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[However, Kennedy adjusted the numbers to account for undecided black voters, who overwhelmingly vote for Democrats, and said the runoff election currently stands in Blanco's favor. With that adjustment, Blanco would get 53 percent of the vote, compared to Jindal's 47 percent]
Republican Primary Trial Heat (among Republican voters): Cecil Underwood 30% Robin Capehart 8% Sarah Minear 8% Dan Moore 3% Monty Warner 3% Doug McKinney 2% Other 3% Undecided 43%
Democratic Primary Trial Heat (among Democratic voters): Joe Manchin 46% Darrell McGraw 11% John Perdue 5% Jim Humphreys 4% Lloyd Jackson 3% Jim Lees 3% Spike Maynard 2% Robin Davis 2% Other 1% Undecided 25%
The Associated Press is reporting that the Justice Department has opened a full investigation into the White House's alleged leak of undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity.
Do you trust John Ashcroft to conduct this investigation in a thorough and nonpartisan manner?
The [Justice] department notified the counsel's office about 8:30 p.m. Monday that it was launching an investigation but said the White House could wait until the next morning to notify staff and direct them to preserve relevant material, McClellan said.
Since when does the Justice Department give people a several-hours head start to destroy evidence before an investigation begins?
Clearly, it's time for Ashcroft to appoint an independent, special counsel to conduct this investigation. Democratic Senators Tom Daschle (D-SD), Carl Levin (D-MI), Joe Biden (D-DE), and John Rockefeller (D-WV) wrote a letter to John Ashcroft (PDF file) demanding that he appoint a special counsel:
However, we do not believe that this investigation of senior Bush Administration officials, possibly including high-level White House staff, can be conducted by the Justice Department because of the obvious and inherent conflicts of interests involved. Therefore, we strongly urge the immediate appointment of a special counsel to investigate this matter. Although a special counsel is appointed by the Attorney General, it is the best possible means of avoiding serious conflicts of interest.
And be sure to read Kevin Drum's must-read post cataloging the right wing's partisan attempts to defend the administration. - Source
The former ambassador who accused the White House of leaking the identity of his CIA officer wife to the press says Washington reporters told him that senior White House adviser Karl Rove said his wife was "fair game."
The ambassador, Joseph Wilson, said he plans to give the names of the reporters to the FBI, which is conducting a full-blown investigation of the possible leak.
"I will be revealing the names of everybody who called me and cited White House sources or cited people specifically," Wilson said in an interview with Nightline's Ted Koppel.
Revealing a CIA officer's identity is a felony — but only if the person who leaked it did so knowing that the officer was undercover.
Wilson has said he believes his wife's identity was revealed in an attempt to punish him for accusing the administration of manipulating intelligence to exaggerate the threat from Iraq.
On July 6, Wilson wrote an op-ed piece in The New York Times saying that the Bush administration had manipulated intelligence about Iraq's weapons programs. He cited specifically a line from President Bush's State of the Union speech about Iraq seeking uranium from Africa — information the White House later admitted was inaccurate.
Wilson had traveled to Niger in 2002 to investigate allegations of uranium sales to Iraq, and concluded the allegations were not credible.
On July 14, citing two senior administration officials, syndicated columnist Robert Novak revealed that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA and said that she had suggested sending him to Niger.
Wilson denies his wife had anything to do with his trip to Niger. "The CIA had spoken to me on any number of occasions on African-related issues. This was not unusual," he said.
Tracing the Path
On Aug. 21, at a public forum in Seattle, Wilson suggested that it was Rove, Bush's chief political strategist, who revealed his wife's identity. He later backtracked, saying he had no knowledge that it was Rove who personally leaked the information, but that he believed the White House adviser condoned the leak and did nothing to shut it down.
Wilson maintains that Washington reporters told him they spoke with Rove on the telephone after the Novak column came out.
"What I have confidence in — based upon what respectable press people in this town have told me — is that a week after the Novak article came out, Karl Rove was still calling around and talking to press people, saying Wilson's wife is fair game," Wilson said.
"The gist of the message, as it was reported back to me right after the phone call, was 'I just got off the phone with Karl Rove. He tells me your wife is fair game.' "
The White House has said it is "ridiculous" to suggest Rove played any role in disclosing the identity of Wilson's wife, and Bush on Tuesday said he welcomed the Justice Department investigation into the leak.
On Tuesday, all White House employees received a message from the White House Counsel's office asking them to preserve all documents from Feb. 1, 2002, to the present that related to the Justice Department probe.
In the National, Not Party, Interest
Wilson is expected to meet with members of the House Democratic Caucus today, but he denies he is doing it out of partisanship. Democratic lawmakers have called for the appointment of an independent counsel to investigate the leak.
