The Talk Show American

THE TALK SHOW AMERICAN: 01/15/2006 - 01/22/2006

Saturday, January 21, 2006

Teddy's Last Gasp On Alito

THE DRUDGE REPORT has learned Sen. Ted Kennedy's (D-MA) office is behind a last ditch effort to stop Judge Samuel A. Alito�s confirmation before next week's vote using a 2004 recusal request.

THE DRUDGE REPORT has obtained a complaint filed by H. Gerard Heimbecker of Upper Darby, PA accusing Alito of not properly listing the Heimbecker v. 555 Associates case in his Senate questionnaire.

Kennedy legal aide James Flug is behind the efforts to push this latest attack. The veteran aide has been criticized for Sen. Kennedy's misfires during the Alito hearing last week. Flug was reportedly behind the attacks Kennedy used against Alito related to the Concerned Alumni of Princeton (CAP) and Vanguard recusal case.

In the 2004 case, Heimbecker not only filed a request for Alito to recuse himself but also the entire Third Circuit as well.

One Capital Aide aware the situation challenged Heimbecker's credibility. "The individual who filed this complaint is clearly a serial litigant. It will be interesting to see how far the Democrats will push this and what the mainstream media will make of it."

Developing...

Purported Zawahiri audiotape surfaces

An audiotape purportedly from al Qaeda deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was posted Friday on an Islamic Web site in which he read a poem praising "martyrs of holy war" in Afghanistan, Palestine and elsewhere. There was no indication of when the tape was made.

The tape made no mention of a Jan. 13 U.S. airstrike in Pakistan that was targeting al-Zawahiri and killed four al Qaeda leaders. Al-Zawahiri was not believed to have been among those killed. If the tape is new and authentic, it would be the first statement by the al Qaeda deputy since the attack.

The 17-minute tape was posted on an Islamic militant Web forum a day after al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden released his first audiotape in more than a year, threatening new attacks in the United States and offering Americans a conditional truce.

The purported al-Zawahiri tape made no statement, and instead the voice on it was heard reading a long poem honoring "martyrs of jihad," or holy war.

He dedicated the poem to "all Muslim brothers everywhere, to the mujahedeen (holy warrior) brothers in Islam's fortified borderlines against the Zionist-Crusader campaign in Palestine and Iraq, Afghanistan and Chechnya, to the lions chasing the crusaders' gangs and hired hands in Afghanistan's mountains and valleys and its wounded capital, Kabul."

"I am honored to present this mujahideen poem, written by Maulai Muhibbullah al-Qandahari, who carried the pen and the sword and was known in the circles of scholars and the training camps and the battlefields of jihad," the speaker said.

He said it reminded him of colleagues who died in the jihadist cause, mentioning several by name � but not including any of the figures believed killed in the Pakistan strike. "I felt this poem was my poem ... because it lifted my cares and eased my tiredness," he said, "I was moved to share it with my fellow mujahideen."

The date of the recording could not be immediately determined, and it was not stated in the posting. The Arab news network Al-Arabiya, which aired a short part of the tape, said it was new but did not say what led it to that conclusion.

The Web forum where the tape was posted and other similar ones often carry statements from al Qaeda and other militant groups, but participants also often post old recordings.

Friday, January 20, 2006

Administration Lays Out Legal Case for Wiretapping Program

The Bush administration today offered its fullest defense of the National Security Agency's domestic eavesdropping program, saying that congressional authorization to defeat Al Qaeda after the Sept. 11 attacks "places the president at the zenith of his powers in authorizing the N.S.A. activities."

In a 42-page white paper, the Justice Department expanded on its past arguments in laying out the legal rationale for why the N.S.A. program does not violate federal wiretap law and why the president is the nation's "sole organ" for foreign affairs.

The defense comes at a critical time in the administration's effort to quell the growing political uproar over the N.S.A. program. House Democrats will be holding their first hearing Friday on the legality of the program, and the Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled another hearing in two weeks. A number of legal analysts, meanwhile, including those at the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, have questioned the legality of the program in strong terms.

But the Bush administration appears undeterred by the criticism. In its white paper, it turned time and again to the congressional authorization of Sept. 14, 2001, even though the Congressional Research Service study was particularly skeptical of this line of defense.

The white paper "is not a blank check that says the president can do whatever he wants," said Steven G. Bradbury, an acting assistant attorney general at the Justice Department. But at the same time, he said, the president must use all the tools available to him to fight terrorism.

Vice President Dick Cheney defended the administration's approach today in a speech before the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research in New York City.

"A spirited debate is now under way, and our message to the American people is clear and straightforward," Mr. Cheney said. "These actions are within the president's authority and responsibility under the Constitution and laws, and these actions are vital to our security."

In his appearance before the institute, Mr. Cheney defended the program as proper and legal in every respect. "The entire program undergoes a thorough review within the executive branch every 45 days," Mr. Cheney said. "After each review, the president determines once again whether or not to reauthorize the program. He has done so more than 30 times since Sept. 11, and he has indicated his intent to do so as long as our nation faces a continuing threat from Al Qaeda and related organizations."

The president authorized the program after the Sept. 11 attacks, allowing the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States to search for evidence of terrorist activity without the court-approved warrants ordinarily required for domestic spying, according to government officials.

Under a presidential order signed in 2002, the intelligence agency has monitored the international telephone calls and international e-mail messages of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people inside the United States without warrants over the past three years in an effort to track possible "dirty numbers" linked to Al Qaeda, the officials said. The agency, they said, still seeks warrants to monitor entirely domestic communications.

New Tape from Zawahiri May Come Today

ABC News learns that al Qaeda Web sites have posted messages saying yet another tape is about to be released � this one from al Qaeda's No. 2 man, Ayman al-Zawahiri, who apparently escaped a missile attack that targeted him in Pakistan a week ago. The Web sites say he will mourn his colleagues who were killed in that attack.

View the Bin Laden video here

Deadline Nears for U.S. Reporter in Iraq

A top Sunni politician appealed Friday for the release of American journalist Jill Carroll and urged U.S. and Iraqi forces to stop arresting Iraqi women as a deadline set by the reporter's kidnappers was set to elapse.

The kidnappers had threatened to kill Carroll, 28, unless all female detainees are freed by Friday. No hour was specified, and there was no indication that any prisoners had been released.

In a statement aired Friday by two major Arab television stations, Carroll's father, Jim, described his daughter as "an innocent woman" and told the captors that sparing her life would "serve your cause more than her death."

