All the Things

Send Tips

Just off the House floor today, the Crypt overheard House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers tell two other people: "We're closing in on Rove. Someone’s got to kick his ass."

Asked a few minutes later for a more official explanation, Conyers told us that Rove has a week to appear before his committee. If he doesn't, said Conyers, "We'll do what any self-respecting committee would do. We'd hold him in contempt. Either that or go and have him arrested."

Conyers said the committee wants Rove to testify about his role in the imprisonment of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, among other things.

"We want him for so many things, it's hard to keep track," Conyers said.

Ellen DeGeneres is putting the California Supreme Court ruling in favor of gay marriage into action — she and Portia de Rossi plan to wed, DeGeneres announced during a taping of her talk show.

DeGeneres was taping the episode of "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" on Thursday, the day the state's high court struck down California laws against gay marriage, and it was to air Friday, a person close to the production said.

The person, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.

Citing the court's ruling, DeGeneres said she and girlfriend de Rossi ("Ally McBeal," "Nip/Tuck") would be getting married.

The physician in charge of the post-traumatic stress disorder program at a medical facility for veterans in Texas told staff members to refrain from diagnosing PTSD because so many veterans were seeking government disability payments for the condition.

"Given that we are having more and more compensation seeking veterans, I'd like to suggest that you refrain from giving a diagnosis of PTSD straight out," Norma Perez wrote in a March 20 e-mail to mental-health specialists and social workers at the Department of Veterans Affairs' Olin E. Teague Veterans' Center in Temple, Tex. Instead, she recommended that they "consider a diagnosis of Adjustment Disorder."

VA staff members "really don't ... have time to do the extensive testing that should be done to determine PTSD," Perez wrote.

Adjustment disorder is a less severe reaction to stress than PTSD and has a shorter duration, usually no longer than six months, said Anthony T. Ng, a psychiatrist and member of Mental Health America, a nonprofit professional association.

Veterans diagnosed with PTSD can be eligible for disability compensation of up to $2,527 a month, depending on the severity of the condition, said Alison Aikele, a VA spokeswoman. Those found to have adjustment disorder generally are not offered such payments, though veterans can receive medical treatment for either condition.

Perez's e-mail was obtained and released publicly yesterday by VoteVets.org, a veterans group that has been critical of the Bush administration's policies in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a nonprofit government watchdog group.

In their eagerness to visit justice on a 49-year-old woman involved in the Megan Meier MySpace suicide tragedy, federal prosecutors in Los Angeles are resorting to a novel and dangerous interpretation of a decades-old computer crime law -- potentially making a felon out of anybody who violates the terms of service of any website, experts say.

"This is a novel and extreme reading of what [the law] prohibits," says Jennifer Granick, civil liberties director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "To say that you're violating a criminal law by registering to speak under a false name is highly problematic. It's probably an unconstitutional reading of the statute."

Lori Drew, of O'Fallon, Missouri, is charged with one count of conspiracy and three violations of the anti-hacking Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, in a case involving cyberbullying through a fake MySpace profile.

Drew is one of three people who helped set up and maintain a phony MySpace account in 2006 under the identity of a nonexistent 16-year-old boy named Josh Evans. The Evans account was used to flirt with and befriend 13-year-old Megan Meier, who'd had a falling-out with Drew's daughter.

The fake "Josh" ultimately turned on Meier and told the girl that the world would be a better place without her. Meier already suffered from clinical depression, and shortly after that final message she hung herself in her bedroom.

A nationwide community backlash ensued, after a news story published last year revealed Drew's role in the cyberbullying, and pressure was placed on Missouri authorities to charge Drew with a crime. But after investigating the incident, local prosecutors concluded last December that they could find no law under which to charge Drew.

That's when federal prosecutors began working to build a case -- a difficult task, given that there is no federal law against cyberbullying. On Thursday, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles unveiled its solution by charging Drew with "unauthorized access" to MySpace's computers, for allegedly violating the site's terms of service.

Between a quarter and a third of the world's wildlife has been lost since 1970, according to data compiled by the Zoological Society of London.

Populations of land-based species fell by 25%, marine by 28% and freshwater by 29%, it says.

Humans are wiping out about 1% of all other species every year, and one of the "great extinction episodes" in the Earth's history is under way, it says.

