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.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
Canada and the EU on Monday signed a defense and security pact as the transatlantic partners seek to better confront Russia, with worries over Washington’s reliability under US President Donald Trump. The deal was announced after a summit in Brussels between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa. “While NATO remains the cornerstone of our collective defense, this partnership will allow us to strengthen our preparedness ... to invest more and to invest smarter,” Costa told a news conference. “It opens new opportunities for companies on both sides of the
OVERHAUL: The move would likely mark the end to Voice of America, which was founded in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda and operated in nearly 50 languages The parent agency of Voice of America (VOA) on Friday said it had issued termination notices to more than 639 more staff, completing an 85 percent decrease in personnel since March and effectively spelling the end of a broadcasting network founded to counter Nazi propaganda. US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) senior advisor Kari Lake said the staff reduction meant 1,400 positions had been eliminated as part of US President Donald Trump’s agenda to cut staffing at the agency to a statutory minimum. “Reduction in Force Termination Notices were sent to 639 employees at USAGM and Voice of America, part of a
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image