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...Chatter is one of those floating espionage terms that can mean anything from secretly intercepted telephone calls and e-mails to the volume of communications traffic at a particular time over a particular line. A more technical definition of chatter might be the interception of any unguarded electronic communication between two people who expect privacy - people more likely to speak frankly and convey information they wouldn't in a public forum...
...already has the legal authority to listen to chatter overseas - communications among foreigners. But what do you do when an American pops up calling a suspect telephone number or trying to e-mail al-Qaeda to volunteer his services? How long can the NSA sit on a line, figuring out whether it is of real interest, before applying for a warrant? I'll leave that one up to the constitutional lawyers, but I'll be eagerly listening for their answer...
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs crept up to that line - even put his toe over it - as he tried to capitalize on the anti-Barack Obama declarations of talk-show behemoth Rush Limbaugh. In January, and again at a recent gathering of conservatives in Washington, Limbaugh pointedly declared that he hopes for the failure of Obama's economic proposals. (See 25 people to blame for the financial crisis...
Back to Gibbs. His Sun King moment came when he construed Limbaugh's opposition as "wishing and hoping for economic failure in this country." Certainly, it's tricky to find the line between President and nation, especially in a time of crisis. And Limbaugh's defense - "What's so strange about being honest?" - was not exactly in tune with his reactions to Democratic critics of George W. Bush. (See Bush's biggest economic mistakes...
...Pope's inner circle, which includes Monsignor Khaled Akasheh, head of the Muslim section of the Vatican's Council for Interreligious Dialogue, who is considered an intellectual ally of Samir. "It is not that he is inspired by me," Samir says of the Pope. "We just have the same line of thinking on this subject. Without being a specialist of Islam, His Holiness has a vast culture and knowledge in human and world religious affairs that allows him to analyze the Muslim world." For the first new Pope since 9/11, history alone will be the judge of Benedict's analysis...