Winning Hearts and Minds

IRAQ: Khitam Bahir, Iraq, “I no longer recognise my insurgent son” - Thursday, September 27, 2007 06:27:00 PM - BAGHDAD, 27 September 2007 (IRIN) - I no longer recognise my son since he turned into an insurgent. He used to be a very popular, easy-going and modern person but now he has changed completely. He has decided to fight US-troops, even if he is killed.

Mission accomplished?

White House May Alter Intel Oversight Procedure - 27 Sep 2007 at 12:36pm - The Intelligence Oversight Board is the principal civilian watchdog of the CIA, FBI and other intelligence agencies. President Bush is likely to sign an executive order by the end of 2007 that will fundamentally change the way the group does its job, leading it to farm out the bulk of its responsibilities.

Roots of Iraq weapon probes date to 2004 - 27 Sep 2007 at 2:02pm - WASHINGTON -- As President Bush and Democratic challenger Sen. John Kerry clashed in late 2004 over the direction of the Iraq war, a rising Army star joined the debate. Then-Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, head of a new command overseeing the training and equipping of Iraq's security forces, said headway was being made. Tens of thousands of rifles, pistols, body armor, vehicles, and radios, along with millions of ammunition rounds, had been delivered to Iraqis over a three-month period, he wrote in a commentary for The Washington Post six weeks before the presidential election. The weapons and countless pieces of other gear, paid for with tens of millions of U.S. tax dollars, were indeed flowing - but as it turns out, not always to the right places or into the right hands.

Blackwater blamed for guard deaths - 27 Sep 2007 at 2:21pm - WASHINGTON -- Blackwater USA triggered a major battle in the Iraq war by sending an unprepared team of security guards into an insurgent stronghold, a move that led to their horrific deaths and a violent response by U.S. forces, according to a congressional investigation released Thursday.

Troop: I Was Ordered To Kill Unarmed Iraqi - 27 Sep 2007 at 2:40pm - In damning testimony, a U.S. soldier told a court-martial he was ordered by his staff sergeant to shoot an unarmed Iraqi man and that the sergeant then laughed and told the trooper to finish the job as the dying man convulsed on the ground.

Thought for the day:
In politics, absurdity is not a handicap. -Napoleon Bonaparte (1769 - 1821)