2 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, November 2, 2005 NATION/WORLD Senate does into closed session NEWS INrBRIEF v Republicans say Democrats have hijacked the Senate WASHINGTON (AP) - Demo- crats forced the Republican-controlled Senate into an unusual closed session yesterday, questioning intelligence that President Bush used in the run-up to the war in Iraq and accusing Republicans of ignoring the issue. "They have repeatedly chosen to protect the Republican administration rather than get to the bottom of what happened and why," Democratic leader Harry Reid said. Taken by surprise, Republicans derided the move as a political stunt. "The United States Senate has been hijacked by the Democratic leadership," said Majority Leader Bill Frist of Ten- nessee. "They have no convictions, they have no principles, they have no ideas," the Republican leader said. Democrats sought assurances that Intel- ligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts of Kansas would complete the second phase of an investigation of the adminis- tration's prewar intelligence. After about two hours, senators returned to open session having appointed a six- member task force - three members from each party - to review the committee's progress and report back to their respec- tive caucuses by Nov. 14. Roberts's committee produced a 511- page report last summer on flaws of an Iraq intelligence estimate assembled by the country's top analysts in October2002, and he promised a second phase would look at issues that couldn't be finalized in the first year of work. The committee had started the second phase of the review, Roberts said, but it has not been completed. He said he had intended all along to work on the second phase beginning next week. In mid-afternoon yesterday, Reid demanded the Senate go into closed ses- sion. The public was ordered out of the chamber, the lights were dimmed and the doors were closed. No vote is required in such circumstances. Reid's move shone a spotlight on the continuing controversy over prewar intel- ligence. Despite administration claims, no weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq, and some Democrats have accused the White House of manipulating the information. Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was indicted last Friday in an investigation that touched on the war, the leak of the identity of a CIA official married to a critic of the administration's Iraq policy. "The Libby indictment provides a win- dow into what this is really all about, how this administration manufactured and manipulated intelligence in order to sell the war in Iraq and attempted to destroy those who dared to challenge its actions," Reid said before invoking Senate rules that led to the closed session. Libby resigned from his White House post after being indicted on charges of obstruction of justice, making false state- ments and perjury. Democrats contend that the unmasking of Valerie Plame was retribution for her husband, Joseph Wilson, publicly chal- lenging the Bush administration's con- tention that Iraq was seeking to purchase uranium from Africa. That claim was part of the White House's justification for going to war. As Reid spoke, Frist met in the back of the chamber with a half-dozen senior GOP senators, including Roberts, who bore the brunt of Reid's criticism. Reid said Roberts reneged on a promise to fully investigate whether the adminis- tration exaggerated and manipulated intelligence leading up to the war. Reid claimed that Republicans have repeat- edly rebuffed Democratic pleas for a thorough investigation. Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.), a for- mer majority leader, said a closed session was appropriate for such overarching matters as impeach- ment and chemical weapons - the two topics that last sent the senators into such sessions. In addition, Lott said, Reid's move violated the Senate's tradition of courtesy and consent. But there was nothing in Senate rules enabling Republicans to thwart Reid's effort. The Senate had been consider- ing a budget bill when it went into closed session. Auto faces tough road WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. Supreme Court nominee Samuel Aito is "clearly within the mainstream" and shouldn't be filibustered, declared a Republican who helped fashion a plan limiting parliamentary roadblocks for judicial nominees. Sen. Mike DeWine, who met with President Bush's latest high court choice yesterday, warned Democrats he would side with GOP leaders to eliminate the judicial filibuster if the minority party uses it against the New Jersey judge. "It's hard for me to envision that anyone would think about filibustering this nominee," said DeWine, an Ohio Republican who sided with 13 other Republicans and Democrats earlier this year to end a Senate stalemate over judi- cial filibusters. Some Democrats were contemplating just such a move as the 55-year-old Alito began courting senators on the second day of his Supreme Court candidacy. Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson of South Dakota refused to rule out supporting a filibuster. "I would leave all those options on the table," he said. Johnson said e hasn't made up his mind on Alito after discussing the right to privacy and other constitutional issues with him yesterday. "Not surpris- ingly, it's hard to draw hard and fast conclusions on how he will vote," John- son said. "There is no question he is a conservative." Democratic leaders are cautioning their colleagues against rushing to judg- ment on President Bush's pick to replace his previous unsuccessful choice, White House counsel Harriet Miers, as the successor for retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. "Ordinarily it takes six to eight weeks to evaluate a Supreme Court nominee. We shouldn't rush to judgment," Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the No. 2 Senate Demo- crat, said on CBS's "The Early Show." DeWine, who met with Alito for more than an hour, is one of the 14 cen- trist senators Democrats need to sustain a filibuster. Without the group's seven Republicans, Democrats would not be able to prevent Senate Majority Lead- er Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) from abolish- ing judicial filibusters and confirming judges with a simple majority vote. The Republicans hold 55 of the 100 seats in the Senate. $1.00 BEFORE 6:OOPM - $1.50 AFTER 6:00PM TUESDAY 50C ALL SHOWS ALL DAY MARCH OF THE PENGUINS 12:30 3:007:15G THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE 12:15 2:45 5:15 7:4510:00 P613 FOUR BROTHERS 4:40 9:30 R RED EYE 12:45 3:00 7:00 PG13 MUST LOVE DOGS 5:05 9:15 PG13 CHARLIE & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY 12:00 2:30 7:30 PG MR. & MRS. SMITH 5:00 9:45 PG13 "Don't letyou'r HAIR got ahead of ~ AUSTIN Judge in case against DeLay removed In a courtroom victory for Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas), the judge in the cam- paign-finance case against the former House Republican leader was removed yes- terday because of his donations to Democratic candidates and causes. A semi-retired judge who was called in to hear the dispute, C.W. Bud Duncan, ruled in Delay's favor without comment. Duncan ordered the appointment of a new judge to preside over the case. The ruling came after a hearing in which Delay's attorneys argued that state District Judge Bob Perkins's political donations created the appearance of bias. Perkins, a Democrat, has contributed to candidates such as John Kerry and the liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org. "The public perception of Judge Perkins's activities shows him to be on opposite sides of the political fence than Tom DeLay," defense attorney Dick DeGuerin argued. Perkins had declined to withdraw from the case, and prosecutor Rick Reed argued at the hearing that DeLay had to prove that a member of the public would have a "reasonable doubt that the judge is impartial" before Perkins could be removed. WASHINGTON Interest rates raised to highest level in years The Federal Reserve raised interest rates yesterday to the highest level in more than four years and indicated that more increases were likely in an effort to keep a lid on inflation. Outgoing Chairman Alan Greenspan and his colleagues voted unanimously to boost the rate banks charge each other by a quarter-point, to 4 percent. It was the 12th increase of that size since the Fed began tightening credit in June 2004. In response, commercial banks began increasing their prime lending rate by a corresponding amount, to 7 percent. These rates are used for many short- term consumer loans, including certain credit cards and popular home equity lines of credit. Wall Street shrugged - the Dow Jones industrials closed down 33.30 points. "The cumulative rise in energy and other costs have the potential to add to infla- tion pressures," the Fed said in a brief statement after the meeting. Fed policymakers suggested that they are more concerned about the prospects of an inflation flare-up than the economy suffering a serious slowdown from the hurricanes that ravaged the Gulf Coast. WASHINGTON Roberts faces first religious freedom dispute The Supreme Court debated yesterday whether to let a small congregation in New Mexico worship with hallucinogenic tea, the first religious freedom dispute under Chief Justice John Roberts. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor seemed skeptical of the Bush administration's claim that the tea can be banned, but she may not be around to vote in the case. About 130 members of a Brazil-based church have been in a long-running dis- pute with federal agents who seized their tea in 1999. The hoasca tea, which con- tains an illegal drug known as DMT, is considered sacred to members of O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao do Vegetal. The Bush administration contends the tea is not only illegal but poten- tially dangerous. WASHINGTON Pentagon: Top al-Qaida operative escaped A man once considered a top al-Qaida operative escaped from a U.S.-run detention facility in Afghanistan and cannot testify against the soldier who allegedly mistreated him, a defense lawyer involved in a prison abuse case said Tuesday. Omar al-Farouq was one of Osama bin Laden's top lieutenants in Southeast Asia until Indonesian authorities captured him in the summer of 2002 and turned him over to the United States. - Compiled from Daily wire reports CORRECTIONS Please report any error in the Daily to corrections@michigandaily.com. albe fAtirbtiguu Du 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1327 www.michigandaily.com JASON Z. PESICK Editor in Chief pesick@michigandaily.com 647-3336 Sun.-Thurs. 5 p.m. - 2 a.m. JONATHAN DOBBERSTEIN Business Manager business@michigandaily.com 764-0558 Mon-Fri. 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. What will I find in a sales career at Lilly? Answers. 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