Domestic surveillance bill stalls in Congress News
Domestic surveillance bill stalls in Congress

[JURIST] There are too many substantive differences between the Senate and House versions of a bill aimed at approving the NSA domestic surveillance program [JURIST news archive] for legislation to be approved before the November elections, anonymous GOP staffers told reporters Tuesday. The Senate version, the National Security Surveillance Act of 2006 [S 3876 materials], the product of a compromise between the White House and Senator Arlen Specter [JURIST report], places fewer restrictions on presidential authority to conduct wiretaps than the House version [JURIST report], the Electronic Surveillance Modernization Act of 2006 [HR 5825 summary], sponsored by Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM).

President Bush pressed for passage of the surveillance legislation in a press conference [JURIST report] earlier this month, saying "when an al Qaeda operative is calling into the United States or out of the country, we need to know who they're calling, why they're calling, and what they're planning." AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

UN General Assembly approves Palestine partition plan

The UN General Assembly approved UN Resolution Resolution 181 (II) on November 29, 1947, recommending that the British Mandate for Palestine be split into a Jewish state, an Arab state, and an international zone for Jerusalem. The vote in the assembly was 33 for to 13 against, with 10 abstentions. The resolution sparked a war between Palestinian Arabs and Jews in 1947 and a wider war after Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon invaded the new State of Israel in 1948. Read Resolution 181 (II).

UN divided Palestine between Arabs and Jews

On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab territories, leading to the establishment of a Jewish state the following year. Read UN General Assembly Resolution 181.

Defense Secretary Robert McNamara resigns during Vietnam Conflict

On November 29, 1967, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara announced that he was resigning from his office to accept an appointment as head of the World Bank. The announcement came as the Vietnam Conflict was becoming increasingly unpopular in the United States and abroad.