How Bush has stayed away from soldiers' funerals

By Andrew Buncombe

More than 2,290 US troops have been killed in Iraq.

President George Bush has attended none of the funerals - for which he
is often criticised by the families of those who have died.

Nadia McCaffrey's son Patrick, 34, a member of the Californian National
Guard, was killed during an ambush in Iraq in June 2004.

She said she had not expected Mr Bush to attend her son's funeral in
person but thought the government would send someone.

"It's not just me. Many, many people say the same thing," she said,
speaking from her home near San Francisco.

"He was my only child, but it was not only that. Patrick did not want
anything from the military. He joined up out of patriotism. I would
have thought that... somebody could have come. Nobody showed up."

The White House said that as Mr Bush could not attend every funeral, it
would be wrong to pick just one.

He has met the families of killed soldiers.

But critics say his behaviour gives the impression he is out of touch.

The President has also been criticised for refusing to allow the media
to photograph soldiers' coffins being flown back from Iraq.
___________________________________________________

Did ya know that Georgie Bush stayed away from the Vietnam War to?

Didn't know that, did ya.

Have a look;

http://www.glcq.com

Franco warned that if expectations continue to lose ground, the outlook
for the remainder of the year could deteriorate.

The downbeat report cast a cloud over spring retail sales and tempered
the outlook for the economy.

Consumer confidence took a hit in February

By Anne D'Innocenzio

The Associated Press

NEW YORK --

Americans in February became less optimistic about the overall economy,
especially the short-term prospects for the job market, sending a
widely followed barometer of consumer sentiment below analysts'
estimates.

The Conference Board, a New York-based private research group, said
today its consumer confidence index fell to 101.7, down from a revised
106.8 in January, stalling a rebound that began in November following
the Gulf Coast hurricanes.

Analysts had expected a reading of 104.0 in February.

In a statement, Lynn Franco, director of The Conference Board Consumer
Research Center, said "consumers are growing increasingly concerned
about the short-term health of the economy and, in turn, about job
prospects."

__________________________________________________________

Harry

http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=20426

03.01.06

Subterranean homeport polls

Forget Dubai Ports; look at the rest of Bush's record

By Geov Parrish

Have sitting members of the White House ever been this unpopular?

A new CBS News poll released Monday shows President George Bush having
sunk to a new low of a mere 34% approval rating, down from 42% last
month.

Meanwhile, his partner in crime, Vice President Dick Cheney, draws the
"favorable view" of only 18%, a truly subterranean number that may be
the closest approximation to a national negative consensus we'll ever
see in a two-party democracy.

So it has come to this.

After two stolen elections,

a secret energy task force,

Enron and assorted other corporate scandals,

massive tax cuts for the rich,

the largest federal debts and trade deficits in world history,

blowing up the ABM treaty,

killing stem cell research,

laughing off global warming,

allowing 9-11 to happen,

stonewalling its (and every other) investigation,

failing to catch Osama bin Laden,

the PATRIOT Act,

still-unsolved anthrax attacks,

launching a secret prison system,

denying due process to both foreigners and Americans,

engaging in torture,

monitoring Americans' phone calls, e-mails, and faxes without a
warrant,

launching unprecedented foreign and domestic propaganda campaigns,

blurring the line between church and state,

trying to overthrow Hugo Chavez,

using lies to launch an illegal invasion of Iraq,

badly mishandling both the occupation of Iraq and the resulting
insurgency,

outing Valerie Plame Wilson (and lying about it),

grandstanding on Terri Schiavo,

pushing through a miserable Medicare prescription drug law,

privatizing public lands,

trying to privatize Social Security,

securing CAFTA,

appointing two reactionaries to the U.S. Supreme Court,

the Abramoff scandals,

and botching Katrina's aftermath as well as its rebuilding,

among many, many other things -- after all that -- the tipping points
that bring Cheney and Bush to this abysmal public standing are shooting
a lawyer and defending an ordinary transnational corporate deal.

The whole controversy over the proposed purchase of a massive
international port operator by Dubai Ports World, a company owned by
the despotic emirate of the United Arab Emirates, is both amusing and
appalling.

