Tomorrow, in its print edition, The New York Times starts to answer the question, with reporter Douglas Jehl disclosing the contents of a newly declassified memo apparently passed to him by Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee.I'll not rush to judgement - especially given The Times penchant for mis-handling recent events - but I'll have to pop for a copy on the morrow.
It shows that an al-Qaeda official held by the Americans was identified as a likely fabricator months before the Bush administration began to use his statements as the basis for its claims that Iraq trained al-Qaeda members to use biological and chemical weapons, according to this Defense Intelligence Agency document from February 2002.
It declared that it was probable that the prisoner, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, "was intentionally misleading the debriefers" in making claims about Iraqi support for al-Qaeda's work with illicit weapons, Jehl reports.
"The document provides the earliest and strongest indication of doubts voiced by American intelligence agencies about Mr. Libi's credibility," Jehl writes. "Without mentioning him by name, President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Colin L. Powell, then secretary of state, and other administration officials repeatedly cited Mr. Libi's information as 'credible' evidence that Iraq was training Al Qaeda members in the use of explosives and illicit weapons.
"Among the first and most prominent assertions was one by Mr. Bush, who said in a major speech in Cincinnati in October 2002 that 'we've learned that Iraq has trained Al Qaeda members in bomb making and poisons and gases."
Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito's opinions on abortion, discrimination and other contentious issues are the work of a mainstream jurist, not the ideologue depicted by critics, the White House argues in a voluminous briefing book meant for Republican senators.For an argument that his guy is mainstream, the material presented is pretty thin. There is more at the link, but it looks pretty inconsistent.
Alito's dissent in a 1991 abortion ruling showed "concern for the safety of women," the material says. By approving a requirement for spousal notification, he "reflected the position advanced by the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania."
A 1996 dissent in a sex discrimination case in which Alito sided with the employer shows he "simply questioned the wisdom of a 'blanket rule'" on dismissing such complaints before trial, in the White House view.
The Associated Press-Ipsos poll on public attitudes about President Bush's nominee for the Supreme Court, Samuel Alito, is based on telephone interviews with 1,006 adults from all states except Alaska and Hawaii and areas heavily damaged by hurricanes Katrina and Wilma. Because of hurricane damage, Ipsos did not try to interview respondents in Louisiana, southern Mississippi and central and southern Florida.Well, I guess some folks just plain count(no pun intended) for more than others. Of course it has always been so. Okay, I understand not wanting to spend the money in the states affected by the hurricane season - ya know, busy signals, downed lines and the like. Or, it may be that (dons tin-foil blogging hat) Ipsos felt that the people in Lose-yana and the other places most affected by the hurricane-season-that-won't-end might have a less favorable view of anything with Bush's name attached. I cannot fathom as to why.
The interviews in the rest of the country were conducted Oct. 31-Nov. 2 by Ipsos, an international polling firm.
Results were weighted to represent the population by demographic factors such as age, sex, region, race and income.
No more than one time in 20 should chance variations in the sample cause the results to vary by more than 3 percentage points from the answers that would be obtained if all Americans were polled.
There are other sources of potential error in polls, including the wording and order of questions. Results may not total 100 percent because of rounding.
Sorry about the formatting. But that is how it is displayed.1. As you may know, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor is retiring,
and President Bush has nominated Samuel Alito to replace her. Is your opinion of
Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito favorable, unfavorable, or haven't you heard
enough about Samuel Alito yet to have an opinion?
_Favorable, 20 percent _ Miers-19, Roberts-25
_Unfavorable, 14 percent _ Miers, 13, Roberts 14
_Haven't heard enough to yet have an opinion, 64 percent _ Miers-67, Roberts-59
_Not sure, 2 percent _ Miers-1, Robert-2
2. Do you think the U.S. Senate should or should not vote to confirm Harriet Miers
as a Supreme Court justice? Do you feel strongly or not strongly about that?
Total should vote to confirm _ 38 percent _ Miers-41, Roberts-47
_Feel strongly, 22 percent _ Miers-19, Roberts-36
_Do not feel strongly, 16 percent, Miers-22, Roberts-11
Total should not vote to confirm _ 22 percent, Miers-27, Roberts-24
_Feel strongly, 13 percent _ Miers-13, Roberts-16
_Do not feel strongly, 9 percent _ Miers-14, Roberts-8
Not sure, 40 percent _ Miers-32, Roberts-29
Hopes of uniting the hemisphere from Canada to Chile within a common free trade zone were stalled until further notice as the Americas Summit wrapped up Saturday without even a blueprint for advancing the proposal.
