2 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, September 30, 2005
- NATION/WORLD
Judith Miller released from prison NEWS IN BRIEF
New York Times reporter had
been jailed for refusing to divulge
identity of anonymous source
WASHINGTON (AP) - After nearly three months
behind bars, New York Times reporter Judith Miller
was released from a federal prison yesterday after
agreeing to testify in the investigation into the dis-"
closure of a covert CIA officer's identity, two people
familiar with the case said.
Miller left the federal detention center in Alexandria,
Va., after reaching an agreement with Special Counsel
Patrick Fitzgerald. Legal sources said she would appear
before a grand jury investigating the case today morning.
The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because of
the secrecy of the grand jury proceedings.
The sources said Miller agreed to testify after secur-
ing an unconditional release from Vice President Dick
Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, to
testify about any discussions they had involving CIA
officer Valerie Plame.
Miller has been held at the federal detention facility
since July 6. A federal judge ordered her jailed when
she refused to testify before the grand jury investigat-
ing the alleged leak of CIA officer Plame's name by
White House officials.
The disclosure of Plame's identity by syndicated
columnist Robert Novak in July 2003 triggered an
inquiry that has caused political damage to the Bush
White House and could still result in criminal charges
against government officials.
The federal grand jury delving into the matter
expires Oct. 28. Miller would have been freed at that
time, but prosecutors could have pursued a criminal
contempt of court charge against the reporter if she
continued to defy Fitzgerald.
Of the reporters swept up in Fitzgerald's investiga-
tion, Miller is the only one to go to jail. She was found
in civil contempt of court on July 6.
Time reporter Matthew Cooper testified to the
grand jury after his magazine surrendered his notes
and e-mail detailing a conversation with presidential
aide Karl Rove.
Last year, Cooper and NBC's Tim Russert answered
some of the prosecutor's questions about conversations
they had with Libby.
Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus also
answered the prosecutor's questions about a conver-
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NEW ORLEANS
Homeowners face rebuilding delays
Roberta Stewart picks through the muck layering the first floor of her home, her bare
legs splattered in mud, her eyes surveying the putrid mess from behind a gas mask. Now
that Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters have ebbed, she asks, who will help her rebuild?
"The (builder) I was going to use, who I trust, is in Fort Worth because he lost his
house," Stewart says. "I'll have to find another contractor."
That could be a tall order.
With hundreds or even thousands of builders wiped out by Katrina - their tools lost
and workers scattered - homeowners looking to rebuild quickly are in for a shock.
The scope of home destruction is so sweeping that it will likely stretch rebuilding
for years. It took more than a decade to reconstruct all the homes destroyed by Hur-
ricane Andrew, after it hit Florida in 1992. Katrina destroyed 10 times as many homes
as Andrew.
-The difficulty of rebuilding could be exacerbated because Gulf Coast contracting
has long been the province of small, independent companies without the deep pockets
to recover quickly. That has spurred out-of-state contractors to pour into the region,
increasing competition for labor and driving up prices.
BAGHDAD
String of suicide bombings kills at least 60
Three suicide attackers exploded a string of near-simultaneous car bombs in a main-
ly Shiite town yesterday, killing at least 60 people and wounding 70. Elsewhere, a road-
side bomb killed five U.S. soldiers fighting in a hotbed of Iraq's insurgency.
The attacks were part of a new surge of violence ahead of an Oct. 15 referen-
dum on Iraq's constitution, whose passage is crucial to prospects for starting a
withdrawal of American troops. The U.S. ambassador was struggling to negotiate
changes to the charter in hopes of winning Sunni Arab support.
Sunni insurgents have vowed to wreck the vote, declaring "all-out war" on the
Shiite majority that dominates Iraq's government. Moderate Sunni Arab leaders
called on their community to vote against the charter, saying it will fragment Iraq
and leave them weak compared to Shiites and Kurds.
01
AP PHOO
New York Times reporter Judith Miller meets reporters outside federal court in Washington, in this Oct.
7, 2004 file photo, after a judge held her In contempt for refusing to divulge confidential sources.
sation with an unidentified administration official.
Under the arrangements for his testimony, Pincus
did not identify the official to the investigators, who
already knew the official's identity. Prosecutors also
say they know the identity of Miller's source.
Novak apparently has cooperated with prosecutors,
though neither he nor his lawyer has said so.
' Novak's column on July 14, 2003, came eight days
after Plame's husband wrote in an opinion piece. in
The Times that the Bush administration twisted intel-
ligence to exaggerate the threat from Iraq's nuclear
weapons program.
Novak wrote that two senior administration officials
told him Plame had suggested sending her husband,
former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, to the African
nation of Niger on behalf of the CIA to look into pos-
sible Iraqi purchases of uranium yellowcake.