Pollution, farming and urban expansion, over-fishing and hunting are blamed.

The Living Planet Index, compiled by the society in partnership with the wildlife group WWF, tracks the fortunes of more than 1,400 species of fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, using scientific publications and online databases.

It said numbers had declined by 27% in the 35 years from 1970 to 2005.

Some of the worst hit are marine species which saw their numbers plummet by 28% in just 10 years, between 1995 and 2005.

Populations of ocean birds have fallen by 30% since the mid 1990s, while land-based populations have dropped by 25%.

Among the creatures most seriously affected have been African antelopes, swordfish and hammerhead sharks.

Breast cancer patients with low levels of vitamin D were much more likely to die of the disease or have it spread than patients getting enough of the nutrient, a study found -- adding to evidence the "sunshine vitamin" has anti-cancer benefits. The results are sure to renew arguments about whether a little more sunshine is a good thing.

The skin makes vitamin D from ultraviolet light. Too much sunlight can raise the risk of skin cancer, but small amounts -- 15 minutes or so a few times a week without sunscreen -- may be beneficial, many doctors believe.

While the vitamin is found in certain foods and supplements, most don't contain the best form, D-3, and have only a modest effect on blood levels of the nutrient. That's what matters, the Canadian study found.

Only 24 percent of women in the study had sufficient blood levels of D at the time they were first diagnosed with breast cancer. Those who were deficient were nearly twice as likely to have their cancer recur or spread over the next 10 years, and 73 percent more likely to die of the disease.

"These are pretty big differences," said study leader Dr. Pamela Goodwin of Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto. "It's the first time that vitamin D has been linked to breast cancer progression."

But people shouldn't start downing supplements, she warned. Experts don't agree on how much vitamin D people need or the best way to get it, and too much can be harmful. They also don't know whether getting more vitamin D can help when someone already has cancer.

FARGO, N.D. -- A flight attendant angry about his work route set a fire in an airplane bathroom, forcing an emergency landing, authorities said.

The Compass Airlines flight carrying 72 passengers and four crew members landed safely in Fargo on May 7 after smoke filled the back. No injuries were reported. The plane was flying from Minneapolis to Regina, Saskatchewan, authorities said.

Eder Rojas, 19, appeared in court Thursday, following his arrest a day earlier in Minneapolis, and ordered held without bail, prosecutors said. The charge of setting fire aboard a civil aircraft carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

His public defender did not return a phone call seeking comment. Assistant U.S. Attorney Lynn Jordheim, who is prosecuting the case in Fargo, would not comment.

Court documents said Rojas, of the Twin Cities suburb of Woodbury, told authorities he was upset at the airline for making him work the route.

"Rojas further stated that he was preparing his cart to serve the passengers, he set the cart up, went back to the lavatory and reached in with his right hand and lit the paper towels with the lighter," court documents said.

WASHINGTON -- Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden will release a new audio-video message to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of Israel, US groups monitoring Islamist websites said Thursday.

The speech, which is addressed to the people of the West, is expected to be released within 72 hours, IntelCenter said, adding that its upcoming release was announced by Al-Qaeda's media arm, As-Sahab.

The speech is titled "The Causes of Conflict on the 60th Anniversary of the Establishment of the State of Israeli Occupation," according to the SITE Intelligence Group.

Bin Laden last issued a message on March 20, urging Muslims to support the insurgency in Iraq as the best way to support the Palestinians, and accusing Arab leaders of backing Israeli attacks on the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip

Bin Laden has claimed responsibility for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, which killed nearly 3,000 people and prompted the US-led invasion of Afghanistan.

Despite a massive manhunt and a 25-million-dollar bounty on his head, he has evaded capture and has regularly taunted the United States and its allies through warnings issued via video and audio, mainly on the Internet.

If Californians don't like Thursday's state Supreme Court decision that struck down the state's ban on same-sex marriage, they'll probably have an opportunity to overrule it this fall. Organizations opposed to same-sex marriage have collected more than 1.1 million signatures in favor of putting an initiative on the ballot in November that would, if passed, add an amendment to the state Constitution that reads: "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California."

At least 694,354 of the signatures must be declared valid for the initiative to go to the voters in November; that count will reportedly be finalized at the end of June. One of the laws struck down by Thursday's ruling had been passed by ballot initiative in 2000, with 63 percent of the vote. According to Andrew Sullivan, recent polls have shown the state about evenly divided on the issue.

