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.

Huckabee Surges, Obama Gains in Iowa  —  The new NEWSWEEK poll shows the former Arkansas governor now has a two-to-one lead over Romney, while Barack improves against Hillary.  —  Yana Paskova / Getty Images  —  Looking Up: Huckabee now seems unstoppable in the Iowa caucuses

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 …

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 …