President George Bush attended the two-day summit in Mar Del Plata, Argentina hoping to burnish relations between the United States and the region, as well as inject new vigor into the decade-old proposal to create the Free Trade Area of the Americas.
But the resort area just south of Buenos Aires quickly became a magnet for anti-U.S. demonstrators led by Venezuela's populist leader Hugo Chavez and became the scene of fiery violence as some protestors torched stores and battled with riot police.
Chavez, who has repeatedly accused Bush of wanting to invade his oil-rich nation, triumphantly gathered with local icons, such as famed soccer player Diego Maradona, and declared the deal dead at a peacefully stadium rally that attracted more than 20,000 protestors.
"Every one of us has brought a shovel, because Mar del Plata is going to be the tomb of F.T.A.A.," Mr. Chavez told a crowd carrying banners calling Bush a "fascist," "child-killer" and "genocidal-beast," the New York Times reported.
"F.T.A.A. is dead, and we, the people of the Americans, are the ones who buried it."
Chavez believes Latin American and Caribbean nations should band together and reject U.S. style capitalism, instead adopting more socialist inspired ideals.
White House officials will be required to attend briefings next week on ethics and the handling of classified information after the indictment last week of a senior official in the CIA leak probe, according to a memo released on Saturday.
The White House counsel's office will conduct a series of presentations on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for those aides with security clearances.
"Your attendance at one of these sessions is mandatory," said a memo to White House staff from White House counsel Harriet Miers.
The memo was released in Mar del Plata, where President George W. Bush was attending a 34-nation Summit of the Americas.
The briefings will provide a refresher course on general ethics rules, including "the rules governing the protection of classified information," the memo said.
The budget bill, the most ambitious effort to curb federal spending in eight years, was approved by a vote of 52 to 47. Five Republicans opposed the measure; two Democrats voted for it.
Senator Judd Gregg, Republican of New Hampshire, the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said, "This bill is a reflection of the Republican Congress's commitment to pursue a path of fiscal responsibility."
It will, Mr. Gregg said, reduce the deficit and save roughly $35 billion over the next five years.
Democrats said the savings would disappear and the deficit would increase if Republicans carried out their plan to cut taxes by $70 billion later this year.
The Senate Democratic leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, called the budget "an immoral document" that "harms vulnerable Americans to provide another round of large tax breaks for the elite of this country, special interests and multimillionaires."
Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve, told a Congressional committee on Thursday that lawmakers should not extend President Bush's tax cuts if they could not make up for the lost revenue.
The Republican senators who voted against the budget bill were Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, Norm Coleman of Minnesota, Susan Collins of Maine, Mike DeWine of Ohio, and Olympia J. Snowe of Maine. The Democrats voting for the bill were Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana and Ben Nelson of Nebraska.
The Senate Democratic leadership over the course of the last several days has had discussions among themselves, along with senior congressional staff, about the possibility of pressing the Senate to appoint a special Senate select committee to investigate both the misuse of pre-war intelligence by the Bush administration to make the case to go to war with Iraq, as well as the Plame affair, according to at least three people who have been involved in those discussions.As always, much more at link.
"There is just a resolve on this issue that is not going to go away," said one person involved in the leadership discussions. One source said that although the discussions are preliminary, they were contemplating such a select committee in the tradition of the Senate Watergate committee, the Church committee-- which investigated abuses of the CIA and other intelligence agencies in the 1970s, or the joint congressional Iran-contra committees: "There is a historical model as to how this might be done."
Then there is CBS' Bob Fuss' assertion that, "There has not been a closed session in 25 years." Um..Wrong!Since my work does indeed depend on accuracy, it is my duty to give you, my gentle readers the whole truth.
On 8, Jan. 1999, the Senate had a closed session to discuss the impeachment process of one William Jefferson Clinton. There were six sessions about the fellated fellow. Of course there have been a few other instances in the last quarter century..But hey, I'm a semi-conductor engineer. My work depends on accuracy ;)
Court nominee Alito holdings top $615,000
OCT. 31 12:31 P.M. ET Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito has more than $615,000 in assets, including stock in Exxon Mobil Corp. worth more than $100,000, according to his 2004 financial disclosure statement.
Alito received the Exxon-Mobil stock, which could be worth as much as $250,000, as a bequest in May 2004. His disclosure form did not provide the source of the bequest, and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for more information.
While the Exxon-Mobil stock was his largest holding in 2004, Alito also owned stock worth $15,000 and $50,000 each in fast-food giant McDonalds and Intel, the computer chip maker; and stock worth less than $15,000 each in drug-maker Bristol Myers Sqibb and Disney.
