Libby Defense to Rest Without Testimony by Him or Cheney

By Amy Goldstein and Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, February 14, 2007; A01

 

Attorneys for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby said yesterday that he and Vice President Cheney, his former boss, will not testify in Libby's perjury trial, leaving the defense preparing to rest its case today after barely more than two days of testimony.

The defense's announcement in court, partway through the fifth week of the celebrated trial of the vice president's former chief of staff, represented an abrupt shift from the witness strategy that Libby's lawyers laid out in hearings and court papers during the months leading up to the trial.

The CIA's former executive director and a defense contractor were indicted yesterday by a San Diego grand jury for allegedly corrupting the intelligence agency's contracts, marking one of the first criminal cases to reach into the CIA's clandestine operations in Europe and the Middle East.

Wilkes and Michael Indictment  (pdf) 

Foggo and Wilkes Indictment  (pdf)

Foggo Accused of Steering Contracts to GOP Fundraiser

By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 14, 2007; A01

 

The CIA's former executive director and a defense contractor were indicted yesterday by a San Diego grand jury for allegedly corrupting the intelligence agency's contracts, marking one of the first criminal cases to reach into the CIA's clandestine operations in Europe and the Middle East.

Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, a longtime logistics officer who was the CIA's top administrator from November 2004 until last May, was accused of using his seniority and influence at a prior CIA job in Europe to steer business deals to his longtime friend Brent R. Wilkes, a California businessman and top Republican fundraiser.

( Collapse )

CIA Contractor Sentenced to 8-Year Prison Term
In other news, a former CIA contractor has been sentenced to more than eight years in prison over the beating death of an Afghan prisoner. The contractor, David Passaro, was convicted for abusing Abu Wali with his fists and a flashlight. Wali – a young farmer -- died the next day. He had voluntarily turned himself into a US military base after hearing he was suspected of involvement in rocket attacks. During the trial Passaro’s defense team made unsuccessful attempts to subpoena senior US officials in an effort to prove the beatings were implicitly authorized at the highest level.

Ex-CIA Executive Director Charged in Cunningham Scandal
In other CIA news, former CIA Executive Director Kyle “Dusty” Foggo has been charged in connection with the bribery scandal that sent Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham to jail. On Tuesday, Foggo was charged with fraud and other offenses in his alleged efforts to steer contracts towards a San Diego defense contractor. Foggo was the CIA’s third highest official until his resignation in May. The contractor, Brent Wilkes, has also been charged.

Attorneys: No Testimony for Cheney at Libby Trial
Defense attorneys for Lewis “Scooter” Libby have announced they won’t be calling Libby or Vice President Dick Cheney to the stand. Libby is accused of lying to investigators and a grand jury during the investigation of the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame. The announcement paves the way for Libby’s lawyers to wrap up their defense as early as today.

Vermont Becomes First State to Call for US Troop Withdrawal from Iraq

Wednesday, February 14th, 2007

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/14/1646233

The Vermont State Legislature made headlines yesterday when lawmakers passed resolutions in both the House and Senate calling for the immediate and orderly withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. We speak with the original author of the House resolution, Representative Michael Fisher. [includes rush transcript]

 

---

The Vermont State Legislature made headlines yesterday when lawmakers passed resolutions in both the House and Senate calling for the immediate and orderly withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. Vermont has lost more soldiers per capita than any other state in the nation, and is the first state to pass a resolution calling for troop withdrawal. The majority of Democrats supported the resolution. Most Republicans opposed it, contesting a passage that suggested the presence of US troops would not bring stability to Iraq, or security to the United States.

Representative Michael Fisher, a Democrat, was the original author of the House resolution. He joins us by phone from Montpelier, Vermont. Welcome to Democracy Now!

 

• Rep. Michael Fisher. Representative in Vermont State Legislature. He sponsored a House resolution yesterday for withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.

