The Talk Show American

THE TALK SHOW AMERICAN: 11/13/2005 - 11/20/2005

Saturday, November 19, 2005

Reid ignored Iraq pre-war intel report

But Senate minority leader led recent demand for accountability

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., failed to read a specially prepared National Intelligence Estimate detailing Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs in the days before he voted to authorize President Bush to use force to invade the Arab state.

Human Events reported that Reid admitted last week he did not examine the report, which was prepared at the request of Senate Democrats by CIA Director George Tenet, even though Reid has been at the forefront of a political effort alleging the Bush administration misled Congress and the nation in its march to war against Saddam Hussein.

The magazine reported that Tenet delivered his NIE to lawmakers early in October 2002; Reid and a majority of other members of Congress voted to give Bush his authority only days later, on Oct. 11.

"Reid locked the Senate into a controversial closed session three weeks ago to demand accountability on prewar intelligence, but it turns out he did not bother in 2002 to thoroughly familiarize himself with what the U.S. intelligence community was saying about Iraq in the run-up to his own pro-war vote," Human Events reported.

The magazine also noted that an April 7, 2004, Washington Post article said, "No more than six senators and a handful of House members read beyond the five-page National Intelligence Estimate executive summary, according to several congressional aides responsible for safeguarding the classified material."

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., told Fox News Nov. 13, " There were only six people in the Senate who did [read the NIE], and I was one of them."

Rockefeller, who is the ranking minority member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he was "sure" the panel's chairman, Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., read the NIE; Human Events reported it confirmed Rockefeller's assertion with Roberts personally.

The magazine also queried other top Democrats � many of whom have accused the White House of using false or exaggerated intelligence information to justify the Iraq war � whether they read the requested NIE. Their responses are as follows:

Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts said, "I got briefings. I got a personal briefing at the Pentagon."

Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York replied, "I'm not going to say anything about that. Just let the intelligence committee do their work, okay?"

Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut answered, "I'm not sure I did. I read a lot of intelligence information around that time, but I don't know whether I formally read the NIE. I'd have to go back on that."

Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California said she did read the NIE and used the information it contained to vote in favor of the war.
In a follow-up, Human Events reported it asked Reid why he hadn't read the requested NIE.

"Senator Reid gave his floor statement on the Iraq resolution on October 9, 2002, and the reasoning he gave for voting for the resolution does not have much to do with current assessments of the intelligence on WMD," a spokesman replied, via e-mail. "Members got their information on Iraq from lots of sources in the months leading up to the October 2002 vote. The most important sources of information were White House/Administration officials, including the President, Vice President, and Secretary of Defense."

President Bush greets U.S. troops in South Korea.


"And as long as I am commander in chief, our strategy in Iraq will be driven by the sober judgment of our military commanders on the ground."....President George W. Bush, Nov. 19 2005

President Bush on Saturday swatted down calls in Congress for a U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq, saying that American military leaders believe that retreat now would be "a recipe for disaster."

"So we will fight the terrorists in Iraq and we will stay in the fight until we have achieved the victory our brave troops have fought and bled for," said Bush, facing mounting criticism from home about his war policy.

Bush defended his Iraq strategy in remarks prepared for a speech at Osan Air Base, headquarters for the 7th Air Force, the primary U.S. Air Force unit in Korea.

"In Washington there are some who say that the sacrifice is too great, and they urged us to set a date for withdrawal before we have completed our mission," the president said. "Those who are in the fight know better."

In his remarks, Bush said that a senior commander in Iraq, Maj. Gen. William Webster, had said that setting a deadline for withdrawal would be "a recipe for disaster."

"And as long as I am commander in chief, our strategy in Iraq will be driven by the sober judgment of our military commanders on the ground," the president said.

House Rejects Dem Plan to Cut and Run

The House of Representatives overwhelming rejected last night a proposal to immediately withdraw troops from Iraq, after two days of over-hyped media coverage of Democratic Rep. John Murtha's call for a U.S. pullout.

In a lopsided 403 to 3 vote, Democrats showed they were unwilling to back Murtha's pullout proposal - even though many voiced support of his anti-war announcement earlier this week.

Though the American media ballyhooed Murtha's comments as an indication that support for the war was collapsing at home, Friday night's vote showed there was almost no backing in Congress for such a move.

Only three left-wing radicals voted for Murtha's plan - Reps. Cynthia McKinney, Jose Serano and Robert Wexler.

House Republicans said the proposal was giving aid and comfort to the enemy during a time of war. Fearing that coverage of Murtha's comments was undermining troop morale and encouraging U.S. enemies, they began to craft a resolution to test the pullout plan with a full floor vote.

Friday morning Arizona Rep. J.D. Hayworth began lobbying for a vote on a "statement of clarity" on where the House stands on the war.

"J.D. came up with a great idea, and took it to the (GOP) conference, and then was persistent to take it to leadership," Hayworth's Republican colleague, Rep. Rick Renzi, told the Arizona Republic.

"Saddam Hussein has been disposed, he is behind bars, that is an unqualified success," Hayworth argued. "Dare we now snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, plagued by poll-driven self-doubt of those who embrace surrender. I don't believe the American people will stand for it."

Realizing they were cornered, Democrats decried the move as a political stunt.

War opponents were further enraged when Ohio Republican Rep. Jean Schmidt stood to announce that she'd just taken a call from a Marine colonel.

"He asked me to send Congress a message: stay the course," Ms. Schmidt said. "He also asked me to send Congressman Murtha a message: that cowards cut and run, Marines never do."
She later withdrew the remarks, saying she meant no insult to the Pennsylvania Democrat.

Democrats erupted in anger - and at one point, Tennessee Rep. Harold Ford had to be physically restrained.

In the end, however, even their rejection of Murtha's pullout plan was nearly unanimous.

After the vote, House Speaker Dennis Hastert said the failure of Murtha's proposal "sends a resounding message of support" to the troops in Iraq.

Nancy Pelosi: Pro-Troop Vote 'a Disgrace'

Anti-war House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is blasting last night's 403 to 3 House vote in support of U.S. troops and their mission in Iraq, calling it "a disgrace."

Complaining that House Republicans had engaged in a "deception" by calling for a last minute vote on the Iraq war, the San Francisco Democrat said the pro-troop resolution was "a disservice to our country."

Pelosi said that the "Republican majority has stooped to a new low" by forcing Democrats to go on the record against an immediate pullout.

Her California colleague, House Armed Services Committee chairman, Rep. Duncan Hunter, wrote the resolution, which asked whether members thought "that the deployment of United States forces in Iraq be terminated immediately."

"We're going to let every member answer that, and I hope the message that goes back to our troops in Iraq is that we do not support a precipitous pullout," Hunter said.
Pelosi slammed Hunter's proposal as "a political stunt and should it be rejected by this House" - minutes before she voted with the Republican majority.

Al-Zarqawi Threatens to Kill Jordan's King

An audiotape purportedly from the head of al-Qaida in Iraq said Friday the group's suicide bombers did not intend to bomb a Jordanian wedding party at an Amman hotel last week, killing about 30 people. The speaker on the tape, identified as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, also threatened to kill Jordan's King Abdullah II and bomb more hotels and tourist sites.

"Your star is fading. You will not escape your fate, you descendant of traitors. We will be able to reach your head and chop it off," al- Zarqawi said, referring to the king.

Al-Zarqawi told Jordanians to stay away from bases used by U.S. forces in Jordan; hotels and tourist sites in Amman, the Dead Sea and the southern resort of Aqaba; and embassies of governments participating in the war in Iraq _ saying those areas would be targeted.

Al-Zarqawi said the bomber who detonated his explosives in the Radisson SAS hotel on Nov. 9 was targeting a hall where he claimed Israeli and American intelligence officials were meeting.

That bomb caused part of the roof to fall in the wedding hall.

"We didn't target them. Our target was halls being used by Zionist intelligence who were meeting there at the time," he said. "Our brothers knew their targets with great precision."

Al-Zarqawi accused the Jordanian government of hiding casualties among Israeli and American intelligence agents, and he insisted al-Qaida in Iraq was not targeting fellow Muslims.

