Morning News Roundup (12 May)

• Excuse me? A majority of Americans initially support a controversial National Security Agency program to collect information on telephone calls made in the United States in an effort to identify and investigate potential terrorist threats, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.
  
  The new survey found that 63 percent of Americans said they found the NSA program to be an acceptable way to investigate terrorism, including 44 percent who strongly endorsed the effort. Another 35 percent said the program was unacceptable, which included 24 percent who strongly objected to it.
  
  Underlying those views is the belief that the need to investigate terrorism outweighs privacy concerns. According to the poll, 65 percent of those interviewed said it was more important to investigate potential terrorist threats "even if it intrudes on privacy." [WaPo]
  
  
• BTW - if you are worried about the government intruding into your privacy, the WaPo reports that it's your fault to begin with:
  

  One government lawyer who has participated in negotiations with telecommunications providers said the Bush administration has argued that a company can turn over its entire database of customer records -- and even the stored content of calls and e-mails -- because customers "have consented to that" when they establish accounts. The fine print of many telephone and Internet service contracts includes catchall provisions, the lawyer said, authorizing the company to disclose such records to protect public safety or national security, or in compliance with a lawful government request.
  
  "It is within their terms of service because you have consented to that," the lawyer said. If the company also consents, "and they do it voluntarily, the U.S. government can accept it."

• A pipeline explosion killed up to 200 people on the outskirts of Nigeria's biggest city Lagos on Friday. The Red Cross said the pipeline blew up while vandals were tapping into it to steal petrol, igniting about 500 nearby jerrycans full of fuel. Theft of fuel or crude oil from pipelines is common in Nigeria. [Reuters via RawStory]
  
  
• The top U.S. spokesperson in Iraq yesterday acknowledged that attacks on Iraqi civilians in the last 10 weeks were “about 80% higher than the level of violence late last year. In the last 24 hours there had been 85 attacks around the nation.” [ThinkProgress' ThinkFast]
  
  [UPDATE] Then there's this from Salon's War Room on military casualties:
  

  The rate of U.S. deaths in Iraq is also on the rise after several months of decline. Seventy-six Americans were killed in Iraq in April, and 32 have died already this month. Four U.S. Marines were killed today when their tank rolled off a bridge and into a canal west of Baghdad, taking the total U.S. death toll in Iraq to 2,436.

• A fierce gun battle at sea Thursday left at least 17 Sri Lankan Navy sailors and about 50 guerrillas dead, according to the military, in the deadliest and most serious violation of the 2002 cease-fire accord.
  
  The cease-fire, brokered by Norway and signed four years ago by the government of Sri Lanka and the ethnic separatist Tamil Tigers, had all but frayed even before the latest outbreak of violence. But Thursday's exchanges, direct clashes between the warring parties, at sea and by air, represented a brazen flouting of the accord that each side still says it stands by. [NYTimes]
  
  
• Two of the four suicide bombers who killed 52 people on the London public transit system last July 7 probably had contact with al-Qaeda operatives during visits to Pakistan, but there is no proof that the international terrorist network planned or directed the attack. [WaPo]
  
  
• The United States must talk directly to Iran about its disputed nuclear programme because Tehran will not negotiate seriously if Washington is not involved, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said. "I have also stated very clearly both in private and in my contacts with the American administration and publicly that I think it is important that the United States come to the table and that they should join all the European countries and Iran to find a solution," he said on the sidelines of a European Union-Latin American summit. The United States has refused to talk directly to Iran but backs the EU diplomacy. [AFP]
  
  
• Yesterday the House passed a defense authorization bill that “includes language intended to allow chaplains to pray in the name of Jesus at public military ceremonies, undercutting new Air Force and Navy guidelines on religion,” which call for nonsectarian prayers at public gatherings. [ThinkProgress' ThinkFast]
  
  
• Texas officials announced plans Thursday for the nation's largest offshore wind farm, consisting of as many as 500 windmills out in the Gulf of Mexico. Its 400-foot turbines would generate a total of 500 megawatts of electricity, or enough energy for 125,000 homes. [AP via ENN]