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Show WorldWNaifon WE/TERN WAT/ Libby prepares for new trial while Bush avoids speculation about possible pardon Western Wats has increased wages and we are still willing to work around your schedule. We still offer weekly pay, a fun work environment and we'll give you time off for school events, tests and holidays. Call Cody at 753-1303 or stop by 80 Golf Course Drive, Suite B (behind Wendy's on the south of Logan). Apply online: surveynetwork.com/application. M Caffe Ibis is proud to offer Cafe Femenino', a superior coffee grown and produced in the Highlands of Peru by a cooperative whose members number over 800 women strong! Ymr scarce far soculfr responsible coffee \CAFF / \ COFFEE ROASTING COMPANY www.caffeibis.coni CAFFE IBIS HAS BEEN DESIGNATED AS A GREEN BUSINESS Tournament WASHINGTON (AP) - Attorneys for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby began crafting a request for a new trial Wednesday N as the Bush White House tried to knock down speculation about a pardon for the convicted former aide. Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was found guilty of perjury and obstruction in the investigation into the 2003 leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity. He is the highest-ranking White House official convicted in a government scandal since the Iran-Contra affair two decades ago. His conviction immediately fueled speculation that Libby, who also served as an aide to President Bush, would be pardoned and spared prison. Top Democrats have called on Bush to pledge not to pardon him. At the White House, Bush was guarded in his comments. "This was a lengthy trial on a serious matter, and a jury of his peers convicted him. And we've got to respect that conviction," the president said in an interview with CNN En Espanol. "On a personal note, I was sad. I was sad for a man who had worked in my administration, and particularly sad for his family." He said he could not comment further because it was an ongoing legal matter. Press secretary Tony Snow gave the same reason for brushing off pardon questions. "All of this conversation, speculation about a pardon, I know, makes for interesting speculation, but it's just that," Snow said. "Right now, Scooter Libby and his attorneys have made clear that they're going to try to get a retrial and if they don't get that, they're going to get an appeal." Snow said Bush is not necessarily stingy, but "careful" about giving out pardons. "These are not things to be treated blithely," Snow said, stressing that Bush takes the pardon process very seriously. "He wants to make sure that anybody who receives one - that it's warranted, but I would caution against any speculation in this case," Snow said. In 1992, as Bush's father, former President George H.W. Bush, was preparing to leave office, he granted pardons to former Reagan administration officials caught up in the scandal that grew out of arms sales to Iran and the diversion of proceeds to the Contra rebels in Nicaragua. One juror in the Libby case, Ann Redington, said she supported the idea of a pardon for Libby. M It kind of bothers me that there was this whole big crime being investigated and he got caught up in the investigation AP Photo/Gerald Herbert FORMER WHITE HOUSE AIDE I. LEWIS "SCOOTER" LIBBY walks past a line of photographers as he prepares to give a news conference outside federal court in Washington, Tuesday, March 6, 2007, after the jury reached its guilty verdict in Libby's perjury trial. as opposed to in the actual crime that was supposedly committed," Redington said in an interview on the MSNBC program "Hardball." ' Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, who spent more than three years on the CIA leak case, said his investigation was complete. Though he said in court there was a "cloud" over the vice president, nobody was charged with the leak itself and Fitzgerald said no new charges were expected. The trial revealed that Cheney was eager to discredit Plame's husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who emerged in mid-2003 as an outspoken critic of the administration's war policy. Snow said Cheney's stature within the administration had not changed or waned as a result of the verdict. Attorney William Jeffress, meanwhile, said Libby's defense team has begun reviewing the monthlong trial and preparing the request for a new one. It's a common request among defense attorneys and one that's not often granted. U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton had made several rulings in the case over the objection of defense attorneys. Though the criminal case is over, Wilson and Plame have a civil lawsuit pending against Libby, Cheney, former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and others. 4,000 Taliban fighters brace for NATO offensive WithUvi^ji nwudApartments Your housing decision is a no-brainer! Low summer Rates! CRESTWOODS Brentwood Lynwood Edgcwood 736 E 900 N 880 N 650 E 736 E 800 N KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) - A top Taliban commander said Wednesday the group has 4,000 fighters bracing to rebuff NATO's largestever offensive in northern Afghanistan, now in its second day. Suicide bombers are ready, land mines have been planted and helicopters will be targeted, Mullah Abdul Qassim, the top Taliban commander in Helmand province told The Associated Press. NATO, meanwhile, announced the capture of a senior Taliban fighter who had eluded authorities by wearing a woman's burqa. Mullah Mahmood, who is accused of helping Taliban fighters rig suicide bomb attacks, was seized by Afghan soldiers at a checkpoint near Kandahar, the alliance said. Speaking by satellite telephone from an undisclosed location, Qassim said the Taliban has 8,000 to 9,000 fighters in Helmand province, including some 4,000 in the north, where NATO launched its largest-ever offensive Tuesday. He