The U.S. government was turning down many allies’ offers of manpower, supplies and expertise worth untold millions of dollars. Eventually the United States also would fail to collect most of the unprecedented outpouring of international cash assistance for Katrina’s victims.

Allies offered $854 million in cash and in oil that was to be sold for cash. But only $40 million has been used so far for disaster victims or reconstruction, according to U.S. officials and contractors. Most of the aid went uncollected, including $400 million worth of oil. Some offers were withdrawn or redirected to private groups such as the Red Cross. The rest has been delayed by red tape and bureaucratic limits on how it can be spent.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), the most liberal of the Democratic presidential candidates in the primary field, declared in a letter sent to his Democratic House colleagues this morning that he plans to file articles of impeachment against Vice President Dick Cheney.

Kucinich has made ending the war in Iraq the central theme of his campaign. He has even taken aim at the leading Democratic presidential candidates in the field for their votes on authorizing the war.

A report filed today by the Russian News agency RIA Novosti indicates that Russian intelligence has information that the U.S. Armed Forces have nearly completed preparations for a possible military operation against Iran, and will be ready to strike in early April.

Vice president of the Academy of Geopolitical Sciences Russian Col.-Gen. Leonid Ivashov, said last week the Pentagon was planning to deliver a massive air strike on Iran’s military infrastructure in the near future.

“I have no doubt there will be an operation, or rather an aggressive action against Iran,” Ivashov said.

The House Committee investigating the firing of US Attorneys by the Justice Department authorized the issuing of subpoenas of top aides to President George W. Bush today in a voice vote. They stopped short of issuing the subpoenas themselves.

“The motion passed to authorize the chairman to issue subpoenas,” said a spokesperson for House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers in an e-mail to RAW STORY.

The Democratic senator said evidence suggests that Bush’s top law enforcement official, US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, “was carrying out the political wishes of the president in at least some of these firings.”

Gonzales has faced calls for his resignation following news the prosecutors had been sacked, and Schumer repeated that call Tuesday.

“All the evidence makes clear that this purge was based purely on politics: to punish prosecutors who were perceived to be too light on Democrats or too tough on Republicans,” he said, adding that among the officials he hopes to hear from are White House aides Harriet Miers and Karl Rove and Gonzales himself.