AMY GOODMAN: Representative Michael Fisher, a Democrat, was the original author of the House resolution. He joins us on the phone from Montpelier, Vermont, the state's capital. Welcome

 

Ex - CIA Official Charged With Fraud

Edward S. Curtis

http://www.sil.si.edu/Exhibitions/Curtis/curtis-navigation.htm





http://www.sil.si.edu/Exhibitions/Curtis/curtis-navigation.htm

Photographs by Lisa Law 

http://americanhistory.si.edu/lisalaw/index.htm


Photo © Lisa Law


Photo © Lisa Law


Photo © Lisa Law

Photo © Lisa Law

Ken Kesey, aboard his bus "Further," Aspen Meadows, New Mexico, 1969. Author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Kesey and his troupe, the Merry Pranksters, celebrated both spontaneous street theater to engage a mainstream audience and the use of psychedelic drugs.

http://americanhistory.si.edu/lisalaw/6.htm#a03

Dennis Hopper, director and co-star of the film Easy Rider, New Mexico, 1970. The New Buffalo Commune served as a model for Hollywood depictions of communal living. 
http://americanhistory.si.edu/lisalaw/1.htm


Photo © Lisa Law 

Nico and Lou Reed of the Velvet Underground, rehearsing on the balcony of "The Castle," Los Angeles, 1965. The music of this East Coast avant-garde rock band explored the bleak areas of drug use and alienation.


Photo © Lisa Law



http://americanhistory.si.edu/lisalaw/1.htm

Henri Cartier-Bresson












</p>

 

a href="http://www.npg.si.edu/exh/cb/index.htm">http://www.npg.si.edu/exh/cb/index.htm</a>

http://www.npg.si.edu/cexh/woot/index.htm

women of our time

http://www.npg.si.edu/cexh/woot/index.htm

Gilles Berquet, photographies 

http://www.airdeparis.com/nowberquet3.htm



http://www.airdeparis.com/nowberquet3.htm

World Press Photo award recipients announced

Photojournalist Stephanie Sinclair shot the photograph above for NPR "Day to Day" (Xeni is a  a weekly contributor to this radio program), and the image won third place in World Press Photo, the most prestigious photojournalism competition in the world.

The image documents a family fleeing the Israeli bombings in Lebanon on July 27, 2006.

Here's a hi-res version: Link. About the contest, Stephanie explains:

This year 4,460 professional photographers from 124 countries entered 78,083 images in the most prestigious annual international competition in press photography. The judging sessions took place in Amsterdam from 27 January to 8 February. The jury gave prizes in 10 theme categories to 58 photographers of 23 nationalities from: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Palestinian Territories, People's Republic of China, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom and the USA.

(Thanks, Alex Chadwick!)

: Phil Kast says,

The WWI prosthetic mask story on BB yesterday reminded me of this jaw-dropping, poignant image, which just won 1st prize for portraits in the annual World Press Photo competition: Link.

Image: Nina Berman, USA, Redux Pictures for People. "Wounded US Marine returns home from Iraq to marry."

posted by Xeni Jardin

http://www.worldpressphoto.com/index.php?option=com_photogallery&task=view&id=843&Itemid=146&bandwidth=high

Judge: Defense Misled Court About Libby

By MATT APUZZO
The Associated Press
Wednesday, February 14, 2007; 2:23 PM

 

WASHINGTON -- Defense attorneys misled the court into thinking that former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby would testify in his CIA leak trial, a federal judge said Wednesday, as he blocked Libby from using some classified evidence in the case.

Libby is accused of lying and obstructing an investigation into the 2003 leak of a CIA operative's identity. His attorneys have said for months in court papers that Libby would testify that he had important national security issues on his mind and that he simply forgot details about his conversations regarding the CIA employee, Valerie Plame.

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald agreed to tell jurors about the terrorist threats, war planning and other secret issues that Libby faced at the time. The prosecutor said that he agreed to do this on the condition that he could cross-examine Libby at some point on just how seriously he considered these threats.

When defense attorneys abruptly announced Wednesday that Libby no longer planned to testify, however, Fitzgerald said that jurors hearing the case therefore should not be given a prewritten statement about Libby's briefings.

U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton agreed, and reversed an earlier ruling that the evidence could be admitted.

"My absolute understanding was that Mr. Libby was going to testify," the judge said. "My ruling was based on the fact that he was going to testify."

• Excerpt of “Diamond Life”, the documentary produced by Stephen Marshall and Josh Shore of the Guerrilla News Network.

AMY GOODMAN: In a minute, we’ll talk with Corinna Gilfillan of Global Witness, but first we’re going to go to a documentary called Diamond Life. It was produced by Stephen Marshall and Josh Shore of Guerrilla News Network. It was made a few years ago. It was made in 2000. And it’s about how diamonds funded the civil war in Sierra Leone.

