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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...

WASHINGTON -- A jury that includes four critics of the Bush administration's Iraq policies was seated Monday to try former White House aide "Scooter" Libby on charges of lying about what he told reporters concerning 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 handed papers to the clerk to exercise their 20 unexplained strikes of potential jurors. The only sound was the clerk reading the number of each...

WASHINGTON - A federal judge strongly admonished an attorney for former ambassador Joseph Wilson for her appearance yesterday on MSNBC's program "Hardball" where she predicted a jury can find I Lewis "Scooter" Libby guilty of making false statements.

Inside the Beltway "Very odd," says our source. "They sat at a table in the back." Referring to the intriguing trio of Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Arlen Specter, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, and his wife, Valerie Plame, of CIA-leak fame,

"Or maybe the case has no merit." So suggests the latest issue of the American Lawyer, citing one theory as to why Valerie Plame of CIA-leak fame suddenly parted ways with her attorney, Proskauer Rose partner Christopher Wolf -- her next-door neighbor, no less -- shortly after her civil action was filed against senior Bush administration officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney and White House aide Karl Rove. "The breakup was a shock," writes the magazine's Elizabeth Goldberg, given that Mr. Wolf had filed the suit only "a month earlier." Headlined "File and run," the article quotes lawyer Victoria Toensing,...

The publication of Hubris is filled with irony for David Corn, Washington editor of the left-wing Nation magazine. He was present at the creation of the Valerie Plame "scandal," which the enemies of George W. Bush hoped could bring down a president. Nobody was more responsible for bloating this episode. Yet Corn is coauthor of a book that has had the effect of killing the story. Thanks to Corn's intrepid coauthor, Newsweek investigative reporter Michael Isikoff, Hubris definitively revealed then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage as my source that Joseph Wilson's wife, Valerie, worked for the CIA and suggested her...

Early this morning on JOM we went through the cached page blog and noticed something interesting. The cached pages we examined indicate that the mother of one of the pages, Robin Katsoros, mother of Christopher Katsoros a former Pelosi page, told the pages she was working on a screen production of the lives of pages. And she gathered information from them. She is a Conyers and Kerry supporter and he is a student at Georgetown now. It looks like the kids were trying to “sex” up their experiences to get her interested. Here are some bits of it. JOM has...

(CNN) -- The family of a Louisiana teenager who reported "sick" e-mails from former Rep. Mark Foley called their son a hero Thursday and said they want reporters to go away. Foley resigned last week after Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a left-leaning watchdog group, posted some of the e-mails he exchanged with the former male page in 2005, who was then 16 and had worked for Rep. Rodney Alexander, a Louisiana Republican. The family's statement calls the e-mails "ambiguous" and expresses support for Alexander.

A former top CIA official said Thursday that despite the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, Iraq is likely to be looking for weapons of mass destruction within the next five to 10 years. Paul Pillar, who until last year was in charge of intelligence assessments for the Middle East, said the CIA warned the Bush administration before the Iraq invasion in 2003 that a change of regimes would not necessarily solve any WMD problem. In a speech at the Middle East Institute here, Pillar said Iraqis live in "a dangerous neighborhood," with rival countries pursuing weapons of mass destruction. So the...

For months Washington’s liberal chattering class filled the airwaves and spilled barrels of ink on the always implausible conspiracy theory holding that Bush White House Pooh-Bahs intentionally leaked the name of CIA agent Valerie Plame in retaliation for her husband’s very public and largely untruthful campaign against the Bush administration’s war policy. But a new book by two decidedly not Bush-friendly reporters — David Corn of the left-wing Nation and Michael Isikoff of the Washington Post — shows the whole controversy to be a sham. No White House people were involved at all. Instead, the leaker was Deputy Secretary of...

