The Talk Show American

THE TALK SHOW AMERICAN: 05/01/2005 - 05/08/2005

Saturday, May 07, 2005

Senior Al Qaeda Leader's Notebook Seized

Al-Libbi's Notebook Believed to Contain Valuable Contact Information, Source Says
- U.S. officials are working feverishly to decipher numbers and apparent codes in a notebook retrieved from suspected al Qaeda leader Abu Faraj al-Libbi, ABC News has learned.

Al-Libbi -- believed to be third in command of al Qaeda leader after Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri -- was arrested by Pakistani authorities on Monday.

He is suspected of leading two failed assassination attempts on the life of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

Sources said officials believe al-Libbi's seized notebook contains "hot" contact information. They said officials are hopeful the notebook contains useful information because al-Libbi was stunned when he was captured.

One senior official described al-Libbi as "shocked" and enraged.

"He thought he was invincible," the source said. "He was caught with his pants down. This was not the time and place of his choosing."

Al-Libbi was trying to destroy the notebook when he was apprehended, multiple sources said.

Bystanders lose lawsuit over Elian Gonzales raid

MIAMI, Florida (AP) -- A federal judge Friday ruled against awarding damages to 13 people who were tear-gassed by immigration agents during the raid to seize 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez five years ago.

In a 19-page decision U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore said the demonstrators and bystanders failed to show enough credible evidence that federal officers' use of force was "unreasonable under the circumstances."

The 13 people sued the government for $3.25 million (&euro2.51 million), claiming they had lingering injuries after being sprayed at close range on their own property or behind barricades. Three neighbors testified that an agent gassed them without warning from 2 to 4 feet (about 1 meter) away as they stood alone in their fenced front yards.

Justice Department attorneys argued at trial that the tear-gassing of bystanders was "an unavoidable consequence" during the April 22, 2000 raid, which led to the boy's eventual return to Cuba with his father.

Elian was rescued from the Atlantic Ocean on Thanksgiving Day 1999 after a shipwreck killed his mother and others trying to reach Florida by boat. The then-Immigration and Naturalization Service turned him over to relatives in Miami, who balked when the government decided he should go back to Cuba.

During the non-jury trial, attorney Michael Hurley, representing 12 bystanders, called the gassing "an overreaction." He argued that agents went beyond the raid plan, which called for the use of gas only after an order to repel "a mass breach" of demonstrators at a barricade was given. He said no order was given, and there was no major breach.

Attorney Larry Klayman, who represented the 13th bystander, claimed immigration agents were "paying back the Cuban community" for the prolonged custody fight. He said then-Attorney General Janet Reno ordered the raid "following the instructions of the Cuban government."

The judge barred evidence of anti-Cuban bias.

A January ruling determined that the use of gas during the raid was reasonable and allowed under Florida law. Originally 96 people filed suit, but only 13 plaintiffs' claims for assault and battery and emotional distress remained.

The Easter weekend raid snatched the screaming boy from a bedroom closet. Father and son headed home to instant celebrity and visits with Cuban President Fidel Castro.

Last month Elian, now 11, marked the raid's five-year anniversary by reading a speech at a televised event in Havana. Castro was among thousands in the audience.

N. Korea May Be Readying Nuclear Test

TOKYO -- U.S. spy satellites have detected what may be preparations for North Korea's first test of a nuclear weapon, although analysts believe it could be a calculated ruse on Pyongyang's part, a U.S. defense official said Friday.
The satellite images show North Korea has dug and refilled a significant hole at a suspected test site in Gilju in the northeastern part of the country, said the official, discussing intelligence only on the condition of anonymity. The hole was dug in a manner consistent with preparations for an underground nuclear test, although it is not known whether the North Koreans deposited a weapon inside, the official said.

In addition, the official said, they have built some bleachers a sufficient distance from the hole, presumably for viewing any test.

Officials elsewhere in the U.S. government played down the remarks.

