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WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney chose someone in his own likeness to be his new chief of staff. Like Cheney, David Addington shuns the limelight. And like Cheney, Addington already has made a large imprint on the Bush White House. At Cheney's side since the 1980s, Addington has been a behind-the-scenes player in one after another of the hot-button controversies the Bush administration has faced: _The CIA leak probe. _The fight to disclose which corporations advised the White House on energy policy. _The dispute over the treatment of suspected terrorists. _The White House disagreements with the Sept. 11 commission...

Remember Joe Wilson? He's the diplomat who went to Niger to investigate Bush administration claims that Saddam Hussein had tried to buy yellowcake uranium, a raw material used in building nuclear bombs, from Africa. He wrote in a July 6, 2003, New York Times op-ed that he had spent the previous February in Niger, "drinking sweet mint tea and meeting with dozens of people ... associated with the country's uranium business. It did not take long to conclude that it was highly doubtful that any such transaction had ever taken place." A story that has to be the most underplayed...

Scott McClellan appeared before the House Judiciary committee yesterday. When asked about Joseph Wilson and the defamation of Wilson’s character by Sheila Jackson- Lee McClellan seemed to sympathize with the harm that had been done by the evil forces in the White House during and before his tenure as Press Secretary. Jackson-Lee asked McClellan specifically about the Uranium in Niger that Wilson reported on. Later in his testimony Scott was confronted by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) with some disturbing facts via a declassified CIA report. McClellan visually surprised with these facts began to backtrack. (Video Included)

Scott McClellan testifies this morning before the House Judiciary Committee beginning at 9:30 (eastern). It will be covered live on C-Span and the three cable networks.

UN inspectors in Iraq spent their working hours drinking vodka while ignoring a shadowy nocturnal fleet believed to be smuggling goods for Saddam Hussein, a former senior inspector told the US Senate yesterday. In a move that provoked fury from officials of the Swiss firm Cotecna, an Australian former inspector detailed a picture of incompetence, indifference and drunkeness among the men acting as the frontline for UN sanctions. Arthur Ventham, a former Australian army officer and customs officer, joined the operation in 2002 and worked at various sites in Iraq and neighbouring states. He said that at Iskendurun in eastern...

oseph C. Wilson IV SANTA FE, N.M. - In recent weeks Americans have been subjected to a litany of outrageous statements from Sen. Barack Obama's pastor of 20 years, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. While Obama was finally compelled to distance himself from his radical preacher, the relationship raises legitimate questions about Obama's judgment and naivete. Obama, after all, wants to be president of the United States, and in that quest has proposed unconditional summit meetings with some of our country's most determined enemies, including Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Obama's campaign has been built upon his supposed transcendent qualities and intuitive judgment....

The Prime Minister of Niger reported to the U.S. State Department in early 2002 that Iraq tried to buy uranium "yellow cake" (ore) -- a June 2003 Memo reveals. A declassified court exhibit introduced in the 2007 trial of Scooter Libbey proved that Saddam Hussein tried to get uranium ore from Niger -- covertly and under the table. This is clear evidence that Saddam Hussein was actively developing nuclear weapons. Iraq already had stockpiles of uranium "yellow cake" that it was not using -- but that uranium was being watched by UN inspectors. Iraq could have no reason for wanting...

Radical liberal elites gather at the National Press Club on Thursday to honor other liberal radical elites who have distinguished themselves in disservice to America. The Nation Institute gives out "Ridenhour Prizes" in memory of Ron Ridenhour, a "journalist" who brought the My Lai "massacre" to the attention of the world during the Vietnam War and helped to establish the liberal template of the American soldier as a mass murderer. This years' "Courage Prize" goes to Bill Moyers, a liberal icon who established state-financed media that includes NPR and PBS. Past recipients: Jimmy Carter, Gloria Steinem, Seymour Hersh and Daniel...

