The Talk Show American

THE TALK SHOW AMERICAN: 09/25/2005 - 10/02/2005

Friday, September 30, 2005

Timeline in Judith Miller Contempt Case

A timeline in the case of Judith Miller, a New York Times reporter jailed for 85 days after refusing to divulge her sources to a prosecutor investigating the Bush administration's role in leaking a CIA officer's identity:

February 2002: Former Ambassador Joseph Wilson is asked by the Bush administration to travel to Niger to check out an intelligence report that Niger sold yellowcake uranium to Iraq in the late 1990s for use in nuclear weapons.

Jan. 28, 2003: In the State of the Union address, President Bush states that "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa" but does not mention that U.S. agencies had questioned the validity of the British intelligence.

July 6: In a New York Times op-ed piece, Wilson writes that he could not verify that Niger sold uranium yellowcake to Iraq.

July 14: Columnist Robert Novak identifies Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, as "a (CIA) operative on weapons of mass destruction." Novak cites "two senior administration officials" as his sources.

July 17: Matthew Cooper writes on Time.com that government officials have told him Wilson's wife is a CIA official monitoring WMD. Another article appears in the magazine's July 21 print issue.

Sept 29-30: The Justice Department informs then-White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales that it has opened an investigation into possible unauthorized disclosures concerning the identity of an undercover CIA employee. Gonzales informs the president the next day. Bush tells reporters: "I don't know of anybody in my administration who leaked classified information. If somebody did leak classified information, I'd like to know it, and we'll take the appropriate action."

Dec. 30: Chicago U.S. attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald is named special counsel to investigate whether a crime was committed.

May 21, 2004: A grand jury subpoenas Cooper and Time Inc., seeking testimony and documents. Time says it will fight subpoena.

Aug 9: U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan's rejects claims that the First Amendment protects Cooper from testifying and finds them in contempt of court. Time magazine appeals the ruling.

Aug 12 and 14: The grand jury subpoenas New York Times reporter Judith Miller, who gathered material for a story but never wrote one. The New York Times says it will fight subpoena.

Aug 24: Cooper agrees to give a deposition after Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, personally releases Cooper from a promise of confidentiality.

Sept 13: According to court documents, the grand jury issues a further subpoena to Cooper seeking additional information relating to the case. Cooper and Time move to quash the subpoena.

Oct 7: Miller held in contempt.

Oct. 13: Cooper and Time held in contempt.

Feb. 15, 2005: Appeals court rules against Miller and Cooper. Both Time magazine and The New York Times appeal to the Supreme Court.

June 27: The Supreme Court refuses to intervene.

July 1: Time magazine agrees to comply with a court order to turn over Cooper's notes, e-mail and other documents. Cooper and Miller continue to refuse to divulge sources.

July 6: U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan sends Miller to jail for refusing to divulge her source. Cooper agrees to name his source after receiving permission from the source to do so.

Sept. 29: After 85 days behind bars, Miller is released from the city jail in Alexandria, Va., after agreeing to testify before a grand jury. She says in a statement that her source has "voluntarily and personally released me from my promise of confidentiality."

Sept. 30: Miller testifies at the federal courthouse in downtown Washington, ending her silence in the investigation.

Judith Miller Testifies in CIA Leak Probe

New York Times reporter Judith Miller testified before a grand jury Friday, ending her silence in the investigation into whether White House officials leaked the name of a covert CIA operative, Valerie Plame.
Miller, out of jail after 85 days, said, "I was a journalist doing my job, protecting my source until my source freed me to perform my civic duty to testify."

Escorted by her lawyers and New York Times Publisher Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr., Miller met with reporters for several minutes after spending more than four hours inside the courthouse, most of it behind closed doors with a grand jury.

Miller said she agreed to meet with the grand jury after hearing "directly from my source" by telephone and in a letter that she should cooperate with the investigation by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald.

"I concluded from this that my source genuinely wanted me to testify," she told reporters.

"I served 85 days in jail because of my belief in the importance of upholding the confidential relationship journalists have with their sources," Miller said. "Believe me, I did not want to be in jail. But I would have stayed even longer."

As part of the deal, Fitzgerald agreed in advance that he would limit Miller's testimony to her communications with her source "and that was very important to me," Miller added.

"I know what my conscience would allow and ... I stood fast to that," the reporter said.

Miller's testimony has been characterized by Fitzgerald as key to his investigation into the White House role in the disclosure of Plame's identity.

Although Miller declined to identify her source, The New York Times identified him as Lewis "Scooter" Libby, chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney.

Dems Mum on Nagin-Farrakhan Summit

Top Democrats who blasted President Bush for bungling the Hurricane Katrina crisis declined to comment on Wednesday on Nation of Islam chief Louis Farrakhan's claim that New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin gave him key evidence suggesting his city's levees may have been blown up.

NewsMax called the offices of Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, Sen. Hillary Clinton, Sen. Mary Landrieu, Sen. Barack Obama and Rep. Charlie Rangel, as well as ex-President Clinton's Harlem office, and followed up with emails detailing Farrakhan's claims about his Nagin sit-down.

Not a single Democrat was willing to say whether it was appropriate for Nagin to huddle with the racially polarizing black leader, let alone feed him info that stoked Farrakhan's levee conspiracy theory.

On Friday, Farrakhan told a rally for his upcoming Millions More March:

"We flew to Dallas, Texas - members of the Millions More Movement - where we met with Mayor Nagin . . . Mayor Nagin told us there was a 25-foot crater under the levee."
Farrakhan cautioned: "He didn't say there was a bomb. He just said there was a crater," then added: "I say they blew it [up]."

A full five days after Farrakhan cited Nagin as his source for news that not all the levee damage looked natural, Nagin himself has had nothing to say about the levee plot theory - a silence that some see as a tacit endorsement.

Two weeks ago Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson said that Farrakhan's theory was gaining currency in Nagin's city.

"I was stunned in New Orleans at how many black New Orleanians would tell me with real conviction that somehow the levee breaks had been engineered," Robinson told NBC's "Meet the Press." "These are not wild-eyed people," Robinson insisted. "These are reasonable, sober people who really believe that."

Nagin's Cops Trained by Farrakhan Deputy

When New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin briefed Nation of Islam chief Louis Farrakhan about damage to the city's levees in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, it wasn't the first time the Louisiana Democrat had reached out to the racially polarizing black leader.

In June, the Bayou Buzz reported that Nagin's police department hired Farrakhan deputy Dennis Muhammad to conduct "sensitivity training" sessions for New Orleans' cops after a rise in "anti-police" sentiment in the city.

In an item picked up by the Drudge Report, Police Chief Eddie Compass explained that "members of the Nation of Islam have some type of relationship" with the community and might be able to help ease tensions.

The Muhammed appointment immediately sparked controversy, with New Orleans Police Association spokesman David Benelli telling the Bayou Buzz that his phone had "been ringing off the hook" with complaints from the rank and file.

Chief Compass resigned on Tuesday amidst reports that 249 of his cops had deserted their posts during the Katrina crisis.
Last Friday, Farrakhan revealed that he had a private meeting with Mayor Nagin in the wake of the disaster to discuss Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.

It was during that meeting, Farrakhan told a Memphis audience, that "Mayor Nagin told us there was a 25-foot crater under the levee."

"He didn't say there was a bomb," the NOI chief cautioned. "He just said there was a crater."

"I say they blew it," Farrakhan added.

NewsMax's calls to Mayor Nagin's office this week seeking comment on Farrakhan's account have gone unanswered.

Gov. Blanco gets no Katrina questions

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, blamed by the former leader of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin for many of the city's post-hurricane problems, was given no questions about her response to Hurricane Katrina when she appeared before a Senate committee to plead for more federal money.

She asked not to be questioned about it and the senators agreed.
Mrs. Blanco, a Democrat, was invited by the Senate Finance Committee to respond to charges by former FEMA Director Michael D. Brown, who the day before called Louisiana officials "dysfunctional" in handling the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

"Today, I came really to talk about job creation," she said.
Later, she told reporters, "The facts will speak for themselves. I will tell our story when the time is appropriate."