A U.S. Embassy official said he was unaware of any contacts between a high-level hostage release team and the kidnappers. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case, said U.S. authorities were meeting with various figures including political leaders, particularly from the Sunni Arab community, who may have links to the kidnappers.

Carroll, a freelancer for the Christian Science Monitor, was abducted Jan. 7 near the office of prominent Sunni Arab politician Adnan al-Dulaimi, whom she was going to interview. Her translator was killed.

On Friday, al-Dulaimi promised to work for the release of all female prisoners but warned that failure to set Carroll free would "undermine and hamper my efforts."

"We are against violence by any group, and we call the government and U.S. forces to stop raiding houses, arresting women," al-Dulaimi said in a statement. "I call upon the kidnappers to immediately release this reporter who came here to cover Iraq's news and defending our rights."

He urged militants to protect journalists "regardless of their nationality."

"This act has hurt me and makes me sad because the journalist was trying to meet me when she was kidnapped," he said, adding that she was abducted about 300 yards from his office.

U.S. authorities have confirmed they are holding eight Iraqi women, and the Iraqi Justice Ministry has called for six of them to be set free. It was unclear how many women may be in Iraqi custody.

John McCain Crushes Hillary Clinton in New Poll

Sen. John McCain trounces Hillary Clinton in the latest poll on the 2008 presidential race, which gives him a whopping 16-point advantage over the former first lady.

By a margin of 52 to 36 percent, voters preferred the Arizona Republican over Clinton in the Diageo/Hotline survey.

In more bad news for Mrs. Clinton, her candidacy seems to generate a particularly enthusiastic response - from her opponent's base.

Running against a generic Democrat, McCain's stills wins 36 to 29 percent - but his margin of victory is cut in half.

Hotline editor Chuck Todd said that the numbers show that Mrs. Clinton's presence in the race gives the McCain a big boost.
"She helps unite the Republican base," he told the New York Daily News. "McCain needs Hillary to run because that's what keeps the Republican coalition together."

But while McCain suffers when pitted against a generic Democrat, Mrs. Clinton actually improves when matched up against a generic Republican, eeking out a 41 to 39 percent win.

The Hotline survey didn't test Mrs. Clinton in a theoretical run against former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. But in previous surveys, he's fared even better against Hillary than Sen. McCain.

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Senate Minority Leader Reid Apologizes to GOP

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid on Thursday apologized to 33 Republican senators singled out for ethics criticism in a report from his office titled "Republican Abuse of Power."

"The document released by my office yesterday went too far and I want to convey to you my personal regrets," Reid said in a letter.

"I am writing to apologize for the tone of this document and the decision to single out individual senators for criticism in it."

Reid came under attack Wednesday over the report, which was issued by his staff on Senate letterhead, even as he and fellow Democrats released ethics overhaul proposals.

"Researching, compiling and distributing what amounts to nothing more than a campaign ad on the taxpayers dime raises serious ethical questions," said Sen. John Cornyn (news, bio, voting record), R-Texas, one of the lawmakers named.

The 27-page report criticized Republican lawmakers over their ties to disgraced ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, questionable campaign contributions and other issues.

The Abramoff investigation threatens to ensnare at least a half dozen members of Congress of both parties and Bush administration officials. Abramoff, who has admitted to conspiring to defraud his Indian tribe clients, has pleaded guilty to corruption-related charges and is cooperating with prosecutors.

With the midterm elections 10 months away, Democrats have tried to link Abramoff to Republicans, the main recipients of his largesse.

Responding to the influence-peddling scandal, Republicans and Democrats have introduced similar ethics reform packages.

Mehlman said the response to the scandal should not be "partisan hypocrisy." He criticized Reid for calling the Abramoff affair a Republican scandal. Reid has come under fire for his own ties to Abramoff, including accepting money from Abramoff's tribal clients.

Four Senate Democrats sent a letter to senior administration officials on Thursday calling on them to disclose any dealings with Abramoff such as meetings, memos or favors.

The Democrats said the record should be "cleared and that any contact you or others in the administration have had with Mr. Abramoff be fully explained to the American people."

No Signs of Attack, Intel Officials Say

U.S. counterterror officials said Thursday they have seen no specific or credible intelligence to indicate an upcoming al-Qaida attack on the country, despite a new audio tape claiming preparations for such a mission.

The United States will not let up in the war on terror despite the threats on the tape, purportedly made by Osama bin Laden, said White House press secretary Scott McClellan.

"We do not negotiate with terrorists," McClellan said. "We put them out of business."

While warning against downplaying the taped threat, officials at intelligence and law enforcement agencies said there has been no recent increase in "chatter" that can indicate that such an attack is imminent. The officials discussed the tape on condition of anonymity because intelligence analysis is usually sensitive and because the tape was still being examined.

A Department of Homeland Security official said the agency has no immediate plans to raise the national terror alert, noting that intelligence agencies are still "working to authenticate the tape."

Intelligence officials said authenticating the tape, released by the television network Al-Jazeera Thursday morning, could take between several hours and several days _ and perhaps through the weekend.

"If there is any actionable intelligence, we will act on it," McClellan said.

A U.S. counterterror official said analysts had no reason to doubt an assessment by Al-Jazeera that the tape was recorded in the Islamic month that corresponds with December.

Intelligence authorities were examining why bin Laden _ if in fact the voice on the tape is verified as his _ would be speaking out after more than a year of letting his top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, serve as al-Qaida's public face in statements and other communications.

"It isn't clear at this point what it means," said one counterterror official. However, "one would think it might be an effort to demonstrate both to al-Qaida rank-and-file and the public at large that that he's still around, given that he hasn't been heard from in such a long time."

Poll: NSA Leakers are 'Traitors'

Americans overwhelmingly support President Bush's decision to wiretap suspected terrorists operating inside the U.S. without first obtaining a court order - and a solid plurality believe those who leaked news of the secret operation are "traitors," a Fox News Opinion Dynamics poll has found.

Asked whether the president "should have the power to authorize the National Security Agency to monitor electronic communications of suspected terrorists without getting warrants, even if one end of the communication is in the United States?" - 58 percent of those surveyed said yes.

Just 36 percent disagreed.

According to Dick Morris, who reveals the poll's stunning results in today's New York Post - even 42 percent of Democrats back the Bush surveillance program.

