Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
USA Today
December 27, 2006
Pg. 6
CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) — President Bush went to his ranch Tuesday to rethink U.S. involvement in Iraq while a leading Democratic senator said he would oppose any increase in American troops there.
Bush will host a National Security Council meeting Thursday at the ranch but is not expected to make any final decision on what he says will be a "new way forward" in Iraq.
Vice President Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and National Security Adviser Steve Hadley are scheduled to attend the meeting.
Deputy White House press secretary Scott Stanzel said there could be other National Security Council meetings before the president makes up his mind and delivers a speech to announce his decisions. The speech is expected before the State of the Union address on Jan. 23.
Stanzel said Bush continues to question advisers and think through the consequences of various U.S. actions.
"Our forces, coalition forces in Iraq, are continuing to take the fight to the enemy, and the president will announce a new way forward when he's comfortable" with his decision, he said.
But Sen. Joseph Biden, the incoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Tuesday he will fight Bush if the administration decides to send more troops to Iraq. One of the plans Bush is considering is to send additional troops to quell violence in Baghdad.
"I just think it's the absolute wrong strategy," said Biden, who did not offer a specific proposal of his own on Iraq.
In a conference call with reporters, Biden said he planned to hold hearings in January to generate a bipartisan consensus among lawmakers on an Iraq strategy and pressure the president to abandon adding U.S. forces in Baghdad.
"Even with the surge of troops, in a city of 6 million people you're talking about a ratio that would still be roughly above 1 to 100," Biden said. "It's bound to draw down support that we need in other parts of Iraq, including Anbar province."
Meanwhile in Iraq, U.S. troops battled against Shiite militiamen in east Baghdad in their continuing effort to root out armed gunmen. An AP reporter embedded with the soldiers watched the Americans set up roadblocks, occupy homes and engage in gun battles with militia fighters.
In western Baghdad, three parked cars exploded, police and Iraqi media reported. The blasts killed 25 people, a physician said by telephone, as he watched victims being carried into Yarmouk hospital. The doctor, who has provided information in the past, spoke on condition of anonymity because of security concerns.
In Azamiyah, a Sunni enclave of Iraq's capital, a car bomb exploded near the Abu Hanifa mosque, according to Iraqi media. The blast killed 17 and wounded 35, said a physician at the Nuaman Hospital, who has provided information to the Associated Press in the past. He also asked to remain anonymous out of concern for his safety.
The mosque is Sunni Islam's holiest shrine in Baghdad and a regular target of Shiite mortar teams.
In another Baghdad attack Tuesday, a bomb hidden in a CD player exploded in a busy market district after a man dropped it off at an electronics repair shop. The bomb killed five people, police said.
Elsewhere, Jordanian Prime Minister Marouf al-Bakhit said a former Iraqi Cabinet minister who escaped from a Baghdad prison this month had arrived in Jordan on a U.S. plane. Ayham al-Samaraie, a former minister of electricity with dual U.S. and Iraqi citizenship, was serving time for corruption. Lou Fintor, spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, said the U.S. government was not involved in al-Samaraie's escape "in any way."
December 27, 2006
Pg. 6
CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) — President Bush went to his ranch Tuesday to rethink U.S. involvement in Iraq while a leading Democratic senator said he would oppose any increase in American troops there.
Bush will host a National Security Council meeting Thursday at the ranch but is not expected to make any final decision on what he says will be a "new way forward" in Iraq.
Vice President Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and National Security Adviser Steve Hadley are scheduled to attend the meeting.
Deputy White House press secretary Scott Stanzel said there could be other National Security Council meetings before the president makes up his mind and delivers a speech to announce his decisions. The speech is expected before the State of the Union address on Jan. 23.
Stanzel said Bush continues to question advisers and think through the consequences of various U.S. actions.
"Our forces, coalition forces in Iraq, are continuing to take the fight to the enemy, and the president will announce a new way forward when he's comfortable" with his decision, he said.
But Sen. Joseph Biden, the incoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Tuesday he will fight Bush if the administration decides to send more troops to Iraq. One of the plans Bush is considering is to send additional troops to quell violence in Baghdad.
"I just think it's the absolute wrong strategy," said Biden, who did not offer a specific proposal of his own on Iraq.
In a conference call with reporters, Biden said he planned to hold hearings in January to generate a bipartisan consensus among lawmakers on an Iraq strategy and pressure the president to abandon adding U.S. forces in Baghdad.
"Even with the surge of troops, in a city of 6 million people you're talking about a ratio that would still be roughly above 1 to 100," Biden said. "It's bound to draw down support that we need in other parts of Iraq, including Anbar province."
Meanwhile in Iraq, U.S. troops battled against Shiite militiamen in east Baghdad in their continuing effort to root out armed gunmen. An AP reporter embedded with the soldiers watched the Americans set up roadblocks, occupy homes and engage in gun battles with militia fighters.
In western Baghdad, three parked cars exploded, police and Iraqi media reported. The blasts killed 25 people, a physician said by telephone, as he watched victims being carried into Yarmouk hospital. The doctor, who has provided information in the past, spoke on condition of anonymity because of security concerns.
In Azamiyah, a Sunni enclave of Iraq's capital, a car bomb exploded near the Abu Hanifa mosque, according to Iraqi media. The blast killed 17 and wounded 35, said a physician at the Nuaman Hospital, who has provided information to the Associated Press in the past. He also asked to remain anonymous out of concern for his safety.
The mosque is Sunni Islam's holiest shrine in Baghdad and a regular target of Shiite mortar teams.
In another Baghdad attack Tuesday, a bomb hidden in a CD player exploded in a busy market district after a man dropped it off at an electronics repair shop. The bomb killed five people, police said.
Elsewhere, Jordanian Prime Minister Marouf al-Bakhit said a former Iraqi Cabinet minister who escaped from a Baghdad prison this month had arrived in Jordan on a U.S. plane. Ayham al-Samaraie, a former minister of electricity with dual U.S. and Iraqi citizenship, was serving time for corruption. Lou Fintor, spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, said the U.S. government was not involved in al-Samaraie's escape "in any way."