Iowa Public Television

Washington Week

Episode #4349

Moderator: Gwen Ifill The resignation of George Tenet as CIA director comes at a time when terror alerts are heightened and the war in Iraq is taking a new turn. Washington Post correspondent Dana Priest will dissect the timing, the impact and meaning of Tenet's departure, and what it might mean for the ongoing war on terror. With the interim Iraqi government chosen, the Bush administration is looking ahead to the U.S. role in the new Iraq. At the same time, new revelations about the head of the Iraqi National Congress, Ahmed Chalabi, and whether he might have shared American intelligence information with Iran. Los Angeles Times Washington bureau chief Doyle McManus will have the details on both evolving stories. With great fanfare, the Justice Department announced that the detainedenemy combatant Jose Padilla has admitted that he was an agent of Al-Qaeda. This comes just weeks before the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether individuals like Padilla can be held indefinitely without charges. The inside story of why federal authorities picked now to disclose this information and what impact it might have on the pending Supreme Court case, from Pete Williams, justice correspondent for NBC News. On the political front, with the pickup of a congressional seat in theSouth Dakota special election, Democrats are feeling emboldened. In fact, a gathering of liberals in Washington this week has caught the eye of Wall Street Journal political editor John Harwood, who will focus on the realities of the Democratic euphoria and what it might mean as the political season continues to heat up.
[26 minutes]

This episode has not aired in the past few months on Iowa Public Television.