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Dr. Zaius

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  4. Posted · Report reply

    Check it out...news...

     

    Sources: State Department official source of Plame leak

     

    WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage was the source who revealed the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame to syndicated columnist Robert Novak in 2003, touching off a federal investigation, two sources familiar with Armitage's role tell CNN.

     

    The sources said Armitage revealed Plame's role at the CIA almost inadvertently in a casual conversation with Novak, and it is not clear if he knew her identity was classified at the time.

     

    Armitage was not indicted by the federal grand jury that investigated the disclosure of Plame's name to Novak and other journalists. Deliberately revealing the identify of a CIA operative can be a crime.

     

    The revelation that Armitage was the source of Novak's column is somewhat anticlimactic for Bush administration critics who had used the story as a weapon in Washington's partisan battles.

     

    During the run-up to the Iraq war in 2003, Armitage was viewed as one of the more skeptical voices in the administration about the need to depose Saddam Hussein by force.

     

    In a July 14, 2003, column, Novak noted that Plame was a CIA operative, citing two senior administration officials. The column was primarily about Plame's husband, Joe Wilson, a former career diplomat and critic of the intelligence underlying the invasion of Iraq.

     

    Wilson and some Democrats contend Plame's identity was released by the White House to retaliate against her husband for writing a July 2003 column in The New York Times that questioned the administration's use of prewar intelligence on Iraq. (Full story)

     

    Last month, Plame and Wilson filed a civil lawsuit alleging a conspiracy that "was motivated by an invidiously discriminatory animus towards those who had publicly criticized the administration's stated justifications for going to war with Iraq" and culminated with the disclosure that Plame worked at the CIA. This revelation destroyed Plame's career with the agency, according to the suit.

     

    The scenario described by the sources familiar with Armitage's role, however, appears to contradict those arguments.

     

    But the Wilsons' attorney, Melanie Sloan of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said the revelation that Armitage was the original source for the leak did not undercut the charge that Vice President Dick Cheney, Cheney's former chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby and White House adviser Karl Rove acted to retaliate against Wilson by engaging in a "whispering campaign" about his wife.

     

    The couple plans to proceed with the lawsuit, Sloan said.

     

    "Mr. Armitage's conduct does not change the facts of what Libby, Cheney and Rove did," Sloan told CNN. "The case is about the abuse of government power."

     

    Novak has never revealed the original source of the information about Plame. However, he has said that Rove confirmed the information and was the second source cited in the column.

     

    Novak has said he would not reveal the identity of the original source unless the source came forward. However, he said the special counsel in the CIA leak investigation, Patrick Fitzgerald, learned who the source was independently.

     

    Fitzgerald has said he does not plan to bring any charges against Novak's original source.

     

    Calls to Armitage for comment were not returned Tuesday.

     

    The Armitage connection to the Novak column is also outlined in a new book titled "Hubris" by Michael Isikoff and David Korn.

     

    In the book, Armitage is quoted as telling former Assistant Secretary of State Carl Ford that "I'm afraid I may be the guy that caused this whole thing."

     

    Calls to Ford for comment also were not returned Tuesday.

     

    In September 2003, Fitzgerald, the U.S. attorney in Chicago, Illinois, was appointed as a special counsel to investigate whether any laws were broken with the disclosure.

     

    No one has been indicted for leaking Plame's identity, but Libby has been charged with perjury, obstruction of justice and lying to investigators for allegedly giving false information about his discussions with journalists about Plame.

     

    Libby has denied any wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty.

     

    Fitzgerald notified Rove that he wouldn't be charged in the case, Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, said in June.

     

    As part of his investigation, Fitzgerald subpoenaed then-New York Times reporter Judith Miller and then-Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper. In 2005, Miller spent nearly 12 weeks in jail after she refused to testify to identify her source to Fitzgerald. (View a timeline of the CIA leak case)

     

    Miller was released after her source, Libby, called her and personally waived their confidentially agreement.

     

    Armitage, 65, was No. 2 at the State Department under former Secretary of State Colin Powell from 2001 to 2005.

     

    He left his post after Powell resigned at the beginning of Bush's second term.

     

    http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/08/30/lea...tage/index.html

  7. Posted · Report reply

    Is All-Star supposed to be its own continuity (i.e. Ultimate Marvel), or just a random collection of vanity projects?

    Each individual title are so far all self contained universes.

    Would an Ultimate DC be a good idea...or did that already kind of happen after COIE?

