The leak of a CIA operative's name has also exposed the identity of a CIA front company, potentially expanding the damage caused by the original disclosure, Bush administration officials said yesterday.

The company's identity, Brewster-Jennings & Associates, became public because it appeared in Federal Election Commission records on a form filled out in 1999 by Valerie Plame, the case officer at the center of the controversy, when she contributed $1,000 to Al Gore's presidential primary campaign.

[edit]

The inadvertent disclosure of the name of a business affiliated with the CIA underscores the potential damage to the agency and its operatives caused by the leak of Plame's identity. Intelligence officials have said that once Plame's job as an undercover operative was revealed, other agency secrets could be unraveled and her sources might be compromised or endangered.

[edit]

FEC rules require donors to list their employment. Plame used her married name, Valerie E. Wilson, and listed her employment as an "analyst" with Brewster-Jennings & Associates. The document establishes that Plame has worked undercover within the past five years. The time frame is one of the standards used in making determinations about whether a disclosure is a criminal violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act.

The Bush administration's optimistic statements earlier this year that Iraq's oil wealth, not American taxpayers, would cover most of the cost of rebuilding Iraq were at odds with a bleaker assessment of a government task force secretly established last fall to study Iraq's oil industry, according to public records and government officials.

The task force, which was based at the Pentagon as part of the planning for the war, produced a book-length report that described the Iraqi oil industry as so badly damaged by a decade of trade embargoes that its production capacity had fallen by more than 25 percent, panel members have said.

Despite those findings, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz told Congress during the war that "we are dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon."

It pays to be very careful when hitting the "reply to all" button on e-mail. Michigan Judge Henry Saad, President Bush's nominee for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, may not have been careful enough last week.

Saad's nomination has been delayed by Democratic opposition, led by Michigan's two senators, Debbie Stabenow and Carl M. Levin. In an e-mail to someone named Joe, Saad discussed Stabenow's e-mailed explanation to Joe of her opposition to Saad's confirmation and those of other Bush nominees.

"She sends this standard response," Saad's e-mail said. "We know, of course, that this is the game they play. Pretend to do the right thing while abusing the system and undermining the constitutional process. Perhaps some day she will pay the price for her misconduct."

There was one little glitch: A copy of Saad's e-mail went directly to Stabenow, whose address apparently was picked up from Joe's correspondence.

Stabenow and Levin quickly sent a protest to White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales. It said "the tone and content of this e-mail message . . . particularly the comment that 'Perhaps some day she will pay the price for her misconduct,' " are highly offensive."

[Schwarzenegger] shut down the spin machine before his handlers could even get it cranked up, and forthrightly apologized, in a way that Bill Clinton never did. A blockbuster revelation that he was a randy Hollywood dude in his younger days has been expected since he first entered the race, but this blockbuster is probably too little and too late to bust Arnold's block. Besides, getting patted and squeezed is why boobs and bottoms go to Hollywood in the first place. [emphasis added]

Few men in their mature years want to be remembered for the youthful, foolish things they did when they were young and foolish.

Why isn't enough WMD material being found to satisfy the Bush-haters? "All IIS laboratories visited by IIS exploitation teams have been clearly sanitized, including removal of much equipment, shredding and burning of documents, and even the removal of nameplates from office doors." Think of that level of detail. They were hiding the nameplates on the doors. Anyone think they left working WMD's laying around?

and

The team found lab equipment hidden in a mosque. You gotta wonder! There is more good stuff. People should read it, they really should. And I'll [bet] the full report is full of goodies.

We have discovered dozens of WMD-related program activities and significant amounts of equipment that Iraq concealed from the United Nations during the inspections that began in late 2002. The discovery of these deliberate concealment efforts have come about both through the admissions of Iraqi scientists and officials concerning information they deliberately withheld and through physical evidence of equipment and activities that ISG has discovered that should have been declared to the UN.

[edit]

A clandestine network of laboratories and safehouses within the Iraqi Intelligence Service that contained equipment subject to UN monitoring and suitable for continuing CBW research.

[edit]

Saddam, at least as judged by those scientists and other insiders who worked in his military-industrial programs, had not given up his aspirations and intentions to continue to acquire weapons of mass destruction. Even those senior officials we have interviewed who claim no direct knowledge of any on-going prohibited activities readily acknowledge that Saddam intended to resume these programs whenever the external restrictions were removed. Several of these officials acknowledge receiving inquiries since 2000 from Saddam or his sons about how long it would take to either restart CW production or make available chemical weapons.

