[Spiegel Online]
Officials with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have informed Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the United States Federal Reserve Bank, about a plan that would have been unheard-of in the past: a general examination of the US financial system. The IMF's board of directors has ruled that a so-called Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP) is to be carried out in the United States. It is nothing less than an X-ray of the entire US financial system. For seven years, George W. Bush refused to allow the IMF to conduct its assessment. Even now, he has only given the IMF board his consent under one important condition. The review can begin in Bush's last year in office, but it may not be completed until he has left the White House.

[CNN]
Bush and Cheney have rejected findings from U.S. intelligence agencies that Iran has halted a clandestine effort to build a nuclear bomb. They believe that their mission is to make sure that before they get out of office next year, either Iran is attacked or it stops its weapons program.

[Newsweek]
A Bush administration program to expand domestic use of Pentagon spy satellites has aroused new concerns in Congress about possible civil-liberties abuses.

[AfterDowningStreet.org]
U.S. Representative Dennis Kucinich: We attacked a nation that did not attack us. Over 4000 of our troops are dead. Over 1,000,000 innocent Iraqis have perished. The war will cost US taxpayers between $2 - $3 trillion dollars. Our nation’s soul is stained because we went to war for the oil companies and their profits. There must be accountability not only with this Administration for its secret meetings and its open illegal warfare but also for the oil company executives who were willing participants in a criminal enterprise of illegal war, the deaths of our soldiers and innocent Iraqis and the extortion of the national resources of Iraq. We have found the weapon of mass destruction in Iraq. It is oil. As long as the oil companies control our government Americans will continue to pay and pay, with our lives, our fortunes our sacred honor.

[MSNBC]
Bush to remove North Korea from list of nations that sponsor terrorism. Wait...didn't he say we shouldn't talk to the enemy??

[The New York Times]
Silent on central questions of gun control for two centuries, the Supreme Court has delivered a 5-4 decision affirming the right to have guns for self-defense in the home and addressing a constitutional riddle almost as old as the republic over what it means to say the people may keep and bear arms.

[Slate]
Why the new wiretapping law is a lot worse than you think.

[National Secular Society]
The United Nations Human Rights Council makes a mockery of free speech.

[The Hill]
Dick Cheney has won his battle to withhold records from the public despite efforts by Congress and other critics who say they should be open to scrutiny. He has managed to stonewall everyone, said Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. I’m not sure there’s anything we can do.

[The New York Times]
Four Western oil companies are in the final stages of negotiations this month on contracts that will return them to Iraq, 36 years after losing their oil concession to nationalization as Saddam Hussein rose to power. Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP—the original partners in the Iraq Petroleum Company—along with Chevron and a number of smaller oil companies, are in talks with Iraq’s Oil Ministry for no-bid contracts to service Iraq’s largest fields.

[McClatchy Washington Bureau]
The U.S. military hid the locations of suspected terrorist detainees and concealed harsh treatment to avoid the scrutiny of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

[Newsweek]
Obama to treat all fifty states as legitimate parts of the United States in his campaign for President.

[MSNBC]
In a stinging rebuke to Bush's anti-terror policies, a deeply divided Supreme Court has ruled that foreign detainees held for years at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba have the right to appeal to U.S. civilian courts to challenge their indefinite imprisonment without charges.

[The New York Times]
Excellent interactive graph showing demographic data on the Obama vs. Clinton vote.

[New Scientist]
CCTV cameras are bringing more and more public places under surveillance—and passenger aircraft could be next. A prototype European system uses multiple cameras and "Big Brother" software to try and automatically detect terrorists or other dangers caused by passengers.

[Miller-McCune]
Free marketers want the government off business's back, but they may not realize how much of the spine is government-funded.

[Telegraph.co.uk]
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd: Going to war with Iraq was wrong.