The results flatly contradict a widely reported Associated Press poll two weeks ago, which sampled a dispropotionate percentage of Democrats and concluded that the public objected to the Bush surveillance program.
In another stunning finding, the Fox poll found by that a margin of nearly 2 to 1, the American public believes that those responsible for exposing the super secret surveillance program have betrayed the country.

Fifty percent of those surveyed called those responsible for blowing the NSA's cover "traitors," while just 27 percent agreed with media claims that the leakers were "whistleblowers."

By a margin of 42 to 34 percent, even Democrats agreed with the "traitor" label.

Americans also strongly support renewing the Patriot Act by a nearly 2 to 1 margin [57 to 31 percent].

And a solid plurality of those surveyed - 46 percent - credit Bush administration counterterrorism efforts for preventing al Qaeda from carrying out another 9/11-style attack on the U.S.
Notes Morris:

"These statistics tell us that Democratic politicians are just hurting themselves by raising and dwelling on the wiretap issue . . . We're more afraid of al Qaeda than of our own elected officials."

"In other words," he adds, "Ann Coulter represents the Democratic mainstream better than Al Gore on this one!"

Bin Laden Warns of Attacks, Offers Truce


Al-Jazeera on Thursday broadcast portions of an audiotape purportedly from Osama bin Laden, saying al-Qaida is making preparations for attacks in the United States but offering a possible truce to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan.

The voice on the tape said heightened security in the United States is not the reason there have been no attacks there since the Sept. 11, suicide hijackings.

Instead, the reason is "because there are operations that need preparations," he said.

"The delay in similar operations happening in America has not been because of failure to break through your security measures. But the operations are happening in Baghdad and you will see them here at home the minute they are through (with preparations), with God's permission," he said.

"We do not mind offering you a long-term truce with fair conditions that we adhere to," he said. "We are a nation that God has forbidden to lie and cheat. So both sides can enjoy security and stability under this truce so we can build Iraq and Afghanistan, which have been destroyed in this war. There is no shame in this solution, which prevents the wasting of billions of dollars that have gone to those with influence and merchants of war in America."

The speaker did not give conditions for a truce in the excerpts aired by Al-Jazeera.

There was no immediate confirmation of the tape's authenticity, although the voice resembled that of bin Laden's in previous messages.

It has been more than a year since the last confirmed message from bin Laden _ the longest period without a video or audiotape from the al- Qaida leader. The last audiotape purported to be from bin Laden was broadcast in December 2004 by Al-Jazeera. In that recording, he endorsed Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi as his deputy in Iraq and called for a boycott of Iraqi elections.

Al-Jazeera's editor-in-chief Ahmed al-Sheik would not comment on when or where the tape was received. He said the full tape was 10 minutes long. The station aired four excerpts with what it "considered newsworthy," he said, but would not say what was on the remainder.

Al-Sheik said the tape seemed to have been made "recently" but would not saw what led him to that conclusion.

More Here:Full Text of Bin Laden Tape

Hillary faults Bush for 'downplaying' Iran threat ?

U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton called for United Nations sanctions against Iran as it resumes its nuclear program and faulted the Bush administration for "downplaying" the threat.

In an address Wednesday evening at Princeton University, Clinton, D-N.Y., said it was a mistake for the United States to have Britain, France and Germany head up nuclear talks with Iran over the past 2 1/2 years. Last week, Iran resumed nuclear research in a move Tehran claims is for energy, not weapons.

"I believe that we lost critical time in dealing with Iran because the White House chose to downplay the threats and chose to outsource the negotiations," Clinton said.

While Clinton was critical of the administration, she never mentioned the president by name and did not engage in the same sort of sharp rhetorical attack against him or other Republicans as she did earlier this week.

France defends right to nuclear reply to terrorism

France said on Thursday it would be ready to launch a targeted nuclear strike against any state that carried out a terrorist attack on French soil.

In a speech defending France�s costly nuclear deterrent and toughening policy against terrorism, President Jacques Chirac said Paris must be able to hit back hard at a hostile state�s centres of power and its �capacity to act�.

�The leaders of states who would use terrorist means against us, as well as those who would consider using in one way or another weapons of mass destruction, must understand that they would lay themselves open to a firm and adapted response on our part,� Chirac said during a visit to northwestern France, where France�s nuclear submarines are based.

�This response could be a conventional one. It could also be of a different kind.�

Chirac said all of France�s nuclear forces had been configured with this strategy in mind and the number of nuclear warheads on French nuclear submarines had been reduced to allow targeted strikes.

It was the first time he had so clearly linked the threat of a nuclear response to a terrorist attack, but he made no mention of any specific threat against France.

�Against a regional power, our choice would not be between inaction or annihilation,� he said.

�The flexibility and reactivity of our strategic forces would enable us to exercise our response directly against its centres of power and its capacity to act.�

Pakistan names 3 slain al-Qaida

4 terror-group members believed killed in missile raid � no bodies recovered

Pakistani intelligence sources have identified three of four al-Qaeda members believed to have been killed by a US airstrike last week, though they have yet to recover the bodies.

One of the dead was said to be Abdul Rehman Al-Misri al Maghribi, a son-in-law of al-Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri.

Another was Midhat Mursi al Sayid Omer, 52, an expert in explosives and poisons who carried a $US5 million ($A6.7 million) reward on his head.

The third man named was Abu Obaidah al Misri, al-Qaeda's chief of operations in Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province.

Mursi was one of three known al-Qaeda leaders present at a meeting in the village of Damadola that was targeted in a missile attack late last Thursday or early Friday, ABC News said.

2 empty graves found at missile-strike site

Officials say local militants may have shifted bodies to stop DNA testing

Investigators said on Wednesday that they had found two empty graves at the site of a controversial US air strike in the Bajaur Agency, a day after officials said that up to five foreign militants had died in the attack.

However, there was no information about the identities of the insurgents who died in the raid, despite initial US intelligence reports that Al Qaeda�s Egyptian number two Ayman al-Zawahri may have been among them.

Officials said that local militants may have shifted the bodies before their scheduled burials to stop authorities from DNA testing the remains and finding out who was killed in Friday�s missile attack.

On Tuesday, the Bajaur regional administration chief said that the missile strike was aimed at foreign militants invited to a dinner and that four or five were killed � the first such public confirmation by Pakistan.

The tribal administration said that two local militants, Maulana Faqir Mohammad and Maulana Liaqat, had removed the bodies of the foreign extremists killed in the attack to �suppress the actual reason of the attack�, but gave no evidence.

