5
POPSWhat Phase Two Senate Intelligence Report Says About Saddam's Hospitality Postwar information supports prewar assessments and statements that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was in Baghdad and that al Qaeda was present in northern Iraq. But now, even in a partisan report designed to attack the Bush administration's credibility, the Senate Intelligence Committee has admitted that Bush and his officials were right to argue that Saddam was harboring al Qaeda fugitives. Both prewar and postwar intelligence assessments confirm their view. And while the Senate Intelligence Committee got this issue right, it got many others wrong. The report is not even internally consistent and the committee simply ignored numerous pieces of information that got in the way of some of its conclusions. Iraq and al Qaeda did not have a cooperative relationship. ommittee ignored the best evidence-Iraqi intelligence documents discovered in postwar Iraq.
3
POPSWhittling Away At Shia Cleric Moqtada al-Sadr
(continued) Al-Qaida in Iraq tried to ignite a sectarian war -- its now-dead emir, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, made that goal explicit in February 2004. Al-Qaida massacred en masse, to the point that U.S. Sen. Harry Reid (D for Defeatist) declared the war in Iraq lost. Then, the Sunni tribes in Anbar turned on al-Qaida. Sunni political integration is by no means complete, but al-Qaida has failed. In August 2004, Sadr's thugs grabbed the Grand Mosque in Najaf. Sadr was counting on Americans to bomb the mosque. The United States opted to follow the political lead of Shia Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. Sistani's aides told coalition officers: "Let us deal with Sadr. We know how to handle him and will do so. However, the coalition must not make him a martyr." Think of the Iraqi anti-Sadr method as a form of suffocation, a political war waged with the blessing of Ayatollah Sistani that requires daily economic and political action, persistent police efforts and occasional military thrusts.
5
POPSStrategic Insight Discovered In Zarqawi Baghdad Map The troop surge was announced Jan. 10 and began soon after that. Gens. David Petraeus and Raymond Odierno took a risky but calculated move to send U.S. troops out of main base camps and set up small patrol stations that were jointly manned with Iraqi forces, essentially living among Iraqis in Baghdad. It made it easier for intelligence to surface but made U.S. troops easier targets.
3
POPSIraq Coalition Casualty Count This is the best compilation I've seen yet. It shows casualties - US UK, coalition forces. It also shows the number of wounded as well as the number of Iraqi civilian casualties.
3
POPSHatred of U.S. drives al-Qaida recruiting From the article: "In Zarqa, Jordan — home of the late leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi — one member of the group, a 19-year-old high school dropout, told NBC News earlier this year that he was ready to carry out suicide bombings in Iraq — or anywhere else he was ordered to. He, like many others in the Middle East, cannot look away from the powerful images of destruction to which many Americans have become desensitized. Indeed, they say they do not want to look away from what is happening to their neighbors, their fellow Arabs and Muslims."
2
POPSCAIR and Hamas connections I'm not sure if I caught it here, but at LGF you can click on the graph to get a live version where you can drag the nodes around and manipulate it to see the links.
4
POPSThere he goes again . . . If Cheney has access to something that is not reported by our intelligence community, then PRODUCE it. The American people deserve to know the truth.
8
POPSRepublicans in Congress: don't mention the surge An internal strategy memo from Congressional Republicans lays it out with startling clarity: "Democrats want to force us to focus on defending the surge, making the case that it will work... If we let the Democrats force us into a debate on the surge, or the current situation in Iraq, we lose." As always, they advise, just keep repeating "9-11, 9-11, 9-11" until people agree with you.
2
POPSBitter Lemons - Palestinian-Israeli Crossfire A website that presents Israeli and Palestinian viewpoints on prominent issues of concern. It focuses on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and peace process. Each edition addresses a specific issue of controversy.
2
Pops
Newest Clips
Latest Comments
Most Pops
Print
Save
Turn on live update