Out of the 37 articles in the Pentagon's internal digest of US news today, the Current News Early Bird, were seven articles about Iran and its alleged bad acting in Iraq, mostly attributed to US military sources, and what the US should do about it. Leading off the Early Bird today, this USA Today piece:

Iran is supplying Iraqi militias with a variety of powerful weapons including Katyusha rockets, the No. 2 U.S. general in Iraq said Tuesday.

"We have weapons that we know through serial numbers … that trace back to Iran," Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno said in an interview with USA TODAY.

His comments came as the Bush administration has been taking an increasingly tough stance against what it alleges is Iranian meddling in sectarian violence in Iraq. Last week, the White House confirmed that the president had authorized U.S. troops to take action against Iranian agents in Iraq who present threats.

Here's an accompanying exhibit. Such press patterns have often indicated the direction of what the administration is up to, an observer notes.

I'll be on NPR/WBUR's On Point tomorrow morning with Ron Suskind, Cheney biographer Lou DuBose, and law professor Jonathan Turley to discuss the vice president, based in part on this article.

AP: "Federal prosecutors are preparing to seek indictments against a former top CIA official and a San Diego defense contractor at the center of the bribery scandal that sent former U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham to prison. Two government officials familiar with the investigation told The Associated Press on Wednesday that prosecutors plan to ask a San Diego grand jury to return charges of honest services fraud and conspiracy against Kyle 'Dusty' Foggo and his close friend, Brent Wilkes... Honest services fraud is a combination of mail and wire fraud often used in public corruption cases involving officials who have engaged in a continuing pattern of improper activities, such as accepting gifts, trips or promises of future employment from private individuals. The officials said a second indictment is being prepared that would charge Wilkes and two of the other Cunningham co-conspirators New York businessman Thomas Kontogiannis and his nephew, John T. Michael_ with bribery and several conspiracy counts."

Strange story roiling Tony Blair entourage...accusations emerging that Blair aides ran a parallel email system at 10 Downing Street and that emails about cash for honors have been erased:

...Downing Street, which declined to comment on Lord Levy's arrest, hinted yesterday at a dirty tricks campaign over reports that No 10 officials were erasing e-mails relating to nominations for peerages. The Prime Minister's official spokesman flatly denied the reports and said the sources of the stories were wrong. In a show of anger, he hinted that the motivation was malicious. "You really have to start questioning who is spreading this information because it is wrong," he said.

He stopped short of directly accusing the police of a smear campaign, but rumours are circulating at Westminster that the reports follow leaks from police or prosecution sources.

ITV News reported that Labour members working as senior officials in No 10 had used a parallel computer system to send sensitive e-mails that the police could not detect when they swept the Downing Street system for information. Some of the e-mails had been erased.

Downing Street denied the reports, insisting that there was "no parallel e-mail system inside Downing Street". That left open the question of whether a separate system was being used outside Downing Street.

Tom Bradby, the political editor of ITV News, challenged the Downing Street spokesman yesterday to withdraw his denials. But the spokesman retorted: " There is only one system in use. The police have had complete access to all such transactions. People should question why they are being given wrong information."

In a calculated way, Libby's attorney is in questioning Matt Cooper trying to contend that Cooper's own then Time colleague and co-author, John Dickerson, was a 'source' for Cooper, along with Rove and Libby. Eg.: reporter is a source, even though they were co-authors on a piece, both bringing their own sourced material to the story. You can see where they're going with that. Trying to make the case more plausible that reporters were sources for Libby too.

I'm not certain, but one also detects something else. The sense that Cooper remembers what Dickerson told him perhaps differently than Dickerson has reported in his first hand accounts... (Not sure about that).

Now Libby's lawyer Jeffress is moving on. Questioning Cooper whether it's fair to have portrayed Libby's purpose as disparaging to the Wilsons. Then Jeffress seems to be attacking Wilson's methodology too. Now he seems to be making a case for the credibility of the Niger uranium claims themselves. Making a case for the legitimacy of an effort to disparage Wilson's claim that he was sent to Niger at the "behest" of the office of the vice president. (Not said: didn't Wilson ask for it? Isn't this like the campaign all over again?)

It seems that Libby's lawyers are using a kind of kitchen sink approach. Establishing one thread, and then abandoning it to pursue another thread, then another, and another.

Colleague here reminding me - the defense doesn't have to prove anything. They just have to establish reasonable doubt.

Update: Now Jeffress is attacking Cooper's note taking practices. ... 'You make lots of typos' .... 'Ever type an r when you mean an n?' .... 'you were typing this on your laptop sprawled on the bed?' ... 'you meant to type erroneous but it came out erroreous' .... 'you typed 'eregy' but it should be 'energy', should it not?'

Jeffress: You have something about the wilson thing - not sure it's "ever" - suppose you had meant to say "even"? Isn't it possible Mr. Libby said to you 'yeah I have heard something like that but I am not sure it's 'even' true.'"

Cooper: That's not how I recollect it.

....

Update: Prosecution to conclude its case by Tuesday.

Tomorrow, FBI agent Debbie Bond.

clips of Libby grand jury testimony, to take them thru Monday.

then "a witness we have to discuss"

then Russert.

Defense saying - they have a witness, woman who is out of town. (NYT's Jill Abramson, who apparently will dispute some of what Miller has said).

Libby case, government lawyer, argument before lunch:

It's now July 10th. Libby calls Matalin for advice.

She tells him - she gives him strategy on how to deal with it.

(Matalin's advice to Libby, according to Libby's notes): "We need someone who can sum it up - Tenet like. This is fitting into Dem story on the Hill; the story has legs. It's fitting a Democratic theory for [the 2004 presidential] campaign. This story is not going away. We need to address Wilson motivation. We need to be able to get the cable out; the President should wave his wand (declassify this). Call Tim (Russert); (TR's phone number written there). He hates Chris (Matthews). He needs to know it all. Wilson is a snake."

Libby calls Tim Russert.

Government lawyer: the fact that Libby wrote that down: 'Wilson is a snake' - goes to his state of mind.

(Defense is arguing against that, might have been what Matalin said).

Judge Walton won't let them enter it. ....

AP:

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Wednesday he will turn over secret documents detailing the government's domestic spying program, ending a two-week standoff with the Senate Judiciary Committee over surveillance targeting terror suspects.

''It's never been the case where we said we would never provide the access,'' Gonzales told reporters.

''We'd obviously be concerned about (how) the public disclosure may jeopardize the national security of our country,'' he said. ''But we're working with the Congress to provide the information that it needs.''

The documents held by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court -- including investigators' applications for permission to spy and judges' orders -- will be given to some lawmakers as early as Wednesday.

Gonzales said the documents would not be released publicly. ''We're talking about highly classified discussions about highly classified actions of the United States government,'' the attorney general said.

Judiciary committee chairman and ranking get them, as well as members of the House and Senate intelligence committees.

PSA. Marcy Wheeler is posting her Libby trial coverage at Daily Kos, while FDL is overloaded.

NYT:

Investigators say they believe that attackers who used American-style uniforms and weapons to infiltrate a secure compound and kill five American soldiers in Karbala on Jan. 20 may have been trained and financed by Iranian agents, according to American and Iraqi officials knowledgeable about the inquiry.

The officials said the sophistication of the attack astonished investigators, who doubt that Iraqis could have carried it out on their own — one reason a connection to Iran is being closely examined. Officials cautioned that no firm conclusions had been drawn and did not reveal any direct evidence of a connection.

Comments a correspondent, "Looks like the theory the U.S. is pushing is that the brazen high-tech raid ... in Karbala was carried out by a rogue JAM commando group specially trained by Iran. This could get really bad really fast."

CNN: Iran involvement suspected in Karbala attack. Such speculation has swirled offline for more than a week (see here and here), but as yet there doesn't seem to be any proof except a sense of how sophisticated the operation was, and that the assailants didn't attack any of the Shiite leaders in Karbala with whom the US forces were meeting. On a related topic, as I mentioned yesterday on an NPR show, I was told yesterday that US ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad is 'ready to go' with a presentation of alleged US evidence on Iranian support for militants in Iraq, but is waiting for clearance through the inter-agency process. Given the amount of scrutiny the presentation will receive, the administration is cautious about what it presents. A minefield ...

WP: Germany issues arrest warrants for 13 alleged CIA operatives in el Masri kidnapping.

Via Justin Rood, FBI turns to broad new wiretap method.

I went to see Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fl) speak at Council on Foreign Relations today about his recent trip to Syria, Saudia Arabia, Lebanon, etc. One interesting point he raised: that in his confirmation hearings today, Centcom commander-nominee Admiral Fallon would not say that he supports the surge of 21,000 additional troops to Iraq.

I spoke with PRI/To the Point's Warren Olney about policy to Iran and the new focus on Iran in Iraq along with Trita Parsi, Joshua Muravchik and Phebe Marr today, based in part on the themes of this article.

What really happened at Najaf? Some readers are directing me here.

Reading this account of the Fleischer testimony yesterday at the Libby trial, I am reminded once again, where are the British reporters deconstructing the Butler report's claim that the UK had further "credible" evidence Saddam was seeking uranium in Niger, separate from the Italy forgeries channel? Butler report: "The British government had intelligence from several different sources indicating that this visit was for the purpose of acquiring uranium. Since uranium constitutes almost three-quarters of Niger's exports, the intelligence was credible.” So, what were the other sources? I notice the Butler report no longer seems to be online. Update: eRiposte sends this along.

WP:

Just before Christmas, an Army captain named Brian Freeman cornered Sens. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) and John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) at a Baghdad helicopter landing zone. The war was going badly, he told them. Troops were stretched so thin they were doing tasks they never dreamed of, let alone trained for.

Freeman, 31, took a short holiday leave to see his 14-month-old daughter and 2-year-old son, returned to his base in Karbala, Iraq, and less than two weeks ago died in a hail of bullets and grenades. Insurgents, dressed in U.S. military uniforms, speaking English and driving black American SUVs, got through a checkpoint and attacked, kidnapped four soldiers and later shot them. Freeman died in the assault, the fifth casualty of the brazen attack.

Harper's: "Meet the CIA's new Baghdad station chief."

From Marcy Wheeler's account of the Libby trial proceedings today:

[Judge] Walton–a juror question: In reference to call between Libby and [NBC's Andrea] Mitchell, you indicated some concerns about NIE being revealed. Can you tell us what your concerns were?

[Cathie Martin, former OVP press officer] I thought the NIE was classified, and we shouldn't talk about it.

Walton, did you do anything, inform anyone about that.

Martin: I was still not clear what it means when the Vice President says, "you can say this." I was still urging them to declassify it and disclose it to the public.

Walton, if you had concerns, why didn't you take action?

Martin: Because the Vice President of the United States had told me to say it, I didn't know where I was going to go. ...

Update: Via Kevin Drum. Ari Fleischer's testimony would seem to be very, very bad news for Scooter Libby:

Fitzgerald: Was anything discussed?

Fleischer: ....What I recall Libby saying to me, reiterated that VP did not send Wilson. Ambassador Wilson got sent by his wife, she works at CIA, works in CPD, I recall that he told me her name. This is hush hush this is on the QT.

....Fitzgerald: Her name, how did he describe her name?

Fleischer: I believe he said Valerie Plame.

More here.

Has anyone else noticed that we don't seem to quite know the identity of the 250 plus gunmen killed at Najaf yesterday? "Iraqi security officials offered conflicting accounts of the identity and motives of the heavily armed fighters outside Najaf, variously describing them as foreign fighters, Sunni Muslim nationalists, loyalists of executed former dictator Saddam Hussein or followers of a messianic Shiite death cult. Some witnesses reported that the attackers wore colorful Afghan tribal robes." That's a pretty broad range of possible affiliations for people to be in a several hour major battle with to not know roughly who they are.

Update: The NYT reports that the 500 gunmen involved in the huge clash near Najaf yesterday were members of the messianic Shiite cult, "Soldiers from Heaven." They had apparently planned to "storm the city during a religious festival and kill the nation’s top Shiite clerics." The group's leader is named Ali bin Ali bin Abi Talab, and Iraqi officials describe the cult as "Shiite in its 'exterior,' but not in its 'core.'”

Or are they?:

While Iraqi officials stressed today the group’s mixed membership and fringe beliefs, on Sunday two senior Shiite clerics said the gunmen were part of a Shiite splinter group that Saddam Hussein helped build in the 1990’s to compete with followers of the venerated Shiite religious leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

They said the group, calling itself the Mahdawiya, was loyal to Ahmad bin al-Hassan al-Basri, an Iraqi cleric who had a falling out with Muhammad Bakr al-Sadr — father-in-law of the Shiite leader Moktada al-Sadr — in Hawza, a revered Shiite seminary in Najaf.

Confirmed, apparently. Saudis suppressing oil prices.

Islamic Jihad bomber conducts first suicide terror attack in Israel since April, killing three at a bakery today in the resort town of Eilat.

Congratulations to my friend Rich Byrne, whose play has been selected as a finalist in a Prague Post-juried competition, and who is off to Prague to see it produced.

Dan Byman and Ken Pollack: Things fall apart.

Via Spencer, "When we kill Wahhabis?" More on the big fight near Najaf today.

In an abruptly scheduled interview with the NYT, Iranian ambassador to Iraq Hassan Kuzemi Qumi speaks to what the Iranians detained in Hakim's compound last month were doing:

... With a look of restrained sarcasm, Mr. Qumi ridiculed the evidence that the American military has said it collected, including maps of Baghdad delineating Sunni, Shiite and mixed neighborhoods — the kind of maps, some American officials have said, that would be useful for militias engaged in ethnic slaughter. Mr. Qumi said the maps were so common and easily obtainable that they proved nothing.

He did not say whether he believed the maps bore sectarian markings or address other pieces of evidence the Americans said that they had found, like manifests of weapons and material relating to the technology of sophisticated roadside bombs. But that is not why the Iranians were in the compound, he said.

“They worked in the security sector in the Islamic Republic, that’s clear,” Mr. Qumi said, referring to Iran.

But he said that the Iranians were in Iraq because “the two countries agreed to solve the security problems.” The Iranians “went to meet with the Iraqi side,” he said. ...

He seemed particularly keen to give his government’s view of what occurred in the early morning hours of Dec. 21, when American forces raided the Baghdad compound of Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, one of Iraq’s most powerful Shiite leaders, who had traveled to Washington only three weeks before to meet President Bush.

Within the compound, the Iranians were seized in the house of Hadi al-Ameri, who holds two powerful positions in Iraq: he is the chairman of the Iraqi Parliament’s security committee and also the leader of the Badr Organization, the armed wing of Mr. Hakim’s political party, which spent years in exile in Iran.

Although the Americans have suggested that the Iranians were providing support for militias like the Badr Organization, Mr. Qumi said that his countrymen were dealing with Mr. Ameri only in his official governmental capacity. ...

A senior Iraqi official expressed irritation that, even if Mr. Qumi’s account of the meeting was correct, the Iraqi government was not fully aware that Iran was making quasi-official contacts with Mr. Ameri.

The interview might be an effort to preemptively do damage control in advance of a planned American military press conference early this week to present evidence of alleged Iranian support for violence in Iraq. More here.

Here's a further AP report reconstructing what happened at Karbala -- and the American military's alleged initial effort to cover it up:

Iraqi officials said the approaching convoy of black GMC Suburbans was waved through an Iraqi checkpoint at the edge of the city. The Iraqi soldiers believed it to be American because of the type of vehicles, the distinctive camouflage American uniforms and the fact that they spoke English. One Iraqi official said the leader of the assault team was blond, but no other official confirmed that.

A top Iraqi security official for Karbala province told the AP that the Iraqi guards at the checkpoint radioed ahead to the governor's compound to alert their compatriots that the convoy was on its way.

Iraqi officials said the attackers' convoy divided upon arrival, with some vehicles parking at the back of the main building where the meeting was taking place, and others parking in front.

