Barry Bonds
SAN FRANCISCO, California
(CNN) -- A federal grand jury is considering whether to indict San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds for perjury because of testimony he gave to another grand jury in 2003, CNN has learned.
Bonds told the first grand jury in December 2003 that he was clean. The new panel has been hearing testimony for a month about whether the baseball superstar lied about his steroid use during the hearing, several sources said.
"This is extremely bad news for Barry Bonds," said CNN senior legal analyst Jeff Toobin, "because a federal prosecutor doesn't start looking into perjury unless he has a pretty good idea he's going to find perjury at the end of the day."
The U.S. Attorney's office would neither confirm nor deny the report. Grand jury proceedings are generally kept secret.
Bonds' legal team is unaware that a grand jury convened to hear the case, said Harry Stern, a spokesman for the attorneys
On December 4, 2003, Bonds and other athletes testified in the BALCO case, which targeted Greg Anderson, a trainer and longtime friend to Bonds, and Victor Conte, founder of the Bay-Area Laboratory Co-Operative, a sports nutrition center alleged to have created designer steroids.
During the hearing, prosecutors asked Bonds if he had used steroids, and when the man who is seeking to become baseball's all-time home run king emerged from the hearing, his attorney Mike Raines told reporters:
"Barry testified truthfully to the grand jury. Barry Bonds is clean."
Conte spent four months in jail after pleading guilty to distributing steroids, and Anderson was sentenced to three months on the same charge.
Bonds and his colleagues were offered immunity for their testimony. The deal was simple: Tell the truth, and you draw a walk; lie and go down for perjury.
Raines has long said that the federal government is out to get his client. And without admitting any wrongdoing on his client's behalf, he has suggested that prosecutors, with their immunity deal, are setting a familiar snare for Bonds.
"Look no further than Martha Stewart. The trap is perjury," Raines said. "You offer immunity and you get him in there and then you ask them questions and you get them on lying to federal officers.
"That's the trap. That's exactly what they got Martha for."
Raines also has suggested that prosecutors are going after his client because of his name and notoriety, not the allegations leveled against him.
Toobin said that wouldn't surprise him.
"Prosecutors are supposed to go after the big fish. It's those kind of prosecutions that tell everyone that it's not OK to lie to prosecutors or to a grand jury," the legal analyst said.
A House committee considered perjury charges against Baltimore Oriole Rafael Palmeiro when he failed a drug test for steroids following congressional testimony in March 2005 that he had never used them. The committee decided in November not to pursue the charges, citing "confusing and contradictory" information, according to The Washington Post.
"We couldn't find any evidence of steroid use prior to his testimony," committee chairman Rep. Thomas A. Davis III was quoted in the paper as saying. "That's not a finding of innocence, but it's a finding that we could not substantiate perjury."
Bonds' repeated and adamant denial that he knowingly used steroids came under new scrutiny when "Game of Shadows" -- billed as an expose -- hit bookstore shelves last month. The book claims Bonds used steroids he obtained from Anderson during the 1998-2003 seasons. That time span includes the 2001 season in which Bonds swatted 73 homers, surpassing Mark McGwire's single-season record.
Major League Baseball did not begin testing for steroids until 2003. Since the league began testing, the MLB has never reported that Bonds failed a drug test.
Raines has issued a statement saying Bonds has no intention of reading the book. "Barry regards this as an unfortunate distraction to his friends and teammates at the San Francisco Giants, and to the good name and the great players in Major League Baseball," read the statement on Bonds' Web site.
It further stated that the allegations have "misled the public in the interest of financial and professional self promotion."
After the book was published, MLB Commissioner Bud Selig appointed former U.S. Senator George Mitchell to oversee an investigation into steroid use in baseball. (Full story)
Bonds missed most of last season with knee problems and had three surgeries to repair the knee. With 708 career home runs, Bonds trails Babe Ruth by six homers and Hank Aaron, the all-time leader, by 47. He has yet to hit a home run this season.
(CNN)
Tornado in Iowa
The National Weather Service said the fatality occurred in Muscatine County, where a tornado toppled the victim's mobile home in Nichols. The victim's name was not released.
Twisters, high wind and hail toppled trees and cut off power to thousands across the region. No other injuries were immediately reported.
Residents sifted through debris downtown and in several neighborhoods. "We're in disaster mode," an Iowa City dispatcher said.
At the University of Iowa, which the National Weather Service said was hit by one tornado, students were assessing the damage, including downed trees.
Andrew Loffswold fled his apartment when he heard the howling winds of an oncoming twister grow louder. When he returned, his second-story apartment was in shambles, its roof torn off and its contents turned upside down.
