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Show W6rW& a n ri1 Kansas school board casts doubt on evolution AP Photo/Dennis Cook SENATE MINORITY LEADER Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., center, speaks on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Nov. 8,2005, with Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y, left, and Sen. Richard Durbin, D-lll., right, as he dttcusses a letter Democrats have sent to President Bush, asking that he not pardon Lewis Libby, Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff. CIA makes referral to Justice Department on secret prisons story WASHINGTON (AP) - The CIA took the first step toward a full-scale criminal investigation of a leak of possibly classified information on secret prisons to The Washington Post, a U.S. official said Tuesday. The agency's general counsel sent a report to the Justice Department about the Post story, which reported the existence of secret U.S. detention centers for suspected terrorists in Eastern Europe. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the issue deals with classified information, said the referral was made shortly after the Nov. 2 story. The leak investigation into the disclosure of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame's identity came about through the same referral procedure. The Justice Department will decide whether to initiate a criminal investigation. The Post declined to comment. On Capitol Hill, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert called for a congressional investigation into the disclosure of the existence of the secret prisons. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sidestepped questions on secret prisons, saying the United States was in a "different kind of war" and had an obligation to defend itself. If the Post story is accurate, "such an egregious disclosure could have long-term and far-reaching damaging and dangerous consequences, and will imperil our efforts to protect the American people and our homeland from terrorist attacks," wrote Frist, R-Tenn., and Hastert, R-Ill., asking for a joint leak probe by the Senate and House intelligence committees. The newspaper's story of a week ago said the CIA has been hiding and interrogating some of its most important alQaida captives at a Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe, part of a covert prison system set up by the agency four years ago that at various times has included sites in eight countries. Those countries, said the story, include several democracies. "If the leadership determines that we should investigate the leak, it would be much like the 9/11" commission, said Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., who did not dispute a reporter's suggestion that a probe would raise First Amendment press-freedom issues. Such an investigation would become "very difficult when you're getting into matters like this," said the senator. Roberts also said he would support hearings into the importance of maintain- ing a covert agent's cover, a topic triggered by the leak of Plame's identity, eight days after her husband accused the Bush administration of manipulating prewar intelligence to exaggerate the Iraq threat. Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada said the House and Senate committees with normal jurisdiction should conduct any hearings, not a bicameral committee as suggested in the letter of the two Republican leaders. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said any such joint investigation should also investigate possible manipulation of prewar intelligence on Iraq. "If Speaker Hastert and Majority Leader Frist are finally ready to join Democrats' demands for an investigation of possible abuses of classified information, they must direct the House and Senate Intelligence Committees to investigate all aspects of that issue," said Pelosi. The letter asked, concerning the leak of information about prisons, "What is the actual and potential damage done to the national security of the United States and our partners in the global war on terror?" "We will consider other changes to this mandate based on your recommendations," Frist and Hastert wrote. Bush staff lectured on ethics WASHINGTON (AP) - White House workers, from presidential advisers to low-ranking aides, began attending mandatory lectures on ethical behavior and the handling of classified documents Tuesday after the recent indictment of a high-level official in the CIA leak case. More than 3,000 employees from agencies and offices under the Executive Office of the President are required to attend the hour-long briefings over the next two weeks. The sessions this week are reserved for staff with security clearances. Andy Card, the president's chief of staff, and Harriet Miers, the White House counsel, attended the first lecture, given by Richard Painter, the White House attorney who handles ethics issues. Otherwise, people are to attend by alphabetical order. The briefings were an outgrowth of the indictment of I. Lewis Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, on charges of perjury, obstruction of justice and lying to FBI agents in the leaking of the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame, wife of Bush administration critic Joseph Wilson. Libby's indictment says he got information about Plame's identity in June 2003 from Cheney, the State Department and the CIA, then spread it to reporters. The leak case has been costly for Bush. His approval ratings have dropped to a record low for his presidency and there has been a sharp decline in the number of people who say they view him as honest and trustworthy. Just 36 percent now say Bush has lived up to his campaign pledge to restore integrity to the White House, according to a poll released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. "There's a dark cloud hanging over the White House. It's really a storm cloud," Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said at a news conference. He said Cheney, in particular, was involved in manipulating intelligence to sell the war in Iraq, was favoring big oil companies over consumers and was behind the leaking of classified information to discredit White House critics. Reid and other Senate Democratic leaders sent Bush a letter asking him to pledge not to pardon Libby or anyone else should they be found guilty in the leak case. Libby has pleaded not guilty, and special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is said to be still considering whether Karl Rove, Bush's top political adviser, illegally misled investigators. White House press secretary Scott McClelian refused to discuss the possibility of a Libby pardon. "There is a legal proceeding that is going on relating to that individual," McClelian said. "Under our system there is a presumption of innocence. And we're not going to comment on it while it is continuing. And I'm certainly not going to speculate about it as well." McClelian said Bush, at a meeting at Camp David more than a week ago, directed Card and Miers to set up refresher briefings on ethics. "The