"I'm meeting with the Democratic Caucus because they invited me," he said. "If the Republican Caucus were to invite me, I would go up and meet with them as well."
Wilson said he would be asked about his views on Bush's $87 billion budget request for reconstructing Iraq and Afghanistan, but said he expected to be asked about the investigation as well.
Wilson said he believed his views concerning the way ahead are "nonpartisan, are the best way ahead for our country — not for one political party or another."
The investigation concerning his wife should not be viewed as a partisan matter either, he said. "We're talking about a crime against the national security of the United States. That is not a partisan activity. That is a crime against the country."
ABCNEWS has learned that Wilson's wife made a $1,000 contribution to Al Gore's presidential campaign in 1999. The record of the donation lists her under her married name as an analyst working for a private company. The company's name is not listed in available directories. - Source
Conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh is being investigated for allegedly buying thousands of prescription painkillers from a black-market drug ring, the New York Daily News reported today.
The newspaper said Limbaugh has been implicated by his former housekeeper, who says she was Limbaugh's pill supplier for four years.
Wilma Cline, 42, was quoted by the newspaper as saying Limbaugh was hooked on the potent prescription drugs OxyContin, Lorcet and hydrocodone, and went through drug rehabilitation twice.
"There were times when I worried," Cline told the National Enquirer, which also carried the story in an edition being published today. "All these pills are enough to kill an elephant -- never mind a man."
Cline could not be reached for further comment, but her lawyer, Ed Shohat of Miami, said his client "stands behind the story."
Cline told the Enquirer she went to prosecutors with information about Limbaugh and others after four years of drug deals that included clandestine handoffs in a Denny's parking lot.
She said she wore a wire during her last two deliveries and gave the tapes to authorities.
She also gave the Enquirer a ledger documenting how many pills she claimed to have bought for him -- 4,350 in one 47-day period -- and e-mails she claimed Limbaugh sent her.
In one e-mail, Limbaugh urged Cline to get more "little blues," the street name for the powerful narcotic OxyContin, she said.
"You know how this stuff works ... the more you get used to, the more it takes," the May 2002 e-mail read. "But I will try and cut down to help out."
The Enquirer reported that Cline became Limbaugh's drug connection in 1998, nine months after taking a housekeeping job at his Palm Beach, Fla., mansion.
The Palm Beach County state attorney's office, which is in charge of the investigation, said it could not confirm or deny the allegations.
Keven Bellows, an executive with the Premiere Radio Networks, which syndicates the politically focused "Rush Limbaugh Show," read a statement from Limbaugh on Thursday morning.
"I am unaware of any investigation by any authority involving me. No government representative has contacted me directly or indirectly. If my assistance is required, I will, of course, cooperate fully," the statement said.
Limbaugh's lawyers, Jerry Fox and Dan Zachary, refused to comment on the accusations. - Source
Another of the men named by the FBI as a hijacker in the suicide attacks on Washington and New York has turned up alive and well.
The identities of four of the 19 suspects accused of having carried out the attacks are now in doubt.
Saudi Arabian pilot Waleed Al Shehri was one of five men that the FBI said had deliberately crashed American Airlines flight 11 into the World Trade Centre on 11 September.
His photograph was released, and has since appeared in newspapers and on television around the world.
Now he is protesting his innocence from Casablanca, Morocco.
He told journalists there that he had nothing to do with the attacks on New York and Washington, and had been in Morocco when they happened. He has contacted both the Saudi and American authorities, according to Saudi press reports.
He acknowledges that he attended flight training school at Dayton Beach in the United States, and is indeed the same Waleed Al Shehri to whom the FBI has been referring.
But, he says, he left the United States in September last year, became a pilot with Saudi Arabian airlines and is currently on a further training course in Morocco.
Mistaken identity
Abdulaziz Al Omari, another of the Flight 11 hijack suspects, has also been quoted in Arab news reports.
He says he is an engineer with Saudi Telecoms, and that he lost his passport while studying in Denver.
Another man with exactly the same name surfaced on the pages of the English-language Arab News.
The second Abdulaziz Al Omari is a pilot for Saudi Arabian Airlines, the report says.
Meanwhile, Asharq Al Awsat newspaper, a London-based Arabic daily, says it has interviewed Saeed Alghamdi.
He was listed by the FBI as a hijacker in the United flight that crashed in Pennsylvania.
And there are suggestions that another suspect, Khalid Al Midhar, may also be alive.
FBI Director Robert Mueller acknowledged on Thursday that the identity of several of the suicide hijackers is in doubt. - Source
Nearly seven in 10 Americans believe a special prosecutor should be named to investigate allegations that Bush administration officials illegally leaked the name of an undercover CIA agent, according to a Washington Post/ABC News poll released yesterday.
