Bush has ignored over 750 laws he claims infringe on his power

By Charlie Savage, Boston Globe Staff | April 30, 2006

WASHINGTON -- President Bush has quietly claimed the authority to disobey more than 750 laws enacted since he took office, asserting that he has the power to set aside any statute passed by Congress when it conflicts with his interpretation of the Constitution.

Among the laws Bush said he can ignore are military rules and regulations, affirmative-action provisions, requirements that Congress be told about immigration services problems, ''whistle-blower" protections for nuclear regulatory officials, and safeguards against political interference in federally funded research.

Legal scholars say the scope and aggression of Bush's assertions that he can bypass laws represent a concerted effort to expand his power at the expense of Congress, upsetting the balance between the branches of government. The Constitution is clear in assigning to Congress the power to write the laws and to the president a duty ''to take care that the laws be faithfully executed." Bush, however, has repeatedly declared that he does not need to ''execute" a law he believes is unconstitutional.

Former administration officials contend that just because Bush reserves the right to disobey a law does not mean he is not enforcing it: In many cases, he is simply asserting his belief that a certain requirement encroaches on presidential power.

But with the disclosure of Bush's domestic spying program, in which he ignored a law requiring warrants to tap the phones of Americans, many legal specialists say Bush is hardly reluctant to bypass laws he believes he has the constitutional authority to override.

Far more than any predecessor, Bush has been aggressive about declaring his right to ignore vast swaths of laws -- many of which he says infringe on power he believes the Constitution assigns to him alone as the head of the executive branch or the commander in chief of the military.

Many legal scholars say they believe that Bush's theory about his own powers goes too far and that he is seizing for himself some of the law-making role of Congress and the Constitution-interpreting role of the courts.

Phillip Cooper, a Portland State University law professor who has studied the executive power claims Bush made during his first term, said Bush and his legal team have spent the past five years quietly working to concentrate ever more governmental power into the White House.

''There is no question that this administration has been involved in a very carefully thought-out, systematic process of expanding presidential power at the expense of the other branches of government," Cooper said. ''This is really big, very expansive, and very significant."

For the first five years of Bush's presidency, his legal claims attracted little attention in Congress or the media. Then, twice in recent months, Bush drew scrutiny after challenging new laws: a torture ban and a requirement that he give detailed reports to Congress about how he is using the Patriot Act.

Bush administration spokesmen declined to make White House or Justice Department attorneys available to discuss any of Bush's challenges to the laws he has signed.

Instead, they referred a Globe reporter to their response to questions about Bush's position that he could ignore provisions of the Patriot Act. They said at the time that Bush was following a practice that has ''been used for several administrations" and that ''the president will faithfully execute the law in a manner that is consistent with the Constitution."

But the words ''in a manner that is consistent with the Constitution" are the catch, legal scholars say, because Bush is according himself the ultimate interpretation of the Constitution. And he is quietly exercising that authority to a degree that is unprecedented in US history.

Bush is the first president in modern history who has never vetoed a bill, giving Congress no chance to override his judgments. Instead, he has signed every bill that reached his desk, often inviting the legislation's sponsors to signing ceremonies at which he lavishes praise upon their work.

Then, after the media and the lawmakers have left the White House, Bush quietly files ''signing statements" -- official documents in which a president lays out his legal interpretation of a bill for the federal bureaucracy to follow when implementing the new law. The statements are recorded in the federal register.

In his signing statements, Bush has repeatedly asserted that the Constitution gives him the right to ignore numerous sections of the bills -- sometimes including provisions that were the subject of negotiations with Congress in order to get lawmakers to pass the bill. He has appended such statements to more than one of every 10 bills he has signed.

''He agrees to a compromise with members of Congress, and all of them are there for a public bill-signing ceremony, but then he takes back those compromises -- and more often than not, without the Congress or the press or the public knowing what has happened," said Christopher Kelley, a Miami University of Ohio political science professor who studies executive power.

Military link

Many of the laws Bush said he can bypass -- including the torture ban -- involve the military.

The Constitution grants Congress the power to create armies, to declare war, to make rules for captured enemies, and ''to make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces." But, citing his role as commander in chief, Bush says he can ignore any act of Congress that seeks to regulate the military.

On at least four occasions while Bush has been president, Congress has passed laws forbidding US troops from engaging in combat in Colombia, where the US military is advising the government in its struggle against narcotics-funded Marxist rebels.

After signing each bill, Bush declared in his signing statement that he did not have to obey any of the Colombia restrictions because he is commander in chief.

Bush has also said he can bypass laws requiring him to tell Congress before diverting money from an authorized program in order to start a secret operation, such as the ''black sites" where suspected terrorists are secretly imprisoned.

Congress has also twice passed laws forbidding the military from using intelligence that was not ''lawfully collected," including any information on Americans that was gathered in violation of the Fourth Amendment's protections against unreasonable searches.

Congress first passed this provision in August 2004, when Bush's warrantless domestic spying program was still a secret, and passed it again after the program's existence was disclosed in December 2005.

On both occasions, Bush declared in signing statements that only he, as commander in chief, could decide whether such intelligence can be used by the military.

In October 2004, five months after the Abu Ghraib torture scandal in Iraq came to light, Congress passed a series of new rules and regulations for military prisons. Bush signed the provisions into law, then said he could ignore them all. One provision made clear that military lawyers can give their commanders independent advice on such issues as what would constitute torture. But Bush declared that military lawyers could not contradict his administration's lawyers.

Other provisions required the Pentagon to retrain military prison guards on the requirements for humane treatment of detainees under the Geneva Conventions, to perform background checks on civilian contractors in Iraq, and to ban such contractors from performing ''security, intelligence, law enforcement, and criminal justice functions." Bush reserved the right to ignore any of the requirements.

The new law also created the position of inspector general for Iraq. But Bush wrote in his signing statement that the inspector ''shall refrain" from investigating any intelligence or national security matter, or any crime the Pentagon says it prefers to investigate for itself.

Bush had placed similar limits on an inspector general position created by Congress in November 2003 for the initial stage of the US occupation of Iraq. The earlier law also empowered the inspector to notify Congress if a US official refused to cooperate. Bush said the inspector could not give any information to Congress without permission from the administration.

Oversight questioned

Many laws Bush has asserted he can bypass involve requirements to give information about government activity to congressional oversight committees.

In December 2004, Congress passed an intelligence bill requiring the Justice Department to tell them how often, and in what situations, the FBI was using special national security wiretaps on US soil. The law also required the Justice Department to give oversight committees copies of administration memos outlining any new interpretations of domestic-spying laws. And it contained 11 other requirements for reports about such issues as civil liberties, security clearances, border security, and counternarcotics efforts.

After signing the bill, Bush issued a signing statement saying he could withhold all the information sought by Congress.

Likewise, when Congress passed the law creating the Department of Homeland Security in 2002, it said oversight committees must be given information about vulnerabilities at chemical plants and the screening of checked bags at airports.

It also said Congress must be shown unaltered reports about problems with visa services prepared by a new immigration ombudsman. Bush asserted the right to withhold the information and alter the reports.

On several other occasions, Bush contended he could nullify laws creating ''whistle-blower" job protections for federal employees that would stop any attempt to fire them as punishment for telling a member of Congress about possible government wrongdoing.

When Congress passed a massive energy package in August, for example, it strengthened whistle-blower protections for employees at the Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The provision was included because lawmakers feared that Bush appointees were intimidating nuclear specialists so they would not testify about safety issues related to a planned nuclear-waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada -- a facility the administration supported, but both Republicans and Democrats from Nevada opposed.

When Bush signed the energy bill, he issued a signing statement declaring that the executive branch could ignore the whistle-blower protections.

Bush's statement did more than send a threatening message to federal energy specialists inclined to raise concerns with Congress; it also raised the possibility that Bush would not feel bound to obey similar whistle-blower laws that were on the books before he became president. His domestic spying program, for example, violated a surveillance law enacted 23 years before he took office.

David Golove, a New York University law professor who specializes in executive-power issues, said Bush has cast a cloud over ''the whole idea that there is a rule of law," because no one can be certain of which laws Bush thinks are valid and which he thinks he can ignore.

''Where you have a president who is willing to declare vast quantities of the legislation that is passed during his term unconstitutional, it implies that he also thinks a very significant amount of the other laws that were already on the books before he became president are also unconstitutional," Golove said.

Defying Supreme Court

Bush has also challenged statutes in which Congress gave certain executive branch officials the power to act independently of the president. The Supreme Court has repeatedly endorsed the power of Congress to make such arrangements. For example, the court has upheld laws creating special prosecutors free of Justice Department oversight and insulating the board of the Federal Trade Commission from political interference.

Nonetheless, Bush has said in his signing statements that the Constitution lets him control any executive official, no matter what a statute passed by Congress might say.

In November 2002, for example, Congress, seeking to generate independent statistics about student performance, passed a law setting up an educational research institute to conduct studies and publish reports ''without the approval" of the Secretary of Education. Bush, however, decreed that the institute's director would be ''subject to the supervision and direction of the secretary of education."

Similarly, the Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld affirmative-action programs, as long as they do not include quotas. Most recently, in 2003, the court upheld a race-conscious university admissions program over the strong objections of Bush, who argued that such programs should be struck down as unconstitutional.

Yet despite the court's rulings, Bush has taken exception at least nine times to provisions that seek to ensure that minorities are represented among recipients of government jobs, contracts, and grants. Each time, he singled out the provisions, declaring that he would construe them ''in a manner consistent with" the Constitution's guarantee of ''equal protection" to all -- which some legal scholars say amounts to an argument that the affirmative-action provisions represent reverse discrimination against whites.

Golove said that to the extent Bush is interpreting the Constitution in defiance of the Supreme Court's precedents, he threatens to ''overturn the existing structures of constitutional law."

A president who ignores the court, backed by a Congress that is unwilling to challenge him, Golove said, can make the Constitution simply ''disappear."

Common practice in '80s

Though Bush has gone further than any previous president, his actions are not unprecedented.

Since the early 19th century, American presidents have occasionally signed a large bill while declaring that they would not enforce a specific provision they believed was unconstitutional. On rare occasions, historians say, presidents also issued signing statements interpreting a law and explaining any concerns about it.

But it was not until the mid-1980s, midway through the tenure of President Reagan, that it became common for the president to issue signing statements. The change came about after then-Attorney General Edwin Meese decided that signing statements could be used to increase the power of the president.

When interpreting an ambiguous law, courts often look at the statute's legislative history, debate and testimony, to see what Congress intended it to mean. Meese realized that recording what the president thought the law meant in a signing statement might increase a president's influence over future court rulings.

Under Meese's direction in 1986, a young Justice Department lawyer named Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote a strategy memo about signing statements. It came to light in late 2005, after Bush named Alito to the Supreme Court.

In the memo, Alito predicted that Congress would resent the president's attempt to grab some of its power by seizing ''the last word on questions of interpretation." He suggested that Reagan's legal team should ''concentrate on points of true ambiguity, rather than issuing interpretations that may seem to conflict with those of Congress."

Reagan's successors continued this practice. George H.W. Bush challenged 232 statutes over four years in office, and Bill Clinton objected to 140 laws over his eight years, according to Kelley, the Miami University of Ohio professor.

Many of the challenges involved longstanding legal ambiguities and points of conflict between the president and Congress.

Throughout the past two decades, for example, each president -- including the current one -- has objected to provisions requiring him to get permission from a congressional committee before taking action. The Supreme Court made clear in 1983 that only the full Congress can direct the executive branch to do things, but lawmakers have continued writing laws giving congressional committees such a role.

Still, Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Clinton used the presidential veto instead of the signing statement if they had a serious problem with a bill, giving Congress a chance to override their decisions.

But the current President Bush has abandoned the veto entirely, as well as any semblance of the political caution that Alito counseled back in 1986. In just five years, Bush has challenged more than 750 new laws, by far a record for any president, while becoming the first president since Thomas Jefferson to stay so long in office without issuing a veto.

''What we haven't seen until this administration is the sheer number of objections that are being raised on every bill passed through the White House," said Kelley, who has studied presidential signing statements through history. ''That is what is staggering. The numbers are well out of the norm from any previous administration."

Exaggerated fears?

Some administration defenders say that concerns about Bush's signing statements are overblown. Bush's signing statements, they say, should be seen as little more than political chest-thumping by administration lawyers who are dedicated to protecting presidential prerogatives.

Defenders say the fact that Bush is reserving the right to disobey the laws does not necessarily mean he has gone on to disobey them.

Indeed, in some cases, the administration has ended up following laws that Bush said he could bypass. For example, citing his power to ''withhold information" in September 2002, Bush declared that he could ignore a law requiring the State Department to list the number of overseas deaths of US citizens in foreign countries. Nevertheless, the department has still put the list on its website.

Jack Goldsmith, a Harvard Law School professor who until last year oversaw the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel for the administration, said the statements do not change the law; they just let people know how the president is interpreting it.

''Nobody reads them," said Goldsmith. ''They have no significance. Nothing in the world changes by the publication of a signing statement. The statements merely serve as public notice about how the administration is interpreting the law. Criticism of this practice is surprising, since the usual complaint is that the administration is too secretive in its legal interpretations."

But Cooper, the Portland State University professor who has studied Bush's first-term signing statements, said the documents are being read closely by one key group of people: the bureaucrats who are charged with implementing new laws.

Lower-level officials will follow the president's instructions even when his understanding of a law conflicts with the clear intent of Congress, crafting policies that may endure long after Bush leaves office, Cooper said.

''Years down the road, people will not understand why the policy doesn't look like the legislation," he said.

And in many cases, critics contend, there is no way to know whether the administration is violating laws -- or merely preserving the right to do so.

Many of the laws Bush has challenged involve national security, where it is almost impossible to verify what the government is doing. And since the disclosure of Bush's domestic spying program, many people have expressed alarm about his sweeping claims of the authority to violate laws.

In January, after the Globe first wrote about Bush's contention that he could disobey the torture ban, three Republicans who were the bill's principal sponsors in the Senate -- John McCain of Arizona, John W. Warner of Virginia, and Lindsey O. Graham of South Carolina -- all publicly rebuked the president.

''We believe the president understands Congress's intent in passing, by very large majorities, legislation governing the treatment of detainees," McCain and Warner said in a joint statement. ''The Congress declined when asked by administration officials to include a presidential waiver of the restrictions included in our legislation."

Added Graham: ''I do not believe that any political figure in the country has the ability to set aside any . . . law of armed conflict that we have adopted or treaties that we have ratified."

And in March, when the Globe first wrote about Bush's contention that he could ignore the oversight provisions of the Patriot Act, several Democrats lodged complaints.

Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, accused Bush of trying to ''cherry-pick the laws he decides he wants to follow."

And Representatives Jane Harman of California and John Conyers Jr. of Michigan -- the ranking Democrats on the House Intelligence and Judiciary committees, respectively -- sent a letter to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales demanding that Bush rescind his claim and abide by the law.

''Many members who supported the final law did so based upon the guarantee of additional reporting and oversight," they wrote. ''The administration cannot, after the fact, unilaterally repeal provisions of the law implementing such oversight. . . . Once the president signs a bill, he and all of us are bound by it."

Lack of court review

Such political fallout from Congress is likely to be the only check on Bush's claims, legal specialists said.

The courts have little chance of reviewing Bush's assertions, especially in the secret realm of national security matters.

''There can't be judicial review if nobody knows about it," said Neil Kinkopf, a Georgia State law professor who was a Justice Department official in the Clinton administration. ''And if they avoid judicial review, they avoid having their constitutional theories rebuked."

Without court involvement, only Congress can check a president who goes too far. But Bush's fellow Republicans control both chambers, and they have shown limited interest in launching the kind of oversight that could damage their party.

''The president is daring Congress to act against his positions, and they're not taking action because they don't want to appear to be too critical of the president, given that their own fortunes are tied to his because they are all Republicans," said Jack Beermann, a Boston University law professor. ''Oversight gets much reduced in a situation where the president and Congress are controlled by the same party."

Said Golove, the New York University law professor: ''Bush has essentially said that 'We're the executive branch and we're going to carry this law out as we please, and if Congress wants to impeach us, go ahead and try it.' "

Bruce Fein, a deputy attorney general in the Reagan administration, said the American system of government relies upon the leaders of each branch ''to exercise some self-restraint." But Bush has declared himself the sole judge of his own powers, he said, and then ruled for himself every time.

''This is an attempt by the president to have the final word on his own constitutional powers, which eliminates the checks and balances that keep the country a democracy," Fein said. ''There is no way for an independent judiciary to check his assertions of power, and Congress isn't doing it, either. So this is moving us toward an unlimited executive power."

Colbert Lampoons Bush at White House Correspondents Dinner-- President Does Not Seem Amused

By E&P Staff

Published: April 29, 2006 11:40 PM ET
WASHINGTON A blistering comedy “tribute” to President Bush by Comedy Central’s faux talk show host Stephen Colbert at the White House Correspondent Dinner Saturday night left George and Laura Bush unsmiling at its close.

Earlier, the president had delivered his talk to the 2700 attendees, including many celebrities and top officials, with the help of a Bush impersonator.

Colbert, who spoke in the guise of his talk show character, who ostensibly supports the president strongly, urged the Bush to ignore his low approval ratings, saying they were based on reality, “and reality has a well-known liberal bias.”

He attacked those in the press who claim that the shake-up at the White House was merely re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. “This administration is soaring, not sinking,” he said. “They are re-arranging the deck chairs--on the Hindenburg.”

Colbert told Bush he could end the problem of protests by retired generals by refusing to let them retire. He compared Bush to Rocky Balboa in the “Rocky” movies, always getting punched in the face—“and Apollo Creed is everything else in the world.”

Turning to the war, he declared, "I believe that the government that governs best is a government that governs least, and by these standards we have set up a fabulous government in Iraq."

He noted former Ambassador Joseph Wilson in the crowd, as well as " Valerie Plame." Then, pretending to be worried that he had named her, he corrected himself, as Bush aides might do, "Uh, I mean... Joseph Wilson's wife." He asserted that it might be okay, as prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald was probably not there.

Colbert also made biting cracks about missing WMDs, “photo ops” on aircraft carriers and at hurricane disasters, and Vice President Cheney shooting people in the face.
Observing that Bush sticks to his principles, he said, "When the president decides something on Monday, he still believes it on Wednesday - no matter what happened Tuesday."

Also lampooning the press, Colbert complained that he was “surrounded by the liberal media who are destroying this country, except for Fox News. Fox believes in presenting both sides—the president’s side and the vice president’s side." He also reflected on the good old days, when the media was still swallowing the WMD story.

Addressing the reporters, he said, "You should spend more time with your families, write that novel you've always wanted to write. You know, the one about the fearless reporter who stands up to the administration. You know-- fiction."

He claimed that the Secret Service name for Bush's new press secretary is "Snow Job." Colbert closed his routine with a video fantasy where he gets to be White House Press Secretary, complete with a special “Gannon” button on his podium. By the end, he had to run from Helen Thomas and her questions about why the U.S. really invaded Iraq and killed all those people.

As Colbert walked from the podium, when it was over, the president and First Lady gave him quick nods, unsmiling, and left immediately.

E&P's Joe Strupp, in the crowd, observed that quite a few sitting near him looked a little uncomfortable at times, perhaps feeling the material was a little too biting--or too much speaking "truthiness" to power.

Asked by E&P after it was over if he thought he'd been too harsh, Colbert said, "Not at all." Was he trying to make a point politically or just get laughs? "Just for laughs," he said. He said he did not pull any material for being too strong, just for time reasons.

Helen Thomas told Strupp her segment with Colbert was "just for fun."

The president had talked to the crowd with a Bush impersonator alongside, with the faux-Bush speaking precisely and the real Bush deliberately mispronouncing words, such as the inevitable "nuclear." At the close, Bush called the imposter "a fine talent. In fact, he did all my debates with Senator Kerry."

Among attendees at the black tie event: Morgan Fairchild, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, Justice Antonin Scalia, George Clooney, and Jeff "Skunk" Baxter of the Doobie Brothers--in a kilt.

More on Darfur...

1. What has happened in Darfur?
2. Reuters Darfur Crisis Profile
3. Darfur Food Rations Cut in Half
4. NATO Ready for Small Scale Darfur Presence
5. Refugees from Darfur Rally for Action to Stop Death, Violence
6. US Congress Members Arrested at Sudan Embassy Protest
7. US Options on Darfur Are Running Out
8. Frontline: The Quick and the Terrible
   
9. Take Action to End the Killing in Darfur
10. One more thing you can do...
    

I know it is kinda late notice... but there's also a rally tomorrow in DC.

Arms still pouring into Sudan's Darfur -UN experts

UNITED NATIONS,
April 27 (Reuters)

Arms are still pouring into Sudan's embattled Darfur region in violation of a U.N. arms ban, U.N. experts said on Thursday. The arms come from neighboring countries as well as nations outside the African continent, the panel of four experts said. They urged the Security Council to strengthen the embargo and better enforce it. Their latest report mentioned by name only Chad as an arms source, but earlier reports have also cited Eritrea and Libya. The council imposed an arms embargo on all non-government forces in Darfur in July 2004, to help end a civil war that has raged in the region since February 2003. The conflict has pitted Sudanese rebels against government forces and allied militias, who have killed tens of thousands and driven 2 million people from their homes into miserable camps in Sudan and neighboring Chad. The region has been further inflamed by a wave of cross-border attacks by Darfur-based Chadian rebels trying to topple Chadian President Idriss Deby ahead of a May 3 presidential election. The experts said Sudan's government in Khartoum has failed to live up to its responsibility to ensure that weapons it buys from legitimate suppliers do not end up in the hands of non-government forces in Darfur. Instead, it transfers equipment and weapons into Darfur from other parts of the country to supply the mostly Arab militia groups that act as its proxy fighters. It also provides support to militia groups in their attacks on Darfur villages and rebel groups, the report said. The Sudanese insist they have transferred weapons and additional troops to Darfur since 2005 "to address the conflict between Sudan and Chad." African Union forces in the region are looking into allegations Khartoum helped sponsor an April 13 attack by Chadian insurgents on Chad's capital N'Djamena. The experts' accused Sudanese government forces of working hand-in-hand with militias in "perpetrating attacks on villages and to engage in armed conflict with rebel groups." The panel recommended that the council extend the arms embargo to all of Sudan, with the exception of the south, where a joint government-rebel coalition now governs as part of a peace agreement ending a separate civil war in that area. It also called for a stronger mechanism to monitor compliance with the embargo, and said all U.N. member-nations should do their part to stem the flow of illicit weapons. It said the council also should consider imposing unspecified sanctions on the government and rebel Sudan Liberation Army "as collective entities rather than on individuals for their actions that impede the peace process." The council this week slapped asset and travel freezes on four individuals it accused of impeding the peace process or violating international human rights law in Darfur but has not authorized such measures against "collective entities."

Limbaugh BUSTED!

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/rushsearch1.html

Prostitution Alleged In Cunningham Case

Investigators Focus on Limo Company

By Jo Becker and Charles R. Babcock
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, April 29, 2006; A01

Federal authorities are investigating allegations that a California defense contractor arranged for a Washington area limousine company to provide prostitutes to convicted former congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.) and possibly other lawmakers, sources familiar with the probe said yesterday.

In recent weeks, investigators have focused on possible dealings between Christopher D. Baker, president of Shirlington Limousine and Transportation Inc., and Brent R. Wilkes, a San Diego businessman who is under investigation for bribing Cunningham in return for millions of dollars in federal contracts, said one source, who requested anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

Baker has a criminal record and has experienced financial difficulties, public records show. Last fall, his company was awarded a $21 million contract with the Department of Homeland Security to provide transportation, including limo service for senior officials. Baker and his lawyer declined to comment yesterday.

The Cunningham investigation's latest twist came after Mitchell J. Wade, a defense contractor who has admitted bribing the former congressman, told prosecutors that Wilkes had an arrangement with Shirlington Limousine, which in turn had an arrangement with at least one escort service, one source said. Wade said limos would pick up Cunningham and a prostitute and bring them to suites Wilkes maintained at the Watergate Hotel and the Westin Grand in Washington, the source said.

Cunningham resigned from Congress after pleading guilty last November to accepting $2.4 million in bribes from four co-conspirators, including Wilkes and Wade. The former lawmaker was sentenced to eight years and four months in prison. Wade pleaded guilty to his part in the scheme in February and is cooperating with investigators. Wilkes has not been charged.

The allegations about prostitutes were reported this week by the Wall Street Journal. Asked yesterday about the allegations, Wilkes's attorney, Michael Lipman of San Diego, said: "My client denies any involvement in that conduct." Cunningham's lawyer, K. Lee Blalack II, declined to comment.

The San Diego Union-Tribune yesterday cited a letter from Baker's lawyer, Bobby Stafford, saying that Baker "provided limousine services for Mr. Wilkes for whatever entertainment he had in the Watergate" from the company's founding in 1990 through the early 2000s. The letter also stated that Baker was "never in attendance in any party where any women were being used for prostitution purposes." Reached by telephone yesterday, Stafford would not comment on the letter.

Before starting Shirlington Limousine, public records show, Baker compiled a lengthy criminal record. Between 1979 and 1989, he was convicted on several misdemeanor charges, including drug possession and attempted petty larceny, as well as two felony charges for attempted robbery and car theft, according to D.C. Superior Court records.

The Internal Revenue Service filed a tax lien against Baker in 1996. He lost his house in 1998, and he filed for personal bankruptcy protection in 1998 and again in 1999.

Although Baker's company began receiving small federal contracts in 1998, it also fell into debt, records show. In early 2002, Arlington County Circuit Court ordered Shirlington Limousine to pay American Express Travel Related Services Co. $55,292.

That summer, Howard University terminated a contract with Shirlington Limousine to supply shuttle bus service, citing poor service and other problems.

In 2003 and again in 2004, the company received eviction notices for an office it maintained in a luxury D.C. apartment building. And in September 2004, the company was sued in D.C. Superior Court for $1.8 million, for failing to make payments on buses it bought for the Howard contract. The case was settled last month, with Shirlington Limousine agreeing to pay $300,000.

During these financial troubles, Baker's company won a contract worth $3.8 million with the Department of Homeland Security in April 2004. It appears from federal records that Shirlington Limousine was the only bidder. The contract was awarded under a program that limited competition to businesses in poor neighborhoods.

Baker was able to close his bankruptcy case last April after he made nearly $125,000 in payments to creditors, according to court records.

The Homeland Security Department said it awarded Shirlington Limousine, one of three bidders, another one-year contract for $21.2 million in October.

Homeland Security spokesman Larry Orluskie said the department does not routinely conduct background checks on its contractors. Instead, it relies on a list the government keeps of vendors who have had serious problems with federal contracts, he said.

In Shirlington Limousine's case, only the drivers were subject to criminal background checks, he said.

Past performance is one key factor the government weighs in awarding a contract, Orluskie said. But he said he did not know whether contract officers checked with Howard University before awarding Shirlington Limousine its first contract.

He stressed that Shirlington Limousine has performed well, saying: "We have not had any problems with this service -- we don't question whether they can deliver because they are delivering."

Steven L. Schooner, an associate professor and contracting expert at George Washington University Law School, said that although there is no explicit prohibition against giving contracts to felons or people with poor business histories, the government is obligated to ensure that potential vendors have a satisfactory record of business ethics and integrity, and that they have the financial resources to meet contractual obligations.

"There's a fundamental government responsibility to investigate," he said.

Researcher Alice Crites contributed to this report.

FBI Investigated 3,501 People Without Warrants

WASHINGTON - The FBI secretly sought information last year on 3,501 U.S. citizens and legal residents from their banks and credit card, telephone and Internet companies without a court's approval, the Justice Department said Friday.

Friday's disclosure was mandated as part of the renewal of the Patriot Act, the administration's sweeping anti-terror law.

The FBI delivered a total of 9,254 NSLs relating to 3,501 people in 2005, according to a report submitted late Friday to Democratic and Republican leaders in the House and Senate. In some cases, the bureau demanded information about one person from several companies.

The numbers from previous years remain classified, officials said.

The department also reported it received a secret court's approval for 155 warrants to examine business records last year under a Patriot Act provision that includes library records. However, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has said the department has never used the provision to ask for library records.

The number was a significant jump over past use of the warrant for business records. A year ago, Gonzales told Congress there had been 35 warrants approved between November 2003 and April 2005.

The spike is expected to be temporary, however, because the Patriot Act renewal that President Bush signed in March made it easier for authorities to obtain subscriber information on telephone numbers captured through certain wiretaps.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the same panel that signs off on applications for business records warrants, also approved 2,072 special warrants last year for secret wiretaps and searches of suspected terrorists and spies. The record number is more than twice as many as were issued in 2000, the last full year before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The FBI security letters have been the subject of legal battles in two federal courts because, until the Patriot Act changes, recipients were barred from telling anyone about them.

Ann Beeson, the associate legal counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, said the report to Congress "confirms our fear all along that National Security Letters are being used to get the records of thousands of innocent Americans without court approval."

The number disclosed Friday excludes requests for subscriber information, an exception written into the law. It was unclear how many FBI letters were not counted for that reason.

© Copyright 2006 Associated Press

###

I'm totally slacking off lately... This needs formatting...

Intel pros say Bush is lying about foiling 2002 terror attack
Outraged intelligence professionals say President George W. Bush is "cheapening" and "politicizing" their work with claims the United States foiled a planned terrorist attack against Los Angeles in 2002.
"The President has cheapened the entire intelligence community by dragging us into his fantasy world," says a longtime field operative of the Central Intelligence Agency. "He is basing this absurd claim on the same discredited informant who told us Al Qaeda would attack selected financial institutions in New York and Washington."
Within hours of the President’s speech Thursday claiming his administration had prevented a major attack, sources who said they were current and retired intelligence pros from the CIA, NSA, FBI and military contacted Capitol Hill Blue with angry comments disputing the President’s remarks.
“He’s full of shit,” said one sharply-worded email.
Although none were willing to allow use of their names, saying doing so would place them in legal jeopardy, we were able to confirm that at least four of the 23 who contacted us currently work, or had worked, within the U.S. intelligence community.
But Los Angeles Mayor Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is willing to go on the record, claiming Bush blind-sided his city with the claims.
"I'm amazed that the president would make this (announcement) on national TV and not inform us of these details through the appropriate channels," the mayor says. "I don't expect a call from the president — but somebody." Villaraigosa also said he has twice requested meetings with Bush to discuss security issues for Los Angeles and was turned down both times.
Intelligence pros say much of the information used by Bush in an attempt to justify his increased spying on Americans by the National Security Agency, trampling of civil rights under the USA Patriot Act, and massive buildup of the Department of Homeland Security, now the nation’s largest federal bureaucracy, was “worthless intel that was discarded long ago.”
“A lot of buzz circulated in the months following the September 11, 2001, attacks,” says an NSA operative. “Snippets here and there were true but most were just random information that could never be confirmed. One thing we do know about al Qaeda is that they seldom use the same technique twice. They tried a car bomb to bring down the World Trade Center and it failed. Then they went to planes. The next time will be something different because we’ve geared up to prevent hijacking planes and using them as flying bombs.”
In August 2004, just as the Presidential campaign was about to heat up, the Bush White House raised the terror alert, claiming attacks were imminent on major financial institutions. The alert, apparently timed to steal thunder from Democrat John Kerry’s nomination for President, was withdrawn after administration officials admitted it was based on old information from a discredited informant.
The discredited information dated back to the same period when intelligence agencies began receiving reports of a planned attack against Los Angeles.
Counterterrorism officials say they are surprised that Bush claimed the plot was "set in motion."
"There was no definitive plot. It never materialized or got past the thought stage," says a senior counterterrorism official, who has worked at the CIA and the FBI, who talked to Capitol Hill Blue and the New York Daily News.
FBI Deputy Director John Pistole refused to characterize it as an advanced plot when discussing it in June 2004.
Former DHS secretary Tom Ridge admits the U.S. raised terror alerts for the wrong reasons and now says he often disagreed with the timing of such alerts but was overruled by the White House.
"More often than not we were the least inclined to raise it," Ridge says. "Sometimes we disagreed with the intelligence assessment. Sometimes we thought even if the intelligence was good, you don't necessarily put the country on alert, There were times when the White House was really aggressive about raising it, and we said, 'For that?' We often lost the argument."
Ridge left DHS in February 2005 and Bush replaced him with Michael Chertoff who agrees with the “cry wolf” strategy of the White House.
“Chertoff is a lackey,” says Kevin Riley, a retired New York City Detective who knew Chertoff during his days as a U.S. Attorney in New York. “He’ll do whatever Bush tells him to do.”
Intelligence pros at established Washington agencies laugh at DHS operatives, calling them “Keystone Kops” and “overpaid rent-a-cops,” saying they lack any real expertise in dealing with terrorism.
“DHS is a political police force,” says a retired CIA agent. “They exist to enforce the political propaganda program of George W. Bush. That’s all they’re good for and they’re not very good at that
© Copyright 2006 by Capitol Hill Blue

OOPS! Latest Bush administration leak comes from ... Bush
CAMBRIDGE, Md. The source of the latest leak from the Bush administration is: President Bush himself.Thanks to an error by a White House technician, the sound of what were supposed to be private remarks to G-O-P House members was relayed to the White House press corps.
Bush made a brief public speech to lawmakers at their retreat on Maryland's Eastern Shore. He then shooed out reporters and photographers, saying, "I support the free press, let's just get 'em out of the room."
Once they were gone, Bush -- not realizing he was still audible -- said, "I expect this conversation we're about to have to stay in the room." He added, "I know that's impossible in Washington."
Bush then spoke for roughly two minutes on the war on terror and his warrantless eavesdropping program before the outside feed was switched off. On the surveillance, he repeated earlier assertions he'd cleared the program with top government lawyers.





Thursday, February 09, 2006
Hunger strikers, forced feeding, restraint chairs & Gitmo

http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engamr510312002




Seton Hall Report: Only 8% of Gitmo detainees characterized by Pentagon as Al Qaeda fighters

http://law.shu.edu/news/guantanamo_report_final_2_08_06.pdf

Based on defense department data, shows a majority of prisoners at Guantanamo have not been determined to have committed hostile acts against the US -- only 8% characterized by the Pentagon as Al Qaeda fighters.





Rove counting heads on the Senate Judiciary Committee

The White House has been twisting arms to ensure that no Republican member votes against President Bush in the Senate Judiciary Committee’s investigation of the administration's unauthorized wiretapping.

Congressional sources said Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove has threatened to blacklist any Republican who votes against the president. The sources said the blacklist would mean a halt in any White House political or financial support of senators running for re-election in November.

"It's hardball all the way," a senior GOP congressional aide said.

The sources said the administration has been alarmed over the damage that could result from the Senate hearings, which began on Monday, Feb. 6. They said the defection of even a handful of Republican committee members could result in a determination that the president violated the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Such a determination could lead to impeachment proceedings.

Over the last few weeks, Mr. Rove has been calling in virtually every Republican on the Senate committee as well as the leadership in Congress. The sources said Mr. Rove's message has been that a vote against Mr. Bush would destroy GOP prospects in congressional elections.

"He's [Rove] lining them up one by one," another congressional source said.

Mr. Rove is leading the White House campaign to help the GOP in November’s congressional elections. The sources said the White House has offered to help loyalists with money and free publicity, such as appearances and photo-ops with the president.

Those deemed disloyal to Mr. Rove would appear on his blacklist. The sources said dozens of GOP members in the House and Senate are on that list.

So far, only a handful of GOP senators have questioned Mr. Rove's tactics.

Some have raised doubts about Mr. Rove's strategy of painting the Democrats, who have opposed unwarranted surveillance, as being dismissive of the threat posed by al Qaeda terrorists.

"Well, I didn't like what Mr. Rove said, because it frames terrorism and the issue of terrorism and everything that goes with it, whether it's the renewal of the Patriot Act or the NSA wiretapping, in a political context," said Sen. Chuck Hagel, Nebraska Republican.

http://www.insightmag.com/Media/MediaManager/Rove2.htm





Cheney Spearheaded Effort to Discredit Wilson

Thursday 09 February 2006
Vice President Dick Cheney and then-Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley led a campaign beginning in March 2003 to discredit former Ambassador Joseph Wilson for publicly criticizing the Bush administration's intelligence on Iraq, according to current and former administration officials.

The officials work or had worked in the State Department, the CIA and the National Security Council in a senior capacity and had direct knowledge of the Vice President's campaign to discredit Wilson.

In interviews over the course of two days this week, these officials were urged to speak on the record for this story. But they resisted, saying they had already testified before a grand jury investigating the leak of Wilson's wife, covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson, and added that speaking out against the administration and specifically Vice President Cheney would cause them to lose their jobs and subject their families to vitriolic attacks by the White House.

The officials said they decided to speak out now because they have become disillusioned with the Bush administration's policies regarding Iraq and the flawed intelligence that led to the war.

They said their roles, along with several others at the CIA and State Department, included digging up or "inventing" embarrassing information on the former Ambassador that could be used against him, preparing memos and classified material on Wilson for Cheney and the National Security Council, and attending meetings in Cheney's office to discuss with Cheney, Hadley, and others the efforts that would be taken to discredit Wilson.

A former CIA official who has worked in the counter-proliferation division, and is familiar with the undercover work Wilson's wife did for the agency, said Cheney and Hadley visited CIA headquarters a day or two after Joseph Wilson was interviewed on CNN.

These were the first public comments Wilson had made about Iraq. He said the administration was more interested in redrawing the map of the Middle East to pursue its own foreign policy objectives than in dealing with the so-called terrorist threat.

"The underlying objective, as I see it, the more I look at this, is less and less disarmament, and it really has little to do with terrorism, because everybody knows that a war to invade and conquer and occupy Iraq is going to spawn a new generation of terrorists," Wilson said in a March 2, 2003, interview with CNN.

"So you look at what's underpinning this, and you go back and you take a look at who's been influencing the process. And it's been those who really believe that our objective must be far grander, and that is to redraw the political map of the Middle East," Wilson added.

This was the first time that Wilson had spoken out publicly against the administration's policies. It was two and a half weeks before the start of the Iraq war.

But it wasn't Wilson who Cheney was so upset about when he visited the CIA in March 2003.

During the same CNN segment in which Wilson was interviewed, former United Nations weapons inspector David Albright made similar comments about the rationale for the Iraq war and added that he believed UN weapons inspectors should be given more time to search the country for weapons of mass destruction.

The National Security Council and CIA officials said Cheney had visited CIA headquarters and asked several CIA officials to dig up dirt on Albright, and to put together a dossier that would discredit his work that could be distributed to the media.

"Vice President Cheney was more concerned with Mr. Albright," the CIA official said. "The international community had been saying that inspectors should have more time, that the US should not set a deadline. The Vice President felt Mr. Albright's remarks would fuel the debate."
The officials said a "binder" was sent to the Vice President's office that contained material that could be used by the White House to discredit Albright if he continued to comment on the administration's war plans. However, it's unclear whether Cheney or other White House officials used the information against Albright.
A week later, Wilson was interviewed on CNN again. This was the first time Wilson ridiculed the Bush administration's intelligence that claimed Iraq tried to purchase yellowcake uranium from Niger.
"Well, this particular case is outrageous. We know a lot about the uranium business in Niger, and for something like this to go unchallenged by US - the US government - is just simply stupid. It would have taken a couple of phone calls. We have had an embassy there since the early '60s. All this stuff is open. It's a restricted market of buyers and sellers," Wilson said in the March 8, 2003, CNN interview. "For this to have gotten to the IAEA is on the face of it dumb, but more to the point, it taints the whole rest of the case that the government is trying to build against Iraq."
What Wilson wasn't at liberty to disclose during that interview, because the information was still classified, was that he had personally traveled to Niger a year earlier on behalf of the CIA to investigate whether Iraq had in fact tried to purchase uranium from the African country. Cheney had asked the CIA in 2002 to look into the allegation, which turned out to be based on forged documents, but was included in President Bush's January 2003 State of the Union address nonetheless.
Wilson's comments enraged Cheney, all of the officials said, because they were seen as a personal attack against the Vice President, who was instrumental in getting the intelligence community to cite the Niger claims in government reports to build a case for war against Iraq.
The former Ambassador's stinging rebuke also caught the attention of Stephen Hadley, who played an even bigger role in the Niger controversy, having been responsible for allowing President Bush to cite the allegations in his State of the Union address.
At this time, the international community, various media outlets, and the International Atomic Energy Association had called into question the veracity of the Niger documents. Mohammed ElBaradei, head of IAEA, told the UN Security Council on March 7, 2003, that the Niger documents were forgeries and could not be used to prove Iraq was a nuclear threat.
Wilson's comments in addition to ElBaradei's UN report were seen as a threat to the administration's attack plans against Iraq, the officials said, which would take place 11 days later.
Hadley had avoided making public comments about the veracity of the Niger documents, going as far as ignoring a written request by IAEA head Mohammed ElBaradei to share the intelligence with his agency so his inspectors could verify the claims. Hadley is said to have known the Niger documents were crude forgeries, but pushed the administration to cite it as evidence that Iraq was a nuclear threat, according to the State Department officials, who said they personally told Hadley in a written report that the documents were bogus.
The CIA and State Department officials said that a day after Wilson's March 8, 2003, CNN appearance, they attended a meeting at the Vice President's office chaired by Cheney, and it was there that a decision was made to discredit Wilson. Those who attended the meeting included I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Cheney's former chief of staff who was indicted in October for lying to investigators, perjury and obstruction of justice related to his role in the Plame Wilson leak, Hadley, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, and John Hannah, Cheney's deputy national security adviser, the officials said.
"The way I remember it," the CIA official said about that first meeting he attended in Cheney's office, "is that the vice president was obsessed with Wilson. He called him an 'asshole,' a son-of-a-bitch. He took his comments very personally. He wanted us to do everything in our power to destroy his reputation and he wanted to be kept up to date about the progress."
A spokeswoman for Cheney would not comment for this story, saying the investigation into the leak is ongoing. The spokeswoman refused to give her name. Additional calls made to Cheney's office were not returned.
The CIA, State Department and National Security Council officials said that early on they had passed on information about Wilson to Cheney and Libby that purportedly showed Wilson as being a "womanizer" and that he had dabbled in drugs during his youth, allegations that are apparently false, they said.
The officials said that during the meeting, Hadley said he would respond to Wilson's comments by writing an editorial about the Iraqi threat, which it was hoped would be a first step in overshadowing Wilson's CNN appearance.
A column written by Hadley that appeared in the Chicago Tribune on February 16, 2003, was redistributed to newspaper editors by the State Department on March 10, 2003, two days after Wilson was interviewed on CNN. The column, "Two Potent Iraqi Weapons: Denial and Deception" once again raised the issue that Iraq had tried to purchase uranium from Niger.
Cheney appeared on Meet the Press on March 16, 2003, to respond to ElBaradei's assertion that the Niger documents were forgeries.
"I think Mr. ElBaradei frankly is wrong," Cheney said during the interview. "[The IAEA] has consistently underestimated or missed what it was Saddam Hussein was doing. I don't have any reason to believe they're any more valid this time than they've been in the past."
Cheney knew the State Department had prepared a report saying the Niger claims were false, but he thought the report had no merit, the two State Department officials said. Meanwhile, the CIA was preparing information for the vice president and his senior aides on Wilson should the former ambassador decide to speak out against the administration again.
Behind the scenes, Wilson had been speaking to various members of Congress about the administration's use of the Niger documents and had said the intelligence the White House relied upon was flawed, said one of the State Department officials who had a conversation with Wilson. Wilson's criticism of the administration's intelligence eventually leaked out to reporters, but with the Iraq war just a week away, the story was never covered.
It's unclear whether anyone disseminated information on Wilson in March 2003, following the meeting in Cheney's office. Although the officials said they helped prepare negative information on Wilson about his personal and professional life and had given it to Libby and Cheney, Wilson seemed to drop off the radar once the Iraq war started on March 19, 2003.
With no sign of weapons of mass destruction to be found in Iraq, news accounts started to call into question the credibility of the administration's pre-war intelligence. In May 2003, Wilson re-emerged at a political conference in Washington sponsored by the Senate Democratic Policy Committee. There he told the New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristoff that he had been the special envoy who traveled to Niger in February 2002 to check out allegations that Iraq tried to purchase uranium from the country. He told Kristoff he briefed a CIA analyst that the claims were untrue. Wilson said he believed the administration had ignored his report and were dishonest with Congress and the American people.
When Kristoff's column was published in the Times, the CIA official said, "a request came in from Cheney that was passed to me that said 'the vice president wants to know whether Joe Wilson went to Niger.' I'm paraphrasing. But that's more or less what I was asked to find out."
In his column, Kristoff Had accused Cheney of allowing the truth about the Niger documents the administration used to build a case for war to go "missing in action." The failure of US armed forces to find any WMDs in Iraq in two months following the start of the war had been blamed on Cheney.
What in the previous months had been a request to gather information that could be used to discredit Wilson now turned into a full-scale effort involving the Office of the Vice President, the National Security Council, and the State Department to find out how Wilson came to be chosen to investigate the Niger uranium allegations.
"Cheney and Libby made it clear that Wilson had to be shut down," the CIA official said. "This wasn't just about protecting the credibility of the White House. For the vice president, going after Wilson was purely personal, in my opinion."
Cheney was personally involved in this aspect of the information gathering process as well, visiting CIA headquarters to inquire about Wilson, the CIA official said. Hadley had also raised questions about Wilson during this month with the State Department officials and asked that information regarding Wilson's trip to Niger be sent to his attention at the National Security Council.
That's when Valerie Plame Wilson's name popped up showing that she was a covert CIA operative. The former CIA official who works in the counter-proliferation division said another meeting about Wilson took place in Cheney's office, attended by the same individuals who were there in March. But Cheney didn't take part in it, the officials said.
"Libby led the meeting," one of the State Department officials said. "But he was just as upset about Wilson as Cheney was."
The officials said that as of late May 2003 the only correspondence they had had was with Libby and Hadley. They said they were unaware who had made the decision to unmask Plame Wilson's undercover CIA status to a handful of reporters.
George Tenet, the former director of the CIA, took responsibility for allowing what is widely referred to as the infamous "sixteen words" to be included in Bush's State of the Union address. Tenet's mea culpa came one day after Wilson penned an op-ed for the New York Times in which he accused the administration of "twisting" intelligence on Iraq. In the column, Wilson revealed that he was the special envoy who traveled to Niger to investigate the uranium claims.
Tenet is working on a book titled At the Center of the Storm with former CIA spokesman Bill Harlow, which it is expected will be published later this year. Tenet will reportedly come clean on how the "sixteen words made it into the President's State of the Union speech, according to publishersmarketplace.com, an industry newsletter.
Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, who has been investigating the Plame Wilson leak for more than two years, questioned Cheney about his role in the leak in 2004. Cheney did not testify under oath, and it's unknown what he told the special prosecutor.
On September 14, 2003, during an interview with Tim Russert of NBC's "Meet the Press," Cheney maintained that he didn't know Wilson or have any knowledge about his Niger trip or who was responsible for leaking his wife's name to the media.
"I don't know Joe Wilson," Cheney said, in response to Russert, who quoted Wilson as saying there was no truth to the Niger uranium claims. "I've never met Joe Wilson. And Joe Wilson - I don't who sent Joe Wilson. He never submitted a report that I ever saw when he came back ... I don't know Mr. Wilson. I probably shouldn't judge him. I have no idea who hired him."
3:31 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove







FREAKIN' WIMPS! GAH!
As liberal Democrat calls for special prosecutor on Iraq, Democrats duck
02/08/2006 @ 12:42 pm

Filed by John Byrne - http://rawstory.com/admin/dbscripts/printstory.php?story=1857

Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), the feisty septuagenarian congressman who serves as the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee will issue yet another missive to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales later this week calling for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate possible criminal misconduct with regard to the Bush Administration's march to war in Iraq.
Just three other Democrats have signed Conyers’ letter: Reps. Bernie Sanders (D-VT), Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) and Susan Davis (D-CA).
Conyers' move comes on the heels of yet another British memorandum showing that President Bush had conspired with Prime Minister Tony Blair to set a fixed date for war before even bringing Iraq to the United Nations. The memo also asserts that Bush had proposed a plan to paint a U.S. spyplane with UN markings and use it to attempt to lure Saddam Hussein into war.
What's striking isn't that Conyers is calling on Gonzales to appoint a special prosecutor. He's done it before, and he'd likely do it again. But his decision to take public action to seek a Justice Department investigation of pre-war policy and manipulation of the press has met resounding silence among his Democratic Party.
While a handful of House members sign on to Conyers' proposals each time, the leading voices in the party are dark when it comes to formal legal action on Iraq. In other words, Democrats are quick to criticize the Administration, but are loath to make legal attempts to bring them to account. Democratic senators have called for a special prosecutor to investigate both the fallen conservative lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the National Security Administration's domestic surveillance program. But they have yet to seek a criminal inquiry into how the United States got into a war that has cost taxpayers $300 billion dollars and is burning the nation's reserves at the rate of $100,000 a minute.
Conyers says the body of evidence showing that Bush misled Congress into war deserves a special counsel’s investigation.
“We write to request that the U.S. Department of Justice appoint an outside special counsel to investigate and prosecute any and all criminal acts committed by members of the Bush Administration in connection with misinformation concerning the decision to go to war in Iraq and other misconduct associated with the war,” the Michigan Democrat writes. “We are aware that there may be other legal and congressional avenues being pursued on these matters; however, due to the severe constitutional crisis that they pose, it is imperative that a special counsel undertake a comprehensive and objective criminal investigation.”
Democrats won’t sign onto Conyers letter – and have ignored his moves on Iraq in the past. Aides tell RAW STORY that Abramoff and the NSA wiretaps are better issues because they feel they have more political resonance, and because their caucus is divided on the handling of Iraq policy. None would be identified by name, and most declined to be quoted – even anonymously.
“The [push] to go after Abramoff is because a lot of Republicans are tied into it,” one aide remarked. “The NSA thing splits the Republican base.”
With regard to Iraq, the aide added, “Certainly more vulnerable Democratic members that don’t like that kind of stuff.”
One aide noted that the issues surrounding the lead-up to the Iraq war are a hard issue for Democrats because many believed – and said – they thought Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. President Clinton also took a hard line, saying in 1998, "We want to seriously diminish the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program."
So did House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).
"Saddam Hussein has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass destruction technology which is a threat to countries in the region and he has made a mockery of the weapons inspection process,” Pelosi said in 1998.
“Was Clinton lying to the people, was he falsifying that stuff?” one aide asked. “I honestly think [Bush] thought that there were weapons over there. Everybody thought there were weapons over there.”
Democrats have pressed for investigations into pre-war intelligence, but not as vociferously as they have for a fuller inquiry into Abramoff and domestic eavesdropping.
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid (D-NV) stunned the nation when he forced the Senate into secret session, angry that a report on pre-war intelligence had not been completed. The report, called Phase II, remains in limbo in the Senate Intelligence Committee because the Pentagon has not finished an internal probe into Douglas Feith, one of the architects of the Iraq war. Senate Democratic aides say they are waiting on that report and have not yet decided on further action.
Democrats are not alone in their silence on the memo. Neither the Washington Post nor the New York Times have published articles about the latest British U-2 document. Both papers also declined to publish any articles about the Downing Street minutes until six months after they were printed in Britain. The earlier minutes recorded a meeting between Bush Administration officials and the Blair government at which the director of British intelligence said that intelligence was being “fixed” around a policy for war.
Democratic aides acknowledge, however, that Conyers has been instrumental in orchestrating a fury over the lead-up to war in Iraq.
“You’ve got to remember that Conyers and a few others early on were speaking about the war in Iraq and how wrong it was and that number has grown tremendously,” one aide said. "Sometimes it takes someone like him to get the fire up and ignited.”
Conyers' latest letter follows.
#
Re: Request for the Appointment of Outside Special Counsel for the Investigation and Prosecution of Violations, and Conspiracy to Violate, Criminal Laws in Misconduct Associated with the Iraq War
Dear Attorney General Gonzales:
We write to request that the U.S. Department of Justice appoint an outside special counsel to investigate and prosecute any and all criminal acts committed by members of the Bush Administration in connection with misinformation concerning the decision to go to war in Iraq and other misconduct associated with the war. We are aware that there may be other legal and congressional avenues being pursued on these matters; however, due to the severe constitutional crisis that they pose, it is imperative that a special counsel undertake a comprehensive and objective criminal investigation.
There have been recent, startling media and other reports detailing how members of the Administration misled Congress and the American people concerning the decision to go to war. Notably, late last week, a new book by Professor Philipe Sands described minutes of a White House meeting between President Bush and Prime Minister Blair on January 31, 2003 in which President Bush made it clear that he would invade Iraq regardless of whether UN inspectors found evidence of a banned Iraqi weapons program and that "the diplomatic strategy had to be arranged around the military planning."1 President Bush reportedly stated that he was so concerned by the failure to find WMD that he proposed that the US "fly[] U2 reconnaissance aircraft planes with fighter cover over Iraq, painted in UN colours." President Bush added: "If Saddam fired on them, he would be in breach [of UN resolutions]"2 Neither the Blair nor the Bush Administrations have challenged the accuracy of this new document.
This new disclosure is part of an overwhelming record of evidence of misconduct by the Administration in its war effort that includes misleading Congress and the American public concerning the decision to go to war. As detailed in a report my staff recently released titled, "The Constitution in Crisis," the actions taken by the President, Vice President and other members of the Bush Administration potentially violate a number of federal laws, including Committing a Fraud Against the United States (18 U.S.C. § 371); Making False Statements to Congress (18 U.S.C. § 1001); and numerous other statutory prohibitions as more fully detailed therein.3
As you are aware, under Department of Justice regulations, the Attorney General must appoint a special counsel when (1) a "criminal investigation of a person or matter is warranted," (2) "the investigation or prosecution of that person or matter by a United States Attorney's Office or litigating Division of the Department of Justice would present a conflict of interest for the Department," and (3) "it would be in the public interest to appoint an outside Special Counsel to assume responsibility for the matter."4 Significantly, your obligation under this regulation is mandatory, not discretionary. In the present case, all three factors have been met.
(1) A Criminal Investigation is Warranted
President Bush and members of his Administration made numerous public statements to the effect that a decision had not been made to invade Iraq, when in fact the record indicates that such a decision had been made. As detailed in my staff report, and confirmed even more clearly by Prof. Sands' recent disclosure, there is substantial evidence that these individuals have Conspired to Defraud the United States in violation of 18 U.S.C. §371. 5
Among other things, we have found: Before Mr. Bush was elected President, he stated that he saw Saddam Hussein as "the guy who tried to kill my dad," and numerous key members of his Administration had called for a military invasion of Iraq. Immediately after the September 11 attacks, President Bush and members of his Administration displayed an immediate inclination to blame Iraq - the President asked Richard Clarke to determine if Hussein is "linked in any way;" White House officials instructed Wesley Clarke to state that the attack is "connected to Saddam Hussein;" and Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith proposed that the U.S. select "a non al-Qaeda target like Iraq." The Downing Street Minutes provide unrebutted documentary evidence that in the spring and summer of 2002 it was understood by the Blair government that the Bush Administration had irrevocably decided to invade Iraq. These documents reveal that President Bush had told Prime Minster Blair "when we have dealt with Afghanistan, we must come back to Iraq" (Fall, 2001); "Condi's enthusiasm for regime change is undimmed" (March 14, 2002); the U.S. has "assumed regime change as a means of eliminating Iraq's WMD threat" (March 25, 2002); and "Bush wanted to remove Saddam through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD" (July 23, 2002).6
Among other things, my staff report also details the following: The "marketing" campaign for the war which included the creation of the so-called "White House Iraq Group;" the "rollout of speeches and documents;" the release of a white paper inaccurately describing a "grave and gathering danger" of Iraq's allegedly "reconstituted" nuclear weapons program; and the deliberate downplaying of the risks of occupation. The plan by which the Bush and Blair Administration sought to use the UN to "wrongfoot Saddam on the inspectors and the UN SCRs [Security Council Resolutions]" in the winter of 2002 and spring of 2003, constitutes further evidence that the decision to invade Iraq had been made; this is reflected by the fact that Defense Policy Board Member, Richard Perle admitted the U.S. "would attack Iraq even if UN inspectors fail to find weapons;" Vice President Cheney reportedly admitted to Hans Blix that the U.S. was "ready to discredit inspectors in favor of disarmament;" and President Bush was "infuriated" by reports of Iraq's cooperating with UN inspectors.7
It is important to note that the phrase "defraud the United States" in 18 U.S.C § 371 is broadly applicable, and there is ample precedent for applying the law to false and misleading statements by high government officials. In Hammerschmidt v. United States, 265 U.S. 182 (1924) the Supreme Court held that the law applies to those who "interfere with or obstruct one of its lawful governmental functions by deceit, craft or trickery, or at least by means that are dishonest. It is not necessary that the Government shall be subjected to property or pecuniary loss by the fraud, but only that its legitimate official action and purpose shall be defeated by misrepresentation, chicanery or the overreaching of those charged with carrying out the governmental intention." This statute has been used in the prosecution of numerous Administration and military officials in the Watergate and Iran-Contra scandal, with Judge Walsh writing in his final report on Iran-Contra that "[f]raud is criminal even when those who engage in the fraud are Government officials pursuing presidential policy."8
2) A Conflict of Interest Exists in this Case
Because the allegations of misconduct involve the President, Vice President, and other high ranking members of the Bush Administration, there is little doubt that the Justice Department would have an unavoidable conflict of interest in fully investigating and prosecuting possible violations. This is in fact a textbook case of a conflict of interest. You were directly appointed by the President, previously served as White House Counsel and have close connections to President Bush dating back decades. For a Justice Department inquiry to be credible, an outside special counsel with no ties to the Justice Department and no close ties to the President, Vice President or other high ranking Bush Administration officials is essential.
3) The Public Interest Demands the Appointment of an Outside Special Counsel
The public interest demands that this prima facie case of criminal activity be referred to a special counsel who has the independence to investigate the violation of these criminal laws. For example, there can be no doubt that the public interest is served by a full and unbiased investigation into the decision to go to war. In fact, on June 16, 2005, I delivered to the White House more than 560,000 citizen petitions from Americans who, along with 122 Members of Congress, requested information from the President on these issues. To date, no response has been received.
Moreover, the public interest is heightened on this issue because no entity has ever considered whether the Administration misled Americans about the decision to go to war, and the Senate Intelligence Committee has not yet conducted a review of pre-war intelligence information, while the Silberman-Robb report specifically cautioned, that intelligence manipulation "was not part of our inquiry." There has also not been any independent inquiry concerning torture and other legal violations in Iraq; nor has there been an independent review of the pattern of cover-ups and political retribution by the Bush Administration against its critics, other than the very narrow and still ongoing inquiry of Special Counsel Fitzgerald.
As a general matter, the violation of criminal laws is to be investigated by prosecutors and tried by independent federal courts. Regardless of whether Congress chooses to vigorously exercise its oversight powers and try to repair this breach of trust with the American people, the matters at issue are also serious criminal matters.
It is important to note that despite widespread allegations of misconduct by numerous members of the Bush Administration, neither you nor your predecessor, John Ashcroft, have chosen to appoint a single special prosecutor under the applicable regulation. We believe it is no longer tolerable that high ranking members of the Bush Administration avoid the independent legal scrutiny called for by our nation's laws.
We await your response to this important matter. Please reply through the House Judiciary Committee Democratic office, 2142 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC, 20515. Or, you may reply by telephone: (202) 225-6504; or, fax: (202) 226-4423.
Sincerely,
Rep. John Conyers
cc: Hon. F. James Sensenbrenner Chairman, House Judiciary Committee
12:27 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Reporter hits McClellan on taps: 'You know what happened to Nixon when he broke the law'
Filed by RAW STORY
White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan (aka: Chummy McSharkbait & Puffy McMoonface) got in a heated row with a White House correspondent at Monday's press briefing over President Bush's warrantless domestic spying program, RAW STORY has learned.
The questioner, outspoken columnist Helen Thomas, has been covering the White House since President John F. Kennedy, asks McClellan if Bush should obey the law.
The relevant part of transcript follows. RAW STORY has confirmed the questioner was Helen Thomas. Crooks and Liars has the video.
#
Q: Does the president think he should obey the law? He put his hand on the Bible twice to uphold the Constitution. Wiretapping is not legal under the circumstances without a warrant.
MR. MCCLELLAN: Well, I guess you didn't pay attention to the attorney general's hearing earlier today, because he walked through very clearly the rationale behind this program.
Q There is no rationale --
MR. MCCLELLAN: And Helen, I think you have to ask --
Q -- (inaudible) -- the law.
MR. MCCLELLAN: I think you have ask are we -- well, he's not -- are we a nation at war.
Q That's not the question.
MR. MCCLELLAN: No, that is the issue here.
Q The question is, the point is, there are means for him to go to -- get a warrant to spy on people.
MR. MCCLELLAN: Enemy surveillance is critical to waging and winning war. It's one of the traditional tools of war.
Q But he says he doesn't have running room --
MR. MCCLELLAN: The attorney general outlined very clearly today how previous administrations have used the same authority --
Q That doesn't make it legal.
MR. MCCLELLAN: -- and cited the same -- and cited the very same authority.
Q (Inaudible) -- they broke the law, that's too bad.
MR. MCCLELLAN: And we're going to continue doing everything we can --
Q You know what happened to Nixon when he broke the law.
MR. MCCLELLAN: -- within our power to protect the American people.
This is a very different circumstance, and you know that.
Q No, I don't.
8:07 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove
news you don't want to lose...
Rachel Maddow on AirAmerica Mornings: http://shows.airamericaradio.com/maddow/
Stephanie Miller Show: http://www.stephaniemiller.com/
Randi Rhodes Show: http://www.therandirhodesshow.com/
Majority Report: http://www.majorityreportradio.com/weblog/index.php
Rawstory: http://www.rawstory.com/
Common Dreams: http://www.commondreams.org/
MotherJones: http://www.motherjones.com/
The Nation: http://www.thenation.com/
8:02 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove
Same argument & same idiots making it - let's hope they lose this one too...
Snooping Docs During Ford's Administration Released
Washington - An intense debate erupted during former U.S. president Gerald Ford's administration over the president's powers to eavesdrop without warrants to gather foreign intelligence, newly disclosed government documents revealed.
Former president George Bush, current Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Vice-President Dick Cheney are cited in the documents. The roughly 200 pages of historic records reflect a remarkably similar dispute between the White House and Congress fully three decades before President George W. Bush's acknowledgment he authorized wiretaps without warrants of some Americans in terrorism investigations.
"Yogi Berra was right: it's deja vu all over again," said Tom Blanton, executive director for the U.S. National Security Archives, a private research group that compiles collections of sensitive government documents.
"It's the same debate."
Senate judiciary committee hearings are scheduled to begin Monday on the question of Bush's authority to approve such wiretaps by the ultra-secretive National Security Agency without a judge's approval. A focus of the hearings is to determine whether the Bush administration's eavesdropping program violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a 1978 law with origins during Ford's presidency.
"We strongly believe it is unwise for the president to concede any lack of constitutional power to authorize electronic surveillance for foreign intelligence purposes," wrote Robert Ingersoll, then deputy secretary of state, in a 1976 memorandum to Ford about the proposed bill on electronic surveillance.
Former president Bush, then director of the CIA, wanted to ensure "no unnecessary diminution of collection of important foreign intelligence" under the proposal to require judges to approve terror wiretaps, said a March 1976 memorandum he wrote to the Justice Department. Bush also complained some major communications companies were unwilling to install government wiretaps without a judge's approval. Such a refusal "seriously affects the capabilities of the intelligence community," Bush wrote.
In another document, Jack Marsh, a White House adviser, outlined options for Ford over the wiretap legislation. Marsh alerted Ford to objections by Bush as CIA director and Rumsfeld, former secretary of state Henry Kissinger and Brent Scowcroft over the scope of a provision to require judicial oversight of wiretaps. At the time, Rumsfeld was defence secretary, Kissinger was secretary of state and Scowcroft was the White House national security adviser.
Some experts weren't surprised the cast of characters in this national debate remained largely unchanged over 30 years.
"People don't change their stripes," said Kenneth Bass a former senior Justice Department lawyer who oversaw such wiretap requests during former president Jimmy Carter's administration.
Lisa Graves, senior counsel for legislative strategy at the American Civil Liberties Union, said comparing the Ford-era debate to the current controversy is "misleading because no matter what Mr. Cheney or Mr. Rumsfeld may have argued back in 1976, the fact is they lost. When Congress passed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in 1978, Congress decisively resolved this debate.
"Unlike the current administration, the Ford administration never claimed the right to violate a law requiring judicial oversight of wiretaps in foreign intelligence investigations if Congress were to pass such a law."
The National Security Archives separately obtained many of the same documents and intended to publish them on its website Saturday.
The documents include one startling similarity to Washington's current atmosphere over disclosures of classified information by the news media. Notes from a 1975 meeting between Cheney, then White House chief of staff, then Attorney General Edward Levi and others cite the "problem" of a New York Times newspaper article by Seymour Hersh about U.S. submarines spying in Soviet waters. Participants considered a formal FBI investigation of Hersh and the Times and searching Hersh's apartment "to go after (his) papers," the document said.
"I was surprised," Hersh said in a telephone interview Friday.
"I was surprised that they didn't know I had a house and a mortgage."
One option outlined at the 1975 meeting was to "ignore the Hersh story and hope it doesn't happen again."
Participants worried about "will we get hit with violating the First Amendment to the Constitution?"
CIA Director Porter Goss told legislators this week recent disclosures about sensitive programs were severely damaging, and he urged prosecutors to impanel a grand jury to determine "who is leaking this information."
The National Security Agency earlier asked the Justice Department to open a formal leaks investigation over news reports of its terrorism wiretaps.
7:55 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Bush Drunk

