Utah Sen. Orrin G. Hatch said yesterday that at least two of the chief judges on the secretive court that approves warrants for intelligence surveillance had been informed since 2001 of the National Security Agency's domestic spying program. "None raised any objections, as far as I know," said Mr. Hatch, a Republican member of a Select Committee on Intelligence panel appointed to oversee the NSA's work. Meanwhile, the White House, in an abrupt reversal, will allow the full Senate and House intelligence committees to review a surveillance program approved by President Bush, congressional officials said. Two days before the program was expected to dominate Air Force Gen. Michael V. Hayden's Senate hearing on his confirmation as CIA director, the Senate and House intelligence committee chairmen -- Sen. Pat Roberts, Kansas Republican, and Rep. Peter Hoekstra, Michigan Republican -- said their full panels would be briefed for the first time on the terrorist surveillance program....
http://www.washingtontimes.com
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Editor - 09:06:00 05-17-06
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 Judge dies in Turkey court attack |
A gunman has shot dead a prominent judge and wounded four others in an attack in Turkey's highest court, in the capital, Ankara. Judge Mustafa Yucel Ozbilgin died despite six hours of surgery to remove a bullet from his brain. One of the wounded judges had been criticised for ruling against teachers wearing Muslim headscarves, and had reportedly received death threats. The attacker, believed to be a lawyer, was detained by police. He is being questioned to determine his motive. But the BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Istanbul says many here already see this as an attack on secularism itself - the founding principle of the Turkish republic. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4989034.stm
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Editor - 08:39:00 05-17-06
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| US spells out plan to bomb Iran |
THE US is updating contingency plans for a non-nuclear strike to cripple Iran's atomic weapon programme if international diplomacy fails, Pentagon sources have confirmed.Strategists are understood to have presented two options for pinpoint strikes using B2 bombers flying directly from bases in Missouri, Guam in the Pacific and Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. RAF Fairford in Gloucester also has facilities for B2s but this has been ruled out because of the UK's opposition to military action against Tehran.The main plan calls for a rolling, five-day bombing campaign against 400 key targets in Iran, including 24 nuclear-related sites, 14 military airfields and radar installations, and Revolutionary Guard headquarters.At least 75 targets in underground complexes would be attacked with waves of bunker-buster bombs....
http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/62043.html
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Editor - 22:57:00 05-16-06
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| Probes into CIA flights "stonewalled": UN official |
Inquiries into allegations that CIA flights through Europe carried people to countries where they faced possible torture are encountering a stonewall by officials, a U.N. official said on Tuesday.Martin Scheinin, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights issues related to the fight against terrorism, said it could be decades before the full truth about the allegations emerged."There is a stonewall," he said of the lack of firm evidence turned up by European investigators to support allegations that the CIA ran secret prisons in Europe and flew suspects to states where they would have been tortured."There is a huge degree of ambiguity and secrecy and I seriously believe it will take several years or even decades before we have enough to make an assessment of the magnitude of the phenomenon," Scheinin told a news briefing....
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-05-16T163911Z_01_L16715896_RTRUKOC_0_US-EUROPE-CIA-FLIGHTS.xml
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Editor - 22:53:00 05-16-06
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| Hoekstra hits CIA deputy pick |
The chairman of the House intelligence committee, already opposed to President Bush's pick to lead the Central Intelligence Agency, said the president's choice for deputy director was guilty of "gross insubordination." Rep. Peter Hoekstra said yesterday that it is clear the White House did not want congressional input on the nominations of Air Force Gen. Michael V. Hayden as CIA director and Stephen R. Kappes as the No. 2 official at the agency. "You would think that on the No. 2 person they might have just said, 'Hey, what do you think of this guy,' but they never did," Mr. Hoekstra, Michigan Republican, said yesterday during a 90-minute meeting with editors and reporters at The Washington Times. Mr. Bush has not officially nominated Mr. Kappes, who quit the CIA in November 2004 after a dust-up with Porter J. Goss, who was director at the time....
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20060516-101756-8450r.htm
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Editor - 22:51:00 05-16-06
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| Suicide bomber kills 7 in Russia's south: media |
A suicide bomber killed seven people including a top Russian policeman on Wednesday when he drove his car into a police convoy in the southern Russian region of Ingushetia, local media reported. Russian news agencies reported that among the dead was Dzhabrail Kostoyev, deputy head of the Ingushetia interior ministry, two of his guards, and four civilians. It was not clear if the suicide bomber was included in the total....
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060517/ts_nm/russia_blast_dc
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Editor - 22:48:00 05-16-06
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