| Biden, Kerry urge Iraq PM to reach out to Sunni tribes Posted: 08 Jan 2014 04:13 PM PST  Vice President Joe Biden called Nuri al-Maliki for the second time this week as US pressure mounted on the Iraqi premier over an Al-Qaeda surge in the violence-plagued country. Biden urged Maliki on Wednesday to "continue the Iraqi government's outreach to local, tribal, and national leaders," following the loss of Fallujah to Islamist insurgents, the White House said in a statement. Spokesman Jay Carney meanwhile said Washington was pressing Maliki, a Shiite, to focus on political reconciliation as well as taking military action to expel Al-Qaeda-inspired groups from Fallujah and Ramadi, both Sunni bastions in Anbar province, once liberated from extremists by US troops.
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| Iraqi prime minister says victory certain as Falluja assault looms Posted: 08 Jan 2014 03:24 PM PST  By Ahmed Rasheed BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki vowed to eradicate al Qaeda in Iraq and predicted victory as his army prepared to launch a major assault against the Sunni Islamist militants who have taken over parts of the city of Falluja. Fighters from the al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which is also active across the border in Syria, overran police stations in Falluja and another city in Iraq's western Anbar province last week.
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| UK: investigators study scene after copter crash Posted: 08 Jan 2014 03:06 PM PST  LONDON (AP) — Authorities in England cordoned off flooded marshes Wednesday to investigate the crash of a military helicopter that killed four U.S. Air Force crewmembers.
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| Iraq: Fighters urged to go as supplies run short Posted: 08 Jan 2014 03:02 PM PST  BAGHDAD (AP) — Tribal leaders in the besieged city of Fallujah warned al-Qaida-linked fighters to leave to avoid a military showdown, echoing a call by Iraq's prime minister Wednesday that they give up their fight as the government pushes to regain control of mainly Sunni areas west of Baghdad.
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| White House defends itself, Biden over Gates book Posted: 08 Jan 2014 03:01 PM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — Rushing to curb political fallout, the White House pushed back Wednesday against harsh criticism in a new book by former Defense Secretary Robert Gates that questions President Barack Obama's war leadership and rips into Vice President Joe Biden.
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| Reversals in hard-won Iraqi city vex veterans Posted: 08 Jan 2014 02:06 PM PST  SAN DIEGO (AP) — Shirley Parrello knows that her youngest boy believed in his mission in Iraq. But as she watches Iraqi government forces try to retake the hard-won city of Fallujah from al-Qaida-linked fighters, she can't help wondering if it was worth Marine Lance Cpl. Brian Parrello's sacrifice.
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| Commentary: Why I Dislike Congress, but I Like My Congressman Posted: 08 Jan 2014 01:38 PM PST  My congressman, Henry Waxman, a California Democrat, is an attorney and ranking member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. He represents western areas of Los Angeles, including West Hollywood, where I live, as well as Beverly Hills, Brentwood, Pacific Palisades, Malibu and Santa Monica.
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| Biden, al-Maliki discuss ongoing battle in Anbar province: White House Posted: 08 Jan 2014 01:37 PM PST  U.S. Vice President Joe Biden spoke on Wednesday with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki about the ongoing fight against al Qaeda affiliated insurgents in the country's western Anbar province, the White House said in a statement. In the leaders' second phone call this week, Biden encouraged al-Maliki to continue to work with local, tribal, and national leaders, and said he welcomed a decision to extend state benefits to tribal forces killed or injured in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the White House said. Wednesday's call came as al-Maliki prepared to launch a major assault against ISIL.
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| Al-Qaida-linked group ramps up regional violence Posted: 08 Jan 2014 01:08 PM PST  BEIRUT (AP) — Al-Qaida is positioning itself as a vanguard defending the Sunni community against what it sees as persecution by Shiite-dominated governments across Syria, Lebanon and Iraq.
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| Does Robert Gates memoir hint at Obama's next Afghanistan moves? Posted: 08 Jan 2014 12:28 PM PST In his new memoir spanning his years as secretary of Defense, Robert Gates offers a harsh assessment of President Obama's commitment to the war in Afghanistan – the war that, in comparison to the Iraq war, the president always said he considered a necessary war to safeguard America from terrorist attacks. What Mr. Gates says he witnessed in the Obama White House was a president making the right decisions and following the right strategy, but not really believing in them. "I believe Obama was right in each of [his] decisions" on Afghanistan policy, Gates writes towards the end of "Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War," set to be released next week. That would include Mr. Obama's decision in late 2009 to "surge" 30,000 additional troops into the war to stabilize Afghanistan before a US pullout. |
| Biden calls Iraqi leader for 2nd time this week Posted: 08 Jan 2014 12:20 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Joe Biden spoke on Wednesday for a second time this week to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, voicing support for the Baghdad government's effort to regain control of the city of Fallujah from al-Qaida-linked fighters. |
| Syria rebels seize al-Qaida base in north Posted: 08 Jan 2014 12:17 PM PST  BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian rebels ousted an al-Qaida linked group from its local headquarters in a key northern city Wednesday, part of a widening campaign against the extremist group in opposition-held areas, activists said.