W drunk at a wedding...

Former U.S. Official Pleads Guilty in Iraq Reconstruction Fraud

Feb. 2 (Bloomberg) -- A former U.S. government official pleaded guilty to charges including bribery and money laundering in an investigation of bid-rigging in Iraq reconstruction contracts.
Robert J. Stein, 50, a former comptroller for the disbanded Coalition Provisional Authority, entered the plea today before U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in Washington. He also pleaded guilty to conspiracy, unlawful possession of a machine gun, and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Stein, of Fayetteville, North Carolina, admitted that for a year starting in December 2003, he and other public officials conspired to rig bids on contracts to rebuild Iraq. Stein, who remains in custody, faces a maximum of 30 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. A sentencing date was not set.

``I know exactly what I am doing, your honor,'' Stein, wearing orange prison overalls, told Kollar-Kotelly.

Stein and others received bribes of cars, jewelry and other items worth more than $1 million to steer contracts to a co- conspirator, the Justice Department said. He also admitted helping steal more than $2 million designated for the reconstruction of Iraq, smuggling some of it into the U.S on commercial aircraft, the government said.

According to a plea agreement filed in court, the total value of the contracts awarded to his co-conspirator in Al Hillah, Iraq, exceeded $8 million.

Bowen Probe
The plea is the first conviction in an investigation by Special Inspector General Stuart Bowen, whose office oversees almost $30 billion in federal funds. Bowen is investigating the financial management of the provisional authority, which he said last year lacked proper accounting for about $8.8 billion in Iraqi revenue.

Others arrested and charged include Philip Bloom, a U.S. citizen living in Romania who owns construction companies doing business in Iraq. Bloom was arrested Nov. 13 on charges of conspiring to commit money laundering and wire fraud.

Michael Wheeler of Amherst Junction, Wisconsin, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves, was arrested Nov. 30 on charges of conspiring to commit bribery, money laundering, possession of automatic weapons, theft, and wire fraud, the Department of Justice said.
Debra Harrison of Trenton, New Jersey, also a lieutenant colonel in the reserves, was arrested Dec. 15 on charges of conspiracy, bribery, interstate transportation of stolen property and money laundering.

The case is U.S. v. Stein, 06-16, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Blair-Bush deal before Iraq war revealed in secret memo

PM promised to be 'solidly behind' US invasion with or without UN backing
Richard Norton-Taylor
Friday February 3, 2006

Tony Blair told President George Bush that he was "solidly" behind US plans to invade Iraq before he sought advice about the invasion's legality and despite the absence of a second UN resolution, according to a new account of the build-up to the war published today.

A memo of a two-hour meeting between the two leaders at the White House on January 31 2003 - nearly two months before the invasion - reveals that Mr Bush made it clear the US intended to invade whether or not there was a second UN resolution and even if UN inspectors found no evidence of a banned Iraqi weapons programme.

"The diplomatic strategy had to be arranged around the military planning", the president told Mr Blair. The prime minister is said to have raised no objection. He is quoted as saying he was "solidly with the president and ready to do whatever it took to disarm Saddam".

The disclosures come in a new edition of Lawless World, by Phillipe Sands, a QC and professor of international law at University College, London. Professor Sands last year exposed the doubts shared by Foreign Office lawyers about the legality of the invasion in disclosures which eventually forced the prime minister to publish the full legal advice given to him by the attorney general, Lord Goldsmith.

The memo seen by Prof Sands reveals:
· Mr Bush told Mr Blair that the US was so worried about the failure to find hard evidence against Saddam that it thought of "flying U2 reconnaissance aircraft planes with fighter cover over Iraq, painted in UN colours". Mr Bush added: "If Saddam fired on them, he would be in breach [of UN resolutions]".

· Mr Bush even expressed the hope that a defector would be extracted from Iraq and give a "public presentation about Saddam's WMD". He is also said to have referred Mr Blair to a "small possibility" that Saddam would be "assassinated".

· Mr Blair told the US president that a second UN resolution would be an "insurance policy", providing "international cover, including with the Arabs" if anything went wrong with the military campaign, or if Saddam increased the stakes by burning oil wells, killing children, or fomenting internal divisions within Iraq.

· Mr Bush told the prime minister that he "thought it unlikely that there would be internecine warfare between the different religious and ethnic groups". Mr Blair did not demur, according to the book.

The revelation that Mr Blair had supported the US president's plans to go to war with Iraq even in the absence of a second UN resolution contrasts with the assurances the prime minister gave parliament shortly after. On February 25 2003 - three weeks after his trip to Washington - Mr Blair told the Commons that the government was giving "Saddam one further, final chance to disarm voluntarily".

He added: "Even now, today, we are offering Saddam the prospect of voluntary disarmament through the UN. I detest his regime - I hope most people do - but even now, he could save it by complying with the UN's demand. Even now, we are prepared to go the extra step to achieve disarmament peacefully."

On March 18, before the crucial vote on the war, he told MPs: "The UN should be the focus both of diplomacy and of action... [and that not to take military action] would do more damage in the long term to the UN than any other single course that we could pursue."

The meeting between Mr Bush and Mr Blair, attended by six close aides, came at a time of growing concern about the failure of any hard intelligence to back up claims that Saddam was producing weapons of mass destruction in breach of UN disarmament obligations. It took place a few days before the then US secretary Colin Powell made claims - since discredited - in a dramatic presentation at the UN about Iraq's weapons programme.

Earlier in January 2003, Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, expressed his private concerns about the absence of a smoking gun in a private note to Mr Blair that month, according to the book. He said he hoped that the UN's chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix, would come up with enough evidence to report a breach by Iraq of is its UN obligations.

The extent of concern in Washington at the time is reflected in the plan to send US planes over Iraq disguised in UN livery - itself a clear breach of international law.

Prof Sands also says that Sir Jeremy Greenstock, Britain's UN ambassador at the time, told a colleague from another country that he was "clearly uncomfortable" about the failure to get a second resolution.

Foreign Office lawyers consistently warned that an invasion would be regarded as unlawful. The book reveals that Elizabeth Wilmshurst, the FO's deputy chief legal adviser who resigned over the war, told the Butler inquiry, into the use of intelligence during the run-up to the war, of her belief that Lord Goldsmith, the attorney general, shared the FO view. Lord Goldsmith told the FO lawyers in early 2003: "The prime minister has told me that I cannot give advice, but you know what my views are", according to private evidence to the Butler inquiry.

Shortly afterwards, in February 2003, Lord Goldsmith visited Washington where he had talks with William Taft, Mr Powell's legal adviser. Mr Taft is quoted in the book as as saying Lord Goldsmith also met "our attorney general and people at the Pentagon".

On March 7 2003 Lord Goldsmith advised the prime minister that the Bush administration believed that a case could be made for an invasion without a second UN resolution. But he warned that Britain, if it went ahead, could be challenged in the international criminal court. Ten days later, he said a second resolution was not necessary.

Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat acting leader, said last night: "The fact that consideration was apparently given to using American military aircraft in UN colours in the hope of provoking Saddam Hussein is a graphic illustration of the rush to war. It would also appear to be the case that the diplomatic efforts in New York after the meeting of January 31 were simply going through the motions, with decision for military action already taken. The prime minister's offer of February 25 to Saddam Hussein was about as empty as it could get. He has a lot of explaining to do."

Debate on Climate Shifts to Issue of Irreparable Change

Some Experts on Global Warming Foresee 'Tipping Point' When It Is Too Late to Act
By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, January 29, 2006; A01

Now that most scientists agree human activity is causing Earth to warm, the central debate has shifted to whether climate change is progressing so rapidly that, within decades, humans may be helpless to slow or reverse the trend.

This "tipping point" scenario has begun to consume many prominent researchers in the United States and abroad, because the answer could determine how drastically countries need to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions in the coming years. While scientists remain uncertain when such a point might occur, many say it is urgent that policymakers cut global carbon dioxide emissions in half over the next 50 years or risk the triggering of changes that would be irreversible.

There are three specific events that these scientists describe as especially worrisome and potentially imminent, although the time frames are a matter of dispute: widespread coral bleaching that could damage the world's fisheries within three decades; dramatic sea level rise by the end of the century that would take tens of thousands of years to reverse; and, within 200 years, a shutdown of the ocean current that moderates temperatures in northern Europe.

The debate has been intensifying because Earth is warming much faster than some researchers had predicted. James E. Hansen, who directs NASA's Goddard Institute of Space Studies, last week confirmed that 2005 was the warmest year on record, surpassing 1998. Earth's average temperature has risen nearly 1 degree Fahrenheit over the past 30 years, he noted, and another increase of about 4 degrees over the next century would "imply changes that constitute practically a different planet."

"It's not something you can adapt to," Hansen said in an interview. "We can't let it go on another 10 years like this. We've got to do something."

Princeton University geosciences and international affairs professor Michael Oppenheimer, who also advises the advocacy group Environmental Defense, said one of the greatest dangers lies in the disintegration of the Greenland or West Antarctic ice sheets, which together hold about 20 percent of the fresh water on the planet. If either of the two sheets disintegrates, sea level could rise nearly 20 feet in the course of a couple of centuries, swamping the southern third of Florida and Manhattan up to the middle of Greenwich Village.

While both the Greenland and the Antarctic ice sheets as a whole are gaining some mass in their cold interiors because of increasing snowfall, they are losing ice along their peripheries. That indicates that scientists may have underestimated the rate of disintegration they face in the future, Oppenheimer said. Greenland's current net ice loss is equivalent to an annual 0.008 inch sea level rise.

The effects of the collapse of either ice sheet would be "huge," Oppenheimer said. "Once you lost one of these ice sheets, there's really no putting it back for thousands of years, if ever."

Last year, the British government sponsored a scientific symposium on "Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change," which examined a number of possible tipping points. A book based on that conference, due to be published Tuesday, suggests that disintegration of the two ice sheets becomes more likely if average temperatures rise by more than 5 degrees Fahrenheit, a prospect "well within the range of climate change projections for this century."

The report concludes that a temperature rise of just 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit "is likely to lead to extensive coral bleaching," destroying critical fish nurseries in the Caribbean and Southeast Asia. Too-warm sea temperatures stress corals, causing them to expel symbiotic micro-algae that live in their tissues and provide them with food, and thus making the reefs appear bleached.

Bleaching that lasts longer than a week can kill corals. This fall there was widespread bleaching from Texas to Trinidad that killed broad swaths of corals, in part because ocean temperatures were 2 degrees Fahrenheit above average monthly maximums.

Many scientists are also worried about a possible collapse of the Atlantic thermohaline circulation, a current that brings warm surface water to northern Europe and returns cold, deep-ocean water south. Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, who directs Germany's Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, has run multiple computer models to determine when climate change could disrupt this "conveyor belt," which, according to one study, is already slower than it was 30 years ago. According to these simulations, there is a 50 percent chance the current will collapse within 200 years.

Some scientists, including President Bush's chief science adviser, John H. Marburger III, emphasize there is still much uncertainty about when abrupt global warming might occur.

"There's no agreement on what it is that constitutes a dangerous climate change," said Marburger, adding that the U.S. government spends $2 billion a year on researching this and other climate change questions. "We know things like this are possible, but we don't have enough information to quantify the level of risk."

This tipping point debate has stirred controversy within the administration; Hansen said senior political appointees are trying to block him from sharing his views publicly.

When Hansen posted data on the Internet in the fall suggesting that 2005 could be the warmest year on record, NASA officials ordered Hansen to withdraw the information because he had not had it screened by the administration in advance, according to a Goddard scientist who spoke on the condition of anonymity. More recently, NASA officials tried to discourage a reporter from interviewing Hansen for this article and later insisted he could speak on the record only if an agency spokeswoman listened in on the conversation.

"They're trying to control what's getting out to the public," Hansen said, adding that many of his colleagues are afraid to talk about the issue. "They're not willing to say much, because they've been pressured and they're afraid they'll get into trouble."

But Mary L. Cleave, deputy associate administrator for NASA's Office of Earth Science, said the agency insists on monitoring interviews with scientists to ensure they are not misquoted.

"People could see it as a constraint," Cleave said. "As a manager, I might see it as protection."

John R. Christy, director of the Earth Science System Center at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, said it is possible increased warming will be offset by other factors, such as increased cloudiness that would reflect more sunlight. "Whatever happens, we will adapt to it," Christy said.

Scientists who read the history of Earth's climate in ancient sediments, ice cores and fossils find clear signs that it has shifted abruptly in the past on a scale that could prove disastrous for modern society. Peter B. deMenocal, an associate professor at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, said that about 8,200 years ago, a very sudden cooling shut down the Atlantic conveyor belt. As a result, the land temperature in Greenland dropped more than 9 degrees Fahrenheit within a decade or two.

"It's not this abstract notion that happens over millions of years," deMenocal said. "The magnitude of what we're talking about greatly, greatly exceeds anything we've withstood in human history."

These kinds of concerns have spurred some governments to make major cuts in the carbon dioxide emissions linked to global warming. Britain has slashed its emissions by 14 percent, compared with 1990 levels, and aims to reduce them by 60 percent by 2050. Some European countries, however, are lagging well behind their targets under the international Kyoto climate treaty.

David Warrilow, who heads science policy on climate change for Britain's Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said that while the science remains unsettled, his government has decided to take a precautionary approach. He compared consuming massive amounts of fossil fuels to the strategy of the Titanic's crew, who were unable to avoid an iceberg because they were speeding across the Atlantic in hopes of breaking a record.

"We know there are icebergs out there, but at the moment we're accelerating toward the tipping point," Warrilow said in an interview. "This is silly. We should be doing the opposite, slowing down whilst we build up our knowledge base."

The Bush administration espouses a different approach. Marburger said that though everyone agrees carbon dioxide emissions should decline, the United States prefers to promote cleaner technology rather than impose mandatory greenhouse gas limits. "The U.S. is the world leader in doing something on climate change because of its actions on changing technology," he said.

Stanford University climatologist Stephen H. Schneider, who is helping oversee a major international assessment of how climate change could expose humans and the environment to new vulnerabilities, said countries respond differently to the global warming issue in part because they are affected differently by it. The small island nation of Kiribati is made up of 33 small atolls, none of which is more than 6.5 feet above the South Pacific, and it is only a matter of time before the entire country is submerged by the rising sea.

"For Kiribati, the tipping point has already occurred," Schneider said. "As far as they're concerned, it's tipped, but they have no economic clout in the world."

The Erosion of Anonymous Internet Speech

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution safeguards freedom of speech in this country. The right to speak freely generally includes the right to speak anonymously. And the developing case law holds that the right to speak freely embraces the liberty to speak anonymously on the Internet.

All well and good, right? Wrong! Why?

A law designed to thwart telephone harassment has been updated and signed into effect by President Bush in a troublesome way. The newly updated law in part prohibits annoying Web postings or emails that do not disclose the true identities of the authors of this speech.

Let's drill down a bit.

As mentioned our Constitution places an extremely high value on and provides protection for free speech. Such speech, however, is not completely unbridled. That is why our nation, for example, has a developed body of law pertaining to defamation. In a nutshell, if someone says something false about someone else to others that causes harm to that someone else, there can be liability and monetary damages awarded.

In the context of the Internet, it is not uncommon for people to communicate using pseudonyms - so that they can speak freely and openly without revealing who they really are. Once in a while, other persons or companies want to find out the identities of anonymous people who have communicated on the Internet. This is especially the case if they feel that they have been defamed to their detriment.

To find out the identities of these anonymous Internet speakers, they at times must go to the ISP conduits of the speech at issue. To do that, a "John Doe" lawsuit usually is filed against the anonymous speaker at the heart of the matter, and from that case a subpoena is served on the ISP seeking the identity of the speaker. The anonymous speaker then has an opportunity to file what is called a motion to quash, which seeks to bar revelation of his or her identity.

The court then is called upon to rule whether the anonymous speaker's identity should be disclosed. Because of First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech, which the cases hold includes the right to speak anonymously on the Internet, the court normally will err on the side of protecting the identity of the speaker unless the party seeking disclosure can make a "prima facie" showing up front in the case that the speech at issue truly creates liability and that true harm and damage has ensued.

Against this backdrop of protection of anonymous Internet speech comes the newly updated law.
The Communications Act, at 47 U.S.C. Section 223(a)(1)(C) has prohibited the making of telephone calls or the utilization of telecommunications devices "without disclosing [one's] identity to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass any person at the called number or who receives the communications."

The same law, at 47 U.S.C. Section 223(h)(1)(B), has been clear that the term "telecommunications device . . . does not include an interactive computer service." Thus, this law has not been aimed at Internet communications. BUT . . .

A small but important provision buried deep in the Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act of 2005, H.R. 3402, titled "Preventing Cyberstalking" and numbered as Section 113, which was just signed into law, now brings the reach of Section 223(a)(1)(C), quoted above, home to the Internet.

Specifically, Section 113(a)(3) provides that Section 223(a)(1)(C) applies to "any device or software that can be used to originate telecommunications or other types of communications that are transmitted, in whole or in part, by the Internet." Hello!

What does this mean? The Communications Act provides for fines and imprisonment of up to two years for violations. Thus, taken to a logical extreme conclusion, it is possible that a person who makes a Web posting or who sends an email that is intended simply to "annoy" someone else while not disclosing his or her true identity, could be subject to fines and jail time.

So much for freedom of speech - so much for appropriate Internet anonymity. There is no requirement of harm to trigger the impact of this new law, and the annoyance standard raises a number of concerns.

For example, certain speech could be true, but still annoying. Should such speech be stifled? Some "annoying speech" can lead to very positive change - whether the speech is directed at government, companies or individuals.

Plus, an annoyance standard is quite amorphous and subject to a multitude of interpretations.
While Cyberstaking certainly should be prevented, as the heading of Section 113 suggests, we should be careful not to erode our constitutionally protected rights.

Today's Top Stories...

War:
Pakistan protests US air strikes
A week after a U.S. air strike aimed at al-Qaeda suspects in Pakistan killed 18 villagers, angry protests are continuing all over the country.

Bin Laden message: 'I'm still here.'
In new audiotape, the Al Qaeda leader both threatens the US and offers the possibility of a 'long-term truce.'

Carroll: a mother's plea for her daughter
Religious leaders, politicians, human rights groups also called for Carroll's captors to set her free.

The results are in: now the real struggle for power begins
Iraq's new leaders were squaring off last night for weeks, if not months, of tough political bargaining after final election results revealed that the dominant Shia theocratic alliance had failed to secure an absolute majority and that the marginalised Sunni groups had made substantial political gains. Also see: Iraq Vote Results Give Shiite Alliance Lead

Italy says it will pull troops out of Iraq by end of year
1,000 of Italy's 2,600 troops to be withdrawn by June and remainder by end of the year, says defence minister.


Headlines:
Google in court over refusal to let US examine search requests
Google users will face US government monitoring if the American authorities win a court case to get the web site to hand over copies of every search.

Defense Ex-Analyst Sentenced
Court papers show Franklin gave secret data to pro-Israeli lobbyists, unnamed "foreign official."

Syria supports Iran in standoff with West
Show of solidarity comes as US asks for a quick referral of Iran to UN Security Council.

Japan Again Bars U.S. Beef After Finding Banned Cattle Part
Barely a month after it eased a two-year ban on American beef imports, the Japanese government reinstituted it today after finding a prohibited backbone in a shipment from a Brooklyn meatpacker.

Soul legend Wilson Pickett dies aged 64
Wilson Pickett, best known for hard-driving hits Mustang Sally and In The Midnight Hour, dies of a heart attack, aged 64.


Politics:
GOP looks for white knight to lead House
Roy Blunt's allies say he has the votes to be elected majority leader, but ethics battle muddles the picture.

US university spying scandal prompts resignations
Alumni advisory board found to be offering students money to police "liberal" professors at University of California.

In Preview of G.O.P. Campaign, Rove Tears Into Democrats
The president's chief political adviser urged Republicans to make national security the pre-eminent issue in 2006. Come on! Where's the indictment Fitz?! Crap...


Economy:
Oil Prices Surge to 4-Month High; Stocks Fall Sharply
Oil prices rose on supply fears while stocks fell as Citigroup and General Electric reported weak results. Also, Dow Closes 200 Points Down and G.E.'s Profit Plunges 46 percent in 4th Quarter


International:
Chirac would use nuclear strike
France ready to use nuclear arms against any country that makes state-sponsored terrorism attack.

'Humanitarian crisis' in Somalia
Agency monitoring hunger in Somalia warns the country is facing an "acute food and livelihood crisis".

Curfew shuts down Kathmandu
15,000 soldiers and police patrol Nepal's capital after day-long curfew imposed to derail anti-king protest.

Nigeria told not to use force to free oil workers
British diplomatic officials caution Nigeria against using force to free four oil workers kidnapped in the south of the country.


Environment:
Forecast for Earth in 2050: not so gloomy
But new report says active ecosystem management must begin.

A Whale of a Tale on the Thames
A northern bottlenose whale measuring around 17 feet and weighing up to 7 tons was spotted today heading upstream near the London Eye Ferris Wheel, the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben.

11 Indicted in Ecoterrorism Attacks
Suspects accused of 17 acts of arson tied to environmental issues in Western states. Damn dirty hippies...


And now, the good news...
U.S. Decides to Play Ball With Cuba
Treasury Dept. has granted a license for Cuba to participate in the World Baseball Classic.

100 Facts and 1 Opinion

I recently went through a pile of old magazines shoved deep in the bottom of a basket in my living room… I came across this old issue of The Nation. Now, notice its publication date... Obviously, it was published before the 2004 election and was The Nation's running list of reasons NOT to vote for W.

One last shot, into the ether, in hopes someone would friggin’ pay attention. Admittedly, I'm a politico-junkie - and have been paying close attention to these robber barons since 2000. Remember when Dubya & Dick Vader slipped in the back door to the White House - held open for them by Jebby and Rehnquist? No? Anyway, point is - I honestly shouldn’t gloat – I certainly can’t expect those without political OCD, like I have, to keep up with all the political “goings on”… BUT, I will say – I told you so. Truth be told - it's not real funny, is it?

I updated a few of them with more recent sources.