The poll, taken after the Justice Department announced that it had opened a criminal probe into the matter, pointed to several troubling signs for the White House as Bush aides decide how to contain the damage. The survey found that 81 percent of Americans considered the matter serious, while 72 percent thought it likely that someone in the White House leaked the agent's name.
Confronted with little public support for the White House view that the investigation should be handled by the Justice Department, Bush aides began yesterday to adjust their response to the expanding probe. They reined in earlier, broad portrayals of innocence in favor of more technical arguments that it is possible the disclosure was made without knowledge that a covert operative was being exposed and therefore might not have been a crime.
As the White House hunkered down, it got the first taste of criticism from within Bush's own party. Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) said that Bush "needs to get this behind him" by taking a more active role. "He has that main responsibility to see this through and see it through quickly, and that would include, if I was president, sitting down with my vice president and asking what he knows about it," the outspoken Hagel said last night on CNBC's "Capital Report."
At the same time, administration allies outside the White House stepped up a counteroffensive that seeks to discredit the administration's main accuser, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, whose wife was named as a CIA operative. Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie gave a string of television interviews with the three-part message that the Justice Department is investigating, that the White House is fully cooperating and that Wilson has a political agenda and has made "rash statements."
"He is someone, given his politics, who is obviously prone to think the worst of this White House," Gillespie said by telephone.
With Tuesday's announcement that a full criminal investigation into the leaks was underway, the federal government's investigative apparatus began to reassemble. An FBI spokeswoman said the bureau has gathered a team of agents experienced in leak investigations to conduct the inquiry, from the inspections and counterintelligence divisions at headquarters and in the Washington field office. The FBI investigation will be overseen by the bureau's Inspections Division, which often handles specialized probes, one FBI official said.
At the White House, officials said they will examine their files and phone logs and preserve message slips and notes that could relate to the investigation. While Bush was quiet on the topic yesterday, the subject filled 22 of 24 pages in the transcript of the daily White House press briefing.
Bush press secretary Scott McClellan made clear he was limiting his public claims related to the probe. He said that he would not vouch for individual aides' innocence other than his statement that Bush senior adviser Karl Rove "didn't condone that kind of activity and was not involved in that kind of activity."
McClellan also limited his defense of White House aides to narrow legal grounds. On Monday, he said, "There's been nothing, absolutely nothing, brought to our attention to suggest any White House involvement, and that includes the vice president's office as well."
Yesterday, McClellan did not deny that there had been any general White House effort to discredit Wilson at the time of the original leak. "The issue here is whether or not someone leaked classified information," he said yesterday, adding after the briefing: "I'm drawing a line here. I'm not going to play the game of going down other rabbit trails."
The move to circumscribe the White House response could have legal and political implications. Bush and his aides have made clear that they do not support naming a special counsel to investigate the leaks, but Democrats said Bush's Justice Department cannot lead an impartial probe.
Seeking to keep up the pressure on Bush yesterday, Senate Minority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (S.D.) and three other Senate Democrats wrote to the president repeating their call for a special counsel and asking for all White House senior staff members to sign a statement saying they were not responsible for the leak.
Justice Department regulations may make it difficult for Attorney General John D. Ashcroft to leave the matter to his career staff, as he has proposed, particularly if journalists who received the leaks are to be questioned. The regulations state that "no subpoena may be issued to any member of the news media without the express authorization of the Attorney General."
The name of Wilson's wife and her status as a CIA employee were published in a syndicated column days after Wilson wrote an article casting doubt on the administration's claim that Iraq had sought nuclear materials in Niger. The columnist, Robert D. Novak, quoted two senior administration officials.
On Saturday, a senior administration official told The Washington Post that before Novak's column appeared, two top White House officials called at least six journalists and disclosed the identity of Wilson's wife. The senior administration official said the leak was "meant purely and simply for revenge." Wilson had been sent by the CIA to Niger in 2002 to examine the nuclear claims.
Both the White House and the Republican National Committee assailed Wilson for retreating from his charge that Rove was responsible for the disclosure and for his newly acknowledged role in the presidential campaign of Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.). Wilson said he gave $2,000 to Kerry's campaign and has participated in three or four of the campaign's conference calls about foreign policy.
At the Capitol, aides to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (Tex.) distributed paper sacks labeled "Leak Hyperventilation Bags."
Still, most White House allies were careful not to dismiss the significance of the allegations. Gillespie was asked by MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Tuesday evening whether the potential crime involved was worse than Watergate. "You know, yeah, I suppose in terms of the real-world implications of it," Gillespie said. "It's not just politics. It's people's lives."
Disclosing the name of a clandestine operative -- which can jeopardize the agent's contacts -- can be a crime, but that determination depends on factors that include whether the disclosure was intentional, whether the leaker knew the person was a covert agent and whether he or she knew the government was taking steps to conceal the agent's covert status. "Was it known that information was classified information?" asked McClellan, who pointed to statements this week by Novak saying he did not know Wilson's wife had undercover status.
