NPR 2010-01-06

From NPR News in Washington, I'm Barbara Klein.

The US Intelligence Community in Afghanistan has been sharply criticized by one of its own. Major General Michael Flynn, a Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence for the US and NATO in Afghanistan, says American spy agencies there are ignorant of the Afghan people, hazy 1 about how they are influenced, and have been of little use to the US mission there for the past eight years. Flynn says counterinsurgency has required a different focus and the US Intelligence Community has failed to adapt to it.

Meanwhile, family and colleagues of the Jordanian suicide bomber 2 who carried out the deadly attack against the CIA in Afghanistan last week said they thought he was on his way to continue his medical studies when they heard the news. Dell Gavlack reports from Zarqa, Jordan.

A close relative of Humonn Abu-Mulal al-Balawi described the doctor as a devout 3 Muslim, brilliant, having the best of quality, someone who cared for the poor, but was a bit aloof 4. He said his family was shocked to learn that al-Balawi was a bomber in Afghanistan that killed seven American agents and a Jordanian intelligence officer who was a distant member of Jordan's royal family. The relative who refused to be identified because Jordanian authorities instructed the family not to speak to the press, said al-Balawi had worked in an UN-run Palestinian refugee clinic in Zarqa, the hometown of slain 5 al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarquwi. Al-Balawi turned down his Jordanian intelligence handlers who had recruited the doctor after he tried to go to Gaza on a medical team following Israel's military invasion a year ago. For NPR News, I'm Dell Gavlack in Zarqa.

President Obama is meeting this hour with leaders of the nation’s intelligence agencies to review the lapses 6 that allowed a would-be terrorist bomber aboard a US bound flight from Amsterdam Christmas Day. The President is expected to present new airline security measures to the nation in an address about an hour from now.

Cold weather has a tight grip on the eastern portion of the US including areas that produce major winter crops. WDET's Amy Miller 7 has details.

Blasts of cold air moving counterclockwise from Canada's East Coast, combined with arctic air being funneled 8 from the West Coast are winding 9 past the Middle West into the Ohio River Valley then southward. The fronts are keeping Michigan's temperatures below freezing with snow flurries while creating the longest cold snap in five years from West Virginia to South Florida. Temperatures are averaging 15 to 20 degrees below normal for much of the South. Officials across the south are warning homeowners to take precautions against frozen pipes. Hard freeze warnings have strawberry- and tomato-farmers worried that prolonged cold weather could destroy crops. Forecasters say it would be the weekend before it starts to warm up. For NPR News, I'm Amy Miller in Detroit.

On Wall Street an hour before the close the Dow was down 36. The NASDAQ is off four.

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The World Food Program has suspended deliveries of food aid to southern Somalia. The UN agency says attacks on humanitarian 10 workers are making it virtually impossible to reach people in need. The State Department blames the Somali militia 11 group Al Shabaab for the violence, saying some 900,000 people don't have access to critical assistance.

The influential 12 feminist 13 Scholar Mary Daly has died after a long illness. She was 81. NPR's Neda Ulaby reports.

Mary Daly was a radical 14 feminist theologian who challenged sexisms at Catholic Church and championed a female centric world view. For over three decades, she taught at Boston College, a Jesuit school where she sometimes clashed with administrators 15 and male students she barred from her classes. In 1999, Daly told NPR, when men are in class, women behave differently.

"Women in classes with young men, they shut up all the time and laughed out if they have unusual ideas. They have to be sexy and they can't really think."

Daly's policy led to her lawsuits 16 settled out of court and her retirement 17. The professor’s fiery 18 brand of feminism has long been considered unfashionable. But she remains 19 a provocative 20 element in American feminist discourse 21. Neda Ulaby, NPR News.

The IRS is imposing 22 new rules on tax preparers. Tens of millions of people rely on them to file tax returns every year; but until now, no federal standards have been set for independent tax preparers or companies like H&R Block. Now the IRS will require them to pass a competency exam, and do 15 hours a year of coursework. But the plan won’t be in effect by the time 2009 taxes are due in April.

I'm Barbara Klein, NPR News in Washington.