On Wednesday, Shah Zaman Khan, director general of media relations for the tribal areas, said that the terrorists� bodies are now probably in �inaccessible mountainous areas� along the rugged, ill-defined border. �Efforts are underway to investigate further,� Khan said. �The administration is also trying to arrest those clerics who were believed to be there.�

U.S. Economic Activity Continues to Expand

The economy chugged ahead as the new year opened with manufacturing picking up, employment improving and retail sales rising, the Federal Reserve reported Wednesday.

The housing market, however, showed fresh signs of cooling but still was in good shape, the Fed said in its latest snapshot of business activity nationwide.

The survey, based on information collected before Jan. 9 and supplied by the 12 regional Federal Reserve banks, will figure into discussions at Fed policymakers' next meeting Jan. 31. Economists expect the Fed will bump up rates by another quarter point in its continuing efforts to keep the economy and inflation on an even keel.

On the factory front, "increases in manufacturing activity were widely reported across the country," the report said. Only the St. Louis Fed region characterized industrial activity as mixed.

Turning to labor market conditions nationwide, most Fed regions reported signs of "continued, if generally moderate, increases in employment." The Fed districts of New York, Atlanta, Kansas City and Dallas reported evidence of stronger employment growth.

In terms of retailing, all the Fed regions - except for Cleveland - reported that their merchants saw sales rise during the holiday season. In Cleveland, however, sales were generally flat or less than at the same time a year ago.

Automobile sales, meanwhile, were "generally somewhat sluggish across the nation," the report said.

Travel and tourism remained robust across most of the country.

Clinton's Arkansas Plantation

When Hillary Clinton used her Martin Luther King Day tribute to accuse Republicans of running Washington like an Old South "plantation" - she knew whereof she spoke.

In fact, when Hillary and Bill ran Araksnas, Dr. King didn't even have a holiday in his honor - at least not all to himself.

Instead, Arkansans celebrated a combination holiday that honored both King and Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general who fought to allow the South to keep blacks enslaved.

And that wasn't the only example of the kind of plantation politics that characterized the Clintons' rule in Arkansas. According to a 1997 Washington Times report:

"As governor of Arkansas, Mr. Clinton signed a law in 1987 that says the top blue star in the state flag symbolizes the Confederacy. Then-Gov. Clinton also issued proclamations designating a birthday memorial for Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy.
"In addition, during his 12 years as governor, Mr. Clinton made no effort to overturn a state law that sets aside the Saturday before Easter as Confederate Flag Day."

In fact, life was so tough for African Americans on Bill and Hillary's Arkansas plantation that the NAACP sued Mr. Clinton under the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965.

"Plaintiffs offered plenty of proof of monolithic voting along racial lines, intimidation of black voters and candidates and other official acts that made voting harder for blacks," the Arkansas Gazette reported December 6, 1989.

The paper added: "the evidence at the trial was indeed overwhelming that the Voting Rights Act had been violated."

A three-judge federal panel ordered Gov. Clinton, along with Arkansas's then-Attorney General Steve Clark and then-Secretary of State William J. McCuen, to redraw electoral districts to maximize black voting strength.

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

The most underreported stories of 2005

1. Failure of the 9-11 commission to investigate "Able Danger." In November, former FBI chief Louis Freeh rebuked the 9-11 commission for ignoring revelations by "Able Danger," a secret data-mining operation that allegedly named Mohamed Atta as an al-Qaida operative a year before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.


2. Successes in rebuilding Iraq. The year began with President Bush congratulating Iraqis for defying terrorists and voting in their country's first democratic election in more than 50 years.

But a dispatch by a Marine Corps Reserve commander, Lt. Col. Mark Smith, was emblematic of the frustration expressed by U.S. troops who insisted that contrary to the mainstream media and it's emphasis on terrorist attacks, the U.S. is winning the war.

Last month, Iraq Interior Minister Bayan Jabir said terror attacks in the country decreased by 70 percent and no escapee has been arrested at Syrian borders for two weeks. The decrease is a big success, the minister noted, declaring that by the end of 2006 the Iraqi army could take over security.


3. Cover-up of David Barrett's probe of Clinton IRS and Henry Cisneros. Republican leaders joined with Democrats to squelch an independent counsel's final report on Clinton-era abuse of the Internal Revenue Service and Justice Department � a document said to including damning evidence against the 42nd president and his administration.

4. The impact of illegal immigration on the U.S. and its security. At least 51 people from countries such as Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria and Pakistan who crossed the border illegally have been arrested on suspicion of terrorism since such tracking began in October 2004, according to Department of Homeland Security figures.

5.The truth about Terri Schiavo and her death. Major media organizations painted the pitched battle over the life of Terri Schiavo as a clear-cut debate between pro-life and right-to-die advocates, bankrolled by big money activist organizations on both sides. But the case of the 41-year-old brain-injured Florida woman was anything but clear cut.

6. Sandy Berger's slap on the wrist for stealing classified documents. In September, President Clinton's former national security adviser, Sandy Berger, avoided prison time and paid a fine of just $50,000 for stealing classified documents from the National Archives.

7. The fact that WMDs were found in Iraq. While members of the U.S. Senate are suggesting once again that no weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq, Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin reviewed the major discoveries, including more than 1.7 tons of enriched uranium.

A former intelligence analyst currently working as a civilian contractor recently said he will unveil publicly next month what he believes to be recordings of Saddam Hussein's office meetings discussing his program of developing weapons of mass destruction.

The highly confidential audio was overlooked when it was found in a warehouse along with many other untranslated Iraqi intelligence files, according to the contractor.

A 2004 report asserted key claims by the intelligence community widely judged in the media and by critics of President Bush as having been false turned out to have been true after all, but the news received little attention from the major media. In virtually every case � chemical, biological, nuclear and ballistic missiles � the United States has found the weapons and the programs that the Iraqi dictator successfully concealed for 12 years from U.N. weapons inspectors.

Charles Duelfer, an adviser to the CIA, did not rule out Saddam's transfer of Iraqi missiles and weapons of mass destruction to Syria. Duelfer agreed that a large amount of material had been transferred by Iraq to Syria before the war begin in March 2003.


8. Atrocities of radical Islam. Along with the front-page news of attacks in Western nations, radical Muslims continue to wage organized jihad worldwide in places such as Israel, Sudan, Indonesia, Nigeria, Chechnya and the Philippines as well as carry out frequent attacks on non-Muslims in Pakistan, Bangladesh and other countries.

