Iraq invasion plan 'delusional'

Iraq invasion plan 'delusional'

US commanders originally thought only 5,000 troops would be in Iraq by the end of 2006, documents show.

Nato 'kills Taleban commander', several civilians

Nato 'kills Taleban commander'

UK forces in Afghanistan say a senior Taleban commander has been killed in a Nato air strike in which locals said a number of civilians also died.

The Taleban figure was Mullah Manan, who UK forces said was in the top tier of leadership and had been behind a large number of attacks.

Ten to 15 other Taleban were killed in what the UK forces called a "precision strike" in southern Helmand province.

Locals said about seven civilians died but this could not be confirmed.

Dam project

The attack happened at about 0330 local time in a village called Lower Jal-jay, between two towns where British forces in Helmand have been fighting the Taleban.

Lt Col Rory Bruce, spokesman for the UK Task Force in the province, said Mullah Manan was a "Tier One" figure - an ideological fighter with links to the main Taleban leadership.

Col Bruce said troops had been tracking him for a number of weeks.

Mullah Manan was thought to be involved in the uprising in Musa Qala, a town nearby which British troops held, but is now controlled by the Taleban after a peace deal with elders broke down.

There has been heavy fighting in the Kajaki area of Helmand, where British forces are protecting a major dam reconstruction project.

Helmand has seen the most intense fighting between Nato forces and the Taleban this year, with many of its districts out of government control.

The BBC's Alastair Leithead in Kabul says Mullah Manan's death will be a step forward for Nato forces in Helmand, where Taleban reinforcements are thought to be gathering.

Earlier this week, the governor of the province said up to 700 insurgents had crossed over from Pakistan and were preparing to fight British forces.

Six More U.S. Soldiers Die In Iraq

The 'surge' brings brief gains, permanent bodybags.
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AP - 2/14/2007 4:16 PM - Updated 2/14/2007 4:16 PM

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) Four U.S. soldiers were killed and two others were wounded Wednesday during fighting northeast of Baghdad, the military said. Two other U.S. deaths were reported elsewhere.

The Task Force Lightning soldiers were attacked while conducting combat operations in Diyala province, where U.S. and Iraqi forces have been battling insurgents for months.

Three of the soldiers died from wounds sustained after explosions near their vehicles, while a fourth died later at a military medical facility.

Separately, another U.S. soldier died Wednesday a day after coming under small arms fire from insurgents while on patrol north of Baghdad, the military said. The soldier died of wounds from the attack, which took place the combat patrol was ambushed after it discovered a roadside bomb, according to a statement.

Soldiers from the unit successfully located and disposed of the bomb and found a small cache, adding to the seven improvised explosive devices and four caches found earlier this month, according to the statement.

On Tuesday, a Task Force Lightning soldier died in a non-combat related incident, which is under investigation, the military said in a separate statement.

The soldiers' names were not released pending notification of relatives.

At least 3,132 members of the U.S. military have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Judge: Libby Defense Misleading

Defense Attorneys Rest Libby's Case
Faulty Memory, Not Deliberate Lies, Blamed for Disputed Statements in CIA Leak Probe

By Amy Goldstein and Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, February 15, 2007; A03

Attorneys for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby rested their defense in his perjury trial yesterday after giving jurors a stripped-down version of their case that the vice president's then-chief of staff was too preoccupied with sensitive national security issues in 2003 to remember conversations he had about undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame.

Shortly before testimony ended in the five-week trial, the presiding judge blocked defense attorneys from presenting the testimony of their proposed final witnesses -- CIA employees who briefed Libby each day on crises and terrorist threats around the world.

Defense attorneys wanted the briefers to provide the jury with vivid details of the confidential intelligence on foreign affairs that Libby was juggling. Their testimony, which would have relied on classified information that the judge had approved for admission at the trial, was intended to reinforce the central argument of Libby's defense: that he did not deliberately lie to investigators about his role in the disclosure of Plame's identity to journalists but inaccurately remembered it because it was trivial in comparison with the weighty issues before him.

But U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton sided with prosecutors, who argued that it would be unfair to allow such testimony because Libby had decided not to testify and could not be cross-examined.

"With him not testifying, I think the landscape has changed . . . significantly," Walton said outside the presence of the jury. "I don't think it would be appropriate in any way" for jurors to hear about Libby's briefings unless prosecutors can quiz the defendant about their significance to him, Walton said.

Libby is charged with lying to investigators about his role in the leak of Plame's name. Prosecutors contend that he deliberately obscured his role in a White House campaign to discredit Plame's husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, by suggesting that nepotism was the reason the CIA dispatched Wilson to Africa in 2002.

Wilson was sent to Niger to investigate reports that Iraq had tried to buy nuclear material there. He concluded that the reports were false and later accused President Bush of twisting his findings to justify the war in Iraq.

Libby's attorneys contend that Libby merely suffered from a faulty memory.

Instead of putting the briefers on the stand, defense attorney John Cline read jurors a lengthy list, approved by both sides, of the issues that CIA briefer Craig Schmall shared with Libby on the morning of June 14, 2003. Schmall testified earlier in the trial that his notes indicate that was the day Libby mentioned Wilson to him.

Cline also read jurors a list of the national security issues confronting Libby between May 2003, when Vice President Cheney first told him about Plame, and March 2004, when Libby appeared before a federal grand jury investigating the leak of her identity.

