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Aljazeera:
Bin Laden offers Americans truce — In an audio tape broadcast on Aljazeera, Osama bin Laden has warned that al-Qaida was preparing an attack very soon, but also offered Americans a "long-term truce". — "The new operations of al-Qaida has not happened not because we could not penetrate the security measures.
Discussion:
The Jawa Report v3.0 Beta, Link Mecca, AMERICAN DIGEST, Stop The ACLU, The Counterterrorism Blog, The Mahablog, ARMAVIRUMQUE, Secular Blasphemy, THE ASTUTE BLOGGER, Dr. Sanity, AMERICAN FUTURE, ThreatsWatch.Org, Rantings of a Sandmonkey, The Dread Pundit Bluto, PoliBlog, PunditGuy, The Uncooperative Blogger, Suitably Flip, Kobayashi Maru and Norwegianity
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CNN:
Purported bin Laden tape: 'It's only a question of time' — Voice warns Americans of impending attacks, offers truce — (CNN) — An audiotaped message purported to be from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden warns the American people that plans for terror attacks in the United States are under way.
Lee Keath / Associated Press:
Bin Laden Warns of Attacks, Offers Truce — CAIRO, Egypt - Al-Jazeera on Thursday broadcast portions of an audiotape purportedly from Osama bin Laden, saying al-Qaida is making preparations for attacks in the United States but offering a possible truce to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan.
BBC:
Text: 'Bin-Laden tape' — The pan-Arab TV station al-Jazeera has broadcast an audio tape purporting to be by al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, in which the speaker says al-Qaeda is preparing new attacks on the US. — Here is the full text of the message as broadcast.
BBC:
'Bin Laden tape' warns of attacks — Arabic TV station al-Jazeera has broadcast an audio tape it says is by the al-Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden. — In it the voice warns that new attacks on the US are being planned, but offers a "long-term truce" to the Americans.
Andrew Cochran / The Counterterrorism Blog:New Bin Laden (?) Audio Tape Warns of Coming Attack Against U.S. (updated)
Michelle Malkin:
THE GOP LEADERSHIP RACE — I'll be listening in on a blogger conference call with Rep. John Shadegg in just a minute. There are two more calls scheduled later today with Rep. John Boehner and Rep. Blount. The Corner and Hugh Hewitt's blog have been Grand Central Stations for info on the House GOP leadership race.
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Associated Press:
Feds Seek Google Records in Porn Probe — SAN JOSE, Calif. — The Bush administration, seeking to revive an online pornography law struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, has subpoenaed Google Inc. for details on what its users have been looking for through its popular search engine.
Discussion:
Democratic Veteran
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Howard Mintz / Mercury News:
Feds after Google data — RECORDS SOUGHT IN U.S. QUEST TO REVIVE PORN LAW — The Bush administration on Wednesday asked a federal judge to order Google to turn over a broad range of material from its closely guarded databases. — The move is part of a government effort to revive …
Patricia Wen / Boston Globe:
Girl in vegetative state reported to improve — DSS says it has no plan to remove feeding tube — A day after the state's highest court ruled that the Department of Social Services could withdraw life support from a brain-damaged girl, the agency said yesterday that Haleigh Poutre might be emerging from her vegetative state.
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David S. Broder / Washington Post:
Gore's Challenge — Former vice president Al Gore has turned himself into a one-man grand jury, ready to indict the Bush administration for any number of crimes against the Constitution. Whether you agree with Gore's conclusions or not, the speech that the 2000 Democratic nominee …
Elizabeth Pineau / Reuters:
France defends right to nuclear reply to terrorism — BREST, France (Reuters) - France said on Thursday it would be ready to use nuclear weapons against any state that carried out a terrorist attack against it, reaffirming the need for its nuclear deterrent.
Carl Hulse / New York Times:
Democrats Claim a Better Idea on Controlling Lobbying — WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 - Congressional Democrats proposed a lobbying overhaul on Wednesday that they said far exceeded new Republican proposals in curbing the influence of moneyed special interests on Capitol Hill.
Discussion:
firedoglake, Washington Post, The Carpetbagger Report, The Huffington Post and Air America Radio
Captain Ed / Captain's Quarters:
Clinton Cover-Up In Barrett Report: Daily News — The New York Daily News reports that the long-awaited Barrett report on the investigation into Henry Cisneros will claim that the Clinton administration actively covered up a tax-fraud case against the former HUD Secretary …
Jonathan Cohn / The New Republic:
Shrug Coverage — It was not so long ago that President Bush was bragging about his Medicare reform law, which gives senior citizens the opportunity to buy private insurance that will help pay for their prescriptions: "The days of low-income seniors having to make painful sacrifices to pay …
Ann Scott Tyson / Washington Post:
In Iraqi Oil City, a Formidable Foe — Airborne Soldiers Struggle to Break Grip of Insurgents — BAIJI, Iraq — Pfc. Robyn Houston fires bursts of bullets into the air as his Humvee swerves around a pothole and lurches over a highway median. His convoy bears down on oncoming traffic …
Eric Boehlert / The Huffington Post:
How the Press Played Dumb About the K Street Project — One of the most depressing traits of the news media's timid performance during the Bush years has been their newfound fear of facts and the consequences of reporting them. Where Beltway journalists once eagerly corralled facts …
Kieran Healy / Crooked Timber:
Radical Professors Exposed, Woo — Eugene Volokh is already on this, but I caught a segment on the radio about the UCLAProfs.com, the site founded by some recent political science grad "dedicated to exposing UCLA's most radical professors," people who are engaged in "brainwashing" their students …
BBC:
France 'would use nuclear arms' — French President Jacques Chirac has said France would be ready to use nuclear weapons against any state which launched a terrorist attack against it. — Speaking at a nuclear submarine base in north-western France, Mr Chirac said a French response "could be conventional.
Washington Post:
Diplomats Will Be Shifted to Hot Spots — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday that she will shift hundreds of Foreign Service positions from Europe and Washington to difficult assignments in the Middle East, Asia and elsewhere as part of a broad restructuring of the diplomatic corps …
dailyhowler.com:
Special report—How to read literacy! — PART 3—THE MORE, THE MURKIER: What's the state of literacy among college grads? It's timely that you should ask. As we noted last week, the National Center for Education Statistics recently released a massive survey of adult literacy, the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL).
Associated Press:
Test Failures Slow U.S. Missile Defense — FORT GREELY, Alaska (AP) — Behind the heavy barbed wire at this snowy range are silos containing eight interceptors designed to shoot down incoming enemy missiles. There were supposed to be as many as 16 in place by now.
Nathan / NathanNewman.org:
Making Political Hay on Medicare Part D — Mark Schmidtt argues that the politics of the Medicare prescription drug plan make it hard for Democrats to make political hay off of it's current crisis. — If the goal is demonizing the rightwing, he's right. For all but the poorest seniors …
David A. Fahrenthold / Washington Post:
Federal Grants Bring Surveillance Cameras to Small Towns — BELLOWS FALLS, Vt. — This snowy village, in the shadow of Fall Mountain and alongside the iced-over Connecticut River, is the kind of place where a little of anything usually suffices. There are just eight full-time police officers …
New York Times:
In 'Design' vs. Darwinism, Darwin Wins Point in Rome — ROME, Jan. 18 - The official Vatican newspaper published an article this week labeling as "correct" the recent decision by a judge in Pennsylvania that intelligent design should not be taught as a scientific alternative to evolution.