[edit]

In the chemical and biological weapons area we have confidence that there were at a minimum clandestine on-going research and development activities that were embedded in the Iraqi Intelligence Service. While we have much yet to learn about the exact work programs and capabilities of these activities, it is already apparent that these undeclared activities would have at a minimum facilitated chemical and biological weapons activities and provided a technically trained cadre.

The administration claimed that Saddam had used WMDs in the past, had hidden materials from the United Nations, was hiding a continued program for weapons of mass destruction, and that we should act before the threat was imminent. The argument was that it was impossible to restrain Saddam Hussein unless he were removed from power and disarmed. The war was legally based on the premise that Saddam had clearly violated U.N. resolutions, was in open breach of such resolutions and was continuing to conceal his programs with the intent of restarting them in earnest once sanctions were lifted. Having read the report carefully, I'd say that the administration is vindicated in every single respect of that argument.

The United Nations concluded in 1999 that Saddam Hussein had biological weapons sufficient to produce over 25,000 liters of anthrax -- enough doses to kill several million people. He hasn't accounted for that material. He's given no evidence that he has destroyed it.

The United Nations concluded that Saddam Hussein had materials sufficient to produce more than 38,000 liters of botulinum toxin -- enough to subject millions of people to death by respiratory failure. He hadn't accounted for that material. He's given no evidence that he has destroyed it.

Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent. In such quantities, these chemical agents could also kill untold thousands. He's not accounted for these materials. He has given no evidence that he has destroyed them.

U.S. intelligence indicates that Saddam Hussein had upwards of 30,000 munitions capable of delivering chemical agents. Inspectors recently turned up 16 of them -- despite Iraq's recent declaration denying their existence. Saddam Hussein has not accounted for the remaining 29,984 of these prohibited munitions. He's given no evidence that he has destroyed them.

From three Iraqi defectors we know that Iraq, in the late 1990s, had several mobile biological weapons labs. These are designed to produce germ warfare agents, and can be moved from place to a place to evade inspectors. Saddam Hussein has not disclosed these facilities. He's given no evidence that he has destroyed them.

U.S. President George W. Bush on Thursday defended the limited U.S. role in restoring order to Liberia and said, ''We have kept our word.''

As the last U.S. warship sailed away from Liberia's coast on Wednesday, marking the end of American involvement in the peacekeeping mission in that country, four people were killed in a clash between rebel and loyalist fighters in the capital, Monrovia.

It was the worst violence in the battered city since ex-President Charles Taylor's departure in August raised hopes of an end to years of civil war.

''I'm pleased with the progress we have made in Liberia. We have kept our word. We have done exactly what we said we would do,'' Bush told Kenyan journalists ahead of a state visit to Washington by Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki on Monday.

As pressure built on his aides, Bush joked about the [Plame] matter. During a roundtable discussion with reporters for African news organizations, he was asked about three reporters in Kenya who were detained this week in what some journalists saw as an effort to intimidate them into revealing sources. The detention drew a condemnation from the International Federation of Journalists, which complained that the government has been harassing and brutalizing journalists.

"I'm against leaks," Bush said, to laughter. "I would suggest all governments get to the bottom of every leak of classified information." Turning to the reporter who asked the question, Martin Mbugua of the Daily Nation, Kenya's largest daily newspaper, Bush said, "By the way, if you know anything, Martin, would you please bring it forward and help solve the problem?"

White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales, who is rarely seen in public, has appeared twice with Bush since the investigation began, including during an East Room celebration yesterday for Hispanic Heritage Month.

"Everybody needs to have a good abogado," Bush said, drawing laughter as he used the Spanish word for "lawyer." "I've got a really good one," he added, to more laughter. "Al Gonzales is my lawyer and close friend."

I thought I had seen political dirty tricks as foul as they could get, but I was wrong. In blowing the cover of CIA agent Valerie Plame to take political revenge on her husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, for telling the truth, Bush's people have out-Nixoned Nixon's people. And my former colleagues were not amateurs by any means.

A new study based on a series of seven nationwide polls conducted from January through September of this year reveals that before and after the Iraq war, a majority of Americans have had significant misperceptions and these are highly related to support for the war with Iraq.

The polling, conducted by the Program on International Policy (PIPA) at the University of Maryland and Knowledge Networks, also reveals that the frequency of these misperceptions varies significantly according to individuals' primary source of news. Those who primarily watch Fox News are significantly more likely to have misperceptions, while those who primarily listen to NPR or watch PBS are significantly less likely.