  8. Posted · Report reply

    Red Tornado = August 1968

     

    The Vision = October 1968

     

    Hmm....

    I don't know if this was the case, but Marvel cover dates used to run 3 months fast until the early 90s. I remember getting comics that were dated Sept. but actually came out in June. I couldn't tell you how accurate DC cover dates were. Red Tornado was a Garner Fox creation, and Vision was a Roy Thomas creation, IIRC. And they had surprisingly similar origins. Great minds think alike, I suppose.

  9. Posted · Report reply

    Problem is, the behavioral profiling is nowhere near perfect. It flags completely innocent people all the time, and sometimes ignores real terrorists.

    The terrorists are the one with big flashing signs over their heads that say "TERRORIST", right?

     

    Behavior profiling is what Israelis use at their airports, and it works for them.

  10. Posted · Report reply

    They did act like Power Girl was going to be invited, so I assume they were going to write in some bullshit explanation as to why Powergirl couldn't join in the second issue. This issue wasn't enough to make me care about Red Tornado. He'll never be as good a character as The Vision. And I'd rather see Arsenal as a member of the Outsiders, and Nightwing joining the JLA...no explanation whatsoever for why Nightwing was rejected while Arsenal and Black Canary were accepted is annoying.

  11. Posted · Report reply

    The record refers to a continuous run of a single sci-fi show...

    Hence my use of the words "more impressive" rather than "record setting."

     

    Yes, SG-1, a show which only stayed on the air as long as it did because it was relatively cheap to produce compared to other sci-fi shows, holds the actual official record for a continous string of episodes, despite not being as popular or highy rated as Star Trek, X-Files, or the Twilight Zone.

  15. Posted · Report reply

    This sucks. Seriously...Arsenal, Vixen, and Black Lightening??? Talk about C-list heroes!

     

    In the original version of that cover, John Stewart had Black Lightning's spot, Green Arrow had Arsenal's spot, and Flash had Red Tornado's spot.

     

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:JLACV1.JPG

     

    Either that cover was a red herring, or some changes were made at the last minute.

     

    Arsenal: I'm guessing whoever's writing Green Arrow these days has enough clout to veto Ollie's use on the team.

     

    Vixen: Being the most popular member of JLA Detroit is like being the least painful STD. Bad choice.

     

    Red Tornado: He's only on the team so they had destroy him every third issue. I'd don't think I've ever read a comic with Red Tornado in it where he didn't get mutilated somehow.

     

    Black Lightening: Has an adult age daughter in the Outsiders and was part of President Luthor's cabinet. The dude's got to be pretty old, right?

     

    Why have two Green Lanterns on the same team? That line up is preferable but doesn't make much sense.

     

    "Spot" = placement on cover, not "spot on the team."

     

    Does anyone have the original JLA cover that was posted a few months back?

     

    No.

  16. Posted · Report reply

    Greenfield: A gathering anti-incumbent storm?

    The Web is making it easier to challenge the establishment

    By Jeff Greenfield

    CNN Senior Analyst

     

     

    NEW YORK (CNN) -- A governor, two House members, 17 state legislators in Pennsylvania, a U.S. senator -- maybe two.

     

    What do they have in common? They're all incumbents who lost (or may well lose) a primary. As they say in the news biz with barely contained lust: "Is this a trend?"

     

    Well, it is unusual for this many to lose in one season. Sen. Joe Lieberman's loss to Ned Lamont in Connecticut earlier this month puts him in an unhappy rare category. Since 1980, we've had only three incumbent senators lose primaries. Sen. Lincoln Chafee in Rhode Island is in danger of joining that club. He's no better than even money to win his primary against conservative Cranston Mayor Steve Laffey.

     

    And Alaska's Frank Murkowski is only the fourth governor to lose a primary in the last 12 years. (Full story)

     

    The trouble with extrapolating from these and other incumbent defeats, though, is that there seems to be no common explanation. Sometimes it's a question of character or personality.

     

    In Alaska, Murkowski gained a reputation for aloofness, even arrogance; he appointed his daughter Lisa to fill out his term in the U.S. Senate and wanted a jet plane for his travels. In Georgia, Democratic Rep. Cynthia McKinney lost her primary -- for the second time in four years, by the way -- after a publicized altercation with a Capitol Hill police officer.

     

    The other key reason is policy or ideology. Lieberman lost in Connecticut for not being enough of a "real" Democrat, for being out of step with his party's antiwar sentiments on Iraq, as well as for views he's held on everything from affirmative action to school vouchers to the Terri Schiavo case.

