Countdown Newsletter -- 05/17/06: Spy Patrol

[Patsy Stone]

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Tonight on Countdown
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The Bush administration will brief the full House and Senate Intelligence Committees in Congress on the National Security Agency's controversial surveillance activities, reversing course after five months. The sessions scheduled for Wednesday afternoon on Capitol Hill were to be led by the NSA's director, Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander, and were sure to focus on the ultra-secret agency's efforts to monitor domestic calls when one party is overseas and suspected of terrorism, as well as the agency's efforts to collect records on ordinary Americans' calls. The briefings were coming less than 24 hours ahead of the opening of confirmation hearings for Gen. Michael Hayden, nominated to head the CIA. He was set to appear Thursday before the Senate Intelligence Committee.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12834982/

Verizon, the country's second largest telephone company, said today that it had not provided local phone records to the National Security Agency as part of the agency's efforts to amass a database of call data to thwart terrorists. The announcement, a day after BellSouth issued a similar statement, came in response to a report in USA Today last Thursday that the three biggest Bell companies had handed over their customer calling records - including data on local calls - to the security agency without warrants. But Verizon's statement left open the possibility that MCI, the long-distance carrier the company bought in January, did turn over such records - or that the unit, once absorbed into Verizon, had continued to do so. Verizon said it did not provide customer records to the National Security Agency "from the time of the 9/11 attacks until just four months ago." http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/16/business/16cnd-phone.html?_r=1&hp&ex=1147838400&en=4e8b5a9c7216a01d&ei=5094&partner=homepage&oref=slogin

How accurate IS that USA Today article?

Countdown w/ Keith Olbermann broadcasts LIVE at 8 pm et, and the count is never complete without you. Join us.

Anyplace else, the scarred concrete steps would be an eyesore. At ground zero on Sept. 11, 2001, they were a last chance for escape. Now they stand as the last surviving above-ground piece of the World Trade Center. The ''Survivors Staircase" was named one of the nation's most endangered historic places. To Sept. 11 survivor Patty Clark, the Trade Center staircase is ''symbolic of all of us who were witnesses to that day. It's still strong, somewhat damaged, but that's kind of like we all are." Clark and other employees of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey used the staircase to escape Tower 1 after the terrorist attacks in New York http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/05/11/group_tries_to_save_trade_center_stairs/
Monica Novotny Reports.

Will Al Gore's documentary change views on global warming?

Former Beatle Paul McCartney and his second wife, Heather Mills, announced Wednesday that they were separating after four years of marriage. "Having tried exceptionally hard to make our relationship work given the daily pressures surrounding us, it is with sadness that we have decided to go our separate ways," the couple said in a joint statement released through their publicists. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12827984/from/RS.2/

And early reviews are coming in for the Da Vinci Code...
"The Da Vinci Code" drew lukewarm praise, shrugs of indifference, some jeering laughter and a few derisive jabs Tuesday from arguably the world's toughest movie crowd: critics at the Cannes Film Festival. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12822855/ But is this a fair take?

Howard: If 'Code' will upset you, don't see it. Director says film meant 'to be entertainment, it's not theology'. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12833756/
That's some of what we're planning for tonight's show.

Finally,
TAMPA, Fla. -- A 44-year-old woman escaped serious injury from a gunshot Sunday thanks to her seat belt and a thick bra strap, authorities said. Robin Key, 44, of Riverview, Fla., was shot through the windshield of the car she was riding in Sunday. She said she felt a searing pain in her shoulder. Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies said a .38-caliber bullet smashed through the windshield then bounced off Key's shoulder - thanks to a seat belt and a thick bra strap. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BRA_STRAP_SHOOTING?SITE=NWCN&TEMPLATE=STRANGEHEADS.html&SECTION=HOME

-- Carey Fox

Countdown Home: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/

Other News:
Public confidence in GOP governance has plunged to the lowest levels of the Bush presidency, with Americans saying by wide margins that they now trust Democrats more than Republicans to deal with Iraq, the economy, immigration and other issues, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll that underscores the GOP's fragile grip on power six months before the midterm elections. Democrats are now favored to handle all 10 issues measured in the Post-ABC News poll. The survey shows a majority of the public, 56 percent, saying they would prefer to see Democrats in control of Congress after the elections. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12825539/

The Senate voted Wednesday to exclude illegal immigrants convicted of a felony or three misdemeanors from a chance at remaining in the United States under what critics say is an amnesty program. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12835010/

Stocks plunged Wednesday, with the Dow Jones industrial average chalking up a triple-digit decline, after a stronger-than-expected rise in consumer inflation fueled Wall Street's fear that interest rates will keep climbing. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3683270/

China evacuated more than 600,000 people as the strongest typhoon on record to enter the South China Sea in May bore down on the south coast on Wednesday, causing flight and shipping delays around the region. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12829941/

Mount Merapi shot a large cloud of searing hot ash and gas into the sky Wednesday, ending two days of relative calm and underscoring the dangers still facing thousands of people living on the volcano's slopes. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12832522/

A federal jury Wednesday began deliberating the fate of former Enron Corp. chiefs Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, accused of fraud and conspiracy that preceded the collapse of the Houston-based energy giant in one of the biggest corporate scandals ever. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12832473/