Valerie Plame to Testify at Waxman Libby Outing Hearing

Valerie Plame to Testify

March 08, 2007

ABC News' Tom Shine Reports: Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., has announced that Valerie Plame Wilson will testify before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Friday, March 16th.

Other witnesses are also expected to appear but their names have not yet been released.

March 8, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (0)

Defense for Aipac Duo Says Groups Refuse To Testify

Related
Intelligence officials doubt Iran uranium claims, say Cheney receiving suspect briefings : One former senior intelligence official is particularly concerned by private briefings that Vice President Dick Cheney is getting from former Office of Special Plans (OSP) Director, Abram Shulsky.
The AIPAC spy ring was operating inside the Office of Special Plans.
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Sources Cite Policy of Distancing Community From Ex-lobbyists

Nathan Guttman | Fri. Mar 09, 2007

Washington - Several Jewish organizations are refusing to cooperate with the defense in the case against two men accused of passing classified information while working for the main pro-Israel lobby.

According to sources close to the defense team, three major Jewish organizations are telling their employees not to testify on behalf of Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, former officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. The defense sources expressed disappointment over the alleged refusal to cooperate, describing it as yet another example of the organized Jewish community turning its back on Rosen, Aipac’s former policy director, and Weissman, its top Iran specialist.

Sources with the three Jewish groups, however, argue that it would be “premature” to characterize their answer as an outright refusal.

The Forward has learned that the appeal to the Jewish groups relates to a dinner meeting that took place three years ago. During the meeting, which was arranged by Rosen, he and officials at the three other Jewish organizations were briefed by a senior administration official on issues relating to the Middle East.

Sources said that testimony from the other officials who attended the dinner meeting would help make the case that the passing of information — even classified information — from government officials to Jewish organizations, as well as to other interest groups, was common practice in Washington. Such testimony, the defense team hopes, would convince a jury that Rosen and Weissman had no way of knowing they were engaged in any kind of illegal activity.

The identities of the administration official and the Jewish organizational representatives who participated in the meeting could not be confirmed for the record by the Forward.

Rosen, who was under FBI surveillance at the time, briefed his colleagues at Aipac the next day about the meeting and about the information — presumably, some of it classified — that was shared by the government official.

After learning that the prosecution had records of the meeting, Rosen’s and Weissman’s defense teams contacted the three representatives of Jewish organizations who attended the meeting and asked them to testify as to the nature of the discussions. According to the defense sources, the three representatives — after consulting with their respective organizations — refused to cooperate. It is still possible that they will be called to testify, but such a step is unlikely, given the defense team’s strong reluctance to calling witnesses who do not want to cooperate.

One of the people who is believed to have been at the meeting said it would “not be a truly accurate description” to say he has refused to cooperate. The individual, who would not confirm or deny he was at the meeting, said that “it is premature” to conclude what would be the final response to the defense’s request for cooperation.

Another source, aware of the details of the case, said that it is a policy of other Jewish groups to try not to get involved in the legal proceedings regarding the two former Aipac employees.

Until now, the Jewish community generally has distanced itself from Rosen and Weissman following their dismissal from Aipac in early 2005. One exception is Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Hoenlein has spoken out against the indictment of the two former Aipac staffers.

Rosen and Weissman are accused of passing national defense information they received from former Pentagon analyst Larry Franklin to Israeli diplomats and members of the media. The case, which first erupted in August 2004, is now nearing its end, with a trial scheduled for early summer.

Judge T.S. Ellis III of the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., is expected to rule by the end of next week on one of the last remaining pretrial issues: how to handle classified information. The prosecution has requested that once the trial begins, scheduled for June 4, any information relating to classified material be shared in a closed manner, with jurors hearing testimony through headphones and being handed documents without the public hearing or seeing the evidence. Furthermore, the jurors will be warned that the information they’ll be hearing is classified and that any disclosure of it would be against the law.

The government argues that these steps are needed in order to protect the secrecy of the information dealt with in the case. The defense, on the other hand, is asking to keep the trial as open as possible. According to the defense argument, telling the jury that the information is classified would prejudge the issue at the core of the case, which is whether the information conveyed by Rosen and Weissman was classified and of a nature that should not have been disclosed.

A decision in favor of the defense could delay the start of the trial, because the prosecution would have to produce nonclassified versions of the documents and information relating to the case.

The other big undecided issue concerns the list of witnesses who would be called to the stand.

The defense would like to call several high-profile witnesses, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley and senior officials from the State Department, the National Security Council and the Pentagon. The goal would be to prove that the government routinely passed information to Aipac and that the practice was seen by all sides as legitimate.

Sources close to the case indicated that the defense intends to call senior Aipac officials to the stand in order to prove that all actions taken by the two accused employees were authorized and acceptable.

