In the region around Qaim, a northwestern Iraqi town near the Syrian border, Marines are fanning out from their main base and moving into villages as part of a new strategy to root out insurgents who enter the country here. The troops have set up 19 small base camps throughout the area and begun routinely patrolling insurgent hot spots north of the Euphrates River. The deployment follows a strategy favored by a new generation of counterinsurgency experts: disperse, mingle with the population and stay put. But the shift comes as the Pentagon appears to be moving the overall U.S. military effort in the opposite direction across much of the country. Army units are being concentrated in "super bases" that line the spine of central Iraq, away from the urban centers where counterinsurgency operations take place. ...
http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com
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Editor - 22:38:00 05-13-06
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 Desperate Republicans chase the black vote |
Facing disastrous poll numbers and collapsing support ahead of vital elections this year, Republican Party strategists have taken firm aim at a surprise voting bloc - black Americans.The White House and top Republican officials have launched a blitz to persuade black people that their future will be better served by shedding decades of loyalty to the Democratic Party and voting Republican instead. Prominent black Americans, including a Hall of Fame football star, are Republican candidates in several high-profile races for November's mid-term elections.Ken Mehlman, chairman of the Republican National Committee, has been speaking at events hosted by traditional black civil rights groups such as the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People and the Urban League. The national committee has organised at least 50 events aimed at black Americans. Later this month, Republicans will hold their first workshops for training black candidates....
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1774371,00.html?gusrc=rss
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Editor - 22:33:00 05-13-06
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| Thousands Flee Slopes of Indonesia's Merapi Volcano Amid Warning of Possibile Eruption |
Thousands of people fled the fertile slopes of Indonesia's most dangerous volcano Saturday as glowing lava oozed down the side and ash and rock spewed from the mountaintop, leading authorities to warn that an eruption could come soon. Villages on Mount Merapi were left virtually empty. Women, children and the elderly filled buses and trucks to be driven to shelters set up at government buildings and schools in nearby towns on the island of Java. Throughout the day, volcanic tremors shook the ground, some strong enough to send people running in fear. After nightfall, fiery magma from the volcano's cauldron lit up the bottoms of clouds above the nearly 9,700-foot peak, and cascades of bright red stones tumbled down the mountainside. Many people already had evacuated from homes closest to Merapi's crater after the volanco recently emerged from several years of relative quiet, but authorities said as many as 7,000 living farther down the slopes had refused to go and ...
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1958245
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Editor - 11:59:00 05-13-06
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| Attacks in Brazil leave 30 dead |
At least 30 people including police and off-duty prison guards have been killed in a spate of overnight attacks in Sao Paulo, Brazil. At least two civilians were among the dead and at least 30 people were injured in 55 separate attacks. The authorities are blaming a criminal faction known as the First Command of the Capital (PCC) for the violence. Correspondents say the wave of attacks could be a response to Friday's mass jail transfer involving PCC inmates. The transfer of around 600 prisoners to a maximum security unit was organised to try to counter a co-ordinated rebellion planned by the PCC for the weekend in a number of prisons in Sao Paulo state. Separately, PCC leaders were moved to police headquarters in Sao Paulo. Revolts have nevertheless broken out in more than 20 state jails, but a state official, quoted by AP news agency, said most were minor. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4768491.stm
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Editor - 11:54:00 05-13-06
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| Spy Agency Watching Americans From Space |
A little-known spy agency that analyzes imagery taken from the skies has been spending significantly more time watching U.S. soil. In an era when other intelligence agencies try to hide those operations, the director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, retired Air Force Lt. Gen. James Clapper, is proud of that domestic mission. He said the work the agency did after hurricanes Rita and Katrina was the best he'd seen an intelligence agency do in his 42 years in the spy business."This was kind of a direct payback to the taxpayers for the investment made in this agency over the years, even though in its original design it was intended for foreign intelligence purposes," Clapper said in a Thursday interview with The Associated Press.Geospatial intelligence is the science of combining imagery, such as satellite pictures, to physically depict features or activities happening anywhere on the planet....
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060513/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/spies_eyes
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Editor - 11:46:00 05-13-06
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| What Now? |
For Bush, his pledge to help Republicans this fall is as much about party loyalties as it is self-preservation. With Democrats threatening a spate of investigations into everything from the handling of the war in Iraq to the CIA leak scandal should they win control of Congress, Bush’s ability to cement a legacy beyond record low poll numbers and an unpopular war is at risk. It is the seminal moment of his presidency: the moment when chief of staff Andy Card leaned over to whisper in his ear “America is under attack.” There have been so many accounts of that morning in the classroom in Sarasota, Fla., it is hard to believe there could be a new version of those minutes after the second plane hit the World Trade Center.Yet new details emerged this week from President Bush himself in a little-noticed interview with the German newspaper Bild. ...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12726180/site/newsweek/page/2/
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Editor - 11:42:00 05-13-06
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