UPI NewsTrack TopNews

Senate Democrats subpoena Rove

WASHINGTON, July 26 (UPI) -- The Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday subpoenaed Karl Rove, President George W. Bush's top political adviser, to testify about the U.S. attorney firings.

A group of Democrats said they would ask the solicitor general to name a special counsel to investigate whether U.S. Attorney Alberto Gonzales committed perjury in his testimony before the Judiciary Committee, CNN reported. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said the attorney general told "the half-truth, the partial truth and everything but the truth."

Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., consulted Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the ranking Republican, before issuing subpoenas for Rove and Scott Jennings, another Bush aide, The Hill reported.

"The evidence shows that senior White House political operatives were focused on the political impact of federal prosecutions and whether federal prosecutors were doing enough to bring partisan voter fraud and corruption cases," Leahy said. "It is obvious that the reasons given for the firings of these prosecutors were contrived as part of a coverup and that the stonewalling by the White House is part and parcel of that same effort."

The White House maintains that executive privilege protects its staff from being required to testify before Congress.

FBI contradicts Gonzales

WASHINGTON, July 26 (UPI) -- FBI Director Robert Mueller confirmed a confrontation between Alberto Gonzales and John Ashcroft over U.S. domestic spying while Ashcroft was hospitalized.

The confrontation occurred while Gonzales, now attorney general, was White House counsel and Ashcroft was U.S. attorney general. The Justice Department had rejected the controversial surveillance program and Gonzales allegedly went to Ashcroft to press the White House case.

Mueller, who had his own reservations about the warrantless domestic spying program, told the House Judiciary Committee Thursday he learned of the meeting shortly after Gonzales left Ashcroft's hospital room and was told the session dealt with the National Security Agency program, CNN reported.

Earlier this week, Gonzales told the Senate Judiciary Committee he hadn't discussed the program with Ashcroft.

Democrats are considering asking for a special counsel to investigate whether Gonzales committed perjury during his testimony.

Military leaders claim progress in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, July 26 (UPI) -- Top Iraqi and U.S. commanders said Thursday that sectarian violence is waning in Baghdad and terrorist groups are losing support.

Lt. Gen. Abood Qanbar, commander of the Baghdad Operations Center, and Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, commander of Multi-National Corps Iraq, held a joint news conference, the Armed Forces Press Service said. They said the capital no longer provides sanctuary for al-Qaida in Iraq and extremist Shiite groups.

"Iraqi people in some hot areas rejected the terrorist groups after they felt that the Iraqi forces can protect them," Abood said. "People are cooperating with the Iraqi security forces."

Odierno attributed progress to the increasing strength of Iraqi forces and reconciliation between local leaders, as well as to the surge in U.S. troops in the capital this year.

The military also announced the arrest of 39 terrorist suspects in a series of raids in the past two days, including two alleged senior al-Qaida in Iraq leaders.

Judge strikes down city's anti-alien laws

HAZLETON, Pa., July 26 (UPI) -- A federal judge in Pennsylvania Thursday struck down a city's anti-immigrant measures, ruling that local officials lack the power to make immigration policy.

Hazleton Mayor Louis Barletta said the city will appeal, The New York Times reported.

"Hazleton isn't going to back down," he said at a news conference after learning of U.S. District Judge James Munley's decision.

Last year, after two illegal immigrants were charged with killing a local man, Hazleton adopted ordinances that barred local businesses from employing illegal immigrants and landlords from renting to them. The city in northeastern Pennsylvania also made English its official language.

The Hazleton ordinances became models for many others across the country.

"Whatever frustrations officials of the city of Hazleton may feel about the current state of federal immigration enforcement, the nature of the political system in the United States prohibits the city from enacting ordinances that disrupt a carefully drawn federal statutory scheme," Munley, who sits in Scranton, wrote in his 206-page decision.

Report: Astronauts allowed to fly drunk

WASHINGTON, July 26 (UPI) -- At least two U.S. astronauts have reportedly been allowed to blast off when they were so blasted that colleagues feared the risk of flying with them.

In another embarrassing revelation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration announced Thursday that a computer to be delivered to the International Space Station had been sabotaged.

A committee set up to investigate astronaut screening said astronauts routinely drink in the hours before launch, disregarding NASA's ban on drinking alcohol within 12 hours of liftoff, Aviation Week & Space Technology reported Thursday. The panel was created after the arrest of Lisa Nowak, an astronaut charged with stalking a woman involved with a fellow astronaut.

A NASA spokesman said a news conference may be held Friday to release the committee findings.

Flight surgeons found two astronauts intoxicated shortly before liftoff, but they were allowed to remain on the flight, the magazine said.

Bill Gerstenmaier, a NASA associate administrator, told The Miami Herald the computer sabotage was the work of a subcontractor employee. He said the damage is being repaired.

The computer is scheduled for delivery to the space station with the Endeavour space shuttle mission scheduled for August.