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| 2006/6/13-15 [Politics/Domestic/Election, Politics/Domestic/President/Bush] UID:43371 Activity:nil |
6/13 http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/06/13/rove.cia Rove won't be charged in CIA leak case http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/06/12/iraq.contractors Iraq contractors make billions on the front line Also on the news Bush visits Iraq and his approval rating rebounds. Rove is great and November is looking great! \_ approval rating rebounds? where? \_ Seconded. Read: http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20060613/ts_usatoday/pollseesaboostforbushiraqwar Conservatives rule while Liburals drool! \_ and thus the deep dissatisfaction of the liberals/geeks with the rule of the neocons/jocks. \_ hey, way to go with the labels and stereotyping. \_ If 35 percent is a rebound you are hurting for good news \_ esp when other polls went down in the same period. |
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| www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/06/13/rove.cia -> www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/06/13/rove.cia/ WASHINGTON (CNN) -- White House senior adviser Karl Rove has been told by special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald that he will not be charged in the CIA leak case, according to Robert Luskin, Rove's lawyer. "In deference to the pending case, we will not make any further public statements about the subject matter of the investigation," Luskin said in a written statement Tuesday. "We believe that the special counsel's decision should put an end to the baseless speculation about Mr Rove's conduct." A grand jury has heard testimony from Rove in five appearances, most recently April 26. After that appearance, Luskin issued a statement saying, "In connection with this appearance, the special counsel has advised Mr Rove that he is not a target of the investigation." A Rove spokesman said there would be no statement from Rove on Tuesday concerning the matter. The White House said President Bush had been informed of the decision and expressed satisfaction. "We are pleased that the special counsel has concluded his deliberations," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said. "Karl is, as he has been throughout the process, fully focused on the task at handcrafting and building support for the president's agenda." Watch how Rove announcement helps the White House -- 2:17) Asked if the CIA leak investigation is still continuing, Fitzgerald's spokesman, Randall Samborn, told The Associated Press there would be no comment. At issue in the case has been how covert CIA operative Valerie Plame's name was disclosed to the media. No one has been charged with actually leaking Plame's name. On Monday, I Lewis "Scooter" Libby, a former aide to Vice President Cheney, appeared in court to update a judge on preparations for his trial in the case. Libby, who resigned in October as chief of staff to Cheney, is fighting charges he lied to investigators and a grand jury about his knowledge of Plame. Plame's husband, US diplomat Joe Wilson, had openly challenged part of the Bush administration's prewar rationale for waging war on Iraq. But Libby's defense counsel has asserted there was no sinister effort to punish the Wilsons by revealing the identity of his wife to several reporters. Tuesday's announcement cheered Republicans and disappointed Democrats, according to Associated Press reports. If the president valued America more than he valued his connection to Karl Rove, Karl Rove would have been fired a long time ago," Howard Dean, the Democratic Party chairman, said Tuesday on NBC's "Today" show. "So I think this is probably good news for the White House, but it's not very good news for America." Plame's CIA status was publicly disclosed eight days after her husband, Wilson, accused the Bush administration of twisting prewar intelligence to exaggerate the Iraqi threat from weapons of mass destruction. In 2002, the CIA dispatched Wilson to Africa to check out intelligence that Iraq had an agreement to acquire uranium yellowcake from Niger, and Wilson had concluded that there was no such arrangement. Wilson alleges that the Bush administration leaked his wife's identity as a CIA employee in retaliation for his July 2003 op-ed in The New York Times disputing the claim that Iraq sought uranium in Niger. Bush had cited the uranium claim in his 2003 State of the Union address as the invasion of Iraq loomed. Fitzgerald was looking into why Rove initially did not disclose a conversation with Time magazine's Matt Cooper that included a discussion of the CIA job held by Plame. Rove said he did not recall the conversation, and his team has noted repeatedly that he is the one who brought the information to the attention of prosecutors. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. |
| www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/06/12/iraq.contractors -> www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/06/12/iraq.contractors/ BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Private military contractors are earning billions of dollars in Iraq -- much of it from US taxpayers. Business is booming for those willing to tackle one of the most dangerous jobs on Earth. Lucrative US government contracts go to firms called on to provide security for projects and personnel -- jobs that in previous conflicts have been done by the military. A single contract awarded to Britain's AEGIS Specialist Risk Management company by the Pentagon was worth $293 million, and while the government says it cannot provide a total amount for the contracts -- many of which are secret -- industry experts estimate Iraq's security business costs tens of billions of dollars. Late last year, AEGIS launched an investigation into whether its employees produced video clips that showed up on the Internet in which it