"We want to assure you that ... you are more beloved to us than ourselves," al-Zarqawi said, addressing Jordanians.

Al-Zarqawi accused the Jordanian government of hiding casualties among Israeli agents. "I defy the renegade government to show us the losses among the Jews," he said.

The authenticity of the audiotape, posted on an Islamic militant Web forum, could not be verified, but the voice resembled that of al- Zarqawi on previous tapes.

Is Hadley The CIA Leak ?

National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley won't say if he was the source who told Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward that Bush administration critic Joseph Wilson's wife worked for the CIA. But Hadley volunteered on Friday that some administration officials say he's not the leaker.

Accompanying President Bush at a summit here, Hadley was asked at a news briefing whether he was Woodward's source.

Referring to news accounts about the case, Hadley said with a smile, "I've also seen press reports from White House officials saying that I am not one of his sources." He said he would not comment further because the CIA leak case remains under investigation.

Leaving the room, Hadley was asked if his answer amounted to a yes or a no. "It is what it is," he said.

Cheney didn't tip off famed Washington Post reporter in CIA leak case

A person familiar with the federal investigation said that Vice President Dick Cheney is not the unidentified source who told Woodward about Plame's CIA status.

The vice president did not talk with Woodward on the day in question, did not provide the information that's been reported in Woodward's notes and has not had any conversations over the past several weeks about any release for allowing Woodward to testify, said the person, speaking on condition of anonymity because the federal probe is still under way.

Friday, November 18, 2005

Professor urges fragging of U.S. officers

'Real freedom will come when American soldiers murder superiors'

When Rebecca Beach, a freshman at Warren Community College in New Jersey e-mailed faculty announcing a campus program yesterday featuring decorated Iraq war hero Lt. Col. Scott Rutter, the response she got from one English professor took her aback.

English professor John Daly replied: "Real freedom will come when soldiers in Iraq turn their guns on their superiors."

Daly added that he would ask his students to boycott the event and also vowed "to expose [her] right-wing, anti-people politics until groups like [Rebecca�s] won�t dare show their face on a college campus."

Besides organizing the event, Beach's offense was hanging up fliers contrasting the number of people killed under communism to those liberated under the late President Ronald Reagan, according to Young America's Foundation, which came to Beach's aid.

In response to the written tirade, Beach is demanding that Warren Community College President William Austin institute seminars on free speech and sensitivity to teach intolerant faculty members to be respectful of differing opinion.

The college has posted a statement on its website repudiating Prof. Daly's comments.

"John Daly was hired to teach English, not to verbally attack students and lead leftist protests," said Jason Mattera, spokesman for Young America�s Foundation.

Col. James Brown Refutes Murtha on Iraq War

A U.S. field commander in Iraq countered calls by a usually pro-military congressman for withdrawal of Americans fighting there Friday, while Democrats defended Rep. John Murtha as a patriot even as they declined to back his view.

"Here on the ground, our job is not done," said Col. James Brown, commander of the 56th Brigade Combat Team, when asked about Murtha's comments during a weekly briefing that American field commanders routinely give to Pentagon reporters.

Speaking from a U.S. logistics base at Balad, north of Baghdad, two days before his scheduled return to Texas, Brown said: "We have to finish the job that we began here. It's important for the security of this nation."

The withdrawal demand by Murtha, a veteran Pennsylvania Democrat, lent more intensity to the increasingly hot Iraq debate. Some members of the House and Senate, looking ahead to off-year elections next November, are publicly worrying about a quagmire there.

"Our troops have become the primary target of the insurgency," Murtha, a longtime hawk on foreign and military affairs issues, said Thursday. "They are united against U.S. forces and we have become a catalyst for violence. The war in Iraq is not going as advertised. It is a flawed policy wrapped in illusion."
Republicans pounced, chastising Murtha for advocating what they called a strategy of surrender and abandonment.

"I won't stand for the swift-boating of Jack Murtha," Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee in 2004, responded Friday. Also a Vietnam veteran, Kerry was dogged during the campaign by a group called the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that challenged his war record.

"There is no sterner stuff than the backbone and courage that defines Jack Murtha's character and conscience," Kerry said.

For his part, Kerry has proposed a phased exit from Iraq, starting with the withdrawal of 20,000 troops after December elections in Iraq. A Kerry spokesman said "he has his own plan" when asked if Kerry agreed with immediate withdrawal.

Weapons Cache Grows as Soldiers Keep Digging




After receiving a tip from a local resident, soldiers from 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, uncovered what turned out to be a large weapons cache west of Baghdad.

The unit initially found a small cache consisting of two rocket-propelled grenades and an AK-47 assault rifle Nov. 14. But after uncovering this weapons cache, the soldiers of 1st Squadron, 75th Cavalry Regiment, expanded the search of the area, resulting in one of the largest of 17 weapons cache discoveries the team has made to date.

After receiving the informant's tip, the soldiers started their search by using a metal detector. They began to dig up munitions and weapons at 3 p.m., and the dig continued until after midnight Nov. 16. When an explosives ordnance disposal team arrived at the site, the soldiers were still discovering more weapons caches buried in the field.

"After we found the smaller cache, it just kept going," said Staff. Sgt. Joel Killian, 1st Platoon, B Troop, 1st Squadron, 75th Cavalry. "First we would find a mortar plate, then we would find the tube. Next, every side road was filled with weapons, so we just continued to search and continued to discover more and more weapons buried in the field."

When the troops find a cache, they dig by hand with shovels for hours before uncovering the full load of munitions and weapons.

As of Nov. 16, the weapons cache consisted of 150,000 7.62 rounds of ammunition, 600 propellant charges, 500 blasting caps, 400 artillery fuses, 150 hand grenades, 150 120 mm rounds, 125 rockets, 100 primer charges, 85 82 mm mortar rounds, 68 60 mm rounds, 50 plastic grenades, 35 anti-tank mines, 13 20 mm rockets, 12 RPG launchers, multiple barrels and bags of small-arms ammunition, seven missiles, seven rolls of copper wire, three 60 mm mortar systems, three 55-gallon drums of fertilizer, three rolls of detonation cord, two 82 mm mortar tubes with bases, and one 82 mm mortar system.

"This is a great step in removing capability, the means with which terrorists execute their indiscriminate and cowardly violence," said Army Col. Todd Ebel, 2nd Brigade Combat Team commander. "I am very proud of all the soldiers involved with this cache find. These soldiers and others like them across this brigade combat team are making a difference in the safety of south Baghdad."

Oops, now Iraq-bound terrorists are headed in the other direction

The U.S. military's campaign in Iraq's Anbar Province has worked well.
In fact, Operation Steel Curtain has succeeded so well that scores of Sunni insurgents and Al Qaida operatives are fleeing Iraq for Syria.

Iraqi officials said at least 200 insurgents have fled the Qaim region for Syria. Al Qaida operatives slipped into Syria, ignored by Syrian border guards, and moved toward bases in the Aleppo area.

"It seems that they coordinated with terrorists in Syria that enabled them to flee Iraq to escape capture by our forces," an Iraqi official said.

"These terrorists know all the unpatrolled points along the border."

Iraqi Defense Minister Saadoun Al Dulaymi said that despite U.S. pressure, Syria continues to facilitate the training of Al Qaida insurgents. Al Dulaymi said Iraq has captured 400 insurgents who had been trained in Syria to participate in the Sunni uprising.

Sea-based missile defense test called a success

An interceptor missile fired from a US Navy cruiser shot down a mock warhead over the Pacific after it had separated from a medium-range missile, the US military said.

It was the sixth successful intercept in seven attempts since the tests of the sea-based missile defense system began in 2002, the Missile Defense Agency said.

The sea-based system is designed to intercept short- and intermediate-range missiles with interceptor missiles fired from Aegis warships.

The United States is developing a separate ground-based system in Alaska and California to intercept long-range missiles.

Thursday's test was the first to intercept a target warhead that had separated from its launcher, a medium-range missile. In previous tests, the target was a Scud-like missile tipped with a mock warhead.

