Security forces in Canada arrested two people on Monday afternoon and announced a terrorist plot backed by al Qaeda had been disrupted. The Federal Bureau Investigation had been working for the past year with Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), which tracked suspects who were allegedly planning to attack a passenger train headed from the United States to Toronto.

It has been more than ten days since the bombing at the finish line of the Boston Marathon took place. Since the bombing, there has been a spike in reported “suspicious packages.”

The dedication for George W. Bush’s presidential library included the presence of one current and four former United States presidents: George H.W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and George W. Bush himself. A number of world leaders, such as Tony Blair, Silvio Berlusconi and Ehud Olmert, were in attendance as well.

When he ran against Republican Senator John McCain, Obama campaigned in 2008 against what he called “eight years of failed policies” from George W. Bush. But, today, Obama spoke reverently about becoming a part of “the world’s most exclusive club,” a group of “living former Presidents” and one that included Bush.

A “rule book” for drones that the administration of President Barack Obama has been developing is reportedly near completion, according to the Washington Post. Unnamed US officials told the newspaper the CIA is set to benefit from a “major exemption” that would allow them to continue conducting CIA drone operations without having to follow the rules. But the Obama administration is fine with this exemption because John Brennan, a national counterterrorism adviser, is set to take the position of CIA chief.

The Dissent Papers is that rare treat of scholarship that reflects careful research and close attention to lively, elegant prose. I recommend it highly to all interested readers. If this afternoon’s exchange is only half as rich as the book itself, we’ll all still walk away having been deeply enriched.

Triple drone attacks in Pakistan reportedly killed more than twelve people who were suspected of being “militants” or terror suspects. Nine were killed in an initial attack on a “militant compound” in Miranshah in North Waziristan. Three more were killed in a second attack while people were trying to “recover dead bodies.” A third strike killed at least one more, according to the Agence France Presse news agency.

The attacks come just as Pakistan and the US are set to meet in Tokyo

A House Judiciary subcommittee held an oversight hearing today on the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 (FAA). The hearing was convened to examine the law before it is reauthorized this year. There was little dispute that it should be reauthorized. The debate that occurred among congresspeople was instead focused on what reforms would be reasonable if Congress were to even consider adjusting the law before reauthorizing it.

The State Department has responded to a six months-old FOIA request filed by the ACLU to compel the release of twenty-three US State Embassy cables by releasing eleven of the cables. However, the eleven cables released contain redactions leading the ACLU to conclude this latest development “reveals” the State Department’s “penchant for excessive secrecy in defiance of all reason.”

The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles has denied Troy Davis clemency. The five-member board reviewed pleas for clemency yesterday and did not make a decision until this morning. Davis is scheduled for execution tomorrow, September 21. Clemency or the issuance of a stay of execution was Davis’ last available avenue for avoiding lethal injection.

A Major Crimes Task Force (MCTF) assisted by the FBI and other US investigators interviewed 77 adult and juvenile detainees. They reported their jailers: forced them to confess to crimes they did not commit, beat them with wooden sticks or subjected them to electric shocks and raped them or sodomized them with objects. Juveniles reported being raped “multiple times by the same person or persons.”