An NYT story reports the U.S. National Security Agency is sitting on a historical study completed in 2001 that found some of its agents "deliberately distorted critical intelligence to cover up their mistakes" in the 1964 Tonkin Gulf incident that triggered the Vietnam War.

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Seymour Hersh, the legendary U.S. reporter, talked to The Globe and Mail about what the Plamegate scandal is really all about.

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The Globe and Mail on the latest flare-up in the interest of certain magazine titles -- that appeal to a "psychographic" rather than a demographic -- in charitable status. Current case in point: The Walrus.

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Tim Russert, NBC's Washington bureau chief and host of Meet The Press, is a key witness in the indictment against I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

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This article by NYT media writer Katharine Q. Seelye explores why 2,000 U.S. military deaths in Iraq seemed to resonate much more than the first 1,000 did.

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Blair mulls banninq liquor on public transportation in Britain, and a Beeb corro goes drunk-spotting in Helsinki.

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Fast Food Nation,the seminal book by American journalist Eric Schlosser, is forming the basis of a forthcoming film by director Richard Linklater (Slacker, Dazed and Confused) that will star Catalina Sandino Moreno (Maria, Full of Grace).

But they're trying to make it by stealth so they can get into some actual fast food restos.

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A new law that forbids news broadcasts and criticisms of Nepal's king has triggered a general strike call on Friday by the country's opposition parties.

Another part of the story is the government's threat to close a leading private radio station, Kantipur FM.

See the BBC story for details. Here's an earlier news release on the Kantipur situation by Reporters without Borders.

Linking the al-Sliba tribe to Saddam Hussein, even by calling him their dog in a satirical TV show, was enough to trigger a visit to the originating TV station by hundreds of angry people.

An excerpt from the Oct. 27 BBC story:

The protestors scuffled with staff and broke windows at al-Rai's offices in Kuwait City, injuring seven people, including three policemen.

They had been insulted by comments made by comedian Daoud Hussein.

On the Gergeaan show, he described the former Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, as a dog of the al-Sliba tribe.

The channel later said the remark was part of a comedy and had not been intended as an insult to anyone.

Salon's Aaron Kinney rounds up reaction from the U.S. conservative commentariat on the indictment of "Scooter" Libby in the Plamegate affair.   more »

The NYT's publisher says his paper didn't do a good enough job of correcting reports that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had WMDs, but Arthur Sulzberger Jr. also refused to point a finger at beleaguered reporter Judith Miller, who wrote many of them.

I will address what I see as some major spinning in that statement.

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The city of Newark, N.J. will pay a weekly paper $100,000 US to print some good news about the many positive things happening in that burgh.

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This NYT story hypothesizes that if the I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby Plamegate charges make it to trial, it could come down to whether the jury believes Scooter or the journos.

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This is very, very funny! (H/T to Zerby)

Patrick Fitzgerald says his team only subpoenaed journalists as a last resort during the investigation of the leaking of CIA operative Valerie Plame's name.

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Dubya said that during his brief remarks in the wake of the indictment of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, his veep's chief of staff, for activities stemming from Plamegate.

Here's some of the other things Dubya was up to this week:

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Tim Grieve of Salon's War Room blog on what might be next for Karl Rove, Dubya's most important advisor.

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I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, resigned after being indicted in connection with Plamegate.

From CNN:

Libby was indicted on one count of obstruction of justice, two counts of perjury and two counts of making false statements, court documents show.

The indictments were not directly related to the actual leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's name.

Libby discussed Plame's identity in the summer of 2003 with reporters after her husband, diplomat Joseph Wilson, wrote a highly critical op-ed column in The New York Times that challenged intelligence used as a rationale for the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

Descriptions of those conversations by reporters say Wilson discussed Plame's identity, in part, to cast doubt in the reporters' mind about Wilson's account and criticized the CIA, the indictment alleged.

"These are very serious charges," said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada. "They suggest a senior White House aide put politics ahead of our national security and the rule of law. This case is bigger than the leak of highly classified information. It is about how the Bush administration manufactured and manipulated intelligence in order to bolster its case for the war in Iraq."

These indictments are the first in a nearly two-year investigation. Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has scheduled a 2:15 p.m. ET news conference.

Here's Dubya's statement on the charges.

I went from the outdoors into a slightly steamy indoor environ earlier today.

My glasses fogged.

While I know that on one level, it's perfectly natural, this hasn't happened in a long, long time.

And it has me afraid of what is to come.

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- whose nation may well be aspiring to a nuclear weapons program -- isn't backing down from his call for Israel to be "wiped off the map."

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The NYT is reporting that I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby will likely be indicted later today for his role in Plamegate. While Karl Rove, Bush's brain, won't be at this time, the paper says he will remain under investigation and the grand jury hearing the case will have its term extended.

