8A
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY BARRY KANSAN
CIA CASE
Jurors to continue deliberation today in Libby trial
BY MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Jurors deliberated Wednesday without teaching a verdict on whether former White House aide L. Lewis "Scooter" Libby obstructed the investigation into who leaked the identity of a CIA operative married to a prominent Iraq war critic.
The eight women and four men heard 14 days of testimony, a full day of closing arguments and more than an hour of instructions from U.S. District Judge Regine Walton before beginning their discussions. After 4 1/2 hours of deliberation, the jurors went home until Thursday.
The jurors include a former
Libby, who was the chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, faces five felony counts that carry a combined top penalty of 30 years in prison. It convicted. Libby probably would be sentenced to far less under federal guidelines.
Washington Post reporter, an MIT trained economist, a former museum curator, and several retired or current federal workers.
The trial provided behind the scenes details of the interaction between top reporters and government officials and of Cheney's efforts to rebut criticism of him and the administration.
The investigation began with the public identification of CLA operative Valerie Plaine on July 14, 2003.
eight days after her husband, exambassador Joseph Wilson publicly accused the Bush administration of distorting intelligence to push the nation into war with Iraq.
Months later, Libby told the FBI and a grand jury that he first learned that Plame worked for the CIA from Cheney on June 11. But he said that amid the press of war issues and other national security concerns he forgot that and was surprised to learn it from NBC Washington bureau chief Tim Russert on July 10 or 11. Thereafter he said he told reporters he had heard the information only from journalists and could not confirm it.
Rusert testified he and Libby never discussed Plame. Jdill Miller,
who had been a reporter with The New York Times, testified Libby told her about Plame's CIA job before the Russett conversation. Matt Cooper, then of Time magazine, testified Libby confirmed her employment for him. Six government officials testified they either told Libby about Plame's job or discussed it with him between June 11 and July 10 or 11.
Prosecutors argued that Libby concocted lies to make his discussions of Plame with reporters appear to be innocent gossip so that he would not risk losing his job for giving them classified information.
The defense argued that Libby had an innocent lapse of memory and tried to show that government witnesses also had memory flaws.
Pablo Martinez Morsivais/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Pablo Martinez Morissiain ASSOCIATED PRESIDENT
1. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, former chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney, leaves U.S.
Federal Court in Washington Wednesday. Jurors will continue deliberating in Liby's trial today.
》 CONSTRUCTION ACCIDENT
Firefighters work to reach victim
BY ANDALE GROSS ASSOCIATED PRESS
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A construction worker was trapped Wednesday and presumed dead after a 10-foot trench collapsed in a new housing development in the northern part of the city, authorities said.
The emergency call came in around 12:40 a.m., said Nathan Dougan, a supervisor for the Metropolitan Ambulance Services Trust. Firefighters continued working to free the man three hours later.
"He is totally enveloped in the earth." said Fire Department Battalion Chef乔Viitale. "There is nothing visual regarding the victim."
Vitale said firefighters had shot up the walls of the trench and were using shovels to reach the victim, a
process he described as "long and tedious." The ground was unstable, making the work difficult. Workers put wood around the site to stand on and created a pulley system to remove firefighters or the victim.
"You can't put a lot of heavy machinery around it because you're already working with an unstable environment," he said. "You don't want to create more victims than you have. You can't rush into it."
Vitale said the man was working in the trench when the upper portion collapsed on top of him.
"He appeared to see the wall coming in." Vitale said. "And he took a step to avoid it but it caught him."
No one else was in the trench.
Other workers who saw what happened and called for help.
The man was believed to be 51 years old.His name and the name of his employer were not immediately released.
IRAQ WAR
Britain plans to withdraw about 1,600 troops
BY DAVID STRINGER
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LONDON — British troops have achieved many tangible successes in Iraq — securing oil platforms, rounding up rogue police units and driving smugglers carrying weapons and contraband from waterways and border crossings.
Now some of these tasks will be ceded to Iraq troops for good.
Under proposals land out by Prime Minister Tony Blair on Wednesday, Britain will withdraw about 1,600 troops from Iraq during the coming months and hopes to make other cuts to its 7,100-strong contingent by late summer.
British troops would likely stay in the southern Basra region until at least 2008, training local forces, working to secure the Iran-taq border and maintaining supply routes to U.S., and coalition troops in central Iran. Blair told legislators.
Britain could further reduce its force level to below 5,000 once a base at Basra Palace is transferred
to Iraqi control in late summer, the prime minister said.
"What all of this means is not that Basra is how we want it to be. But it does mean that the next chapter in Basra's history can be written by Iraqi," Blair said.
T h e announcement comes as the U.S. is implementing an increase of 21,000 more troops for Iraq — putting Washington on an opposite track as its main coalition allies.
responsibility to the Iraqis as the situation permits," Rice said. "The coalition remains intact and, in fact, the British still have thousands of troops deployed in Iraq."
British troops have performed many humanitarian tasks - helping
Secretary
"I would admit that there is a sense of uncertainty, but things are not getting better with the British in Basra."
of State Condoleezza Rice played down the British pullback, saying it is consistent with the U.S. plan to turn over more control to Iraqi forces.
"The British have done what is really the plan for the country as a whole, which is to transfer security
RICHARD COBBOLD Royal United Services Institute
open hundreds of schools, fitting hospitals with modern equipment and replacing leaky water pipes — but some say the real British legacy is likely to be a consolidation of Shiite control.
bristian forces already acquiesced to a "situation of quiet sectarian cleansing" in the south, said Anthony Cordesman, an expert on Iraq at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. The decision to pull out of Basra only underscored the political reality of Shite
British forces
primacy in the region, he said.
Rear Adm. Richard Cobbold, director of the military think tank Royal United Services Institute in London, said Britain's decision to pull back "needed to be made."
"I would admit that there is a sense of uncertainty, but things are not getting better with the British in Basra," he said.
Some analysts fear a militia resurgence once British troops withdraw and warn Iran may attempt to step up its influence in the region.
Blair's official spokesman, on customary condition of anonymity in line with policy, acknowledged British officials "still believed Iranian supplied ordinance is coming across the border"
But Blair said the decision to withdraw was made because the south had "no Sunni insurgency, no al Qaida base, little Sunni on Shia violence." Baghdad, however, was suffering from what he called an "orgy of terrorism unleashed upon it in order to crush any possibility of it functioning"
21. 【 】
Dancers perform on a 'Beija Flor' samba school float during the carnival in Rio de Janeiro Tuesday. The Beija Flor samba group won its 10th carnival championship Wednesday, gaining the top spot with a parade celebrating Brazil's African roots.
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WHEELCHAIR BASKETBALL GAME
Kansas Wheelhawks vs. Kansas City Thunder
Contacts:
Immediately following the KU – Iowa State Game
Saturday Falkman 9A 2007
Sponsored by Academic Achievement and Access Center, Disability Resources, and AbleHawks. The student organization for students with disabilities.
7:30 P.M. at The New Student Fitness Recreation Center
1 block east of Allen Field House across Naimsm Drive
Free Admission, Baby lay appearance, children's face tapes
Disability Resources. Melissa Manning, manning@ku.edu
Wheehawks: lars Virst, wildhawk@notmail.com
or the website www.KansasAccessSports.com
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