Top Items:
David E. Sanger / New York Times:
Opening a New Front in the War, Against Iranians in Iraq — For more than two years after Saddam Hussein's fall, the war in Iraq was about chasing down insurgents and Al Qaeda in Iraq. Last year it expanded to tamping down sectarian warfare. — Over the past three weeks …
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Borzou Daragahi / Los Angeles Times:
Bush's plan to add troops fueling Iraq insurgency, Sunni scholar says
Bush's plan to add troops fueling Iraq insurgency, Sunni scholar says
John F. Burns / New York Times:
U.S. and Iraqis Are Wrangling Over War Plans
U.S. and Iraqis Are Wrangling Over War Plans
Discussion:
politburo diktat 2.0, Matthew Yglesias, Dick Polman's American Debate, PoliBlog (TM), Riehl World View, News Hounds, The Carpetbagger Report, JoeTrippi.com, The Heretik, Hot Air, Balloon Juice, Larisa Alexandrovna's …, jules crittenden, The Corner, Prairie Weather, The Reaction and Rising Hegemon
Fareed Zakaria / Newsweek:
Lt. Col. Steven Duke says the Mahdi Army is 'sitting on the 50 …
Lt. Col. Steven Duke says the Mahdi Army is 'sitting on the 50 …
Discussion:
The Carpetbagger Report, Real Cities, PoliBlog (TM), Daily Pundit, The Heretik and The American Street
New York Post:
HILL JABS AT JOHN — TAKES HER FIRST SHOT VS. AN '08 PREZ FOE — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton last night ripped into 2008 White House contender John Edwards - her first direct assault on any of her potential Democratic presidential rivals. — Clinton's surprising broadside came just hours after Edwards …
Discussion:
Hotline On Call, MyDD, CNN Political Ticker, The Caucus, Political Insider, The Right Angle and PSoTD
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New York Times:
Democrats Split on How to Oppose Troop Increase — The White House sought Sunday to head off building pressure in Congress to cut off or limit financing for sending more troops to Iraq. — But even as President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney made it clear that they would proceed …
CNN:
Hussein's half-brother decapitated during hanging … BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — Iraq hanged two of Saddam Hussein's aides early Monday, and one of the men was decapitated in the process. — The official video of the hangings showed Hussein's half-brother lying headless below the gallows …
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Reuters:
Saddam aides hanged, anger at beheading "mishap" — BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Two of Saddam Hussein's aides were hanged before dawn on Monday, the Iraqi government said, admitting that the head of his half-brother Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti was also ripped from his body during the execution.
New York Times:
Politicizing Prosecutors — The Bush administration has appointed an extreme political partisan as the new United States attorney for Arkansas. Normally, the Senate would have vetted him, and quite possibly blocked his appointment. But the White House took advantage of a little-noticed provision …
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Francis McCabe / Las Vegas Review-Journal:
Nevada U.S. attorney given walking papers — The Bush administration has forced Daniel Bogden out of his position as U.S. attorney for the District of Nevada, Nevada's two senators said Sunday. — It was unclear whether Bogden was fired or asked to resign and for what reason.
CBS News:
WHAT DO YOU THINK? — (CBS) On Jan. 12, 2007, two days after President George W. Bush told the country that he would send 21,000 more troops into Iraq, the president sat down with 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley for a candid conversation. The two met in Camp David's Laurel Cabin …
Ronald A. Cass / Real Clear Politics:
Sandy Berger: What Did He Take and Why Did He Take It? — Some things cry out for explanation. Like finding $90,000 in marked bills in a Congressman's freezer. Or finding out that a blue-chip lawyer who held one of the most important jobs in the nation was willing to risk his career …
Mark Mazzetti / New York Times:
Cheney Defends Efforts to Obtain Financial Records — Vice President Dick Cheney yesterday defended efforts by the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency to obtain financial records of Americans suspected of terrorism or espionage, calling the practice a "perfectly legitimate activity" …
Gerard Henderson / Times of London:
How Australia confronts militant Islam — A nation's blunt refusal to back down to terror — Australians are sometimes accused of being direct, even blunt. But this way of going about things seems to have worked well enough when dealing with the threat of radical Islamism Down Under.
Discussion:
Michelle Malkin
Howard Kurtz / Washington Post:
Bill O'Reilly And NBC, Shouting to Make Themselves Seen? — A war of words between Bill O'Reilly and NBC has erupted into a shouting match that is overheated, mean-spirited and incredibly entertaining. — "NBC News has gone sharply to the left," the Fox News star said on his radio show in early January.
Youssef Ibrahim / New York Sun:
Will Saudis Ban the Letter 'X'? — The letter "X" soon may be banned in Saudi Arabia because it resembles the mother of all banned religious symbols in the oil kingdom: the cross. — The new development came with the issuing of another mind-bending fatwa, or religious edict …
Griff Witte / Washington Post:
New Law Could Subject Civilians to Military Trial — Provision Aimed at Contractors, but Some Fear It Will Sweep Up Other Workers — Private contractors and other civilians serving with U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan could be subject for the first time to military courts-martial under …