All The Blame That's Fit To Print CBS News
There’s no shortage of schadenfreude being experienced over The New York Times’ problems. Those with one bone or another to pick with Judy Miller, bloggers who chant the mantra of MSM demise and critics of the war in Iraq are just a few who are reveling in the now-very public internal fighting at the paper. I say good for The Times. Not praise for the mess they find themselves in, surely. Miller’s pre-war stories about weapons of mass destruction, the paper’s apology for them, not to mention Miller’s still-curious role in the Valerie Plame case are among the things the Times’ has been suffering from for some time, and will continue to haunt them in the foreseeable future. And while Miller’s attorney, Robert Bennett, may be right about old scores being settled, at least we’re seeing a public airing of it all. The Times’ lengthy reporting on Miller and her involvement with the grand jury, and her own first-person account last week, led to this weekend’s burst of discussion. Not all of it pretty, but out there for everyone to see. What kicked off this round was a memo to the paper’s staff from Executive Editor Bill Keller, who apologized for not taking up the issue of the WMD reporting earlier, writing:Then, the Times’ Public Editor, Byron Calame weighed in with a blistering rebuke of Miller’s account of the Plame case, concluding:Columnist Maureen Dowd concurred with Calame, noting in her column:This morning, Calame posts Miller’s response on his Web Journal, in which she takes issue with many of Calame’s conclusions and noting,Those who like a good fight will love watching this one continue to unfold. One of the major changes that came to the Times in the aftermath of the Jason Blair fiasco was the Public Editor, a decision that all-but guarantees the type of public airing we’re now witnessing, from the top on down. (Ironically, some of this “public” discussion will cost you $50 a year to see, but that’s a topic for another time.) While those enjoying this show might want to focus on the paper’s inability to learn from past mistakes, it seems to me they have learned how to handle the fallout a little more publicly and honestly. I’m here to tell you that that’s not easy.
Colleagues assail 'Times' reporter USA Today
Doing the Right Thing American Journalism Review
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FBI Papers Indicate Intelligence Violations Washington Post
The FBI has conducted clandestine surveillance on some US residents for as long as 18 months at a time without proper paperwork or oversight, according to previously classified documents to be released today.
Report: Papers show FBI probes misused Seattle Post Intelligencer
Documents hint at FBI violations Corvallis Gazette Times
DisInfo.com - Kansas City Star - Press Trust of India - all 101 related »

Bush at bay:

The CIA leak inquiry that threatens senior White House aides has now widened to include the forgery of documents on African uranium that started the investigation, according to NAT0 intelligence sources.
http://tinyurl.com/7a7bu

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2401734_pf.html

washingtonpost.com
CIA Leak Linked to Dispute Over Iraq Policy
As Grand Jury Term Nears End, Officials' Critique of Administration Gains Attention

By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 25, 2005; A03



The alleged leaking of a CIA operative's name had its roots in a clash over Iraq policy between White House insiders and their rivals in the permanent bureaucracy of Washington, especially in the State Department and the CIA.

As the investigation into the leak reaches its expected climax this week with the expiration of the grand jury's term, the internal disputes have been further amplified by a recent string of speeches and interviews criticizing the administration's handling of Iraq, including by former national security adviser Brent Scowcroft, the former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and State Department diplomats, and other officials involved in the early efforts to stabilize Iraq.

Scowcroft, a close friend of former president George H.W. Bush, revealed in interviews with the New Yorker a deep disdain for the administration's foreign policy, according to an article published this week. He said he had once considered Vice President Cheney "a good friend," but "Dick Cheney I don't know anymore." When Scowcroft was asked whether he could name the issues on which he agreed with President Bush, he replied "Afghanistan." He then paused for 12 seconds before adding only, "I think we're doing well on Europe."

A top State Department official involved in Iraq policy, former ambassador Robin Raphel, said the administration was "not prepared" when it invaded Iraq, but did so anyway in part because of "clear political pressure, election driven and calendar driven," according to an oral history interview posted on the Web site of the congressionally funded U.S. Institute of Peace.

The unusual on-the-record bashing comes at a difficult period for the White House, which this week is also bracing for the 2,000th military fatality in the Iraq conflict. While the internal conflicts were not a secret even during the planning for war, the intensity of the feelings more than two years later is striking.

A special counsel is investigating how the undercover status of Valerie Plame -- the wife of former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV -- was revealed to reporters in July 2003. The CIA had sent Wilson to Niger to investigate claims that Iraq was attempting to purchase uranium. Wilson said he found little evidence to support the allegations and later emerged as an administration critic after Bush referred to the Niger connection in the 2003 State of the Union address.

Testimony in the leak case, especially by New York Times reporter Judith Miller, has suggested that one reason White House officials sought to discredit Wilson is a deep animus toward the CIA -- and a suspicion the intelligence agency was trying to shift blame for its failures onto the White House.

But, elsewhere in Washington, others were seething, as well.

"The case that I saw for four-plus years was a case I have never seen in my studies of aberrations, bastardizations, perturbations, changes to the national security decision-making process," Lawrence B. Wilkerson, Powell's former chief of staff and longtime confidant, said in a speech last week. "What I saw was a cabal between the vice president of the United States, Richard Cheney, and the Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, on critical issues that made decisions that the bureaucracy did not know were being made."

Wilkerson added that when decisions were presented to the bureaucracy, "it was presented in such a disjointed, incredible way that the bureaucracy often didn't know what it was doing as it moved to carry them out."

Scowcroft, in his interview, discussed an argument over Iraq he had two years ago with Condoleezza Rice, then-national security adviser and current secretary of state. "She says we're going to democratize Iraq, and I said, 'Condi, you're not going to democratize Iraq,' and she said, 'You know, you're just stuck in the old days,' and she comes back to this thing that we've tolerated an autocratic Middle East for fifty years and so on and so forth," he said. The article stated that with a "barely perceptible note of satisfaction," Scowcroft added: "But we've had fifty years of peace."

Scowcroft also dismissed former deputy secretary of defense Paul D. Wolfowitz, the intellectual godfather of the Iraq invasion. "He's got a utopia out there. We're going to transform the Middle East, and then there won't be war anymore. He can make them democratic," Scowcroft said. "Paul's idealism sweeps away doubts," he added.

Raphel's interview, conducted in July 2004, has been posted on the institute Web site, along with more than 30 other interviews -- some blunt in their dissatisfaction and disappointment -- with a range of officials involved in the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Little notice has been paid to the interviews until this week.

Raphel, who still works at State, said that controversial decisions to fire any officials associated with the Baath Party and to demobilize the Iraqi army were made largely because of "neoconservative" ideology. "What one needs to understand is that these decisions were ideologically based," she said. "They were not based on an analytical, historical understanding. They were based on ideology. You don't counter ideology with logic or experience or analysis very effectively."

Raphel added: "There was very much the sense that we were getting in way over our heads within weeks."

© 2005 The Washington Post Company

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2401690_pf.html

washingtonpost.com
Husband Is Conspicuous in Leak Case
Wilson's Credibility Debated as Charges In Probe Considered

By Dana Milbank and Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, October 25, 2005; A03



To his backers, Joseph C. Wilson IV is a brave whistle-blower wronged by the Bush administration. To his critics, he is a partisan who spouts unreliable information.

But nobody disputes this: Possessed of a flamboyant style and a love for the camera lens, Wilson helped propel the unmasking of his wife's identity as a CIA operative into a sprawling, two-year legal probe that climaxes this week with the possible indictment of key White House officials. He also turned an arcane matter involving the Intelligence Identities Protection Act into a proxy fight over the administration's credibility and its case for war in Iraq.

Also beyond dispute is the fact that the little-known diplomat took maximum advantage of his 15 minutes of fame. Wilson has been a fixture on the network and cable news circuit for two years -- from "Meet the Press" to "Imus in the Morning" to "The Daily Show." He traveled west and lunched with the likes of Norman Lear and Warren Beatty.

He published a book, "The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed My Wife's CIA Identity." He persuaded his wife, Valerie Plame, to appear with him in a January 2004 Vanity Fair photo spread, in which the two appeared in his Jaguar convertible.

Now, amid speculation that prosecutors could bring charges against White House officials this week, Republicans preparing a defense of the administration are reviving the debate about Wilson's credibility and integrity.

Wilson's central assertion -- disputing President Bush's 2003 State of the Union claim that Iraq was seeking nuclear material in Niger -- has been validated by postwar weapons inspections. And his charge that the administration exaggerated the threat posed by Iraq has proved potent.

At the same time, Wilson's publicity efforts -- and his work for Sen. John F. Kerry's presidential campaign -- have complicated his efforts to portray himself as a whistle-blower and a husband angry about the treatment of his wife. The Vanity Fair photos, in particular, hurt Plame's reputation inside the CIA; both Wilson and Plame have said they now regret doing the photo shoot.

Wilson's critics in the administration said his 2002 trip to Niger for the CIA to probe reports that Iraq was trying to buy uranium there was a boondoggle arranged by his wife to help his consulting business.

The Wall Street Journal's conservative editorial page, defending the administration, wrote yesterday that, "Mr. Wilson became an antiwar celebrity who joined the Kerry for president campaign." Discussing his trip to Niger, the Journal judged: "Mr. Wilson's original claims about what he found on a CIA trip to Africa, what he told the CIA about it, and even why he was sent on the mission have since been discredited."

Wilson's defenders say he is a truth-teller who has been unfairly attacked. "[T]he White House responded to Ambassador Wilson in the worst possible way," said Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) said at a Democratic gathering in July. "They did not present substantive evidence to justify the uranium claim. . . . Instead, it appears that the president's advisers launched a smear campaign, and Ambassador Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame Wilson, became collateral damage."

Before the Niger episode, Wilson was best known as the charg d'affaires in Baghdad, a diplomat commended by George H.W. Bush for protecting and securing the release of American "human shields" at the time of the Persian Gulf War. He was not known as a partisan figure -- he donated money to both Al Gore and George W. Bush in 1999 -- and says he was neither antiwar nor anti-Bush when he went to Niger in late February 2002.

But that changed when he went public with his criticism of the Niger affair in mid-2003. In August, he said at a forum that he would like to see Karl Rove "frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs." In the fall, he endorsed Democrat Kerry. He had given money to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's (D-N.Y.) political action committee in 2002 and gave to Kerry's presidential campaign in 2003.

Later, Wilson became prominent in the antiwar movement. In June 2005, he participated in a mock congressional hearing held by Democrats criticizing the war in Iraq. "We are having this discussion today because we failed to have it three years ago when we went to war," he said at the time. The next month, he joined Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) at a news conference on the two-year anniversary of the unmasking of Plame.

Wilson has also armed his critics by misstating some aspects of the Niger affair. For example, Wilson told The Washington Post anonymouslyin June 2003 that he had concluded that the intelligence about the Niger uranium was based on forged documents because "the dates were wrong and the names were wrong." The Senate intelligence committee, which examined pre-Iraq war intelligence, reported that Wilson "had never seen the CIA reports and had no knowledge of what names and dates were in the reports." Wilson had to admit he had misspoken.

That inaccuracy was not central to Wilson's claims about Niger, but his critics have used it to cast doubt on his veracity about more important questions, such as whether his wife recommended him for the 2002 trip, as administration officials charged in the conversations with reporters that special counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald is now probing. Wilson has maintained that Plame was merely "a conduit," telling CNN last year that "her supervisors asked her to contact me."

But the Senate committee found that "interviews and documents provided to the committee indicate that his wife . . . suggested his name for the trip." The committee also noted a memorandum from Plame saying Wilson "has good relations" with Niger officials who "could possibly shed light on this sort of activity." In addition, notes on a State Department document surmised that Plame "had the idea to dispatch him" to Niger.

The CIA has always said, however, that Plame's superiors chose Wilson for the Niger trip and she only relayed their decision.

Wilson also mistakenly assumed that his report would get more widespread notice in the administration than it apparently did. He wrote that he believed "a specific answer from the agency to the office of the vice president" had probably taken place, perhaps orally.

But this apparently never occurred. Former CIA director George J. Tenet has said that "we did not brief it to the president, vice president or other senior administration officials." Instead his report, without identifying Wilson as the source, was sent in a routine intelligence paper that had wide circulation in the White House and the rest of the intelligence community but had little impact because it supported other, earlier refutations of the Niger intelligence.

Wilson also had charged that his report on Niger clearly debunked the claim about Iraqi uranium purchases. He told NBC in 2004: "This government knew that there was nothing to these allegations." But the Senate committee said his findings were ambiguous. Tenet said Wilson's report "did not resolve" the matter.

On another item of dispute -- whether Vice President Cheney's office inspired the Wilson trip to Niger -- Wilson had said the CIA told him he was being sent to Niger so they could "provide a response to the vice president's office," which wanted more information on the report that Iraq was seeking uranium there. Tenet said the CIA's counterproliferation experts sent Wilson "on their own initiative."

Wilson said in a recent interview: "I never said the vice president sent me or ordered me sent."

© 2005 The Washington Post Company

ON POLITICS
October 25, 2005

In W. They Trust
By James A. Barnes, National Journal


President Bush and his latest nominee to the Supreme Court, Harriet Miers, are taking a beating in the conservative salons of Washington.


"The White House approach to this nomination was, first, they chose someone who really infuriated the Republican base," scoffed conservative columnist George Will last Sunday on ABC News' This Week.

To be sure, a group of Republicans are upset and disappointed over the Miers nomination. That set includes conservative pundits Bill Kristol, the editor of The Weekly Standard, and David Frum, a former Bush White House speechwriter who now writes a daily column for National Review Online and is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research.


But while these conservative commentators may have big megaphones inside the Beltway, it's not at all clear how much of the Republican rank and file they really speak for. In fact, a significant part of the GOP base seems quite content with the Miers nomination.


"Bottom line is, I'm not too worried about it, because I trust George Bush," said Lisa Stevens, a Greenville, S.C., mom who is active in her local charter school. But Stevens has driven more than just a carpool in Greenville; she's driven votes. In 2000, she was co-chair of the Bush re-election campaign in Greenville County. And that's the base of the GOP base—a county that routinely produces the biggest Republican vote margins in this red state and that is home to Bob Jones University, an evangelical institution that posts daily Bible readings on its Web page.


The "trust factor" goes a long way toward explaining why, out in South Carolina's grassroots, much of the conservative base actually sounds pretty pleased with Bush's choice of Miers.

