‘The White House turned over last week 250 pages of emails
from Vice President Dick Cheney’s office. Senior aides had sent the emails in
the spring of 2003 related to the leak of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson,
Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald revealed during a federal court hearing
Friday. 

The emails are said to be
explosive, and may prove that Cheney played an active role in the effort to
discredit Plame Wilson’s husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, a vocal
critic of the Bush administration’s prewar Iraq intelligence, sources close to
the investigation said. 

Sources close to the probe said
the White House “discovered” the emails two weeks ago and turned them over to
Fitzgerald last week. The sources added that the emails could prove that Cheney
lied to FBI investigators when he was interviewed about the leak in early 2004.
Cheney said that he was unaware of any effort to discredit Wilson or unmask his
wife’s undercover status to reporters.’ 

White House 'Discovers’
250 Emails Related To Plame Leak

‘President
George Bush continues to openly and defiantly ignore the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act (FISA) -- the 1978 statute prohibiting electronic inspection
of Americans' telephone and email communications with people outside the United
States without a court-authorized warrant. (According to U.S. News & World Report,
the President may also have authorized warrantless break-ins and other physical
surveillance, such as opening regular mail, in violation of the Fourth
Amendment.)  

Bush's
position is that he does not need Congressional approval for his measures. Even
he does not claim that Congress gave him express power to undertake them, but
he does claim that Congress indirectly approved such measures when it
authorized the use of force to go after those involved in the 9/11 terror
attacks on the United States. He also argues that, in any event, approval was
not necessary - for he argues that he has such authority under Article II of
the Constitution, as the chief executive, and Commander in Chief, charged with
faithfully executing the laws of the land and protecting the Constitution. 

These
arguments are hauntingly familiar to this observer.’ 

An Update on President Bush's NSA Program

From Al jazeera
...........................

But given George’s track record on Iraq – which turned out in the end to be a terrorist hotbed – and Guantanamo – where people are now very suspicious of American justice – excuse me if I start to believe him.

George is truly a self-fulfilling prophet. If the US continues its campaign of bombing with impunity, abrogating human rights and threatening to attack anyone, anywhere, any time, then the war on terror will be very long indeed. God help us.

[Joshua Hergesheimer is a Canadian freelance columnist based in the UK. His writing focuses on the implications of political violence in contemporary society.]

From Al Jazeera

"Bush will be remembered as the man who brought ayatollahs' rule to Iraq"

Iraqi civil war threatens region
By Firas Al-Atraqchi
Saturday 18 March 2006, 15:07 Makka Time, 12:07 GMT

As the third anniversary of the invasion of Iraq approaches, the country continues to face challenges in overcoming political instability, rampant violence, and persistent water and power outages.

Two weeks ago, the sectarian violence following the partial destruction of the Askariya mosque in Sammara, north of Baghdad, pushed Iraqis closer to civil war.

Failures to form and convene a government after the 15 December elections, and disagreement over who should be the next prime minister have further complicated the situation.

Regional analysts say a civil war in Iraq could tear it apart and spill over into a wider conflict throughout the Middle East.

As'ad AbuKhalil, author of The Battle for Saudi Arabia: Royalty, Fundamentalism, and Global Power and Bin Laden, Islam, and America's New 'War on Terrorism', believes Iraq has become a country of "mayhem, pillage, and plunder" and its demise threatens stability in the region.

He is now professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus, and visiting professor at the University of California at Berkeley.

Read more on Al Jazeera