president takes the issue of the handling of classified information very seriously," McClelian said. "The White House staff knows very well what is expected of them," the spokesman added. "They are expected to focus on the people's business and they are expected to adhere to the highest ethical standards. The president has made that clear for quite some time." The briefings were to cover the proper handling of national security information, how the material is classified, by whom and for how long, who has access to it, how the material is declassified, and the markings on ID badges that show security clearances, McClelian said. The Democratic National Committee dismissed the briefings. "Given that Karl Rove is still reporting for work every day with his security clearance, I'm sure the American people will see these socalled ethics classes for the cheap political stunt that they are," said communications director Karen Finney. "If President Bush were truly serious about restoring ethics - not to mention his own credibility - he would have no problem keeping his word to fire anyone involved in the CIA leak scandal, starting with Karl Rove." TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Revisiting a topic that exposed Kansas to nationwide ridicule six years ago, the state Board of Education approved science standards for public schools Tuesday that cast doubt on the theory of evolution. The board's 6-4 vote, expected for months, was a victory for intelligent design advocates who helped draft the standards. Intelligent design holds that the universe is so complex that it must have been created by a higher power. Critics of the proposed language charged that it was an attempt to inject creationism into public schools in violation of the separation between church and state. The board's vote is likely to heap fresh national criticism on Kansas and cause many scientists to see the state as backward. Current state standards treat evolution as wellestablished - a view also held by national science groups. The new standards will be used to develop student tests measuring how well schools teach science. Decisions about what's taught in classrooms will remain with 300 local school boards, but some educators fear pressure will increase in some communities to teach less about evolution or more about creationism or intelligent design. Advocates of intelligent design said they are trying to expose students to legitimate scientific questions about evolution. "Under these standards students will learn more about evolution, not less," said Casey Luskin, a spokesman for the Seattle-based Discovery Institute, which supports intelligent design. Many scientists argued that the language was an effort to get around U.S. Supreme Court rulings that have held that the teaching of creationism violates the constitutional separation of church and state. In 1999, the Kansas board adopted science standards that eliminated most references to evolution. Harvard paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould said that was akin to teaching "American history without Lincoln." Bill Nye, the "Science Guy" of children's television, called it "harebrained" and "nutty." And a Washington Post columnist imagined God saying to the Kansas board members: "Man, I gave you a brain. Use it, OK?" Two years later, after voters replaced three members, the board reverted to evolutionfriendly standards. Elections in 2002 and 2004 changed the board's composition again, making it more conservative. Other states have also dealt with conflicts over the teaching of evolution and intelligent design. In Pennsylvania, a federal judge is expected to rule soon in a lawsuit against a school district policy that requires students to be told about intelligent design. AP Photo/Charlie Riedel BOARD MEMBER KATHY MARTIN speaks in favor of new science standards while fellow board members Iris Van Meier and Kenneth Willard look on during a meeting of the Kansas Board of Education Tuesday, Nov. 8 2005, in Topeka, Kan. The three voted with the majority as the board voted 6-4 to adopt science standards that cast doubt on the theory of evolution. Pentagon issues guidelines on treatment of detainees WASHINGTON (AP) Thrown on the defensive after the abuse of prisoners in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, the Pentagon has issued a broad new directive mandating that detainees be treated humanely and has banned the use of dogs to intimidate or harass suspects. The directive pulls together for the first time all the Defense Department's existing policies and memos covering the interrogation of detainees captured in the war against terrorism. It comes as Congress is considering a ban on inhumane treatment of U.S. prisoners and as Democrats in the House and Senate push for the creation of a commission to investigate the treatment of foreign prisoners. On Tuesday, the Senate voted 55-43, largely along party lines, against legislation that would create a commission modeled after the one that investigated the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Democrats contend that inves- tigations into abuse allegations by the Pentagon have been incomplete. "There are major gaps in the investigations held so far," said Carl Levin of Michigan, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, who sponsored the legislation. "We cannot sweep these gaps under the rug." But Republicans called the commission unnecessary and they all voted against the measure. Ben Nelson of Nebraska was the only Democrat who sided with them. Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, RVa., said the issues have been addressed in congressional hearings and Pentagon investigations. He highlighted the new Pentagon directive as evidence that defense officials were addressing the problems. While the policy maps out broad requirements for humane treatment and for reporting violations, it is just the first step in the develop- ment of a new Army manual *' that would detail more precisely which interrogation techniques are acceptable and which are not. The directive, which was first reported Tuesday by The New York Times, says "acts of physical or mental torture are prohibited" and directs that any violations be reported, investigated and punished when appropriate. But the only specific prohibition in the directive says that dogs used by any government agency "shall not be used as part of an interrogation approach or to harass, intimidate threaten or coerce a detainee for interrogation purposes." Investigations into detainee abuse at the Abu Ghraib facility in Iraq found that unmuzzled dogs were used to intimidate inmates. The new policy, a product of about 11 months work, governs the interrogation of any detainee under Defense Department control. Contact: 435-797-1775 • FAX: 797-1760 statesman@cc.usu.edu www.utahstatesman.com Please Note CLASSIFIED AD DEADLINES are one working day prior to the day of publication is desired by 10 a.m. Cost per submission is 20 cents per word $2 minimum. Minimum o( three publications per ad. 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