Oh, and if you haven’t seen Team America World Police you have to see it… So inappropriate… So funny… And, listen to Stephanie Miller & Rachel Maddow. Also, watch CSPAN (no excuses - everything is accessible online, too), Link & Current TV. Please, for pity's sake...

article posted October 30, 2004 (November 8, 2004 issue) - Judd Legum

100 Facts and 1 Opinion: The Non-Arguable Case Against the Bush Administration

Click here to download, circulate and distribute a PDF version of this article.

IRAQ 1. The Bush Administration has spent more than $233 billion on a war of choice in Iraq. Source: http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182 2. The Bush Administration sent troops into battle without adequate body armor or armored Humvees. Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/07/politics/07armor.html?ex=1137301200&en=7dccfda4d4fbc88e&ei=5070 3. The Bush Administration ignored estimates from Gen. Eric Shinseki that several hundred thousand troops would be required to secure Iraq. Source: PBS 4. Vice President Cheney said Americans "will, in fact, be greeted as liberators" in Iraq. Source: Washington Post 5. During the Bush Administration's war in Iraq, more than 2,211 US troops have lost their lives and more than 16,420 combat wounded. Armed forces of other coalition countries: 98 British, 27 Italian, 18 Ukrainian, 17 Polish, 13 Bulgarian, 11 Spanish, 17 other. At least 278 contractors, 58 journalists, 20 media support workers, and 150 aid workers. Counts of Iraqi civilian deaths individually documented range from 27,636 to 31,160; statistical lower estimate of total is 100,000 plus/minus 94,000 at 95% confidence. Grand total: 113,338 people. Casualties of 9/11 = 2,752. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_invasion_of_Iraq_casualties and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11,_2001_attacks 6. In May 2003, President Bush landed on an aircraft carrier in a flight suit, stood under a banner proclaiming "Mission Accomplished," and triumphantly announced that major combat operations were over in Iraq. Asked if he had any regrets about the stunt, Bush said he would do it all over again. Source: Yahoo News 7. Vice President Cheney said that Iraq was "the geographic base of the terrorists who have had us under assault for many years, but most especially on 9/11." The bipartisan 9/11 Commission found that Iraq had no involvement in the 9/11 attacks and no collaborative operational relationship with Al Qaeda. Source: MSNBC , 9-11 Commission 8. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said that high-strength aluminum tubes acquired by Iraq were "only really suited for nuclear weapons programs," warning "we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud." The government's top nuclear scientists had told the Administration the tubes were "too narrow, too heavy, too long" to be of use in developing nuclear weapons and could be used for other purposes. Source: New York Times 9. The Bush Administration has spent just $1.1 billion of the $18.4 billion Congress approved for Iraqi reconstruction. A mere 2%. Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26310-2004Jul3.html 10. According to the Administration's handpicked weapon's inspector, Charles Duelfer, there is "no evidence that Hussein had passed illicit weapons material to al Qaeda or other terrorist organizations, or had any intent to do so." After the release of the report, Bush continued to insist, "There was a risk--a real risk--that Saddam Hussein would pass weapons, or materials, or information to terrorist networks." Sources: New York Times, White House news release 11. According to Duelfer, the UN inspections regime put an "economic strangle hold" on Hussein that prevented him from developing a WMD program for more than twelve years. Source: Los Angeles Times TERRORISM 12. After receiving a memo from the CIA in August 2001 titled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack America," President Bush continued his monthlong vacation. Source: CNN.com 13. The Bush Administration failed to commit enough troops to capture Osama bin Laden when US forces had him cornered in the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan in November 2001. Instead, they relied on local warlords. Source: csmonitor.com 14. The Bush Administration secured less nuclear material from sites around the world vulnerable to terrorists in the two years after 9/11 than were secured in the two years before 9/11. Source: nti.org 15. The Bush Administration underfunded Nunn-Lugar--the program intended to keep the former Soviet Union's nuclear legacy out of the hands of terrorists and rogue states--by $45.5 million. Source: armscontrol.org 16. The Bush Administration has assigned five times as many agents to investigate Cuban embargo violations as it has to track Osama bin Laden's and Saddam Hussein's money. Source: Associated Press 17. According to Congressional Research Service data, the Bush Administration has underfunded security at the nation's ports by more than $1 billion for fiscal year 2005. Source: American Progress 18. The Bush Administration did not devote the resources necessary to prevent a resurgence in the production of poppies, the raw material used to create heroin, in Afghanistan--creating a potent new source of financing for terrorists. Source: Pakistan Tribune 19. Vice President Cheney told voters that unless they elect George Bush in November, "we'll get hit again" by terrorists. Source: Washington Post 20. Even though an Al Qaeda training manual suggests terrorists come to the United States and buy assault weapons, the Bush Administration did nothing to prevent the expiration of the ban. Source: San Francisco Chronicle 21. Despite repeated calls for reinforcements, there are fewer experienced CIA agents assigned to the unit dealing with Osama bin Laden now than there were before 9/11. Source: New York Times 22. Before 9/11, John Ashcroft proposed slashing counterterrorism funding by 23 percent. Source: americanprogress.org 23. Between January 20, 2001, and September 10, 2001, the Bush Administration publicly mentioned Al Qaeda one time. Source: commondreams.org 24. The Bush Administration granted the 9/11 Commission $3 million to investigate the September 11 attacks and $50 million to the commission that investigated the Columbia space shuttle crash. Source: commondreams.org 25. More than three years after 9/11, just 5 percent of all cargo--including cargo transported on passenger planes--is screened. Source: commondreams.org NATIONAL SECURITY 26. During the Bush Administration, North Korea quadrupled its suspected nuclear arsenal from two to eight weapons. Source: New York Times 27. The Bush Administration has openly opposed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, undermining nuclear nonproliferation efforts. Source: commondreams.org 28. The Bush Administration has spent $7 billion this year--and plans to spend $10 billion next year--for a missile defense system that has never worked in a test that wasn't rigged. Sources: www.gao.gov/new.items/d04409.pdf, Los Angeles Times 29. The Bush Administration underfunded the needs of the nation's first responders by $98 billion, according to a Council on Foreign Relations study. Source: nationaldefensemagazine.org CRONYISM AND CORRUPTION 30. The Bush Administration awarded a multibillion-dollar no-bid contract to Halliburton--a company that still pays Vice President Cheney hundreds of thousands of dollars in deferred compensation each year (Cheney also has Halliburton stock options). The company then repeatedly overcharged the military for services, accepted kickbacks from subcontractors and served troops dirty food. Sources: The Washington Post, The Taipei Times, BBC News 31. The Bush Administration told Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan about plans to go to war with Iraq before telling Secretary of State Colin Powell. Source: detnews.com 32. The Bush Administration relentlessly pushed an energy bill containing $23.5 billion in corporate tax breaks, much of which would have benefited major campaign contributors. taxpayer.net, Washington Post 33. The Bush Administration paid Iraqi-exile and neocon darling Ahmad Chalabi $400,000 a month for intelligence, including fabricated claims about Iraqi WMD. It continued to pay him for months after discovering that he was providing inaccurate information. Source: MSNBC 34. The Bush Administration installed as top officials more than 100 former lobbyists, attorneys or spokespeople for the industries they oversee. Source: Source: commondreams.org 35. The Bush Administration let disgraced Enron CEO Ken Lay--a close friend of President Bush--help write its energy policy. Source: MSNBC 36. Top Bush Administration officials accepted $127,600 in jewelry and other presents from the Saudi royal family in 2003, including diamond-and-sapphire jewelry valued at $95,500 for First Lady Laura Bush. Source: Seattle Times 37. Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge awarded lucrative contracts to several companies in which he is an investor, including Microsoft, GE, Sprint, Pfizer and Oracle. Source: cq.com 38. President Bush used images of firefighters carrying flag-draped coffins through the rubble of the World Trade Center to score political points in a campaign advertisement. Source: Washington Post THE ECONOMY 39. President Bush's top economic adviser, Greg Mankiw, said the outsourcing of American jobs abroad was "a plus for the economy in the long run." Source: CBS News 40. The Bush Administration turned a $236 billion surplus into a $422 billion deficit. Sources: Fortune, dfw.com 41. The Bush Administration implemented regulations that made millions of workers ineligible for overtime pay. Source: epinet.org 42. The Bush Administration has crippled state budgets by underfunding federal mandates by $175 billion. Source: cbpp.org 43. President Bush is the first President since Herbert Hoover to have a net loss of jobs--around 800,000--over a four-year term. Source: The Guardian 44. The Bush Administration gave Accenture a multibillion-dollar border control contract even though the company moved its operations to Bermuda to avoid paying taxes. Sources: New York Times, cantonrep.com 45. In 2000, candidate George W. Bush said "the vast majority of my tax cuts go to the bottom end of the spectrum." He passed the tax cuts, but the top 20 percent of earners received 68 percent of the benefits. Sources: cbpp.org, vote-smart.org 46. In 2000, candidate George W. Bush promised to pay down the national debt to a historically low level. As of September 30, the national debt stood at $7,379,052,696,330.32, a record high. Sources: http://web.archive.org/web/20001109012700/www.georgewbush.com/issues/index.html , Bureau of the Public Debt 47. As major corporate scandals rocked the nation's economy, the Bush Administration reduced the enforcement of corporate tax law--conducting fewer audits, imposing fewer penalties, pursuing fewer prosecutions and making virtually no effort to prosecute corporate tax crimes. Source: iht.com 48. The Bush Administration increased tax audits for the working poor. Source: theolympian.com 49. In 2000, candidate George W. Bush promised to protect the Social Security surplus. As President, he spent all of it. Sources: georgewbush.com, Congressional Budget Office 50. The Bush Administration proposed slashing funding for the largest federal public housing program, putting 2 million families in danger of losing their housing. Source: San Francisco Examiner 51. The Bush Administration did nothing to prevent the minimum wage from falling to an inflation-adjusted fifty-year low. Source: Los Angeles Times EDUCATION 52. The Bush Administration underfunded the No Child Left Behind Act by $9.4 billion. Source: nwitimes.com 53. In 2000, candidate George W. Bush promised to increase the maximum federal scholarship, or Pell Grant, by 50 percent. Instead, each year he has been in office he has frozen or cut the maximum scholarship amount. Source: Source: edworkforce.house.gov x 54. The Bush Administration's Secretary of Education, Rod Paige, called the National Education Association--a union of teachers--a "terrorist organization." Sources: CNN.com HEALTHCARE 55. The Bush Administration, in violation of the law, refused to allow Medicare actuary Richard Foster to tell members of Congress the actual cost of their Medicare bill. Instead, they repeated a figure they knew was $100 billion too low. Source: Washington Post, realcities.com 56. The nonpartisan GAO concluded the Bush Administration created illegal, covert propaganda--in the form of fake news reports--to promote its industry-backed Medicare bill. Source: General Accounting Office 57. The Bush Administration stunted research that could lead to new treatments for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, diabetes, spinal injuries, heart disease and muscular dystrophy by placing severe restrictions on the use of federal dollars for embryonic stem-cell research. Source: CBS News 58. The Bush Administration reinstated the "global gag rule," which requires foreign NGOs to withhold information about legal abortion services or lose US funds for family planning. Source: healthsciences.columbia.edu 59. The Bush Administration authorized twenty companies that have been charged with fraud at the federal or state level to offer Medicare prescription drug cards to seniors. Source: American Progress 60. The Bush Administration created a prescription drug card for Medicare that locks seniors into one card for up to a year but allows the corporations offering the cards to change their prices once a week. Source: Washington Post 61. The Bush Administration blocked efforts to allow Medicare to negotiate cheaper prescription drug prices for seniors. Source: American Progress 62. At the behest of the french fry industry, the Bush Administration USDA changed their definition of fresh vegetables to include frozen french fries. Source: commondreams.org 63. In a case before the Supreme Court, the Bush Administrations sided with HMOs--arguing that patients shouldn't be allowed to sue HMOs when they are improperly denied treatment. With the Administration's help, the HMOs won. Source: ABC News 64. The Bush Administration went to court to block lawsuits by patients who were injured by defective prescription drugs and medical devices. Source: Washington Post 65. President Bush signed a Medicare law that allows companies that reduce healthcare benefits for retirees to receive substantial subsidies from the government. Source: Bloomberg News 66. Since President Bush took office, more than 5 million people have lost their health insurance. Source: CNN.com 67. The Bush Administration blocked a proposal to ban the use of arsenic-treated lumber in playground equipment, even though it conceded it posed a danger to children. Source: Miami Herald 68. One day after President Bush bragged about his efforts to help seniors afford healthcare, the Administration announced the largest dollar increase of Medicare premiums in history. Source: iht.com 69. The Bush Administration--at the behest of the tobacco industry--tried to water down a global treaty that aimed to help curb smoking. Source: tobaccofreekids.org 70. The Bush Administration has spent $270 million on abstinence-only education programs even though there is no scientific evidence demonstrating that they are effective in dissuading teenagers from having sex or reducing the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases. Source: salon.com 71. The Bush Administration slashed funding for programs that suggested ways, other than abstinence, to avoid sexually transmitted diseases. Source: LA Weekly ENVIRONMENT 72. The Bush Administration gutted clean-air standards for aging power plants, resulting in at least 20,000 premature deaths each year. Source: cta.policy.net 73. The Bush Administration eliminated protections on more than 200 million acres of public lands. Source: calwild.org 74. President Bush broke his promise to place limits on carbon dioxide emissions, an essential step in combating global warming. Source: Washington Post 75. Days after 9/11, the Bush Administration told people living near Ground Zero that the air was safe--even though they knew it wasn't--subjecting hundreds of people to unnecessary, debilitating ailments. Sierra Club , EPA 76. The Bush Administration created a massive tax loophole for SUVs--allowing, for example, the write-off of the entire cost of a new Hummer. Source: Washington Post 77. The Bush Administration put former coal-industry big shots in the government and let them roll back safety regulations, putting miners at greater risk of black lung disease. Source: New York Times 78. The Bush Administration said that even though the weed killer atrazine was seeping into water supplies--creating, among other bizarre creatures, hermaphroditic frogs--there was no reason to regulate it. Source: Washington Post 79. The Bush Administration has proposed cutting the budget of the Environmental Protection Agency by $600 million next year. Source: ems.org 80. President Bush broke his campaign promise to end the maintenance backlog at national parks. He has provided just 7 percent of the funds needed, according to National Park Service estimates. Source: bushgreenwatch.org RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES 81. Since 9/11, Attorney General John Ashcroft has detained 5,000 foreign nationals in antiterrorism sweeps; none have been convicted of a terrorist crime. Source: hrwatch.org 82. The Bush Administration ignored pleas from the International Committee of the Red Cross to stop the abuse of prisoners in US custody. Source: Wall Street Journal 83. In violation of international law, the Bush Administration hid prisoners from the Red Cross so the organization couldn't monitor their treatment. Source: hrwatch.org 84. The Bush Administration, without ever charging him with a crime, arrested US citizen José Padilla at an airport in Chicago, held him on a naval brig in South Carolina for two years, denied him access to a lawyer and prohibited any contact with his friends and family. Source: news.findlaw.com 85. President Bush's top legal adviser wrote a memo to the President advising him that he can legally authorize torture. Source: news.findlaw.com 86. At the direction of Bush Administration officials, the FBI went door to door questioning people planning on protesting at the 2004 political conventions. Source: New York Times 87. The Bush Administration refuses to support the creation of an independent commission to investigate the abuse of foreign prisoners in American custody. Instead, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld selected the members of a commission to review the conduct of his own department. Source: humanrightsfirst.org FLIP FLOPS 88. President Bush opposed the creation of the 9/11 Commission before he supported it, delaying an essential inquiry into one of the greatest intelligence failure in American history. Source: americanprogressaction.org 89. President Bush said gay marriage was a state issue before he supported a constitutional amendment banning it. Sources: CNN.com, White House 90. President Bush said he was committed to capturing Osama bin Laden "dead or alive" before he said, "I truly am not that concerned about him." Source: americanprogressaction.org 91. President Bush said we had found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, before he admitted we hadn't found them. Sources: White House, americanprogress.org 92. President Bush said, "You can't distinguish between Al Qaeda and Saddam when you talk about the war on terror," before he admitted Saddam had no role in 9/11. Sources: White House, Washington Post BIOGRAPHY 93. George Bush didn't come close to meeting his commitments to the National Guard. Records show he performed no service in a six-month period in 1972 and a three-month period in 1973. Source: Boston Globe 94. In June 1990 George Bush violated federal securities law when he failed to inform the SEC that he had sold 200,000 shares of his company, Harken Energy. Two months later the company reported significant losses and by the end of that year the stock had dropped from $3 to $1. Source: The Guardian 95. When asked at an April 2004 press conference to name a mistake he made during his presidency, Bush couldn't think of one. Source: White House SECRECY 96. The Bush Administration refuses to release twenty-seven pages of a Congressional report that reportedly detail the Saudi Arabian government's connections to the 9/11 hijackers. Source: Philadelphia Inquirer 97. Last year the Bush Administration spent $6.5 billion creating 14 million new classified documents and securing old secrets--the highest level of spending in ten years. Source: openthegovernment.org 98. The Bush Administration spent $120 classifying documents for every $1 it spent declassifying documents. Source: openthegovernment.org 99. The Bush Administration has spent millions of dollars and defied numerous court orders to conceal from the public who participated in Vice President Cheney's 2001 energy task force. Source: Washington Post 100. The Bush Administration--reversing years of bipartisan tradition--refuses to answer requests from Democratic members of Congress about how the White House is spending taxpayer money. Source: Washington Post

OPINION - If the past informs the future, four more years of the Bush Administration will be a tragic period in the history of the United States and the world.

LIBBY'S Indictment - Timeline & Analysis

SCOOTER LIBBY’S 2 PRONGED ADVISORY ROLL TO VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY
20 JANUARY 2001 – PRESENT
1. Chief of Staff
2. National Security Advisor

LIBBY’S EMPLOYMENT & RESPONSIBILITIES:
1. Access
a. To classified information
b. Intelligence community officials
c. National security matters

2. Clearances
a. Entitle access to classified information
b. Obligated
i. Not to disclose classified information to unauthorized persons
ii. Safeguard classified information against unauthorized disclosure
c. Signed “Classified Information Nondisclosure Agreement”
i. “I understand and accept that by being granted access to classified information, special confidence and trust shall be placed in me by the United States Government”
ii. “I have been advised that the unauthorized disclosure, unauthorized retention, or negligent handling of classified information by me could cause damage or irreparable injury to the United States or could be used to advantage by a foreign nation.”


CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY (CIA)
1. Mission
a. Collect, produce & disseminate intelligence and counter intelligence information to officers and departments of the United States Government, including the President, National Security Council & Joint Chiefs of Staff

2. Secrecy
a. Certain CIA employee responsibilities require association with CIA be kept secret
b. Disclosure may
i. Potentially to damage National Security
ii. Impede covert capacity
iii. Compromise intelligence gathering methods & operations
iv. Endanger safety of CIA employees & those associated with them

JOSEPH WILSON & VALERIE PLAME WILSON
1. Joseph Wilson (Wilson)
a. February 2002 – sent on CIA inquiry to Niger - Sent to Niger by the CIA to investigate allegations Iraqi officials tried to acquire yellow cake – uranium ore – the inquiry was the result of an investigation by the Vice President concerning “certain” intelligence reporting – In other words, the Office of the Vice President requested an inquiry; the CIA sent Wilson to investigate on the CIA’s initiative – The Vice President did not know at the time who the CIA would send to Niger – by Government Operating Procedure – Wilson thought the Office of the Vice President requested the investigation – a correct assumption
b. Former State Department Official
c. Former United States Ambassador
d. Married to Valerie Plame Wilson

2. Valerie Plame Wilson (Wilson’s wife, Valerie Wilson)
a. Married to Joseph Wilson
b. Employed by the CIA
c. Prior to the July 14 - Valerie Plame Wilson’s affiliation with the CIA was not common knowledge outside of the intelligence community
d. Covert status - CLASSIFIED


STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS
1. 28 January 2003 – President Bush’s State of the Union Address which includes the “sixteen words”: “The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.”

TIMELINE
1. 6 May 2003 – New York Times column by Nicholas Kristof disputes accuracy of “sixteen words”; unequivocally wrong & based on forged documents

2. 12 June 2003
a. Walter Pincus contacts Office of the Vice President in connection with a story he was writing about the trip
b. LIBBY participates in discussions in the Office of the Vice President concerning how to respond to Pincus
c. LIBBY advised by Vice President "Wilson’s wife worked at the CIA in the Counterproliferation Division" – The Vice President learned this information from the CIA
d. Washington Post publishes article by Walter Pincus. The article reported:
i. Wilson’s trip to Niger
ii. Identified Wilson not by name but by “retired ambassador”
iii. CIA sent Wilson to Niger after an aide to the Vice President raised questions about Iraqi efforts to acquire uranium
iv. Questioned accuracy of the “sixteen words”
v. Wilson reported to the CIA the uranium purchase story was false

3. 14 June 2003
a. LIBBY met with CIA Briefer – conversation included:
i. LIBBY’S displeasure with CIA officials who were making comments to the press critical of the Vice President’s Office
ii. Joe Wilson
iii. Valerie Wilson
iv. Context of Wilson’s trip

4. 19 June 2003
a. The New Republic published “The First Casualty: The Selling of the Iraq War”. The article:
i. Questioned the “sixteen words”
ii. Stated after the CIA received a request from the Vice President’s Office for an inquiry into yellow cake in Africa – the CIA sent an “unnamed ambassador” to Niger to investigate allegations
iii. “Unnamed ambassador” alleged the administration knew the Niger story was a “flat out lie”
iv. Critical of how the administration used intelligence regarding Iraqi capabilities/WMDs
v. Accused the administration of suppressing dissent from intelligence agencies on Iraqi WMDs

b. LIBBY spoke to his then Principal Deputy and discussed:
i. “The First Casualty” article
ii. Principal Deputy asks if information on Wilson can be shared with the Press to rebut claims the Vice President sent Wilson to Niger
iii. LIBBY said there would be “complications with the CIA if such information was made public”
iv. LIBBY won’t discuss further because they were talking on a “non secure telephone line”

5. 23 June 2003
a. LIBBY meets with Judith Miller – LIBBY talks to Miller about:
i. Criticizes CIA
ii. Blames CIA of “selective leaking” on intelligence matters
iii. Wilson’s trip to Niger
iv. Wilson’s wife might work at the CIA

6. 6 July 2003
a. Wilson takes on the media:
i. New York Times Op-Ed entitled “What I didn’t Find in Africa” published
ii. Washington Post published an article based in part on an interview with Wilson
iii. Wilson appears on “Meet the Press”
iv. All media contact maintains following themes:
1. Went to Niger as the result of CIA request in February 2002 to investigate Iraqi/WMB/yellow cake allegations
2. Doubted Iraq obtained uranium “recently”
3. Believed based upon his understanding of government procedures the Office of the Vice President was “advised of the results” of his trip

LIBBY’S Actions following 6 July 2003
1. 7 July 2003
a. LIBBY had lunch with then White House Press Secretary (Ari Fleicher) discussed:
i. Wilson’s wife worked for the CIA
ii. Noted aforementioned information “not widely known”

2. 8 July 2003
a. LIBBY meets again with Judith Miller of the New York Times; discussed:
i. Joseph Wilson
ii. Asked discussions with Miller be attributed to “former Hill staffer” rather than “senior administration official”
iii. Wilson’s trip
iv. Criticized the CIA on reporting of Wilson’s trip
v. Wilson’s wife works for CIA

3. No earlier than June 2003, but on or before 8 July
a. LIBBY met with Assistant to Vice President on Public Affairs and another government official
i. Discussed Wilson’s wife worked for CIA
ii. LIBBY was “advised” of the aforementioned information

4. 10 July 2003
a. LIBBY meets with Counsel to Vice President
i. Asked counsel what paperwork may be available at CIA if an employee spouse undertook an overseas trip

b. LIBBY spoke to Tim Russert
i. LIBBY complains about press coverage by an MSNBC reporter
ii. LIBBY did NOT discuss Wilson’s wife with Russert

5. 10 or 11 July 2003
a. LIBBY spoke to senor official in White House – Official A (Karl Rove?)
i. Official A tells LIBBY of a conversation Official A had earlier in the week with Robert Novak
1. Wilson’s wife was discussed in conversation Official A had with Robert Novak
2. Novak writing an article on Wilson’s wife

6. 12 July 2003
a. LIBBY flew with Vice President and others to and from Norfolk, VA on Air Force Two
i. Aboard Air Force Two – LIBBY and other officials discussed what LIBBY should say in response to questions media, including Matthew Cooper of Time Magazine
ii. LIBBY spoke to Cooper via telephone later that afternoon
1. Cooper asked LIBBY if Wilson’s wife worked for the CIA
a. LIBBY confirmed he had heard Wilson’s wife worked for the CIA
b. LIBBY did not elaborate
c. LIBBY did not qualify
d. Later that afternoon, LIBBY spoke by telephone to Judith Miller
e. Discussed Wilson’s wife and that she worked at the CIA

7. 26 September 2003
a. Department of Justice (DoJ) authorized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) began a criminal investigation into the possible unauthorized disclosure of classified information (Valerie Wilson’s affiliation with CIA) to reporters in the Spring of 2003

8. 14 October & 26 November 2003
a. LIBBY interviewed by FBI
i. False statements 1:
1. Russert asked LIBBY if LIBBY was aware Wilson’s wife worked for CIA
2. LIBBY responded he did not know
3. Russert replied “all the reporters knew it”
4. LIBBY was “surprised” by the aforementioned statement
5. LIBBY “did not recall” he had previously learned about Wilson’s wife from the Vice President
ii. False statements 2:
1. LIBBY told Cooper “reporters were telling the administration Wilson’s wife worked for the CIA”
2. LIBBY told Cooper he “did not know” if the aforementioned statement was true
iii. False statements 3:
1. LIBBY “did not discuss Wilson’s wife” with Judith Miller during a meeting on or about 8 July 2003

SCOOTER INDICTED

Cheney Adviser Resigns After Indictment

By JOHN SOLOMON and PETE YOST Associated Press Writers

(AP) - WASHINGTON-The vice president's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby Jr., was indicted Friday on charges of obstruction of justice, perjury and making false statements in the CIA leak investigation, a politically charged case that could cast a harsh light on President Bush's push to war.

Karl Rove, Bush's closest adviser, escaped indictment Friday but remained under investigation, his legal status shadowing a White House already in trouble. The U.S. military death toll in Iraq exceeded 2,000 this week, and the president's approval ratings are at the lowest point since he took office in 2001.

Bush praised Libby's service and said he is "presumed innocent and entitled to due process."
Friday's charges stemmed from a two-year investigation by special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald into whether Rove, Libby or any other administration officials knowingly revealed the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame or misled investigators about their involvement.

In the end, Fitzgerald accused Libby of a cover-up - lying about his conversations with reporters. He was not charged with outing a spy.

"Mr. Libby's story that he was at the tail end of a chain of phone calls, passing on from one reporter what he heard from another, was not true. It was false," the prosecutor said. "He was at the beginning of the chain of the phone calls, the first official to disclose this information outside the government to a reporter. And he lied about it afterward, under oath, repeatedly."

Libby's indictment is a political embarrassment for the president, paving the way for a possible trial renewing the focus on the administration's faulty rationale for going to war against Iraq - the erroneous assertion that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction.

It could also mean that Vice President Dick Cheney, who prizes secrecy, will be called upon as a witness to explain why the administration launched a campaign against Plame's husband, diplomat Joseph Wilson, a critic of the war who questioned Bush's assertion that Iraq had sought nuclear material.

The indictment said the vice president advised Libby that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA but the vice president was not the first administration official to tell him about it.

At a news conference, Fitzgerald said the inquiry was substantially complete, though he added ominously, "It's not over." He declined to comment about Rove's involvement. Asked about Cheney, he said: "I'm not making allegations about anyone not charged in the indictment."

The grand jury indictment charged Libby with one count of obstruction of justice, two of perjury and two of making false statements. If convicted on all five, he could face as much as 30 years in prison and $1.25 million in fines.

Democrats suggested the indictment was just the tip of the iceberg. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the case was "about how the Bush White House manufactured and manipulated intelligence in order to bolster its case for the war in Iraq and to discredit anyone who dared to challenge the president."

Cheney and several other officials were mentioned by title in the 22-page indictment, but no one besides Libby was charged.

Libby is considered Cheney's alter ego, a chief architect of the war with Iraq. A trial would give the public a rare glimpse into Cheney's influential role in the West Wing and his behind-the-scenes lobbying for war.

Bush ordered U.S. troops to war in March 2003, saying Saddam's weapons of mass destruction program posed a grave and immediate threat to the United States. No such weapons were found.
After the indictment was announced, Libby submitted his resignation to White House chief of staff Andy Card. It was accepted and Libby left the grounds. Card notified Bush.

Cheney issued a statement saying he had accepted Libby's resignation "with deep regret." He added that Libby was entitled to a presumption of innocence in the case and praised his longtime aide as "one of the most capable and talented individuals I have ever known."

Rove's lawyer said he was told by special prosecutor Fitzgerald's office that investigators would continue their probe into the aide's conduct.

The lack of an indictment against Rove was a mixed outcome for the administration. It keeps in place the president's top adviser, the architect of his political machine whose fingerprints can be found on virtually every policy that emerges from the White House.