9. Islam's impact on French riots. The mainstream media downplayed the Islamic connection to unrest in France that began Oct. 27 with thousands of mostly French Muslims in impoverished Paris suburbs engaging in violent clashes with police as they torched cars and buildings. After 20 nights, officials gave a count of 8,973 vehicles burned, 2,888 arrests and 126 officers injured.

10. Good news about the economy. In the wake of the 2000-02 stock market plunge, the 9-11 terrorist attacks and skyrocketing energy prices, the economy has rebounded in a non-inflationary "Bush boom," fueled, many economists agree, by tax cuts.

Special prosecutor: Clinton killed case against Cisneros

White House cover-up of tax fraud by pal found in report of 11-year investigation

The Clinton White House engaged in a successful cover-up of a tax fraud case against Henry Cisneros, the former secretary of Housing and Urban Development, concludes a special prosecutor's report expected to be released tomorrow.

Special prosecutor David Barrett's spent 11 years and $23 million on the Cisneros probe and reportedly blames the Clinton administration for stonewalling and impeding justice in the case.

Cisneros was forced to admit in 1999 that he had made secret payments to a mistress. Barrett went on to investigate tax-fraud charges stemming from those payments.

Former Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Peggy Richardson, a close friend of Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., has been linked to the efforts to squelch the probe. But, according to one report, Richardson's role was cut from Barrett's report, which went through 26 drafts, at the behest of Democratic law firm Williams & Connolly.

The law firm represents Cisneros, Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton.

The investigation began in 1995 with Barrett examining events surrounding Cisneros's nomination. During his FBI background check, Cisneros lied about adulterous relations, his payments to a mistress, the extent of his income and his IRS tax filings.

Cisneros, a former San Antonio mayor, eventually pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of lying to the FBI. He paid a $10,000 fine and was pardoned by Clinton on his final day in office.

Barrett's 428-page report charges Cisnero's mistress delayed the first half of his investigation and top Clinton administration officials impeded the second half, according to a report in the New York Sun.

In 1994, Cisneros' mistress, Linda Medlar, revealed in a TV interview that she had received tens of thousands of dollars annually from him over a period of years.

A regional IRS office in Texas began investigating possible tax violations by the Cabinet official, as did the office of the independent counsel.

Janet Reno, then attorney general, was asked by the independent counsel's office for expanded jurisdiction and access to the findings of the ongoing IRS investigation.

That's where the cover-up began, according to the Barrett report. It says Finkelstein had the IRS investigation relocated to Washington, where it was ordered closed. Radek, meanwhile, worked on Reno to make sure she did not permit the expansion of the independent counsel's investigation.

The report suggests the White House was aware of Cisneros's possible tax violations and misstatements to FBI investigators about payments to Medlar before the appointment of an independent counsel. The report says Clinton ignored the concerns of his transition team about Cisneros's relationship with Medlar because he regarded them as minor and was determined to have him in his Cabinet because he is Latino.

Forensics ID Bomb Makers In Iraq

For months now, the main danger to U.S. forces in Iraq has not come from insurgent combat troops but from what Americans call IEDs � the homemade bombs made from artillery shells and other explosives that can be buried beside roads and hidden in booby traps and set off in a variety of ways.

CBS News correspondent Jim Stewart reports that FBI technicians using breakthrough forensic techniques have made major strides in identifying where these devices are coming from and who is making them.

CBS News has learned that U.S. explosives experts have succeeded in identifying � by name in some instances � the terrorists responsible for building many of the improvised bombs used in everyday attacks in Iraq.

Improvised Explosive Devices, or IEDs, are responsible for nearly half of all the U.S. combat deaths recorded in Iraq since March 2003. Reducing the frequency and lethality of those attacks is considered crucial to the U.S. war effort.

The identifications were made possible by piecing together fragments of over 1,500 exploded IEDs as well as disassembling numerous bombs that didn't go off, and gathering signature elements from each of the bombs.

In some instances experts have reconstructed entire explosive devices including their unique timing mechanism and linked them to individual bombers.

The forensic signatures led analysts to suspect that many of the IEDs were constructed by a relatively small number of master bomb makers, such as those whose "how to" videotapes were posted on a terrorist Web site. Some bomb makers were linked to dozens of explosive devices. Some have been captured as a result of the identification and other terrorist technicians, CBS News was told, have been identified by name and are being sought.

"Identifying and reconstructing timing devices, explosives and producing an analytical product that is distributed throughout the military or throughout law enforcement in the United States may well enable us to prevent the use of those devices in the future," Mueller said.

And clearly they've already had some success. Several bomb makers have been taken out as a result of this work. But the terrorists just keep coming back. The military now reports that insurgents have developed an IED that literally leaps into the air and detonates when helicopters are passing overhead.

Sen. Ben Nelson: Democrat for Alito

Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska on Tuesday became the first Democrat to announce he will vote to confirm Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito.

Nelson, one of the most conservative Democrats in Congress, said in a statement that he had made up his mind to support Alito "because of his impeccable judicial credentials, the American Bar Association's strong recommendation and his pledge that he would not bring a political agenda to the court."

The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote next Tuesday on Alito's nomination to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who often casts the swing vote on controversial cases.

All 10 Republicans on the panel have endorsed him, assuring him of approval even though most of the eight committee Democrats are expected to oppose his confirmation.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., has announced that debate on the nomination will begin in the full Senate on Jan. 25. Alito seems assured of confirmation there, too, despite strenuous opposition from many Democrats.

Nelson, who is seeking re-election this fall in his Republican state, said in his statement that he has "supported more than 215 of President Bush's nominations to the federal bench, including Chief Justice John Roberts."

Ted Kennedy Quits Club in Wake of Alito

After ripping Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito for what Senator Ted Kennedy called "troubling� ties to a social club at Princeton University, Kennedy is distancing himself from his own curious ties to a club at Harvard University.

As previously reported by NewsMax, Kennedy is a member of The Owl Club, a social club for Harvard alumni that bans women from membership. Ironically, the Owl Club, long reviled at Harvard as "sexist,� was evicted from the campus in 1984 for violating federal anti-discrimination laws authored by Kennedy.

According to the Boston Herald, Kennedy was questioned on his status as an Owl Club member by Boston TV station WHDH. Kennedy said, "I�m not a member; I continue to pay about $100.�

However, according to the membership directory of the Owl Club, Kennedy updated his personal information as recently as September 7.

