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MIDI - LIVING ON A PRAYER

Former vice presidential chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby told the FBI that it was "possible" that Vice President Cheney instructed him to disseminate information about CIA agent Valerie Plame to the press, according to a redacted FBI report recently examined by Congressional investigators. In part as a result of that revelation, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee today reiterated its request for more Plame investigation documents -- including reports on the interviews investigators conducted with Cheney and President Bush. In a letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey, Committee Chairman Henry Waxman also writes that "[n]ew revelations by...

Israeli military intelligence officials have accused President George W Bush’s administration of undermining their attempts to infiltrate Al-Qaeda’s operations in Iraq by revealing the contents of a secret letter written by Osama Bin Laden’s second-in-command. Israel passed the letter — in which Ayman al-Zawahiri outlined his Middle East strategy to Abu Musab al- Zarqawi, the Al-Qaeda leader in Iraq — to Washington last October on condition of strict anonymity. Israeli officials were dismayed, however, when John Negroponte, the US director of national intelligence, made it available in both English and its original Arabic on his office web site. Israeli intelligence...

Bushed: A resident of San Francisco's Pacific Heights neighborhood whose regular exercise regimen includes walking the Lyon Street steps was startled the other night when a man popped out of the bushes right in front of the home owned by Sen. Dianne Feinstein and megabucks husband Richard Blum. It was a security guard who was keeping watch over the senator's home, which is also monitored by some eyes in the sky - cameras atop the house's roof. The guard promptly apologized, telling our walker, "I have to go off camera and go to the bathroom in the bushes." "That makes...

An explosion blew out the store fronts of three businesses in downtown Durango on Friday afternoon, injuring up to five firefighters. The fire was initially reported at 1:40 p.m. as smoke and flame visible from the roof of Seasons Restaurant. Later reports said the fire may have started at Le Rendezvous. At approximately 2:30 p.m. the fronts of Seasons, 764 Main Ave.; Le Rendezvous, 750 Main Ave.; and Half-Price Tees, 758 Main Ave.; blew out at about 2:30 p.m., showering the street with flying glass, bricks and other debris. Scanner reported fire fighters still had “active fire” at Seasons at...

Not Every Leak Is Fit to Print Why have federal prosecutors subpoenaed a New York Times reporter?by Gabriel Schoenfeld 02/18/2008, Volume 013, Issue 22 Investigations of national-security leaks in Washington are not all that rare. But until Judith Miller of the New York Times was sent to jail for 85 days by a special prosecutor digging into the Valerie Plame imbroglio, investigations of such leaks in which journalists are subpoenaed were about as common as unicorns wandering the National Mall. We now have another such unicorn. On January 24, a federal grand jury in Alexandria issued a subpoena to...

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...

Israel obtained detailed photographs from inside an alleged Syrian nuclear facility prior to carrying out an air strike on September 6, ABC News reported over the weekend. An unnamed senior source in the US told the news network that the Mossad had discovered in the summer that Syria was constructing a nuclear facility and proceeded to either place a mole inside the plant or convince one of the workers to supply Israel with intelligence. Through the mole, the source said, Israel received pictures from the ground that showed a large cylindrical structure, trucks, and a pumping station - all of...

A majority of New York voters -- 53% -- now believe that Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D) knew what his aides were doing when they arranged for State Police records of Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno's (R) travels to be leaked to the media, according to a new Quinnipiac poll. Spitzer has denied knowing about the scheme. As a result, Spitzer's approval rating plunged to 48%, down from 60% last month. Another interesting finding: While 50% of voters agree that Spitzer is a "steamroller," only 18% say this tactic is working, while 53% say it contributes to legislative gridlock. A new...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - A week before Endeavour's planned liftoff, NASA was analyzing a cabin leak in the space shuttle Tuesday. The leak was detected over the weekend. NASA thought it fixed the problem by tightening a loose bolt, but testing Monday night confirmed air was still escaping from the crew cabin, said NASA spokeswoman Tracy Young. Engineers have yet to pinpoint the leak, which could require so much work that NASA might not be able to launch Endeavour on Aug. 7. NASA's planned launch of the Mars lander Phoenix later this week could also interfere with Endeavour's flight. The...

