Iraq PM Influenced Obama Torture Photo Decision

President promises US will still have 'strong presence'

(NEWSER) - As the last 6,000 American troops prepare to leave Iraq by Dec. 31, President Obama today heralded the end of the divisive war—but issued a warning to the country's neighbors: The US will continue to have a "strong presence in the Middle East." He added, in a speech made after meetings with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki this morning, that "the United States will never waiver in the defense of our allies, our partners, and our interests." More»

Discussions with Baghdad 'are ongoing': spokesman

(NEWSER) - The Pentagon threw cold water on a story today that US troops are leaving Iraq by year's end, MSNBC reports. "Suggestions that a final decision has been reached about our training relationship with the Iraqi government are wrong," a Pentagon spokesman said. "Those discussions are ongoing." Earlier, the AP reported that Washington failed to renew its security agreement with Baghdad, and would pull out its 41,000 troops by Jan. 1 as planned. More»

General considered rising star by key righty pundits

(NEWSER) - Looking for a “true dark horse” to win the Republican presidential nomination in 2012? Put your money on Gen. David Petraeus, the architect of the Iraq and Afghanistan war strategies, who’s soon to receive a big award from the conservative American Enterprise Institute, Paul Bedard writes for US News & World Report’s Washington Whispers blog. And though Petraeus is said to be reluctant to oppose President Obama, a scheduled May lecture could add fuel to fire from center-rightists. More»

Obama plays down Iraqi limits on US forces as 'differences in strategy'

(NEWSER) - President Obama met with Nouri al-Maliki today and vowed to keep to his timetable that has all US forces out of Iraq by 2011, the Washington Post reports. The Iraqi prime minister said that his country’s security forces are now “highly capable” of handling the threat posed by insurgents—what Iraq needs now, Maliki said, is economic aid and foreign investment. More»

(NEWSER) - Jimmy Carter politely disagrees with the current president’s move to block photos depicting prisoner torture in Iraq and Afghanistan from public view. “I don't agree with him,” the former president said of Barack Obama. “But I certainly don't criticize him for making that decision,” he tells CNN's Campbell Brown in an interview airing tonight. Still, Carter is disappointed. “Most of his supporters were hoping that he would be much more open in the revelation of what we've done in the past.” More»