But leaving Rove in legal jeopardy keeps Bush and his team working on problems like the Iraq war, a Supreme Court vacancy and slumping poll ratings beneath a dark cloud of uncertainty.
Sen. Edward M Kennedy, D-Mass., said the indictment marked a "signifying a new low since Watergate in terms of openness and honesty in our government." Sen. John Kerry, who ran unsuccessfully against Bush last year, called the case "evidence of White House corruption at the very highest levels."

Hoping to contain the damage, Republicans distanced themselves from Libby. Several welcomed his resignation. Others said the legal system should run its course.

"It's time to stop the leaks and spin and turn Washington into one big recovery meeting where people say what they mean and mean what they say," said Rep. Jim Ramstad, R-Minn.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said through a spokesman that the Senate won't investigate the CIA leak.

The indictment alleges that Libby began digging for details about Wilson, Plame's husband and an Iraq war critic, well before the former ambassador went public July 6, 2003, in a newspaper opinion piece with his criticism of the Bush administration's use of faulty prewar intelligence on Iraq's nuclear ambitions.

Libby made his first inquiries about Wilson's travel to Niger in late May 2003 - a trip the government sent him on in early 2002 to check on reports that Saddam was trying to buy uranium - and by June 11 Libby was informed by a CIA official that Wilson's wife worked for the agency and might have sent him on the trip.

On June 12, 2003, the indictment alleges, Libby heard directly from Cheney that Plame worked for the spy agency.

"Libby was advised by the vice president of the United States that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA in the counterproliferation division. Libby understood that the vice president had learned this information from the CIA," Fitzgerald said.

A short time later, Libby began spreading information to reporters, starting with The New York Times' Judith Miller on June 23.

The indictment says a substantial number of people in the White House knew about Plame's CIA status before the publication of Robert Novak's column on July 14, 2003, including former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, who was mentioned by title and not name.

Rove's potential legal problems stem in part from the fact that he failed initially to disclose to prosecutors a conversation in which he told Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper that Plame worked for the CIA. Rove says the conversation slipped his mind.

2005-10-28T21:03:41Z
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press.

The Top Nine Plamegate Lies

As the possibility of high-level indictments increases, the misinformation battle intensifies; get the truth behind the major falsehoods.

As U.S. attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald's two-year investigation into the CIA leak case reportedly draws to a close, the long-standing debate over the origins of the scandal, the merits of the federal investigation, and the legal authority of the prosecutor has intensified greatly. At issue is the disclosure to the press of the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame, which first appeared in syndicated columnist Robert D. Novak's July 14, 2003, column. Bush administration officials allegedly leaked her identity in order to discredit her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, a vocal critic of the White House's decision to go to war with Iraq.

In this rhetorical environment characterized by limited information and boundless speculation, those defending the officials at the center of Fitzgerald's probe have advanced numerous falsehoods and distortions. As Media Matters for America documents below, the media have not only failed to challenge many of these claims, but also repeated them.

Falsehood: It is legally significant whether the leakers disclosed Plame's name in their conversations with reporters

Shortly after Newsweek published an email by Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper to Time Washington bureau chief Mike Duffy saying that, according to White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove, "Wilson's wife" worked at the CIA, Rove's lawyer responded by noting that his client had not stated her actual name. Several news outlets went on to report Rove's response as if his reported omission of Plame's name was relevant to whether he violated the law. Simultaneously, commentators such as former presidential adviser David Gergen and Washington Times chief political correspondent Donald Lambro, as well as the Republican National Committee (RNC), began to advance the argument that because Rove didn't specifically name her, he did not reveal her identity.

But whether leakers identified Plame as "Valerie Plame," "Valerie Wilson," or "Wilson's wife" is irrelevant, both as a practical matter and likely as a legal matter. Practically speaking, a quick Google search of Joseph Wilson at the time would have produced Plame's actual name. As such, administration defenders have declared that whether her name was mentioned to reporters likely has no bearing on whether there was a violation of the law. Despite having previously implied that there is a meaningful distinction between disclosing her name and her identity before, Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, later conceded that drawing such a line was "too legalistic." Similarly, Victoria Toensing, the Republican lawyer who helped draft the potentially applicable 1982 Intelligence Identities Protection Act (IIPA), agreed that the use of her name is "not an important part of whether this is a crime or not."

Nonetheless, numerous media figures recently revived this claim in the wake of New York Times reporter Judith Miller's revelation that the source who told her that Plame worked at the CIA, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, also never disclosed her actual name.

Falsehood: Wilson said that Cheney sent him to Niger

An RNC talking points memo made public on July 12 accused Wilson of falsely claiming "that it was Vice President Cheney who sent him to Niger." The allegation that Wilson had lied about the genesis of his trip was soon repeated by RNC chairman Ken Mehlman, who argued that this fact justified the purported leaking of Plame's identity to the press and that the White House had simply been attempting to set the record straight.

New York Times columnist David Brooks made this argument at least twice (here and here). And a string of journalists and commentators -- including CNN's Dana Bash, the Washington Post's Mike Allen, Newsweek's Jon Meacham, and U.S. News and World Report's Michael Barone -- parroted the allegation during news reports and media appearances in the following weeks. NBC chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell recently repeated the claim as a guest on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews.

But Wilson never said that Cheney sent him to Niger. To support this accusation, the RNC had misrepresented his July 6, 2003, op-ed in the New York Times and distorted a remark he made in an August 3, 2003, interview on CNN's Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer. Contrary to their allegation, Wilson clearly stated in the op-ed that "agency officials" had requested he travel to Niger. Further, in the CNN appearance, he stated it was "absolutely true" that Cheney was unaware he went on the trip.

Falsehood: Plame suggested Wilson for the trip to Niger

In their ongoing attempts to justify the alleged leaks, Mehlman and other supporters claimed that the White House had a legitimate interest in setting the record straight by disclosing that Plame, not Cheney, was actually responsible for Wilson being sent to Niger. In a January 2005 Washington Post op-ed, attorneys Victoria Toensing -- a friend of Novak -- and Bruce W. Sanford framed the leak in such a light and suggested that Novak outed Plame because he wanted to "expose wrongdoing" -- i.e., the alleged nepotism that led to Wilson's assignment. Numerous reporters subsequently repeated that Plame suggested Wilson for the trip, including the Washington Post's Jim VandeHei, MSNBC host Chris Matthews, and, most recently, MSNBC correspondent David Shuster.

But what these reporters stated as fact is actually in dispute. Unnamed intelligence officials have been quoted in the media claiming that the CIA -- not Plame -- selected Wilson for the mission. Also, CIA officials have disputed the accuracy of a State Department intelligence memo that reportedly indicates that Plame "suggested" Wilson's name for the trip. Novak himself claimed that the Senate Intelligence Committee, in its 2004 "Report on the U.S. Intelligence Community's Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq," concluded that Plame suggested the trip. In fact, the committee did not officially conclude that she had been responsible for Wilson's assignment.

Falsehood: Wilson was not qualified to investigate the Niger claims

In conjunction with the claim that nepotism led to the selection of Wilson for the trip to Niger, several conservative media figures have attempted to cast the former ambassador as unqualified to investigate the claims that Iraq attempted to purchase uranium yellowcake form the African country. Toensing has repeatedly claimed that he lacked "any experience in WMD" and "any kind of senior experience in that country." National Review Washington editor Kate O'Beirne has described Wilson as "no expert in weapons of mass destruction." But Wilson possessed extensive diplomatic experience, had specialized in Africa during most of his career, and had taken a similar trip to Niger in 1999 to investigate possible purchases by Iran.

Falsehood: Plame's CIA employment was widely known

In an apparent effort to undermine the possibility that the alleged White House leakers committed a crime, both the Washington Times editorial page and right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh have argued that Plame's identity was known by many in Washington, D.C., at the time Novak published his column outing her as "an agency operative." As support for this argument, the Times claimed that "numerous neighbors were aware that she worked for the agency."

In fact, none of the neighbors cited in the Washington Times' own news reports or in other reports said that they knew before reading the Novak column that Plame worked at the CIA. Her acquaintances told reporters that they believed she worked as a private "consultant."

Falsehood: Fitzgerald must prove that Plame's covert status was leaked

Recent reports from a number of news outlets have attributed legal significance to whether Rove and Libby leaked Plame's covert status to the press. But as with the issue of whether Plame's actual name was leaked, whether the officials communicated her status as a covert operative is likely not relevant to the question of whether their actions violated federal law.

According to news reports, a 2003 State Department memo -- which was likely read by top administration officials during a trip to Africa -- designated as "S" for "secret" a section mentioning Plame, even though it did not mention her covert status. Therefore, the information allegedly disclosed by Rove and Libby -- that she worked at the CIA -- was apparently classified.

Falsehood: Fitzgerald's investigation was originally limited to possible violation of 1982 law

Conservative commentators have reacted to reports that Fitzgerald is looking at a variety of legal approaches to the CIA leak investigation by characterizing him as a "runaway prosecutor" or a Captain Ahab "chasing a white whale." The argument put forth by Toensing, as well as columnists Richard Cohen and George F. Will is that, in pursuing such charges, the special prosecutor is overstepping his mandate. The claim underlying this argument is that the Department of Justice (DOJ) originally granted him authority to investigate whether the alleged leakers had violated the 1982 Intelligence Identities Protection Act (IIPA).

But the DOJ's delegation of Fitzgerald as special prosecutor gave him broad authority to investigate the leaks; it made no mention of the IIPA, nor did it name any other specific statute.

The DOJ official who appointed Fitzgerald as special prosecutor, then-deputy attorney general James Comey, stated in a December 30, 2003, press conference that "Mr. Fitzgerald alone will decide ... what prosecutive [sic] decisions to make" and that "he can pursue it [the leak investigation] wherever he wants to pursue it." In a February 6, 2004, letter to Fitzgerald, Comey further clarified that his delegation included the "authority to investigate and prosecute violations of any federal crime laws related to the underlying alleged unauthorized disclosure, as well as federal crimes committed in the course of, and with intent to interfere with, your investigation, such as perjury, obstruction of justice, destruction of evidence, and intimidation of witnesses."

Despite the lack of evidence that the DOJ limited the scope of Fitzgerald's investigation in any way, two recent New York Times articles (here and here) reported that he was appointed to investigate "whether government officials had violated a 1982 law that makes it a crime in some circumstances to disclose the identity of an undercover agent."

Similar to this baseless claim is Weekly Standard editor William Kristol's recent assertion that the CIA referred the case to the DOJ specifically as a possible violation of the IIPA. But the initial news reports on the referral indicate that the CIA more generally requested that the DOJ "investigate allegations that the White House broke federal laws by revealing the identity of one of its undercover employees." Moreover, a "former government official" quoted in Newsweek stated that the CIA's referral never even mentioned the IIPA.

Falsehood: Leak investigation is the result of partisan motivations

Conservative commentators have made what appear to be preemptive accusations that Fitzgerald is a partisan. Numerous Fox News personalities -- including Chris Wallace, Sean Hannity, Stuart Varney, and Bill O'Reilly -- have stated that his probe represents the "criminalization of politics." William Kristol penned a Weekly Standard editorial on the topic titled "Criminalizing Conservatives." On the October 19 edition of Fox News' Your World with Neil Cavuto, nationally syndicated radio host Mike Gallagher claimed that this investigation -- like the recent indictment of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) on money laundering charges -- "is driven by partisan politics."

But Fitzgerald is no Democratic partisan. In September 2001, President Bush appointed Fitzgerald to his current post as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois upon the recommendation of then-Sen. Peter Fitzgerald (R-IL). When then-deputy attorney general James Comey selected Fitzgerald as special prosecutor in December 2003, he cited his "sterling reputation for integrity and impartiality" and described him as "an absolutely apolitical career prosecutor." And in a recent interview on NBC's Today, President Bush described the prosecutor's investigation as "dignified." Moreover, in his capacity as U.S. attorney, Fitzgerald is also currently conducting an "intense" investigation of the Democratic mayor of Chicago, Richard M. Daley, and his administration.

Despite Fitzgerald's background, Limbaugh suggested on the October 20 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show that if the outcome of the CIA leak investigation is "over the top," he and other conservatives may target the prosecutor:

LIMBAUGH: [W]e're going to be watching ... very carefully here to see what Fitzgerald does, the special prosecutor here. If he conducts himself in a way that we find over the top, we'll say so. You can count on it. Now, you liberals, you viciously attacked [former independent counsel] Ken Starr. You went out there and tried to portray him as a sexual pervert, a voyeur. You did everything you could to destroy Ken Starr's reputation and his life, and now you demand that we accept whatever comes down the pike that we must be consistent. Well, it depends on what it is. If it stinks, I will say so. Pure and simple.

Falsehood: Leaks go on all the time in Washington

In defense of the Bush administration officials alleged to have disclosed Plame's CIA identity, numerous media figures have attempted to downplay the alleged leak as par for the course in Washington. Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen claimed that such leaking is "what Washington does day in and day out" and that it "is rarely considered a crime." On the October 20 edition of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, Republican strategist Ed Rollins stated, "We know for sure that a couple of very high-ranking White House guys talked to some reporters and basically tried to go out and diminish someone who was criticizing them. I mean, that goes on every single day in the White House."

But Cohen and Rollins glossed over the fact that this leak allegedly involved the identity of a CIA operative -- potentially a crime -- although Cohen subsequently issued a "clarification" in which, responding to readers, he wrote that he does consider "the outing of a covert employee a serious matter." Former President George H.W. Bush expressed his view of such actions during an April 26, 1999, speech at the dedication of the CIA's George Bush Center for Intelligence. He stated: "I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the name of our sources. They are, in my view, the most insidious of traitors."

today's top stories...

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CIA Leak:
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Cheney Told Aide of C.I.A. Officer, Lawyers Report
Notes of a previously undisclosed conversation between the vice president and his chief of staff appear to differ from I. Lewis Libby's federal grand jury testimony.

Bushies take aim at probe
President Bush's damage-control handlers are plotting a sophisticated war room offensive to fight back against possible indictments in the CIA leak probe.

Frustrated Scowcroft Assails Neo-Cons, Cheney
One week after a top aide to former Secretary of State Colin Powell issued a blistering attack on foreign policy-making in the George W. Bush administration, Brent Scowcroft, who served as national security adviser under Bush's father, assailed neo-conservatives who persuaded the president to go to war in Iraq. In an interview with The New Yorker magazine, Scowcroft, whose relations with the Bush administration have been badly strained since he publicly warned against invading Iraq seven months before U.S. troops crossed over from Kuwait, argued that the invasion was counter-productive.

The Top Nine Plamegate Lies
As the possibility of high-level indictments increases, the misinformation battle intensifies; get the truth behind the major falsehoods.


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Wars:
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US toll in Iraq approaches 2,000
The American military yesterday announced the combat deaths of four more U.S. troops in Iraq, bringing to 1,997 the number of American service members who have died in Iraq since the war began 21/2 years ago. Of the 1,997 who have died, 139 were killed before President Bush declared the cessation of major combat in Iraq on May 1, 2003. Forty-six servicewomen have died. As the death toll mounts, often overlooked is the number of wounded. Related: Not one more death - not one more dollar - On the day after the 2,000th reported U.S. military death in Iraq, people will gather in communities across the U.S. to say that the country’s pro-peace majority wants Congress to stop the deaths by stopping the dollars that are funding the war.

Galloway rejects perjury claim
UK MP denies lying to a US senate committee and challenges accusers to charge him. Also see: Galloway 'lied to Senate' and Galloway challenges US senators to charge him with perjury and another Charge me, Galloway tells senators over new claims

White House Seeks Exception in Abuse Ban
Stepping up a confrontation with the Senate over the handling of detainees, the White House is insisting that the Central Intelligence Agency be exempted from a proposed ban on abusive treatment of suspected Qaeda militants and other terrorists. The Senate defied a presidential veto threat nearly three weeks ago and approved, 90 to 9, an amendment to a $440 billion military spending bill that would ban the use of "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" of any detainee held by the United States government. This could bar some techniques that the C.I.A. has used in some interrogations overseas.

List of Foiled Plots Puzzling to Some
A White House list of 10 terrorist plots disrupted by the United States has confused counterterrorism experts and officials, who say they cannot distinguish between the importance of some incidents on the list and others that were left off. Intelligence officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the White House overstated the gravity of the plots by saying that they had been foiled, when most were far from ready to be executed. Others noted that the nation's color-coded threat index was not raised from yellow, or "elevated" risk of attack, to orange, or "high" risk, for most of the time covered by the incidents on the list.

U.S. Operatives Killed Detainees During Interrogations in Afghanistan and Iraq
The American Civil Liberties Union today made public an analysis of new and previously released autopsy and death reports of detainees held in U.S. facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan, many of whom died while being interrogated. The documents show that detainees were hooded, gagged, strangled, beaten with blunt objects, subjected to sleep deprivation and to hot and cold environmental conditions. “There is no question that U.S. interrogations have resulted in deaths,” said Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU. “High-ranking officials who knew about the torture and sat on their hands and those who created and endorsed these policies must be held accountable. America must stop putting its head in the sand and deal with the torture scandal that has rocked our military.”

Iraqis say yes to constitution
Iraq's constitution passed as final results from the country's 18 provinces are announced.


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Headlines:
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Rape victim: 'Morning after' pill denied
Although it is safe, effective and legal, emergency contraception - the "morning after" pill - can be hard to find in Tucson. After a sexual assault one recent weekend, a young Tucson woman spent three frantic days trying to obtain the drug to prevent a pregnancy, knowing that each passing day lowered the chance the drug would work. While calling dozens of Tucson pharmacies trying to fill a prescription for emergency contraception, she found that most did not stock the drug. When she finally did find a pharmacy with it, she said she was told the pharmacist on duty would not dispense it because of religious and moral objections.

UNM Leading Effort on Rabbit Fever Vaccine
The University of New Mexico is leading an effort to create a vaccine for a rare but infectious disease. Tularemia, also called rabbit fever, is transmitted by rodents and acts like a severe form of the flu. It's fatal 30 percent of the time. ''It's thought that only a few organisms are needed to infect a person. The problem is if a weaponized version of the disease is released on the public, there aren't any vaccines available to the public right now to fight it,'' said Rick Lyons, director of the UNM Center for Infectious Disease and Immunity. ALSO SEE: Lab tests on 'rabbit fever' germ found at peace rally

FBI Papers Indicate Intelligence Violations
The FBI has conducted clandestine surveillance on some U.S. residents for as long as 18 months at a time without proper paperwork or oversight, according to previously classified documents to be released today. Records turned over as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit also indicate that the FBI has investigated hundreds of potential violations related to its use of secret surveillance operations, which have been stepped up dramatically since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks but are largely hidden from public view.

Colleges Protest Call to Upgrade Online Systems
The federal government, vastly extending the reach of an 11-year-old law, is requiring hundreds of universities, online communications companies and cities to overhaul their Internet computer networks to make it easier for law enforcement authorities to monitor e-mail and other online communications.

Pentagon program costing taxpayers millions in inflated prices
The Pentagon paid $20 apiece for plastic ice cube trays that once cost it 85 cents. It paid a supplier more than $81 apiece for coffeemakers that it bought for years for just $29 from the manufacturer. That's because instead of getting competitive bids or buying directly from manufacturers like it used to, the Pentagon is using middlemen who set their own prices. It's the equivalent of shopping for weekly groceries at a convenience store. And it's costing taxpayers 20 percent more than the old system, a Knight Ridder investigation found.

Minutemen wrap up month-long watch of Canadian border
Unlike the relative public welcome given to their efforts in the south, the Minutemen have been met with numerous protests in northern states. The Boston Globe reports that two weeks ago when a group went to the Vermont border, they were outnumbered by protesters.

US Judge Sets December Date to Execute Nobel Peace Prize Nominee
A US judge signed a death warrant for a former street gangster and convicted killer who went on to be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in tackling youth violence. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William Pounders set a December 13 date for the execution of Stanley "Tookie" Williams, noting that his appeal against his death sentence had been rejected by the US Supreme Court on October 11. Williams, who co-founded Los Angeles' deadly Crips gang, was convicted in 1981 for the murders of four people and has been incarcerated in a small cell on the death row of San Francisco's San Quentin prison since then. But since receiving his death sentence, Williams, 51, has renounced his gang past, penned children's books, been the subject of a television movie starring Jamie Foxx and been nominated for the world's top peace prize.

Rosa Parks dies, aged 92
Woman who sparked US civil rights movement dies.


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Politics:
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Insiders see hint of Miers pullout
The White House has begun making contingency plans for the withdrawal of Harriet Miers as President Bush's choice to fill a seat on the Supreme Court, conservative sources said yesterday.

Let the Rule of Law Prevail
In the 1990s, "rule of law" was hot, but Republicans have now decided that the whole "rule of law" thing really isn't all it's cut out to be.


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Economy:
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Bernanke Seen as Safe Choice
President chooses Fed chairman candidate with unassailable credentials and enough distance from the White House to blunt charges of cronyism.

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International:
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Global campaign to help child Aids victims
Unicef says it is a 'disgrace' that more than 95% of children with Aids were not receiving any treatment.

Could Syria have been so stupid?
Yes, and full cooperation with the UN following its investigation into the assassination of Rafik Hariri may be the only way the Assad regime can survive. Related: Syria: The Next Iraq?


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Environment:
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Recharged Hurricane Wilma Lashes Florida
A rejuvenated Hurricane Wilma came ashore in Florida early Monday morning with winds of 125 miles an hour (200 kilometers an hour) and a possible storm surge of 18 feet (5.5 meters). Related: Photo Gallery: Wilma Ravages Mexican Resorts ~ Hurricane Wilma struck Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula last Friday, damaging resort towns and trapping thousands of tourists in cramped shelters.

Amazon Logging Twice as Heavy as Thought, Images Show
Damage to the Amazon rain forest has been underestimated by half, according to new high-resolution satellite images, which have revealed long-hidden logging activities.

Dogs Used as Shark Bait on French Island
Live and dead dogs and cats are being used as shark bait by amateur fishers on the French-controlled island of Réunion, according to animal-welfare organizations and local authorities.

What Part of 'Global Warming' Don't We Get?
It's time for the denial to end, but Washington is governed by a bipartisan consensus that somehow the laws of physics and chemistry don’t apply to us.


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And now, the good news – Drumroll, please...
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Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's website!

Fitzmas!

Rachel Maddow has realized the thing we've been ignoring for too long during the Rovakgate Rumorfest. The right isn't just speculating idly on what might be good political strategy here... They’re telegraphing what's about to happen. In fact, one of two things MUST happen now:

(A) Fitzgerald is going to disappoint everyone who wants to see indictments in this case by closing up shop (still a possibility), or

(B) Fitzgerald is going to sprout a HUGE bullseye on his head that says ATTENTION RIGHTWINGERS! AIM YOUR FLAMING DOOKIE HERE!

The right may end up hating this investigation for a million reasons, but they'll take it all out on the prosecutor (at least in the short run) if there are indictments. In a way that Dems never did to Kenneth Starr.

Need a refresher on what they're doing to Ronnie Earle in the DeLay case? Here's a handy reminder.

I say it's time for the left to learn a little something about Patrick J. Fitzgerald.

Homework time!

Start here - Washington Post profile.
A great post on him from the White Rose Society here.
Also a good Baltimore Sun profile (via Boston.com) here.

Quizzes come due Fitzmas morning.

Today's Top Stories...

Wars:
Bush told Blair of 'going beyond Iraq'
George Bush told Tony Blair shortly before the invasion that he intended to target other countries, including Saudi Arabia.

In a Scripted TV Scene, Soldiers Reassure Bush
In a videoconference linking him by satellite to a group of soldiers in Iraq, President Bush sought and won their assurances on Thursday that Iraqi forces are up to the job of helping American troops provide security for the voting there this weekend. The event, stage-managed for television, came across as carefully scripted and a bit awkward, despite attempts to prepare the soldiers for what they would be asked and to give them time to think through their answers.

Using Asia's Poor to Build U.S. Bases in Iraq
War on Iraq: Companies like Halliburton are importing 'third country nationals' -- and putting them to work in horrible conditions -- to fulfill their U.S. government contracts.

Judge Is Urged to Deny More Access to Detainees on Hunger Strike
Terrorism suspects on a hunger strike at the American detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, should not be allowed to speak in person or even by telephone with relatives and friends because of "security" risks.

U.S. Accused of Cutting Off Food
GENEVA — A United Nations human rights investigator Friday accused U.S. and British forces in Iraq of breaching international law by depriving civilians of food and water in besieged cities as they try to flush out militants.


Hurricanes:
New Orleans police brutality caught on film
Police in New Orleans were today facing accusations of brutality after four officers were filmed by a television camera crew beating up a black drunk - as a fifth officer set on the producer. The footage, captured by Associated Press Television News, showed the officers repeatedly punching Robert Davis in the head outside a bar in Bourbon Street. The 64-year-old was seen with his face pushed to the pavement, and bloody wounds on his face and neck. Meanwhile, another officer ordered Rich Matthews, the APTN producer, to stop recording. When Mr Matthews held up his credentials and explained that he was working, the officer grabbed him, pushed him backwards over a car and jabbed him in the stomach. After being questioned, the three officers were arrested late yesterday and charged with battery.

New Orleans: After the flood, the hard truths
Sharks in Canal Street? Snipers on rooftops? Terror in the Superdome? David Usborne sorts the reality from the myth to find out what really happened when Hurricane Katrina hit the Big Easy.


Headlines:
Vietnamese girl had bird flu resistant to drug
A strain of H5N1 bird-flu virus found in an infected Vietnamese girl is resistant to the drug being stockpiled by more than a dozen countries, including the United States, as a defense against a possible global pandemic. Related: Tests confirm deadly bird flu strain in Romania

New Orleans Euthanasia Probe
Louisiana investigates allegations that hospital staff conducted mercy killings in the days after Katrina.

US rejects British hurricane relief meals over mad cow fears
Meals sent by Britain to feed victims of Hurricane Katrina at a cost of nearly £2.7m have been rejected by the US.

80% of Poor Lack Civil Legal Aid, Study Says
Legal aid offices are so stretched that they routinely turn away qualified prospective clients.

3 more polio cases found among Amish
MINN. - State health officials have tracked four cases of polio infection to a Todd County Amish community, where a long-standing mistrust of vaccines could dampen efforts to contain the outbreak.


Politics:
Rove Pressed On Conflicts
The grand jury investigating the CIA leak case pressed White House senior adviser Karl Rove yesterday to more fully explain his conversations with reporters about CIA operative Valerie Plame, including discrepancies between his testimony and the account provided by a key witness in the investigation. Also see, Bush Adviser Goes Before Grand Jury Again and Rove faces grand jury ~ Top Bush aide warned he could face indictment over role in CIA leak case. Related: Jitters at the White House Over the Leak Inquiry

DeLay Uses Campaign to Berate Prosecutor
Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) is using his congressional campaign to distribute to voters derogatory comments about the Texas prosecutor who has indicted him — and to raise more money for a reelection bid that has been affected by the criminal case.

Lautenberg: congratulations Halliburton and Vice President Cheney!
Senator Frank R. Lautenberg reiterated his call for Vice President Dick Cheney to forfeit his continuing financial interest in the Halliburton Co (HAL), in light of the surging value of Vice President Cheney's Halliburton holdings. Vice President Cheney continues to hold 433,333 Halliburton stock options, now worth $9,214,154.93 (at close yesterday.) Also see, Cheney's Halliburton stock options rose 3,281% last year, senator finds

White House defends talk of Miers' religion
President Bush suggested Wednesday that Harriet Miers' evangelical Christian beliefs were part of the reason he nominated her to the Supreme Court. But later a White House spokesman said her religion played no role in her selection.

New strategy on Miers planned
he White House, caught off-guard by the intensity of the conservative backlash to Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, plans to try to refocus the debate over the next week onto her legal qualifications and away from issues such as her religion. We've officially politicized the Judiciary... Great... Related: Miers' Priority: Bush or the Constitution ~ Rights and Liberties: Harriet Miers' deep loyalty to George Bush could lead to her making dangerous interpretations of the Constitution.

The Harriet And George Letters
Sure, nobody seems to know anything about Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers's judicial philosophy, abortion position, or conservative bona fides. But here's something not open for debate: the old gal loves exclamation points and seemed to enjoy writing gushy notes to then-Governor George W. Bush.

Negroponte creates new spying service
But some wonder if new agency, and CIA's retention of human intelligence, are result of backroom deal.

Popular doll-maker American Girl becomes target of conservative protest
American Girl, manufacturer of a highly popular line of dolls and children's books, has become the target of conservative activists threatening a boycott unless the toy maker cuts off contributions to a youth organization that supports abortion rights and acceptance of lesbians. Godforbid we teach our little girls tollerance...


Economy:
Prices up, wages lag
Not since 1980 has inflation risen so quickly in one month. Most workers are losing ground, ending up with less spending power. Related: Inflation skyrockets after hurricanes


International:
Many Pakistanis wait in vain for relief after earthquake
Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan said today that the official death toll in Pakistan had risen to 38,000, up from the previous official toll of 25,000.

European antiterror laws limit free speech
Muslim leaders get caught between new legislation and community expectation to sermonize on politics.

Russian Forces Crush Rebels After Two Days of Fighting
All of the hostages in Kabardino-Balkaria are freed by troops. The death toll stands at 108, including 72 militants and 12 civilians.

