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“We knew we were going to be forced to shut this thing down,” recalled one former civilian official, describing tense internal discussions in which military commanders argued that the site was putting Americans at risk. “CIA resented that,” the former official said.

Elite U.S. military computer specialists, over the objections of the CIA, mounted a cyberattack that dismantled the online forum. Although some Saudi officials had been informed in advance about the Pentagon’s plan, several key princes were “absolutely furious” at the loss of an intelligence-gathering tool, according to another former U.S. official.

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The Saudi-CIA Web site was set up several years ago as a “honey pot,” an online forum covertly monitored by intelligence agencies to identify attackers and gain information, according to three of the former officials. The site was a boon to Saudi intelligence operatives, who were able to round up some extremists before they could strike, the former officials said.

At the time, however, dozens of Saudi jihadists were entering Iraq each month to carry out attacks. U.S. military officials grew concerned that the site “was being used to pass operational information” among extremists, one former official said. The threat was so serious, former officials said, that Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, requested that the site be shut down.

The operation was debated by a task force on cyber-operations made up of representatives from the Defense and Justice departments, the CIA, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the National Security Council. Lt. Gen. Keith B. Alexander, who directs the National Security Agency, made a presentation.

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The U.S. Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled today that the Fed must release records of the unprecedented $2 trillion U.S. loan program launched primarily after the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. The ruling upholds a decision of a lower-court judge, who in August ordered that the information be released.

The Fed had argued that disclosure of the documents threatens to stigmatize borrowers and cause them “severe and irreparable competitive injury,” discouraging banks in distress from seeking help. A three-judge panel of the appeals court rejected that argument in a unanimous decision.

The U.S. Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, “sets forth no basis for the exemption the Board asks us to read into it,” U.S. Circuit Chief Judge Dennis Jacobs wrote in the opinion. “If the Board believes such an exemption would better serve the national interest, it should ask Congress to amend the statute.”

The bill, expected to swiftly pass in both houses, would facilitate the subzero preservation of any graduate of a two- or four-year educational institution. Sponsors of the initiative said that with the national unemployment rate at just under 10 percent, it only made sense for young job-seekers to temporarily enter a state of supercooled stasis.

“Finding employment is extremely difficult for today’s college graduate,” Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) said. “Our current economy offers few options for the millions of young men and women desperate to join the workforce.”

“Were we to freeze these graduates at the height of vigor and ambition, however, there’s a chance we could revive them during a more prosperous time,” Hutchinson continued. “When the economy finally bounces back—10, 20, even 30 years from now—we’ll have an entire generation thawed out and ready to contribute.”

The “perversion files,” a nickname the Boy Scouts are said to have used for the documents, have rarely been seen by the public, but that could change in the coming weeks in a Portland, Ore., courtroom.

The attorney for a man who was allegedly molested in the 1980s by a Scout leader has obtained about 1,000 Boy Scouts sex files and is expected to release some of them at a trial that began Wednesday. The lawyer says the files show the organization has covered up abuse for decades.

On Friday, testimony from a Mormon bishop responsible for a Scout troop of church members suggested that the Scouts never provided training about spotting abuse or preventing it.

The trial is significant because the files could offer a rare window into how the organization has responded to sex abuse by Scout leaders. The only other time the documents are thought to have been presented at a trial was in the 1980s in Virginia.

Charles Smith, attorney for the Boy Scouts, said in his opening statement that the files helped national scouting leaders weed out sex offenders, especially repeat offenders who may have changed names or moved in order to join another local scouting organization.

The closings follow the 140 that succumbed in 2009 to mounting loan defaults and the recession.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over First Lowndes Bank, in Fort Deposit, Ala.; Appalachian Community Bank in Ellijay, Ga.; Bank of Hiawassee, in Hiawassee, Ga.; and Century Security Bank in Duluth, Ga.

The agency also closed down State Bank of Aurora, in Aurora, Minn.; Advanta Bank Corp., based in Draper, Utah; and American National Bank of Parma, Ohio.

The FDIC was unable to find a buyer for Advanta Bank, which had $1.6 billion in assets and $1.5 billion in deposits. The regulatory agency approved the payout of the bank’s insured deposits and it said checks to depositors for their insured funds will be mailed on Monday.

The failure of Advanta Bank is expected to cost the federal deposit insurance fund $635.6 million.