Bush is getting politically hammered on this;

a Rasmussen Report poll last week showed only 17% of Americans support
the sale, a number, again, remarkably close to a national consensus.

For once, Bush is correct:

a company owned by Arabs poses no more intrinsic threat to U.S.
security than one owned by Brits, the company DPW is gobbling up.

Bush is crying racism, and rightly so.

But Bush can't have it both ways.

He created much of the anti-Arab fear now eating him alive on the DPW
sale, when he casually lumped all Arabs, and all Muslims, together as
"terrorists" in his successful campaign to convince people that Saddam
Hussein had something to do with 9-11.

That campaign was so successful that a new Zogby poll shows that a
stunning 85% of all U.S. soldiers in Iraq believe the U.S. mission
there is primarily "to retaliate for Saddam's role in the 9-11
attacks."

(Only 24% said that "establishing a democracy that can be a model for
the Arab World" was the main or a major reason for the war, and fully
93% didn't think that WMDs were a reason for being there.)

Now, thanks to Bush, a lot of Americans think all Arabs, including a
company owned by the government of the U.A.E., are a threat to national
security.

The real issue with the ports isn't terrorism.

It's free trade.

Bush is hanging onto this sale so vehemently because, as David Sirota
and others have pointed out, his administration is in the midst of
negotiating a free trade deal, similar to NAFTA and CAFTA, with the
United Arab Emirates.

A rejection of this sale would endanger that deal.

Bush is willing to put his support for corporate largesse ahead of even
his reputation on national security.

If anyone is to criticize the purchase of six ports, they should
criticize the purchasing or leasing of all of them -- whether Long
Beach, California (owned by a company owned by the Chinese government,
far more of a national security risk than the U.A.E.), ports operated
by American companies, or whatever.

Public facilities should not be privatized.

Period.

Most of America's ports have been, and it happened while nobody was
looking.

Hence, the alarm now.

Sale critics who argue national security should realize that no
cost-conscious for-profit corporation, regardless of where it is
chartered, is ever going to be as scrupulous about security as a
publicly owned facility.

And in every case, taxpayers built the infrastructure, taxpayers once
owned the harbors.

Ports have no business being owned or profited from by anyone else.

For Democrats, the ports issue has been an unexpected political
windfall; for Republicans, it has been a welcome opportunity to
distance themselves from the White House.

As the midterm elections approach in eight months, nobody will remember
which party in Congress brayed louder about this deal.

But polls now show, for the first time, that more than half of all
Americans disapprove of how Bush is handling the War on Terror.

Come November, Dubai will be forgotten, but the public will remember
that Republicans can and do make mistakes when dealing with national
security issues.

The ports issue is exactly the opening Democrats need to make real
Congressional gains in the midterm elections.

Not by talking about Dubai Ports World; in eight months, nobody will
give a rat's ass about DPW as anything but a vague memory.

But it's an opening to talk, and talk again, and hammer home some more
all the other Republican mistakes concerning national security. Letting
9-11 happen.

Failing to catch bin Laden.

A disastrous war in Iraq.

A failed War on Terror, with all its accompanying human rights and
civil liberty abuses that have so destroyed global American
credibility.

Helping to provoke the rising Islamist tide in the Middle East.

An eviscerated military, National Guard, and reserves.

And there will be more, much more, before November.

Count on it.

No U.S. administration has done more in history to weaken national
security, and finally, finally, it appears that the American public is
ready to hear that discussion in that context.

It's not just that, as is now finally the perception, Bush is willing
to put corporate trade interests above national security.

He's consistently put corporate crony interests above national
security.

He's put ideological interests above national security.

And he's especially put personal political interests above national
security.

Since Day One.

Karl Rove wants the next election to be about national security?

Fine.

Bring it on. (To coin a phrase.)

But Democrats, don't waste your time talking about Dubai Ports World.

And don't keep avoiding Iraq.

Use that opening created by the port sale to instead talk about the
rest of Bush's record, a record shared -- unlike Dubai -- by almost
every Republican in Congress.