These kinds of state initiatives and referendums were key to Republican turnout efforts in recent years, as they were used to ensure that the base would come out to vote. Some Republicans are already considering the potential implications in California. One senior Republican strategist told Salon that the GOP wants to try to find a way to put California in play in the general election; the strategist expressed some optimism that the decision might be helpful to the party.

The state seems very unlikely to vote for a Republican for president, but national Republicans could use the initiative to make the Democratic nominee uncomfortable and force the Democrats to pay more attention to the state than they otherwise would.

In a statement, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said, "I respect the Court's decision and as Governor, I will uphold its ruling. Also, as I have said in the past, I will not support an amendment to the constitution that would overturn this state Supreme Court ruling."

A Hollywood private investigator was convicted Thursday on charges that he schemed to dig up dirt for his well-heeled clients to use in lawsuits, divorces and contract disputes against the rich and famous. Anthony Pellicano, 64, was accused of wiretapping stars such as Sylvester Stallone, and running the names of others, such as Gary Shandling and Kevin Nealon, through law enforcement databases to help clients in legal and other disputes.

Pellicano was convicted of racketeering and racketeering conspiracy counts.

Verdicts on dozens of other counts were still being announced in court.

The indictment charging Pellicano and his supporting cast in February 2006 had Hollywood buzzing with speculation about who might be ensnared in the investigation and what secrets might be revealed.

Fourteen people were charged and seven, including film director John McTiernan and former Hollywood Records president Robert Pfeifer, have pleaded guilty to charges including perjury and conspiracy.

But the biggest power brokers with links to Pellicano, such as famed entertainment attorney Bert Fields, Paramount studio head Brad Grey and one-time superagent Michael Ovitz, insisted they didn't know about his methods and weren't charged.

Pellicano starred in the real-time court drama as a tough-talking gumshoe who valued loyalty and secrecy as necessary virtues in his profession. He also acted as his own attorney but called only one witness and rarely raised objections.

The video is hard to turn away from. A sobbing 16-year-old sits in her bedroom and, staring into a camera, says she has been raped.

"Hi, my name is Crystal ... I need some help. I didn't want to do it this way, but it's the only way I know that's going to work, that someone out there in the world is gonna listen to me."

The teen, whom CNN interviewed but is not identifying by her last name, is among dozens of young people who are turning to social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace to talk about sexual assault.

For an online generation, the Web offers what traditional counseling does not. It's a chance to communicate without having to face someone or fear their judgment. Some people are seeking legal advice and medical information, and many younger victims believe they can warn others about their accused attacker, counselors say.

There also are people like Crystal, whose case was dropped by the Orange County, Florida, state attorney's office, who feel slighted by the justice system.

"Young victims, particularly girls, turn inward. They are going to reach out and try to connect in the isolation of their dorm room or their bedrooms," said Jennifer Dritt, the director of the Florida Council Against Sexual Violence. "Most young women feel like they want somebody to know that someone did this to them."

LOS ANGELES -- A Los Angeles federal grand jury has indicted a Missouri woman for her alleged role in a MySpace online hoax played on a 13-year-old girl who committed suicide.

Lori Drew of suburban St. Louis was indicted Thursday on one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization to obtain information to inflict emotional distress.

Drew allegedly helped create a false-identity MySpace account to contact neighbor Megan Meier who thought she was chatting with a 16-year-old boy named Josh Evans.

Meier hanged herself in October 2006 after receiving cruel messages, including one stating the world would be better off without her.

Drew has denied creating the account and sending messages to Megan.

WASHINGTON -- Republican John McCain, in a speech forecasting what the country would look like after his first term in office, said today that he expects the war in Iraq to be won and most troops to be home by January 2013.

The prediction marks a major departure for McCain, who railed against rival Mitt Romney shortly before the Florida primary for his remark in April 2007 that he thought President Bush and Iraqi leaders should privately discuss a timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq. At the time, McCain suggested that the comment would embolden America's foes in Iraq. The Arizona senator leveled the same criticism at Democratic Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, stating that their advocacy for withdrawing troops from Iraq amounted to setting a date for "surrender."

