US President George Bush's chief political adviser, Karl Rove, on Friday made his fourth appearance before a grand jury in what was billed as a final attempt to convince federal prosecutors he did nothing illegal in the CIA leak case that is gripping Washington.
Before he gave evidence prosecutors had warned Bush's most trusted aide that there was no guarantee he would not be indicted over the leak of the name of a covert CIA operative. Charges could come as early as next week, with the White House said to be racked by uncertainty and foreboding.
Lewis "Scooter" Libby, vice president Dick Cheney's chief of staff, is also said to be firmly in the firing line of special council Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation.
For the Bush administration the possibility of indictments could not come at a worse time, faced by plummeting ratings over its handling of the war in Iraq, the response to Hurricane Katrina and now allegations of cronyism over the nomination of Harriet Miers, the president's former personal lawyer, for the vacant spot on the supreme court.
Rove made no comment yesterday as he arrived at the federal courthouse in Washington to begin his testimony after failing to enter unnoticed through a side door.
The two-year leak investigation was launched after the disclosure in July 2003 of the name of a CIA undercover official, Valerie Plume.
Her husband, Joseph Wilson, a former US ambassador, claimed that her identity had been intentionally leaked by the administration in retribution against him for accusing the president of twisting prewar intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
Matt Cooper, a journalist for Time magazine, told the grand jury in July that Rove had told him on condition of anonymity that Mr Wilson's wife was a CIA agent and she had been instrumental in sending her husband to Africa in 2002 to check claims that Iraq had been buying uranium.
Meanwhile Judith Miller, the New York Times journalist sentenced for refusing to cooperate with the investigation, finally testified two weeks ago that she had spoken to Libby about Wilson's wife.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
The US government has banned US government personnel in China, as well as family members and contractors with security clearances, from any romantic or sexual relationships with Chinese citizens, The Associated Press (AP) has learned. Four people with direct knowledge of the matter told the AP about the policy, which was put into effect by departing US ambassador Nicholas Burns in January shortly before he left China. The people would speak only on condition of anonymity to discuss details of a confidential directive. Although some US agencies already had strict rules on such relationships, a blanket “nonfraternization” policy, as it is known, has
OPTIONS: Asked if one potential avenue to a third term was having J.D. Vance run for the top job and then pass the baton to him, Trump said: ‘That’s one,’ among others US President Donald Trump on Sunday that “I’m not joking” about trying to serve a third term, the clearest indication he is considering ways to breach a constitutional barrier against continuing to lead the country after his second term ends at the beginning of 2029. “There are methods which you could do it,” Trump said in a telephone interview with NBC News from Mar-a-Lago, his private club. He elaborated later to reporters on Air Force One from Florida to Washington that “I have had more people ask me to have a third term, which in a way is a fourth term
RSS