Top Items:
Robin Wright / Washington Post:
U.S. Considers Ending Outreach to Insurgents — The Bush administration is deliberating whether to abandon U.S. reconciliation efforts with Sunni insurgents and instead give priority to Shiites and Kurds, who won elections and now dominate the government, according to U.S. officials.
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David E. Sanger / New York Times:
Idea of Rapid Withdrawal From Iraq Seems to Fade — In the cacophony of competing plans about how to deal with Iraq, one reality now appears clear: despite the Democrats' victory this month in an election viewed as a referendum on the war, the idea of a rapid American troop withdrawal is fast receding as a viable option.
Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:
This Is Realism? — Iran and Syria Won't Be Riding to Our Rescue — Now that the "realists" have ridden into town gleefully consigning the Bush doctrine to the ash heap of history, everyone has discovered the notion of interests, as if it were some new idea thought up by James Baker and the Iraq Study Group.
Abu Kais / Michael J. Totten:
The breaking of a country: Hizbullah takes to the streets of Beirut — Hundreds of thousands of Shias from the south have flooded two squares in downtown Beirut. According to LBC, the Christian participation is weak, with even lesser participation by Beirut Sunnis.
Discussion:
Hot Air, Counterterrorism Blog, Right Wing Nut House, A Blog For All, snapped shot and Bill's Bites
Laura Rozen / American Prospect:
Get the Memo — A readers' guide to Stephen Hadley's reflections on Iraq. — This Wednesday, the day that President Bush was to meet with Iraqi prime minister Nouri Al Maliki in Jordan, The New York Times published a classified memo prepared by National Security advisor Stephen Hadley and his staff …
Washington Post:
Iraq Panel to Urge Pullout Of Combat Troops by '08 — The bipartisan Iraq Study Group plans to recommend withdrawing nearly all U.S. combat units from Iraq by early 2008 while leaving behind troops to train, advise and support the Iraqis, setting the first goal for a major drawdown of U.S. forces …
Eli Lake / New York Sun:
Bush Hints His Team Will Link Iraq to Arab-Israeli Conflict
Bush Hints His Team Will Link Iraq to Arab-Israeli Conflict
Discussion:
Atlas Shrugs
MSNBC:
Report: Italian tests positive for deadly toxin — Academic had lunch with ex-spy on day he fell ill; autopsy under way … LONDON - An Italian security expert who met with a former KGB agent the day the ex-spy fell fatally ill with radiation poisoning has also tested positive for the substance, British media reported Friday.
Discussion:
The Strata-Sphere, TBogg, A Blog For All, Wizbang, Guardian, War and Piece, Blue Crab Boulevard and Decision '08
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Associated Press:
Aides: Pelosi taps Reyes to head intelligence committee … WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi has chosen a Border-Patrol-agent-turned-congressman to lead the House intelligence committee, according to congressional aides. — Democratic leaders are contacting congressional …
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Boston Globe:
Illegal immigrants toiled for governor — Guatemalans say firm hired them — This story was reported by Jonathan Saltzman and Maria Cramer of the Globe staff and by Globe correspondent Connie Paige and was written by Saltzman. — SUCHITEPEQUEZ, Guatemala — Outside his aqua-colored concrete house here …
Discussion:
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Cameron W. Barr / Washington Post:
Security Of Electronic Voting Is Condemned — Paper Systems Should Be Included, Agency Says — Paperless electronic voting machines used throughout the Washington region and much of the country "cannot be made secure," according to draft recommendations issued this week by a federal agency …
Wretchard / The Belmont Club:
But deliver us from evil — Westhawk goes directly to one of the key drivers of instability in Iraq. America's military success against the former rulers of Iraq has disrupted the very basis of its former stability. Sunni dominance. Westhawk quotes a Washington Post article which describes …
Sharon LaFraniere / New York Times:
Sex Abuse of Girls Is Stubborn Scourge in Africa — SAMBAVA, Madagascar — Thirty miles outside this down-at-the-heels seaside town, Justin Betombo tends his vanilla plants and cheers the local soccer team as if he had not a care in the world. And in fact, what was once his greatest worry …
Adam Nagourney / New York Times:
McCain Courts Crucial Support of Governors — Last anyone checked, Senator John McCain of Arizona is not — and has never been — a governor. — But no matter. Mr. McCain turned up on Thursday morning at the Doral Golf Resort and Spa here for a guerrillalike visit to the annual meeting of the Republican Governors Association.
Economist:
A national party no more? — The Republicans are in danger of being confined to the South — THREE years ago Zell Miller, then a Democratic senator for Georgia, published an anguished book entitled "A National Party No More: The Conscience of a Conservative Democrat".
Hassan M. Fattah / New York Times:
As the Talks on Iraq Conclude, Arabs Wonder, Is That All? — For days, Arab governments lobbied against any American opening to Iran, Jordanians planned protests against President Bush and politicians braced for a possible announcement of a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq.