Obama to announce later this morning a pay freeze for all federal workers.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME): I’d sure be more likely to vote for the START treaty if the former Presidents Bush came out publicly for it.

Interesting new details from the AP on the long hunt for Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s top deputy.

Focus on the Family steps in to rescue “The Day of Truth” — the annual event where religious conservatives encourage students to “counter the promotion of homosexual behavior” — with a new sponsorship and re-brands it “The Day of Dialogue.”

Six NATO members — nationalities not yet revealed — have been killed on a training mission in Afghanistan by a gunman wearing an Afghan border police uniform in what the AP reports looks like another case of Afghan trainees turning on their NATO trainers.

The top 5 revelations from the Wikileaks’ diplomatic cables release — so far.

The New York Times has a lengthy editor’s note explaining its decision to publish the Wikileaks cables. It reads in part: Read More

The New York Times has posted its piece on the diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks.

For our Spanish speaking readers, El Pais has posted its package on the leaked documents.

The Guardian write up of the State Department cables has also been posted. In its usual understated style, the paper declares that the “United States was catapulted into a worldwide diplomatic crisis” by Wikileaks.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs just issued the following statement, after the publication of the cables began: Read More

The State Department is demanding that Wikileaks halt the imminent release of its next batch of classified U.S. government documents. The latest batch reportedly will include thousands of State Department cables. Some are believed to be highly sensitive, others merely embarrassing — to the U.S. and to foreign governments.

In a letter emailed yesterday to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and his lawyer, State Department Legal Adviser Harold Koh calls for Wikileaks to return the classified documents:

If you are genuinely interested in seeking to stop the damage from your actions, you should: 1) ensure WikiLeaks ceases publishing any and all such materials; 2) ensure WikiLeaks returns any and all classified U.S. Government material in its possession; and 3) remove and destroy all records of this material from Wikileaks’ database.

The AP paraphrases the letter as stating “that publication of the documents would be illegal and demanding that they stop it.” There’s little doubt that whoever within the U.S. government had access to the documents and leaked them did so in violation of the law — but whether Wikileaks bears any criminal liability in the U.S. for their publication is an entirely different issue.

Reading the letter closely, I think Koh stops short of stating that publication of the documents would be illegal, as the AP suggests. That would get Koh into “prior restraint” territory. The closest Koh comes to saying Wikileaks has broken the law is when he accuses Wikileaks of “furthering the illegal dissemination of classified documents.” He also claims that the documents were “illegally obtained” and that so long as Wikileaks retains the documents then “the violation of the law is ongoing.” Parsing Koh carefully, his ire is directed at Wikileaks but the punch of his legal argument is aimed at the original leaker(s).

The Koh letter also reveals that Wikileaks has given the latest batch of materials in advance to the New York Times, the Guardian and Der Spiegel. That’s consistent with Wikileaks’ prior practice of leaking the leak, as it were, in advance under embargo to major news outlets.

Wikileaks is expected to post the documents online today.

The White House has released the name of the guy who elbowed President Obama in the lip today. It’s Rey Decerega, who is the Director of Programs for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute.

Decerega released a statement: “”I learned today the president is both a tough competitor and a good sport. I enjoyed playing basketball with him this morning. I’m sure he’ll be back out on the court again soon.”