Israel unveiled plans on Thursday to build more than 600 new homes in Jewish settlements, drawing fresh international and Palestinian condemnation a day after it approved expanding its West Bank separation barrier.

Palestinian anger had already been stoked by the Israeli government's endorsement on Wednesday of plans for the next phase in a 350-km (210-mile) network of electronic fences and concrete walls that cuts deep into the West Bank.

"Israel is pursuing its crimes by expanding this racist and Nazi wall that expropriates our land," Palestinian President Yasser Arafat told reporters at his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

He accused Israel of "sabotaging and destroying the peace process'' and appealed to the "Quartet'' of Middle East peacemakers -- the United States, Russia, European Union and United Nations -- to stop the project.

Limbaugh said in a statement released Thursday: "I am unaware of any investigation by any authorities involving me. No governmental representative has contacted me directly or indirectly. If my assistance is required in the future, I will, of course, cooperate fully."

The Republican-led U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee approved the nomination of Charles Pickering to a federal appeals court on Thursday, 18 months after the same panel, then controlled by Democrats, rejected the conservative Mississippian.

On a party-line vote of 10-9, the committee sent President Bush's renomination of Pickering to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans to the full Senate for what promises to be a fiery confirmation fight.

A refusal or inability to answer hypothetical questions is nothing to be proud of. In fact, it ought to be a disqualification for public office. Anyone who doesn't ponder hypothetical questions all the time is unfit for the task of governing. In fact, it's hard to see how any halfway intelligent person can manage to avoid taking up hypothetical questions a dozen times a day.

Fun Fact #7: Were Neanderthals the "monkey men" Evolutionists keep talking about?

Answer: No! Neanderthals were humans with abnormal bone growth due to very advanced age and Flood-cloud-related rickets!

As the White House hunkered down, it got the first taste of criticism from within Bush's own party. Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) said that Bush "needs to get this behind him" by taking a more active role. "He has that main responsibility to see this through and see it through quickly, and that would include, if I was president, sitting down with my vice president and asking what he knows about it," the outspoken Hagel said last night on CNBC's "Capital Report."

Attorney General John Ashcroft is running a dead heat with A. Mitchell Palmer, attorney general in the Wilson administration, for the distinction of being the worst in that job in the history of the United States.

The Bush administration is seeking more than $600 million from Congress to continue the hunt for conclusive evidence that Saddam Hussein's government had an illegal weapons program, officials said Wednesday.

The money, part of the White House's request for $87 billion in supplemental spending on Iraq and Afghanistan, comes on top of at least $300 million that has already been spent on the weapons search, the officials said.

The budget figures for the weapons search are included in the classified part of the administration's supplemental appropriations request, and have not been made public. The size of the request suggests the White House is determined to keep searching for unconventional weapons or evidence that they were being developed under Mr. Hussein. The search so far has turned up no solid evidence that Iraq had chemical, biological or nuclear weapons when the American invasion began in March, according to administration officials.

Counting the money already spent, the total price tag for the search will approach $1 billion.

"He speaks well, he's well-read, but he's an idiot."

Kerry recently said Dean makes way too many verbal "gaffes" to be president.

Joseph C. Wilson IV, the man accusing the White House of a vendetta against him and his wife, is an ex-diplomat turned Democratic partisan.

[edit]

He contributed to Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign and is aiding Democratic candidates. Yesterday, Mr. Wilson, a lover of the limelight, was to brief the House Democratic Caucus. But Democrats called off the session for fear they would make the investigation a partisan affair, which Republicans say it already is.

[edit]

Mr. Wilson joined President Clinton's National Security Council staff as an African specialist, then retired in 1998. He never reclaimed the national prominence of the Gulf war until his antiwar campaign earlier this year.

This prompted columnist Novak to try to answer the question of why the CIA would pick an ardent Bush knocker as the man to travel to Niger to investigate whether Iraq attempted to buy yellowcake uranium for a nuclear weapons program. The issue of weapons of mass destruction was so central to Mr. Bush's rationale for war that it strikes Republicans as odd that an administration critic would be sent on such a pivotal mission. A CIA spokesman declined to comment.

Rush Limbaugh resigned last night from ESPN's "Sunday NFL Countdown" three days after he made race-related comments about how the news media view the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb.

The remarks prompted demands for ESPN to fire Limbaugh yesterday by Gen. Wesley K. Clark, a Democratic presidential contender, and Rep. Harold Ford Jr., Democrat of Tennessee, who said that he had enlisted 20 other House Democrats and had interest from three Republicans to sign a letter to the ESPN protesting the radio commentator's comments.

