BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraq and the United States are to spend 14 billion dollars and recruit 40,000 new soldiers into the Iraqi armed forces in the next 18 months, a US military commander said Sunday.
US army Lieutenant General Martin Dempsey, who is in charge of training Iraqi security forces, said that America will spend five billion dollars and the remaining nine billion would come from Iraqi coffers.
Dempsey said the plan is driven by how “the Iraqis want their security forces to look” in the future and and not just to “solve problems of today.”
In the wake of the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich laid the blame for the tragedy at the feet of liberals. Here’s what he said:
“I want to say to the elite of this country - the elite news media, the liberal academic elite, the liberal political elite: I accuse you in Littleton…of being afraid to talk about the mess you have made, and being afraid to take responsibility for things you have done, and instead foisting upon the rest of us pathetic banalities because you don-t have the courage to look at the world you have created.”
On ABC’s This Week, host George Stephanopoulos asked Gingrich if he would apply those same words to the Virginia Tech tragedy. “Yes,” Gingrich said, offering a rambling, nonsensical response that segued into Don Imus and McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform.
Ahhhhhhhhh What’s Georgie’s response to this going to be?
CAIRO, Egypt - Iraq’s prime minister said Sunday that he has ordered a halt to the U.S. military construction of a barrier separating a Sunni enclave from surrounding Shiite areas in Baghdad after fierce criticism over the project at home.
The challenge to the U.S. initiative came as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki began a regional tour to shore up support from mostly Sunni Arab nations for his Shiite-dominated government as sectarian violence persists despite a nearly 10-week-old security crackdown.
The U.S. military announced last week that it was building a three-mile-long and 12-foot-tall concrete wall in Azamiyah, a Sunni stronghold in northern Baghdad whose residents have often been the victims of retaliatory mortar attacks by Shiite militants following bombings usually blamed on Sunni insurgents.
Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald, D-Calif., died early Sunday of cancer, an aide said. Millender-McDonald, who was 68, died at her home in Carson, Calif., said her chief of staff, Bandele McQueen.
McQueen could provide no details on what form of cancer Millender-McDonald had.
The congresswoman had asked for a four- to six-week leave of absence from the House last week to deal with her illness.
She was in her seventh term representing a Southern California district that includes Compton, Long Beach and parts of Los Angeles.
This year she became chair of the Committee on House Administration, which oversees operations of the House and federal election procedures.
From April, 23 to April 27, the elite echelon of the military are running Noble Resolve 07, a four-day marathon of “simulated” terror attacks across the US and Europe. This includes a simulated detonation of a “loose” ten-kiloton nuclear weapon Virginia harbor, smuggled in by a “foreign nation.”
This week Dick Cheney has also been warning of the “very real” threat of a nuclear attack on an American city. Could the Nobel Resolve drills be used as a screen for a false-flag attack to be blamed on Iran, Hezbollah, Al-Qaeda, or sheep-dipped Americans like Adam Gadahn?
The drills are being run by Joint Task Force Command (JTFCOM), Northern Command (NORTHCOM), J9 Joint Innovation and Experimentation Directorate, FEMA’s command bunker, the Department of Homeland Security, and Virginia police.
The US Marines are also running “Emerald Express 07” in Virginia on April 24 as part of their Urban Warrior 07 drill package.
It is important to note the “Nobel Resolve” drills are dominated by NORTHCOM, the branch of “homeland defense” based in Colorado and responsible for shutting down the United States under martial law, as well as ushering in the merger of the US, Canada, and Mexico via the SPP.
Meanwhile the J9 Directorate, formulates various terror scenarios and uses advanced computer modeling to run drills and predict human reactions; Recent articles highlight how they are using virtual environments to create and manage realistic war scenarios with millions of “people.”
Each and every one of these deaths touches MANY lives. We see the numbers, but there are names behind each number. And there are families and friends behind each number. Read the comments on the post I did on Shaun Blue. I am in awe of the many people’s lives this remarkable young man touched. And I wish we’d hear SOMETHING about them in the news. All we hear are the numbers. And they are, each and every one of them, so much more than a number!
