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- I* LLL 1V' -'\V~ C - U tVV 1VU L ~ U AW ILI v El E .._.... 3x 7J 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 2' 0 0 0 0 0 0J 75 .7- ?h 0ls h, I hop .', i I- 4. >C V '4- C- 0 0i SO 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." -7 s physicia ns wC~ 'SOX 00, O 11+ - I d- 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. I.i . ancia ii, 4-. ye hbe iriguiu iailg 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109-132 7 www.miichigandaily.com 01 vv .fi- .z a- 4v JASON Z. 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