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WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 (UPI) -- Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was investigating the man who allegedly planned the Sept. 11 airplane hijackings and attacks on New York and Washington when he was kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan, according to two former Central Intelligence Agency officials. Bob Baer, a former case officer in the agency's Directorate of Operations, said he provided Pearl with unpublished information about Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who has since been accused by American officials of being one of the masterminds of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and a top aide to Osama bin Laden. Mohammed is...

Secrets of the CIA A former colleague says the fired Mary McCarthy ‘categorically denies’ being the source of the leak on agency renditions. WEB EXCLUSIVE By Mark Hosenball and Michael Isikoff Updated: 7:07 p.m. ET April 24, 2006 April 24, 2006 - A former CIA officer who was sacked last week after allegedly confessing to leaking secrets has denied she was the source of a controversial Washington Post story about alleged CIA secret detention operations in Eastern Europe, a friend of the operative told NEWSWEEK. The fired official, Mary O. McCarthy, “categorically denies being the source of the leak,” one...

Proving that he’s just as adept at stuffing an election candidate’s coffers as he is at stuffing his own socks, Sandy Berger hosted an "almost secret" Washington fund-raiser for a recently retired three-star vice admiral last night. Vice Adm. Joseph Sestak Jr, as the Village People would say, is "In the Navy". And when you want to take an Able Danger Congressman Curt Weldon down, what better way than to send in the Navy? Berger, dubbed "Sandy Burglar" by radio meister Rush Limbaugh, gained notoriety for trying to stuff classified documents into his socks and other attire. The man, who...

Several members of President Bill Clinton’s national security team are hosting a Washington fund-raiser tonight for retired Vice Adm. Joseph Sestak Jr., the Democrat running against U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon in November. Officials at Sestak’s campaign headquarters in Media will not comment on the event, though an invitation sent out to potential donors and obtained by the Daily Times lists Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger as a host. "As a general rule, campaigns don’t comment on fund-raisers or people who hold them," said Sestak’s campaign chairman, Myles Duffy. Berger, who served as Clinton’s second-term national security adviser, pleaded guilty last year...

If John Kerry becomes President he will find himself on the horns of a dilemma - which close friend to ditch when he chooses a new Secretary of State. According to today's Washington Post, Kerry would pick his national security team within a few weeks after winning the White House and two of his closest friends, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) or Richard Holbrooke reportedly want the job of running the State Department.

I've been unlucky enough to catch TV appearances by Kerry's spokesperson, Stephanie Cutter lately. For a fairly attractive, seemingly intelligent young woman, she spews such absolute garbage and lies, it's almost laughable. I began to wonder if she actually believed the stuff she says, so I ran some internet searches on her background. She's the real deal alright -- started in the Clinton WH -- need I say more. However, I did find a very interesting article from Dec. 2003 in kos (not familiar with the site) which is VERY revealing about not only Ms Cutter but THE KERRY CAMPAIGN....

Stephanie Cutter, the controversial John Kerry for President mouth who was eviscerated by Newsweek and who was blamed for some of the campaign's worst blunders, reportedly is negotiating a return to Ted Kennedy's Senate staff. Sources say Cutter's second stint in Kennedy's communications office is a done deal, a development that has seasoned politicos shaking their heads. ``It's a mystery,'' said one Senate snitch. ``It's very puzzling. People don't know how to digest it.'' But the senior senator is apparently a big fan of the thirtysomething blonde. ``Stephanie is one of the best in the business and would be a...

Aaron Brown of CNN fame had Randy Beers, the key Kerry foreign policy advisor, on his show tonight to discuss the future of Iraq. Well, all he talked about was doom & gloom. Beers mentality was that the US was an occupier, not a liberator. The US was evil (my words). It was pure defeatism. Aaron asked him when should US troops leave Iraq. He said at the end of this YEAR or after UN sponsored elections which would be early 2006(my guess). So, Comrade Kerry’s policy in Iraq would have been cut and run. A Kerry Presidency would have...