CREW Announces Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame Wilson to Add Armitage to Civil Suit 9/13/2006 2:25:00 PM To: National Desk Contact: Naomi Seligman Steiner of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, 202-588-5565 WASHINGTON, Sept. 13 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) announced today that it is adding former Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage to the lawsuit filed by Valerie Plame Wilson and Joseph C. Wilson against I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Karl Rove and Vice President Richard Cheney. CREW represents the Wilsons in the litigation. A new book by Michael Isikoff and David...

<p>WE'RE RELUCTANT to return to the subject of former CIA employee Valerie Plame because of our oft-stated belief that far too much attention and debate in Washington has been devoted to her story and that of her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, over the past three years. But all those who have opined on this affair ought to take note of the not-so-surprising disclosure that the primary source of the newspaper column in which Ms. Plame's cover as an agent was purportedly blown in 2003 was former deputy secretary of state Richard L. Armitage.</p>

The Great Pumpkin is finally going to be appearing! No, really! It's TRUE. TRUTHOUT just made this grand announcement in the form of saying that Karl Rove was really REALLY indicted last May 12. Oh, and the only reason why we don't know about it is that his indictment has been sealed all this time. You can read the TruthOut Great Pumpkin announcement in this DUmmie THREAD titled, "Jason Leopold and Marc Ash|Indictment Still Sealed, Fitzgerald Still Busy." Yeah, now there are two reliable sources, a degenerate drug-addicted liar and a former fashion editor. And where is Sonny Crockett?...

A federal judge today ordered that certain "extremely sensitive" classified documents be withheld from Vice President Cheney's former top aide, I Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Judge Reggie Walton, writes in a court filing, that he has "carefully reviewed" the requests to withhold the documents from Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, and from the CIA, which were provided to him ex parte, in camera, and found that the documents should be omitted from the classified materials requested by Libby's attorneys. Judge Walton writes that the documents he has withheld are, "extremely sensitive and their disclosure could cause serious if not grave damage to...

The New York Times may not withhold reporters' phone records from a federal grand jury investigating an alleged leak of a pending government raid on two Islamic charities suspected of supporting terrorism, a federal appeals court ruled yesterday. A three-judge panel of the New York-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit ruled 2 to 1 that the Times has no First Amendment or other legal right to refuse a demand for the records from the grand jury in Chicago, which was empaneled by U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald. The government's interest in rooting out a possible crime outweighs...

The documents seized in the FBI raid on the offices of Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) remain unread by Justice Department investigators, pending a federal Appeals Court ruling scheduled for August 27. [snip] But we already know a bit about the charges and some of the alleged partners of Congressman Jefferson. Two people have pleaded guilty to bribing him.

The documents seized in the FBI raid on the offices of Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) remain unread by Justice Department investigators, pending a federal Appeals Court ruling scheduled for August 27. Jefferson is anxious to overturn the ruling of federal Judge Hogan of the Washington, DC federal District Court, who allowed the raid. One can only surmise that the seized documents contain material even more embarrassing than the discovery of $90,000 in cash in Jefferson’s freezer. But we already know a bit about the charges and some of the alleged partners of Congressman Jefferson. Two people have pleaded guilty to...

From Larry's very own corner of the internet, No Quarter: Sacrificing Our Troops on the Altar of Republican Politics byLarry C JohnsonLeave it to the Porcine Draft Dodger--Karl Rove--to impugn the character of combat veterans.  Can't blame him for trotting out the same playbook that worked so well in 2004 against the candidacy of John Kerry.  If it worked once it should work again.Of course I am referring to Karl's speech Tuesday night to Republicans in New Hampshire.  According to a piece in Wednesday's Washington Post: In a speech to New Hampshire Republican officials here Monday night, the White House...

News broke early this morning that Karl Rove would not be indicted in the CIA leak case, only a short statement was released, but succint enough. This follows the death of Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Zarqawi only a few days earlier. As if things werent looking good enough for us on the right side of the aisle (and America too, but the left isnt all to concerned with America these days) news broke only minutes ago that Rep Patrick Kennedy would plead guilty to driving under the influence! Lets see if the MSM reports this the same as they...