Mr. Brown, who resigned from FEMA under a hail of criticism, testified Tuesday before the House select committee investigating the response to Katrina and blamed Mrs. Blanco and Mr. Nagin for the slow reaction to the flooding and devastation to the city.

Republican senators at yesterday's hearing by the Finance Committee -- Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, Trent Lott of Mississippi, Olympia J. Snow of Maine, Jon Kyl of Arizona, Craig Thomas of Wyoming, Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, Bill Frist of Tennessee, Gordon H. Smith of Oregon, Jim Bunning of Kentucky and Michael D. Crapo of Idaho -- agreed to Mrs. Blanco's request not to discuss her performance after the hurricane.

Economy Was in Good Shape Before Hurricanes

The number of people out of work because of Hurricane Katrina has reached 279,000, and many more job losses are expected because of Hurricane Rita.

The lost jobs, coupled with surging energy prices, are expected to deliver a sharp blow to overall economic growth in the second half of this year. Also of concern is the possibility that any further unexpected spikes in energy prices could prolong the economic weakness.

The Commerce Department reported Thursday that the economy was growing at a solid 3.3 percent annual rate in the April-June period, but that rate is sure to be weaker in the just-concluding July-September quarter.

"The problem is the combined effects of the disruptions from Katrina and Rita, plus the ripple effects in the economy from higher energy prices," said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at Global Insight, a consulting firm in Lexington, Mass.

Before the hurricanes sent oil prices briefly above $70 per barrel and gasoline up to $3 per gallon, analysts had forecast that economic growth in the third quarter would show an annual rate perhaps as high as 4.5 percent.

Behravesh said he now believed growth in the gross domestic product growth would be closer to 3 percent in the third quarter and around 2.8 percent in the fourth quarter. The GDP measures the value of all goods and services produced within the United States and is the best barometer of economic fitness.

The Congressional Budget Office said Thursday it believed the fallout from Katrina and Rita probably would be "more modest" than the CBO estimated on Sept. 6 for just Katrina.

The agency's director, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, said the CBO now believes the hurricanes will cut growth by one-half of a percentage point in the second half of this year, with most of that damage in the July through September period. By the final three months of 2005, spending on rebuilding will help to offset the economic damage, according to the CBO.

In its earlier report, the CBO said the impact on GDP growth probably would be from one-half of a percentage point to a full percentage point over the second half of the year.

As for job losses, the CBO said that the direct effect on areas hit by Katrina "now appears to be between 280,000 and 400,000 jobs." The CBO said Rita's impact on jobs "will be much smaller" and by early next year, hiring for reconstruction projects will cause the net impact on jobs nationwide from both hurricanes to be "minimal."

On Wall Street, investors shook off worries about the future to push stocks higher on Thursday. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 79.69 points to close at 10,552.78.

Behravesh and other analysts are forecasting a rebound to faster growth next year as the rebuilding gets started. They say those forecasts were based on a calming of energy prices. But that is in doubt when it comes to natural gas, where analysts predict that parts of the country could see increases this winter of as much as 70 percent.

"Natural gas prices are going to go through the roof in the next couple of months and that is going to hurt a lot of families," Behravesh said.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that job losses from Katrina climbed by an additional 60,000 last week to 279,000. Last week's Katrina-related increase compared with 108,000 two weeks ago.

Overall jobless claims declined to 356,000 last week, down from a two-year high of 435,000 the previous week.

Still, analysts said those figures probably would climb again as people forced out of work by Rita, which struck the Texas-Louisiana coast last weekend, make their way to unemployment offices.

The government will report on September unemployment on Oct. 7. Analysts are looking for the rate to rise to 5 percent from a four-year low of 4.9 percent in August. They said business payrolls could lose 250,000 jobs related to Katrina's devastation.

This decline will be partially offset by a gain of 150,000 jobs elsewhere, leaving job losses for the month around 100,000 for September.

David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor's in New York, said he looked for the weekly jobless claims figures to begin rising again as Rita-related claims are filed, but he estimated the impact from Rita would be about one-fourth that of Katrina.

"Katrina was off the scale. There are no jobs in New Orleans right now," he said. "Rita was a more normal hurricane where the jobs will come back pretty quickly."

The Commerce Department's estimate of a 3.3 percent growth rate in the second quarter was unchanged from the estimate made one month ago. An inflation gauge tied to the GDP that is closely watched by the Federal Reserve rose at a moderate rate of 1.7 percent in the second quarter, slightly higher than estimated a month ago.

Thursday, September 29, 2005

Bush's job approval bounces back a bit

President Bush's response to Hurricane Rita won overwhelming approval in a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll, a marked contrast to his low marks on handling Hurricane Katrina.
Overall, 71% of those polled said they approve of Bush's response to Rita, which included presidential trips to the region before, during and after the storm. (Related item: Poll results)

Just 40% said they approved of the president's handling of Katrina, which was marred by a slow federal response after the storm. Except for a brief flyover in Air Force One, Bush made his first trip to the affected area five days after Katrina had passed.

The approval of his handling of Rita also affected his overall job-approval rating.

In the latest poll, that rating was 45%, up from 40% a week and a half ago. That was a low point he also hit shortly before Katrina, when bad news from Iraq intensified as he vacationed at his ranch in Texas.

Bush's disapproval dropped from 58% a week and a half ago, the worst of his presidency, to 50%.

That puts his approve-disapprove rating about where it was in early August, before Katrina and Rita. Bush, faced with public discontent over the war in Iraq and high gasoline prices, has been below 50% approval for about five months.

Bush was boosted in the latest poll by a public feeling that he did a better job responding to Hurricane Rita, which struck Texas and Louisiana Sept. 24, than he did with Katrina, which hit Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi Aug. 29.

Analysts say Bush has been helped by less media focus on Iraq and more on the confirmation of John Roberts as Supreme Court chief justice. "Republicans have to be relieved. Given all the bad news this White House has faced, at least the president's hemorrhaging has stopped," says Stuart Rothenberg, publisher of the non-partisan Rothenberg Political Report.

The Sept. 26-28 poll of 1,007 adults has an error margin of +/-3 percentage points.

Aids virus 'could be weakening'

The virus which causes Aids may be getting less powerful, researchers say.
A team at the Institute of Tropical Medicine, in Antwerp, compared HIV-1 samples from 1986-89 and 2002-03.

They found the newer samples appeared not to multiply as well, and were more sensitive to drugs - some other studies argue they are becoming more resistant.

The researchers, writing in the journal Aids, stressed their work in no way meant efforts to prevent the spread of HIV should be scaled down.

They were only able to compare 12 samples from each time period, and they were unable fully to tease out any effect that drug therapy may have had on the virus.

Hope for future

Researcher Dr Eric Artz said: "This was a very preliminary study, but we did find a pretty striking observation in that the viruses from the 2000s are much weaker than the viruses from the eighties.

"Obviously this virus is still causing death, although it may be causing death at a slower rate of progression now. Maybe in another 50 to 60 years we might see this virus not causing death."

Keith Alcorn, senior editor at the HIV information charity NAM, said it had been thought that HIV would increase in virulence as it passed through more and more human hosts.

But the latest study suggested the opposite is actually true.

"What appears to be happening is that by the time HIV passes from one person to another, it has already toned down some of its most pathogenic effects in response to its host's immune system," he said.

"So the virus that is passed on is less 'fit' each time.

"This would suggest that over several generations, HIV could become less harmful to its human hosts.

"However, we are still far from that point - HIV is still a life-threatening infection."

Gen.: al-Qaida Seeks to Use WMD in Mideast

Al-Qaida is the main enemy to peace and stability in the Middle East and the terrorist group is seeking to acquire _ and use _ weapons of mass destruction there, a top U.S. commander in Iraq told Congress.

"The enemy that brought us 9/11 continues to represent one of the greatest dangers to this nation," warned Gen. John Abizaid, the commander of U.S. Central Command.

