Be Not Afraid … [From a prayer card I found on a base in Anbar Province, Iraq.]  —  Thoughts flow on the eve of a great battle.  By the time these words are released, we will be in combat.  Few ears have heard even rumors of this battle, and fewer still are the eyes that will see its full scope.

The Runaway Train That Hit Scooter Libby  —  The attorney general called a meeting.  He assembled all the U.S. attorneys in the Great Hall of the Justice Department and told them, in essence, that their chief responsibility was to decide whom not to prosecute.

Question Time for Nominee Linked to Interrogations  —  In the months after the Sept. 11 attacks, at a time when the Central Intelligence Agency had long been out of the interrogation business, senior C.I.A. officers scrambled to build a program to question terror suspects in secret jails abroad.

Rudy missing in action for Iraq panel  —  Giuliani's campaign fundraising kept him from commitment to panel studying Iraq.  —  WASHINGTON — Rudolph Giuliani's membership on an elite Iraq study panel came to an abrupt end last spring after he failed to show up for a single official meeting of the group …

Brothers to the Bitter End  —  SO the masked men of Fatah have the run of the West Bank while the masked men of Hamas have their dominion in Gaza.  Some see this as a tolerable situation, maybe even an improvement, envisioning a secularist Fatah-run state living peacefully alongside Israel and a small …

US agencies disobey 6 laws that president challenged  —  Officials regarded some as advisory  —  WASHINGTON — Federal officials have disobeyed at least six new laws that President Bush challenged in his signing statements, a government study disclosed yesterday.

"Sir" Salman Rushdie: Day Two  —  The saga continues...  Pakistan's protesters chant slogans to condemn the British government for awarding a knighthood to Salman Rushdie in Karachi, Pakistan, Tuesday, June 19, 2007.  Pakistan's government summoned the British ambassador Tuesday to protest …

Republican candidates begin snubbing Bush  —  A president with dismal approval ratings and a bitter intraparty rupture over immigration are obvious problems for Republican politicians.  —  In recent days, however, the combination is emerging as something less obvious: an opportunity.

Few senators read Iraq NIE report  —  Only a handful of senators outside the Intelligence Committee say they read the full 92-page National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq's ability to attack the U.S. before voting to go to war, according to a survey conducted by The Hill.

Getting Lost in the Great Indoors  —  Many Adults Worry Nature Is Disappearing From Children's Lives  —  Linda Pelzman appreciates the beauty of the outdoor world, sometimes pulling her children into the yard to gaze at a full moon or peer into a dense fog.

How High Will Gas Prices Go?  —  A state by state analysis  —  Mouse over map to view breakdown by state.  —  Based on a review of the energy legislation currently before the U.S. Senate, S. 1419, including the just completed section on tax changes, the price of regular unleaded gasoline …

You're nobody until somebody pardons you  —  When he was 13 years old, Anthony Circosta shot another kid in the arm with a BB gun, which was not a nice thing to do.  —  And even though Circosta's shot did not break the kid's skin, Circosta was convicted of assault.

U.S. Is 'Really in Trouble,' Says Bloomberg, Sounding Like a Candidate  —  Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, sounding every inch the presidential candidate he insists he is not, brought his message of pragmatic, nonpartisan leadership to California on Monday, telling a crowd of Google employees that the nation was "really in trouble."

House pet projects stay private despite promises … (CNN) — Despite the new Democratic congressional leadership's promise of "openness and transparency" in the budget process, a CNN survey of the House found it nearly impossible to get information on lawmakers' pet projects.

KERIK'S CRY OVER RUDY  —  LAMENTS LOSING HIS PAL  —  Disgraced ex-NYPD Commissioner Bernie Kerik can't stop crying over his fizzled friendship with former BFF Rudy Giuliani.  —  "I accept the distance created by Giuliani.  I understand it, but inside, it's killing me," Kerik said.