As some members of Congress seek to unravel the mystery shrouding invasive NSA and FBI programs by pressing telecoms to disclose more information about their collusion with the government, a former high-level Justice Department official testified that the White House’s secrecy surrounding the NSA wiretapping was so tight that they kept the Attorney General and the NSA’s general counsel “partly in the darkâ€:
- Telecoms Pressed on Surveillance (Washington Post)
- White House Secrecy On Wiretaps Described (Washington Post)
Indonesian court upholds legal restrictions on polygyny, citing the need to treat wives fairly and asserting that these regulations were not against national law or the tenets of Islam:
- Indonesia Court Rejects Bid to Make Polygamy Easier (Reuters/New York Times)
As an assassination attempt against the Polish ambassador to Iraq kills 2 and wounds 17 others, including the ambassador himself, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown announces the withdrawal of 500 more British troops:
- Iraq Blast Wounds Polish Ambassador (Al-Jazeera International)
- Brown Announces Troop Withdrawal (Reuters/New York Times)
With Musharraf’s main interest in trying to maintain the façade of legitimacy in lieu of the upcoming election, his focus has shifted away from fighting the Taliban, allowing them to continue extending their reach into Pakistan, while opposition leader Benazir Bhutto claims that power sharing talks with the Musharraf have stalled and denies claims that corruption charges against her had been dropped:
- Pakistan Seen Losing Fight Against Taliban And Al-Qaeda (Washington Post)
- Pakistan’s Power Deal ‘Stalled’ (BBC News)
Leave a Reply