In fact, the conservative commentator said he must have been right; otherwise, the comments would not have sparked such outrage.

The effect is devastating, not just on the families of those fighting but on the nation. When TV images of last Friday's precision bombing of Baghdad were replaced over the weekend by videotapes of dead and captured soldiers, the stock market, which had just experienced eight days of positive trading, lost one third of its gains when it opened again on Monday."

"By forcing us to focus on the handful of men -- and one woman -- who have been taken prisoner or killed, the war becomes personal."

"Perhaps we can sustain this level of (media) coverage if the war lasts only a few weeks, as the Gulf and Afghanistan wars did. But what if this drags on for months, as it may?"

I'll rap about, the Presidential election and the scandal that followed
and we all watched the nation as it swallowed and chalked it up
Basically America you got FUCKED
The media shucked and jived now we stuck

Operation Anaconda: ask yourself, was it full of bleeps and blunders?
Did they ever find Osama?
And why in the fuck did Daniel Pearl have to pay
the price for his life and his wife plead twice?

"Leak" investigations are notoriously fruitless in any case and typically a waste of Justice Department resources. It's especially amusing to see the media whose lifeblood is leaks feigning outrage.

Call It Blackmail

The White House denies that it leaked the news of an extramarital affair 30 years ago by the head of a likely impeachment inquiry, Henry Hyde. Of course, it had previously denied that President Clinton had sex with Monica Lewinsky.

The Hyde leak got Congressional consideration of the Starr report off to a partisan start. No doubt angered by the revelation, coming atop similar incidents with Dan Burton and Helen Chenoweth, Republicans used their majority to vote immediate release of the videotape of President Clinton's grand jury testimony.

[edit]

The reason to suspect a White House hand in sexual revelations about Republicans is that people close to the White House have been warning/threatening/bragging of precisely such attacks.

[edit]

Now Salon, the Clintonesque internet magazine that revealed the Hyde affair, defends itself with the unlovely argument that it is merely "descending to the gutter tactics of those we deplore."

Republicans have called for an FBI investigation of the Hyde leak. First Amendment mavens are suddenly worried about the FBI poking into Salon's sources. Funny, we've been waiting for a peep from them about the full-scale Department of Justice investigation, announced by the Attorney General herself, into the American Spectator. This was sparked by Salon itself, with a hyperventilating and barely sourced story inferring that the Spectator served as a conduit for Richard Scaife to bribe witness David Hale. The result is a government inquiry into how a magazine spent its money reporting stories adverse to the President of the United States.

The issue here is whether Salon served as a conduit to blackmail Henry Hyde. It is interesting that the leaker had to descend to Salon to get the story out; surely there ought to be some official inquiry into the provenance of this story....

Plame was not a covert CIA operative and therefore nothing illegal occurred

and

The real question is why America-hater Joseph Wilson was sent to Niger to investigate.

New ESPN commentator Rush Limbaugh said on the network's pregame show that Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb was overrated because the media wanted to see a black quarterback do well.

McNabb called the whole thing "sad," but an ESPN spokesman said he didn't think the comments were racially biased.

"Senate gets Iraq-terror spending bill"

"Third man held in Guantanamo spy probe"

"Iraq prepares tribunal statute"

"D.C. school officials deny federal funding lost"

THAT BUSH

The poor people dove down in Dumpsters for stuff
But The Rich, in his palace, cried "I don't have enough!
"What to do? Who to call? What button to push?
"I know! The red one that summons That Bush!"

So The Rich pushed the button, a bell chimed "Clang! Clang!"
And up popped That Bush! And That Bush said, "You rang?"

"That Bush," said The Rich, "I don't have enough money.
"But the poor have some pennies — I don't think that's funny!
"They have what I want! And it gives me a rash!
"So run down to the town and steal all their cash!"

"Whatever you say," said That Bush with a smirk,
"You deserve a reward for all your hard work."
So he put on his flight suit and straightened his collar.
"I'm off now to bring you some widow's last dollar!"

(a little further on in the story)

"Why?" asked the little girl, "Why, That Bush, why?
"Why were the things you said all a big lie?
You lied to the people again and again
You blamed nine-eleven on Saddam Hussein
You said that Iraq would be happy we came
Instead the Iraqis are cursing our name!"

"Well, little girl," said That Bush with a grin,
"You must understand the position I'm in.
"We can't let Iraqis achieve self-reliance
"That would cost Halliburton some valuable clients.
"You see I understood that there must be a war
"That's why the Supreme Court picked me over Gore
"So I sent forth the children of workers who toil
"Because, after all, it IS just about oil!"

