Top Items:
New York Times:
Specter Says Surveillance Program Violated the Law — WASHINGTON, Feb. 5 — The Republican who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee said today that he believed the Bush administration had violated the law with its warrantless surveillance program and that its legal justifications for the program were "strained and unrealistic."
Discussion:
MyDD, Blinq, The Next Hurrah, AMERICAblog, Stop The ACLU, Thoughts from Kansas and Prairie Weather
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Juan / Informed Comment:
Muslim Protests Against Anti-Muhammad Caricatures — Several readers have asked what I think about the protests among Muslims against the caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad published by a Danish newspaper. — Of course people are upset when their sacred figures are attacked!
Discussion:
The Reaction, islamonline.net, BAGnewsNotes, Pacific Views, The Mahablog, TigerHawk, AMERICAN FUTURE, Liberty Street and The Moderate Voice
Haaretz:
Dutch Islamists post cartoons depicting Anne Frank, Hitler in bed — A Belgian-Dutch Islamic political organization posted anti-Jewish cartoons on its Web site in response to the cartoons of the prophet Mohammed that appeared in Danish papers last year and offended many — Muslims.
Hope Yen / Associated Press:
Specter Criticizes Rationale for Spying — WASHINGTON - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has not adequately justified why the Bush administration failed to seek court approval for domestic surveillance, said the senator in charge of a hearing Monday on the program.
Ahmed Al-Haj / Associated Press:
Cole Attack Planner Escapes Yemen Prison — SAN'A, Yemen - An al-Qaida operative sentenced to death for plotting the USS Cole bombing that killed 17 sailors in 2000 was among a group of convicts who escaped from a Yemen prison last week, Interpol said Sunday in issuing a global security alert.
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Christine Hauser / New York Times:
Mastermind of U.S.S. Cole Attack Escapes Jail — A man convicted of masterminding the attack on the American destroyer Cole in 2000 escaped a Yemeni jail through a tunnel with 22 other prisoners, the international police organization, Interpol, said today. — The prisoner, Jamal Ahmed Badawi …
Discussion:
PoliPundit.com
Jason Reed / Newsweek:
Exclusive: Can the President Order a Killing on U.S. Soil? — President Bush at a recent White House press briefing — Feb. 13, 2006 issue - In the latest twist in the debate over presidential powers, a Justice Department official suggested that in certain circumstances …
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ReddHedd / firedoglake:
Do You Trust This Man to Order Assassinations on American Soil? — Newsweek reports that a Justice Department official discussed the possibility that the President ought to be able to order assassination on US soil under the current AUMF. … Interesting.
Gateway Pundit:
Terror-Linked Danish Imam Behind Cartoon Riots Interviewed — "The Imam and others toured the Middle East showing the cartoons but adding three more new ones that were far more offensive than anything the paper published. He (Imam Ahmad Abu Laban) told us they were from threatening letters …
Discussion:
EU Referendum
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Daniel Schwammenthal / Opinion Journal:Europe's New Dissidents — Middle Eastern repression comes to the Continent.
Discussion:
small dead animals
Arthur Silber / Once Upon a Time:
Walking into the Iran Trap, III: Mythic War, and Endless Enemies — [Part I: A Decision of Policy — and the Intelligence Won't Matter — Part II: The Folly of Intervention] — In the concluding parts of this series, I will offer some thoughts about the nature of the propaganda campaigns engaged …
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Atrios / Eschaton:March — Arthur writes: … Indeed. The point is not that Iran …
Discussion:
Alternate Brain
MSNBC:
Transcript for February 5 — MR. TIM RUSSERT: Our issues this Sunday: for nearly three years, this Republican from Texas, Tom "The Hammer" Delay, was the leader of House Republicans. He has now stepped aside. This Republican from Ohio is the new majority leader of the House of Representatives.
Discussion:
Think Progress, The Huffington Post, Unclaimed Territory, Decision '08 and The Stakeholder
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Tom Maguire / JustOneMinute:The Fitzgerald Affidavit - Was Libby Novak's Source??
Discussion:
TalkLeft, The Strata-Sphere, The Next Hurrah, California Conservative, Wall Street Journal, Decision '08 and Media Lies
New York Times:
Protesters in Beirut Set Danish Consulate on Fire — BEIRUT, Feb. 5 — Protesters angry over European drawings of the Prophet Muhammad attacked a building housing the Danish Consulate here early today, setting it afire and clashing with Lebanese security forces just a day after protesters …
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Shakespeare's Sister:
Discussion Thread: Cartoon Outrage — So, I've only been sort of disconnectedly paying attention to the whole Danish-cartoon-that-insults- Mohammed thing. I saw the headlines, scanned a couple of articles, and basically wevved it. — But now Danish embassies are on fire in Syria and Lebanon?
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Jeff Goldstein / protein wisdom:
Left Behind? (UPDATED TO INCLUDE MORE COVERAGE OF THE STORY THAT, ACCORDING TO ONE OF MY COMMENTERS, THE "RIGHT" HAS BEEN SILENT ON, WHILE THE LEFT HAS DOING ALL THE HEAVY LIFTING) — Tigerhawk surveys the leftside of the blogosphere to divine how as a group they are dealing with the Danish cartoon controversy ("row"?)
Discussion:
Associated Press, AMERICAN FUTURE, battlepanda.blogspot.com, Rox Populi, SobekPundit and Little Miss Attila
David E. Sanger / New York Times:
Behind the Urgent Diplomacy: A Sense Iran Will Get the Bomb — WASHINGTON, Feb. 5 — Hours after the United States and Europe prevailed in a contest over officially reporting Iran's history of clandestine nuclear activity to the United Nations Security Council, President Bush issued a statement …
Financial Times:
White House to lash out at media coverage of terror surveillance — The Bush administration will tell the Senate today that the National Security Agency's programme for terrorist surveillance has been badly distorted by media reports, and that the scheme is a strictly limited one aimed at al-Qaeda members and affiliated groups.
Michael Isikoff / Newsweek:
The Cia Leak: Plame Was Still Covert — Feb. 13, 2006 issue - Newly released court papers could put holes in the defense of Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, in the Valerie Plame leak case. Lawyers for Libby, and White House allies, have repeatedly questioned whether Plame …
Discussion:
JustOneMinute, The Reality-Based Community, Mia Culpa, MyDD, firedoglake, Obsidian Wings, The Left Coaster, The Blogging of the President, IntoxiNation-News …, Brilliant at Breakfast, King of Zembla, The Democratic Daily Blog, Outside The Beltway, Say Anything, State of the Day, Nitpicker and Prairie Weather
Roger Kimball / ARMAVIRUMQUE:
Hamlet's question, updated — Once again, Mark Steyn hits the nail on the head, puts the arrow in the bullseye, gets it just right. When the Danish newspaper printed 12 cartoon's of Mohammed, it not only meant to be provocative, but also to demonstrate the limits of tolerance.