He was testifying alongside Gen. George Casey, the most senior commander of coalition forces in Iraq, before the Senate and House Armed Services committees. Also to testify Thursday were Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Gen. Richard B. Myers, the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

President Bush sent the group to Capitol Hill to try to convince lawmakers _ and their skeptical constituents _ that the United States is making progress in the war.

Senate Confirms Roberts As Chief Justice

John Glover Roberts Jr. won confirmation as the 17th chief justice of the United States Thursday, overwhelmingly confirmed by the Senate to lead the Supreme Court through turbulent social issues for generations to come.

The Senate voted 78-22 to confirm Roberts - a 50-year-old U.S. Appeals judge from the Washington suburb of Chevy Chase, Md. - as the successor to the late William H. Rehnquist, who died earlier this month. All of the Senate's majority Republicans and about half of the Democrats voted for Roberts.

Underscoring the rarity of a chief justice's confirmation, senators answered the roll by standing one by one at their desks as their names were called, instead of voting and leaving the chamber.

Roberts is the first new Supreme Court justice since 1994. Before becoming a federal judge, Roberts was one of the nation's best appellate lawyers, arguing 39 cases - many in front of the same eight justices he will now lead as chief justice.

He won 25 of those cases.

Ronnie Earle Cleared DeLay Two Weeks Ago

Travis County prosecutor Ronnie Earle's announcement yesterday that he was indicting House Majority Leader Tom DeLay came a little more than two weeks after Earle gave clear indications that the top Republican was off the hook.

"I have never said that DeLay is a target of the investigation," Earle told the Dallas Morning News on Sept. 10.

Sources familiar with Earle's investigation had agreed that before yesterday, it didn't look like the top Republican would be indicted.

On Sept. 19, for instance, ace Newsweek sleuth Michael Isikoff reported that it looked like DeLay was in the clear:

"Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle's two-year campaign-fund-raising probe is expected to wind down soon without bringing charges against the House majority leader, according to lawyers close to the case who declined to be identified because of legal sensitivities," Isikoff reported.
"Earle doesn't plan to refer evidence to the prosecutor in DeLay's home district either," an Earle spokesman told Newsweek.

So what changed?

DeLay says reports that he was off the hook prompted a firestorm of outrage from national Democrats, who pressured Earle to reverse course.

"Do you really believe that the national Democrat leaders that announced that they were going to take this strategy . . . never picked up the phone and talked to Ronnie Earle," he told the Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes" Wednesday night.

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Bush narrows Supreme Court list

Judges, lawyers being considered, analysts say

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.

"We have been listening to the views and ideas of members of the Senate, and the president will take those into account as he makes a decision about who should fill that vacancy," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Tuesday.

Bush is expected to announce his nominee quickly after Thursday's anticipated confirmation and swearing in of John Roberts as chief justice, the president's first pick for the nation's top court.

Bush advisers have consulted with nearly 70 senators, including 17 members of the 18-member Judiciary Committee, McClellan said. He declined to list people the president has interviewed or discuss his list of favorites.

Legal analysts monitoring the selection process, however, say the list has been narrowed to less than 10 candidates, mostly federal appellate judges and a few individuals who have never worn a judicial robe.

Often mentioned are federal appellate judges Alice Batchelder, J. Michael Luttig, Edith Jones, J. Harvie Wilkinson, Priscilla Owen, Samuel Alito, Karen Williams and Michael McConnell.

Also said to be under consideration are corporate attorney Larry Thompson, White House counsel Harriet Miers, Michigan Supreme Court Justice Maura Corrigan and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Bush hinted Monday he might choose a woman or minority member, but some outside advisers were intrigued by another part of his comments. The president said he had interviewed and considered people from "all walks of life."

"It could be someone outside of the legal judicial field like a Larry Thompson, or it could be a senator," said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, a public interest legal group founded by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson.

Sekulow said he's heard Miers' name mentioned "fairly significantly" during the past two days. She doesn't have judicial experience, but she's a "well-respected lawyer -- someone the president trusts."

Two other judicial activists, including one with contacts at the White House, said they too had heard Miers' name mentioned, but agreed with Sekulow, who cautioned, "I don't think anybody has that crystal ball but the president."

Texas Smear Machine Targets DeLay

If nothing else, you have to give Travis County Democrats credit for thinking big, like real Texans. Apparently undaunted that the assault on President Bush's National Guard service blew up in their faces, they are now trying to bring down House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

All roads in the CBS memo scandal traverse Travis County. Dan Rather was the special guest at a 2001 fundraiser for the Travis County Democratic Party, and his daughter is active in the organization. Former National Guardsman Bill Burkett, the unstable Bush-baiter, who now claims he was the source of the forged documents, is represented (and many believe directed) by David Van Os, the former Travis County Democratic Party chairman.

Now Travis County district attorney Ronnie Earle, a Democrat with a history of bringing politically motivated indictments, has indicted three DeLay aides who ran a political action committee called Texans for a Republican Majority PAC. Perhaps recognizing that indicting DeLay himself 41 days before an election would be just too transparent, Earle instead indicted the three underlings for allegedly directing corporate contributions to Texas legislative candidates in 2002.

At stake in 2002 was control of the Texas legislature, which was to redraw congressional district lines. Corporate contributions to legislative candidates are illegal in Texas. The DeLay aides stand accused of violating that prohibition, along with eight companies like Sears Roebuck that provided the funds. The corporate money, however, never went to the candidates. Instead, it went to a much larger fund for state elections controlled by the Republican National Committee in Washington. That committee made contributions to Texas legislative candidates, constituting what Earle now charges is "money laundering."

The only problem is that similar transactions are conducted by both parties in many states, including Texas. In fact, on October 31, 2002, the Texas Democratic Party sent the Democratic National Committee (DNC) $75,000, and on the same day, the DNC sent the Texas Democratic Party $75,000. On July 19, 2001, the Texas Democratic Party sent the DNC $50,000 and, again on the same day, the DNC sent the Texas Democratic Party $60,000. On June 8, 2001, the Texas Democratic Party sent the DNC $50,000. That very same day, the DNC sent the Texas Democratic Party $60,000.

EARLE'S LAST FORAY INTO politicized prosecution in 1993 turned into a huge embarrassment when he went after Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), who was then Texas Treasurer. Earle made a series of trumped-up charges, including that the demure Hutchison had physically assaulted an employee. Earle dropped the case during the trial.

DeLay has been the target of previous legal harassment. Four years ago, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, under the chairmanship of Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), filed a lawsuit under RICO, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. RICO was designed as a tool against organized crime, but Kennedy argued that DeLay's relationships with Washington lobbyists amounted to "extortion." Even some liberal commentators criticized the suit as frivolous. It was eventually thrown out.

This year, lame duck Rep. Chris Bell (D-TX), who lost a March primary, filed a Complaint with the House Ethics Committee, citing many of the same circumstances in the Earle indictments. For good measure, Bell echoed Kennedy's "extortion" allegations and claimed DeLay "misused" his office by asking the Federal Aviation Administration and Justice Department to help find Texas legislators who fled to Oklahoma to deny Republicans a quorum needed to pass the redistricting plan. Since Bell had, in effect, been redistricted out of his seat, his allegations were colored, but did not stop the media from repeating them.


IRONICALLY, DELAY'S DEMOCRATIC counterpart in the House, Nancy Pelosi, has been involved in wholesale and indisputable election law violations, but has been absent from the headlines. Pelosi is a champion of what is called "campaign finance reform." The clearest and most fundamental tenet of current election law is the limitation of contributions. Yet, Pelosi's committees have engaged in a massive circumvention of the limitation, even as Pelosi was a key player in passing additional "reform" measures such as McCain-Feingold.

Earlier this year, the Federal Election Commission fined two so-called leadership PACs associated with Pelosi in response to a Complaint by the National Legal and Policy Center. The purpose of leadership PACs is to make contributions to the campaigns of other Congressional candidates. House and Senate Leaders are allowed one leadership PAC in addition to their own campaign committee.