Patrick Dorton, a spokesman for Aipac, said that the organization was not advised about any request to have Aipac employees testify, but “if any of our employees will be asked to testify, they will do so.”

Last month, Ellis ruled out the possibility of deposing three Israeli diplomats involved in the case. The judge found that there was no need to ask for depositions from the Israeli diplomats who were in touch with Rosen and Weissman, and that their testimony would not be crucial for the case.

Aipac still has not reached an agreement with Rosen and Weissman’s attorneys over the payment of their legal fees. While early estimates said the total cost would be at least $4 million, sources close to the defense say that the lawyers’ fees have already exceeded $5 million and are expected to reach almost $8 million by the time the trial is over.

Aipac, according to a source close to the organization, is willing to pay the legal fees but is conditioning the payment on Rosen and Weissman signing an agreement that would prevent them from suing the organization in the future. “We have repeatedly offered to sit with them and reach an agreement which will answer their needs,” the source said, adding that the two former staffers refused to sign any waiver ruling out future lawsuits.

Rosen and Weissman would like to preserve the right to sue Aipac if issues regarding severance pay are not dealt with once the trial is over. Weissman is also expecting an apology from Aipac, if he is acquitted.

U.S. government to grovel to Israel Lobby

FROM AIPAC PRESS RELEASE

"In addition to the four top Democrat and Republican Congressional leaders -- House Speaker Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Reid, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH), the Vice President, and Israeli Foreign Minister Livni, other conference speakers include: House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD), House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA), House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert (via satellite), Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz, Israeli Opposition Leader and Likud Party Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Sallai Meridor, Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh, Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Dan Gillerman, and many others of note."
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AIPAC Policy Conference: March 11-13, 2007

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee will hold its annual Policy Conference, March 11-13, at the Washington, D.C. Convention Center. Headlining this year's conference will be all four leaders of Congress -- Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH). Set to be AIPAC's largest Policy conference ever, the conference will bring together more than 6,000 AIPAC delegates from across the nation. Portions of the conference are open to members of the press with federal press credentials who pre-register to attend.

• E-mail us to request press credentials
• Read more about Policy Conference and view the most current schedule of events (PDF, 75K)

Hold Israel Accountable

Remember Qana Take Action!

Urge Congress & State Dept to Hold Israel Accountable for US Weapons Violations
http://capwiz.com/adc/issues/alert/?alertid=9474696&queueid
=[capwiz:queue_id]

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) joins the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation in its Israel Accountability Campaign highlighting the death and destruction that occurred in Qana, Lebanon in 1996 and 2006.

As all of you know, and too many of you experienced, last summer Lebanon was thrown back twenty-years into a foreign invasion and war. During the conflict, in the southern town of Qana, Israeli Air Forces struck a building sheltering 59 people inside. This was not the first time Israel had targeted Lebanese civilians in Qana. On April 18, 1996, Israel shelled a UN compound providing shelter to approximately 800 civilians. The shelling killed 106 civilians, injured hundreds of others and caused severe destruction in the area.

During last summer’s conflict, Israeli Defense Forces dropped more than 130,000 cluster bombs containing 1.2 million cluster bomblets in 498 locations in villages throughout southern Lebanon. The majority of the unexploded ordinances were dropped during the last 72 hours of the conflict before an impending cease fire deadline. Israel could not have committed, what some leading international human rights groups label as potential war crimes, without US military, economic, and diplomatic support.

ADC asks its members to urge Congress and the State Department to uphold US law by ensuring that Israel, as a recipient of one-third of the US foreign assistance budget, has not violated the terms of the US Arms Export Control Act or any bilateral weapons agreement between our countries. Further, ADC encourages you to support Senator Feinstein’s efforts to limit the use of American-made cluster bombs in all conflicts.
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PCHR
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
http://www.pchrgaza.org

Weekly Report: On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory No. 09/2007

01 - 07 March 2007

Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) Continue Systematic Attacks on Palestinian Civilians and Property in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT)

22 Palestinian civilians, including 8 children and a woman, were wounded by IOF gunfire.

15 of these civilians were wounded in Bal’ein village, west of Ramallah.

IOF conducted 35 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank.

IOF arrested 107 Palestinians, including 70 ones arrested from the headquarters of the Palestinian Military Intelligence in Ramallah.

IOF closed offices of the Almsgiving Committee in Beit Fajjar village, offices of the Qura’an Association in al-Khader village and two subordinate kindergartens near Bethlehem.

IOF stormed offices of the Israeli Charitable Association in al-Shyoukh village near Hebron.

IOF have continued to impose a total siege on the OPT.

IOF have operated Erez crossing as an international crossing point.

IOF positioned at various checkpoints in the West Bank arrested 13 Palestinian civilians, including 12 children.

The Gaza Strip has suffered from shortages in fuels and basic goods.

