AlterNet: Smoking Guns and Red Herrings:

• We should not expect a final resolution any time soon.
• We should not expect to hear much more from Fitzgerald.
• We should not expect a smoking gun.
• We should not expect the President to take steps to "get to the bottom of this."
• We should expect red herrings from the defense (even if not smoking guns from the prosecution).
• We should expect more attacks on Joseph Wilson, even though they represent a very large red herring (more the size of a mackerel).
• We should expect another red herring, one that should have been thrown back in the river long ago...
• We should expect attempts by pundits to derive "meaning" from the absence of charges under the Intelligence Identities Protection Act or the Espionage Act.
• We should expect a campaign to demonize Fitzgerald through claims that he is overzealous and has exceeded his authority.
• We should also expect pundits to argue that this prosecution is political.
• But should we expect, given the Republicans' attempts to belittle and politicize the case thus far, that President Bush will pardon his senior administration official if Libby is convicted on these serious charges?

(Via AlterNet.)

Salon.com News | Reporting for duty: "Iraq war vet Paul Hackett is aiming for a Senate seat -- and a progressive revival of the Democratic Party."

Marine Reservist Maj. Paul Hackett might be the one to put some real fight back into the Democratic Party. In a head-turning first run for office, Hackett, the first Iraq war veteran to enter the national political arena, narrowly lost a congressional bid against Republican Jean Schmidt in a special election held last summer in Ohio's most conservative district. Despite a serious financial handicap, little political experience and a blunt political demeanor -- he called George W. Bush 'chicken hawk' and 'son of a bitch' with regard to the war -- Hackett's strong showing fired up Democrats nationwide."

(Via Salon.)

Salon.com | News Wires: " A federal judge ruled Monday that prosecutors can use a confession by a man charged with joining al-Qaida and plotting to assassinate President Bush, despite defense claims that the confession was obtained through torture.

The ruling came after a six-day hearing in which Ahmed Omar Abu Ali testified that Saudi Arabian security officers whipped his back, kicked him in the stomach and pulled on his beard to obtain a confession."

(Via Salon.)

Civil Rights Pioneer Rosa Parks, 92, Dies: "Nearly 50 years ago, Rosa Parks made a simple decision that sparked a revolution. When a white man demanded she give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala., bus, the then 42-year-old seamstress said no.

At the time, she couldn't have known it would secure her a revered place in American history. But her one small act of defiance galvanized a generation of activists, including a young Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and earned her the title 'mother of the civil rights movement.'

Mrs. Parks died Monday evening at her home of natural causes, with close friends by her side, said Gregory Reed, an attorney who represented her for the past 15 years. She was 92.

Monique Reynolds, 37, a native of Montgomery, Ala., called Mrs. Parks an inspiration who had lived to see the changes brought about by the civil rights movement.

'Martin Luther King never saw this, Malcolm X never saw this,' said Reynolds, who now lives in Detroit. 'She was able to see this and enjoy it.'"

(Via Salon.)

t r u t h o u t - Bush at Bay: Fitzgerald Looks at Niger Forgeries: "    Washington - The CIA leak inquiry that threatens senior White House aides has now widened to include the forgery of documents on African uranium that started the investigation, according to NAT0 intelligence sources.

    

This suggests the inquiry by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald into the leaking of the identity of undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame has now widened to embrace part of the broader question about the way the Iraq war was justified by the Bush administration.

    

Fitzgerald's inquiry is expected to conclude this week and despite feverish speculation in Washington, there have been no leaks about his decision whether to issue indictments and against whom and on what charges.

    

Two facts are, however, now known and between them they do not bode well for the deputy chief of staff at the White House, Karl Rove, President George W Bush's senior political aide, not for Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis 'Scooter' Libby.

    

The first is that Fitzgerald last year sought and obtained from the Justice Department permission to widen his investigation from the leak itself to the possibility of cover-ups, perjury and obstruction of justice by witnesses. This has renewed the old saying from the days of the Watergate scandal, that the cover-up can be more legally and politically dangerous than the crime.

    

The second is that NATO sources have confirmed to United Press International that Fitzgerald's team of investigators has sought and obtained documentation on the forgeries from the Italian government."

(Via t r u t h o u t.)

t r u t h o u t - Texas Oil Tycoon Charged in Oil-for-Food Scandal: "New York - US prosecutors have charged a Texas oil tycoon and two Swiss executives and their companies with paying secret kickbacks to Iraq in the UN oil-for-food program.

    

Tycoon Oscar Wyatt, the former Coastal Corp. chairman, was arrested in Houston, Texas, on Friday, prosecutors said, becoming one of the highest profile figures ensnared so far in the scandal. The two Swiss nationals are being sought for extradition.

    

The US Attorney for the Southern District of New York charged Wyatt along with Catalina del Socorro Miguel Fuentes, alias Cathy Miguel, and Mohammed Saidji. All three face up to 62 years in prison and heavy fines if convicted."

(Via t r u t h o u t.)

US nuclear warplans fly around the internet | Greenpeace International: "The document is a rare unpolished look at how the Cold War doctrine of nuclear first strike - previously spun as 'deterrence' - has taken on a new dimension.

It reveals that the threshold for actually using nuclear weapons has been lowered dramatically.

And it outs the untruth of George Bush claiming that the US is reducing the importance of its nuclear arsenal.

For instance, the document condones pre-emptive nuclear strikes against nations (even those without nuclear weapons) which the US government thinks might use chemical or biological weapons against US forces or allies. The document also condones the use of nuclear weapons as just another item in the warfighting toolbox, and underscores the importance of US troops being able to continue functioning in a highly irradiated battle zone."

(Via GreenPeace.)