Top Items:
New York Times:
Justice Deputy Resisted Parts of Spy Program — WASHINGTON, Dec. 31 - The top deputy to then-Attorney General John Ashcroft refused two years ago to approve important parts of the secret program that allows domestic eavesdropping without warrants, prompting two leading White House aides …
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Newsweek:
Full Speed Ahead — After 9/11, Bush and Cheney pressed for more powerand got it. Now, predictably, the questions begin. Behind the NSA spying furor. — Jan. 9, 2006 issue - The talk at the White House in the days and weeks after 9/11 was all about suitcase nukes and germ warfare and surprise decapitation strikes.
Associated Press:
Schumer Seeks Motive in U.S. Spy Probe — WASHINGTON - The investigation into leaks about a domestic spying program should determine whether the motivation was damaging security or revealing a potentially illegal activity, a Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee said Sunday.
Byron Calame / New York Times:
Behind the Eavesdropping Story, a Loud Silence — THE New York Times's explanation of its decision to report, after what it said was a one-year delay, that the National Security Agency is eavesdropping domestically without court-approved warrants was woefully inadequate.
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Glenn Reynolds / Instapundit.com:
THE NEW YORK TIMES' PUBLIC EDITOR, Byron Calame, criticizes the Times' handling of the NSA story. Jeff Jarvis calls Calame's column "almost tough," and points to this post by Jay Rosen. — The Times' behavior on this story, and the Plame story, has undermined the unwritten …
Discussion:
The Right Coast
Walter Pincus / Washington Post:
NSA Gave Other U.S. Agencies Information From Surveillance — Fruit of Eavesdropping Was Processed and Cross-Checked With Databases — Information captured by the National Security Agency's secret eavesdropping on communications between the United States and overseas has been passed …
Cory Doctorow / Boing Boing:
Coldplay's new CD has rules: No MP3s, no DVD players, no car stereos — Coldplay's new CD comes with an insert that discloses all the rules enforced by the DRM they included on the disc. Of course, these rules are only visible after you've paid for the CD and brought it home …
Reuters:
Palestinian gunmen blow up U.N. club in Gaza City — GAZA (Reuters) - Masked gunmen stormed into a club for United Nations workers in Gaza City on Sunday and blew up the drinking hall in a new sign of spiralling unrest ahead of a Palestinian election. — It was the first such attack in Gaza …
Michelle Malkin:
2005 IN REVIEW: THE WAR ON BLOGS — To the dismay of the MSM, the blogosphere didn't go away in 2005. Here are some of the more memorable moments in the clash of the bloggers vs. MSM: — 10. Commentator Bill Press's condemnation of bloggers as people "with no credentials, no sources, no rules, no editors and no accountability."
Washington Times:
Military death toll in Iraq 844 in 2005 — The U.S. military death toll in Iraq in 2005 almost matched that of 2004. — The New York Times reported at least 844 service members were killed in 2005, while the total for the previous year was 848. The total since the invasion began …
Juan / Informed Comment:
Ten Amazing Predictions for 2006 — 1. Al-Qaeda's Ayman al-Zawahiri, whom the Bush administration has failed to capture after all this time, and who was probably responsible for the July 7 bombings in the London subway and the bombings in the Sinai in Egypt, will strike at US allies again in 2006.
Discussion:
Main and Central
Duncan Currie / Weekly Standard:
2005: A Tipping Point? — IN MANY WAYS, the year 2005 ends as it began: with millions of Iraqis defying the terrorists to cast ballots; with President Bush hailing the election as a milestone; with nit-pickers fretting about the sulky Sunnis; with the White House coming under fire …
Captain Ed / Captain's Quarters:
Rendition Started Under Clinton — After months of debate about the Bush administration's supposed support of torture through the "rendition" policy of sending captured terrorists to their nations of origin for questioning, it turns out that the policy did not start with the Bush administration after all.