There are two federal statutes that could make the disclosure of a covert CIA employee's identity a crime. One concerns unauthorized disclosure of classified information, and the other specifically protects the identity of intelligence officers.

For there to have been a crime, both statutes require there be evidence showing that the person who made the disclosure did so knowing the information was classified. The Intelligence Identities Protection Act also defines a "covert agent" as someone whose identity as an intelligence official is classified information and "who is serving outside the United States or has within the last five years outside the United States."

Speaking of eerie, during a debate about the PATRIOT Act this morning, Katie Couric was playing referee between a rep from the ACLU and former Attorney General Ed Meese. When it got to the question of the American Library Association's concerns about privacy, Meese suddenly lost his cool and blurted out, "Librarians are more interested in pushing pornography on kids than fighting terrorism!"

Larry Johnson is a former CIA analyst and counterterrorism official at the State Department.

LARRY JOHNSON: Let's be very clear about what happened. This is not an alleged abuse. This is a confirmed abuse. I worked with this woman. She started training with me. She has been undercover for three decades, she is not as Bob Novak suggested a CIA analyst. But given that, I was a CIA analyst for four years. I was undercover. I could not divulge to my family outside of my wife that I worked for the Central Intelligence Agency until I left the agency on September 30, 1989. At that point I could admit it.

So the fact that she's been undercover for three decades and that has been divulged is outrageous because she was put undercover for certain reasons. One, she works in an area where people she meets with overseas could be compromised. When you start tracing back who she met with, even people who innocently met with her, who are not involved in CIA operations, could be compromised. For these journalists to argue that this is no big deal and if I hear another Republican operative suggesting that well, this was just an analyst fine, let them go undercover. Let's put them overseas and let's out them and then see how they like it. They won't be able to stand the heat.

[edit]

LARRY JOHNSON: I say this as a registered Republican. I'm on record giving contributions to the George Bush campaign. This is not about partisan politics. This is about a betrayal, a political smear of an individual with no relevance to the story. Publishing her name in that story added nothing to it. His entire intent was correctly as Ambassador Wilson noted: to intimidate, to suggest that there was some impropriety that somehow his wife was in a decision making position to influence his ability to go over and savage a stupid policy, an erroneous policy and frankly, what was a false policy of suggesting that there were nuclear material in Iraq that required this war. This was about a political attack. To pretend that it's something else and to get into this parsing of words, I tell you, it sickens me to be a Republican to see this.

U.S. military planes and helicopters carried the last few U.S. ground forces out of war-ruined Liberia on Tuesday — leaving Liberians thankful for their help, but dismayed at their silent withdrawal.

About 30 members of a U.S. military liaison team flew out of Liberia's main airport, ending their work with a West African-led peace mission.

Their ship, the USS Iwo Jima, was no longer visible from Monrovia's shore by Tuesday afternoon, and was due to leave the region within hours.

The Iwo Jima was the last of three U.S. warships deployed in early August off Liberia's capital, Monrovia, where fighting killed more than 1,000 civilians in June and July as rebels besieged the city.

The mission of Joint Task Force Liberia Mission "has been accomplished," a U.S. military spokesman said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Disputes over whether power companies should be made to use renewable fuels to make electricity and about liability protection for makers of a water-contaminating gasoline additive are complicating negotiations over a far-reaching energy bill.

[edit]

Tauzin said "we're very close" to a compromise that would resolve the dispute between the House and Senate over the future of MTBE, a petroleum-based gasoline additive that many senators want banned because it has been found to contaminate groundwater from California to New England.

But some key House Republicans, including Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas, not only oppose to a ban but want MTBE manufacturers to be protected from any lawsuits from the chemical leaking into water supplies. The industry has pushed hard for the legal protection.

DeLay has sought a meeting with Domenici to discuss the issue, but Marnie Funk, a spokeswoman for the senator, said late Monday that no such meeting is on Domenici's schedule. DeLay, whose district includes MTBE manufacturers, is not part of the energy conference and has been accused by Democrats of trying to inject himself into the talks.

CIA flap
Does anyone smell a rat here?

Let's, for a moment, suspend reality, and decide that Karl Rove makes it a habit to expose CIA operatives. Which she isn't. And which he wouldn't.

The article from Novak ran in JULY. It is now, basically, OCTOBER. Could it be that silly season has started in the campaign wars? Could it be that Joe Wilson, Kerry contributor and registered Dem, is playing politics here? Hmmmmm, could be.......