"We can trust him to send our children in harm's way, and [trust him] when we vote for him, but we're not going to trust him to make appointments to the Supreme Court? I don't think so," said Kristin Maguire of Clemson. Maguire, a self-described "stay-at-home mom" of four daughters, found time to answer the GOP's call in 2004. She ran the party's volunteer phone bank in her hometown during the final four days of Bush's re-election campaign. For Maguire and many of her volunteers, "judges were something that motivated people to work in those phone banks."


Maguire gushed, "I'm excited. I think Harriet is going to be incredible." And because Miers has never wielded a gavel, "I think she's going to bring insight and direction that the Court lost in Chief [Justice William] Rehnquist," she added. "Gosh, she's not part of the D.C. intelligentsia."


Not every member of Bush's base in South Carolina was initially thrilled by the Miers nomination, however. Terrye Campsen Seckinger, a member of the State Board of Education, admitted that at first she was disappointed that the president had tapped Miers to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Seckinger's personal favorite for the job was former Solicitor General Theodore Olson. But Seckinger, who is a Republican activist in Isle of Palms, near Charleston, added that after thinking about the difficulty that someone like Olson, who argued before the Supreme Court on Bush's behalf in Bush v. Gore, might have in getting confirmed, and after reflecting on the president's choice, she came around.


"It is his call," she said. "When you pull back and look objectively at this—and so many Supreme Court judges have not sat on the bench before, like Rehnquist—that creates a different framework to look at Harriet Miers."


Seckinger said she also thought about her own selection by the governor to sit on the state juvenile parole board. "The governor said, 'I'm appointing you because I think you have good judgment,' " recalled Seckinger, who added that she was not the only board member who lacked any formal legal training.


"We did just fine without being attorneys," she said. "When George Bush looked around at the people he knows, he chose someone he knows in his heart has the characteristics that are needed to be a strong judge and have integrity on the Supreme Court."


All of this doesn't sound like much of a revolt on the right. And if the calls to the offices of South Carolina's senators are any measure, the Miers nomination isn't provoking much of a reaction among their constituents. "It's about par for the course on a current issue," said Wesley Denton, a spokesman for Republican Sen. Jim DeMint. "It doesn't appear to be stirring either way on our phones."


"The view in South Carolina is, 'Let's give her a chance,' " said a spokesman for Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham. "We have gotten about 100 calls, total. In fact, we've gotten more correspondence about a horse-slaughter amendment than we have about her nomination."


In Iowa, veteran Republican political strategist Doug Gross, who is well connected to conservative activists in his state, painted much the same picture of reaction to the Miers nomination. "The people I've visited with who were most concerned about judgeships are comfortable with this," Gross said. "We may have this fractured conservative intelligentsia, but not a fractured base. At least, I don't sense it."


Gross said he thinks that one reason many of the party faithful have so readily accepted the Miers nomination might be the nature of Bush's re-election effort, which the president largely made a referendum on his character. "A big part of the campaign was designed to motivate and get the out the base, and it was done in a way that was almost personal to George Bush, so those ties are very strong," Gross observed.


"What the conservative base in the hinterlands is looking for is someone who doesn't legislate from the bench," he added. "To them, you don't have to be a constitutional scholar to do that. To them, that's common sense, not an indicator of intellectual prowess."


And recent public-opinion polls tend to back up Gross's assessment. The Gallup poll conducted for CNN and USA Today on October 13-16 found that 73 percent of Republicans want the Senate to confirm Miers, while only 16 percent want the Senate to reject her. Those figures are almost identical to the 73 percent to 12 percent GOP split in favor of the nomination of John Roberts in a CNN/USA Today poll conducted August 5-7, as he was being introduced to the country.


Likewise, the two polls show that those on the ideological right are giving Miers about the same level of support they gave Roberts. In the latest CNN/USA Today poll, 61 percent of self-described conservatives backed the former White House counsel's nomination. In the August survey, Roberts got 67 percent support from that group.


A poll conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press on October 7-10 found that 54 percent of conservative Republicans backed Miers's confirmation, 37 percent were undecided, and just 9 percent were opposed. Two Pew polls conducted in early September found similarly low levels of opposition to Roberts—14 percent and 6 percent—while 62 percent and 77 percent of conservative Republicans supported his confirmation.


"While there's a little less enthusiasm [for Miers] among conservative Republicans, it certainly isn't in freefall," said Pew Research Director Andrew Kohut. "It isn't the kind of reaction you're getting from the conservative Republican political class here" in Washington.


Kohut quickly added that the conservative Republican opposition to Miers appears to have little to do with concerns about her credentials as a conservative, but rather with the barrage of negative press describing her as a Bush crony.


Karlyn Bowman, an AEI resident fellow and public-opinion analyst, also downplayed the less enthusiastic response of conservative Republicans toward the Miers nomination that shows up in some polls. "This could reflect initial reporting about her, which was much less positive than it was for Roberts," Bowman said. "But it may also reflect a deeper discontent with Bush that goes far beyond this nomination."


Some elite conservatives worry that, although Bush was willing to push the envelope to pursue his agenda during the first term of his presidency, he's now backing down—tabling his venturesome plans for Social Security, for example, and doing little to control domestic spending.


To Beltway conservatives, the Miers nomination is another manifestation of Bush's new tendency to pull his punches.


"A lot of conservatives were basically disappointed he picked someone who was not obviously stellar and wasn't defined enough on the constitutional issues to bring about a crystallizing moment in the form of a battle," said Clark Judge, a former speechwriter for President Reagan.


Likewise, conservative activists who are already looking toward 2008 are somewhat restive over Miers. "Everywhere we go, nobody likes this nomination," said an adviser to one of the 2008 Republican White House hopefuls. "It isn't a seething anger. It's just disappointment. I think people were geared up for a fight over Janice Rogers Brown or Priscilla Owen, someone who had a clear record of conservative principles. And that is not the case with this nominee."


Some Republican activists undoubtedly would like to go on the offensive over a Supreme Court nomination, especially at a time when their party is on the defensive on issues like Iraq and the simmering scandals surrounding some of their key leaders. But while Will and Kristol and Frum are sounding their trumpets about Miers, few conservatives out in the hinterlands seem to want to do battle over her.


"For me, personally, I've got so much on my plate as someone who's running a charter school," said Stevens. "Yes, I want good conservative judges, but I did my duty when I voted for George Bush."

http://news.findlaw.com/ap/o/632/10-24-200...169dd3d302.html
Report: Abramoff Sought Help From Reed

(AP) - WASHINGTON-Jack Abramoff, the GOP lobbyist under investigation by federal authorities for possible fraud, repeatedly sought the help of Bush strategist Ralph Reed to open doors at the White House for his business clients, according to e-mails made public Sunday.

The e-mails show that Abramoff pushed for intervention from deputy White House chief of staff Karl Rove on at least three occasions since 2001 to promote business opportunities.



Reed, former head of the Christian Coalition and a candidate in the 2006 race for Georgia's lieutenant governor, wrote back obliging responses, according to the e-mails obtained by Time magazine. The e-mails are now being reviewed by federal investigators, Time reported.

The e-mails show that 10 days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Abramoff promoted a business venture to rent cruise ships to the Federal Emergency Management Agency to house rescue workers off New York City.

Responding to Abramoff's request for help, Reed wrote on Sept. 21, 2001: "Put in a tag call to karl to find out the best contact at fema."

Four months later, Abramoff wrote Reed seeking "serious swat from Karl" in hopes of getting $16 million released by the Justice Department to fund a jail that his Choctaw Indian clients wished to build in Mississippi. Reed replied that he was at a lunch with Rove at a Republican National Committee meeting and would report the "substance shortly."

Reed agreed to give Rove materials on behalf of the Choctaws, Time reported.

The cruise-ship deal was never accepted, while the Choctaws got the jail.

A spokeswoman for Reed, Lisa Baron, told Time that her boss receives request for help all the time and that he "does not recall following up on these matters." On Sunday, Baron told The Associated Press that Reed has no recollection of talking to anyone regarding these issues.

In a third set of e-mails, Reed acknowledges having "weighed in heavily" with the White House on behalf of Abramoff to block Angela Williams from being appointed head of the Interior Department's Office Insular Affairs.

Williams is the wife of Orson Swindle, former member of the Federal Trade Commission and a Vietnam prisoner of war with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

Abramoff, not satisfied, responds in a Dec. 5, 2001 e-mail: "Any ideas on how we can make sure she does not get it? Can you ping Karl on this?"

Reed writes back: "i am seeing him tomorrow at the WH and plan to discuss it with him as well."

Williams didn't get the appointment.

Congressional Democrats have raised questions about Abramoff's ties to former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas. Separately, Abramoff has pleaded innocent to a six-count federal fraud and conspiracy indictment stemming from his role in the 2000 purchase of a fleet of gambling boats in Florida.

2005-10-24T00:47:51Z

http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=7759

Frustrated Scowcroft Assails Neocons, Cheney

by Jim Lobe
One week after a top aide to former Secretary of State Colin Powell issued a blistering attack on foreign policy-making in the George W. Bush administration, Brent Scowcroft, who served as national security adviser under Bush's father, assailed neoconservatives who persuaded the president to go to war in Iraq.

In an interview with The New Yorker magazine, Scowcroft, whose relations with the Bush administration have been badly strained since he publicly warned against invading Iraq seven months before U.S. troops crossed over from Kuwait, argued that the invasion was counterproductive.

"This was said to be part of the war on terror, but Iraq feeds terrorism," Scowcroft told the magazine, adding that the war risked moving public opinion against any new foreign policy commitments for some time, just as the Vietnam War did during the late 1970s and through the 1980s.

"Vietnam was visceral in the American people," said Scowcroft, who also served as national security adviser in the mid-1970s under former President Gerald Ford. "This was a really bitter period, and it turned us against foreign policy adventures deeply. This is not that deep, [but] … we're moving in that direction."

Scowcroft's remarks come at a critical moment. According to recent opinion polls, the government's performance in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Bush's choice of his personal attorney to serve on the Supreme Court, and the lack of progress achieved in Iraq have combined to put the president's approval ratings at below 40 percent.

Moreover, there is a growing likelihood that a federal special prosecutor will indict top administration officials, including Bush's political adviser, Karl Rove, and Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, this week.

They are thought to have played a key role in trying to discredit and punish whistleblower Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who had publicly questioned its rationale for going to war in Iraq. The probe has cast a dark cloud over the White House at a moment when it can least afford it.

The administration was also unpleasantly surprised by the cascading media coverage given to a talk at the New America Foundation (NAF) last week by ret. Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, Powell's top aide for some 16 years, in which he accused Cheney and Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld of leading a "cabal" that circumvented the formal policymaking and intelligence processes in order to take the country to war in Iraq.

Wilkerson, whose long-standing personal and professional closeness to Powell has been widely noted, also accused Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, a Scowcroft protégé from Bush I, of condoning the cabal's machinations and failing to ensure an open policymaking process in which all reasonable voices and options were heard when she served as Bush's national security adviser during his first term.

Scowcroft, a former Air Force general who has long been seen as George H.W. Bush's closest friend, if not alter ego, was not nearly as scathing as Wilkerson, although some of his opinions echoed those of Powell's former chief of staff. While Wilkerson's words reflected deep anger and frustration, Scowcroft comes across in the interview as regretful but resigned.

Of Cheney, who worked closely with Scowcroft as secretary of defense under Bush I and White House chief of staff under Ford, Scowcroft expressed bewilderment. "The real anomaly in the administration is Cheney," he said. "I consider Cheney a good friend – I've known him for 30 years. But Dick Cheney I don't know anymore."

Cheney, he said, appeared to have been taken with a presentation by Bernard Lewis, an octogenarian Middle East scholar from Princeton University, who had been invited to the White House soon after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. According to Scowcroft, Lewis' message was, "I believe that one of the things you've got to do to Arabs is hit them between the eyes with a big stick. They respect power."

"I don't think Cheney is a neocon, but allied to the core of neocons is that bunch who thought we made a mistake in the first Gulf War, that we should have finished the job," Scowcroft told The New Yorker.

"There was another bunch who were traumatized by 9/11, and who thought, 'The world's going to hell and we've got to show we're not going to take this, and we've got to respond, and Afghanistan is okay, but it's not sufficient.'"

On the foreign policy process, Scowcroft also implicitly echoed Wilkerson's contention that the views of dissenters from the Cheney-Rumsfeld line, including himself, were either ignored or screened out.

When a frustrated Scowcroft published his warning against invading Iraq in August 2002, Rice telephoned him and asked, according to another source, "How could you do this to us?"

"What bothered Brent more than Condi yelling at him was the fact that here she is, the national security adviser, and she's not interested in hearing what a former national security adviser had to say," according to the source.

At the time, Scowcroft was serving as chair of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB), which should have been consulting regularly with the White House but was apparently kept in the dark about the preparations and rationale for going to war.

Scowcroft was dropped from PFIAB earlier this year, and efforts by George H.W. Bush to arrange a meeting between his son and Scowcroft have been unavailing, according to The New Yorker account.

Indeed, one of the most important differences between foreign policy by Bush I and Bush II was the openness of the process to dissenting opinions, according to John Sununu, Bush I's chief of staff.

"We always made sure the president was hearing all the possibilities," he told The New Yorker, a view that was implicitly endorsed by the former president himself. In an e-mail message, the elder Bush described Scowcroft as being "very good about making sure that we did not simply consider the 'best case,' but instead considered what it would mean if things went our way, and also if they did not."

The willingness to consider what could go wrong, as well as what could go right, is one of the most profound critiques of the current administration made by Scowcroft, widely considered a classic "realist," of both the current administration's policy process and the neoconservative influence on it.

Noting that he and his Bush I colleagues, including Cheney, strongly opposed invading Iraq and ousting Saddam Hussein in the first Gulf War because of the risks of becoming bogged down in a "hostile land," Scowcroft told The New Yorker, "[T]his is exactly where we are now. We own it. And we can't let go."

"Now, will we win? I think there's a fair chance we'll win. But look at the cost."

"What the realist fears," he went on, "is the consequences of idealism. The reason I part with the neocons is that I don't think in any reasonable time frame the objective of democratizing the Middle East can be successful. If you can do it, fine, but I don't think you can, and in the process of trying to do it you can make the Middle East a lot worse."

(Inter Press Service)

http://fairuse.1accesshost.com/news5/nyt10.htm

New York Times
October 25, 2005
Exception Sought in Detainee Abuse Ban
By ERIC SCHMITT

WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 - Stepping up a confrontation with the Senate over the handling of detainees, the White House is insisting that the Central Intelligence Agency be exempted from a proposed ban on abusive treatment of suspected Qaeda militants and other terrorists.

