Top Items:
New York Times:
Defense Lawyers in Terror Cases Plan Challenges Over Spy Efforts — WASHINGTON, Dec. 27 - Defense lawyers in some of the country's biggest terrorism cases say they plan to bring legal challenges to determine whether the National Security Agency used illegal wiretaps against several dozen Muslim men tied to Al Qaeda.
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ReddHedd / firedoglake:Meet the Fan — In a NYTimes article that should come …
Discussion:
Alternate Brain
Wall Street Journal:
Pro-War Group Takes to the Airwaves — Move America Forward Ads Aim to Lift — Bush's Approval Rating by Backing WMD Claims — WASHINGTON — The television commercials are attention-grabbing: Newly found Iraqi documents show that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction …
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Bill Roggio / ThreatsWatch.Org:
Disinformation Operations — Flaws in The Washington Post's article on Information Operations — Monday's Washington Post featured an article written by Jonathan Finer and Doug Struck titled Bloggers, Money Now Weapons in Information War - U.S. Recruits Advocates to the Front …
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Francis Turner / L'Ombre de l'Olivier:
FUD and the MSM — The WaPo has hit piece on Bill Roggio which is, at first sight, an example of the usual "blogger falls foul of stuck up MSM hack" article that have become all too common over the last couple of years. But this one is a little different, IMO.
Discussion:
Gates of Vienna
Mark Tapscott / tapscottscopydesk.blogspot.com:
How Will The Washington Post Handle This? Simple Corrections Won't Do it — Mainstream media giants like The Washington Post repeatedly claim to have layers and layers of editors and fact checkers to make sure only verified facts appear in the daily newspaper.
Reuters:
Secret surveillance up sharply since 9/11 — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal applications for a special U.S. court to authorize secret surveillance rose sharply after the September 11, 2001, attacks, and the panel required changes to the requests at an even greater rate, government documents show.
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Robert Fisk / Los Angeles Times:
Telling it like it isn't — I FIRST REALIZED the enormous pressures on American journalists in the Middle East when I went some years ago to say goodbye to a colleague from the Boston Globe. I expressed my sorrow that he was leaving a region where he had obviously enjoyed reporting.
Katherine Shrader / Associated Press:
CIA Probes Renditions of Terror Suspects — WASHINGTON - The CIA's independent watchdog is investigating fewer than 10 cases where terror suspects may have been mistakenly swept away to foreign countries by the spy agency, a figure lower than published reports but enough to raise some concerns.
Kristen Philipkoski / Wired News:
2005's 10 Sexiest Geeks — Some people say the term "sexy geek" is an oxymoron. Here at Wired News, we say it's redundant. With so many accomplished and delectable nerd types to choose from, picking 10 of the sexiest geeks of 2005 was no easy task. But after much deliberation, here …
C.J. Karamargin / Arizona Daily Star:
McCain brings his message to MTV audience — "Let the student decide." With those well-chosen words John McCain summed up his view on the teaching of "intelligent design" along with evolution in public schools. — Even — or perhaps especially — with controversial topics …
Reuters:
Munich mastermind spurns Spielberg's peace appeal — GAZA (Reuters) - The Palestinian mastermind of the Munich Olympics attack in which 11 Israeli athletes died said on Tuesday he had no regrets and that Steven Spielberg's new film about the incident would not deliver reconciliation.
Discussion:
Kesher Talk, Power Line, Gateway Pundit, The Corner on National …, GOP Bloggers and This Blog Is Full Of Crap
BBC:
Mass grave unearthed in Iraq city — A mass grave has been discovered in the predominantly Shia city of Karbala south of Baghdad, Iraqi police said. — Dozens of bodies have reportedly been found, apparently those of Shia rebels killed by Saddam Hussein's army after its defeat in the 1991 Gulf War.
Discussion:
Captain's Quarters, Left I on the News, Security Watchtower, Secular Blasphemy and bRight & Early
Cam Simpson / Chicago Tribune:
U.S. stalls on human trafficking — Pentagon has yet to ban contractors from using forced labor — WASHINGTON — Three years ago, President Bush declared that he had "zero tolerance" for trafficking in humans by the government's overseas contractors, and two years ago Congress mandated a similar policy.
Austin Bay Blog:
UPDATED: The Big Story of 2005 — I just finished writing this week's Creators Syndicate column and I've emailed it to my editor. The subject is "the year's big story" — but it's a knuckling curve, so I won't give the title away. — That noted, what ARE the big stories of 2005?
BBC:
Poland postpones Iraq withdrawal — Poland's government says it has taken the "very difficult decision" to extend its military deployment in Iraq until the end of 2006. — The new conservative government's decision reverses the previous leftist administration's plan to pull troops out in early 2006.
