Loose Lips

When the White House outed Valerie Plame, did it cost another CIA agent his life? The spy shop won't say. But identifying Ms Plame outed a lot of agents in the field. And the CIA added an undisclosed name to their memorial of agents killed in action shortly afterwards.



The Washington Post reports the CIA hasn't done a damage assessment from the leak yet -- or at least they're not talking about it.

The Daily Kos has more on the nameless star added at the Memorial Wall.

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CIA Leak Timeline

The Washington Post has a timeline in the Plame Affair. (WashPost)

Word-for-Word: The Indictment

The five-count indictment against Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

LIBBY INDICTED, RESIGNS

Vice Presidential Chief of Staff Lewis "Scooter" Libby has resigned. The action comes as special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald announced a five-count indictment against him:

• One count of obstruction of justice
• Two counts of perjury
• Two counts of making false statements

He's charged with giving misleading information to the grand jury, lying to the grand jury about his conversations with three reporters, committing perjury before the grand jury in March 2004, and lying to FBI agents investigating the case. (WashPost)

FBI Looking for Source of Forged Uranium Docs

The FBI has yet to uncover the source of forged documents that lie at the heart of the CIA leak investigation.

The documents were the reason Washington sent Joe Wilson to Niger to investigate whether Iraq was attempting to buy uranium. Mr Wilson reported there was no truth to the idea.

But the White House treated it as fact in President Bush's 2003 State of the Union Speech. Mr Wilson went public about the error of the "16 words." And shortly after that, someone at the White House revealed, publicly, that Mr Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was a CIA agent.

Tht CIA didn't get their hands on the papers until months after Mr Wilson's trip. But they found that intel they'd gathered leading to his trip was "based on the forged documents and was thus itself unreliable."

The forged documents play into the mindset of the Bush administration's long standing view of Iraq. That view, the war, and the investigation are all woven together. Here's a short timeline:

• January 21, 2001: President Bush sworn in
• January-September, 2001: The New Yorker would report in it's October 27, 2003 issue that the Bush administration began to systematically change the way intelligence data was vetted. Kenneth Pollack, a former Iraq expert for the National Security Council, told the magazine: "They created stovepipes to get the information they wanted directly to the top leadership." The move makes it easier for intel a politician wants to see make its way up the ladder, while other intel that conflicts or contradicts it is buried
• January-September, 2001: The administration makes "regime change" a priority in Iraq. At the time, a coup by the Iraqi National Congress is seen as the best method
• September 11, 2001: Terror attacks kill more than 3,000 Americans in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania
• September 12, 2001: During two meetings of the National Security Council, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld suggests including Iraq in any response to the 9/11 attacks -- even though no evidence pointed to Iraq (from "10 days in September," byWashington Post reporter Bob Woodward)
• September, 13 2001: Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz -- at the daily Pentagon press briefing -- suggests the US will go after states that sponsor terrorism. In his series, "10 days in September," Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward says the statement took some in the administration by surprise, seeing it as an attempt to prod the administration into including Iraq in its first round of attacks
• October, 2001: The dates on the earliest CIA documents mentioning the Iraq-Niger connection -- but the report was sketchy and clearly marked as uncorroborated
• February 12, 2002: The Defense Intelligence Agency issues a report mentioning the connection. It repeats the information in the earlier CIA report
• February, 2002: Vice President Cheney reads the DIA report and asks the CIA for an analysis
• February, 2002: CIA's Counterproliferation Division -- where Valerie Plame is an undercover officer -- contacts her husband, Joe Wilson, to go to Niger (Mr Wilson had been posted to Niger early in his diplomatic career)
• February, 2002: Mr Wilson goes to Africa. He reported back there was no information to back up the claims
• August, 26, 2002: Vice President Cheney, speaking to a VFW Convention in Nashville, warned that Iraq would "fairly soon" have nuclear weapons
• October, 2002: The issue returns when an Italian journalist turned copies of the forged documents over to the CIA
• October-November, 2002: Citing Iraq's purported weapons of mass destruction (WMD), President Bush or senior members of his administration refer to the WMD threat from Iraq as: "significant," "real," "real and dangerous," "serious and growing," "of unique urgency," "unique and urgent," "grave," "much graver," "terrible," "immediate," and "imminent."
• January, 2003: President Bush included the "16 words" statement in his State of the Union speech -- saying there was a real attempt by Iraq to buy uranium from Niger
• January 29, 2003: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld declares: "Iraq poses a serious and mounting threat to our country. His (Saddam's) regime has the design for a nuclear weapon, was working on several different methods of enriching uranium, and recently was discovered seeking significant quantities of uranium from Africa."
• March, 2003: The CIA determined the papers were forgeries
• March 20, 2003: The US and Coalition Allies invade Iraq.
• July 6, 2003: "What I Didn't Find in Africa," an op-ed piece by Mr Wilson appears in the New York Times. It's critical of the Bush administration's claim of Iraq's attempts to obtain uranium from Africa
• July, 2003: Vainity Fair quotes Deputy Defense Secretary on the administration's plan to sell the Iraq War to the American people: "For bureaucratic reasons we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction, because it was the one reason everyone could agree on."
• July, 2003: Someone at the White House leaks the identity of Valerie Plame to several journalists, mentioning she is a CIA agent and married to Joe Wilson.
• July 14, 2003: Columnist Robert Novak includes the Valerie Plame information in his syndicated column. The disclosure would launch Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation into the leak
• March 31, 2005: The Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction -- President Bush's commission set up to look into intel failures over the non-existent Iraqi WMD program -- called the US intel community "dead wrong" on WMDs going into the Iraq War.

