Among the names floated Monday by administration officials are Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and White House anti-terrorism coordinator Frances Townsend. Former Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson is a White House prospect. So is former solicitor general Theodore B. Olson, but sources were unsure whether he would want the job.

Republican sources also disclosed that it is now a virtual certainty that Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty, whose incomplete and inaccurate congressional testimony about the prosecutors helped precipitate the crisis, will also resign shortly. Officials were debating whether Gonzales and McNulty should depart at the same time or whether McNulty should go a day or two after Gonzales. Still known as "The Judge" for his service on the Texas Supreme Court, Gonzales is one of the few remaining original Texans who came to Washington with President Bush.

Former Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan will be hanged Tuesday, according to Iraqi legal sources quoted by wire services Monday afternoon. The Iraqi government has scheduled the execution despite defense lawyers' contention that the government must wait at least 30 days after sentencing to execute a defendant. Ramadan, found guilty with Saddam Hussein of crimes against humanity by the Iraqi High Tribunal (IHT) in November for his role in the reprisal killings of 148 Shiites at Dujail, lost an appeal of his sentence last week. He was originally given a life sentence, but after intervention by the appeals panel the trial court in February ordered the death penalty.

Following the failed appeal Ramadan's Rome-based lawyer Giovanni Di Stefano sent a letter to Gen. David Petraeus, commanding general of the Multi-National Force Iraq, urging him to intervene and prevent Ramadan's transfer from US to Iraqi custody. Di Stefano has also petitioned Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, who has expressed opposition to the death penalty, to intervene and commute Ramadan's sentence. In an e-mail to JURIST late Monday, Di Stefano, formerly one of lawyers representing Saddam Hussein, said he had already moved to prosecute Saddam trial chief judge Rauf Rasheed Abdel-Rahman in the UK after he was alleged to have sought asylum there, and would "prosecute any and all that have been involved in the execution of my clients."

Last week, UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers Leandro Despouy urged the Iraqi government not to execute Ramadan because of "grave shortcomings" in his legal process. In February, UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Phillip Alston also called on the government to suspend the execution because of judicial misconduct.

Nacchio and other executives also face a class action lawsuit and civil charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Another former Qwest employee, ex-Vice President Marc Weisberg, pleaded guilty to wire fraud in December 2005 and agreed to help prosecutors build a case against Nacchio.

"I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew, Daniel Pearl, in the city of Karachi, Pakistan," Mohammed told a military panel, according to a Pentagon transcript released Thursday. "For those who would like to confirm, there are pictures of me on the Internet holding his head."

In 2002, an anti-terrorism court in Karachi sentenced Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, a British-born militant, to death and gave three other men life in prison for involvement in Pearl's killing.

Rai Bashir a lawyer for Sheikh and the other three men said on Sunday that he will study the Pentagon documents on Mohammed's claim and file his confession as evidence to prove Sheikh's innocence.

Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum is joining law firm Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott LLC and is expected to provide "strategic counseling" to clients, the firm said Monday.

Santorum, a three-term Republican senator from Penn Hills, was defeated in his bid for re-election by Bob Casey in November.

 
Santorum will work out of Eckert Seamans' Washington, D.C., office, the law firm said.

"We are extremely pleased that Rick is joining our firm and that our clients will have the benefit of his understanding of what it takes for businesses to succeed in today's global economy," Eckert Seamans CEO Tim Ryan said in a statement.

http://www.eckertseamans.com

Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee say the Bush administration needs to be more straightforward about the White House's role in the dismissals of eight federal prosecutors.

"I've told the attorney general that I think this has been mishandled, that by giving inaccurate information ... at the outset, it's caused a real firestorm, and he better get the facts out fast," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the chairman of the committee, pledged to get the public testimony of White House officials involved in the case whether they want to testify or not.

On Monday, the Justice Department planned to turn over to Congress documents that could provide more details of the role agency officials _ including Attorney General Alberto Gonzales _ and top White House officials played in planning the prosecutors' dismissals.

The White House was also expected to announce this week whether it will let political strategist Karl Rove, former White House counsel Harriet Miers and other officials testify or will seek to assert executive privilege in preventing their appearance.

Leahy delayed a vote on issuing subpoenas until Thursday as the president's counsel, Fred Fielding, sought to negotiate terms. But on Sunday, Leahy said he had not met Fielding nor was he particularly open to any compromises, such as a private briefing by the administration officials.