WASHINGTON - The latest draft of the new strategy for Iraq that President will Bush will lay out Wednesday calls for an increase of more than 20,000 troops, with most going to Baghdad and 4,000 to Anbar province, one senior official said Tuesday.

MORE THAN……what’s that mean? 20,001…..40,000? What’s more than?

The first wave of additional U.S. troops will go into Iraq before the end of the month under Bush’s revised plan, said the official, who requested anonymity because the plans have not yet been announced.

The plan also calls for responsibility for security for all the country’s provinces to be turned over to Iraqi forces by November, said another official, also speaking on condition of anonymity. Bush is due to unveil his plan in a speech Wednesday evening.

November of what year?

Moving first would be the 2nd Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, which is in Kuwait and poised to deploy quickly into Iraq.

With the new Democratic-led Congress flexing its muscles in opposition to the unpopular Iraq war, a leading Democratic senator proposed to block Bush from sending more troops to Iraq unless Congress specifically approves.

Read more at MSNBC

Ali al-Fadhily is our Baghdad correspondent. Dahr Jamail is our specialist writer who has spent eight months reporting from inside Iraq and has been covering the Middle East for several years. More writing, commentary, photography, pictures and images here.

FALLUJAH, Iraq, Jan 8 (IPS) - Ten-year-old Yassir aimed a plastic gun at a passing U.S. armoured patrol in Fallujah, and shouted “Bang! Bang!”

Yassir did not know what was coming. “I yelled for everyone to run, because the Americans were turning back,” 12-year-old Ahmed who was with Yassir told IPS.

The soldiers followed Yassir to his house and smashed almost everything in it. “They did this after beating Yassir and his uncle hard, and they spoke the nastiest words,” Ahmed said.

It is not just the children, or the people of Fallujah who are frightened.

“Those soldiers are terrified here,” Dr. Salim al-Dyni, a psychotherapist visiting Fallujah told IPS. Dr Dyni said he had seen professional reports of psychologically disturbed soldiers “while serving in hot areas, and Fallujah is the hottest and most terrifying for them.”

Dr. Dyni said disturbed soldiers were behind the worst atrocities. “Most murders committed by U.S. soldiers resulted from the soldiers’ fears.”

Local Iraqi police estimate that at least five attacks are being carried out against U.S. troops in Fallujah each day, and about as many against Iraqi government security forces. The city in the restive al-Anabar province to the west of Baghdad has been under some form of siege since April 2004.

That has meant punishment for the people. “American officers asked me a hundred times how the fighters obtain weapons,” a 35-year-old resident who was detained together with dozens of others during a U.S. military raid at their houses in the Muallimin Quarter last month told IPS

Continue reading at Global Research

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Elvin Bishop & Ronnie Baker Brooks
Just Jammin…..

Ronnie Baker Brooks is the son of Lonnie Brooks, and an huge talent. If you ever get the chance to see him…….do. And Elvin Bishop…..been around the block more than a few times and still great.

Instead, she said, statements that amounted to confessions from two Italians were so damaging they made it politically impossible for her to seek diplomatic immunity for her client.

All I can say about this is…… goodie goodie.

MILAN, Italy — A lawyer for a former CIA station chief accused of involvement in the alleged kidnapping of an Egyptian terror suspect withdrew from the case Tuesday, saying statements by Italian spymasters implicating U.S. agents had undermined her attempts to head off a criminal trial.

Daria Pesce, representing former Milan station chief Robert Seldon Lady, walked out of court as a judge began hearing arguments on whether to indict 26 Americans and five Italian intelligence officials on criminal charges.

A court opened hearings Tuesday into whether 26 Americans and five Italian secret service officials will be indicted for kidnapping an Egyptian cleric in Milan in 2003. Prosecutor Armando Spataro, who has led the investigation, requested the indictments last month in a case that highlights the CIA’s extraordinary rendition program in which terrorism suspects are transferred to third countries where some are allegedly tortured. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito, file) (Pier Paolo Cito - AP)

A trial would be the first criminal prosecution involving the CIA’s extraordinary rendition program, in which terror suspects are secretly transferred to third countries where critics say they may face torture.

No decision on indictments was made Tuesday and further hearings were set for Jan. 29 into mid-February.

“Robert Seldon Lady says that this case should have had a political solution and not a judicial solution,” Pesce said. “The Italian government could have decided it was a state secret _ remember, this was a terror suspect. It would have been possible if the Italian government had had the courage to reach an agreement with the U.S. government.”

