Top Items:
Anne Penketh / Independent:
Ex-envoy to Uzbekistan goes public on torture — Britain's former ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray, has defied the Foreign Office by publishing on the internet documents providing evidence that the British Government knowingly received information extracted by torture in the "war on terror".
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Dana Priest / Washington Post:
Covert CIA Program Withstands New Furor — The effort President Bush authorized shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, to fight al Qaeda has grown into the largest CIA covert action program since the height of the Cold War, expanding in size and ambition despite a growing outcry at home and abroad …
National Review:
NRO's 2006 Crystal Ball — EDITOR'S NOTE: Another year, more predictions. Every year some brave souls here at National Review Online look into their crystal balls and see what they see for the upcoming year. Enjoy their self-sacrifice. And Happy New Year! — WARREN BELL
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William Safire / New York Times:
The Office Pool, 2006 — HERE is your 32nd annual chance to Beat the Pundit. In each multiple choice, pick one, none or all. In a good year, a master prognosticator gets four right. — 1. U.S. troops in Iraq at 2006 year's end will number: (a) current "base line" 138,000; (b) …
Discussion:
Althouse
Rob Stein / Washington Post:
Stomach Bug Mutates Into Medical Mystery — First came stomach cramps, which left Christina Shultz doubled over and weeping in pain. Then came nausea and fatigue — so overwhelming she couldn't get out of bed for days. Just when she thought things couldn't get worse …
Scott Elliott / electionprojection.com:
Bad news is backfiring for Democrats — Over the last few months, we've been privy to news cycle after news cycle of scandalous stories about the GOP. The liberal press has been scoring scoop after scoop designed to damage Republicans in general and President Bush in particular.
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Charles S. Johnson / Billings Gazette:
Tax rule change angers groups — HELENA - Representatives of accountants, real estate agents, title agents, ranchers and business groups accused the Revenue Department Thursday of usurping the Legislature's authority with its proposed rule change. — They charged that the state Revenue Department …
Discussion:
Sirotablog
MEMRI:
Bahraini Women's Rights Activist Ghada Jamshir Attacks Islamic Clerics for Issuing Fatwas Authorizing Sexual Abuse of Infants — The following are excerpts from an interview with Bahraini women's rights activist Ghada Jamshir, which aired on Al-Arabiya TV on December 21, 2005.
Eric Schmitt / New York Times:
General Retreats on Rumsfeld Rift — ABOARD A C-32 JET, over the Persian Gulf, Dec. 29 - It was a rare moment last month when Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, publicly contradicted his boss, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. On Thursday, however, General Pace essentially said never mind.
Jason Straziuso / Associated Press:
AP: U.S. Teen Runs Off to Iraq by Himself — BAGHDAD, Iraq - Maybe it was the time the taxi dumped him at the Iraq-Kuwait border, leaving him alone in the middle of the desert. Or when he drew a crowd at a Baghdad food stand after using an Arabic phrase book to order.
Bull Moose:
Year End Musings — The Moose rambles during his holiday repose. — There is a legitimate and important debate underway on the authority for the President's eavesdropping program. There are strong arguments that the President should have sought authorization from the FISA Court for the surveillance.
Dexter Filkins / New York Times:
G.I.'s to Increase U.S. Supervision of Iraqi Police — BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 29 - American commanders are planning to increase significantly the number of soldiers advising Iraqi police commando units, in part to curtail abuse that the units are suspected of inflicting on Sunni Arabs, a senior commander in Iraq said Thursday.
Ben Curtis / Associated Press:
Egyptian Police Kill 10 Sudanese in Cairo — CAIRO, Egypt - Egyptian police turned water cannons on Sudanese war refugees and beat them with sticks Friday, brutally clearing out a squatters camp in a city park. At least 10 people were killed, the government said.
Jeff Jacoby / Townhall.com:
Slurs fly from the Left — Nothing brings out racist slurs like an ambitious black man who doesn't know his "place." So when Maryland's lieutenant governor, Michael Steele, announced his candidacy for the US Senate recently, the bigots reared up. On one popular website, The News Blog …
Eric Reeves / The New Republic:
Host of Problems — Why does genocide in Darfur continue? One reason is that there is no real international pressure on the architects of the genocide—the National Islamic Front security cabal in Khartoum—to bring the killing to a halt. On the contrary, as the genocide enters its fourth year …
