Top Items:
New York Times:
Specter Says Surveillance Program Violated the Law — WASHINGTON, Feb. 5 — The Republican who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee said today that he believed the Bush administration had violated the law with its warrantless surveillance program and that its legal justifications for the program were "strained and unrealistic."
Discussion:
MyDD, Blinq, AMERICAblog, Stop The ACLU, The Reaction, Thoughts from Kansas, The Next Hurrah and Prairie Weather
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Financial Times:
White House to lash out at media coverage of terror surveillance — The Bush administration will tell the Senate today that the National Security Agency's programme for terrorist surveillance has been badly distorted by media reports, and that the scheme is a strictly limited one aimed at al-Qaeda members and affiliated groups.
Hope Yen / Associated Press:
Specter Criticizes Rationale for Spying — WASHINGTON - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has not adequately justified why the Bush administration failed to seek court approval for domestic surveillance, said the senator in charge of a hearing Monday on the program.
Haaretz:
Dutch Islamists post cartoons depicting Anne Frank, Hitler in bed — A Belgian-Dutch Islamic political organization posted anti-Jewish cartoons on its Web site in response to the cartoons of the prophet Mohammed that appeared in Danish papers last year and offended many — Muslims.
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Christine Hauser / New York Times:
Mastermind of U.S.S. Cole Attack Escapes Jail — A man convicted of masterminding the attack on the American destroyer Cole in 2000 escaped a Yemeni jail through a tunnel with 22 other prisoners, the international police organization, Interpol, said today. — The prisoner, Jamal Ahmed Badawi …
Discussion:
PoliPundit.com
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Ahmed Al-Haj / Associated Press:
Cole Attack Planner Escapes Yemen Prison — SAN'A, Yemen - An al-Qaida operative sentenced to death for plotting the USS Cole bombing that killed 17 sailors in 2000 was among a group of convicts who escaped from a Yemen prison last week, Interpol said Sunday in issuing a global security alert.
Discussion:
Captain's Quarters
Jason Reed / Newsweek:
Exclusive: Can the President Order a Killing on U.S. Soil? — President Bush at a recent White House press briefing — Feb. 13, 2006 issue - In the latest twist in the debate over presidential powers, a Justice Department official suggested that in certain circumstances …
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Fred Hiatt / Washington Post:
The Goal Of These Pages — Last week the editorial page received hundreds of letters and e-mails suggesting that The Post's opinion pages had crossed a line, not once but twice. The criticism echoed, in a very faint way, a controversy raging through Europe and the Muslim world.
Discussion:
Eschaton
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Lorenzo Vidino / The Counterterrorism Blog:
More lies from Danish Imams (Updated 2/5) — Last Friday the CT Blog revealed how a delegation of Danish Muslims, led by Copenhagen imam Abu Laban, toured the Middle East in December and showed fabricated cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed in a very offensive fashion, even though the pictures had never appeared on Jyllands Posten.
Discussion:
Gateway Pundit, Associated Press, Michelle Malkin, Hyscience, Biased BBC, Wizbang Bomb Squad, Mark in Mexico, USS Neverdock, lgf, Riding Sun and Phylax
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David E. Sanger / New York Times:
Behind the Urgent Diplomacy: A Sense Iran Will Get the Bomb — WASHINGTON, Feb. 5 — Hours after the United States and Europe prevailed in a contest over officially reporting Iran's history of clandestine nuclear activity to the United Nations Security Council, President Bush issued a statement …
Deborah Howell / Washington Post:
A Global Reach, but a Local Focus — One of the big surprises for me in becoming ombudsman is that most e-mail focuses on national issues, not local news. — This column is an initial effort to solicit comment from readers about local news. Is The Post covering the kind of local news …
Times of London:
Muslims tell Yard to charge protesters — BRITAIN's leading Islamic body yesterday called on Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan police commissioner, to press charges against the extremists behind last week's inflammatory protests in London over the "blasphemous" cartoons of the prophet Muhammad.
Times of London:
Self-harmers to be given clean blades — NURSES want patients who are intent on harming themselves to be provided with clean blades so that they can cut themselves more safely. — They say people determined to harm themselves should be helped to minimise the risk of infection from dirty blades …
Pastorius / Infidel Bloggers Alliance:
The Infidel Bloggers Alliance Mohammed Cartoon Contest — Draw cartoons, or artistic depictions of Mohammed, and submit them to us here, by leaving a link in the comments section. — You don't need to be mean, or pornographic. Just draw good ole Mo in everyday situations …
Sabrina Tavernise / New York Times:
As Iraqi Shiites Police Sunnis, Rough Justice Feeds Bitterness — SALMAN PAK, Iraq — When Shiite forces took over this Sunni town, they spread out and clamped down. Checkpoints sprung up. People suspected of being insurgents were driven out. A Shiite took over as mayor.
Discussion:
The Reality-Based Community
Russ Choma / unionleader.com:
Weare nixes 'Hotel Souter' — WEARE - An attempt to take U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter's home by eminent domain and turn it into a hotel was squashed by Weare voters at yesterday's town deliberative session. — Residents voted twice to amend a warrant article …
