"For me, in terms of personal satisfaction, the mission's already accomplished," former NSA contractor Edward Snowden told my Washington Post colleague Barton Gellman in Moscow this month. Snowden went on to explain that he had "already won" because the journalists working from the documents he secreted away from the NSA are giving the public a chance to weigh in on surveillance policies.

But while it's not quite flight-suit level deception, calling the current state of affairs mission accomplished is a significant change in the scope of Snowden's ambitions compared to when he first stepped forward as the source of the NSA documents. In a video interview with the Guardian released shortly after he stepped out of the shadows, he espoused many of the same hopes about the public having input on the secret machinations of intelligence agencies. But he also gave a much more lofty goal: substantive policy change.

The greatest fear that I have regarding the outcome for America of these disclosures is that nothing will change. People will see in the media all of these disclosures. They'll know the lengths that the government is going to grant themselves powers unilaterally to create greater control over American society and global society. But they won't be willing to take the risks necessary to stand up and fight to change things to force their representatives to actually take a stand in their interests.

And the months ahead, the years ahead it's only going to get worse until eventually there will be a time where policies will change because the only thing that restricts the activities of the surveillance state are policy.

Mowaffak al-Rubaie sits in his office with a statue of Saddam Hussein behind him, the rope used to hang the dictator around its neck, recalling his final minutes.

The former national security advisor, who oversaw Saddam's 2006 execution, said he remained strong until the end, and never expressed any regret.

"A criminal? True. A killer? True. A butcher? True. But he was strong until the end.

"I received him (Saddam) at the door. No one entered with us - no foreigners, and no Americans," Rubaie said in an interview with AFP at his office in the Kadhimiyah area of north Baghdad, near the prison where the execution took place seven years ago. "He was wearing a jacket and a white shirt, normal and relaxed, and I didn't see any signs of fear.

"Of course, some people want me to say that he collapsed or that he was drugged, but these facts are for history," Rubaie said. "I didn't hear any regret from him, I didn't hear any request for mercy from God from him, or request for pardon.

Video courtesy of GETV, recorded Dec. 22, 2013

Texas megachurch Pastor John Hagee this week advised atheists who didn't like Christmas to "leave the country" or "take your Walkman and stuff it into your ears."

In a sermon at his Cornerstone Church on Sunday, Hagee warned that "Christmas is under attack in America" because government offices were greeting people with "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas."

"Humanists are now making the claim that Christmas was originally a pagan holiday," he said. "Hey, dummy, look at the word: Christ-mas."

"To all humanists and atheists listening to this telecast: Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness will not be in danger in any way if someone says 'Merry Christmas' around you."

Chatah, outspoken critic of Hezbollah and Syrian regime, assassinated in attack near Hariri's compound in Beirut

A senior aide to the former Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri has been assassinated by a large car bomb in central Beirut. Fifteen other people were injured in the blast, which destroyed part of a neighbourhood near Hariri's compound.

Hariri-linked media reported that Mohamad Chatah, a senior adviser to the now exiled leader, died in the blast. He was believed to have been en route to a meeting at the nearby headquarters, where he kept an office. Chatah was an outspoken critic of the Syrian regime and of Hezbollah, which has held sway over the Lebanese government since Hariri was ousted as leader three years ago.

Chatah, 62, is the second senior opposition figure to have been killed in the past 14 months. The political killing of figures linked to the Hariris dates back nine years.

In October last year, Wissam al-Hassan, the head of the Internal Security Forces intelligence branch, was also killed by a car bomb. He was buried several hundred metres from the scene of Friday's blast in a shrine alongside former prime minister Rafiq Hariri, the patriarch of the western-leaning 14 March alliance whose assassination in February 2005 sparked a new era of instability in post-civil war Lebanon.

Friday's bombing comes several weeks before the start of the long-delayed trial of the alleged assassins of Hariri, five members of Hezbollah, who will be tried in The Hague in absentia. Hezbollah has vehemently denied being responsible for Hariri's death, which it labels as a US and Israeli plot.

A federal judge in New York ruled Friday that the massive collection of domestic telephone data brought to light by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden is lawful, rejecting a challenge to the program by the American Civil Liberties Union.

The decision conflicts with that of a U.S. District Court judge who ruled against the government early last week, finding that the NSA's program was almost certainly unconstitutional. The divergent decisions make it more likely that the Supreme Court will make it's own ruling.

In a 53-page opinion, U.S. District Judge William Pauley said Friday the legality of the program, which collects virtually all Americans' phone records, is "ultimately a question of reasonableness," under the Fourth Amendment and represents the U.S. government's "counter-punch" to eliminate the al-Qaeda terrorist network.

In an apparent attempt to appease hardliners, Ali Akbar Salehi announced that the country is developing a new generation of more effective centrifuges for uranium enrichment

As nuclear experts from Iran and six world powers prepare to resume talks on how to roll out last month's landmark deal in Geneva, Iran's nuclear chief has announced that the country is building a new generation of centrifuges for uranium enrichment.

