A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention.
In the News: (Registration may be required to read some stories)
Iraq Sets Timetable for Transfer “Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said yesterday his country's security forces will soon take responsibility for defending their country, and he and President Bush have agreed to transfer military control faster.” (READ MORE)
Imam Disputes Tie to Hamas “Omar Shahin, one of six imams removed from a flight last week, says he has traveled the country since the September 11 attacks to promote understanding of the Muslim religion, but he once worked for a group linked to terrorist financing.” (READ MORE)
Pope Prays in Turkish Mosque “Pope Benedict XVI prayed alongside a top Muslim cleric yesterday in Istanbul's dazzling Blue Mosque, climaxing a four-day visit in which the pontiff emphasized protecting the rights of religious minorities.” (READ MORE)
White House Warned on Airlines “A congressional committee has warned the Bush administration it faces legal action if it goes ahead with plans to relax foreign ownership rules of domestic airlines.” (READ MORE)
Democratic Power Struggle “In their hunger to overturn the Republican majority, younger Democrats finally learned that politics and policy are inevitably linked.” (READ MORE)
This Is Realism? “Iran and Syria Won't Be Riding to Our Rescue.” (READ MORE)
Bush Rejects Troop Reductions, Endorses Maliki “President Calls Prime Minister 'the Right Guy for Iraq' After Summit in Jordan.” (READ MORE)
U.S. Considers Ending Outreach to Insurgents “The Bush administration is deliberating whether to abandon U.S. reconciliation efforts with Sunni insurgents and instead give priority to Shiites and Kurds, who won elections and now dominate the government, according to U.S. officials.” (READ MORE)
Idea of Rapid Withdrawal From Iraq Seems to Fade “While debate in Washington has turned away from President Bush’s call to stay, even Democrats have dropped talk of an immediate departure.” (READ MORE)
News From the Front:
Florida Guard Delivers Donations to Kabul Orphanage “KABUL, Afghanistan -- Blankets, school supplies and soccer balls made their way to hundreds of orphaned children here today thanks to a deployed Florida U.S. Army Guard unit and donations from Americans.” (READ MORE)
Transition Team Members Break Bread With Iraqis During First Meeting “FORWARD OPERATING BASE PROSPERITY, Iraq – It’s been said that the first impression is always the lasting impression.” (READ MORE)
Twenty-Eight Bodies Found South of Baqubah “BAQUBAH, Iraq - Iraqi army soldiers found 28 bodies in a "mass grave" Wednesday south of Baqubah, Iraq. Elements from 2nd Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 5th Iraqi army, with support from Coalition Forces, including an air weapons team, identified the possible grave site.” (READ MORE)
Illegal Checkpoint Found, Iraqis Rescued “FORWARD OPERATING BASE LOYALTY, Iraq – Three handcuffed hostages were rescued from insurgents by Soldiers of the 3rd Squadron, 61st Cavalry Regiment here Nov. 29. A fourth handcuffed hostage was found nearby, dead from a gunshot wound to the head.” (READ MORE)
CCCI Convicts 41 Insurgents “BAGHDAD, Iraq — The Central Criminal Court of Iraq, between November 10th to the 23rd convicted 41 individuals for variety of crimes including possession of illegal weapons, possessing false civil affair identifications, failure to renew resident identification and illegal border crossing.” (READ MORE)
Greyhawk writes Association of Muslim Scholars - Splits? “Along with other under-reported news from Iraq... Now that the leader of the Muslim Scholars Association has fled the country, other members of the group are signaling they might be ready for compromise. The LA Times offers a rare ‘good news’ story from Iraq:” (READ MORE)
Bill Roggio writes Hunting the Takfiris in Iraq - Ansar al-Sunnah leaders captured, raid on al-Qaeda in Iraq cell “DUBAI, UAE: Task Force 145, the Coalition hunter-killer teams that focus on al-Qaeda in Iraq, have been busy over the past week. Multinational Forces Iraq reports Ansar al-Sunnah leadership has taken a hit in central, western and northern Iraq, while a raid nabbed 8 al-Qaeda.” (READ MORE)
On the Web:
Rebecca Hagelin writing at Townhall.com writes Trying to "Rangel" some facts "Charlie Rangel is actually making an argument for Kerry's 'joke' -- that our troops are ignorant and motivated by nothing higher than self-interest.” (READ MORE)
Rich Tucker writing at Townhall.com writes Sorry, Charlie “Well, life is now imitating art, but it?s giving us a mirror image -- one that?s the exact opposite of the truth. As an example, Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., wants to bring back the draft.” (READ MORE)
Kathleen Parker writing at Townhall.com writes The elephant and the embryo “When does an elephant become an elephant? That is the question.” (READ MORE)
Oliver North writing at Townhall.com writes Back to Iraq “It wasn't supposed to be this way -- packing up for an eighth trip to document the war in Iraq. The war I'm going back to was supposed to be over by now.” (READ MORE)
Patrick K. O’Donnell writing at Townhall.com writes We Were One “In We Were One, I write from a unique perspective, because I marched?and fought?alongside the Marines, even as the fatalities mounted. I have captured the sensory details as well as the human drama of men fighting and dying for each other and their country best described in this excerpt from We Were One.” (READ MORE)
Jules Crittenden writes The Irish Solution “The ultimate solution to Iraq's violence and that of the broader Middle East may prove to be the Irish solution. They kill, and they kill, and they kill, and one day, the people just get tired of all the killing, and push for it to end.” (READ MORE)
