Lying

The publisher of a disputed Holocaust memoir has canceled the book, adding the name Herman Rosenblat to an increasingly long list of literary scandals. "I wanted to bring happiness to people," Rosenblat said in a statement issued Saturday through his agent, Andrea Hurst. "I brought hope to a lot of people. My motivation was to make good in this world." Rosenblat's story had been embraced by Oprah Winfrey, who had interviewed him and his wife twice.

A former Moorpark couple whose Siberian tiger spent weeks prowling Ventura County neighborhoods before it was eventually hunted down and fatally shot by authorities pleaded guilty Monday to multiple federal charges related to the incident. Gert "Abby" Hedengran, 58, admitted to felony counts of obstruction of justice and making false statements, saying that he lied to federal wildlife agents in February 2005 as they were trying to track down and capture the tiger.

By his own account, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was a very busy man on July 10, 2003. That day, according to his calendar, he had a senior staff meeting; an intelligence briefing with his boss, Vice President Dick Cheney; a CIA briefing; and lunch with Cheney and then-House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.).

Jury selection in the trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby turned into an assessment of the credibility of the Bush administration Tuesday, with lawyers for the former White House aide asking potential jurors how they feel about the war in Iraq and whether they think present and former administration officials who may be called to testify can be believed.

A Cuban militant pleaded not guilty in El Paso to charges he lied to federal investigators in a bid to become a U.S. citizen. Luis Posada Carriles, 78, was indicted Jan. 11. Posada, a former CIA operative and U.S. Army soldier, is also accused by Cuba and Venezuela of masterminding the 1976 bombing of a Cuban jetliner that killed 73 people. Posada, a longtime opponent of Fidel Castro who trained for the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, is being held at a jail in New Mexico.

A witness called by the defense of a Marine accused of assaulting three Iraqis was told Saturday that he could face criminal charges. Lance Cpl. Andrew Kraus was read his rights and told he might be charged with making a false official statement and committing perjury during his testimony in a hearing for the accused officer, 2nd Lt. Nathan Phan. The allegations against Kraus came from the lead prosecutor, Maj. Donald Plowman. The hearing officer, Lt. Col. William Pigott, agreed.

Trouble keeps hounding Michael Kerr, the man who organized an all-expenses-paid trip to Disneyland in December for the families of troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. On the heels of the state attorney general scrutinizing his charity's financial records, Kerr's former employer has now sued him for allegedly failing to repay a $6,000 salary advance. The case appears similar to a $78,000 judgment leveled against Kerr in 2000 after another employer filed suit against him.

Prompted in part by misleading campaign tactics that marred elections in several states, Sens. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) introduced legislation Wednesday that would criminalize lying to or otherwise intentionally misleading voters to keep them away from the polls. Among the controversial 2006 elections was a U.S. House race in Orange County, in which thousands of Latino citizens received letters wrongly suggesting they could go to jail for voting.

IF Samuel Beckett had glossed "Alice in Wonderland," the result might have been something like the trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. On any given day, it's possible to read the courtroom drama as either farce or tragedy, though those who care about the proceedings' implications for the Washington press corps probably will incline toward the latter.

Bonnie Nadel, a veteran Los Angeles literary agent, is weary of the questions she's constantly getting from Hollywood industry types: "They want to option a book for a movie or TV, and they'll ask how many copies the book has sold," Nadel said. "And I'll tell them I really don't know the exact number. I would need inside information, which is very hard to nail down."