by Frank James
A quick guided tour of some of the morning's most important or interesting, or both, Washington-related stories.
Congressional Democrats, fearing they might otherwise be painted by Republicans as weak in fighting terror, appear ready to accede to the Bush Administration's request that the National Security Agency keep the warrantless surveillance powers that are due to sunset early next year.
A private company that had exploited a weakness in al Qaeda's computer security to gain access to a video by the terrorist group said al Qaeda closed the hole after U.S. government officials the company provided the video to leaked the video's existence to news organizations.
The head of a Sunni insurgent group in Iraq's Anbar Province said his fighters stopped attacking Americans for now in order to have talks with the Iraqi government and U.S. officials and that the truce's future depends on the actions of both the U.S. and the Shi'ite led government.
Iraqi officials want Blackwater USA, the private contractor with the allegedly trigger happy employees, to pay $136 million, or $8 million for each of the 17 Iraqi civilians, killed during a Baghdad incident last month and want the U.S. government to stop using the company in Iraq.
Senate Democrats' efforts to increase taxes on private-equity fund have foundered and won't proceed this year, Sen. Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader, has told financial industry officials and lobbyists.
Imports coming through the nation's main ports dropped to a degree that was unexpected by some observers, an indication of the weakening economy as consumers reduce their spending, especially on housing.
The Supreme Court will hear arguments Tuesday on a case of vital interest to corporations and trial lawyers as the justices will eventually decide whether defrauded shareholders will be able to sue the lawyers, consultants and others who did business with a company found guilty of fraud.
Sen. Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential front-runner in national and many state polls, said NAFTA should be reassessed in an apparent effort to reflect widespread antipathy among voters for free trade which also has the side benefit of distancing her from President Bill Clinton's position on the issue.
Fred Thompson makes his first appearance in the Republican presidential debate Tuesday and scrutiny of his performance is expected to be intense.
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Comments
I see Republiscumbag ad police are now criticizing Google for not being patriotic enough...is this a step towards Fascism? I wonder if anyone has done any academic work on what the common characteristics of a Fascist regime are??
Posted by: jethro | October 9, 2007 9:10 AM
"A private company that had exploited a weakness in al Qaeda's computer security to gain access to a video by the terrorist group said al Qaeda closed the hole after U.S. government officials the company provided the video to leaked the video's existence to news organizations."
After reading this story, one has no choice but to conclude that the Bush administration is staffed by morons. What better way to tell the TRUE enemy that you've hacked into their computers than to publicize a video that al-Qaeda hasn't released yet?
Idiots!
Posted by: BC | October 9, 2007 10:02 AM
Another momentous victory for the Bush admin!
They've closed down an Al-Queda computer network (or at least forced them to buy some $30 firewall software package). The millions we paid the company that hacked them was well worth it.
Oh sure, critics may argue the we lost a priceless intelligence source when the news was leaked, but everyone who works for Dubya knows the value of intelligence is way overrated.
Posted by: Tom O | October 9, 2007 12:03 PM