When told by the TV reporter that the Owl Club discriminates against women, Kennedy said, "I shouldn�t be and I�m going to get out as fast as I can.�

This, of course, is not the first time Kennedy has been trapped in a web of hypocrisy. As noted in the best-selling book by author Peter Schweizer, "Do As I Say (Not As I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy"

Kennedy has a long history of hypocrisy.

Ted Kennedy has fought for the estate tax and spoken out against tax shelters. But he has repeatedly benefited from an intricate web of trusts and private foundations that have shielded most of his family's fortune from the IRS.

One Kennedy family trust wasn't even set up in the U.S., but in Fiji.

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

ACLU Files Suit to Block NSA Spying

A federal lawsuit was filed Tuesday by the American Civil Liberties Union seeking to block President Bush's domestic eavesdropping program, which the group calls unconstitutional electronic surveillance of American citizens.

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit against the National Security Agency. The ACLU, along with the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Greenpeace and several individuals, seeks a court order that declares the program illegal.

The lawsuit says the plaintiffs, who frequently communicate by telephone and e-mail with people in the Middle East and Asia, have a "well-founded belief" that their communications are being intercepted by the government.

"By seriously compromising the free speech and privacy rights of the plaintiffs and others, the program violates the First and Fourth Amendments of the United States Constitution," the lawsuit states.

White House: Al Gore is a Hypocrite

The White House accused former Vice President Al Gore of hypocrisy Tuesday for his assertion that President Bush broke the law by eavesdropping on Americans without court approval.

"If Al Gore is going to be the voice of the Democrats on national security matters, we welcome it," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said in a swipe at the Democrat, who lost the 2000 election to Bush only after the Supreme Court intervened.

Gore, in a speech Monday, called for an independent investigation of the administration program that he says broke the law by listening in - without warrants - on Americans suspected of talking with terrorists abroad.

Gore called the program, authorized by President Bush, "a threat to the very structure of our government" and charged that the administration acted without congressional authority and made a "direct assault" on a federal court set up to authorize requests to eavesdrop on Americans.

McClellan said the Clinton-Gore administration had engaged in warrantless physical searches, and he cited an FBI search of the home of CIA turncoat Aldrich Ames without permission from a judge. He said Clinton's deputy attorney general, Jamie Gorelick, had testified before Congress that the president had the inherent authority to engage in physical searches without warrants.

"I think his hypocrisy knows no bounds," McClellan said of Gore.

AG: No Special Counsel for 'Spygate'

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Monday that he saw no reason to appoint a special counsel to investigate President Bush's decision to authorize the National Security Agency to monitor the phone calls from suspected terrorists operating abroad.

Asked about former Vice President Al Gore's demand yesterday that the Justice Department appoint a "Spygate" special counsel, Gonzales told the Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes" that there was no basis to believe any laws were broken by the NSA program.

"We firmly believe that this program is perfectly lawful," Gonzales explained. "The president has legal authority to authorize these kinds of activities."

Pressed by Sean Hannity on whether there would be "no special counsel, in any way, shape, matter or form?" Gonzales replied:

"This has been looked at very, very carefully. And the Department of Justice believes clearly that the president acted within his lawful authorities."
The top lawman also refused to comment on precedents for the Bush program, including an NSA surveillance operation that reached fruition during the Clinton administration known as Project Echelon.

Asked specifically about Echelon, Gonzales said: "Well, I'm not going to talk about super-secret, code-named programs, either now or in the past."

Reminded that Echelon had already received extensive publicity despite its classified status, Gonzales said: "Well, again, I'm only going to talk about that portion of the program that [President Bush] disclosed to the American public . . . where we believe one person of that phone call is affiliated with Al Qaeda or a member of Al Qaeda."

N.Y. Times caught in photo fakery

The New York Times is accused of running a staged photograph of beleaguered Pakistanis standing with a missile in the midst of their damaged home after a U.S. predator-drone attack aimed at al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.

The problem, say analysts, is the "missile" actually is an old, unexploded artillery shell, possibly with its fuse intact.

But on its website, the Times captioned the photo by Agence France-Presse this way: "Pakistani men with the remains of a missile fired at a house in the Bajur tribal zone near the Afghan border."

The photograph adds fuel to the anti-American protests by Islamic groups over the purported CIA airstrike Saturday, which Pakistan claims killed innocent civilians. Investigators are trying to determine if Zawahiri was among at least 17 people killed in the attack, which destroyed three houses in the Pashtun town of Damadola.

The Times corrected the photo caption after Thomas Lifson, editor and publisher of The American Thinker brought attention to it.

The photo can be seen here, with a new caption saying, "A picture caption on Saturday with an article about a U.S. airstrike on a village in Pakistan misidentified an unexploded ordinance. It was not the remains of a missile fired at a house."

Lifson says the old artillery shell "must have been found elsewhere and posed with the ruins and the little boy as a means at pulling of the heartstrings of the gullible readers of the New York Times."

Ned Barnett, an expert on military technology and frequent contributor to The History Channel, told Lifson that based on his extensive experience in researching military technology, "I can verify that this is a 152mm or 155mm artillery shell � unfired � and by the looks of it, fairly old. It also looks like it has a fuse in it, suggesting that the guys in the photo are either ditch-water dumb or have a death-wish."

Barnett said the Times' "claim that it was the remains of a rocket is nonsense. Rockets are frail, light-weight, flimsy things (for obvious reasons). Artillery shells are robust, mostly cast steel (the explosive weight is really rather small considering the overall weight of the shell), again for obvious reasons."

Controversial Words At Sharpton's MLK Event

Clinton's Use Of Word 'Plantation' Raises Eyebrows

The Martin Luther King Day celebration at Reverend Al Sharpton's National Action Network is a rite of passage in an election year. And with so many big races this year, candidates and controversy were the order of the day.

There were tough questions to politicians who feel they must attend the event as much to pay homage to Sharpton as to celebrate Dr. King's legacy.

Sen. Hillary Clinton, who had launched into an impassioned attack on the Bush administration.

�We have a culture of corruption, we have cronyism we have incompetence I predict to you that this administration will go down on history as one of the worst that has ever governed out country.�

Clinton actually got an easy question. �I need you to tell us what distinguishes Democrats from Republicans right now,� she was asked.

Clinton's answer was provocative.

Said Clinton, �When you look at the way the House of Representatives has been run, it has been run like a plantation and you know what I'm talking about..."
Some House Republicans took immediate offense at Senator Clinton's choice of words.