Meanwhile, the FBI investigation still goes on. They have no idea, yet, who produced the forged documents that played so prominently in the US march to war in Iraq. (NYT)

Red Cross Looking for a Loan

Hurricane Katrina relief efforts have drained the American Red Cross' Disaster Relief Fund. They're seeking a $350 million loan to cover costs -- the first time in its 124-year history the Red Cross has ever had to seek a loan.

The Red Cross figured it needed about $2 billion to respond to this year's Gulf Coast hurricanes. They raised $1.3 billion and have spent almost all of it.



Click this banner to donate.

"The IRS Set Me Up"

Former DC Mayor Marion Barry (D) has been indicted on failure to file income tax returns. The misdemeanor charge could land him a year and a half in prison if convicted.

The former four-term mayor and current city councilman served a six-month prison sentence in the 90s. He was caught on tape in an FBI sting smoking crack cocaine. (ABC)

Deadline Looms

Special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald has scheduled a 2:00 pm EDT news conference in Washington. Mr Fitzgerald has been investigating the White House leak of a CIA agent's identity for two years. The grand jury's term expires today.



Meanwhile, CNN reports that political sources tell them that Vice Presidential Chief of Staff Lewis "Scooter" Libby (above) has been told he could face indictment in the case. (CNN)

UPDATE: The special counsel's office says the paperwork in the case will be available at noon. You can check the link to the special counsel's office below or in the right hand column.

Friday Follies

Highlights of the more unusual politics as usual stories from the week that was.

Running From President

The Republican running for Governor in Viginia is running away from President Bush just eleven days before the election.


MP3 File

Another First for Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks may become the "Rosa Parks of Women Lying in Honor at the Capitol Rotunda."

Congress is considering the idea. Ms Parks, who's refusal to give up a seat on a Montgomery bus to a white man in 1955 launched the civil rights movement, died this week at 92.

The Senate approved the resolution Thursday. The House takes it up today. She would be the first woman to lie in honor in the Capitol. (Austin American Statesman)

Cheney Withheld Information from a Congressional Investigation

The National Journal reports that Vice President Cheney and his Chief of Staff -- Lewis "Scooter" Libby -- withheld information from the Senate Intelligence Committee last year.

The VP and his aide acted against the advice of White House advisors and lawyers.

The Committee was investigating pre-war intel failures that wrongly concluded Iraq had WMDs.

Mr Libby wrote some of the documents withheld from the Committee. Those documents were used to draft then Secretary of State Colin Powell's speech to the UN (left). The speech was supposed to present the US case for war against Iraq.

