Draftees At Drill Preparing For The War To End All Wars 1917

Lieutenant General Doug Lute, the "War Czar" known around the White House as the "General of least reluctance" is talking "Draft." Expressing his concern at the stress and strain of repeated lengthy deployments on the troops as well as their families the General said:

As an Army officer, this is a matter of real concern to me. Ultimately, the American army, and any other all-volunteer force, rests with the support and the morale and the willingness to serve demonstrated by our ? especially our young men and women in uniform. And I am concerned that those men and women and the families they represent are under stress as a result of repeated deployments.

General Lute, who accepted the position of War Czar after the rest of the General Staff either fled in stark terror at the prospect of accepting such a potentially career ending position or simply hid out in the Senior Officer's head in the Pentagon until the position was safely filled, did not actually use the "D" word, but, in response to questions from National Public Radio's Michele Norris on Friday in an interview for "All Things Considered" he definitely left the door wide open in this exchange:

Notwithstanding testimony a week ago by James Knodell, Director of the White House Office of Security, evidence suggests that the White House did, actually, investigate the leak of classified information about Valerie Plame's covert CIA identity; but, only after President Bush revised security clearance laws in ways that would get leakers - and himself - off the hook. Rather than have Knodell investigate, it appears Bush tasked Joshua Bolten, then Director of the Office of Managment and Budget (OMB), to provide oversight of the process, per a little noticed Executive Order.

Overall, the evidence suggests a deliberate attempt by the President to legitimize staff leaks and to insulate the leakers from meaningful accountability.

Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, George W. Bush, Andrew Card, Dan Bartlett, Colin Powel, George Tenet, former deputy CIA director John McLaughlin, I. Lewis Libby. They've all denied being Woodward's source.

Richard Armitage won't comment and Stephen Hadley can only cite others' claims that he was not the source.

Huh?

It's true. Bush's National Security Advisor, Stephen Hadley, couldn't find it within himself to deny that he was Woodward's "Mystery" source, yet he freely noted that other members of the Administration said he wasn't the source. So why the weirdness?

Raw Story is reporting that Stephen Hadley is Woodward's Mystery Source!

"Sources who identified Hadley as Woodward's source dismiss denials"

Attorneys close to the CIA leak investigation reasserted late Thursday that Hadley approached Fitzgerald after Libby's indictment and alerted him to the June 2003 conversation he had with Woodward, and that he subsequently told Woodward he could testify.

When pressed further, the sources told RAW STORY there is a record at the National Security Council of Hadley's meeting with Woodward.