Cursor's Media Patrol - 08/17/06

A federal district court orders an immediate halt to the "unconstitutional" warrantless wiretap program, but a new poll is said to show majority support for increased terror surveillance -- albeit with Congressional authorization.

British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has reportedly denied "summing up George Bush's administration in a single word," but 80 percent of Britons say the U.K. should 'Ditch U.S. in terror war.'

With an Iraq insurgency growing "worse by almost all measures" reportedly prompting U.S. officials to consider "alternatives other than democracy," AlterNet's Rick Gell weighs the implications of an "exit strategy, Bush style."

A report by McClatchy's Jonathan Landay on a new U.S. strategy to "defuse the insurrection" in Pakistan -- after the old plan "backfired badly" -- is seen as indicating that, "contrary to official White House statements on the matter, Afghanistan and Pakistan are the central front in the War on Terror, not Iraq."

A New York Times profile of a 'British Arms Merchant With Passport to the Pentagon' -- said to be "the only foreign Pentagon supplier to crack the top 10" -- neglects to mention previous reports of the firm's alleged Saudi slush fund, and its payments to Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.

A summary by Paul Craig Roberts of 'What we know and don't know about 9/11' attracts a host of comments.

CNN's Jack Cafferty observes that "since the Israel-Hezbollah fighting began ... the media have drastically cut back their coverage of the war in Iraq," but the focus may perhaps be shifting.