Pelosi set up two. Her second PAC made $5,000 contributions to thirty-six campaigns that had already received the $5,000 maximum from the first. The treasurer of both PACs candidly admitted that the "main reason" for setting up the second PAC was to "give twice as much (sic) hard dollars."

Some of the enmity directed at DeLay results from his success in the Texas redistricting. It is rank hypocrisy to suggest that his actions are unprecedented or inappropriate. After all, the King of Redistricting is still the late Democratic Rep. Phil Burton of California. In a 2003 tribute, Pelosi gushed, "his true artistry was displayed when it came to redistricting. One press account described it as 'Phil Burton's contribution to modern art.' For almost three decades, he painted the political landscape of Californians in the House from his palette."

The fifth column's antiwar protest

The best piece on the weekend shenanigans in D.C. was by Christopher Hitchens, writing in Slate ("Anti-War, My Foot�the Phony Peaceniks Who Protested in Washington"). His point is that antiwar is the wrong word. The organizers are actually pro-war. They just want the other side to win. International ANSWER, one of the two groups supporting the demonstration, is run by the Workers World Party, which backs Kim Jong Il, Fidel Castro, Slobodan Milosevic, and the "resistance" in Afghanistan and Iraq. The WWP applauded the Soviet invasion of Hungary and China's massacre in Tiananmen Square. The main reason these people keep comparing Bush to Hitler is that Der Fuhrer is the only well-known fascist not approved of by ANSWER.

You probably never learned this from the Associated Press or your local paper, but ANSWER is frankly anti-American and pro-fascist. Many dupes at the demonstration apparently didn't know this or didn't care. As Hitchens notes, two radical left journalists, men of integrity and honesty�David Corn and Marc Cooper�exposed International ANSWER as a front for fascism, Stalinism, and jihadism. A dip into any database could have informed journalists about the groups they were covering, as Hitchens notes, but here's how the innocent Michael Janofsky of the New York Times described the sponsors: "The protests were largely sponsored by the two groups, the ANSWER Coalition, which embodies a wide range of progressive political objectives, and United for Peace and Justice, which has a more narrow, antiwar focus." Either Janofsky is under age 21, with no knowledge at all of radical politics, or he works for a newspaper that is determined to sugarcoat leaders of the antiwar movement.

Sheehan calls McCain 'warmonger'

Cindy Sheehan, whose 26-day anti-war vigil this summer outside President Bush's Texas ranch grabbed international attention, met privately for 20 minutes on Tuesday with Sen. John McCain and afterward called him "a warmonger."

"It was nice of him to meet with us," said Sheehan, 48, whose son, Casey, was killed in Iraq in August 2004.

"He didn't have to have to meet with us, and he did it," the Vacaville, Calif., woman said. But she added of McCain, "He is, you know, a warmonger. And I am not."

McCain, R-Ariz., a potential 2008 presidential candidate who survived 5� years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, responded: "She's entitled to her opinion. We just have fundamental disagreements."

McCain called the meeting "basically a rehash of my views, which I've articulated many times, and her views which she has articulated many times."

DeLay declares:'I am innocent!'

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and two associates were charged with conspiracy in a campaign finance scheme.

The Texas grand jury's indictment will force DeLay to step down temporarily from his party leadership position

DeLay, who denies committing any crime, contends the Democratic district attorney leading the probe, Ronnie Earle, has political motives.

"I am innocent. Mr. Earle and his staff know it, and I will prove it," DeLay told reporters.

"As for the charges, I have the facts, the law and the truth on my side."

The Texas congressman was accused of a criminal conspiracy along with John Colyandro, former executive director of a Texas political action committee formed by DeLay, and Jim Ellis, who leads DeLay's national political committee.

Earlier, the grand jury indicted a state political action committee founded by DeLay and three of his political associates.

Tom DeLay Indicted in Campaign Finance Probe

A Texas grand jury on Wednesday charged Rep. Tom DeLay and two political associates with conspiracy in a campaign finance scheme, forcing the House majority leader to temporarily relinquish his post.

DeLay, 58, was accused of a criminal conspiracy along with two associates, John Colyandro, former executive director of a Texas political action committee formed by DeLay, and Jim Ellis, who heads DeLay's national political committee.

"I have notified the speaker that I will temporarily step aside from my position as majority leader pursuant to rules of the House Republican Conference and the actions of the Travis County district attorney today," DeLay said in a statement.

GOP congressional officials said Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., will recommend that Rep. David Dreier of California step into those duties. Some of the duties may go to the GOP whip, Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri. The Republican rank and file may meet as early as Wednesday night to act on Hastert's recommendation.

Criminal conspiracy is a state felony punishable by six months to two years in a state jail and a fine of up to $10,000. The potential two-year sentence forces DeLay to step down under House Republican rules.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan said the president still considers DeLay a friend and effective leader in Congress

Congressman DeLay is a good ally, a leader who we have worked closely with to get things done for the American people," McClellan said. "I think the president's view is that we need to let the legal process work."

The indictment accused DeLay of a conspiracy to "knowingly make a political contribution" in violation of Texas law outlawing corporate contributions. It alleged that DeLay's Texans for a Republican Majority political action committee accepted $155,000 from companies, including Sears Roebuck, and placed the money in an account.

The PAC then wrote a $190,000 check to an arm of the Republican National Committee and provided the committee a document with the names of Texas State House candidates and the amounts they were supposed to received in donations.

The indictment included a copy of the check.

"The defendants entered into an agreement with each other or with TRMPAC (Texans for a Republican Majority Political Action Committee) to make a political contribution in violation of the Texas election code," says the four-page indictment. "The contribution was made directly to the Republican National Committee within 60 days of a general election."

Kevin Madden, DeLay's spokesman, dismissed the charge as politically motivated.

"This indictment is nothing more than prosecutorial retribution by a partisan Democrat," Madden said, citing prosecutor Ronnie Earle, a Democrat.

Madden later added: "They could not get Tom DeLay at the polls. They could not get Mr. DeLay on the House floor. Now they're trying to get him into the courtroom. This is not going to detract from the Republican agenda."

The grand jury action is expected to have immediate consequences in the House, where DeLay is largely responsible for winning passage of the Republican legislative program. House Republican Party rules require leaders who are indicted to temporarily step aside from their leadership posts.

However, DeLay retains his seat representing Texas' 22nd congressional district, suburbs southwest of Houston. He denies that he committed any crime.

DeLay is the third member of Congress to be indicted since 1996. Former Rep. William Janklow, R-S.D., was convicted of vehicular homicide and sentenced to 100 days in prison after his car struck and killed a motorcyclist in 2003. Former Rep. James Traficant, D-Ohio, was sentenced to eight years in prison after being convicted on charges from a 2001 indictment accusing him of racketeering and accepting bribes.

Democrats have kept up a crescendo of criticism of DeLay's ethics, citing three times last year that the House ethics committee admonished DeLay for his conduct.

"The criminal indictment of Majority Leader Tom Delay is the latest example that Republicans in Congress are plagued by a culture of corruption at the expense of the American people," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Media Sensationalized New Orleans Chaos

NewsMax.com columnist James Hirsen, author of "Hollywood Nation: Left Coast Lies, Old Media Spin, and the New Media Revolution," backed claims by former FEMA director Mike Brown and Rep. Peter King (R-NY) that the media exaggerated the chaos in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Appearing Tuesday night on MSNBC's "Abrams Report," Hirsen responded to host Dan Abrams' assertion that there seems to be an effort to "blame the media" and shift blame from local officials or the feds.

Said Hirsen, "I think they deserve some blame if in fact they failed in their primary function. If we're going to criticize FEMA for moving too slowly, isn't it fair game to criticize the media for reporting too fast?"

Hirsen applauded select members of the media - "talk radio host Rush Limbaugh and Web sites like NewsMax.com" - for drawing attention to emotionally laced hysterics reported during and after the storm's destruction.

Hirsen added that rumors were being reported as fact by eager and emotional media professionals throughout the coverage of Katrina's arrival and aftermath.

