This an Open Thread: Speak
Category: News
Oct 26 2007
Docudharma Times Friday Oct. 26
Oct 25 2007
Docudharma Times Thursday Oct. 25
This is an Open Thread: Can We Talk?
USA
New Steps by U.S. Against Iranians
By HELENE COOPER
Published: October 25, 2007WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 – The Bush administration will announce a long-debated policy of new sanctions against Iran on Thursday, accusing the elite Quds division of the Revolutionary Guard Corps of supporting terrorism, administration officials said Wednesday night.
The administration also plans to accuse the entire Revolutionary Guard Corps of proliferating weapons of mass destruction, the officials said. While the United States has long labeled Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism, the decision to single out the Guard reflects increased frustration in the administration with the slow pace of diplomatic negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program.
Then There Is This
Buried in the $196.4 billion supplemental war spending proposal that Bush submitted to Congress on Oct. 22 is a request for $88 million to modify B-2 bombers so they can drop a Massive Ordnance Penetrator
the bombs came in response to “an urgent operational need from theater commanders.” […]
Previous statements by the Defense Department and the program’s contractors, along with interviews with military experts, suggest the weapon is meant for the kind of hardened targets found chiefly in Iran.
Oct 24 2007
The Morning News
The Morning News is an Open Thread
From Yahoo News Top Stories
1 US boosts oversight for Iraq contractors
By MATTHEW LEE and ANNE GEARAN, Associated Press Writers
14 minutes ago
| WASHINGTON – Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday ordered new measures to improve government oversight of private guards who protect U.S. diplomats in Iraq, including tighter rules of engagement and a board to investigate any future killings.
The steps, recommended by an independent review panel she created after last month’s deadly Baghdad shooting involving Blackwater USA, would also require contractors to undergo training intended to make them more sensitive to Iraqi culture and language. The changes to rules of engagement would bring the State Department closer to military rules. |
Oct 23 2007
Docudharma Times Tuesday Oct. 23
This is an Open Thread. Let’s Talk.
Editorial
Even Closer to the Brink
Published: October 23, 2007The news out of Iraq just keeps getting worse. Now Turkey is threatening to send troops across the border to wipe out Kurdish rebel bases, after guerrillas killed at least a dozen Turkish soldiers. This latest crisis should have come as no surprise. But it is one more widely predicted problem the Bush administration failed to plan for before its misguided invasion – and one more problem it urgently needs to deal with as part of a swift and orderly exit from Iraq.
Turkey’s anger is understandable. Guerrillas from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or P.K.K., have been striking from bases in Iraqi Kurdistan with growing impunity and effect, using plastic explosives, mines and arms that are far too readily accessible in Iraq. The death toll for Turkish military forces is mounting.
Oct 22 2007
Docudharma Times Monday Oct.22
This is an Open Thread. Commence Talking
News Happening Now
2 U.S. Sailors Shot to Death in Bahrain
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: October 22, 2007
Filed at 5:30 a.m. ET
MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — Two U.S. Navy sailors were killed and a third was critically wounded early Monday in a shooting incident on a U.S. military base in Bahrain, the U.S. Navy said.
The incident was not terror related and was under investigation, a Navy official said on condition of anonymity as they weren’t authorized to discuss the case with the media. No other details were immediately available.
The shootings took place in the barracks on the U.S. Naval Support Activity Bahrain base around 5 a.m. local time, the Navy said in a statement. It wasn’t immediately clear what triggered the shootings.
Oct 20 2007
Docudharma Times Saturday Oct. 20
This is an Open Thread. So start Yakking.
USA
Sheriff’s Fight With Paper Flares Up Again
By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA
Published: October 20, 2007
A long-running dispute between a weekly newspaper in Phoenix and law enforcement officials took a series of sharp turns over the last two days, including the arrest of the newspaper owners, followed by the dismissal of charges against them and an investigation into their paper.
For years, prosecutors in Maricopa County weighed whether to take the rare step of charging the leaders of the paper, The Phoenix New Times, with a crime for publishing an article with the home address of Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County. This week, that conflict abruptly escalated.
On Thursday, the newspaper accused the authorities of abuses of power in their investigation into The New Times, reporting that a prosecutor had obtained a subpoena for the Internet browsing records on thousands of its readers.
Oct 19 2007
Docudharma Times Friday Oct. 19
USA
Senators Clash With Nominee About Torture
By PHILIP SHENON
Published: October 19, 2007
WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 – President Bush’s nominee for attorney general, Michael B. Mukasey, declined Thursday to say if he considered harsh interrogation techniques like waterboarding, which simulates drowning, to constitute torture or to be illegal if used on terrorism suspects.On the second day of confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Mr. Mukasey went further than he had the day before in arguing that the White House had constitutional authority to act beyond the limits of laws enacted by Congress, especially when it came to national defense.
Oct 18 2007
Docudharma Times Thursday Oct. 18
This is an Open Thread
From President Bush’s Press Conference yesterday
Newsweek’s Richard Wolffe asked Bush exactly the question I would have asked:
Dan Froomkin Washington Post
“QUESTION: Thank you, sir. A simple question.
“BUSH: Yes?
“QUESTION: What’s your definition of —
“BUSH: It may require a simple answer.
“(LAUGHTER)
“QUESTION: What’s your definition of the word torture?
“BUSH: Of what?
“QUESTION: The word torture, what’s your definition?
“BUSH: That’s defined in U.S. law, and we don’t torture
Oct 17 2007
The Morning News
The Morning News is an Open Thread.
From Yahoo News Top Stories
1 Iraq drawdown to begin in volatile area
By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer
45 minutes ago
| WASHINGTON – Commanders in Iraq have decided to begin the drawdown of U.S. forces in volatile Diyala province, marking a turning point in the U.S. military mission, The Associated Press has learned.
Instead of replacing the 3rd Brigade of the 1st Cavalry Division, which is returning to its home base at Fort Hood, Texas, in December, soldiers from another brigade in Salahuddin province next door will expand into Diyala, thereby broadening its area of responsibility, several officials said Tuesday. In this way, the number of Army ground combat brigades in Iraq will fall from 20 to 19. This reflects President Bush’s bid to begin reducing the American military force and shifting its role away from fighting the insurgency toward more support functions like training and advising Iraqi security forces. |