The attackers threw a grenade and opened fire with automatic rifles as they grabbed two soldiers inside the compound. Then the guerrilla assault team jumped on top of an armored U.S. Humvee and captured two more soldiers, the U.S. military officials said.

In its statement, the U.S. military said one soldier was killed and three were wounded by a "hand grenade thrown into the center's main office which contains the provincial police chief's office on an upper floor."

The attackers captured four soldiers and fled with them and the computer east toward Mahawil in Babil province, crossing the Euphrates River, the U.S. military officials said.

The Iraqi officials said the four were captured alive and shot just before the vehicles were abandoned.

Police, who became suspicious when the convoy of attackers and their American captives did not stop at a roadblock, chased the vehicles and found the bodies, the gear and the abandoned SUVs.

The military statement said: "Two soldiers were found handcuffed together in the back of one of the SUVs. Both had suffered gunshot wounds and were dead. A third soldier was found shot and dead on the ground. Nearby, the fourth soldier was still alive, despite a gunshot wound to the head."

The wounded soldier was rushed to the hospital by Iraqi police but died on the way, the military said.

The military also said Iraqi police had found five SUVs, U.S. Army-type combat uniforms, boots, radios and a non-U.S. made rifle at the scene.

Three days after the killings, the U.S. military in Baghdad announced the arrest of four suspects in the attack and said they were detained on a tip from a Karbala resident. No further information was released about the suspects.

Friday's military statement referred to the attackers as "insurgents," which usually suggests Sunnis. Although Karbala province is predominantly Shiite, Babil province is heavily populated by Sunnis in the north, near Baghdad. Babil's central and southern regions are largely Shiite.

A senior Iraqi military official said the sophistication of the attack led him to believe it was the work of Iranian intelligence agents in conjunction with Iraq's Shiite Mahdi Army militia, which Iran funds, arms and trains.

What explains the initial alleged American dissembling about what happened? At the height of Congressional concern over surge?

LAT: "Iraqi officials said that an American aircraft was shot down today near Najaf. Sources said the aircraft was a helicopter. Two other American helicopters have crashed in Iraq in the last eight days. There were no immediate reports on casualties."

CQ's Jeff Stein reports on one of the national security figures who blew the whistle on the corrupt MZM/Cunningham operation.

Check out Nayer Khazeni's account of visiting her birthplace, Iran:

Our final trip is to Esfahan, known as the gem of Iran and the Islamic world. You don’t need to be Iranian or Muslim to fall in love with this city — even Duke Ellington wrote a song about it. Set in the center of the country, at the foothills of the Zagros mountain range, it is a designated UNESCO world-heritage city. Eleven picturesque, fairytale-like bridges cross the scenic Zayandeh River. We stroll repeatedly across them, stopping for chayee at a teahouse on the lower portion of a bridge constructed of 33 arches. At the Baazaar-e Bozorg (Big Bazaar), I speak to a baazaari who tells me he loves Americans but doesn’t care much for their government. As an afterthought, he points out that he feels the same way about Iranians. He goes to the back of his shop and brings me a book in which he has pasted the business cards of all the Americans who have ever visited. We chat for some time, and as I’m about to leave he asks, “Is it true?” He wants to know if America is likely to hamleh (attack) Iran. He is well-read, and he knows Esfahan has a uranium-conversion facility.

And also Laura Secor's report, Whose Iran? The tension between theocracy and democracy may be reaching a crisis:

For a Western traveler in Iran these days, it is hard to avoid a feeling of cognitive dissonance. From a distance, the Islamic republic appears to be at its zenith. But from the street level, Iran’s grand revolutionary experiment is beset with fragility. The state is in a sense defined by its contradictions, both constitutional and economic. It cannot be truly stable until it resolves them, and yet if it tries to do so, it may not survive.

The Guardian interviews a Mahdi army commander. "[Fadhel's] main job is kidnapping Sunnis allegedly involved in attacking Shia areas. It is men like Fadhel, responsible for the scores of bodies dumped on Baghdad's streets daily, whom the US troops pouring into Baghdad will have to bring under control if they are to have any hope of quelling the city's civil war. ... Fadhel and other Mahdi Army commanders describe an intimate relationship with Iraqi security services, especially the commandos of the Iraqi interior ministry. He says the Mahdi Army often uses these official forces in conducting its own operations against Sunni 'terrorists.'"

The Mahdi Army laying low, and Sunni militants step up attacks in Baghdad. "Basim Shareef, a member of Parliament and part of the Shiite coalition that controls the government, said the attacks might be timed to coincide with the Shiite holy days. But he thought it was more likely that militants were taking advantage of the relative lull in activity by Shiite militia leaders, who might be worried about becoming the targets of the new Baghdad security plan. ... The spate of recent attacks appear to have been designed not just to inflict the maximum amount of civilian suffering, but also to grind all aspects of daily life closer to a halt. In a little over a week, places of learning, busy shopping markets and even an animal market have been targets."

I was told by a US official yesterday that US military spokesman Caldwell will present alleged US evidence on Iranian materiel support to militants in Iraq at a press conference in Baghdad early next week. More here.

Via the Corner's John Derbyshire, a pretty remarkable little story.

AP on an alleged major cover up about what went down in Karbala last week: "Contrary to U.S. military statements, four U.S. soldiers did not die repelling a sneak attack at the governor's office in the Shiite holy city of Karbala last week. New information obtained by The Associated Press shows they were abducted and found dead or dying as far as 25 miles away." Holy mackerel.

Update: An alleged cover up of the fact that four US soldiers were kidnapped - and killed -- by unidentified assailants with US IDs and black GM SUVs. A sophisticated operation. Sound like tit for tat for the US detaining some other foreign nationals lately in Iraq? In other words, was this an act of revenge -- minus the press conference? There's an eerie sort of parallelism there.

More from the Post:

The attackers left the compound with four abducted U.S. soldiers, passing an Iraqi police checkpoint in neighboring Babil province, the statement said.

After crossing the Euphrates River, the insurgents abandoned five SUVs and their U.S. Army-styled uniforms and boots, which were found by Iraqi police.

Two of the soldiers were later found handcuffed together in the back of an SUV. Both had died from gunshot wounds, the military statement said. A third soldier was found on the ground shot to death.

The fourth was found alive with a gunshot wound to the head. Iraqi police rushed the soldier to the hospital, but the soldier died en route.

"The military said the insurgents, wearing 'American looking uniforms' and carrying 'U.S.-type weapons,' entered the [Karbala] compound in a convoy of at least five sport utility vehicles at about 5 p.m. Saturday. The insurgents had convinced Iraqi security personnel, who were posted at checkpoints, 'to allow their passage,' the statement said."

Bush confirms the more aggressive policy towards Iranians in Iraq during a picture taking ceremony with newly confirmed General Petraeus today. This suggests to me that the "more aggressive US posture towards Iran in Iraq" -- with the subtext ('Bush authorizes US military to attack Iranian agents in Iraq') is a message that the White House clearly wants to get out there -- including on the front page of the Washington Post. Worth thinking about. "Catch and release" is not the same thing as kill, and to date, we have seen only the former, and more specifically, heard lots of talk about "catch" and slightly less about "release." Worth keeping the public diplomacy aspects of talk of this aggressive posture in mind.

The WP reports on how Iran is winning hearts and minds in Iraq.

Dafna Linzer: "Troops Authorized to Kill Iranian Operatives in Iraq."

The Bush administration has authorized the U.S. military to kill or capture Iranian operatives inside Iraq as part of an aggressive new strategy to weaken Tehran's influence across the Middle East and compel it to give up its nuclear program, according to government and counterterrorism officials with direct knowledge of the effort. [...]

The decision to use lethal force against Iranians inside Iraq began taking shape last summer, when Israel was at war with Hezbollah in Lebanon. Officials said a group of senior Bush administration officials who regularly attend the highest-level counterterrorism meetings agreed that the conflict provided an opening to portray Iran as a nuclear-ambitious link between al-Qaeda, Hezbollah and the death squads in Iraq.

WP: Ex-aide says Cheney led rebuttal effort.

Cheney stalled Senate intel probe, Senate Intel committee chairman Jay Rockefeller tells McClatchy's Jonathan Landay:

Vice President Dick Cheney exerted "constant" pressure on the Republican former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee to stall an investigation into the Bush administration's use of flawed intelligence on Iraq, the panel's Democratic chairman charged Thursday.

In an interview with McClatchy Newspapers, Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia also accused President Bush of running an illegal program by ordering eavesdropping on Americans' international e-mails and telephone communications without court-issued warrants.

In the 45-minute interview, Rockefeller said that it was "not hearsay" that Cheney, a leading proponent of invading Iraq, pushed Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., to drag out the probe of the administration's use of prewar intelligence.

"It was just constant," Rockefeller said of Cheney's alleged interference. He added that he knew that the vice president attended regular policy meetings in which he conveyed White House directions to Republican staffers.

Republicans "just had to go along with the administration," he said.

More on the behind the scenes struggle over Phase II here and here.

Funny story. My Dad called today to say he spent 20 minues with George Bush this morning at the hospital where he works in Kansas City. Bush was there to promote his health care initiative, and he came into the little room where the three radiologists were and stayed for a while, accompanied by Sen. Kit Bond and Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, and the hospital CEO. "We showed him how technology is critical to getting the job done. ... He's very well informed, very engaging....And the conversation was rolling along and he turned to me, 'Looks like you were born [before] the computer age.' I told him, 'You better believe it.' Somehow - I forget how it got to this in the conversation - something about criticism, and Bush said, 'I know something about criticism.' It was very genuine, very spontaneous; everybody chuckled. He apologized twice in reference to the issue of health care costs ..., he actually apologized twice for not getting the Congress to deal with that issue. ...."

This -- Marcy Wheeler's account of former Cheney press aide Cathie Martin testifying at the Libby trial today as a prosecution witness -- strikes me as pretty devastating. Not only for Libby, but for revealing so starkly just how this greater White House works, how it uses the press, and strategizes on using the press, etc. "Oped" means not an oped written by a figure from the administration or their staff -- but getting one of their surrogates or columnists to channel their point of view. But it also reveals a kind of well trod working relationship with other key journalists and outlets that also seems kind of surprising ... given especially this administration's kind of campaign to disparage the media:

[Martin, describing the note] ...Black is what the press strategy options were. Describing it:

[Meet the Press] (putting the Vice President on MTP), plus a pro and con of putting VP on MTP

Pros: best format, we control the message,

Cons: too weedy ... Too defensive, Raises the bar, meant I thought it raises the bar on the story.

Leak to Sanger/Pincus/Newsmag: Sanger was working on what he thought was a definitive piece, we could go to Sanger and tell him our version of this. Reporter with NYT. Pincus, WaPo, must have been writing story about his particular story. Newsmags, because it was the end of the week, Time, Newsweek, deadlines are on Saturday.

Press conference with Condi or Rummy.

Op-ed. In my vernacular, it also can mean having a third party write one

Martin resumes testimony Monday morning, then Ari Fleischer is up. More here.

Newsweek on Iran in Iraq. More here.

Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is working with aide Stephen Cambone at a Pentagon outpost in Arlington, the Washington Times reports, sorting through his old papers:

Former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has left the Pentagon, but not the Defense Department.
On Jan. 4, Mr. Rumsfeld opened a government-provided transition office in Arlington and has seven Pentagon-paid staffers working for him, a Pentagon official said.
The Pentagon lists Mr. Rumsfeld as a "nonpaid consultant," a status he needs in order to review secret and top-secret documents, the official said.
Mr. Rumsfeld and his aides, who include close adviser Stephen Cambone, are sifting through the thousands of pages of documents generated during his tenure.
The Pentagon official said former secretaries are entitled to a transition office to sort papers, some of which can be taken with them for a library, for archives or to write a book.
The transition office has raised some eyebrows inside the Pentagon. Some question the size of the staff, which includes two military officers and two enlisted men. They also ask why the sorting could not have been done from the time Mr. Rumsfeld resigned Nov. 8 to when he left the building Dec. 18.
The Pentagon official, who asked not to be named, said Mr. Rumsfeld served nearly six years as secretary, more than any other defense chief but one, meaning he accumulated an above-average pile of paper.
What's more, Mr. Rumsfeld managed the bureaucracy via "snowflakes," his typed directives on white paper that fell all over the Pentagon by the hundreds.

Hopefully the operation does not involve a shredder.

WP:

Vice President Cheney said yesterday that the administration has achieved "enormous successes" in Iraq but complained that critics and the media "are so eager to write off this effort or declare it a failure" that they are undermining U.S. troops in a war zone, striking a far more combative tone than President Bush did in his State of the Union address the night before.

In a television interview that turned increasingly contentious as it wore on, Cheney rejected the gloomy portrayal of Iraq that has become commonly accepted even among Bush supporters. "There's problems" in Iraq, he said, but it is not a "terrible situation." And congressional opposition "won't stop us" from sending 21,500 more troops, he said, it will only "validate the terrorists' strategy."

The defiant tenor contrasted sharply with Bush's speech Tuesday night, when the president congratulated Democrats on their election victory, offered to work with them on a variety of domestic policies, and told skeptics of his latest Iraq plan that he respects their arguments even as he asked them to give him one more chance to win the war. Bush acknowledged deep troubles in Iraq and made little effort to paint it a success. In a recent interview, Bush said his old policy was heading for "slow failure."

Cheney, on the other hand, rejected the idea that there has been any failure and gave voice to the aggravation many in the White House feel as Democrats step up their attacks on the administration. As leading Democrats lace their rhetoric with words such as "blunder" and "reckless," the White House has tried to calibrate how hard to push back. On a day when the Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed a resolution denouncing Bush's troop increase, Cheney decided not to hold back.

"The pressure is from some quarters to get out of Iraq," he told CNN. "If we were to do that, we would simply validate the terrorists' strategy that says the Americans will not stay to complete the task, that we don't have the stomach for the fight."

Cheney said the administration would disregard the nonbinding resolution opposing the troop increase and suggested it undermines soldiers in a war zone. "It won't stop us," he said. "And it would be, I think, detrimental from the standpoint of the troops."

Cheney has been criticized in the past for presenting what some called an overly rosy view of the situation in Iraq, most notably in 2005 when he said the insurgency was in its "last throes." The view he expressed yesterday seemed no less positive, and he sparred repeatedly with "Situation Room" host Wolf Blitzer, telling him "you're wrong" and suggesting he was embracing defeat.

When Blitzer asked whether the administration's credibility had been hurt by "the blunders and the failures" in Iraq, Cheney interjected: "Wolf, Wolf, I simply don't accept the premise of your question. I just think it's hogwash."

In fact, Cheney said, the operation in Iraq has achieved its original mission. "What we did in Iraq in taking down Saddam Hussein was exactly the right thing to do," he said. "The world is much safer today because of it. There have been three national elections in Iraq. There's a democracy established there, a constitution, a new democratically elected government. Saddam has been brought to justice and executed. His sons are dead. His government is gone."

"If he were still there today," Cheney added, "we'd have a terrible situation."

"But there is," Blitzer said.

"No, there is not," Cheney retorted. "There is not. There's problems -- ongoing problems -- but we have in fact accomplished our objectives of getting rid of the old regime, and there is a new regime in place that's been here for less than a year, far too soon for you guys to write them off." He added: "Bottom line is that we've had enormous successes and we will continue to have enormous successes."

Staggering.

Iran hysteria. The ad campaign begins in earnest.

Harpers' Ken Silverstein gets results again. Letter today from Rep. Pelosi, Sen. Reid, Sen. Rockefeller and Rep. Reyes calls for the long-awaited NIE on Iraq before 21,000 more US troops get sent:

Dear Director Negroponte:

As you know, last July members of Congress requested an updated national intelligence estimate (NIE) on Iraq. This request was subsequently supported by the full House and Senate in the Fiscal Year 2007 Department of Defense appropriations conference report and signed into law by the President (P.L. 109-289).

We were pleased that you directed the intelligence community to produce a new Iraq NIE. We also appreciate the other Iraq-related intelligence products and recent briefings and testimony you and your analysts have provided Congress. However, it now has been six months since we placed the request for the NIE and the community has yet to complete it.