The warhead was launched atop the medium-range missile from a facility in Kauai, Hawaii at 1812 GMT, and four minutes later the USS Lake Erie, an Aegis cruiser, fired an SM-3 interceptor missile at it, the MDA said.

"Six minutes later the interceptor missile successfully intercepted the target warhead more than 100 miles (160 kilometers) in space above the Pacific Ocean and 375 miles (6-4 kilometers) northwest of Kauai," the MDA said.

It said the interceptor missile collided directly with the warhead, destroying it.

Solar Study Cool on Global Warming Claim

Another study has cast doubt on the global warming theory.

Recognizing that the Earth�s climate has been changing since the pre-industrial era, physicist A. Kilcik and his colleagues set out to determine if there is a link between variations in solar activity and changes in the earth�s temperatures, John McCaslin reports in the Washington Times� Inside the Beltway column.

They compared surface air temperature variations in the U.S. and Japan from 1900 to 1995.

"Our results indicate marked influence of solar-activity variations on the earth�s climate,� the researchers reported in the Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics.

Writes McCaslin: "Which might help explain other historic climate changes, from the �Medieval Warm Period� from the 12th century through the 14th century, to the �Little Ice Age� from the latter half of the 17th century into the early 18th century.

"President Bush may have been correct not to rush his signature onto the Kyoto Protocol treaty on climate change.�

Thursday, November 17, 2005

SMALL QUAKE KNOCKS BOSTON-AREA...

A micro earthquake occurred at 17:39:36 (UTC) on Thursday, November 17, 2005. The magnitude 2.5 event has been located in SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND.

Joe diGenova to Patrick Fitzgerald: Drop Libby Indictment

Former Independent Counsel Joseph diGenova said Wednesday that new information that in the Leakgate case has cast so much doubt on the credibility of Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's prosecution that Justice Department guidelines require him to dismiss his indictment of Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

Commenting on Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward's admission Tuesday that he was the first reporter to learn of Valerie Plame's identity from the White House - and not Libby, as alleged in Fitzgerald's indictment - diGenova told Fox News Channel's Brit Hume:

"Under Justice Department guidelines, when [Fitzgerald] has reason to believe that some fact that he has relied on is false, such as Mr. Libby being the first person to tell a reporter, he has a duty to go back and if necessary, if that creates reasonable doubt about other things in the indictment he must dismiss it."

Attorney diGenova warned:

"That duty is upon [Fitzgerald] at this very moment and I hope he is going to be as honest about it as he pretends to have been about the underpinnings of the indictment."
The former independent counsel blasted Fitzgerald for what he said was unprofessional conduct during his post-indictment press conference.

"I believe that that news conference was a disgrace," diGenova told Fox.

"That news conference was an overly aggressive attempt to present the public with a false picture of what this case was about and by making a terrible mistake make now, apparently, about whether or not Mr. Libby was the first person, he has to go back and recalibrate all the evidence in this case. He has an immense duty to do that, and he better do it."

Orlando NAACP Chief Switches to GOP

The head of the Orlando Florida NAACP - a long-time stalwart of the Democrat party locally and nationally - has stunned political experts by switching his allegiance to the Republican Party.

"I've thought about this for two years," Derrick Wallace, head of Orange County's NAACP told the Orlando Sentinel Tuesday, just a few hours after returning from the elections office where he enrolled as a Republican. "This is not a decision I made yesterday."

His decision sent shock waves through Central Florida's political establishment - Orlando is located smack in the middle of the so-called I-4 corridor, the hotly contested area considered key to winning statewide elections. Along with the grwoing Latino voting bloc in that region, African-Americans can play the part of a vital swing vote.

Republican Party leader Lew Oliver told the Sentinel he was "extraordinarily pleased," while Democratic leader Tim Shea expressed his disappointment.

Wallace's defection from the ranks of the Democratic Party is music to the ears of Republicans who have been mounting a huge effort to attract African-Americans to the GOP.
According to Orlando GOP chairman Oliver, all of the members of the GOP executive board joined the NAACP a few years back to show that they were serious about outreach. "We have taken pains to do our very best to reach out," he said.

Wallace, a construction company executive, told the newspaper his business life played a big part in his decision to switch parties.

"It's purely a business decision. Ninety percent of those I do business with are Republicans," he said. "Opportunities that have come to my firm have been brought by Republicans."

He explained that this line of thought referred to the NAACP as well. Behind many of the power desks in Orlando sit Republicans and he told the Sentinel he wants his organization to be part of the local power structure, and does not want people to immediately identify NAACP concerns as being the same as those of liberal Democrats. "I want this branch to be respected," he said.

In the past, Wallace has twice supported Republican candidates for the post of Orlando mayor, a job he once sought for himself.

Wash Post: Woodward Could Save Libby

Who would have thought a Watergate-era Washington Post reporter � now editor - might indirectly come to the aid of an indicted White House official?

Bob Woodward's belated admission that a senior government official - not Scooter Libby - was the first Bush administration official to tell a reporter about Valerie Plame and her role at the CIA, could prove to be a lifesaver for Libby.

According to the Thursday edition of the Washington Post, legal experts told the newspaper that the Post's Woodward provided two pieces of new information that cast at least a shadow of doubt on the public case against Libby, Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, who was indicted on perjury and obstruction of justice charges.

Woodward dropped a bombshell earlier in the week when he testified that - contrary to Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald's public statements - it was an unnamed senior government official, not Libby, who was the first Bush administration official to tell a reporter about Plame - wife of former U.S. ambassador Joseph Wilson - and her role at the CIA.

Woodward also said that Libby never mentioned Plame in conversations they had on June 23 and June 27, 2003, about the Iraq war. The conversations occurred at a time, the Post says, when the indictment alleges Libby was eagerly passing information about Plame to reporters and colleagues.


In an editorial Thursday, the Post wrote that "Bob Woodward's just-released statement, suggesting that on June 27, 2003, he may have been the reporter who told Scooter Libby about Joseph Wilson's wife, blew a gigantic hole in Patrick Fitzgerald's recently unveiled indictment of the vice president's former chief of staff."

A former federal prosecutor and other legal experts agreed. "I think it's a considerable boost to the defendant's case," John Moustakas, a former federal prosecutor who has no role in the case told the Post. "It casts doubt about whether Fitzgerald knew everything as he charged someone with very serious offenses." Moustakas said Woodward also has considerable credibility because he has been granted "unprecedented access" to the inner workings of the Bush White House. "When Woodward says this information was disclosed to me in a nonchalant and casual way - not as if it was classified - it helps corroborate Libby's account about himself and about the administration," Moustakas said.

In the Post editorial it was argued "the heart of his perjury theory was predicated upon the proposition that Mr. Libby learned of Valerie Plame's identity from other government officials and not from NBC's Tim Russert, as claimed by Mr. Libby. Indeed, Mr. Fitzgerald seemed to have a reasonable case because Mr. Russert, a respected and admired journalist, with no vested interest of his own, denied that he discussed the Wilson matter with Mr. Libby. "However, given Mr. Woodward's account, which came to light after the Libby indictment was announced, that he met with Mr. Libby in his office - armed with the list of questions, which explicitly referenced "yellowcake" and "Joe Wilson's wife" and may have shared this information during the interview - it is entirely possible that Mr. Libby may have indeed heard about Mrs. Plame's employment from a reporter."

The Post reported that Libby's lawyers want to know if Fitzgerald will correct his statement that Libby was the first administration official to leak information about Plame to a reporter. A spokesman for Fitzgerald, Randall Samborn, declined to comment and a source close to the probe told the Post there is no reason for the prosecutor to correct the record because he specifically said at his Oct. 28 news conference that Libby was the "first official known" at that time to have provided such information to a reporter. Libby's lawyers however, have seized on Woodward's testimony, calling it a "bombshell" with the potential to upend Fitzgerald's case.