The Senate defied a presidential veto threat nearly three weeks ago and approved, 90 to 9, an amendment to a $440 billion military spending bill that would ban the use of "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" of any detainee held by the United States government. This could bar some techniques that the C.I.A. has used in some interrogations overseas.

But in a 45-minute meeting last Thursday, Vice President Dick Cheney and the C.I.A. director, Porter J. Goss, urged Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican who wrote the amendment, to support an exemption for the agency, arguing that the president needed maximum flexibility in dealing with the global war on terrorism, said two government officials who were briefed on the meeting. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the confidential nature of the discussions.

Mr. McCain rejected the proposed exemption, which stated that the measure "shall not apply with respect to clandestine counterterrorism operations conducted abroad, with respect to terrorists who are not citizens of the United States, that are carried out by an element of the United States government other than the Department of Defense and are consistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States and treaties to which the United States is a party, if the president determines that such operations are vital to the protection of the United States or its citizens from terrorist attack."

Spokesmen for Mr. McCain, Mr. Cheney and Mr. Goss all declined to comment on the matter Monday, citing the confidentiality of the talks.

Human rights organizations said Monday that it was unclear whether the language in the changes proposed by the White House meant that the president would decide exemptions case by case or whether there would be more of a blanket authority. But they said the administration's proposal would seriously undermine Mr. McCain's measure.

Elisa Massimino, Washington director of Human Rights First, formerly the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, said the administration had interpreted an international treaty banning torture to mean that a prohibition against cruel and inhumane treatment did not apply to C.I.A. actions overseas.

"That's why the McCain amendment is important, and that's why this language they're floating now would gut it," said Ms. Massimino, who provided a copy of the administration's proposed changes to The New York Times.

Human rights advocates said that creating parallel sets of interrogation rules for military personnel and clandestine intelligence operatives was impractical in the war on terrorism, where soldiers and spies routinely cross paths on a global battlefield and often share techniques

"They are explicitly saying, for the first time, that the intelligence community should have the ability to treat prisoners inhumanely," Tom Malinowski, Washington advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, said. "You can't tell soldiers that inhumane treatment is always morally wrong if they see with their own eyes that C.I.A. personnel are allowed to engage in it."

Mr. McCain's provision faces stiff opposition in the House, which did not include similar language in its version of the spending bill.

The White House has threatened to veto any bill that includes the McCain provision, contending that it would bind the president's hands in wartime.

But Mr. McCain has kept the pressure on as the issue moves to a House-Senate conference committee, perhaps later this week or next. Shortly after the Senate vote on Oct. 5, Mr. McCain's staff sent members of the conference committee letters endorsing the provision signed by more than two dozen retired senior military officers, including former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and John M. Shalikashvili, both former chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The matter will probably be settled in a private meeting in the next week or two among four senior lawmakers: Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska and Representative C. W. Bill Young of Florida, both Republicans; and Senator Daniel K. Inouye of Hawaii and Representative John P. Murtha of Pennsylvania, both Democrats. All are on the conference committee.

Mr. McCain originally offered his measure earlier this year, when the Senate was working on a bill setting Pentagon policy. But Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee, the majority leader, scuttled that bill, partly because of White House opposition to the amendment.

Now it appears that senators have struck a deal to revive the budget bill for Senate floor debate and action. One of the principal amendments that Democrats are expected to offer, sponsored by Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat, would create an independent commission to review accusations of prisoner abuse by American forces in Iraq, Afghanistan, Cuba and elsewhere. The White House has also threatened a presidential veto if any bill comes to Mr. Bush's desk that contains the provision.








Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2402000_pf.html
washingtonpost.com
Presidents Past Inspire Bush's Damage Control

By Peter Baker and Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, October 25, 2005; A01



Facing a convergence of crises threatening his administration, President Bush and his team are devising plans to salvage the remainder of his presidency by applying the lessons of past two-term chief executives and refocusing attention on the president's larger economic and foreign policy goals.

Rarely has a president confronted as many damaging developments that could all come to a head in this week. A special counsel appears poised to indict one or more administration officials within days. Pressure is building on Bush from within his own party to withdraw the faltering Supreme Court nomination of Harriet Miers. And any day the death toll of U.S. troops in Iraq will pass the symbolically important 2,000 mark.

To deal with what they consider the darkest days of the Bush presidency, White House advisers have developed a twofold strategy -- confront head-on problems such as the Iraq death toll, while shifting attention to other areas such as conservative economic policies, according to a senior White House official, who spoke about internal deliberations only under the condition of anonymity. Bush advisers are taking clues from the playbooks of former presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, both of whom weathered second-term scandals.

The White House strategy will unfold over the next several days, starting with yesterday's announcement of a new Federal Reserve Board chairman and continuing today with a presidential speech on Iraq at Bolling Air Force Base. Anticipating a barrage of criticism when the death toll hits 2,000, Bush will try to put the sacrifice in perspective by portraying the Iraq war as the best way to keep terrorists from striking the United States again, the official said. He will make the same case in another speech Friday in Norfolk.

Although Bush has made this case often, aides hope the public will be more receptive in the aftermath of the apparently successful referendum vote for a new Iraqi constitution, whose official results will be announced this week. The White House also sees the economy as one of the few parcels of safe political land these days. Bush plans to follow yesterday's Federal Reserve appointment with a call for fiscal discipline at the Economic Club of Washington tomorrow.

In such a time of trouble, the overall challenge for Bush, according to Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman, is to "keep energy in the executive" and focus on the president's larger second-term goals, such as spreading democracy in the Middle East. The risk, he said, is getting consumed by the bad news of the moment.

"If you look at Reagan who had two [failed Supreme Court] nominees, who lost control of the Senate and had Iran-contra, did he still have a successful final three years? Absolutely," Mehlman said in an interview. So, too, will Bush, he predicted. "One of the great strengths of this team has been from the beginning their ability to keep their eye on the big picture and long-term [goals], while also dealing with short-term challenges."

Though less eager to talk about it, Republican advisers also have studied the Clinton strategy for surviving the Monica S. Lewinsky scandal and the impeachment that followed. Throughout that crisis, Clinton regularly fell back on the message that he was focused on his duties even if everyone else in Washington was absorbed by scandal, an approach aides credited with helping save his presidency.

Consciously or not, Bush seemed to echo that line last week in the Rose Garden when he was asked about all the problems afflicting his White House. Dismissing all the "background noise," Bush said, "the American people expect me to do my job, and I'm going to."

"I think I've heard that one before," Mark Fabiani, a former Clinton White House lawyer, said with a laugh yesterday. "But it comes down to the person. Anybody can deliver the line. The question is: Can you compartmentalize these issues so they don't consume you? And I think Bush's job is more difficult than Clinton's because the questions here go right to the heart of the presidency."

As a chief of staff under Clinton, Leon E. Panetta heard that line before, too. "It's probably in a book someplace in the White House for when you get in trouble," he said. "It's under 'Scandal' and 'Big Trouble.' " But while it's the right thing to say, he said, "if you've ever worked in a White House, you know damn well it's not background noise. It's affecting everything you do as president."

In private, Bush has expressed frustration over the turn of events, although he remains determined not to let them dominate his agenda, according to some close to him. "The president's holding up pretty well," said a friend who asked not to be named to discuss private sentiments. "He's going to get angry about some things and express his point of view. This clearly isn't what he wanted to deal with. He's got a lot of problems. But what choice does anyone have? Raise a white flag?"

The most immediate threat appears to be the CIA leak investigation aimed at White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, the architect of Bush's political successes, and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the chief of staff for Vice President Cheney. White House officials fear special counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald will indict one or both of them before the expiration of a grand jury on Friday.

Because the issues at the center of the investigation involve the justification of the war in Iraq, any indictment could revive debate over Bush's decision to invade at a time of greater attention to the rising casualty count. War critics will use the occasion to raise their own volume; the liberal group MoveOn plans to sponsor candlelight vigils and run television ads asking, "How many more?"

Unlike Clinton or Reagan, who were sustained through second-term crises by support from their respective party bases, Bush for the moment faces the complication of a revolt among conservatives. Anger over the selection of Miers instead of a proven conservative has released pent-up aggravation on the right with other Bush initiatives, including high spending on Hurricane Katrina relief, expanding Medicare entitlements and easing immigration rules.

"Conservatives bit their tongues quite frankly for the last four years," said Richard A. Viguerie, an architect of the conservative movement. "There's a lot of things we're unhappy with." If Bush does not withdraw Miers, he said, it could "doom his second term" because "it'll be very hard to govern without a conservative base."

"These are not the best of times," said Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), who pointed to polls in his state showing Bush losing support even among hard-core Republicans. "People are your friends when you are up, and people pile on when you are down."

The White House hopes to defuse conservative opposition to Miers by appealing to Republican senators to withhold judgment until Senate hearings scheduled to begin Nov. 7. So far, the Bush team has succeeded in keeping any Senate Republican from overtly opposing Miers. If she can beat the now-lowered expectations at the hearings, the White House hopes Miers can still win confirmation.

Bush's problems are roiling off-year political campaigns. In Virginia, the prospect of a Rove indictment coming just days before the Nov. 8 election has state Republicans on edge. Public and private polls show Republican Jerry W. Kilgore and Democrat Timothy M. Kaine virtually tied as they enter the final two weeks, and internal GOP surveys show incumbent Republican candidates for the House of Delegates losing support in recent days, sources said. As a result, indictments could be devastating to Kilgore and his party.

"Our problem is that our base is depressed because of national events," said one Republican strategist who declined to be identified. "It has a huge impact on the electorate."

For a White House used to operating on offense, all this has put it in the unusual, and uncomfortable, position of being on defense. Bush aides hope that will pass if he maintains focus, and they have already begun crafting an agenda for 2006 that he can lay out in his State of the Union address next year, a speech that will likely include proposals for restructuring the tax code and other initiatives.

"There are certainly difficulties and challenges we continue to face," said Bush spokesman Scott McClellan. "The president is going on leading on the priorities the American people care most about and the White House is as well."

Staff writer Michael D. Shear contributed to this report.


© 2005 The Washington Post Company

Wilma's Florida swipe
The storm's path spared the most densely populated parts of the
hurricane-weary state. By Warren Richey
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1025/p01s01-ussc.html?s=hns

Greenspan's heir apparent
As Fed chief, Ben Bernanke would guide a fragile economy. By Mark
Trumbull
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1025/p01s04-usec.html?s=hns

For Midwest farmers, a disappointing harvest
High fuel costs and drought conditions are dealing a double blow. By
Amanda Paulson
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1025/p02s01-usec.html?s=hns

Another state acts to keep cigarettes from smoldering
California is the latest to require that cigarettes self-extinguish if
left unused. By Ron Scherer
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1025/p02s02-ussc.html?s=hns

For escape from high-rises, it's high tech to the rescue
An 'executive chute' is one of many innovations on the market. Some
doubt if 'last-resort' systems work. By Mark Clayton
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1025/p03s01-ussc.html?s=hns

http://www.antiwar.com/eland/?articleid=7757

October 25, 2005
Critics on Iraq Policy Come Out of the Woodwork Too Late

by Ivan Eland
With the continued quagmire in Iraq and the likely indictments of senior Bush administration officials for trying to shore up the shaky rationale for the invasion, one would think that things couldn’t get much worse for the administration. But where success has a thousand architects, failure leads to much finger pointing. The administration’s latest headache comes from Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, former Secretary of State Colin Powell’s chief of staff. In a well-publicized recent speech before the New America Foundation, which I attended, Wilkerson lambasted the “Cheney-Rumsfeld cabal” that got control of U.S. foreign policy from a president “not versed in international relations and not too much interested either.”

Wilkerson’s scathing remarks were designed to deflect criticism from his former boss. As one anti-war Republican Senate staff member told me, Wilkerson “summoned his courage about three years too late.” The typically politically correct, inside-the-beltway audience was too polite to ask why Powell and Wilkerson didn’t resign over the invasion of a foreign nation that they privately opposed.

Those taking a more optimistic view might say, “better late than never.” Like Richard Clarke and Paul O’Neil before him, a disgruntled former administration official like Wilkerson draws a lot of public attention to horrendous administration policy. In his speech, Wilkerson praised a new book by Democrat George Packer, a staff writer for the New Yorker, called The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq. The book will be just one of many new books exposing the administration’s incompetence in the Iraqi occupation, but will certainly get a boost from Wilkerson’s speech and the extensive media coverage of it.

Packer traveled to Iraq multiple times to research the book. Although valuable for cataloging the Bush administration’s bungling, however, the book falters by implying that a more competent administration could have been more successful in the Herculean task of restructuring an entire society’s political, economic, and social system. In other words, the author presents an essentially Wilsonian Democratic critique of a Wilsonian Republican occupation, thus avoiding the larger question of whether such grand nation-building can ever be successful.

Packer’s is mainly a critique of how the administration implemented a policy that he supported. He notes that, initially, the administration planned to lop off only the top layer of the Iraqi army and bureaucracy after the invasion, install Iraqi exiles in that highest echelon of a fully functioning state, significantly draw down U.S. forces within six months, and use Iraqi oil revenues to pay for it all. He says that insufficient post-war planning resulted from such rosy predictions of early withdrawal, the military’s reluctance to engage in nation-building, and the administration’s suppression of any hint of possible post-war complications that might erode support for the invasion in the first place.

Packer argues that the administration wanted to proclaim “freedom” for Iraqis, but, fearing loss of control in Iraq, did not develop the institutions needed to make it a reality. Also, Packer implies that the U.S. government did not pour money fast enough into Iraq’s reconstruction. But he then cites Jerry Silverman, a former Agency for International Development (AID) official who worked in both Vietnam and Iraq, as saying that aid failed to buy political support for the United States in Vietnam, but may have in Iraq if security could have been established sooner. This mysterious reversal of outcome is a dubious proposition. Furthermore, security is what the United States has been trying to buy with the aid, not vice versa.

Packer also notes the U.S. reluctance to take casualties, but does not see the grave implications for nation-building projects. Packer cites Silverman as concluding that unlike the U.S. military and civilian personnel who were in Vietnam, those serving in Iraq are unwilling to take the casualties needed to secure the cities and highways so that reconstruction has a chance to succeed. Silverman said, “Our troops are in force-protection mode. They don’t protect anyone else.”

Force protection as priority number one has been around for some time—for example, Somalia in 1993, the Bosnian peacekeeping mission in 1995 and thereafter, and the war in Kosovo in 1999. The notion is bizarre that the United States would commit armed forces to a mission and then worry more about force protection than accomplishment of the mission. Yet that happens when the American public doesn’t really support its elected leaders’ wars of choice.