     

    In Rhode Island, Chafee is being pushed for not being Republican enough. He's the most independent, or least loyal, Republican in the Senate. He didn't even vote for President Bush in 2004, announcing he'd written in Bush's father.

     

    In fact, the most eye-opening incumbent defeats happened in Pennsylvania last May -- largely beneath the national media radar -- when 17 state legislators were thrown out, including the top two Senate GOP leaders. This was a classic response to what was seen as arrogance -- last-minute pay raises and increases in benefits.

     

    But if there's no common explanation for these losses, that doesn't mean we can't draw some modest notions about the broader meaning of these votes. For me, it lies in the emergence of the Internet as an organizing and money-raising tool.

     

    The power of the Web may be easy to overanalyze; but when it comes to unhappy party members, its potential is clear: disaffected voters now have an efficient mechanism with which to bypass a party establishment that is inclined to protect incumbents.

     

    For instance, national Republicans are backing Chafee, despite his maverick ways, because they fear a conservative candidate will likely lose in November, threatening GOP control of the Senate. But the Web makes it easier for conservatives angered at Chafee's voting record to get money to his opponent and to reach out to like-minded voters.

     

    Indeed, my own quirky notions have made me curious to see what happens in the New York Senate primary, where Sen. Hillary Clinton's relatively hawkish views on national security don't sit well with a lot of liberals. Her primary opponent, Jonathan Tasini, has no money and no support -- he's now at 15 percent in the polls. If he winds up with a whole lot more primary votes, it will be sign for less secure incumbents that there's a new ball game out there.

    http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/08/25/gre...ents/index.html

  19. Posted · Report reply

    I'm glad Dr. Zaius is here, because it's not as if we had a snuffbox and Cheesala here already.

    Is a rational counter-argument too really much to ask for? If you hate what I'm saying, maybe you should take it upon yourself to write a rebuttal instead of whining.

    It's just funny that I could see "arabs r terrorists? o rly? lol, columbine!" coming a mile away.

     

    To exclude Columbine, or for that matter the I.R.A. or Timothy McVeigh (who I also mentioned), from a discussion of where the premise seems to be that all terrorism is committed by Arbaic people, would be ignoring the facts. Until 5 years ago, the worst acts of terrorism in U.S. history were committed by whites. To pretend that white people cannot be terrorists (as some on this thread have done) simply because white people don't usually attack airports (and there have been white attempted hijackers in the past in Israel) is not sound reasoning.

  21. Posted · Report reply

    This sucks. Seriously...Arsenal, Vixen, and Black Lightening??? Talk about C-list heroes!

     

    In the original version of that cover, John Stewart had Black Lightning's spot, Green Arrow had Arsenal's spot, and Flash had Red Tornado's spot.

     

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:JLACV1.JPG

     

    Either that cover was a red herring, or some changes were made at the last minute.

     

    Arsenal: I'm guessing whoever's writing Green Arrow these days has enough clout to veto Ollie's use on the team.

     

    Vixen: Being the most popular member of JLA Detroit is like being the least painful STD. Bad choice.

     

    Red Tornado: He's only on the team so they had destroy him every third issue. I'd don't think I've ever read a comic with Red Tornado in it where he didn't get mutilated somehow.

     

    Black Lightening: Has an adult age daughter in the Outsiders and was part of President Luthor's cabinet. The dude's got to be pretty old, right?

  23. Posted · Report reply

    I can't understand why people don't recognize how impractical racial profiling is.

     

     

    "Behavorial assessment" profiling, by comparison, has been used successfully in Israeli airports for years.

    Explain plz

    They look for behavorial clues/body language the person might be up to something.

     

    I'm glad Dr. Zaius is here, because it's not as if we had a snuffbox and Cheesala here already.

    Is a rational counter-argument too really much to ask for? If you hate what I'm saying, maybe you should take it upon yourself to write a rebuttal instead of whining.

     

     

    Basically all the airline terrorists in the last 20 or so years have been Arab Muslim men. It's not that hard a concept to grasp.

    If you were in charge of airport security, all Arab terrorists would have to do is lighten their complexion with make-up and dye their hair to get past security.

  25. Posted · Report reply

    Frontline, from what I have heard is written from the POV of reporters. I think the reporters are Ben Ulrich and another lady, but I am not certain.

    Sally Floyd, from the Generation M mini. There's also a backup story chronicling all the "fun" Speedball is having in prison, and something about an Atlantean sleeper cell.

    I thought Speedball was dead.

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