Top Items:
Dana Priest / Washington Post:
Wrongful Imprisonment: Anatomy of a CIA Mistake — German Citizen Released After Months in 'Rendition' — In May 2004, the White House dispatched the U.S. ambassador in Germany to pay an unusual visit to that country's interior minister. Ambassador Daniel R. Coats carried instructions …
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Observer:
Rice rejects EU protests over secret terror prisons — America does not break international law, Secretary of State insists — US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will inflame the transatlantic row over America's alleged torture of terror suspects in secret jails by telling Foreign Secretary Jack Straw …
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Washington Post:
Blast in Pakistan Kills Al Qaeda Commander — Figure Reportedly Hit by U.S. Missile Strike — BERLIN, Dec. 3 — The killing of an al Qaeda commander in a U.S.-led operation in a remote corner of Pakistan marks an advance in the struggle to locate and eliminate the network's leadership …
Discussion:
Los Angeles Times, The Indepundit, Loaded Mouth, blogenlust, A Blog For All, BrothersJudd Blog and CALIFORNIA YANKEE
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Washington Post:
Blanco Releases Katrina Records — La. Governor Seeks to 'Set the Record Straight' — Thousands of documents released by Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco Friday night shed new light on clashes between state officials, New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin and the Bush administration …
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Zbigniew Brzezinski / Washington Post:
Do These Two Have Anything in Common? — President Bush has equated Islamic radicalism with communism. Is the comparison sound? Is it wise? — In a series of recent speeches to the American people, President Bush has sought to equate the current terrorist threat with the 20th-century menace of communist totalitarianism.
Laurie Goodstein / New York Times:
Intelligent Design Might Be Meeting Its Maker — TO read the headlines, intelligent design as a challenge to evolution seems to be building momentum. — In Kansas last month, the board of education voted that students should be exposed to critiques of evolution like intelligent design.
Discussion:
Pharyngula, The Blogging of the President, Just a Bump in the Beltway and The Panda's Thumb
TChris / TalkLeft:
Alito Opined that Deadly Force Against Unarmed Teenager Was Reasonable — If a police officer doesn't know why a suspect is fleeing, it's reasonable for the officer to shoot the suspect to death and ask questions later. As you pause to consider the absurdity of that proposition …
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Adam Cohen / New York Times:
This Season's War Cry: Commercialize Christmas, or Else — Religious conservatives have a cause this holiday season: the commercialization of Christmas. They're for it. — The American Family Association is leading a boycott of Target for not using the words "Merry Christmas" in its advertising.
T. Christian Miller / Los Angeles Times:
Private Security Guards in Iraq Operate With Little Supervision — BAGHDAD — Private security contractors have been involved in scores of shootings in Iraq, but none have been prosecuted despite findings in at least one fatal case that the men had not followed proper procedures …
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars
Peter Schneider / New York Times:
The New Berlin Wall — On the night of Feb. 7, 2005, Hatun Surucu, 23, was killed on her way to a bus stop in Berlin-Tempelhof by several shots to the head and upper body, fired at point-blank range. The investigation revealed that months before, she reported one of her brothers to the police for threatening her.
Discussion:
Daimnation!
Carlotta Gall / New York Times:
Pave My Road and You'll Get Your School — AFTER two and a half tortured decades - Russian invasion, civil war, Taliban rule, a hunt for members of Al Qaeda and a war to oust the Taliban - Afghanistan is finally getting a glimpse of what representative national rule will look like.
New York Times:
What Would J.F.K. Have Done? — WHAT did we not hear from President Bush when he spoke last week at the United States Naval Academy about his strategy for victory in Iraq? — We did not hear that the war in Iraq, already one of the costliest wars in American history, is a running sore.
Katharine Q. Seelye / New York Times:
Snared in the Web of a Wikipedia Liar — ACCORDING to Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, John Seigenthaler Sr. is 78 years old and the former editor of The Tennessean in Nashville. But is that information, or anything else in Mr. Seigenthaler's biography, true?
Jonathan Rauch / Washington Post:
All Over but the Pullback — On June 8, 1969, President Richard M. Nixon announced the withdrawal of 25,000 American troops from Vietnam. Within the next few months, he would declare that tens of thousands more were coming home. "He was reluctant to withdraw," says John Mueller …
Discussion:
The Corner on National …
Rebecca Weisser / The Australian:
The big black book of horrors — WITH the trial of Saddam Hussein under way, those in the God-damn-America camp find themselves uncomfortably wedged. Should they justify their opposition to the war by downplaying Saddam's crimes while sheeting home blame for the present turmoil to the US and its allies?
Discussion:
Biased BBC
Michael Gurian / Washington Post:
Disappearing Act — In the 1990s, I taught for six years at a small liberal arts college in Spokane, Wash. In my third year, I started noticing something that was happening right in front of me. There were more young women in my classes than young men, and on average, they were getting better grades than the guys.
