• Health officials around the world worked to contain what appears to be a spreading swine flu outbreak this morning. Mexico appears to be the epicenter of the outbreak, where as many as 103 deaths are thought to have been caused by the illness. The United States has declared a public health emergency, which Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said “sounds more severe than it is.” There are now 20 confirmed cases in the U.S.
• Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) said yesterday that an independent commission is needed to determine who authorized the use of abusive interrogation techniques against suspected terrorists. “I want to know who was it who made CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
• The Obama administration announced late last week that the Pentagon would turn over to the ACLU 44 photographs showing detainee abuse of prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq during the Bush administration. The pictures are a part of the ACLU’s Freedom of Information Act request.
• Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a surprise trip to Baghdad over the weekend, where she deplored the recent bombings in Iraq that left over 160 people dead, but said the “terrible and tragic events” haven’t stopped the nation from making strides in its security.
• The U.S. is “relatively close” to making decisions on what to do with an initial group of Guantanamo Bay detainees, Attorney General Eric Holder said yesterday. Holder said the first step is to decide how many total detainees will be set free, and he announced that it will be done “on a rolling basis.”