I guess things must not be going well with Joe Wilson's (and wife Valerie Plame's) movie. It was hyped bigtime over a year ago and now that Warner Bros project appears to have dropped out of sight. I sure know Wilson's book is way down in the DUMPS at #1,310,194 in Amazon. The paperback edition isn't doing much better at #266,321. This might explain Joe Wilson's over-the-top partisanship in favor of Hillary. 'Fess up, Joe. What did Hillary promise you? The Secretary of State slot if she is elected president? In any event, it is entertaining to watch Wilson...

Everyone else in the media is pounding Hillary Clinton for her tale, now shown to be fanciful, of dodging bullets on a Bosnian tarmac as first lady. But if you're looking for the best recent example of the lengths Mrs. Clinton will go to win the Democratic Presidential nod, consider that last week in Philadelphia she used Joe and Valerie Wilson as campaign props. Was George Galloway not available? Mr. Wilson and his wife are darlings of the antiwar crowd for their roles as self-styled martyrs in the CIA "leak" fiasco. The former ambassador is still cashing in on his...

Bush's War Monday, March 24 and Tuesday, March 25, 2008 9 P.M. (check local listings) From the horror of 9/11 to the invasion of Iraq; the truth about WMD to the rise of an insurgency; the scandal of Abu Ghraib to the strategy of the surge-for six years, FRONTLINE has revealed the defining stories of the war on terror in meticulous detail, and the political dramas that played out at the highest levels of power and influence. Now, on the fifth anniversary of the Iraq invasion, the full saga unfolds in the two-part FRONTLINE special Bush's War, airing Monday, March...

End the cowboy diplomacy. The next President needs to begin their term by restoring American credibility and American political and moral authority around the globe by reaching out to the rest of the world.

Most Americans have never heard of Sibel Edmonds, and if the U.S. government has its way, they never will. The former FBI translator turned whistleblower tells a chilling story of corruption at Washington’s highest levels—sale of nuclear secrets, shielding of terrorist suspects, illegal arms transfers, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, espionage. She may be a first-rate fabulist, but Edmonds’s account is full of dates, places, and names. And if she is to be believed, a treasonous plot to embed moles in American military and nuclear installations and pass sensitive intelligence to Israeli, Pakistani, and Turkish sources was facilitated by figures in...

On Wednesday, I reported on the outrageous indictment of American Patriot Richard Convertino. I also linked to a longer version of my previous New York Post column about what's really going on here (Justice Dept. and U.S. Attorney's Office pandering to Muslim Extremists). Now, Rick Convertino's wife, the lovely Valerie Convertino, has an excellent op-ed piece in today's Detroit Free Press. (I disagree with her about Joe Wilson and his wife, but the rest I know to be true.) This is Val's second, well-said Free Press column on the topic. (Her first Free Press Op-Ed, regarding the events behind this...

The publicist for a book written by former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan released an excerpt on Monday that set all of the Old Media tongues to wagging again about the Valerie Plame Affair: "The most powerful leader in the world had called upon me to speak on his behalf and help restore credibility he lost amid the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. So I stood at the White house briefing room podium in front of the glare of the klieg lights for the better part of two weeks and publicly exonerated two of the...

What do you do when your heavily hyped book plummets from number 6 on the New York Times bestseller list to a mere 299 on Amazon.com in just a matter of a few weeks? If you're Valerie Plame, you turn to discredited "journalist" Jason Leopold for self-hype help as you can see in this video. Howard Kurtz has written of Leopold's dubious background in a March 9, 2005 Washington Post article: Jason Leopold got a journalistic black eye three years ago when Salon retracted a story the freelancer had written about a Bush administration official, saying it could not authenticate...

This is a fascinating video in many ways. One way is the fact that Valerie Plame allowed herself to be interviewed with a journalist described in a Howard Kurtz Washington Post ARTICLE as engaging in "lying, cheating, and backstabbing." The article also states that Leopold was a cocaine addict who has battled mental illness his whole life. So this is the person that Valerie Plame allows to interview her which says a lot about her. One interesting thing in this 10 minute video is that at 3:45 into it, Leopold FINALLY admits to being wrong about his infamous "scoop"...

