ANALYSIS
National security team shows transition from candidate to leader
New York Times 13 hours, 58 minutes ago
(Newser)
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Yesterday's unveiling of Barack Obama's national security team did more than just end the rancor between him and Hillary Clinton; it established Obama as leader of a broad coalition that may transform his own views on American power. As Peter Baker writes for the New York Times , Obama's partnership with Clinton, whose diplomatic judgment he once mocked, and Robert Gates, who is running a war he denounced as "dumb", signals his conversion from candidate to leader.
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But 43 says he plans to leave office with 'head held high'
BBC 16 hours, 38 minutes ago
(Newser)
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President Bush's biggest regret of his presidency is receiving faulty intelligence before launching the Iraq war, the president told ABC News in a wide-ranging "exit interview." Bush declined to say whether he would have ordered the invasion if he had known Saddam Hussein didn't actually possess weapons of mass destruction. "That is a do-over that I can't do," he said. "It's hard for me to speculate."
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Suicide attacks rock police academy, US-Iraqi patrol
Associated Press Dec 1, 08 7:40 AM CST
(AP)
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Suicide bombers struck today near a Baghdad police academy and in Mosul against a joint US-Iraqi patrol, together killing 31 people, Iraqi officials said. In Baghdad, a car bomb exploded outside the heavily fortified academy. Minutes later, a suicide attacker blew himself up as police rushed to respond to the blast. Sixteen people were killed and 45 were wounded, police said.
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OPINION
Time Nov 26, 08 12:14 PM CST
(Newser)
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Joe Klein really wants to find something charitable and valedictory to say about George W. Bush. “His position on immigration was admirable,” Klein writes in Time . “He spoke well, in the abstract, about the importance of freedom. He is an impeccable classicist when it comes to baseball.” But none of that makes up for the “paralytic incompetence” that has made his last months humiliating, Klein says.
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4-star general seeks PTS treatment, speaks out about it
USA Today Nov 25, 08 10:45 AM CST
(Newser)
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The trauma associated with combat is a hushed topic among troops returned from Iraq—but a four-star general’s fight off the battlefield could help usher in a new attitude, USA Today reports. After witnessing the scene of a suicide bomb in an American mess hall at a base near Mosul, Carter Ham came home a different man, his wife said. But a psychological screening and talks with a chaplain put him on the road to recovery.
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US security deal may strengthen central government; some see 'benevolent Shiite Saddam'
Los Angeles Times Nov 24, 08 10:18 AM CST
(Newser)
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Ratification this week of a deal that would put an expiration date on the US deployment in Iraq stands to boost the prestige of PM Nouri al-Maliki, who in recent months has consolidated his power in moves that echo previous authoritarian regimes. As one Western observer tells the Los Angeles Times , Maliki is poised to become “a benevolent Shiite Saddam.”
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ANALYSIS
Time Nov 21, 08 1:25 PM CST
(Newser)
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Conventional wisdom has it that Barack Obama will ask Robert Gates to keep his post as Secretary of Defense, but there’s no conventional wisdom about how wise that is. “It has more minuses than pluses,” opines one ex-Pentagon official, but others disagree. Some pros and cons: Gates would ensure a smooth wartime transition. (But that’s what the uniformed military leaders who actually run the war are for, and why they’re not appointed.)
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Charges Could Loom for Contractors in Old Iraq Disputes
McClatchy Newspapers Nov 21, 08 12:22 PM CST
(Newser)
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Iraq may be able to prosecute US contractors for misdeeds committed when they were thought to be operating under American immunity, McClatchy reports. The new security pact doesn’t block such retroactive legal action, news that came as a surprise to Blackwater, whose contractors have been involved in the most high-profile incidents. "We are still trying to make sense of it," said a company spokeswoman.
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Newly retired judge lambastes US, UK
as 'vigilantes'
Guardian (UK) Nov 18, 08 8:36 AM CST
(Newser)
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One of Britain's most respected judges struck out last night against the invasion of Iraq, which he declared illegal and worthy of a "world vigilante." Thomas Bingham, who held the UK's equivalent post to chief justice, used his first speech since retirement to decry "a serious violation of international law and the rule of law."
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Joint Chiefs chairman still wants US withdrawal tied to security situation
Washington Post Nov 18, 08 1:44 AM CST
(Newser)
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The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is "comfortable" with the new US-Iraq security pact scheduling the start of an American troop pullout next year, but believes some major hurdles still exist, the Washington Post reports. Admiral Michael Mullen cautioned that the US has huge amounts of equipment and thousands of troops within the country, and it will likely take up to three years to get everything out of the nation safely.
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Parliament likely to approve plan by month's end
Reuters Nov 16, 08 7:31 AM CST
(Newser)
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Iraq’s cabinet has approved a long-debated plan to allow US troops to stay in the country until 2011—three years beyond their UN mandate, Reuters reports. Consideration of the pact now moves to parliament, where it will likely pass, an official said. American troops are scheduled to leave Iraqi towns and villages during 2009 and quit the country altogether in 2011, according to a draft of the agreement. The pact also puts Iraq in charge of the troops for the first time.
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Contractor shipped firearms without permit; some may now be on black market
McClatchy Newspapers Nov 13, 08 4:08 PM CST
(Newser)
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The government will hit security firm Blackwater USA with a multimillion-dollar fine for shipping hundreds of unauthorized guns to Iraq, McClatchy reports. A lengthy State Department investigation has concluded that the security contractor shipped some 900 weapons to the country—some of which likely wound up on the black market—without necessary permits, sources say.
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