The White House finally broke its silence on President Clinton’s trip to North Korea, where he facilitated the release of two detained U.S. journalists. Laura Ling and Euna Lee were pardoned Tuesday by North Korean leader Kim Jong Il after being detained four months ago after authorities there accused them of illegally entering the country. The women, both journalists for Current TV,  had been sentenced to 12 years in a hard labor camp, but North Korea freed the women after Clinton’s visit today. The two are now en route to California on Clinton’s chartered jet, where they will be reunited with their families early Wednesday.

Administration officials had refused to comment on the specifics of the situation until Clinton’s jet had departed Pyongyang out of fear they would jeopardize the talks. But late Tuesday, a senior administration official briefed reporters, shedding more light into how exactly the trip had come about. As Eleanor Clift reported earlier today, Clinton’s involvement was no accident. According to the White House, the North Koreans in mid-July hinted to Lee and Ling that if Bill Clinton were to come to Pyongyang, they would release them. Lee and Ling, who were allowed to talk to their families via phone occasionally, relayed this information to their loved ones, who in turn told the White House, State Department and former Vice President Al Gore, who owns Current TV.

The news just broke that President Bill Clinton, after meeting with the ailing North Korean Leader Kim Jong Il, has secured a pardon for two Current TV journalists. Euna Lee and Laura Ling had been sentenced to 12 years of hard labor after allegedly entering North Korea illegally. Although the White House and State Department have withheld comment on the situation for now, NEWSWEEK's Eleanor Clift spoke to an insider about how Clinton's trip came about.

When your GuestGaggler woke up this morning and saw that Bill Clinton was in NorthKorea, my first thought was poor Al Gore─overshadowed yet again by oneor the other Clinton. After all, the two women held in North Korea workfor Current, a cable-news channel cofounded by Gore. When theywere first captured, the buzz was that Gore would be dispatched tonegotiate their release. He offered to do that but the powers that be(a source says, namely, Hillary) thought it best to hold off, and Gore dutifully agreed. A source familiar with the back story said that theidea to send Bill Clinton came as a surprise to the Clinton camp andthat it emerged in conversations between the North Koreans and theState Department -- and it was the North Koreans who initiated theidea. Perhaps it's not so unexpected: Clinton was the president whoseadministration negotiated the first deal with the regime to cap theirnuclear efforts in exchange for food shipments and help with energy,and he has a relationship with them. It's not warm and fuzzy, but it's morethan anybody else has. Clinton talked with Gore extensively over thelast 24 hours, this source says, and Gore strongly encouraged thepresident to make the trip.

A digital scan of Obama's birth certificate courtesy Obama for America

President Obama turns 48 today. He’ll spend his birthday at the White House, where he’s having lunch with the entire Senate Democratic Caucus this afternoon. “Chuck E. Cheese was booked,” Press Secretary Robert Gibbs joked yesterday. Yeah, yeah—You laugh now, Gibbs, but wait until you see Harry Reid jump out of a giant cake.

In honor of the prez’s birthday, your Gaggler is posting what seems to be one of the more controversial documents these days: Obama’s birth certificate. Confirmed again and again by Hawaii’s state health department, the document shows that Obama was born on Aug. 4, 1961, in Honolulu—though some folks just don’t believe he’s a U.S. citizen and likely never will. A Research 2000 poll sponsored by the liberal blog Daily Kos found that while a majority of those polled believe Obama is a natural-born citizen, 11 percent of those surveyed didn't buy it, while 12 percent just didn't know--small, but fairly disturbing numbers nonetheless.