Often, the public will give the president the benefit of the doubt and support his initial decision to send troops overseas. But if the mission is not really vital to U.S. security and victory is not swift, casualties mount, or things go wrong, public support erodes quickly. Contrast this attitude with the public’s acceptance of mass casualties in World War II—a conflict that was perceived as critical to the nation’s survival. One would think that the American public’s justifiable casualty aversion in wars of choice would make the nation’s leaders cautious about committing military forces to conflicts that didn’t affect U.S. vital interests. But given the history of U.S. meddling in, for example, Lebanon, Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo, and now Iraq, the leaders haven’t given up their unwise interventionism, but instead have opted to try to fight brushfire wars without massive casualties.

Some U.S. officials, usually former military officials like Powell and Wilkerson who served during the Vietnam period, do evidently have some qualms about such wars of choice. It’s too bad that even as civilians, they remain such good soldiers that they fail to publicly protest before American lives are endangered needlessly. According to the Senate staffer, even when they do openly dissent after the fact, they “go out of their way to blast the incompetence of the execution, while avoiding any criticism of the premise on which the whole mess was based, that is, that the U.S. has a presumptive ‘right’ to invade and occupy other countries.”

Bernanke Fed May Adopt Policy of Inflation Targeting Bloomberg
Central bankers from the UK to New Zealand may identify with Ben Bernanke's Federal Reserve more than they did Alan Greenspan's. Three years since he used his position as a Fed governor to break with Greenspan and advocate a specific inflation goal when setting interest rates, Bernanke, co-author of the book "Inflation Targeting: Lessons From the International Experience,'' was yesterday nominated by President George W. Bush to succeed Greenspan as Fed Chairman on Feb. 1. The nomination, which is subject to confirmation by the U.S. Senate, may nudge the Fed in the direction of more than 20 foreign central banks that pursue numerical inflation levels or ranges, said global economists and former central bankers. The debate's outcome will shape how the Fed counters inflation pressures from sources such as surging energy costs after the Greenspan era comes to an end. "Bernanke's appointment brings us one step closer to the Fed targeting inflation like others do,'' said Jim O'Neill, chief economist at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in London. The discussion may heat up just as the Fed struggles to keep a rein on prices. Even after it lifted its benchmark lending rate 11 times over the past 15 months, to 3.75 percent, from the lowest level in 46 years, inflation has moved higher by every measure. Greenspan argues there's not enough evidence to prove that inflation targeting can work, and advocates a discretionary approach to satisfying the Fed's dual mandate of keeping prices stable and fostering employment.

Successful Elsewhere
Bernanke, 51, and investors including Pacific Investment Management Co.'s Bill Gross say a numerical target can bolster central banks' inflation-fighting credibility with financial markets, businesses and consumers. "That has been successful in other economies,'' such as the U.K. and the dozen-nation euro region, said Gross, chief investment officer at Pimco and manager of the world's largest bond fund, in an interview. "It has promoted relatively low and lower long-term rates in those economies than in the U.S.'' Greenspan prefers to manage risks, constantly adjusting policy to the shocks and innovations transforming the $11.7 trillion U.S. economy. That has opened him to criticism that the Fed's work has been driven by one man rather than a process. "I would favor any change in Fed operating procedure that would make it more transparent,'' said Willem Buiter, a former Bank of England policy maker and now a professor at the London School of Economics. "It is one of the most opaque central banks and has vague and confusing official objectives.'' The Federal Open Market Committee debated inflation targeting in February and decided to defer the discussion.

New Zealand First
New Zealand's central bank was the first to adopt an inflation aim in 1990, according to the International Monetary Fund. The Bank of Canada followed in 1991, the Bank of England in 1992 and the Reserve Bank of Australia in 1993. At least 21 central banks, including those in Israel, the Czech Republic, Colombia and South Africa, now do the same. "I'd be hard put to advise the Fed on what it should do,'' Bank of Canada Governor David Dodge said in a March interview. "But what I can say is that for us it has been very helpful, both in gaining credibility, but more importantly perhaps now that we have that credibility, in maintaining it.'' The European Central Bank, which sets rates for the world's second-largest economic bloc, also seeks to steer inflation within a particular range. While ECB Chief Economist Otmar Issing says the bank doesn't target inflation, it seeks to keep price appreciation just below 2 percent and Issing has said he's comfortable with rates between 1.7 percent and 1.9 percent.

Anchoring Expectations
The result has been sounder international monetary policy and a stronger world economy, said Rich Clarida, chief economic strategist at the Clinton Group in New York, who has written academic papers on the issue. "Targeting a low and stable rate of inflation delivers benefits to the economy, but also anchors expectations so making it easier for businesses and consumers to invest,'' said Clarida, a former chief economist at the U.S. Treasury. Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Ian Macfarlane, who has headed the bank since 1996 and declined to comment today, said in August "the maintenance of low inflation is a necessary condition for having a long economic expansion in output and employment.'' Australia's economy is in its 14th year of expansion.

Welcoming Bernanke
With the U.S. economy responsible for a quarter of the $44 trillion world economy, Charles Dumas, managing director of Lombard Street Research, a London-based consulting company, said European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet and Bank of Japan Governor Toshihiko Fukui will want to know if Bernanke will reignite the debate he started. "Bernanke's approach to inflation targeting is the most important thing central bankers elsewhere will be looking for,'' said Dumas. Trichet and Fukui welcomed Bernanke to their fold and praised Bush's selection. Trichet called Bernanke a "remarkable economist'' and Fukui said he looked forward to developing "close relations'' with him. Bank of England Governor Mervyn King, whose office adjoined Bernanke's during their time teaching at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the early 1980s, said his former colleague has the "intellectual and personal qualities'' to lead the Fed, though succeeding Greenspan wouldn't be an easy task.

Split on Virtues
To date, the Fed's policy makers have split on the virtues of mimicking their foreign colleagues. Greenspan, who has led the Fed since 1987, told the U.S. House Budget Committee on Feb. 25, 2004, an inflation goal would constrain the Fed's ability to act. "I'm not sure (it) would actually enhance the capability of our doing a better job,'' he said. Bernanke flagged his opposition to Greenspan's preference for flexibility during a Senate hearing on his nomination to a full term as governor on Oct. 14, 2003. "There is an area where, in fact, I have disagreed quite publicly with the chairman and that is in the area of how best to achieve Federal Reserve transparency,'' he told the Banking Committee. "Certainly, on the area of inflation targeting, Chairman Greenspan quite clearly disagrees.'' Yesterday, Bernanke, now the chairman of Bush's Council of Economic Advisers, said his "first priority will be to maintain continuity with the policies and policy strategies established during the Greenspan years.''

Continuity?
Other opponents of an inflation goal within the Fed include Vice Chairman Roger Ferguson and Governor Donald Kohn. Their continued presence at the central bank may limit Bernanke's ability to implement his favored strategy, even though he has the backing of half the 12 regional Fed Bank presidents. "In practice, U.S. monetary policy may move toward inflation targeting,'' said Juergen von Hagen, a professor of economics at the University of Bonn who has known Bernanke since the late 1980s. During his three years as Fed governor, which ended in June when he joined the Bush administration, Bernanke said he and fellow central bankers liked to keep inflation within a range of 1 percent to 2 percent. While von Hagen said it was unlikely Congress would seek to change the Fed's remit and introduce a price goal, Robert Barrie, chief European economist at Credit Suisse First Boston in London, said Bernanke's nomination indicated Bush may want to do so. "If you don't want inflation targeting then Bernanke seems an odd choice,'' said Barrie. "You have to ask why they would appoint someone who favors targeting inflation if that's not something they want.''
To contact the reporter on this story: Simon Kennedy in Paris at skennedy4@bloomberg.net; John Fraher in Berlin at jfraher@bloomberg.net
Bernanke Gets His Chance BusinessWeek
Bernanke Nomination Sparks Wall Street Rally TIME
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UAV Market to Top $13 Billion by 2014
http://www.spacewar.com/news/uav-05zzzzzd.html

Newtown CT (SPX) Oct 25, 2005 - Five years ago few would have imagined the U.S. Air Force would enthusiastically announce that it was expanding the number of Predator unmanned air vehicle (UAV) squadrons from three to 15. However, according to Forecast International unmanned vehicles analyst Larry Dickerson, the global war on terrorism has prompted the United States to pump significant amounts of money into its UAV programs.

Marshall Islands Seeks Pacific Support For Nuclear Compensation
http://www.spacewar.com/news/nuclear-doctrine-05zzq.html

Port Moresby (AFP) Oct 24, 2005 - The Marshall Islands said Monday it is receiving support from neighbouring Pacific countries in its bid to win compensation from the United States for the continuing effects of nuclear testing carried out half a century ago.

DHS Intel Chief: 'Some Way' To Integration
http://www.spacewar.com/news/terrorwar-05zzzp.html

After Wilma Hits Mexico, All Buses Lead To Merida
http://www.terradaily.com/news/hurricane-05zzzzze.html

Cancun, Mexico (AFP) Oct 24, 2005 - Cancun's bus station is jammed with people, Mexican and foreign, winding in endless lines -- every one of them jostling for a ride to Merida.


Wilma grows back into Category Three hurricane
http://www.terradaily.com/2005/051024183153.rv1ko2j8.html


Mexico to airlift tourists stranded by Wilma
http://www.terradaily.com/2005/051025002307.v0kloijt.html


Wilma pounds Florida, floods Cuba, kills 15
http://www.terradaily.com/2005/051024222619.85czbd0j.html

Taking a Seat for Justice ChristianityToday.com
Rosa Parks, long known as the "mother of the civil rights movement," died at age 92 on Monday. This interview originally appeared in the April 24, 1995, issue of Christianity Today.
Civil Rights Pioneer Rosa Parks Dies at 92 Los Angeles Times
Rosa Parks Dies WTVG
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The White House Cabal
(Lawrence B. Wilkerson, Los Angeles Times - Opinion)

Tuesday, October 25
In President Bush's first term, some of the most important decisions about U.S. national security — including vital decisions about postwar Iraq — were made by a secretive, little-known cabal. It was made up of a very small group of people led by Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

When I first discussed this group in a speech last week at the New American Foundation in Washington, my comments caused a significant stir because I had been chief of staff to then-Secretary of State Colin Powell between 2002 and 2005.

But it's absolutely true. I believe that the decisions of this cabal were sometimes made with the full and witting support of the president and sometimes with something less. More often than not, then-national security advisor Condoleezza Rice was simply steamrolled by this cabal.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=was...id=IOWGWE1A1I4H

Cheney, Libby May Be at Odds Over CIA Leak-Case Investigation

By Richard Keil and Holly Rosenkrantz
Oct. 25 (Bloomberg) -- A fissure may be opening between Vice President Dick Cheney and his top aide over the investigation into the leak of a covert CIA agent's identity.

I. Lewis Libby, Cheney's chief of staff, first learned of agent Valerie Plame's identity in a conversation with Cheney weeks before her name became public in July 2003, the New York Times reported last night, citing lawyers involved in the case.

The disclosure doesn't indicate that the vice president did anything wrong, said a senior Republican with ties to Cheney. The person declined to make a similar statement about Libby.

The senior Republican, who spoke on condition of anonymity, sought to portray Cheney as uninvolved in any violation of a 1982 law forbidding the revelation of a covert intelligence agent's identity. The official noted that both Cheney and Libby had the security clearances necessary to discuss Plame's identity.

The Times report focuses new attention on Cheney's role in an affair that holds serious legal and political jeopardy for top officials in President George W. Bush's administration. Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald is nearing the end of a 22- month investigation into potential criminal wrongdoing in the leaking of Plame's identity and is believed to be considering indictments against top White House officials, including Libby and deputy chief of staff Karl Rove.

The Times said it based its account on Libby's notes from a June 12, 2003, meeting between him and Cheney. According to lawyers involved in the case who described Libby's notes to the Times, they indicate Cheney got his information about Plame from George Tenet, then director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Questions About Wilson

The Times said Tenet was responding to questions from Cheney about Plame's husband, former diplomat Joseph Wilson, who was soon to emerge as a public critic of the Bush administration's decision to go to war in Iraq. Among the issues Fitzgerald is probing is whether Plame's CIA connection was leaked to retaliate against Wilson.

A Cheney spokesman, Steve Schmidt, referred questions about the Times account to Fitzgerald. Libby's attorney, Joseph Tate, didn't return a phone call seeking comment.

Fitzgerald's case began as a probe into whether any White House official violated the law protecting covert agents. Attorneys involved in the case and grand jury witnesses have said the case has evolved in recent months into a probe of whether any official committed perjury, obstructed justice or engaged in a conspiracy to keep secret any administration plans on how to deal with Wilson.

Libby Testimony

The attorneys and witnesses have said that Libby has previously testified under oath that he first learned of Plame's identity from reporters, a statement contradicted anew by the Times account. Libby's statement has already been challenged by NBC News reporter Tim Russert, who has denied Libby's assertion that he learned of Plame's identity from Russert.

Fitzgerald is also looking into any role that Cheney, 64, might have played in the affair. New York Times reporter Judith Miller wrote in the Oct. 16 New York Times that Fitzgerald asked her whether the vice president ``had known what his chief aide,'' Libby, ``was doing and saying'' regarding Wilson, a critic of the war in Iraq.

Miller testified after spending 85 days in jail for initially refusing to cooperate with Fitzgerald.

One lawyer intimately involved in the case, who like the others demanded anonymity, said one reason Fitzgerald was willing to send Miller to jail to compel testimony was because he was pursuing evidence the vice president may have been aware of the specifics of the anti-Wilson strategy.

In her Times account, Miller said she told Fitzgerald and the grand jury that Libby, 55, raised the subject of Wilson's wife during a meeting on June 23, 2003. That was before Wilson, 55, went public in a Times op-ed piece with his accusation that Bush and his aides had ``twisted'' intelligence findings to justify invading Iraq, although administration officials knew he was privately critical.

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Cheney_aide_...me_to_1024.html

Cheney aide passed Plame's name to Libby, Hadley, those close to leak investigation say
Jason Leopold and Larisa Alexandrovna

With the possibility of indictments just days away, sources close to the investigation into who outed covert CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson have provided RAW STORY a more detailed account into how and why Plame's name was leaked and what role the Pentagon and the vice president's office played.