Libby attorney Theodore V. Wells Jr. said in a statement that "Woodward's disclosures are a bombshell to Mr. Fitzgerald's case" that show at least one accusation to be "totally inaccurate." The Post added that Libby's legal team plans to call a number of journalists to testify in part to show Libby was not determined to blow Plame's cover. Given the apparent shakiness of Fitzgerald's case, the Post editorial concluded, "Mr. Fitzgerald should do the right thing and promptly dismiss the indictment of Scooter Libby."

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Woodward Claim on CIA Leak Disputes Charge

Bob Woodward's version of when and where he learned the identity of a CIA operative contradicts a special prosecutor's contention that Vice President Dick Cheney's top aide was the first to make the disclosure to reporters.

Attorneys for the aide, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, described Wednesday's statement by the Washington Post's assistant managing editor as helpful for their defense, although Libby is charged with lying to a grand jury and the FBI, not with disclosing the CIA official's name.

"Hopefully, as information is obtained from reporters like Bob Woodward, the real facts will come out," lawyer Ted Wells said Wednesday.

Woodward, a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter, said he had not told his bosses until last month that he had learned about Valerie Plame's identity and her work at the CIA more than two years ago from a high-level Bush administration official.

When Woodward learned Plame's name, he told The Associated Press Wednesday, he was in the middle of finishing a book about the administration's decision to go to war in Iraq, and didn't want to be subpoenaed to testify.

"The grand jury was going and reporters were being jailed, and I hunkered down more than I usually do," Woodward said, explaining why he waited so long to tell Post Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr. what he knew about the Plame matter.

CHENEY FIGHTS BACK

Excerpts As Prepared For Delivery Tonight by Vice President Cheney

THE VICE PRESIDENT: "As most of you know, I have spent a lot of years in public service, and first came to work in Washington, D.C. back in the late 1960s. I know what it�s like to operate in a highly charged political environment, in which the players on all sides of an issue feel passionately and speak forcefully.

In such an environment people sometimes lose their cool, and yet in Washington you can ordinarily rely on some basic measure of truthfulness and good faith in the conduct of political debate. But in the last several weeks we have seen a wild departure from that tradition.

And the suggestion that�s been made by some U. S. senators that the President of the United States or any member of this Administration purposely misled the American people on pre-war intelligence is one of the most dishonest and reprehensible charges ever aired in this city...

Some of the most irresponsible comments have, of course, come from politicians who actually voted in favor of authorizing force against Saddam Hussein. These are elected officials who had access to the intelligence, and were free to draw their own conclusions.

They arrived at the same judgment about Iraq�s capabilities and intentions that was made by this Administration and by the previous Administration. There was broad-based, bipartisan agreement that Saddam Hussein was a threat � that he had violated U.N. Security Council Resolutions � and that, in a post-9/11 world, we couldn�t afford to take the word of a dictator who had a history of WMD programs, who had excluded weapons inspectors, who had defied the demands of the international community, who had been designated an official state sponsor of terror, and who had committed mass murder.

Those are facts.

What we�re hearing now is some politicians contradicting their own statements and making a play for political advantage in the middle of a war. The saddest part is that our people in uniform have been subjected to these cynical and pernicious falsehoods day in and day out. American soldiers and Marines are out there every day in dangerous conditions and desert temperatures � conducting raids, training Iraqi forces, countering attacks, seizing weapons, and capturing killers � and back home a few opportunists are suggesting they were sent into battle for a lie.

The President and I cannot prevent certain politicians from losing their memory, or their backbone � but we�re not going to sit by and let them rewrite history.

We�re going to continue throwing their own words back at them. And far more important, we�re going to continue sending a consistent message to the men and women who are fighting the war on terror in Iraq, Afghanistan, and many other fronts.

We can never say enough how much we appreciate them, and how proud they make us. They and their families can be certain: That this cause is right � and the performance of our military has been brave and honorable � and this nation will stand behind our fighting forces with pride and without wavering until the day of victory.

Developing...

Massachusetts House Defeats Death Penalty Bill

House lawmakers on Tuesday soundly rejected a bill put forward by Gov. Mitt Romney to restore capital punishment in Massachusetts.

Romney had said the bill had strict safeguards and would seek the death penalty only in "very, very rare circumstances," such as terrorism, serial killing or murdering police officers or other public servants.

But critics said innocent people could still have been put to death.

The House defeated the bill on a 99-to-53 vote. The Senate has not debated the bill. Romney, who is weighing a Republican presidential run in 2008, said his plan would have set the nation's highest standard of proof for ensuring that only the guilty were executed, using scientific evidence such as DNA and multiple checks and balances, including review by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.

But Rep. Eugene O'Flaherty, a Democrat, said scientific evidence presented at trial can sometimes be flawed or misinterpreted.

Some death penalty supporters who voted for the bill said Romney's legislation was too cautious and should also have included those found guilty of first-degree murder or the killing of children.

Supporters said the death penalty would not only deter people from committing murders, but is also fair justice. Without the death penalty, the life of the murderer is given greater value than the life of their victim, supporters said

Sources: Tentative Patriot Act Deal Struck

House and Senate negotiators struck a tentative deal on the expiring Patriot Act that would curb FBI subpoena power and require the Justice Department to more fully report its secret requests for information about ordinary people, according to officials involved in the talks.

The agreement, which would make most provisions of the existing law permanent, was reached just before dawn Wednesday. But by midmorning GOP leaders had already made plans for a House vote on Thursday and a Senate vote by the end of the week. That would put the centerpiece of President Bush's war on terror on his desk before Thanksgiving, a month before more than a dozen provisions were set to expire.

Officials negotiating the deal described it on condition of anonymity because the draft is not official and has not been signed by any of the 34 conferees.

Any deal would mark Congress' first revision of the law passed a few weeks after the Sept. 11 terror attacks. In doing so, lawmakers said they tried to find the nation's comfort level with expanded law enforcement power in the post-9/11 era _ a task that carries extra political risks for all 435 members of the House and a third of the Senate facing midterm elections next year.

The tentative deal would make permanent all but a handful of the expiring provisions, the sources said. Others would expire in seven years if not renewed by Congress. They include rules on wiretapping, obtaining business records under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and new standards for monitoring "lone wolf" terrorists who may be operating independent of a foreign agent or power.

The draft also would impose a new requirement that the Justice Department report to Congress annually on its use of national security letters, secret requests for the phone, business and Internet records of ordinary people. The aggregate number of letters issued per year, reported to be about 30,000, is classified. Citing confidential investigations, the Justice Department has refused lawmakers' request for the information.

The 2001 Patriot Act removed the requirement that the records sought be those of someone under suspicion. As a result, FBI agents can review the digital records of a citizen as long as the bureau can certify that the person's records are "relevant" to a terrorist investigation.

Also part of the tentative agreement are modest new requirements on so-called roving wiretaps _ monitoring devices placed on a single person's telephones and other devices to keep a target from evading law enforcement officials by switching phones or computers.

The tentative deal also would raise the threshold for securing business records under FISA, requiring law enforcement to submit a "statement of facts" showing "reasonable grounds to believe the records are relevant to an investigation. Law enforcement officials also would have to show that an individual is in contact with or known to be in contact with a suspected agent of a foreign power.

Massachusetts' latest: Soften law against bestiality

Massachusetts pols push measure lessening punishment for animal sex

Four state legislators in Massachusetts have introduced a bill that would soften the crime of bestiality, a move pro-family activists say is a natural progression of the state's legalizing same-sex marriage.

Stated traditional-values organization Article 8: "State Sen. Cynthia Creem, Sen. Robert O'Leary, Rep. Michael Festa and Rep. David Linsky have some interesting things in common.

"They're all strongly endorsed by the state's three major powerful homosexual lobbying groups. � They're all Democrats. They're all vocal supporters of homosexual 'marriage' and whatever else the homosexual lobby bids them to do.

"And now all four have introduced Senate bill 938. Even the left-wing Weekly Dig can't believe that the Massachusetts Legislature is poised to go this far."

A story in Boston's Weekly Dig describes the legislation, entitled "An Act Relative to Archaic Crimes."

