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 …

Official: 7 arrested in Sears Tower plot  —  MIAMI - Seven people were arrested Thursday in connection with the early stages of a plot to attack Chicago's Sears Tower and other buildings in the U.S., including the FBI office here, a federal law enforcement official said.

Senate Rejects Democratic Efforts on Iraq  —  WASHINGTON, June 22 — The Senate voted today against measures calling for the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq, after a long and emotional debate that was in some ways reminiscent of the Vietnam War era.  —  The votes, 86 to 13 on one measure …

A military draft might awaken us  —  REINSTATE THE military draft and see how quickly the United States ends its war in Iraq.  —  Imagine if all our sons and daughters were at risk for deployment to the desert.  Imagine if all our children faced the Al Qaeda-style butchery that took the lives …

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.

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.