Cheney's Fingerprints

"An Iraqi government statement demanded that the soldiers be held accountable in Iraq. The issue is particularly delicate now because the two countries are negotiating a long-term security agreement and among the chief points of disagreement are whether the American military will be free to conduct operations and detain suspects and whether, if its soldiers kill civilians, they will have immunity from Iraqi law."

One of those attacks took place in Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's home town, and killed a relative. Qassim Zein and Hannah Allam write for McClatchy Newspapers that "residents said the prime minister's office privately has reassured them that Maliki is furious with his American allies but that he wanted to keep the ensuing diplomatic crisis out of the media spotlight."

Cheney and North Korea

Philip Sherwell writes in the Telegraph: "Vice President Dick Cheney fought furiously to block efforts by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to strike a controversial US compromise deal with North Korea over the communist state's nuclear programme, the Telegraph has learned.

"'The exchanges between Cheney's office and Rice's people at State got very testy. But ultimately Condi had the President's ear and persuaded him that his legacy would be stronger if they reached a deal with Pyongyang,' said a Pentagon adviser who was briefed on the battle.

"Mr Cheney's office is believed to have played a key role in the release two months ago of documents and photographs linking North Korea to a suspected nuclear site in Syria that was bombed by Israeli jets last year."

Cheney acolyte and former United Nations ambassador John R. Bolton writes in a Wall Street Journal op-ed: "The only good news is that there is little opportunity for the Bush administration to make any further concessions in its waning days in office. But for many erstwhile administration supporters, this is a moment of genuine political poignancy. Nothing can erase the ineffable sadness of an American presidency, like this one, in total intellectual collapse."

Subpoena Watch

Laurie Kellman writes for the Associated Press: "A House panel on Friday subpoenaed Attorney General Michael Mukasey for transcripts of interviews with President Bush and Vice President Cheney during the federal probe into the leak of a CIA agent's identity.

"Signed by Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., the subpoena requests all documents from the office of former Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald relating to interviews of Bush, Cheney and their aides that were conducted outside the presence of the grand jury investigating the leak.

"The subpoena requests similar accounts of interviews with former presidential adviser Karl Rove; I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, Cheney's former chief of staff; former White House spokesman Scott McClellan; former presidential counselor Dan Bartlett; and former White House Chief of Staff Andy Card."

I first wrote in December about Waxman's attempts to get the Justice Department to turn over evidence from Fitzgerald's investigation that isn't covered by grand jury secrecy rules.

In a letter he sent Fitzgerald on Friday, Waxman noted that Fitzgerald reportedly did not object to the release of the FBI reports on Bush and Cheney's testimony. But Waxman wrote that the Justice Department has now officially refused to comply with his subpoena.

In order to "assist the Committee in evaluating the Department's position," Waxman asked Fitzgerald to provide information on "the date and terms of all agreements, conditions, and understandings" between Fitzgerald's investigators and Bush or Cheney.

EPA Watch

Ian Talley and Siobhan Hughes write in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required): "The White House is trying to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from publishing a document that could become the legal roadmap for regulating greenhouse-gas emissions in the U.S., said people close to the matter.

"The fight over the document is the latest development in a long-running conflict between the EPA and the White House over climate-change policy. It will likely intensify ongoing Congressional investigations into the Bush administration's involvement in the agency's policymaking.

"The draft document, which has been viewed by The Wall Street Journal, outlines how the government, under the Clean Air Act, could regulate greenhouse-gas emissions from mobile sources such as cars, trucks, trains, planes and boats, and from stationary sources such as power stations, chemical plants and refineries. The document is based on a multimillion-dollar study conducted over two years.

"The White House's Office of Management and Budget has asked the EPA to delete sections of the document that say such emissions endanger public welfare, say how those gases could be regulated, and show an analysis of the cost of regulating greenhouse gases in the U.S. and other countries.

"The OMB instead wants the document to show that the Clean Air Act is flawed and that greenhouse-gas regulations should be developed under new legislation, several people close to the matter said. The EPA needs to clear a final draft with the White House in order to release the document."

Torture Watch

Johanna Neuman blogged on Friday for the Los Angeles Times: "Democrats in Congress are still reeling over the lip they got [Thursday] from the Bush administration's key experts on torture. Vice President Dick Cheney chief of staff David Addington was so disdainful that some are wondering if he can be prosecuted for lying to Congress.

"'Of all the hearings I've attended since I started serving on the Judiciary Committee four years ago, I have never felt more strongly that a witness was lying,' Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) said in an interview. 'At the end of the day I'm not sure how much we can do -- we can't prove what he says he doesn't recollect.'"

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer editorial board writes that Thursday's hearing "makes us wonder if anyone in this administration will ever be held accountable for anything at all."

Del Quentin Wilber writes in The Washington Post that lawyers representing detainees in the U.S. military prison at Bagram air base have cases that could turn "into the next legal battleground over the rights of terrorism suspects apprehended on foreign soil. More lawsuits are expected on behalf of Bagram detainees in coming months, the lawyers said."

W, the Movie

John Horn of the Los Angeles Times reports on location with Oliver Stone, director of "W.," his "forthcoming -- and potentially divisive -- drama about the personal, political and psychological evolution of the current president."

Horn writes that it's "possible to see that 'W.' could be, in a complicated way, sympathetic." But he wonders "if Stone is, in some way, muzzling himself to craft a mass-appeal movie, has he cast aside one of his best selling points?"

Cartoon Watch

Monte Wolverton on Bush's Iraqi mission accomplished; Heng Kim Song on how North Korea is playing Bush.