The evidence Mr Powell put forward in that speech has since been largely discredited. And Mr Powell has since said the speech was "the lowest point" of his life. (National Journal)

Luckovich Cartoon Includes Names of 2,000 U.S. Troops Killed in Iraq

Editoral cartoonist Mike Luckovich spent 13 hours crafting his piece marking the 2,000th troop death in Iraq.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution artist created the word "WHY" from the names of the first 2,000 American Servicemembers killed in the war.

"I was trying to think of a way to make the point that this whole war is such a waste. But I also wanted to honor the troops I believe our government wrongly sent to Iraq." -- Mike Luckovich, quoted in Editor & Publisher.

He worked over the weekend, putting the names in -- roughly in the order of their deaths. Other staffers checked it over to make sure the Pulitizer Prize winner had included all the names and gotten their spelling correct. (Editor & Publisher) [Click image for larger version]

Saddam Got $1.8 Billion in Kickbacks

More than 2,000 companies from 66 countries are implicated in the UN's report on the Oil for Food scandal. Among those on the list, Belgian-based Volvo Construction Equipment and German-American car maker DaimlerChrysler.

The UN's 500-page report says the companies paid $1.8 billion in bribes and kickbacks to the Saddam Hussein regime over the life of the $64 billion program. (WashPost) [Click United Nations Seal to read the full report from the UN]

Raw Sources Say Indictments Ready

The Raw Story reports that lawyers close to the CIA leak investigation say special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald has secured at least one indictment.

Raw Story says Mr Fitzgerald may also seek an extension of the grand jury -- set to adjourn Friday. Sources tell TRS that the special counsel wants to infestigate forged documents the Bush administration used to show Iraq was trying to buy uranium from Niger. But that could be done by convening a new grand jury.

TRS also reports that some people targeted in the investigation are now interested in plea bargins -- and that could further delay announcement of any indictments. (TRS)

Short Lists Redeux

Real Clear Politics has a new "short list" of Supreme Court nominees.

So does National Journal's "Hotline."

Talk of the Town

The Washington Post has collected a steady stream of quotes on Harriet Miers (pictured here with President Bush in 2001) withdrawing her nomination for the Supreme Court. Among them:

"This is a sad episode." -- Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA) (left) -- he said on October 11 that it would be "a sign of incredible weakness" if Bush withdrew the nomination.

"I do not believe that this nomination was withdrawn simply because of the president's refusal to release White House documents. That is a fig leaf to cover the real problem which was a badly mismanaged and rush nomination." -- Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) (right)

"In a month, who will remember the name Harriet Miers?" --Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) (left)

"When his party turned on him (President Bush), he was in trouble and she was in trouble."-- Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL)(right)

"Various groups, particularly on the Republican side, didn't give her the opportunity to share why she's qualified." -- Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH)

“It's a telling statement about the instability and ideological confusion facing the White House and the Republican Party." -- Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) (WashPost)

Pork Cuts

Congress is still trying to come up with money to pay for Gulf Coast reconstruction.

Might we suggest they go to the Taxpayers for Common Sense website? TCS?

They have a database detailing every single pork project tucked into August's highway bill. (TCS)

Brownie's Still Doing a Heck of a Job -- And You're Paying His Salary

Former FEMA head Michael Brown (left) is not only still on the job -- his contract has been extended by 30 days.

Mr Brown resigned after FEMA's massive failures in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. New testimony bfore Congress indicates that Mr Brown ignored repeated warnings about levee breaches and flooding for as long as 17 hours before responding. The delay made it impossible to relieve or resuce tens of thousands of people later trapped by rising flood waters at the Superdome and the city's convention center.

After resigning, Mr Brown was allowed to stay on at FEMA for 30 days as a consultant -- drawing his $148,000 a year salary. Now, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff says Mr Brown is still needed to help FEMA investigate what went wrong. (Newsday)

Miers Quits

President Bush has "reluctantly" accepted Harriet Miers' request to withdraw her nomination to the Supreme Court. More to follow.

Update: President Bush announced that Ms Miers is withdrawing because Senators want access to papers that would "undermine a president's ability to receive candid counsel."

