Top Items:
New York Times:
Letter From Bill Keller on The Times's Banking Records Report — The following is a letter Bill Keller, the executive editor of The Times, has sent to readers who have written him about The Times's publication of information about the government's examination of international banking records:
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Hugh Hewitt:
Mr. Keller Believes You Are Easily Confused — The NYT's Executive Editor Bill Keller refuses interviews but does provide a wholly unpersuasive reponse that is, at best, defensive posturing. … First, unless Mr. Keller makes himself available for interviews on this subject, he is not taking the questions and concerns seriously.
Michael Barone / Real Clear Politics:
The New York Times at War With America — Why do they hate us? No, I'm not talking about Islamofascist terrorists. We know why they hate us: because we have freedom of speech and freedom of religion, because we refuse to treat women as second-class citizens, because we do not kill homosexuals, because we are a free society.
Discussion:
QandO
Anne E. Kornblut / New York Times:
Court Review of Wiretaps May Be Near, Senator Says — WASHINGTON, June 25 — Senator Arlen Specter said Sunday that the White House and Congress were close to reaching a resolution on submitting a National Security Agency wiretap program to judicial review.
Devlin Barrett / Associated Press:
Lawmaker Wants Papers Probed Over Stories — The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee urged the Bush administration on Sunday to seek criminal charges against newspapers that reported on a secret financial-monitoring program used to trace terrorists.
Discussion:
Right Wing News, Ace of Spades HQ, TimChapmanBlog.com, Flopping Aces, Democracy Project, Hot Air and Power Line
Washington Post:
Democrats Cite Report On Troop Cuts in Iraq — Pentagon Plan Like Theirs, Senators Say — Senate Democrats reacted angrily yesterday to a report that the U.S. commander in Iraq had privately presented a plan for significant troop reductions in the same week they came under attack …
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Paul Reynolds / BBC:
Iraq plan part of grand strategy — World affairs correspondent, BBC News website — The "reconciliation" plan announced on Sunday by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki is part of a grand strategy by the Bush administration to stabilise Iraq - or to stabilise the perception of Iraq …
Joanne Levine / Washington Post:
Al-Jazeera, as American as Apple Pie — In a country's hinterlands, a distant region seldom visited by outsiders, a television crew investigates why so many residents are fleeing the area. When local officials catch wind of the crew's presence, they begin interrogating people the journalists interviewed …
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Sarah Womack / Telegraph:
Family life faces State 'invasion' — Government surveillance of all children, including information on whether they eat five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, will be condemned tomorrow as a Big Brother system. — Experts say it is the biggest state intrusion in history into the role of parents.
Haaretz:
Abbas to Hamas: You bear responsibility for soldier's fate — An intensive mediation effort got underway Sunday, as a number of states, including Egypt, tried to persuade Hamas military wing in the territories to release Corporal Gilad Shalit, abducted in a pre-dawn raid on his Israel Defense Forces post near the Gaza border.
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Steven Erlanger / New York Times:
Israelis Warn of Military Response to Gaza Attack
Israelis Warn of Military Response to Gaza Attack
Discussion:
THE ASTUTE BLOGGER
Khaled Abu Toameh / Jerusalem Post:
Al-Aksa claims biological, chemical capabilities
Al-Aksa claims biological, chemical capabilities
Discussion:
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler, Captain's Quarters, Wizbang, Liberty and Justice, The Florida Masochist, Security Watchtower, OPFOR, Atlas Shrugs, Hyscience, PartisanTimes.com, Right Truth, Outside The Beltway, Riehl World View, A Blog For All, Santorum Blog, THE ASTUTE BLOGGER, JOSHUAPUNDIT, Power Line and Blue Crab Boulevard
Times of London:
Bizarre cult of Sears Tower 'plotter' — Paul Thompson, Miami, and Sarah Baxter, Washington — THE ringleader of the seven men accused of plotting to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago was a "Moses-like figure" who carried a crooked cane and wore a cape as he sought to recruit followers to a religious cult called the Seas of David.
Discussion:
Telegraph
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Carol J. Loomis / CNNMoney.com:
Warren Buffett gives away his fortune — FORTUNE EXCLUSIVE: The world's second richest man - who's now worth $44 billion - tells editor-at-large Carol Loomis he will start giving away 85% of his wealth in July - most of it to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Discussion:
Blogcritics.org, Tim Worstall, Blue Crab Boulevard, Outside The Beltway and The World Wide Rant
Inal Ersan / Reuters:
Iraqi Qaeda-led group says Russian hostages killed — Source: Reuters — DUBAI, June 25 (Reuters) - An al Qaeda-led group posted video footage on the Internet on Sunday showing the killing of three men it said were Russian hostages seized in Iraq earlier this month.
Discussion:
BBC, ogrish.com, Gateway Pundit, Michelle Malkin, Passionate America, Jihad Watch, Hot Air and Hyscience
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Nadia Abou El-Magd / ABCNEWS:
Al-Qaida-Linked Group Claims 4 Killings
Al-Qaida-Linked Group Claims 4 Killings
Discussion:
lgf: why not?, Reuters, No More Mister Nice Blog, Blue Star Chronicles, Kesher Talk, Associated Press and Freedom Watch
Samuel Walker / Los Angeles Times:
Scalia twisted my words — Criminologist says his work was used to reach its opposite conclusion in {lt}i{gt}Hudson{lt}/i{gt}. — A FRIEND OF mine e-mailed me last week with some exciting news — the Supreme Court had cited one of my criminal justice policy books in an important, late-term decision.
Opinion Journal:
Saddam's WMD — Why is our intelligence community holding back? — On Wednesday, at our request, the director of national intelligence declassified six "key points" from a National Ground Intelligence Center (NGIC) report on the recovery of chemical munitions in Iraq.
Pamela Constable / Washington Post:
Afghan Leader Losing Support — KABUL, Afghanistan, June 25 — Many Afghans and some foreign supporters say they are losing faith in President Hamid Karzai's government, which is besieged by an escalating insurgency and endemic corruption and is unable to protect or administer large areas of the country.
Discussion:
Liberty and Justice
James Bone / Times of London:
Saddam's UN links to be aired in court — LINKS between Boutros Boutros Ghali, the former UN Secretary-General, and an alleged agent for Saddam Hussein will come under the spotlight when the first American trial of a major figure in the Oil-for-Food scandal gets under way today.