WASHINGTON - Former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said Sunday he was foolish to have revealed Valerie Plame's CIA identity. Armitage's acknowledgment came in response to comments by Plame, who said the former Bush administration official had no right to talk to a reporter about where she worked. A year ago, Armitage publicly apologized to Plame and her husband. The former No. 2 State Department official remains the only principal in the leak to have done so. At least three one-time administration officials in addition to Armitage discussed Plame's CIA status with reporters. They are former White House political...

Q. Is it possible to get through an extended interview of Valerie Plame Wilson without mentioning Richard Armitage? A. Yes, if Joe Scarborough is the interviewer. The "Morning Joe" host conducted a 15-minute conversation with and about Plame today, much of which focused on her "outing" as a CIA operative. But the name of the State Department official who first disclosed her identity was never uttered. That wouldn't have fit the template that the disclosure was a nasty White House plot to punish Plame's husband Joe Wilson. Armitage, at State, was anything but a partisan GOP operative with an anti-Wilson...

If Valerie Plame's memoir was intended to lay to rest the conflicting accounts of how she came to be outed as a covert CIA agent, it fails. Instead, she paints herself as a naïve, whinging victim of circumstance married to an angry, obstreperous egotist who volunteered to involve himself in a vicious battle between the White House and the CIA over how President Bush came to make untrue statements in a State of the Union speech. Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House (Simon and Schuster, $26) shows how mistaken her husband's judgment was....

(CBS) Valerie Plame Wilson chides President Bush for not firing anyone for the leaking of her covert CIA identity, which caused a national scandal and an investigation resulting in a perjury and obstruction of justice conviction against Vice President Richard Cheney's chief of staff. She also tells Katie Couric that she has learned of the damage that the leaking of her identity caused agents of the clandestine service and it is serious. Plame Wilson and her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, accuse the Bush administration of leaking her identity to the press as retaliation for her husband's public charge that...

Dear "Past Your Eyes", In 2003 when I spoke out against the lies in George Bush's State of the Union address justifying his disastrous and irresponsible war in Iraq, I never imagined the White House would take revenge against me by compromising the national security of the country, not to mention the safety of my family by outing my wife's identity as a covert CIA officer. Dick Cheney, Scooter Libby and Karl Rove knew they could get away with their traitorous acts because the Republicans in Congress refused to do any oversight or hold anyone accountable. With Democrats in power...

Is Plame to Blame? by: Bethany Stotts, August 16, 2007 The Valerie Plame Affair, which resulted in the conviction of White House aide Louis “Scooter” Libby, serves as rallying point for many opponents of the Bush Administration. However, some conservatives remain skeptical of Plame’s alleged victim status. While her job description was listed on the CIA rolls as an agent with “no official cover” (NOC), Plame had in reality had been performing administrative duties at Langley for at least five years. She remains willing to pose for the cameras as a starlet ex-agent, and continues participating in high-level lawsuits. Rowan...

Merry Fitzmas, DUmmies!!! Yes, it's Fitzmas in July as a judge tosses OUT a lawsuit by Valerie Plame against the EVIL Bush Regime. Of course, this action has stirred up the residents of my DUmmie Ant Farm as you can see in this THREAD titled, "Valerie Plame's lawsuit dismissed." Freudenschade, baby! So let us now watch the DUmmies gloomily assess yet another DEFEAT in Bolshevik Red while the commentary of your humble correspondent, eagerly waiting for the DUmmie reaction when Libby wins his appeal, is in the [brackets]: WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Thursday dismissed former CIA operative...

Former Ambassador Joseph Wilson signed on with Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign yesterday, saying "it's entirely possible" his ex-spy wife will hit the trail with her, too. Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was outed as a covert CIA operations officer by President Bush's advisers in 2003 as they sought to discredit her Iraq war critic husband. She's writing a memoir due in the fall. "I would expect her to be engaged [politically] probably after the book tour," Wilson told the Daily News after Clinton announced his endorsement. Wilson said his wife shunned politics during her two decades as a covert spy. But...