Another defense attorney read jurors portions of a Wall Street Journal editorial and two National Review articles that were in Libby's files. All three reinforced the defense's contention that Libby did not regard Plame's identity as secret.

A third defense attorney read parts of a report on an interview with Tim Russert, NBC News's Washington bureau chief, conducted by the FBI agent who once headed the leak investigation. The report contained nuances that differed from the testimony last week of Russert, the prosecution's most pivotal witness.

The defense ended its case less than three days after it began. The prosecution completed its rebuttal case within minutes. On Tuesday, Libby's attorneys announced that they would not call the two men they had indicated would be their star witnesses: Libby and Cheney.

Walton told jurors that prosecutors and defense attorneys are scheduled to deliver the closing arguments in the case on Tuesday and that the jury probably will begin its deliberations the next day.

Iran arrests Sunni militants for bomb attack

10 minutes ago

Iran has arrested scores of people over a deadly bomb attack on a bus carrying Revolutionary Guards, alleging links to US and British intelligence.

"Some key members linked with the Jundallah terrorist group were arrested last night," said Brigadier General Mohammad Ghafari, a top police official in Sistan-Baluchestan province.

Jundallah is a shadowy group that claimed responsibly for the Wednesday attack, which killed 11 members of the elite military unit and injured 31 in the city of Zahedan, the state news agency IRNA reported Thursday.

Ghafari said "65 suspects as well as the three responsible for the attack were arrested ... one of the main bombers was killed." He did not specify how many among the suspects were linked to Jundallah.

"A video seized from the rebels confirms their attachment to opposition groups and some countries' intelligence services such as America and Britain."

He added that police had seized 80 pounds (36 kilogrammes) of TNT, as well as weapons, in a raid on a "house belonging to the key members of Jundallah".

The bomb was hidden in a car and exploded as gunfire stopped the bus, which was taking the guards from their housing compound in Zahedan to a military base.

Zahedan is the capital of Sistan-Baluchestan province, which borders both Afghanistan and Pakistan, and has been the centre of low-level unrest over the past months.

It has a substantial Baluch community, a minority Sunni Muslim group, in Shiite-majority Iran.

The upsurge in unrest in Sistan-Baluchestan comes after violence in Iran's oil-rich southwestern province of Khuzestan, which has a minority Arab population.

Iranian officials have repeatedly accused Britain and the United States of supporting ethnic minority rebels operating in sensitive border areas.

Ex-aide says Rice misled U.S. Congress on Iran

Wed Feb 14, 6:32 PM ET

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice misled the U.S. Congress when she said last week that she had not seen a 2003 Iranian proposal for talks with the United States, a former senior government official said on Wednesday.

Flynt Leverett, who worked on the National Security Council when it was headed by Rice, likened the proposal to the 1972 U.S. opening to China. He said he was confident it was seen by Rice and then-Secretary of State Colin Powell but "the administration rejected the overture."

Speaking at a conference on Capitol Hill, Leverett said "this was a serious proposal, a serious effort" by Iran to lay out a comprehensive agenda for U.S.-Iranian rapprochement.

"The Bush administration up to and including Secretary Rice is misleading Congress and the American public about the Iran proposal," he said.

Testifying before the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee last week, Rice told lawmakers who asked about Leverett's previous public comments and writings on the Iranian proposal: "I don't know what Flynt Leverett's talking about."

She faulted him for not telling her, "We have a proposal from Iran and we really ought to take it."

At the State Department, spokesman Sean McCormack said: "What she said is she has no recollection of having seen it. She has said that repeatedly." he said the accusation that she had misled Congress was "just absolutely 100 percent false."

Leverett and others have represented the proposal as a missed opportunity that could have defused tensions with Iran which have grown to the point that the U.S. administration has been forced to deny it plans military action against Tehran.

Leverett said he deserved an apology from Rice for calling his competence into question.

He said he had left the National Security Council, which advises the president on security issues, in March 2003 before the Iranian proposal was received. He returned to the CIA where he previously worked and soon after that left government.

Hence, he wasn't in a position to made this case directly to Rice, nor was it his responsibility, he said.

But among other things, Leverett said that then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, in a discussion about the Iranian proposal, told him he "couldn't sell it at the White House." This was evidence it had been discussed there, he said.

The proposal was transmitted to the White House in May 2003 by the Swiss ambassador in Tehran, who represented U.S. interests there. Washington has not had diplomatic relations with Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

According to a copy of the proposal posted on the Washington Post Web site and cited by Leverett, it contains considerable detail about approaching issues of central interest to the United States and Iran.

Report: Russia May Exit 1987 Arms Treaty

Thursday February 15, 2007 12:46 PM

MOSCOW (AP) - A top Russian general said Thursday that Moscow may unilaterally opt out of a Soviet-era arms reduction treaty with the United States, Russian news agencies reported.

Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky, the chief of the Russian military's General Staff, was quoted by ITAR-Tass and Interfax as saying that Russia could pull out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, negotiated between Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and U.S. President Ronald Reagan in 1987.

He said the decision would depend on the United States' actions with its proposed missile defense system, parts of which Washington is seeking to deploy in Poland and the Czech Republic.

The treaty eliminated an entire class of medium-range missiles that had been based in Europe.

Baluyevsky's comments come after President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that the INF treaty no longer serves Russia's interests.