Wilson's article in The Times had stated it was highly
doubtful that any such transaction had ever taken place.
The timing of Wilson's article was devastating for
the Bush White House, which was struggling to come
to grips with the fact that no weapons of mass destruc-
tion had been found in Iraq. The president's claims of
such weapons in Iraq were the Bush administration's
main justification for going to war.
According to an affidavit of Miller's in the investi-
gation, the reporter spoke to one or more confidential
sources regarding Wilson's opinion piece, which was
entitled, "What I Didn't Find In Africa." She never
wrote a story about Wilson or Plame.
Abu Ghraib abuse photos set for release
White House had
argued releasing photos
would incite terrorists
NEW YORK (AP) - A federal
judge yesterday ordered the release of
dozens more pictures of prisoners being
abused at Abu Ghraib, rejecting govern-
ment arguments that the images would
provoke terrorists and incite violence
against U.S. troops in Iraq.
U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Heller-
stein said that terrorists "do not need
pretexts for their barbarism" and that
suppressing the pictures would amount
to submitting to blackmail.
"Our nation does not surrender to
blackmail, and fear of blackmail is
not a legally sufficient argument to
prevent us from performing a statu-
tory command. Indeed, the freedoms
that we champion are as important to
our success in Iraq and Afghanistan as
the guns and missiles with which our
troops are armed," he said.
Hellerstein ordered the release of 74
pictures and three videotapes from the
Abu Ghraib prison, potentially open-
ing the military up to more embarrass-
ment from a scandal that stirred outrage
around the world last year when photos
of 2003 abuse became public.
The photographs covered by yes-
terday's ruling were taken by a sol-
dier. A military policeman who saw
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them turned them over to the Army.
Some may be duplicates of photos
already seen by the public.
An appeal of Hellerstein's ruling is
expected, which could delay release of
the pictures for months.
Gen. John Abizaid, commander of
U.S. Central Command, said yesterday
that releasing the photos would hinder
his work against terrorism.
"When we continue to pick at the
wound and show the pictures over and
over again it just creates the image - a
false image - like this is the sort of
stuff that is happening anew, and it's
not," Abizaid said.
The American Civil Liberties Union
sought release of the photographs
and videotapes as part of an October
2003 lawsuit demanding information
on the treatment of detainees in U.S.
custody and the transfer of prisoners
to countries known to use torture.
The ACLU contends that prisoner
abuse is systemic.
"It's a historic ruling, said ACLU
Executive Director Anthony Romero.
"While no one wants to see what's on
the photos or videos, they will play an
essential role in holding our government
leaders accountable for the torture that's
happened on their watch."
The government argued that Ameri-
ca's enemies might exploit the pictures
for propaganda purposes by saying the
photos represent the attitudes of all
Americans toward the Iraqi people.
The judge acknowledged such
a risk but said "the education and
debate that such publicity will foster
will strengthen our purpose, and, by
enabling such deficiencies as may be
perceived to be debated and correct-
ed, show our strength as a vibrant
and functioning democracy to be
emulated."
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SIDI RAIS, Algeria
Turnout low for peace plan referendum
The pain remains just beneath the surface of this dusty town on the doorstep
of the Algerian capital, the scene of one of the bloodiest massacres in an Islamic
insurgency that voters yesterday were asked to put behind them.
Few here rushed to cast ballots in the national referendum on a peace plan that
absolves many of the insurgents and sidesteps questions about the thousands who
disappeared in more than a decade of violence that left an estimated 150,000 dead
across the North African country. By noon, four hours after polls opened, the two
dozen security officers in and around the Sidi Rais primary school voting station
far outnumbered the trickle of voters.
LOS ANGELES
Wildfire forces hundreds to evacuate valley
A wind-whipped 17,000-acre wildfire raced across hills and canyons along the
city's northwestern edge yesterday, threatening homes and forcing hundreds of
people to evacuate.
Some 3,000 firefighters aided by aircraft struggled to protect ridgetop houses along
the Los Angeles-Ventura county line, a rugged, brushy landscape west of Los Angeles'
San Fernando Valley. Officials said the blaze was 5 percent contained as it burned
toward such communities as Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Calabasas and Agoura.
- Compiled from Daily wire report
CORRECTIONS
A team's name was misidentified in a sports photo caption in yesterday's
Daily. It should have said Virginia Tech beat the No. 6 Mountaineers last
season.
A story in yesterday's edition of the Daily misspelled the name of a member
of Students Organizing for Freedom and Economic Equality. His name is Saamir
Rahman.
A story in yesterday's edition of the Daily incorrectly stated a recent City
Council ordinance restricted students in the Oxbridge and North Burns Park areas
from parking in a lot. The ordinance applied to street parking in the area.
Please report any error in the Daily to corrections@michigandaily.com.
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