Editorial Cartoonist for Investor's Business Daily Get a unique perspective on today's issues with the political cartoons of IBD's Pulitzer Prize Winner, Michael Ramirez.

Writing about Lester Holt, I've more than once praised the NBC super-sub for his level-headed professionalism. I may have to re-evaluate after his performance on this morning's "Today." Interviewing Joe Wilson about the Libby commutation, Holt seemed to seek to throw gasoline on the fire with leading questions, while obfuscating an important fact.Holt began by reminding Wilson of his recent statement that the Libby sentence demonstrates that "this remains a nation of laws, not men."Holt then lobbed in this question. NBC HOST LESTER HOLT: Do you still believe that this morning? Wilson knew just what to do with the hanging...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is disputing President Bush's assertion that the 30-month prison sentence given to former White House aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby was "excessive." That was 1 of the reasons the president cited in commuting the sentence hours after a federal appeals court ruled that Libby could not remain free while fighting the case. Fitzgerald said in a statement that Libby was sentenced under the same laws as other criminals. He also said "It is fundamental to the rule of law that all citizens stand before the bar of justice as equals."

FReep This Poll! Here is the poll question in full form... Do you agree with President Bush's decision to commute former White House aide I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby's prison term? Yes No Not sure Link over to the North County Times/The Californian homepage. Scroll down a bit and look for the poll on the right hand side. Vote your choice.

Former Time poobah Norman Pearlstine's new book about his role in the Valerie Plame scandal is titled Off the Record, but don't be misled: he devotes most of his time to naming names, mouthing off about his enemies, and firing back at those who criticized his cooperation with federal prosecutors. In a rare moment of introspection about Time reporter Matt Cooper, Pearlstine concedes, "None of his editors, including this one, provided adequate guidance." But mostly, Pearlstine sticks to a valuable lesson clearly learned during his time in the corporate corner office: Blame your underlings. Pearlstine faults Cooper and his fellow...

Wilson says 'good riddance' to Scooter Libby, Cheney should be next. Former Ambassador Joe Wilson, whose wife Valerie Plame was at the heart of the Lewis "Scooter" Libby case, showed no mercy following the announcement of Libby's jail sentence. Libby was sentenced to 30 months in prison and fined $250,000 for lying to federal investigators about his role in the outing of former CIA operative Valerie Plame, Wilson's wife. Here's the Wilson statement in full: “As Americans, both Valerie and I are grateful that justice has been served, reconfirming that our country remains a nation of laws. We are also...

WASHINGTON -- In a rare rebuke of a public official by name, the Senate Select Intelligence Committee has issued a scathing report blasting former Ambassador Joseph Wilson IV. The report claims Wilson mislead the public and the intelligence committee about his trip to Niger in 2002 on behalf of the CIA to investigate claims that Iraq was seeking to purchase uranium in Africa. Best know as the husband of former CIA officer Valerie Plame, Ambassador Wilson was catapulted to the limelight after he published an Op-Ed in The New York Times on July 6, 2003, that accused the Bush administration...

A lawsuit brought by a CIA agent whose cover was blown by Bush administration officials, Valerie Plame, is expected to face a withering attack this morning at a court hearing in Washington. Through their attorneys, the defendants in the case have denounced it as a political vendetta on the part of Ms. Plame and her husband, Joseph Wilson, a former ambassador. Named in the lawsuit are Vice President Cheney, his former chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby Jr., President Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, and a former deputy secretary of state, Richard Armitage. "This case is a political exercise...

Former CIA Director George Tenet has agreed to cooperate with the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform as the panel investigates the Bush administration’s pre-war claims about Iraq’s efforts to acquire uranium. Tenet will testify before the panel and has agreed to provide a deposition prior to his appearance, according to a committee release. Waxman’s staff also announced Monday that a hearing with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been pushed back to June 19 from Tuesday. Rice has been subpoenaed to appear but has indicated that she will not comply. According to a committee release, however, Waxman still...