McClellan suggested at a briefing yesterday morning that Bush would want aides to take polygraph tests if requested by the FBI. " 'Full cooperation' is full cooperation," he said, referring to Bush's remarks on Tuesday. Asked in the afternoon, he said, "That is a hypothetical, and that is not where the process is."
McClellan said in the morning that he did not know if any White House aides had contacted the Justice Department with information. By afternoon, he was referring such questions to Justice, saying he would have no reason to know. McClellan said he could not say when Bush first learned of the leak. "I looked into it, and I just don't know," he said.
In the Post-ABC News poll, 34 percent thought it likely that Bush knew in advance about the leaks. Bush's overall support slipped to 54 percent from 58 percent in mid-September. That level is the lowest of his presidency but still respectable by historical measures. There was a high degree of suspicion directed toward the administration. Only 29 percent said the investigation should be handled by the Justice Department, while 69 percent favored a special counsel with autonomy from the administration. - Source
Warning of civil liberties abuses similar to those that preceded the Holocaust, the City Council on Wednesday approved a watered-down resolution urging repeal of portions of the USA Patriot Act.
The 37-7 vote followed an emotional debate that invoked the chilling words of Nazi leader Hermann Goering and ignored Mayor Daley's warning that the federal government needs extraordinary tools to fight terrorism.
"The Patriot Act was passed because of 9/11. When some building blows up, are you gonna go see the alderman?" said Daley, a former prosecutor.
"Terrorists don't understand civil rights. If they did, they would have never bombed the World Trade Center. ... If there's a situation [where] they say the federal government has violated civil rights, then let's hear from them. But ... let's not prejudge this law unless something has taken place."
Ald. Freddrenna Lyle (6th) said she doesn't need to "sit around and wait until it happens" to know that the USA Patriot Act "solidifies racial profiling" and declares "open season on people of color."
"We don't have to drink the bottle that has the skull and crossbones on it ... [to know that] it's poison. In my lifetime, I saw groups castigated. We had the Black Panthers. We had the Nation of Islam. Some of us read history and don't want to go back there," Lyle said.
Ald. Leslie Hairston (5th) added: "This is precisely how Hermann Goering explained Hitler's takeover of the German government as described at the Nuremberg trials. And I quote, 'The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger.' It works the same way in any country and we're not gonna let it work here."
Last week, a Council committee agreed to make Chicago the largest of 200 cities to stand opposed to the Patriot Act over the objections of U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald had argued that immigration provisions of the "widely misunderstood" law had yet to result in a single person being detained nationwide. He also claimed that the act had succeeded in breaking down the "frightening and irrational" bureaucratic wall that had prohibited those conducting criminal and intelligence investigations of terrorists from sharing information with each other.
His warning against repealing the act apparently carried some weight.
Before Wednesday's vote, the resolution was softened considerably. The final language urged Congress to "monitor implementation" of the act and repeal "only those sections ... that violate fundamental rights and liberties."
Seven aldermen voted against the resolution: James Balcer (11th); Edward M. Burke (14th); Ginger Rugai (19th); William Banks (36th); Tom Allen (38th); Brian Doherty (41st) and Patrick Levar (45th).
Doherty, the Council's lone Republican, denounced the resolution as an "innocuous piece of rhetoric" with only one purpose: "to embarrass" the Bush administration. - Source
We've heard a lot about how blowing Plame's cover was probably illegal and certainly dishonorable. But let's walk through what the implications are.
Plame's beat, if we can use that word, was weapons of mass destruction. And, of course, WMD is the big issue. It's why Iraq, why Joe Wilson, why Niger, why CIA referrals. That's what's at the bottom of all this stuff. Keeping WMD out of the wrong hands is, or was, Plame's job.
If that's her job you can figure that over the years she's been involved in various operations aimed at tracking proliferation, worked with various human sources, all sorts of stuff like that.
Now Plame's name has been splashed across papers all over the world. And the folks that leaked her name made sure that they used her maiden name, Plame -- the one she did most of her work under -- rather than Wilson, the name which I'm told she now goes by.
So now her name's out. You couldn't unlock everything just knowing her name -- covers are used and so forth. But once you know Plame is CIA, and what she looks like and so forth, you unravel most if not everything. And now every bad-actor and bad-acting government knows that anything that Plame was involved with, any operation, any company she was supposed to be working for, any people she worked closely with, are probably also CIA or at least work with CIA. WMD bad-guys now know to steer clear of them.
Let's say there's some operation Plame hasn't been involved with for a decade -- but it's still on-going. People will remember she used to be in on that operation and thus it's tagged as an Agency operation and it's useless. Everyone will know to steer clear.
