Countdown Newsletter: 10/06/05 -- Spy in the White House

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Tonight on Countdown
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The Justice Department is investigating whether a naturalized U.S. citizen from the Philippines stole classified documents while he worked in the office of Vice President Cheney and provided the information to opposition politicians in Manila, Bush administration officials said yesterday. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9603947/

Countdown w/ Keith Olbermann broadcasts LIVE at 8 pm et, and the count is never complete without you. Join us.

President Bush accused Islamic militants on Thursday of seeking to "enslave whole nations and intimidate the world" and charged they have made Iraq their main front. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9609094/

The conservative uprising against President Bush escalated as Republican activists angry over his nomination of White House counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court confronted the president's envoys during a pair of tense closed-door meetings. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/05/AR2005100502200.html

A test conducted by the National Transportation Safety Board suggested that the Ethan Allen, the tour boat that fatally capsized on Sunday, could not safely carry anywhere near the 48 passengers for which it had been certified. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/06/nyregion/06devels.html?oref=login

The man behind the $10 million X Prize for private spaceflight is joining forces with a venture capitalist who's also an Indy car backer to establish a NASCAR-like racing league for rocket-powered aircraft. This weekend's flights by XCOR Aerospace's EZ-Rocket are to take place as part of the Countdown to the X Prize Cup </id/8513308/> exposition in Las Cruces, N.M. - the kickoff to an annual rocket festival designed to follow up on the momentum generated by the original prize </id/6421889/>. http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9572408/

That's some of what we're planning for tonight's show.

Finally,
Angelique Fiorillo of Gelenwood Springs, Colorado, says the boulder that crashed through one wall of her second-story apartment and out another might have struck her if she'd been in her usual spot watching "Oprah." Fiorillo said she was in a neighbor's apartment when the table-size rock thundered down Red Mountain Tuesday afternoon. "We're like, 'Oh my God, what is that?'" she said. Her husband was at work. Her two cats, Odin and Loki, took cover under a bedroom dresser and were unhurt. Rain had apparently loosened the mountainside and unleashed a slide that sent the boulder bouncing down. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/R/ROCK_SLIDE?SITE=NWCN&TEMPLATE=STRANGEHEADS.html&SECTION=HOME
Self-preservation sometimes trumps self-improvement.

-- Carey Fox

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More:
In an extraordinary rebuke to Gov. George E. Pataki, members of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation Board took turns today deploring the governor's unilateral decision last week to evict the International Freedom Center from the memorial area of ground zero while the matter was still pending before the board. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/06/nyregion/06cnd-rebuild.html?hp&ex=1128657600&en=cafa8301c8e6c4a4&ei=5094&partner=homepage

The CIA will not seek to hold any current or former agency officials, including ex-director George J. Tenet, responsible for failures leading up to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, CIA Director Porter J. Goss said yesterday, despite a recommendation by the agency's inspector general that he convene an "accountability board" to judge their performance. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/05/AR2005100501503.html

Prime Minister Tony Blair said Thursday that new explosive devices used against coalition forces in Iraq "lead us either to Iranian elements or to Hezbollah." http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9608488/

The mother of a missing college student on Thursday said she believes a body found in a wooded area is her daughter. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9602484/

The first major study of an experimental vaccine to prevent cervical cancer found it was 100 percent effective, in the short term, at blocking the disease and lesions likely to turn cancerous, the drugmaker Merck & Co. said Thursday. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9609603/

The International Cycling Union has appointed a Dutch lawyer to conduct an independent investigation into allegations Lance Armstrong tested positive for EPO during the 1999 Tour de France. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9610920/

Fans of non-stop drinking may soon be able to cut down on time wasted ordering refills, thanks to a beer coaster that can tell when a glass is empty. The coaster, fitted with sensors, measures the weight of the beer and sends a signal behind the bar when it's time for a refill. Anxious drinkers can also attract the attention of staff by waving the plastic coaster, thanks to a motion sensor. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9609907/