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Full Report (PDF)

Is it payback time for world's borrowed prosperity?

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Man Group, Winton Hedge Funds Bruised by Market Rout
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From the Baltimore Sun
By Rolfe Winkler

March 8, 2007

Lots of people are asking what's happening to the stock market lately. Are we in for a crash or a protracted bear market? No one, of course, can say for sure. But an understanding of some of the key factors that have driven stock prices up the last few years suggests stocks are headed down from here.

An interesting graphic in The Wall Street Journal two weeks ago, right before stocks fell so hard, showed that all of the world's top 20 stock markets were at yearly or all-time highs. Everybody was buying stocks. And it's not just stocks. Prices on many types of bonds are sky-high. Despite some areas of falling prices, real estate values are also still near all-time highs across the nation.

What could explain this? The biggest reason is that there is a record amount of cash around the world looking for a home. Investors have money to invest and so they're putting it anywhere and everywhere, bidding up the value of the assets mentioned above and many more.

That should be good, right? A record amount of cash means people are doing well, doesn't it?

Not so fast. It's crucial to understand where so much of this cash is coming from: It's borrowed. At some point, it has to be paid back.

For the last few years, investors worldwide have capitalized on rock-bottom interest rates to finance purchases of stocks, bonds, real estate, commodities and so on. When you buy things, their price goes up. But now it's payback time - literally.

Look at real estate. Over the last few years, it was very easy to borrow money to buy a house or a condo. In many cases, lenders stopped asking borrowers to provide proof of income before financing up to 100 percent of the purchase price of a home. But now, borrowers are discovering it's not so easy to pay a mortgage you can't afford.

A similar dynamic is playing out with stocks and bonds: The borrowing phase is ending and the paying-back phase is beginning.

Just as in real estate, investors have been borrowing record amounts of money to buy stocks and bonds the last few years. In late February, for instance, the New York Stock Exchange reported that money borrowed to buy stock (on "margin") reached an all-time high. With interest rates on yen near zero, hedge funds have been borrowing yen for virtually nothing to buy stocks. With junk-bond yields near all-time lows, leveraged-buyout firms have been borrowing billions to finance the purchase of huge public companies such as hospital owner HCA, commercial real estate company Equity Office Properties Trust, and, just last week, the utility TXU.

What's bringing on the payback period in stocks and bonds? One reason is that the Bank of Japan said last week it will raise interest rates on loans made in yen, forcing many hedge fund investors to sell the stocks they bought with borrowed yen. On the housing front, the implosion of subprime lending can only exacerbate the fall in real estate prices as borrowing to buy homes becomes more difficult. The bottom line is that easy credit to buy stocks, bonds and real estate may be a thing of the past.

When markets are driven up with too much borrowed money, it can set them up for a big fall. One of the key factors that led to the dramatic rise of stocks in 1929 was the explosion of broker loans to buy stock. It got pretty ugly when everyone was forced to pay back those loans over a short period.

The next Great Depression is likely not around the corner. The worldwide economy is probably too strong for that to happen. But we should never forget this lesson of 1929:

Markets that fly high with borrowed money can crash hard.

Rolfe Winkler, Chartered Financial Analyst, is an analyst at a hedge fund. His e-mail is rolfewinkler@yahoo.com.

Copyright © 2007, The Baltimore Sun

McGovern: Cheney must go ; Bush worse than Nixon, calls for impeachment

McGovern: Cheney must go

Says Libby's conviction points to vice president's involvement in CIA leak
By John Nichols

George McGovern has a word for Vice President Dick Cheney: "Resign."

Responding to Tuesday's conviction of Cheney's former chief-of-staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, on charges of obstruction of justice, perjury and lying to the FBI - after a trial that revealed Cheney's intimate involvement with a scheme to discredit a critic of the administration's war policies - the former congressman, senator and presidential candidate said it was time for the vice president to go.

"What we have learned about how he has conducted himself leaves no doubt that he should be out of office," McGovern says of Cheney. "If he had any respect for the Constitution or the country, he would resign."

And if Cheney does not take the liberal Democrat's counsel?

"There is no question in my mind that Cheney has committed impeachable offenses. So has George Bush," argues McGovern. "Bush is much more impeachable than Richard Nixon was. That's been clear for some time. There does not seem to be much sentiment for impeachment in Congress now, but around the country people are fed up with this administration."

At age 84, McGovern has attained the elder statesman status that is afforded politicians who held or sought the presidency. He enjoys the respect of fellow Democrats and more than a few Republicans for being, like former Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater, a straight-talking man of deep commitment who may have lost one presidential election but won the battle for a place of honor in the nation's history texts.