More here. The last NIE on Iraq was produced -- incredibly -- in 2004 -- some 2,000 GI deaths ago. (The existence of an April 2006 NIE on terrorism was something I first reported in this August piece, which the NYT subsequently reported in greater detail). As CQ's Jeff Stein recently reported, the CIA has some 500 employees in Iraq. Yet incredibly, Walter Pincus reported today, the deputy director of national intelligence for analysis told Senate Intelligence committee members yesterday that the few Iraq specialists they have have been continuously busy with other more immediate tasks.

Ha'aretz news agencies: "Saudi Arabia and Iran, backers of the main rivals in Lebanon's political crisis, are negotiating a deal to end the standoff, Lebanese political sources said. According to the sources, Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan held talks with senior Iranian official Ali Larijani in Tehran to try reach an agreement that both the Lebanese government and the opposition would accept."

WP on the trial today. We've already learned a lot. Libby seems incredibly well represented. Reading from the press accounts, it seems that Libby attorney Ted Wells has been able to tease out acknowledged inconsistencies between what Grossman, and Grenier told the FBI and what they now say they remember. A faulty-memory defense, and Wells doesn't even have to call in the memory experts.

Blackwater helicopter downed in Baghdad. "At least four of the [five] victims had suffered gunshot wounds to the head, raising the prospect that some of them had been shot on the ground." It's the second helicopter to go down in Iraq this week, including a Blackhawk with 12 on board.

Newsweek wrap up of the Libby trial today:

Libby, it was widely thought by legal experts, was going to be the good soldier. He would play it safe at his trial in order to preserve his options; mainly, if convicted, to seek a presidential pardon before Bush leaves office.

But no sooner did he start his opening statement Tuesday morning than defense lawyer Ted Wells shocked the courtroom and all but tossed the “pardon strategy” out the window. Seeking to rebut Fitzgerald’s contention that Libby had lied about his knowledge of Plame’s CIA employment in order to save his job with Cheney, Wells shot back: “Mr. Libby was not concerned about losing his job in the Bush administration. He was concerned about being set up, he was concerned about being made the scapegoat.”

According to Wells, the chief culprit, or at least the beneficiary of the plot was Rove, described by the defense lawyer as “the president’s right hand man,” whose survival was essential for the president’s re-election. As related by Wells, his client was so worried that Rove’s fate was taking priority over his that Libby went to his boss, Cheney, in October 2003 and complained: “I think people in the White House are trying to set me up. People in the White House are trying to protect Karl Rove.”

Well’s argument was both brilliant and complex-and perhaps difficult for non-news hounds on the jury to follow. But it raised the prospect that the Libby trial will now turn into a horror show for the White House, forcing current and former top aides to testify against each other and revealing an administration that has been in turmoil over the Iraq war for more than three years.

A foreign colleague here for the trial told me today, "I was in the Libby courtroom, and surprised myself thinking that by the way, this country has something that again in the end we don't have [in my country]. It is capable of having a trial and maybe in some ways to pay for their mistakes and find responsibility for mistakes if mistakes were done. We don't have this, this is why we have the same politicians and officials in the security services for the past forty years."

Update: Maybe not such a scorched earth strategy after all?

The deputy director of national intelligence for analysis and chairman of the NIC Thomas Fingar gave a preview of the long-delayed NIE on Iraq to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Tuesday. Walter Pincus reports:

Fingar had earlier been asked by several senators about the time it had taken to complete the NIE, which Congress requested in legislation that passed the Senate last August. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) raised the issue, saying that under the present timetable, Congress will vote on resolutions questioning President Bush sending additional troops to Iraq without seeing the forthcoming NIE. "Intelligence has got to be available in a timely way," Wyden said.

He said that in 2002, the administration pushed out an NIE on Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction in three weeks. But Sen. Christopher S. Bond (R-Mo.) noted that the result was a flawed document. "We learned the hard way in 2002" to wait for an NIE to be prepared in a timely fashion, Bond said.

Fingar explained that the time for completing the NIE dragged out because the number of highly skilled Iraq analysts is small and they often are called on by the White House and military for quick analyses and assessments.

More here.

"The person to be protected was Karl Rove." Fireworks at the Libby trial. According to Empty Wheel liveblogging it at FDL, this is Libby lawyer Ted Wells:

Mr. Libby was not concerned about losing his job. He was concerned about being set up. He was concerned about being the scapegoat.

Mr. Libby said to the VP, "I think the White House people are trying to set me up, people want me to be the scapegoat. People in the White House want me to protect Karl Rove." ...

Cheney made notes of what Libby said. Notes show Libby telling the Vice President that he was not involved in leak ...

Cheney's note: "Not going to protect one staffer and sacrifice the guy that was asked to stick his neck in the meat grinder because of the incompetence of others."

The person who was to be protected was Karl Rove. Karl Rove was President Bush's right hand person. Karl Rove was the person most responsible for making sure Bush stayed in office. He had to be protected....

MSNBC: Fitzgerald says that Libby "wiped out" the above Cheney note:

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald used his opening statement in the CIA leak trial Tuesday to allege that Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff lied about Cheney's early involvement in the disclosure of a spy’s identity.

Fitzgerald said Cheney told his chief of staff, “Scooter” Libby, in 2003 that the wife of Iraq critic and former ambassador Joseph Wilson worked for the CIA, and that Libby spread that information to reporters. When that information got out, it triggered a federal investigation.

“But when the FBI and grand jury asked about what the defendant did,” Fitzgerald said, “he made up a story.”

Fitzgerald also alleged that Libby in September 2003 “wiped out” a Cheney note just before Libby's first FBI interview when he said he learned about Wilson and his wife, CIA operative Valerie Plame, from reporters, not the vice president.

It was not clear if Fitzgerald meant that an attempt was made to destroy the note or that Libby had forgotten about it. In any case, the note was recovered and is part of the evidence.

Here's the Post.

Update: Tapped reports that Fleischer told NBC's David Gregory Wilson's wife worked for the CIA).

LAT: Scant evidence of Iran-Iraq arms links.

McClatchy:

A license plate from a car registered to Iraq's minister of trade was found on an SUV used by the gunmen who killed five American soldiers in the city of Karbala on Saturday, an Iraqi police official said Monday.

Maj. Gen. Qais al Maamuri, a police commander in Hilla, said the plate had been stolen from a BMW that belongs to Abdul Falah al-Sudani, a member of the Shiite Muslim Dawa Party. He said Sudani wasn't a suspect in the attack.

The link, however, deepened the mystery surrounding the Saturday attack as the second double-car bombing in Baghdad in seven days provided additional evidence that it will be difficult to quell the violence, even with the additional U.S. troops President Bush is sending to Iraq. ...

U.S. officials confirmed Monday that five Americans were killed in Saturday's attack, but they revealed no information about how the gunmen obtained a top Iraqi official's license plate, U.S. and Iraqi army uniforms and identification cards and vehicles like the ones used to carry U.S. officials.

Most Iraqi officials live in the American-protected Green Zone, where entry is strictly controlled. If the license plate were stolen from Sudani's car inside the Green Zone, that would suggest an inside job.

American soldiers frequently complain that sympathetic Iraqi police and soldiers tip off targets of raids in advance, but Iraqi officials marveled at the brazenness of Saturday's attack in Karbala, a city controlled by Shiites. ...

The attack was so well executed that Karbala provincial officials at first accused the Americans of raiding the headquarters.

Apparently, Liz Cheney is not going back to the State Department. More here.

Thomas Ricks:

People who have spoken with Petraeus recently said he believes that politicians and journalists have put too much emphasis on the increase in troop numbers and too little on his intention to use them differently. Their top priority will be protecting the Iraqi population, following counterinsurgency doctrine laid out in a new Army manual, which he oversaw, that says "the people are the prize."

The plan calls for large numbers of Iraqi and U.S. forces to flow into a targeted area like an ocean tide, temporarily overwhelming militia and insurgent fighters. But unlike in the past, when the tide goes out, it will leave behind a substantial residual force of Iraq army and police units, backed up by mobile U.S. troops. In this way, planners hope to "hold" neighborhoods rather than just "clear" them of the enemy.

CBS: On Eve Of State Of Union, President's Approval Rating Falls To 28%, A New Low.

Just several months ago, it seemed oil prices could be heading to $100 a barrel. Now, having dropped from $70 to closer to $50 a barrel, some speculate prices could fall to as low as $30 a barrel. With hedge fund speculation leading to sharp rises and falls in oil prices, McClatchy cites an oil market analyst who says consumers should most of all expect more volatility in oil prices:

... Predicting future oil prices depends not only on production and consumption trends but also on money managers who have pumped billions of dollars into contracts for future oil delivery. These institutional investors include hedge funds - investment pools for the very wealthy - as well as companies that manage pension funds and 401(k) retirement plans.

Two decades ago, oil was largely sold by producers to direct users such as airlines, trucking companies and manufacturers, who took delivery of the oil. Today, more than 500 financial "energy funds" buy and sell contracts for future delivery of oil, or futures. These investors have put anywhere from $70 billion to $150 billion into oil trading in recent years, according to estimates. They don't want the oil; they just want to profit from trading in it. ...

Today, the question is how far prices might fall, and institutional investors may hold the answer. With oil prices falling, their investments face growing risk.

"If pension funds decide they don't want to take the risk anymore and bail out, we could see prices go a hell of a lot lower," said Philip Verleger, an oil economist who's gained a reputation for early warnings on oil-price swings. "I think prices could dip below $30 (a barrel). It really depends on what these pension funds do."

"You have the possibility for a significant break in prices," agreed Bill O'Grady, assistant director of market analysis for A.G. Edwards & Sons, a financial services company.

Still, O'Grady cautioned, consumers shouldn't expect energy prices to stay low for long.

"What a consumer is really looking at is a world where oil prices are going to be a lot more volatile," he said. "It is a world where there's just a lot more risk on both sides. When consumers hear risk they think of prices going up. When producers hear risk, they hear prices going down. And they're both right."

WP:

The FBI erred by failing to notify anyone in the House of Representatives about questionable e-mails sent to a former page by former Florida Republican lawmaker Mark Foley, according to a new report released today.

The review by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine also found that FBI and Justice officials misled reporters last fall by claiming that the activist group that first provided the FBI with the e-mails had not been cooperative.

In fact, the report found that the group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), notified the FBI within days of receiving the e-mails and that the FBI never sought any additional information from the group.

Here's a link (.pdf) to Fine's report.

NBC: Two simultaneous bombings in a Shiite market kill around 100.

A knowledgeable reader says that Empty Wheel's liveblogging of the Libby trial at Firedoglake is by far and away the best reporting going on of the case today. More here, here, and here.

Scot Paltrow drops this bombshell: An as yet unindicted co-conspirator in the Duke Cunningham bribery scandal, ADCS chairman and defense contractor Brent Wilkes, has become a major focus of the investigation of former House appropriations committee Jerry Lewis, one of the most powerful figures in Congress:

A key figure in the case against former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham has become a focus of the federal investigation of another Republican from California, Rep. Jerry Lewis.

The person who has emerged in both probes is Brent Wilkes, a Poway, Calif., entrepreneur, said people with knowledge of the investigation. His firm received defense and intelligence contracts with congressional help from Mr. Cunningham. The former lawmaker pleaded guilty in November to charges that included soliciting bribes from Mr. Wilkes and was sentenced to more than eight years in prison.

Prosecutors in Los Angeles are examining whether Mr. Lewis may have improperly helped Mr. Wilkes's companies obtain government contracts. A spokeswoman for Mr. Lewis declined to comment on the investigation.

Mr. Lewis is under investigation for possible improper conduct in obtaining "earmarks," or legislative language that steers federal funds to specific recipients. The continuing investigation into his actions is significant because the new House Republican leadership decided to keep Mr. Lewis, of California, on the Appropriations Committee as the top minority member, despite the probe. He had been chairman until Democrats took control of the House this month. [...]

One matter under investigation is the tens of millions of dollars in earmarks Mr. Lewis obtained for clients of the firm, which since has split up. Prosecutors also are focusing on campaign contributions Mr. Wilkes and his associates made to Mr. Lewis, and contracts Mr. Wilkes's companies obtained after hiring Copeland Lowery. Among other things, they are looking for possible evidence that Mr. Lewis directed Mr. Wilkes to hire Copeland Lowery as the price for getting earmarks passed, said the people with knowledge of the case. ...

Update: The San Diego Union Tribune's Dean Calbreath reports that ADCS is losing its Poway California headquarters.

The Federation of American Scientists' Steve Aftergood reports on his Secrecy News blog:

The Director of the Congressional Research Service last week issued a revised agency policy on "Interacting with the Media" that warns CRS analysts about the "very real risks" associated with news media contacts and imposes new restrictions on speaking to the press.

"CRS staff must report within 24 hours all on-the-record interactions with any media to their supervisor, including the name of the reporter, media affiliation, date, time, and detailed notes on the matters discussed or to be discussed," the new policy states (pdf).

"Violations of the media policy will be addressed promptly," wrote CRS director Daniel P. Mulhollan.

A copy of the CRS policy on "Interacting with the Media" (.pdf) was obtained by Secrecy News.

The new policy "will obviously have a chilling effect on staff," said one CRS analyst on a not-for-attribution basis. "That's what it is intended to do."

There's a straw that broke the camel's back quality to the report after report after report -- most documented by the heroic Aftergood -- on the multiple efforts to curtail openness, communication, transparency from the US government and restrict public access to and understanding of the working of government except through the most mediated and narrow of public relations openings, not any less alarming for not being all that effective, perhaps. Myself, as a citizen, I think it's a tragedy, one of the saddest things about living through the past few years, and one of the quieter and less dramatic ways one feels democracy being rolled back, just a bit, but in some way essential to what this country was about. Now that CRS director Mulhollan answers to a new Congress, will his tune change?

The father of one of NPR's Iraqi journalists, Abdullah Mizead, was kidnapped from the back of his car several weeks ago, and has not been recovered. Jamie Tarabay reported on it this morning.

More details on the eerie Karbala attack from McClatchy:

Chilling details emerged Sunday of gunmen posing as American and Iraqi soldiers in an ambush on U.S. troops in Karbala a day earlier that killed five Americans and wounded three.

On Saturday, a civil affairs team of American soldiers sat with local leaders in Karbala's provincial headquarters to discuss security for Ashoura, a Shiite commemoration of the massacre of the revered Imam Hussein that began Sunday.

Outside, danger was approaching. A convoy of seven white GMC Suburbans sped toward the building, breezing through checkpoints, with the men wearing American and Iraqi military uniforms and flashing American ID cards, Iraqi officials said. The force stopped at the police directorate in Karbala and took weapons but gave no reason, said police spokesman Capt. Muthana Ahmed in Babel province.

A call was made to the provincial headquarters to inform them an American convoy was on its way, said the governor of Karbala, Akeel al-Khazaali. But the Americans stationed inside the building, which acts as a coordination center for Iraqi officials, Iraqi security forces and U.S. forces, had not been informed, Iraqi officials said.

As the U.S. soldiers and the Iraqis scrambled to figure out if the men were Americans or an illegally armed group, the convoy arrived and the gunmen tried to break in.

The gunmen launched grenades, mortars and small arms fire, according to a U.S. military statement. The U.S. military said Sunday it was still not clear if the gunmen were Sunni or Shiite militia. Abu Abdullah, a commander in Karbala of the Mahdi Army, the militia led by firebrand Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, on Sunday denied involvement in the attack.

After 15 minutes of fighting, the gunmen fled towards Hilla, the capital of Babel, a mixed Sunni-Shiite province, Ahmed said.

Babel police were notified as the convoy sped toward their capital city, and Iraqi police commandos gave chase. The police commandos discovered the vehicles and found three dead men inside, a wounded man and five others, Ahmed said. He said they all spoke English. Iraqi police took the men back to the police station and American forces retrieved them by dawn.

