Top Items:
Mark Mazzetti / New York Times:
C.I.A. Was Urged to Keep Interrogation Videotapes — White House and Justice Department officials, along with senior members of Congress, advised the Central Intelligence Agency in 2003 against a plan to destroy hundreds of hours of videotapes showing the interrogations of two operatives of Al Qaeda, government officials said Friday.
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Eric Lichtblau / New York Times:
Congress Looks Into Obstruction as Calls for Justice Inquiry Rise — The Central Intelligence Agency faced the threat of obstruction-of-justice investigations on Friday from both the Justice Department and Congressional committees over the destruction of videotapes of interrogations of Qaeda operatives.
Kevin Drum / Washington Monthly: WHAT THE TAPES WOULD HAVE SHOWN....Yesterday we learned that in 2005 …
Rasmussen Reports:
Just 18% Believe Iran has Stopped Nuclear Weapons Development Program — Just 18% of American voters believe that Iran has halted its nuclear weapons program. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 66% disagree and say Iran has not stopped its nuclear weapons program.
Discussion:
The Sundries Shack, PoliGazette, The Strata-Sphere, Jules Crittenden, PrairiePundit, Atlas Shrugs and Eunomia
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Andrew Sullivan / The Atlantic Online:
Krauthammer On Fox — It's refreshing, actually. I just listened to Charles say that the torture of terror suspects in 2002 was justified because the United States was flying blind and had no knowledge of what al Qaeda was planning. He won't say "torture", of course, although the law is clear that it is torture.
Discussion:
Prairie Weather
Washington Post:
Hill Close To Deal on War Funds — Plan Includes Boost In Domestic Spending — House Democratic leaders could complete work as soon as Monday on a half-trillion-dollar spending package that will include billions of dollars for the war effort in Iraq without the timelines for the withdrawal …
Discussion:
TalkLeft, MSNBC, Firedoglake, Don Surber, Booman Tribune, Emptywheel, A Blog For All, Blue Crab Boulevard, Daily Kos, PrairiePundit and Jules Crittenden
Thom Shanker / New York Times:
Secretary Calls Iran a Threat to Regional Security — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates declared today that Iran is a grave threat to regional security, even without nuclear weapons, and called on Tehran to account for the full range of intelligence describing its support for terrorism and instability around the world.
Discussion:
Prairie Weather
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Katrin Bennhold / New York Times:
Despite Report, France and Germany Keep Pressure on Iran — The leaders of France and Germany said Thursday that Iran remained a danger and that other nations needed to keep up the pressure over its nuclear program despite a United States intelligence report's conclusion that Tehran was no longer building a bomb.
Mark Steyn / Orange County Register:
Let's have a free market for housing and religion — Last week the Bush administration decided to "freeze" for five years the interest rates of certain types of mortgages. You've probably caught the tail end of news stories about "subprime" home loans, lots of foreclosures, etc.
Stephen F. Hayes / Weekly Standard:
All In — Fred Thompson moves to Iowa. — Des Moines, Iowa — FORMER TENNESSEE SENATOR Fred Thompson has decided to take his campaign and virtually all of its resources to Iowa in an all-or-nothing attempt to register a strong showing in the caucuses here on January 3.
Discussion:
eyeon08.com
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Washington Post:
Clinton Team Turns Iowa Focus to Women — DES MOINES — Seeking to steady her campaign in Iowa, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton will bring a wave of prominent women to blanket the state and target female voters in the final weeks before its first-in-the-nation caucuses.
Discussion:
Riehl World View, The Politico, The Caucus, Hot Air, TalkLeft, Los Angeles Times, PrairiePundit and PoliGazette
David Saltonstall / NY Daily News:
Rudy ducks questions on Judi's car use — Rudy Giuliani tried to ride out new questions Friday over taxpayer-funded chauffeur services that witnesses and sources said were provided to Judith Nathan before her affair to the former mayor was revealed in 2000.
BBC:
Fragile success for US Iraq surge — BBC correspondent Mark Urban has just returned from a second spell embedded with US soldiers on tour in Iraq to assess Washington's claims of an improving security situation. — For the American soldiers patrolling Baghdad's southern suburb of Dora these are days of trial by tea.
Opinion Journal:
Iran Curveball — This latest intelligence fiasco is Mr. Bush's fault. — President Bush has been scrambling to rescue his Iran policy after this week's intelligence switcheroo, but the fact that the White House has had to spin so furiously is a sign of how badly it has bungled this episode.
Greg Sargent / TPM Election Central:
Edwards Campaign Internal Poll Finds Statistical Tie In Iowa — John Edwards' campaign pollster has produced an internal poll that he claims shows that Edwards is locked with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in a statistical three-way tie for first place in Iowa.
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John Borland / Wired News:
Former 'No Nukes' Protester: Stop Worrying and Love Nuclear Power — The only way to rescue our plug-hungry planet from catastrophic global warming is to embrace nuclear power, and fast. — That's the argument of Gwyneth Cravens, a novelist, journalist and former nuke protester.
Ilya Somin / The Volokh Conspiracy:
WHEN FOREIGN LIBEL AND HATE SPEECH LAWS THREATEN THE FREE SPEECH RIGHTS OF AMERICANS: International law writer Andrew McCarthy has an interesting blog post discussing the ways in which the extremely broad libel and hate speech laws of some foreign nations can be used to undermine free speech rights in the US.
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KNTV-TV:
Penn Endorses Kucinich For President In SF — Sr. Advisor Confirms Endorsement To NBC11 — Academy Award-winning actor Sean Penn endorsed Dennis Kucinich for president in San Francisco Friday. — Penn made what had been billed as a "major political statement" at San Francisco State University.
Pamela Bone / The Australian:
Why we stay mute on Islamic sex apartheid — US Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton last week urged President George W. Bush to call on King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia to drop all charges against a 19-year-old Saudi woman who had been gang-raped at knifepoint …
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