Instead, she said, statements that amounted to confessions from two Italians were so damaging they made it politically impossible for her to seek diplomatic immunity for her client.

Read more at the Washington Post

By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 10, 2007; Page A03

In a lopsided vote that masked underlying divisions, House Democrats approved legislation yesterday to implement many of the remaining recommendations suggested by the Sept. 11 commission even as portions of the sprawling package faced immediate problems in the Senate.

Voting 299 to 128, congressional Democrats, backed by scores of Republicans, delivered on a key part of their “100 hours”agenda. The nearly 300-page anti-terrorism measure sets new mandates to scrutinize air- and ship-borne cargo, send more federal aid to areas at the greatest risk of terrorism, improve emergency communications, fight nuclear proliferation overseas and strengthen a civil liberties watchdog board.

But critics questioned the cost and feasibility of new cargo requirements — raising issues that helped stall action by the previous, Republican-controlled Congress — and industry and the Homeland Security Department added their opposition. The greatest skepticism focused on requirements in the House bill that airlines be able to physically inspect 100 percent of cargo put aboard passenger planes within three years and that shippers scan 100 percent of U.S.-bound cargo for radiation at overseas ports in five years.

The bill’s biggest detractor, or patron, could be Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.), who chairs the Senate’s homeland security panel, and who held his own hearing yesterday. He stopped short of promising — as House leaders had — to implement all remaining recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission.

Read more at the Washington Post

MOGADISHU, Somalia: Somali officials said Tuesday that more than 50 people were killed by American airstrikes on Sunday and that most were Islamist leaders fleeing in armed pick- up trucks across a remote stretch of the Kenya-Somalia border.

News of the attack immediately set off new waves of anti-American anger in Mogadishu, the Somalian capital, which has been devastated by years of war.

“They’re just trying to get revenge for what we did to them in 1993,” said Deeq Salad Mursel, a taxi driver, referring to the infamous “Black Hawk down” episode in which 18 American soldiers were killed by Somali gunmen.

President Bill Clinton abruptly curtailed a large American-led aid mission in the 1990s after the 18 soldiers were killed, sending Somalia into a spiral of chaos and bloodshed where much of the country still remains.

Last summer, American efforts to fund a band of warlords as a bulwark against a growing Islamist movement backfired when many Somalis learned of the hidden American hand and threw their support behind the Islamists.

Read more here
Related story: U.S. Strike in Somalia Concerns U.N. Chief

“Jet-Man” : Yves Rossy (from Switzerland) is the first man ever to be able to fly, following Icare’s dream, with true wings and a jet-pack.

I wonder how this is going to pan out? Either way, this man deserves applause for trying!

Kennedy fights ‘immense new mistake’ of troop surge

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Sen. Edward Kennedy launched a pre-emptive strike on Tuesday against President Bush’s anticipated plans to send more troops to Iraq.

The Massachusetts Democrat introduced legislation to require congressional approval before force levels can be increased, more than a day before the president is expected to propose such an increase.

Bush is to address the nation Wednesday night with details of his new Iraq policy, which reportedly includes a plan to send at least 20,000 troops to curb the escalating violence there.

Kennedy, a leading opponent of the war and senior member of the Armed Services Committee, said any troop surge would be “an immense new mistake.”

Kennedy said he introduced the legislation “to reclaim the rightful role of Congress and the people’s right to a full voice in the president’s plan to send more troops to Iraq.”

He added that the bill says “that no additional troops can be sent and no additional dollars can be spent on such an escalation unless and until Congress approves the president’s plan.”

Source: CNN.com

Cavuto was just laughable in this interview. The wakeupwalmart.com factcheck website guy had his facts DOWN and Cavuto was just looking like an uninformed fool after this interview because he was trying so hard to be pro-WalMart. It truly highlighted the Wal Mart way of shrinking the definition of fulltime and pushing as many as they can to parttime. $10 per hour average pay is the Wal-Mart line on employee pay but that’s only fulltime and they are moving hundreds of thousands off of fulltime payrolls and their workers are now ON CALL for busy times and sent home during quiet times resulting in short days at low pay everyday. China and Germany are Wal Mart sore spots because those nations demanded their workers be unionized so don’t look for Wal Mart investing in either nation. Cavuto’s angle was totally pro corporation and that is what FOX is trying to push and that is called Fascism. As a side note the graphic misspells the site for the factcheck guy as there is no hyphen in the real website url.
Check it out at the CORRECT site which is

PS- Cavuto later took emails and somehow the graphics people almost instantly got up an email from a “Ray Coleman of Tampa Florida” saying that “Wal-Mart is not in business to give someone a job. They are in business to make a profit” Well I would like to see how much profit they would make if they had no workers doing their business. I would bet lots of money there WAS NO Ray Coleman of Tampa Florida. How about John Moody from Connecticut.