Ex-Leader of Ecuador Held on His Return
MANTA, Ecuador — Former President Lucio Gutierrez, ousted from office in April, returned to Ecuador on Friday in a bid to regain power but was arrested moments after his plane landed.


Environment:
World Temperatures Keep Rising With a Hot 2005
New international climate data show that 2005 is on track to be the hottest year on record, continuing a 25-year trend of rising global temperatures. Climatologists at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies calculated the record-breaking global average temperature, which now surpasses 1998's record by a tenth of a degree Fahrenheit, from readings taken at 7,200 weather stations scattered around the world.

Landslide damages route to Machu Picchu ruins
Peru's famed Inca ruins of Machu Picchu evacuated after landslide knocked out about 400 metres (1,300 feet) of railway track.

Forest Die-Off Linked to Global Warming
Researchers believe the massive die-offs of New Mexico's state tree, the pinyon, during the drought of 2002 and 2003 could be a harbinger of life in a warming world.

Windfall? No, but Savings Ahead
The soaring costs of coal- and gas-fired power plants will allow wind-energy customers to pocket other benefits of their investment.


And now, the good news...
Simple Life Cancelled by Fox
Paris Hilton has been dumped again. This time, it is an entire television network doing the ditching, because Paris and Nicole Richie's reality show, The Simple Life, has been cancelled by Fox.

Photoshop Fun...

BEFORE -

What Harriet really looks like:

AFTER -

Progress for America air-brushing:

Can you tell the difference? Uhm, guys, she's a 60 year old workaholic - she is supposed to have wrinkles and bags under her eyes.

Progress for America has since removed the obviously air-brushed photos with the original - but only after getting caught.

Meanwhile, what's the connection between Harriet Miers and Ben Barnes, the guy from the 60 Minutes Bush National Guard memo?

today's top stories...

++++++++++++++++++++
Wars:
++++++++++++++++++++
White House Losing Ground on Prisoner Treatment
Despite strong opposition from the Pentagon and the White House, the Republican leadership in the U.S. Senate is coming under growing pressure to set specific standards for the "humane" treatment of detainees taken in Iraq and elsewhere in the George W. Bush administration's "war on terror". That pressure is being focused on proposed amendments, first offered last July by Sen. John McCain, a former combat pilot who was captured and held as a prisoner of war (POW) at the infamous "Hanoi Hilton" for most of the Vietnam War, and three other Republican co-sponsors to the 2006 defense bill. Under orders from the administration, which last week repeated its threat to veto the entire 400-billion-dollar bill if the amendments are attached, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has so far maneuvered to prevent them from coming to the floor for a vote.

Army Moves to Recruit More High School Dropouts
Army Secretary Noel Harvey and vice chief of staff Gen. Richard Cody said Monday that the Army was using looser Defense Department rules that permitted it to sign up more high school dropouts and people who score lower on mental-qualification tests, but they denied that this meant it was lowering standards. Until Army recruiters began having trouble signing up enough recruits earlier this year, the Army had set minimum standards that were higher than those of the Defense Department. The Army has a recruiting shortfall of 6,000 to 8,000 soldiers over the past 12 months. It hasn't fallen so short of its annual goal since 1979, several years after the Vietnam war.

Army widow finds contradictions
Was 1st Sgt. Christopher Coffin's death an accident? Or was it an ambush?

Lawsuit seeks punitive damages from contractor in Afghan crash
A contractor bears full responsibility for a plane crash in Afghanistan that killed three soldiers, including one from Connecticut, an attorney claims in an amended lawsuit. Attorney Robert Spohrer filed the amended complaint seeking punitive damages Tuesday in federal court in Orlando on behalf of the soldiers' families.

Iraq cedes to UN on referendum
Iraq's national assembly backs down from controversial and possibly illegal plans to change the counting method for next week's referendum.

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Hurricanes:
++++++++++++++++++++
Final Katrina death toll put at 972 as search is called off
The door-to-door search for corpses from in Hurricane Katrina has ended in Louisiana. The death toll stands at 972, substantially fewer than the 10,000 New Orleans' Mayor, Ray Nagin, had feared. Mississippi's death toll remains at 221.

New Orleans lays off 3,000 workers
Around 3,000 city workers lose their jobs in the aftermath of Katrina.

Katrina and Rita leave insurers with largest ever bill
The $50bn figure easily surpasses the insurance bill for Hurricane Andrew, which hit Florida in 1992 and caused $22bn of damage in today's money, a record for a single natural disaster.

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Headlines:
++++++++++++++++++++
Bush tells GOP: Miers is one of us
Seeking to quell a revolt within his own party, President Bush offered a robust defense of his new Supreme Court nominee as well as his own conservative credentials Tuesday. A day after tapping White House counsel Harriet Miers for associate justice, Bush appeared in the Rose Garden to reject charges of cronyism, criticism of her scant constitutional background and suspicion of her judicial philosophy. He said that his nominee to the Supreme Court shares his conservative views. Meanwhile, Dr. James Dobson, chairman of Focus on the Family, and Jay Sekulow, chief counsel to the American Center for Law & Justice, see in Miers: a fifth vote for overturning Roe v. Wade. Bush even got Dobson's approval beforehand. Related, Activists Hunt for Paper Trail on Miers and President, Citing Executive Privilege, Indicates He'll Reject Requests for Counsel's Documents Also see: The Unification of Church and State ~ Big surprise, and big trouble: Bush's new Supreme Court nominee is a Texas conservative and a fundamentalist Christian and Claims of cronyism force Bush to defend choice for Supreme Court

White House Urges Supreme Court to Reinstate Abortion Ban
The Bush administration has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a federal appeals court decision holding that the "Partial-Birth" Abortion Ban Act imposes an undue burden upon a woman's right to an abortion. This summer the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit ruled that the controversial act, which was signed into law by President Bush in 2003, is unconstitutional because it does not contain an exception for the health of the woman.

Grand jury re-indicts Tom DeLay on new money laundering charge
A Texas grand jury re-indicted Rep. Tom DeLay on charges of conspiring to launder money and money laundering after the former House majority leader attacked last week's indictment on technical grounds. The new indictment, handed up by a grand jury seated Monday, contains two counts: conspiring to launder money and money laundering. The latter charge carries a penalty of up to life in prison. Last week, DeLay was charged with conspiracy to violate campaign finance laws.

80% of US Military equipment in South Korea not mission capable
Critical U.S. military war stocks in South Korea -- including M1A1 tanks, howitzers and Bradley Fighting Vehicles -- fell into such significant disrepair in the past year that it could have slowed a U.S. ground response to North Korean hostilities or another Pacific conflict, unreleased classified and unclassified U.S. government reports show.

Bankruptcy Filings Soar In Advance of New Law
Two weeks before a new, more restrictive national bankruptcy law goes into effect, financially strapped Americans are rushing to file for protection from their creditors, with filings climbing to an unprecedented average of 13,000 a day last week.

Authorities announce arrests in deadly Hispanic attacks
Authorities announced the arrests of two men Tuesday stemming from a string of brutal attacks in south Georgia last week that targeted immigrant farm workers. The bloody crime spree left six workers dead, either shot or bludgeoned to death with baseball bats, four workers injured and a woman raped.

Congress Wants Answers to Biological Threat Response
Congress wants answers as to why the Department of Homeland Security and the Centers for Disease Control delayed in alerting local authorities about a possible biological threat in the nation's capital.

++++++++++++++++++++
Politics:
++++++++++++++++++++
Campaign finance in age of DeLay
If nothing else, the recent indictments of Rep. Tom DeLay (R) of Texas offer a window into the difficulties of limiting the flow of money into politics. Looked at from one point of view, the DeLay case shows how complicated campaign-finance law has become, and how easy it may be to commit violations. From another, it may illustrate how easy it might be to circumvent current restrictions - and push fundraising tactics to the edge of legality.

Supremes Mull Right-To-Die
First case to come before Roberts court is charged issue of physician-assisted suicide. Meanwhile, Administration Urges Court to Strike Down Assisted-Suicide Law

++++++++++++++++++++
Economy:
++++++++++++++++++++
A Doozie of a Recession
Recessions begin when consumers suddenly discover they can no longer keep pace with their bills. And this one has already begun.

Bush mulls Greenspan's replacement
President Bush is preparing for another high-profile nomination: a successor to Alan Greenspan, whose 18-year run at the Federal Reserve ends in just over three months.

Profit warnings keep Wall St under pressure
Wall Street was lower amid a raft of profit warnings and renewed fears over inflation and interest rates

US drivers steering around high gas costs
Sales figures show interest in SUVs is in decline, while hybrid popularity is soaring. Related: Rita and Katrina knock over £400m off BP's profit· Oil company's output falls by 145,000 barrels a day · Bill for lost production and repairs could total $1.7bn

Toyota buys GM’s stake in Fuji Heavy Industries
Toyota has decided to acquire GM’s stake in Fuji Heavy Industries, marking a setback for the US manufacturer’s grand plan for Japan, which involved the acquisition of strategic stakes in three of the country’s carmakers.

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International:
++++++++++++++++++++
Catholic Church no longer swears by truth of the Bible
With creationism gaining hold in the US, Catholic bishops in Britain are instructing the faithful that parts of the Bible are not historically accurate.

Rwanda's army accused of killing civilians after mass grave of hundreds is uncovered in Congo
United Nations soldiers believe they have uncovered mass graves in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where hundreds of civilians executed by Rwandan soldiers were buried.

Breaking the silence
Rania al-Baz reveals what happened when she dared to challenge the Saudi culture of violence against women.

++++++++++++++++++++
Environment:
++++++++++++++++++++
El Salvador flood disaster worsened by deforestation
In the small town of Colon, El Salvador, soldiers, rescue workers and volunteers pulled bodies from the wreckage of homes yesterday, after flooding and a mudslide killed dozens of people in Central America.

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And now, the good news:
++++++++++++++++++++
Yanks win & Boston tanks!

PRES. BUSH PICKS WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL, AND FORMER PERSONAL LAWYER, TO REPLACE JUSTICE O'CONNOR

October 3, 2005

President Bush picks his current White House Counsel, Harriet Miers, to be the next U.S. Supreme Court justice following Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's decision to retire from the bench. Miers has never been a judge, and previously served as Bush's personal lawyer. http://news.lp.findlaw.com/ap/o/51/10-03-2005/c40300233b66762c.html

Her Litigation Record: http://pview.findlaw.com/view/2172806_1?channel=LP

Learn About Miers' Background: http://news.lp.findlaw.com/ap/o/51/10-03-2005/3d7e000351750f7d.html

FindLaw's Supreme Court Center: http://supreme.lp.findlaw.com/

today's top stories...

Prez appoints Miers - who has never been a judge - to Supreme Court
President Bush nominated White House counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court on Monday, turning to a lawyer who has never been a judge to replace Sandra Day O'Connor and help reshape the nation's judiciary.

US finds fever bacteria during war protest weekend
Small amounts of bacteria that cause "rabbit fever" were found on Washington's National Mall last weekend as thousands of protesters marched against the Iraq War, U.S. health authorities said on Saturday. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said several government environmental air monitors in the Mall area detected low levels of Francisella tularensis bacteria that cause tularemia, commonly known as rabbit fever, on September 24-25. The CDC said the bacteria can be used as a weapon if made into an aerosol that could be inhaled. Also see: Health Officials Vigilant for Illness After Sensors Detect Bacteria on Mall

Wine, beer, liquor cash flows into Hatch coffers
Sen. Orrin Hatch, a former LDS bishop who does not drink, has taken more money from wine, beer and liquor groups this year than any other congressional candidate. The alcohol interests gave him $25,000. Rep. Mike Thompson, R-Calif., whose district is in California's wine country, is second with $21,568. In third place with $20,000 is Rep. Anne M. Northrup, R-Ky., who represents an area famous for bourbon. That is not all. Hatch, R-Utah, who follows his LDS faith's admonition against smoking, took the fifth-most money this year among all congressional candidates from tobacco interests. The $13,000 he took was more than was donated to such tobacco-state politicians as Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C. ($11,000), and Rep. Mike McIntyre, D-N.C. ($9,500). Again, Hatch, who says he also opposes gambling, as does his LDS faith, took the 15th most among Senate candidates this year from gambling interests. The $8,000 he accepted was more, for example, than has been accepted by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who also is a Latter-day Saint and who represents a state famous for casinos. Reid took $5,000 from such groups.

Tom DeLay's Indictment - Water Cooler Version

Here's the flashcard version of Rachel Maddow's "Tom DeLay's Indictment Made Easy".

11 SECONDS VERSION:
If you're running for state legislature, you can't take money from companies. That's Texas law, and has been for a century.

Tom DeLay took companies' money, and sent it to the national republican party.

The republican party sent him back the exact same amount, and he doled it out to state candidates.

That's what the indictment says.

For the 45 SECONDS VERSION, add these details:
The Texas legislature has basically always been democratic controlled, since Reconstruction.
DeLay wanted republicans to take over the legislature so they would redraw congressional districts in Texas.

He used the illegal corporate money to get that republican majority in the legislature in 2002.
The republican-controlled legislature then redistricted Texas.

Texas then sent 5 more republican members of congress to DC, increading the republican majority in congress by 5 seats.

All based on illegal money.

But you can see why national republicans are standing by DeLay -- his scheme was for the good of his party (and the detriment of democracy).

For the 90 SECONDS VERSION, add these two details:
DETAIL 1:
DeLay and the republicans are calling Ronnie Earl, the Travis County DA who is prosecuting the case, a partisan hack. Earl has prosecuted 12 democrats in his career, and 4 republicans.

DETAIL 2:
There are a number of connections to the President here -- despite the fact that DeLay and Bush don't seem to much like each other. Most interesting to me is this one --
When DeLay's guy sent that illegal corporate money to the national republican party, he enclosed a little note with a list of all the state candidates who were supposed to get checks in return. That note was addressed to a man named Terry Nelson -- the man responsible for sending back the illegally laundered money. Terry Nelson's next job was national political director of the Bush-Cheney reelection campaign.

DIRECTIONS:
Cut, re-format, print, and paste on cardstock. Prop in frame of bathroom mirror. Memorize while brushing your teeth. Unleash on co-workers at water cooler or while washing hands in the bathroom. Determine which co-worker is most shocked. Buy said co-worker lunch.

Today's Top Stories...

+++++++++++++++++++++
Wars:
+++++++++++++++++++++
Sleepless Night For Marines
Mortar fire rattles battalion as it camps out during hunt for Iraqi insurgents.

U.S. Troops Launch Offensive in Iraq
Nearly 1,000 U.S. troops battled insurgents near the Iraqi-Syrian border, targeting foreign fighters loyal to al Qaeda.

Bombing Kills 14 Iraqis in Hilla; Toll in Balad Attacks Rises to 85
A car bomb exploded in a crowded vegetable market Friday morning in the already bloodied southern Iraqi city of Hilla, killing 14 people, including women and children, and wounding at least 50 others.

Top generals say U.S. troops' presence may fuel insurgency
The U.S. generals running the war in Iraq presented a new assessment of the military situation in public comments and sworn testimony this week: The 149,000 U.S. troops in Iraq are increasingly part of the problem. Meanwhile, U.S. Commander Doubts Iraq Troop Cutbacks

Ad "unleashes hell" for Boeing
Boeing and its partner Bell Helicopter apologized for an ad depicting U.S. troops rappelling onto a mosque.

+++++++++++++++++++++
Hurricanes:
+++++++++++++++++++++
Gas Bills Skyrocketing
Local home heating bills will jump 70 percent in October in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

New Orleans' Racial Future Hotly Argued
The U.S. housing chief expresses doubts about rebuilding, and draws anger and concern.

Smaller Towns Bore the Brunt of Rita's Force
A week after Hurricane Rita struck, its effect on rural towns in Louisiana and Texas is only now becoming evident.

Aid to Families: FEMA Discontinues $2,000-a-Household Benefit
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has discontinued its $2,000-per-household emergency assistance program for victims of Hurricane Katrina, switching to a more regimented aid package intended to encourage families to leave shelters.

+++++++++++++++++++++
Headlines:
+++++++++++++++++++++
Grand jury foreman cites "stacks" of evidence against DeLay
Grand jurors were presented a load of evidence, including testimony and phone records, that led them to believe Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, should be tried on a conspiracy charge, the leader of the Travis County grand jury that indicted the congressman said yesterday. Meanwhile, DeLay Arraignment Is Set for Oct. 21.

Reporter Testifies About Source
Judith Miller is said to have told a grand jury, probing the naming of a CIA operative, about talks with a member of the vice president's staff. Also see: Times Reporter Testifies to Jury in C.I.A. Leak Case & Cheney aide was CIA leak source ~ Reporter released after naming Lewis Libby, who may face charge of obstructing justice. Related: Why did Cheney aide stay silent? ~ Judith Miller named Cheney’s closest adviser as the leak of the identity of a CIA agent linked to an anti-Iraq war protest.

Italy links abduction to U.S. Embassy staff, issues arrest warrant
Italian authorities have ordered the arrests of a former U.S. Embassy official here and two other people in connection with a "rendition" case in which CIA operatives allegedly kidnapped a radical Muslim cleric from Milan and flew him to Egypt, where he has said he was tortured.

Bill Would Give Cover to Pentagon Spies in U.S.
In an effort to thwart domestic terror, some privacy protections would be rolled back. Also see: GOP Senators Look to Shift Spy Management From CIA

5 Immigrants Slain at Trailer Parks
Five men were killed and at least six people were wounded early Friday in what appeared to be a string of robberies targeting Latino immigrants at trailer parks in and around a Georgia city, authorities said. Related: Record Number Of Border Deaths ~ This year has been the deadliest on record for people trying to enter the United States.

Few answers in medical copter crash
Police, the Coast Guard and the NTSB searched the waters off Edmonds for debris, bodies and answers.

+++++++++++++++++++++
Politics:
+++++++++++++++++++++
GAO Faults Faked Reports
Education Department broke propaganda rules, a congressional investigation finds.

Buying of News by Bush's Aides Is Ruled Illegal
Federal auditors said the administration had disseminated "covert propaganda" in the U.S., in violation of a statutory ban.

Shades of FEMA's Brown in Bush Pick
Less than a month after the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency stepped down amid accusations of cronyism and incompetence, the Bush administration is being assailed for nominating another political ally to head a key agency for responding to foreign disasters.

Bennett defends remarks on blacks, abortion and crime rates
William Bennett yesterday defended comments he made on his "Morning in America" radio talk show suggesting that aborting black children would reduce crime. Also see: Abort all black babies and cut crime, says Republican ~ President Bush distances himself from comments made by leading Republican.

+++++++++++++++++++++
Economy:
+++++++++++++++++++++
Economy wobbles in wake of Katrina
Consumer spending fell in August at the steepest rate since the Sept. 11 attacks as Hurricane Katrina slashed Americans' incomes, fanned inflation and caused $170 billion in losses from property damage, the government reported yesterday in its first tally of the storm's economic effects.

Trade Group Says U.S. Tax Breaks Are Illegal
A panel of the World Trade Organization has ruled that the United States is still providing illegal tax breaks to American exporters.

Fuel prices spur American to drop flights
American Airlines said it would temporarily cancel 15 domestic services and drop one flight to Japan after the price of jet fuel soared to almost $125 a barrel in a move likely to be followed by other carriers.

+++++++++++++++++++++
International:
+++++++++++++++++++++
Bali Bombings Leave 19 Dead, 51 Injured
Bombs exploded almost simultaneously Saturday in two tourist areas of the Indonesian resort island of Bali, killing at least 19 people and wounding 51 others.

Brazil Weighs National Gun Ban
With the highest number of firearms fatalities in the world, country takes proposed gun ban to ballot.

Police raid finds 19 women held as 'sex slaves'
Nineteen women from eastern Europe thought to have been tricked into becoming sex slaves have been rescued during police raids.

+++++++++++++++++++++
Environment:
+++++++++++++++++++++
Controversy Stalks Inaugural South Dakota Cougar Hunt
South Dakota's inaugural cougar hunting season begins Saturday. Is it a managed recreational opportunity or a threat to big cat survival?

Hawaii Bans Fishing Off N.W. Islands
Fishing will be banned and public access limited in the state waters surrounding the tiny islands and atolls of the northwestern Hawaiian Islands, which stretch for 1,200 nearly pristine miles across the Pacific.

One Species Nearly Extinct
As trekkers continue 400-mile North Coast journey, they encounter a dying breed: independent fishermen.

Amazon dries out as worst ever drought hits rainforest
· Drop in water level affects towns dependent on river
· Crisis blamed on Gulf coast hurricanes

Wild Gorillas Use Tools, Photos Reveal
Researchers have photographed wild gorillas using sticks to navigate a swampy clearing in Africa. The images provide the first documented use of tools among wild gorillas.

One of these things is not like the others...

Look closely at the cover of the book Hughes
is passing out to Turkish kids…

One of these things is not like the others,

One of these things just doesn't belong,

Can you tell which thing is not like the others

By the time I finish my song?

Did you guess which thing was not like the others?

Did you guess which thing just doesn't belong?

If you guessed this one is not like the others,

Then you're absolutely...right!

My response - as Howard Dean would say – ARRRAGGGGHHHHH!

Judith Miller Released from Prison after telephone conversation with Scooter Libby...

Judith Miller, The New York Times reporter who has been jailed since July 6 for refusing to identify a source, has been released, The Inquirer has learned.

Miller left an Alexandria, Va. jail late this afternoon, a jail official said.

She was released after she had a telephone conversation with the Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby, sources said. In that conversation, Libby reaffirmed that he had released Miller from a promise of confidentiality more than a year ago, sources said.

The special prosecutor in the case, Patrick Fitzgerald, has sought to compel Miller to reveal her source to a grand jury investigating whether Bush administration officials leaked the name of a CIA covert officer, Valerie Plame.

A 1982 federal law makes it a crime to disclose the name of American covert agents.

Plame's husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, has said he believes his wife's name was leaked as part of an effort to discredit his criticsm of the Administration's build up to the war in Iraq.

Columnist Robert Novak's July 2003 column sparked the controversy by naming Plame as a CIA operative who worked on weapons-of-mass-destruction issues.

Prosecutors have interviewed President Bush and Cheney and the federal grand jury has taken testimony from senior Bush aides, including advisors Karl Rove and Libby.

In July, a federal judge ordered Miller jailed for refusing to testify about her sources before the grand jury. Miller never wrote an article about Plame.

It could not be immediately determined whether Miller has now agreed to testify.

The judge also threatened to jail Time Magazine reporter Matt Cooper, but Cooper was spared incarceration after agreeing to testify at the last minute, saying Rove had given him a personal release to identify him as a source.

A spokesman for Fitzgerald did not immediately return phone calls.

Libby's lawyer, Joseph A. Tate of Philadelphia, declined to comment.

Since July, Miller had been held in suburban Virginia at the Alexandria Detention Center.

According to The Washington Post, her visitors included former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw, U.N. ambassador John R. Bolton and former senator Robert J. Dole (R-Kan.).

Bill Bennett - Racist...? Me thinks so...

Addressing a caller's suggestion that the "lost revenue from the people who have been aborted in the last 30 years" would be enough to preserve Social Security's solvency, radio host and former Reagan administration Secretary of Education Bill Bennett dismissed such "far-reaching, extensive extrapolations" by declaring that if "you wanted to reduce crime ... if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down." Bennett conceded that aborting all African-American babies "would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do," then added again, "but the crime rate would go down."

Bennett's remark was apparently inspired by the claim that legalized abortion has reduced crime rates, which was posited in the book Freakonomics (William Morrow, May 2005) by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. But Levitt and Dubner argued that aborted fetuses would have been more likely to grow up poor and in single-parent or teenage-parent households and therefore more likely to commit crimes; they did not put forth Bennett's race-based argument.

From the September 28 broadcast of Salem Radio Network's Bill Bennett's Morning in America:

CALLER: I noticed the national media, you know, they talk a lot about the loss of revenue, or the inability of the government to fund Social Security, and I was curious, and I've read articles in recent months here, that the abortions that have happened since Roe v. Wade, the lost revenue from the people who have been aborted in the last 30-something years, could fund Social Security as we know it today. And the media just doesn't -- never touches this at all.

BENNETT: Assuming they're all productive citizens?

CALLER: Assuming that they are. Even if only a portion of them were, it would be an enormous amount of revenue.

BENNETT: Maybe, maybe, but we don't know what the costs would be, too. I think as -- abortion disproportionately occur among single women? No.

CALLER: I don't know the exact statistics, but quite a bit are, yeah.

BENNETT: All right, well, I mean, I just don't know. I would not argue for the pro-life position based on this, because you don't know. I mean, it cuts both -- you know, one of the arguments in this book Freakonomics that they make is that the declining crime rate, you know, they deal with this hypothesis, that one of the reasons crime is down is that abortion is up. Well --

CALLER: Well, I don't think that statistic is accurate.

BENNETT: Well, I don't think it is either, I don't think it is either, because first of all, there is just too much that you don't know. But I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could -- if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down. That would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down. So these far-out, these far-reaching, extensive extrapolations are, I think, tricky.

Bill Bennett's Morning in America airs on approximately 115 radio stations with an estimated weekly audience of 1.25 million listeners.

— A.S.

A tip from The Ed Schultz Show contributed to this item. Thanks, and keep them coming.
Posted to the web on Wednesday September 28, 2005 at 3:18 PM EST

Get write a complaint and help get this schmoe off the air:

Contacts:
Bill Bennett more » ~ E-mail: E-mail form
Bill Bennett's Morning in America more » ~ Website
Salem Radio Network more » ~ Contact form

today's top stories...

**BREAKING NEWS***
Roberts Approved as Next Chief Justice
John G. Roberts Jr. was confirmed by a wide majority as President Bush's selection to replace the late William H. Rehnquist. YEAs 78; NAYs ---22: Akaka (D-HI), Bayh (D-IN), Biden (D-DE), Boxer (D-CA), Cantwell (D-WA), Clinton (D-NY), Corzine (D-NJ), Dayton (D-MN), Durbin (D-IL), Feinstein (D-CA), Harkin (D-IA), Inouye (D-HI), Kennedy (D-MA), Kerry (D-MA), Lautenberg (D-NJ), Mikulski (D-MD), Obama (D-IL), Reed (D-RI), Reid (D-NV), Sarbanes (D-MD), Schumer (D-NY) and Stabenow (D-MI)

Wars:
The 'Second' Man
U.S. intelligence officials and counterterrorism analysts are questioning whether a slain terrorist—described by President Bush today as the “second-most-wanted Al Qaeda leader in Iraq”—was as significant a figure as the Bush administration is claiming.

Federal judge orders release of photographs, videotapes from Abu Ghraib prison ~ A federal judge Thursday ordered the release of dozens more pictures of prisoners being abused at Abu Ghraib, rejecting government arguments that the images would provoke terrorists and incite violence against U.S. troops in Iraq.

Hurricanes:
FEMA Under Fire Again, Now for Rita Effort
Saying they were caught off-guard by the number of people in need, FEMA officials closed a relief center early on Wednesday after some of the hundreds of hurricane victims in line began fainting in triple-digit heat. The midday closing of the Houston disaster relief center came as officials in areas hit hardest by Hurricane Rita criticized FEMA's response to the storm, with one calling for a commission to examine the emergency response.

Inquiry into £133M bill for evacuee cruise ships
Dozens of disaster relief contracts awarded after Hurricane Katrina struck are under investigation for price hiking.

Mrs Bush gives victims an Extreme Makeover
Laura Bush has appeared in a reality TV show in an unorthodox attempt to show the White House is dealing with the hurricane crisis.

Headlines:
National Guard has a mere 1/3 of the equiptment it needs for Homeland Security ~ With most of its best equipment in Iraq, the National Guard has only about one-third of the helicopters, trucks, radios and other supplies it needs for homeland security, the Guard's top commander said Thursday. Meanwhile, Military wary of disaster role ~ Some say a bigger homeland mission would hamper war capabilities.

President Bush Pardons 14 People
President Bush granted pardons Wednesday to 14 people, including a member of the mineworkers union who was convicted for his role in bombings at a West Virginia coal mine, a counterfeiter and a bootlegger.

Head of US Customs, Immigration & Boarder Control Resigns
The head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced his resignation Wednesday after overseeing the agency's transition to a front-line component of the war on terror. His departure has been expected for months. He and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff have been at odds over issues including whether to transfer control of the civil air patrols over the Washington area from Bonner's agency to the U.S. Coast Guard.

Bush Waives Two Arms Control Restrictions on Libya
President Bush on Wednesday issued an order to let U.S. companies work with Libya to destroy its stockpile of chemical weapons _ a move the U.S. is taking in response to Libya's voluntary efforts to disarm. In another order, the president waived restrictions on Libya so it can refurbish eight C-130 aircraft the nation bought from the United States in the 1970s. Bush's actions waived certain restrictions of the Arms Export Control Act, which prohibits defense exports to Libya because it is on Washington's list of states that sponsor terrorism. The waivers are in keeping with the U.S. commitment to unblock Libyan property in the United States and respond to Libya's steps to disarm. This is our plan? Convince Libya to disarm by arming them? Huh?

Politics:
What's the Deal With the Tom DeLay Indictment?
On Wednesday, a Travis County, Texas, grand jury transformed national power-politics in Washington, handing down an indictment of the powerful House majority leader, Tom DeLay (R-TX). DeLay, 58, was forced to resign his majority leader position, the second most powerful in the House, after he was indicted on one count of criminal conspiracy. The case alleges that DeLay and two political associates laundered corporate contributions to a now defunct Texas political action committee they formed, Texans for a Republican Majority PAC (TRMPAC), to benefit Texas GOP candidates, in violation of state campaign finance laws.

