Gossip 3fer: Army trial. Endorsements for cabinet gigs? MoDo trolling Michelle?

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http://www.nypost.com/seven/02072008/gossip/cindy/us_soldiers_trial__tribulation_221460.htm?page=0

US SOLDIER'S TRIAL & TRIBULATION

February 7, 2008 -- TODAY a trial begins at Camp Victory, our Baghdad Army base. A world away, it resonates right here in New York. The centerpiece of this Iraqi murder trial - deliberately kept so under the radar that its dirty linen has not been aired in the media - is New York City's former chief medical examiner, New York state's current chief forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden, whose 45-year career includes investigating the JFK and Martin Luther King deaths, the OJ case, the John Belushi overdose, and the death of Brando's son Christian.

First, the facts: This is the court-martial of Idaho's Sgt. Evan Vela. Married, father of two small children, Vela has served in combat three years and for nine continuous months in the highly dangerous "Triangle of Death" area. Accused of purposely killing an Iraqi civilian, he claims he was following orders. It happened May 2007. He has since remained confined. Requests to move this trial to US territory - which would then put before the American public this ugly story - were denied. Believing "Evan's best interest was not being honored by his appointed attorney," his "proud parents" - who've mortgaged their all yet continually say: "May God bless our troops" - hired private counsel.

This, in turn, brought in the star of HBO's series "Autopsy," Dr. Michael Baden, to decide on key evidence. The prosecution claims the victim was killed deliberately, execution-style, from six inches away. Baden believes the 9 mm pistol was fired from at least 18 inches away, thus meaning Vela fired reflexively rather than intentionally putting it to the man's head. Baden further found that Vela, who appeared "dazed" immediately after the shooting, was on duty despite exhaustion, sleep deprivation, traumatic brain injury from multiple close encounters and stress disorder due to constant combat within a unit that sustained high casualties. ....



.... ...John Edwards abandoning his anti-poverty crusade for a pro-Edwards campaign. The Haircut sent signals he wants to be attorney general. . . . And we're hearing Obama promised secretary of state to John Kerry in return for his support. Problem is, we're also hearing Kerry could only serve three months because Operation Obama has possibly sold that position to approximately seven others. . . . Andrew Morton, on the lam from Team Scientology since writing that best-selling Tom Cruise bio, finally settled in a new place. In London . . . Hey, please, could candidates stop invoking Ronald Reagan's ghost for two minutes? They drop his name more often than Nancy does.



http://www.nypost.com/seven/02072008/gossip/pagesix/pagesix_u.htm

Times Vs. Times In Living Color

.... At the core of the mystery: Did Dowd mistake journalist Michelle Henery, who is black, for Michelle Obama? Or did Henery mistake some other redhead for Dowd?

In a column in the London paper this week, Henery wrote that Dowd, "one of my journalistic heroes," came up to her in the press room after the last Hillary Clinton-Barack Obama debate in LA. ". . . She was in my face, smiling warmly, greeting me like a long-lost friend. My mind went into overdrive trying to figure out why the world-renowned, Pulitzer Prize-winning, New York Times uber-columnist . . . was speaking to me. The shock . . . left me momentarily speechless, but in those few seconds Maureen's sweet smile turned into embarrassed confusion and she scampered off."

Henery continued, "The next day I e-mailed a group of American friends, asking whose doppelganger I was. They all agreed: 'She must have thought you were Michelle Obama.' "

Henery, a 1998 Georgetown University grad, added sarcastically: "Of course! I mean, despite her having almost 15 years on me and more than 3 inches in height, not to mention that she should be immediately recognizable having had her face plastered across every newspaper in America for the past three months, we're like twins . . . I wondered how white America was going to elect a black man for president if they could not even tell us apart." She joked: "Maureen, no hard feelings. When you came up to me, I mistook you for Arianna Huffington."

But a furious Dowd told Page Six: "(It's) total fiction. I never went up to this woman, or mistook her for anyone. I've been covering Barack and Michelle Obama for a year, and I know what they look like. And I would never expect to see a candidate or a spouse in the press room at a debate because that never happens. It's outrageous conjecture." Dowd said she planned to ask the Times of London for a correction. ....

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