Special Interest Glance
Tucked inside the National Defense Authorization Act, being marked up by the House Armed Services Committee this week, is a hugely important provision that hasn't been getting a lot of attention — a brand new authorization for a worldwide war.
This stealth provision was added to the bill by the committee's chairman, Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.), but has a bit of a history. It was first proposed by former Attorney General Michael Mukasey in 2008 after the Bush administration lost the Boumediene v. Bush case, in which the Supreme Court decided that federal courts would subject the administration's asserted law of war basis to hold Guantanamo detainees to searching review.
Unchecked Executive War Power Could Slip Through the House
Ministers face calls for apology as extent of 1970s 'virginity tests' revealed
Ministers are facing demands for an official apology to at least 80 Asian women who were subjected to "virginity tests'' by immigration staff when they tried to come to Britain in the late 1970s.
The demands follow the disclosure of confidential Home Office files that show that intimate examinations – used to "check the marital status" of Indian and Pakistani women coming to Britain to marry – were on a far wider scale than was previously known.
FBI set to kill secret-stealing Russian 'botnet'. Is your computer infected?
The FBI has seized control of a Russian cybercrime enterprise, but to kill it completely, officials may ask to rip some malware out of your computer. US diplomatic secrets could be at stake. The FBI might be asking your permission soon to reach into your computer and rip something out. And you don’t know it’s there.
In a first for US law enforcement efforts to make the Internet more secure, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has seized control of a Russian cybercrime enterprise that has enslaved millions of personal computers and may have gained access to US diplomatic, military, and law enforcement computer systems.
University Denies Tony Kushner Award Over Views on Israel
No stranger to controversy — the cliché fits Tony Kushner, whose groundbreaking play cycle Angels in America (subtitle A Gay Fantasia on National Themes) was one of the major flashpoints in the modern culture war. (It is still a sore subject in some places, as Studio 360 reported in 2009.) Now Kushner's views are once again subject of debate, this time from an unexpected quarter.
Kushner was to receive an honorary award from the City University of New York's John Jay College. In an unprecedented move, according to the New York Times report on the events, CUNY's board of trustees voted to deny the award, after a trustee attacked Kushner's views on Israel. Kushner asserts that his views are shared by Jews and supporters of Israel inside that country and in the US — he responded to CUNY in a letter posted in The Jewish Week.
Ashcroft named to Xe (Blackwater) Services chairmanship
Former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft is joining the security firm once known as Blackwater. Investment group USTC Holdings, LLC, said Wednesday that Ashcroft is serving as an independent director for Moyock, N.C.-based Xe (ZEE) Services.
The director positions were created in December when USTC purchased Xe. The private company became famous as Blackwater, which provided guards and services to the U.S. government in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
WH won't release bin Laden death photo
President Barack Obama has decided not to release death photos of terrorist Osama bin Laden, he said in an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes," amid concerns that the gruesome image could prove inflammatory.
Obama's decision was reported on the CBS News Web site Wednesday after the president sat for an interview with the news magazine program. Releasing graphic images of bin Laden's corpse after his shooting in a U.S. raid on his compound could have dispelled doubts that bin Laden is indeed dead. The worry, though, was that it would feed anti-U.S. sentiment.
Canadian Bishop to face child pornography trial
Victims of sexual abuse at the hands of clergy and their advocates say the trial of a Canadian Roman Catholic bishop who faces child pornography charges is a step in the right direction.
Bishop Raymond Lahey's trial is scheduled to begin Wednesday in an Ottawa court - a rare case of high ranking Canadian Church official facing charges over sexual misconduct.
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