A New York Times article detailed the connection between numerous media military analysts and the Pentagon and defense industries, reporting that “the Bush administration has used its control over access and information in an effort to transform” media military analysts “into a kind of media Trojan horse – an instrument intended to shape terrorism coverage from inside the major TV and radio networks.”

A Media Matters review found that since January 1, 2002, the analysts named in the Times article – many identified as having ties to the defense industry – collectively appeared or were quoted as experts more than 4,500 times on ABC, ABC News Now, CBS, CBS Radio Network, NBC, CNN, CNN Headline News, Fox News, MSNBC, CNBC, and NPR.

The military is using the FBI to skirt legal restrictions on domestic surveillance to obtain private records of Americans’ Internet service providers, financial institutions and telephone companies, according to Pentagon documents.

The American Civil Liberties Union expressed outrage at the new revelations, based its conclusion on a review of more than 1,000 documents turned over by the Defense Department after it sued the agency last year for documents related to national security letters, or NSLs, investigative tools used to compel businesses to turn over customer information without a judge’s order or grand jury subpoena.

Venezuelan and Ecuadorean troops deployed on Colombia’s frontier last night as South America’s military and diplomatic crisis escalated into a dangerous showdown between President Hugo Chávez and Colombia’s US-backed government.

Venezuela started shutting crossing points on the 1,400-mile border to try to isolate its neighbour after Bogotá made a series of extraordinary allegations about the Venezuelan leader funding Marxist guerrillas intent on building a uranium-enriched “dirty” bomb.

“Colombia proposes to denounce Hugo Chávez, president of Venezuela, in the international criminal court for sponsoring and financing genocide,” said President Alvaro Uribe.

The Bush Administration was wrong about the benefits of the war and it was wrong about the costs of the war. The president and his advisers expected a quick, inexpensive conflict. Instead, we have a war that is costing more than anyone could have imagined.

The cost of direct US military operations - not even including long-term costs such as taking care of wounded veterans - already exceeds the cost of the 12-year war in Vietnam and is more than double the cost of the Korean War.

The FBI has awarded a nearly $1 billion contract to Lockheed Martin to help create a massive computer database of people’s physical characteristics as part of an effort to better identify criminals and terrorists.

The overall deal is worth between $850 million to $1 billion and could run as long as 10 years, said Thomas Bush, the FBI’s assistant director of the Criminal Justice Information Services Division.