Now, I have no knowledge of any operations Plame was involved in or covers she used. These are hypotheticals. But it gives you a sense of the sort of work she was involved in and the potential collateral damage of exposing her cover. And consider what her work was: protecting Americans from weapons of mass destruction. Chew on that irony. - Source
"Neo-conservatives and religious conservatives have hijacked this administration, and I consider myself on a personal mission to destroy both." Those are the words of Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who will certainly be a household name for weeks to come.
Chances are very good that we will never know who from the White House leaked the information about Mr. Wilson and his wife to members of the press. For one thing, that's the nature of leak investigations. Journalists don't reveal their sources, and sources have a way of disappearing into the mahogany paneling in the halls of power here in Washington. Most of such investigations end inconclusively.
What we do know is that damage is being done to the reputation of the Bush White House by the controversy over the leak. President Bush came into office with the promise to bring honor and integrity to the office of the presidency after the Clinton impeachment trial, and here we are now with calls for independent prosecutors coming fast and furious from Democrats, who hated the idea when Bill Clinton was the target.
In a politically sound move, and as soon as the CIA reported that "two senior administration officials" had given the name of an agent (i.e. Mr. Wilson's wife) to journalists, the White House lost no time facilitating the leak investigation. It was referred to the Justice Department on Sept. 27. So far, we have seen none of the Clinton-era, Janet Reno-style stone-walling in evidence.
Still, looking at the main players in this case and their statements, there is a sliding scale of truth, which, in the end, will prevent us from knowing what actually happened. Statements shift from moment to moment, and each has his interests to protect. Administration officials obviously do. So do members of the media, especially, columnist Robert Novak, whose article on July 14 caused the initial furor.
Take Mr. Wilson himself, who has been much in evidence on national television screens since this weekend. Could he have an agenda beyond demanding justice?
Well, what would you think of someone who tells people around Washington - as Mr. Wilson did last week - "Neo-conservatives and religious conservatives have hijacked this administration, and I consider myself on a personal mission to destroy both."
That sounds pretty ugly, doesn't it? It is in fact quite a bit at odds with the reasonable image that Mr. Wilson has been projecting on our television screens in recent days. Mr. Wilson also saw fit back in August to accuse presidential adviser Karl Rove of having orchestrated the White House leak. He swore he would see Mr. Rove led out of there "in handcuffs." Now, he says he got carried away by passion and is in possession of no evidence that Mr. Rove was involved.
That Mr. Wilson holds such views in no way excuses the injustice that was done him and his wife Valerie Plame, when a leak to the media identified her as a CIA officer involved in analysis of information regarding weapons of mass destruction. Mr. Wilson - who had been sent to the African country of Niger by the CIA to investigate claims that uranium "yellowcake" had been sold to Iraqi agents - emerged last summer as a severe critic of the Bush administration. He accused the White House of "misrepresenting facts on an issue that was a fundamental justification for going to war."
It is for this criticism that Mr. Wilson claims he and his family are being punished. Which may well be true. That would be both illegal and unethical. As Mr. Wilson stated at the time, "Whoever leaked that comment about my wife did it very clearly to smear my good name and my wife's good name." He has not himself, however, had any compunction about smearing Mr. Rove's good name without any evidence.
Now, Mr. Bush might well be able to get this whole affair behind him by finding a scapegoat to fire - had it not been that revealing the identity of a CIA officer is a federal crime, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. A simple dismissal would not put an end to the matter.
So, here is another suggestion to get to the bottom of this mess before our policy in Iraq becomes a victim of Washington's politics of long knives. Let's polygraph the whole bunch - White House officials, media types, CIA officials. At the CIA, they at least allow agents who have been accused an "exculpatory polygraph test." In the Washington political jungle, that may be the only way of getting at the facts. - Source
French-American media company Vivendi Universal is close to a deal to sell its Newsworld International cable network to a group of investors led by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore for 70 million, or $82.03 million, according to a report published on Wednesday.
Citing people close to the situation, the Wall Street Journal said no deal had been finalized and could still fall apart.
The newspaper reported the Gore group has been looking at moving into cable programming for the last few months and has also been looking at cable channel TechTV.
The Newsworld International cable network is available in less than 20 million homes in the United States. It runs newscasts from around the world but was left out of Vivendi's deal to merge its entertainment assets with General Electric's NBC. - Source
Civil liberties in an age of terrorism require a careful balance between preserving important rights cherished by all Americans and the need for law enforcement to investigate and prevent terrorist attacks. The importance of a balanced standard is particularly evident in President Bush's request to Congress for additional law-enforcement powers to investigate terrorist suspects while questions persist about why the White House and FBI permitted 140 Saudis (including two-dozen relatives of Osama bin Laden) to leave hurriedly from the United States for Saudi Arabia.