Kobayashi Maru writes Failing to Learn From History: Oil-For-Kickbacks “It's been popular among the anti-war crowd to claim that a sustainable if imperfect peace had been achieved vis a vis Saddam prior to the 2003 invasion. We had him hemmed in, they like to say. He was under so much scrutiny as to be effectively neutered as a military force, they will often assert. The Oil-For-Food program was a just, reasonable compromise run by a valid body representing world consensus, they will argue.” (READ MORE)
Allahpundit writes As promised: Iraqi spokesman says AP police source is phony; Update: NYT blog picks up the story; Update: AP responds, ducks the issue “Centcom said he’d mention it at today’s MOI presser, and so he did: ‘[W]e have some of the respected news outlets that deal with news fast and have a relation with many TV channels and the media in general, who distributed a story quoting a person called Jamil Hussein.’” (READ MORE)
Dafydd writes That Was Then; This Is Now “The headline says it all: Democrats Reject Key 9/11 Panel Suggestion. Not that that could stop me from saying even more! Specifically, one of the most important findings of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (a.k.a., the 9-11 Commission), from chapter 13 of the final report, is that appropriations for the clandestine agencies -- the CIA and the "national agencies," comprising the National Security Agency (NSA), the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) -- should be separated out from the normal Defense Department appropriations and handled via a special committee, or else by the House and Senate Permanent Select Committees on Intelligence.” (READ MORE)
Uncle Jimbo writing at Blackfive writes Reinforce to victory or retreat to defeat? “The Iraq Study Group will advocate a policy of cut and start packing it seems, relocating our forces either to bunkers in Baghdad or perhaps a nearby country, presumably not to Okinawa. Hey maybe we could head back to Saudi Arabia that worked out pretty well didn't it? They also will issue a timeline for withdrawal with no dates. These realists have an interesting version of real.” (READ MORE)
Captain Ed writes Why Haven't We Done This Yet? “We have long since understood that heightened security is a requirement in the post-9/11 world. What we want, however, is effective security, especially at airports, not just silly procedures that do nothing to reveal real threats. Instead of time-consuming and random patdowns, we would want something more efficient that will check everyone for contraband in an efficient manner. According to USA Today, we have had this capability for almost four years now, but have not deployed it because of privacy concerns:” (READ MORE)
Michelle Malkin writes Rafiq Tagi: The next Salman Rushdie “Iranian jihadists are calling for the death of another writer charged with--yup, you guessed it--insulting Islam. Via BBC (hat tip- Jihad Watch): ‘One of Iran's most senior clergymen has issued a fatwa on an Azeri writer said to have insulted the Prophet Muhammad.” (READ MORE)
Jack Army writes "Quality" and "Dropout" in the same sentence? “I'm up in the air about this one: Army uses new tool to recruit 'quality' dropouts ‘A wartime Army struggling to attract enough "quality" volunteers is enlisting additional thousands of high school dropouts using an experimental screening tool to identify those most likely to complete their enlistments.’” (READ MORE)
Cassandra writes The View From Mount Olympus “An old saying, oft quoted, warns ‘Unless you're the lead dog, the view never changes.’ But Washington D.C. is a strange and mystical realm which seems to turn even the truest of tried-and-truisms on their heads. Since the hotly contested Election of 2000 a pantheon of discontented, disenfranchised and disgusted Democrats have regaled the nation with a never ending list of complaints about the White House.” (READ MORE)
Dan Riehl writes A Positive Sign Lost In Headline From Iraq “The decision of the Iraqi Interior Ministry to create a unit to monitor and address misstatements of facts in news coverage coming from Iraq might be the most visible sign of the progress the coalition has produced there. Iraq is a sovereign nation, after all - note, they did not kick the media out. They are addressing the issue the way most any open government might and Iraq demands a political solution as much as it does a military or law enforcement effort.” (READ MORE)
Chickenhawk Express writes What the AP's Kathleen Carroll Said About Iraq Reporting in August 2005 “The AP is still standing by their story of the burnt Sunnis in Iraq and by their source, Jamil Hussein. This despite the fact that CentCom has no record of this policeman. The AP completely dismisses the Iraqi Minister of Information's press conference today where he also reported no police officer by that name. Michelle Malkin and Curt at Flopping Aces have been phenomenal at gathering all the info and putting the truth in the harsh light of day. Here is what the AP's Executive Editor, Kathleen Carroll, wrote in response to today's events:” (READ MORE)
Stop The ACLU has Great Mt. Soledad News: CA Court of Appeal Rules Land Transfer To Feds Constitutional “The 4th Appellate Division reversed in full. Highlights: The court finds that 1) the appeals are not moot; 2) San Diegans for the Mount Soledad War Memorial and Mike Shelby are aggrieved parties for the purposes of the appeal; and 3) the transfer of the cross under Proposition A does not in itself violate the First Amendment establishment clause or the California Constitution…and the attorney’s fees award has been reversed!” (READ MORE)
Wretchard of The Belmont Club writes But deliver us from evil “Westhawk goes directly to one of the key drivers of instability in Iraq. America's military success against the former rulers of Iraq has disrupted the very basis of its former stability. Sunni dominance. Westhawk quotes a Washington Post article which describes how the Sunni campaign to retain power has been slowly reduced to mere hope for survival.” (READ MORE)
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