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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (29161)	9/30/2003 9:17:23 AM
From: T L Comiskey	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 89467

Justice Dept. Starts Probe of Leak 6 minutes ago Add White House - AP Cabinet & State to My Yahoo! By CURT ANDERSON, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - The Justice Department (news - web sites) launched a full-blown criminal investigation into who leaked the name of a CIA (news - web sites) officer, and President Bush (news - web sites) directed his White House staff on Tuesday to cooperate fully. The White House staff was notified of the investigation by e-mail after the Justice Department decided late Monday to move from a preliminary investigation into a full probe. The White House staff was directed to preserve all materials that might be related to the investigation, said presidential spokesman Scott McClellan. Presumably that would include telephone logs, e-mails, notes and other documents. "The president has directed the White House to cooperate fully with this investigation," McClellan told reporters. "The president wants to get to the bottom of this." Senior staff members were told of the investigation at their morning staff meeting, and then White House counsel Alberto Gonzales sent an e-mail to all the staff notifying them of the probe. Even before the Justice Department investigation was announced, Democrats were calling for the appointment of a special counsel to insure impartiality. McClellan said the decision rests with the Justice Department. The department notified Gonzales about 8:30 p.m. Monday that it was launching an investigation but said he could wait until the next morning to notify staff and direct them to preserve relevant material, McClellan said. The investigation stems from a CIA complaint two months ago that one of its agent's identities had been disclosed. Justice gets about 50 such complaints from the CIA each year about the leak of classified information and very few of them ever get beyond a preliminary investigation. The disclosure of the intelligence officer's identity by syndicated columnist Robert Novak came shortly after her husband, former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, undermined Bush's claim that Iraq (news - web sites) had tried to buy uranium in Africa. In what turned out to be a major embarrassment, Bush acknowledged he could not back up his statement. The White House said that leaking classified information was a serious matter that should be "pursued to the fullest extent" by the Justice Department. But White House officials denied it leaked the CIA officer's identity. "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," presidential spokesman Scott McClellan said. In particular, McClellan said it was "ridiculous" to suggest that Karl Rove, Bush's top political operative, was involved, as Wilson once charged. "He wasn't involved," McClellan said of Rove. "The president knows he wasn't involved. ... It's simply not true." From Capitol Hill to the presidential campaign trail, Democrats called for the appointment of a special counsel. Four Senate Democrats, including Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., urged Attorney General John Ashcroft (news - web sites) to appoint a person of "unquestioned independence and impartiality." "We do not believe that this investigation of senior Bush administration officials ... can be conducted by the Justice Department because of the obvious and inherent conflicts of interests involved," said the letter, also signed by Sens. Carl Levin, D-Mich., Joseph Biden, D-Del. and Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va. White House officials, at their senior staff meeting, were urged to contact the Justice Department if they had relevant information, officials said. Novak said on CNN that his report was based on conversations with two senior administration officials while he was looking into Wilson's trip to Africa to investigate the uranium story. The officials told Novak that Wilson's wife had suggested the mission for her husband, the columnist said. He said the CIA confirmed her role and "asked me not to use her name, but never indicated it would endanger her or anybody else." Wilson backtracked Monday, saying he had not meant to imply that Rove "was the source or the authorizer, just that I thought that it came from the White House, and Karl Rove was the personification of the White House political operation." But Wilson also said in a telephone interview that "I have people who I have confidence in, who have indicated to me that he (Rove), at a minimum, condoned it and certainly did nothing to put a stop to it for a week after it was out there." After Novak's column was published, the CIA's Office of General Counsel sent a letter to the Justice Department, saying that a violation of the law had apparently occurred when someone provided the CIA officer's name. The letter was not signed by CIA Director George Tenet and did not call for a specific investigation of the White House. The rules for naming a special counsel give Ashcroft wide latitude to either appoint one outright, conduct a preliminary investigation to determine if such a counsel is needed, or to conclude that it would be better for the Justice Department to handle the probe itself. Ashcroft has never appointed a special counsel.

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (29161)	9/30/2003 10:06:02 AM
From: T L Comiskey	Respond to of 89467

biz.yahoo.com

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (29161)	9/30/2003 12:09:37 PM
From: lurqer	Respond to of 89467

In a number of past posts, I've discussed what a cultural watershed the First World War (a.k.a. The Great War, The War to End Wars, etc) was. Great empires ceased to exists - the Hohenzollern, Hapsburg, Romanov and Ottoman. Moreover, technology that had been bubbling up for decades, finally dominated. The world was very different in 1920 than it had been only a decade earlier in 1910. In many respects, one could say that the Modern Era had begun. But modernity is a cultural phenomena, and cultural wars are protracted with the "loosing" side never really "giving up". Thus, almost a century after the Great War, we find ourselves still fighting this war of modernity vs. tradition. It shouldn't be this way. Modernity should embrace the best of tradition, for the heritage is rich and should not be lost. Anyone who thinks that with the 20th century, man suddenly got smart, and that all that occurred before is bunk, clearly lacks understanding. But while a failure to understand and honor tradition exists on the modernity side, the principle cause of friction between modernity and tradition stems from a failure of traditionalists to learn anything new, This failure comes from a refusal to even consider the possibility of anything other than the traditional verities. Lost in the Bush rhetoric about "war on terrorism", is this struggle between modernity and traditionalism. This perspective is lost, because Bush himself is as much of a traditionalist as is his professed adversary, OBL. So, ironically, we enter the 21st century with a 19th century traditionalist making war on a 9th century wannabe. So much for modernity. To better appreciate this conflict consider a few items in the news Father jailed for life in U.K. `honour killing' Slit daughter's throat after 16-year-old became `Westernized' from thestar.com and Gypsy princess, 12, forced back to altar All 12-year-old Ana Maria Cioaba wanted was to stay in school and have fun with her friends. So when the Gypsy princess found herself being married off to a 15-year-old boy she did not even like, she picked up the hem of her $A7000 wedding dress and fled the church as guests sang cheerful marriage songs around her. The groom, Birita Mihai, looked stunned. But his child bride's revolt at the weekend was shortlived. Her father, Florin Cioaba, the king of Transylvania's Gypsies, had her brought back and she was married against her will. from smh.com.au Nor is this country immune, Worland school board OKs teaching creationism WORLAND -- A policy that would allow theories other than evolution to be taught in Washakie County science classes has won initial approval from school board members. From billingsgazette.com and Several hundred Christians outraged at recent legal challenges to the public display of the Ten Commandments rallied outside the Georgia Capitol on Monday, joined by state political leaders. from augustachronicle.com I won't bother to delve into the beliefs of the Speaker of the House - Tom DeLay. As usual, JMO lurqer