Despite the Bush administration's insistence it has no plans to go to war with Iran, a Pentagon panel has been created to plan a bombing attack that could be implemented within 24 hours of getting the go-ahead from Bush, The New Yorker magazine reported in its latest issue. The special planning group was established within the office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in recent months, according to an unidentified former U.S. intelligence official cited in the article by investigative reporter Seymour Hersh in the March 4 issue. The panel initially focused on destroying Iran's nuclear facilities and on regime change but has more recently been directed to identify targets in Iran that may be involved in supplying or aiding militants in Iraq, according to an Air Force adviser and a Pentagon consultant, who were not identified. The consultant and a former senior intelligence official both said that U.S. military and special-operations teams had crossed the border from Iraq into ...
http://news.yahoo.com
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Editor - 19:55:00 02-24-07
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 American armada prepares to take on Iran |
It is four and a half acres of American power in the middle of the Arabian Sea but the influence of USS Dwight D Eisenhower stretches for hundreds of miles. The aircraft carrier, backed by its sister vessel, a handful of destroyers and a shoal of support ships, has placed a maritime ring of steel around an increasingly unstable region. While the Eisenhower is ostensibly assisting US operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, it is the looming threat of Iran that increasingly occupies its attention. Recent tensions between America and Iran over Teheran's attempts to develop a nuclear weapon have raised the prospect of its third regional war in a decade. The addition of a second aircraft carrier to its strike groups has fuelled the belief that America is gearing up for a fight with Iran. Not since the Iraq war in 2003 has America amassed so much fire power around the Gulf. As flagship of the Fifth Fleet, the Eisenhower welcomed the arrival of a second Nimitz class ...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/02/24/wiran24.xml
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Editor - 18:17:00 02-24-07
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| U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq at 3,154 Saturday, According to Count by the Associated Press |
As of Saturday, Feb. 24, 2007, at least 3,154 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven military civilians. At least 2,537 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers. The AP count is five higher than the Defense Department's tally, last updated Friday at 10 a.m. EST. The British military has reported 132 deaths; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 19; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Denmark, six; El Salvador, five; Slovakia, four; Latvia, three; Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand, two each; and Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Romania, one death each. The latest deaths reported by the military: ...
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2901804
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Editor - 15:48:00 02-24-07
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| AP Interview: Ukraine's Main Opposition Leader Warns of Increasing Russian Influence |
Ukraine's main opposition leader, on the eve of a trip to the U.S., warned Saturday that the former Soviet republic is at risk of sliding back under the influence of Russia. Yulia Tymoshenko said she will reassure U.S. leaders on her visit starting Sunday that the Orange Revolution team which set Ukraine on its pro-Western path has reunited and will provide tough opposition to Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych's Russian-leaning government. "Our union today is not due to circumstances, it is not a spontaneous decision," Tymoshenko told The Associated Press after signing an agreement Saturday to rejoin forces with President Viktor Yushchenko's party. "It is a decision dictated by those Ukrainians who want to see Ukraine European." ...
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2901706
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Editor - 15:13:00 02-24-07
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| Chavez says Bush's Latin America tour doomed to failure |
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Saturday that he saw U.S. President George W. Bush's upcoming tour to Latin America as a diplomatic offensive aimed at isolating his leftist government.Chavez said that Bush's planned trip was "without a doubt" aimed at dividing the region and containing Venezuela's influence."But it's too late. I think the U.S. president now has nothing to find in Latin America. It is an offensive destined to the abyss of failure," Chavez told a news conference.Chavez said he respected the decision by other Latin American nations to "receive this little gentleman," but in Venezuela, "we will never receive him. Never. Because we know what he is. This is nothing personal."Chavez has become one of Washington's fiercest critics and regularly blames U.S.-style capitalism for poverty and inequality in the region....
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-02-24-venezuela-bush_x.htm?csp=34
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Editor - 15:12:00 02-24-07
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| Vietnam dissident priest detained |
Dissidents in Vietnam say a Catholic priest who has been prominent in the country's small democracy movement has been arrested. The spokeswoman of the Vietnam Progression Party said that police took away Father Nguyen Van Ly after questioning him in his home for a week. The arrest seems to be part of a crackdown on the party's activities. Father Ly has spent 14 years in prison for his opposition to Communist Party rule. He was released in an amnesty in 2005 and is now a member of the Progression Party. The Progression Party says he was taken from his office in the central city of Hue on Saturday afternoon by about 60 police officers. He had been under questioning there for six days and had reportedly begun a hunger strike. The Vietnamese authorities have not acknowledged the arrest, but earlier they confirmed his office had been raided and he was being investigated on suspicion of undermining national unity. The party says its two founders,...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6393975.stm
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Editor - 15:06:00 02-24-07
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