Daily Political Wire

George Wenschhof



Jason Furman

Obama to Nominate Furman for Top Economic Post -President Barack Obama will announce Monday that he intends to nominate Jason Furman as the new Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, a White House official said.
 
Obama will make the personnel announcement at 2:10 p.m. ET at the White House. Furman will succeed Alan Krueger, who is stepping down from the post to return to Princeton University in the fall.  TPM.com has more here.

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Snowden Reveals He is Source of NSA Leaks - A 29-year-old man who says he is a former undercover CIA employee said Sunday that he was the principal source of recent disclosures about ­top-secret National Security Agency programs, exposing himself to possible prosecution in an acknowledgment that had little if any precedent in the long history of U.S. intelligence leaks.

Edward Snowden, a tech specialist who has contracted for the NSA and works for the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, unmasked himself as a source after a string of stories in The Washington Post and the Guardian that detailed previously unknown U.S. surveillance programs. He said he disclosed secret documents in response to what he described as the systematic surveillance of innocent citizens. The Washington Post has more here.

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Turkey Prime Minister Erdogan Warns Protestors - Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan warned protesters who have taken to the streets across Turkey demanding his resignation that his patience has its limits and compared the unrest with an army attempt six years ago to curb his power.

Riot police used teargas and water cannon to disperse anti-government protesters from a square in the capital, Ankara, just a few kilometers from where Erdogan spoke.

He held six rallies on Sunday, a measure of tensions after a week of the biggest demonstrations and worst rioting of his decade in power. Thousands waved red Turkish flags and shouted Allahu Akbar (God Is Greatest) as he accused protesters of attacking women wearing headscarves and desecrating mosques by taking beer bottles into them.  Reuters.com has more here.

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Taliban Attack Kabul Airport - Insurgents attacked Kabul International Airport early Monday and battled Afghan security forces for four hours, officials said.
 
The assault occurred on the military side of the airport and included large explosions and machine-gun fire.

The attackers took up positions inside a partially constructed building next to airport, interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqi said, and fought Afghan security forces for about four hours before the raid ended.  NBC News has more here.

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Mandela in Intensive Care - Former South African leader Nelson Mandela remained in intensive care Monday, two days after he was hospitalized with a recurring lung infection.

The increasingly frail Mandela was rushed to a hospital in Pretoria on Saturday. Later in the day, the South African president's office said the 94-year-old former leader was in a "serious but stable condition."

He was breathing on his own own and his wife was by his side, the office said at the time.

After offering no updates for 48 hours, the government said Monday that Mandela's condition was "unchanged."  CNN.com has more here. 

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