A London accountant has described how Pakistan's disgraced nuclear hero Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan visited the West African state of Mali on three occasions between 1998 and 2000. Abdul Ma'bood Siddiqui accompanied A.Q. Khan on three mystery trips  between 1998 and 2000. Their final destination was Timbuktu, a remote outpost in the desert that has always been a magnet for explorers and adventurers from around the world. The mystery behind the visits has deepened following recent revelations that Khan is also the owner of a small hotel in the town that he has named after Hendrina, his Dutch-born wife and...

<p>Wearing her scarf of female submission, US Democrat Speaker of the House entered Islamic Syria during the week prior to Easter. Many of us were surprised that she didn't don a full burqa. Speaking for the new US Democrat Shadow Government, after her talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Pelosi told Syria's President Bashar al-Assad (and the worldwide press) that Israel was "ready to engage in peace talks" with the terrorist nation. Wow! All it took was a woman (as a strong side note-women are considered to be below beasts of burden in fundamentalist Islamic-run countries) to settle the problems in the Middle East. If only we'd tried this sooner the world could have avoided all of the bloodshed and wars that have been ongoing for multiple decades between Israel and terrorist Islamic countries!</p>

Outed CIA officer Valerie Plame has canceled her April 11 visit to the University of Florida. Plame, whose identity was revealed in a 2003 syndicated column by Robert Novak, canceled because she's still sorting out legal issues related to her upcoming book, according to Accent, the student-run speakers bureau that invited Plame. "She's pretty much still testifying in front of Congress and trying to resolve some legal issues with her book," said Andrew Brown, chairman of Accent. Plame testified before Congress early this month, and the scope of the testimony was heavily vetted in advance by CIA officials to ensure...

If some people imagined a verdict in the criminal trial of I. Lewis Libby Jr. would calm the political passions surrounding his fate, they may have forgotten two words with a combustible history: presidential pardon. The 11 jurors had barely pronounced Mr. Libby guilty of obstruction of justice and perjury on Tuesday when a new donnybrook broke out. “Now President Bush must pledge not to pardon Libby for his criminal conduct,” declared Senator Harry Reid, the Senate majority Leader, a stance echoed by other Congressional Democrats, editorial writers and bloggers on the left. On the right, The Wall Street Journal...

I heard this on the radio yesterday, and can't quote it exact, but Joe Wilson said, referring to Scooter Libby and how he was the "small fish" in a hunt for Cheney and Bush, said something about "those in history who have been convicted of perjury, but were guilty of much larger crimes, like Richard Nixon or Alger Hiss. Did anyone else hear this and have the exact quotation? It strikes me as telling that the libs now inadvertenly admit that Alger Hiss was a traitor, and I'd like to have the actual quotation.

After seven weeks of conflicting, confusing testimony about when various people remembered saying, hearing or knowing that Valerie Plame was a CIA employee, a federal jury of seven women and four men needed 10 days to convict I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby of two counts of perjury, one count of making false statements and one count of obstruction of justice. Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff was acquitted of one count of lying to the FBI about his conversation with former Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper.Libby is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton on...

With all the journalists testifying about how and when they learned Valerie Plame’s identity as a CIA agent and anti-war diplomat Joe Wilson’s wife in the perjury and obstruction trial of Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby Jr., The Stiletto thought that this handy dandy chart would help keep the story straight: Libby Told Me Libby Did Not Tell Me Matt Cooper (formerly with Time Magazine) Walter Pincus (Washington Post): Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer told me Judith Miller (formerly with The New York Times) Glenn Kessler (Washington Post): Topic never came...

Is Everything We Know About Joe Wilson’s Trip to Niger Wrong? New evidence from the Libby trial — evidence Senate investigators never saw — could change the storyline. By Byron York For the last two weeks, a number of Republicans in Washington — in the administration, on Capitol Hill, and in the intelligence community — have been watching closely as the perjury and obstruction of justice trial of Lewis Libby unfolds in federal court. In particular, those Republicans have been poring over dozens of documents released as evidence in the case. Much of what they’ve seen is old stuff, things...

