Alternet reports:

In 2001, an anonymous White House source leaked top-secret NSA intelligence to reporter Judith Miller that Al Qaida was planning a major attack on the United States. But the story never made it into the paper.

Attytood asks whether this is not the most stunning failure yet? From Alternet:

Now, in an exclusive interview, [Judy] Miller reveals how the attack on the Cole spurred her reporting on Al Qaida and led her, in July 2001, to a still-anonymous top-level White House source, who shared top-secret NSA signals intelligence (SIGINT) concerning an even bigger impending Al Qaida attack, perhaps to be visited on the continental United States.

Ultimately, Miller never wrote that story either. But two months later -- on Sept. 11 -- Miller and her editor at the Times, Stephen Engelberg, both remembered and regretted the story they "didn't do."

In Miller's own words:

Firedoglake is thoroughly covering (in posts and comments) the confirmation hearing of Gen. Michael Hayden for the position of Director of Intelligence. I've been at work, and have not seen the hearings. For those of you watching, here's a place to discuss Hayden and related issues.

News reports of this mornings session: New York Times; Washington Post; Reuters (leads with Hayden credibility attacked.)

The ACLU has issued a new press release saying his nomination poses serious civil liberties concerns:

by TChris

Polygamy has been in the news lately, perhaps because the HBO series Big Love has focused public attention on the practice. Polygamist Warren Jeffs made the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List, and Sean Hannity wonders whether efforts to capture him will lead to a Waco-style standoff. Polygamist leader Winston Blackmore, who reportedly has 28 wives, contends that all polygamists aren't as bad as Jeffs, and complains that he's being persecuted by Canadian authorities.

In the meantime, the Supreme Court of Utah ruled Tuesday (pdf) that the state's prohibition of bigamy is constitutional. The decision, which arose in the case of a former police officer who married two sisters, echoes a U.S. Supreme Court decision from 1878 (pdf) upholding Utah's law against a claim that the prohibition infringed on the free exercise of religion.

by TChris

As TalkLeft discussed here, Clyde Kennard was convicted and sentenced to 7 years in prison for buying stolen chicken feed in Mississippi, a crime he didn't commit. Kennard, an African American veteran of the Korean War, was set up for prosecution because he tried to enroll at an all-white university. He died in 1963, three years after he was framed for the chicken feed crime.

Interest in Kennard's case was recently renewed after a reporter obtained the recantation of a witness. Gov. Haley Barbour nonetheless refused a request to pardon Kennard, innocent or not, because Barbour doesn't believe in pardons. That position was widely criticized, which may explain Barbour's willingness to (belatedly) join a petition asking the circuit court to vacate Kennard's conviction.

Mississippi has no clear procedure to vacate convictions of deceased defendants, but Circuit Court Judge Robert Helfrich decided that justice required action.

"Because this matter did begin here, it should end here," Helfrich said from the bench. "To me, this is not a black and white issue - it's a right and wrong issue. To correct that wrong, I am compelled to do the right thing, and that is to declare Mr. Kennard innocent, and to declare that the conviction of Mr. Kennard is hereby null and void."

by TChris

James Tobin, the Republican party official who orchestrated a plot to jam telephone lines set up by the Democratic party in New Hampshire on Election Day 2002, has been sentenced to 10 months in federal prison and ordered to pay a $10,000 fine. That sentence doubles the 5 month sentence imposed on co-conspirator Allen Raymond, President of GOP Marketplace, LLC. Another co-conspirator, Charles "Chuck" McGee, the former executive director of the New Hampshire Republican Party, was sentenced to 7 months in federal prison.

The judge explained why this wasn't a simple case of prank calling:

"I'm not sure you recognize that the nature of this offense is extraordinary," Judge McAuliffe said Wednesday in imposing Tobin's sentence. "It was a direct assault on free and fair elections. ... Our democracy is fragile, it cannot afford assaults on the integrity of that process.

"It wasn't just about Shaheen and Sununu," he continued. "It was about an entire election. We'll never know if the wrong people are sitting in government. It had an impact. We just can't measure it."

Wayne Madsen, whom I have not read previously, is reporting there will be an announcement of Karl Rove's indictment Friday. His story somewhat tracks Jason's Leopold's article, except he says the meeting at Luskin's office Friday was not for 15 hours, Rove wasn't given 24 hours to get his affairs in order and he adds that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales met with the grand jury on May 12 and was advised by them that Rove would be indicted.