Also inside the vehicles, Iraqi police found a bag filled with American military uniforms. They also found flak vests, American weapons and American ID cards that had allowed the gunmen to maneuver through the city, Ahmed said.

Scotland Yard seems to have ID'd a murder suspect in the Litvinenko case. (Via FDL).

Another piece of the whole of the shunning of expert judgment. (Via Kurtz).

Jim Hoagland suggests Saudi Arabia is putting the squeeze on Iran in a way it is uniquely able: "Saudi Arabia is finally worried enough about Iran to use oil as a weapon against the regime of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Saudi oil minister Ali Nuaimi publicly opposed Iranian calls for production cuts by the OPEC cartel to halt a decline that has taken crude oil from $78 a barrel in July to just above $50 a barrel last week. The Saudis have enough reserve production capacity to swing OPEC prices up and down at will. Their relatively small population gives them a flexibility in postponing revenue gains that populous Iran lacks. Nuaimi's pronouncement, although cast as a technical matter that had nothing to do with politics, seemed to give teeth to recent warnings issued in private by Prince Bandar bin Sultan..." More here.

WP: In face of advice, Bush pushed Iraq build up.

Twenty-seven American soldiers killed in Iraq this weekend, including five in a raid on a meeting of US and local Iraq security forces in Karbala:

The gunmen who killed five U.S. troops in the Shiite holy city of Karbala wore military uniforms and used vehicles commonly driven by foreign dignitaries — an apparent attempt to impersonate Americans, Iraqi officials said Sunday. ...

The U.S. military statement about the Karbala attack said “an illegally armed militia group” attacked the provincial headquarters building with grenades, small arms and “indirect fire,” which usually means mortars or rockets.

“A meeting was taking place at the time of the attack to ensure the security of Shiite pilgrims participating in the Ashoura commemorations,” said a statement from Brig. Gen. Vincent K. Brooks, deputy commander of the Multi-National Division-Baghdad.

Thousands of Shiite pilgrims are flocking to the city to mark the 10-day Ashoura festival commemorating the death of one of Shiite Islam’s most sacred saints, Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad.

Provincial Gov. Akeel al-Khazaali, who was not at the security meeting, said the gunmen were able to drive their black SUVs through a checkpoint on the outskirts of the city, 50 miles south of Baghdad, because police assumed it was a diplomatic convoy and informed headquarters that it was coming.

“The group used percussion bombs and broke into the building, killed five Americans and kidnapped two others, then fled,” the governor said, adding that Iraqi troops later found one of the SUVs with three bodies dressed in military uniforms. [...]

A security official in Karbala, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to disclose the information to the media, said the gunmen drove to Babil province after the attack. The Babil police commander confirmed that they entered the region before disappearing.

Although Babil province is predominantly Shiite, some parts of it, just south of Baghdad, are Sunni and insurgents are known to be active there.

More here:

...New details also emerged about clashes on Saturday in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, which left five Americans dead. Lt. Col. Scott R. Bleichwehl, an American military spokesman, said the gunmen who stormed the provincial governor’s office during a meeting between American and local officials were wearing what appeared to be American military uniforms in an effort to impersonate United States soldiers.

The sophisticated attack hinted at what could be a new threat for American troops as they start a fresh security plan centered on small bases in Baghdad’s bloodiest neighborhoods, where troops will live and work with Iraqi forces. One of the American military’s greatest concerns, military officials have said, is that troops will be vulnerable to attack from killers who appear to be colleagues.

It is not uncommon for gunmen to impersonate Iraqi security forces, but this appears to be the first time that attackers have portrayed themselves as Americans. ...

More from the Post:

After arriving at the Provincial Joint Coordination Center in Karbala, 60 miles southwest of Baghdad, the attackers detonated sound bombs, Iraqi officials said. "They wanted to create a panic situation," said an aide to Karbala Gov. Akeel al-Khazaali, who described the events with the governor's permission but on condition of anonymity because he fears reprisals.

The men then stormed into a room where Americans and Iraqis were making plans to ensure the safety of thousands of people expected to visit the holy city for an upcoming holiday.

"They didn't target anyone but the American soldiers," the governor's aide said.

After the attack, the assailants returned to their vehicles and drove away.

So the attackers killed the Americans but spared the Iraqi Security Forces in the room meeting with them? Who would have had the capability to mount such an operation, and have such intel on who was meeting where and when, down to the room?

Don't miss Carlotta Gall's sidebar either. Her Quetta dispatch is excerpted below.

This is the kind of story that just writes itself.

AP Photo/Hasan Sarbakhshian/caption: "U.S. freestyle wrestler Mike Irvin, right, and Iran's Hamid Zareiani wrestle during a tournament at the city of Bandar Abbas southeast of the capital Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 19, 2007. A 20-member U.S. team are in Iran to participate in the Persian Gulf Cup, also known as the Takhti Cup, the top wrestling tournament in Iran, where the sport has been a national obsession for centuries. Unlike their politicians, the American wrestlers appeared happy and comfortable to stay in a country their president has labelled part of an 'axis of evil.'"

Carlotta Gall from Quetta:

The most explosive question about the Taliban resurgence here along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan is this: Have Pakistani intelligence agencies been promoting the Islamic insurgency?

The government of Pakistan vehemently rejects the allegation and insists that it is fully committed to help American and NATO forces prevail against the Taliban militants who were driven from power in Afghanistan in 2001.

Western diplomats in both countries and Pakistani opposition figures say that Pakistani intelligence agencies — in particular the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence and Military Intelligence — have been supporting a Taliban restoration, motivated not only by Islamic fervor but also by a longstanding view that the jihadist movement allows them to assert greater influence on Pakistan’s vulnerable western flank.

More than two weeks of reporting along this frontier, including dozens of interviews with residents on each side of the porous border, leaves little doubt that Quetta is an important base for the Taliban, and found many signs that Pakistani authorities are encouraging the insurgents, if not sponsoring them.

The evidence is provided in fearful whispers, and it is anecdotal. ...

Three families whose sons had died as suicide bombers in Afghanistan said they were afraid to talk about the deaths because of pressure from Pakistani intelligence agents. Local people say dozens of families have lost sons in Afghanistan as suicide bombers and fighters.

One former Taliban commander said in an interview that he had been jailed by Pakistani intelligence officials because he would not go to Afghanistan to fight. He said that, for Western and local consumption, his arrest had been billed as part of Pakistan’s crackdown on the Taliban in Pakistan. ...

“The Pakistanis are actively supporting the Taliban,” declared a Western diplomat in an interview in Kabul. He said he had seen an intelligence report of a recent meeting on the Afghan border between a senior Taliban commander and a retired colonel of the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence. ....

And worth remembering this.

Greg Djerejian makes a good point here:

Also important to note, and we've been doing it somewhat ham-handedly and clumsily, we appear to be falling into the trap of playing the regional game Iranian style (they arm Hezbollah, we get money that will go to the Lebanese military via Siniora, they get some cash to Hamas, we gets funds to Fatah (again, some will go to Abbas' security forces). Can this various tit-for-tat ratcheting up of arming proxies really play to our long-term advantage, in the absence of diplomatic efforts at conflict resolution (won't many of the groups we support end up looking like U.S. puppets to too many, absent broader progress at resolving issues of region-wide consequence like the Arab-Israeli conflict?) ...

'Playing the regional game Iranian style' captures a newly evident aspect of the policy well.

Jeff Stein: Spying in Baghdad, the CIA's real mission impossible.

McClatchy: Kurdish Iraqi soldiers are deserting to avoid conflict in Baghdad.

Israeli deputy defense minister Ephraim Sneh: peace with Palestinians possible within two years:

"Two years are enough to conclude a detailed agreement," Sneh told an academic conference.

"We should discuss, maybe for six months, the principles, and move forward about the details of final status agreement," Sneh said. "It (the talks) can be direct, and I am sure, in the government of Israel, there is a majority for doing it."

He appealed for urgent action, saying the timing was favorable because moderate Arab states want to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"We have an opportunity, but I don't know for how long will it last," he said. "We have to do it very, very quickly." [...]

In the first stage, which would last six months, a new security and economic policy would be formulated. This would include the release of captured Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit, the evacuation of unauthorized West Bank settlement outposts, and the stabilization of the cease-fire.

In the second stage, which would also last six months, would be comprised of negotiations on final status principles and the expansion of Palestinian sovereignty.

The third stage would consist of negotiations on the details of the final status agreement, and would last 18 months.

More on that emerging alliance here.

Interesting NYT interview with Sen. Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate Select intelligence committee:

Mr. Rockefeller said he believed President Bush was getting poor advice from advisers who argue that an uncompromising stance toward the government in Tehran will serve American interests.

“I don’t think that policy makers in this administration particularly understand Iran,” he said.

The comments of Mr. Rockefeller reflect the mounting concerns being voiced by other influential Democrats, including the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, and Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, about the Bush administration’s approach to Iran. The Democrats have warned that the administration is moving toward a confrontation with Iran when the United States has neither the military resources nor the support among American allies and members of Congress to carry out such a move.

More here.

Former House appropriations committee staffer Scott Lilly explores why six US attorneys have found themselves retired early. More here.

Ha'aretz: Jordan's King Abdullah II to develop nuclear power:

Abdullah: "But, the rules have changed on the nuclear subject throughout the whole region. Where I think Jordan was saying, 'we'd like to have a nuclear-free zone in the area,' after this summer, everybody's going for nuclear programs.

"The Egyptians are looking for a nuclear program. The GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] are looking at one, and we are actually looking at nuclear power for peaceful and energy purposes. We've been discussing it with the West.

"I personally believe that any country that has a nuclear program should conform to international regulations and should have international regulatory bodies that check to make sure that any nuclear program moves in the right direction."

Canadian blog, the Reaction reviews Senate Judiciary committee chairman Patrick Leahy's raising his voice at AG Gonzales during questioning yesterday on the extraordinary rendition of Canadian citizen Maher Arar to Syria. Apparently Arar remains on a US terrorist list and the US has never apologized for delivering him to Syrian torturers, nor doing so to a Canadian citizen. A Canadian judicial inquiry has determined that Arar is innocent. Here's the CBC report on the Arar part of the hearing.

LAT: Red teaming US military decisions in Iraq.

LAT: On the NDI employee killed in an targeted ambush this week. Andi Parhamovich had worked for the International Republican Institute, and NDI in Baghdad, and Air America back in the States.

CBS/AP: Top Sadr aide arrested in operation by US and Iraqi forces near Sadr City in Baghdad:

The raid came as Defense Secretary Robert Gates began his second trip to Iraq in less than a month, arriving in the southern city of Basra to consult with other coalition commanders.

Al-Sadr said in an interview with an Italian newspaper published Friday that the crackdown had already begun and that 400 of his men had been arrested. La Repubblica also quoted him as saying he fears for his life and stays constantly on the move.

Sheik Abdul-Hadi al-Darraji, al-Sadr's media director in Baghdad, was captured and his personal guard was killed, according to another senior al-Sadr aide.

FISA oversight ruse? NYT:

On Wednesday, the administration announced that an unnamed judge on the secret court, in a nonadversarial proceeding that apparently cannot be appealed, had issued orders that apparently both granted surveillance requests and set out some ground rules for how such requests would be handled.

The details remained sketchy yesterday, but critics of the administration said they suspected that one goal of the new arrangements was to derail lawsuits challenging the program in conventional federal courts.

McClatchy: Middle East hasn't turned out the way Bush, Rice predicted. "Iraq was supposed to be a model for democracy in the Arab world. Instead, Iraq's breakdown has spawned heightened sectarian tensions across the region. The chief beneficiary has been Iran, whose influence is growing in the Middle East."

Will Ahmadinejad get dumped -- by his own regime?

Just out, at National Journal, the "Nonwar War against Iran." Check it out.

WP:

The chief judge of a secret intelligence court is willing to turn over to Congress copies of new orders that allow government surveillance of international communications, but Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales signaled that he was likely to block such an action.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, presiding judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, wrote in a letter late Wednesday to the leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee that she had "no objection to this material being made available" to lawmakers.

But the judge said it was up to Gonzales's department to decide the matter since the documents include classified information.

Gonzales, during an appearance this morning in front of judiciary panel, suggested under questioning from Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) that he was unlikely to allow the court to provide senators with the documents.

Senate Judiciary committee grills the Attorney General, live.

10:45am: Sen. Feinstein, a member of both the Judiciary and Intel committees, now up. How many US attorneys have been asked to resign in the past year?

Gonzales: You know.... I don't know the answer to that question. .... We gave you a lot of information in the letter Tuesday. ...

Feinstein: I know of at least six who have been asked to resign. I know we amended the Patriot Act...We did not amend it to prevent the confirmation process from taking place. I have had two of them asked to resign from my state with substantially good records as prosecutors, and I am very concerned. Because technically under the Patriot Act you can appoint someone without confirmation for the remainder of the President's term.

Gonzales: No evidence that is what I am trying to do. [...]

Feinstein: Was there any other reason to ask Bud Cummings of Arkansas to resign other than to put [former RNC opposition researcher and Rove aide] Tim Griffin in?

Gonzales: (won't say). . . .

Leahy: Would it be possible during lunch to get the numbers Sen. Feinstein asked for?

Gonzales: I don't want to have a public discussion about personnel decisions.....

Leahy: Just the numbers . . .

11:15am: Sen. Russell Feingold up. (paraphrased): what happened to all those inflammatory justifications for the terrorism surveillance program not being able to be submitted to FISA oversight? ...

Gonzales: Just check out the blogs today. Lots of people who think there should be no surveillance....

Feingold: (paraphrased) Falsely accusing the majority of this committee of opposing the surveilling of terrorists is not going to serve you well with this committee.

AP: Iran says that Iraq promises to release five Iranians detained by US forces in Irbil last week.

Four people from the National Democratic Institute were killed in an ambush in Baghdad yesterday, among them an American, a Hungarian, a Croatian and an Iraqi.

NYT:

The administration said it had briefed the full House and Senate Intelligence Committees in closed sessions on its decision.

But Representative Heather A. Wilson, Republican of New Mexico, who serves on the Intelligence committee, disputed that, and some Congressional aides said staff members were briefed Friday without lawmakers present.

Ms. Wilson, who has scrutinized the program for the last year, said she believed the new approach relied on a blanket, “programmatic” approval of the president’s surveillance program, rather than approval of individual warrants.

Administration officials “have convinced a single judge in a secret session, in a nonadversarial session, to issue a court order to cover the president’s terrorism surveillance program,” Ms. Wilson said in a telephone interview. She said Congress needed to investigate further to determine how the program is run.

Ron Brownstein:

A commanding majority of Americans oppose President Bush's decision to send more troops to Iraq and just over half the country wants Congress to block the deployment, a Times/Bloomberg poll has found.

As he seeks to chart a new course in Iraq, Bush also faces pervasive resistance and skepticism toward the U.S. commitment — more than three-fifths of those surveyed said the war was not worth fighting and only one-third approved of his handling of the conflict.

And in a striking measure of Bush's declining credibility, half said they believed he deliberately misled the U.S. in making his case for invading Iraq.

On all three questions, these are Bush's weakest showing in a Times poll. ...

Even Bush's political base, a source of support throughout his presidency, showed signs of cracking: about one-fourth of Republicans said they do not believe the war was worth fighting and a roughly equal number opposed the troop increase.

Note this too:

Most of those polled said that rather than Bush's plan, they would prefer that the administration follow the direction charted last month by the independent Iraq Study Group. ... Asked to choose between that approach and Bush's new plan, 53% said they preferred the study group's recommendations, nearly double the 28% that favored the president's proposal.

This is hilarious. David Shuster:

This is day #2 of jury selection, and it has become another bad day for a few of America’s elite universities. This morning, a young woman with degrees from Swarthmore and Emory University said she had no opinion about the Bush Administration’s case for war with Iraq. She also said she never watches the news or reads the paper, and said she would consider Vice President Cheney “a perfect stranger.” Yesterday, a potential juror with two degrees from Northwestern, including one in journalism, said she thought she knew something about the CIA leak case but “couldn’t recall anything.” When asked about the types of stories she covered as a graduate school journalist, that woman repeatedly said, “I don’t really remember...just stuff at the court, stuff at the city council.” Asked what else? She said, “Other stuff.” Asked to be more specific, she said “I don’t remember. It was a bunch of stuff.” ...

