New Report Recommends Iraq Handover in 5 Years  —  Panel Also Calls for 50 Percent Troop Reduction Within 3 Years  —  In a report to be released Sunday, a panel of experts assembled by the U.S. Institute of Peace calls for a 50 percent reduction in U.S. forces in Iraq within three years …

Brooks: In His New Tape, Bin Laden Sounds Like He's Been 'Reading Lefty Blogs'  —  Last night on PBS' The NewsHour, New York Times columnist David Brooks compared 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden's latest video message to "lefty blogs," saying the al Qaeda head is like "one of these childish …

Fred Thompson: Al Qaeda smoking ban pushed Iraqis to U.S.  —  SIOUX CITY, Iowa - Freshly minted GOP White House hopeful Fred Thompson puzzled Iowans yesterday by insisting an Al Qaeda smoking ban was one reason freedom-loving Iraqis bolted to the U.S. side.  —  "They said, 'You gotta quit smoking …

Sen. Hagel Won't Seek Reelection in 2008  —  The Omaha World-Herald is reporting — and The Post's Jonathan Weisman has confirmed — that Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) will announce Monday that he will not seek a third term in 2008 nor run for any other national office.

Troop Buildup, Yielding Slight Gains, Fails to Meet U.S. Goals  —  Seven months after the American-led troop "surge" began, Baghdad has experienced modest security gains that have neither reversed the city's underlying sectarian dynamic nor created a unified and trusted national government.

Fugitive fundraiser Hsu 'freaked out' on train, witness says  —  (09-08) 04:00 PDT Chicago - —  Fugitive political fundraiser Norman Hsu was behaving erratically as he fled the Bay Area on Amtrak's California Zephyr, at one point stripping off his shirt and shoes, before paramedics …

PLANNING FOR DEFEAT  —  How should we withdraw from Iraq? … An Iraqi whom I will call Ahmed lives in Saidiya, an area in south Baghdad where, in the nineteen-eighties, the regime of Saddam Hussein built large houses for well-connected Army officers, most of them Sunnis.

Giuliani: "For Me Every Day Is An Anniversary Of Sept. 11"  —  Basking in the lasting glow of his Sept. 11 leadership while campaigning in Pinellas County and Orlando on Friday, Giuliani stressed national security and electability, rather than the sort of hot-button social issues that are thought …

Bush urges united support on Iraq  —  SYDNEY, Australia (AP) — President Bush, facing a critical juncture in the war, urged Democrats and Republicans on Saturday to unite and back the war strategy he'll lay out shortly for the next chapter of U.S. involvement in Iraq.

Operation Alljah: The Swarm  —  Commenced on May 29 and ending last week, Operation Alljah was the latest and most successful bid to achieve security in the former insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, marrying projection of force with aggressive civil affairs outreach.

F.B.I. Data Mining Reached Beyond Initial Targets  —  The F.B.I. cast a much wider net in its terrorism investigations than it has previously acknowledged by relying on telecommunications companies to analyze phone-call and e-mail patterns of the associates of Americans who had come under suspicion …

Iran Must Pay $2.6 Billion for '83 Attack  —  A federal judge yesterday ordered Iran to pay more than $2.6 billion to nearly 1,000 family members and a handful of survivors of a 1983 bombing of a Marine barracks in Lebanon that killed 241 soldiers.  The ruling brought cheers and tears …

Alex Jones Arrested  —  The leather-lunged, bull-horn wielding nutbar Twoofer king himself was arrested outside Fox News today for disrupting a Geraldo broadcast.  No - he didn't spit on them: … Fascism!  —  UPDATE: Here's some video from the event (wild and wooly!):  —  UPDATE II: The NWO released Jones!

The McCain Surge  —  It's bearing fruit in New Hampshire.  —  Concord, N.H.  —  Tempers flared as a horde of journalists jostled its way through the headquarters of Granite State Manufacturing last week.  "Where are you from?" demanded a cameraman with a shaved head toting an unwieldy television camera on his shoulder.

Bush Expected to Nominate Attorney General Next Week  —  Former Solicitor General Is Called a Leading Candidate  —  President Bush is expected to choose a replacement for Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales by the middle of next week, and former solicitor general Theodore B. Olson has emerged …