Bush Awards Total of 11 Medals of Freedom for 2007

Washington, DC (UPSI) - President Bush yesterday awarded the presidential medal of freedom, the highest civilian honor bestowed by the president, to eight recipients in a public ceremony and three other recipients in a more private White House ceremony afterwards. Recipients in the public ceremony included among others: Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, American novelist Harper Lee, C-SPAN founder Brian Lamb, US Congressman Henry Hyde, and Cuban dissident Oscar Elias Biset in absentia. The three recipients in the private White House ceremony were current Chief of Staff Josh Bolten, former presidential lawyer and Supreme Court candidate Harriet Myers, and former political adviser Karl Rove who became the first person in history to receive a second Medal of Freedom.