Ms Miers' nomination did not sit well with many Republican Senators. And her nomination was becoming increasingly problematic for the administration.(CNN)

Don't Mean to Kick You When You're Down -- But You're Fired

A 40 year old mother of three was fired for seeing her husband off to war.

Suzette Boler took an unpaid leave of absense to travel from Caledonia, Michigan to Indianapolis with her husband, Army SPC Jerry Boler. SPC Boler's National Guard unit was flying to Fort Dix, New Jersey for deployment to Iraq.

She had recieved permission to take the week off. She was supposed to return to her parttime receptionist job the following day.

But she felt emotionally drained and told her bosses she'd need another day.

Her bosses called her at home and told her to pick up her things. (AP via My Way)

UPDATE: One of our readers has the address and phone numbers for the company that fired Ms Boler. Click on "Comment" for that info.

Rove Prepares for the Worst

White House advisor Karl Rove's (right) lawyers spent Wednesday working on a defense strategy if he's indicted in the CIA leak investigation. They consulted with former Justice Department official Mark Corallo on the legal defense -- and with Republican consultant Ed Gillespie for a defense in the court of public opinion.

Special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald spent the day meeting with the grand jury and consulting with the chief judge at the courthouse where the grand jury's meeting.

A Los Angeles Times reporter picked up a snippet that suggests Mr Fitzgerald will use every minute of time he has before wrapping up his case:

One grand juror was overheard telling another juror, "See you Friday," suggesting the possibility that the grand jury would continue to meet up to the last minute. -- (LAT)

The grand jury's term is to expire on Friday. There have been no signs that Mr Fitzgerald will ask to extend it.

Beyond 2000

Two thousand deaths in Iraq is only part of the picture. There are other casualties that don't get as much attention

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Going up Against Bigger Bombs in Iraq

Bigger stronger bombs are killing more Americans in Iraq. The insurgents are improvising ways to turn left-over artillery shells into specialized weapons that work against American tactics in the war. More than half of the Americans killed in the Iraq War have now been killed with IEDs -- Improvised Explosive Devices. (WashPost)

Iraq

Rove Offered a Deal

The Raw Story reports that special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald (left) offered White House advisor Karl Rove a deal Tuesday in the CIA leak case.

Lawyers close to the case tell Raw Story that the deal would have had Mr Rove (right) pleading guilty to perjury and Mr Patrick would drop an obstruction of justice charge against him. The sources said Mr Rove turned down the offer. Roll Call had reported earlier that Mr Fitzgerald was spotted Tuesday at the offices of Mr Rove's attorney -- Robert Luskin.

Raw Story's sources tell the site that Mr Fitzgerald has asked the grand jury to return indictments against four people:

• White House advisor Karl Rove on two charges: perjury and obstruction of justice
• Vice Presidential Chief of Staff Lewis "Scooter" Libby (right) on three charges: perjury, obstruction of justice, and knowingly outing a covert CIA agent -- in violation of a 1982 federal law
• Two other people the source did not identify. Neither are White House employess and The Raw Story does not say what charges Mr Fitzgerald sought against them

There are conflicting reports as to whether indictments would be handed down today or Thursday. Reports last night suggested they'd come today. CNN is reporting any announcement won't come until Thursday. (The Raw Story)

Rove

Grand Jury Round Up -- Indictment Wranglers Busy

The National Journal's Hotline reports that talk from the White House and leading Republicans focused last night on a major figure at the White House would be indicted in the CIA leak. The office of the Vice President was among those mentioned. Much of that talk coming at a Republican National Committee fundraiser.

The Washington Post reported this morning that the White House was bracing for indictments.

Both CBS and the Financial Times reported last night that indictments in the CIA leak case would come today.

CNN reports that the grand jury could hand up indictments -- but that there would be no announcement on them from the special counsel's office today.

The Los Angeles Times reports that special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald spent Tuesday in what appeared to be a flurry of tying up loose ends before handing down indictments. (The Hotline)

2000

The number of Americans killed in Iraq has reached 2,000.