Said Republican Congressman Peter King, of Long Island, "It's always wrong to play the race card for political gain by using a loaded word like plantation. But it is particularly wrong to do so on Martin Luther King Day."

Monday, January 16, 2006

Iran issues stark warning on oil price

Iran stepped up its defiance of international pressure over its nuclear programme yesterday by warning of soaring oil prices if it is subjected to economic sanctions. As diplomats from the US, Europe, Russia, and China prepared to meet today in London to discuss referring Tehran to the UN security council, Iran's economy minister, Davoud Danesh-Jafari, said the country's position as the world's fourth-largest oil producer meant such action would have grave consequences.

"Any possible sanctions from the west could possibly, by disturbing Iran's political and economic situation, raise oil prices beyond levels the west expects," he told Iranian state radio.
In a provocative move, Iran also announced plans yesterday to convene a "scientific" conference to examine the evidence supporting the Holocaust. The news comes weeks after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad provoked a global outcry by describing the slaughter of 6 million Jews by the Nazis in the second world war as a "myth".

Mr Danesh-Jafari's comments echoed fears voiced by energy market analysts after crude oil prices last week rose above $64 (�36.50) a barrel as hopes faded of a diplomatic solution to the dispute.

Last week, Manouchehr Takin, of the Centre for Global Energy Studies, argued that crude prices could hit $100 a barrel if Iran stopped exporting. "Supply and demand are very tightly balanced," he said.

Mr Danesh-Jafari's warning added weight to veiled threats by Iran's president on Saturday. Iran had a "cheap means" of achieving its nuclear "rights", Mr Ahmadinejad said, adding: "You [the west] need us more than we need you. All of you today need the Iranian nation."

Recognising the danger, Gernot Erler, Germany's deputy foreign minister, said yesterday: "We are seeing desperate measures by Asian countries, mainly China, India and others, to get hold of energy resources, and for them Iran is a partner they can't do without." He said it was "dangerous" to put restrictions on trade relations "which could hurt one's own side more than the other side".

US senators say military strike on Iran must be option

Republican and Democratic senators said on Sunday the United States may ultimately have to undertake a military strike to deter Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, but that should be the last resort.

"That is the last option. Everything else has to be exhausted. But to say under no circumstances would we exercise a military option, that would be crazy," Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona said on CBS's "Face the Nation."

Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh of Illinois, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said there are sensitive elements of Iran's nuclear program, which, if attacked, "would dramatically delay it's development."

"But that should not be an option at this point. We ought to use everything else possible keep from getting to that juncture," he said on CNN's "Late Edition."

A growing nuclear fracas exploded last week when Iran, defying the United States and major European powers, resumed nuclear research after a two year moratorium.

Iran says it aims only to make power for an energy-needy economy, not build atom bombs. But it hid nuclear work from the UN nuclear watchdog agency for almost 20 years before exiled dissidents exposed it in 2002.

On Sunday, Iran said that only diplomacy, not threats to refer it to the UN Security Council, could defuse a standoff over its nuclear work and warned that any Western push for sanctions could jack up world oil prices.

The Security Council's five permanent members and Germany planned talks in London Monday on a common strategy to tackle the controversy.

McCain called the nuclear standoff "the most grave situation that we have faced since the end of the Cold War, absent the whole war on terror."

"We must go to the UN now for sanctions. If the Russians and the Chinese, for reasons that would be abominable, do not join us then we will have to go with the (states that are) willing," he said.

While acknowledging that President George W. Bush has "no good option," McCain said "there is only one thing worse than the United States exercising a military option, that is a nuclear armed Iran."

Iran 'could go atomic within 3 years'

Iranian scientists are expected to start work this week on the highly technical task of enriching tons of uranium to a level where it could be used in the production of atomic weapons, say the latest reports received by western intelligence agencies.

The work is to be undertaken at the top-secret Natanz uranium enrichment facility 90 miles north-east of the capital, Teheran.

The very existence of the plant was concealed from the outside world until two years ago, when an Iranian exile group produced details of its work.

Intelligence sources say Iran will begin feeding converted uranium into 164 centrifuges at Natanz this week. That could enable it to create enriched uranium of sufficient quality for nuclear weapons production within three years.

Previous estimates of the minimum time required had ranged from five to 10 years.

Iran's unilateral decision to resume enrichment is by far the most critical development in its latest stand-off with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations-sponsored body responsible for enforcing the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).

As a signatory to the NPT, Iran is obliged to provide the IAEA with a comprehensive breakdown of all its nuclear activity, which Teheran insists is purely for the development of an indigenous nuclear power industry - despite Iran having one of the world's largest known oil reserves.

But the discrepancies that have appeared in declarations to IAEA inspectors - which included concealing the existence of the Natanz complex - have increased suspicions that Iran is well advanced in its clandestine programme to build a nuclear weapon.

Nuclear experts working for the intelligence agencies have concluded that it now has the resources necessary for developing a nuclear weapon.

"Iran has spent the past 20 years scouring the world to acquire all the means of production and materials necessary for building nuclear weapons," a senior western intelligence officer told The Daily Telegraph.

U.S. tally of wounded drops 26%

The number of U.S. troops wounded in Iraq fell by more than a quarter in 2005 from a year earlier, Pentagon records show. Military officials call that a sign that insurgent attacks have declined in the face of elections and stronger Iraqi security forces.

The number of wounded dropped from 7,990 in 2004 to 5,939, according to the Defense Department. There hasn't been much change in the number of deaths, however. Pentagon figures show 844 U.S. troops were killed in the Iraq war during 2005, compared with 845 in 2004.

U.S. military leaders say that one of the biggest changes was in the number and quality of Iraqi forces. About three dozen Iraqi battalions, each with about 700 soldiers, are taking the lead in battling insurgents, said Army Lt. Gen. John Vines, commander of multinational forces in Iraq. There were no such battalions in early 2005, he said.

Vines told reporters in a videoconference Friday that violence also ebbed because some of the Sunni Arabs who make up the backbone of the insurgency decided to participate in last month's elections. "We have indicators that many who we believe may have been involved in violence are seeing that they can and must reject that violence," he said.

Another factor is the lack of the kind of fierce urban fighting that U.S. forces saw in Fallujah during 2004. Casualties spiked when forces led by Marines raided the insurgent stronghold in April and November 2004. The highest number of American troops wounded in battle for any month in Iraq was 1,424 that November.

