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Report: Very Few Immigration Cases Related to Terrorism
Tweet Share on Facebook May 29, 2007 CommentOf the more than 800,000 individuals whom the Department of Homeland Security charged in the immigration courts in the past three years, only 12 have been accused of terrorism-related crimes, according to a new report out today from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC).
An additional 114 cases were categorized as "national security" cases, according to TRAC's analysis of millions of records, many obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
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Behind the News: Sanctions for Sudan
Tweet Share on Facebook May 29, 2007 CommentPresident Bush's announcement today that the United States will impose new economic sanctions on Sudan comes as welcome news to the large and growing chorus of activists who have repeatedly called for U.S. intervention in the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.
For more on what is happening in Darfur, what can be done to stem the killing, and how domestic activism has shaped the international response to the genocide, see the Q&A with John Prendergast in this week's issue of U.S.News & World Report, available here on usnews.com.
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Morning Buzz: May 29, 2007
Tweet Share on Facebook May 29, 2007 CommentThis morning's top stories:
- President Bush will announce new economic sanctions today against the Sudanese government in an effort to force its hand in putting an end to the bloodshed in Darfur.
- The Iranian government has formally charged an Iranian-American academic who was arrested during a visit to Iran early this month with endangering Iran's national security. Haleh Esfandiari's arrest has been widely condemned in the United States.
- The prominent antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan, whose son Casey was killed in Iraq in 2004, wrote in a column on the liberal blog Daily Kos yesterday that she is retiring from the movement out of disillusionment and because of poor health.
- A hotel in Australia that markets itself to gay men has won the right to limit the number of guests who are heterosexuals or lesbians in an effort to create a comfortable environment.
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Doc: Fitzgerald Recommends 30 to 37 months for Libby
Tweet Share on Facebook May 25, 2007 CommentThe federal prosecutor who indicted former White House aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby has recommended that Libby, who was convicted in March, receive 30 to 37 months in prison. His 18-page recommendation, is available here.
"Mr. Libby, a high-ranking public official and experienced lawyer, lied repeatedly and blatantly about matters at the heart of a criminal investigation concerning the disclosure of a covert intelligence officer's identity," Fitzgerald writes in the memorandum. "He has shown no regret for his actions, which significantly impeded the investigation."
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An Iraq Cleric's Knotty Reemergence
Tweet Share on Facebook May 25, 2007 CommentToday's news that the radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr is back in the spotlight after a four-month absence throws another monkey wrench into the U.S.-led efforts to secure Baghdad.
In a fiery sermon today, Sadr instructed his followers not to engage Iraqi troops but was expressly anti-American.
Here are three stories from the U.S.News & World Report archives about Sadr and his powerful militia:
- Clerical Error: Having Overestimated His Support, al-Sadr Backs Down, May 30, 2004
- Moqtada al-Sadr's Deadly Game of Chicken, Aug. 22, 2004
- Men in Black: Why Iraq's Shiite Militias Are So Brutally Effective, Dec. 10, 2006
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Online Duel: Bush vs. Harry Potter
Tweet Share on Facebook May 25, 2007 CommentOf the many weird but enlightening barometers of the national mood that one can glean from the blogosphere, try this one on for size: President Bush versus Harry Potter.
A list of the most-blogged-about people compiled daily by the website BlogPulse.com, run by Nielsen BuzzMetrics technology, consistently places Bush and Potter in the top two spots, where the president and the fictional hero of Hogwarts joust for the lead from day to day. The president surged ahead of Potter on Wednesday after a 12-day drought in which Potter outbuzzed him on the blogosphere, largely riding the reactions to his commencement address at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, according to a head-to-head buzz-off between the two icons on BlogPulse.
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Morning Buzz: May 25, 2007
Tweet Share on Facebook May 25, 2007 CommentThis morning's top stories:
- American aid to Lebanon in their fight against Islamic militants in the north of the country began arriving this morning, the AP reports.
- The computer manufacturer Dell will begin selling computers at Wal-Mart in an effort to boost sails, moving away from its direct buy program.
- The CEO of General Electric Co. said the company's "ecoimagination" line of environmental products will "blow away" its target of $20 billion in sales by 2010 due to demand.
- A Canadian study has found that babies can tell the difference between languages simply by picking up on facial cues, HealthDay reports.
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Hurricane Season: Seven Days and Counting
Tweet Share on Facebook May 24, 2007 CommentIt's seven days and counting until Opening Day of hurricane season and in advance of it, the Census Bureau released some newly tabulated population figures today for the coastal regions between North Carolina and Texas, where the threat is the highest.
- Square mileage of danger zone: 180,155
- 1950 Population: 10.2 million
- 2006 Population: 34.9 million (244% increase)
- State with largest increase: Florida, almost 15 million more people
Plus: the latest in the glacial pace of reconstruction in hurricane-torn New Orleans.
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Delay on Immigration Vote a Risk
Tweet Share on Facebook May 24, 2007 CommentNote: Updated at 3:42 p.m. ET.
Republican worries are growing over the increasingly harsh reaction among grass-roots conservatives to the bipartisan Senate agreement on overhauling the immigration system.
As debate over amendments continues, it's clear that the leadership's decision to delay a vote on the measure until after the Senate's weeklong Memorial Day recess was a risky strategy. The delay means that the legislation's many opponents on the left and right will have time to pick it apart and pressure individual legislators while they are in their home states.
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Bush Takes On Bin Laden (Again)
Tweet Share on Facebook May 24, 2007 CommentAhead of his commencement address yesterday at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, President Bush declassified pieces of intelligence relating to what he framed as a renewed attempt by Osama bin Laden to build a terrorist network in Iraq.
(You can see video of the address here on USNews.com.)
As U.S. News Senior Editor Kevin Whitelaw wrote several weeks ago, Bush invokes the name of the archterrorist--which earlier he had generally banished from his vocabulary--to bolster support for the U.S. effort in Iraq, while intelligence reports suggest that bin Laden has a safe haven in Pakistan.