[T]he CIA filed what they termed a "crime report" with the Justice Department in late July, shortly after syndicated columnist Robert D. Novak, citing two unnamed administration sources, identified Wilson's wife by name. The CIA report pointed to a "possible violation of federal criminal law involving the unauthorized disclosure of classified information."

Three weeks ago, intelligence officials said, the CIA returned to the Justice Department a standard 11-question form detailing the potential damage done by the release of the information. Officials said it may have been the first such report ever filed on the unauthorized disclosure of an operative's name. Word of the Justice probe emerged over the weekend after the CIA briefed lawmakers on it last week.

In revising the law, the Belgian government sought to ensure this time that there would be no loopholes. The new act repealed the 1993 law and established a formal procedure for nullifying pending complaints. It also limited jurisdiction to complaints in which either the victim or defendant was a Belgian national or resident. Even then, the federal prosecutor could reject a complaint without investigation or the possibility of appeal if he deemed it "manifestly without grounds" or determined that it should be brought in another country. Any official of a NATO or European Union nation gets automatic immunity.

The government rushed through the new law on Aug. 1. It took effect six days later, and was upheld by Wednesday's ruling of the Belgian Supreme Court.

An obscure law that could come into play in an investigation of alleged leaks by the Bush administration has rarely, if ever, been used to prosecute someone for the unauthorized disclosure of a covert U.S. agent's name, people familiar with the law said yesterday.

The law, the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, was enacted in 1982 and was designed to protect the identities of covert U.S. agents.

[edit]

The statute includes three other elements necessary to obtain a conviction: that the disclosure was intentional, the accused knew the person being identified was a covert agent and the accused also knew that "the United States is taking affirmative measures to conceal such covert agent's intelligence relationship to the United States."

The law says no person other than the one accused of leaking the information can be prosecuted, a provision that would protect journalists who report leaked classified information identifying a covert agent.

CHENEY: "We have reporting that places [hijacker Mohamed Atta] in Prague with a senior Iraqi intelligence officer a few months before the attacks on the World Trade Center."

RUSSERT: "What does the CIA say about that? Is it credible?"

CHENEY: "It's credible. But, you know, I think the way to put it would be it's unconfirmed at this point."

"Matalin said Cheney 'doesn't base his opinion on one piece of data,' but has access to information that cannot be declassified because it would harm national security or compromise sources."

[I]nformation relating to this should report that information to the Department of Justice.

So the Department of Justice is the one that would look in matters like this.

But if someone did something like this, it needs to be looked at by the Department of Justice, they're the appropriate agency charged with looking into matters like this.

It would be a Justice Department matter.

QUESTION: What instructions is Mr. Bush giving to top aides about cooperating with the investigation?

McCLELLAN: Well, of course, in any matter like this, we would cooperate with the
Department of Justice.

QUESTION: But the Department of Justice is --

McCLELLAN: There has been no information brought to us or that has come to our attention, beyond the media reports, to suggest that there was White House involvement.

QUESTION: Scott, The Washington Post is reporting that the President is not going to ask his top aides about it, who did the leak. Is that true? And, if not, why not?

McCLELLAN: Well, what did I just say? I think I just answered that question. I said that there has been nothing that has been brought to our attention, beyond what we've seen in the media reports, to suggest that there was White House involvement.

[edit]

QUESTION: Scott, the President came into office promising public integrity would be restored to this office and accountability. Isn't that true, he expects that from all members of his staff?

McCLELLAN: Yes, the President expects everyone in his administration to adhere to the highest standards of conduct.

QUESTION: All right. If that's the case, then why does he even need an independent investigation? Why doesn't he simply call those who are responsible to come forward --

McCLELLAN: Do you have something to bring to our attention? I mean, let me make clear, if anyone has information about this leak of classified information, they need to report it to the Department of Justice -- anyone.

QUESTION: Why doesn't he simply ask those -- if, indeed, this is true -- to come forward and --

McCLELLAN: Ask who?

QUESTION: The President of the United States --

McCLELLAN: Ask who?

QUESTION: The limited number of people --

QUESTION: -- he can direct, he can send a memo out --

McCLELLAN: That's the Department of Justice, I just said, is the appropriate agency.

QUESTION: Why doesn't he ask them to come forward and hand in their resignations?

McCLELLAN: But who? I said that it's a serious matter, and anyone should be pursued to the fullest extent of the law.

QUESTION: -- why doesn't he use everything in his power to smoke them out?

McCLELLAN: The Department of Justice is looking into this. I've made it very clear the President believes the leaking of classified information of this nature is a very serious matter, and it should be pursued to the fullest.