For the other banks:

— First Citizens Bank of Luverne, Ala., agreed to assume the deposits and assets of First Lowndes Bank. First Lowndes had $137.2 million in assets and $131.1 million in deposits. The FDIC expects that the cost to its insurance fund will be $38.3 million.

— Community & Southern Bank of Carrollton, Ga., agreed to assume the deposits and assets of Appalachian Community Bank. The bank had $1 billion in assets and about $917.6 million in deposits. The cost to the insurance fund is expected to be $419.3 million.

— Citizens South Bank of Gastonia, N.C., will assume the deposits and assets of Bank of Hiawassee. Bank of Hiawassee had about $377.8 million in assets and $339.6 million in deposits. The failure is expected to cost the insurance fund $137.7 million.

— Bank of Upson, based in Thomaston, Ga., agreed to assume the assets and deposits of Century Security Bank, which had $96.5 million in assets and $94 million in deposits. It is expected to cost the insurance fund $29.9 million.

— Northern State Bank in Ashland, Wisc., agreed to assume the deposits and assets of State Bank of Aurora. The bank had about $28.2 million in assets and $27.8 million in deposits. The FDIC expects the move will cost the insurance fund $4.2 million.

— National Bank and Trust Co., based in Wilmington, Ohio, agreed to assume the assets and deposits of American National Bank, which had $70.3 million in assets and $66.8 million in deposits. The cost to the insurance fund is expected to total $17.1 million.

Lawyers for four men from Newburgh have filed a motion to dismiss the terror indictment against them.

They said the informant badgered the defendants until they got involved in the plot.

They said the informant chose the targets, supplied fake bombs for the synagogues and a fake missile to shoot down planes. The motion said he also offered to pay the defendants, who attorneys alleged weren’t inclined toward any crime until the informant began recruiting them.

“The government well knew that their case had been a government-inspired creation from day one and that the defendants had not been independently seeking weapons or targets,” the motion said.

Ffederal court spokesman Herb Hadad said the government would file its response next month.

The four men, who were arrested last May, face up to life in prison if convicted. They have been previously identified as James Cromitie, 55, David Williams, 28, Onta Williams, 32, and Laguerre Payen, 27, all of Newburgh in upstate New York, where authorities were conducting raids at their homes, sources said.

Authorities have said they had the plotters under surveillance since June of 2008 and there was “no chance” the alleged scheme could succeed. They credited the work of a long time informant with keeping tabs on the group.

The camera didn’t have any markings identifying its owner, so Jacob took it home and called law enforcement agencies to find out if it was theirs, all the while wondering why someone would station a video camera in an isolated clearing in the woods.

He eventually received a call from Mark Heitzman of the U.S. Forest Service.

Electricity bills in NSW will soar by up to a total of 64 per cent over the next three years, with the federal government’s proposed carbon pollution reduction scheme (CPRS) and rising network infrastructure costs largely to blame.

The outcome has sparked fears other states and territories could be similarly affected if the CPRS goes ahead in 20011/12 as planned.

The NSW hikes, which are even higher than those first proposed by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) in December, will see average electricity bills rocketing by between $577 and $918 a year by 2013.

Acting chairman and chief executive Jim Cox said the increases were the biggest ever presided over by the tribunal and conceded there could be similar rises in other states.

“I don’t think we’ve had anything as big as this one,” he said.

NSW Energy Minister John Robertson said the government would expand the energy rebate to an additional 275,000 people.

Assistance will now be given to all Commonwealth healthcare card holders, low-income card holders, students, and households receiving farm family assistance.

One million customers will be covered by the $145 annual rebate, about a third of the state’s households.

Mr Robertson and NSW Premier Kristina Keneally acknowledged the price hikes would burden NSW families, already struggling under rising living costs.

“I’m disappointed with IPART’s decision today to increase electricity prices,” Mr Robertson said.

The Rio Group assertively announced the birth of its successor earlier this week, at a summit in a resort town on Mexico’s Caribbean coast. Mexican President Felipe Calderon declared that a new body had been formed that would represent both the Group of Rio and the 15-member Caribbean Community (CARICOM).

Going under the provisional name the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELC), the newly announced body specifically excluded the United States and Canada from membership, and intends to consolidate the sometimes tenuous solidarity among the Central and South American states. The exclusion of the two North American powerhouses puts the nascent organization in direct competition with the Organization of American States (OAS), established in 1948, over which the US holds decisive authority.