And watch those subterranean poll numbers sink even farther.

_______________________________________________________

melting...melting...melting

By NIRMALA GEORGE
Associated Press Writer

NEW DELHI --

Tens of thousands of Indians waving black and white flags and chanting
"Death to Bush!" rallied Wednesday in New Delhi to protest a visit by
President Bush.

Surindra Singh Yadav, a senior police officer in charge of crowd
control, said as many as 100,000 people, most of them Muslim, had
gathered in a fairground in central New Delhi ordinarily used for
political rallies.

"Whether Hindu or Muslim, the people of India have gathered here to
show our anger. We have only one message -- killer Bush go home," one
of the speakers, Hindu politician Raj Babbar, told the crowd.

Bush arrives in India later Wednesday for a three-day visit focused on
strengthening the emerging strategic partnership between India and the
United States.

_____________________________________________________

Try not to mingle with the people, Georgie.

Harry

"Never trouble trouble till trouble troubles you."

http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20060228111113599

March 1, 2006

Not a Good Month for Bush Radio

The Arbitrends for Los Angeles came out today, and Richard Mellon
Scaife will probably want his money back - his messengers have lost
listeners by the boatload.

These are month-to-month extrapolated ratings (not rolling three-month
average) for listeners 12+.

Limbaugh drew a 4.1 last month. This month he dropped to a 3.3.*

Sean Hannity was at a 2.7 last month. He's now at a 1.8.*

Laura Ingraham: 1.1 to 0.8.

Dennis Prager/Michael Medved: 1.2 to a 0.7.*

Hugh Hewitt: 1.3 to 0.7.

*These are 10am-3pm ratings. Limbaugh is on 9am-noon. Bill O'Reilly's
on 9 to 11am on the same station Hannity's on (from noon to 3).

How did KTLK, the Air America station do?

Overall, 0.5 to 0.9, making it the only talk station in L.A. to score
an increase.

Stephanie Miller (mornings):

0.7 to 1.0. Franken (9 to noon) and Ed Schultz (noon to 3):

0.7 to 1.0. Randi Rhodes (3 to 7pm): again, 0.7 to 1.0.

KTLK's 7pm to midnight surged from a 0.2 to a 1.0.

Not to diminish Seder, Garofalo and Malloy, but KTLK still runs
Clippers basketball thanks to an old contract, and they've been on a
tear.

The fact that this station pulls these kinds of numbers with a
HORRENDOUS signal is a small miracle.

By the way, don't write this off as being liberal ol' Hollywood.

The GOP stronghold of Orange County is included in this, too.

UPDATE: Here are the L.A. numbers from "the money demographic" - 25-54
year olds:

Limbaugh: 3.3 to 2.9.

Hannity: 1.8 to 0.5. (Ouch)

Ingraham: 0.9 to 0.6.

Prager/Medved: 1.4 to 0.3.

Hewitt: 1.4 to 0.9.

===================================
NOW HOW ABOUT AIR AMERICA?

KTLK (Air America):

Miller: 1.1 to 1.1

Franken/Schultz: 0.7 to 0.7

Rhodes: 0.9 to 1.3. (That's my girl!)

Garofalo/Seder/Malloy/Clippers: 0.3 to 1.0.

If you have XM radio already then you will get your best signal
there... if not maybe you are lucky enough to pick up one of these
stations:

http://www.airamericaradio.com/stations
__________________________________________

Nice

The Soldiers Speak. Will President Bush Listen?

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

When President Bush held a public meeting with troops by satellite last
fall, they were miraculously upbeat.

And all along, unrepentant hawks (most of whom have never been to Iraq)
have insisted that journalists are misreporting Iraq and that most
soldiers are gung-ho about their mission.

Hogwash!

A new poll to be released today shows that U.S. soldiers overwhelmingly
want out of Iraq -- and soon.

The poll is the first of U.S. troops currently serving in Iraq,
according to John Zogby, the pollster. Conducted by Zogby International
and LeMoyne College, it asked 944 service members, "How long should
U.S. troops stay in Iraq?"

Only 23 percent backed Mr. Bush's position that they should stay as
long as necessary.