Karen Hughes Gets Earful About Iraq From Turks
Sent to improve America's image in the Muslim world, President Bush's public relations chief stressed the need for better dialogue in her brief address Wednesday to Turkish women activists. What Karen Hughes got back was a barrage of criticism about the U.S. war in Iraq.

Bush Near End of O'Connor Successor Search
President Bush, nearing the end of his search for a successor to retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, has whittled his list to a handful of candidates and could announce his decision by week's end.

Economy:
Wall Street weighed down by data and oil
Wall Street stocks were modestly lower on Thursday morning as encouraging news from several blue-chip companies and a high-profile acquisition in the financial sector were overshadowed by data highlighting the impact of hurricanes on the economy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged off 0.3 per cent to 10,440.68, while the broader S&P 500 index also gave up 0.3 per cent, to 1,213.48. The Nasdaq Composite index lost 0.3 per cent to 2,108.58. Applications for unemployment benefits rose largely owing to the hurricanes in the southern US. A renewed rise in crude oil and petrol prices also weighed on stocks.

International:
Japanese angered over UN reform
Tokyo feels it has earned itself a seat on the United Nations Security Council

Environment:
Arctic ice melts at record level
Coverage 20% below average amid fears destructive cycle could affect weather.

Paxil Alert for Pregnant Women
The popular antidepressant Paxil may increase the risk of birth defects if pregnant women take it during the first trimester.

And now, the good news...
Yankees 2, Orioles 1: Yankees Rebound From Start to Finish to Take East Lead
The Yankees had done their part to take over first place by themselves. They had edged the Baltimore Orioles, 2-1, on Wednesday night, getting the kind of steely pitching that had deserted them in a blowout loss the night before. Now, all they needed was a loss by the Red Sox in Boston. Two televisions in the Yankees' clubhouse - one above Alex Rodriguez's locker, one above Mariano Rivera's - showed the final inning of the Red Sox game. There was no audible reaction when the Toronto Blue Jays won, but the Yankees knew what it meant: first place was theirs, by one game, and their eighth consecutive American League East title was in their sights.

today's top stories...

**BREAKING NEWS**
DeLay Indicted in Texas Campaign Finance Probe
A grand jury today charged the House majority leader and two associates with conspiracy in a campaign finance scheme. Read the indictment here.

Iraq & Afghanistan:
Depleted uranium tests for US troops returning from Iraq
US troops returning from Iraq are to be offered state-of-the-art radiation testing to check for contamination from depleted uranium - a controversial substance linked by some to cancer and birth defects.

'Police terrorists' raid school and kill teachers in sectarian attack
Five Shia schoolteachers and a school bus driver have been killed in a Sunni-dominated village south of Baghdad, in an attack likely to heighten sectarian hostility. Uniformed policemen arrived at the village school near the town of Iskandariya at the end of classes and took the six men to a part of the school where there were no children and shot them.

Baghdad in the dark as power cuts continue to blight the city
Surveying an abandoned, night-time street in Baghdad, Nadum Ali Jawad is one of the many Iraqis who are fed up with being left in the dark.

Kabul blast kills nine
Suicide bomber attacks military training camp in Kabul, killing at least nine people and wounding 28.

Afghan minister quits over opium trade
In a blow to efforts to rebuild Afghanistan, the Interior Minister announced his resignation yesterday, amid reports he had quit because of the involvement of senior government officials in the illegal drug trade.

Katrina & Rita:
Brown Tries to Deflect Blame
Former FEMA director Michael D. Brown gave an emotional, sometimes angry account Tuesday of what went wrong with the government's response to Hurricane Katrina, blaming much of the failure on Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco and New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin.Brown, who recently resigned as the Federal Emergency Management Agency's chief amid harsh criticism of his own performance and credentials for the job, told a House committee that Louisiana's efforts were "dysfunctional" as Katrina bore down on New Orleans. Brown's remarks represented his first full public accounting of how he handled the emergency relief effort. Brown also blamed the Bush administration for what he termed the "emaciation" of FEMA. He depicted an agency that had lost key personnel, budget fights and a sense of mission after being merged with the mammoth Department of Homeland Security.His account of missteps in the response to Katrina and problems surrounding FEMA met with withering attacks from committee members.Two lawmakers told Brown they were glad he was no longer FEMA's chief. One of them, Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.), derided Brown as "clueless," and questioned why he was still on FEMA's payroll after resigning Sept. 12.The sometimes caustic exchanges between Brown and panel members — most of them Republicans — appeared likely to keep the Bush administration on the political defensive as it tries to project a strong commitment and direction in dealing with rebuilding New Orleans and other parts of the Gulf Coast.Democrats have made Brown an example of what they say is cronyism rampant in the Bush administration, and polls have found that the president's handling of the response to Hurricane Katrina damaged his image as a strong and competent leader.

After the storm, US media held to account for exaggerated tales of Katrina chaos
The stories out of New Orleans in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina were little short of sickening: armed gangs terrorising evacuees in the Superdome and convention centre, bodies piling up by the dozen amid the stench and human waste, bodies stuffed into a freezer, children raped, murdered and thrown into waste bins. One month after the storm, however, it appears that few, if any, of the most lurid reports breathlessly repeated on American television, echoed in official statements and duly reported in many of the world's newspapers, had any basis in fact. Several reporters and officials who have revisited the emblematic sites of the peculiarly chaotic hell that was New Orleans in the wake of Katrina now say the death toll at the Superdome was just six - and four of those were the result of natural causes. The fifth victim overdosed on drugs and the sixth committed suicide.

New Orleans: Prisoners Abandoned to Floodwaters
Inmates in Templeman III, one of several buildings in the Orleans Parish Prison compound, reported that as of Monday, August 29, there were no correctional officers in the building, which held more than 600 inmates. These inmates, including some who were locked in ground-floor cells, were not evacuated until Thursday, September 1, four days after flood waters in the jail had reached chest-level. Human Rights Watch compared an official list of all inmates held at Orleans Parish Prison immediately prior to the hurricane with the most recent list of the evacuated inmates compiled by the state Department of Corrections and Public Safety (which was entitled, “All Offenders Evacuated”). However, the list did not include 517 inmates from the jail, including 130 from Templeman III. Uhm, where are they? Many of the men held at jail had been arrested for offenses like criminal trespass, public drunkenness or disorderly conduct. Many had not even been brought before a judge and charged, much less been convicted.

Armed and dangerous - Flipper the firing dolphin let loose by Katrina
It may be the oddest tale to emerge from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Armed dolphins, trained by the US military to shoot terrorists and pinpoint spies underwater, may be missing in the Gulf of Mexico. Experts who have studied the US navy's cetacean training exercises claim the 36 mammals could be carrying 'toxic dart' guns. Divers and surfers risk attack, they claim, from a species considered to be among the planet's smartest. The US navy admits it has been training dolphins for military purposes, but has refused to confirm that any are missing. Dolphins have been trained in attack-and-kill missions since the Cold War. The US Atlantic bottlenose dolphins have apparently been taught to shoot terrorists attacking military vessels. Their coastal compound was breached during the storm, sweeping them out to sea. But those who have studied the controversial use of dolphins in the US defence programme claim it is vital they are caught quickly.

Bush seeks to place Pentagon in charge of disaster response
Congress Asked to Consider Placing Pentagon in Charge of Disaster Response.

Headlines:
Cheney leaves hospital after surgery
Vice President Dick Cheney was released from a Washington hospital on Sunday, one day after he underwent surgery to treat aneurysms behind both knees. Did you know it was experimental surgery? Wonder why?

Politics:
Frist says he had no Inside Information before his stock sale
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist promises to cooperate with federal investigators into his sale of stock in his family's hospital company, but says he had no insider information. Speaking publicly Monday for the first time about his sale of HCA Inc. stock, Frist told reporters he had received Senate Ethics Committee approval before authorizing the sale of shares. The sale was completed just before HCA's stock price dipped. The Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission are looking into Frist's actions, as well as circumstances inside the Nashville, Tenn.-based hospital chain once known as Hospital Corp. of America Inc. On Monday, the SEC chairman, former Rep. Christopher Cox, said he would remove himself from the agency's investigation to avoid a potential conflict. Questions were raised as to whether Frist, R-Tenn., had special information before the sale because insiders in HCA also sold stock during the same period _ and the stock price dipped soon after Frist sold his stock. Reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission showed insiders sold about 2.3 million shares, worth about $112 million, from January through June, said Mark LoPresti of Thomson Financial. The senator's brother, Thomas Frist Jr., is a former chief executive of HCA and is now a director and the largest individual shareholder in the company.

FDA Chief Resigned Over Financial Disclosures
Lester M. Crawford's wife has told family members that an unintentional failure to disclose financial holdings prompted his sudden resignation as commissioner of food and drugs last week, her brother said yesterday. Oh, so it has nothing to do with the guy being a VETERINARIAN and everything to do with money?

Saudi Women have Message for Karen Hughes
The audience - 500 women covered in black at a Saudi university - seemed an ideal place for Karen P. Hughes, a senior Bush administration official charged with spreading the American message in the Muslim world, to make her pitch. But the response on Tuesday was not what she and her aides expected. When Ms. Hughes expressed the hope here that Saudi women would be able to drive and "fully participate in society" much as they do in her country, many challenged her. "The general image of the Arab woman is that she isn't happy," one audience member said. "Well, we're all pretty happy." The room, full of students, faculty members and some professionals, resounded with applause. The administration's efforts to publicize American ideals in the Muslim world have often run into such resistance. For that reason, Ms. Hughes, who is considered one of the administration's most scripted and careful members, was hired specifically for the task. Many in this region say they resent the American assumption that, given the chance, everyone would live like Americans.

Intelligent design tied to creationism in Dover, PA trial
Board members who succeeded in introducing "intelligent design" to students in Dover Area School District were wary of evolutionary theory and explicit in their desire to balance the teaching of evolution with a more Christian-friendly philosophy, three plaintiffs testified yesterday during the second day of a landmark federal trial.

Economy:

International:
Nightmare for African Women: Birthing Injury and Little Help
New cases of fistulas, unknown in the West for nearly 100 years, are far outpacing corrective surgeries.

Environment:
Go easy on gas, says Bush
Call for energy saving after hurricanes. Meanwhile, Bush heads out on his SEVENTH trip to the Gulf Coast.

Global warming: Death in the deep-freeze
As global warming melts the world's ice sheets, rising sea levels are not the only danger. Viruses hidden for thousands of years may thaw and escape - and we will have no resistance to them.

Legend of the deep
Captured on film for the first time in the wild, a giant squid attacks a baited long line off the coast of Japan.

IRA TO DISARM

Sinn Fein chief negotiator Martin McGuinness is travelling to Washington on Tuesday amid intense speculation that disarmament by the Provisional IRA is imminent and could come as soon as next week.

On the day before the statement by the Provisional IRA ending its armed struggle at the end of July, Mr McGuinness also travelled to Washington to be in a position to discuss the announcement with senior US politicians and Irish-American supporters.

This is seen as just part of a series of events in which Sinn Fein is preparing supporters for the further winding down of the IRA.

At an internal party conference on Thursday, Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams told senior party members that the public and even republicans have not fully absorbed just how significant was the July IRA statement pledging to end its armed campaign and decommission.

Mr Adams, who is meeting Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in Dublin today, said in emphatic terms in a speech in the republican area of south Armagh that the IRA would deliver on its July pledges, and that this could prove difficult for republicans.

Today Mr Adams meets the Taoiseach, Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern and Minister for Justice Michael McDowell, while he will speak at a Sinn Fein Irish unity rally in Dublin tomorrow.

In Mullaghbawn in south Armagh, Mr Adams addressed Sinn Fein leaders and elected representatives.. Departing from his prepared address, he told this Sinn Fein audience that the IRA would meet its pledges to end activity and disarm. "Let me give a clear signal here: the Army is going to deliver on its commitments on the armed struggle.

"And republicans are going to hear that in the news. And republicans may feel a sense of deflation. There is nobody going to be cheering. So once that [shock] is absorbed we are going to be challenged on [a range] of other issues as well."

Mr Adams, in again departing from his script last night, suggested that the recent IRA initiative had been underestimated.

"This is something that in many, many ways is a potentially huge sea change, not just for us, for the people of the North, but for the entire island. I think it has changed the political context utterly. I don't think republicans have absorbed what it is about. I don't think the media have absorbed what it is about, I don't think our enemies have absorbed what it is about.
"But when the Army delivers, when our opponents and our enemies no longer have the IRA to use as an excuse, what are they going to do?"

Mr Adams indicated that the Provisional Republican Movement, by removing itself from the physical-force tradition, could make advances in an exclusively peaceful campaign to achive unity.

Again going off script he said, "What 'the army' has done is to take a huge step of confidence in the rest of us, that we can actually take this bouncing ball and bring it forward."
He saw IRA moves as bringing major political advances for Sinn Fein. "The potential for significant growth throughout the island is massive. Why can't we have a Sinn Fein cumann in every townland or parish. The fact is that republicans are now in a new era of struggle," added Mr Adams.

On Wednesday, British Direct Ruler Peter Hain insisted that IRA decommissioning is of a "momentous" and "credible" nature to further the political process in the North.

Mr Hain said that the "signs were good" that the IRA was meeting its pledge in the statement to end all activity. "The reports and information I have seem to suggest it is being delivered upon on the ground," he said.

However, Mr Hain said what was critical in order to create fresh political momentum was that the entire community would believe that the IRA also lived up to its commitment to fully disarm.
"What is important is that they move, not just sooner rather than later, but that they move with credibility so that everybody, including even the most sceptical and suspicious, can be convinced that the promises to dump arms on July 28th are genuinely being implemented and the decommissioning is a major and momentous event," he added.

Mr Hain said that following decommissioning, Independent Monitoring Commission reports, most importantly January's IMC report, could further establish that the IRA had truly ended its armed campaign and put its arms beyond use.

Thereafter there would be pressure for political negotiations leading to the restoration of the Northern Executive, he indicated. "Then we can get moving," said Mr Hain.

The Truth about Katrina...

Louisiana Governor Declares State of Emergency FRIDAY, AUGUST 26, 2005

Louisiana Governor's SUNDAY, AUGUST 28 letter to President Bush Requesting Immediate Response

Katrina could unleash disaster ~ NOTE! The article is dated Monday, August 29 ~ Some 25 feet of standing water was expected in many parts of the city -- almost twice the height of the average home -- and computer models suggest that more than 80 percent of buildings would be badly damaged or destroyed, said Ivor van Heerden, deputy director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center and director of the Center for the Study of Public Health Impacts of Hurricanes in Baton Rouge. Floodwaters from the east would carry toxic waste from the "Industrial Canal" area, nicknamed after the chemical plants there. From the west, floodwaters would flow through an industrial complex that includes refineries and chemical plants, said van Heerden, who has studied computer models about the impact of a strong hurricane for four years. George - you REALLY NEED TO START READING!!!

Offers of Aid Immediate, but U.S. Approval Delayed for Days
Offers of foreign aid worth tens of millions of dollars -- including a Swedish water purification system, a German cellular telephone network and two Canadian rescue ships -- have been delayed for days awaiting review by backlogged federal agencies, according to European diplomats and information collected by the State Department. Since Hurricane Katrina, more than 90 countries and international organizations offered to assist in recovery efforts for the flood-stricken region, but nearly all endeavors remained mired yesterday in bureaucratic entanglements, in most cases, at the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

FEMA director waited to seek Homeland help
The government’s disaster chief waited until hours after Hurricane Katrina had already struck the Gulf Coast before asking his boss to dispatch 1,000 Homeland Security workers to support rescuers in the region — and gave them two days to arrive, according to internal documents. Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, sought the approval from Homeland Security Secretary Mike Chertoff roughly five hours after Katrina made landfall on Aug. 29. Brown said that among duties of these employees was to “convey a positive image” about the government’s response for victims.

Santorum, Barbara Bush Criticized For Evacuee Comments
After a tour of the Houston Astrodome in Texas earlier this week, where thousands of hurricane victims are being housed, Barbara Bush said in a National Public Radio interview: "So many of the people here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them." And Santorum said in a weekend interview that people who don't heed future evacuation warnings may need to be penalized.

FEMA flys evacuees to wrong Charleston
A South Carolina health official said his colleagues scrambled Tuesday when FEMA gave only a half-hour notice to prepare for the arrival of a plane carrying as many as 180 evacuees to Charleston. But the plane, instead, landed in Charleston, West Virginia, 400 miles away.

In Baton Rouge, Evacuee Backlash
Last week came the rumors - of riots at Wal-Marts, of break-ins at homes, of drug gangs from New Orleans roaming the streets of its more sedate neighbor 75 miles up Interstate 10. Today came the reality - of a dozen or more relatives crowded under one roof, of hours stuck in traffic trying to get to school or work, of frustration and fear about what kind of city Baton Rouge will be with at least 100,000 evacuees and rescue workers added to the 227,000 residents it had before the storm hit. Make no mistake. The overwhelming response of people in Baton Rouge to Hurricane Katrina has been one of compassion and sacrifice with every church in town, it seems, housing or feeding evacuees. But there have also been runs on gun stores, mounting frustration over gridlocked roads and an undercurrent of fear about crime and the effect of the evacuees.

Bush's Role in State Fiscal Crises
The state are facing their worst budget crisis since the Great Depression. They face a collective deficit of about $100 billion during the coming months, a gap that must be closed by cuts in public services, hikes in taxes, or both. Two things are remarkable about this crisis. First, the national government, which is substantially implicated, is getting away almost scot-free. The fallout is hitting mainly governors, mayors, and state legislators, while the cuts are hitting citizens. Washington is AWOL. Second, the cause of the state fiscal crisis is widely misunderstood. To read the conservative press, you would think that states had gone on a spending spree in the 1990s. One of Bush's close allies, conservative political strategist Grover Norquist, has positively gloated about the states' plight. ''I hope a state goes bankrupt,'' he told The New York Times, suggesting an object lesson to other states to rein in their big-spending ways. This conservative claim is malarkey.

Closed New Orleans ports backing up shipments of food, other products ~ The Port of New Orleans, one of the five busiest in the nation, is out of commission, and that threatens to create a mushrooming crisis for many U.S. industries. Farmers in the Midwest depend on it to ship their wheat, corn, soybeans and other grains. The Mississippi River links to the Ohio, the Illinois and the Missouri rivers, and manufacturers from across the Midwest depend on vast fleets of inland river barges to carry chemicals, steel, rubber and other cargoes to world export through New Orleans. Before Katrina, about 60 percent of the nation's exports of raw grains floated down the Mississippi, but Katrina brought the grain trade to a near halt. Grain elevator operators had been holding inventory for months because of low world prices. Now, as the approaching harvest season for corn and soybeans creates increased demand for empty storage silos, a grain-export crisis looms.

New bankruptcy law imposes more burdens on Katrina survivors ~ Hurricane Katrina survivors whose finances are in shambles may not qualify for federal bankruptcy protection once a new law with tough eligibility restrictions takes effect Oct. 17. And anyone who intends to file before the new standards take effect must overcome other Katrina complications such as injuries, being moved to out-of-state shelters, the loss of personal financial records and the closure of the five federal courthouses in hurricane-ravaged areas of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention & Consumer Protection Act, which President Bush signed into law April 20, allows only people who earn less than their states' median income to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection, which lets them erase their debts after they forfeit their assets. Those who earn more than the state median income and can repay at least $6,000 over five years must file under a Chapter 13 bankruptcy-reorganization plan, which requires some repayment.

Hurricane to Cost U.S. 400,000 Jobs
An estimated 400,000 Americans will lose their jobs and the nation's economy will grow more slowly during the second half of this year as a result of the economic fallout from Hurricane Katrina, according to a federal report released Wednesday.But the long-term economic effect of the deadly storm that devastated New Orleans and the coast of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama will be relatively muted, and rebuilding activity should give the economy a boost, the Congressional Budget Office said. Sounds to me as if the corporates are licking their chops - I bet that imminent domain ruling recently made by the Supreme Court will come in handy!

Journalist Groups Protest FEMA Ban on Photos of Dead
Forced to defend what some critics consider its slow response to the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said on Tuesday it does not want the news media to take photographs of the dead as they are recovered from New Orleans. FEMA, which is leading the rescue efforts, rejected requests from journalists to accompany rescue boats as they went out to search for storm victims, Reuters reported.

Photojournalists Covering Katrina Fall Victim To Growing Violence, Chaos ~ As photojournalists continue to document the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina’s violent assault on the Gulf Coast, today they also found themselves documenting new violence and death among the survivors, the refugees, and the looters and police and rescuers in New Orleans, while some photojournalists even fell victim to the violence themselves. Lucas Oleniuk of the Toronto Star - was knocked to the ground by police, his gear taken from him initially, when he photographed them shooting at looters and then beating one. In response to the growing violence and an increasing sense of despair among the stranded survivors, some television networks have hired armed private security firms to protect their journalists as they work to cover the story.

Anger directed at FEMA leader
He's been called an idiot, an incompetent, and worse. The vilification of federal disaster chief Michael Brown, emerging as top scapegoat for whatever went wrong in the government's response to Hurricane Katrina, has ratcheted into the stratosphere. Democratic members of Congress are taking numbers to call for his head. Meanwhile, I'm fit for the job, disaster boss sez ~ Embattled FEMA head Mike Brown insists he is well-qualified to lead the nation's disaster response agency - though he spent his time before joining the Federal Emergency Management Agency probing whether a breeder was performing liposuction on a horse's rear end.

today's top stories...

Iraq::
'600 dead' in Baghdad stampede
More than 600 people were killed and hundreds injured this morning when rumors of a suicide bomber led to a stampede in a vast procession of Shiite pilgrims as they crossed a bridge on their way to a shrine in northern Baghdad. Reuters is reporting the death toll may exceed 1000.

US to hold Reuters cameraman for six months
Reuters cameraman being held without charge at Abu Ghraib to be detained for further six months while US military reviews his case.

Iraqi Constitution Dangerously Short of US Goals
Iraq's new draft constitution falls dangerously short of initial US goals and will likely fuel an increase in violence in the war-battered country, American analysts said. "It's not a good path we are on right now," said Flynt Leverett, of the Brookings Institution think tank here. "You have a situation now in which one or two things will happen, and both of them are bad."

Headlines:
Emergency crews losing battle to save New Orleans
Louisiana state officials prepared to abandon New Orleans to its fate today as the floodwaters engulfing the city rose steadily.

New Orleans Is Now Off Limits; Pentagon Joins in Relief Effort
A day after New Orleans thought it had narrowly escaped the worst of Hurricane Katrina's wrath, water broke through two levees on Tuesday and virtually submerged and isolated the city, causing incalculable destruction and rendering it uninhabitable for weeks to come.

War Strains Military's Ability to Help
With thousands of their citizen-soldiers away fighting in Iraq, states hit hard by Hurricane Katrina scrambled to muster forces for rescue and security missions yesterday -- calling up Army bands and water-purification teams, among other units, and requesting help from distant states and the active-duty military.

Superdome To Astrodome
At least 25,000 of Hurricane Katrina's refugees, a majority of them at the New Orleans Superdome, will travel in a bus convoy to Houston starting Wednesday and will be sheltered at the 40-year-old Astrodome

Despite more jobs, US poverty rate rises
New Census Bureau figures show an increase for the fourth straight year, surprising many analysts.

Politics:
Bush's Numbers at All-Time Low
Spiraling gas prices and ongoing bloodshed in Iraq continue to take their toll.

Teaching of Creationism Is Endorsed in New Survey
In a finding that is likely to intensify the debate over what to teach students about the origins of life, a poll released yesterday found that nearly two-thirds of Americans say that creationism should be taught alongside evolution in public schools.

Economy:
Oil, gas shatter records after Katrina
Crude prices settle at highest mark since NYMEX's opening in 1983 as oil firms assess rig damage.

Katrina slashes oil production by 92%
Hurricane Katrina shut down nearly all of the Gulf of Mexico's oil and natural-gas operations. U.S. Minerals Management Service said 615 of 819 platforms and 96 of 137 rigs in the Gulf evacuated their personnel ahead of the hurricane, halting the movement of more than 1.3 million barrels a day of oil production, or 92% of the region's regular output. Meanwhile, Bush weighs tapping strategic petroleum reserve.

U.S. Decision to Release Oil Sends Prices Below $70
The Energy Department said this morning it would release oil from the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve to keep refineries supplied, prompting a drop in crude oil prices, the first decrease since Hurricane Katrina slammed ashore on Monday and severely disrupted the energy infrastructure along the gulf.

Second-quarter growth revised down
Economic growth was a weaker in the second quarter than first thought as consumers spent less than estimated and businesses built inventories slightly.

Environment:
Republicans Accused of Witch-Hunt Against Climate Change Scientists
A far-reaching inquiry into the careers of three of the US's most senior climate specialists has been launched by Joe Barton, the chairman of the House of Representatives committee on energy and commerce. He has demanded details of all their sources of funding, methods and everything they have ever published. Mr Barton, a Texan closely associated with the fossil-fuel lobby, has spent his 11 years as chairman opposing every piece of legislation designed to combat climate change. He is using the wide powers of his committee to force the scientists to produce great quantities of material after alleging flaws and lack of transparency in their research. He is working with Ed Whitfield, the chairman of the sub-committee on oversight and investigations.

today's top stories...

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Conflicts, powder kegs & quagmires:
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The Trillion-Dollar War
THE human cost of the more than 2,000 American military personnel killed and 14,500 wounded so far in Iraq and Afghanistan is all too apparent. But the financial toll is still largely hidden from public view and, like the suffering of those who have lost loved ones, will persist long after the fighting is over. The cost goes well beyond the more than $250 billion already spent on military operations and reconstruction. Basic running costs of the current conflicts are $6 billion a month - a figure that reflects the Pentagon's unprecedented reliance on expensive private contractors. Other factors keeping costs high include inducements for recruits and for military personnel serving second and third deployments, extra pay for reservists and members of the National Guard, as well as more than $2 billion a year in additional foreign aid to Jordan, Pakistan, Turkey and others to reward their cooperation in Iraq and Afghanistan. The bill for repairing and replacing military hardware is $20 billion a year, according to figures from the Congressional Budget Office.

Iraq on Brink of Meltdown
The credibility of Iraq's political process was in danger last night as parliament again failed to vote on a draft constitution which a Sunni politician said was "fit only for the bin". The government had earlier announced plans to bypass parliament in an attempt to push through the document. But as the final hours ran out before the deadline for approving the constitution, Hajim al-Hassani, the speaker of the parliament, appeared to overrule the country's leaders by insisting that negotiations would continue today, meaning that the deadline would be missed for the third time. The impression of growing crisis in Iraq was reinforced when a new front erupted in the violent rebellion, with Shia Muslims fighting each other with guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

Hagel: Iraq growing more like Vietnam
Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska on Thursday said the United States is "getting more and more bogged down" in Iraq and stood by his comments that the White House is disconnected from reality and losing the war. Also see: Iraq Versus Vietnam: A Comparison of Public Opinion ~ Americans have become negative about the war in Iraq more quickly than they did for the Vietnam War. It took more than three years before a majority of Americans said it was a mistake to send troops to Vietnam, a state of affairs reached within a year and three months of the inception of the Iraq war. Meanwhile, our Prez Bush, currently in Crawford for "Operation Enduring Vacation", says "withdrawal from Iraq now emboldens the terrorists". Related: Bush: 'We Will Stay, We Will Fight'. However, according to the Financial Times, the US is expected to pull significant numbers of troops out of Iraq in the next 12 months in spite of the continuing violence, according to Gen Abizaid. I'm confused... How 'bout you?

Gen Wesley Clark on Iraq
The former NATO commander and Democratic presidential candidate took your questions.

Iraqi Constitution - NO DEAL
Talks aimed at persuading Sunni Arabs to back the text of a new Iraqi constitution have resumed after a deadline passed with no deal reached. Meanwhile, Political Violence Surges in Iraq ~ Political violence surged Thursday along many of Iraq's ethnic and sectarian fault lines, while Shiite and Sunni Arab political leaders haggled past a third deadline without reaching accord on a draft constitution.

Bodies of 36 Men Discovered in Iraq
The bodies of 36 men were discovered Thursday southeast of Baghdad on a road leading to Iran, police said. The bodies were naked and left on a road leading to Badrah, a town near the Iranian border.

American Legion Declares War on Protestors - Media next?
The American Legion, which has 2.7 million members, has declared war on antiwar protestors, and the media could be next. Speaking at its national convention in Honolulu, the group's national commander called for an end to all “public protests” and “media events” against the war. Meanwhile, No special treatment for journalists in Iraq, says US ~ The US military has told journalists working in Iraq they will be given no special consideration, as a Reuters cameraman remained imprisoned in the country's notorious Abu Ghraib.

UN fear at rise in Afghan attacks
The UN Security Council says it is gravely concerned about increased attacks by Taleban, al-Qaeda and other extremist groups in Afghanistan.

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Headlines:
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Tenet could face 9/11 reprimand
The former CIA director George Tenet is among more than a dozen current and former officials who could be subject to disciplinary proceedings over the agency's pre-9/11 performance. Oops! Does that mean he'll have to give back his metal of "freedom"?

Bolton throws UN summit into chaos
Bush's envoy demands 750 changes to reorganisation plans.

