Yahoo! News: Iraq

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• Chuck Hagel, likely nominee to lead Pentagon
• Obama to nominate Hagel for defense secretary: Democratic aide
• Newsmaker: Republican maverick Hagel forged bond with Obama over Iraq
• No One Is Happy with Assad's Big Speech
• What Obama's Senate Mafia Means for America
• McConnell takes wait-and-see approach on Hagel
• Takeaway from Assad's speech? There will be no meaningful dialogue.
• Turkey's Erdogan rules out amnesty for Kurdish militants
• Who is Chuck Hagel and Why Is He Being Nominated as Defense Secretary?
• Islamists pursue own agenda in Iraq's Sunni protests
• Today in History

Chuck Hagel, likely nominee to lead Pentagon Posted: 06 Jan 2013 01:55 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel is a contrarian Republican moderate and decorated Vietnam combat veteran who is likely to support a more rapid withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

Obama to nominate Hagel for defense secretary: Democratic aide Posted: 06 Jan 2013 01:54 PM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will nominate former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel to be his defense secretary and an announcement could come on Monday, sources familiar with the nomination process said. The choice will likely set up a confirmation battle in the Senate over whether the former Nebraska senator and Vietnam veteran is a strong enough supporter of key U.S. ally Israel and over his past calls for military cuts. The Obama administration backed down from a tough Senate confirmation battle over Susan Rice, the U.S. ...

Newsmaker: Republican maverick Hagel forged bond with Obama over Iraq Posted: 06 Jan 2013 12:23 PM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - From his lonely position as an early Republican critic of the Iraq war, former Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel sometimes lectured his more timid Senate colleagues. "If you wanted a safe job, go sell shoes," he told them. Now Democratic President Barack Obama, putting together his team for his second term, is poised to choose the intensely independent thinker to run the Pentagon. If Hagel is confirmed by the Senate, he will have to oversee the withdrawal of U.S. troops from another war zone - Afghanistan - and grapple with spending cuts. ...

No One Is Happy with Assad's Big Speech Posted: 06 Jan 2013 09:42 AM PST Syrian President Bashar al-Assad made a rare public speech Sunday -- his first since June of last year -- and, not surprisingly, he did not step down. This did not please very many people.

What Obama's Senate Mafia Means for America Posted: 06 Jan 2013 06:28 AM PST In the summer of 2008, while the two of them were on a trip to Afghanistan, then-Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., gave a bit of advice to then-presidential candidate Barack Obama. "I told Obama he should pick [Joe] Biden as his running mate," Hagel recalled in a 2010 interview with National Journal. "I said, 'He understands governance better than anyone else. In particular, he understands Congress. He understands how it fits together like no one else you could get. He's got the political piece. He 's got the policy piece. There's nobody in his league.'"

McConnell takes wait-and-see approach on Hagel Posted: 06 Jan 2013 06:14 AM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate's top Republican says he'll need to take a close look at what former Sen. Chuck Hagel — who's the front-runner to be the next defense secretary — has said in the past on Israel and Iran.

Takeaway from Assad's speech? There will be no meaningful dialogue. Posted: 06 Jan 2013 06:01 AM PST Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN's special envoy to Syria, surely listened to President Bashar al-Assad's speech to the Syrian people today with a growing feeling of dread.

Turkey's Erdogan rules out amnesty for Kurdish militants Posted: 06 Jan 2013 04:35 AM PST ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan ruled out a general amnesty for Kurdish militants on Sunday but said intelligence agents would continue to talk to the rebels' jailed leader in a bid to end a near three-decade insurgency. Erdogan's chief adviser said last week that Turkish officials had been discussing disarmament with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and on Thursday two Kurdish lawmakers paid a rare visit to the militant group's leader in his island prison. ...

Who is Chuck Hagel and Why Is He Being Nominated as Defense Secretary? Posted: 06 Jan 2013 04:25 AM PST Former Sen. Chuck Hagel has a reputation for going rogue.

Islamists pursue own agenda in Iraq's Sunni protests Posted: 05 Jan 2013 11:01 PM PST BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Street protests in Iraq's Sunni Muslim heartland pose a new challenge to Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki as shock waves from the Sunni-led insurgency in nearby Syria strain his country's fragile political balance. Over the past two weeks, tens of thousands of Sunnis have staged demonstrations, and in Anbar province they have blocked a highway to Syria in a show of anger against Maliki, whom they accuse of marginalizing their community and monopolizing power. ...

Today in History Posted: 05 Jan 2013 09:00 PM PST Today is Sunday, Jan. 6, the sixth day of 2013. There are 359 days left in the year.

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