In contrast, 72 percent said that U.S. troops should be pulled out
within one year.

Of those, 29 percent said they should withdraw "immediately."

___________________________________________________

Read about the Deserter-In-Chief running from the Vietnam War

http://www.glcq.com

By Frosty Wooldridge
2-27-6

As a teacher, I sat dumbfounded last May 16, 2005, when the Rocky
Mountain News inked a story, "What Happened?" to a stunned Denver,
Colorado audience.  In a five year study starting in 1999 in Denver
Public Schools, 5,663 students started the eighth grade. Five years
later, only 1,884 graduated from high school. That's a 65 percent drop
out/flunk out rate!  That's pathetic, if not frightening.  

What was the cause?  First of all, 30,000 illegal alien, speaking 40
different languages, attended Denver schools. Our classrooms suffered
thousands of kids functionally illiterate in English with parents
functionally illiterate in English and Spanish.  The classrooms
featured so much incompatible diversity that it created horrific
tension, stabbings and death.  Thus, American kids suffered a
profoundly dumbed-down educational process.  One in five teachers quit
or transferred out of those Denver classrooms every nine month cycle
during those five years.  

Last week, the Denver Post announced that 30 percent of teachers in
Denver schools were not coming back next year.  This is a nationwide
travesty.  Why? As a teacher, I taught in the inner city in the 1970s.
It's exasperating beyond understanding to walk into a classroom where
children suffer learning disabilities, broken homes, teen pregnancies
at 14, 15, 16, multiple languages and violent confrontations with
other ethnic groups.  It's impossible to teach.  I left my idealism in
the ghetto and escaped to a suburban school.  But, today, teachers
can't escape because over 1.5 million illegal alien students with more
than 100 languages attend our kids' schools nationwide.  We witness a
national breakdown in education.  Last week, Superintendent Roy Romer
of Los Angeles public schools resigned in frustration and defeat.
California schools match the violence of a war zone.

Can you imagine such a failure rate across the country?  Can you
imagine the consequences of an illiterate generation leading this
Republic into the 21st
century?  Folks, this country won't make it.  Where is the outrage?  

It takes four aspects for a free and democratic society to maintain
itself.  It requires a highly educated population that can write,
read, think and vote intelligently.  It takes a similar moral code
whereby everyone adheres to the common good. It requires a similar
code of ethics whereby citizens adhere to honesty, doing what is right
and maintaining those ethics throughout the social fabric. Finally, it
takes a similar language that allows citizens to discuss, debate and
resolve problems.  We compromise all four with an invasion exceeding
four million new people into the USA annually-20 million illegals to
date and climbing.  We allow the disintegration of our nation without
a whimper. Where is the outrage?

Last Monday, February 20, 2006, the Rocky Mountain News reported,
"Mile-High Drug Hub" making Denver the leading center for drug
distribution in the United States.  It's part of MS-13 Gang's
dispersal of $128 billion in drugs crossing our border with Mexico
every year.  Ironically, Congress guards South Korea's border with
37,000 troops with our billions in tax dollars, pats down gray-haired
ladies at our airports, spends $80 billion annually on the war on
drugs, but leaves our border unguarded allowing that $128 billion in
drugs to cross year after year. Additionally, any terrorists can walk
over the Mexican with a 99 percent chance of succeeding.   Where is
the outrage?

With a growing illegal alien population exceeding 300,000 in Colorado,
the state House legislators on Wednesday of last week defeated six
bills to stop illegal alien migration.  One particular bill, HB 1134,
would have given cops the ability to arrest, detain and deport
illegals. It was soundly defeated after dozens of citizens, including
this Coloradan, testified to support the bill's passage.  

I demanded, "We are tired of being collateral damage for illegal
aliens.  We're tired of being raped, killed, robbed and our schools
being trashed by multiple languages while our medical systems take
better care of illegals than our own citizens."

Representative Francesca Natividad Coleman remarked that it was a
Federal issue.  I retorted, "We're the ones getting killed and raped
here locally and we're tired of it."  Last year, three Coloradans were
killed by illegals; Greeley, Colorado suffered 270 hit and run car
accidents alone; eight rapes by illegal aliens in Boulder and
thousands of robberies.  Where is the outrage?  

