CIA says Pelosi knew about waterboarding; she says no

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is disputing a CIA account sent to Congress that raises questions about her insistence she was never told explicitly that waterboarding had been used on terrorist suspects. The CIA-prepared memo, provided to CNN by Republican sources, lists 40 briefings for members of Congress from September 2002 to March 2009. The first briefing on the list — on September 4, 2002 — was for then-House Intelligence Committee Chairman Porter Goss and Pelosi, then the ranking Democrat on the committee

Share

Sessions Could Make Obama’s Supreme Court Fight Tougher

Political junkies who weren’t thrilled at the prospect of a relatively staid confirmation process for President Barack Obama’s as yet unnamed Supreme Court nominee can rest easy. This week Senate Republicans named perennial bomb thrower Jeff Sessions, 62, of Alabama to be the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, promising to bring at least a few sparks to a confirmation process that — if Minnesota’s Al Franken is seated — was bound to be relatively easy. While Sessions alone can’t change the basic legislative math that promises whomever Obama picks to replace retiring Justice David Souter a fairly easy path to confirmation, he can certainly liven up the proceedings

Share

U.S. journalist on hunger strike treated at prison hospital

A U.S. journalist imprisoned for spying in Iran and in the midst of a hunger strike was admitted to the prison hospital to receive nourishment, her father said Tuesday. Roxana Saberi was taken to the hospital at Tehran’s Evin prison on Friday and was fed intravenously before being returned to her cell, according to Reza Saberi, who said his daughter looked “weak and frail” when he saw her on Monday

Share

Burma tops list of worst places to be a blogger

Bloggers in Burma, Iran and Syria work under some of the most repressive conditions in the world, facing tactics such as regulation, intimidation and even imprisonment, according to a report from the Committee to Protect Journalists. The organization released a list of the “10 worst countries to be a blogger” to call attention to online oppression in connection with World Press Freedom Day, which was observed Sunday. “Bloggers are at the vanguard of the information revolution, and their numbers are expanding rapidly,” the group’s executive director, Joel Simon, said in a report posted on the organization’s Web site.

Share