Some of the headlines putting faces with that number today:

• CNN: They Had Nicknames: A Closer Look at a Few of the Fallen
• LAT: A Life Back in Flower When it was Lost
• NYT: The Roster of the Dead
• NYT: 2,000 Dead
• WashPost: Where They Lived
• WashPost: Faces of the Fallen

Bring it On has a video commentary on the US death toll in Iraq, a five minute video that tries to give you an idea of what 2,000 troops looks like: 2,000.

Fish Story

Guess where your homeland security money's going. At least the little mermaid should feel safe at Jurassic Park. (Tampa Bay Online)

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Rosa Parks

The seamstress who sparked the Civil Rights Movement has died. December 1, will be the 50th anniversary of the day Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white man.

She was arrested (right). It caused blacks in Montgomery, Alabama to launch a bus boycott and triggered a wider movement.

Rosa Parks was 92. (WashPost)

Cheney Told Aide about Valerie Plame's CIA Role

The New York Times reports that Vice Presidential Chief of Staff "Scooter" Libby (left) first learned of CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity from Vice President Dick Cheney. That conflicts with what he told the grand jury investigating the White House leak of her identity. Mr Libby reportedly told the grand jury he learned the identity from reporters. That could open Mr Libby to a charge of giving false testimony.

Lawyers say Vice President Cheney told Mr Libby about Ms Plame about a month before her name was leaked and showed up in a Robert Novak column.

Mr Libby's notes showed that the Vice President had gotten the information about Ms Plame from CIA Director George Tenent. George Tenent was awarded the Medal of Freedom (right) for his role in gathering intelligence that led the US into the Iraq War. Much of that intel has since proven faulty.

The Vice President -- at the time before the leak -- was upset with Ms Plame's husband, former ambassador Joe Wilson. Vice President Cheney, several months before, put in motion a series of events that ended with Mr Wilson traveling to Niger to investigate Iraq's attempts to buy uranium for it's nuclear program. Mr Wilson reported that Iraq never did attempt to buy the uranium and that the "sixteen word" claim in President Bush's 2003 State of the Union address was false.

Shortly after Mr Wilson went public with this, someone in the White House leaked information to reporters that his wife was a CIA agent.

Indictments -- if any are handed down in the investigation -- would come before the grand jury adjourns on Friday. (New York Times)

The White House Peels an Onion

With hurricane relief running smooth as silk, Harriet Miers skating toward nomination, and Iraq all peaceful and quiet, the fine folks at your White House have gotten down to some serious business: Firing off a cease-and-desist order to The Onion.

The Onion, which bills itself as "America's Finest News Source," is actually one of the greatest sources of parody and satire on the Internet. But it seems that with all the stress over possible indictments, the lawyers in your White House can't take a joke.

They've fired off a letter telling Onion staffers to quit using the Presidential Seal (right) when making fun of the President and company.

"I'm surprised the president deems it wise to spend taxpayer money for his lawyer to write letters to The Onion." -- Editor in Chief Scott Dikkers quoted in the New York Times

The Onion uses a picture of the President and the Presidential Seal when it makes fake versions of the President's Weekly Radio Address.

The lawyers say federal law bars private commercial enterprises -- engaged in turning a profit -- from using the Presidential Seal. They worry that someone might mistake the image as the President endorsing the Onion or the fake radio speech or some such thing.

The Onion is pretty sure most people can tell it's a joke. That it's not real.

But hey, we're talking about the White House. The guys who thought the reports on WMDs in Iraq were serious. (Romenesko)

Alan Greenspan's Replacement

President Bush has named Dr Ben Bernanke as the head of the fed -- Alan Greenspan's replacement.

Professor Benanke, shown here being sworn in as chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisors, is an ivy league graduate with a lot of ivory tower time on his resume. He has been a professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton from 1985 until he was named CEA Chairman in June.

You can find his official biography at the White House website.

Overbilling Charged

Right after the 9/11 attacks, Washington needed airline security fixed -- and fast.

So the bean counters didn't look closely at some of the bills until just recently. Guess what they found?

Unisys landed a $1 billion dollar contract to beef up technology. Federal auditors claim the company overbilled taxpayers for 171,000 hours of work. Unisys charged $131 an hour -- for workers paid only half that much.

