Disarmed residents of the nation's capital, which is also the nation's murder capital, seem to have attracted a powerful ally in Sen. Orrin Hatch, Utah Republican. The D.C. Personal Protection Act, introduced by Mr. Hatch on July 15, would repeal the District's 27-year ban on handguns and lift prohibitions on carrying weapons in homes and businesses. Yes, Congress has been through this before. For the first time, however, someone with the heft of Orrin Hatch is leading the charge. Why Mr. Hatch? And why his sudden preoccupation with D.C. after 27 years? As Council Member Kathy Patterson (Democrat of Ward 3) put it: "I can't believe a senator of his stature would waste time on something like that." Of course, defenseless Washingtonians, at the mercy of the local drug gangs, may have a different view of what constitutes wasted time. Still, that doesn't explain Mr. Hatch's sudden emergence as a crusader for repeal....
http://www.washtimes.com
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Editor - 16:31:00 03-27-07
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 Senate votes for Iraq withdrawal by next March Defying veto threat, lawmakers attach timeline to $122 billion funding bill |
Defying a veto threat, the Democratic-controlled Senate narrowly signaled support Tuesday for the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq by next March.Republican attempts to scuttle the non-binding timeline failed on a vote of 50-48, largely along party lines. The roll call marked the Senate’s most forceful challenge to date of the administration’s handling of a war that has claimed the lives of more than 3,200 U.S. troops.Three months after Democrats took power in Congress, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the moment was at hand to “send a message to President Bush that the time has come to find a new way forward in this intractable war.” But Republicans — and Sen. Joseph Lieberman, an independent Democrat — argued otherwise....
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17811336/
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Editor - 15:19:00 03-27-07
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| Marines Recalling 1,800 Reservists Individual Ready Reservists To Be Deployed Next Year |
The Marine Corps is recalling 1,800 reservists to active duty, citing a shortage of volunteers to fill some jobs in Iraq. Members of the branch's Individual Ready Reserve (IRR) will get letters this week notifying them of plans to mobilize them involuntarily for a year, said Lt. Col. Jeff Riehl of Marine manpower and reserve affairs. Defense Secretary Robert Gates last week approved the action, under which reservists would report for duty in October and deploy to Iraq early next year, Riehl said. From the 1,800 called, officials hope to get 1,200 Marines for aviation maintenance, logistics support, combat arms and several other skills needed for the early 2008 rotation into Iraq. The ready reserves are service members who have left active duty but still have time remaining on their eight-year military obligations. Generally, Marines enlist for four years, then serve another four either in the regular Reserves, where they are paid and train periodically, or in the IRR, in ...
http://www.nbc30.com/news/11391765/detail.html
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Editor - 15:17:00 03-27-07
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| WANTED FOR WAR CRIMES Rumsfeld Lawsuit Embarrasses German Authorities |
Former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld could face charges of war crimes after a lawsuit was filed against him in Germany. Now Germany's Federal Prosecutor's Office has to decide whether it will investigate. A 384-page document is currently sitting in the offices of Germany's federal prosecutor in Karlsruhe -- and causing headaches for the authorities there. They never asked for it, but now they have to deal with it. The only question is how. The reason the authorities would be quite happy if the lengthy document would simply go away is because it is a lawsuit against 14 powerful men and one woman. Donald Rumsfeld, the former United States Secretary of Defense, is one of them. Others include Alberto Gonzales, the current Attorney General of the United States, CIA director George Tenet, and Lieutenant General Ricardo S. Sanchez, the US general who who served as the commander of coalition forces in Iraq from June 2003 to June 2004. ...
http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,473987,00.html
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Editor - 10:45:00 03-27-07
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| FLEEING FROM BAGHDAD TO DAMASCUS Refugees on the Highway from Hell |
In the four years since the Iraq war began, 2 million refugees have left the country. The journey to Syria is a dangerous one -- but as it gets safer, the trip is becoming more and more popular. He has a few more meters to go, but Adrar Salamah is already happy. "I'm so glad to see Syria," the young mother says. Her exhausted smile betrays the nervous tension her arrival in this bleak stretch of desert is finally releasing -- a tension that must has accumulated for years. "Finally I can feel free again," she says. The name of the border crossing between Syria and Iraq is At-Tanf, and for thousands of Iraqis that name is synonymous with peace. Those who reach At-Tanf have completed the hellish, 550 kilometer (340 mile) journey from Baghdad and almost made it to the safety of Syria. Even if they have to spend hours waiting patiently to get their passport stamped, like Adrar. Up to 2 million Iraqis have fled their home since the beginning of the war just over four years ago, ...
http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,474205,00.html
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Editor - 10:39:00 03-27-07
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| Suicide Car Bomber Kills 10 Near Ramadi |
A suicide car bomber killed at least 10 in a market near Ramadi on Tuesday and a mortar attack on a Shiite district area in southern Baghdad killed at least four people, officials said. The suicide car bomber near Ramadi exploded his payload about 1 p.m. in the al-Jazeera district northeast of the provincial capital in an area that was not patrolled by the military, police Col. Tarik Yousif said. The mortar attack in south Baghdad occurred about 9:45 a.m. in Abu Dasheer, a Shiite enclave in the Sunni-dominated Dora neighborhood. Police said those killed included two children, a woman and a man. It was the second mortar attack on the enclave in three days three people were killed on Saturday. The U.S. military said Marine was killed Saturday during combat in Anbar province west of Baghdad but gave no details. ...
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2984907
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Editor - 10:20:00 03-27-07
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