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Tom Brune / Newsday:
Pardon talk for Libby begins — WASHINGTON — Now that top White House aide Karl Rove is off the hook in the CIA leak probe, President George W. Bush must weigh whether to pardon former vice presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the only one indicted in the three-year investigation.
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Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
Jack Kelly: Presumed guilty — The clearing of Karl Rove confounds liberals — There was anger, anguish and incredulity in the fever swamps last week when Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald made it clear he would not indict White House political guru Karl Rove in his apparently endless investigation …
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PrairiePundit
Ron Suskind / Time:
Al-Qaeda Cell Planned to Attack Subway With Poison Gas, Says New Book — Exclusive Excerpt: Author Ron Suskind reveals how officials learned about a cell that came within weeks of striking New York City — Two months had passed since 9/11, and at the highest levels of government …
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Mark Hosenball / Newsweek:
Too Close for Comfort — An Al Qaeda cell had planned …
Too Close for Comfort — An Al Qaeda cell had planned …
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Outside The Beltway, Hot Air, BlondeSense, Patterico's Pontifications, Blogs of War and Macsmind
Thomas E. Ricks / Washington Post:
U.S. Airstrikes Rise In Afghanistan as Fighting Intensifies — In Response to More Aggressive Taliban, Attacks Are Double Those in Iraq War — As fighting in Afghanistan has intensified over the past three months, the U.S. military has conducted 340 airstrikes there …
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Bill Roggio / Counterterrorism Blog:
Observations from Southeastern Afghanistan
Observations from Southeastern Afghanistan
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PrairiePundit
Joe Lauria / Washington Post:
My Unwitting Role in the Rove 'Scoop' — The May 13 story on the Web site Truthout.org was explosive: Presidential adviser Karl Rove had been indicted by Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald in connection with his role in leaking CIA officer Valerie Plame's name to the media, it blared.
Times of London:
Horror show reveals Iraq's descent — A morgue's grim scenes testify to a disintegrating nation, says Hala Jaber in Baghdad — THE morning rush had begun at the health ministry's morgue in Baghdad, and by 9.30am last Thursday 36 coffins already lined the street outside.
Philip Sherwell / Telegraph:
Ayatollah's grandson calls for US overthrow of Iran — The grandson of Ayatollah Khomeini, the inspiration of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, has broken a three-year silence to back the United States military to overthrow the country's clerical regime. — Hossein Khomeini's call …
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Adam Nossiter / New York Times:
In New Orleans, Money Is Ready but a Plan Isn't — It is unclear which areas of New Orleans will get city services. Adam Hutton, 11, on Friday added to piles of garbage in Central City. — NEW ORLEANS, June 17 — Billions of federal dollars are about to start flowing into this city …
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Danny Hakim / New York Times:
'Star Trek' Fans, Deprived of a Show, Recreate the Franchise on Digital Video — MASON NECK STATE PARK, Va. — Paul Sieber was wearing a "Star Trek" uniform in the deep Virginia woods when he found himself surrounded by a leathery-looking gang. — Fortunately, the ruffians were dressed up as Klingons …
CNN:
Poll: Bush's unpopularity could hurt GOP candidates — WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Bush's continued unpopularity could present a challenge for Republican candidates in this fall's mid-term elections, according to a new CNN poll released Friday. — The poll results weren't all bad news for Bush.
Glenn Kessler / Washington Post:
In 2003, U.S. Spurned Iran's Offer of Dialogue — Just after the lightning takeover of Baghdad by U.S. forces three years ago, an unusual two-page document spewed out of a fax machine at the Near East bureau of the State Department. It was a proposal from Iran for a broad dialogue with the United States …
Discussion:
Unclaimed Territory
Carol J. Williams / Los Angeles Times:
Kicked out of Gitmo — A Times reporter's struggle to get the truth about America's island prison just got tougher. — IN THE BEST of times, covering Guantanamo means wrangling with a Kafkaesque bureaucracy, with logistics so nonsensical that they turn two hours of reporting into an 18-hour day …
Discussion:
The Washington Monthly
Associated Press:
Bill Clinton decries 'divisive' politics — LITTLE ROCK (AP) — Former President Bill Clinton said Saturday that, if he returns to the White House in 2008 because his wife becomes president, his role would be to "do whatever she wants" because that's what a good citizen would do.
Qais Al-Bashir / Associated Press:
10 workers kidnapped from Baghdad bakery — BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen seized 10 workers from a bakery Sunday in a predominantly Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad, while a car bomb exploded near a university in the northern city of Mosul, killing a woman and wounding 19 other people, police said.