WASHINGTON

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT PROBES ITS OWN ROLE IN WIRETAPPING PROGRAM

The Department of Justice has begun an internal inquiry into its role in the administration’s wiretapping program, a lawmaker revealed yesterday.

The investigation is being conducted by the Office of Professional Responsibility, or OPR, which reviews allegations of misconduct within the law enforcement agency.

Marshall Jarrett, the OPR’s counsel, acknowledged the probe in a letter to Rep. Maurice Hinchey, a Democrat of New York. Mr. Jarrett’s letter did not specify which of the agency’s actions or employees are being examined.

“You asked this office to investigate the Department of Justice’s role in authorizing, approving and auditing certain surveillance activities of the National Security Agency, and whether such activities are permissible under existing law. For your information, we have initiated an investigation,” Mr. Jarrett wrote in the brief letter.

– Associated Press

SOUTH

MOUSSAOUI BEHAVES AFTER BEING ALLOWED BACK TO COURT

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Unexpectedly allowed back in court, confessed Al Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui kept quiet yesterday as two Muslims from South Asia and a Marine Corps lawyer whose boss’s Pentagon office blew up on September 11 cleared preliminary hurdles to sit on his sentencing jury.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema barred Mr. Moussaoui from jury selection Tuesday because he wouldn’t promise to stop giving insult-laden speeches.

Judge Brinkema did not explain her change of mind in court, but she said the day before that she might reconsider if Mr. Moussaoui decided to alter his behavior. Even Mr. Moussaoui’s court-appointed defense lawyers did not know why she changed her mind.

– Associated Press

WEST

AFTER $554 MILLION ROCKY FLATS VERDICT, GOVERNMENT WEIGHS OPTIONS

DENVER – With a half-billion dollar verdict hanging over its head, the Department of Energy was reviewing legal options yesterday after a jury ruled that two DOE contractors allowed plutonium from the Rocky Flats weapons plant to contaminate nearby land.

A federal jury on Tuesday decided Dow Chemical Company and the former Rockwell International Corporation damaged land around the now-defunct plant through negligence that exposed thousands of property owners to plutonium and increased their risk of health problems.

Jurors awarded the plaintiffs $553.9 million in damages. The government is already facing an estimated $58 million in legal fees for the contractors.

State and federal laws will likely limit any verdict payout to $352 million, attorneys said, but taxpayers may have to foot the bill because the two companies’ contracts called for the federal government to indemnify them.

– Associated Press