To top off the crisis in our Denver schools, the Rocky Mountain News
reported the next day, February 21, 2006, "Welfare Surges 45%" with an
increase of 4,743 cases.  They said it was tough job hunting, but
neglected to mention that 300,000 illegal aliens in Colorado stole
jobs from Coloradans in every sector: drywall, construction,
landscaping, fast food, house painting, janitorial, paving and dozens
of other jobs formerly worked by Coloradans.  Where is the outrage?

Denver Mayor Hickenlooper hired illegal aliens long before he was
mayor and one of his illegal employees, Raul Gomez-Garcia, killed
Denver police officer Don Young last May.  Hickenlooper stood in
direct violation of federal laws and could have been fined $2,000.00
per illegal alien hired (estimated at 70 working in his restaurants)
and he could have gone to prison for five years.  Governor Owens
actually endorsed a booklet showing illegal aliens how to imbed
themselves in Colorado.  He aided and abetted illegal aliens, but
didn't receive a slap on the wrist.  Where is the outrage?

Since it's happening in my state with 300,000 illegal aliens, can you
imagine what is happening in California with three million?  Or, North
Carolina with one million?  How about Illinois with one million
illegals?  How about Texas with 1.5 million?  I know Texans pay over
$4.1 billion annually for educating their massive load of student
illegals.  Where is the outrage?

We're being colonized with over nine million illegal alien Mexicans
crashing our schools, medical systems, language, culture, parks, tax
and welfare systems.  One look at the headlines of major newspapers
across the country echoes and mirrors the Rocky Mountain News. Where
is the outrage?

It stupefies me beyond comprehension that Americans sit back and watch
this invasion of their country without any outrage. Worse, without any
response!  More than that--without a concern for their own kids'
future!  Even more horrific, the line of immigrants from Mexico (and
the world) shows no sign of stopping, as the number of Mexicans grows
from their current 106 million to 200 million in this century.

As I open this can of worms weekly; as I expose this accelerating
national crisis weekly; as you experience its quickening day by day-I
would think the outrage would reach fantastic levels. But it is not!
In fact, Bush, Congress and governors of all 50 states-not only watch
it happen-they actively aid and abet it.  Arlan Specter of
Pennsylvania wants to add another one to two million legal immigrants
annually.  Senators John McCain and Ted Kennedy want to give amnesty
to 20 million illegals and add more in a guest worker program.  Utah's
Chris Cannon welcomes millions of Mexicans as he encourages their
takeover of our country. His sidekick Senator Orrin Hatch mirrors that
sentiment.  Representative Joe Baca of California actively promotes
the takeover of California by Mexico as he endorses "Reconquista of
Aztlan."  As Mark Twain said, "Suppose you were an idiot; and suppose
you were a member of Congress; but then, I repeat myself."  Twain got
it right, but where is the outrage?

While 85 to 95 percent of the American public wants our borders
secured, they stand around quietly sucking their thumbs while doing
nothing.   However, the outrage and arrogance of millions of illegal
alien migrants in America advances like Paris, France's recent
experience with immigration-10,000 fire bombed cars and a month-long
conflagration!   We watched stupidly as if it won't happen to us.
Think again!  Of the thousands of emails I receive, the worst and the
most frightening ones are from citizens who tell me, "Keep your powder
dry!"