Vines and other commanders say coalition and Iraqi forces also are doing a better job of preventing and disrupting planned attacks.

Army Maj. Gen. William Webster, the commander of U.S. forces in Baghdad, said the number of suicide car bombs and roadside bombs fell by half during 2005. Only about 10% of insurgent attacks cause injuries or damage now, down from about 25% a year ago, Webster said late last year.

Big Security Council Members Agree on Iran

Powerful members of the U.N. Security Council agreed Monday that Iran must fully suspend its nuclear program, Britain's Foreign Office said following a meeting aimed at forging a common response to Tehran's decision to resume uranium enrichment activities.

Diplomats also announced plans to call for an emergency meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency board of directors on Feb. 2-3 to discuss what action to take against Tehran for removing some U.N. seals from its main uranium enrichment facility in Natanz last week.

The Foreign Office said all five veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council _ the U.S., Britain, France, Russia and China _ and Germany had shown "serious concern over Iranian moves to restart uranium enrichment activities."

They agreed on the need for Iran to "return to full suspension," according to a statement.

Sunday, January 15, 2006

Americans save British hostage no one knew was missing

A British man kidnapped in Iraq and held for five days by armed men who threatened to behead him was rescued last week by American special forces and astonished to discover that no one had noticed he was missing.

Phil Sands, 28, a freelance journalist, was held by gunmen who ambushed his car in Baghdad. He said the worst aspect of his ordeal was imagining the anguish of his family. But his parents were holidaying in Morocco and knew nothing of his sufferings until he called them after he was released during a chance raid by US forces on a farm outside Baghdad.

For Sands, the escape came after he had surrendered all hope. 'I thought with absolute certainty, "I'm dead - it's now just a matter of the technical details,"' he told The Observer. 'I was strangely calm - there was no point in panicking.'

One of Sands's captors told him, in Arabic, that if he was a soldier, or helping the occupation, he would be beheaded. He was made to record a video urging the British people to remove Tony Blair from office. The same thing had happened to Ken Bigley, the hostage from Liverpool executed in Iraq in 2004.

But the US army, on a routine mission, came to the rescue. He recalled: 'I was in bed and heard helicopters, which I assumed would move on. But then there were footsteps and a banging at the door. It burst open and two young American soldiers came in with flashlights. They woke up my guard and shone a torch in my face. One of them said, "What the fxxk?" I said: "I'm a Brit, dammit."'

He said he was not treated badly by his Sunni captors, who were arrested in the raid. He believes his driver and interpreter were also rescued but is still seeking confirmation.

Poll: Most See Significant Racial Progress

Most Americans believe there has been significant progress in achieving Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream of racial equality, though blacks are more skeptical, an AP-Ipsos poll found.

Racial integration has swept across much of American life and blacks have gained economic ground since the height of the civil rights movement. Two decades ago, the government established a federal holiday in honor of the slain civil rights leader.

On some measures such as annual income, blacks have closed the gap considerably with whites over the past few decades, census figures show. The progress for blacks may have stalled, however, and some even fear a possible backlash.

"We've made great progress over the last 50 years," said Julian Bond, national chairman of the NAACP. "Progress has always been stop-and-start, and sometimes backup. We're in a holding pattern right now."

Three-quarters of those surveyed say there has been significant progress on achieving King's dream. But only 66 percent of blacks felt that way.

"At times I have felt that we've made progress," said Aubrey Jones, a black deputy warden at a state prison near Macon, Ga. "At other times, I feel we're at a standstill, especially when you come across instances of individuals being prejudiced."

The obstacles extend beyond instances of discrimination and prejudice.

"For a big portion of the African-Americans, there's not better education," said David Bositis, an analyst of black issues for the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. "There have been some gains made, but it's uneven. A lot of whites basically say: 'The civil rights movement has been done. I don't want to hear about it anymore.'"

Only 23 percent of respondents say they will do anything to commemorate the national holiday that took effect in 1986 after a lengthy campaign in Congress to honor King. A solid majority of blacks, 60 percent, say they will get involved in holiday activities.

Zawahri missed dinner that prompted US strike

A dinner invitation to al Qaeda's second-in-command triggered a U.S. airstrike in Pakistan but Ayman al-Zawahri failed to show up, Pakistani intelligence officials said on Sunday.

The Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that foreigners had been near the village of Damadola in the Bajaur region bordering Afghanistan and were the probable target.

Pakistani intelligence officials said they were checking reports up to seven foreign militants had been killed and their bodies removed by local supporters. But they said there were no indications Osama bin Laden's deputy, Zawahri, was there.

"He was invited for the dinner, but we have no evidence he was present," a senior intelligence official told Reuters.

Al Arabiya television quoted a source it said had contact with al Qaeda saying Zawahri was alive.

The U.S. government has not commented, but U.S. sources familiar with the operation said it was too early to determine his fate and the remains of the dead would have to be examined.

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the airstrike was based on "very good" intelligence indicating Zawahri was at the targeted location.

Another Pakistani intelligence official said two local Islamist clerics, known for harboring al Qaeda militants, had attended the dinner but left hours before the airstrike at 3.00 a.m. (2200 GMT).

Alito Filibuster Still Possible

Leading Senate Judiciary Committee member Charles Schumer, D-NY, said Sunday that it was too early to rule out a filibuster of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, even though Committee Democrats failed to land a glove on Alito during a week of tough questioning.

Asked if "the filibuster option was dead in this case," Schumer told "Fox News Sunday's" Chris Wallace: "We're still finishing the process. Written questions have to be answered. I submitted a whole bunch. So it's premature to say anything till we fully assess the record."

Appearing on the same show, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC, predicted that if Democrats filibuster Alito, "there would be a huge backlash in this country . . . That would not be advising and consenting, that would be hijacking the [last year's presidential] election."

Asked if Alito was "more out of the mainstream than Ruth Bader Ginsburg," Schumer said: "He may well be. And that's the fundamental question that we are assessing right now."

The Ginsburg comparison rankled Graham, who complained: "Ruth Bader Ginsburg went through the Senate with 96 votes. No one put up her writings or her associations to try to smear her. No one on our side held her views [supporting] Roe v Wade against her."

In previous interviews Graham has noted that Justice Ginsburg had been the chief legal counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union and had once written in favor of lowering the age of consent for women to twelve.

Graham said that the goal of Alito's opponents was to "overturn the election and take away from President Bush the rights that President Clinton enjoyed - and it's not going to happen."