The incident seemed alarming enough: a breach of a Cisco Systems network in which an intruder seized programming instructions for many of the computers that control the flow of the Internet. Now federal officials and computer security investigators have acknowledged that the Cisco break-in last year was only part of a more extensive operation - involving a single intruder or a small band, apparently based in Europe - in which thousands of computer systems were similarly penetrated.-New York Times

A review of 2,000 of those contracts shows that awards go to the usual suspects like SAIC, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon.Some go to unusual suspects like Columbia TriStar pictures and Time Warner for movie and video distribution services.Within that batch of 2,000 contracts are approximately 50 mentions of a "classified domestic contractor" and a "classified foreign contractor" operating at 18th & F Street, NW, Washington, DC -John Stanton/Online Journal

Larry Wilkerson, Powell's chief of staff, said Armitage was furious about a provocative speech Bolton gave on North Korea in July 2003, though the State Department noted that Armitage's office had approved it.Armitage also ordered the delay of congressional testimony Bolton planned on Syria's weapons programs at the time, he added.In another interview released yesterday, Robert L. Hutchings, the former director of the National Intelligence Council, said he fought hard against approving Bolton's original planned testimony on Syria -Washington Post

The UN won an initial victory in federal court Monday blocking a former investigator from giving the U.S. Congress documents that he took with him when he quit an inquiry of the Iraq oil-for-food program.U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina in Washington issued the temporary restraining order in the effort by the UN to quash three congressional subpoenas for Robert Parton

Given the opportunity to sit in Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's chair for a day, military analysts would draw up a base closure hit list that targets more domestic installations than the Pentagon envisions.Experts solely focused on the needs of the military in a time of fewer defense dollars, the demands of the Iraq war and the push for modernization - with no concern for political implications - would push for a wholesale restructuring of stateside bases

States are threatening to challenge in court and even disobey new orders from Congress to start issuing more uniform driver's licenses and verify the citizenship or legal status of people getting them.The immigration requirements were attached to an $82 billion spending package for military operations and construction in Iraq and Afghanistan that the House passed last week.The Senate is expected to vote this week and send the bill to President Bush.

North Korea on Tuesday dismissed reports that it was preparing a nuclear test, calling them U.S. propaganda, and blamed Washington for the impasse in international talks to disarm the hardline state.U.S. officials said last week that spy satellites show possible preparations for North Korea's first nuclear weapons test, including the digging and refilling of a large hole at a suspected test site in northeastern Kilju along with the apparent construction of a reviewing stand being erected some distance away