They were supposed to build a computer network for the Transportation Security Administration. It would link thousands of TSA screeners to a central security center.

Four years later, you're still paying.

The contract is costing twice as much as predicted. And the network isn't anywhere near finished.

[News & Politics]

Put "Boy Genius" in the Subject Line

The Raw Story points us to Craig's List where someone is looking for a "new Rove."

Great pay and perks, but you have to be good with "evangelical Christians, NASCAR fans, true patriots, and angry white males."

Better hurry. The ad says the job may be open "next week." (The Raw Story/Craig's List)

Fatal Flaws in the Floodwalls

It appears the New Orleans flooding was more of a man-made disaster than a natural one.

Three breaches in New Orleans floodwalls turned Hurricane Katrina from a run of the mill storm into the worst natural disaster in US history. It was the flooding -- a day after the storm left the Gulf Coast -- that caused most of the death and destruction and trapped tens of thousands of people in New Orleans for days before help arrived.

Investigaors have spent eight weeks trying to figure out why those levees and floodwalls failed. The more they look, the more it looks like they were poorly designed.

It appears the floodwalls could not stand up to a Category 3 hurricane. And their design didn't even meet the Army Corps of Engineers own standards.

Investigators also believe a canal -- hardly ever used -- focused the force of the storm in such a way as to cause one of the three levee failures.

More than 1,000 people died Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. (WashPost)

The Lobbyist's Electronic Paper Trail

E-mails show that lobbyist Jack Abramoff turned to Christian conservative Ralph Reed to get him connections inside the Bush White House.

Mr Abramoff is at the heart of a federal fraud investigation.

The e-mails also show Mr Abramoff sought help from Karl Rove -- asking on at least three occasions that he intervene in policy decisions to help business interests. (LAT)

The One Word Promise from the President

[This post originally appeared on Watching Washington on July 13, 2005]

There's been some confusion as to whether President Bush himself ever promised to fire anyone who leaked Valerie Plame's identity to the media. The President has in fact made that promise. It came during an exchange with reporters at a news conference following the G-8 Summit in Sea Island, Georgia last year:

Q. Given recent developments in the C.I.A. leak case, particularly Vice President Cheney's discussions with the investigators, do you still stand by what you said several months ago, suggestion that it might difficult to identify anybody who leaked the agent's name? And ...

President Bush: That's up …

Q. And do you stand by your pledge to fire anyone found to have done so? And …

President Bush: Yes....

--President Bush,
June 10, 2004

You can find the complete, official transcript containing the exchange at the White House website. (NYT & The White House) [Photo Credit: President Bush at June 10, 2004 news conference, White House photo]

Sen Allen Offers Advice

Sen George Allen (R-VA) (left) says the President needs to clarify whether aides will stay at the White House if they are indicted this week in the CIA leak investigation:

"I think they should step down. I do think that's appropriate ... if they're in the midst of an indictment."

President Bush has shifted his position on whether people would be fired or asked to resign if they are indicted. (Guardian)

Bracing for Indictments

Bracing for the worst, the White House is working on a strategy to downplay possible indictments this week in the CIA leak investigation.

The grand jury adjourns at the end of this week, and with no final report in the works, speculation is that special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald will hand down indictments.

The New York Times reports the White House is planning a simple two-pronged attack:

• Attack any criminal charges as a disagreement over legal technicalities
• Attack Mr Fitzgerald as being overzealous
• Claim that the special cousel lack accountability and simply pursue cases until they find someone to charge (a strategy the Clinton administration used)

Those points emerged in interviews featuring Republican leaders who appeared on the Sunday talkshows. (New York Times)

Terror Attacks in the US

Washington is quick to brag about the terrorist attacks they've stopped. But politicians don't often mention the dozens of terror attacks that have happened here in the United States since 9/11.



You can find more information about the attacks on US soil at the National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism website.

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Selling a National Monument

Special interests are taking advantage of recent hurricanes to make a land grab. And people in Congress are listening to them.

Members are talking about selling off national park land to raise money -- including a national memorial to one of America's greatest conservationists.

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