said all the fighters were Afghan, denying reports of hundreds of foreign fighters in the region. "All of them are well-equipped and we have the weapons to target helicopters," Qassim said. "The Taliban are able to fight for 15 or 20 years against NATO and the Americans." New mines have been planted, and suicide bombers - a growing threat in Afghanistan - are ready to attack, said Qassim, whose voice was recognized by an AP reporter who has spoken with him before. Operation Achilles, comprising some 4,500 NATO and 1,000 Afghan troops, is focused on securing lawless regions of northern Helmand - the world's biggest poppy-growing region. The offensive follows a mission last fall that wiped out hundreds of mili- tants who fought in formation in neighboring Kandahar province, prompting NATO spokesman Col. Tom Collins to say this week the military would welcome a repeat of those tactics. Qassim said the Taliban would adapt to conditions on the ground this time around. "The Taliban know traditional fighting," he said. "If we need tofightin a group, we will. If we need a suicide attack, we will do that. If we need ambushes and guerrilla fighting, we will do that." Collins said Wednesday that NATO was confident it would succeed in helping the government move into the region, though he said it would "take a while to get there." Speak Up TCorhmentsx^remember r ! '7he Taliban are able to fight for 15 or 20 years against NATO and the Americans." Mullah Abdul Qassim, Taliban commander "We've established a presence and in some areas it's a heavy presence, and we're trying to disrupt the Taliban's senior leadership in the area and try to separate them from trying to rally" the Taliban's locally recruited soldiers, said Collins. One British soldier and four Taliban fighters were killed during operations on Tuesday. NATO said it had no updates on the fighting late Wednesday. Helmand is the world's largest poppy-growing region, and U.N. officials say the Taliban derives tens - if not hundreds - of millions of dollars from the crop. NATO also says the Taliban is deeply involved in the drug trade, though Qassim denied that, saying the Taliban had eradicated opium poppies when it ruled Afghanistan from 1996-2001. The Taliban leader said the militants control all of Helmand, and said the provincial governor hasn't been to the region in weeks, instead choosing to operate from Kabul, the capital. "Every day we have been firing rockets at the British bases, but soldiers are not coming out," he said. "They're not fighting with us. We are ready, but they are staying inside." Mahmood - the Taliban commander caught wearing the burqa - was trying to leave the Panjwayi area of Kandahar province - site of the large NATO battle last fall where hundreds of Taliban fighters were killed. "Alert (Afghan) soldiers at this checkpoint spotted the oddity and quickly arrested him," NATO said. "The capture of this senior Taliban extremist is another indicator that a more normal life is returning to the Zhari and Panjwayi districts and a testament to the great work the (Afghan army) is achieving," said Maj. Gen. Ton van Loon, the southern commander of NATO-led troops. In eastern Afghanistan, Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces arrested a suspected al-Qaida bomb expert and five other terrorist suspects Wednesday. The U.S.-led coalition had information indicating "a suspected terrorist with strong ties to al-Qaida" and to a group that helped militants along Afghanistan's border region was inside an eastern Afghan compound near Jalalabad, it said. >BUSH GEICO. A15-minutecall could save you 15% on car insurance. 1513 N. Hillfield Rd., Suite 3 (8O1) 752-O485 See page 7 4 Hugo Chavez says about us, we're not the bogeyman," said Russell Crandall, a former Western Hemisphere director at the National Security Council who is now at the Center for American Progress. Bush has packed a suitcase of strategies for nurturing trade, fighting drug-traffickers and curbing poverty and social inequality for his trip, which also will take him to Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico and Brazil, where protests on Wednesday preceded his visit. Protesters, rnost of them women from the Via Campesina farmworkers movement, briefly shut down an iron ore mine, invaded an ethanol distillery and took over the Rio de Janeiro offices of Brazil's National Development Bank. Fresh graffiti reading "Get Out, Bush! Assassin!" in bright red letters popped up along busy highways near the locations in Sao Paulo where Bush will appear as he kicks off his Latin American tour. Protest organizers denounced foreign investment in the vast sugarcane fields that are used to produce Brazil's ethanol. Bush and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva are expected to sign an accord to develop standards to help turn ethanol into an internationally traded commodity, and to promote sugar cane-based ethanol production in Central America and the Caribbean to meet rising international demand. Bush leaves behind fights in Washington over money for an unpopular war, new criticism about inadequate care of wounded U.S. troops returning home from Iraq and this week's conviction of former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby for lying and obstructing an investigation into the leak of a CIA operative's identity. When he first became president, Bush promised that the United States' relationship with the region, Mexico in particular, was a top priority. His first state dinner was for former Mexican President Vicente Fox. The attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, however, turned Bush's focus to the Middle East. Administration officials now are heralding 2007 as the "year of engagement" for the United States in Latin America. The White House says this is not Bush's farewell tour to Latin America, a hint that the president is likely to go to the region again. |