Those close to the investigation say that Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has been told that David Wurmser, then a Middle East adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney on loan from the office of then-Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs John Bolton, met with Cheney and his chief of staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby in June 2003 and told Libby that Plame set up the Wilson trip. He asserted that it was a boondoggle, the sources said.

Libby then shared the information with Karl Rove, President Bush's deputy chief of staff, the sources said. Wurmser also passed on the same information about Wilson to then-Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley and then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, they added.

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Within a week, Wurmser, on orders from "executives in the office of the vice president," was told to leak her name to a specific group of reporters in an effort to muzzle her husband, Wilson, who had become a thorn in the side of the administration, those close to the inquiry say. It is unclear who Wurmser had spoken with in the media, the sources said, but they confirmed he did speak with reporters at national media outlets about Plame.

"Libby wanted to discredit him right from the start," one source close to the investigation told RAW STORY. "He used David Wurmser to help him do that."

Neither Wurmser or Libby could be reached for comment.

Wurmser had a direct link to the CIA because of his work on intelligence issues related to Iraq and frequently met with CIA analysts who worked on weapons of mass destruction. Through his contacts, Wurmser was told that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was a CIA agent working on WMD issues and it was she who had recommended Wilson for the trip, the sources said. Those familiar with the investigation say, however, it is unclear whether Wurmser was told that she operating as a covert agent. They believe it was likely he was told she was an "analyst" working on WMDs in a similar capacity to the other agents Wurmser had interacted with.

Those familiar with information provided to Fitzgerald say that shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Wurmser was handpicked by Harold Rhode, a Foreign Affairs Specialist in the Office of Net Assessment, a Pentagon "think tank," and Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith to head a top secret Pentagon "cell" whose job was to comb through CIA intelligence documents and find evidence that Iraq posed an imminent threat to the United States and its neighbors in the Middle East so a case could be made to launch a preemptive military strike. Wurmser largely invented evidence that Iraq had close ties to Al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden, sources knowledgeable about his work told RAW STORY.

Although the CIA documents that Wurmser and his staff pored over never showed Iraq as being an immediate threat, Wurmser was dead set on finding and presenting evidence to Vice President Dick Cheney that suggested as much even if the veracity of such intelligence was questionable, sources close the probe said. Wurmser had met with now discredited Iraqi exiles who were part of the Iraqi National Congress, headed by Ahmed Chalabi, the infamous single source of Judith Miller's explosive columns published in the New York Times that said Iraq was acquiring nuclear bomb components, who is now the Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq, they added.

With the aid of Chalabi and the White House Iraq Group, Wurmser helped Cheney's office, particularly the vice president's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, construct a case for war. He met frequently with Cheney, Libby, Feith and Richard Perle, the former head of the Defense Policy Board, to go over the "evidence" of the threat posed by Saddam Hussein that could then be used by the White House to build public support. Wurmser routinely butted heads with the CIA over the veracity of the intelligence he was providing to Cheney's office, sources close the investigation said.

Wurmser had long been a proponent of removing Saddam Hussein from power. Indeed, in 1996, Wurmser, his wife Meyrav and Perle, authored a paper for "Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu called "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm." It called on Israel to work with Jordan and Turkey to "contain, destabilize and roll back" various states in the region, overthrow Saddam Hussein in Iraq, press Jordan to restore a scion of the Hashemite dynasty to the Iraqi throne, and, above all, launch military assaults against Lebanon and Syria as a "prelude to a redrawing of the map of the Middle East which would threaten Syria's territorial integrity," according to an investigative report in the January/February 2004 issue of Mother Jones magazine.

A year later, Wurmser wrote a column in the Wall Street Journal titled "Iraq Needs a Revolution" and two years later authored a book, "Tyranny's Ally: America's Failure to Defeat Saddam Hussein."

The Administration's plans were complicated in May 2003, when former Ambassador Joseph Wilson entered the picture, and said privately to close colleagues and a handful of journalists that the intelligence used by President Bush was "twisted."

For two years, Wurmser, Feith, Perle, Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld had a tumultous relationship with the CIA who they blamed for not providing them with the type of evidence they wanted to see: specific, tailor-made assessments that Iraq was an imminent threat. But with Wilson they feared a public backlash.

Libby first learned that Wilson was discrediting the administration's intelligence information in June 2003. Specifically, Wilson questioned claims that Iraq tried to purchase yellow-cake uranium from Africa for an atomic bomb.

Wilson went to Niger in 2002 to investigate the allegations and reported that the claims were unfounded. According to a Senate report, the mission grew out of a request by Vice President Cheney earlier that year. Vehemently denying that his boss had requested the trip, Libby became so incensed by Wilson that he sent word to Wurmser to find out who Wilson was and sought details of his trip, those familiar with the investigation say.

Muriel Kane contributed research for this article.

Amplification: Those close to the investigation say that Wurmser told Libby about Plame. They were unaware if Wurmser told Cheney about Plame or if that information was passed to Cheney by Libby. They did say that all three of them met and at the time of their meeting Wurmser told Libby about Plame.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?.../w075050D64.DTL

White House Sidesteps Cheney Questions

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

(10-25) 13:31 PDT WASHINGTON, (AP) --


The White House on Tuesday sidestepped questions about whether Vice President Dick Cheney passed on to his top aide the identity of a CIA officer central to a federal grand jury probe.


Notes in the hands of a federal prosecutor suggest that Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, first heard of the CIA officer from Cheney himself, The New York Times reported in Tuesday's editions.


A federal prosecutor is investigating whether the officer's identity was improperly disclosed.


The Times said notes of a previously undisclosed June 12, 2003, conversation between Libby and Cheney appear to differ from Libby's grand jury testimony that he first heard of Valerie Plame from journalists.


"This is a question relating to an ongoing investigation and we're not having any further comment on the investigation while it's ongoing," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said.


Pressed about Cheney's knowledge about the CIA officer, McClellan said: "I think you're prejudging things and speculating and we're not going to prejudge or speculate about things."


McClellan said Cheney — who participated in a morning video conference on the Florida hurricane from Wyoming, where he is speaking at a University of Wyoming dinner tonight — is doing a "great job" as vice president. The spokesman also said Cheney's public comments have always been truthful.


The New York Times identified its sources in the story as lawyers involved in the case.


Libby has emerged at the center of Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's criminal investigation in recent weeks because of the Cheney aide's conversations about Plame with Times reporter Judith Miller.


Miller said Libby spoke to her about Plame and her husband, Bush administration critic Joseph Wilson, on three occasions — although not necessarily by name and without indicating he knew she was undercover.


Libby's notes show that Cheney knew Plame worked at the CIA more than a month before her identity was publicly exposed by columnist Robert Novak.


At the time of the Cheney-Libby conversation, Wilson had been referred to — but not by name — in the Times and on the morning of June 12, 2003 on the front page of The Washington Post.


The Times reported that Libby's notes indicate Cheney got his information about Wilson from then-CIA Director George Tenet, but said there was no indication he knew her name.


The notes also contain no suggestion that Cheney or Libby knew at the time of their conversation of Plame's undercover status or that her identity was classified, the paper said.


Disclosing the identify of a covert CIA agent can be a crime, but only if the person who discloses it knows the agent is classified as working undercover.


The Times quoted lawyers involved in the case as saying they had no indication Fitzgerald was considering charging Cheney with a crime.


But the paper said any efforts by Libby to steer investigators away from his conversation with Cheney might be viewed by a prosecutor as attempt to impede the inquiry, which could be a crime.


According to a former intelligence official close to Tenet, the former CIA chief has not been in touch with Fitzgerald's staff for more than 15 months and was not asked to testify before the grand jury even though he was interviewed by Fitzgerald and his staff.


The official told the Times that Tenet declined to comment on the investigation.


Libby's lawyer, Joseph Tate, did not return phone calls and e-mail to his office.


Fitzgerald is expected to decide this week whether to seek criminal indictments in the case. Lawyers involved in the case have said Libby and Karl Rove, President Bush's senior adviser, both face the possibility of indictment. McClellan said both Rove and Libby were at work on Tuesday.


Fitzgerald questioned Cheney under oath more than a year ago, but it is not known what the vice president told the prosecutor.


Cheney has said little in public about what he knew. In September 2003, he told NBC he did not know Wilson or who sent him on a trip to Niger in 2002 to check into intelligence — some of it later deemed unreliable — that Iraq may have been seeking to buy uranium there.


"I don't know who sent Joe Wilson. He never submitted a report that I ever saw when he came back," Cheney said at the time. "... I don't know Mr. Wilson. I probably shouldn't judge him. I have no idea who hired him."


Asked Tuesday whether Cheney always tells the truth to the public, McClellan said, "Yes."


"Frankly I think it's a ridiculous question," he said. "The vice president, like the president, is a straightforward plainspoken person."


The Cheney-Libby conversation occurred the same day that The Washington Post published a front-page story about the CIA sending a retired diplomat to Africa, where he was unable to corroborate intelligence that Iraq was trying to acquire uranium yellowcake from Niger. The diplomat was Wilson.


A year after Wilson's trip, President Bush cited British intelligence in his State of the Union address as suggesting that Iraq was pursuing uranium in Africa.

White House Insists That CIA Should Be Allowed To Continue Torture Of Detainees

By ERIC SCHMITT

Stepping up a confrontation with the Senate over the handling of detainees, the White House is insisting that the Central Intelligence Agency be exempted from a proposed ban on abusive treatment of suspected Qaeda militants and other terrorists.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10766.htm

The White House Cabal

By Lawrence B. Wilkerson
LAWRENCE B. WILKERSON served as chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell from 2002 to 2005.

IN PRESIDENT BUSH'S first term, some of the most important decisions about U.S. national security — including vital decisions about postwar Iraq — were made by a secretive, little-known cabal. It was made up of a very small group of people led by Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10768.htm

Secret Codes In Printers May Allow Government Tracking
http://www.spacewar.com/news/cyberwar-05zzf.html

Washington (AFP) Oct 25, 2005 - Tiny dots produced by some laser printers are a secret code that can allow the government to track down counterfeiters, a new study concludes, raising the hackles of privacy advocates.

U.S. Army activates new Missile Defense Command
http://www.spacewar.com/news/abm-05zh.html

Washington (UPI) Oct 25, 2005 - The 94th Air and Missile Defense Command unfurled its colors during a ceremony Oct 14, on Fort Shafter, Hawaii, the Army News Service reported Tuesday. The new command is the Asia-Pacific Theater's first line of defense officials said.

DARPA, Rockwell Collins Successfully Demonstrate TTNT
http://www.spacewar.com/news/milspace-comms-05zzzy.html

Cedar Rapids, Iowa (SPX) Oct 24, 2005 - The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and Rockwell Collins have successfully demonstrated Tactical Targeting Network Technology (TTNT) in operational tactical aircraft.

http://www.wpherald.com/storyview.php?Stor...24-112439-3515r
Intelligence offices remain separate
By Shaun Waterman
UPI Homeland and National Security Editor
Published October 24, 2005


WASHINGTON -- More than two-and-a-half years after it was set up, the Department of Homeland Security is still some way from successfully integrating the 10 separate intelligence offices run by its 22 component agencies, according to its chief intelligence officer.

"We have some way to go before we have a truly unified intelligence enterprise and culture," Charlie Allen told United Press International last week, after giving testimony about his new role to two House subcommittees.


He also told the committee, "We are obviously short of facilities," and lawmakers advised him to petition Congress for any additional resources he needed.

Allen, a 47-year veteran CIA official, had previously been a senior member of the community management staff -- officials who worked for the director of Central Intelligence in his capacity as nominal head of all 15 U.S. spy agencies.

As assistant director for collection, he had the unenviable job of coordinating the "tasking" of intelligence assets, technical and human -- striving to please both military and policy-making customers, while making the best use of limited resources.

It was a tricky task at which Allen, in the opinion of several current and former intelligence officials, excelled.

But no less daunting must be the job he came out of a brief retirement three weeks ago to do. As well as being Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff's top intelligence adviser, Allen also must help define the department's role in the increasingly crowded field of U.S. intelligence agencies; and manage the department's eclectic collection of "non-traditional" intelligence-gathering operations -- like mapping trends in document forgery or other kinds of fraud by people trying to enter the country illegally.

Many of the 22 agencies, departments and offices that were merged into the department in March 2003 -- including the Coast Guard, Border Patrol, U.S. Customs and the Transportation Security Administration -- have intelligence operations of one kind or another.

The Border Patrol, for instance, has a small intelligence unit in each sector that analyzes data about gangs and others smuggling migrants across the border.

And there are also new intelligence-gathering elements in the department, to exploit what it says is a unique relationship with the private sector and with state and local governments and law enforcement agencies, all of which enables it to collect a great deal of so-called open source, or unclassified intelligence.

Officials in the department's infrastructure protection office, for instance, track reports from the private sector of suspicious or anomalous behavior at chemical plants and other potential terrorist targets; looking for patterns that might be signs of preparation for an attack.

Allen told lawmakers that the key issue was "how to bring together all these disparate components and the intelligence ... that they collect on a daily basis."

"They collect a lot of it," he added, "but there's a great amount of information that does not get fully disseminated or used as part of trends and patterns and threat streams."

Part of the problem, he told UPI later, was the absence of common standards, such as so-called reporting thresholds -- guidelines about what kind of data should be passed up the chain -- or common reporting formats, so that each element was producing materials that could be easily and accurately interpreted and understood by everyone else.

"It is a huge and big, big problem for all of us, and it has not been done," he concluded at the hearing, adding that his predecessors had exhibited "a lack of real focus" on the issue.

His most recent predecessor, who left more than seven months ago, retired Lt. Gen. Patrick Hughes, said that, overall, he thought Allen's assessment of state of play was "fair."

But he took issue with the idea that there had been no focus on integration.

"I don't think that's right," he told UPI. "We did make progress, but it was progress from zero."

He said that in 2004 he had instituted regular monthly meetings of the 10 intelligence heads, a process which Allen said he will now formalize as the Homeland Security Intelligence Council.

Hughes acknowledged that guidelines setting out common standards were "something we just never got to."

But he added that part of the problem had been the absence of guidance for the whole collection of fractious agencies dubbed the Intelligence Community. Without that, he said, guidelines set unilaterally by homeland security "would only have contributed to the problem" of multiple inconsistent or even contradictory standards and procedures.

Allen told UPI he would be working closely with the office of the new Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte on the guidelines issue, and in many ways, the challenges he face resemble those facing the new director, albeit on a department-wide, rather than government-wide level.