If he wins the White House, John F. Kerry will immediately confront a difficult, divisive and deeply personal decision: which close friend will he have to stiff for secretary of state? Kerry, who would name a national security team a few weeks after the election, is said by campaign sources to be under a fair amount of pressure to pick Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) or Richard Holbrooke to help repair global alliances and attract new allies to assist in Iraq. Both men are seasoned diplomats, ambitious and close friends and political advisers to Kerry. And both clearly want...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Justice Department has opened an investigation of possible accounting fraud at Fannie Mae, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, after a federal regulator said the mortgage giant may have manipulated its earnings targets. The Journal reported that the investigation is still in the preliminary stages. Fannie has been under fire since the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, or Ofheo, accused the company of improper accounting that allowed senior executives to pocket multimillion-dollar bonuses. According to the newspaper, officials have said that some Fannie Mae executives may have misled regulators, which in some cases...

(CNSNews.com) - Two of Sen. John Kerry's surrogates on Monday accused President Bush of politicizing the military strategy in Iraq, but when a reporter asked how the senator's plan would be better than Bush's, a Kerry aide promptly halted the discussion. The episode took place during a 2:15 p.m. conference call that featured two military advisers to the Kerry campaign. They spoke about a press report that suggested the United States would hold off on any major combat operations in Iraq until after the Nov. 2 election. At the start of the question-and-answer portion of the call, Agence France-Presse reporter...

It's not an if, it's a when. Pentagon officials have indicated that they plan to send as many as 15,000 more troops to Iraq during the first four months of 2005, and President Bush continues to insist that ''we will stay the course'' until Iraq is stabilized. Where will the additional troops come from? The Bush administration insists that there will be no draft, but the ''backdoor draft'' that has kept so many from the Reserve and National Guard on active duty has backfired, as quotas for new enlistments have not been met. So plans are already advanced for fully...

WASHINGTON (AP)--A South Korean man who met with John Kerry's fund-raisers to discuss creating a new political group for Korean-Americans was an intelligence agent for his country, raising concerns among some U.S. officials that either he or his government may have tried to influence this fall's election. South Korean officials and U.S. officials told The Associated Press that Chung Byung-Man, a consular officer in Los Angeles, actually worked for South Korea's National Intelligence Service. A spokesman for the South Korean consulate office said Chung was sent home in May amid "speculation" he became involved with the Kerry campaign and...

U.S. Probes Alleged Leak on Terror Probe Friday September 10, 2004 11:16 PM By CURT ANDERSON Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - A federal prosecutor is investigating whether two reporters for The New York Times were leaked information about a terror financing investigation that may have tipped off the targets of the probe. U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald of Chicago last week notified the newspaper in a letter that he intended to subpoena the telephone records of reporters Philip Shenon and Judith Miller. An attorney for The Times, Floyd Abrams, confirmed receipt of the letter and said he was negotiating with...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democrat John Kerry's press secretary and deputy finance director quit Tuesday amid chaos on a presidential campaign staff that lost its manager a day earlier.</p> <p>Robert Gibbs, chief spokesman for the Massachusetts lawmaker, quit to protest the firing of campaign manager Jim Jordan, let go by Kerry Sunday night.</p>

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — John Kerry was politely received by the American Legion yesterday, delivering a speech focused on veteran pocketbook issues and President Bush's handling of the war in Iraq without addressing the attacks leveled against him last month by fellow veterans.     "I'm proud to be here, and I'm proud to be a Legionnaire," he said after saluting the several thousand veterans seated in the giant hall. [snip]The audience politely responded to most of Mr. Kerry's pauses for his applause lines and gave him a standing ovation.     It was the candidate's first appearance before a major national veterans group since...

John Kerry's spokesman on veterans issues, John Hurley announced on Fox News Sunday August 22 that John Kerry was right when he accused US troops of committing atrocities against civilians "on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command." Why would Hurley continue to repeat John Kerry's malicious slanders knowing that they had been completely discredited? Furthermore, why is the media trying to give credibility to the views of this John Kerry spokesman on veterans issues even though he has been exposed as a calculating liar? Well, I don't think I need repeat...

(snip)....U.S. District Chief Judge Thomas F. Hogan... unsealed an order that demands the "confinement" of Time reporter Matthew Cooper, who has refused to testify in the probe... ... Hogan also issued an Aug. 6 order confining Cooper "at a suitable place until such time as he is willing to comply with the grand jury subpoena," and ordered Time to be fined $1,000 a day. ... ... While NBC fought a subpoena issued May 21 and was included in the opinion, it avoided a contempt citation after Tim Russert, moderator of NBC's "Meet the Press," agreed to an interview over the...