Blair to Be Questioned on Al-Jazeera Bombing Memo

* amy:

"Blair to Be Questioned on Al-Jazeera Bombing Memo
In Britain, Prime Minister Tony Blair is set to be questioned in parliament this week over his talks with President Bush about bombing the Arabic television network Al Jazeera. Two men were convicted last week for leaking a record of a conversation in which President Bush reportedly says he wants to bomb the network’s Doha headquarters."

* amy:

Trial Begins for Navy Attorney in Gitmo Leak Case
Meanwhile a U.S. navy attorney goes on trial today for allegedly leaking the names of prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay. Lt. Cmdr. Matthew Diaz is accused of passing on secret national defense information to a lawyer with the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights. He faces more than thirty-six years in prison.

* amy:

Admin Seeks to Weaken G8 Declaration on Global Warming
In environmental news, the Washington Post is reporting the Bush administration is trying to weaken a climate change declaration planned for next month’s gathering of world leaders at the G8 summit. U.S. negotiators are trying to delete a pledge to limit the global temperature rise and cut emissions of greenhouse gas to half 1990 levels. The administration also wants to strike language that designates the U.N. as the appropriate forum for negotiating action on climate change.

* tpmm:

"Henry Waxman (D-CA), chairman of the House oversight committee, announced today that former CIA Director George Tenet has agreed to testify before his committee. The topic: the White House's hyping of false intelligence in the run-up to the war, specifically Iraq's alleged efforts to procure uranium from Niger.

June 19th's the date. And to make things even more interesting, Waxman has also scheduled Condoleezza Rice to appear at the same hearing. Waxman's committee has already issued a subpoena for Rice's testimony, a subpoena that Rice has signalled she will ignore. Waxman "continues to expect that she will comply with the congressional subpoena," notes the committee's press release. Rice had been scheduled to testify tomorrow."

* other horton:

"Even on the growing list of absurd hyperventilation used by the Bush Administration in connection with the Guantánamo detainees, this case takes on a “now-top-this” quality. And this indeed helps to explain why in the earlier proceedings, the Government’s own chief witness on national security classifications refused to appear and testify on the Government’s behalf.

America’s military justice process was once something the country could be proud of. It was streamlined and disciplined, but it reflected unmistakable justice. The persecution of Commander Diaz is of a piece with the cashiering of Commander Swift and Major Mori, the absurd accusations brought against Gitmo defense counsel, the whispering campaign against them with the detainees (in which counsel are labeled by military jailors as “Jews,” “Zionists” and “homosexuals”), and the efforts by Deputy Assistant Secretary Cully Stimson’s efforts to separate the Gitmo lawyers from their clients. All of this conduct is disgraceful and embarrassing. It reflects the values of a totalitarian state and not a democracy that values justice. It brings shame on the military and the nation. And it reminds us how our current crisis in the administration of justice does not stop with Alberto Gonzales and the Justice Department."