A committee will investigate whether the CIA operated secret prisons in Eastern Europe. | story Also, documents show that the U.S. Army may have ended some detainee abuse probes prematurely. | story
Bush and the new German chancellor are pushing diplomacy on the Iranian nuclear issue. | story
If this seems in stark contrast with the president’s Iraq policy, read Truthdig’s Robert Scheer or Juan Cole—who argue that we’ve lost leverage over Iran because the Iraq war has empowered the Shiites in both countries to link arms against us.
As the hearings end, Democrats seem unlikely to filibuster the nominee. | story And so much for a swing vote: Analyses of Alito’s answers by both The New York Times and The Washington Post find the nominee most aligned with Scalia and Thomas.
Nan Talese, the publisher of admitted embellisher James Frey, spars with her husband, author Gay Talese, over the issue of falsehoods in memoirs. | story
China wants to raise the number of foreigners studying Mandarin to 100 million by 2010. | story So-called Confucius Institutes are popping up all over the world to teach the language. | story
Amnesty International renews its request for the prison to be shut. | story Also, the U.S. general at the center of the detainee abuse scandal refuses to answer questions in a court-martial. | story
Officials tell a global summit that fuel-efficient technologies will reduce greenhouse emissions. | story Meanwhile, German scientists say that plants may be producing greenhouse gases. | story
The nominee signals he might revisit the abortion ruling. | story In an editorial, the New York Times says that Alito has “given the American people reasons to be worried.” | editorial Also, in a heated exchange, Ted Kennedy spars with Arlen Specter over Alito’s membership in a discriminatory Princeton club. | video
The brigadier general calls the U.S. military “weighed down by bureaucracy, a stiflingly hierarchical outlook” and a “predisposition to offensive operations.” | story
Members of Congress question whether the agency can investigate itself. | story Meanwhile, a dream team of 14 legal scholars and ex-gov’t officials write a memo to the DOJ calling the NSA program illegal. | story
Still Doing God’s Work on Wall Street