S. California Heat, Line Trouble Mean Rolling Blackouts
Sweltering late-summer heat and the loss of a key transmission line Thursday forced power officials in Southern California to impose rolling blackouts, leaving as many as half a million people without power for an hour at a time.

Spelling Criticizes Connecticut
Education Secretary Margaret Spellings on Wednesday called claims that the No Child Left Behind Act isn't fully funded ``a red herring,'' and suggested states that are balking may simply fear seeing the test results. Connecticut filed a lawsuit Monday that claims the federal government has not provided enough money to pay for the testing and programs associated with the 2001 law. Why? Because they're obviously concealing a deficient educational system.

Study of fetal pain angers abortion opponents
A review of medical evidence has found that fetuses likely don't feel pain until about the seventh month of pregnancy, a challenge to abortion opponents who hope that discussions about fetal pain will make women think twice about ending pregnancies.

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Politics:
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Patriot Act blocks details of complaint against FBI
A member of the American Library Association has sued the Justice Department to challenge an FBI demand for records, but the USA Patriot Act prohibits the plaintiff from publicly disclosing its identity or other details of the dispute.

Profiling Report Leads to a Demotion
The Bush administration is replacing the director of a small but critical branch of the Justice Department, months after he complained that senior political officials at the department were seeking to play down newly compiled data on the aggressive police treatment of black and Hispanic drivers.

Bush family hosts White House reporters President Bush played host to the White House press corps Thursday night for a private off-the-record dinner at his ranch. The invitations to the reporters were issued on the condition that they not discuss conversations at the event.

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Economy:
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Greenspan Worries About U.S. Economic Health
Fed chairman says recent gains in U.S. home prices, stock values may be only temporary.

Northwest's strike toll: 1,200 jobs gone
About 1,200 union jobs have been eliminated since mechanics and plane cleaners walked off the job three days ago, Northwest Airlines said Monday, as it uses the strike to impose many of the cost-cutting changes it demanded during months of contract negotiations.

Rents Head Up as Home Prices Put Off Buyers
Rents are rising again across the country, squeezing tenants who are already coping with high gasoline prices. The turnaround appears to be another sign that the boom in house prices and sales is finally slowing, as homes have become so expensive in many metropolitan areas that some people have decided to rent instead. A government report yesterday also offered new evidence that the housing boom could be reaching a peak. The median price of a newly built home fell to $203,800 in July from $219,500 in June.

Orders Dip for Durable Goods
Weak demand for airplanes, military equipment and computers drove orders for durable goods down sharply in July, the Commerce Department reported yesterday. It was the largest drop in a year and a half and seemed to contradict other reports that have led analysts to predict growing production, which typically follows rising orders.

Moody's rates GM, Ford stock junk
Stock shares of General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co., the two biggest U.S. automakers, were lowered to junk by Moody's Investors Service.

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International:
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UN finds global inequality rising
A UN report has found that the world is more unequal today than it was 10 years ago, despite considerable economic growth in many regions.

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Environment:
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White House Policies Divert Funds from National Parks
Environmentalists say the Bush administration is forcing the National Park Service to cut millions of dollars in needed repair and rehabilitation projects in order to pay for homeland security and to pay for studying the privatization of some 1,700 agency jobs.

9 States in Plan to Cut Emissions by Power Plants
Officials in New York and eight other Northeastern states have come to a preliminary agreement to freeze power plant emissions at their current levels and then reduce them by 10 percent by 2020, according to a confidential draft proposal. The cooperative action, the first of its kind in the nation, came after the Bush administration decided not to regulate the greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.

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And now, the good news...
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Yankees 6, Blue Jays 2

Today's Top Stories...

No Proof Found of Iran Arms Program
Traces of bomb-grade uranium found two years ago in Iran came from contaminated Pakistani equipment and are not evidence of a clandestine nuclear weapons program, a group of U.S. government experts and other international scientists has determined. Scientists from the United States, France, Japan, Britain and Russia met in secret during the past nine months to pore over data collected by inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, according to U.S. and foreign officials. Recently, the group, whose existence had not been previously reported, definitively matched samples of the highly enriched uranium -- a key ingredient for a nuclear weapon -- with centrifuge equipment turned over by the government of Pakistan. "The biggest smoking gun that everyone was waving is now eliminated with these conclusions," said a senior official.

Bush Defending His Iraq War Policy
President Bush, defending his Iraq war policy in the face of anti-war opposition and slumping approval ratings, says pulling out before the mission is complete would dishonor the memory of all the Americans who fought and died in pursuit of freedom.

Pat Robertson calls for the assassination of Venezuela's president
Pat Robertson, host of Christian Broadcasting Network's The 700 Club and founder of the Christian Coalition of America, called for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez yesterday.

Firms Hit by ID Theft Find Way to Cash In on Victims
Insurance companies, banks, law enforcement agencies and many arms of federal and local governments buy information from ChoicePoint to perform background checks on potential clients, tenants or employees. Now the Alpharetta, Ga., firm is finding a lucrative new business charging consumers worried about identity theft for access to their own criminal, education and employment histories. 150,000 people's records were released to identity thieves who scammed their way into ChoicePoint's databases, which the company says constitute the largest private collection of court records, Social Security numbers and other public and personal data in the country.

today's top stories...

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Today in Iraq:
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The Ad War in Iraq
The Pentagon, looking for innovative ways to thwart deadly roadside bombs in Iraq, has launched an $11 million program using robots, body armor and a "first-ever advertising campaign aimed at the Iraqi" people.

U.S. Struggling to Get Soldiers Updated Armor
For the second time since the Iraq war began, the Pentagon is struggling to replace body armor that is failing to protect American troops from the most lethal attacks by insurgents. The ceramic plates in vests worn by most personnel cannot withstand certain munitions the insurgents use. But more than a year after military officials initiated an effort to replace the armor with thicker, more resistant plates, tens of thousands of soldiers are still without the stronger protection because of a string of delays in the Pentagon's procurement system.

Bush slaps down top general after he calls for troops to be pulled out of Iraq
The top American commander in Iraq has been privately rebuked by the Bush administration for openly discussing plans to reduce troop levels there next year, The Sunday Telegraph has learned.

Iraqis Consider Bypassing Sunnis on Constitution
Iraqi leaders remained deadlocked Sunday over major issues in the country's new constitution, raising the possibility they would fail to meet the Monday deadline and push the country toward a political crisis.

U.S. Lowers Sights On What Can Be Achieved in Iraq
The Bush administration is significantly lowering expectations of what can be achieved in Iraq, recognizing that the United States will have to settle for far less progress than originally envisioned during the transition due to end in four months.

In Texas, A Time to Circle the Minivans
Activists Protest the War, Or Protest the Protesters. Related: Antiwar sentiment gets champion

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Headlines:
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What Now, Karl?
Rove and Ashcroft face new allegations in the Valerie Plame affair ~ When the FBI began to doubt that his close friend Rove was telling the truth, Ashcroft got briefed, sources say—and still didn't step down from the case.

Is Bush Out of Control?
Buy beleaguered, overworked White House aides enough drinks and they tell a sordid tale of an administration under siege, beset by bitter staff infighting and led by a man whose mood swings suggest paranoia bordering on schizophrenia.

U.S. Still Unprepared for Al Qaeda Attacks, Expert Says
Terrorists would not have much more difficulty attacking the U.S. today than they did before 9/11, says a former CIA analyst.

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Politics:
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Justice Sunday II
Christian conservative leaders and U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay rallied on Sunday to condemn activist judges and heap praise on U.S. President George W. Bush's nominee for the Supreme Court, John Roberts. Organizers of the rally, which featured a packed audience at a Baptist church swaying and singing hymns beneath two huge American flags, said they hoped to use the gathering as a "launching pad" to mobilize Christians against judges they say are overriding the Constitution with their decisions. Televised to churches across the country and broadcast over the Internet, "Justice Sunday II: God Save the United States and This Honorable Court" was co-sponsored by the prominent Christian conservative groups Family Research Center and Focus on the Family.


The Duke Stir and the Contractor
When Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA) wanted to sell his house in 2003, he didn't bother to put it on the market. Instead, according to reporting by Marcus Stern of Copley News Service, Mr. Cunningham -- who sits on the defense appropriations subcommittee -- turned to a defense contractor. Meanwhile, Cunningham is asking his contributors if he can use thier campaign donations to pay for his legal defense.


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Economy:
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As gasoline prices rise, businesses get creative
Prices topping $2.50 a gallon have led more people to car-sharing, van-pooling, and telecommuting.

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International:
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Troops Hand Out Eviction Notices in Gaza
Thousands of Israeli troops marched into Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip on Monday, as Israel began its historic pullout from the coastal territory. Soldiers delivered eviction notices in some communities but encountered locked gates and protesters in others.

Gay Mexican man granted asylum in US
Mexican man with Aids granted asylum in US after judge ruled he would be in danger of persecution in his home country.

Cyprus plane crash victims "frozen solid"
Most of the bodies recovered from a Cypriot plane that crashed near Athens with 121 people on board were frozen solid, a Greek official said, suggesting the airliner was a flying tomb before it plunged to earth.

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Environment:
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Drought Threatens Crops and Shuts River in Midwest
As the worst drought since 1988 has deepened across parts of the Midwest. The drought is turning parts of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers into virtual sandbars, causing towboats and barges to run aground and delaying shipments of petroleum products, coal, chemicals, agricultural goods and road-paving materials.

Forests' Recreational Value Is Scaled Back
Forest Service officials have scaled back their assessment of how much recreation on national forest land contributes to the American economy, concluding that these activities generate just a tenth of what the Clinton administration estimated. Under President Clinton, the Forest Service projected that by 2000, recreation in U.S. forests would contribute nearly $111 billion to the nation's annual gross domestic product, or GDP. Bush administration officials, by contrast, have determined that in 2002 these activities generated about $11 billion.

today's top stories...

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Iraq:
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Bush Motorcade Passes Cindy Sheehan
From the window of his limousine, President Bush got a motorcade view of more than 100 anti-war protesters camped outside his ranch as he rode to a political fund-raiser Friday near his spread. Bush did not stop. Cindy Sheehan, a California mother leading the protesters, held a sign that read: "Why do you make time for donors and not for me?" It's unclear whether Bush, riding in a black Suburban with tinted windows, looked at the demonstrators as his caravan passed. He arrived before noon, local time, at a neighbor's ranch for a barbecue where he was expected to raise at least $2 million for the Republican National Committee, said RNC spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt.

Bush: No exit soon from Iraq
Faced with signs of diminished support for the war, President Bush says he can't say when the number of U.S. troops will be scaled back.

Final Hurdle
Saleh Khalaf has endured dozens of surgeries since he was maimed by an explosion in Iraq. This week, at the Oakland hospital where his life was saved, he faced a final medical hurdle -- the removal of shrapnel from his brain.

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Headlines:
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Oil prices hit new heights
Prices hit more than $66 a barrel as US refinery stoppages rekindle fears of demand exceeding petrol supplies.

Tennessee to slash state health benefits for the needy
The move forces some to ask, 'My house or my medicines?'

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa Voices Objection to FBI Promotion
The FBI's counterterrorism chief should not get a promotion to run the bureau's new National Security Service because he has said expertise about the Mideast or terrorism was not a requirement for top terror-fighting jobs, a lawmaker and frequent FBI critic said Thursday. Gary Bald testified in a civil lawsuit that he had no counterterrorism experience when he moved to headquarters to oversee anti-terrorism strategy two years ago.

The Scandal is Bigger Than AIPAC
The indictment of four men charged with spying on the U.S. for Israel may eventually implicate the conservatives who thumped the drums for war in Iraq.

Girl, 6, kills brother with gun
A girl aged six accidentally shot and killed her two-year-old brother while playing with their father's gun at their home in Montgomery City, Missouri.

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Politics:
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Roberts and Roe
Am I saying that John Roberts condones violence? No -- but I am saying that when he had a chance to explicitly oppose the rising tide of abortion clinic bombings, he did not.

Tabloid's Deal With Woman Shields Schwarzenegger
Enquirer promised to pay $20,000 for a confidentiality agreement about her involvement with Schwarzenegger.

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Economy:
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The 1% Split Over Estate Taxes
The very rich and the merely rich are fighting over the fate of the estate tax. So far, the very rich are winning. Small-business owners -- the merely rich -- want to exempt from taxation inheritances of up to $10 million. The very rich -- people whose estates are worth tens of millions or even billions of dollars -- want instead to reduce the tax rate on assets passed on at death. A $10 million exemption isn't nearly enough for them.

Trade Deficit Climbs as Energy Costs Rise
Higher energy costs and rising imports of industrial goods drove the United States trade deficit up 6.1 percent in June.

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International:
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The Baby Face Of Martyrdom
A 15-year-old Palestinian strapped a bomb to his body. He tried, and failed, to set it off.

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Environment:
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Let us pray for rain, says leader as nation chokes
Malaysian authorities have declared a state of emergency after smoke from Indonesian forest fires reached toxic levels.

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And now, the good news…
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Abramoff, Key Figure in DeLay Investigation Indicted
Lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a key figure in investigations involving House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury on fraud charges arising from a deal to buy casino boats. Abramoff and a partner in the $147 million purchase of SunCruz Casinos were named in a six-count grand jury indictment unsealed Thursday in Fort Lauderdale. Prosecutors say they concocted a fake $23 million wire transfer to defraud two lenders out of about $60 million to finance the deal. Abramoff and New York businessman Adam Kidan bought SunCruz from Greek-born entrepreneur Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis for $147 million in September 2000, but the deal soon fell apart. Amid bitter legal fighting over the sale, the 51-year-old Boulis was shot to death five months later in what police called a hit that remains unsolved. The indictment against Abramoff charges that he used income from SunCruz to finance political fund-raising activities, including events at private boxes at Washington-area sports venues such as the MCI Center and Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

NARAL Ad & Roberts...

The media & talking heads have successfully completed their “NARAL are liars campaign” with regards to their anti-Roberts ad – the timeline (link above) shows there has been violence against clinics, women, security guards, emergency personnel, police etc. since 1991 (only shows violence against Planned Parenthood 1991-2001).

The media made an excellent point - the person shown in NARALs ad was injured in 1998 – and Roberts submitted his brief in 1991 – fine… but avoids the issue at hand. The issue is/was his support for a violent group, period. Not timing.

NARAL assumed the American public could connect the dots themselves – and open up discussion of the topic with regards to what Roberts’ brief actually argued…

Last night while watching a segment on Jim Lehrer, I nearly agreed with slamming the ad… Until Roberts was shown in an interview discussing the/his position – and jugged my memory… The case was Bray v. Alexandria Women’s Health Clinic… Roberts, then Principal Deputy Solicitor General, co-authored and submitted a brief, siding with Operation Rescue. In the brief and during oral argument, Roberts maintained Operation Rescue’s behavior and “military-style tactics” used to block women from accessing reproductive-health clinics did not amount to discrimination against women and a civil rights remedy was inappropriate. Meaning the law being used in the case was wrong, and said you can’t use a discrimination/civil rights law to prevent Operation Rescue from blockading a woman’s entry into a clinic for services b/c it did not discriminate or infringe on the a woman’s civil rights. It discriminated against pregnant people, which is not the same as discriminating against women – rendering the law in the case as invalid. Once I heard him explain his carefully crafted snip – his argument completely lost legitimacy - only women can get pregnant. (Will all pregnant men please step forward?) It became clear his intent, which was to allow Operation Rescue to continue their “mission”. A mission supported by the likes of Pat Robertson, Jerry Faldwell, and others – a mission which later included outright violence – bombings, shootings and arson.

Where were the de-dunkers during the election? GOP ads (Swifties, et. al.) flat out lied and such thorough scrutiny on NARAL? T’would be nice if the door swung both ways…

today's top stories...

Truckers protest heavy load
Hundreds of towering truck cabs streamed down South Florida's freeways on Wednesday in a protest convoy to demand mandatory fuel surcharges, snarling traffic and irritating travelers across the Miami metropolitan region in the process. Trucker Marvin Palacios had grievances as broad as the wide-brimmed cowboy hat that topped his 6-foot-2-inch frame. ''Oil is becoming more expensive every day and the owners of the trucking companies don't want to pass fuel surcharge to the drivers,'' said Palacios. ``I have a family. The cost of living is going up and we aren't earning any more.'' GO TRUCKERS!!!

Keep ANWR out of budget, 24 in GOP say
Two dozen House Republicans, including freshman Washington state Rep. Dave Reichert and three committee chairmen, have asked Speaker Dennis Hastert not to use a budget procedure to clear the way for oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The letter to Hastert, R-Ill., dated Aug. 4 and made public yesterday, states that the budget process "is an inappropriate venue to be debating this important environmental issue" and warned that it would further complicate already-difficult budget issues.

Gas hikes pushing up other prices
Skyrocketing crude-oil prices are hitting Americans in the wallet in ways they might not imagine, increasing the price of everything from pizza delivery to patching a leaky roof. This week gasoline costs about $2.37 a gallon on average, reflecting global crude-oil prices that soared past $64 a barrel. A year ago, oil cost $44 a barrel and gasoline $1.89 per gallon. Many U.S. companies are passing on their rising fuel costs to their customers. Most large airlines charge per-ticket fuel surcharges of $20 to $87 for international travel, and many domestic fares have jumped more than $100.

Bill O'Really and Michelle Malkin team up on Cindy Sheehan
Last night O'Reilly jumped onto Drudge's (the Eggman) bandwagon and started the assualt on Cindy Sheehan. O'Really: Bill: I think Mrs. Sheehan bears some responsibility for this [publicity] and also for the responsibility for the other American families who lost sons and daughters in Iraq who feel this kind of behavior borders on treasonous. Malkin: I can’t imagine that Casey Sheehan would approve of such behavior.

GOP Paying Legal Bills of Bush Official
Despite a zero-tolerance policy on tampering with voters, the Republican Party has quietly paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to provide private defense lawyers for a former Bush campaign official charged with conspiring to keep Democrats from voting in New Hampshire. James Tobin, the president's 2004 campaign chairman for New England, is charged in New Hampshire federal court with four felonies accusing him of conspiring with a state GOP official and a GOP consultant in Virginia to jam Democratic and labor union get-out-the-vote phone banks in November 2002.

2 Dozen States to be without Emergency Air National Guard
A proposed overhaul of more than two dozen Air National Guard units has emerged as the most contentious issue in the Pentagon's larger plan to close, consolidate or realign hundreds of military sites nationwide. Doing that would leave more than two dozen states without emergency aircraft to fight fires, recover from hurricanes and cope with other natural disasters.

Road Bill Reflects The Power Of Pork
Bush signed into law a $286 billion transportation measure that contains a record 6,371 pet projects inserted by members of Congress. Bush said the new law will allow the United States to modernize highways and roads in a fiscally responsible manner. "There are nearly 6,500 member-requested projects worth more than $24 billion, nearly nine percent of the total spending," executives from six taxpayer and conservative groups complained in a letter to Bush urging that he use his veto pen for the first time. They noted that Reagan vetoed a transportation bill in 1987 because there were 152 such special requests, known in the parlance of congressional budgeting as "earmarks."

July job numbers hide disturbing trends
Although 207,000 jobs were created in July, the largest number were retail trade workers, the second largest food service workers and bartenders, and third, tax-supported government jobs. Credit intermediation, social assistance, and real estate also were high on the list. The Bureau of Labor Statistics provides the breakdown - sometimes you have to read the reports yourself.

10 doctors killed in ambush
In another sign of just how vicious the civil war in Iraq has become, gunmen ambushed a convoy of doctors on their way to help in hospitals west of Baghdad. They killed 10 of them. Iraq's health care system is already in 'deep crisis'.

Car bomb attack on Baghdad police
A car bomb explosion in west Baghdad has killed seven people and wounded at least 16 others including US troops.

Canadian sent to Syria sues US over rendition policy
US seeks dismissal of case, citing rarely used 'state secret privilege.

Guns in the trunk: worker right or workplace danger?
NRA and employers square off over Oklahoma law that prohibits companies from banning weapons on their property.

For illegals, a spreading backlash
An Idaho county commissioner is suing several local employers for hiring illegal immigrants.

Warming hits 'tipping point'
Frozen peat bog which holds billions of tonnes of greenhouse gas is melting for the first time since the ice age.

Abu Qatada faces deportation
Islamist preacher is one of 10 foreign nationals held under immigration laws as 'threats to national security'.

afternoon news...

Iran smuggling weapons into Iraq reports are exaggerated
Iraq's interior minister said Wednesday that reports of deadly roadside bombs being smuggled into this country from Iran are exaggerated. On Tuesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said some insurgent weapons are entering Iraq from Iran although it's unclear whether they were coming from elements of the Iranian government or from other parties. Interior Minister Bayan Jabr told reporters that Iraqi security forces recently opened fire on a group of men carrying boxes near the Iranian border. The men dropped the boxes and fled back into Iranian territory. Inside the boxes were dynamite sticks with some wires. "This is all that happened at the border and was very much exaggerated," Jabr said. Remember the reports from Rummy et. al.? Rumsfeld: Iraq bombs 'clearly from Iran'. Friggin' neocon death cult liars.

Pulp Nonfiction
A whistle blower alleges that U.S. Rep. Tom Feeney might have rigged the election in South Florida. Related: Texas to Florida: White House-linked clandestine operation paid for "vote switching" software ~ According to a notarized affidavit signed by Clint Curtis, while he was employed by the NASA Kennedy Space Center contractor, Yang Enterprises, Inc., during 2000, Feeney solicited him to write a program to "control the vote."

today's top stories...

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Iraq & Afghanistan:
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Why No Tea and Sympathy?
W. can't get no satisfaction on Iraq. There's an angry mother of a dead soldier camping outside his Crawford ranch, demanding to see a president who prefers his sympathy to be carefully choreographed. Meanwhile: Gold Star Mother for Peace Cindy Sheehan, in her quest to speak with President Bush, has the support of at least some Democratic House members, who urged the president to meet with her in a letter.

Sticker shock over shell shock
The U.S. government is reviewing 72,000 cases in which veterans have been diagnosed with severe post-traumatic stress disorder, claiming that misdiagnosis and fraud have inflated the numbers. Outraged vets say the plan is a callous attempt to cut the costs of an increasingly expensive war.

Brutal New Threat in Iraq: Bomb Dogs
Insurgents are rigging dogs with explosives. Even Iraqi critics of the U.S. are denouncing the tactic.

Mayor of Baghdad Is Deposed; Insurgents Kill 4 U.S. Troops
Shi'ite gunmen broke into the office of Baghdad's mayor and installed their own candidate for the office. "This is the new Iraq, they use force to achieve their goal," said the former mayor, who is now in hiding, in fear of his life."If we wanted to do something bad to him, we would have done that," replied the city council chief who led the ouster on behalf of the Badr Organization. Related: Iraq attacks kill 5 US soldiers

Taliban (remember them?) Kill Afghan Woman on Spying Charge
The unidentified woman was shot dead in her house on Tuesday in the southern district of Zabul, district chief Haji Mohammad Younus said, adding Taliban fighters also kidnapped the victim's brother and father. Abdul Latif Hakimi, a spokesman for the Taliban, confirmed the report and said the Taliban had killed the woman because ``she was a spy for the Americans.''

Female circumcision surfaces in Iraq
A German aid group finds first solid proof of the practice, which is veiled in secrecy.

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Headlines:
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General Is Relieved of Command Over 'Personal Conduct'
In a rare move, the Army relieved a four-star general of his command amid allegations that he had had an extramarital affair with a civilian, Army officials said yesterday. Byrnes has been separated from his wife since May 2004; their divorce was finalized on Monday. Related: Top General Sacked In Sex Probe ~ Byrnes, 55, a Vietnam veteran who entered the Army in 1969 as a second lieutenant, ranked third in seniority among the Army's 11 four-star generals. He was set to retire in November, after what some sources say was an unblemished career. In his position as commander of Training and Doctrine Command, Byrnes oversaw all Army training programs and the development of war-fighting guidelines. Byrnes had been commander since November 2002. Other officials said the matter was investigated by the Defense Department Inspector General and the findings were now being considered by senior Army officials to determine whether further action should be taken. Removing Byrnes from his office is likely to be the end of his punishment. "Usually there is no incentive to bring criminal charges, because they are taking his career and flushing it down the toilet," Neal A. Puckett, a military defense lawyer in Alexandria, told The Post. "There's not much more that you can do to a high-ranking officer like that. His legacy is ruined." So, they can you for having an affair during a separation, yet torture earns you a promotion? I can't help but wonder what he said or did for the Pentagon to so boldly destroy his career...?

9/11 Panel Seeks Inquiry on New Atta Report
Members of the independent commission that investigated the Sept. 11 terror attacks called on Congress to determine whether the Pentagon withheld intelligence information showing that a secret American military unit had identified Mohammed Atta and three other hijackers as potential threats more than a year before the attacks. The former commission members said the information, if true, could rewrite an important chapter of the history of the intelligence failures before Sept. 11, 2001. Related: Are terrorist cells still in the US? ~ The arrests of a Maryland paramedic and a possible terror-camp organizer raise new security concerns.

Pentagon Plans 9/11 'We Support You - Freedom Walk'
As part of the Department of Defense effort to link Sept. 11, 2001 to the war in Iraq, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld today announced the first-ever “America Supports You Freedom Walk” to remember the victims of Sept. 11, 2001, to honor U.S. troops and veterans, and to highlight the value of freedom. Also see: 'Freedom Walk' to Commemorate 9/11, Celebrate Freedom

1 in 20 Washington DC residents infected with HIV
The District's rate of HIV/AIDS is probably the worst of any major U.S. city, yet the city's response to the epidemic remains badly understaffed, poorly coordinated and especially lacking for youths and other at-risk groups. An estimated one in 20 city residents is infected with the virus. In light of that, the 170-page study by the D.C. Appleseed Center for Law and Justice identifies HIV/AIDS as "one of the most severe health problems facing the District, both in terms of disability and lost lives."

Iran breaks UN nuclear seals
UN's nuclear watchdog confirms its seals at an Iranian nuclear facility have been broken.

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Politics:
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Conservative Group Drops Endorsement Of 'Pro Gay' Judge Roberts
A conservative lobby group announced Tuesday that it is withdrawing its support from Judge John G. Roberts Jr.- President Bush's nominee to the US Supreme Court. Public Advocate, a Virginia-based "national pro-family group", said in a statement that the more comes "as a result of Roberts' support for the radical homosexual lobby in the 1996 Supreme Court case Romer v. Evans." Last week it was reported that Roberts had worked behind the scenes for a coalition of gay-rights groups, helping them prepare their arguments to present to the court. (story) The groups were attempting to have the court strike down a voter-approved 1992 Colorado initiative allowing employers and landlords to exclude gays from jobs and housing. The coalition won the case in a 6-3 decision. At the time gay rights leaders activists described it as the movement's most important legal victory. Roberts involvement in Romer v. Evans came while he was working at the prestigious Hogan & Hartson law firm and was part of its pro bono caseload. Roberts was not paid for his work and he did not argue the case.

Ohio Critics of G.O.P. Start Battle to Change Election Process
Critics of the Republican grip on Ohio politics filed petitions on Tuesday that seek a statewide vote on three constitutional amendments that would overturn the way elections are run and strip elected officials of their power to draw legislative districts. The move, by the group Reform Ohio Now, is an effort to tap into sentiment across the country to remove political influence from the mechanics of elections. While officially nonpartisan, the Ohio group is dominated by Democrats and independents who have complained about the conduct of Republican officials in the state as well as about the handling of the presidential election in Ohio last fall by J. Kenneth Blackwell, the Republican secretary of state who is seeking his party's nomination for governor.

Bush Signs Highway Bill
The $286 bil package is full of cash for some 6,000 pet projects for lawmakers.

Judge Won't Drop Charges Against DeLay Associates
A state district judge on Tuesday refused to dismiss charges of money laundering and accepting illegal political contributions against two associates of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.). Judge Bob Perkins denied arguments from attorneys for John Colyandro and Jim Ellis that the charges were based on an unconstitutionally vague law and that the indictments were improperly worded.

Liberals Are So Intolerant!
The Right loves to sling this smug accusation at critics from the Left. San Francisco's Mark Morford has a reply.

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Economy:
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Regulators probe Wall Street links to doctors, drug secrets
Legal experts say buying confidential information to help make investment decisions violates insider-trading law.

Spammer pays $7m to Microsoft
Microsoft wins $7m (£3.9m) settlement from a man once described as one of the world's most prolific spammers.

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International:
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Niger president denies famine
President denies reports of pending famine, saying people "look well-fed".

Colombia Unearthing Plight of Its 'Disappeared' ~ The families of the victims of right-wing paramilitary groups have finally begun speaking out, despite lingering dangers.

£38m stolen in perfect bank job
A gang in Brazil has pulled off one of history’s biggest bank robberies after tunnelling into a vault.

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Environment:
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Alaskan Sea Otter Listed as Threatened
Federal officials yesterday designated the southwest Alaska sea otter -- a species that teetered on the edge of extinction in the late 1800s -- as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, alarmed that its numbers have dipped sharply over the past 15 years. Fur hunters nearly wiped out the otters, whose range stretches from Cook Inlet to the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak Island, by 1911, at which point the otters received international protection. By the mid- to late 1980s, as many as 74,000 otters thrived in Alaska's Aleutian Islands alone, but this number has now dropped to below 9,000.