Al Qaeda's wing in Iraq on Thursday rejected as a fabrication a letter by a top group leader that was issued by U.S. officials and suggested deep internal rifts among militants.

The U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq has been the "most misguided" policy since the Vietnam War, according to an open letter signed by some 500 U.S. national security specialists.

A June report for Taxpayers for Common Sense by Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron found that despite billions of dollars spent on marijuana suppression — nearly $4 billion by the federal government in 2004 alone — usage is about the same as 30 years ago.

  The new case will decide the status of wetlands that are far from a navigable stream but whose waters can flow to a river or stream....   On Friday, the justices met for the first time to go over pending appeals with Roberts leading the discussion. When he was a judge on the U.S. appeals court, Roberts wrote a dissent to highlight the case of the "hapless toad" that lived in a dry canyon near San Diego. In that case, as well as in the ones now before the court, the question was whether federal environmental regulators had the authority to block development in the area. The toad was protected by the Endangered Species Act. The wetlands are protected by the Clean Water Act.