The next prospective juror, a database administration, answered affirmatively to the question of whether he “knew” any of the attorneys in the case. He said he “knew” prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald from a news conference Fitzgerald held 15 months ago on the day Scooter Libby was indicted. The prospective juror said he didn’t mean to imply he “knew Fitzgerald personally.” Upon further questions by the judge, this man said his wife works in the criminal division at the justice department and added that a friend of theirs is a federal prosecutor in D.C. ....

Just a few moments ago, the 12th prospective juror to be questioned on the witness stand noted that she had read a Washington Post article on Monday previewing the Libby trial after the woman learned she would be a possible juror in the case. Asked by the judge, “You read the specific article?” The 60ish woman said, “Absolutely.” When the judge asked the woman if she had “any opinions” about the Bush administration that might affect her ability to focus solely on the evidence and statements made in court, the woman replied: “I certainly have an opinion that I can’t believe any statement by the Bush administration.” The judge immediately asked attorneys to approach the bench ...

The 13th prospective juror to be questioned has emerged as the most well connected to top figures in this case. For three years in the 1980’s, this man said he worked as a reporter at the Washington Post for Bob Woodward. Until six months ago, the man was a neighbor of Tim Russert and “shared an alley” with the host of Meet the Press. The man went to grade school with Maureen Dowd. He is “friendly” with Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus, who wrote about the administration’s false case for war in the spring of 2003. Attorneys spent more than a half hour questioning this man about whether he could put these connections aside and judge the case “fairly” and solely based on evidence presented at trial. ... Towards the end of his questioning, the man was asked about what he has been doing in recent years since working as a reporter. He casually noted he wrote a novel about “spying.” Libby’s lawyer said, “Tell me about the spying book.” The man described the “good, the bad, and the ugly” of CIA spying in Guatemala. It quickly became clear that he had no “strong opinions” one way or the other about the CIA. ....

More here.

Big news. The Bush administration decides to submit warrantless domestic surveillance program to FISA review. How long could the program have survived oversight under a Democratic-led Congress? More from the Post, and former Justice Department official Marty Lederman:

The ACLU case challenging the legality of the [Terrorist Surveillance Program] is, at least for now, scheduled to be argued before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in two weeks. And a decision in a related case is pending before Judge Lynch in the Southern District of New York. Does this development moot those cases?

Is the FISA court being asked to determine whether partilcular instances of surveillance satisfy FISA's substantive standards? (Presumably, but who knows?) To somehow do so on a category-wide basis, issuing generalized rather than case-specific orders? (That would be "innovative," that's for sure! Hard to see how the statute would allow it.) If so, why didn't this happen years ago? Might it have something to do with the prospect of a possible big government triple-loss on (i) state secrets privilege; (ii) FISA; and (iii) its article II arguments -- a development that DOJ would understandably be eager to avoid?

Update: Senate Intel commitee chairman Jay Rockefeller's reaction: "I intend to move forward with the committee’s review of all aspects of this program’s legality and effectiveness."

Here's a link to the Attorney General's letter (.pdf).

AP:

Saudi Arabia's oil minister said there was no need for further production cuts by OPEC despite declining crude prices, adding that the global market "was moving in the right direction."

Ali Naimi's comments Tuesday came amid speculation that the 11-member Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries could call an emergency meeting to discuss further cuts in production to keep global oil prices from falling further.

But asked if he felt an emergency meeting was necessary, Naimi told reporters in Delhi: "Not at this time."

The news pushed crude oil prices to 19-month lows Tuesday, with the February contract closing at $51.21. Prices rebounded slightly in Asian electronic trading early Wednesday.

Crude oil prices have tumbled 16 percent so far this year in a sell-off triggered by the warm winter in the northern U.S., a key market for heating fuel. The United States is the world's biggest oil consumer.

McClatchy reports on the horrific Baghdad university bombings that killed 70 people yesterday:

The worst bloodshed came at Mustansiriyah University in a Mahdi Army-controlled area near Sadr City. A car bomb drove up to the main gate as students gathered to board minivans home following afternoon classes.

The blast ripped through the crowd, triggering a raging fireball and black clouds of smoke. As wounded and frightened students fled, a suicide bomber walked into the terrified crowd and detonated himself.

Body parts littered the streets, and minibuses filled with students who'd been on their way home were charred beyond salvage. Young men picked up bodies as women wept. "Save me," bleeding victims in the streets begged passersby.

"I saw that innocent blood on the ground and I thought `This is judgment day,'" said Israa Hussein, 27, who'd been buying toys from a street vendor when the first bomb detonated. "I turned to see what happened and all I saw was fire and black smoke."

One man searched for his son and finally found his head and torso but no legs.

"Where is his other half?" he asked and then shook with violent sobs.

The bombing killed 70 people and injured 169, according to the Ministry of Interior, which issued an urgent plea for blood on state television.

More than 100 people were killed around Baghdad yesterday, the highest carnage in the past month.

Deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs Cully Stimson apologizes. "Regrettably, my comments left the impression that I question the integrity of those engaged in the zealous defense of detainees in Guantanamo. I do not." He did suggest their corporate clients should force the firms to stop representing detainees at Gitmo or lose their business. More here.

"High-ranking administration official" tells Darrell Issa (R-CA) San Diego US attorney who prosecuted Duke Cunningham was asked to step down. Carol Lam announced her resignation yesterday. Writes the San Diego Union Tribune:

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has performed a stunning disservice to San Diego by forcing U.S. Attorney Carol Lam from her job without cause. With her aggressive prosecution of political corruption, Lam had justifiably earned the respect of the law enforcement community and the gratitude of all of San Diego.

Her resignation yesterday cannot paper over the disquieting truth that she was the victim of strong-arm political pressure from Washington, where officials apparently wanted to hand her job to a partisan operative for the last two years of the Bush administration. The Justice Department's shabby treatment of Lam sends a message that the politicization of federal prosecutors is proceeding apace – despite Gonzales' claim yesterday that “nothing could be further from the truth.”

Justin Rood has a running tally of US attorneys across the country being purged.

Ha'aretz: Cheney kept abreast of Israel-Syria talks. It seems some of this channel has been reported in the past? Update: Actually Conflicts Forum (whose co-director Alistair Crooke is mentioned in the above Ha'aretz report), and which ran the Beirut dialogue, tells me they did not participate in the Syria-Israel dialogue, but their member Geoff Aronson did.

More from Daniel Levy: "The Israeli media has been abuzz all day with speculation regarding this new peace plan as it follows a period of intense debate on whether Israel should continue to adhere to the American veto of engaging with Damascus or whether Israel should explore the negotiation option that Syrian President Assad has been suggesting." There we go: American veto.

Levy: "Four senators (Dodd, Kerry, Nelson, Specter) recently visited Damascus and heard firsthand of the Syrian willingness to constructively engage on the Iraqi, Lebanese, and Palestinian issues. But President Bush seems determined to escalate the Syrian front, as elsewhere, and to forego diplomatic solutions."

NBC: Saudis consider sending troops to Iraq.

Catch up with the first day of the Libby trial here, here, and here and here. Today was just about jury selection. But what ultimately is at stake? "We are going to get unprecedented insight into the workings of the most powerful and most secretive Office of Vice President in history. As we just learned this morning, there are fifteen present or former members of the vice president's office who are likely to be witnesses or to come up in the course of the trial. ... One of the central questions about the trial is just how Fitzgerald intends to portray Libby's acting on behalf of Cheney. ... Is Fitzgerald going to seek to show that one of the reasons Libby lied was to cover up the fact that Cheney directed him to leak Plame's CIA identity? Or is he going to suggest that Libby leaked information about Plame on his own ... Either way, we are about to learn a lot more about how the vice president's office responded to a crisis of integrity from which it never recovered." More here and here. Update: and good luck and well wishes to the chief Plameologist.

Syria-Israel back channel, completely fascinating. Who leaked now and why? It's true there's been a tone of urgency coming from former Israeli officials at public events in recent visits to Washington that there was an opportunity with Syria. US seems to have been moving in the other direction, perhaps to Israel's alarm? Also interesting that by all acccounts it was Assad who initiated this channel, and it was not the first one, and Turkey was a broker. And there've been lots of hints in this direction including recent efforts to revive some sort of dialogue. More from Haggai Elitzur.

One other point: Ha'aretz, via Drum: "The contacts ended after the Syrians demanded an end to meetings on an unofficial level and called for a secret meeting at the level of deputy minister, on the Syrian side, with an Israeli official at the rank of a ministry's director general, including the participation of a senior American official. Israel did not agree to this Syrian request." Why didn't Israel agree to this Syrian request? No doubt, one could imagine that factional disagreements inside and around the Israeli government on this matter would be in play. That said, I have heard for months that one factor inhibiting Israel moving forward with any such dialogue with Syria was the Bush administration discouraging such contacts, even having some sort of veto. Who in the Bush administration? Why not?

AP:

The U.S. military has sold forbidden equipment at least a half-dozen times to middlemen for countries - including Iran and China - who exploited security flaws in the Defense Department's surplus auctions. The sales include fighter jet parts and missile components.

In one case, federal investigators said, the contraband made it to Iran, a country President Bush branded part of an "axis of evil."

In that instance, a Pakistani arms broker convicted of exporting U.S. missile parts to Iran resumed business after his release from prison. He purchased Chinook helicopter engine parts for Iran from a U.S. company that had bought them in a Pentagon surplus sale. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, speaking on condition of anonymity, say those parts made it to Iran.

Walter Pincus: Use of Kurdish troops in Baghdad debated.

More Marc Lynch poll reading:

Al-Arabiya's program Panorama the other day discussed the results of a survey of Arab public opinion conducted with the British YouGov organization. ... 88% named Israel the "greatest threat to the security and future of the region", followed by the United States (no number given), al-Qaeda at 41% and then - finally - Iran with 33%. The al-Arabiya headline's spin: "Iran is the greatest threat to the region in the eyes of Arabs, after Israel, the United States, and al-Qaeda."

That's some spin.

Via Marc Lynch, a new Zogby International poll (.pdf) co-released by Shibley Telhami on Lebanese public opinion. "Attitudes towards the United States remain very unfavorable. Overall, 26% are very or somewhat favorable, 13% are somewhat unfavorable, and 52% very unfavorable. 96% of Shia, have unfavorable views of the US (87% very unfavorable) and 69% of Sunnis (52% very); while the US as expected remains more popular among Christians (50% favorable) and Druze (60% favorable)."

More (Lynch): "Nobody has much confidence in the US: 60% overall say they have no confidence at all (92% of Shia and 58% of Sunnis). And nobody believes that Bush is serious about spreading democracy (64% total, including 84% of Shia, 66% of Sunnis, 42% of Christians and 43% of Druze say that 'democracy is not a real US objective.')"

And: "Most Lebanse adore Jacques Chirac, but not Shia. Interestingly, the Shia have more admiration for Hugo Chavez than for Mahmoud Ahmednejad - but they would rather be ruled by the Iranian leader than the Venezualan. Lebanese hate Bush the most of any world leader (especially Shia), but Bashar al-Asad places second (and a strong first for Druze and Christians) - even more unpopular than Olmert or Sharon."

North County Times:

A Poway businessman linked to disgraced Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham has been fined the maximum of $4,000 for concealing campaign contributions to a San Diego mayoral campaign.

The state Fair Political Practices Commission fined Brent Wilkes on Friday.

Wilkes was owner and CEO of ADCS, Inc., a data and document storage company. The FPPC said he concealed $500 in contributions he made to the Ron Roberts for Mayor Committee in San Diego in May 2000.

The commission said Wilkes got an employee and her husband to make two contributions and reimbursed them in cash.

Wilkes did not challenge the fine.

A call to his attorney seeking comment was not immediate returned Saturday.

Wilkes remains under federal investigation in the Cunningham bribery case.

Comments a reader, "If Wilkes distributed $10,000 or more in contributions through conduits its a felony with a sentence of 2 years in federal prison."

McClatchy Baghdad bureau blogger, Zaineb:

I came in the morning ready to start new day, anxious to see my new byline, and what the world is doing today in Baghdad, specially after the new security plan that we all follow because it is our work! While outside no one, no one is even care to know, not because they don’t know about, its because they feel hopeless and desperate.

I came to the office, and found this message in my phone saying “we are Kata’eb al Jehad, we know you, and we are watching you” isn’t that exciting!!! To get threat from unknown side whether al Jehad battalion or others!

Since a while a got this feeling that am counting down, yet I have to move on because as a single mother, full with ambitions and enthusiasm to achieve better future for me and for two daughters, pushes me to go on, beside, it is the work I love ...

so I red the message, I stood for a while thinking that it might be the hidden camera, that all my colleagues are hiding all of a sudden would jump and say Yaaaa, surprise, but no one was there, I came back and re red the message, apparently this is not a jock, OH my God, they are addressing me personally, they know me, they have been following me … I think got a real threat.

I stood for a second feeling nothing at all, seconds after, I went like small tornado in the office telling everybody, I GOT A THREAT ... HELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLP, DOOOO SOMETHING. ....

With such distracted mind, I waited for few hours to see what will I decide to do if I got another message, or should I throw the simcard right now?, should I spent the night at the bureau? Should I go back home and be with my kids? Should I take it seriously and leave the country? But where to?

Busy with these thoughts the message tone rings, it was them again saying “you are running out of time, consider this is a warning.”

The whole Inside Iraq blog is really riveting (see this on a wedding held up at a checkpoint in Fallujah, and this by another Iraqi journalist Mohammed contemplating leaving soon), the Iraqi contributors especially, and I appreciate that McClatchy does not edit it to perfect the English which would remove some of the originality of voice. As to the security nightmare Zaineb is describing, blog commentors are telling her to take her children and leave Iraq.

NYT:

The Bush administration has appointed an extreme political partisan as the new United States attorney for Arkansas. Normally, the Senate would have vetted him, and quite possibly blocked his appointment. But the White House took advantage of a little-noticed provision of the Patriot Act, which allows it to do an end run around the Senate.

It is particularly dangerous to put United States attorneys’ offices in the hands of political operatives because federal prosecutors have extraordinary power to issue subpoenas and bring criminal charges. The Senate should fix the law and investigate whether such offices in Arkansas and elsewhere are being politicized.

H. E. Bud Cummins, the respected United States attorney in Little Rock, recently left office. He has been replaced on an interim basis by J. Timothy Griffin, who has a thin legal record but a résumé that includes working for Karl Rove and heading up opposition research for the Republican National Committee.

A professional US attorney replaced by a Rove/RNC opposition research political operative? (Indeed, "Griffin was White House deputy director of political affairs under Karl Rove," the Las Vegas Review Journal reports.) The Senate Judiciary committee really would seem to have to take up the whole matter.

LAT:

President Bush's plan to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq has inflamed passions among the restive Sunni Arab minority, bringing new recruits to insurgent cells and outpourings of popular anger toward the U.S., the spokesman for the country's most hard-line Sunni clerical group declared Sunday.

"Iraq is like a fire," said Mohammed Bashar Faidi, spokesman for the Muslim Scholars Assn. "Instead of putting water on the fire, Bush is pouring gasoline." [...]

Some Sunnis, especially those living as minorities in mixed areas such as Baghdad and Baqubah, grudgingly welcome the prospect of more American troops as a measure of protection against Shiite militiamen and a way to decrease what they call Iranian influence.

But Faidi said Bush's calls for increased troops had only roused suspicions of imminent offensives on Sunni districts of Baghdad and Al Anbar province and spurred a sudden "mobilization" among Sunnis, according to clerics and prayer leaders who contacted him by telephone from Iraq.

He said it was too late for the Americans to win over the insurgents.

"The issue is trust," he said. "If there was trust, all the issues could be resolved."

