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Banned
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It is late, so I'm just going to respond to ace's first point:
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The conditions in Iraq have improved, no longer an issue?
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ace, IMO, Iraq is a failed state, a meat grinder and a money grinder. The "meat" is the lives and limbs of US soldiers and innocent Iraqi civilians, and the "money" is all borrowed from our children and grandchildren, to the "tune"of at least $10 billion a month. Are you aware of any of the following news?
GUESS WHERE THE IRAQI PARLIAMENT HAS BEEN SINCE LATE LAST FRIDAY, DEC. 7TH?
Please read on:
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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/25/wa.../25policy.html
U.S. Scales Back Political Goals for Iraqi Unity
By STEVEN LEE MYERS and ALISSA J. RUBIN
Published: November 25, 2007
WASHINGTON, Nov. 24 — With American military successes outpacing political gains in Iraq, the Bush administration has lowered its expectation of quickly achieving major steps toward unifying the country, including passage of a long-stymied plan to share oil revenues and holding regional elections.
...Bush administration officials have not abandoned their larger goals and emphasize the importance of reaching them eventually. They say that even modest steps, taken soon, could set the stage for more progress, in the same manner that this year’s troop “surge” opened the way, unexpectedly, for drawing Sunni tribesmen to the American side.
A senior official said the administration was intensifying its pressure on the Iraqi government to produce some concrete signs of political progress. ...
....The White House has been elated by the drop in violence since the increase in American forces, now 162,000 troops. Public comments by President Bush and his aides, though, have been muted, reflecting frustration at the lack of political progress, a continuation of a pattern in which intense American efforts to promote broader reconciliation have proved largely fruitless.
There have been signs that American influence over Iraqi politics is dwindling after the recent improvements in security — which remain incomplete, as shown by a deadly bombing Friday in Baghdad. While Bush officials once said they aimed to secure “reconciliation” among Iraq’s deeply divided religious, ethnic and sectarian groups, some officials now refer to their goal as “accommodation.”...
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...120602548.html <br>U.S. Plans to Form Job Corps For Iraqi Security Volunteers
Shiite-Led Government's Slow Hiring of Sunnis Prompted Change
By Karen DeYoung and Amit R. Paley
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, December 7, 2007; Page A25
BAGHDAD -- The U.S. military plans to establish a civilian jobs corps to absorb tens of thousands of mostly Sunni security volunteers whom Iraq's Shiite-dominated government has balked at hiring into local police forces.
The new jobs program marks a sharp departure from one of the most highly touted goals of the so-called Sunni awakening, which was to funnel the U.S.-paid volunteers, many of them former insurgents, into Iraq's police and military.
President Bush and Gen. David H. Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, have said the volunteers have played a major role in the recent downturn in violence and would provide a key element of local security as U.S. forces draw down. Plans to reconfigure the program raise new questions about the permanence of security and political structures the United States has sought to impose on Iraq.
The Bush administration has described the hiring of the volunteers by police forces as proof that Iraqis are beginning to reconcile sectarian differences. Yet the government here has shown only grudging interest in the program, despite constant U.S. pressure.
So far the Iraqi government has approved police jobs for only 1,738 members of what the United States calls the Concerned Local Citizens program, or CLC. Of a total 60,321 registered volunteers, about 51,190 are currently on short-term U.S. contracts that pay an average of $300 a month, officials said. The program has spread beyond Anbar province, and officials said new recruits appear daily in Baghdad and the central and northern parts of the country.
The Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has lagged in hiring the volunteers, more than three-quarters of whom are Sunnis. Sectarian concerns are "still an obstacle. I won't lie to you about that," said Col. Martin Stanton, who tracks the program for Petraeus's command. "They're deeply suspicious of any organized group of Sunnis," Stanton said of the government....
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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...ck=4&cset=true
Iraq's bid to pass bills dead for year <h3>Parliament suspends its session</h3>, but may extend it into January to take up legislation deemed crucial by the U.S.
From the Associated Press
December 7, 2007
BAGHDAD -- Iraqi legislators suspended parliamentary sessions Thursday until Dec. 30 because of Muslim religious holidays, ending efforts to pass U.S.-backed legislation aimed at achieving national reconciliation this year.
The Sunni speaker of parliament announced the decision after days of debate over a draft bill that would allow thousands of former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party to return to government jobs. The measure is among the 18 benchmarks set by the United States to encourage reconciliation.
Speaker Mahmoud Mashhadani said many lawmakers would be making the pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, which culminates with Eid al-Adha, or the feast of sacrifice. Others were expected to leave the capital to spend the festival with their families elsewhere in Iraq or abroad. The holiday begins around Dec. 20.
Dec. 30 is one day before the end of the current term for parliament. Lawmakers normally would take a recess for two months at that time, but they were expected to extend the term by a month so they could meet in January to pass a budget and other important measures, a senior U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject....
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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...ck=1&cset=true <br>Iraq calmer, but more divided
The U.S. troop buildup has brought down violence, but that has failed to spark cooperation among politicians. If anything, the country appears more balkanized into ethnic and sectarian enclaves.
By Ned Parker, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
December 10, 2007
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'Kay....one more:
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Democratic leaders knew about CIA extreme questioning techniques, no longer an issue?
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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/10/wa...in&oref=slogin
C.I.A. Official in Inquiry Called a ‘Hero’
By MARK MAZZETTI
Published: December 10, 2007
.....New details emerged Sunday about when members of Congress were first told specifics about the program. The Washington Post reported that top lawmakers had raised no objections during a September 2002 briefing about some of the techniques C.I.A. operatives were using to get information from Al Qaeda detainees — including waterboarding, a procedure that causes a feeling of suffocation and drowning.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, among the lawmakers who attended the briefing, issued a statement on Sunday saying that she eventually did protest the techniques and that she concurred with objections raised by a Democratic colleague in a letter to the C.I.A. in early 2003. ....
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...801664_pf.html
Hill Briefed on Waterboarding in 2002
In Meetings, Spy Panels' Chiefs Did Not Protest, Officials Say
By Joby Warrick and Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, December 9, 2007; A01
.......Graham said he has no memory of ever being told about waterboarding or other harsh tactics. Graham left the Senate intelligence committee in January 2003, and was replaced by Rockefeller. "Personally, I was unaware of it, so I couldn't object," Graham said in an interview. He said he now believes the techniques constituted torture and were illegal.
Pelosi declined to comment directly on her reaction to the classified briefings. But a congressional source familiar with Pelosi's position on the matter said the California lawmaker did recall discussions about enhanced interrogation. The source said Pelosi recalls that techniques described by the CIA were still in the planning stage -- they had been designed and cleared with agency lawyers but not yet put in practice -- and acknowledged that Pelosi did not raise objections at the time.
Harman, who replaced Pelosi as the committee's top Democrat in January 2003, disclosed Friday that she filed a classified letter to the CIA in February of that year as an official protest about the interrogation program. Harman said she had been prevented from publicly discussing the letter or the CIA's program because of strict rules of secrecy........
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Last edited by host; 12-11-2007 at 12:34 AM..
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