This month, the agency made a major step forward to doing just that.

At a meeting in Washington last Friday, members of the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), including representatives from police agencies in Chicago, Baltimore and Philadelphia, came together with FBI officials and victims' advocates to discuss the importance of broadening the definition of a crime that most experts believe is significantly underestimated by the FBI's Uniform Crime Report (UCR).

Currently, the only sexual assault the UCR collects data on is "forcible rape," which it defines as "the carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will."  Because "carnal knowledge" is defined as penetration of the penis into the vagina, the definition excludes oral and anal rape, as well as assaults with foreign objects. It also excludes male rape.

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Al Jazeera English's only bureau in the Western Hemisphere occupies five floors of a nondescript office building on Washington, D.C.’s K Street. The lobby is drab -- just a hallway and two elevators. There is no sign on the door, no gold symbol affixed on the wall. In fact, the name Al Jazeera does not appear anywhere. If you didn’t know better, you might think the building was home to dentist’s offices or mid-level lobbying firms, instead of the most controversial news channel in the world.

To get upstairs, a non-employee must have an escort, and on a cold day last spring, mine was Lauren McCollough. McCullough works for Brown Lloyd James, the public relations firm that represents the Qatar-based channel in what has proven -- and might have been expected -- to be the hostile territory of the United States.

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In late June I witnessed something unusual in New York City’s Midtown Community Court: a trial on a prostitution charge. Hundreds of people are arrested for a prostitution-related offense in Manhattan each year, but only a fraction challenge the arrest at trial.

This trial was even more interesting because the charge was not actually prostitution. The defendant, a woman, had not been caught in the act of agreeing to sex for money; rather, she had been charged with "loitering for the purpose of engaging in a prostitution offense," a nebulous -- some say unconstitutional -- charge that allows police to arrest a man or woman they suspect is attempting to engage in prostitution. In New York, both charges are B misdemeanors that can carry a penalty of 15 to 90 days in jail.

The testimony of the arresting officer was just as intriguing. He told the court that, while sitting in an unmarked police vehicle early on the morning of May 21, he observed the defendant "engaging in conversation" with two men and "attempting to stop" another on the west side of midtown Manhattan, an area he testified is "frequented by prostitution."

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It had been a month since Dean had gotten word he'd have to go back to war. He had already served a year in Afghanistan. He'd done and seen things over there he couldn't talk about, and now they were sending him to Iraq. Like tens of thousands of soldiers fighting the post-9/11 wars, Dean was being treated by the Department of Veterans Affairs for post-traumatic stress disorder -- but the Army didn't know that because the Army and the V.A. don't typically share medical records.

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Prior to Gingrich's arrival, the crowd -- a mish-mash of polo shirts and pinstriped suits, platform heels and pashmina wraps -- had been worked up by Republican Sen. James Inhofe, who taught them all about the "far left elitists" and their Chicken Little climate change hysteria. Inhofe's PowerPoint included slides of polar bears and "environmentalists" like Leonardo DiCaprio and Barbra Streisand (boo!). He referenced Al Gore's "science fiction movie," and finished off the hour with some good news about the war: "A miracle is taking place now in Iraq," he said, and explained that there is now zero anti-American propaganda in the country's mosques and that American troops, instead of retreating to the Green Zone at night, are now "bedding down" with Iraqi families.

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This morning, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a hearing called "The Tillman Fratricide: What Defense Department Officials Knew." Retired Gens. John P. Abizaid, Bryan D. Brown and Richard B. Myers were on the panel, but the star of the event was former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who apparently rearranged his schedule at the last minute in order to appear.

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But there was a catch. In order to get enough support for the bill, Rush had to add language encouraging the NIH to study the mental health effects of abortion.

