Russell Mokhiber, editor of Corporate Crime Reporter and author of a regular Commondreams.org feature "Ari & I: White House Briefings," was at George W. Bush's first primetime news conference in over a year and a half. He says, "Last night's [press conference] might have been the most controlled Presidential news conference in recent memory.

Minneapolis FBI agent Colleen Rowley, who last year exposed the agency's mishandling of warning signs prior to September 11, has written a new letter to FBI director Robert Mueller, warning that "the diversion of attention from al-Qaeda to our government's plan to invade Iraq ... will, in all likelihood, bring an exponential increase in the terrorist threat to the U.S., both at home and abroad. ... It is altogether likely that you will find yourself a helpless bystander to a rash of 9-11s.

An employee at England's top-secret Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) has been arrested following the London Observer's publication of a leaked U.S. National Security Agency memorandum written by a top official calling for "aggressive surveillance" of UN Security Council delegations.