International:

9/11 mastermind confesses in Guantanamo

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, confessed to that attack and a string of others during a military hearing at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to a transcript released Wednesday by the Pentagon. Mohammed claimed responsibility for planning, financing, and training others for bombings ranging from the 1993 attack at the World Trade Center to the attempt by would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight with explosives hidden in his shoes.

In all, Mohammed said he was responsible for planning 29 individual attacks, including many that were never executed. The comments were included in a 26-page transcript released by the Pentagon, which also blacked out some of his remarks.

The Pentagon also released transcripts of the hearings of Abu Faraj al-Libi and Ramzi Binalshibh. More here.

Senate opens Iraq debate

Breaking a parliamentary roadblock, the Senate today began its first formal debate on the Iraq war since Democrats took control of Congress, taking up a Democratic resolution calling for President Bush to withdraw U.S. combat troops by the end of next March. The White House swiftly issued a veto threat.

The 89-9 vote paved the way for consideration of the legislation, which would start troop withdrawals within four months and calls for -- but does not require -- the complete removal of combat troops by the end of March 2008. The vote came after many Republicans abandoned the tactic they had used twice earlier this year to prevent the Senate from considering legislation aimed at forcing an end to the war. Read on here

National:

Bush: I'm Not Happy About Mistakes

President Bush stood by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Wednesday, but said mistakes were made in the firings of U.S. attorneys and he's "not happy about them."

"Al was right. Mistakes were made and he's going up to Capitol Hill to correct them," Bush said at a press conference in Mexico with Mexican President Felipe Calderon. "I appreciate the fact that he's taking some action." Read the full story here

Senate Democrats' budget leaves war funding intact

Senate Democrats unveil a 2008 budget that would boost spending for uninsured children, students and veterans without cutting funds for defense or the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The budget also would not roll back any of President Bush's tax cuts after 2010, when they are set to expire. It says the tax cuts can be extended if they are paid for.

The spending plan, to be voted on Thursday by the Senate Budget Committee, is more specific about its additions than its subtractions. Most decisions on how to pay for new spending or tax cuts are left to the committees that will turn the budget blueprint into legislation.

"We do not tell them how to raise the money," said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., who chairs the budget panel. "We do not tell (them) how to spend the money." More here

Chris Rock Unleashed!

When LIFE asked comic Chris Rock if America is ready for an African American president, Rock tells LIFE: “It’s ready for a retarded president, why wouldn’t it be ready for an African American president?”Of the current presidential contenders, Rock says, “I like Al Gore, actually. (A) He’s more qualified than everyone that’s running on the Democratic side. (B) If he won or didn’t win, he has an agenda to help people and make this a better world...”

Rock tells LIFE: “Maybe Barack will win, but I probably won’t see a black president. There’s real equality when you don’t notice [race], you don’t even talk about it. I probably won’t live to see that.”

The 42-year-old Brooklyn-raised comic’s latest project, I Think I Love My Wife, which he cowrote, directed, and stars in, examines a marriage that’s in a slump. Rock talks to LIFE about rumors concerning his own 10-year marriage to Malaak Compton-Rock, fatherhood and happiness in the current issue of LIFE, in newspapers Friday.

Subpoena vote set for tomorrow
“The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to vote Thursday on whether to authorize subpoenas to 14 current and former administration officials,” including Karl Rove, Harriet Miers, former Gonzales aide Kyle Sampson. “Since Rove, Miers and Kelley were just added to the schedule for Thursday’s committee meeting, panel rules allow any member to postpone consideration of the subpoenas for one week.” Will any senator give cover to Rove and Miers?

In Other News...

“The U.S. military for the first time Wednesday said in a new report that some of the violence in Iraq can be described as a civil war. In its bleakest assessment of the war to date, a quarterly Pentagon report said that last October through December was the most violent three-month period since 2003. … ‘Some elements of the situation in Iraq are properly descriptive of a ‘civil war,’ including the hardening of ethno-sectarian identities and mobilization, the changing character of the violence and population displacements,’” the report says.

The New York Times reveals more “shameful details…on the neglectful care extended to soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.” The Army’s inspector general reports that “more than nine out of 10 disabled veterans have been kept waiting for benefit evaluations beyond the 40-day limit set by the Pentagon. Some have waited up to a year and a half for benefits.”

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A national survey showing a soaring number of homeowners failed to make their mortgage payments in the last quarter of 2006 rattled lawmakers in Washington and the markets in New York yesterday, as the Dow Jones industrial average plummeted 2 percent, or nearly 243 points.”

From The Right: Mike S. Adams: How to bomb a gay bath house I’ve been thinking about Ann Coulter a lot lately – a real shocker, I know - and I think I’ve finally found a way to get her out of the hot water she’s in over her recent outing of John Edwards. Before I reveal just what she ought to do, I have an obligation to tell her what not to do – especially since she’s getting such bad advice from other conservatives.

From The Left: Cain Burdeau: Corps Placed Faulty Pumps in New Orleans "Let me give you the scenario: You have four months to build something that nobody has ever built before, and if you don't, the city floods and the Corps, which already has a black eye, could basically be dissolved. How many people would put up with a second flooding?" said Randy Persica, the Corps' resident engineer for New Orleans' three major drainage canals.

Quote Of The Day:

“Carrying around boxes of lettuce in a colorful Guatemalan coat is not my definition of showing that he’s willing to do poverty alleviation,” Ms. Fuentes-Berain said of Mr. Bush’s stop at the produce cooperative in Guatemala.

(Sources: AP, FOXNews, ThinkProgress, TownHall, USA Today, DrudgeReport, ThePolitico, HoustonChronicle, WashingtonPost, NYT, WashingtonTimes, TruthOut)