"I'm just trying to salvage anything I can," said Loffswold, a 19-year-old student from Sioux City.
Nine other nearby apartments received major damage.
University spokesman Steve Parrott said classes have been canceled for Friday while crews repair the campus and clear debris.
Downtown, severe winds blew cars around, and a roof collapsed at a pedestrian mall, police said.
MidAmerican Energy said about 7,000 homes and businesses in eastern Iowa were without power Friday morning. Crews were working through the night to restore it.
The weather service reported tornadoes in Tama, Linn, Muscatine and Johnson counties, with much of the damage occurring in Iowa City.
Officials were keeping an eye out for more tornadoes in east-central Iowa on Thursday night, Donavon said.
The storms swept through northern Illinois, knocking down trees and power lines and prompting tornado warnings.
At least one tornado was spotted on the ground in Mercer County, the weather service said. Winds of 80 mph were reported in Warren County, where the roofs of two homes were heavily damaged, authorities said. There were no reports of injuries.
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CNN
War
Want to read the latest updates about what is going on in Iraq. get the latest on the Army, airbourne, and the marines.
Here is a
Good Site.
"Storms slam Southeast"
"The Southeast is bracing for another battering from violent storms after severe weather killed at least 11 people and injured many more in Tennessee on Friday. The storms were the second wave of deadly weather to hit Tennessee where more than 30 people have died in less than a week. More tornadoes reportedly touched down in Mississippi and Georgia early today". Story Provided by
CNN
Do you want your rights back
Every American should see this. Also people who dislike America should see this.
Please take the time to look at this link
Click hereTake your time on that site it is big and full of knowledge. You know our Government lies to us daily maybe there is something we can do.
NY 9/11 Mayor Giulianni Testifies
This story is compliments of
CNN!!!!! ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (CNN) -- Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who led New York through the dark days after the September 11 terrorist attacks, took the witness stand for the government as the death penalty trial of Zacarias Moussaoui resumed Thursday.
Prosecutors told jurors it was time for them to "hear the voices" and learn of the suffering caused by the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
The government is asking the jury to condemn the al Qaeda conspirator to death for his part in the attacks.
The jury found Moussaoui eligible for the death penalty on Monday, concluding that lies he told federal agents interrogating him a month before the attacks directly contributed to some of the nearly 3,000 deaths on September 11.
The panel of nine men and three women must now decide whether Moussaoui should die by injection, the only form of execution permitted in the federal system.
Prosecutor Robert Spencer said the prosecution would play tapes of the voices of the victims and would call family members to describe the suffering caused by the attacks.
To sentence Moussaoui to death, Spencer said, jurors need to remember "the defendant himself need not have committed the murders."
But the defense said it would ask the jury to sentence Moussaoui to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Defense attorney Gerald Cerkin said there is no denying the suffering caused by the terrorist attacks, but the defense will show that Moussaoui was an impressionable young man who fell into the grip of extremists.
The defense asserts that Moussaoui is delusional, cooperating only with prosecution experts and expressing the belief that President Bush will ultimately release him from prison.
Guiliani took the stand after attorneys delivered opening statements. He is expected to provide powerful testimony about the impact the attacks had on the city he led.
Besides the 2,749 lives lost as the twin towers of the World Trade Center burned and fell, prosecutors intend to show how the attacks disrupted New York's government and economy.
The deaths of 343 firefighters also are part of that evidence.
Giuliani may offer compelling testimony about a fire rescue unit captain who died, Terry Hatton. Hatton's wife, Beth Petrone, was Giuliani's executive assistant for 17 years, and Giuliani officiated at the couple's marriage.
The drama of Flight 93
In addition, the lone cockpit voice recorder recovered from the four hijacked planes will be played publicly for the first time, the judge has ruled.
Moussaoui's attorneys and federal prosecutors met behind closed doors Wednesday with U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema to finalize the emotional evidence that will be introduced in the coming weeks.
Brinkema ordered that jurors can hear the cockpit voice recorder from United Flight 93 -- the Newark to San Francisco flight that crashed in a reclaimed coal field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Relatives of the 40 passengers and crew who have heard the 31-minute tape say it confirms a heroic uprising in which passengers turned on the hijackers.
Prosecutors invited Flight 93 families to hear the tape at a special briefing in 2002, when the Moussaoui trial was originally scheduled to begin.
Jurors already have heard a partial transcript of American Airlines flight attendant Betty Ong telling the airline's customer service center about stabbings and the spraying of mace near the front of the plane as the first plane headed toward the Trade Center.