H/T JoeWo for this post

Lou Dobbs calls the North American Union the New World Order, and says GW is fulfilling Daddy’s dream.

H/T Youtuber ArtBell!

CNN reports that an undetermined number of insurgents began a coordinated attack in Baghdad. The insurgents struck under the cover of darkness this morning.

One soldier describes the fighting as the “most intense” Baghdad battle yet. CNN reports that a remarkable amount of US air power had been unleashed over Baghdad. The insurgent attack comes one day prior to the U.S. president’s speech where he is expected to announce a new plan for the Iraq war.

H/T SharingRaw for all the great videos!

Bush Abramoff picture

I’m getting my daily dose of Washington Journal on C-Span this morning. And I’m wondering why this blowhole, Frederick Kagan, is even given a voice. One of the signatories of PNAC’s manifesto, why on earth would anyone give a flying crap what this guy has to say? Well, I guess Bush does, because I think the AEI report on Iraq, which this whacko authored, Choosing Victory: A Plan for Success in Iraq is where Bush came up with his new way forward. This is part of Bush’s media blitz to promote his escalation of this war. And there’s C-Span, right on the bandwagon.

So impeachment is off the table, we have a whacko in the White House who will continue to listen to these neocon whackos and allow them to guide his policy decisions and the American people are fucked again. Somebody make it stop…….. Paaaalease.

Update: 9:40 a.m. Someone at Ameriblog just gave me the link to this, Jesus General’s letter to Kagan. Guess I’m not the only one with these thoughts…..

Are they crazy or what? Our military is spent…..don’t have the equipment they need to do what we’re asking them to do……but let’s spend a cool billion on new nuclear warheads. Oh that will make the world love us!! Gotta love that Christian logic that’s running this country.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 6 - The Bush administration is expected to announce next week a major step forward in the building of the country’s first new nuclear warhead in nearly two decades. It will propose combining elements of competing designs from two weapons laboratories in an approach that some experts argue is untested and risky.

The new weapon would not add to but replace the nation’s existing arsenal of aging warheads, with a new generation meant to be sturdier, more reliable, safer from accidental detonation and more secure from theft by terrorists.

The announcement, to be made by the interagency Nuclear Weapons Council, avoids making a choice between the two designs for a new weapon, called the Reliable Replacement Warhead, which at first would be mounted on submarine-launched missiles.

The effort, if approved by President Bush and financed by Congress, would require a huge refurbishment of the nation’s complex for nuclear design and manufacturing, with the overall bill estimated at more than $100 billion.

But the council’s decision to seek a hybrid design, combining well-tested elements from an older design with new safety and security elements from a more novel approach, could delay the weapon’s production. It also raises the question of whether the United States will ultimately be forced to end its moratorium on underground nuclear testing to make sure the new design works.

Read more at the NYTimes

More Nuclear News: Nuclear Chief Dumped

I hope the judge decides in favor of indictments.

MILAN (Reuters) - U.S. and Italian spies urged their governments on Tuesday to prevent them going on trial over the 2003 kidnapping of a terrorism suspect, as an Italian judge began hearing arguments on whether to indict them.

Judge Caterina Interlandi must decide if there is enough evidence for a trial. If so, it would be the first criminal procedure over renditions, one of the most controversial aspects of the U.S. global “war on terrorism.”

The agents are accused of involvement in abducting Muslim cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr and sending him to Egypt, where he says he was tortured.

The suspects include 26 Americans, most believed to be CIA agents, and six Italians. None of the suspects attended Tuesday’s closed-door courtroom hearing, lawyers said.

Any trial of the U.S. agents would almost certainly take place in absentia. Washington is not expected to hand them over.

Lawyers for two key suspects said their clients wanted Washington and Rome to resolve the matter.

Read more at the NYTimes