Mohammed Warsame seen in an undated photograph. (The photograph's background has been obscured to protect the source. ABCNEWS independently confirmed that the photograph shows Warsame.) U.S. Attempt to Turn Al Qaeda Suspect Into U.S. Informant Soured by Press Leak By Pierre Thomas Feb. 13 — When a Somali-born computer student was arrested in Minneapolis last December on suspicion of helping al Qaeda, federal counterterrorism officials thought they might finally have found what they desperately need — a way of getting inside Osama bin Laden's shadowy network. The counterterrorism officials developed a plan to turn the man, Mohammed Warsame, into a...

Prosecutors in Italy have issued three more arrest warrants over the kidnapping of an Egyptian imam based in Milan by a team of CIA agents. Among those wanted in connection with the operation, which led to the man - Abu Omar - being tortured in Egypt, is a 38-year-old female CIA agent who was working as a diplomat at the US embassy in Rome and is said to have led the operation. Betnie Medero, who was second secretary at the embassy until a few months ago, is one of 22 CIA agents now wanted by Italian police over the kidnapping,...

Newly appointed NBC Universal Entertainment Co-chairman Ben Silverman has castigated L.A. Weekly columnist Nikki Finke, who broke the story on her website last week that top NBC executives were planning to replace Entertainment President Kevin Reilly with Silverman. On Monday, TV Week quoted Silverman as saying, "I hate the blog world. ... It ends up interfering with people's lives. It messes with the process." The trade publication said that Finke's report "sent the entire NBC dealmaking team into frantic overdrive through the Memorial Day weekend."

A civil servant and an MP's researcher have been found guilty of breaching the Official Secrets Act. They leaked an "extremely sensitive" memo about talks on Iraq between Tony Blair and President Bush. Cabinet Office communications officer David Keogh passed the four-page document to Leo O'Connor, a researcher for anti-war Labour MP Anthony Clarke. Keogh was found guilty on two charges and O'Connor on one. The jury heard Keogh, 50, believed the memo exposed President Bush as a "madman". He hoped it could be used to raise questions in the House of Commons. He also wanted it to be passed...

China's Ex-Envoy to Korea Accused of Leaks Former Chinese ambassador to Korea Li Bin has been accused by China of disclosing state secrets related to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s visit to China last January, according to a report Wednesday in Hong Kong's Ming Pao Daily News. According to the article, the accusations against Li may be related to reports on Kim's plans to visit China that appeared in the South Korean and Japanese press. Typically, Kim's visits to China are not disclosed by the Chinese government until after he has left, and then only in passing. The Hong Kong...

WASHINGTON - Three prominent journalists testified Monday that Bush administration officials volunteered leaks about a CIA operative, as I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's attorneys sought to suggest he was not responsible for exposing her. The jury in Libby's perjury trial heard a 66-second snippet of one of the deep background interviews given to Washington Post editor Bob Woodward for use in one of his books. They also saw a parade of Pulitzer-prize winning journalists discuss who did and did not leak the information that set off a scandal and ultimately brought Libby to trial. Woodward, who never wrote about Plame, and...

The Marine Corps said Monday that it has ordered a probe into how a government report on the killings of Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha was leaked to the news media. Lt. Gen. James Mattis, the top general at Camp Pendleton, ordered the investigation after several defense attorneys complained that sensitive information about their clients had been leaked, Marine spokesman Lt. Col. Sean Gibson said. The Washington Post published photos and eyewitness accounts Jan 6 from the military's investigative file that had not been made public. One photo showed five Iraqis who had been shot dead near a...

Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff claimed yesterday that he was set up by the White House over the CIA leak scandal to protect Karl Rove, President Bush’s senior adviser.Opening his defence at his perjury trial, lawyers for Lewis “Scooter” Libby produced a memo written by Mr Cheney, the Vice-President, showing his chief of staff’s concerns that he was being sacrificed to save Mr Rove from criminal indictment. Mr Libby is accused of lying to FBI agents about conversations he had with journalists about Valerie Plame, a CIA agent. She is the wife of Joseph Wilson, a prominent critic of...

There is a bad chemical leak coming from the Nalco plant in Sugar Land, TX. Authorities are ordering people to stay indoors...

WASHINGTON - U.S. criminal investigators found no evidence to support the claim of Marines charged in the deaths of unarmed Iraqi civilians that five were shot after trying to flee the scene of a roadside bombing that killed one Marine, a senior defense official said Saturday. Investigators determined that all five Iraqis were shot within arm's length of each other and no more than 18 feet from the white taxi they were ordered to exit by members of a Marine squad in the western Iraqi town of Haditha, said the official, who is familiar with reports produced by the Naval...