In the days immediately following Sept. 11, 2001, while the airways were still closed to all other flights, Americans couldn't fly into the country but relatives of bin Laden were able to fly out. The Justice Department and the FBI inspector general should investigate why these obvious "persons of interest" were permitted to leave the country without being seriously interrogated.
Why should the American people trust the Bush administration with greater police powers when it refuses to answer questions about the bin Laden family's escape? As Senator Charles Schumer of New York has said, it was too soon after 9/11 for the FBI even to know what questions to ask, much less to decide conclusively that each Saudi and bin Laden relative deserved an "all clear," never to be available for questions again.
The American people deserve answers to these questions:
Whom did the Saudis call to request government approval of the flights?
Who in the government coordinated approval of the flights?
Did the FBI receive any communications from the White House about the urgency of permitting these individuals to leave the country?
Did any Justice Department or FBI officials express reservations or objections to the decisions?
Did any Americans contact the US government to urge approval of the flights?
In stark contrast to the special treatment given to these Saudis, President Bush and the Justice Department have repeatedly challenged Congress and the federal courts to permit law enforcement maximum leeway in moving against terrorism suspects. In the aftermath of the attacks, hundreds of Arabs were jailed for months without access to counsel. The Justice Department has asserted that not even the federal courts can tell it that American citizens have a right to counsel or to compel witnesses under the Constitution if they have been deemed unilaterally to be "enemy combatants."
Attorney General John Ashcroft has had to defend himself from the left and the right against charges the Justice Department has implemented the Patriot Act abusively. Most recently, Bush called on Congress to allow administrative subpoenas without judicial approval, block bail for terrorism suspects, and expand the federal death penalty to convicted terrorists.
FBI officials say that agents had interviewed the bin Laden relatives before the White House cleared them to leave the country. But Dale Watson, the former head of counter-terrorism at the FBI, has said the departing Saudis "were not subject to serious interviews or interrogations."
Secretary of State Colin Powell has admitted that the flights were "coordinated within the government" but has offered no details about the FBI's involvement. For his part, Vice President Cheney claimed no knowledge of the flights, "but a lot of folks from that part of the world left in the aftermath of 9/11 because they were worried about public reaction here in the United States or that somehow they might be discriminated against."
This double standard flies in the face of common sense. If the post-9/11 Saudi flights had happened during President Clinton's term in office, Republicans and Democrats alike would have been outraged and undoubtedly would have called for congressional investigations. Some Republicans would have done all they could to charge Clinton with treason.
The attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, have changed this country, and we need to provide law enforcement with the support and tools it needs to combat terrorism effectively. But two years of silence by the Bush administration on the Saudi flights is enough.
Congress should refuse to consider whether to grant the administration with greater police powers until the Justice Department agrees to conduct a searching investigation of the circumstances surrounding government approval of the bin Laden family departure. - Source
The candidate walked into a party with shaving nicks on his neck, uneven fingernails and wrinkles from a hanger creasing his suit at the knees. He has been known to stuff pretzels into his pockets. On this night, he was shaking hands: "Hi, I'm Howard Dean."
"He's short," said Teresa Pierce, 40.
"Reminds me of someone my mother might date," muttered Denise Mallett, 33.
Yet half an hour later, as Dean finished his stump speech, Pierce stood up, joining the crowd in a hooting ovation. The Democratic presidential hopeful had moved her, she said, made her feel like recruiting friends to vote for him. As she reached for Dean's hand, her eyes lit up. "He inspired me," she said.
The question is: How? What did Dean do to enchant Pierce, and to stir up thousands of avid supporters? Despite the buzz surrounding retired Gen. Wesley Clark's late entry into the campaign, and mounting attacks from some of his other eight rivals, Dean has raised the most money and leads the polls in New Hampshire and Iowa. Conventional wisdom credits Dean's Bush-bashing and his stoking of Democratic anger. But to follow Dean on the stump is to see something more subtle at work.
While the other candidates focus on their humble roots or heroic feats, Dean inverts the telescope: He talks about the voters. He tells them they're okay. Instead of trying to get them to love him, he tells them to love themselves. A doctor by training, he injects psychology into politics.
"I liked it when he said the election wasn't about him, it was about us," said Pierce. "He's empowering me."
This is the intended effect, the candidate said in an interview. "People feel horribly disempowered by George Bush," he said. "I'm about trying to give them control back. This is not just a 'campaign,' it's a movement to empower ordinary people. I don't say, 'Elect me.' "
Instead, Dean says the election is in their hands. Delivering a series of exhortations, he'll turn a garden party into political group therapy:
"Stop being ashamed."
