In The New Yorker...

“My old colleagues say with one-hundred-per-cent certainty that it was not K.S.M. who killed Pearl.” A government official involved in the case said, “The fear is that K.S.M. is covering up for others, and that these people will be released.” And Judea Pearl, Daniel’s father, said, “Something is fishy. There are a lot of unanswered questions. K.S.M. can say he killed Jesus—he has nothing to lose.”

Mark Fiore’s MC Rove

By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 21, 2007; A01

Declaring the government of Iraq "non-functional," the influential chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said yesterday that Iraq's parliament should oust Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his cabinet if they are unable to forge a political compromise with rival factions in a matter of days.

"I hope the parliament will vote the Maliki government out of office and will have the wisdom to replace it with a less sectarian and more unifying prime minister and government," Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) said after a three-day trip to Iraq and Jordan.

Rove ignores US congress subpoena

Karl Rove, the former White House advisor and the man considered the key figure behind George Bush's election successes, has defied a subpoena to testify before the US congress.

Rove is accused of having used his position to influence partisan prosecution at the US department of justice and had been due to appear on Thursday before the House Judiciary subcommittee.

The White House has cited executive privilege as a reason the Rove and others who currently serve or have served in the administration should not testify.

It has argued that internal administration communications are confidential and that congress cannot compel officials to testify.

But that has been rejected by Democratic politicians on the panel that had summoned Rove, saying his claim of immunity is invalid.

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Gus: In the US, apart from not turning up to courts, folks also use the whatever amendment (No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation) to fob justice.

In Aussieland we use the "I can't remember" technical argument...

see toon at top. 

Top Bush Aides to Testify in Attorneys’ Firings

WASHINGTON — Karl Rove and Harriet E. Miers, top former aides to President George W. Bush, will testify under oath to a House committee investigating the firings of nine United States attorneys in 2007, under an agreement announced Wednesday by the panel.

The agreement settled a rancorous dispute that began in mid-2007 when the House Judiciary Committee subpoenaed Mr. Rove and Ms. Miers, who, according to e-mail messages released by the Justice Department, played a role in the firings.

In a statement after the agreement was announced, Representative John Conyers Jr., a Michigan Democrat and chairman of the judiciary panel, declared victory and said the committee had finally succeeded in breaking through the Bush administration’s absolute immunity claims.

Mr. Conyers called the agreement “a vindication of the search for truth.” He added, “I am determined to have it known whether U.S. attorneys in the Department of Justice were fired for political reasons, and if so, by whom.”

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Gus: I hold my breath for two... seconds on this one...

Surprise me. the investigation will find it "inconclusive" or that the "attorneys were not fired for political reasons..." But the circus will make a good charade... see toon at top. One of the problem here that should the department finds that the attorneys were fired for political reasons, who will take the rap? Rove? Bush? Cheney? Mickey Mouse?

The failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq damaged President George W Bush's reputation, his former strategist Karl Rove says.

In his memoir, Mr Rove writes that he felt he should have done more to reject claims that President Bush lied about the existence of Saddam's weapons.

He called his perceived failure one of the worst mistakes he made.

But he described the achievements of the Bush administration as "impressive, durable and significant".

In his book Courage and Consequence, Mr Rove defended President Bush, saying that history would look favourably on the president's two terms.

He said the president did not knowingly mislead the American public about the existence of WMDs, and described the 2003 invasion as a justifiable response to the terror attacks of 9/11.

Al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden were behind those attacks, but the Bush administration linked Saddam Hussein to them to build support for an invasion.

"Having seen how much carnage four airplanes could cause, Bush was determined to do all he could to prevent the most powerful weapons from falling into the hands of the world's most dangerous dictators," Mr Rove wrote in his book, which is due out next week.

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Idots and liars... see toon at top....

from the BBC

A senior adviser to former US President George W Bush has defended tough interrogation techniques, saying their use helped prevent terrorist attacks.

In a BBC interview, Karl Rove, who was known as "Bush's brain", said he "was proud we used techniques that broke the will of these terrorists".

He said waterboarding, which simulates drowning, should not be considered torture.

In 2009, President Barack Obama banned waterboarding as a form of torture.

But the practice was sanctioned in written memos by Bush administration lawyers in August 2002, providing legal cover for its use.

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"Memos" do not provide legal cover for the use of "fake" drowning. Only laws approved by congress are laws that provide legal cover. see the rats at top...