Let's see what the day brings!

Meanwhile, can't tell the Plamegate players without a program? The Globe and Mail's Alan Freeman has a primer.

The NYT's Todd S. Purdum analyzes U.S. President George W. Bush's week from hell -- a week that isn't over.

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Flicks I'm debating seeing in the near term: Junebug, The Squid and the Whale, C.R.A.Z.Y. or Grizzly Man.

But given my mediacentric biases, Good Night, and Good Luck -- the story of Edward R. Murrow's battles with Sen. Joe McCarthy --  is looming large as a possibility. Based on that logic, however, so is Capote.

However, Cinematheque is also screening Rebel Without A Cause on Friday.

The trouble with having choices means you have to make decisions. :)

I thought the original Zorro (more properly, The Mask of Zorro) was pretty much a perfect summer movie: Noble heroes, a nasty villian, a totally mesmerizing babe, a zippy pace, great sword fights -- and lots of laughs!

We'll see what the sequel (The Legend of Zorro) brings, but so far, the the critics haven't been kind. Check out the reviews at Rotten Tomatoes.

A study in the journal Nature (reported by the Beeb) finds that captive chimpanzees don't help others in their social group, even when it causes them no inconvenience.

Need more oil? The Saudis say, "Don't worry, we can handle it." But some U.S. government officials say, "don't be so sure." They think the Saudis' oil reserve estimates may be a tad optimistic.

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CTV News Toronto reported  that some retailers have already had their Christmas displays up for a week.

Do we really need a two-month Christmas shopping season? I say no.

Nat Hentoff, who has worked for the Village Voice since 1958, writes a paean to the personal as part of the Voice's 50th anniversary special.

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Harriet Miers, who just couldn't seem to make anyone happy as a nominee for a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court, withdrew herself as a candidate today.

The fall of Dubya's discontent continues.

All this happens as Lewis I. 'Scooter' Libby, Dick Cheney's chief of staff, and Karl Rove, Bush's brain, await word of whether they'll be indicted or not in Plamegate.

In his appearance before Parliament's standing committee on Canadian heritage this morning, CBC president Robert Rabinovitch defended his decision to impose a lockout on CMG workers, saying it was the only way to prevent a strike at a more critical time.

This CTV.ca story has video of Rabinovitch's remarks.

Oh, and didja know that the CBC didn't save a dime despite not disbursing paycheques for 5,500 people for seven weeks?

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Andrew Heyward is being replaced by CBS's sports boss Sean McManus.

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Security concerns have led the BBC to close its office in the Uzebekistan capital of Tashkent.

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I managed to avoid the temptation of peeing away two bucks on a Lotto 6/49 ticket -- a decision that became all the more justified when I heard the winning $54M ticket was sold in western Canada.

That being said, here's hoping my dear sweet mother succumbed to greed, won big-time -- and feels inspired to do something really, really nice for her son. :)

Update

Unless mom had some reason to be in Camrose and buy a lottery ticket, my faint hope of her winning big bucks is pretty much zero. Damn. :^)

Robert Rabinovitch, the CBC's prez, will appear before the Commons heritage committee later today.

The Toronto Star's Antonia Zerbisias talked a bit about it in her Monday column.

Albert Schultz talks with the Toronto Star about portraying Lord Black of Crossharbour -- Author, intellectual, wit, ruthless businessman and possible corporate crook.

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The Beeb will be starting up an Arabic TV service -- mainly at the cost of its eastern European broadcasts.

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Judith Miller and the NYT have started talking about her employment options there -- including severance (saw this first at Canadian Journalist, thanks to a post from Jacques Poitras).

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A collection of information on the grim business of U.S. troop deaths and maimings in Iraq.

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This NYT essay by Dr. Abigail Zuger talks about the delicious thrill some people get from scary health news, with special billing for avian flu.

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The NYT's Alessandra Stanley really likes the Colbert Report ("an icy-cold beer chaser to the shot of whiskey that is The Daily Show"), but she also thinks it shows how dated Saturday Night Live's political humor is.

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Judith Miller, presumably formerly of the NYT, fires back at the paper's public editor Byron Calame (which I posted about).

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A freelance researcher for Conde Nast publications had security escort him from the building after it was found he forwarded an innocuous internal memo to the NYC blog Gawker to explain why he had been off instant messenger.

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America's Finest News Source got a letter from a White House lawyer unhappy over its use of the presidential seal when mocking Dubya's radio addresses.

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So if you're looking to maximize publicity for a particular act, commit it where you know a bunch of reporters will be. So if you're terrorists, targeting their hotels makes sense, no?

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