QUESTION: By them. And he has no -- his hands are tied? He can't simply ask his staff --

McCLELLAN: Well, do you have any information to bring to our attention, Paula? Do you have any information to bring to our attention? If you have any information, that should be reported to the Department of Justice, and they need to pursue this to the fullest.

QUESTION: And he can't do anything on his own?

McCLELLAN: I think I've made it very clear what I -- we don't have any information beyond what we've seen in media reports that has come to our attention to suggest White House involvement. If I chased every anonymous source in the media, I'd spend all my time doing that.

"I haven't written much about the ongoing brouhaha over whether President Bush 'lied' America into the war with Iraq. The main reason for my silence is that it's a monstrously stupid argument -- and usually deliberately so."

"After all, a lie is only a lie if you know the truth and then say something very different."

The new norms also would prohibit dances and applause during the mass. Ethnic dancing has been a feature of papal services during the pope's many foreign trips and applause for the pontiff when he enters and exits Mass has grown common, even in St. Peter's Basilica.

In Italy, clapping at the conclusion of a variety of services including baptisms, weddings and funerals has become almost customary.

The proposed new rules would roll back some de facto changes that resulted from the Second Vatican Council, the 1962-65 meeting of church officials that altered many Roman Catholic practices. Among them was an increased role for lay people in helping conduct worship services, as well as reaching out to other Christian sects.

Lay preachers must not "usurp" the role of priests, the document warns, nor preach the homily, a kind of lesson delivered during Mass. Lay preaching in Catholic churches has grown common in parishes where priests and deacons are scarce, especially in northern Europe.

There is also a proposal to inhibit pan-religious participation in the Mass, a practice that had taken root during decades of ecumenical enthusiasm in the Catholic Church. Representatives of Protestant or other non-Catholic sects should not take part in the service beside the priests, according to the proposal.

The use of non-Biblical readings during Mass, such as quotations from philosophers and poets, is also recommended to be avoided.

DR. RICE: First of all, the CIA did clear the speech in its entirety and George Tenet has said that. He's also said that he believes that it should not have been cleared. And we apparently, with the -- in October for the Cincinnati speech, not for the State of the Union, but the Cincinnati speech, George Tenet asked that this be taken out of the Cincinnati speech, the reference to yellow cake. It was taken out of the Cincinnati speech because whenever the director of Central Intelligence wants something out, it's gone.

MR. RUSSERT: How'd it get back in?

DR. RICE: It’s not a matter of getting back in. It's a matter, Tim, that three-plus months later, people didn't remember that George Tenet had asked that it be taken out of the Cincinnati speech and then it was cleared by the agency. I didn't remember. Steve Hadley didn’t remember. We are trying to put now in place methods so you don’t have to be dependent on people’s memories for something like that.

MR. RUSSERT: The administration’s credibility is on the line, here in the country and around the world. And we still specifically cite the president’s State of the Union message in January. Now, let me go back and play that and then talk about your role.

(Videotape, January 28, 2003):

PRES. GEORGE W. BUSH: The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT: That was in January. And in June—June 8—you were on MEET THE PRESS; I asked you about that, and this was your response.

(Videotape, June 8, 2003):

DR. RICE: The president quoted a British paper. We did not know at the time, no one knew at the time in our circles—maybe someone knew down in the bowels of the agency, but no one in our circles knew—that there were doubts and suspicions that this might be a forgery. Of course, it was information that was mistaken.

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT: “No one in our circles.” That has proven to be wrong.

DR. RICE: No, Tim, that has not proven to be wrong. No one did know that they were forgeries. The notion of the forgeries came in February or in March when this was—when this came to the CIA. It is true that we learned, subsequent to my comments to you, that Director Tenet did not want to stand by that statement. And I would never want to see anything in a presidential statement—speech—that the director of Central Intelligence did not want to have there.

"That same (Gallup) poll, however, found that, countrywide, only 33 percent thought they were better off than they were before the invasion and 47 percent said they were worse off. And 94 percent said that Baghdad was a more dangerous place for them to live, a finding the administration officials did not discuss."

I wish we'd see more of this kind of gotchya. I seem to recall so many people making the case that we shouldn't invade Iraq because he would use weapons of mass destruction and now everyone says we shouldn't have invaded because we knew he didn't have any all along. Well, which is it?

The Bush administration, which calls the USA Patriot Act perhaps its most essential tool in fighting terrorists, has begun using the law with increasing frequency in many criminal investigations that have little or no connection to terrorism.

