Cheney: No link between Saddam Hussein, 9/11

Former Vice President Dick Cheney said Monday that he does not believe Saddam Hussein was involved in the planning or execution of the September 11, 2001, attacks. He strongly defended the Bush administration’s decision to invade Iraq, however, arguing that Hussein’s previous support for known terrorists was a serious danger after 9/11

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U.S., Canada gear up for new border ID requirements

Americans and Canadians heading to the United States from Canada on vehicles or cruise ships will face new entry requirements beginning next week, the Homeland Security Department said. Next Monday, the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative will begin requiring U.S

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‘Enhanced interrogations’ don’t work, ex-FBI agent tells panel

The contentious debate over so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" took center stage on Capitol Hill on Wednesday as a former FBI agent involved in the questioning of terror suspects testified that such techniques — including waterboarding — are ineffective. Ali Soufan, an FBI special agent from 1997 to 2005, told members of a key Senate Judiciary subcommittee that such “techniques, from an operational perspective, are ineffective, slow and unreliable, and harmful to our efforts to defeat al Qaeda.” His remarks followed heated exchanges between committee members with sharply differing views on both the value of the techniques and the purpose of the hearing itself

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Senate report: Rice, Cheney OK’d CIA use of waterboarding

Top Bush administration officials gave the CIA approval to use waterboarding, a controversial interrogation technique, as early as 2002, a Senate intelligence report shows. On July 17, 2002, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, who later became secretary of state, said the CIA could proceed with “alternative interrogation methods,” including waterboarding, when questioning suspected al Qaeda leader Abu Zubaydah. The decision was contingent on the Justice Department’s determining the method’s legality.

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Suspected drug lord arrested in Mexico

The Mexican army has arrested a top drug cartel chief and four of his bodyguards, the government announced Wednesday. Hector Huerta Rios, also known as “La Burra” or “El Junior,” was arrested Tuesday in the city of San Pedro Garza Garcia in Nuevo Leon state, along Mexico’s border with the United States

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On ’60 Minutes,’ Obama rebukes Cheney criticism

President Obama said in an interview aired Sunday that the hardest decision he’s made since taking office was to send more troops to Afghanistan. Also in the interview on CBS’ “60 Minutes,” Obama defended his decision to shut down the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and he countered criticism from former vice president Dick Cheney.

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GAO: Fake passports easy to get

A congressional investigation has exposed gaping holes in security eight years after the September 11 terrorist attacks, a government report says. An investigator used a false identification to obtain a U.S. passport and then used the passport to get an airline boarding pass and go through an airport security checkpoint, according to the Government Accountability Office

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