In the News: Aug-22

Proposed FBI guidelines allow investigation sans suspicion - August 22, 2008 12:18:00 PM - A group of Senators are questioning proposed FBI guidelines that could permit investigation of citizens without individualized suspicion.

French premier proposes vote on Afghanistan troops - 22 Aug 2008 at 2:25pm - France's prime minister wants parliament to vote on whether to keep French forces in Afghanistan, his office said Friday, as a new poll showed most of his compatriots want the troops pulled out after 10 died in a vicious ambush. The legislature, dominated by President Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative party, is nearly certain to approve a continuation of the French presence in Afghanistan.

Lawyers: 2 Marines won't testify in Fallujah case - 22 Aug 2008 at 1:57pm - A judge found two Marines in contempt of court for refusing to testify against a former squad leader accused of killing unarmed detainees in Iraq. U.S. District Judge Stephen Larson rejected a plea Friday by a federal prosecutor to jail Sgt. Ryan Weemer and Sgt. Jermaine Nelson, but did order them to return to court in 30 days to begin proceedings on the contempt charges.

U.S.: 30 militants killed in Afghan clash - 22 Aug 2008 at 1:47pm - U.S.-led troops attacked a compound where Taliban leaders were meeting in western Afghanistan, killing 30 militants, American and Afghan military officials said Friday. The coalition was striking back against insurgents opposed to the Western-backed government of President Hamid Karzai who have stepped up attacks on foreign and Afghan troops.

U.S.-led coalition kills 76 Afghan civilians: ministry - 22 Aug 2008 at 12:41pm - KABUL (Reuters) - U.S.-led coalition forces killed 76 Afghan civilians in western Afghanistan on Friday, most of them women and children, the Afghan Interior Ministry said.

Sadrists denounce emerging U.S.-Iraq deal - 22 Aug 2008 at 10:21am - Several thousand supporters of anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr protested Friday against an emerging U.S.-Iraqi security agreement, saying it would turn Iraq into a U.S. colony. The march in the southern city of Kufa came a day after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad to discuss the deal, which includes a gradual withdrawal of U.S. forces.

US troops to pull out of Iraq by 2011: negotiator - 22 Aug 2008 at 7:23am - Negotiators have finalised a deal which will see the complete withdrawal of US troops from Iraq by 2011, ending an eight-year occupation, the top Iraqi heading the team said.

How can this ever work, if we don't know now what conditions on the ground will be in 2011?

Thought for the day:
When I'm working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I think only how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong. -R. Buckminster Fuller (1895 - 1983)