Top Items:
New York Times:
Bank Data Sifted in Secret by U.S. to Block Terror — WASHINGTON, June 22 — Under a secret Bush administration program initiated weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, counterterrorism officials have gained access to financial records from a vast international database and examined banking …
Discussion:
Flopping Aces, The Strata-Sphere, Yourish.com, Hugh Hewitt, BLACKFIVE, Hullabaloo, OrinKerr.com, Thoughts of an Average Woman, PoliPundit.com, NewsBusters.org, Security Watchtower, The Real Ugly American.com, Bark Bark Woof Woof, Think Progress, Defense Tech, Shakespeare's Sister, Expose the Left, TPMmuckraker, Right Angle Blog, ScrappleFace, ZenPundit, Mathew Gross, The Politics of CP, War and Piece, Freedom Watch, Poynter Online and TalkLeft
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Justin Bachman / Associated Press:
Media Refuses to Hold Surveillance Story — The Bush administration and The New York Times are again at odds over national security, this time with new reports of a broad government effort to track global financial transfers. — The newspaper, which in December broke news of an effort …
Discussion:
Michelle Malkin, The Heretik, GOP Bloggers, Blue Crab Boulevard and The Conspiracy to Keep …
Los Angeles Times:
U.S. Mining Bank Transfer Data in Anti-Terror Effort — WASHINGTON — The U.S. government, without the knowledge of many banks and their customers, has engaged for years in a secret effort to track terrorist financing by reviewing confidential information on transfers of money between banks worldwide.
Michelle Malkin:
NYTIMES BLABBERMOUTHS STRIKE AGAIN — ***update: The Los Angeles Times piles on and flaps its mouth, too...The story is the blabbermouth media's refusal to act responsibly and learn when to shut up...*** — Dammit. These people don't know when to stop.
Washington Post:
Bank Records Secretly Tapped — Administration Began Using Global Database Shortly After 2001 Attacks — The Bush administration, relying on a presidential declaration of emergency, has secretly been tapping into a vast global database of confidential financial transactions for nearly five years …
Discussion:
Bull Moose
Patterico / Patterico's Pontifications:
New York Times Publishes Classified Details of Legal and (Formerly) Effective Anti-Terrorism Program — The New York Times has a lengthy article revealing classified details about an anti-terrorist program that has, among other things, caught the mastermind of the 2002 Bali nightclub bombing.
The Big Trunk / Power Line:
THE TIMES STRIKES AGAIN
THE TIMES STRIKES AGAIN
Discussion:
Hugh Hewitt, BLACKFIVE, Daily Pundit, Ankle Biting Pundits, THE ASTUTE BLOGGER and Blue Crab Boulevard
CNN:
Indictment: Suspects wanted to 'kill all the devils we can' — Terror plot targeted Chicago's Sears Tower — MIAMI, Florida (CNN) — A federal indictment against seven men revealed Friday details of what the government said was a plan intended to "kill all the devils we can."
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John O'Neil / New York Times:
Seven Are Charged With Plot to Blow Up Sears Tower — The Federal Bureau of Investigation's deputy director said today that a plot to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago by seven Miami men now facing federal conspiracy charges was "more aspirational than operational," but illustrated …
Discussion:
The Heretik
Philip Shenon / New York Times:
Senate Report Lists Lobbyist's Payments to Ex-Leader of Christian Coalition — WASHINGTON, June 22 — A bipartisan Senate report released on Thursday documented more than $5.3 million in payments to Ralph Reed, the former director of the Christian Coalition and a leading Republican Party strategist …
Discussion:
AMERICAblog
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Susan Schmidt / Washington Post:
Senate's Abramoff Report Disputes Rep. Ney
Senate's Abramoff Report Disputes Rep. Ney
Discussion:
TPMmuckraker
Thomas E. Ricks / Washington Post:
General Reports Spike in Iranian Activity in Iraq — Iranian support for extremists inside Iraq has shown a "noticeable increase" this year, with Tehran's special forces providing weapons and bomb training to anti-U.S. groups, the top U.S. commander in Iraq said yesterday.
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Ian Urbina / New York Times:
Besieged Kentucky Governor Draws Fire From a New Quarter — As if there were not already enough problems for Gov. Ernie Fletcher of Kentucky, who has been indicted in a political patronage case, he now has political bloggers and First Amendment lawyers after him too.
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Times of London:
Peace deal offers Iraq insurgents an amnesty — From Ned Parker in Baghdad and Tom Baldwin — THE Iraqi Government will announce a sweeping peace plan as early as Sunday in a last-ditch effort to end the Sunni insurgency that has taken the country to the brink of civil war.
Lee Siegel / The New Republic:
BLOG THIS: — In response to Jason Zengerle's most recent post on The Plank—"Hope you're not tired of this Kos stuff"—no, I for one am definitely not tired of Zengerle's artful and honest exposure of someone who, more and more, seems to represent the purest, most classical strain of hypocrisy.
David Boaz / Cato-at-liberty:
Hillary and the Candlemakers: Not a Parody — One of the most famous documents in the history of free-trade literature is Bastiat's famous "Candlemakers' Petition." In that parody, the French economist and parliamentarian imagined the makers of candles and street lamps petitioning …
Scott Shane / New York Times:
For Diehards, Search for Iraq's W.M.D. Isn't Over — WASHINGTON, June 22 — The United States government abandoned the search for unconventional weapons in Iraq long ago. But Dave Gaubatz has never given up. — Mr. Gaubatz, an earnest, Arabic-speaking investigator who spent the first months …