By PETE YOST
A federal judge ordered the White House to preserve copies of all its e-mails, a move that Bush administration lawyers had argued strongly against.
U.S. District Judge Henry Kennedy on Monday directed the Executive Office of the President to safeguard the material in response to two lawsuits that seek to determine whether the White House has destroyed e-mails in violation of federal law.
In response, the White House said it has been taking steps to preserve copies of all e-mails and will continue to do so. The administration is seeking dismissal of the lawsuits brought by two private groups, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the National Security Archive.
The organizations allege the disappearance of 5 million White House e-mails. The court order issued by Kennedy, an appointee of President Clinton, is directed at maintaining backup tapes which contain copies of White House e-mails.
The Federal Records Act details strict standards prohibiting the destruction of government documents including electronic messages, unless first approved by the archivist of the United States.
Justice Department lawyers had urged the courts to accept a proposed White House declaration promising to preserve all backup tapes.
"The judge decided that wasn't ...   more »

Rice, lawmakers met with Muslim sheik known for justifying attacks on Israelis for Islam'
Sheik Taysir Tamimi
A senior Muslim cleric who is a prominent justifier of suicide bombings met last week with senators and congressmen and consulted last month with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, WND has learned.
Sheik Taysir Tamimi, chief Palestinian justice, also claimed in a recently released book for which he was interviewed that the Torah was "falsified," Jewish and Christian history were "invented," the Jewish Temples never existed and the Al Aqsa Mosque was built by angels.
"I am very glad to have this occasion to speak to Congress and the Senate and have access to groups and individuals that form American policy," said Tamimi in a statement.
"I emphasized in the meetings the importance of religious coexistence and that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict cannot be solved without creating a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital," the he said.
Tamimi is considered the second most important Palestinian cleric after Muhammad Hussein, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem.
He met in Washington last week with a slew of lawmakers as part of a new interfaith religious organization – the Council for Religious Institutions in the Holy Land ...   more »

Russia's armed forces chief on Tuesday compared a US plan to station an anti-missile shield in central Europe to Moscow deploying missiles in Latin America.
Chief of Staff Yury Baluyevsky said on Russia Today television that the US plan to station a radar in the Czech Republic and interceptors in Poland amounted to meddling in Russia's backyard.
"When one of the viewers asked about (Russia) deploying missiles in Venezuela, to defend Venezuela from Iranian and other missiles, I would like to note that our partners from the United States are doing exactly what our viewer suggested us to do," Baluyevsky said.
Washington says it needs the missile shield to defend against possible threats from Iran and says the limited system could not threaten Russia's vast nuclear arsenal.
But Baluyevsky insisted that "those anti-missile rockets and that radar will be definitely aimed at Russia."
"Iran has no potential to manufacture an intercontinental ballistic missile able to reach the territory of the United States... at least until 2020," Baluyevsky said.
He said that "someone" in the United States still hoped "to secure the impunity of using weapons without getting something in return."
During an EU-Russia summit in Portugal last month, President Vladimir ...   more »

U.S. engaging in 5-year 'game-play' exercise for terror attacks, major disasters
By Jerome R. Corsi
President Bush at NORTHCOM command center
Gen. Gene Renuart, commander of NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, and USNORTHCOM, the United States Northern Command, invited WND staff reporter Jerome R. Corsi to visit Peterson Air Force base to observe Day Three of the NORAD-USNORTHCOM exercise Vigilant Shield 2008.
Corsi was the first outside news reporter allowed inside the Joint Interagency Coordination Group, or JIACG, to observe command center operations during a real-time national training exercise.
This article is the second of a five-part, exclusive WND series, based on an interview at the NORAD/USNORTHCOM headquarters with Eugene G. Pino, a member of the Senior Executive Service, who serves as director of Joint Training and Exercise at NORAD-USNORTHCOM.
Under the direction of the Department of Homeland Security, NORAD-USNORTHCOM has begun planning comprehensive, multi-year exercises aimed at involving every U.S. state in game-playing designed to simulate national emergencies.
The emergencies planned in the exercise scenarios range from natural disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina, to terrorist attacks and health emergencies, as envisioned in a possible avian flu epidemic or pandemic influenza.
The exercises are designed to involve a ...   more »