THE TENSION: Wednesday News Open Thread

Having worked as a tech writer for the world's largest online service during the dot-com boom years, I am here to tell you that Internet providers have been collecting the data on subscribers for a long, long time. Every click is recorded, e-mail and instant messages are archived, and a database is built. It comes as no surprise that the Fed wants to write that activity into law. FBI Director Robert Mueller on Tuesday called on Internet service providers to record their customers' online activities, a move that anticipates a fierce debate over privacy and law enforcement in Washington next year, reports CNET.

"Terrorists coordinate their plans cloaked in the anonymity of the Internet, as do violent sexual predators prowling chat rooms," Mueller said in a speech at the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference in Boston.

In other Internet related news, Iran's Internet service providers (ISPs) have started reducing the speed of Internet access to homes and cafes based on new government-imposed limits, a move critics said appeared to be part of a clampdown on the media, according to Reuters.

Reuters adds that Internet users in southwest China who spread malicious rumors online face fines of up to 5,000 yuan ($630) and possible detention, state media reported on Wednesday in the latest crackdown on dissent.

The North Korean military has informed China that it plans to conduct a series of underground nuclear tests, NBC News reported, citing unnamed US officials, reports AFP. AP reports North Korea has informed China that it is prepared to conduct "as many as three additional tests" following the first nuclear experiment Oct. 9, CNN television reported Wednesday.

Under the heading of damned if you do, damned if you don't, billionaire investor George Soros today blamed U.S. President George W. Bush for escalating tensions with North Korea, which last week tested a nuclear bomb for the first time, reports Bloomberg.

Soros is a long-standing critic of the Bush administration and spent $27.5 million trying to defeat the president in the 2004 election. Recently Soros's Open Society Institute, or OSI, gave $20,000 in September 2002 to the Lynne Stewart Defense Committee. Lynne Stewart last week was found guilty of giving aid to Islamic terrorists.

Brian Ross at ABC reports after interviewing some 40 former congressional pages, FBI agents have yet to turn up any evidence of direct sexual contact between underage pages and former Congressman Mark Foley. The already played-out Foley story is still alive an well in the legacy media ... long past a story's average life span in the news cycle. However, FOX News asks "Is the mainstream media is ignoring questions about the Harry Reid land deal [and misuse of campaign funds]?" It seems like a double standard unless you consider that bias is involved.

CNN reports a ranking Democrat in the House of Representative is apologizing for saying an African-American Senate candidate "slavishly" supported the Republican Party.

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland, said he meant no offense when he made the remark about Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, the GOP nominee for the seat being vacated by longtime Democratic Sen. Paul Sarbanes.

Seven funeral home directors linked to a scheme to plunder corpses and sell the body parts for transplants have secretly pleaded guilty to undisclosed charges, prosecutors announced Wednesday according to AP.