UNIDENTIFIED 1: From 1991 to 1999, Sierra Leone was in a state of civil war. During that time, 50% of the 4.5 million people of Sierra Leone were forced out of their homes. And thousands of people have been killed. Millions more have experienced atrocities you do not want to even think about.

UNIDENTIFIED 2: The people of Sierra Leone

( Collapse )

http://www.martin-munoz.com/

L'arte di Walter Martin & Paloma Muñoz...

*Our unity can now pave the way for peace and justice*



The Mecca agreement gives the west the chance to break with its policy
of blackmail and recognise Palestinian rights



*Khalid Mish'al*

*Tuesday February 13, 2007*

*The Guardian <http://www.guardian.co.uk/>*



A historic new phase in the Palestinian struggle for freedom and
independence has begun. Last week's Mecca agreement between Hamas and
Fatah will pave the way for the first ever truly Palestinian national
unity government. Hamas and Fatah, joined by all the other Palestinian
factions, will now seek to rebuild Palestinian society following the
destruction brought upon it by Israeli occupation and resume the
campaign for our national rights.


( Collapse )

http://seesdifferent.wordpress.com/

Over the line, Smokey!

http://seesdifferent.wordpress.com/

 Columns
<http://www.williampfaff.com/modules/news/index.php?storytopic=1> :
Arms, Iran, and Attack
on 2007/2/14 11:50:00 (113 reads)


Paris, February 13, 2007 – The discovery of the obvious is not a
convincing casus belli, and the recent presentation in Baghdad of
munitions of Iranian origin found in Iraq, merited comparison with
Claude Raine’s declaration that he was “shocked, shocked!” when told
that gambling took place in Humphrey Bogart’s Casablanca saloon.
Some critics of the George W. Bush administration, some specialists in
Iranian arms, and some reporters have been skeptical about the Baghdad
presentation, but I would think it perfectly reasonable for Iran to
supply weapons to the Shia militias and insurgents in Iraq.

( Collapse )

http://www.banksy.co.uk/indoors/index2.html

Banksy - Indoors

http://www.banksy.co.uk/indoors/index2.html

Defense Attorneys Rest Libby's Case
Faulty Memory, Not Deliberate Lies, Blamed for Disputed Statements in CIA Leak Probe

By Amy Goldstein and Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, February 15, 2007; A03

Attorneys for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby rested their defense in his perjury trial yesterday after giving jurors a stripped-down version of their case that the vice president's then-chief of staff was too preoccupied with sensitive national security issues in 2003 to remember conversations he had about undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame.

Shortly before testimony ended in the five-week trial, the presiding judge blocked defense attorneys from presenting the testimony of their proposed final witnesses -- CIA employees who briefed Libby each day on crises and terrorist threats around the world.

( Collapse )

My goal is to get judges to think of bloggers as citizen journalists who should get the same protections as other journalists get

Text: Libby Trial Exhibits From the Department of Justice

For Liberal Bloggers, Libby Trial Is Fun and Fodder

The perjury trial of I. Lewis Libby Jr., former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, has drawn every major news organization in the country to the federal courthouse in Washington. But none has fielded a bigger team — or was more openly crushed by the defense decision this week not to put Mr. Cheney and Mr. Libby on the stand — than Firedoglake.com.

( Collapse )

Jeralyn Merritt is indulging in some informed speculation to the effect that Team Libby actually focus-grouped Dick Cheney.  The results showed that he was so loathed that the ill-will risked spilling over onto Scooter.  And thus, given that the VP comes in slightly lower in popularity than novacaine-free dental surgery, the decision was made to not put him on the stand.

  The Defense Rests
By Jane Hamsher @ 6:25 pm

 

Tim Russert must have been heaving huge sighs of relief at Judge Walton's decision to spare him another round with Ted Wells; having his political hackery publicy exposed like that was obviously making Monseigneur Tim uncomfortable.  None of Wells' other motions got very far today –  Walton also seemed inclined to view most of what he was trying to do with regard to testimony from Libby's CIA briefers as not particularly relevant to the case.

( Collapse )

Libby Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PzGHn-bcs8

goto

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PzGHn-bcs8

Chris

Jane Hamsher created Firedoglake and organized its Libby trial team.

Its name is easily explained, she said: “I like lying in front of the fire with my dogs and watching the Lakers.”

A movie producer best known for “Natural Born Killers,” Ms. Hamsher, who recently moved to Middletown, Conn., from California, arrived at the trial just days after cancer surgery and is scheduled for chemotherapy after the verdict.