The Justice Department's inspector general told a committee of angry House members yesterday that the FBI may have violated the law or government policies as many as 3,000 times since 2003 as agents secretly collected the telephone, bank and credit card records of U.S. citizens and foreign nationals residing here. Inspector General Glenn A. Fine said that according to the FBI's own estimate, as many as 600 of these violations could be "cases of serious misconduct" involving the improper use of "national security letters" to compel telephone companies, banks and credit institutions to produce records. National security letters are comparable to subpoenas but are issued directly by the bureau without court review. They largely target records of transactions rather than personal documents or conversations. An FBI tally showed that the bureau made an average of 916 such requests each week from ...
http://www.washingtonpost.com
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Editor - 22:17:00 03-21-07
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 Defense spending soars to highest levels since World War II |
As the Iraq war enters a fifth year, the conflict that President Bush's aides once said would all but pay for itself with oil revenues is fueling the highest level of defense spending since World War II. Even with past spending adjusted upward for inflation, the $630 billion provided for the military this year exceeds the highest annual amounts during the Reagan-era defense buildup, the Vietnam War and the Korean War. When lawmakers approve a nearly $100 billion emergency spending bill in the next few weeks, Congress will have appropriated $607 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, with about 75 percent going to Iraq, according to a new Congressional Research Service study obtained by McClatchy Newspapers. Less than three months after assuming control of Congress, Democrats are moving away from their election campaign pledges to restrict or eliminate funding for Iraq. ...
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/16935815.htm
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Editor - 21:56:00 03-21-07
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| 5 Taliban released to win reporter's freedom |
Italy's deputy foreign affairs minister, Ugo Intini, confirmed Wednesday that the Afghan government released five Taliban prisoners to win the freedom of a reporter who had been kidnapped in lawless Helmand province.Daniele Mastrogiacomo, who writes for Italy's La Repubblica newspaper, was freed Monday after two weeks in captivity. His Afghan driver, who was also seized, was beheaded, and the fate of his translator is not known.Though the Afghan government called the swap "an exceptional case," the deal was sharply criticized."When we create situations where you can buy the freedom of Taliban fighters when you catch a journalist, in short term there will be no journalists anymore," the Dutch foreign minister, Maxime Verhagen, said during a visit to Kabul on Wednesday.Joe Mellott, the spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan, said: "The U.S. does not make concessions to terrorist demands. End of story."...
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-03-21-italian-journalist_N.htm?csp=34
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Editor - 19:42:00 03-21-07
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| 2 Sheriff's Deputies Plead Guilty in Henry County, Va. Drug Corruption Case |
A former sheriff's deputy and a former probation officer charged with participating in a scheme to sell drugs seized from criminals pleaded guilty Tuesday under agreements with prosecutors. Steven Preston, 37, the former Henry County sheriff's deputy, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to one charge of racketeering conspiracy, according the U.S. Attorney's Office. He faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Former probation officer Carlton Riley, 42, faces a minimum five years in prison for attempted drug distribution. The maximum penalty is 40 years in prison and a $2 million fine. The pair were among 20 people, including former sheriff H. Franklin Cassell and 12 other members of the department, indicted last fall in the corruption case. Fourteen of those named in the indictment have pleaded guilty to charges that included racketeering conspiracy, narcotics distribution and weapons counts....
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2971488
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Editor - 19:17:00 03-21-07
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| Forbes pays out to Moscow tycoon |
Russia's richest woman, Yelena Baturina, has won a court action for defamation against the business magazine, Forbes. Ms Baturina is the wife of the Moscow Mayor, Yuri Luzhkov and also runs a big construction company. Her complaint was over an article in the Russian edition of the magazine which implied that her business had benefited from her husband's position. A Moscow court upheld her claim and ordered Forbes to pay about $4,000. The amount is symbolic, considering the actors involved, but the case raises new questions about the freedom of Russia's media to report the lives of the rich and famous. Following December's stand-off, which resulted in Forbes' publishers ordering the front cover to be changed, Maksim Kashulinsky repeatedly accused the company Inteko of censoring the media. However, Forbes' publishers took the view that their Russian operation had, in their words, "violated journalistic ethics". ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6476133.stm
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Editor - 19:15:00 03-21-07
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| Second Illinois judge sentenced in DUI case He was seen dumping out beer after his peer crashed into another car |
A judge accused of trying to hide a beer after a drunk colleague he was riding with got into a car crash has pleaded guilty to illegally transporting alcohol. St. Clair County Judge Jan Fiss entered his plea Tuesday and was sentenced to two months under court supervision and ordered to pay a $500 fine. Fiss, 64, and Circuit Judge Patrick Young, 58, were returning to Belleville from a St. Louis Rams football game in December when Young's sport-utility vehicle collided with a pickup truck, injuring the pickup driver. Young was convicted earlier this month of drunken driving. He was sentenced to two years of court supervision and ordered to pay $1,500 in fines. Police said Fiss was seen by an officer dumping out a beer after the crash and trying to hide a beer can. He was charged under an Illinois law barring open containers of alcohol in vehicles....
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17724889/
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Editor - 17:05:00 03-21-07
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