Write for that 25-point action letter to stop this nation-destroying
madness at www.frostywooldridge.com ; Join www.numbersusa.com ; Become
a part of the "21st Century Paul Revere" bicycle ride across America
coast to coast next summer with Frosty as he and his band of riders
carry this message from the Golden Gate Bridge to the steps of the
nation's capitol in Washington, DC. Inquire at his email address for
full details on how you can participate:  fros...@juno.com  We need 10
bicycle riders.  You will be provided meals and transport to origin
and from destination. Retired RVs drivers will be provided meals and
50 cents per mile.  Start date is May 29, 2006.
www.carryingcapacity.org ; www.balance.org ;  www.numbersusa.com ;
www.thewakeupamericafoundation.com.  Also, check out www.alipac.us at
1 866 329 3999; www.theamericanresistance.com ; www.ccir.net ;
http://www.janhall.org/  ;  www.canadafirst.net ; www.theByteShow.com
;  www.vasquezforidaho.org ; www.carryingcapacity.org
www.teamamericapac.org ; www.projectusa.org ; www.borderguardians.org
; www.immigrationwatchcanada.com ;www.mothersagainstillegalaliens.org
; www.unitedpatriotsofamerica.com ; www.unitedstates.fm for patriotic
songs by Luca Zanna; www.worldfreedomtour.info ; My book:
"IMMIGRATION'S UNARMED INVASION: DEADLY CONSEQUENCES" Call: 1 888 280
7715. http://www.TiANews.com  ­

Source: http://www.rense.com/general69/outrage.htm
   ************************************************************************
   Was this post informative? Consider printing it or emailing it to someone you know.

The emails are said to implicate Cheney in a months-long effort to
discredit Wilson - a fact that Cheney did not disclose when he was
interviewed by federal investigators in early 2004, these sources said.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/030106J.shtml

Details Emerge in Latest Plame Emails

By Jason Leopold
t r u t h o u t | Investigative Report

01 March 2006

The White House confirmed Tuesday that it recently turned over to
Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald 250 pages of emails from the
Office of Vice President Dick Cheney related to covert CIA operative
Valerie Plame Wilson and her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson,
a vocal critic of the Bush administration's pre-war Iraq intelligence.

The emails were not submitted three years ago when then-White House
Counsel Alberto Gonzales ordered White House staffers to turn over all
documents that contained any reference to Valerie and Joseph Wilson.

Gonzales's directive in October 2003 came 12 hours after he was told by
the Justice Department that it was launching an investigation to find
out who leaked Plame Wilson's undercover CIA status to reporters in
what appeared to be an attempt to discredit and silence her husband
from speaking out against the administration's rationale for war.

Gonzales spent two weeks with other White House attorneys screening
emails and other documents his office received before turning them over
to Justice Department investigators.

News of the 250 pages of emails was revealed to Libby's attorneys
during a court hearing Friday.

In addition to witness testimony, investigators working with Fitzgerald
are said to have discovered the existence of the emails from computers
that investigators had confiscated from the Office of the Vice
President, people familiar with developments in the investigation said.

Attorneys for Libby and the US District Court reporter in the Libby
case, William McAllister, reading from Friday's transcript of the
hearing, confirmed that Libby's defense attorneys were told during
Friday's hearing that the emails were recently turned over by the White
House to Fitzgerald.

According to a copy of the transcript from Friday's hearing, Libby's
attorney, Ted Wells, said he was "told that there are an additional
approximately 250 pages of documents that are emails from the office of
the vice president," the transcript states.

"Your Honor, may recall that in earlier filings it was represented or
alluded to that certain e-mails had not been preserved in the White
House. That turns out not to be true. There were some e-mails that
weren't archived in the normal process but the office of the vice
president or the office of administration I guess it is has been able
to recover those e-mails. Gave those to special counsel I think only on
February 6 and those again are going to be produced to us. We don't
know what's in there. We've been led to believe it's probably not
anything startling in those e-mails."

A spokesman for Cheney would only confirm the accuracy of what was said
in court: that the White House recently turned over the emails.

The spokesman would not comment further.

Remarkably, other than a brief citation buried inside an Associated
Press story, Friday's development about the White House's "discovery"
of the 250 pages of emails was not covered by any major news media.

But that particular bit of courtroom dialogue between Libby's attorneys
and Specials Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald was an explosive development
in the three year-old criminal probe.

For one thing, it raises numerous questions:

why weren't the emails located in late 2003, when Gonzales enjoined
roughly 2,000 White House staffers to turn over any communication about
Plame Wilson and her husband, as so ordered by a Justice Department
subpoena?

Do the emails provide greater insight into the campaign to discredit
Wilson and identify the officials who unmasked his wife's undercover
CIA status to reporters?