appeared civilian vehicles were being shot at. AEGIS has not released the results of its investigation, but a US Army investigation found no probable cause that a crime occurred. "Where you've got a military where the assets and the personnel are strained, then private contractors have had to step in and fill the void," she told CNN, agreeing to be interviewed if her company's name was not revealed. No official totals exist of how many private contractors have been killed in Iraq. But Clark believes the death rate among the 25,000 or so contractors is higher than among US military forces. Going where the military won't The danger does not bring glamour. Clark's outfit shepherds convoys along supply lines strewn with roadside bombs targeting US and Iraqi forces and those who support them. Missions have included guarding trucks carrying gravel for military bases. "Military doesn't even like to go where we are going, and most of the companies that do this don't want to go where we are going ... and that's why we're going," explained one of Clark's men, nicknamed "Mr GQ." His colleague, Gonzo, gives a graphic description of what their team faces: "If we get ambushed and cut off, then yes, we are going to fight back and push through. That's what we get paid to do -- protect the clients, protect the asset -- that's our job. Watch Gonzo get locked and loaded to guard gravel -- 6:12) "It sounds crude, but basically our job is to be a bullet sponge." There is debate about how far these private contractors should go, what authority they have and who should police them, and no hard and fast answers. In the meantime, the contractors continue to face danger. On one day recently, two roadside bombs went off simultaneously near one of Clark's security trucks, and the convoy was then attacked with heavy small-arms fire from nearby rooftops. "The blood in the back seat of the truck, all the bone fragments and flesh pretty much told the tale -- they got hit pretty bad," Gonzo said. That same night, three roadside bombs were detonated beside the same convoy. A year's pay in 3 months There is plenty of money and plenty of work to go around, much of it taken by Blackwater -- one of the larger companies and perhaps the best known, because tragedy befell its employees in Falluja March 31, 2004. Four employees were killed -- two of their bodies hung from a bridge. Blackwater was founded in 1997, and business boomed after 9/11. Wartime demands are allowing it to expand even further, and it recently opened new headquarters in North Carolina, where it can train people from the military and law enforcement. Blackwater also looks for opportunities beyond war zones to disaster areas, such as the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina, or places where peacekeepers could be stationed, like the crisis-hit region of Darfur in Sudan. Cofer Black, a former head of the CIA Counterterrorism Center and now vice-chairman of Blackwater, said the company is ready to tackle more hot spots. "My company could deploy a reasonable small force under guidance or leadership of any national authority and do a terrific job of protecting, you know, innocent women from being raped, young kids from having their arms hacked off with machetes." Like most contractors, Gonzo is ex-military and has specific personal reasons for being in Iraq and facing the danger. A veteran of the first Gulf War, he says he can earn in three months what it would take him a year to get in the United States. My goal is pretty simple -- I just want to be able to pay off a house and some property." Mine's so that I can provide a better life for my wife and kids." |
| news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20060613/ts_usatoday/pollseesaboostforbushiraqwar Click here The new poll found that 48% believe the United States probably or definitely will win the war, up from 39% in April. It also found that 47% believe things are going well in Iraq, up from 38% in March. The survey, taken Friday to Sunday and released Monday, also showed Bush's approval rating going up to 38% from 36% earlier this month and an all-time low of 31% in May The poll news came as Bush and members of his Cabinet met at Camp David to discuss ways to help the recently formed government in Iraq. President Bush, War in Iraq, terrorism, religion "Good news makes people feel better," says political analyst Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the non-partisan Rothenberg Political Report. "This is the first break the president has gotten in about 18 months." Rothenberg and other analysts cautioned that long-term public confidence will grow only if the death of Zarqawi is followed up by increasing Iraq's stability. "Unless there is clear, sustainable progress in Iraq, these numbers will be just a brief blip," says Ted Galen Carpenter, a foreign policy analyst at the libertarian Cato Institute think tank. Rothenberg said that even minor improvements in Bush's poll numbers create an "openness" that may allow the White House to press its message more successfully. "It's hard to deliver good news with the public in a foul mood," he said. At the presidential retreat in Maryland, Bush and his aides discussed redeveloping Iraq's oil industry, tracking down the remnants of Zarqawi's network and pressuring nations to follow through on $13 billion in aid. Bush declined to make predictions about US troop withdrawals. "Whatever we do will be based on the conditions on the ground," he said Also this week, the House of Representatives is scheduled to hold its first full-scale debate about the war since it began in 2003. The debate, scheduled to begin Thursday, will center on a Republican resolution stating that the United States must prevail in Iraq and in the global war on terrorism. Other poll highlights: Fifty-three percent said the killing of Zarqawi was a "major achievement." Twenty percent said Zarqawi's death will reduce insurgent attacks in Iraq; |