"Stand up and say what you think."
"You ought to be proud."
"The power to change this country is in your hands."
"You have the power."
"You have the power."
Yes, there is anger. But it is tightly managed. "It's raw energy, an energy I know could be channeled," Dean said. "It's similar in a patient relationship, helping them channel their energy into something better for them. "
Which, notably, has fed a river of campaign contributions. As of yesterday evening, Dean had raised $14.3 million, surpassing the $10.3 million President Bill Clinton raised in the third quarter of 1995. On his Web site, DeanForAmerica.com, he said: "Time will tell whether the special interests and the Bush administration have underestimated me. But I know in my heart that they have underestimated you."
Don't get mad, he urges, get even. It has been a recurrent theme in insurgent campaigns, but Dean's has capitalized on the Internet, where those who feel alienated can instantly connect: "The power is in your hands -- contribute!"
On his home page, a Dean Team baseball player swings a bat that turns red like a thermometer as the money pours in. The cartoon ballplayer is a muscular, scowling man, who points his finger as if singling out someone for punishment. In the campaign blog, Jon Braden, a contributor from Owensboro, Ky., wrote about the meaning of the baseball bat.
"As I've explained to my father, the bat has become the symbol of this campaign," Braden wrote. "It's become a metaphor for a big club we can swing at the political status quo (or George W. Bush -- however you want to look at it) with our combined muscle. Howard Dean will go down in history as having given this club to a huge bunch of political nomads . . . I love you all, and I love this movement."
Perhaps one reason Dean connects so well with supporters is that on a gut level, he feels the way they do -- frustrated. The former governor of Vermont said he decided to run for president while fuming over a newspaper article about President Bush: "I said, am I going to do something about it, or shut up? Given the choice, I'd rather talk."
Like Dean, Andrew Fairbanks, 45, seethed when he read about Bush.
"Oh, God, he was yelling at the TV news, yelling at me," said his wife, Kim Fairbanks, 36. "I said, 'Andrew, you need to go find other people who feel like you do, you need to channel the energy positively.' "
One day he heard a radio interview with Dean.
"The anger evaporated," Andrew said.
"Dean makes you feel like you matter," said Kim.
As the couple talked, Dean stood at a nearby podium, talking to several hundred people gathered under the stars outside a house in Milford. Contrary to popular depictions, he didn't flail his arms or rant. His expression wasn't angry; it merely threatened anger. He described Bush's handling of the economy and Iraq as losing policies.
"Now I'm going to tell you how to win," Dean said, with clinical precision. "The way to beat Bush is we stand up and be proud of who we are."
If the emotional leitmotif of Bill Clinton's campaigns was empathy -- "I feel your pain" -- Dean's is empowerment -- "We'll fix your pain."
"The power to take this country back is in your hands," Dean said to the crowd. "Not mine."
Andrew watched him and smiled, rubbing his knuckles.
"You have the power," said Dean.
Andrew hugged his wife: "I love listening to him."
Dean's appeal is not based on traditional political charisma. His presence is not commanding; he isn't a backslapper, or a world-class speaker. His smile looks more like a baring of teeth. Asked how he relaxes, he said he mows the lawn and does his taxes.
Yet at a recent rally in New York, women cried, "I want to have your baby!" His supporters are so passionate they have organized themselves in areas where no campaign infrastructure exists, calling themselves Dean Heads, Deanie Boppers and Deanie Babies. Monday Dean hoped to make the Guinness World Records for conference calls by linking more than 1,400 house parties in all 50 states with "Dr. Dean's National House Call."
"Most politicians treat voters like consumers," said Karen Hicks, Dean's New Hampshire state director. "Dean treats people like participants."
He does that, in part, by debating those who come to see him. While some politicians pander, Dean seems to go out of his way to disagree with members of his audience. At a fundraiser for the abortion rights group NARAL in Manchester, he declared, "I have a number of supporters in my campaign who are pro-life, and we have to respect them." At a labor union picnic, his style won praise from people who knew little about his policies.
"I don't even know his background, but I get sincerity from him," said Rusty Goodwin, 68.
Doris Bauters, 69, said, "Dean's a regular working guy, just like us."
In fact, Dean comes from an old-line family of bankers.
In the end, his political style evolved from his career as an internist. "As a doctor, you say, things are bad, here's how we're going to fix it. Twenty-five percent of internal medicine is psychology," Dean said. "You just have to help them with guidance. You don't make the choice -- they make the choice. That's the key."
It may energize Democrats, but the self-help dynamic breaks down with the press. In interviews, Dean ranges from wary to snarling. When a television reporter from New England Cable News sat down with him and asked gentle questions about his life, he was as clenched as an inmate at a parole board hearing. And when facing off with other Democratic candidates in debates, he has appeared at times, by his own admission, "grouchy and nervous."
