Newsweek's Michael Isikoff and David Corn's new book, Hubris, names Richard Armitage as the leaker of Valerie Plame Wilson's identity and the source for both Bob Woodward and Bob Novak. Isikoff reports in Newsweek that Armitage realized he was the leaker when he read Novak's October 1, 2003 column describing his source as "no partisan gunslinger." Armitage then reported his suspicion

Within hours, William Howard Taft IV, the State Department's legal adviser, notified a senior Justice official that Armitage had information relevant to the case.a team of FBI agents and Justice prosecutors investigating the leak questioned the deputy secretary. Armitage acknowledged that he had passed along to Novak information contained in a classified State Department memo: that Wilson's wife worked on weapons-of-mass-destruction issues at the CIA. (The memo made no reference to her undercover status.) Armitage had met with Novak in his State Department office on July 8, 2003--just days before Novak published his first piece identifying Plame. Powell, Armitage and Taft, the only three officials at the State Department who knew the story, never breathed a word of it publicly and Armitage's role remained secret.

This doesn't end the discussion. Isikoff has been speculating about Armitage since 2005. As Needlenose, who has followed the case closely writes:

This is one way to make sure the comments are fixed. I'll be working on the site today, so here's a place for you to write what's on your mind.

Update: Comments seem to be fixed.

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I know there's a problem with commenting on TalkLeft today. This time it's my fault. I thought I would try to set up a separate blog for the Jonbenet Ramsey case and in copying templates I screwed something up.

I'm trying to find Mike Ditto to help me recover them. When I realized it last night, I opened up comments, but by this morning there were so many spam comments for ringtones and drugs I had to close them again.

Please be patient. It's not Typekey's fault or the hosting company's. I'll let you know when it's fixed.

How twisted is this? Jesus' General, Defamer and TBogg have more. New York officials want to ban the show.

More news on Segregation Island and Media Matters has more here.

Can you spell b-o-y-c-o-t-t? It's only seven words and it's only common sense. Whenever it airs in your locale, make sure your tv's are on and tuned to a different channel.

by TChris

If you need to be on time to your destination and you plan to fly, think about leaving a few days early. In this month of unwarranted panic, it's become common to hear about flights that return home, or land at the wrong destination, to investigate perceived threats.

Flights have been disturbed three times (so far) just today (update: there have been six reported incidents today) (second update: seven):

• A flight from England to Chicago was diverted to Bangor, Maine today to investigate a (so far unspecified) "security concern."

• A flight from Phoenix to North Carolina landed in Oklahoma City after "some kind of altercation between the passenger and a flight attendant." An air marshall subdued the passenger.

• A flight from New York to Dublin was evacuated after making a scheduled landing in Shannon as the result of a phone call that apparently conveyed a threat.

If this had happened to a parent of a small child, I bet felony neglect charges would be filed. A Merced, CA drug cop was searching a house and left his narcotics sniffing dog unattended in his vehicle for hours in 102 degree heat. The dog died from the heat.

Riley's handler, officer Jeff Horn, left her in the back seat of his patrol car outside the department's central station on M Street while he and other officers prepared paperwork to request a search warrant.

Horn reportedly left the car's engine and air conditioner running but found the engine stalled upon returning to the car. The outside temperature in Merced at the time Riley's body was found -- around 4 p.m. -- was 102 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. The vehicle's windows were rolled up.

There may or may not be disciplinary charges filed against Horn. I never thought I'd feel sorry for a drug-sniffing dog, but this is so sad. What a slow, painful death it must have been.

Next week's Katrina anniversary poses a huge vulnerability for Republicans as they head into the November elections. The White House has already started a massive PR campaign to spin the facts. Don't be fooled. Think Progress has published a timeline laying them all out.

by TChris

Free speech doesn't extend to Hezbollah -- or to those who help Hezbollah speak. That's the lesson learned by a New Yorker who provides satellite broadcasts to customers. The broadcasts include Christian evangelists and, until recently, the Hezbollah station Al Manar.

Javed Iqbal's home and storefront were raided by federal agents, and now he's behind bars, held on a ridiculously high bail -- $250,000 -- for allegedly providing "material support for terrorism." Does "supporting terrorism" include rebroadcasting programming that's available in much of the rest of the world?

"It appears that the statute under which Mr. Iqbal is being prosecuted includes a First Amendment exemption that prevents the government from punishing people for importing news communications," Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement. "Such an exemption is constitutionally necessary, and the fact that the government is proceeding with the prosecution in spite of it raises serious questions about how free our marketplace of idea is."

Cheers today to Maryland Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr, who has been actively using his pardon power to correct injustices.

Since taking office in 2003, Ehrlich ® has granted clemency to 190 former convicts, reversing a two-decade trend among state and national chief executives, who have largely shelved their power to issue pardons.

Some examples:

[T]he governor has also tackled cases that his predecessor wouldn't touch: a backlog of clemency appeals from lifers who had convinced state parole officials that they were ready to be released. "You have these situations where race may have played a part, insufficient counsel may have played a part, where the shooter is out and the accomplice is still in," Ehrlich said. "Those needed to be addressed."

The New York Times today has an 8 page online article on the Duke Lacrosse alleged rape case.

By disclosing pieces of evidence favorable to the defendants, the defense has created an image of a case heading for the rocks. But an examination of the entire 1,850 pages of evidence gathered by the prosecution in the four months after the accusation yields a more ambiguous picture. It shows that while there are big weaknesses in Mr. Nifong's case, there is also a body of evidence to support his decision to take the matter to a jury.

The commenters are analyzing it over at the Duke Forums. You can comment there or here.

My first question is just how did the New York Times get the entire discovery file? After that, I wonder about the accuracy of some of the police reports when I read this:

In the most ridiculous item of the day so far....

A seventh-grade geography teacher at Carmody Middle School was suspended with pay today when he refused to take down three foreign flags on display in his classroom. Eric Hamlin said the flags of China, Mexico and the United Nations were relevant to the unit on the fundamentals of geography he teaches during the first six weeks of the semester. He's used the same display for most of the nine years he's taught in Jefferson County, Hamlin said.

The foreign flags are in addition to the standard U.S. flag found in all classrooms.

Mr. Hamlin was escorted out of the building. Stupid is as stupid does, and Jefferson County apparently hasn't learned from Columbine yet that intolerance breeds hate and worse. I wonder if Tom Tancredo will praise the decision.

This is pretty shocking. Dateline, Coushatta, LA:

Nine black children attending Red River Elementary School were directed last week to the back of the school bus by a white driver who designated the front seats for white children.

The situation has outraged relatives of the black children who have filed a complaint with school officials. Superintendent Kay Easley will meet with the family members in her office this morning.

More on this here. So, is it an isolated instance?