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Beirut To Tehran
• Jim LobeThe ongoing hostilities are part of a broader offensive being waged by Tehran against Washington across the region.
Contents Pages by Subject
WAR: About that War
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Pakistani given 30 years in New York al Qaeda case
• ReutersLittle evidence of the suspected plot was presented at the trial, and the judge noted that FBI questioning revealed Paracha did not know details of any planned attack. "You are a very intelligent and particularly educated young man," the
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Warhawk Congressman's grim assessment of Iraq
• Detroit Free PressCongressman Gil Gutknecht (R-MN) found the situation in Iraq more bleak than he anticipated during a weekend visit to the war zone, and said a partial withdrawal of some American troops might be wise.
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Iraq civilian dead hits 3,000 a month
• APNearly 6,000 civilians were slain across Iraq in May and June, a spike in deaths that coincided with rising sectarian attacks across the country, the United Nations said. Describes a wave of lawlessness and crime, including assassinations, bombings,
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Rice: Cease fire won't help
• HaaretzThe United States government continued yesterday to monitor developments in Lebanon, but the only practical measure it took was sending a task force to Beirut to plan the evacuation of U.S. nationals should that become necessary. Regarding the war
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Military leaders see withdrawal from Iraq around 2016
• Washington Times[Coinciding with the end of the Democratic President's second term.] U.S. war commanders think some level of American forces will be needed in Iraq until 2016 and those forces will receive continued support from the vast majority of Iraqis.
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Suicide bomber in Iraq kills 59
• ReutersA suicide bomber pulled his van into a busy market, lured labourers with job offers and blew himself up, killing scores in one of the worst attacks in Iraq since the new government was installed in April. The blast in the Shi'ite city of Kufa
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Iran's Hizbollah says ready to attack US, Israel
• ReutersIran's Hizbollah, which claims links to the Lebanese group of the same name, said it stood ready to attack Israeli and U.S. interests worldwide. "We have 2,000 volunteers who have registered since last year," said Iranian Hizbollah**Q*
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(Neo-?) Conservative Anger Grows Over Bush's Foreign Policy
• Washington PostAt a moment when his conservative coalition is already under strain over domestic policy, President Bush is facing a new and swiftly building backlash on the right over his handling of foreign affairs.[ Smells like neocons to me.]
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Agent: FBI first sought Padilla’s assistance
• APThe FBI initially sought terrorism suspect Jose Padilla’s cooperation to help prevent what intelligence sources indicated might be an imminent al-Qaida attack, an FBI agent testified. Padilla refused and was later implicated in an alleged radioactive
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‘Closer to the beginning’ in Iraq war
• APThe Army’s top uniformed officer said he did not think the US was losing the war in Iraq but declined to say the nation was winning. Americans should brace for a long fight against terrorism, said Gen. Peter Schoomaker, the Army’s chief of staff.
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Rice Says Israel May Need to Prolong Offensive
• NY TimesIsrael may need to prolong its offensive in Lebanon to further reduce the threat from Hezbollah, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said today, as some Democrats called on her to travel to the region immediately to help defuse the crisis. Ms. Ric
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Afghaistan returns to religious police
• The IndependentThe Afghan government has alarmed human rights groups by approving a plan to reintroduce a Department for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the body which the Taliban used to enforce its extreme religious doctrine.
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Corruption Cited in Iraq's Oil Industry
• Washington PostU.S. Comptroller General David M. Walker told Congress last week that "massive corruption" and "a lot of theft going on" in Iraq's government-controlled oil industry is hampering the country's ability to govern itself.
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Gunmen kill over 50 in raid on town near Baghdad
• ReutersGunmen killed over 50 people in an attack around a crowded market in a violent town near Baghdad, one of the bloodiest incidents in Iraq this year. Local officials and residents in Mahmudiya, as well as the U.S. military whose troops were later on
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Let's face it, it's WWIII, Gingrich says
• Seattle TimesFormer U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich says America is in World War III and President Bush should say so. Gingrich said that Bush should call a joint session of Congress and talk about global military conflicts in much starker terms than have been h
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British close to being overrun in Afghanistan
• BBC NewsBritish forces in Afghanistan have defended their decision to call in US planes to drop 500lb bombs on a town. They had been under constant attack for the past 2 weeks and the Taleban fighters were close to overrunning the base when the US air
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Baghdad starts to collapse as its people flee a life of death
• London TimesAs I hung up the phone, I wondered if I would ever see my friend Ali alive again. Ali, The Times translator for the past three years, lives in west Baghdad, an area that is now in meltdown as a bitter civil war rages between Sunni insurgents and Shia
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Iran Calls Western Incentives Acceptable
• APIran said that Western incentives to halt its nuclear program were an "acceptable basis" for talks, and it is ready for detailed negotiations. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice responded that Iran should talk directly to negotiators if
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Civil War in Bush's Iraq prevent troops coming home by election
• AFPUnited States' hopes of bringing troops home from Iraq in significant numbers this year appear dimmer than ever now that Baghdad is in the throes of a new wave of sectarian violence. Death squad massacres, bombings and attacks on both sides
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Options for U.S. Limited As 3 Mideast Crises Spread
• Washington PostIsrael has sent troops into Gaza and Lebanon over 3 captured soldiers. The US and its allies set a collision course with Iran over its nuclear program. And there is mounting concern that Iraq's sectarian violence is crossing into a full civil war
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Will US military treat detainees differently now?
• Christian Science MonitorIn the Pentagon memo that officially extended the protections of the Geneva Conventions to detainees in the war on terror included this: "... existing orders, policies, directives, executive orders, and doctrine comply with the standards,"
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Iran threatens to quit nonproliferation treaty
• AFPIranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has warned that Tehran could halt UN inspections and quit the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty if subjected to increased pressure over its disputed nuclear programme.
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GAO find the road to victory in Iraq foggy
• AFPThe investigative arm of the US Congress has openly questioned if victory in Iraq can be achieved without a significant overhaul of President George W. Bush's strategy, arguing the outcome of the war was presently "unclear".
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Bush Admin. rejects war tribunals for terrorists as too lenient
• LA TimesBush administration lawyers today rejected congressional suggestions to try alleged Al Qaeda and Taliban war criminals in the U.S. military justice system, saying military courts provide protections for defendants that are unwarranted in the war on t
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House GOP Favors New Detainee Legislation
• APSiding with the White House, top Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee said they favor writing into law the special military trials for suspected terrorists that the Supreme Court rejected. Bush administration officials urged Congress to
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Last chance to avert civil war in Iraq
• ReutersDonald Rumsfeld met Iraq's government after his top general in the country told him Shi'ite "death squads" were fuelling a surge in communal bloodshed. The Iraq Prime Minister told lawmakers Iraq had one "last chance" to a
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US complies with Guantánamo detainees Geneva Convention Rights
• AFPThe Pentagon pledged to respect the rights of "war on terror" suspects, as the US Senate began looking into new ways to prosecute detainees at its Guantanamo Bay detention center. A reversal of the Bush administration's long-held stance
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Guantanamo prisoners won't be moved to US: White House
• ReutersPrisoners from Guantanamo Bay will not be moved to U.S. soil or tried in civilian courts and are in a "holding pattern" after a Supreme Court ruling against a military tribunal system, the White House said. The Bush administration is try
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Curious timing of the NYC tunnel terrorism story
• Rolling StoneBegging the question, ‘Why did we just hear about this yesterday?’, ABC’s blog, The Blotter reports that the alleged ringleader Assem Hammoud, a.k.a. Amir Andalousi, has been in captivity for nearly three months:
