Don't pardon Libby

* ron: "Democratic lawmakers repond to verdict: 'Don't pardon Libby'" - he has a wrap up of their statements.

* Glenn:

"Dick Cheney's most trusted advisor is now a convicted felon.

The implications of this trial are likely to be far-reaching and long-lasting. There were few officials with greater influence or power during the first four years of the Bush administration than Libby. He was not only the vice president's chief of staff, but also assistant to the president himself in national security matters. But Libby's importance in the Bush administration is reflected by far more than his formal titles.
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When it comes to the political movement that has dominated the American government for the last six years, Scooter Libby was at its very crux, a close intimate of America's most powerful political officials.

Today's event sends a potent and unmistakable message, one that is absolutely reverberating in the West Wing: If Libby can be convicted of multiple felonies, then any Bush official who has committed crimes can be as well. Not only are Bush officials subject to the rule of law (their radical theories of executive power to the contrary notwithstanding), they are also vulnerable to legal consequences (the defeatist beliefs of some Bush critics notwithstanding). Having the nation watch this powerful Bush official be declared a criminal -- despite having been defended by the best legal team money can buy -- resoundingly reaffirms the principle that our highest political officials can and must be held accountable when they break the law."

* amy:

IAEA: Iran Seems To Have Halted Uranium Enrichment Program
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran seems to have at least temporarily halted its uranium-enrichment program. Mohamad ElBaradei said the pause could represent an attempt to de-escalate Iran's conflict with the UN Security Council, which is considering new sanctions against Iran.

* amy:

Sen. Webb Says Congressional OK Needed Before Iran Attack
Meanwhile on Capitol Hill, Democratic Senator James Webb of Virginia introduced legislation Monday to prohibit the Bush administration from using funds to invade Iran without congressional authorization.

* amy:

Rice Names Prominent Neoconservative Hawk to State Dept Post
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has named a prominent neoconservative who has advocated for the overthrow of the Iranian government to be the new counselor of the State Department. The official -- Eliot Cohen -- had been described as "the most influential neoconservative in academe." Two months after the Sept. 11th attacks, Cohen advocated for going after Iran. He wrote in the Wall Street Journal QUOTE "The overthrow of the first theocratic revolutionary Muslim state and its replacement by a moderate or secular government, however, would be no less important a victory in this war than the annihilation of bin Laden." Eliot Cohen has also described the so-called war on terrorism as World War Four.

* ABCNews (via):

"Whistle-blower Had to Fight NSA, LA Times to Tell Story

Whistle-blower AT&T technician Mark Klein says his effort to reveal alleged government surveillance of domestic Internet traffic was blocked not only by U.S. intelligence officials but also by the top editors of the Los Angeles Times.

In his first broadcast interview, which can be seen tonight on World News and Nightline, Klein describes how he stumbled across "secret NSA rooms" being installed at an AT&T switching center in San Francisco and later heard of similar rooms in at least six other cities, including Atlanta, San Diego, Los Angeles, Palo Alto, San Jose and Seattle.
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Klein says he collected 120 pages of technical documents left around the San Francisco office showing how the NSA was installing "splitters" that would allow it to copy both domestic and international Internet traffic moving through AT&T connections with 16 other trunk lines.

"It's gobs and gobs of information going across the Internet," Klein says.
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But after working for two months with LA Times reporter Joe Menn, Klein says he was told the story had been killed at the request of then-Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte and then-director of the NSA Gen. Michael Hayden.
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Klein says what he knows won't help terrorists.

"The only people that are being kept in the dark is the American people who are being misled and not realizing, not being told that their private information, that their liberties are being destroyed and tramped on," he said."

hmmm. no wonder sibel is having so much trouble - both with the govt and with the media.