In his speech delivered in Columbus, Ohio, today, McCain said that within five years he expects Iraq to be "a functioning democracy" with a "professional and competent" Iraqi Security Force capable of "defending the integrity of its borders."

Predicting the defeat of Al Qaeda in Iraq, McCain also forecast a U.S. military role, "but a much smaller one," that would "not play a direct combat role."

ABC News' Ann Compton Reports: President Bush and Vice President Cheney are showing the public the money.

Bush's annual financial disclosure documents released Thursday show he has four checking accounts, a health savings account, and most of his investments in a blind trust. The 2007 forms required by federal law value his Texas ranch at under $5-million. And a year before he hosted daughter Jenna's wedding, the president cashed in several certificates of deposit.

The disclosures list only broad ranges of values, so it is not possible to determine an official's exact net worth. There are specifics, however, on some of the details.

First Lady Laura Bush, who has just published the children's book with daughter Jenna Hager, is giving all royalties to charity, including the Boys and girls Clubs of America and Teach for America. Mrs. Bush also gets $12,000 so-called "pin" money from the estate of Henry G. Freeman who willed the money to every First lady, starting in 1917.

Vice President Dick Cheney has substantially more wealth, several millions more, held in trusts.

On the gift list required by government ethics laws, President Bush revealed he accepted a $6,000 mountain bike from the Trek company of Wisconsin, fishing gear and Texas boots from friends, $579 night vision goggles from Vice president Cheney, and a power mower from his White House staff, presumably for the ranch, not for trimming the South Lawn.

It was the size of a dime and as thick as a nickel -- a discolored blotch on John McCain's left temple. He didn't pay it much mind during the heat of the 2000 Republican primary campaign. But after losing the nomination to George W. Bush, the Arizona Senator found himself with time to spare. So as Bush celebrated victory, McCain headed to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., to have the spot checked out...

The diagnosis: Stage 2A melanoma, an invasive form of skin cancer that claims the lives of up to 34% of those diagnosed within 10 years.

Losing the GOP nomination in 2000 gave McCain time to catch and treat the cancer at an early stage, which possibly saved his life...

Eight years later, McCain at 71 finds himself on his way to another Republican Convention, and the questions about his health are no longer secondary to his political fortunes. If he were to win in November, he would become the oldest first-term President in U.S. history. To make the issue more pronounced, his likely opponent is young enough to be his son; at 46, Barack Obama hopes to become the fifth youngest President ever.

Britney Spears and Mel Gibson are headed to Costa Rica where they will vacation with the singer's father and Gibson's wife, a source tells PEOPLE.

"They're just going away for a few days to relax," says a source.

The group plan to stay at Gibson's Costa Rican home. They will be back early next week.

The unlikely pair were first spotted together back in mid-March when they dined at Russian restaurant Romanov in Studio City. However, it wasn't their first meeting. Gibson and Spears and their families met a number of times after the pop star was hospitalized in February, a different source told PEOPLE at the time.

"Mel and his wife Robin clearly saw a woman in crisis and wanted to extend themselves in any way possible," the source said.

Gibson and Spears used to be neighbors when the singer previously lived in Malibu. "There are no expectations, there is no agenda," the source added. "It's simply an act of human kindness -- one neighbor reaching out to the other."

ATHENS, Greece -- A 9-year-old girl who went to hospital in central Greece suffering from stomach pains was found to be carrying her embryonic twin, doctors said Thursday.

Doctors at Larissa General Hospital examined the girl and surgically removed a growth they later discovered was an embryo more than two inches long.

"They could see on the right side that her belly was swollen, but they couldn't suspect that this tumor would hide an embryo," hospital director Iakovos Brouskelis said.

Andreas Markou, head of the hospital's pediatric department, said the embryo was a formed fetus with a head, hair and eyes, but no brain or umbilical cord.

Markou said cases where one of a set of twins absorbs the other in the womb occurs in one of 500,000 live births.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - John McCain, looking through a crystal ball to 2013 and the end of a prospective first term, sees "spasmodic" but reduced violence in Iraq and Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden dead or captured and government spending curbed by his ready veto pen.

The Republican presidential contender also envisions April's annual angst replaced by a simpler flat tax, illegal immigrants living humanely under a temporary worker program, and political partisanship stemmed by weekly news conferences and British-style question periods with joint meetings of Congress.