"... It was reported that there were 200 dead in the freezer at the Superdome, which caused an 18-wheeler to come down with three doctors to pick them up. It turned out that there were six dead," Hirsen said. "There were exaggerations, there was hysteria. And this was part of the infotainment aspect of the newsmedia, the search for the sensational and the emotional."
D.A. Jordan said the impression of New Orleans presented by media coverage was one of a "savage state" rife with mass murders and mayhem that did not reflect the majority of well-behaved citizens victimized by the storm.

"The mass murders are very important because that is probably the most graphic way of showing a savage state of affairs - that people are killing each other every few minutes and that was certainly [not the case] ..."

U.S. to U.N.: Keep Away from Internet

The U.S. has made it clear that it will fight any attempt to put the United Nations or another international body in charge of the Internet.

At the outset of global talks on information technology in Geneva, Ambassador David A. Gross, U.S. coordinator for international communications and information technology, said the role of the U.S. government is to ensure the "stability and reliability of the Internet.�

He told the Washington Times: "We want to make sure the private sector leads and the Internet continues to be a reservoir of great innovation, and that governments continue to focus on enabling the growth of the Internet, and not of controlling its use.�

Several nations with tightly controlled media, such as China, Iran and Saudi Arabia, plus a number of industrialized countries including Switzerland and Russia, would like to see the U.S. relinquish its control of the Internet.

"This situation is very undemocratic, unfair and unreasonable,� said Sha Zukang, the ambassador from China - which recently imposed new rules that allow only "healthy and civilized� news to be read by the nation�s Internet users.

The talks in Geneva are preparatory to the World Information Society Summit to be held in Tunisia in November.

An independent group exploring the Internet�s future recently suggested that a U.N. body might be established to oversee the Web.

That possibility has been rejected by Paul Twomey, president of the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers, which administers the Internet�s domain name system.

He told the Times that his organization doesn�t want to see "the Internet�s technological future politicized.�

Mayor Nagin in Secret Sitdown with Farrakhan

Racially polarizing Nation of Islam chief Louis Farrakhan claimed on Friday that he had a private meeting with New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, where Nagin gave him the information that Farrakhan later used to claim New Orleans' levees had been deliberately blown up.

Speaking to a gathering of his supporters in Memphis while promoting his upcoming Millions More March, Farrakhan said he met with Nagin in Dallas, Texas where the New Orleans mayor has relocated his family.

"We did a whirlwind tour where we hired a chartered jet, we flew to Dallas, Texas - members of the Millions More Movement - where we met with Mayor Nagin," Farrakhan claimed, in videotape of his Memphis speech posted to his Millions More Movement web site Tuesday.

It was during that meeting, Farrakhan said, where he obtained evidence that he would later use to claim New Orleans' levees were blown up.

"Mayor Nagin told us there was a 25-foot crater under the levee," Farrakhan explained, before cautioning that the New Orleans Democrat "didn't say there was a bomb. He just said there was a crater."
Farrakhan then added: "I say they blew it [up]."

Citing an Internet report, the Nation of Islam chief explained how the information he got from Nagin led him to conclude that the levees had been deliberately destroyed:

"Divers inspecting the ruptured levee walls surrounding New Orleans found something that piqued their interest - burn marks on underwater debris chunks from the broken levee wall," Farrakhan said.

"One diver - a member of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers - saw the burn marks and knew immediately what caused them."

Though Farrakhan detailed his meeting with the New Orleans mayor at an open forum, the press has kept word of the Farrakhan-Nagin summit under wraps.

Bush said close to Supreme pick

President Bush, close to nominating a successor to retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, has narrowed his list to a handful of candidates that outside advisers say includes federal judges and two people who have never banged a gavel _ corporate attorney Larry Thompson and White House counsel Harriet Miers.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Tuesday that Bush had pledged to consult with senators about his selection and said, "I think we were essentially wrapping that process up as early as today."

He declined to say if the president had interviewed any candidates and wouldn't speculate about Bush's favorites, but legal analysts monitoring the selection process say others often mentioned are federal appellate judges Alice Batchelder, J. Michael Luttig, Edith Jones, J. Harvie Wilkinson, Priscilla Owen, Samuel Alito, Karen Williams and Michael McConnell. Also said to be on the list are Maura Corrigan, a judge on the Michigan Supreme Court, and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Bush is expected to announce his nominee quickly after Thursday's anticipated confirmation and swearing in of John Roberts as chief justice.

Bush on Monday hinted he might choose a woman or minority member. But some outside advisers were intrigued by another part of Bush's reply. The president said he had interviewed and considered people from "all walks of life."

That raised speculation that Bush was actively considering people who were not on the bench _ such as Miers, a Texas lawyer and the president's former personal attorney, and Thompson, a counsel at PepsiCo, who was the federal government's highest ranking black law enforcement official when he was deputy attorney general during Bush's first term.

"It could be someone outside of the legal judicial field like a Larry Thompson, or it could be a senator," said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, a public interest legal group founded by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson.

Sekulow said he's heard Miers' name mentioned "fairly significantly" during the past two days. She doesn't have judicial experience, but she's a "well-respected lawyer _ someone the president trusts."

"I think Harriet could certainly be in the mix," he said.

Two other judicial activists, including one with contacts at the White House, said they too had heard Miers' name mentioned, but agreed with Sekulow, who cautioned: "I don't think anybody has that crystal ball but the president."

Miers is leading the White House effort to help Bush choose nominees to the Supreme Court so naming her would follow a move Bush made in 2000 when he tapped the man leading his search committee for a running mate _ Dick Cheney.

"Given the Cheney precedent and the president's well-known loyalty to his aides, it's certainly possible the president could turn to Harriet," said Brad Berenson, a lawyer who formerly worked in the counsel's office of the Bush White House.

"She's a very able lawyer who is the person currently charged with carrying forward the president's search for judicial conservatives, so she certainly understands what the president looks for in his nominees. I suspect she'd be confirmed quite easily."

All eight of the sitting justices were judges first, although Justice Clarence Thomas had only been an appeals court judge a year. The late Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist never served as a lower court judge.

Elliot Mincberg, counsel with the liberal People for the American Way, said if Bush chooses someone without a judicial record, the White House should be prepared for the nominee to be peppered with questions.

"Choosing somebody who is not a judge would put that much more of a premium on straight answers to questions because there would be that much less for senators and the public to go on when looking at such a nominee's judicial philosophy," Mincberg said.

US is logging gains against Al Qaeda in Iraq

The US military says improved intelligence led to the killing of two key leaders of the group.

In a succession of intelligence breaks, the US says it has killed two key members of Al Qaeda in Iraq in recent days, including the organization's No. 2 man who is suspected of orchestrating a series of suicide bombings in Baghdad since April.
According to American military officials, the US has either made key arrests or developed informants who have led to a cascade of actionable intelligence over the past month. Since the middle of August, the US has reported killing or capturing at least 16 members of Al Qaeda in Iraq, led by the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

"By itself these events don't do much to destroy Al Qaeda as much as undermine and undercut it. But this comes after some very successful operations in Tal Afar that wrapped up the Al Qaeda network there,'' says Anthony Cordesman, a former senior intelligence analyst for the US and now an expert on the Iraq insurgency at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

The US says it killed the insurgent leader of the town of Karabilah at 1:30 a.m. on Tuesday, and Abdullah Abu Azzam, said to be the Al Qaeda leader (or emir) of Anbar Province, in a raid in Baghdad on Sunday. Meanwhile Gen. Kevin Bergner told reporters that in northern Iraq, where the US recently fought a major engagement in Tal Afar and where major operations have also been carried out in Mosul, the US has made inroads against the organization.

"We are probably at the point of impacting about 80 percent of that network in terms of detaining, capturing, killing the leadership, and disrupting their resources, and disrupting their support bases and neutralizing their capability,'' he said.

An Iraqi government spokesman said Abu Azzam, who's real name is Abdullah Najim Abdullah Mohamed al-Jawari, was an Iraqi. He was on a list of Iraq's 29 most-wanted insurgents issued by the US military in February and had a bounty of $50,000 on his head.