WMR can report tonight on more details concerning the confusing reports regarding Karl Rove and Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald from last Friday. WMR can confirm that the appearance of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales before the Grand Jury at the US Federal Courthouse in Washington was a formality in which the jury informed the Attorney General of their decision to indict Karl Rove. That proceeding lasted for less than 30 minutes and took place shortly after noon. Gonzales's personal security detachment was present in the courthouse during the Grand Jury briefing. From the courthouse, Gonzales's motorcade proceeded directly down Constitution Avenue to the Department of Justice.

According to sources within the Patton and Boggs law firm, Karl Rove was present at the law firm's building on M Street. WMR was told by a credible source that a Patton and Boggs attorney confirmed that Fitzgerald paid a visit to the law firm to inform Rove attorney Robert Luskin and Rove that an indictment would be returned by the Grand Jury against Rove.

Anybody home? This is some scary Iran news from the British paper the Herald:

THE US is updating contingency plans for a non-nuclear strike to cripple Iran's atomic weapon programme if international diplomacy fails, Pentagon sources have confirmed. Strategists are understood to have presented two options for pinpoint strikes using B2 bombers flying directly from bases in Missouri, Guam in the Pacific and Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.

The main plan calls for a rolling, five-day bombing campaign against 400 key targets in Iran, including 24 nuclear-related sites, 14 military airfields and radar installations, and Revolutionary Guard headquarters.ulf.

The Senate today voted to approve the building of 370 miles of fences along the Mexico U.S. border. The cost is estimated at "$3.2 million per mile, more than $900 million for 300 miles."

On the flip side, the Senate okayed a plan allowing undocumented residents who have been in the U.S. for two years and who have not incurred either a felony conviction or three misdemeanor convictions to remain in the U.S.

The Senate is holding hearings all week on the Hagel-Martinez bill (S. 2611)passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee in April. The votes today were on amendments to the bill. Here is a daily updated chart of all Amendments and outcomes, thanks to AILA (American Immigration Lawyers Association.) The first one taken up was the Kyl-Cornyn Amendment (No. 4027.) It passed by a vote of 99 to 0. This is the Amendment that bars undocumented residents with criminal records from remaining in the U.S. AILA has the particulars of the Amendment (pdf).

Accused Duke Lacrosse player Reade Seligman has a hearing at 2:30 ET this afteroon. So do 9 other defendants. Seligman's lawyers want to raise some discovery issues, and it's not clear whether there will be enough time to battle over what they are entitled to.

In other case news, lawyer Mark Simeon, who reprsesents Dancer #2, Kim Roberts and may come to represent the accuser, is asking that the accuser's family lay off their media appearances so they don't hurt her case.

Arianna saw "An Inconvenient Truth" and stayed for the Q and A with Gore in Los Angeles. She says he radiated commitment and confidence and then compares him to Hillary:

As a result of the soul-sapping tyranny of trying to please and placate everybody, she's become more processed than Velveeta. You can almost see every word that comes out of her mouth first being marched through the different compartments of her brain -- analyzed, evaluated, and vetted by each of them. What will the consultants think of this? How will it poll? Will working women between 25-35 in eastern Ohio think it's okay? How about likely voters in northern Oklahoma?

Her fear has caused a complete disconnect from who she really is and what she really thinks (that is, if she even knows anymore).

As to Gore, Arianna writes:

Lew Anderson, who played Clarabell on the Howdy Doody show from 1954 to 1960 has died of cancer at age 84.

Long mute as Clarabell, Anderson broke the clown's silence in the show's final episode in 1960. With trembling lips and a visible tear in his eye, he spoke the show's final words: "Goodbye, kids." Though Anderson was not the only man to play "Buffalo Bob" Smith's mute sidekick, he was the best, Smith said in his memoir.

Occasionally I was fortunate enough to be one of the kids in the Howdy Doody Show peanut gallery. Once, I got to cut the cupcake for Buffalo Bob during the Hostess commerical. But Clarabell is who I remember most. All of the kids would squeal and scream with delight at his antics. He would run up and down the aisle with a seltzer bottle that had a squirt top . One time he sprayed my brand new dress and I cried and cried. But I still went back whenever I could get my mother to take me.

Greg Sargeant moves the story forward today. FBI spokesman William Carter refused to rule out the agencies use of National Security Letters to obtain the phone records of reporters, as ABC News' The Blotter has reported. Greg believes this is the first time the FBI has commented on the record about the issue.

My last post on the use of National Security letters is here.