In a speech being delivered Thursday, McCain concedes he cannot make the changes alone, but he wants to outline a specific governing style to show the accomplishments it can achieve. He was backing up his remarks with a Web ad featuring similar content.

"I'm not interested in partisanship that serves no other purpose than to gain a temporary advantage over our opponents. This mindless, paralyzing rancor must come to an end. We belong to different parties, not different countries," McCain says in remarks prepared for delivery in the capital city of Ohio, a general election battleground. "There is a time to campaign, and a time to govern. If I'm elected president, the era of the permanent campaign will end; the era of problem solving will begin."

Tonight, Keith Olbermann unleashed what may well have been his angriest, most blistering Special Comment yet, aimed squarely at his favorite target: President Bush. Olbermann was responding to Bush's claim that he had given up golf in honor of the Iraq war -- and his assertion that a Democratic president withdrawing from Iraq would "eventually lead to another attack on the United States" -- a statement Olbermann called "ludicrous, infuriating, holier-than-thou and most importantly bone-headedly wrong." Olbermann continued in that vein for a full 12 minutes (or 2,000 words), frequently raising his voice and spitting out his words in disgust.

Olbermann turned Bush's reference to "cold-blooded killers who will kill people to achieve their political objectives" around and threw it back at him, saying that such killers were "those in -- or formerly in -- your employ, who may yet be charged some day with war crimes." It didn't get any milder -- saying that, to Bush, "freedom is just a brand name," and pointing out that al Qaeda in Iraq was a result of the invasion: "Terrorism inside Iraq is your creation, Mr. Bush!" Olbermann also criticized Bush's statement that he was "told by people" that there were WMDs in Iraq: "People? What people?... Mr. Bush, you destroyed the evidence that contradicted the resolution you jammed down the Congress's throat, the way you jammed it down the nation's throat."

Olbermann saved his most vicious scorn for Bush's no-golf pledge. "Golf, sir? Golf sends the wrong signal to the grieving families of our men and women butchered in Iraq? ... You, Mr. Bush, let their sons and daughters be killed. Sir, to show your solidarity with them you gave up golf?" He then went on to lambaste Bush for failing to keep to that pledge -- ostensibly made in August 2003 -- and showing photos of Bush playing golf in October 2003. "Mr. Bush, I hate to break it to you 6 1/2 years after you yoked this nation and your place in history to the wrong war, in the wrong place, against the wrong people," said Olbermann (using slightly odd math), "But the war in Iraq is not about you. ... It is not, Mr. Bush, about your grief when American after American comes home in a box." The directive to "Shut the hell up!" came soon after.

Palestinians are set to mark the 60th anniversary of al-Nakba, or "the Catastrophe" -- the founding of Israel -- with a series of marches and protests.

More than 700,000 Palestinians fled their homes or were expelled in 1948, during the war that followed Israel's declaration of independence.

The events come on the second day of US President George Bush's visit.

He is currently in Israel, joining the Jewish state's 60th anniversary celebrations and pushing peace talks.

Palestinians will be marking the date with a march to Israeli military checkpoints in the West Bank and a demonstration at the Palestinian Authority president's compound in Ramallah.

Six decades after the founding of Israel, the Palestinians are still seeking an independent state.

The fate of 1948 refugees and their descendents, living scattered in camps and settlements around the region, remains one of the thorniest issues in peace talks.

Speaking on Wednesday, Mr Bush repeated his belief that Israel and the Palestinians can strike a deal to bring about a Palestinian state by the end of the year, which the two sides pledged to do at a US-sponsored conference last November.

But correspondents say few in the region are optimistic that tangible progress is being made in the talks, despite repeated visits by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

CANNES, France --

It's twins for Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt!

In an interview that took place in Cannes on Wednesday with the "Today" show's Natalie Morales, airing Wednesday night on Access Hollywood and in full on Thursday on "Today," Angelina confirmed the baby news that has been rumored for months.

The twins will be the couple's 5th & 6th children.

Anne Heche says she can no longer afford to pay the nearly $15,000-a-month in child and spousal support because she's unemployed after the cancellation of Men In Trees.

"I am continuing to look for work, but I have no offers pending and the impending strike by the Screen Actors Guild reduces my prospects for work even further," Heche, 38, writes in court papers.

