[Privacy International]
The 2007 International Privacy Ranking State of Privacy Map.

[Time]
Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated Thursday in a suicide attack that also killed at least 20 others at the end of a campaign rally. The death of the 54-year-old charismatic former prime minister threw the campaign for the Jan. 8 election into chaos and created fears of mass protests and an eruption of violence across the volatile south Asian nation.

[The Washington Post]
The federal agency in charge of policing the torrent of political spending during the upcoming presidential primaries will, for all practical purposes, shut its doors on New Year's Eve. The Federal Election Commission will effectively go dark on Jan. 1 because Congress remains locked in a standoff over the confirmation of Bush's nominees to the panel. As a consequence, the FEC will enter 2008 with just two of six members—short of the four votes needed for the commission to take any official action. There is, in effect, nobody to answer the phone.

[The Washington Post]
The FBI is embarking on a $1 billion effort to build the world's largest computer database of peoples' physical characteristics, a project that would give the government unprecedented abilities to identify individuals in the United States and abroad.

[The New York Times]
A review of classified documents by former members of the Sept. 11 commission shows that the panel made repeated and detailed requests to the CIA in 2003 and 2004 for documents and other information about the interrogation of operatives of Al Qaeda, and were told by a top CIA official that the agency had "produced or made available for review" everything that had been requested. The review was conducted earlier this month after the disclosure that in November 2005, the CIA destroyed videotapes documenting the interrogations of two Qaeda operatives. In interviews this week, the two chairmen of the commission, Lee H. Hamilton and Thomas H. Kean, said their reading of the report had convinced them that the agency had made a conscious decision to impede the Sept. 11 commission’s inquiry.

[NetRootsMass]
Never forget.

[Reuters]
Airport security lines can annoy passengers, but there is no evidence that they make flying any safer, U.S. researchers report.

[Yahoo! News]
In a Republican presidential candidates' debate last week, Rudy Giuliani asserted: My government in New York City was so transparent that they knew every single thing I did almost every time I did it. I can't think of a public figure that's had a more transparent life than I've had. But the public record, as reviewed by The Associated Press, shows a City Hall that had a reputation of resistance—even hostility—toward open government, the First Amendment and the public's access to simple facts and figures. He ran a government as closed as he could make it, said attorney Floyd Abrams, a widely recognized First Amendment authority who faced off against city lawyers when Giuliani sought to shut the Brooklyn Museum of Art because the mayor considered a painting sacrilegious. Under an unprecedented agreement that didn't become public until after he left office, Giuliani secreted out of City Hall the written, photographic and electronic record of his eight years in office—more than 2,000 boxes.

[The Raw Story]
The Department of Homeland Security is finalizing plans for a domestic spy satellite program. DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff insists the scheme to turn spy satellites—that were originally designed for foreign surveillance—on Americans is legal, although a House committee that would approve the program has not been updated on the program for three months.

[The Seattle Times]
EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson on Wednesday denied California's petition to limit greenhouse-gas emissions from cars and trucks, overruling the unanimous recommendation of the agency's legal and technical staffs.

[AFP]
The Lakota Indians, who gave the world legendary warriors Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, have withdrawn from treaties with the United States: We are no longer citizens of the United States of America and all those who live in the five-state area that encompasses our country are free to join us.

[News.com]
A federal judge in Vermont has ruled that prosecutors can't force a criminal defendant accused of having illegal images on his hard drive to divulge his PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) passphrase.

[The New York Times]
One of seven indigent men charged with plotting to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago as part of an Islamic jihad was acquitted on Thursday, and a mistrial was declared in the prosecution of the six others after the jury said it was hopelessly deadlocked. Officials had acknowledged that the defendants had never acquired weapons or equipment and had posed no immediate threat. But, the officials said, the case underscored a need for pre-emptive terrorism prosecutions.

[Los Angeles Times]
A Senate panel has found former presidential advisor Karl Rove and current White House Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten in contempt of Congress for refusing to testify and turn over documents in the investigation of the firings of nine U.S. attorneys last year.

[CBS News]
A U.S. Appeals Court upholds ruling that portions of Patriot Act are unconstitutionally vague.

[Science Debate 2008]
Given the many urgent scientific and technological challenges facing America and the rest of the world, the increasing need for accurate scientific information in political decision making, and the vital role scientific innovation plays in spurring economic growth and competitiveness, we, the undersigned, call for a public debate in which the U.S. presidential candidates share their views on the issues of The Environment, Medicine and Health, and Science and Technology Policy.

[news.com.au]
At an event to commemorate the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights today, Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu said the detention of suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban members at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba was a "huge blot on a democracy." Whoever imagined that you would hear from the United States and from Britain the same arguments for detention without trial that were used by the apartheid government.

[BBC News]
World opinion is divided on the importance of having a free press, according to a poll conducted for the BBC World Service. Of those interviewed, 56% thought that freedom of the press was very important to ensure a free society. But 40% said it was more important to maintain social harmony and peace, even if it meant curbing the press's freedom to report news truthfully.

[Harper's Magazine]
Fritz Stern reminds us that as a democracy with two-hundred thirty years of experience, America is better situated than most to weather the storms of a wannabe tyrant. But that, he adds, would presuppose that such a nation really understood its heritage and had a genuine historic sense.

[CBS News]
$1 billion in military equipment is missing in Iraq, according to a new report issued today by the Pentagon Inspector General.

[The New York Times]
The Central Intelligence Agency in 2005 destroyed at least two videotapes documenting the interrogation of two Al Qaeda operatives in the agency’s custody, a step it took in the midst of Congressional and legal scrutiny about the CIA’s secret detention program, according to current and former government officials.

[News.com]
The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a bill saying that anyone offering an open Wi-Fi connection to the public must report illegal images including "obscene" cartoons and drawings—or face fines of up to $300,000. That broad definition would cover individuals, coffee shops, libraries, hotels, and even some government agencies that provide Wi-Fi. It also sweeps in social-networking sites, domain name registrars, Internet service providers, and e-mail service providers such as Hotmail and Gmail, and it may require that the complete contents of the user's account be retained for subsequent police inspection.

[Guardian Unlimited]
Thoughtcrime alert: Woman in Britain convicted for writing poetry. Or, alternatively, Samina Malik was not prosecuted for writing poetry. Ms Malik was convicted of collecting information. (the Crown Prosecution Service, in a statement).

[The New York Times]
A new assessment by American intelligence agencies concludes that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and that the program remains frozen, contradicting judgment two years ago that Tehran was working relentlessly toward building a nuclear bomb.

[Newsweek]
Don't ever say the Bush administration doesn't take care of its own. Nearly three years after Paul Wolfowitz resigned as deputy Defense secretary and six months after his stormy departure as president of the World Bank—amid allegations that he improperly awarded a raise to his girlfriend—he's in line to return to public service.

[Times Online]
The United States has told Britain that it can "kidnap" British citizens if they are wanted for crimes in the United States.