For instance, Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, asked Allen how he could succeed in improving coordination and integration without budgetary and personnel authority over the 10 offices, which at the moment report to -- and are budgeted by -- the heads of their different home agencies within the department.

"I'm going to evaluate whether I need additional authorities," Allen responded, adding, "At this stage I think I have the needed authority," but promising to come back to congress if he found he needed more.

On the question of the department's role vis-à-vis other intelligence agencies, Allen told the hearing that another "of the things I found that has not been done" was the preparation of an intelligence community directive, defining the department's role, and the relationship of the chief intelligence officer to the new director of national intelligence.

Hughes said that under his leadership the department had produced what he called "beginning documents" on the issue, "a basis for the work to go forward."

One thing both men agreed on was that the physical infrastructure available to the department's intelligence operation leaves a lot to be desired.

"The physical facilities were inadequate," said Hughes, adding that this had also slowed down his efforts to ramp up the office's staffing, because there sometimes was not room to put people to work.

"We obviously are short of facilities," Allen told the hearing, "But I've submitted a plan to Deputy Secretary Jackson and I will press that."

Hughes said that "A plan has to factor in the limitations," pointing out that the whole department was cramped on its current campus, and that new buildings cannot be thorwn up overnight.

Fixing the facilities problem, he "is a matter of time and money, and I don't think enough time has elapsed or enough money has been applied."

http://fairuse.1accesshost.com/news5/nyt14.htm

New York Times
October 26, 2005
Prosecutor's Progress Is Rare for Leak Inquiries
By DOUGLAS JEHL

WASHINGTON, Oct. 25 - Until now, the federal government has rarely proved more impotent than in trying to plug leaks. Most inquiries go nowhere, because the officials and journalists who are the only witnesses to any crime refuse to discuss it.

But in the case of Valerie Wilson, the outed C.I.A. officer, a prosecutor has succeeded in penetrating that sanctum. Unlike any of his predecessors, the special counsel, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, has delved deeply into conversations that government officials and reporters had every reason to believe would remain confidential.

It is not yet clear if Mr. Fitzgerald intends to bring charges that will cast the conversations themselves as criminal, as settings for the exchange of classified information. But even indictments containing less serious accusations against White House officials would bring with them the possibility that reporters would be called as witnesses.

Exchanges between reporters and government officials have always been a central part of how Washington really works. They have served as shortcuts, ways to trade information beyond the glare of television lights and outside of bureaucratic barriers. But Mr. Fitzgerald, who obtained federal subpoenas to compel reporters to testify in the case, is not the only one in Washington who is trying to train a new kind of spotlight on the transactions.

Both the Silberman-Robb commission, in its report this year on intelligence failures related to weapons proliferation, and the House Intelligence Committee, under Representative Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the Republican chairman, have called for redoubled efforts against leakers.

"The time has come for a comprehensive law that will make it easier for the government to prosecute wrongdoers and increase the penalties, which will hopefully act as a deterrent for people thinking about disclosing information," Mr. Hoekstra said in a speech to the Heritage Foundation in July.

In its report in March, the Silberman-Robb commission described as "understandable but unwarranted" what it called "the long-standing defeatism that has paralyzed action in trying to combat leaks." Notably, the commission suggested that greater pressure on reporters might have been the missing ingredient in past investigations.

"Many people with whom we spoke," the commission said in its report, "said that the best (if not only) way to identify leakers was through the reporters to whom classified information was leaked."

That approach appears to have been the one followed by Mr. Fitzgerald in trying to unravel the mystery of how the identity of Ms. Wilson, an undercover C.I.A. officer, became public in July 2003, initially in a column by Robert D. Novak that identified her by her unmarried name, Valerie Plame. Ms. Wilson is the wife of Joseph Wilson IV, the retired ambassador who emerged in 2003 as a critic of the Bush administration after traveling to Africa in 2002 at the request of the C.I.A. to investigate claims that Iraq was seeking to obtain uranium from Niger.

It is not known whether Mr. Novak provided testimony to Mr. Fitzgerald or to the grand jury in the case. But over an 18-month period in 2004 and 2005, Mr. Fitzgerald has succeeded in obtaining testimony from five reporters about their conversations with senior White House officials, gleaning details about discussions over breakfast, on the telephone and in government offices. The reporters included Tim Russert of NBC News, Glenn Kessler and Walter Pincus of The Washington Post, Matthew Cooper of Time magazine, and, ultimately, Judith Miller of The New York Times, who testified earlier this month after spending 85 days in jail for refusing a court order that compelled her to answer questions from the grand jury.

The reporters' testimony, focusing on discussions with I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, and Karl Rove, President Bush's top political adviser, appears to have provided Mr. Fitzgerald with a means to corroborate or challenge the accounts provided by the White House officials about the conversations. In the case of Mr. Libby, the journalists' accounts are likely to be central to any case brought by Mr. Fitzgerald, because they have failed to substantiate Mr. Libby's initial assertion that he learned about Ms. Wilson from reporters.

The approach differs from the one pursued by prosecutors in most previous leak investigations, including three prominent cases in recent years, in which inquiries have proceeded without cooperation from journalists involved.

One, a two-year investigation concluded in 2004, found that Senator Richard C. Shelby, Republican of Alabama and former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, was almost certainly a source for news accounts that described classified Arabic-language messages intercepted by the National Security Agency just before the Sept. 11 attacks. Among the messages was one that said, "Tomorrow is zero hour," but the Justice Department decided not to bring charges, instead turning the matter over to the Senate ethics committee.

A second case, against Charles G. Bakaly III, a spokesman for Kenneth W. Starr during his investigation of President Bill Clinton, ended in acquittal in 2000. Mr. Bakaly was accused of being a source for an article in The New York Times that discussed whether President Clinton could be indicted while in office. Mr. Bakaly was charged with lying to investigators in their leak inquiry. At his trial, Mr. Bakaly said he had provided some information to The Times, but said that it had been public and that his responses during that leak investigation had been truthful.

In only one of the three cases, a 2003 episode involving the Drug Enforcement Agency, was anyone convicted of a crime. In that case, Jonathan Randel, a D.E.A. analyst, was sentenced to a year in prison for providing what the agency called sensitive information to The Times of London.

In the past, prosecutors appeared to have operated on the presumption that journalists would not testify in leak cases, and would invoke the First Amendment to try to protect their sources. But those protections apply only in states that provide journalists with specific legal protections to shield their sources, a protection that does not exist under federal law.

In ruling in favor of Mr. Fitzgerald this year, a federal appeals court upheld a lower court ruling that ordered Ms. Miller to testify in the case. The court cited the only previous ruling on the subject by the Supreme Court, a 1972 decision known as Branzburg, which has been interpreted by lower courts as meaning that reporters have almost no protection from grand jury subpoenas seeking their sources.







Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/26/national...094&partner=AOL

Leak Counsel Is Said to Press on Rove's Role

By RICHARD W. STEVENSON and ANNE E. KORNBLUT
Published: October 26, 2005
WASHINGTON, Oct. 25 - With the clock running out on his investigation, the special counsel in the leak case continued to seek information on Tuesday about Karl Rove's discussions with reporters in the days before a C.I.A. officer's identity was made public, lawyers and others involved in the investigation said.

Three days before the grand jury in the case expires and with the White House in a state of high anxiety, the special counsel, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, appeared still to be trying to determine whether Mr. Rove had been fully forthcoming about his contacts with Matthew Cooper of Time magazine and Robert D. Novak, the syndicated columnist, in July 2003, they said.

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Charles Dharapak/Associated Press

Karl Rove, senior adviser and deputy chief of staff to President Bush, as he left home yesterday morning.


Prosecutor's Progress Is Rare for Leak Inquiries (October 26, 2005)
Senator Calls for Inquiry Into Journalists' Access (October 26, 2005)

Kevin Wolf/Associated Press
I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, leaving his home Tuesday in McLean, Va.
Mr. Fitzgerald, who is the United States attorney in Chicago, spent the day in Washington and summoned his team, including his chief F.B.I. investigator, Jack Eckenrode, for what appeared to be a final round of discussions about how to proceed.

Lawyers involved in the case have said that Mr. Rove, President Bush's senior adviser and deputy chief of staff, and I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, face the possibility of indictment on perjury or other charges related to covering up their actions.

The flurry of last minute activity had White House officials anticipating an announcement as soon as Wednesday about whether the prosecutor would seek indictments. Indictments of Mr. Libby or Mr. Rove or both would leave Mr. Bush a political crisis with the potential to reshape the remainder of his second term. It is not clear whether anyone else might be charged in the case, which centers on what role administration officials played in the disclosure of a covert C.I.A. officer's identity, first in Mr. Novak's column on July 14, 2003.

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

White House officials did not respond to questions about a report on Tuesday in The New York Times that Mr. Libby had first learned of the C.I.A. officer from Mr. Cheney several weeks before Mr. Novak's column. On a day when the mood at the White House was described by one friend of the president as grim, Mr. Bush used his public appearances on Tuesday to show himself as focused on the nation's business, most notably Iraq, and undeterred by what he has characterized as "background noise."

Twenty-two months after beginning his investigation, Mr. Fitzgerald has assembled testimony from dozens of witnesses, secured the cooperation of journalists in helping to piece together what happened and delved deep into the workings of an administration that has always sought to keep its internal deliberations and its political tactics out of public view.

His investigation was set off by questions about whether administration officials had leaked the identity of the C.I.A. officer, Valerie Wilson, in response to criticism by her husband, Joseph C. Wilson IV. Mr. Wilson, a former diplomat, said in an Op-Ed article in The New York Times on July 6, 2003, that the White House had "twisted" the intelligence it used to justify the invasion of Iraq. Mr. Wilson had traveled to Africa on a mission sponsored by the C.I.A. mission in 2002 to look into reports that Iraq had acquired nuclear material in Niger.

In a sign that the prosecutor is continuing to build a case that Ms. Wilson's covert status was ended when she was named in Mr. Novak's column, F.B.I. agents questioned neighbors of the Wilsons in Northwest Washington in the last few days, seeking to determine whether it was commonly known that she was a C.I.A. officer, a person involved in the case said. Ms. Wilson was identified in Mr. Novak's column by her maiden name, Valerie Plame.

While not commenting on the report about Mr. Libby's conversation with Mr. Cheney, the White House took issue with suggestions that Mr. Cheney had not been truthful several months later in a television interview when he said he did not know Mr. Wilson and did not know who had sent him on his mission.

Asked whether Mr. Cheney always told the truth to the American people, Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary, answered, "Yes."

At issue were remarks by Mr. Cheney in an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sept. 14, 2003. In response to a question about Mr. Wilson, Mr. Cheney said: "I don't know who sent Joe Wilson. He never submitted a report that I ever saw when I came back."

Mr. Cheney later added, "I don't know Joe Wilson," and said he had "no idea who hired him."

The Times report said Mr. Libby had taken notes of a conversation he had with Mr. Cheney on June 12, 2003, after Mr. Cheney had spoken to George J. Tenet, then the director of central intelligence, about newspaper articles quoting an anonymous former diplomat taking issue with the administration's use of intelligence about Iraq's effort to acquire nuclear material in Niger.

The notes do not show that Mr. Cheney had learned the name of Mr. Wilson's wife or her covert status, lawyers involved in the case said. But they do show that Mr. Cheney knew and told Mr. Libby that Mr. Wilson's wife was employed by the Central Intelligence Agency and may have helped arrange her husband's trip, they said.

Republicans sympathetic to Mr. Cheney said there was no inconsistency between what the vice president is reported to have told Mr. Libby and what Mr. Cheney said on "Meet the Press." They said there was nothing in the reported conversation to suggest that the vice president knew Mr. Wilson or knew who had sent him to Africa.

But Democrats in Congress and liberal advocacy groups sought to turn up the pressure on the White House. The Center for American Progress, a liberal group, sought to focus attention on what Mr. Bush knew, saying in an e-mail message to supporters and journalists that the "question that must now be answered is whether Vice President Cheney had any discussions about Valerie Plame with President Bush prior to her outing."

Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, called on Mr. Bush to assure that any administration officials who were indicted would resign. Mr. Schumer also called on Mr. Bush not to engage in any criticism of Mr. Fitzgerald should he bring indictments.

Congressional Republicans were bracing for indictments and the potential disruption it could mean for their legislative agenda while Democrats prepared to take advantage of any charges to drive home their theme that Republican rule had fostered an atmosphere of corruption.

David Johnston contributed reporting from Washington for this article.

Bush Aides Brace for Charges

By Jim VandeHei and Carol D. Leonnig

The prosecutor in the CIA leak case was preparing to outline possible charges before a federal grand jury as early as today, even as the FBI conducted last-minute interviews in the high-profile investigation, according to people familiar with the case.

Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald was seen in Washington yesterday with lawyers in the case, and some White House officials braced for at least one indictment when the grand jury meets today. I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, is said by several people in the case to be a main focus, but not the only one.

In a possible sign that Fitzgerald may charge one or more officials with illegally disclosing Valerie Plame's CIA affiliation, FBI agents as recently as Monday night interviewed at least two people in her D.C. neighborhood to determine whether they knew she worked for the CIA before she was unmasked with the help of senior Bush administration officials. Two neighbors told the FBI they were shocked to learn she was a CIA operative.

The FBI interviews suggested the prosecutor wanted to show that Plame's status was covert, and that there was damage from the revelation that she worked at the CIA.

The news of the eleventh-hour moves came on the same day that Cheney himself was implicated in the chain of events that led to Plame's being revealed. In a report in the New York Times that the White House pointedly did not dispute, Fitzgerald was said to have notes taken by Libby showing that he learned about Plame from the vice president a month before she was identified by columnist Robert D. Novak.

There is no indication Cheney did anything illegal or improper, but this is the first evidence to surface that shows he knew of Plame well before she became a household name.

Fitzgerald's investigation has centered on whether senior administration officials knowingly revealed Plame's identity in an effort to discredit a Bush administration critic -- her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV. On July 6, 2003, Wilson accused the administration in The Washington Post and the Times of using flawed intelligence to justify the war with Iraq. Eight days later, Novak revealed Plame's name and her identity as a CIA operative.

The grand jury, whose term expires Friday, is scheduled for a session today. Before a vote on an indictment, prosecutors typically leave the room so jurors can deliberate in private and ask that the jury alert them when it has reached a decision.

Unlike the jury in a criminal trial, grand jurors are not weighing proof of guilt or innocence. They decide whether there is probable cause to charge someone with a crime, and they must agree unanimously to indict. The prosecutor could seek to seal any indictments until he announces the charges.