Also, from the WP's Sudarsan Raghavan, why Operation Together Forward didn't work:

...Protection has also been an objective of Operation Together Forward. The plan was to clear some of the capital's deadliest neighborhoods, virtually all of them majority-Sunni areas, through raids and house-to-house searches, with Iraqi troops taking the lead. Then Iraqi police would hold those areas, followed by efforts to rebuild the neighborhoods and restore basic services.

An additional 7,000 U.S. troops were funneled into Baghdad, bringing the total in the capital to 15,000. The Iraqi government promised to contribute six battalions, but sent only two, adding about 9,000 troops.

At first, the security plan appeared to work. When U.S. troops entered neighborhoods, violence dropped dramatically.

In August and September, senior U.S. military officials described parts of the southern mixed neighborhood of Dora, one of Baghdad's most lawless zones, as a story of progress. They noted that deaths, assassinations and kidnappings had plunged. Stores and banks reopened, and people were walking on the streets, U.S. military officials said at the time.

"If you go down to the Dora area you can walk very freely," Maj. Gen William B. Caldwell told reporters on Sept. 14. "It's very secure."

But that very day, dozens of corpses, tortured, handcuffed and shot, were found in Dora and nearby areas, Iraqi police officials said.

On Sept. 19, a rocket attack in Dora killed 10 people and wounded 19. The next day, a suicide attacker exploded a truck bomb at an Iraqi police station in Dora, killing seven people and injuring 14.

It grew apparent that as soon as U.S. and Iraqi forces cleared a neighborhood and left, the insurgents returned. Ordinary Iraqis, whose excess weapons were confiscated in the sweeps, were left more vulnerable. Meanwhile, violence was rising in areas outside the targeted neighborhoods as insurgents changed tactics and, in effect, played cat and mouse with U.S. forces.

Between Sept. 24 and Oct. 10, attacks on civilians in Dora rose from about four per day to more than six per day, according to the military. In Baghdad, such attacks rose 22 percent from late September to late October.

By Oct. 19, Caldwell's optimism had waned. "The violence is disheartening," he said. "In Baghdad, Operation Together Forward has made a difference in the focus areas but has not met our overall expectations of sustaining a reduction in the levels of violence." He added that military planners were seeking ways "to refocus" efforts.

Caldwell said it was no coincidence that the rise in U.S. casualties was due to the increased presence of troops on the streets.

"We find the insurgent elements, the extremists, are in fact punching back hard. They're trying to get back into those areas," Caldwell said, referring to the targeted neighborhoods. "We're constantly going back in and doing clearing operations again." ...

Today, U.S. commanders blame the failure of Operation Together Forward on what they consider to be a key factor: insufficient U.S. and Iraqi troops.

While they were able to clear neighborhoods, they were not able to hold them for long enough to bring stability. "We just did not have enough of both to hold these areas," said Lt. Col. Fred Johnson, deputy commander of the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division.

Odierno, now responsible for all ground operations in Baghdad, said the operation should have focused on both Sunni and Shiite neighborhoods. Sunni insurgents were able to target Shiite neighborhoods, while Shiite militias were able to launch attacks from their strongholds. And "we overestimated the availability of Iraqi security forces," he said.

But other commanders described more complex reasons for the failure, questioning whether U.S. troops were adequately prepared to conduct urban warfare in Iraq and whether Iraq's security forces can overcome their increasingly sectarian nature. Deep mistrust of the police, widely seen as infiltrated by Shiite militias, limited their ability to hold neighborhoods after they were cleared. ...

"We've lost ground." Via David Kurtz, don't miss this Newsweek article on the bleak assessment of outgoing State Department counterterrorism chief Hank Crumpton. "An ex-CIA operative, Crumpton told NEWSWEEK that a worldwide surge in Islamic radicalism has worsened recently, increasing the number of potential terrorists and setting back U.S. efforts in the terror war. 'Certainly, we haven't made any progress,' said Crumpton. 'In fact, we've lost ground.' He cites Iraq as a factor; the war has fueled resentment against the United States."

Is Lam's forced resignation as San Diego US attorney related to the investigation of former House appropriations committee chairman Jerry Lewis?

From a knowledgeable reader: "I strongly suspect that the forced resignation of Carol Lam has much more to do with her office's prosecution of Jerry Lewis - and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher's defense of Lewis - than her alleged failure to prosecute immigration and gun smuggling cases. This excuse for firing Lam makes no sense given that public integrity cases are in the top five of Justice Department priorities ...

"It is far more likely that Lam's forced resignation was part of Gibson, Dunn's aggressive defense of Jerry Lewis - a defense that the White House may be aiding against its own Justice Department.

"Consider these facts:

Jerry Lewis has reported paying Gibson, Dunn $800,000 in legal fees - far more than any other public official known to be under investigation - except Tom DeLay, who is under both federal and state investigation.

Even accounting for Gibson, Dunn's well-known penchant for over-lawyering a case, legal fees of that magnitude indicate that five or six lawyers are working full-time on Lewis's defense.

Shortly after Lewis hired Gibson, Dunn to represent him, Gibson, Dun hired Deborah Wong Yang, the principal prosecutor in the Duke Cuninngham case.

Yang is co-chairing Gibson, Dunn's Crisis Management Team with Bush's former Solicitor General Ted Olson.

Gibson, Dunn - and Olson's Appellate and Constitutional Law Practice Group in particular - is a well-known training ground for conservative legal activists who conservatives have tired for decades to install as federal judges.

Gibson, Dunn has many, many ties to the Bush White House. And, in fact, the White House side-stepped the usual U.S. Attorney selection process in order to try and install a Gibson, Dunn partner as the U.S. Attorney for Los Angeles.

This reader's conclusion: "The White House doesn't want the Lewis prosecution to proceed given what Lewis, as chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, knows about the Bush Administration's covert budget. If Gibson, Dunn can get the White House to try and get one of its partners appointed to be the U.S. Attorney for Los Angeles, they certainly could have input into which U.S. Attorneys in California are replaced - thereby helping both the White House and their client, Jerry Lewis."

This WP article is so profoundly depressing, about how the sensible knowledgeable non-ideological people with expertise in post-conflict issues and the Middle East were systematically shut out of crucial Iraq decisions, their advice ignored, by administration ideologues until three minutes ago. How did a well educated first world country like ours come to be run for a time by such ideologues?

NYT:

Deep into an updated Army manual, the deletion of 10 words has left some national security experts wondering whether government lawyers are again asserting the executive branch’s right to wiretap Americans without a court warrant.

The manual, described by the Army as a “major revision” to intelligence-gathering guidelines, addresses policies and procedures for wiretapping Americans, among other issues.

The original guidelines, from 1984, said the Army could seek to wiretap people inside the United States on an emergency basis by going to the secret court set up by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as FISA, or by obtaining certification from the attorney general “issued under the authority of section 102(a) of the Act.”

That last phrase is missing from the latest manual, which says simply that the Army can seek emergency wiretapping authority pursuant to an order issued by the FISA court “or upon attorney general authorization.” It makes no mention of the attorney general doing so under FISA.

Also: "Military expands intelligence role in the US."

More presidential reading: "As President Bush wrestles with the continuing war in Iraq, he's currently reading a book about another difficult war: 'A Savage War of Peace,' by Alistair Horne, a senior White House source tells CNN. It is a dense and detailed history of the battle between France and revolutionaries in its colony of Algeria, describing an unsuccessful war against a bloody terrorist insurgency. A resistance movement rose in 1954 to resist French occupation. It quickly turned into a civil war between factions that became a costly, unpopular conflict for the French."

(Thx to EW).

Just out: A tour through speculation on recent findings and directives on Iran and Lebanon:

U.S. officials interviewed by the Prospect would not reveal whether they had been briefed on such a finding, or if one even exists. But there is evidence that, while Bush probably has not signed such a finding regarding Iran, he has recently done so regarding Iranian-supported Hezbollah in Lebanon; further, there is evidence that he may have signed an executive order or national security presidential directive regarding a new, more aggressive policy on Iran. Such directives are not required to be reported to Congress -- they are more in the realm of the president communicating to authorized people inside the administration his expectations for a policy. ...

“I can’t imagine [Bush] would sign a finding on Iran,” this official continued. “There’s a shooting war just over the border. There are a million ways to skin this cat [without signing a finding], and he’s doing it." ...

Go read the whole thing. More.

Bloomberg:

World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz faces mounting criticism from directors of the international lending organization who say he relies on a coterie of political advisers with little expertise in development while driving away seasoned managers.

Half of the bank's 29 highest-level executives have departed since Wolfowitz, the former U.S. deputy Defense secretary and an architect of President George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq, took office in June 2005. Among them is Christiaan Poortman, vice president for the Middle East and a 30-year World Bank veteran, who left in September after resisting pressure to speed up the pace of lending and adding staff in Iraq.

Murray Waas previews the start of the Libby trial next week, with a run-down of key testimony to the grand jury concerning Cheney's alleged role in directing the leak:

...Aboard Air Force Two, Cheney, Libby, and Martin discussed a then-still highly classified CIA document that they believed had information in it that would undercut Wilson's credibility. The document was a March 8, 2002 debriefing of Wilson by the CIA's Directorate of Operations after his trip to Niger. The report did not name Wilson or even describe him as a former U.S. ambassador who had served time in the region, but rather as a "contact with excellent access who does not have an established reporting record." The report made no mention of the fact that his wife was Valerie Plame, or that she may have played a role in having her husband sent to Niger.

Cheney told Libby that he wanted him to leak the report to the press, according to people with first-hand knowledge of federal grand jury testimony in the CIA leak case, and federal court records.

Cheney believed that this particular CIA debriefing report might undermine Wilson's claims because it showed that Wilson's Niger probe was far more inconclusive on the issues as to whether Saddam attempted to buy uranium from Niger. The report said that Wilson was restricted from interviewing any number of officials in Niger during the mission, and he was denied some intelligence information before undertaking the trip.

But other senior White House aides -- including Hadley and Bartlett -- later told federal investigators that they were unaware that Cheney had authorized the disclosure of the CIA report on Wilson's Niger mission.

According to a court filing by the special prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, Libby also testified to the federal grand jury "that on July 12, 2003, he was specifically directed by the Vice President to speak to the press in the place of Cathie Martin (then the communications person for the Vice President) regarding the National Intelligence Estimate [on Iraq] and Wilson. [Libby] was instructed... to [also] provide information contained in a document [he] understood to be the cable authored by Mr. Wilson."

Four other people -- including a senior White House official involving in the effort to declassify Wilson's debriefing, a former senior CIA official, and two private attorneys involved in the CIA leak case -- had previously told National Journal the document in question was not a cable regarding the trip but rather the March 8, 2002 CIA debriefing report.

Almost immediately after disembarking Air Force Two, once back in Washington, D.C., Libby made three telephone calls to two journalists: Matthew Cooper, then of Time magazine, and Judith Miller, then of The New York Times. ...

The reason was that Libby's failure to mention the March 2002 debriefing was one more piece of an ever increasing body of circumstantial evidence that led prosecutors to believe that Libby had devised a cover story to protect himself, and perhaps even the Vice President, to conceal the fact that his agenda was to leak information about Plame from the very start. ...

Tony Snow:

Also, I want to address kind of a rumor, an urban legend that's going around -- and it comes from language in the President's Wednesday night address to the nation, that in talking about Iran and Syria, that he was trying to prepare the way for war with either country and that there are war preparations underway: There are not. What the President was talking about is defending American forces within Iraq and also doing what we can to disrupt networks that might be trying to convey weapons or fighters into battle theaters within Iraq to kill Americans and Iraqis.

As regards Iran, the United States is using diplomatic measures right now to address concerns -- including Iran's nuclear program. We've been working with the United Nations Security Council, recently got a chapter seven resolution. So this is something that is very important to push back, because I know there's been a lot of speculation about it. Let me just try to put that to rest once and for all.

Hey, thanks for telling us.

This sounds suspicious, that several US attorneys who haven't pleased the Bush administration (among them, the San Diego prosecutor who won a bribery conviction of Republican congressmen Duke Cunningham) are being asked to leave their jobs. Being replaced by those friendlier to the party, in some cases:

Lam is one of several prosecutors who have either resigned under pressure or been told to leave in recent months.

New Mexico U.S. Attorney David Iglesias is among those who have announced they are stepping down.

“I was asked to resign,” he said. “I asked (why) and wasn't given any answers. I ultimately am OK with that. We all take these jobs knowing we serve at the pleasure of the president.”

H.E. “Bud” Cummins, who left the post of U.S. Attorney in Little Rock, Ark., wouldn't say whether he was asked. His replacement, J. Timothy Griffin, was an Army prosecutor who worked in the White House and for the Republican National Committee. Arkansas' senators, both Democrats, have criticized the way in which he was selected because it did not require Senate approval.

Something almost certainly for the Judiciary committee to take up and investigate?

In case you were wondering... John "torture memo" Yoo and the pride of Yale Law School doesn't think the president needs to inform Congress to expand the war to Iran and Syria:

The Justice Department lawyer who helped draft many of the legal authorities after September 11 used by the White House to justify intensive interrogations, John Yoo, yesterday said he did not agree with Mr. Biden's reading of the Constitution with regard to hot pursuit. "As a matter of practice and history, presidents have used force abroad without any congressional authorization," Mr. Yoo said in an e-mail to The New York Sun, "including the war in Kosovo, which I do not recall Senator Biden challenging as a violation of the Constitution."

How close will the country step to the edge of Constitutional crisis in the coming months?

More from the same WaPo chat with congressional reporter Jonathan Weisman:

Scarsdale, N.Y.: I enjoyed your colleague Sudarsan Raghavan's article today following Apache Company on patrol. However, the soldiers need to be court-martialed for questioning the President. They also point to the President's recognition of the real problem in Iraq. Does Spec. Caldwell care about doing his job, shooting terrorists? No, he worries about whether he'll get to see the birth of his child in seven months, as though that matters when compared to the epoch struggle against Islamic terrorism we face today. Oh, and he says "I want to go back and play my Playstation". Some kind of soldier.

washingtonpost.com: U.S. Unit Patrolling Baghdad Sees Flaws in Bush Strategy (Post, Jan. 12)

Jonathan Weisman: OK, Scarsdale, suit up. Baghdad needs you.

From today's discussion with WaPo congressional reporter, forwarded by a reader:

Cambridge, Mass.: Thanks for taking questions. The "surge" hearings in Congress remind me of the astonishment I feel when I read about how strong a candidate Condie Rice would be if she were to decide to run for president. Next to Cheney no one has had more influence on Bush than Rice as NSA in concocting the failed policy to begin with, and next to Rumsfeld no one has had more of a role in failing to execute foreign policy than Rice as Secretary of State.

What exactly does she bring to the table besides loyalty to Bush and Cheney, and what value does that currency have these days (or more important in 2008 or even 2012)?

Jonathan Weisman: Condy ain't going anywhere in 2008 and after yesterday, I think she could think of no better place to leave than Washington. I agree that the taint of the Iraq war has crippled what political ambitions she might have had -- and I don't think she had any. Ditto poor Colin Powell. The big question is, what impact will it have on John McCain.

Brzezinski's memo on Bush's Iraq plan:

... The decision to escalate the level of the U.S. military involvement while imposing "benchmarks" on the "sovereign" Iraqi regime, and to emphasize the external threat posed by Syria and Iran, leaves the administration with two options once it becomes clear -- as it almost certainly will -- that the benchmarks are not being met. One option is to adopt the policy of "blame and run": i.e., to withdraw because the Iraqi government failed to deliver. That would not provide a remedy for the dubious "falling dominoes" scenario, which the president so often has outlined as the inevitable, horrific consequence of U.S. withdrawal. The other alternative, perhaps already lurking in the back of Bush's mind, is to widen the conflict by taking military action against Syria or Iran. It is a safe bet that some of the neocons around the president and outside the White House will be pushing for that. Others, such as Sen. Joseph Lieberman, may also favor it.

More.

