Number-two US diplomat in Iraq allegedly gave classified info to lobby group News
Number-two US diplomat in Iraq allegedly gave classified info to lobby group

[JURIST] David Satterfield, the number-two diplomat at the US Embassy in Baghdad, is allegedly one of the anonymous government officials said to have disclosed classified information to a Department of Defense analyst and two former officials of the pro-Israel lobbying group American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) [advocacy website], who pleaded not guilty [JURIST report] earlier this week to charges [PDF indictment] of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified national defense information. According to sources briefed on the case, Steven Rosen, one of the former AIPAC officials, is said to have met twice with Satterfield to discuss classified information, although the indictment does not detail what was discussed. Satterfield declined comment, but a former colleague said it was "absurd" to think that he would leak information. The New York Times has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Ku Klux Klan founded

The US hate group known as the Ku Klux Klan was founded on December 24, 1865 in Pulaski, Tennessee as a reaction to reconstruction efforts following the Union victory in the American Civil War. The group would later become notorious for its attacks on Black Americans, being targeted by the Enforcement Act of 1871, which imposed civil and criminal liability for deprivation of constitutional rights. Read the Enforcement Act of 1871.  

Hamid Karzai born

On December 24, 1957, Hamid Karzai was born in Karz, Afghanistan. He would go on to become in 2004 his country's first elected president after the end of Taliban rule in 2001.