Top Items:
Washington Post:
A Judicial Misfire — THE NATION would benefit from a serious, scholarly and hard-hitting judicial examination of the National Security Agency's program of warrantless surveillance. The program exists on ever-more uncertain legal ground; it is at least in considerable tension with federal law and the Bill of Rights.
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New York Times:
U.S. Judge Finds Wiretapping Plan Violates the Law — A federal judge ruled yesterday that the National Security Agency's program to wiretap the international communications of some Americans without a court warrant violated the Constitution, and she ordered it shut down.
New York Times:
Ruling for the Law — Ever since President Bush was forced to admit that he was spying on Americans' telephone calls and e-mail without warrants, his lawyers have fought to keep challenges to the program out of the courts. Yesterday, that plan failed. A federal judge in Detroit declared …
Glenn Greenwald / Unclaimed Territory:
The Post Editorial Board tell us how serious, high-minded people …
The Post Editorial Board tell us how serious, high-minded people …
Jamey Keaten / Associated Press:
France Says It'll Double U.N. Contingent — President Jacques Chirac announced Thursday that France will immediately double to 400 troops its contingent in the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon. — The statement from Chirac's office came after he spoke by phone with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
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Jim VandeHei / Washington Post:
Republicans Losing The 'Security Moms' — Married women with children, the "security moms" whose concerns about terrorism made them an essential part of Republican victories in 2002 and 2004, are taking flight from GOP politicians this year in ways that appear likely to provide a major boost …
USA Today:
Officials: U.S. blocked missiles to Hezbollah — WASHINGTON — The United States blocked an Iranian cargo plane's flight to Syria last month after intelligence analysts concluded it was carrying sophisticated missiles and launchers to resupply Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, two U.S. intelligence officials say.
David S. Cloud / New York Times:
Inquiry Suggests Marines Excised Files on Killings — A high-level military investigation into the killings of 24 Iraqis in Haditha last November has uncovered instances in which American marines involved in the episode appear to have destroyed or withheld evidence, according to two Defense Department officials briefed on the case.
Gerard Baker / Times of London:
It sounded so good to start with. But where did it all go wrong, George? — "HOW'M I DOIN'?" was the question the quixotic Ed Koch used to ask New York's voters during Hizzoner's eleven turbulent years as the city's mayor. For a man who governed the globe's most neurotic metropolis …
Glenn Greenwald / Unclaimed Territory:
Breaking the law has consequences — My overall analysis of today's extraordinary federal court decision on the NSA warrantless eavesdropping program is in the post below, here. I also have an article up at Salon summarizing the importance of this ruling, here.
Guardian:
Kurds flee homes as Iran shells Iraq's northern frontier — Michael Howard in Qandil Mountain — Turkey and Iran have dispatched tanks, artillery and thousands of troops to their frontiers with Iraq during the past few weeks in what appears to be a coordinated effort to disrupt the activities of Kurdish rebel bases.
Discussion:
ParaPundit, Shakespeare's Sister, The Glittering Eye, Talking Points Memo, iddybud and Outside The Beltway
Washington Post:
The FBI's Upgrade That Wasn't — $170 Million Bought an Unusable Computer System — As far as Zalmai Azmi was concerned, the FBI's technological revolution was only weeks away. — It was late 2003, and a contractor, Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) …
New York Times:
Wal-Mart Image-Builder Resigns — The civil rights leader Andrew Young, who was hired by Wal-Mart to improve its public image, resigned from that post last night after telling an African-American newspaper that Jewish, Arab and Korean shop owners had "ripped off" urban communities for years …
Paul Bass / New Haven Independent:
A Heavyweight Stumps For Lamont — A mill worker's son and a millionaire's son — one hoping to become America's next president, the other Connecticut's next U.S. senator — made two confessions to hundreds of supporters at a campaign rally in New Haven Thursday night.
CNN:
Video provokes questions of Lebanese army — Lebanese forces move southward; Beirut airport reopens — BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) — A video showing Lebanese soldiers cordially offering Israeli troops glasses of tea during the military offensive earlier this month has hit Israeli and Hezbollah airwaves.
Discussion:
Confederate Yankee
Jack Shafer / Slate:
No JonBenet Apologies Necessary — THE PRESS NEEDN'T REGRET ITS COVERAGE OF THE CASE. — This morning finds at least four press-hounds baying their apologies to the Ramseys on behalf of their colleagues or society at large. They beg the family's forgiveness for having ever suspected them of killing JonBenet.
Discussion:
Captain's Quarters
Michael J. Totten:
Terror War — KIRYAT SHMONA, ISRAEL - The Israel/Lebanon war created hundreds of thousands of refugees on each side of the border, but that's where proportion ends. Israel has a real army and a real air force and can inflict real damage on its enemies. Hezbollah, on the other hand, is only strong enough to terrorize people.