Topic: Halloween News - Halloween party haunts immigration chief - Los Angeles Times
A 22-page report issued late Tuesday charged that Myers, then the agency’s acting director, made “a coordinated effort to conceal the circumstances surrounding the party” in an effort to squelch the issue before her Senate confirmation vote. Officials at the agency, part of the Department of Homeland Security, vigorously denied the allegations. The fracas underscores long-standing anger among African American lawmakers who say there is a lack of diversity and racial sensitivity within the Homeland Security Department. Nantel said nothing in the panel’s report was new, adding that Myers has the support of an association of African American employees and “has been 100% transparent and honest about this incident from the beginning. President Bush named her to head the agency in early 2006, bypassing lawmakers’ concerns about the competence of the Homeland Security Department’s political appointees. She had worked for Chertoff at the Justice Department, her husband was his chief of staff, and her uncle was the departing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. More Halloween News