Mr. Cordesman says that Abu Azzam was a major figure in Al Qaeda in Iraq and his death followed recent improvements in US intelligence gathering and targeting of Al Qaeda leaders. But predicting the real dividends is difficult. "We don't know how many leaders there are, how many experienced cadres there are, how many replacements there are," he says.

"We continue to degrade the leadership of the Al Qaeda in Iraqterrorist network, and continue to disrupt their operations by taking Abu Azzam off the street. We've dealt another blow to Zarqawi's terrorist organization," said Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, a spokesman for American and foreign troops in a statement Tuesday.

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Rather: Bush Guard Memo Story "Accurate," Never Proven Not So

In an interview with Marvin Kalb carried live by C-SPAN from the National Press Club on Monday night, Dan Rather made quite clear that he believes in the accuracy of his Bush National Guard story based on what everyone else realizes were fabricated memos. Rather argued that "one supporting pillar of the story, albeit an important one, one supporting pillar was brought into question. To this day no one has proven whether it was what it purported to be or not." Kalb pressed for clarification: "I believe you just said that you think the story is accurate?" Rather affirmed: "The story is accurate." Rather soon maintained that the public recognizes the "hidden hand pressure" politicians exert on media executives and so "they understood that what we reported as the central facts of the story and there were new insights into the President's, were correct and to this day, by the way have not been denied which is always the test of whether," and he moved on before finishing his sentence. Later, talking about using "courage" as a sign-off in the mid-1980s, Rather rued: "There's part of me, it says, you know, 'damn I wish I hadn't caved, I wish I'd stuck with it.'" That prompted Kalb to ask: "Do you think your network showed courage last fall?" Rather answered by remaining silent for seven seconds. with audio

Bush Can't Win: NBC Relays Criticism He Was Too Quick on Rita

Too slow on Katrina, too quick on Rita? During Saturday's special hour-long NBC Nightly News, reporter Kevin Corke suggested President Bush ran "the risk of looking like a political opportunist" with Hurricane Rita by taking exactly the active hands-on approach demanded by media critics in the days after Hurricane Katrina hit the gulf coast last month. The liberal media are never satisfied.


MRC news analyst Mike Rule caught Corke's reasoning: "As Rita's howling winds lashed the gulf coast, it was another storm, Hurricane Katrina, that may have had the most to do with the way the Bush team responded to Rita �" criticism the President didn't respond quickly enough, leisurely wrapping up a five week vacation in Crawford, and continuing with planned events despite the unfolding tragedy."

Corke continued: "But this time's been very different �" the President has remained active including appearances today in Colorado and here in Texas. But political analysts warn that by trying to do so much in so many different places, the President actually runs the risk of looking like a political opportunist."

Viewers then heard a pretty bland soundbite from political analyst Charlie Cook, who seemed less of a critic than someone who was merely stating the obvious: "It's a, it's a narrow line that President's have to, to walk, and that um, you know, and they open themselves up to criticism no matter what they do."

Then back to Corke: "Cook adds that too many Presidential trips could be disruptive for first responders, a point that the President made in an exchange with NBC's David Gregory Friday at FEMA headquarters."

NBC then showed Gregory asking Bush: "I mean what can you actually do? I mean, isn't there a risk of you and your entourage getting in the way?"

Bush replied, "No, there will be no risk of me getting in the way, I promise you."

Corke wrapped it up by again insisting that Bush's conduct is suspect: "And as he returns to Texas tonight, Mr. Bush walks a precarious political tightrope, especially challenging for a President hoping to find the right footing in the midst of a political storm. Kevin Corke NBC News, Austin Texas."

'04 election most accurate of modern times, study finds

By THOMAS HARGROVE
Scripps Howard News Service
September 27, 2005

WASHINGTON - The 2004 national elections were the most accurate of modern times with nearly 99 percent of all ballots cast registering a vote for president, according to a new study by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

The panel - created by Congress to correct the electoral shortcomings uncovered in Florida five years ago - reported Tuesday that 1,160,985 ballots cast Nov. 2 did not tally a presidential vote, about 1.02 percent of all eligible ballots.

"This will assist us in making certain that every vote is counted fairly and accurately," said Commission Chairwoman Gracia Hillman.

The finding marks a considerable improvement over the 2000 elections, when at least 1.6 million ballots, or about 2 percent of the vote, didn't register for president, according to a Scripps Howard News Service study of that election.

In both elections, voters were least likely to successfully cast a presidential vote if they used punch-card ballots, which drew legal controversy in Florida. Congress provided $2.2 billion for the purchase of newer voting machines like optically scanned balloting or electronic voting machines.

The commission found that 1.6 percent of the more than 10 million punch-card ballots used last year failed to register a presidential vote, compared to 0.9 percent of the 27 million votes cast electronically and 1.1 percent of the nearly 50 million optically scanned ballots.

The commission also found that voters in economically disadvantaged precincts were significantly more likely to cast ballots not counted for president than were voters in affluent neighborhoods. About 2.41 percent of ballots did not count from areas where the median household income is less than $25,000 a year, compared to 0.78 from neighborhoods with median incomes greater than $50,000 a year.

The worst statewide average was in New Mexico, where 2.6 percent of ballots failed to register. However, the commission could not obtain complete election data from South Carolina and Pennsylvania to determine how many ballots failed to count in those states.

The panel also gathered data on provisional balloting, a reform mandated by the Help America Vote Act of 2002 allowing voters to receive a ballot even if there were questions about their registration or correct polling location. The commission reported that 1.9 million provisional ballots were cast and 1.2 million were counted.

Reliance upon provisional ballots varied dramatically around the nation. Californians cast more than 668,400 provisional ballots, and counted 73 percent of them. New Yorkers cast 243,450 provisional ballots, but only 40 percent of them were counted.

President Says Next Supreme Court Nominee Will Be Woman or Minority

President Bush hinted on Monday that his next nominee for the Supreme Court would be a woman or a minority, saying that "diversity is one of the strengths of the country."

The president also expressed optimism that the Senate would confirm John Roberts as chief justice this week - which seems virtually certain.

Bush, asked about his next nominee, said "I will pick a person who can do the job. But I am mindful that diversity is one of the strengths of the country." The president is under pressure from many quarters - including his wife - to pick a woman or a minority for the seat of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who is retiring.

Two-thirds of the 100 senators - Republican and Democrats alike - had already announced their support of Roberts, the conservative federal appeals court judge, as the successor to the late William H. Rehnquist before the Senate even started its final debate Monday afternoon. Underplaying Roberts' near-certain confirmation, Bush said he was cautiously optimistic that Roberts would be approved.

Looney Farrakhan: Divers Found Levee Explosives

Nation of Islam chief Minister Louis Farrakhan has expanded on his theory that New Orleans' levees were blown up during Hurricane Katrina, announcing Friday that divers working on the levee break have found evidence of explosives.

"These explosives are from the government side," he said during a press conference in Memphis held to promote his upcoming Million Man Anniversary March.

In quotes picked up by Memphis TV station WMC, Farrakhan demanded an investigation into the Bush administration's levee plot. If true, he insisted: "somebody is guilty, then not only of mass destruction of property, but of mass murder."

Farrakhan predicted that when New Orleans is rebuilt, it will be "a white city."

"It will be rebuilt to the exclusion of the poor who have been dispersed all over the country," he said.
Two weeks ago, the firebrand Muslim leader announced that he'd uncovered the levee plot.

"I heard from a very reliable source who saw a 25 foot deep crater under the levee breach," Farrakhan explained during a stop in Charleston, South Carolina. "It may have been blown up to destroy the black part of town and keep the white part dry."

Al-Qaida Cell Leader Convicted in 9/11 Attacks

A suspected al-Qaida cell leader was convicted Monday of conspiring to commit murder in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, while two other suspects were acquitted.

Imad Yarkas, the accused cell leader, was sentenced to 27 years in prison.

