Allow me to just rant line by line about this AP story to be found here The Democratic-controlled Senate Foreign Relations Committee dismissed President Bush’s plans to increase troops strength in Iraq on Wednesday as “not in the national interest,” … Continue reading →

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6289891.stm About 600 fighters and 16 leaders of the radical Shia militia, the Mehdi Army, have been captured by security forces in Iraq, the US military says. This is essentially an update to a previous post… which puts even more … Continue reading →

“Al-Maliki realized he couldn’t keep defending the Mahdi Army because of the information and evidence that the armed group was taking part in the killings, displacing people and violating the state’s sovereignty,” said one official. Both he and a second government official who confirmed the account refused to be identified by name because the information was confidential. Both officials are intimately aware of the prime minister’s thinking.

“The Americans don’t act on rumors but on accurate intelligence. There are many intelligence agencies acting on the ground, and they know what’s going on,” said the second official, confirming the Americans had given al-Maliki overwhelming evidence about the Mahdi Army’s deep involvement in the sectarian slaughter. Continue reading →