"The bill would strike down several sections of the current penal code criminalizing adultery, fornication and the advertisement of abortion," the reported stated. "It also repeals what appears to be a sodomy statute forbidding 'abominable and detestable crime against nature, either with mankind or with a beast.'

"Archaic, indeed."

While the bill would keep bestiality technically illegal, it gives the option of less severe penalties. Previously, those convicted of "a sexual act on an animal" could receive up to 20 years in prison.

Explains the local weekly: "The new measure would give activist judges the option of slapping perps with a mere two and a half years in plush local jails, or even letting zoophiliacs walk with a $5,000 fine."

The bill was taken up during a public hearing Nov. 1 in the Legislature's Joint Committee on the Judiciary. Reportedly, no one from the public testified against the measure.

New Documents Reveal Saddam Hid WMDs, Was Tied to Al Qaida

Recently discovered Iraqi documents now being translated by U.S. intelligence analysts indicate that Saddam Hussein's government made extensive plans to hide Iraq's weapons of mass destruction before the U.S. invasion in March 2003 - and had deep ties to al Qaida before the 9/11 attacks.

The explosive evidence was discovered among "millions of pages of documents" unearthed by the Iraq Survey Group weapons search team, reports the Weekly Standard's Stephen Hayes.

In the magazine's Nov. 21 issue, Hayes reveals that the document cache now being examined contains "a thick stew of reports and findings from a variety of [Iraqi] intelligence agencies and military units."

Though the Pentagon has so far declined to make the bombshell papers public, Hayes managed to obtain a list of titles on the reports.

Topics headlined in the still embargoed Iraqi documents include:
� Chemical Agent Purchase Orders (Dec. 2001)

� Formulas and information about Iraq's Chemical Weapons Agents

� Locations of Weapons/Ammunition Storage (with map)

� Denial and Deception of WMD and Killing of POWs

� Ricin research and improvement

� Chemical Gear for Fedayeen Saddam
� Memo from the [Iraqi Intelligence Service] to Hide Information from a U.N. Inspection team (1997)

� Iraq Ministry of Defense Calls for Investigation into why documents related to WMD were found by UN inspection team

� Correspondence between various Iraq organizations giving instructions to hide chemicals and equipment

� Correspondence from [Iraqi Intelligence Service] to [the Military Industrial Commission] regarding information gathered by foreign intelligence satellites on WMD (Dec. 2002) � Cleaning chemical suits and how to hide chemicals

� [Iraqi Intelligence Service] plan of what to do during UNSCOM inspections (1996)

Still other reports suggest that Iraq's ties to al Qaida were far deeper than previously known, featuring headlines like:

� Secret Meeting with Taliban Group Member and Iraqi Government (Nov. 2000)

� Document from Uday Hussein regarding Taliban activity

� Possible al Qaeda Terror Members in Iraq

� Iraqi Effort to Cooperate with Saudi Opposition Groups and Individuals

� Iraqi Intel report on Kurdish Activities: Mention of Kurdish Report on al Qaeda - reference to al Qaeda presence in Salman Pak

� [Iraqi Intelligence Service] report on Taliban-Iraq Connections Claims

� Money Transfers from Iraq to Afghanistan

While the document titles sound stunning enough to turn the Iraq war debate on its head, Hayes cautions that it's hard to know for certain until the full text is available.

It's possible, he writes, "that the 'Document from Uday Hussein regarding Taliban activity' was critical of one or another Taliban policies. But it's equally possible, given Uday's known role as a go-between for the Iraqi regime and al Qaeda, that something more nefarious was afoot."

"What was discussed at the 'Secret Meeting with Taliban Group Member and Iraqi Government' in November 2000? It could be something innocuous. Maybe not. But it would be nice to know more."

Hayes also notes that an additional treasure trove of evidence on Saddam Hussein's support for al Qaida may be lost forever.

"When David Kay ran the Iraq Survey Group searching for weapons of mass destruction, he instructed his team to ignore anything not directly related to the regime's WMD efforts," he reports.

"As a consequence, documents describing the regime's training and financing of terrorists were labeled 'No Intelligence Value' and often discarded, according to two sources."

See the ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE:Where Are the Pentagon Papers?

Woodward testifies in CIA leak case

Editor says senior administration official told him about Plame

Washington Post Assistant Managing Editor Bob Woodward testified under oath Monday in the CIA leak case that a senior administration official told him about CIA operative Valerie Plame and her position at the agency nearly a month before her identity was disclosed.

In a more than two-hour deposition, Woodward told Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald that the official casually told him in mid-June 2003 that Plame worked as a CIA analyst on weapons of mass destruction, and that he did not believe the information to be classified or sensitive, according to a statement Woodward released yesterday.

Fitzgerald interviewed Woodward about the previously undisclosed conversation after the official alerted the prosecutor to it on Nov. 3 -- one week after Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was indicted in the investigation.

Citing a confidentiality agreement in which the source freed Woodward to testify but would not allow him to discuss their conversations publicly, Woodward and Post editors refused to disclose the official's name or provide crucial details about the testimony. Woodward did not share the information with Washington Post Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr. until last month, and the only Post reporter whom Woodward said he remembers telling in the summer of 2003 does not recall the conversation taking place.

Woodward said he also testified that he met with Libby on June 27, 2003, and discussed Iraq policy as part of his research for a book on President Bush's march to war. He said he does not believe Libby said anything about Plame.

He also told Fitzgerald that it is possible he asked Libby about Plame or her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV. He based that testimony on an 18-page list of questions he planned to ask Libby in an interview that included the phrases "yellowcake" and "Joe Wilson's wife." Woodward said in his statement, however, that "I had no recollection" of mentioning the pair to Libby. He also said that his original government source did not mention Plame by name, referring to her only as "Wilson's wife."

Woodward's testimony appears to change key elements in the chronology Fitzgerald laid out in his investigation and announced when indicting Libby three weeks ago. It would make the unnamed official -- not Libby -- the first government employee to disclose Plame's CIA employment to a reporter. It would also make Woodward, who has been publicly critical of the investigation, the first reporter known to have learned about Plame from a government source.

The testimony, however, does not appear to shed new light on whether Libby is guilty of lying and obstructing justice in the nearly two-year-old probe or provide new insight into the role of senior Bush adviser Karl Rove, who remains under investigation.

Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Rove, said that Rove is not the unnamed official who told Woodward about Plame and that he did not discuss Plame with Woodward.

William Jeffress Jr., one of Libby's lawyers, said yesterday that Woodward's testimony undermines Fitzgerald's public claims about his client and raises questions about what else the prosecutor may not know. Libby has said he learned Plame's identity from NBC journalist Tim Russert.

"If what Woodward says is so, will Mr. Fitzgerald now say he was wrong to say on TV that Scooter Libby was the first official to give this information to a reporter?" Jeffress said last night. "The second question I would have is: Why did Mr. Fitzgerald indict Mr. Libby before fully investigating what other reporters knew about Wilson's wife?"

Fitzgerald's spokesman, Randall Samborn, declined to comment yesterday.

U.S. to retain oversight of Web

Efforts to replace U.S. oversight of the Internet with an international committee were defeated yesterday during U.N.-sponsored meetings.
Hundreds of government, nonprofit and industry delegates meeting at the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis, Tunisia, agreed to establish a new international forum to discuss Internet issues, but it would not have any policy-making power.
"No new organizations were created," said David Gross, the State Department's Internet policy chief and head of the U.S. delegation. "No oversight mechanisms were established by anyone over anyone. There was also no change in the U.S. government's role in relation to the Internet, and no mechanism for such a change was created.
"It was a clean sweep, I'd say."
Several U.S. congressmen remain skeptical. Rep. John T. Doolittle, California Republican, with two other members of Congress, has introduced a resolution urging that the U.S. remain in charge of the Internet's day-to-day operations.
"Whether they call it a 'board' or a 'forum,' it's clear that the ultimate goal of the U.N. is still to wrest control of the Internet," Mr. Doolittle said last night.

Terror war spilling across border

Concern rising following arrest of al-Qaida suspect in Mexico

A U.S. lawmaker says elements of the war on terror are now spilling across the nation's southwestern border, and that colleagues he's spoken to who have seen the problem first-hand, as he has, say they felt safer "during trips to Iraq than they would have in a pickup truck on our southern border."

