Top Items:
James Bamford / New York Times:
The Agency That Could Be Big Brother — DEEP in a remote, fog-layered hollow near Sugar Grove, W.Va., hidden by fortress-like mountains, sits the country's largest eavesdropping bug. Located in a "radio quiet" zone, the station's large parabolic dishes secretly and silently sweep in millions …
BBC:
Queen highlights year's tragedies — The Queen has praised the "quite remarkable" humanitarian responses to natural disasters and terrorist acts in 2005 in her Christmas Day message. — She recalled events from the Asian tsunami to Hurricane Katrina and the 7 July London bombings and highlighted the efforts by people of all faiths.
Discussion:
The Right Coast
Steve Chapman / Chicago Tribune:
Beyond the imperial presidency — President Bush is a bundle of paradoxes. He thinks the scope of the federal government should be limited but the powers of the president should not. He wants judges to interpret the Constitution as the framers did, but doesn't think he should be constrained by their intentions.
Ezra Klein:
Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukkah, And So Forth — Happy holidays folks. And, yes, a Merry Christmas, too. I can't say I was ever a very vigorous participant in the War on Christmas. I happen to love the holidays and, particularly, the music. But you know how it goes.
Joshua Muravchik / Los Angeles Times:
Freedom had a good year — ALTHOUGH LAST week's Iraqi elections boost the prospects for democracy in that long-suffering land, a new report on the state of freedom globally gives hope that we are at the start of a tectonic shift toward liberty across the Muslim world.
David Axe / Defense Tech:
MERRY CHRISTMAS, IRAQ — At the Erbil Ministry of Culture's media hall, the Iraqi-Kurdistan Symphony Orchestra has just struck the final chord of the Kurdish national anthem, and the audience — Kurdish Christians and Muslims, Arabs and Turkomens, maybe even an Iraqi Jew or two …
Los Angeles Times:
U.S. Spying Is Much Wider, Some Suspect — WASHINGTON — President Bush has acknowledged that several hundred targeted Americans were wiretapped without warrants under the National Security Agency's domestic spying program, and now some U.S. officials and outside experts say they suspect …
Roy / alicublog:
AND WE'RE GONNA GET BORN NOW. I am a Christmas crank from way back. As recently as last year I was collecting negative Xmas carols. Old-time edroso.com fans may even remember my 2000 Charlie Brown Christmas parody, now lost to the internet, in which Linus and Good Ol' Roy Edroso predicted …
Josh White / Washington Post:
Detainees Face Limited Access to Courts — But Bill Awaiting Bush Signature Would Shield Terror Suspects from U.S. Abuse — The defense authorization bill approved by Congress this week includes landmark protections for military detainees suspected of terrorist activities from abuse …
Robert D. Kaplan / Los Angeles Times:
The future of America — in Iraq — IF YOU WANT to meet the future political leaders of the United States, go to Iraq. I am not referring to the generals, or even the colonels. I mean the junior officers and enlistees in their 20s and 30s. In the decades ahead, they will represent something uncommon …
Jim Wolf / Reuters:
New Year's Day 2006: delayed by a second — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Get ready for a minute with 61 seconds. Scientists are delaying the start of 2006 by the first "leap second" in seven years, a timing tweak meant to make up for changes in the Earth's rotation.
Discussion:
The Heretik
Clancy Chassay / Lebanon Daily Star:
Hizbullah is Lebanon's bulwark against Al-Qaeda — 'We do not have any relations with that group' — Since the events of September 11, 2001, there have been numerous attempts to link Hizbullah to Al-Qaeda - some more plausible than others. Investigation, however, reveals considerable animosity between …
Discussion:
TigerHawk
Washington Post:
Post-9/11 Rush Mixed Politics With Security — Congressman Benefits From Homeland Security Spending — As a small start-up company in Massachusetts sought to become a major player in the business of homeland security, it hired a lobbyist and attended a fundraiser for one of the most powerful members of Congress.
Eric Lichtblau / New York Times:
Officials Want to Expand Review of Domestic Spying — WASHINGTON, Dec. 24 - Congressional officials said Saturday that they wanted to investigate the disclosure that the National Security Agency had gained access to some of the country's main telephone arteries to glean data on possible terrorists.
