Top Items:
Aljazeera:
Bin Laden offers Americans truce — In an audio tape broadcast on Aljazeera, Osama bin Laden has warned that al-Qaida was preparing an attack very soon, but also offered Americans a "long-term truce". — "The new operations of al-Qaida has not happened not because we could not penetrate the security measures.
Discussion:
Link Mecca, The Jawa Report v3.0 Beta, AMERICAN DIGEST, Stop The ACLU, The Counterterrorism Blog, The Mahablog, ARMAVIRUMQUE, Secular Blasphemy, THE ASTUTE BLOGGER, Dr. Sanity, AMERICAN FUTURE, ThreatsWatch.Org, The Dread Pundit Bluto, Rantings of a Sandmonkey, PoliBlog, PunditGuy, The Uncooperative Blogger, danieldrezner.com, Suitably Flip, Kobayashi Maru and Norwegianity
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CNN:
Purported bin Laden tape: 'It's only a question of time' — Voice warns Americans of impending attacks, offers truce — (CNN) — An audiotaped message purported to be from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden warns the American people that plans for terror attacks in the United States are under way.
Lee Keath / Associated Press:
Bin Laden Warns of Attacks, Offers Truce — CAIRO, Egypt - Al-Jazeera on Thursday broadcast portions of an audiotape purportedly from Osama bin Laden, saying al-Qaida is making preparations for attacks in the United States but offering a possible truce to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan.
BBC:
Text: 'Bin-Laden tape' — The pan-Arab TV station al-Jazeera has broadcast an audio tape purporting to be by al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, in which the speaker says al-Qaeda is preparing new attacks on the US. — Here is the full text of the message as broadcast.
John Hawkins / Right Wing News:
Conference Calls With The Candidates For Majority Leader — All 3 Republican Candidates for the Majority Leader spot in the House decided to do teleconferences with bloggers today. Here's a quick rundown of the calls: — 10:30 EST: John Shadegg: My questions:
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Associated Press:
Feds Seek Google Records in Porn Probe — SAN JOSE, Calif. — The Bush administration, seeking to revive an online pornography law struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, has subpoenaed Google Inc. for details on what its users have been looking for through its popular search engine.
Discussion:
Democratic Veteran
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Patricia Wen / Boston Globe:
Girl in vegetative state reported to improve — DSS says it has no plan to remove feeding tube — A day after the state's highest court ruled that the Department of Social Services could withdraw life support from a brain-damaged girl, the agency said yesterday that Haleigh Poutre might be emerging from her vegetative state.
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Elizabeth Pineau / Reuters:
France defends right to nuclear reply to terrorism — BREST, France (Reuters) - France said on Thursday it would be ready to use nuclear weapons against any state that carried out a terrorist attack against it, reaffirming the need for its nuclear deterrent.
Captain Ed / Captain's Quarters:
Clinton Cover-Up In Barrett Report: Daily News — The New York Daily News reports that the long-awaited Barrett report on the investigation into Henry Cisneros will claim that the Clinton administration actively covered up a tax-fraud case against the former HUD Secretary …
BBC:
France 'would use nuclear arms' — French President Jacques Chirac has said France would be ready to use nuclear weapons against any state which launched a terrorist attack against it. — Speaking at a nuclear submarine base in north-western France, Mr Chirac said a French response "could be conventional.
Carl Hulse / New York Times:
Democrats Claim a Better Idea on Controlling Lobbying — WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 - Congressional Democrats proposed a lobbying overhaul on Wednesday that they said far exceeded new Republican proposals in curbing the influence of moneyed special interests on Capitol Hill.
Discussion:
firedoglake, The Carpetbagger Report, The Huffington Post, Washington Post and Air America Radio
David S. Broder / Washington Post:
Gore's Challenge — Former vice president Al Gore has turned himself into a one-man grand jury, ready to indict the Bush administration for any number of crimes against the Constitution. Whether you agree with Gore's conclusions or not, the speech that the 2000 Democratic nominee …
Jonathan Cohn / The New Republic:
Shrug Coverage — It was not so long ago that President Bush was bragging about his Medicare reform law, which gives senior citizens the opportunity to buy private insurance that will help pay for their prescriptions: "The days of low-income seniors having to make painful sacrifices to pay …
Ann Scott Tyson / Washington Post:
In Iraqi Oil City, a Formidable Foe — Airborne Soldiers Struggle to Break Grip of Insurgents — BAIJI, Iraq — Pfc. Robyn Houston fires bursts of bullets into the air as his Humvee swerves around a pothole and lurches over a highway median. His convoy bears down on oncoming traffic …
Kieran Healy / Crooked Timber:
Radical Professors Exposed, Woo — Eugene Volokh is already on this, but I caught a segment on the radio about the UCLAProfs.com, the site founded by some recent political science grad "dedicated to exposing UCLA's most radical professors," people who are engaged in "brainwashing" their students …
Eric Boehlert / The Huffington Post:
How the Press Played Dumb About the K Street Project — One of the most depressing traits of the news media's timid performance during the Bush years has been their newfound fear of facts and the consequences of reporting them. Where Beltway journalists once eagerly corralled facts …
dailyhowler.com:
Special report—How to read literacy! — PART 3—THE MORE, THE MURKIER: What's the state of literacy among college grads? It's timely that you should ask. As we noted last week, the National Center for Education Statistics recently released a massive survey of adult literacy, the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL).
Jim Brady / washingtonpost.blog:
Comments Turned Off — As of 4:15 p.m. ET today, we have shut off comments on this blog indefinitely. — At its inception, the purpose of this blog was to open a dialogue about this site, the events of the day, the journalism of The Washington Post Company and other related issues.
Washington Post:
Diplomats Will Be Shifted to Hot Spots — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday that she will shift hundreds of Foreign Service positions from Europe and Washington to difficult assignments in the Middle East, Asia and elsewhere as part of a broad restructuring of the diplomatic corps …
David A. Fahrenthold / Washington Post:
Federal Grants Bring Surveillance Cameras to Small Towns — BELLOWS FALLS, Vt. — This snowy village, in the shadow of Fall Mountain and alongside the iced-over Connecticut River, is the kind of place where a little of anything usually suffices. There are just eight full-time police officers …