Rep. John A. Culberson, R-Texas, also says there has been an increase in apprehensions of so-called "special interest aliens," or SIAs � aliens from countries where al-Qaida is known to be in operation � along the U.S.-Mexico border, and that American law enforcement and intelligence agencies are aware of it.

Further, an increasing number of Texas law enforcement officials are reporting al-Qaida-related arrests and activity, and say the nation's porous borders are making it easier for suspected terrorists to infiltrate the U.S.

In testimony Nov. 10 before the House Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims, Culberson � a member of the congressional Immigration Reform Caucus headed by Colorado Republican Rep. Tom Tancredo � told the panel, "I am particularly concerned that aliens from countries such as Iraq, Iran, Syria, Indonesia and the Sudan are entering our country illegally."

He went on to tell members he questioned FBI Director Robert Mueller Jr. during a hearing before the House Science, State, Justice, Commerce Appropriations Subcommittee in March and asked him specifically "about SIAs entering the United States across the southern border."

"� He testified under oath that this was in fact occurring," Culberson said, according to his testimony transcript, a copy of which was obtained by WND. "Specifically, [Mueller] stated that '[t]he FBI has received reports that individuals from countries with known al-Qaida connections have attempted to enter the U.S. illegally using alien smuggling rings and assuming Hispanic appearances. An FBI investigation into these reports continues.'"

Culberson went on to testify that SIAs were trying to thwart authorities by scrapping their Arabic surnames and adopting Hispanic ones, "to elude detection and blend into the flood of illegal immigrants coming across the southern border."

Because of this and other findings, Culberson declared, "I am convinced that our porous borders present the most serious national security threat that America faces."

Jay Rockefeller's Web of Lies About Iraq

Chris Wallace's interview of Sen. Jay Rockefeller on "Fox News Sunday" provides a good illustration of how the critics' slanders are tethered to their substantive cluelessness on Iraq.

Wallace, admirably attempting to corner the slippery senator, played him a pre-war clip of his own self-damning assertion. "I do believe," said Rockefeller in a speech in October 2002, in which he authorized the use of force in Iraq, "that Iraq poses an imminent threat, but I also believe that after September 11 that question is increasingly outdated."

As Wallace pointed out, Rockefeller "went further than the president ever did," in actually assessing Iraq as an "imminent threat."

Rockefeller sidestepped the question and, unwittingly, made another confession. Rockefeller said, "I took a trip by myself in January of 2002 to Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria, and I told each of the heads of state that it was my view that George Bush had already made up his mind to go to war against Iraq, that that was a predetermined set course which had taken shape shortly after 9/11."

Can someone please provide an explanation, or any theory no matter how implausible, to justify such recklessly disloyal statements by a leading member of the Senate Intelligence Committee to foreign leaders? Why did this man undermine our president on foreign soil under color of government authority?

Wallace played an equally damning clip of Rockefeller asserting, "There is unmistakable evidence that Saddam Hussein is working aggressively to develop nuclear weapons and will likely have nuclear weapons within the next five years, and he could have it earlier."

Wallace noted that before making that statement and voting to authorize force in Iraq, Rockefeller had seen the national intelligence estimate, which "indicated there was a disagreement among analysts about [Saddam's] nuclear program." Rockefeller's primary non-answer to the undeniable point that he knew of this disagreement before voting was "You know, it was not the Congress that sent 135,000 or 150,000 troops to Iraq."

Here the Rockefeller/Democrat foreign policy incoherence is exposed for all to see. They admittedly regarded Saddam's threat to be imminent, yet were unwilling to take pre-emptive action against Iraq (all the while being on record as having explicitly authorized it), preferring instead to place our very national security in the hands of other corrupt nations and the America-unfriendly United Nations.

They say President Bush is the liar, when they are the ones who voted unconditionally to authorize pre-emptive action against Iraq and now deny they did, demanding we believe their revisionism instead of our eyes.

Jack Welch: Bush Should Brag About The Economy

Former GE Chairman and business management guru Jack Welch has some advice for President George W. Bush: Start bragging about the economy.

Welch told Fox News Channel that President Bush has much to be proud of with regard to the economy, but he has to get out there and sell himself - and his accomplishments - to the American people to let them know about it.

"President Bush put a tax bill through that supported capital formation and risk taking,� Welch said. "We�ve created 2 million jobs a year after the 9/11 attacks. That�s a remarkable accomplishment. Bush has to get out there and talk about it.�

Despite the recent natural disasters, such as Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma, the U.S. economy continues to grow, and the stock market seems to weather every storm.

Welch has certainly noticed. Most business people have noticed. Investors noticed. But, according to the recent polls � which show the president�s approval rating at its lowest level of his presidency � the majority of Americans have not been persuaded of the "good news economy."

Welch said Bush is sometimes too humble - he won�t toot his own horn � but it�s time for some Texas-sized bragging on the part of the White House.

If there are doubters about the success of the U.S. economy, Welch suggested they look overseas � or simply at the TV news � to measure that success.
"Go to France and see the riots in the streets,� Welch said. "They have massive unemployment and rising percentages of non-citizens who can�t find work.

"Our unemployment rate is less than 5 percent after the 9/11 attacks. Bush ought to be standing on a soapbox talking about that accomplishment.�

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Senate GOP Easily Defeats Iraq Timetable Push

The Republican-controlled Senate on Tuesday easily defeated a Democratic effort to pressure President Bush to outline a timetable for a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. It then overwhelmingly endorsed a weaker statement of U.S. policy in Iraq.

By 58-40, senators rejected a Democratic plan that the minority party's leadership advanced in the wake of declining public support for a conflict that has claimed more than 2,000 U.S. lives and cost more than $200 billion. The non-binding measure called for Bush to outline a plan for gradually withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq.

Republicans countered with their own non-binding alternative. It urged that 2006 "should be a period of significant transition to full Iraqi sovereignty," with Iraqi forces taking the lead in providing security, a step Republicans said would create the conditions for the phased redeployment of United States forces.

On a 79-19 vote, the Senate approved that GOP-sponsored proposal, which did not call for the president to put forth a withdrawal timetable.

"They want an exit strategy, a cut-and-run exit strategy. What we are for is a successful strategy," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.

Tape Shows Iraqis 'Evacuating' WMDs

Bush officials have done such a poor job defending themselves against charges they lied about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction that even their supporters seem to have forgotten about some of the most compelling WMD evidence.

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, for instance, keeps apologizing for his speech to the United Nations on the eve of the Iraq war. But at least one chilling bit of evidence he introduced there has never been refuted.

Here's how Powell introduced his case on Feb. 5, 2003:

POWELL: Let me begin by playing a tape for you. What you're about to hear is a conversation that my government monitored. It takes place on November 26 [2002], on the day before United Nations teams resumed inspections in Iraq.

The conversation involves two senior officers, a colonel and a brigadier general, from Iraq's elite military unit, the Republican Guard.
TAPE TRANSCRIPT:

IRAQI COLONEL : About this committee that is coming with [U.N. nuclear weapons inspector] Mohamed ElBaradei.

IRAQI GENERAL : Yeah, yeah.

COL: We have this modified vehicle. What do we say if one of them sees it?

GEN: You didn't get a modified... You don't have a modified...
COL: By God, I have one.

GEN: Which? From the workshop...?

COL: From the al-Kindi Company

GEN: Yeah, yeah. I'll come to you in the morning. I have some comments. I'm worried you all have something left.

COL: We evacuated everything. We don't have anything left. [END OF POWELL TAPE EXCERPT]

What type of "modified vehicle" do Iraq war critics think Saddam's general was worried about? A souped-up 1967 Mustang?

And what, pray tell, do they think Saddam's colonel was referring to when he said, "We evacuated everything. We don't have anything left"?

