Sunday,  Dec. 22, 2013 • Vol. 16--No. 159 • 23 of 27

(Continued from page 22)

• The National Security Agency has also provided "substantial eavesdropping help" to the Colombian government, according to the Post. And the U.S. provided Colombia with GPS equipment that can be used to transform regular munitions into "smart bombs" that can accurately home in on specific targets, even if they are located in dense jungles.
• In March 2008, Colombian forces killed a top FARC commander, Raul Reyes, in one of several jungle camps the rebels operated in Ecuador, just across the border. The Post report Saturday said Colombia used U.S.-made smart bombs in the operation.
• The report is based on interviews with more than 30 former and current U.S. and Colombian officials, who the Post said spoke on condition of anonymity because the program is classified and ongoing.
• The CIA would not comment on the Post report. Without going into detail, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos told the Post that the CIA has been "of help," providing Colombian forces with "better training and knowledge."
• ___

Top 10 photos of 2013, selected by AP's Director of Photography Santiago Lyon

• How to sum up an entire year of news in just 10 photos? The very notion is daunting when we consider that the AP's award-winning team of hundreds of staff photographers, freelancers and photo editors sends out some 3,000 photos every 24 hours - over 1 million photos a year - to our subscribers around the globe.
• Photo editing is, of course, a subjective process of comparison and selection. It involves aesthetics, journalism, impact and memory.
• In the end, I chose 10 representative photos from some of the biggest stories of 2013.
• ___

US releases once-secret legal rulings in attempt to justify Bush-era surveillance programs

• WASHINGTON (AP) -- The director of national intelligence on Saturday declassified more documents that outline how the National Security Agency was first authorized to start collecting bulk phone and Internet records in the hunt for al-Qaida terrorists and how a court eventually gained oversight of the program.
• The declassification came after the Justice Department complied with a federal court order to release its previous legal arguments for keeping the programs secret.

(Continued on page 24)

© 2013 Groton Daily Independent • To send correspondence, click here.