The verdicts were read out at the National Court in the conclusion of Europe's biggest trial of al-Qaida suspects.

Prosecutors had accused Yarkas, a 42-year-old Spaniard of Syrian origin, of being an accomplice to murder and requested a jail term of nearly 75,000 years - 25 years for each of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the suicide airliner attacks in 2001.

But in the end, he was convicted of the lesser charge of conspiracy.

Yarkas had been charged with arranging a meeting in the Tarragona region of Spain in July 2001 at which key Sept. 11 plotters _ alleged suicide pilot Mohamed Atta and plot coordinator Ramzi Binsalshibh _ met to decide last-minute details, including the date of the massacre.

Another suspect, Moroccan Driss Chebli, was also alleged to have helped set up the meeting. He was acquitted on Monday of murder charges but convicted of collaborating with a terrorist group and sentenced to six years.

The third suspect facing specific Sept. 11 charges, Ghasoub al-Abrash Ghalyoun, was acquitted Monday. The Syrian-born Spaniard was indicted over detailed video he shot of the World Trade Center and other landmarks during a trip to several U.S. cities in 1997.

Judge Baltasar Garzon had said the tapes were passed on to al-Qaida and amounted to the genesis of planning for the attacks on the U.S. Ghalyoun said during the trial he shot the tapes as an innocent tourist.

Ghalyoun was also acquitted of charges of being a member of a terrorist organization.

U.S. & Iraqi Forces Kill No. 2 Terrorist in Iraq

U.S. officials said a top deputy of the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq was killed over the weekend.

In Washington, U.S. defense officials said that Abdullah Abu Azzam, a leading deputy to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaida's leader in Iraq, was killed this weekend. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the information.

The U.S. military on Tuesday said U.S. and Iraqi forces, acting on a tip, raided a high-rise apartment building in Baghdad where Abu Azzam was located early Sunday.

"They went in to capture him, he did not surrender and he was killed in the raid," Lt. Col. Steve Boylan, a U.S. military spokesman, told The Associated Press.

Earlier this month, al-Zarqawi declared "all-out war" on Shiites and vowed to kill anyone participating in the referendum.

In north Iraq, a top aide to al-Zarqawi surrendered to police in the city of Mosul, Iraqi army Brig. Gen. Ali Attalah said Monday. The aide, Abdul Rahman Hasan Shahin, was one of the most wanted figures in Mosul, Attalah said.

Bill Maher: Laura Bush Like 'Hitler's Dog'

HBO "Real Time" host Bill Maher compared first lady Laura Bush to "Hitler's dog" during his Friday night cablecast, after flashing a parody photo of Mrs. Bush with a black eye, as if she'd been a victim of domestic abuse.

After the photo display, Maher was challenged by guest panelist Christopher Hitchens, who told him: "It must be to [George Bush's] credit he got Laura Bush to marry him. She's an absolutely extraordinary woman."

To that, Maher replied: "Oh, come on. That's like Hitler's dog loved him. That is the silliest reason ..."

"I think tomorrow you might be sorry you said that. Laura Bush is very gentle and talented," Hitchens warned.

With that Maher retreated a bit, insisting: "That's not what I'm saying, of course she is. But the idea that we somehow humanize any person because somebody else loves them is ridiculous."

The outrageous exchange, reported exclusively by NewsMax contributor Steve Malzberg in his latest column, "Laura Bush and Hitler's Dog" wasn't the worst to come from Maher's show lately.

The week before, "Real Time" guest George Carlin announced that he had a pet name for former first lady Barbara Bush.

"The Silver D----e Bag, I call her," Carlin announced as Maher's audience erupted in laughter.

For more details on Bill Maher's noxious outburst, including the Hitchens quote that cut him down to size, go to www.newsmax.com/malzberg.

249 New Orleans Police Officers Left Posts

Nearly 250 police officers _ roughly 15 percent of the force _ could face a special tribunal because they left their posts without permission during Hurricane Katrina and the storm's chaotic aftermath, the police chief said.

Police Superintendent Eddie Compass plans to assemble a tribunal of four of his assistant chiefs to hear each case and sort the outright deserters from those with a legitimate reason for not showing up for work. In all, 249 officers were found to have been absent without permission, he said in an interview published Tuesday in The Times- Picayune.

"We have a penalty schedule for each violation, and when that process takes place, individuals will have the right to appeal the decisions made by the bureau chiefs," Compass said adding that "the final decision and recommendation will be by me as superintendent of police."

Mayor Ray Nagin said the city attorney's office will review Compass' plan to ensure that it falls within civil service regulations. Compass did not say how many of the 249 officers are asking to return. The department has about 1,700 officers.

Lt. David Benelli, president of the Police Association of New Orleans, the union for rank-and-file officers, said true deserters should be fired.

"For those who left because of cowardice, they don't need to be here," Benelli told the paper. "If you're a deserter and you deserted your post for no other reason than you were scared, then you left the department and I don't see any need for you to come back."

But Benelli said he believes only a small fraction of the officers will wind up being deserters.

"We know there were people who flat-out deserted," he said. "But we also know there were officers who had to make critical decisions about what to do with their families.

Telephone calls from The Associated Press to the police department, the mayor's office and the police union were not immediately returned on Tuesday.

At a news conference Sept. 5, Deputy Police Superintendent Warren Riley had said between 400 and 500 officers on the 1,600-member police force were unaccounted for.

Some lost their homes and some are looking for their families. "Some simply left because they said they could not deal with the catastrophe," Riley said.

Bush seeks to federalize emergencies

President Bush yesterday sought to federalize hurricane-relief efforts, removing governors from the decision-making process.

"It wouldn't be necessary to get a request from the governor or take other action," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said yesterday.

"This would be," he added, "more of an automatic trigger."
Mr. McClellan was referring to a new, direct line of authority that would allow the president to place the Pentagon in charge of responding to natural disasters, terrorist attacks and outbreaks of disease.

"It may require change of law," Mr. Bush said yesterday. "It's very important for us as we look at the lessons of Katrina to think about other scenarios that might require a well-planned, significant federal response -- right off the bat -- to provide stability."

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) accused Mr. Bush of attempting a power grab in the wake of fierce criticism that he responded too slowly to Hurricane Katrina a month ago.

"Using the military in domestic law enforcement is generally a very bad idea," said Timothy Edgar, national security policy counsel for the ACLU. "I'm afraid that it will have unforeseen consequences for civil liberties."

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour declined the president's offer to federalize the state's National Guard troops in the aftermath of Katrina. So Mr. Bush wants Congress to consider empowering the Pentagon with automatic control.

Currently, the lead federal agency responsible for disaster relief is the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which has just 2,500 employees and is a division of the Homeland Security Department. Mr. Bush has suggested that a more appropriate agency is the Department of Defense (DoD), which has 1.4 million active-duty troops.

"I was speculating about was a scenario which would require federal assets to stabilize the situation -- primarily DoD assets -- and then hand back over to Department of Homeland Security," the president said.

But stabilizing a crisis might require federal troops to arrest looters and perform other law-enforcement duties, which would violate the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878. The law was passed in the wake of the Civil War and Reconstruction to prevent the use of federal troops from policing elections in former Confederate states.

The White House wants Congress to consider amending Posse Comitatus in order to grant the Pentagon greater powers.

Brown Blames 'Dysfunctional' Louisiana

Former FEMA director Michael Brown aggressively defended his role in responding to Hurricane Katrina on Tuesday and put much of the blame for coordination failures on Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin.

"My biggest mistake was not recognizing by Saturday that Louisiana was dysfunctional," Brown told a special congressional panel set up by House Republican leaders to investigate the catastrophe.

Brown, who for many became a symbol of government failures in the natural disaster that claimed the lives of more than 1,000 people, rejected accusations that he was too inexperienced for the job.

"I've overseen over 150 presidentially declared disasters. I know what I'm doing, and I think I do a pretty darn good job of it," Brown said.

Brown resigned as the head of FEMA earlier this month after being removed by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff from responsibility in the stricken areas.

