Militants have killed 17 Afghan police officers across Afghanistan over the last two days, while four suspected Taliban fighters died in a clash with NATO and Afghan troops, officials said yesterday. Six police officers were killed when their convoy was ambushed along the Kabul-Kandahar highway, a ribbon of road that connects Afghanistan’s two major cities. Long stretches of the highway run through areas controlled by Taliban militants. [Link]
While Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked a Democratic bid to force a vote on U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq, a CBS News/New York Times poll finds a majority of Americans think Congress should not continue to fund the war unless a timetable for withdrawal is put in place. [Link]
President Bush yesterday rejected entreaties by his Republican allies that he compromise with Democrats on legislation to renew a popular program that provides health coverage to poor children (SCHIP), saying that expanding the program would enlarge the role of the federal government at the expense of private insurance. [Link] [CBO: SCHIP Expansion Bill Would Not Displace Private Coverage]
Gaza’s already weak economy could collapse unless its main commercial crossing with Israel is reopened, Gaza businessmen and United Nations officials warned on Wednesday. The Karni crossing has been shut since June 12 because the Palestinians who operated it were affiliated with Fatah and fled after Hamas took over Gaza in bloody fighting. But both Israel and the Fatah leader, President Mahmoud Abbas, have been in no hurry to help Hamas by working to regularize Gaza’s economic life. [Link]
Weeks after claiming that it was not a part of the executive branch, the Office of Vice President Dick Cheney appears to be readying an independent assertion of executive privilege. The move emerged in an exchange of letters with the Senate Judiciary Committee, which granted an extension for the White House to comply with a subpoena on documents related to President George W. Bush’s domestic spying program. Counsel to the Vice President Shannen Coffin appeared to imply that Cheney’s office may assert executive privilege after it finishes reviewing documents that are responsive to the committee’s subpoena. The documents are due today. Coffin’s letter to the committee came with a similar letter from White House Counsel Fred Fielding. In contrast, Fielding’s letter made no reference to any kind of ‘legal protections’ or executive privilege. Cheney’s attorney also seemed to suggest the President and Vice President’s offices were on the same plane. [Link]
In 2003, Mr Blair phoned the owner of The Times and The Sun [Rupert Murdoch] on 11 and 13 March, and on 19 March, the day before Britain and the United States invaded Iraq. The war was strongly supported by Murdoch-owned newspapers around the world. The day after two of the calls, The Sun launched vitriolic attacks on the French President Jacques Chirac. The Government quoted him as saying he would “never” support military action against Saddam Hussein, a claim hotly disputed by France. [Link]
Seven of the most important Sunni-led insurgent organisations fighting the US occupation in Iraq have agreed to form a public political alliance with the aim of preparing for negotiations in advance of an American withdrawal, their leaders have told the Guardian. In their first interview with the western media since the US-British invasion of 2003, leaders of three of the insurgent groups – responsible for thousands of attacks against US and Iraqi armed forces and police – said they would continue their armed resistance until all foreign troops were withdrawn from Iraq, and denounced al-Qaida for sectarian killings and suicide bombings against civilians. [Link]
The White House is pushing hard to buy time for its Iraq strategy, offering Congress unusual access to President Bush’s top military and diplomatic advisers. About 200 lawmakers were invited to the Pentagon for a classified question-and-answer session on Thursday with Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador there. The two men were expected to brief lawmakers via satellite from Baghdad. [Link]
Padilla charges don’t measure up to accusations… Padilla, a onetime Chicago gang member, is best known as the U.S. citizen accused of plotting to detonate a radioactive dirty bomb in the USA. Yet the criminal charges against him have nothing to do with that dramatic allegation. [Link]