"We can't even get up to business class right now 'cause nobody can breathe," Ong said at the start of the four-and-half-minute call.
Moussaoui, 37, a French national of Moroccan descent, admitted last year that he conspired with al Qaeda, the terrorist group responsible for September 11, to hijack and crash planes into prominent U.S. buildings.
Until he testified at his trial, Moussaoui insisted he had no role in the plot or advance knowledge of specific plot details.
But on the witness stand, Moussaoui said he knew in advance of the plan to crash planes into the World Trade Center and was to pilot a fifth plane into the White House on September 11.
Moussaoui's self-incriminating testimony severely damaged the defense case. His attorneys suggest that Moussaoui hopes to become an al Qaeda martyr.
10 'aggravating factors'
The pain and suffering of the 9/11 families is one of 10 "aggravating factors" prosecutors will set out to prove to justify a death sentence. The physical and emotional harm to survivors is another. As many as 40 witnesses are prepared to testify about the attack's impact on them and their families.
The federal death penalty statute requires the government to prove that Moussaoui's lies to protect the terror conspiracy caused grave risk of death and were committed in a heinous, cruel, depraved manner with substantial planning and premeditation.
Additionally, prosecutors intend to prove Moussaoui shows no remorse and exploited educational opportunities in a free society for violent means when he trained at U.S. flight schools.
Besides the deaths, prosecutors intend to show that the attacks disrupted the functions of the Pentagon and of New York's government and economy.
Meanwhile, Moussaoui's mother is not expected to testify for the defense, CNN has learned. Aicha el-Wafi recently wrote the judge, but the letter's contents have not been disclosed.
El-Wafi, 59, a retired telecommunications worker who lives in southern France, attended three days of the trial's first phase. In an interview with CNN that week, she said she feared her son would be made "a scapegoat" for September 11.
(Watch Moussaoui's mother describe "political" trial -- 2:22)"He's right to choose death instead of staying and dying like a rat in a hole," el-Wafi told French 2 television after the verdict, according to a translation.
Moussaoui's defense team is planning witnesses and evidence about their client's mental health. They may include a pair of Washington psychiatrists who were in court to observe Moussaoui's testimony.
One defense expert has concluded that Moussaoui suffers from a thought disorder, probably schizophrenia, according to court papers.
A social worker is expected to describe Moussaoui's troubled family history and their mistreatment as North African immigrants in France.
Doyle Talks dirty to an Undercover
Washington and Polk County--- Doyle, 55, works at the Department of Homeland Security. He was arrested Tuesday from his home in Maryland, he faces 23 charges.
Undercover agents in Polk County, Florida posed as a 14 yr old female. He was eager to get home from work that night, because the 14 yr old, really a lying adult, was gonna show for him on her Web Cam.
These and more stories at
CNN This next one is a quote exactly as is from Cnn
"We found his communication still on his computer with our undercover detective," he said. "Had we not been posing as a 14-year-old, Brian Doyle would have been grooming someone, some young lady, for a sexual encounter."
That probably is the case, but this man has not gone to trial yet. Isn't that statement a speculation.
I do not agree with child soliciting At ALL! However, I do believe in rights, and he was talking to an undercover, WHO IS OF AGE! He thought he was talking to a girl.
I've been in front of a judge before and he said that my lack of knowledge was no excuse. I wonder, what they put on the profile? Well parents reading this! It is and should be the parents RESPONSIBILITY!!!!!
government conspiracy
Well we all remember 9/11/2001, september 11, 2001. The link that follows this goes to an independent website. Who shows shocking truth about what really hit the pentagon!!! Thats right it doesnt look like it was terrorist, iraq, or plane hi-jacking.
Check it out. You have to. It is your Right to see this.
http://www.freedomunderground.org/memoryhole/pentagon.php#MainYou will notice at the end how they covered up "wreckage", 3 people carried it out. It also will show where other films has been taking, and watch carefully lots of little details. I watched it 3 times so far just to SEE it.
This link will not last long.
Immigration Laws
NY--Thousands of Protestors, mostly immigrants, crowded the sidewalks of Brooklyn Bridge that stretched more then a mile. They are protesting against The congress changing immigration laws.In the House, legislation already has passed a Bill that would set penalties for anyone who knowingly assists or encourages illegal immigrants to remain in the country.
How many American citizens actually are legal anyways.You may think most, but i've asked my local Sebastian Police Department, all Officers represent their establishment, And they told me that when they pull people over, they estimate, about every other one is driving on a suspended license.
Well good luck with this one everyone for if you voice your opinion and it doesn't agree with the law. YOU COULD GO TO JAIL! What a joke that is.