A judge Wednesday gave her a temporary break, saying she didn't have to pay her next support payment to her ex Coley Laffoon, 34, covering the month of July. But Superior Court Judge Gail Ruderman Feuer ordered the actress to provide updated income and expense information.

In a court declaration, Heche indicated her financial straits were dire and that she can no longer afford to pay the $14,798 in monthly support, along with private school tuition for her 6-year-old son Homer, the mortgage on her house in Canada where Men In Trees filmed, rent on her Los Angeles home and car expenses.

"Since January 18, 2008, I have been unemployed and had no income from employment except for one very short-term contract for a movie role for which I received a total of $65,00, approximately the amount I received for one episode of Men In Trees, she writes.

CRYSTAL CITY, Va. -- Mark Salter, a writer with a gray-flecked goatee and a pack-a-day cigarette habit, is working on the climactic chapter of his career: getting his boss, Sen. John McCain, elected president.

When it comes to Sen. McCain's image, Mr. Salter, 53 years old, is the campaign's chief creator, shaper and enforcer. For two decades, he has been the presumed Republican nominee's speechwriter, adviser and confidant. He has helped the senator write two best-selling memoirs, on which they split the proceeds 50-50. The senator says they are "like brothers."

Now that Sen. Barack Obama has emerged as the likely Democratic nominee, Mr. Salter is poised to play a large role in a general-election campaign filled with potential land mines, from race issues to Sen. McCain's age, which is 71. Early signs are that Mr. Salter will urge a feisty campaign -- in character for a man who once wrestled a persistent critic of the senator to the floor of a congressional hallway.

In recent days, both the press and the Obama campaign have gotten a taste of Mr. Salter's hair-trigger response to criticism of the senator or his campaign. Over the weekend, he fired off a three-page email to the editor of Newsweek slamming the newsmagazine for what he said was a "biased" cover story on Sen. Obama that "framed this race exactly as Sen. Obama wants it to be framed." He threatened to throw the magazine's reporters off the campaign bus and airplane, according to people familiar with the matter. Mr. Salter says he expressed the campaign's displeasure and is talking to the publication about future access.

Last Thursday, he came out swinging against Sen. Obama after the Democrat said Sen. McCain was "losing his bearings." Mr. Salter complained publicly that the Democratic front-runner's comment was a "not particularly clever way of raising John McCain's age." The jab, he said, was "typical of the Obama style of campaigning."

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon says he plans to send a senior official to urge Burma's military leaders to open up to foreign aid.

Mr Ban said he wanted UN aid chief John Holmes to accompany a food aid delivery to the cyclone-hit nation.

He also proposed a conference of nations prepared to pledge assistance.

UN figures now suggest that as many as 2.5 million people have been severely affected by Cyclone Nargis, which struck Burma 12 days ago.

The latest Burmese official figures put the number of dead at almost 38,500, with 27,838 more missing, but the Red Cross warned as many as 128,000 could be dead.

A slow trickle of aid is now getting to survivors but aid agencies say it is nowhere near enough.

They say far more boats and trucks are needed to get the supplies to the communities that need them most -- and far more expert personnel.

The UN chief convened talks with donors and the Association of South-East Asian Nations in New York on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON -- Democrat Barack Obama accused President Bush on Thursday of launching a "false political attack" with a comment about appeasing dictators.

The Democratic presidential candidate interpreted the remark as a slam against him but the White House denied that the comment was in any way directed at Obama.

In a speech to Israel's Knesset, Bush said that "some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along ... We have an obligation to call this what it is — the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."

Responding with a statement, the Obama campaign seized on Bush's remarks even as it was unclear to whom Bush was referring.

"It is sad that President Bush would use a speech to the Knesset on the 6Oth anniversary of Israel's independence to launch a false political attack," Obama said in the statement. "George Bush knows that I have never supported engagement with terrorists, and the president's extraordinary politicization of foreign policy and the politics of fear do nothing to secure the American people or our stalwart ally Israel."

Page 1 of 37 oldest ⇒

From Salon's blogs

About 5 Things

5 Things ranks the five hottest breaking news stories, gossip, viral videos and more at any given moment in time. Frequently updated, 5 Things filters the best of the Web.

RSS Feed

Send Tips

Have a story for 5 Things? Send your tips to: 5things@salon.com.

Daily Newsletter

Get Salon in your mailbox!