Gonzales surveillance testimony clarification letter [US AG] News
Gonzales surveillance testimony clarification letter [US AG]

Letter from US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to Senator Arlen Specter, February 28, 2006 [providing responses to several questions at the US Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on "Wartime Executive Power and the National Security Agency's Surveillance Authority," held Monday, February 6,2006, and clarifying certain responses at the February 6th hearing]. Read the full text of the letter [PDF]. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Attica NY prison revolt ended in assault killing 41

On September 13, 1971, National Guardsmen stormed the Attica Correctional Facility in New York state after a four-day standoff with rioting prisoners. This photo, released by New York state authorities, shows Corrections Commissioner Russell Oswald in the Attica prison yard after it was retaken.

Thirty-two prisoners and nine guards died in the final assault. Learn more about the Attica revolt and the conditions the prisoners were trying to have improved in this retrospective.

Khrushchev takes over leadership of USSR

On September 13, 1953, Nikita Khrushchev was appointed General Secretary of the USSR Communist Party, taking over leadership of the country after the death of Joseph Stalin. Soon after taking office, Khrushchev exposed many of the crimes of his predecessor. He was later forced from power in 1964, largely in response to his handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Read an obituary of Nikita Khrushchev from the New York Times.