The empowerment approach also can backfire with people who don't feel disempowered. At St. Anselm College in Manchester, Dean addressed students and local residents.
"If you stand up and you're proud of who you are -- guess what? People start to listen to you. Stand up for what you believe in," said Dean, an excited flush creeping up his neck.
Only half the people in the room stood up.
"You have the power . . . "
In the back of the room, a waitress named Mary Casey, 48, rose to her feet, applauding. "Yes, this is the man," she said.
Two seats away, a college sophomore, Jessica Foster, 19, stayed in her chair, her mouth slack. She had been curious about Dean, but now she felt put off. He came off as untrustworthy, she said. Foster wrote about it in an essay for her public speaking class:
"Dean ended his speech with a clincher, appealing to the patriotic side of the crowd," she wrote. "He attempted to rouse the crowd by telling them to stand up for what they believed in and to stand up for America. The only time I stood up for Dean was when I got up to walk out the door." - Source
It was like a movie scene. But instead of meeting cute, they met covert.
Valerie Plame and Joseph Wilson both happened to alight in Washington, their jet-set schedules intersecting, and spotted each other across a cocktail party filled with foreigners.
"I saw this striking blonde," he recalled, still sounding smitten six years later. At first she said she was an energy analyst, but confided sometime around the first kiss that she was in the C.I.A. "I had a security clearance," grinned Mr. Wilson, then a political adviser to the commander of U.S. forces in Europe.
Now Washington is consumed with the saga of how the glamorous C.I.A. officer and the dashing California surfer-turned-ambassador went from wedding cake to yellowcake.
The former diplomat sparked the White House shame spiral when he wrote a Times Op-Ed piece questioning whether the Bush administration had manipulated intelligence to justify the war in Iraq and buried his report debunking the allegation that Iraq had tried to buy Niger uranium.
Unable to find weapons of mass destruction, the Bush team has turned to weapons of personal destruction. It's bad enough that the administration hasn't come up with any plausible reason for not having uncovered any W.M.D., even as it's requesting $600 million more to find them; now it's practicing Crawford McCarthyism.
At his office yesterday, a block from the White House that he has turned into Bleak House, Mr. Wilson was calm, even as Republicans continued to rip him. For Bush officials, who have wielded patriotism as a bludgeon on critics, you'd think that doing something as unpatriotic as outing Mr. Wilson's wife and endangering the lives of her C.I.A. contacts would be enough. Nah.
The group that fights so ferally to keep everything secret, from the cronies who met with Dick Cheney to the identities of the people it has tossed into the brig at Gitmo, had no problem spilling the beans on its own spy when self-preservation was at stake.
The issue is the administration's credibility, not Joe Wilson's.
The men who won the 2000 election by promising to restore honor and integrity to the White House spent yesterday doing a pretty good imitation of O. J. Simpson, looking for the culprit. You could just picture President Bush with his Sherlock Holmes deerstalker, magnifying glass and bloodhound Barney. Silly. The White House knows who did it. All Mr. Bush has to do is roll heads.
Mr. Wilson spent yesterday at his office, wondering if he could return the 49 messages on his relentlessly vibrating cellphone before going off to a Dave Brubeck concert. His desk was covered with pictures of his wife — one in a straw hat, one with a toddler on her hip. (They have 3-year-old twins, a boy and a girl.)
Nearby was a photo of Mr. Wilson, acting ambassador in Baghdad during Desert Shield, with Saddam Hussein. And a framed letter praising his work for the country from the senior President Bush, strategically left facing out toward reporters who come to ask Mr. Wilson if Republicans have a point when they decry him as a politically motivated Democrat who has counseled John Kerry and contributed to his campaign. He and his wife also gave $1,000 each to the Bush-Cheney campaign "before South Carolina," he said, "which was a real rude awakening about the way Ralph Reed & Co. went after John McCain's wife and kid."
Mr. Wilson, 53, refers to his 40-year-old third wife as "the real-life Jennifer Garner," the actress who plays an intrepid C.I.A. officer on TV and who will star in an agency recruitment video. He teased his wife that she would be better cast: " `You should get out there.' "
His wife, he said, "sees this as an out-of-body experience."
Ms. Plame and Karl Rove attend the same Episcopal Church, and she joked to her husband that she should just go up to the president's strategist and ask if he really considered her "fair game" to be outed — a phrase Mr. Wilson says reporters told him Mr. Rove had used.
At his wife's request, Mr. Wilson has toned down his call to see Mr. Rove "frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs." But he still holds the man the president calls Boy Genius accountable.
"The act of leaking my wife's name was clearly a political act," he says. "The White House has a political office that's headed by one Karl Rove. That's where I would look. He certainly condoned it." - Source
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