McGovern testifies before congressional caucuses about how to end the war in Iraq, delivers distinguished lectures, travels widely to discuss his well-received books, defends school lunch programs with a former Republican colleague in the Senate, Bob Dole, and campaigns tirelessly - in the memory of his late daughter, Terry - to enlighten the nation about the need to better address the scourges of alcoholism.

It is in that final capacity that McGovern will return tonight to Madison, a city that has always greeted him kindly, to headline a soldout fundraising benefit at the Inn on the Park for the Teresa McGovern Center, a substance abuse treatment facility that operates under the umbrella of Tellurian UCAN. Money raised at what promises to be a packed event will be used to expand services at the McGovern Center, as well as to help pay for treatment for patients who cannot cover their own expenses.

McGovern will speak about the need to recognize alcoholism as a threat not just to individuals but society. He will recall the poignant story of his daughter's struggle with the disease, which ended in her death at age 45 in Madison in 1994. That's the personal side of this journey, his first to Madison since the death of his wife, Eleanor, in January.

But as he mingles with Madisonians, who were among the most ardent and faithful supporters of his 1972 campaign for the presidency, talk of politics will never be far from the forefront. And, even if he may be an elder statesman, McGovern will not mince words about the current occupants of the White House.

"I think this is the most lawless administration we've ever had," he says of the Bush-Cheney team. That's a strong statement coming from a man who tangled in 1972 with Nixon, and then saw Nixon's presidency destroyed by the Watergate scandals. But McGovern says there is no comparison.

"I'd far rather have Nixon in the White House than these two fellows that we've got now," said the former three-term senator from South Dakota. "Nixon did some horrible things, which led to the effort to impeach him. But he simply was not as bad as Bush. On just about every level I can think of, Bush's actions are more impeachable than were those of Nixon."

Of particular concern to McGovern is the war in Iraq, which he has steadfastly opposed.

"The war was begun in clear violation of the Constitution," McGovern says. "There was no declaration of war by the Congress. Secondly, it's a flagrant violation of international law: Iraq was not threatening the United States in any way. Yet, the United States went after Iraq. The president and vice president got away with it, at least initially, because they were willing to exploit the emotional power of the 9/11 attack to achieve their goal of getting us into a war in the Middle East."

McGovern, a decorated World War II veteran, approves of U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold's suggestion that Congress should look into employing the power of the purse to force the administration to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq. "Frankly," the former senator says, "I would support anything that would get our troops out of there."

During his tenure in the Senate, McGovern worked with a Republican, Oregon Sen. Mark Hatfield, to try and pass legislation to force the end of the Vietnam War. He also supported efforts to "chain the dogs of war," which were spearheaded by his liberal Democratic colleague, Missouri Sen. Thomas Eagleton, a leading proponent of the 1973 War Powers Act.

Eagleton, who died this week at age 77, was briefly McGovern's running mate in the 1972 race. But the revelation that Eagleton had checked himself into the hospital three times for physical and nervous exhaustion led, after some internal turmoil, to a decision by McGovern to drop the Missouri senator from the ticket.

That decision, McGovern now says, was "absolutely a mistake." He now believes that the controversy would have quickly blown over. He also says that dropping Eagleton from the ticket did more harm than good.

McGovern is not afraid to delve into the historical record, even when it involves incidents related to his own career in public life. "We ought to learn from history," says the former senator, who notes that he earned a Ph.D. in history from Northwestern University "thanks to the G.I. Bill."

"I think that the greatest deficiency in our politics these days is the fact that our leaders fail, by and large, to remember our history," says McGovern.

A close second is the caution of the current political class. McGovern calls the Congress "lily-livered" for failing to check and balance Bush and Cheney on the war.

McGovern does not suffer from the condition. He's as bold now as ever, and there is a sense of urgency about the man who could easily relax and accept the honors accorded an senior statesman of his own party and the country.

"I feel an obligation to speak up when I see these flagrant things happen," says McGovern. "I can't be silent when President Bush and Vice President Cheney choose to disregard the Constitution. Maybe if there were other people in the White House, I could slow down a little. But I can't do that as long as this administration is in charge."

Speaking of which: Is there a Democratic contender for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination that McGovern likes? He's making no endorsements at this stage. But, like a lot of Democrats, McGovern says, "Right now, (Illinois Sen.) Barack Obama looks awfully good."

Then again, a typically frank McGovern admits, "I've gotten to the point where I think just about anyone would be better than Bush."

Published: March 7, 2007

Drowning in cheap money

Jubak's Journal
3/6/2007 12:00 AM ET

If there is a major stock market tumble, it won't be the fault of the overall U.S. economy. Instead, point the finger at too much risk-taking in the debt market.

By Jim Jubak

After Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's Feb. 28 testimony, one member of the House Budget Committee asked him whether the sell-off in global stock markets a day earlier -- and in particular the 416-point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDU) -- had changed the Fed's thinking.

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