In the News: Jan-15

Intelligence court rules wiretapping program legal - 15 Jan 2009 at 12:44pm - The ruling is expected to validate the president's power to wiretap international phone calls and intercept e-mail without a court order.

Pentagon Iraq withdrawal has 16-month time frame - 15 Jan 2009 at 1:55pm - WASHINGTON -- Pentagon officials said Thursday they are readying a range of plans for a pullout of U.S. combat troops from Iraq, including a possible drawdown within the 16-month time frame promised by President-elect Obama.

Holder tells senators waterboarding is torture - 15 Jan 2009 at 11:45am - WASHINGTON -- Attorney General-nominee Eric Holder Jr. forcefully broke from the Bush administration's counterterrorism policies Thursday, declaring that waterboarding is torture and pledging to prosecute some Guantanamo Bay detainees in U.S. courts.

Cheney: Obama should adopt Bush terrorism policies - 14 Jan 2009 at 4:43pm - WASHINGTON -- Vice President Dick Cheney said Wednesday that President-elect Barack Obama will jeopardize national security if he does not embrace the terror-fighting policies implemented by President George W. Bush.

Suicide spotlights troops' mental care - 14 Jan 2009 at 5:04pm - WASHINGTON -- In 2005, an Army captain in Iraq asked for a mental health evaluation for one of his soldiers, a private first class from North Carolina who was known to put the muzzle of his weapon in his mouth. The case was assigned to a psychologist who was unlicensed - a common practice in the early years of the war, when the Army rushed mental health counselors to the combat zone even if some weren't certified or fully qualified.

Thought for the day:
Courage without conscience is a wild beast. -Robert Ingersoll (1833 - 1899)