Officials described a White House on edge. "Everybody just wants this week over," said one official.

The key figures in the probe, including Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove and Libby, attended staff meetings and planned President Bush's next political and policy moves. Others sat nervously at their desks, fielding calls from reporters and insisting they were in the dark about what the next 24 hours would bring.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan insisted this storm will soon pass. But officials are bracing for the kind of political tsunami that swamped Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan in their second terms and could change the course of this presidency.

It is not clear what charges Fitzgerald will seek, if any. After setting out on his original investigation, he won explicit authority to also consider perjury and other crimes government officials might have committed during the nearly two-year-long investigation. Fitzgerald spokesman Randall Samborn declined to comment.

Fitzgerald and his investigative team have questioned more than two dozen officials from the White House, the vice president's office, the CIA and the State Department as well as residents of Wilson's neighborhood.

Fitzgerald has looked closely not only at the possible crimes, but also the context in which they would have been committed. This search, say lawyers in the case, has provided him a rare, perhaps even unprecedented, glimpse into the White House effort to justify the Iraq war -- and rebut its critics.

The trail has often led to Cheney's office, which officials describe as ground zero in the effort in promote, execute and defend the Iraq war and the campaign to convince the American people and the world that Saddam Hussein had amassed a stockpile of the most dangerous kinds of weapons. According to the report in yesterday's Times, the investigation also led to Cheney himself.

Cheney has the security clearance to review and discuss classified material, and no evidence has been made public to suggest he did anything illegal. But this is the first time the vice president has been directly linked to the chain of events that eventually led to Plame's identity being disclosed.

McClellan said Cheney has always been honest with the American people. He dismissed as "ridiculous" a question about whether Bush stood by Cheney's account of his role in the matter. In an interview in September 2003, Cheney told NBC's Tim Russert he did not know Wilson or who sent him to Africa. Officials said Cheney was careful to distance himself from Wilson in the interview without telling a lie about what he knew about the diplomat and his wife.

Two lawyers involved in the case said that, based on Fitzgerald's questions, the prosecutor has been aware of Libby's June 12 conversation with Cheney since the early days of his investigation. The lawyers said Libby did record in his notes that Cheney relayed to him that Wilson's wife may have had a role in Wilson's taking the CIA-sponsored mission to Niger. According to a source familiar with Libby's testimony, he previously told the grand jury he believed he heard of Wilson's wife first from reporters.

The Times reported that Libby said Cheney learned information about Plame from former CIA director George J. Tenet.

Tenet said yesterday he has not discussed Fitzgerald's investigation in the past and does not want to talk about it before the prosecutor reaches his conclusions.

A retired senior CIA official close to Tenet, said the former director and his deputy, John McLaughlin, were questioned by investigators more than 15 months ago and have not been contacted by them since.

In a sign that Fitzgerald continues to gather evidence, FBI agents interviewed at least two of Wilson's neighbors in the Palisades neighborhood Monday night. Marc Lefkowitz and David Tillotson said yesterday that they told the FBI they had no clue that Plame, who they knew by her married name, Valerie Wilson, worked for the agency until Novak's column appeared.

Staff writer Paul Schwartzman contributed to this report.




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Bush Wants Syria Held to Account in Terrorism

By Colum Lynch

UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 25 -- President Bush urged the Security Council on Tuesday to hold Syria to account for supporting terrorism throughout the Middle East, as U.S., French and British diplomats circulated a draft resolution that threatens Damascus with sanctions if it fails to cooperate with a U.N. probe into the killing of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri.

The resolution would impose an immediate travel ban and asset freeze on Syrian officials and other individuals suspected of plotting or participating in the Feb. 14 assassination of Hariri and 22 others. But the resolution would give the Syrian government an opportunity to prove it is committed to cooperating with the investigation before economic sanctions would be considered.

The draft resolution also would require Syrian officials to provide U.N. investigators with broad access to government documents, evidence and witness testimony, and to grant them freedom of movement throughout Syria, including any facility in the country.

In a speech at Bolling Air Force Base, Bush cast Syria, along with Iran, as the Middle East's major sponsors of Islamic radicalism, saying they "share the goal of hurting America and modern Muslim governments."

Bush sought to prod the council into supporting the resolution, saying that "the United Nations must act, and Syria and its leaders must be held accountable for their continuing support of terrorism, including any involvement in the murder of Prime Minister Hariri." He added that "Syria is destabilizing Lebanon, permitting terrorists to use its territory to reach Iraq and giving safe harbor to Palestinian terror groups."

The administration yesterday was escalating its rhetoric against Syria as it presses council members to convene an Oct. 31 meeting of foreign ministers to adopt the resolution. "We want a very strong signal from the council to the government of Syria that its obstructionism has to cease and cease immediately," said John R. Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. "And we want substantive cooperation in the investigation from Syria."

Detlev Mehlis, a German prosecutor leading the probe of the truck-bomb killing, released his preliminary report Friday. It concluded that senior Syrian officials were almost certainly behind the assassination, and named suspects within Syrian President Bashar Assad's family and inner circle.

The new draft resolution's provision that raised the prospect of future sanctions is expected to face resistance from key Security Council members, including Algeria, China and Russia. They are reluctant to entertain punitive measures before the United Nations has concluded its investigation and perpetrators have been convicted in a court of law.

The 56-member Organization of the Islamic Conference, meeting in Jedda, Saudi Arabia, issued a statement urging the council not to resort to "any measures" based on an incomplete investigation. "The Muslim World has always been against imposing sanctions and collective punishments on a nation as they primarily cause unjust sufferings to the people."

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan also responded coolly to the question of sanctions, saying that "we should be careful not to do anything that interferes with the judicial process or the rights of the accused."

The State Department acknowledged Tuesday that there are differences on the Security Council. "You've got a number of Security Council members that all have to be in sync. So that's not something that's done automatically," State Department spokesman J. Adam Ereli told reporters.

Mehlis pressed Syria on Tuesday in a council briefing on his findings to "show greater and meaningful cooperation" than it has in recent months. He criticized Damascus for offering spotty cooperation and providing misleading information to investigators. He also appealed to Damascus to carry out its own inquiry into Hariri's assassination and help "fill in the gaps" in his investigation.

Today's draft resolution, which also accuses Syria of misleading and impeding the U.N. investigation, would require Syria to detain Syrian officials suspected of involvement in Hariri's killing; it would require that Syria accede to requests by Mehlis to interview Syrian suspects outside the country; and it would require Syria "stop interfering" in Lebanon's domestic affairs. The draft would also invest Mehlis with the authority to inform the council at any time if Syria fails to fully cooperate with him, a provision that could place Mehlis in the position of possibly triggering sanctions against Syria.

Mehlis, 55, a German prosecutor, said he fears his team will face increasing personal danger as it closes in on suspects in the Syrian leadership. He said his investigators have received numerous "credible" death threats since the inquiry began more than four months ago.

He indicated that the complex investigation could drag on well beyond his current Dec. 15 deadline set by Annan.

"I would note that it is entirely normal that a case of this type takes many months, if not years, to cover all aspect of investigation with certitude and to prepare a case for prosecution."

Staff writer Robin Wright in Washington contributed to this report.




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Steady Rise Defines Trajectory of Troop Fatalities in Iraq
--------------------

By Doug Smith and P.J. Huffstutter
Times Staff Writers

October 25 2005, 7:56 PM PDT

U.S. officials repeatedly have claimed progress during 31 months of war in Iraq, but the death toll of American troops has continued to rise inexorably, eroding support for the war and for the president who is so closely associated with it.

The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wo...-home-headlines

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Prosecutors Focus on Rove Again
--------------------

By Tom Hamburger, Richard B. Schmitt and Peter Wallsten
Times Staff Writers

October 25 2005, 7:59 PM PDT

WASHINGTON -- Prosecutors investigating the leak of a CIA agent's identity returned their attention to White House adviser Karl Rove on Tuesday, questioning a former West Wing colleague about contacts Rove had with reporters in the days leading to the outing of a covert CIA officer.

The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/na...-home-headlines

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Bush Tries to Revive Support for Iraq War
--------------------

By DEB RIECHMANN
Associated Press Writer

October 25 2005, 7:59 PM PDT

WASHINGTON -- President Bush tried Tuesday to begin reviving U.S. support for the war in Iraq and reinvigorating his troubled presidency as the U.S. military death toll topped 2,000.

The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wi...0,7854309.story

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The White House cabal
--------------------

By Lawrence B. Wilkerson
LAWRENCE B. WILKERSON served as chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell from 2002 to 2005.

October 25 2005

IN PRESIDENT BUSH'S first term, some of the most important decisions about U.S. national security — including vital decisions about postwar Iraq — were made by a secretive, little-known cabal. It was made up of a very small group of people led by Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/o...0,4256804.story

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2501624_pf.html

washingtonpost.com
U.S. Passports to Receive Electronic Identification Chips

By Jonathan Krim
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 26, 2005; A08



The State Department yesterday issued final rules for implanting electronic identification chips into all U.S. passports, despite continuing controversy over the security of the system and its impact on personal privacy.

The regulations mean that as of October 2006, all new and renewed U.S. passports will contain radio frequency identification chips that will include a digital photo and all other information currently printed in passports.

Over time, as older passports expire, everyone who holds a passport will get an electronic version.

Government employee and diplomatic passports will receive the chips in a pilot program beginning early next year.

In issuing the new rules, the department is matching a requirement it is imposing on visitors from several other countries. Foreigners from countries who do not need visas to enter the United States also must have the chips by next October. Such countries will be responsible for providing their citizens with passports that comply with U.S. entry requirements.

A spokeswoman said the department is convinced the electronic passports will provide enhanced security.

But in a federal filing, the department said that 98.5 percent of the 2,335 comments it received since it issued proposed rules last spri ng opposed the program.

Technology experts have said that the data on the chips, which will be read at a short distance by electronic devices in a passport-control booth, could be electronically intercepted and potentially misused.

Some privacy groups also fear that the chips could be a prelude to tracking individuals' movements.

Other security experts said the system is not robust enough, noting that digital photographs can have high error rates compared with actual faces. These experts said the system should instead use a biometric identifier such as fingerprints.

The new rules seek to address some of the concerns.

According to the filing, the passports will be equipped with "anti-skimming" technology to reduce the chance of the signal being intercepted between the passport and the electronic reader.

The chip itself will be embedded in the back cover of a newly designed passport, and the anti-skimming film will be in both the front and back covers, reducing the chance of interception when someone is standing in a passport line.

According to the filing, the passport needs to be within inches of the reader in order to work.

The department rejected calls to encrypt, or scramble, the data on the passport. Instead, the transmission stream when the data is passing from the passport to the reader will be encrypted.

The department also rejected some calls for using a smart-card-type chip that must come into contact with the reader, as opposed to a radio frequency identification chip that can be read at a distance. The department said smart-card chips do not lend themselves to being put into a book-like document such as a passport.

The chips will have enough memory so additional biometric information could be added in the future.

But the department said it has no plans to include personal information such as Social Security numbers on the chips.

Ari Schwartz, associate director of the Center for Democracy and Technology, a digital-policy group, said he had not yet studied the department filing.

But he said it was a "risky strategy" without first testing the system on a large scale.

© 2005 The Washington Post Company

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/ne...t_id=1001351291

Military's Advice to Reporters: 2,000 Dead in Iraq 'Not a Milestone'

By E&P Staff

Published: October 25, 2005 1:11 PM ET updated 3:30 PM

NEW YORK CNN reported this morning that the U.S. death toll in Iraq had reached 2,000, and a little later The Associated Press confirmed this. AP said the 2,000th military fatality was an Army sergeant who was wounded by a roadside bomb north of Baghdad and died in Texas last weekend. He is Staff Sgt. George T. Alexander Jr., 34, of Killeen, Texas.

But the chief spokesman for the American-led multinational force has called on the media not to consider the 2,000 number as some kind of milestone.

U.S. Army Lt. Col. Steve Boylan, director of the force's combined press center, wrote in an e-mail to reporters, "I ask that when you report on the events, take a moment to think about the effects on the families and those serving in Iraq. The 2,000 service members killed in Iraq supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom is not a milestone. It is an artificial mark on the wall set by individuals or groups with specific agendas and ulterior motives."

Boylan, according to AP, added: "The 2,000th Soldier, Sailor, Airman, or Marine that is killed in action is just as important as the first that died and will be just as important as the last to die in this war against terrorism and to ensure freedom for a people who have not known freedom in over two generations."

He complained that the true milestones of the war were "rarely covered or discussed," and said they included the troops who had volunteered to serve, the families of those that have been deployed for a year or more, and the Iraqis who have sought at great risk to restore normalcy to their country. It also includes, he added, Iraqis who sought to join the security forces and had became daily targets for insurgent attacks at recruiting centers, those who turned out to vote in the constitutional referendum, and those who chose to risk their lives by joining the government.

"Celebrate the daily milestones, the accomplishments they have secured and look to the future of a free and democratic Iraq and to the day that all of our troops return home to the heroes welcome they deserve," Boylan wrote.

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Leak indictments may come today Seattle Times
The prosecutor in the CIA leak case was preparing to outline possible charges before a federal grand jury as early as today, even as the FBI conducted last-minute interviews in the high-profile investigation, according to people familiar with the case. Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald was seen in Washington on Tuesday with lawyers in the case, and some White House officials braced for at least one indictment when the grand jury meets today. I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, is said by several people in the case to be a main focus, but not the only one.