Brown, who joined FEMA in 2001 and ran it for more than two years, was previously an attorney who held several local government and private posts, including leading the International Arabian Horse Association.

Brown in his opening statement said he had made several "specific mistakes" in dealing with the storm, and listed two.

One, he said, was not having more media briefings.

As to the other, he said: "I very strongly personally regret that I was unable to persuade Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin to sit down, get over their differences, and work together. I just couldn't pull that off."

Both Blanco and Nagin are Democrats.

"The people of FEMA are being tired of being beat up, and they don't deserve it," Brown said.

The hearing was largely boycotted by Democrats, who want an independent investigation conducted into government failures, not one run by congressional Republicans.

Committee Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., cautioned against too narrowly assigning blame.

"At the end of the day, I suspect that we'll find that government at all levels failed the people of Louisiana and Mississippi and Alabama and the Gulf Coast," said Davis.

Davis pushed Brown on what he and the agency he led should have done to evacuate New Orleans, restore order in the city and improve communication among law enforcement agencies.

Brown said: "Those are not FEMA roles. FEMA doesn't evacuate communities. FEMA does not do law enforcement. FEMA does not do communications."

Katrina Takes a Toll on Truth, News Accuracy

Rumors supplanted accurate information and media magnified the problem. Rapes, violence and estimates of the dead were wrong.

Maj. Ed Bush recalled how he stood in the bed of a pickup truck in the days after Hurricane Katrina, struggling to help the crowd outside the Louisiana Superdome separate fact from fiction. Armed only with a megaphone and scant information, he might have been shouting into, well, a hurricane.

The National Guard spokesman's accounts about rescue efforts, water supplies and first aid all but disappeared amid the roar of a 24-hour rumor mill at New Orleans' main evacuation shelter. Then a frenzied media recycled and amplified many of the unverified reports.

His assessment is one of several in recent days to conclude that newspapers and television exaggerated criminal behavior in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, particularly at the overcrowded Superdome and Convention Center.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune on Monday described inflated body counts, unverified "rapes," and unconfirmed sniper attacks as among examples of "scores of myths about the dome and Convention Center treated as fact by evacuees, the media and even some of New Orleans' top officials."

The wild rumors filled the vacuum and seemed to gain credence with each retelling � that an infant's body had been found in a trash can, that sharks from Lake Pontchartrain were swimming through the business district, that hundreds of bodies had been stacked in the Superdome basement.

"It doesn't take anything to start a rumor around here," Louisiana National Guard 2nd Lt. Lance Cagnolatti said at the height of the Superdome relief effort. "There's 20,000 people in here. Think when you were in high school. You whisper something in someone's ear. By the end of the day, everyone in school knows the rumor � and the rumor isn't the same thing it was when you started it."

Follow-up reporting has discredited reports of a 7-year-old being raped and murdered at the Superdome, roving bands of armed gang members attacking the helpless, and dozens of bodies being shoved into a freezer at the Convention Center.

Hyperbolic reporting spread through much of the media.

Fox News, a day before the major evacuation of the Superdome began, issued an "alert" as talk show host Alan Colmes reiterated reports of "robberies, rapes, carjackings, riots and murder. Violent gangs are roaming the streets at night, hidden by the cover of darkness."

The Los Angeles Times adopted a breathless tone the next day in its lead news story, reporting that National Guard troops "took positions on rooftops, scanning for snipers and armed mobs as seething crowds of refugees milled below, desperate to flee. Gunfire crackled in the distance."

The New York Times repeated some of the reports of violence and unrest, but the newspaper usually was more careful to note that the information could not be verified.

The tabloid Ottawa Sun reported unverified accounts of "a man seeking help gunned down by a National Guard soldier" and "a young man run down and then shot by a New Orleans police officer."

London's Evening Standard invoked the future-world fantasy film "Mad Max" to describe the scene and threw in a "Lord of the Flies" allusion for good measure.

Televised images and photographs affirmed the widespread devastation in one of America's most celebrated cities.

"I don't think you can overstate how big of a disaster New Orleans is," said Kelly McBride, ethics group leader at the Poynter Institute, a Florida school for professional journalists. "But you can imprecisely state the nature of the disaster. Then you draw attention away from the real story, the magnitude of the destruction, and you kind of undermine the media's credibility."

Some of the hesitation that journalists might have had about using the more sordid reports from the evacuation centers probably fell away when New Orleans' top officials seemed to confirm the accounts.

Nagin and Police Chief Eddie Compass appeared on "Oprah" a few days after trouble at the Superdome had peaked.

Compass told of "the little babies getting raped" at the Superdome. And Nagin made his claim about hooligans raping and killing.

State officials this week said their counts of the dead at the city's two largest evacuation points fell far short of early rumors and news reports. Ten bodies were recovered from the Superdome and four from the Convention Center, said Bob Johannessen, spokesman for the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals.

(National Guard officials put the body count at the Superdome at six, saying the other four bodies came from the area around the stadium.)

Of the 841 recorded hurricane-related deaths in Louisiana, four are identified as gunshot victims, Johannessen said. One victim was found in the Superdome but was believed to have been brought there, and one was found at the Convention Center, he added.

Relief workers said that while the media hyped criminal activity, plenty of real suffering did occur at the Katrina relief centers.

The media inaccuracies had consequences in the disaster zone.

Bush, of the National Guard, said that reports of corpses at the Superdome filtered back to the facility via AM radio, undermining his struggle to keep morale up and maintain order.

"We had to convince people this was still the best place to be," Bush said. "What I saw in the Superdome was just tremendous amounts of people helping people."

But, Bush said, those stories received scant attention in newspapers or on television.

Cindy Sheehan arrested at White House

Protesters chant: 'The whole world is watching'

Cindy Sheehan, the California woman who became an anti-war activist after her son was killed in Iraq, was arrested today during a protest in front of the White House.

Sheehan, 48, was with several dozen demonstrators who sat down on the sidewalk after marching on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Police, who took Sheehan into custody first, made arrests after warning the protesters three times they were breaking the law by failing to move along, the Associated Press reported.

As police led Sheehan to a vehicle, protesters chanted, "The whole world is watching."

The demonstration yesterday, organized by the umbrella group United for Peace and Justice, drew several hundred demonstrators who marched around the White House chanting, "Stop the war now!"

On its website, United for Peace and Justice calls itself an "anti-American, anti-war coalition consisting of more than 800 local and national groups" that is co-chaired by "committed Socialist and longtime activist Leslie Cagan."

Coinciding with the demonstration, anti-war groups sent representatives to Capitol Hill to urge lawmakers to help end the war and bring home the troops.

Most Americans against troop withdrawal

But most Democrats see U.S. forces as occupying army

Most Americans believe withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq will make things worse in the Middle East nation.

A new Rasmussen Reports survey found just 20 percent believe troop withdrawal will make things better.

Republicans, by a 78 percent to 10 percent margin, say withdrawing troops from Iraq would make things worse.

Democrats are evenly divided, with 30 percent saying the troop withdrawal would make things better and 33 percent taking the opposite view.

Among American not affiliated with either major party, 49 percent say withdrawing troops now would make the situation worse.

The poll found Republicans overwhelmingly view the U.S. troops as a liberating army, while Democrats, by a 2-to-1 margin, see the U.S. forces as an occupying army.

Overall, 44 percent of Americans view the U.S. troops in Iraq as a liberating force while 35 percent say they are an occupying force.

Forty-seven percent of Americans say it's more important to get U.S. troops home than to "insure that Iraq becomes a peaceful nation enjoying the benefits of freedom and democracy."

Forty-three percent view finishing the mission as more important than bringing home the troops.

The Rasmussen survey found a gender gap on this question.

By a 50 percent to 42 percent margin, men say finishing the mission is more important. By a 51 percent to 38 percent margin, women say bringing the troops home is more important.

The poll also found 43 percent of Americans say the war in Iraq is part of the War on Terror. Conversely, 40 percent say Iraq is a distraction from the War on Terror.