A spokesperson for Gonzales did not return numerous calls for comment.

But sources close to the investigation said that unnamed senior
officials in Cheney's office had deleted some of the emails before
Fitzgerald learned of their existence earlier this year, and others
never turned them over to Gonzales as requested.

Separately, according to people close to Fitzgerald's probe, there are
some emails that Gonzales has refused to turn over to Fitzgerald,
citing "executive privilege" and "national security."

It's unclear whether a formal subpoena was issued to the White House
for the emails or whether the request came in the form of a letter from
Fitzgerald.

Sources said the White House did not voluntarily turn them over to
Fitzgerald's staff.

The emails from Cheney's office that were turned over to Fitzgerald
earlier this month were written by senior aides and sent to various
officials at the State Department, the National Security Council, and
the Office of the President.

The emails were written as early as March 2003 - four months before
Plame Wilson's cover was blown in a report written by conservative
columnist Robert Novak.

The contents of the emails are said to be damning, according to sources
close to the investigation who are familiar with their substance.

The emails are said to implicate Cheney in a months-long effort to
discredit Wilson - a fact that Cheney did not disclose when he was
interviewed by federal investigators in early 2004, these sources said.

The emails also show I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Cheney's former chief of
staff who was indicted in October on five counts of perjury,
obstruction of justice, and lying to investigators related to his role
in the leak, Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove, and
then-Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, as well as former
Under Secretary of State for Arms Control John Bolton and other top
officials in the vice president's office also took part in
discussions about ways in which the administration could respond to
Wilson's public criticism about the Bush administration's use of
intelligence that claimed Iraq tried to purchase uranium from Niger.

Wilson had traveled to Niger in February 2002 on behalf of the CIA to
investigate those claims and reported back that there was no substance
to the allegations.

But the Niger uranium claims made it into President Bush's January 2003
State of the Union address and Wilson had accused the administration of
"twisting" intelligence on the Iraqi threat to win public support for
the war.

Cheney and his senior aides did not disclose to federal investigators
the fact that they either received or sent emails about either Joseph
Wilson or Valerie Plame Wilson when they were first questioned about
their knowledge and/or role in the leak in early 2004, people close to
the investigation said.

Witnesses who work or worked at the CIA, the National Security Council,
and the State Department who have been interviewed in the case, and
some of who are cooperating with the probe, said they told Fitzgerald
that they had received or sent emails to senior aides in
Vice President Cheney's office, the State Department and the National
Security Council as early as March 2003 about Joseph Wilson.

Other emails show that in mid-June 2003 these officials had sent emails
that mentioned "Valerie Wilson" - not Valerie Plame - and her
employment with the CIA, sources close to the leak investigation said.

One email about Wilson and his wife is said to have been sent by Libby
to an unknown senior individual at the National Security Council in
early June 2003, after Libby was told by Marc Grossman, then Under
Secretary of State for Political Affairs, that Wilson's wife worked
for the CIA and that Grossman's colleagues told him that Plame Wilson
was involved in organizing Wilson's trip to Niger in February 2002 to
investigate whether Iraq had tried to purchase uranium from the African
country.

However, copies of the emails were never found in the more than 10,000
documents that Fitzgerald's staff has collected during the course of
their investigation, the sources said.

Rove and Libby both testified that they learned about Plame Wilson from
reporters - a fact disputed by the emails and witness testimony - and
that they were not involved in a campaign to discredit Wilson.

Rove remains under scrutiny.

Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, did not return calls for comment.

Hadley's role in the leak is also being closely looked at by Fitzgerald
and his staff, sources said, adding that new evidence has surfaced
showing that the National Security Adviser played an intimate role in
the effort to discredit Wilson and that he may be one of the
still unnamed administration officials who spoke to reporters about
Plame Wilson's work for the CIA.
_____________________________________________________

Hot stuff.

Harry

"While you here do snoring lie,
  Open-eyed conspiracy
  His time doth take."
--        The Tempest Act ll scene l

But Aldrich Aimes did out Ms. Plame when he gave her name to the Russians.