Kay Daly, president of the conservative Coalition for a Fair Judiciary: "The president has made an excellent choice today which reflects his commitment to appoint judges in the mold of (Antonin) Scalia and (Clarence) Thomas. Sam Alito, a 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals judge, has consistently embraced the original intent of the Constitution."Courtesy NPR.
Q As Commander-In-Chief, what was the President's reaction to television's Bill Maher, in his announcement that members of our Armed Forces who deal with missiles are cowards, while the armed terrorists who killed 6,000 unarmed are not cowards, for which Maher was briefly moved off a Washington television station?So, Bill Maher, a person known for irreverent commentary makes a statement about 9/11 and is berated by the WH, and most everyone else...That was then.
MR. FLEISCHER: I have not discussed it with the President, one. I have --
Q Surely, as a --
MR. FLEISCHER: I'm getting there.
Q Surely as Commander, he was enraged at that, wasn't he?
MR. FLEISCHER: I'm getting there, Les.
Q Okay.
MR. FLEISCHER: I'm aware of the press reports about what he said. I have not seen the actual transcript of the show itself. But assuming the press reports are right, it's a terrible thing to say, and it unfortunate. And that's why -- there was an earlier question about has the President said anything to people in his own party -- they're reminders to all Americans that they need to watch what they say, watch what they do. This is not a time for remarks like that; there never is.
"We have been the cowards lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That's cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it, it's not cowardly."His show, Politically Incorrect wasn't given that title on a whim.
(CNN) -- A recent U.S. military report estimates that nearly 26,000 Iraqis were killed or wounded by insurgent attacks from January 1, 2004, through September 16, 2005.CNN has the goods. You can see the spin machine now. We must stay the course to keep the Iraqis safe. However, it is noted that the Iraqis were not directly targeted, but in military parlance, 'collateral damage.' How sanitary.
"Approximately 80 percent of all attacks are directed against coalition forces, but 80 percent of all casualties are suffered by Iraqis," the Pentagon report said.
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Gunmen killed the brother of Iraq's Shiite vice president Sunday and a top trade ministry official escaped assassination in another part of the capital, while the death toll in a major truck bombing the day before rose to 30. A U.S. Marine was fatally injured in another bombing.As always, much more at links.
Ghalib Abdul-Mahdi, brother of Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi, died along with his driver when a vehicle pulled alongside their car on bustling Palestine Street about 7:45 a.m. and gunmen inside opened fire. Ghalib Abdul-Mahdi was en route to Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari's office, where he served as an adviser, two aides to the vice president said.
Later Sunday, a top official in the Ministry of Trade, Qais Dawood Hasan, was wounded and two of his bodyguards were killed when gunmen ambushed their convoy in the upscale Baghdad neighborhood of Mansour, scene of several high-profile kidnappings and armed attacks on government officials and foreigners. Five other bodyguards and a bystander were injured, police said.
The U.S. command also announced Sunday that a Marine died of injuries suffered the day before in a roadside bombing near Baghdad. At least 2,016 U.S. military members have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
[Regarding the second term of a Presidency] Your team gets tired, the ideas stale, and the fumes of power more toxic. It was through those badlands that President George W. Bush trudged last week, and for once he was walking alone. "The problem is that the President doesn't want to make changes," says a White House adviser who is not looking for a West Wing job, "but he's lost some of his confidence in the three people he listens to the most." Those three are his Vice President, Dick Cheney, whose top aide, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, has been charged with brazenly obstructing the investigation into who leaked the name of CIA officer Valerie Plame; Bush senior adviser Karl Rove, who while not indicted has still emerged as a player in the scandal; and chief of staff Andrew Card, who gets some of the blame for bungling the response to Hurricane Katrina and even more for the botched Supreme Court nomination of Harriet Miers. "All relationships with the President, except for his relationship with Laura, have been damaged recently," the White House adviser says. The closest aide who is undamaged is Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice—who is off minding the rest of the world—and, of course, Bush himself. "The funny thing is everybody's failing now, in which case perhaps it's time to look at George Bush's relationship with George Bush."Much more good stuff at link. Hat tip to Buzzflash for putting me onto the trail of the article. Buzzflash has a link to an article about Scooter, and I found my way to this.
'It wasn't a job to her. It was fun.' Ruth Smith says she worked hard to tell kids about nature
By CHELSEA CONABOY
Monitor staff
Ruth Smith began planning her career as an environmental educator when she was in the fourth grade. That was when Mrs. Phinney, an instructor with Massachusetts Audubon, visited her class and brought a female possum. Smith said she can still remember how warm the possum's belly was when she stuck her fingers in its carrying pouch.
