Paige Wassel
Editor-in-Chief
Nuclear advances reported in Iran and
North Korea: According to two intelligence reports
released in the past week, Iran and North Korea have made advances in nuclear
technology that surprised “nuclear experts” and “Western intelligence
officials.” On Monday, a confidential report released by the International
Atomic Energy Agency detailed an 18 year-old Iran program that uses advanced
technology and techniques, including the use of lasers to enrich uranium.
However, the reports concurred that North Korea is ahead of Iran in terms of
actual weapon production, presenting the more urgent threat of the two.
The New York Times article read, “The difference, as the CIA told Congress, is
that North Korea has fully mastered the complexities of detonating a bomb,
perhaps with the help of some of its nuclear suppliers like Pakistan. There is
no evidence that Iran has made that much headway.” Recently, President Bush has
reaffirmed the United States commitment to oppose these programs, specifically
mentioning that diplomatic progress has been made in putting together alliances
of neighboring countries to pressure Iran and Korea to disarm their programs.
FBI's record request power to grow: A measure recently approved by both
the House of Representatives and the Senate would expand the FBI's ability to
demand financial records, without the approval of a judge, from “car dealers,
travel agents, pawnbrokers and many other businesses.” Although current such
requests are made to financial organizations as banks and credit unions, this
measure would expand the realm of such subpoenas (called national security
letters) to places like casinos, post offices and “any other institution doing
cash transactions with ‘a high degree of usefulness in criminal, tax or
regulatory matters.’” Included in the intelligence community's authorization
bill of 2004, this measure’s main purpose would be in further investigations of
financial records of those suspected of terrorism and espionage. Opponents of
the legislation say that it gives the federal government more latitude in
looking at people’s private lives.
Selection process for jurors begins in sniper case: Potential jurors for
the case involving the Washington D.C. sniper attacks of last fall are currently
being asked a key question by the defense. Specifically, Prosecutor Robert F.
Horan, Jr. asked these individuals, “Do any of you have a moral, religious or
philosophical objection to the death penalty when the defendant was a juvenile
at the time the crime was committed?” The alleged participant in these
shootings, Lee Malvo, was four months away from his 18th birthday when the
shootings took place. The question will play an important role in the ultimate
trial decision since Virginia, where the case is being tried, sets the minimum
age for putting juveniles on death row at 16. Although few juveniles have
actually been executed in Virginia in recent years, a sentenced juvenile would
be put on one of the fastest tracks to execution for juveniles in the country.
-Compiled by Paige Wassel with information from the New York Times