memeorandum: Looting Then And Now — I was interested to see Charles … (The Atlantic Online)

12:25 AM ET, September 9, 2007

Top Items:

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 …

Discussion: The Newshoggers, Don Surber, Talking Points Memo, Daily Kos, Instapundit.com and Riehl World View

Michael Abramowitz / Washington Post:

Bush Moves to Put Himself in a Position For Troop Drawdown — Reduced U.S. Presence in Iraq Is Hinted At — As he prepares to provide Congress and the nation a progress report on Iraq this week, President Bush has sought to reframe the domestic political battle over the war …

Discussion: Prairie Weather

New York Times:

Hiding Behind the General — The military commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, is to deliver a report to Congress on Monday that could be the most consequential testimony by a wartime commander in more than a generation. What the country desperately needs is an honest assessment of the war …

Discussion: The Mahablog and Prairie Weather

Associated Press:

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.

Discussion: The Democratic Daily and The American Street

Washington Post:

Wide Skepticism Ahead of Assessment — Poll Respondents Doubt Petraeus Will Give True Picture of Situation in Iraq — Most Americans think this week's report from Army Gen. David H. Petraeus will exaggerate progress in Iraq, and few expect it to result in a major shift in President Bush's policy.

Carpetbagger / The Carpetbagger Report:

Thompson explains the Anbar Awakening — Earlier this week, former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said it's not too late for Fred Thompson to compete for the GOP nomination, but to make up for lost time, the former senator must demonstrate "a command over policy issues."

Discussion: Obsidian Wings, The New Republic, Group News Blog and Associated Press

Susan Saulny / New York Times: Thompson, Hitting Trail, Gets the Candidate Treatment

Kathryn Jean Lopez / The Corner:
The Field So Far — Now that Fred Thompson is officially in the race …

Discussion: The Atlantic Online and Daily Pundit

Matt / Think Progress:

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 …

Discussion: The Detroit Times, Political Vindication, Middle Earth Journal, Talking Points Memo, Booman Tribune, Wake up America, At-Largely, Time, Seeing the Forest, IMAO, Hot Air, NO QUARTER and The Van Der Galiën Gazette

Chris Cillizza / The Fix:

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.

Discussion: The Washington Note, Senate 2008 Guru and Power Line

David M. Herszenhorn / New York Times:
Hagel to Retire at End of Term, Aides Say

Discussion: MoJoBlog, The Newshoggers and CNN Political Ticker

Jake Thompson / Omaha World-Herald:
Hagel is calling it quits

New York Times:

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.

Discussion: BLACKFIVE, Corrente, Prairie Weather, Unqualified Offerings, The Reaction and Hullabaloo

San Francisco Chronicle:

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 …

Discussion: NY Daily News, The Belmont Club, Wall Street Journal and Gateway Pundit

Eric Lichtblau / New York Times:

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 …

Discussion: Firedoglake, The Next Hurrah, The American Street, Prairie Weather and JustOneMinute

George Packer / New Yorker:

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.

Discussion: DownWithTyranny!, Wake up America, bustardblog, Liberty Street, RADAMISTO, The Atlantic Online and Talking Points Memo

Kim Gamel / Associated Press:
Bomber in Baghdad's Sadr City kills 15

Discussion: The Newshoggers, Captain's Quarters, Sweetness & Light and The Van Der Galiën Gazette

Huffington Post:

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 …

Bill / INDCJournal:

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.

Discussion: Hot Air, The Jawa Report and BLACKFIVE

Glenn Kessler / Washington Post:

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 …

Discussion: Captain's Quarters and Blue Crab Boulevard

Good Lt / The Jawa Report:

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!

Discussion: Hot Air