President Bush's senior advisor Karl Rove drives away from his home in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday.
In a possible sign that Fitzgerald may charge one or more officials with illegally disclosing Valerie Plame's CIA affiliation, FBI agents as recently as Monday night interviewed at least two people in her D.C. neighborhood to determine whether they knew she worked for the CIA before she was unmasked with the help of senior Bush administration officials. Two neighbors told the FBI they were shocked to learn she was a CIA agent. The FBI interviews suggested the prosecutor wanted to show that Plame's status was covert, and that there was damage from the revelation that she worked at the CIA. Underscoring the uncertainty surrounding the investigation, two Republican officials said Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove, the president's top strategist, is not sure whether he will face indictment as the case winds down. Rove was said to be awaiting word from Fitzgerald, even as prosecutors questioned at least one former Rove associate about Rove's contacts with reporters before Plame's name was disclosed. The White House expects indictments to come today, according to a senior administration official. The news of the 11th-hour moves came on the same day that Cheney himself was implicated in the chain of events that led to Plame's being revealed. In a report in The New York Times that the White House did not dispute, Fitzgerald was said to have notes taken by Libby showing that he learned about Plame from the vice president a month before her name appeared in a column by Robert Novak. There is no indication that Cheney did anything illegal or improper, but the report is the first evidence to indicate he knew of Plame well before she became a household name. Fitzgerald's investigation has centered on whether senior administration officials knowingly revealed Plame's identity in an effort to discredit a Bush administration critic — her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson. On July 6, 2003, Wilson accused the administration of twisting intelligence to justify the war in Iraq. Eight days later, Novak revealed Plame's name and her identity as a CIA agent. The grand jury, whose term expires Friday, is scheduled for a session today. Unlike the jury in a criminal trial, grand jurors are not weighing proof of guilt or innocence. They decide whether there is probable cause to charge someone with a crime, and they must agree unanimously to indict. The prosecutor could seek to seal any indictments until he announces the charges. It is not clear what charges Fitzgerald will seek, if any. After setting out on his original investigation, he won explicit authority to also consider perjury and other crimes that government officials might have committed during the nearly two-year investigation. Fitzgerald and his investigative team have questioned more than two dozen officials from the White House, the vice president's office, the CIA and the State Department, as well as residents of Wilson's neighborhood. Fitzgerald has looked closely not only at the possible crimes, but also at the context in which they would have been committed. This search, say lawyers in the case, has provided him a rare, perhaps even unprecedented, glimpse into the White House effort to justify the Iraq war — and rebut its critics. The trail often has led to Cheney's office, which officials describe as ground zero in the effort in promote, execute and defend the Iraq war and the campaign to convince the American people and the world that Saddam Hussein had amassed a stockpile of the most dangerous kinds of weapons. According to the report in Tuesday's New York Times, the investigation also led to Cheney himself. Cheney has the security clearance to review and discuss classified material, and no evidence has been made public to suggest he did anything illegal. But this is the first time the vice president has been directly linked to the chain of events that eventually led to Plame's identity being disclosed. McClellan said Cheney has always been honest with the American people. He dismissed as "ridiculous" a question about whether Bush stood by Cheney's account of his role in the matter. In an interview in September 2003, Cheney told NBC's Tim Russert that he did not know Wilson or who sent him to Africa. Officials said Cheney was careful to distance himself from Wilson in the interview without telling a lie about what he knew about the diplomat and his wife. Two lawyers involved in the case said that based on Fitzgerald's questions, the prosecutor has been aware of Libby's June 12 conversation with Cheney since the early days of his investigation. The lawyers said Libby did record in his notes that Cheney relayed to him that Plame may have had a role in Wilson's taking the CIA-sponsored mission to Niger. According to a source familiar with Libby's testimony, he previously told the grand jury he believed he heard of Plame first from reporters.
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Bush Says War in Iraq Isn't Cause of Rising Terrorism (Update3)
Oct. 25 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush, confronting criticism of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, said the conflict there hasn't spurred the spread of terrorism and a withdrawal won't end the threat from violent extremists.

With the number of U.S. military deaths in Iraq approaching 2,000 and public support for the war declining, Bush told a gathering of military spouses today that radicals were spreading their ideology before the March 2003 invasion and will ``exist after Iraq is no longer an excuse.''

``Some have argued that extremism has been strengthened by the actions of our coalition in Iraq, claiming that our presence in that country has somehow caused or triggered the rage of radicals,'' Bush said at a luncheon for more than 500 wives of military officers at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington. ``I would remind them that we were not in Iraq on Sept. 11.''

Bush spoke on the day that Iraqi authorities said voters approved a new constitution in an Oct. 15 referendum, a step that the U.S. president had marked as a milestone for progress in the country. The constitution was backed by almost 79 percent of Iraqi voters, Iraq's Independent Electoral Commission announced.

Certification of the constitution means ``the Iraqi people have once again proved their determination to build a democracy united against extremism and violence,'' Bush said.

`Incredible Progress'

``Iraq has made incredible political progress, from tyranny to liberation to national elections to the ratification of a national constitution in the space of two and one-half years,'' the president said.

Bush later in the day met with Massoud Barzani, the president of the Iraqi Regional government of Kurdistan, at the White House and praised him as a ``man of courage'' who ``stood up to a tyrant.'' Barzani, Bush said, was ``very helpful'' in backing the approval of the Constitution.

For his part, Barzani said the U.S. has ``liberated the people'' of Iraq and ``we will achieve success in the end.''

Americans increasingly are questioning the wisdom of the U.S.-led invasion. For the first time, a majority of Americans in a Wall Street Journal/Harris Interactive poll said going to war in Iraq was a mistake, the Journal reported today. The 53 percent who held that view marked an increase from 49 percent in September and 43 percent a year ago. The online poll of 1,833 adults taken Oct. 11-17 has an error margin of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.

At least 1,993 U.S. military personnel have died in Iraq, according to the latest count posted by the Pentagon. Cable News Network reported today that recent clashes pushed the total to 2,000, citing unidentified Pentagon officials.

Protest

Cindy Sheehan, who has become a prominent leader of war opponents since her son was killed in Iraq last year and she staged a demonstration outside Bush's Texas ranch in August, was protesting at the White House as Bush returned from his speech. She said she is leading a week-long vigil to mark the U.S. death toll in Iraq hitting 2,000.

``I still want George Bush to meet with me,'' said Sheehan, who advocates an immediate withdrawal from Iraq. Sheehan met with Bush, along with other relatives of soldiers killed in Iraq, shortly after her son's death. She is demanding another meeting to ask Bush to explain his rationale for the war.

`Clear' Commitment

Bush said his strategy in Iraq requires patience, constant pressure on the insurgents and strong allies.

``Our commitment is clear,'' he said. ``We will not relent until the organized international terrorist networks are exposed and broken, and their leaders are held to account for their murder.''

Violence flared yesterday as three bombs exploded near a hotel in central Baghdad that is home to foreign and Iraqi journalists and Western contractors. At least 20 people were killed and 40 were wounded, the Associated Press reported.

For Iraq there will be ``no peace without victory,'' Bush said. If the U.S. backs down the extremists will have a base of operations from which to spread their violent ideology, he said.

The president also renewed his warning to Syria and Iran, countries that he said are ``allies of convenience'' with Islamic radicals and seek ``to blame their own failures on the West, on America and on the Jews.''

Syria and its leaders, he said, ``must be held accountable'' for supporting terrorism and for any involvement in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.

The United Nations Security Council was briefed today by its investigator on Hariri's killing. The investigator, German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, has linked Syrian officials to the attack.



To contact the reporter on this story:
Roger Runningen in Washington at rrunningen@bloomberg.net;
Kelly Proctor in Washington at kproctor@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: October 25, 2005 15:16 EDT

Bigger, Stronger Homemade Bombs Now to Blame for Half of U.S. Deaths

By John Ward Anderson, Steve Fainaru and Jonathan Finer

BAGHDAD, Oct. 25 -- After 31 months of fighting in Iraq, more than half of all American fatalities are now being caused by powerful roadside bombs that blast fiery, lethal shrapnel into the cabins of armored vehicles, confronting every patrol with an unseen, menacing adversary that is accelerating the U.S. death toll.

U.S. military officials, analysts and militants themselves say insurgents have learned to adapt to U.S. defensive measures by using bigger, more sophisticated and better-concealed bombs known officially as improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. They are sometimes made with multiple artillery shells and Iranian TNT, sometimes disguised as bricks, boosted with rocket propellant, and detonated by a cell phone or a garage door opener.

The bombs range from massive explosives capable of destroying five-ton vehicles to precision "shaped charges" that bore softball-size holes through thick armor, the main defense of troops in the field, and they are becoming a key factor in the fast-rising U.S. death toll.

It took about 18 months from the start of the March 2003 invasion of Iraq to reach 1,000 U.S. deaths; it took less than 13 months to reach 1,000 more. A major reason for the surge, statistics show, is the insurgency's embrace of IEDs, together with the military's inability to detect them.

"It's the dreaded IED that's killing our soldiers," said Michael White, the creator of http://icasualties.org/ , a Web site that tracks U.S. military casualties. "I read in the paper that we have some new device to detect them, or we're taking extra care to make sure we don't get hit, and death after death keeps coming in, and it's IEDs."

In the first six months of battle in Iraq, only 11 soldiers -- about 4 percent of the 289 who died -- were killed by homemade roadside bombs. In the last six months, at least 214 service members have been killed by IEDs, or 63 percent of the 339 combat-related deaths and 53 percent of the 400 U.S. fatalities, according to data complied by the Brookings Institution's Iraq Index.

"The IEDs are the biggest threat we have," said Lt. Col. John Walsh, commander of Task Force 1-163, a Montana Army National Guard battalion that is completing a year-long combat tour in Hawija, a Sunni Arab city about 30 miles southwest of Kirkuk. Walsh's soldiers have encountered more than 600 roadside bombs, 60 percent of which exploded before they were detected. The unit has lost four soldiers, two from roadside bombs, and had 68 wounded, a casualty rate of 8.5 percent.

"Right now they're probably four times more powerful than when we first got here," 1st Sgt. Stanley Clinton said, referring to the bombs. Clinton, 53, has been deployed for the past year in Kirkuk for Alpha Company of the 2nd Battalion, 116th Brigade Combat Team.

Clinton said that when the 116th combat team, an Idaho Army National Guard unit, arrived last December, the insurgents employed "backwoodsy stuff" -- often tiny bombs fashioned from items as basic as Coca-Cola cans. Now, he said, they often consist of one or more 120- or 155-mm artillery rounds, 15 or 20 pounds of rocket propellant or shaped charges that concentrate the blast and punch through armor plating.

"Clearly we are not winning the competition over tactics and counter-tactics," said Michael O'Hanlon, a defense analyst who heads Brookings' Iraq Index. "The insurgency's ability to hide IEDs better, detonate them more remotely and build them more powerfully has been at least as effective as our improvements in better armor and better tactics."

In some instances, insurgents have constructed IEDs powerful enough to kill soldiers inside 22-ton Bradley Fighting Vehicles, which are more heavily armored than Humvees.

Even though U.S. commanders have placed huge emphasis on countering IEDs, O'Hanlon said, "We are still suffering as many casualties as ever, which makes me wonder if we've found the limitations of our reconnaissance measures." Militants may have discovered, for instance, how to avoid being spotted by surveillance flights, he said.

The development of shaped charges appears to be a direct response by insurgents to the Americans' use of more heavily armored vehicles, according to soldiers and U.S. military explosives experts. Those vehicles -- principally five-ton, armor-plated Humvees -- are used by all U.S troops traveling outside military bases. The Pentagon drew criticism last year for failing to provide adequate protection for soldiers patrolling Iraq's increasingly dangerous streets.

To fashion a shaped charge, one end of a cylindrical object such as a pipe is welded shut, and is then packed with explosive material and a conical piece of metal that becomes a molten projectile when the device is detonated. The charge is designed to focus the blast on a small area. In the case of a Humvee, the charge blasts a hole in the armor plating, propelling the scorching metal into the vehicle's cabin.

In July, a Humvee belonging to Alpha Company was out on patrol in Kirkuk when it was hit by a bomb equipped with a shaped charge, said Capt. Paul White, 39, the company commander. The explosion drilled a hole the size of a softball in the driver's door, he said. The red-hot shrapnel severed the driver's legs while the Humvee was still moving.

"He probably would have bled out except the shaped charge made [the metal] so hot it actually cauterized his legs as it cut his legs off," White said.

When a soldier yelled to stop the vehicle, White said the driver replied: "I can't stop. I don't have any legs."

"He literally said that," White recalled, adding that the Humvee came to a halt only after it rammed into a store.

According to a former Iraqi army officer who lives in the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi and is now a member of al Qaeda in Iraq, the group headed by Abu Musab Zarqawi, insurgents have advanced beyond the crude bombs they once used, such as dynamite or gunpowder mixed with nails and buried beside a road. Now, he said in an interview, militants have access to TNT from Iran that he said was about seven times stronger than the TNT available in Iraq. He said they were also using old Austrian missiles from the former Iraqi army and detonating them with electric wires, cell phones and other remote-control devices.

An Oct. 15 IED attack on a U.S. convoy in the village of Albu Faraj, just east of Ramadi, illustrated some of the new methods.

Haj Ali Eedan, 52, a farmer who watched the operation, said armed men planted a cylinder that looked like a hospital oxygen tank near a road, then moved it twice before finally hiding it in a pile of discarded nylon baskets. His son, Hussein, 30, said he thought the final site was selected for a reason other than that the cylinder would be well-hidden there.

"They were trying to find a solid place -- like metal, iron, or concrete -- to put the IED on," he said. "This makes the explosion three times more powerful than burying it."

The deadliest such attack came in August, when 14 Marines and an Iraqi civilian died in a single blast near Haditha, 125 miles northwest of Baghdad. The military later said insurgents had detonated a stack of three antitank rounds under an amphibious assault vehicle, the moderately armored personnel carrier used by Marines.

"We got better armor, they started getting better ordnance," Col. Bob Chase, the operations chief for the 2nd Marine Division, based in Ramadi, said at the time.

The insurgents have hidden the bombs in gunny sacks to disguise them as part of the garbage that litters the streets of Kirkuk, soldiers said. They have embedded them in concrete blocks similar to those used as building materials in new Kurdish settlements. As the Americans adapt their tactics, so, too, do the insurgents.

On the night of their Baghdad patrol this week, a platoon from the Army's 4-64 Armor Battalion of the 3rd Infantry Division studied every pile of trash on the side of darkened streets for telltale wires and other signs of explosives.

Earlier in the war, "We had an enemy who we could see," said Sgt. Brian Zamiska, 27, of Bentleyville, Pa., tapping the hood of a black Opel sedan as the patrol passed it. "We didn't have to worry about looking at every cardboard box in the road or every car like this and wondering if it was going to blow up."

His platoon mate, Lt. Lennie Fort, 30, of Clarksville, Tenn., said this style of warfare was frustrating.

"There's no one to shoot back [at], no one to kill," he said. "Honestly, it just gets us amped up to go out and get someone, but there's never anyone to get."

"Now they get a hose and they lay it across the road, and when you drive across it, it ignites the IED," said Clinton, the Alpha Company sergeant in Kirkuk. "You know years ago, when you had service stations where you'd drive across the rubber hose and it would go, 'ding, ding, ding'? Here you drive across a little hose and it sends water back into a little bottle with wires sitting there. When water goes back into the bottle, it connects wires, and off goes the IED. It's just so simple and so stupid."

Fainaru reported from Kirkuk.


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