Top Items:
Independent:
Iraq's death squads: On the brink of civil war — Most of the corpses in Baghdad's mortuary show signs of torture and execution. And the Interior Ministry is being blamed. By Andrew Buncombe and Patrick Cockburn — Hundreds of Iraqis are being tortured to death or summarily executed every month …
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Bill Roggio / The Fourth Rail:
Iraq "Civil War" Sitrep — A status report on the violence in Iraq and prospects for civil war; Sadr's role — Four days after the destruction of the dome of the Golden Mosque, the threat of an all out civil war in Iraq seems to have abated. Saturday's violence resulted in over sixty deaths …
Mark Steyn / Chicago Sun Times:
Needing to wake up, West just closes its eyes — In five years' time, how many Jews will be living in France? Two years ago, a 23-year-old Paris disc jockey called Sebastien Selam was heading off to work from his parents' apartment when he was jumped in the parking garage by his Muslim neighbor Adel.
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The Big Trunk / Power Line:
I'M ONLY SLEEPING — Mark Steyn begins his weekly Chicago Sun-Times column with a look at the blinkered coverage of the torture/muders of Sebastien Selam and Ilan Halimi: "Needing to wake up, West just closes its eyes." He moves on to consider European attitudes to Iran and Israel.
Discussion:
Patterico's Pontifications
Ted Bridis / ABCNEWS:
Homeland Security Objected to Ports Deal — Homeland Security Objected at First to Ports Deal, Then Went Along With Others — WASHINGTON Feb 25, 2006 (AP)— The Homeland Security Department objected at first to a United Arab Emirates company's taking over significant operations at six U.S. ports.
Discussion:
MyDD
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Jeremiah Marquez / Associated Press:
Don Knotts, TV's Barney Fife, Dies at 81 — LOS ANGELES — Don Knotts, who kept generations of TV audiences laughing as bumbling Deputy Barney Fife on "The Andy Griffith Show" and would-be swinger landlord Ralph Furley on "Three's Company," has died. He was 81.
Discussion:
Los Angeles Times
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Louie Estrada / Washington Post:
Don Knotts, TV's Barney Fife, Dies — Don Knotts, the rail-thin comic actor who was perhaps best known to millions of television viewers as the bungling Deputy Sheriff Barney Fife in "The Andy Griffith Show" and the squirrelly landlord in "Three's Company," died of lung cancer Feb. 24 at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles.
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, Outside The Beltway, The Sundries Shack, Hit and Run, Below The Beltway and PunditGuy
John Markoff / New York Times:
Taking Spying to Higher Level, Agencies Look for More Ways to Mine Data — PALO ALTO, Calif., Feb. 23 — A small group of National Security Agency officials slipped into Silicon Valley on one of the agency's periodic technology shopping expeditions this month.
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TalkLeft:
NSA Goes Shopping at Silicon Valley for Data Mining Tools — Whatever the outcome of Bush's warrantless NSA surveillance program, it seems clear that government surveillance of our communications and even our social networks is only going to increase. The New York Times reports on recent …
New York Times:
A Judicial Green Light for Torture — The administration's tendency to dodge accountability for lawless actions by resorting to secrecy and claims of national security is on sharp display in the case of a Syrian-born Canadian, Maher Arar, who spent months under torture because of United States action.
Sydney Morning Herald:
Power to the people: now everyone can make a difference — Democracy, the internet and NGOs are fuelling a global empowerment of ordinary citizens, writes Bill Clinton. — THREE things have happened since the end of the Cold War to give private citizens an unprecedented capacity to do public good.
Discussion:
BrothersJudd Blog
CBS News:
Montana's Coal Cowboy — (CBS) The governor of Montana says he can turn the billions of tons of coal under his state into enough diesel fuel to greatly reduce America's dependence on foreign oil. — And there's an added benefit, says Gov. Brian Schweitzer: the United States will be sticking it to the …
Paul Burkhardt / Associated Press:
Bolton Blasts 'Sex and Corruption' at U.N. — NEW YORK - The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said Saturday that the world body is hobbled "by bad management, by sex and corruption" and a lack of confidence in its ability to carry out missions. — John Bolton also criticized the U.N.'s budget …
Andrew Davies / Telegraph:
Judge rules that doctors must let ill baby die — The parents of Charlotte Wyatt have been told that doctors are to be allowed to let their profoundly ill baby daughter die if they feel it is in her best interests. — A High Court judge yesterday lifted a previous ruling that she should always …
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Justin Webb / BBC:
Democrats fail to find a message — President Bush's popularity ratings have plummeted, but why, asks Justin Webb, is it that the opposition, the Democrats, are not surfing the opinion polls, capitalising on the Republicans' misfortunes and preparing to take over Congress when the election comes in the autumn?
Discussion:
USS Neverdock
Estes Thompson / Associated Press:
Army Charges 7 With Having Sex on Video — RALEIGH, N.C. - The Army has recommended that seven 82nd Airborne Division paratroopers be discharged following allegations they engaged in sex acts shown on a gay pornographic Web site. — Three soldiers face courts-martial on charges of sodomy …
Discussion:
The Left Coaster
Peter Baker / Washington Post:
Russian Relations Under Scrutiny — U.S. Concerned About G-8 Talks With Putin as Host — The Bush administration is quietly exploring ways of recalibrating U.S. policy toward Russia in the face of growing concerns about the Kremlin's crackdown on internal dissent and pressure tactics toward its neighbors …
