Iraq terror leader recruits scientists  —  CAIRO, Egypt - In a new audio message Thursday, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq called for explosives experts and nuclear scientists to join his group's holy war against the West.  He also said that more than 4,000 foreign insurgent fighters …

Cost of Iraq war nearly $2b a week  —  WASHINGTON — A new congressional analysis shows the Iraq war is now costing taxpayers almost $2 billion a week — nearly twice as much as in the first year of the conflict three years ago and 20 percent more than last year — as the Pentagon spends …

The White House Warden  —  Congress may give the president the power to lock up almost anyone he thinks is a terror threat.  —  BURIED IN THE complex Senate compromise on detainee treatment is a real shocker, reaching far beyond the legal struggles about foreign terrorist suspects in the Guantanamo Bay fortress.

Bush Rules  —  Today's Senate vote on President Bush's detainee legislation, after House approval yesterday, marks a defining moment for this nation.  —  How far from our historic and Constitutional values are we willing to stray?  How mercilessly are we willing to treat those we suspect to be our enemies?

House Passes Detainee Bill as It Clears Senate Hurdle  —  Congress took major steps on Wednesday toward establishing a new system for interrogating and trying terror suspects as the House approved legislation sought by President Bush and the Senate defeated efforts to alter the measure.

Infidel Documents  —  Intelligence, jihadists and the Iraq war debate.  —  The scaffolding of the Iraq war is under renewed attack.  So there had been no meeting between Mohamed Atta and Iraqi intelligence operative Ahmad al-Ani in Prague; and Saddam's regime was "intensely secular" while al Qaeda was steeped in religious doctrine.