Coalition Deaths in Iraq This Week
21-Apr-2007 3 | US: 3 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US NAME NOT RELEASED YET Baghdad (eastern part) Hostile - hostile fire - small arms fire
US NAME NOT RELEASED YET Baghdad (southwest part) Hostile - hostile fire - IED, small arms fire
US NAME NOT RELEASED YET Baghdad (southwest of) Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
20-Apr-2007 1 | US: 0 | UK: 0 | Other: 1
POL Tomasz Jura Diwaniyah - Qadisiyah Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
19-Apr-2007 3 | US: 1 | UK: 2 | Other: 0
US NAME NOT RELEASED YET Muqdadiyah - Babil Hostile - hostile fire - rocket attack
UK Trooper Kristen Turton Maysan Province Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
UK Corporal Ben Leaning Maysan Province Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
18-Apr-2007 3 | US: 3 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US Private 1st Class Jason M. Morales Baghdad (northwest part) Hostile - hostile fire - small arms fire
US NAME NOT RELEASED YET Baghdad (north of) Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
US NAME NOT RELEASED YET Baghdad (north of) Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
17-Apr-2007 1 | US: 1 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US Private 1st Class Richard P. Langenbrunner Rustamiyah - Baghdad Non-hostile - injury
16-Apr-2007 6 | US: 6 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US 1st Lieutenant Shaun M. Blue Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire
US Lance Corporal Jesse D. Delatorre Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire
US Lance Corporal Daniel R. Scherry Al Anbar Province Non-hostile - accident
US Private 1st Class Lucas V. Starcevich Baghdad (southern part) Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
US Private 1st Class Aaron M. Genevie Baghdad (southern part) Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
US Sergeant Mario K. De Leon Baghdad (southwest part) Hostile - hostile fire - small arms fire
15-Apr-2007 3 | US: 1 | UK: 2 | Other: 0
US Private 1st Class Steven J. Walberg Baghdad (southern part) Hostile - hostile fire - small arms fire
UK Sergeant Mark J. McLaren Baghdad (north of) - Diyala Non-hostile - helicopter crash
UK Colour Sergeant Mark Lawrence Powell Baghdad (north of) - Diyala Non-hostile - helicopter crash
14-Apr-2007 6 | US: 6 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US Sergeant Joshua A. Schmit Fallujah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
US Sergeant Brandon L. Wallace Fallujah - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
US Lance Corporal Daniel J. Santee Ramadi - Anbar Non-hostile - vehicle accident
US Staff Sergeant Robert J. Basham Qatar Non-hostile - injury
US Specialist Ryan A. Bishop Baghdad (south of) Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
US NAME NOT RELEASED YET Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire
Sunday Talk
* Meet the Press: HHS Sec. Michael Leavitt; Edu. Sec. Margaret Spellings; VA Tech panel members ex-VA Police Super. Gerald Massengill and ex-DHS Sec. Tom Ridge; roundtable of historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, NBC’s David Gregory, Newsweek’s Jon Meacham, and NBC’s Pete Williams.
* Face the Nation: Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT); Jim and Sarah Brady; criminal profiler Gregg McCray.
* This Week: Newt Gingrich (R-GA); Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Jackie Dodd; roundtable of George Will, Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts
* Fox News Sunday: VA LG Bill Bolling (R); GW Pres. Stephen Trachtenberg; Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA); Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY)
* Late Edition: Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS); VA AG Bob McDonnell (R); New York Times’ Thomas Friedman; ex-Clinton counsel Lanny Davis; a roundtable with Bill Schneider and Jeanne Meserve.
TV Alerts
* Political Capital: Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) (Bloomberg, repeats throughout weekend)
* Chris Matthews 4/21-4/22: Howard Fineman, David Brooks, Katty Kay and Kelly O’Donnell discuss “Is the rage of alienated young men a continuing threat in American schools? Does the future of the right to abortion hang on who wins the White House in 2008?” Quotes here.
* White House Correspondents Dinner on 4/21, 9:30pm on CSPAN
* BookTV (C-SPAN2): John Kerry & Teresa Heinz Kerry on 4/22 at 9:30am
* Newsmakers (C-SPAN, 10am): Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) on 4/22
* Road to the White House: Barack Obama (D-IL) at National Action Network dinner on 4/22
* 60 Minutes: Mind of an Assassin on 4/22; Life in Baghdad on 4/22; Hip Hop & Not Snitchin’ on 4/22
* Letterman: Brian Williams on 4/23; Frank Caliendo as President George W. Bush on 4/27
* The Daily Show: Matt Cooper on 4/23; Garry Shandling on 4/25; Richard Gere on 4/26
* The Colbert Report: Russell Simmons on 4/23; Dr. Andrew Weil on 4/24; David Walker on 4/25; Tom Wolfe on 4/26; Bill Bradley on 4/30
* Tavis Smiley: Bill Moyers on 4/23
* Leno: Bill Maher on 4/24;
* Craig Ferguson Show: Jerry Springer on 4/25
* The View: Bill Bradley on 4/30
Residents of a dangerous district in Baghdad have accused the United States of hardening sectarian divisions as US forces wall them in behind a five-kilometre security barrier.
The local council leader said the community did not approve the project before construction of the concrete wall began and locals are calling it “collective punishment”.
On April 10, US troops began hauling six-tonne sections of wall into place around Adhamiyah, a mainly Sunni Arab area surrounded on three sides by Shia communities in east Baghdad.
The US military said the wall is part of a strategy to “break the cycle of sectarian violence” in the Iraqi capital.
Sunday, April 22nd
Residents of a dangerous district in Baghdad have accused the United States of hardening sectarian divisions as US forces wall them in behind a five-kilometre security barrier.
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