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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (54426)	7/15/2004 2:02:02 PM
From: Andrew N. Cothran	Respond to of 793914

Wilson contradictions leave Democrat senators speechless (I don't think this article has been posted on this thread) July 15, 2004 BY ROBERT NOVAK SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST Like Sherlock Holmes' dog that did not bark, the most remarkable aspect of last week's Senate Intelligence Committee report is what its Democratic members did not say. They did not dissent from the committee's findings that Iraq apparently asked about buying yellowcake uranium from Niger. They neither agreed to a conclusion that former diplomat Joseph Wilson was suggested for a mission to Niger by his CIA employee wife nor defended his statements to the contrary. Wilson's activities constituted the only aspects of the yearlong investigation for which the committee's Republican chairman, Sen. Pat Roberts, was unable to win unanimous agreement. According to committee sources, Roberts felt Wilson had been such a ''cause celebre'' for Democrats that they could not face the facts about him. For a year, Democrats have been belaboring President Bush about 16 words in his 2003 State of the Union address in which he reported Saddam Hussein's attempt to buy uranium from Africa, based on British information. Wilson has been lionized in liberal circles for allegedly contradicting this information on a CIA mission and then being punished as a truth-teller. Now, for committee Democrats, it is as though the Niger question and Joe Wilson have vanished from the Earth. Because a Justice Department special prosecutor is investigating whether any crime was committed when my column first identified Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, as a CIA employee, on advice of counsel I have not written on the subject since October. However, I feel compelled to describe how the committee report treats the Niger-Wilson affair because it has received scant coverage except in a few media outlets. The unanimously approved report said, ''interviews and documents provided to the Committee indicate that his wife, a CPD (CIA counterproliferation division) employee, suggested his name for the trip.'' That's what I reported, and what Wilson flatly denied and still does. Plame sent out an internal CIA memo saying ''my husband has good relations with both the PM [prime minister] and the former Minister of Mines (not to mention lots of French contacts), both of whom could possibly shed light on this sort of activity.'' A State Department analyst told the committee about an inter-agency meeting in 2002 that was ''apparently convened by [Wilson's] wife, who had the idea to dispatch [him] to use his contacts to sort out the Iraq-Niger uranium issue.'' The committee found that the CIA report, based on Wilson's mission, differed considerably from the former ambassador's description to the committee of his findings. That report ''did not refute the possibility that Iraq had approached Niger to purchase uranium.'' As far as his statement to the Washington Post about ''forged documents'' involved in the alleged Iraqi attempt to buy uranium, Wilson told the committee he may have ''misspoken.'' In fact, the intelligence community agreed that ''Iraq was attempting to procure uranium from Africa.'' ''While there was no dispute with the underlying facts,'' Chairman Roberts wrote separately, ''my Democrat colleagues refused to allow'' two conclusions in the report. The first conclusion merely said that Wilson was sent to Niger at his wife's suggestion. The second conclusion is devastating: ''Rather than speaking publicly about his actual experiences during his inquiry of the Niger issue, the former ambassador seems to have included information he learned from press accounts and from his beliefs about how the Intelligence Community would have or should have handled the information he provided.'' The normally mild Roberts is harsh in his condemnation: ''Time and again, Joe Wilson told anyone who would listen that the president had lied to the American people, that the vice president had lied, and that he had 'debunked' the claim that Iraq was seeking uranium from Africa. . . . [N]ot only did he NOT 'debunk' the claim, he actually gave some intelligence analysts even more reason to believe that it may be true.'' Roberts called it ''important'' for the committee to declare much of what Wilson said ''had no basis in fact.'' In response, Democrats were silent. Chicago Sun-Times

To: LindyBill who wrote (54426)	7/16/2004 2:57:16 AM
From: D. Long	Respond to of 793914

This is great. Creative thinking. Of course they couldn't do this in the States. They'd get shot. news.bbc.co.uk ----------------------------------------------------------- SA crime-stoppers use 'evil eye' By Richard Hamilton BBC correspondent in Cape Town Residents in the South African city of Cape Town are trying to reduce crime by staring at suspected criminals such as prostitutes and drug dealers. Yellow Bibs members stare at suspects for up to 15 minutes Three nights a week a group of up to 30 people from Sea Point go out, stand on the pavement and give wrongdoers "the evil eye". Sea Point is notorious for crime and has a sleazy reputation, where groups of drug dealers can be seen lurking in alleyways and girls stand on street corners in miniskirts waiting for business. The Yellow Bibs, as the neighbourhood group is known because of the uniforms they wear, say it only takes about 15 minutes before the people they watch start to feel uncomfortable and leave. Shops re-open The initiative was the brainchild of a local city councillor, JP Smith. He is convinced that the presence of the residents has made a difference to the area since they started four months ago. He says about 50 shops and local businesses have re-opened and criminal gangs have moved out of the area. The prostitutes... got fed up and said they were going home to watch TV City Councillor JP Smith "We've drastically affected their core business, by reclaiming the streets for the residents," he says. He hopes that more people will join the group so they can watch would be criminals every night of the week. You might think the Yellow Bibs would be putting themselves in extreme danger, but they have a police escort and even a private security firm with them so they say they feel safe. Unnerved "No one has ever been physically abused although we have suffered verbal abuse from the prostitutes who have a very flowery vocabulary," says Mr Smith. He explains how the residents' icy stares unnerved one group of sex workers recently. "The prostitutes told me I couldn't stand there all the time," he recalls. "I said of course, I could. They got irritated and left, but we followed them. They tried to sneak back, until they couldn't stand it anymore, so they got fed up and said they were going home to watch TV." As well as cracking down on ladies of the night, the Yellow Bibs are also keeping a careful eye out for kerb-crawlers. "We send the customer a picture of his car and a community service notice saying the car was seen in an area plagued by prostitution," says Mr Smith. "If the guy's wife opens the envelope, it's not our fault!"