Monday, November 14, 2005

Americans Generally Favor Alito Appointment

The American public generally supports President George W. Bush's third nominee to replace Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. By a 2-to-1 margin, 50% to 25%, Americans say the Senate should vote to confirm Judge Samuel Alito. Another 25% of Americans have no opinion about his confirmation -- not atypical for public attitudes about Supreme Court nominees.

This 50% support for Alito contrasts with the more restrained support received by the previous nominee, White House counsel Harriet Miers, before she withdrew her name amid growing controversy over her candidacy. In Gallup's initial reading on Miers, only 44% of Americans said she should be confirmed, while 36% disagreed.

Public support for Alito is only slightly less favorable than that for Judge John Roberts when Bush initially named him to succeed the retiring Justice O'Connor.

Reaction to Alito differs by party, although not overwhelmingly so. While the vast majority of Republicans (73%) favor Alito's confirmation, fewer than half of Democrats (40%) oppose it. In fact, by a 40% to 35% margin, only a slight plurality of Democrats oppose Alito's confirmation.

The results are similar according to self-described ideology, although perhaps a bit starker. Those identifying themselves as politically conservative favor Alito's confirmation by a margin of 75% to 6%. Those identifying themselves as liberals oppose it by a margin of 49% to 28%.

Believe It or Not

Are you sure you want to keep saying we were fooled by Ahmad Chalabi and the INC?By Christopher Hitchens

What do you have to believe in order to keep alive your conviction that the Bush administration conspired to launch a lie-based war? As with (I admit) the pro-war case, the ground of argument has a tendency to shift. I saw two examples in Washington last week. An exceptionally moth-eaten and shabby picket line outside Ahmad Chalabi's event on Wednesday featured a man with a placard alleging that Bush had prearranged the 9/11 attacks. I know a number of left and right anti-warriors who have flirted with this possibility but very few who truly believe it. (Even Gore Vidal, who did at one point insinuate the idea, has recently withdrawn it, if only on the grounds of the administration's incompetence.)

But then there is the really superb pedantry and literal-mindedness on which the remainder of the case depends. This achieved something close to an apotheosis on the front page of the Washington Post on Nov. 12, where Dana Milbank and Walter Pincus brought complete gravity to bear. Is it true, as the president claimed in his Veterans Day speech, that Congress saw the same intelligence sources before the war, and is it true that independent commissions have concluded that there was no willful misrepresentation? Top form was reached on the inside page:

But in trying to set the record straight, [Bush] asserted: "When I made the decision to remove Saddam Hussein from power, Congress approved it with strong bipartisan support."

The October 2002 joint resolution authorized the use of force in Iraq, but it did not directly mention the removal of Hussein from power.

A prize, then, for investigative courage, to Milbank and Pincus. They have identified the same problem, though this time upside down, as that which arose from the passage of the Iraq Liberation Act, during the Clinton-Gore administration, in 1998. That legislation�which passed the Senate without a dissenting vote�did expressly call for the removal of Saddam Hussein but did not actually mention the use of direct U.S. military force.

Let us suppose, then, that we can find a senator who voted for the 1998 act to remove Saddam Hussein yet did not anticipate that it might entail the use of force, and who later voted for the 2002 resolution and did not appreciate that the authorization of force would entail the removal of Saddam Hussein! Would this senator kindly stand up and take a bow? He or she embodies all the moral and intellectual force of the anti-war movement. And don't be bashful, ladies and gentlemen of the "shocked, shocked" faction, we already know who you are.

It was, of course, the sinuous and dastardly forces of Ahmad Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress who persuaded the entire Senate to take leave of its senses in 1998. I know at least one of its two or three staffers, who actually admits to having engaged in the plan. By the same alchemy and hypnotism, the INC was able to manipulate the combined intelligence services of Britain, France, Germany, and Italy, as well as the CIA, the DIA, and the NSA, who between them employ perhaps 1.4 million people, and who in the American case dispose of an intelligence budget of $44 billion, with only a handful of Iraqi defectors and an operating budget of $320,000 per month. That's what you have to believe.

A few little strokes of Occam's razor are enough to dispose of this whole accumulation of fantasy. Suppose that every single Iraqi defector or informant, funneled out of a closed and terrified society by the INC, had been a dedicated and conscious fabricator. How could they persuade a vast organization, equipped with satellite surveillance that can almost read a license plate from orbit, of a plain untruth? (Leave to one side the useful intelligence that was provided by the INC and that has been acknowledged.) Well, what was the likelihood that ambiguous moves made by Saddam's agents were also innocuous moves? After decades in which the Baathists had been caught cheating and concealing, what room was there for the presumption of innocence? Hans Blix, the see-no-evil expert who had managed to certify Iraq and North Korea as kosher in his time, has said in print that he fully expected a coalition intervention to uncover hidden weaponry.

And this, of course, it actually has done. We did not know and could not know, until after the invasion, of Saddam's plan to buy long-range missiles off the shelf from Pyongyang, or of the centrifuge components buried on the property of his chief scientist, Dr. Mahdi Obeidi. The Duelfer report disclosed large latent facilities that were only waiting for the collapse of sanctions to resume activity. Ah, but that's not what you said you were looking for. � Could pedantry be pushed any further?

We can now certify Iraq as disarmed, even if the materials once declared by the Saddam regime and never accounted for have still not been found. Why does this certified disarmament upset people so much? Would they rather have given Saddam the benefit of the doubt? Much more infuriating about the current anti-Chalabi hysteria is this: He turns up in Washington with a large delegation of Iraqi democrats, including a female Shiite ex-Communist, several Sunni dignitaries from the "hot" provinces, and the legendary Abdul Karim al-Muhammadawi, who led a genuine insurgency among the Marsh Arabs for 18 years. And the American left mounts a gargoyle picket line outside and asks silly and insulting questions inside, about a question that has already been decided. What a travesty this is. Not only do the liberal Democrats apparently want their own congressional votes from 1998 and 2002 back. It sometimes seems that they are actually nostalgic for the same period, when Saddam Hussein was running Iraq, and there were no coalition soldiers to challenge his rule, and when therefore by definition there was peace, and thus things were more or less OK. Their current claim to have been fooled or deceived makes them out, on their own account, to be highly dumb and gullible. But as dumb and gullible as that?

Who Is Lying About Iraq?

A campaign of distortion aims to discredit the liberation.

BY NORMAN PODHORETZ
Among the many distortions, misrepresentations and outright falsifications that have emerged from the debate over Iraq, one in particular stands out above all others. This is the charge that George W. Bush misled us into an immoral or unnecessary war in Iraq by telling a series of lies that have now been definitively exposed.

What makes this charge so special is the amazing success it has enjoyed in getting itself established as a self-evident truth even though it has been refuted and discredited over and over again by evidence and argument alike. In this it resembles nothing so much as those animated cartoon characters who, after being flattened, blown up or pushed over a cliff, always spring back to life with their bodies perfectly intact. Perhaps, like those cartoon characters, this allegation simply cannot be killed off, no matter what.

Nevertheless, I want to take one more shot at exposing it for the lie that it itself really is. Although doing so will require going over ground that I and many others have covered before, I hope that revisiting this well-trodden terrain may also serve to refresh memories that have grown dim, to clarify thoughts that have grown confused, and to revive outrage that has grown commensurately dulled.

The main "lie" that George W. Bush is accused of telling us is that Saddam Hussein possessed an arsenal of weapons of mass destruction, or WMD as they have invariably come to be called. From this followed the subsidiary "lie" that Iraq under Saddam's regime posed a two-edged mortal threat. On the one hand, we were informed, there was a distinct (or even "imminent") possibility that Saddam himself would use these weapons against us or our allies; and on the other hand, there was the still more dangerous possibility that he would supply them to terrorists like those who had already attacked us on 9/11 and to whom he was linked.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE...

Paper: Arab countries united against al-Qaida

The Palestinian Authority, Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia recently formed a joint task force to combat the formation on their territories of al-Qaida terror cells, a Saudi newspaper reported yesterday.

Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, a British-based Saudi newspaper reportedly funded in part by the Saudi regime, stated yesterday the joint task force against al-Qaida was formed in response to the infiltration of the area by al-Qaida cells threatening the Egyptian, Palestinian, Jordanian and Saudi leadership. The newspaper did not state whether the task force met last week in a Jordanian hotel.

