MTP Transcript for Jan. 7, 2007  —  MR. TIM RUSSERT: Our issues this Sunday: Is the president on the verge of sending tens of thousands of more American troops to Iraq?  How would this so-called surge change the situation on the ground?  With us, for the Democrats, Senator Joe Biden of Delaware …

War Could Last Years, Commander Says  —  The new American operational commander in Iraq said Sunday that even with the additional American troops likely to be deployed in Baghdad under President Bush's new war strategy it might take another "two or three years" for American and Iraqi forces to gain the upper hand in the war.

Plan Sets Series of Goals for Iraq Leaders  —  President Bush's new Iraq policy will establish a series of goals that the Iraqi government will be expected to meet to try to ease sectarian tensions and stabilize the country politically and economically, senior administration officials said Sunday.

Scientists See Potential In Amniotic Stem Cells  —  They Are Highly Versatile And Readily Available  —  A type of cell that floats freely in the amniotic fluid of pregnant women has been found to have many of the same traits as embryonic stem cells, including an ability to grow into brain …

Revealed: preachers' messages of hate  —  Muslim worshippers are being urged by radical clerics to ignore British law  —  An undercover investigation has revealed disturbing evidence of Islamic extremism at a number of Britain's leading mosques and Muslim institutions, including an organisation praised by the Prime Minister.

Dallas-based food chain to accept Mexican pesos  —  Starting Monday, patrons of the Dallas-based Pizza Patrón chain, which caters heavily to Latinos, will be able to purchase American pizzas with Mexican pesos.  —  Restaurant experts and economists said they knew of no other food chain …

Suspicious truck stopped at the Port of Miami-Dade  —  Federal and county authorities have arrested as many as three Middle Eastern men at the Port of Miami-Dade after they tried to enter the facility Sunday morning without proper paperwork, officials said.  —  An FBI spokeswoman in Miami …

War's Toll on Iraqis Put at 22,950 in '06  —  Statistics From Health Ministry Official Show Tripling of Civilian, Police Deaths  —  More than 17,000 Iraqi civilians and police officers died violently in the latter half of 2006, according to Iraqi Health Ministry statistics …

I Just Don't Get It  —  This is discouraging. … There are several serious problems here.  — Allowing Bush to escalate the war is unwise.  (Note that Biden told Bush last month, after the election, that there was nothing the Democrats would do to stop him on the war.

Intel: A Writer's Blocked  —  A CIA panel has told former officer Valerie Plame she can't write about her undercover work for the agency, a position that may threaten a lucrative book project with her publisher.  Plame's outing as a CIA officer in July 2003 triggered a criminal probe …

Case tests officers' right to dissent  —  1st Lt. Ehren Watada's lawyer likens his client's comments against the war and the administration to those of retired military officials.  —  Do military officers have the right to publicly voice dissent about their commander in chief and U.S. war policy?

McCain backers fear they could lose new Florida governor's support  —  Publication of Rudy Giuliani's secret campaign plan has so embarrassed Florida's new Gov. Charles Crist that supporters of Sen. John McCain fear it might backfire against their campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.

Cleric's story of abduction, torture  —  Letter opening salvo in CIA officers' trial  —  CAIRO — "This is how they kidnapped me from Italy ... and how they tortured and imprisoned me in Egypt."  —  So begins a 6,300-word, handwritten letter, composed in an Egyptian prison cell by radical Muslim cleric Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr.

Maria Leavey, 52; Political Consultant  —  Maria Leavey, a behind-the-scenes media force for liberal causes who had an uncanny ability to bring opinion makers together with Washington's political elite, died of heart disease Dec. 31 at her apartment in Arlington.  On Jan. 1 she would have turned 53.