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| Obama Sits by His Man Biden After Book's Scathing Critique Posted: 08 Jan 2014 12:15 PM PST  A picture was truly worth a thousand words at the White House today. Just one day after former Defense Secretary Robert Gates' contempt for Vice President Joe Biden's foreign policy acumen spilled from between the covers of his 640-page memoir, President Obama and the vice...
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| 'Lone Survivor' a brutal tribute to Navy SEALs Posted: 08 Jan 2014 12:15 PM PST  NEW YORK (AP) — Marcus Luttrell, the former Navy SEAL whose deadly mission in Afghanistan has been turned into the film "Lone Survivor," strides into a hotel room for an interview, trailed by his service dog, Mr. Rigby.
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| ISIL loses HQ in Syria's Aleppo, journalists freed Posted: 08 Jan 2014 12:12 PM PST  Syrian rebels overran the Aleppo headquarters of the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant Wednesday, as claims emerged that ISIL had massacred prisoners there in cold blood. The operation in Aleppo came a day after ISIL'S` spokesman threatened to "crush" opposition fighters who have attacked the group in several provinces. "There are hardly any ISIL members left in the city of Aleppo," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Elsewhere, a diplomat announced two Swedish reporters missing in Syria since November had been freed.
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| Rand Paul to make move to repeal Iraq War law Posted: 08 Jan 2014 12:08 PM PST  Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., will introduce legislation on Friday to repeal the law that green-lighted the March 2003 invasion of Iraq and remains on the books two years after President Barack Obama declared that war over, Paul's office said Wednesday.
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| White House defends Biden against Gates criticism Posted: 08 Jan 2014 12:00 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is bristling over former Defense Secretary Robert Gates' new memoir accusing President Barack Obama of showing too little enthusiasm for the U.S. war mission in Afghanistan and sharply criticizing Vice President Joe Biden's foreign policy instincts. |
| 'Prisoners executed by jihadists' in Syria's Aleppo Posted: 08 Jan 2014 11:38 AM PST  Video footage posted online Wednesday shows nine bodies of prisoners, blindfolded and hands bound, in pools of blood allegedly executed by Al-Qaeda-linked militants in northern Syria, activists said. The footage, posted by Shahba Press, a network of activists in the region, shows the nine men were all shot in the head. He was referring to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, whose Aleppo headquarters was overrun by rebels earlier Wednesday as clashes between opposition forces raged into a sixth day. On the footage, purportedly shot at the headquarters, another voice is heard to say: "These are the same acts carried out by the shabiha (pro-regime militia).
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| Turkish police purge reaches top ranks amid graft scandal Posted: 08 Jan 2014 11:16 AM PST  By Gulsen Solaker and Orhan Coskun ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey's deputy police chief has been sacked, the most senior commander yet targeted in a purge of a force heavily influenced by a cleric accused by Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan of plotting to seize the levers of state power. Erdogan's AK Party meanwhile submitted plans to parliament to allow government more say over the naming of prosecutors and judges. Erdogan argues that a judiciary and police in the sway of the Hizmet (Service) movement of cleric Fethullah Gulen contrived a graft investigation now shaking his administration. The government has ousted hundreds of police since the graft affair erupted on December 17 with the detention of dozens of people including businessmen close to the government and three cabinet ministers' sons.
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| Robert Gates memoir: Top 5 bombshells Posted: 08 Jan 2014 11:07 AM PST Early leaks of former Defense Secretary Robert Gates' highly anticipated memoir have yielded a slew of insider tidbits about the personalities and behind-the-scenes struggles of Presidents Bush and Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and other top officials as they fought wars on two fronts. He describes laboring mightily to "resist the magnetic pull exercised by the White House, especially in the Obama administration, to bring everything under its control and micromanagement." Indeed, he writes, the "controlling nature" of the White House staff "took micromanagement and operational meddling to a new level." That said, in one of the sometimes contradictory pivots that the defense secretary to two presidents makes frequently in his book, Gates adds that he had "no problem with the White House driving policy" since "the bureaucracy at the State and Defense Departments rarely come up with big new ideas, so almost any meaningful change must be driven by the president and his National Security staff." |
| Al Qaeda group vows to attack Syrian rebels, opposition leaders Posted: 08 Jan 2014 10:55 AM PST  By Erika Solomon BEIRUT (Reuters) - An al Qaeda affiliate based in Iraq and Syria has vowed to crush opposition groups it has been confronting in the worst outbreak of infighting among rebels since the start of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad. Heavy fighting between rebels in Syria has killed hundreds of people over the last five days and rattled the al Qaeda-linked faction, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The group lost its main base in the northern city of Aleppo to rival rebels on Wednesday, a monitoring group said. The statement from the ISIL spokesman was issued late on Tuesday, hours after the head of the al Qaeda branch in Syria, the Nusra Front, called for a truce to halt the fighting.
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| 13,000 families flee Fallujah amid Iraq standoff Posted: 08 Jan 2014 10:07 AM PST  Fallujah (Iraq) (AFP) - More than 13,000 families have fled Fallujah, NGOs said Wednesday, warning of a dire humanitarian situation in Iraq, as masked gunmen held the city, locked in a days-long standoff with the army. And though traffic police returned to its streets, some shops reopened and more cars could be seen, Fallujah was still rocked by clashes and shelling, after an Al-Qaeda-linked group urged Sunnis to keep fighting the Shiite-led government. Fallujah and parts of nearby Ramadi, both in the western, Syrian-border province of Anbar, have been outside government hands for days -- the first time militants have exercised such open control in major cities since the height of the insurgency that followed the 2003 US-led invasion.
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| Eyeing Syria talks, Iran may put Assad ties in play Posted: 08 Jan 2014 09:34 AM PST  By Babak Dehghanpisheh BEIRUT (Reuters) - For weeks, American officials have lobbied to exclude Iran from the Geneva talks on the Syrian conflict in late January, pointing to Tehran's military and financial aid to the government of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. But last Sunday, Secretary of State John Kerry did an about-face: Iran could take part in the conference on the sidelines, he said, a move that could bolster the importance of the talks. Kerry's statement was dismissed by an Iranian foreign ministry spokeswoman who said that Iran "will not accept any proposal that does not respect its dignity." Still, the comments could present an opening for Iranian officials who have long wanted the international community to acknowledge their role as a key regional power and have indicated that there will be no resolution to the conflict in Syria without their participation. "I don't think it's a red line for them," said a diplomat who recently met with senior Iranian officials.
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| Gunmen kill 12 Iraqi soldiers north of Baghdad Posted: 08 Jan 2014 09:26 AM PST  Baquba (Iraq) (AFP) - Gunmen attacked a military site north of the Iraqi capital on Wednesday, killing 12 soldiers and wounding four, police and a doctor said.
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| Four killed in US military helicopter crash Posted: 08 Jan 2014 08:23 AM PST  The bodies of four airmen killed when a US Air Force helicopter crashed in eastern England are unlikely to be recovered until Thursday, police said on Wednesday. The HH-60G Pave Hawk chopper, based at the US-run Lakenheath air base, crashed at a nearby nature reserve in Cley-next-the-Sea, Norfolk, while flying low on a training exercise on Tuesday evening. Emergency personnel joined US and British air force officials working through the night at the scene of the crash, which cast debris over an area of marshland the size of a football field, Chief Superintendent Bob Scully of Norfolk Police said. "There are a significant number of specialists from the Royal Air Force, from the United States Air Force and senior investigating officers and crime scene investigators from Norfolk Constabulary all working together."
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| Secretary Gates’ book ignites another Washington debate Posted: 08 Jan 2014 08:04 AM PST Advance reviews of former Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates' book has Washington talking about public policy and the people who make it, including some pointed words about the Obama administration and harsher comments about Congress. |
| Syria rebels seize al-Qaida base in Aleppo Posted: 08 Jan 2014 07:11 AM PST  BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian rebels seized control Wednesday of a hospital used as a headquarters by an al-Qaida affiliate in the northern city of Aleppo, part of a widening campaign against the extremist group in the country's opposition-held north, activists said.
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| UN warns of humanitarian threat in western Iraq Posted: 08 Jan 2014 06:51 AM PST  BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's prime minister urged al-Qaida-linked fighters who have overrun two cities west of Baghdad to give up the battle, vowing Wednesday to press forward with a push to regain control of the mainly Sunni areas.