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"This may be one of the most important prayer alerts I have sent out for Sam," writes Berger, whose e-mail is posted on USA Today's On Politics blog. And in case supporters aren't certain exactly what to ask God to do, Berger has a list:

Pray that God would supernaturally activate the Christians in Iowa to pray and go to the straw poll to vote for Sam. (When Christians vote, our values move forward in the culture war when Christians stay home, the enemy wins.)

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2007/07/27/brownback_prayer/feed/ 22 http://www.salon.com/2007/07/27/mueller_testimony/ http://www.salon.com/2007/07/27/mueller_testimony/#comments Fri, 27 Jul 2007 17:05:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2007/07/27/mueller_testimony FBI Director Robert Mueller's testimony on Capitol Hill Thursday was supposed to focus on problems with the bureau's use of national security letters, but amid questioning over the now-infamous John Ashcroft hospital visit, Mueller made a statement that seemed to directly contradict testimony Attorney General Alberto Gonzales gave when he sat before the Senate Judiciary Committee just two days before.

Gonzales claimed that the intelligence program he and former White House chief of staff Andy Card had been so desperate to get Ashcroft to sign off on was not the National Security Agency's Terrorist Surveillance Program that was revealed in 2005. Gonzales' statement prompted Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., to ask incredulously, "Do you expect us to believe that?"

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2007/07/27/mueller_testimony/feed/ 9 http://www.salon.com/2007/07/27/republicans_youtube/ http://www.salon.com/2007/07/27/republicans_youtube/#comments Fri, 27 Jul 2007 14:22:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2007/07/27/republicans_youtube Monday's CNN/YouTube Democratic debate was popular with viewers age 18-34, but the format didn't sit well with everyone -- specifically, Republican presidential candidates.

The Washington Post reports this morning that so far, only Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, have agreed to appear at the next CNN/YouTube debate scheduled for Sept. 17 in St. Petersburg, Fla. Mitt Romney told the Manchester Union Leader on Wednesday, "I think the presidency ought to be held at a higher level than having to answer questions from a snowman."

Romney isn't the only Republican turning up his nose at the event. According to the St. Petersburg Times, Rudy Giuliani has "scheduling issues."

So far, reports the Post, 400 questions have been uploaded to YouTube in anticipation of the debate.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2007/07/27/republicans_youtube/feed/ 37 http://www.salon.com/2007/07/26/thompson_lawyers/ http://www.salon.com/2007/07/26/thompson_lawyers/#comments Thu, 26 Jul 2007 21:28:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2007/07/26/thompson_lawyers The Washington Post has a front page feature on Fred Thompson that focuses on his distinctly un-GOP former life as a litigator.

Before he was elected as a tough-on-crime U.S. senator from Tennessee or played a New York prosecutor on TV's "Law and Order," Fred Dalton Thompson worked as a lawyer who argued against the government's authority to regulate drug paraphernalia or to search a boat packed with 14 tons of marijuana.

Once, two decades ago, he urged that more witnesses refuse to testify before grand juries by invoking their constitutional right against self-incrimination, boasting that "I start on the assumption that my client will not testify." And over the years, lawsuits he filed helped a state worker win reinstatement to her job while exposing a parole bribery scheme and won money for the family of a Marine pilot killed by a helicopter blade when the family could not sue the Defense Department.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2007/07/26/thompson_lawyers/feed/ 11 http://www.salon.com/2007/07/26/subpoenas/ http://www.salon.com/2007/07/26/subpoenas/#comments Thu, 26 Jul 2007 17:21:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2007/07/26/subpoenas Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., announced today that his committee will subpoena White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove and White House deputy director of political affairs Scott Jennings.

According to CNN's Political Ticker, Leahy said:

"We've now reached a point where the accumulated evidence shows that political considerations factored into the unprecedented firing of at least nine U.S. attorneys last year. Testimony and documents showed that the list was compiled based on input from the highest political ranks in the White House, including Mr. Rove and Mr. (Scott) Jennings, and today I will subpoena Mr. Rove and Mr. Jennings."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2007/07/26/subpoenas/feed/ 13 http://www.salon.com/2007/07/26/gravel/ http://www.salon.com/2007/07/26/gravel/#comments Thu, 26 Jul 2007 15:56:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2007/07/26/gravel Mike Gravel is upset. In today's USA Today, the former Democratic senator from Alaska, who is running for president, accuses Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, MoveOn.org, the Human Rights Campaign and CNN of trying to exclude him from Democratic debates and forums.

Though some say he's whining, it must be pointed out that he's also right. On July 12, Clinton and Edwards were overheard calling other candidates (presumably Gravel and Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio) "not serious," and expressing interest in cutting them out of future debates. And back in May, Gravel had to fight to get onstage at a debate sponsored by CNN and New Hampshire's Manchester Union Leader newspaper. But fight he did, and win he did, mostly through an aggressive online campaign.

The Democratic Party's patience with Gravel may not last forever, but interest in his seemingly Quixotic campaign isn't dwindling yet. Just yesterday, the Los Angeles Times gave Gravel and his Republican counterpart, Ron Paul, a Page 1 feature.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2007/07/26/gravel/feed/ 9 http://www.salon.com/2007/07/25/feinstein_clinton/ http://www.salon.com/2007/07/25/feinstein_clinton/#comments Wed, 25 Jul 2007 21:25:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2007/07/25/feinstein_clinton Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., announced her endorsement of Hillary Clinton for president today.

According to The Hill, Feinstein said, "Hillary Clinton, I believe, has the experience, the heart and the strength to be a great American president. There has been no election for president where change is as defined and necessary as this one. The question is who is best equipped to lead that change. I believe it is Hillary."

Clinton, in response, said in a press statement: "Dianne and I have fought side by side in the Senate to expand stem cell research, to take care of our veterans when they return home and to stop the privatization of Social Security ... Dianne is such a respected voice in the Senate, I'm honored to have her support as we work together to bring the war in Iraq to an end and deliver the change this country wants."

Last week, Clinton received an endorsement from former ambassador Joseph Wilson.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2007/07/25/feinstein_clinton/feed/ 5 http://www.salon.com/2007/07/25/contempt_house/ http://www.salon.com/2007/07/25/contempt_house/#comments Wed, 25 Jul 2007 17:42:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2007/07/25/contempt_house The House Judiciary Committee voted 22-17 to issue contempt citations against White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers over their refusals to testify and provide documents in the investigation into the firings of nine U.S. attorneys.

The Washington Post reports:

The Bush administration has made clear it intends to block prosecution of any contempt charges, arguing that a presidentially-appointed U.S. attorney cannot legally be forced by Congress to flout the president's determination that the materials and testimony sought are protected by executive privilege.

White House spokesman Tony Snow responded with strong language.

"Now we have a situation where there is an attempt to do something that's never been done in American history, which is to assail the concept of executive privilege, which hails back to the administration of George Washington and in particular to use criminal contempt charges against the White House chief of staff and the White House legal counsel," he said.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2007/07/25/contempt_house/feed/ 15 http://www.salon.com/2007/07/25/veterans_healthcare/ http://www.salon.com/2007/07/25/veterans_healthcare/#comments Wed, 25 Jul 2007 16:20:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2007/07/25/veterans_healthcare Veterans' healthcare is getting some overdue attention this week.

Today, the Senate unanimously passed the Dignified Treatment of Wounded Warriors Act, which includes directives for the Veterans Affairs Department and the Defense Department to collaborate on treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain Injuries, as well as develop joint electronic records.

