Security Guard: 'God Guided Me And Protected Me'  —  Jeanne Assam Stopped Gunman At New Life Church  —  COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Jeanne Assam appeared before the news media for the first time Monday and said she "did not think for a minute to run away" when a gunman entered the New Life Church …

Coming in From the Cold: CIA Spy Calls Waterboarding Necessary But Torture  —  Former Agent Says the Enhanced Technique Was Used on Al Qaeda Chief Abu Zubaydah  —  A leader of the CIA team that captured and interrogated the first major al Qaeda figure, Abu Zubaydah, says subjecting him to waterboarding was torture but necessary.

G.O.P. Voters Are Uninspired by Candidates  —  Three weeks before the Iowa caucuses, Republicans voters across the country appear uninspired by their field of presidential candidates, with a vast majority saying they have not made a final decision about who to support, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll.

Victim: Gang-Rape Cover-Up by U.S., Halliburton/KBR  —  KBR Told Victim She Could Lose Her Job If She Sought Help After Being Raped, She Says  —  A Houston, Texas woman says she was gang-raped by Halliburton/KBR coworkers in Baghdad, and the company and the U.S. government are covering up the incident.

McCain Attacks Romney's Attack on Huckabee  —  Here's an interesting one.  The Romney campaign is set to release the first negative ad of the season in Iowa tomorrow - an attack on Mike Huckabee on the immigration issue.  Huckabee will certainly respond - and now, he has help from another candidate, John McCain.

Lawyers Cleared Destroying Tapes  —  Lawyers within the clandestine branch of the Central Intelligence Agency gave written approval in advance to the destruction in 2005 of hundreds of hours of videotapes documenting interrogations of two lieutenants from Al Qaeda, according …

EXCLUSIVE IPT INVESTIGATION UNCOVERS HLF JURY ROOM BULLYING  —  DALLAS - She felt the men were guilty and tried to explain why to the 11 other jurors.  When she finished, one juror spoke up in an angry tone.  —  "If you're going by the evidence in this room," she recalls him snapping, "then you need to go home."

Pundits Lavish Tons Of Attention On Rudy's "Cackle"  —  Okay, admittedly, that hasn't happened yet.  But surely it will, right?  —  After all, every pundit in town surely watched Rudy Giuliani's interview yesterday on Meet the Press.  If you saw it, you couldn't help but notice that Rudy giggled …

Justices Reinforce Leeway on Sentences  —  The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that federal judges are not bound by federal guidelines calling for tougher penalties for those who sell crack rather than powder cocaine, giving them broad discretion in drug and other criminal cases.

Gore: I'd only consider White House bid  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) — Former Vice President Al Gore denied again that there were any campaign plans in his immediate future, but told CNN Monday that he hadn't "ruled out getting back into the political process at some point" — and that if he did return …

Huckabee Hides His Full Gospel?  —  WASHINGTON DISPATCH: Is Mike Huckabee the presidential candidate shunning Mike Huckabee the preacher?  Before entering politics, he was a pastor at two Baptist churches.  Now his campaign tells Mother Jones it won't make his sermons available to the media and the public.

Happy Xmas, your war is over!  —  GORDON Brown yesterday delivered a stirring festive message to Our Boys in Iraq: "Happy Christmas - war is over."  —  The PM was cheered as he praised UK troops and revealed combat operations in Basra will end "within two weeks".