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Front Page: Secret Order Let US Attack al Qaeda Anywhere
- A classified US order from 2004 authorized the US military to attack al Qaeda anywhere in the world. The order has allowed the US to secretly attack militants in Syria, Pakistan, and other places. — New York Times
- President-elect Barack Obama will meet President Bush in the Oval Office today, to begin the transition of power.
CIA Director Hayden Says Biggest Threat is a Nuclear Al-Qaeda
Sometimes a news story doesn't allow for any ducking and covering, and this is one of those: the possibility of al-Qaeda acquiring nuclear weapons. While nuclear weapons in countries like Iran and North Korea are worrisome, CIA Director Michael Hayden said yesterday that the agency's top nuclear threat is al-Qaeda.
Hayden said, "There is no greater national security threat facing the United States than al-Qaida and its associates."
Front Page: Julia Child Was a Spy, Inflation Hits Major High, Lebanon Bombing Kills 15
- Julia Child Was a Spy: Newly released files show that famous chef Julia Child was a World War-II era spy. The CIA declassified 35,000 top-secret personnel files that detailed the huge spy network run by the OSS, which later became the CIA. Former OSS agents are pleased with the release of the information, a list which includes other notables like Ernest Hemingway's and Teddy Roosevelt's sons.
- Inflation Hits Major High: Consumer prices rose at twice the rate expected to post the fastest rate of growth in 17 years.
Learning Annex: Communist Chinese Torture Taught at Gitmo
Does an interrogation class covering "coercive management techniques" like sleep deprivation, prolonged constraint, and exposure sound like something that would be conducted in modern America, or 1950s communist China? The answer is both!
During the Korean War, the US Air Force studied Chinese "torture" tactics used to obtain often false confessions from captured Americans.
Google to Help the CIA Spy
Google is helping the CIA get its blog on. The internet search engine giant will supply the technology for a Wikipedia-style intelligence site: Intellipedia.
Agents will post information about targets on a secure internal forum where they can read, edit, and tag their own content, as well as the content of other spies.
Headline: CIA Director Says Waterboarding Was Necessary
CIA Director Michael Hayden told Congress that waterboarding was necessary, but probably not legal under the current statute, on Thursday. Hayden confirmed that the technique of simulated drowning is not currently part of the CIA's interrogation program, but was used five years ago on three top al-Qaeda suspects.
On the same day, US Attorney General Michael Mukasey told lawmakers he would not open a criminal investigation into the CIA's use of waterboarding.
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Obama Won't Charge CIA Employees For Torture — Good Call?
Individual CIA employees who carried out waterboarding (aka simulated drowning) will not be prosecuted for torture. The Obama administration announced the decision yesterday, while also releasing four "torture" memos from top legal officials in the Bush administration.
Many people are upset by President Obama's decision.
Rent-a-Friend Business Booming in Japan
One of my favorite episodes of How I Met Your Mother involves Barney and his hired "family." The eternal playboy (played by Neil Patrick Harris) wants his mother to think he has settled down, so he pays actors to play his wife and son, concocts an elaborate backstory with details including his son's "catch phrase," and plays along for years every time he visits his mother with his fake family in tow.
Well apparently, Japan has turned this sitcom plot into a reality.
Front Page: Murder Suspect Ryan Jenkins Found Dead in Motel
- Fugitive murder suspect and former reality contestant Ryan Jenkins was found dead in a motel in Canada in an apparent suicide. Jenkins was accused of killing his ex-wife. — AP
- Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are considering promoting routine circumcision for all US-born boys as a method of HIV prevention.
Front Page: Journalist Robert Novak Dies at 78
- Robert Novak, the columnist and TV commentator who famously outed CIA operative Valerie Plame, died yesterday at age 78. — LA Times
- The White House may use an obscure budget maneuver to pass healthcare bill without Republican backing. — CNN
- A series of blasts in Baghdad killed at least 75 people and injured hundreds.
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