Meanwhile, President Bush gave a short statement about the issue after meeting with former Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala and former Sen. Bob Dole (co-chairmen of the President's Committee on Care for America's Returning Wounded Warriors) about their recommendations, released today, for improving the V.A.'s care:

I asked these two distinguished citizens to lead an extensive search about how best for this government to respond. We owe a wounded soldier the very best care and the very best benefits and the very easiest to understand system. And so they took a very interesting approach. They took the perspective from the patient, as the patient had to work his way through the hospitals and bureaucracies. And they've come up with some very interesting and important suggestions.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2007/07/25/veterans_healthcare/feed/ 7 http://www.salon.com/2007/07/25/fbi/ http://www.salon.com/2007/07/25/fbi/#comments Wed, 25 Jul 2007 15:03:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2007/07/25/fbi The Washington Post reports this morning that the FBI is seeking $5 million a year from Congress to pay telecom companies to keep customers' telephone and Internet records for two years so that the agency can use them for information relating to counterterrorism investigations.

"The FBI would not have direct access to the records," writes the Post's Ellen Nakashima. "It would need to present a subpoena or an administrative warrant, known as a national security letter, to obtain the information that the companies would keep in a database, officials said."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2007/07/25/fbi/feed/ 11 http://www.salon.com/2007/07/24/crack/ http://www.salon.com/2007/07/24/crack/#comments Tue, 24 Jul 2007 21:00:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2007/07/24/crack Buried between his comments on torture memos and rousing sick old men from their hospital beds, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales also managed to reveal a position on a controversial part of the drug war in his Senate hearing today. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., asked Gonzales about legislation he and three other senators have introduced that would bring more balance to the penalties for possession of crack and powder cocaine. (Because of guidelines set in the late 1980s, a person caught with just five grams of crack is subject to the same mandatory minimum sentence as someone caught with 500 grams of cocaine.)

"Has the Department of Justice taken a position on that as of this year?" asked Sessions.

Gonzales responded with this: "Personally, as I sit here today, I'd say that where we're at today is certainly reasonable. We think crack is more dangerous. It's related to, I think, addiction more quickly. It's more related to more dangerous crimes. The effects of it, I think, are more dangerous. So from a law enforcement perspective, it makes sense to have the kind of sentences that exist today."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2007/07/24/crack/feed/ 1 http://www.salon.com/2007/07/24/gonzales_hearing_quotes/ http://www.salon.com/2007/07/24/gonzales_hearing_quotes/#comments Tue, 24 Jul 2007 19:35:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2007/07/24/gonzales_hearing_quotes Attorney General Alberto Gonzales recused himself from speaking about the tug-of-war over executive privilege, and failed to clear up the long-standing question of who actually drew up the list of fired U.S. attorneys, but he did address several other issues while before the Senate Judiciary Committee this morning.

On Guantánamo Bay: "I wish we could close Guantánamo. I'm with everyone else: We should close Guantánamo. However, a need remains -- and there are legitimate questions about what do you do with these individuals? I guess we could turn them loose, Senator, and they could end up fighting against us again. We could bring them into the United States, although I understand the Senate recently rejected that overwhelmingly. Bringing them into the United States raises some serious legal issues."

On that late-night visit to John Ashcroft's hospital room: "Obviously, we were concerned about the condition of General Ashcroft. We obviously knew he had been ill and had surgery. And we never had any intent to ask anything of him if we did not feel that he was competent."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2007/07/24/gonzales_hearing_quotes/feed/ 8 http://www.salon.com/2007/07/24/gonzales_hearing/ http://www.salon.com/2007/07/24/gonzales_hearing/#comments Tue, 24 Jul 2007 15:11:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2007/07/24/gonzales_hearing The rhetoric was high this morning at the Senate Judiciary Committee's hearing on oversight at the Department of Justice. In his opening statement chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., did not mince words: "The attorney general [has] lost the confidence of the Congress and the American people."

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales leaned forward to listen, his lips pursed into a frown, and crossed and recrossed his arms on the table before him, as Leahy read the charges against him: allowing his subordinates to make personnel decisions based on political considerations; bullying a bed-ridden John Ashcroft into signing off on a controversial domestic spying program; lying about violations of the Patriot Act; being an "enabler for this administration."

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