Free Republic

Then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft was "feeble," "barely articulate" and "stressed" moments after a hospital room confrontation in March 2004 with Alberto R. Gonzales, who wanted Ashcroft to approve a warrantless wiretapping program over Justice Department objections, according to notes from FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III that were released yesterday. One of Mueller's entries in five pages of a daily log pertaining to the dispute also indicated that Ashcroft's deputy was so concerned about undue pressure by Gonzales and other White House aides for the attorney general to back the wiretapping program that the deputy asked Mueller to bar...

ONE of the key questions being asked of Benon Sevan, the head of the UN’s oil-for- food programme, is how he came to be in possession of £85,000 which he claimed was given to him by an elderly aunt. The report questioned this "unexplained wealth", noting that his aunt, Berdjouhi Zeitountsian, was a retired Cyprus government photographer living on a modest pension. Ms Zeitountsian died last June after falling into the lift shaft at her home, but relatives say they find the story convincing. They say that Mr Sevan, who is the illegitimate son of one of Ms Zeitountsian’s sisters,...