stint in the even more exotic Washington.

Mike Pell Contact this person
Computer-Assisted-Reporting Specialist
Mike Pell joined the Center's staff in December 2007. From 2002 to 2006, as a reporter for the Watertown Daily Times in upstate New York, Pell covered local politics, the Canadian border, and environmental issues related to the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River. His stories for the newspaper won two Associated Press awards. He then went to the University of Missouri School of Journalism to study computer-assisted reporting; in 2007 he was a Pulliam Fellow at The Arizona Republic.

Taylor Rausch Contact this person
Editorial Intern
Taylor Rausch is a magazine journalism and history major at the University of Missouri. Originally, she hails from Zionsville, Indiana, and has had her eyes set on a political reporting career in Washington, D.C., for the past decade. She has reported extensively for Columbia's morning daily, the Columbia Missourian, and an Indiana county daily, The Daily Sun. Rausch serves as the student representative to the Society of Professional Journalists national board. On campus, Rausch currently serves as the president of Mizzou's SPJ chapter, the largest student chapter in the nation. A Walter Williams Scholar for academic excellence, she is also active as the vice president of membership recruitment for MU's Journalism Scholars Association and managing her blog, Collisions with a Jument.

Regina Russell Contact this person
Office Assistant and Executive Assistant to the Executive Director
Regina Russell studied business management at Roanoke Chowan Community College and George Washington University. She is completing her bachelor's degree at Trinity College.

Chatchai Sae-Tung Contact this person
Information Technology Manager
Chatchai Sae-Tung came to the Center in May 2005, bringing more than nine years of information technology experience. He began his career in 1996 as a technical support specialist with Primark Corp. (later Thomson Financial Corp.), working first in Bangkok, Thailand, and later in Hong Kong. In 2000, Sae-Tung took on the role of web developer for a start-up Internet consulting firm in Reston, Virginia. He then worked for four years as a network administrator for software reseller companies in northern Virginia. He earned a degree in business administration from Assumption University in Bangkok.

Dusty Smith Contact this person
Staff Writer
Dusty Smith join