CNN: Blast hits US compound in Athens. No injuries were initially reported. More from Reuters.

Ha'aretz: Israelis and Syrians meet in Spain:

Two senior officials of the Syrian government and an Israeli delegation comprising MKs and former ministers arrived in Madrid yesterday to participate in the 15-year commemoration of the historic summit which took place in 1991.

The Israeli and Syrian representatives participated in a dinner inaugurating the gathering. The Syrian representatives included the legal counselor to the president and Foreign Ministry, Riad Daudi, and the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Bushra Kanafani.

The participation of the two Syrian officials was made possible following an invitation of Spanish Foreign Affairs Minister, Miguel Moratinos, and his Swedish, Norwegian and Danish counterparts, under whose aegis the event is taking place.

The Syrian decision to participate in the gathering received a great deal of attention in the Arab media and has been interpreted as the first step in efforts to resume the peace talks with Israel.

This further down from the same piece interesting too, "Even though the United States boycotts Syria, retired senior American diplomats are participating in the gathering, including Dan Kurtzer and Samuel Lewis, who were ambassadors to Israel."

Some Israeli leaders are looking to the US for permission for a more extensive dialogue, convinced that Syria can be split from Iran, and that what would come after Assad may be worse for them.

Dana Milbank: "Within minutes of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's arrival on Capitol Hill yesterday, it became apparent that the Bush administration had, after four divisive years, finally succeeded in uniting Congress on the war in Iraq. Unfortunately for Rice, the lawmakers were unified in opposition to President Bush's new policy."

OK, I'll place a bet, because I was right on this about Rumsfeld several months ago. I bet Rice leaves in the next few months. Straight goes.

Well, we can't complain that we don't live in interesting times, but in any case, 24 starts again Sunday. Don't think this NYT review of the upcoming two-day four hour premier spoils any of the fun. Alessandra Stanley has some political analysis too:

The televisions at C.T.U. headquarters and the White House are tuned to Fox News. When a rival cable network is shown, the report is brief and labeled CNB.

For obvious reasons, the series is a favorite of the Bush administration and many Republicans. Last season, Senator John McCain made a cameo appearance (despite his objections to torture), and in June the Heritage Foundation, a conservative research group in Washington, held a panel discussion titled, “ ‘24’ and America’s Image in Fighting Terrorism: Fact, Fiction, or Does It Matter?” The guests included Ms. Rajskub, Rush Limbaugh and Michael Chertoff, the secretary of homeland security.

That kind of partisan favor is not surprising. Officials in the Clinton administration rubbed elbows with the cast of “The West Wing”; his former press secretary Dee Dee Myers worked as a consultant to the series.

Oval Office deliberation is one of the more colorful elements of “24,” more compelling than even the high-tech satellite snooping and interoffice sniping at C.T.U. headquarters.

It’s like a video game version of a John F. Kennedy School of Government model of presidential decision-making: presidents on “24” are confronted with split-second choices and horrifying moral dilemmas, like choosing to sacrifice the life of a visiting head of state to save American lives.

She's got that right. Is she a survivor too?

And the president next season? David Palmer's brother.

NYT, at Ft. Benning, GA: "President Bush came to this Georgia military base looking for a friendly audience to sell his new Iraq strategy. But his lunchtime talk received a restrained response from soldiers who clapped politely but showed little of the wild enthusiasm that they ordinarily shower on the commander in chief."

NYT: Britain plans to reduce, not increase, troop levels in Iraq.

From Chris Nelson's Nelson Report:

...Across the board, the President now enjoys almost no credibility on Iraq, and little trust on anything involving personal judgment...such is the cancerous fallout from events on the ground, and his various perceived failures amongst the “governing class”. That doesn’t mean the President has no defenders...of course Republicans will move, quickly, to defend him when possible.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell this morning, for example, warned Dems that if they try the “budget weapon” to cut off funding for the President’s Iraq plan, they will be filibustered...and he predicted, probably with accuracy, that there’s no way 60 votes to kill the President’s plan could be found...for now.

But politicians on both sides clearly have reached their political and emotional limit in giving the Bush Administration one-inch of the benefit of the doubt. Despite success for 5 years, bullying from the White House (or Rummy) won’t work on anyone now. The President’s speech last night was dissected, inch by inch, assumption by assumption...with the verdict that most, if not all, are fatally faulty.

We have repeatedly noted that it won’t be Democrats who disconnect the life support from Bush policy...they can’t do it alone. The President can only continue to rule so long as Republicans don’t desert him. So when a normally compliant place holder like Sen. Murkowski gets tough, you can see a plug getting ready to be pulled.

Whether any final collapse comes from a tough talking Republican like presidential candidate Sen. Chuck Hagel remains to be seen...but here’s Hagel today, being even tougher than Biden: “I think this speech given last night by this president represents the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam if it's carried out."

Just looking at Republican faces on TV, as the best they could come up with was “give the President’s plan a chance”, tells you all you need to know about the professional political reading of the situation.

The politicians saw that the only time Mr. Bush showed any emotion came during his detailed discussion of the price of defeat in Iraq. So Republicans were reduced to asking time for a plan based on a presumption of Iraqi unity, competence, and military assets which NO ONE, in the military or intelligence community, says exists at present, or is likely to exist in any time useful to the US.

As one dismayed State Department observer privately put it, “The President is still trying to ‘win’. He doesn’t seem to realize that there are dozens of militias operating against us and each other, and that the Iraqi police and security forces are divided amongst them, as are the politicians. How can this possibly work?”

The hard line Republican newspaper here, The Washington Times, has this banner headline across the top of the front page: “Bush to fix ‘mistake’ with surge”.

Robert Novak: The mess at State.

Al Jazeera: Mahdi Army ordered to disarm.

NYT: "As President Bush challenges public opinion at home by committing more American troops, he is confronted by a paradox: an Iraqi government that does not really want them." Michael Gordon: "The new plan depends on the good intentions and competence of a Shiite-dominated Iraqi government that has not demonstrated an abundant supply of either." More.

NSC Highlights of the Iraq Strategy Review (.pdf).

Bush on Iraq: Key Quotes.

Philly Daily News' Will Bunch: "Check out the amazing similarity to a Vietnam speech by LBJ exactly 40 years ago tonight (January 10, 1967). It’s almost spooky (and sad). The kicker is that six times as many Americans would die in Vietnam after LBJ’s speech as before he gave it."

Gallup: "As President George W. Bush prepares to address the nation Wednesday evening to unveil his new policy on Iraq, he is doing so with little public confidence in his ability to handle the issue. Only about one in four Americans believe he has a clear plan for handling the situation in Iraq, and those who think the war is going worse than expected assign the most blame to him. His approval rating on the issue is the lowest of his presidency. Americans are no less critical of the Democrats in Congress on Iraq -- about as many say they have a clear plan as say this about Bush. The latest USA Today/Gallup poll, conducted Jan. 5-7, finds just 25% of Americans saying Bush has a clear plan for handling the situation in Iraq, the lowest such percentage of his presidency. The prior low was 31% in June 2006. Bush's current score for having a clear plan mirrors his 26% approval rating for handling the situation in Iraq, also the lowest of his presidency. Only a bare majority of Republicans, 53%, say Bush has a clear plan on Iraq, while 44% believe he does not. Twenty-two percent of independents and just 4% of Democrats believe Bush has a clear plan. ...

"Clearly, the Bush administration's predictions about the positive outcomes of the decision to invade Iraq have not come to fruition. The vast majority of Americans, 81%, believe the war in Iraq has gone worse than the Bush administration expected it would, with the majority saying it has gone 'much worse' than expected."

AP: "Details of Bush's new Iraq plan" (with my -- LR -- annotations, numbered):

U.S. TROOP INCREASE

-- Bush will commit 17,500 additional U.S. combat troops, the equivalent of five combat brigades, to Baghdad. The first brigade is to arrive Jan. 15; the next on Feb. 15; the remainder in separate waves every 30 days.

(1) As Kevin Drum notes, one of those battalions is being taken from -- Afghanistan.

(2) WP: "...Some staff members on the National Security Council became enamored of the idea of sending more troops to Iraq in part because it was not a key feature of Baker-Hamilton."

-- Bush will commit 4,000 more Marines, in two waves, to Anbar, a province that is a base of the mostly Sunni insurgency and foreign al-Qaida fighters.

(3) Al Qaeda - which has seemingly been demoted to almost secondary importance amid the other threats presented by the current instability in Iraq.

-- The president's upcoming supplemental budget request will include $5.6 billion to pay for his new commitment of troops.

-- Expand embedding of U.S. advisers into Iraqi security forces.

ECONOMIC AID

--$414 million to expand the Provincial Reconstruction Teams and set up new Provincial Support Teams to help with rebuilding.

--$400 million in quick-response funds to address civilian problems.

--$350 million more for the Commander's Emergency Response Program, set up in 2003 to give field commanders money to solve local problems that quickly the improve daily the lives of Iraqis.

IRAQI COMMITMENTS

--Allocate $10 billion to assist in reconstruction efforts.

--Deliver three brigades for Baghdad; the first on Feb. 1; then two more on Feb. 15.

(4) Apparently, three Kurdish peshmerga brigades will be imported for the purpose. From the AFP, January 8, dateline Sulaimaniyah: "Three Kurdish brigades from the Iraqi defence ministry will be sent to Baghdad as part of the revised security plan aimed at restoring stability there, a top Kurdish official said Monday. 'Kurdish brigades belonging to the Iraqi army will participate in the security operation in Baghdad,' said Jaafar al-Sheikh Mustafa, minister for peshmerga affairs. 'Peshmerga forces will not take part in this operation,' he said in reference to Kurdish militiamen. Mustafa said there are three brigades belonging to the Iraqi defence ministry in Kurdistan that are based in Sulaimaniyah, Arbil and Dohuk. 'The defence ministry alone is authorised to move these brigades to any region in Iraq. These brigades are outside the formation of the peshmerga and not linked to the control of the regional (Kurdistan) government,' he told AFP. Some Western media had reported that peshmerga forces were expected to be deployed to Baghdad to take part in the revised security plan announced by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Saturday."

--Crack down on insurgents and give U.S. and Iraqi troops the authority to pursue all extremists, regardless of sect of religion.

(5) Will Maliki really go after the JAM? US troops are likely to be focused on Sunni and mixed neighborhoods in Baghdad.

(6) This seems to contradict the likely framing of the "Iraqis in the lead." The U.S. military wants new Rules of Engagement. They don't want Maliki calling off raids and checkpoints or releasing suspects (like death squad leaders with connections to Dawa, Sadr or the Iranians). This sounds like the U.S. in the lead.

--Reform cabinet to provide equal government services to all regions and sects.

REGIONAL DIPLOMACY

--He will not propose direct talks with Iran and Syria, and will insist that they become constructive, not meddling influences in Iraq and the region.

(7) That is the sum total of the regional diplomacy bit? Not proposing direct talks with Iran or Syria?

BENCHMARKS

--Finalize an oil law that will share the profits of Iraq's resources among various ethnic sects and regions in a way that unites the country.

(8) An oil law which apparently would open Iraq's oil markets to foreign oil companies, reports the Independent.

--Ease the policy of ''de-Baathification,'' which purged ex-members of Saddam Hussein's Sunni-led Baathist rule from the top layers of government institutions.

(9) De-Chalabification.

--Hold provincial elections to bring Sunnis back into the political process at local level

--Increase the transfer of security to Iraqi security forces by the end of the year.

AP:

An Army private charged with the slaughter of an Iraqi family was diagnosed as a homicidal threat by a military mental health team three months before the attack.

Pfc. Steven D. Green was found to have "homicidal ideations" after seeking help from an Army Combat Stress Team in Iraq on Dec. 21, 2005. Green said he was angry about the war, desperate to avenge the death of comrades and driven to kill Iraqi citizens, according to an investigation by The Associated Press.

The treatment was several small doses of Seroquel - a drug to regulate his mood - and a directive to get some sleep, according to medical records obtained by the AP. The next day, he returned to duty in the particularly violent stretch of desert in the southern Baghdad suburbs known as the "Triangle of Death."

On March 12, 2006, Iraqi police reported a break-in at the home of a family in Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles from Baghdad. The intruders shot and killed the father, mother and two young daughters. The older girl, 14-year-old Abeer Qassim al-Janabi, was raped and her body set afire. [...]

If the charges are true, the attack would be among the most horrific instances of criminal behavior by American troops in the nearly four-year-old war. It also would represent a worst-case scenario for the military's much-criticized practice of keeping mentally and emotionally unfit personnel in the killing fields of Iraq. [...]

From interviews with people who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized by the military to discuss the case, and from viewing the Army's medical and investigative records, the AP also has learned:

_ Three months passed without Army doctors and clinicians from the Combat Stress Team having any contact with Green. He was summoned for a second examination on March 20, 2006 - eight days after the killing of the family. Green was diagnosed as having an anti-social personality disorder and declared unfit for service. The process of discharging him began a week later and he was sent home.

_ The Army's own investigation of Green's initial treatment, prompted by concerns he and others would use mental health problems as a defense in trial, is highly critical. Among the most salient findings from a July review of Green's treatment: "Although a safety assessment was conducted, there is no safety plan addressing how Soldier (Green) will keep from acting on his homicidal thoughts."

_ Lt. Col. Elizabeth Bowler, a psychiatrist and Army reservist from California who took over the Combat Stress Team with Green's unit in January, recommended his discharge after the second examination in March. Yet she wrote a final evaluation that said Green exhibited no traits that would indicate dangerously erratic or homicidal moods, according to documents viewed by The AP.

Green deployed to Iraq in September 2005 from Fort Campbell with a battalion from the 101st Airborne Division's 502nd Infantry Regiment. The unit was charged with security operations and assisting Iraqi army units in the "Triangle of Death."

Eleven days before Green's first visit with the stress team in December 2005, he and five others were manning a checkpoint when an Iraqi civilian approached, according to testimony in military hearings. The civilian was familiar because of his status as a sometimes informant. He greeted the soldiers warmly before pulling a pistol from his belt and shooting two of them at point-blank range.

Green's behavior worsened after that, according to commanders. He was directed to visit doctors a second time. Eight days later, Bowler told commanders that Green was unfit for service, according to documents. The discharge process for Green concluded in May 2006.

I don't know it nearly as well, but recent experiences have made me inclined to think Mike Tomasky has a point here: " ... But what I really want to make here is the case against New York. I lived there nearly 20 years. I still love some things about it, and yes, it's special. But it's a lot less special than it used to be. Whenever I go back, the thing that strikes me over and over and over again is how relentlessly materialistic it has become, and how utterly without shame it is about celebrating its materialism. People think of the 1980s as the decade of rampant consumption and greed; if you ask me, the New York of the 1980s doesn't hold a stick to today's New York in this department. ... " (Agree? disagree? You know where to send the hate mail).

Update: And on the theme of New York, I highly recommend Claire Messud's The Emperor's Children, about New York society on the eve of the September 11 attacks.

WP: "As described by participants in the administration review, some staff members on the National Security Council became enamored of the idea of sending more troops to Iraq in part because it was not a key feature of Baker-Hamilton."

Newsweek: Boykin out.

NYT:

More than 50 people were killed by American air strikes in Somalia on Sunday, most of them Islamist leaders fleeing in armed pick-up trucks across a remote stretch of the Kenya-Somalia border, officials of the transitional Somali government said today.

The air strikes began Sunday night, when an American AC-130 gunship operating from a base in Djibouti pounded an area where American officials said three terrorist leaders were hiding. The three men are suspected of being ringleaders in the 1998 bombing attacks on American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

It was not clear whether any of the intended targets had been killed.

News of the air strikes set off fresh waves of anti-American anger in Mogadishu, the battle-scarred seaside capital of the country, which until recently was controlled by the Islamist forces.

AP: Dogged by his role overseeing controversial detainee interrogation techniques, Pentagon general counsel William Haynes II withdraws nomination for federal judgeship. How long will he stay the Pentagon's top lawyer? More here. (Thx to RM for the heads up).