One who spoke on condition of anonymity said activity at the site could be consistent with preparations for a nuclear test, but other explanations are also possible.

The official said the U.S. government's working assumption is that North Korea could test with little notice and is believed to have the technical capability to do so. Its decision is considered to be one of politics.

Presidential spokesman Scott McClellan said he didn't want to get into discussing intelligence matters. "But what I would say is that if North Korea did take such a step, that would just be another provocative act that would further isolate it from the international community."

"All countries in the region are committed to seeing a nuclear-free peninsula," McClellan told reporters aboard Air Force One as President Bush traveled on the first leg of a five-day, four-country visit to central and eastern Europe.

At the State Department, spokesman Tom Casey said, "We don't have any new assessment" of North Korea. Casey said various North Korean statements had raised concerns and the United States was sharing them with other governments.

Although North Korea has claimed it has nuclear weapons, an actual test would be a first and confirm their capabilities to the world. U.S. intelligence and other estimates put the number of their weapons between one and six, so using one in a test would reduce their inventory by a significant amount.

But the North Koreans also have a good idea when U.S. spy satellites are overhead � the U.S. does not possess enough to watch the country constantly � and are capable of making such preparations solely to cause a reaction among its adversaries, the defense official said.

Poll: Clinton, Giuliani Top Picks for 2008

ALBANY, N.Y. � While Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton and Republican Rudolph Giuliani are their party's top picks for the 2008 presidential nominations, both remain highly polarizing figures, according to a national poll released Friday.

Forty percent of Democrats polled said they favored Clinton, the New York senator, for the party's nomination while 18 percent opted for Democratic Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, the loser of the 2004 presidential race. Fourteen percent wanted former Sen. John Edwards, Kerry's 2004 running mate, according to the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion.

Giuliani, the former New York City mayor, was favored by 25 percent of Republican voters for the 2008 GOP nomination with Sen. John McCain of Arizona at 20 percent and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush at 10 percent.

None of the often mentioned other potential contenders in either party managed to get into double digits in the poll. New York Gov. George Pataki, for instance, was favored by just 2 percent of GOP voters nationally.

The partisan polarization was evident for both Clinton and Giuliani, said Lee Miringoff, head of the Poughkeepsie, N.Y.-based polling institute.

While 72 percent of Democrats said they would like the former first lady to run for the White House in 2008, 76 percent of Republicans said they did not. Conversely, 71 percent of Republicans said Giuliani should run while 64 percent of Democrats said he should not.

Miringoff said McCain and Edwards both run better against the top opposition than do Giuliani and Clinton. For instance, McCain leads Clinton by 50 percent to 42 percent, but Giuliani gets just 47 percent to Clinton's 46 percent.

"They don't have that polarization that Hillary and Rudy have," the independent pollster said.

Marist's telephone poll of 838 registered voters was conducted April 18-21 and has a sampling error margin of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

Mark Fuhrman Probing Schiavo Case

Famed detective Mark Fuhrman, whose independent investigation into the Martha Moxley murder led to the conviction of Kennedy-cousin Michael Skakel, is probing the Terri Schiavo forced starvation case.

"He spent a month on the ground in Tampa," revealed Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity Friday night. "He's talked to many of the principals involved investigating the case and he's coming out with a book." Hannity said he personally contacted Fuhrman in March to suggest he probe a myriad of unresolved questions about Ms. Schiavo's condition, including a 1991 bone scan report showing that Schiavo suffered fractures sometime prior to being found unconscious in her home in Feb. 1990.

Schiavo's family has repeatedly said they suspect Terri's condition was the result of a violent fight she had with her husband Michael. Police never probed the case for evidence of assault because by the time the bone scan became public in 2002, the statute of limitations had run.

Det. Fuhrman's investigation would be the first to review the case for evidence of a possible crime.

"All I can say," the talk host told his "Hannity & Colmes" audience, "is that this is not over. Stay tuned."

Fuhrman's book "Murder in Greenwich" was widely credited with blowing the lid off the Moxley-Skakel case.