Former Rep. Foley goes into alcohol rehab
WASHINGTON, Oct. 2, 2006
Former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., entered an alcohol rehabilitation program Monday as House investigators probed his relations with teenage House pages.
Foley broke the news in a fax Sunday night to ABC News' affiliate in Palm Beach, Fla., along with an apology for what he'd done, ABC said.
Foley resigned Friday after it was reported he'd had sexually explicit e-mail exchanges with an unidentified underage male Congressional page.
Monday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., began pressing the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct -- commonly known as the ethics committee -- to get sworn testimony of House Republican leaders on what they knew about Foley's communications.
Some Republicans also called for immediately clearing the air.
"Certainly anyone in the Republican leadership, any member of the Congress who knew anything about this should tell exactly what they knew and when they knew it," said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y.
Foley's resignation had the Florida Republican Party scrambling to look for a replacement candidate for the Nov. 7 mid-term election.
Hastert denies knowing about Foley IMs
WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 (UPI) -- U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, r-Ill., says he only learned of sexually explicit e-mails from former Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., when ABC News reported them.
At a news conference at the Capitol, Hastert read a prepared statement and did not answer questions shouted at him by reporters.
Foley resigned his seat Friday. The first communications made public last week were 2005 e-mails that were inappropriately friendly between an adult and a teenage boy but not specifically sexual, the Washington Post said. But ABC published what Hastert called "vile and repulsive" instant messages sent by Foley in 2003.
Also Monday, several prominent conservatives called for Hastert's resignation, the conservative newsweekly Human Events reported. They included David Bossie, president of Citizens United, and Michael Reagan, a son of former President Ronald Reagan and a conservative columnist.
"Any member of Congress who was aware of the sexual e-mails and protected the congressman should also resign effective immediately," Reagan said. "I was sexually abused by a day camp counselor at age 8 and also made to be part of child pornography."
Man shoots girls at one-room Amish school
PARADISE TOWNSHIP, Pa., Oct. 2 (UPI) -- A gunman invaded a one-room Amish schoolhouse in Pennsylvania's Lancaster County and took girls hostage, killing several of them.
There were conflicting reports one how many died. The Lancaster New Era said at least five girls were killed, but the Philadelphia Inquirer reported three girls were killed. The man, identified as Charles Carl Roberts IV of Bart, Pa., killed himself as state troopers stormed the school.
At least one of the victims died in a trooper's arms, State Police Commissioner Jeffrey Miller said.
Roberts told his wife that he would avenge an injury he received 20 years ago when he was 12, WGAL-TV Lancaster reported.
Miller said there is no evidence that Roberts had a grudge against the Amish, that he apparently targeted the school because it was easy to enter. He ordered the boys and several teachers and aides to leave and barricaded the doors with lumber he brought in his pickup truck.
"It's obvious to us that this was a premeditated hostage scenario," Miller said. "I believe, based on what the investigators have so far, he intended not to walk out of there alive, but he also intended to kill innocent victims."
Roberts tied the girls' hands and feet and shot victims execution style.
Some of the victims were taken to Hershey Medical Center in Hershey and Children's Hospital in Philadelphia -- both certified in pediatric trauma.
Rice brushes off new Woodward book
SHANNON, Ireland, Oct. 2 (UPI) -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is denying many claims in a new book the Bush administration was in disarray before the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
Speaking to reporters at a refueling stop in Shannon, Ireland, on her way to Saudi Arabia, Rice said some of the claims in "State of Denial," by Washington Post Assistant Managing Editor Bob Woodward were "incomprehensible," the Post reported.
She also denied suggesting U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld be replaced after Bush's first term, saying she had been referring to her own performance.
"I did tell the president at one point that I thought maybe all of us should go, because we had fought two wars and had the largest terrorist attack in American history," Rice said. "When he asked me to be secretary of State I said I think maybe you need new people."
She flatly denied she had specific intelligence of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
"It was an extremely active period in terms of reacting to a steady stream of chatter about potential attacks," she said. "There was nothing that related to an attack in the United States."
Iraq tour extended for combat brigade
WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Defense, seeking to keep up troop levels, plans to extend the tour of duty of soldiers who have one of the toughest missions in Iraq.
The 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 1st Armored Division will stay in Iraq an extra 46 days past their planned departure date of early January, USA Today reported.
Brigade commander Col. Sean MacFarland told the newspaper the extra time was ordered so the force replacing his troops can complete a year of preparation before deploying to Iraq.
MacFarland's brigade has one of the toughest jobs in Iraq which is securing Ramadi, a city west of Baghdad in the Sunni triangle.
The brigade is based in Germany where MacFarland broke to extension news by videoconference to family representatives, USA Today said. The brigade's last tour of duty that ended in July 2004 included a 3-month extension.