Interesting Journal piece on the CIA dragging its feet on providing information the San Diego prosecutors need to investigate former CIA executive director Dusty Foggo, implicated in the wider Duke Cunningham corruption case:

A House intelligence committee document made public in the fall disclosed that Mr. Foggo also has been under investigation for awarding contracts to the company of another individual, subsequently identified as Richard Wenzel, president of Global Transportation Systems in Sterling, Va. The firm received "several large contracts" from the CIA, the document said. People involved in the case say these included delivering equipment and supplies abroad, making use of the company's fleet of specialized Ilyushin 76 jet cargo planes. These aircraft can use makeshift runways and unload heavy cargo without requiring ground-based equipment. Mr. Wenzel is aiding prosecutors and isn't a target of the investigation. His lawyer, James Hamilton, said, "My client is solely a cooperating witness."

Worth pointing out that I believe I am the only one who has actually interviewed Wenzel, and not just his attorney. Did Wilkes shake Wenzel down?

And what doesn't the CIA want to share with prosecutors? It's hard to know, but I suspect it was the covert plane contract that Wilkes was negotiating with Foggo. More here, in the piece that first identified the Wilkes property getting CIA contracts.

WP: "The violence in Iraq has precipitated a massive exodus of refugees, the largest displacement in the Middle East since the flight of Palestinians during the creation of Israel in 1948, according to the U.N. refugee agency. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees requested another $60 million to help deal with Iraq's refugee crisis. About 1.7 million Iraqis have been displaced within their country, and as many as 2 million have fled Iraq, the agency estimates" -- some half million in the past six months. BBC: One in eight Iraqis have fled their homes.

Could we imagine Bush saying something so honest in his Iraq speech on Wednesday night? Yitzhak Nakash: "There is no guarantee that any course of action adopted by the Bush administration at this point could stop Iraq's slide into full-scale civil war and save the country from partition. But the U.S. must try ..."

Just out: a brief tour through Cheney's state within the state.

Newsweek: Plame's book blocked. "The [CIA Publications Review Board] panel refused Plame permission to even mention that she worked for the CIA because she served as a 'nonofficial cover' officer (or NOC) posing as a private businesswoman, according to an adviser to Plame, who asked not to be identified discussing a sensitive issue."

LAT's Matt Welch: "The man who coined Ford's most hopeful phrase was among the first to learn that Cheney and Rumsfeld would use Watergate as an excuse to expand executive power."

WP: "The idea to revive state-owned industries has come full circle. Iraq's economy under Saddam Hussein was state-controlled. When the first U.S. team arrived, its members looked to reenergize the industries as a key element in jump-starting the economy. But the subsequent Coalition Provisional Authority, run by L. Paul Bremer, opted to scrap the effort and emphasize a free-market economy, even though Iraq was ill equipped to make a dramatic conversion. The failure of a free market and the lack of both local and foreign investment has led the Defense Department to launch a massive reassessment." In retrospect, sending in the Bush Pioneers and party operatives presumably wasn't the best way to dole out CPA leadership positions.

The LAT reports on US steps to deter financing of Iran oil projects. "Steps to simultaneously coerce the Iranian regime and gradually adjust the oil market to compensate for the price spike" from a possible future strike, a correspondent notes.

The archbishop was a spy.

LAT: "... The Gates Foundation has poured $218 million into polio and measles immunization and research worldwide, including in the Niger Delta. At the same time that the foundation is funding inoculations to protect health, The Times found, it has invested $423 million in Eni, Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and Total of France — the companies responsible for most of the flares blanketing the delta with pollution, beyond anything permitted in the United States or Europe. Indeed, local leaders blame oil development for fostering some of the very afflictions that the foundation combats. ..."

Twice a day, the clock strikes 11, right? As a friend notes, "In tomorrow's Sunday Times (London): 'Report: Israel plans nuclear strike on Iran.'

"...Of course," he adds, "it's not the first time the Times has run with this story.

"See for example:

September 3, 2006
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2340486,00.html

April 09, 2006
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2125207_1,00.html

January 27, 2006
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,19269-2011570,00.html

December 11, 2005
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1920074,00.html

and as long ago as March 14, 2005
Revealed: Israel plans strike on Iranian nuclear plant
http://www.smh.com.au/news/Middle-East-Conflict/Israel-plans-to-hit-Iran-nuke-plant-report/2005/03/13/1110649061319.html"

Seems like a pattern. David Kurtz notes the Sunday Times is a Murdoch property. And one day, they may just get it right.

Update: More debunking.

So, Al Kamen joins in with those hinting that Condi may not stay around for long:

Director of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte's selection as deputy secretary of state was not, despite his public demurrals, shocking news.

Loop Fans may recall that on Nov. 15, not long after we first heard the deal was struck -- the delay apparently was finding a replacement for Negroponte -- we noted that he "was said to be unhappy" as DNI and "itching to move to a diplomatic post," maybe something like "deputy secretary of state."

The reasons, we wrote, were obvious: "The diplo world is home, because he has served as ambassador to Honduras, Iraq, the Philippines and the United Nations. Also, being deputy to Secretary Condoleezza Rice wouldn't be so bad, because at heart she's a sharing person."

We hear she's thinking of handing him such fine portfolios as Northeast Asia -- where he can deal with the Chicoms and the lunatic North Koreans -- and Iraq. That's two-thirds of the Axis of Evil (A of E) all for himself.

Of course, in a C-SPAN interview aired Dec. 3, Negroponte, when asked about his plans, said, "In my own mind at least, I visualize staying . . . through the end of the administration." And he reiterated that in a Dec. 14 chat with Washington Post reporters and editors.

But Negroponte is a guy who clearly can't hold a job. This would be his fourth since joining the administration just over five years ago. And the chatter has already begun that he may not be in this one too long before he moves up one level.

There don't seem to be too many positions that she can be promoted to without some very dramatic changes in the White House line up. Or perhaps more plausibly, would she leave altogether?

A correspondent sends this along, from the Newshour Friday:

JUDY WOODRUFF: A specific question about bringing in Navy Admiral William Fallon to be the head of Central Command. This has been an Army position. What's the thinking there? This is...

W. PATRICK LANG: Well, if I could say a word about politics first, I think one of the basic misapprehensions about politics in Iraq is that this is not really politics as we understand it. This is really tribal warfare dressed up in political clothing, makes it extremely difficult to settle it on a political basis, because they see it as a zero-sum game.

That's where Admiral Fallon -- I'm sure he's a very distinguished fellow. He's a man who spent his whole life in carrier aviation or in very high-level joint staff jobs...

JUDY WOODRUFF: So what does this say to you?

W. PATRICK LANG: Well, it's very odd to me. It seems very odd, because here you have a theater of war in which two major ground wars are taking place. There are lots of distinguished officers, both active and retired, in the Army and Marine Corps.

And to bring in a Navy man to do this, it would seem to indicate to me, in fact, that they're thinking down the line that they may have another sort of campaign in the future which will not essentially be a land campaign.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Meaning, David Ignatius -- you're smiling?

DAVID IGNATIUS: Well, I'm smiling, because I think Pat Lang is referring to Iran. I mean, one reason to have a Centcom commander who is a Navy pilot, who understands air power, who understands projection of power, which is what the Navy is all about, is if you think that down the road the issue is not the two ground wars that we have in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the confrontation with Iran, where airpower would be decisive.

Fallon is described to me, Judy, as a very serious strategic thinker. And although it may seem odd to have a non-Army or Marine Corps person there, I think he'll be seen as doing a good job.

More here and here. Peters: "In short, the toughest side of an offensive operation against Iran would be the defensive aspects - requiring virtually every air and sea capability we could muster."

Good McClatchy piece on the US ambassador to Baghdad nominee, foreign service veteran and current US ambassador to Pakistan Ryan Crocker.

NYT:

Having overseen the recent drafting of the military’s counterinsurgency manual, General Petraeus is also likely to change the American military operation in Baghdad. American forces can be expected to take up positions in neighborhoods throughout the capital instead of limiting themselves to conducting patrols from large, fortified bases in and around the city.

The overarching goal of the American military operation may be altered as well. Under General Casey, the principal focus was on transferring security responsibilities to the Iraqi security forces, so American troops could gradually withdraw. Now, the emphasis will shift to protecting the Iraqi population from sectarian strife and insurgent attacks.

What to think of a NAVAL officer, Pacific Commander Admiral William Fallon, being appointed to run Central Command, theater of two current ground wars (Iraq and Afghanistan)? "A general reorientation of our regional policy toward a confrontation with Iran," suggests one correspondent. So too another reader noted this excerpt in a version of that NYT article that ran last night but is now apparently no longer there:

Military officers and Pentagon officials said that Admiral Fallon would represent a shift in focus for the Central Command, as he would bring expertise in maritime security operations more than land operations. As the Iraq security operation matures, the focus for Central Command is expected to shift toward countering the threat from Iran. In that capacity, the military's role focuses on maintaining regional presence through naval forces and combat aircraft and conducting maritime security operations like interdiction of vessels believed to be carrying banned weapons materials or suspected terrorists, in addition to preparing for combat contingencies.

Hard to know why it was taken out. More here.

USA Today provides some background on DNI nominee, J. Michael McConnell, a retired Navy vice admiral and former head of the NSA. What's the significance of so many intel posts going to military and senior retired military officers? CIA (Hayden), DNI (McConnell), UndersecDef for Intel (Clapper). One thought -- military people tend to do what they're told.

From Chris Nelson:

We can now confirm that part of the reorganization of DOD under the guiding hand of Secretary Gates will directly affect all us Asia types. Promoted to Assistant Secretary for Asia will be the enormously respected Richard Lawless, a former CIA expert who has been a lead player on Korea and Japan troop and basing issues, also China and Taiwan, especially, for the past several years.

This is a Senate confirmation post, but it is not anticipated Lawless will run into any difficulties, as he has long been seen as an important adult supervisor in an Administration sadly lacking in that department.

Moving over from the CIA will be NIO for Asia Jim Shinn, to be Lawless’ Principal DAS. This is more than interesting. First, the move is not exactly lateral, in career terms, and in any event, there have been repeated efforts for more than a year to bring Shinn over to the White House, in hopes of beefing up the NSC’s performance. Shinn has politely declined, for reasons not flattering to the current NSC.

Update: A colleague sends this, from the Wash Post, 2004:

Although Kappes has not left his job, several people have been approached or screened as his replacement. One is the director of the counterterrorism center; the other is the station chief in London. Both are undercover and may not be identified by name.

Another candidate, according to current and former CIA officials, is Richard P. Lawless Jr., a former CIA operations officer who is deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific affairs, according to a CIA official who asked not to be identified. Lawless served in the agency from 1972 to 1987, when he left after running afoul of senior DO officers while carrying out secret missions for then-CIA Director William J. Casey.

Lawless then opened a private consulting firm that did business in Asia, particularly with Taiwan and South Korea. In a 2002 profile in the Taipei Times, Lawless was described as having "long-term ties to President Bush's brother, Florida Governor Jeb Bush." The two met shortly after Lawless set up his consulting firm and Jeb Bush was Florida's secretary of commerce seeking business in Asia.

Gates picks former mapping agency and DIA head James Clapper to be undersecretary of defense for intel. A striking number of military people running the intel agencies and taking key intel posts, with DNI now also going from civilian to miitary hands.

Bush and your mail. I imagine the late night comedians having a lot of fun with this.

Khalilzad to UN.

The reader who noted the talk of Negroponte moving to deputy secretary of State back in November writes, "Now that I have had some more time to consider the Negroponte move, it strikes me as clear evidence of the Administration's growing insularity despite the outward appearances of Rumsfeld's exit and the various Presidential "consultations" on next steps in Iraq. John Negroponte is a distinguished public servant who is very talented and capable. But he has now held four of the key national security positions in this Administration -- UN Ambassador, Iraq Ambassador, DNI, and now Dep Sec. Is there really no other talented American the President or Condi can turn to? Why the reliance on old blood in the seventh year of the Administration? Or is more likely that Bush trusts Negroponte, is comfortable with him, and knows that Negroponte is not someone who will rock the boat or challenge current policy?"

AP: Harriet Miers resigns as White House counsel.

From Sen. Rockefeller's office: "Today, the incoming Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Senator John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV, and Senator Kit Bond, the incoming Vice Chairman, outlined a series of planned hearings in January, and in the coming months. The hearings, which are both open and closed to the public, are aimed at providing greater oversight of the most pressing national security matters facing the country. [...] The Senate Intelligence Committee will hold the following hearings in January:

Date: January 11

Topic: Annual Threat Assessment hearing (OPEN and CLOSED)

Witnesses: DNI, FBI, CIA, DIA, State/INR

Date: January 17

Topic: Iraq’s regional neighbors and their influence on the war (CLOSED)

Date: January 18

Topic: Current, emerging and future terrorist safehavens (CLOSED)

Date: January 23

Topic: Intelligence Reform I (OPEN)

Date: January 25

Topic: Intelligence Reform II (OPEN) [...]

"In the coming months, the Senate Intelligence Committee will also hold a series of closed hearings looking at the following: the effectiveness of our foreign and domestic counterterrorism programs; the NSA warrantless surveillance program; the CIA detention, interrogation and rendition program; Pakistan/Afghanistan regime stability and counterterrorism activities; covert action programs; human intelligence programs and activities; signals and imagery intelligence programs and activities; and Iran, North Korea and China."

LAT: "A promising Iraqi province is now a tinderbox. Violence surged after US forces handed security to the Iraqis [in Diyala province]. Now the Americans are stepping back in."

WP: "In another incident [in October 2002], [Guantanamo] interrogators wrapped a bearded prisoner's head in duct tape 'because he would not stop quoting the Koran,' according to an FBI agent, the documents show. The agent, whose account was corroborated by a colleague, said that a civilian contractor laughed about the treatment and was eager to show it off."

Negroponte to become deputy secretary of state. I'd mentioned this before. As a reader noted then, "He is well respected among the Foreign Service, knows the Department inside and out due to his long career at State, and would be a fairly safe choice -- Dems don't have a problem with him. No idea who would replace him at DNI -- it's not exactly all that attractive a position." The NYT reports that a leading candidate to replace Negroponte as DNI is J. Michael McConnell, "a retired vice admiral who led the NSA from 1992-1996," now with Booz Allen Hamilton.

Update: Reaction from new chairman of the Senate Intelligence committee Rockefeller: "I am deeply troubled by the timing of this announcement and the void of leadership at the top of our Intelligence Community. Director Negroponte has not had a confirmed deputy since May 2006 when General Michael Hayden left to head the CIA. It is not acceptable for the top two jobs to be vacant at the same time. The leadership of the Intelligence Community is too important. I will discuss with Senator Biden a plan to sequence the confirmation hearings to provide swift consideration of both nominations while ensuring that Director Negroponte does not depart prior to the confirmation of his replacement."

I haven't seen the cell phone video, but is it the documentary evidence of the taunting abuse going on at Saddam's execution that's offensive, or the taunting abuse that's offensive?

The NYT print edition had front page articles on the White House hit put out on General Casey, and the US denying refuge to the Iraqis who risked their lives by working with the Americans; then when you turn inside the paper to read the rest of those articles, a third wire piece, that the Sunni insurgency is picking up steam as Sunnis are angered by the way the Hussein execution proceeded amid the taunts of Moktada al Sadr followers and on the Eid holiday. "Until Hussein's execution Saturday, most Sunnis sympathized with militants but avoided taking a direct role in the sectarian conflict -- despite attacks by Shiite militia that have killed thousands of Sunnis or driven them from their homes. The Sunni protests, which appear to be building, could signal a spreading militancy." I guess I don't often read the print edition of the paper, but the effect was rather striking that in case you weren't paying attention for say a day and a half, things in Iraq are still getting worse.

(Update: The Conflicts Forum has an article about recent efforts by the State Department to forge a back channel to Iraqi Sunni insurgents.)

More details on the Iran Syria Operations Group from the Boston Globe's Farah Stockman.