The Libby trial continues today with FBI agent Bond acknowledging that her notes are inaccurate and that the summary of the second interview prepared by her supervisor Eckenrode is substantially at odds with her notes. She also said that while Libby said he "couldn't recall" a key conversation, for example, Eckenrode reported that Libby "adamantly denied "it occurred. Imagine how confusing it must have been to be confronted in the grand jury with these notes falsely describing the interviews and having no means to challenge them! Significantly, Agent Bond confirms: Libby testified that on 9/30/03, Colin Powell told him that...

A pattern is emerging at the Lewis Libby trial, now in the middle of its third week in the federal courthouse in Washington. The pattern is this: A witness called by prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald delivers testimony that seems clearly damaging to Libby, strongly suggesting that Libby lied when he testified before prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald’s grand jury in the CIA-leak affair. And then Libby’s lawyers take over, suggesting that the witness’s memory is so selective, or so flawed, or so sketchy as to render his or her testimony useless. Each day, most news reports from the trial focus on the damage...

Some fascinating details on the CIA leak affair are coming out in the courtroom of the Lewis Libby trial. This morning, for example, we got a better picture of why former ambassador Joseph Wilson decided to go public with his story, publishing an op-ed in the New York Times in July 2003. Prior to that time, Wilson had been talking to reporters on background — his name had not been linked to the whole Niger/yellowcake/16 words affair. But Wilson has said in a number of interviews that after watching the appearance of then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice on "Meet the...

The Head of The Columbia Journalism School... [John Podhoretz] ...gets really quite a lot of facts wrong in this one partial paragraph from this week's New Yorker: "[T]he White House dispatched former Ambassador Joseph Wilson to Niger, in February of 2002, to find proof that the country had shipped yellowcake uranium to Iraq. Wilson not only came up empty-handed; he said so publicly, in a Times Op-Ed piece that he published five months later. The Administration then went on another search for evidence—the kind that could be used to discredit Wilson—and began disseminating it, off the record, to a few...

Former vice presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was eager to make public that the CIA, not Vice President Dick Cheney, sent an ex-ambassador to check on Iraq's efforts to obtain nuclear material, a former agency executive said Wednesday. Former CIA Iraq Mission Manager Robert L. Grenier appeared as a government witness in the trial of Libby on charges of obstruction and lying. He testified he told Libby that the idea of sending ex-ambassador Joseph Wilson to Niger was the brainchild of Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, who worked in the CIA office that sent him in 2002. A year later,...

A federal judge has rejected, for now, the effort by a former ambassador, Joseph Wilson IV, to escape testifying in the trial of Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby Jr. "Since Ambassador Wilson has yet to be actually called as a witness, he has not been inconvenienced, nor can he establish at this time that the subpoena is unreasonable or oppressive. Accordingly, his motion is premature," Judge Reggie Walton wrote in an order dated Tuesday.

An attorney for former ambassador Joseph Wilson, whose wife, Valerie Plame, is at the center of the Plamegate scandal in Washington, was raked over the coals by a judge Thursday for remarks she made the day before on MSNBC's Hardball. During an interview on the program, Melanie Sloan said that former administration official Scooter Libby could still be convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice even though he may not have been the first person to reveal that Plame was a CIA agent. In a stinging rebuke from the bench, U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton said that he "would not...

A jury that includes four critics of the Bush administration's Iraq policies was seated Monday to try former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby on charges of lying about what he told reporters about the wife of a prominent war opponent. The jury of nine women and three men was seated after a nearly hourlong court session that was as silent as a professional chess match. Prosecutors and defense attorneys consulted in whispers, then handled papers to the clerk to exercise their 20 unexplained strikes of potential jurors. The only sound was the clerk reading the numbers of each...