Thursday, June 6, 2013

WASHINGTON (AP) — A leaked document has laid bare the monumental scope of the government’s surveillance of Americans’ phone records — hundreds of millions of calls — in the first hard evidence of a massive data collection program aimed at combating terrorism under powers granted by Congress after the 9/11 attacks.

At issue is a court order, first disclosed Wednesday by The Guardian newspaper in Britain, that requires the communications company Verizon to turn over on an “ongoing, daily basis” the records of all landline and mobile telephone calls of its customers, both within the U.S. and between the U.S. and other countries. Intelligence experts said the government, though not listening in on calls, would be looking for patterns that could lead to terrorists — and that there was every reason to believe similar orders were in place for other phone companies.

Some critics in Congress, as well as civil liberties advocates, declared that the sweeping nature of the National Security Agency program represented an unwarranted intrusion into Americans’ private lives. But a number of lawmakers, including some Republicans who normally jump at the chance to criticize the Obama administration, lauded the program’s effectiveness. Leaders of the House Intelligence Committee said the program had helped thwart at least one attempted terrorist attack in the United States, “possibly saving American lives.”

Separately, The Washington Post and The Guardian reported Thursday the existence of another program used by the NSA and FBI that scours the nation’s main Internet companies, extracting audio, video, photographs, emails, documents and connection logs to help analysts track a person’s movements and contacts. It was not clear whether the program, called PRISM, targets known suspects or broadly collects data from other Americans.

The companies include Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube and Apple. The Post said PalTalk has had numerous posts about the Arab Spring and the Syrian civil war. It also said Dropbox would soon be included.

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Q&A: What you should know about Obama administration’s sweeping phone data collection program

WASHINGTON (AP) — The government knows who you’re calling.

Every day. Every call.

Here’s what you need to know about the secret program and how it works:

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Q: What happened and why is it a big deal?

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10 Things to Know for Friday

Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Friday:

1. DATA MINING DESCRIBED AS ‘ROUTINE’

Former NSA employees say the massive data dragnet has been in place for years and involves all major U.S. phone companies.

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IRS official apologizes for lavish $4M conference but says agency followed government rules

WASHINGTON (AP) — An Internal Revenue Service official whose division staged a lavish $4.1 million training conference and who starred as Mr. Spock in a “Star Trek” parody shown at the 2010 gathering conceded to Congress on Thursday that taxpayer dollars were wasted in the episode.

“We’re now in a very different environment” with new IRS spending curbs, Faris Fink, a top deputy in the agency’s small business division at the time, told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Fink, who now heads that 24,000-employee division, said he believes many of the expenditures “should have been more closely scrutinized or not incurred at all and were not the best use of taxpayer dollars.”

The mea culpa was echoed by new acting IRS chief Danny Werfel as the embattled agency struggled to contain public and congressional ire over its targeting of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status and its spending of $49 million on 225 employee conferences over the past three years.

Werfel called the 2010 gathering in Anaheim, Calif., “an unfortunate vestige from a prior era” and said IRS spending on travel and training has fallen 80 percent since then.

“Our work in this area is one part of a much larger effort to chart a path forward in the IRS. This is obviously a very challenging time for the agency,” Werfel said.

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Erdogan calls for immediate end to Turkey protests

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey’s prime minister took a combative stance on his closely watched return to the country early Friday, telling supporters who thronged to greet him that the protests that have swept the country must come to an end.

In the first extensive public show of support since anti-government protests erupted last week, more than 10,000 supporters cheered Recep Tayyip Erdogan with rapturous applause outside Istanbul’s international airport.

Despite earlier comments that suggested he could be softening his stand, Erdogan delivered a fiery speech on his return from a four-day trip to North Africa. “These protests that are bordering on illegality must come to an end as of now,” he said.

Tens of thousands of protesters have held demonstrations that have spread to dozens of cities across Turkey, sparked by the violent police reaction last Friday to what started out as a small protest against a plan to develop Istanbul’s central Taksim Square.

Since then, three people have died — two protesters and a policeman — and thousands have been wounded. One protester is on life support in a hospital in Ankara.

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Judge’s rulings in heart-wrenching cases raise questions of fairness in US transplant policy

WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s a life or death matter: Who gets the next scarce donated organ? In an unprecedented challenge to the nation’s transplant system, a federal judge has allowed one dying child — and a day later another — to essentially jump the line in rulings that could have ramifications for thousands of people awaiting new organs.

Over and over, the nation debates the fairness of transplant policies, from Mickey Mantle’s liver in the 1990s to people today who cut their wait times by moving to another city where the list is shorter. But back-to-back rulings by a federal judge this week appear to be a legal first that specialists expect to prompt more lawsuits from people seeking a shorter wait, just like the parents of two patients in a Philadelphia hospital — 10-year-old Sarah Murnaghan and 11-year-old Javier Acosta.

“People who have privilege or people who complain more loudly or have political voice shouldn’t be able to claim special treatment,” said Lawrence O. Gostin, a prominent health law professor at Georgetown University, who questioned the legal basis of the rulings. Transplant policies aim to be “fair and just for everyone, not just for that one heart-wrenching case.”

Johns Hopkins University transplant surgeon Dr. Dorry Segev put it more starkly: “Every choice that is made in transplantation in favor of one patient means the likely death on the list for another patient.”

Indeed, when Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius refused to intervene in Sarah’s case, she pointed out that three other children also at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia were in the same condition, and 40 other seriously ill Pennsylvanians over the age of 12 also were awaiting a lung transplant.

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NKorea proposes talks with rival South on Sunday, agrees to reopen communications line

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea on Friday proposed working-level talks with South Korea to be held in a border city on Sunday as the rivals look to mend ties that have plunged during recent years amid hardline stances by both countries.

In another sign of easing tensions ahead of the proposed meeting, Pyongyang said in a statement that it would reopen a Red Cross communication line with South Korea in their truce village later Friday. The North shut the communication line in March during a tense period marked by North Korean threats of war and South Korean counter-threats.

The statement by an unidentified spokesman for the North’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, which handles relations with Seoul, followed the countries’ agreement Thursday to hold talks on reopening a jointly run factory complex and possibly other issues. The easing tension also comes ahead of a summit by the leaders of China and the United States in which the North is expected to be a key topic.

South Korea in April proposed government-level talks about the factory complex and on Thursday suggested holding ministerial talks in Seoul on Wednesday. But the North Korean statement said that working-level talks are needed before any higher-level meetings “in the light of the prevailing situation in which the bilateral relations have been stalemated for years and mistrust has reached the extremity.”

The envisioned talks, which Pyongyang is proposing be held in the North Korean border city of Kaesong, could help ease tensions, but the topic of ridding the North of its nuclear weapons program is not up for debate.

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With fresh momentum, Syrian regime turns sights on retaking densely populated heartland

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — With fresh momentum from the capture of a strategic town in western Syria, President Bashar Assad’s forces have turned their sights to driving rebel fighters from the country’s densely populated heartland, including the cities of Homs and Aleppo.

The latest battlefield success, due in large part to Lebanese Hezbollah fighters’ increasing role and the West’s continued reluctance to arm the rebels, raises the possibility that Assad can cling to power for years, even if he won’t be able to recapture all of the country.

Government troops pressed ahead Thursday with an aggressive military offensive in Homs province, seizing control of the village of Dabaa just north of Qusair, near the border with Lebanon. Hundreds of rebel fighters who had been entrenched in Qusair for more than a year fled Wednesday after a punishing three-week assault, retreating to surrounding areas.

The regime triumph in Qusair, a key crossroads town of supply lines between Damascus and western and northern Syria, showcased the potentially game-changing role of Hezbollah in Syria’s civil war and was openly celebrated in the militant group’s strongholds in Lebanon and in Damascus, the seat of Assad’s power.

Syrian state-run media portrayed Qusair’s fall as a turning point in the more than two-year civil war that has killed more than 70,000 people.

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After a night at the ballet, Putins calmly announce their divorce — on state television

MOSCOW (AP) — Vladimir Putin pulled off one of his most audacious pieces of stagecraft, attending a ballet with his rarely seen wife, then emerging smiling and announcing their marriage is over.

The end of the marriage of the Russian president and Lyudmila Putina less than two months shy of their 30th anniversary came on state television after a Thursday evening that started out like a model of domestic contentment — a devoted husband taking his wife out for an artsy interlude.

After the performance of “Esmeralda” at the Great Kremlin Palace, the two came into a luxurious room to speak to a reporter.

“Excellent. Great music, excellent production,” Putin said and Lyudmila echoed his praise.

After about a minute, the reporter asked about rumors that the two didn’t live together. Putin smiled slightly, like a boy caught misbehaving, and turned his head toward Lyudmila. “This is so,” he said.

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Wade, James get Heat going in air-tight Game 1 of NBA Finals against the Spurs

MIAMI (AP) — Dwyane Wade had 13 points and LeBron James added 10 points, eight rebounds and five assists to help the Miami Heat take a 52-49 halftime lead over the San Antonio Spurs in Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday night.

Wade scored 10 of his points in the second quarter and the Heat shot 50 percent in the first half to nudge ahead of the Spurs as they look for their second straight championship.

Tim Duncan shook off an 0-for-5 start to get 12 points, nine rebounds and three assists, and Tony Parker added nine points and four assists for the Spurs, who are in the Finals for the first time since winning their fourth title in 2007.

Game 2 is Sunday night in Miami.

Everyone expected James to take charge right away in this series, just as he has for the last two years. But all eyes were on Wade, the former Finals MVP whose game has been slowed by a balky knee for much of these playoffs.