CIA Knew of 'Secret' Iran Facility: Panetta

(NEWSER) - AG Eric Holder today named a special prosecutor to investigate allegations of torture against CIA operatives who interrogated terror suspects during the Bush administration, the Washington Post reports. John Durham, who is currently probing the destruction of interrogation tapes, will look into fewer than 12 cases detailed in a CIA report released today and determine if a full-scale investigation is warranted. The Bush-era Justice Department investigated and dismissed the cases. More»

(AP) - Iran's president said today he is willing to build a new relationship with the United States, adding that he is preparing new proposals aimed at breaking the impasse with the West over his country's nuclear program. "The Iranian nation is a generous nation," Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a rally. "It may forget the past and start a new era, but any country speaking on the basis of selfishness will get the same response the Iranian nation gave to Mr. Bush." More»

(NEWSER) - In negotiations with Iran, the Obama administration may be willing to accept less than a complete halt of uranium enrichment activities for civil use, the Financial Times reports. Insiders say an internal review of the administration’s policies now under way will take into account the apparently immovable stance of the Iranian regime. The “zero enrichment solution, though still favored, simply is unfeasible,” a watcher said. More»

VP comes up blank on specifics in newly released interview

(NEWSER) - After years of effort by the Bush and Obama administrations to keep documents related to the CIA leak case secret, redacted portions of the special prosecutor’s 2004 interview with Dick Cheney released today show plenty of nothing. The then-VP apparently suffered acute memory loss: Cheney told Patrick Fitzgerald he couldn't recall when he learned Valerie Plame was a CIA agent, or telling chief of staff Scooter Libby about it, or telling Libby to leak the info to reporters. More»

New prez is doing fine in Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, but no one notices

(NEWSER) - Despite the howls of protest over President Obama's Nobel Prize and the administration’s "dithering" on Afghanistan , the fact is that the new president’s foreign endeavors deserve good marks, says Juan Cole. Cole gives Obama an A for his Iranian statesmanship, a B for pulling out of Iraq as promised—albeit coordinating poorly with the Iraqis—and a B for making Pakistan own “the problem of the Pakistani Taliban.” Not bad for eight months. More»