The CIA is paying AT&T more than $10 million per year to gain limited access to the company's vast database of phone records, according to a report published Thursday in The New York Times. ● The report, which cites anonymous government officials, says that AT&T provides the CIA with call data from phone numbers the agency believes are associated with overseas terrorism suspects. The arrangement not only covers the calls of AT&T customers, but also any call that travels through its telecom infrastructure. While most of the calls in question are made overseas, some calls to and from the U.S. are included in the data haul, according to the report. Because the CIA is not allowed to spy on Americans living in the U.S., the identities of those callers are masked. In some cases, the FBI may issue an administrative subpoena to compel AT&T to provide uncensored data. According to the Times, AT&T's participation in the program is voluntary and not compelled by a court order.

Washington Post: The CIA reportedly paid AT&T $10 million a year for phone records

Sarah Harrison, the WikiLeaks journalist, who accompanied Edward Snowden from Hong Kong to Russia and stayed with him until he was given asylum, says the whistleblowing site lawyers advise her against going home to Britain. ● The statement published by WikiLeaks on Wednesday explains how she helped Snowden successfully get Russian temporary asylum, which he received on August 1, despite “substantial pressure from the United States.” Harrison, who is 32, says she remained with him in Russia until it had been established that he “was free from the interference of any government.” “We have won the battle for Snowden’s immediate future, but the broader war continues,” Harrison writes. However, she voices fears citing examples of other whistleblowers being persecuted – such as Chelsea Manning, who has just begun serving a 35 year sentence for revealing embarrassing facts about US conduct during the Iraqi war; and Jeremy Hammond, a whistleblower, who is in prison for a decade in New York for allegedly providing journalists with documents exposing corporate surveillance. In the UK, her own home, Julian Assange has been holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy for over a year as the UK has refused to grant him permission to leave the embassy.

Iran, Israel and Arab states took part in a secret meeting that laid the groundwork for international talks on banning nuclear weapons in the Middle East, diplomats said on Tuesday. The meeting attended by representatives from Israel, Iran, several Arab countries and the United States was held two weeks ago, on October 21-22, in the Swiss village of Glion near Montreux, diplomatic sources told Reuters.

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People who ask why this would take place, need to understand that the Israel military is ingrained with the thought that all Palestinian children will someday grow up to be their enemy, and threaten their lives...

A little Palestinian girl named Summer tells a story from an Egyptian hospital bed that seems too horrible to be true. Her younger sisters, the girls says, were lined up and shot to death by soldiers from the Israeli Defence Forces. The BBC located the girl's father, he cried as he reviewed the events that led to so much loss. He says the girls were killed shortly before 1:00 in the afternoon, the father said, "We were told to come out of the homes, the women, my three daughters". He explains that an Israeli soldier climbed out of a tank carrying a US made M-16 rifle, and started to shoot at the children.

Michel Chossudovsky: The Assassination of Yasser Arafat was Ordered by The Israeli Cabinet ■ The forensic tests on samples taken from Yasser Arafat’s corpse by a team of Swiss scientists exhibit high levels of radioactive polonium-210. The exhumation of his body was implemented in November 2012. The samples revealed “levels of polonium at least 18 times higher than usual in Arafat’s ribs, pelvis and in soil that absorbed his bodily fluids.” These developments raise the broader issue which the media has failed to address: Who was behind the assassination of Yasser Arafat? The Answer to that question was provided by the Israeli government in 2003, a year prior to his death. In September 2003, Israel’s government passed a law to get rid of Arafat. Israel’s cabinet for political security affairs declared it “a decision to remove Arafat as an obstacle to peace.”

The Leader of Iran's Islamic Revolution says the United States has lost its political and military power and turned into a country grappling with its biggest economic and financial problems. He was addressing a group of school and university students on the occasion of Student Day in Iran.

Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said the U-S is suffering from political problems and divisions which led to the recent shutdown of the federal government. The leader noted that Iran's current economic hardships pale in comparison with those of the US administration. He said US officials made projections some 11 years ago about having 14-thousand billion dollars in extra revenues by 2011 or 2012, and that now, in practice, they are suffering from a huge 17-thousand billion dollar deficit. He added that this alone shows America's true economic situation and the inaccuracy of their official calculations. Ayatollah Khamenei also made mention of deep divisions among Washington's allies, saying that the U-S has failed to convince even its closest partners like France or Britain to back its decision on launching a strike against Syria.

For more on this issue, PressTV speaks with political analyst Paul Craig Roberts.