Military Plays Up Role of ZarqawiThe U.S. military is conducting a propaganda campaign to magnify the role of the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, according to internal military documents and officers familiar with the program. The effort has raised his profile in a way that some military intelligence officials believe may have overstated his importance and helped the Bush administration tie the war to the organization responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The documents state that the U.S. campaign aims to turn... (more)
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Iran shoots down spy plane from IraqIran said on Sunday that it shot down an unmanned spy plane from Iraq in the south of the country.
“This plane had lifted off from Iraq and was busy filming the border regions”, the semi-official daily Jomhouri Islami wrote.
The plane’s structural markings and systems have given officials “information”, the report added, without elaborating.
There have been reports that the United States has been secretly sending unmanned... (more)
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US dismisses Iran attack claimsThe US has rejected suggestions that it might be preparing to use nuclear weapons against targets in Iran.
A report in The New Yorker magazine said the US was increasing planning for a possible air attack on Iranian nuclear facilities.
It said one option being considered was a tactical nuclear strike against underground nuclear sites.
Dan Bartlett, a senior adviser to President George W Bush, said the report was "ill-informed".
Those wh... (more)
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Chirac to scrap employment lawThe French government today bowed to weeks of protests and announced it was scrapping a controversial employment law that made it easier for employers to fire workers under the age of 26.
In the wake of the biggest street demonstrations for almost 40 years, the office of the president, Jacques Chirac, said a new plan focusing on youths from troubled backgrounds would replace the "first job contract".
"The president of the republic has decided to replace article 8 of... (more)
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THE IRAN PLANS: Would President Bush go to war to stop Tehran from getting the bomb?The Bush Administration, while publicly advocating diplomacy in order to stop Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapon, has increased clandestine activities inside Iran and intensified planning for a possible major air attack. Current and former American military and intelligence officials said that Air Force planning groups are drawing up lists of targets, and teams of American combat troops have been ordered into Iran, under cover, to collect targeting data and to establish contact with anti-govern... (more)
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Bush 'is planning nuclear strikes on Iran's secret sites'The Bush administration is planning to use nuclear weapons against Iran, to prevent it acquiring its own atomic warheads, claims an investigative writer with high-level Pentagon and intelligence contacts.
President George W Bush is said to be so alarmed by the threat of Iran's hard-line leader, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, that privately he refers to him as "the new Hitler", says Seymour Hersh, who broke the story of the Abu Ghraib Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal.
Some US mili... (more)
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Mag: U.S. considers nuking IranAccording to a New Yorker article written by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, the Bush Administration "has increased clandestine activities inside Iran and intensified planning for a possible major air attack."
Hersh also reports that officers from the Joint Chiefs of Staff have "talked about resigning" because of all the "attention given to the nuclear option."
Excerpts from Hersh's article "The Iran Plans":
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The Bush Administration, w... (more)
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Violence Marks Baghdad's 'Freedom Day'(CBS/AP) Six bombs exploded in Baghdad and central Iraq on Sunday, three years after the Iraqi capital fell to U.S. forces. Iraq police and soldiers bolstered security in Baghdad to prevent more attacks on "Freedom Day."
The holiday marks the anniversary of the April 9, 2003 event in which a huge crowd of Iraqis cheered as U.S. Marines hauled down the statue of Saddam Hussein on Firdous Square, marking the collapse of his regime.
The roadside bombings and a blast on... (more)
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Saudi prince vows stable suppliesSaudi Crown Prince Abdallah Bin-Abd-al-Aziz Thursday promised a stable oil supply amid rising prices and fears of a supply disruption.
Riyadh will continue to be a stable supplier to attract greater investment from Japan, he said during a visit to Japan, according to the Kyodo news agency. A Japanese trade ministry official said Abdallah promised Toshihiro Nikai, Japan's Economy, Trade and Industry minister, the Saudi Arabia would also contribute to the stabilization of oil prices... (more)
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The Mexican solutionThe Congress has received lots of free advice lately from Mexican government officials and illegal aliens waving Mexico's flag in mass demonstrations coast-to-coast. Most of it takes the form of bitter complaints about our actual or prospective treatment of immigrants from that country who have gotten into this one illegally -- or who aspire to do so.
If you think these critics are mad about U.S. immigration policy now, imagine how upset they would be if we adopted an approach... (more)
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Russia Assures U.S. No Warning Given to Saddam on Plans to Attack IraqRussia has given the United States written assurance that it did not provide Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein with information on U.S. plans to invade Iraq in 2003, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said, the AFP news agency reported.
The chief U.S. diplomat, testifying before Congress, said that her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, had given her a Russian government letter at a meeting last week in Berlin of the five veto-wielding UN Security Council members on the issue of Iran&... (more)
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‘Two B-2s could take out Iran’s nuclear assets’WASHINGTON: Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions will be history by the time US President George W Bush leaves office, said a report published here.
Veteran foreign correspondent Arnaud de Borchgrave, writing for the United Press International, quotes a “prominent neo-con” with good White House and Department of Defence contacts, as the source of the assertion. Asked what would the US do if sanctions did not make Iran turn away from its nuclear target, the source rep... (more)
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A Civil War By Any Other NameDespite President Bush's repeated denials, the figures are clear: 900 sectarian killings in a single month in Iraq means a civil war is well under way. Iraq is a nation of 25 million people. In the United States, that level of killing would proportionately equal almost 11,000 people killed in riots, reprisal killings and sectarian clashes in a single month.
By comparison, the 30 years of sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland from 1968 to 1998 saw 3,600 people killed in a small po... (more)
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I will not be forced out by US and UK, says Iraqi PMIraq's embattled prime minister has defiantly refused to give up his claim to head the country's next government in spite of strong American and British pleas for an end to a deadlock which has paralysed the country for almost four months.
In an exclusive interview with The Guardian in Baghdad -- his first since United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw pleaded with him and his rivals for an immediate agreement to prevent a slide to... (more)
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Russian military stalls on reports Ukraine sold warheads to IranMOSCOW, April 3 (RIA Novosti) - The chief of Russia's General Staff said Monday he could neither confirm nor deny reports that Ukraine had sold 250 nuclear warheads to Iran.
"Russia's General Staff has no information about whether Ukraine has given 250 nuclear warheads to Iran or not," General Yury Baluyevsky, also deputy defense minister, said in response to an article in Novaya Gazeta newspaper Monday. "I do not comment on unsubstantiated reports."
The newspaper s... (more)
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Nuclear inspectors to visit IranUnited Nations nuclear inspectors will arrive in Iran on Friday to visit sites including the Natanz uranium enrichment plant, a top Iranian official has said.
Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Aliasghar Soltanieh, said the inspectors would mainly be looking at the Natanz site.
The UN Security Council last week gave Iran 30 days to suspend uranium enrichment or face isolation.
Tehran insists its nuclear work is peac... (more)
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