BREAKING: FIDEL CASTRO IS DEAD  —  My cellphone has not stopped ringing for the past ten minutes.  Various sources inform that an announcement will come within the next few minutes from the Cuban government on Cuban TV and media.  Stay tuned and we'll see if we've been manipulated once again …

Hoekstra says Iraq democracy strategy is doomed to fail  —  EAST LANSING - The U.S. effort to install a democracy in Iraq within three to five years was a flawed strategy with little chance of succeeding, U.S. Rep. Peter Hoekstra said Friday.  —  The Holland Republican said the Iraq government needs …

HILL: TERROR WOULD BE GOP BOOST  —  Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday raised the prospect of a terror attack before next year's election, warning that it could boost the GOP's efforts to hold on to the White House.  —  Discussing the possibility of a new nightmare assault while campaigning …

Brzezinski Embraces Obama Over Clinton for President  —  Aug. 24 (Bloomberg) — Zbigniew Brzezinski, one of the most influential foreign-policy experts in the Democratic Party, threw his support behind Barack Obama's presidential candidacy, saying the Illinois senator has a better global grasp than his chief rival, Hillary Clinton.

Robert Fisk: Even I question the 'truth' about 9/11  —  Each time I lecture abroad on the Middle East, there is always someone in the audience - just one - whom I call the "raver".  Apologies here to all the men and women who come to my talks with bright and pertinent questions …

White House Moving The Goal Posts On Escalation, Drops Demands For Iraqi Political Reconciliation  —  When President Bush announced the escalation on January 10, 2007, he claimed the purpose of adding more troops into Iraq's civil war was to enable political reconciliation:

The Lost Year  —  A new national intelligence estimate concludes that President Bush's troop surge shows no signs of accomplishing its goal of encouraging political reconciliation in Iraq.  —  An influential Republican senator and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff now favor a troop withdrawal.

Allawi's Muscle: The CIA-Controlled Iraqi National Intelligence Service  —  Alleged billion dollar thief Hazem Shaalan isn't Ayad Allawi's only infamous friend.  Allawi is also a close ally of the head of Iraq's largest intelligence service — a man who takes his billions from Washington, not Baghdad.

Another Iraq-Vietnam Link: Many Killed By U.S. War  —  I was quite delighted that President Bush brought up the topic of the relationship between the U.S. war in Iraq and the U.S. war in Vietnam.  I was about to bring up the subject myself.  —  Just Foreign Policy has been working to put …

Our troops have earned more time  —  The invasion of Iraq may be one of the worst foreign-policy mistakes in the history of our nation.  As tragic and costly as that mistake has been, a precipitous or premature withdrawal of our forces now has the potential to turn the initial errors …

Congress: For Plane That Won't Fly, $63 Mil Is Enough  —  Justin Rood Reports:  —  Millions of dollars later, Congress has effectively killed a military plane program the Pentagon repeatedly rejected, and which never had a successful flight.  —  The $63 million Congress poured …

Liberal blogger targets 'Bush Dog' Dems  —  A leading liberal blogger has declared political war against centrist Democrats - the latest move in an intensifying show of dissatisfaction with the Democratic Congress by the once-friendly blogosphere.  —  Matt Stoller, who blogs …

Fed bends rules to help two big banks  —  If the Federal Reserve is waiving a fundamental principle in banking regulation, the credit crunch must still be sapping the strength of America's biggest banks.  Fortune's Peter Eavis documents an unusual Fed move.