Ali Akbar Salehi's comments appear to be aimed at showing the country is continuing to move forward with its nuclear programme into order to counter criticism by Iranian hard-liners, who have called the deal a surrender to Western pressure. President Hassan Rouhani has argued that the agreement recognises Iran's right to enrich uranium.

Under the deal, Iran promised not to bring new centrifuges into operation for six months, part of temporary limitations on its uranium enrichment programme in return for the easing of some sanctions. It does not however stop the countries from developing centrifuges.

"The new generation of centrifuges is under development. But all tests should be carried on it before mass production," Mr Salehi was quoted as saying by state TV late Thursday. He did not elaborate on how long the building and testing would take.

The announcement comes as a group of 100 hardline Iranian lawmakers are seeking to impose a clause on the government of moderate President Rouhani, stating that uranium enrichment will be increased to 60 per cent, a level close to bomb-grade material, if any new sanctions are imposed on the Islamic Republic.

It is not clear if the bill would be debated in Iran's parliament, as the country's most powerful authority Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has repeatedly backed the Geneva talks.

Uranium can be used to build a weapon if it is enriched more than 90 per cent. At lower levels, it is used to power nuclear reactors. Under the Geneva deal, Iran agreed to limit its uranium enrichment to 5 percent and neutralise its stockpile of 20 per cent enriched uranium.

A spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who oversees diplomacy with Iran on behalf of the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany, said that the latest talk are currently scheduled to last one day.

A key sticking point appears to be what information Western governments will receive in advance to verify that Iran is meeting its end of the deal before they lift certain sanctions. Other outstanding issues include how exactly sanctions will be eased and practical details of Iranian concessions.

Some diplomats from the six nations have said they hoped the deal could be put fully in place by the second half of January.

Two rounds of negotiations have been held so far since Iran agreed in November to curb its most sensitive nuclear work, in return for relief from some economic sanctions that are damaging its oil-dependent economy.

Harvard University law professor Alan Dershowitz criticized National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden on Thursday during a debate with Washington Post reporter Barton Gellman, who published Snowden's first interview since being granted asylum in Russia earlier this year.

"He could have easily gone on 60 Minutes, and disclosed the existence of the program without disclosing the contents, some of which is extremely damaging to our national security," Dershowitz told Hardball guest host Michael Smerconish, arguing that he could have released the information he compiled while working at the agency in a classified debriefing, instead of going to the Post and The Guardian.

In particular, Dershwoitz slammed Snowden for bringing to light the agency's surveillance activities against other countries, saying they "raise some questions, but [were] not unconstitutional.

"We have an absolute right under our Constitution to listen to the prime minister of Israel, to listen to the chancellor of Germany," Dershowitz said. "That is not a constitutional issue, and yet he disclosed - or people working on his behalf - the fact that we are using surveillance abroad, outside the country, where the Constitution does not apply."

Should the United States engage in secret, covert or clandestine activity if the American public cannot be convinced of the necessity and wisdom of such activities should they be leaked or disclosed?

To intelligence professionals, that's a bizarre question. The answer is that the public's opinion shouldn't matter, because espionage, clandestine intercepts of intelligence and covert acts carried out by the United States and other governments are often, by their nature, dirty and mostly illegal operations where they are carried out.

The prime reason for secrecy is that you don't want the targets to know what you are doing. But often in democracies, another reason is that you don't want your citizens to know what their government is doing on their behalf to keep them secure, as long as it's within their country's law.

"Accountability and secrecy" were two watchwords a former senior intelligence official said guided operations during his 40-year career, not whether the public would approve of everything he was doing.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, dear Kings of Hollywood, but you have been conned.

Let me introduce myself. My name is Christina McDowell, formerly Christina Prousalis. I am the daughter of Tom Prousalis, a man the Washington Post described as "just some guy on trial for penny-stock fraud." (I had to change my name after my father stole my identity and then threatened to steal it again, but I'll get to that part later.) I was eighteen and a freshman in college when my father and his attorneys forced me to attend his trial at New York City's federal courthouse so that he "looked good" for the jury -- the consummate family man.

And you, Jordan Belfort, Wall Street's self-described Wolf: You remember my father, right? You were chosen to be the government's star witness in testifying against him. You had pleaded guilty to money laundering and securities fraud (it was the least you could do) and become a government witness in two dozen cases involving your former business associate, but my father's attorneys blocked your testimony because had you testified it would have revealed more than a half-dozen other corrupt stock offerings too. And, well, that would have been a disaster. It would have just been too many liars, and too many schemes for the jurors, attorneys or the judge to follow.

Ukrainian police have accused five suspects detained over the assault of a journalist of links to the opposition, including its leader Vitali Klitschko.

The interior ministry's chief investigator, Mykola Chynchyn, linked on Friday Klitschko, who is the leader of opposition party Udar, and his brother Wladimir Klitschko to the suspects who attacked Tetyana Chornovil earlier this week.

In addition, Chynchyn also linked several other parliamentarians as well as local lawmakers to the detained suspects.
"In the course of the investigation it was established that the detained had been in close contact with members of the party Udar," said Chynchyn.

Furthermore, Chynchyn said the police investigation had established links between one of the suspects and the leader of a criminal gang "with whom the Klitschko brothers had closely cooperated."