Two aides to Karl Rove, the senior White House adviser, testified last Friday before a federal grand jury investigating whether government officials illegally disclosed the identity of an undercover C.I.A. operative, according to a person who has been officially briefed on the case.
The aides, Susan B. Ralston and Israel Hernandez, were asked about grand jury testimony given on July 13 by Matthew Cooper, a reporter for Time magazine, the person who was briefed said. Mr. Cooper has said that he testified about a July 11, 2003, conversation with Mr. Rove in which the C.I.A. officer was discussed.
[. . .]
Mr. Fitzgerald has focused on whether in the identification of the officer, Valerie Wilson, there was a deliberate effort to retaliate against her husband, Joseph C. Wilson IV, for his criticism of the Bush administration's policy on Iraq. In an Op-Ed article in The New York Times on July 6, 2003, Mr. Wilson, a former diplomat, wrote that when he traveled to Niger in 2002 as a government emissary, he found little evidence to support a claim made by Mr. Bush a year later that Iraq had tried to acquire nuclear fuel there.
The above is from David Johnston's "2 Aides to Rove Testify in C.I.A. Leak Inquiry" in this morning's New York Times.
From the ACLU's Reform the Patriot Act, Ruby Sinreich's post in full:
It's our turn, bloggers
The fight isn't over yet! Now that the House and Senate have passed their versions of Patriot Act reauthorization, all eyes will be on the joint congressional committee working on resolving the differences. If your elected official is appointed to that committee, please let them know that the Senate version is better than the House bill. Lisa explains why in her blog posts.
But even if you aren't represented by a conference committee member, you can still have your say. Now is a crucial time to influence public opinion, and to help your entire community know why the Patriot Act is a danger to our democratic freedoms. Blogs are a great way to share your opinions and we've got a whole collection of tools to make it easier for you to blog about reforming the Patriot Act.
Visit our Tools for Patriotic Bloggers to find RSS feeds, web site badges, and links to tons of handy documents. We're also encouraging bloggers to tag their posts so they can be found easily. For example, the "patriot act" tag at Technorati.com aggregates all kinds of first-person information about the Patriot Act. Click here to learn more about tags. You can use this code patriot act anywhere in your blog posts to help Technorati and other blog search engines find you. Make your voice heard!
Note the following appearances by Amy Goodman:
* Amy Goodman in Great Neck, NY:
Wed, August 3
*TIME: 7 PM
Hiroshima Day 2005:
From Hiroshima to Iraq
Jonathan Ielpi Firefighters Park
Grace Avenue & Park Place
In case of rain, St. Paul's Church
68 Grace Avenue
Free and open to the Public
For information, call 516-487-3786 or 516-741-4360*
Amy Goodman in Northampton, MA:
Sat, August 6
*TIME: 8 PM
10th Annual Grassroots Radio Conference, and Prometheus' Eighth Radio Barnraising
John M Greene Hall
Smith College
For more information, visit http://www.prometheusradio.org/grc.shtml
On Saturday, August 6th, join Democracy Now! and Amy Goodman for a live broadcast celebrating local community media.
During this public event, part of Prometheus Radio's Grassroots Radio Conference and Radio Barnraising, Amy Goodman will interview:
* Martin Espada, the Poet Laureate of Northampton, Massachusetts
* Former SNCC field secretary, Ekwueme Michael Thelwell
* Sut Jhally, founder of the Media Education Foundation
* Long-time war tax resister and civil rights activist, Juanita Nelson
* John Nichols, co-founder of the media reform group, Free Pressand other local writers and activists.
Democracy Now! Live, at John M. Greene Hall, Smith College, begins at 8 pm on Saturday, August 6th.
Doors open at 7 pm.
Tickets available at the door.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
