Old Forecasts Come Back to Haunt Bush  —  Erosion in Confidence Will Be Hard To Reverse, Say Pollsters, Strategists  —  Three years of upbeat White House assessments about Iraq that turned out to be premature, incomplete or plain wrong are complicating President Bush's efforts to restore public faith …

FBI Was Warned About Moussaoui  —  Agent Tells Court Of Repeated Efforts Before 9/11 Attacks  —  An FBI agent who interrogated Zacarias Moussaoui before Sept. 11, 2001, warned his supervisors more than 70 times that Moussaoui was a terrorist and spelled out his suspicions that the al-Qaeda operative …

"WE WILL CUT HIM INTO LITTLE PIECES"  —  ***scroll for updates***  —  The Chicago Tribune is paying attention to Abdul Rahman, the Afghan man facing the death penalty for being a Christian convert.  The paper provides background on Rahman's troubled relations with his family, which has spurned him and accused him of mental illness.

My Ideal War  —  How the international community should have responded to Bush's September 2002 U.N. speech.  —  Up until now, I have resisted all urges to assume the mantle of generalship and to describe how I personally would have waged a campaign to liberate Iraq.

I'm boss, Hil tells Bill  —  Senator's word is now 'final,' says the ex-Prez  —  WASHINGTON - After being surprised by her husband's role in the Dubai ports deal, Sen. Hillary Clinton has insisted that Bill Clinton give her "final say" over what he says and does, well-placed sources said.

2 Years After Soldier's Death, Family's Battle Is With Army  —  SAN JOSE, Calif. — Patrick K. Tillman stood outside his law office here, staring intently at a yellow house across the street, just over 70 yards away.  That, he recalled, is how far away his eldest son, Pat …

Europe hands over Palestinian aid  —  The European Union has handed over 64m euros (£44m) in aid to help the poorest Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.  —  But it said that future aid depended on the incoming Hamas government showing a commitment to work for peace, saying the group was "at a crossroads".

Pastors' Get-Out-the-Vote Training Could Test Tax Rules  —  WASHINGTON, March 20 — Weeks after the Internal Revenue Service announced a crackdown on political activities by churches and other tax-exempt organizations, a coalition of nonprofit conservative groups is holding training sessions …

Cheney at Fund-Raiser, but Not With the Candidate  —  NEWARK, March 20 — In the biggest campaign fund-raiser yet on behalf of State Senator Thomas H. Kean Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney traveled to New Jersey on Monday and praised Mr. Kean as someone with "the experience …

The Stone Face of Zarqawi  —  Iraq is no "distraction" from al Qaeda.  —  In February 2004, our Kurdish comrades in northern Iraq intercepted a courier who was bearing a long message from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to his religious guru Osama bin Laden.  The letter contained a deranged analysis …

"South Park" Chef back after Scientology skirmish  —  LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Soul singer Isaac Hayes may have quit his job as the voice of Chef on "South Park" after a disagreement over religion, but his character will live on when the satiric cable TV cartoon returns to Comedy Central this week, the network said on Monday.

New Business Blooms in Iraq: Terror Insurance  —  BAGHDAD, Iraq — Twice in the past year, Muhammad Said has survived assassination attempts that left his car riddled with bullets.  He works part time as a bodyguard for his father, a Baghdad city councilman, and helps a friend who has contracts with the American military.

The battle to ban birth control  —  Ever since she was in her early teens, Mary Worthington has been vehemently opposed to contraception, which she regards as immoral and dangerous.  To spread her anti-birth-control gospel, this month she launched No Room for Contraception …