Al Qaida acquires Russian surface-to-air missiles




Western intelligence sources said Al Qaida-aligned cells have procured the SA-18 anti-aircraft missile from the former Soviet Union. The sources said the missiles were smuggled into Turkey and acquired by Al Qaida-aligned cells in the Middle East.

"These are serious missiles and represents a step up in Al Qaida capability," an intelligence source said.

On Oct. 28, the French daily Le Figaro reported that Al Qaida-aligned cells have obtained SA-18s for attacks against French airliners. The daily said the cells acquired the missiles in 2002 from the so-called Chechen mafia.

Until 2003, Al Qaida-aligned cells were believed to have been limited to the Soviet-origin SA-7 missile. The SA-7 Strela, with a range of 3.5 kilometers, could be countered by most aircraft missile and warning systems, Middle East Newsline reported.
In contrast, the SA-18, which includes an advanced Super Igla variant, has a range of 5.2 kilometers and is capable of overcoming missile warning alert systems. The sources said that with the possible exception of Hizbullah, no insurgency group in the Middle East has acquired the SA-18.

In 2004 France foiled a plot to destroy passenger jets with the SA-18 Igla missile. An Al Qaida-aligned cell composed of Algerian and French nationals planned to shoot the missiles from near Strasbourg.

Information on the missile plot reportedly came from an aide to Al Qaida network chief Abu Mussib Al Zarqawi. The aide, identified as Adnan Sadiq, is imprisoned in Jordan in connection with an Al Qaida plot in the Hashemite kingdom.
Le Figaro said French investigators interrogated Sadiq in prison. Sadiq told the investigators that the SA-18s were acquired from Georgia and transported to France. The missiles have not been recovered.

ElBaradei: Give Iran 'One Last Chance' Before Sanctions

International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohammad ElBaradei is pressing members of the agency's board of governors to give Iran "one last chance" before sending Iran's case to the United Nations Security Council for possible sanctions, IAEA officials and European diplomats told Newsmax in Vienna.

The decision to refer Iran to the UN Security Council could come on Thanksgiving Day, when the IAEA Board of Governors has its next scheduled meeting to discuss "new information" discovered by inspectors in Iran, the officials said.

ElBaradei discussed a potential "face-saving" deal European negotiators could offer Tehran during meetings with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice in Washington on Tuesday, U.S. and IAEA officials said.

"Our message to Iran is that they have an opportunity to influence the timing and nature of the report to the UN Security Council," a State Department official said.

Portions of the offer, which the Europeans have not embraced, were leaked to the New York Times, which reported on Thursday that Iran would be allowed to continue to produce uranium hexafluoride gas (UF6), the feedstock used for uranium enrichment, as long as it exported the product to Russia where it would be enriched to produce reactor-grade fuel.

But a European official directly involved in the negotiations with Tehran denied that the Russia proposal was even on the table, and said the New York Times report was false.

"There is no offer," he told Newsmax in Vienna today. "Why should we make an offer? The Iranians must come to us" since they were the ones who had reneged on their promises to suspend all enrichment-related activities.

Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice also denied the New York Times report. "There is no U.S.-European proposal for the Iranians. I want to say that categorically," she said on Thursday.

An IAEA official present at the Washington, DC meetings where the idea was discussed found other inaccuracies in the New York Times account. "The idea is to allow Iran to make uranium tetrachloride (UF4) � not UF6 � and to keep it under strict IAEA monitoring," the official said. "A moratorium or a total ban on all fuel cycle activities is a non-starter, because of [Iranian] national pride."

The U.S. continues to push for a "renewed suspension" of all nuclear fuel processing and enrichment in Iran, a State Department official said. "This is the bar that has been set by the IAEA, and these are our instructions: Iran must renew suspension, renew cooperation with the IAEA, and resume negotiations with the EU3."

The IAEA believes Iran could agree to limit work at Isfahan to UF4 because trial production runs of UF6, which is made from UF4, have been "crap," a senior IAEA official said. "The quality is just no good. This will allow Iran to save face."

Clintons Underpaid Taxes

Just last week, Bill Clinton decried the Bush tax cuts as "unethical" and "immoral," because they allowed wealthy folks like himself to avoid "paying their fair share."

And Hillary, of course, has argued for years for higher taxes. She told wealthy San Francisco contributors during the 2004 presidential campaign, for instance, that if Democrats win, "we're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good."

But in his blockbuster new book "Do As I Say, [Not As I Do]," Peter Schweizer blows the lid off the Clintons tax hypocrisy.

Schweizer sets the table with a quote from the former first taxpayer himself:

I must be the only person in America that every time - I pay the maximum tax rates - every time I sign that tax form, I smile," Clinton recently explained.
However, as Schweizer discovered, the Clintons have been paying a good deal less than their fair share in taxes for years.

"A study of their income tax returns reveal that, since 1991, the Clintons paid on average about 7 percent less to the IRS than others in their income group," he writes. "While most Americans in their bracket were paying 27 percent in taxes, the Clintons were bumping along at 20 percent."

How did Bill and Hill keep their taxes so low? They did it the old fashioned way - they cheated.

According to a Money Magazine report unearthed by Schweizer, "The Clintons appear to have repeatedly overstated their charitable contributions."

What's more, according to Gaines Norton, the former first couple's one-time accountant, some of the Clintons' deductions were "probably illegal"
Norton told Whitewater probers that when he urged Mr. Clinton to pay his fair share, the then-Arkansas Governor told him: "Back off and leave the issue alone."

Other tax dodges employed by Bill and Hill include:


Not reporting as income Hillary's $100,000 in profits from commodities trading. Instead, says Schweizer, they actually claimed a loss.

The Clintons also failed to report as income "$74,234 in loans, payments, and forgiven debts that the IRS code counts as income."

Then there's the personal property tax that was due on a sportscar Hillary owned, which first couple declined to pay.

They also took thousands of dollars in deductions on their Whitewater investment that "Hillary admitted at the time she knew they were not entitled to."

In a bid to further reduce their tax exposure, the Clintons set up a contract trust, which "among other things will allow them to substantially reduce the amount of inheritance tax their estate will have to pay when they die."
Given all the cash Clinton was saving by shortchanging the federal treasury, it's no wonder he was smiling when he signed his tax return.

Bush WMD Response to Target Bill Clinton

U.S. News & World Report says the RNC ad will spotlight Clinton's Feb. 17, 1998 speech on Iraq, where the former prez "guaranteed" that Saddam Hussein would use his weapons of mass destruction.

"Let's imagine the future," Clinton said seven years ago. "What if [Saddam] fails to comply [with U.N. sanctions], and we fail to act, or we take some ambiguous third route which gives him yet more opportunities to develop this program of weapons of mass destruction and continue to press for the release of the sanctions and continue to ignore the solemn commitments that he made?"

Clinton warned: "He will conclude that the international community has lost its will. He will then conclude that he can go right on and do more to rebuild an arsenal of devastating destruction.

"And some day, some way, I guarantee you, he'll use the arsenal."
Other soundbytes from Democratic flip-floppers will feature WMD warnings from Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

Poll: Americans Back Tough Interrogations

By a nearly 2-to-1 margin, Americans support U.S. interrogators doing "whatever it takes" to get information from terrorist suspects who might be planning attacks against U.S. interests.

An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll shows 55 percent of those surveyed support the current policy that allows tough interrogation tactics - while just 30 percent say that techniques now being employed by U.S. intelligence go too far.

"They don't want to know what the specifics are," NBC's Andrea Mitchell said Sunday while discussing the previously unreported survey. "They agree with whatever it takes."

The finding would be a boost for Vice President Dick Cheney, whose been under fire from the press for opposing Sen. John McCain's proposal to reign in U.S. interrogators.

One technique, waterboarding - which has been decried as "torture" by critics - was used on 9/11 operations chief Khalid Sheik Mohammed.
The tactic yielded "rich and important information about terrorist operations" - according to the New York Times.