Senator Feingold “But it was a very different Harry Reid who called me into his office in the Capitol early one morning in March of 2007. Such a meeting, where I was given no clue of the topic, was rare, and I found Harry looking almost mournful when I arrived. Having thought carefully about what […]
3/15/2007
“The FBI later concluded that [American journalist] Daniel Pearl had not been executed by [terrorist Ahmed] Omar Sheikh but by three Arabs, one of whom was Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the principal organizer of the 9/11 attacks. Mohammed admitted killing Pearl in a March 2007 hearing in Guantánamo Bay, although the reliability of his confession was […]
3/15/2007
“In March 2007, Mullah Obaidullah Akhand, one of the two senior deputies of [Taliban leader] Mullah [Mohammad] Omar, was arrested in Quetta [Pakistan]. It was later reported that the ISI [Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence] had freed him in a hostage exchange for Pakistani soldiers being held by [Pakistani Taliban leader] Baitullah Mehsud.” [The 15th of the […]
3/15/2007
“[A] still-secret March 2007 FISC [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court] ruling found that elements of NSA’s [National Security Agency’s] domestic eavesdropping effort were illegal. The FISC judge’s ruling says, in effect, that certain aspects of NSA’s monitoring of foreign communications passing through U.S.-based telephone switching centers and Internet service providers are patently illegal. According to Newsweek […]
3/15/2007
“Even without the warrantless [wiretapping] powers granted by President Bush, obtaining personal information has become much easier with the passage of the Patriot Act and the frequent use of ‘national security letters [NSL],’ which do not require probable cause or court approval. In 2000, the number of NSLs issued was 8,500, a large number. Between […]
3/15/2007
Al Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-“Zawahiri had harsh words for Hamas on hearing of its March 2007 agreement to form a national unity government with Fatah [The Movement for the National Liberation of Palestine], especially as the deal was brokered in Mecca by Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah. Hamas, he [Zawahiri] sadly claimed, had ‘fallen into the […]
3/9/2007
“The Justice Department’s inspector general revealed on March 9 [2007] that the FBI has been systematically abusing one of the most controversial provisions of the USA Patriot Act: the expanded power to issue ‘national security letters.’ It no doubt surprised most Americans to learn that between 2003 and 2005 the FBI issued more than 140,000 […]
3/6/2007
On March 6, 2007, Vice President Dick Cheney’s Chief of Staff Scooter “Libby was found guilty on four out of five counts of lying and obstructing justice.” – Stephen F. Hayes, Cheney, Page 519 […]
3/5/2007
President “Bush refused to push [Pakistani President Purvez] Musharraf on the Taliban issue when Bush had visited Islamabad in March [2006], on his way back from a trip to India. ‘Nobody gave the Taliban much importance then,’ said a [anonymous] senior U.S. official [on March 5, 2007]. ‘To hunt the Taliban we would have to […]
3/2/2007
“In March [2] 2007 [Taliban defense minister] Mullah Obaidullah Akhund was arrested in Quetta [Pakistan] by the ISI [Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence] after considerable US and British pressure, but he was later freed in a hostage exchange with Pakistani Taliban who were holding Pakistani soldiers.” – Ahmed Rashid, Taliban, Page 231 […]