Later, she wondered if she could do Mrs. Phinney's job when she grew up. Until one week ago, Smith, now 42, was Mrs. Phinney for hundreds of children in the Concord area as the educational director for the Audubon Society of New Hampshire.
On Oct. 20, after 18 years on the job, Smith was laid off, along with seven other employees.
Audubon management wants to direct resources to more action-based education and land protection. Many parents and students of Smith's have reacted in anger and sadness, saying the camps won't be the same without her energy, calm discipline and the assurance she offered to parents that their children were learning and safe.
"Ruth holds Audubon together," said Colleen Twomey, 16, of Chichester, who has been an assistant instructor at camp for three years.
Twomey began attending Audubon's camps when she was 10. Being a councilor under Smith helped her realize that she wants to work with kids.
"She knows so much about nature and children, and the combination of the two is incredible," Twomey said. "It wasn't a job to her. It was fun."
Twomey had planned to return as an instructor this summer. Without Smith, she isn't sure she will.
"She was such an important part of it," she said.
A sense of wonder
Smith developed a dedication to both the environment and nonprofit work at a young age. She passed summer days as a kid at an Audubon camp in Massachusetts. Many nights, she sat at the kitchen table with her parents, writing out address labels for fundraising letters for the museum her father directed.
She came to New Hampshire's Audubon through an internship during her junior year at the University of New Hampshire. She quickly found her passion in environmental education.
"I just love the opportunity to show a child something that they've never experienced before," she said.
At camp one day, a preschooler was playing with colored water that was part of a demonstration on rainbows. He started playing with droppers of red and yellow. When he mixed the two together, his eyes got big, Smith said.
He threw his hands up and announced at the top of his lungs, "I made orange!"
To him, it was a "massive discovery," Smith said. She said she has stayed committed to her job because of those opportunities to witness that "magical sense of wonder."
Smith said she worked hard to bring those discoveries to more kids. As camp director, she added a program during the school year called Fledgling Fun for preschoolers and their parents. She also started a teenage leader-in-training program and a trip program for older students. Most recently, Audubon added day camps in Durham at the Mill Pond Center and in Newbury at The Fells.
The second reason she's stayed at Audubon is the people. For the last five years, all the assistant instructors at the Concord camp have been former campers. "I have literally watched children grow up through my programs," she said.
Learning lessons
Smith said she has tried to teach her campers about more than the environment. She's tried to teach them about connectedness, among animals and plants in nature and among people.
Adlai Gordon, 11, of Concord said he learned that lesson well. He started going to the camp in preschool. Adlai said his favorite things about it included the zip line and a skit at the beginning of each session that showed "this is a camp where everybody's nice to you, and you try to give back," he said.
Adlai's father, Joshua Gordon, went through four years of Fledgling Fun between his son and 9-year-old daughter, Nina. He said Smith could engage his children in the lessons, whether they were in a classroom making paper bats or in the field looking at birds' nests.
Gordon said it was difficult to tell his kids that she was no longer at Audubon.
"To them, Audubon is Ruth," he said.
Gordon said he won't be donating to Audubon anymore. "I'm just angry at them," he said. "How can an organization get rid of such an essential component to it?"
Smith said she saw her work with kids as important. But, when Audubon president David Houghton began pushing to spend more time and money educating adults about the urgency of protecting wildlife habitat from the state's rapid development, Smith said she joined the effort.
"I wholeheartedly endorsed that need to do more adult education . . . because I worry about what our children are going to inherit," she said.
Smith is pursuing a master's in environmental education at Antioch College in Ohio and this fall began working on a program to bring smart growth concepts to local planners.
What comes next
When Houghton began talking about cutting some programs, Smith couldn't agree. When she was laid off, she said, Houghton told her the organization couldn't raise enough money to support the education department at the current level.
"I don't think he tried very hard," she said.
Houghton said he isn't thinking about scaling back programming. Instead, he wants to "freshen it,"he said, and add more family and adult programs. The summer camps will continue, he said.
Houghton wouldn't speak specifically about Smith's layoff except to say he has "a great fondness for her."
"I wish her all the success in the world," he said. "She's a terrific person, and she is missed here at Audubon." He added that summer campers won't be disappointed in the changes being made.
Smith said she has been overwhelmed by the support she has received in the last week. Some people call to express sadness and anger, she said. Others call with possible job and volunteer opportunities.
She said she's using this as a chance to re-examine what she wants to do.
"I'm going to be okay," she said. "It's Audubon that I worry about."
Photos hanging at the Silk Farm Audubon Center portray a younger Smith sitting with children in a circle on the grass. An Audubon poster down the hall reads, "Who cares if the kids want to explore the world? We do."
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