The government is using its expanded authority under the far-reaching law to investigate suspected drug traffickers, white-collar criminals, blackmailers, child pornographers, money launderers, spies and even corrupt foreign leaders, federal officials said.

Justice Department officials say they are simply using all the tools now available to them to pursue criminals — terrorists or otherwise. But critics of the administration's antiterrorism tactics assert that such use of the law is evidence the administration is using terrorism as a guise to pursue a broader law enforcement agenda.

An internal assessment by the Defense Intelligence Agency has concluded that most of the information provided by Iraqi defectors who were made available by the Iraqi National Congress was of little or no value, according to federal officials briefed on the arrangement.

In addition, several Iraqi defectors introduced to American intelligence agents by the exile organization and its leader, Ahmad Chalabi, invented or exaggerated their credentials as people with direct knowledge of the Iraqi government and its suspected unconventional weapons program, the officials said.

The arrangement, paid for with taxpayer funds supplied to the exile group under the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998, involved extensive debriefing of at least half a dozen defectors by defense intelligence agents in European capitals and at a base in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil in late 2002 and early 2003, the officials said. But a review early this year by the defense agency concluded that no more than one-third of the information was potentially useful, and efforts to explore those leads since have generally failed to pan out, the officials said.

[edit]

Intelligence provided by the defectors that could not be substantiated included information about Iraq's suspected program for nuclear, chemical and biological weapons as well as other information about the Iraqi government, the officials said. They said they would not speculate on whether the defectors had knowingly provided false information and, if so, what their motivation might have been. One Defense Department official said that some of the people were not who they said they were and that the money for the program could have been better spent.

[edit]

Instead, State Department officials involved in the program said, the Iraqi exiles used most of the money to recruit defectors who claimed to have sensitive intelligence information. Until 2002, the State Department handed over those defectors to the Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for debriefing. Federal officials said that very few of them had been judged to be credible, but that they knew of no specific assessment of their credibility.

Leaders of the House intelligence committee have criticized the U.S. intelligence community for using largely outdated, "circumstantial" and "fragmentary" information with "too many uncertainties" to conclude that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and ties to al Qaeda.

Once misconceptions are known, journalists have an obligation to highlight the facts in a prominent way, writing stories specifically about where people have misunderstood or been misled, and correcting the misimpressions. The average citizen can't be expected to wade through the euphemisms and competing claims, research the evidence, and come to a conclusion about who's telling the truth and who isn't.

That's what reporters are for.

In making the case for war against Iraq, Vice President Cheney has continued to suggest that an Iraqi intelligence agent met with a Sept. 11, 2001, hijacker five months before the attacks, even as the story was falling apart under scrutiny by the FBI, CIA and the foreign government that first made the allegation.

Now, a new license plate is available to the proudest, with proceeds benefiting historic state sites. Against a picture of the Alamo and the San Jacinto Monument is the Texas flag with the tag line: "Native Texan."

[edit]

Will those newcomers carry on the spirit? Yes - if they embrace the mythos like Joe Nick Patoski, a former writer for Texas Monthly. Born in Pennsylvania, his family moved to Texas when he was two. He spouts a familiar refrain: "I wasn't born in Texas, but I got here as fast as I could."

"So I'm not a native," he says. "But I am a Texan. I drawl and twang without shame. I wear blue jeans with a leather belt with hand-tooled scorpions, and have a pair of custom handmade boots." People like Patoski can buy a Native Texan license plate, no birth certificate required.

That burns up Dallas businessman Blake Beidleman. He's in San Antonio on business and has brought his boss, a Floridian, to the Alamo. This eighth-generation Texan talks of natives' integrity, independence, and strength of character. "They should have a separate plate for the wannabes and transplants," he says. "Being native is something special, and it should be kept that way."

[edit]

"Being a native Texan is an integral part of my identity, but it's difficult to explain," says Elaine Milam Vetter, historian general of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, which operates historic sites. This seventh-generation Texan, whose ancestors fought in the Texas Revolution, came up with the license-plate idea and received the first one. Her voice cracks as she explains why being a Texan is important: "It means I come from people who weren't afraid to fight for what was right, and to fight to the death for it."

How typical of the lame lefties...

Considering AP worse than abysmal track record of getting the facts straight and the fact that AP liberal morons are great at spinning that facts that they don't get straight, the lefties climb on this wagon also without the remotest effort at critical thought...

I find it hilarious that two left wing rags, the Washington Post and the L.A. Times are considered factual while Coulter, Limbaugh, et. al are not fact checking...

Just goes to show you that lame lefties will look to anyone for anything to substantiate their inane view of the real world...