Intelligence seeks to close security gaps

Intelligence seeksto close security gaps
WASHINGTON -- Years without an intelligence strategy to secure U.S. borders resulted in uncoordinated and sometimes incomplete threat information about immigrants, a top counterterrorism official said Wednesday. Only over the past year has the Bush administration begun to develop plans to analyze border security gaps with information gleaned from all the intelligence agencies, the official told a House committee. "When I came in, we did not have an intelligence campaign plan against the border," said Charles Allen, who joined the Homeland Security Department last fall as its intelligence chief. "I agree with you that we should have done more earlier, but we are now at this vigorously." Allen said the department is in the early stages of completing a comprehensive border intelligence strategy, which includes working with the Pentagon on surveillance programs.
Federal officials get toughwith many insurers
WASHINGTON -- Federal officials, detailing for the first time their efforts to hold insurers accountable, say they have sanctioned insurance plans for service problems with the Medicare drug benefit more than 1,000 times so far this year. The most common sanction, a warning letter, occurred 651 times. On 318 occasions, insurers were instructed to submit a business plan on how they would make improvements for such problems as long waits with their call centers. More serious sanctions occurred 75 times when insurers were temporarily restricted from marketing their plan on the government's Web site that helps match beneficiaries with a plan that best meets their needs. In one instance, the federal government pursued the potential termination of an insurer from the program for "marketing violations" and not including all the required drugs in their coverage.
Cadet sentenced
NEW LONDON, Conn. -- A military jury sentenced a Coast Guard cadet to six months in prison and kicked him out of the service Wednesday for extorting sexual favors from a classmate. Cadet Webster M. Smith, the first student court-martialed in the academy's 130-year history, was acquitted of rape but had faced up to five years and seven months for extortion, sodomy, indecent assault and other charges. Defense attorneys for Smith, 23, of Houston, asked the jury to spare him jail time, saying the stigma of his conviction will follow him forever. He will not graduate from the Coast Guard Academy and must register as a sex offender in Texas. "I am ashamed to have been the first cadet to have been court-martialed, but I am proud of my decision to fight for my career and freedom," Smith told the jury. Prosecutors had asked the jury to send Smith to prison for three years, saying he had disgraced the Coast Guard.
Senate clears the way
WASHINGTON -- The Senate cleared the way Wednesday for Goldman Sachs chief Henry Paulson to be the country's next Treasury secretary. The chamber approved the nomination in a voice vote. The action came just hours after the nomination won the endorsement of the Senate Finance Committee, which oversees the Treasury Department. Paulson, a 32-year Wall Street veteran, is the chairman and chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., a financial powerhouse. Both Democrats and Republicans welcomed Paulson's nomination. "I am convinced he is the right man at the right time," said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., before Wednesday's vote. Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., called Paulson a "very strong choice for Treasury secretary." Beset by low job approval ratings, President Bush is looking to Paulson to help energize the administration's stalled second-term economic agenda.
Coalition soldier killed
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Two suicide car bombers killed only themselves in an attack on U.S. forces Wednesday, while a U.S.-led coalition soldier died in a land mine explosion and 12 Taliban militants were killed in a raid on their compound, officials said. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice acknowledged a rise in violence on a visit to Kabul but promised victory over resurgent Taliban fighters. The coalition soldier was killed and three were wounded in the Nawzad district of Helmand province, the military said. Their nationalities were not released, but British and American forces make up the majority of troops in Helmand. The coalition patrol was conducting security operations when the armored vehicle struck a land mine that the coalition said was likely left behind from previous conflicts and not planted by Taliban militants. Three men were involved in planning the suicide attack in southern Afghanistan's Zabul province, although only two were inside the vehicle that blew up near a U.S. convoy just outside the provincial capital of Qalat, said police chief Noor Mohammed Paktin.
Associated Press