In the News: Dec-08

US: Blackwater used grenades on unarmed Iraqis - 8 Dec 2008 at 1:18pm - WASHINGTON -- Blackwater Worldwide security guards opened machine gun fire on innocent, surrendering Iraqis and launched a grenade into a girls' school during a gruesome Baghdad shooting last year, prosecutors said Monday in announcing manslaughter charges against five guards.

Dion to resign on Monday - 8 Dec 2008 at 1:10pm - Embattled Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion will step down on Monday, sources have told CBC News.

Iraq security contractors face end to immunity - 8 Dec 2008 at 8:19am - BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Private security guards in Iraq, whose armored convoys once barreled through the streets with impunity, could face being thrown into crowded and violent Iraqi jails once their era of legal immunity ends on January 1.

September 11 defendants ask to plead guilty - 8 Dec 2008 at 10:00am - GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) - The self-styled mastermind of the September 11 attacks and four co-defendants sent a note to a military judge at Guantanamo on Monday saying they wanted to confess and plead guilty.

Panel to Call for Probe Into Wiretapping of Scholar - 7 Dec 2008 at 10:13pm - An inquiry would examine evidence that the National Security Agency illegally wiretapped a Muslim scholar.

Spying on pacifists, environmentalists and nuns 7 Dec 2008 at 3:00am - An undercover Maryland State Police trooper infiltrated nonviolent groups and labeled dozens of people as terrorists. To friends in the protest movement, Lucy was an eager 20-something who attended their events and sent encouraging e-mails to support their causes.

Thought for the day:
It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into. -Jonathan Swift (1667 - 1745)