SPB News for Friday

Palin: Redacted McCain Campaign Visor Was Attempt To 'Be Incognito'

Rumsfeld Buys Montana Ranch

GAO tells Smith, Issa it will probe ACORN — The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has informed two House Republicans that it will investigate ACORN's use of federal funds. — The GAO sent a letter to Reps. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee …

Trail of Afghanistan's drug money exposed By Julien Mercille The total revenue generated by opiates within Afghanistan is about $3.4 billion per year. Of this figure, according to UNODC, the Taliban get only 4% of the sum. Farmers, meanwhile, get 21%. And the remaining 75%? Al-Qaeda? No: The report specifies that it "does not appear to have a direct role in the Afghan opiates trade," although it may participate in "low-level drugs and/or arms smuggling" along the Pakistani border. Instead, the remaining 75% is captured by government officials, the police, local and regional power brokers and traffickers - in short, many of the groups now supported (or tolerated) by the United States and NATO are important actors in the drug trade.

Journalist deaths hit record in 2009: report The number of journalists killed around the world in 2009 rose to a record 68 after a massacre in the Philippines, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said on Thursday. The press freedom group said the 2009 tally compared to 42 deaths in 2008 and surpassed the previous record of 67 deaths in 2007 -- when violence was at its worst in Iraq, which had been the deadliest country for journalists for six years.

Outcry over plan to give attorney general veto on war crimes warrants --Brown 'totally opposed' to attempted arrest of Israeli --Lawyers reject 'safeguards' for visiting foreign leaders The attorney general will be asked to approve warrants before suspected war criminals can be arrested in future under a plan being negotiated by the Foreign Office in response to the row over attempts to arrest Israel's former foreign minister. The Guardian has learned that discussions have begun in Whitehall on creating "safeguards" in criminal cases against visiting foreign leaders - not just those from Israel . Lawyers involved said they were outraged by the proposed change.

Intelligence Improperly Collected on U.S. Citizens ...That was just one of several cases in the last several years in which the Department of Homeland Security’s intelligence office improperly collected information about American citizens or lawful United States residents, the documents show. In March 2008, the office produced a "terrorism watch list" report about a Muslim conference in Georgia at which several Americans were scheduled to speak, even though it "did not have any evidence the conference or the speakers promoted radical extremism or terrorist activity," and such speech is constitutionally protected, an internal report said.

Abu Dhabi says it was duped by Citigroup over investment deal --Emirate desperate to tear up agreement after share collapse at banking giant Abu Dhabi is trying to rip up its disastrous $7.5bn (£4.6bn) agreement to invest in Citigroup, saying the banking giant misled the country's sovereign wealth fund about the state of its finances when the deal was signed in 2007. The dispute came to light as Citigroup was attempting to stoke investor demand for a massive share issue yesterday and contributed to underwhelming investor demand. Faced with crystallising a loss on its bailout investments, the US Treasury abandoned plans to sell part of its Citigroup stake at the same time.