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| Congress Delays Arms to Iraq Posted: 08 Jan 2014 05:52 AM PST Capitol Hill was ready to give Apache helicopters to Baghdad to help fight al Qaeda, but now senators worry the prime minister will use the weapons on domestic enemies. |
| Reported Christian "martyr" deaths double in 2013: report Posted: 08 Jan 2014 05:23 AM PST  By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor LONDON (Reuters) - Reported cases of Christians killed for their faith around the world doubled in 2013 from the year before, with Syria accounting for more than the whole global total in 2012, according to an annual survey. Open Doors, a non-denominational group supporting persecuted Christians worldwide, said on Wednesday it had documented 2,123 "martyr" killings, compared with 1,201 in 2012. There were 1,213 such deaths in Syria alone last year, it said. "This is a very minimal count based on what has been reported in the media and we can confirm," said Frans Veerman, head of research for Open Doors.
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| Iraq PM urges al-Qaida fighters in west to give up Posted: 08 Jan 2014 04:28 AM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's prime minister on Wednesday urged all those who joined al-Qaida and now face a siege by his troops in the western Anbar province to give up their struggle, hinting of a possible pardon if the militants give up the fight. |
| Troubling Signs the Pentagon Is Going Soft Posted: 08 Jan 2014 02:45 AM PST  At a lunchtime Q&A Tuesday afternoon at the National Press Club, U.S. Army Chief Ray Odierno talked about his opposition to sending troops to Iraq to how the Army would execute the planned withdrawal from Afghanistan. But during the hour-long discussion, Odierno spent more time addressing issues that have nothing to do with combat. "The up front reductions that were part of sequestration made it impossible to properly manage" DOD's budget, Odierno said. This past year was one in which Odierno, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and other DOD higher-ups seemingly spent more time talking about social issues than defense.
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| Activist: Al-Qaida group in Syria kills 20 rebels Posted: 08 Jan 2014 01:18 AM PST BEIRUT (AP) — Activists say a suicide car bombing by an al-Qaida-linked group has killed at least 20 rebels amid clashes in opposition-held areas in Syria. |
| Today in History Posted: 07 Jan 2014 09:01 PM PST Today is Wednesday, Jan. 8, the eighth day of 2014. There are 357 days left in the year. |
| Analysis: U.S. fears grow about Iraq, but response remains limited Posted: 07 Jan 2014 08:08 PM PST  By Missy Ryan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration is considering expanding its support to Iraqi forces as they fight off a renewed al Qaeda threat, but Washington's ability to significantly increase security assistance to Baghdad will remain limited. U.S. officials say they are in discussions with the Iraqi government about training its elite forces in a third country, which would allow the United States to provide one modest measure of new assistance against militants in the absence of a troop deal that allows U.S. soldiers to operate within Iraq. Reluctance to further empower Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki or put American boots on the ground constrains U.S. support for Iraq as it battles militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, an al Qaeda affiliate, in Anbar province, and seeks to reverse a striking surge in violence across the country in the last year.
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| Calif. deputy waited seconds before shooting boy with toy rifle: lawsuit Posted: 07 Jan 2014 05:29 PM PST  By Ronnie Cohen SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A northern California sheriff's deputy shot a 13-year-old just three seconds after ordering him to drop a plastic replica of an assault rifle, the boy's parents claimed in an amended civil rights lawsuit filed Tuesday. Erick Gelhaus, a veteran deputy and firearms instructor, killed Andy Lopez as the eighth grader was walking near his home in the wine-country town of Santa Rosa in October carrying an imitation gun he planned to return to a friend, according to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. Police said Andy was wearing a hoodie sweatshirt when Gelhaus spotted him holding what appeared to be an assault rifle. After the deputy ordered the boy to drop the gun, the teen turned toward Gelhaus, who saw the barrel of the gun rise and fired eight shots, authorities said.
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| As Iraq battles Al Qaeda in Fallujah, Pentagon takes note. Will Afghanistan? Posted: 07 Jan 2014 05:01 PM PST Conditions in Iraq's western Anbar Province – once a model for what was going right in the Iraq war – are deteriorating with an influx of Al Qaeda insurgents into the area. Pentagon officials hope so, particularly as US officials work overtime to broker a Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA), which will set the terms for US troops to remain in the country past their current 2014 deadline for withdrawal. "While Afghanistan is not Iraq, what's happening in Iraq was relatively foreseen, and we should take it as a cautionary tale," says retired Lt. Gen. James Dubik, senior fellow at the Institute for the Study of War and the former commander of the US training mission in Iraq. "The caution is that we withdraw from Afghanistan too quickly or too early, as we did in Iraq." |
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