Special_events
Posted at 1:05pm on May 18, 2008 The Sunday Morning Talk Shows: The Review
No one mentioned Plouffe by name.
By Mark Kilmer
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Preface
On FOX News Sunday, Chris Dodd averred that John McCain had thrown away "years of principle" to become a Bush clone, Senator Jon Kyl asked about just what would Barack Obama talk to Ahmadinejad? Seriously, what do you say to the guy in negotiations?
Next up for host Chris Wallace, Karl Rove said that Obama trying to link McCain to Bush was good strategy in the short term, as it wipes a broke Hillary Clinton campaign out of the news in Oregon and Kentucky, but it won't work in the long term. It will match Barry against McCain in a foreign policy debate, which is not a good idea for the Obama team.
On ABC's This Week, Joe Biden said that Hillary is "the most powerful woman in American politics," Nancy be damned. Next up, House Republican leader John Boehner promised that neither he nor Tom Davis RCCC Chairman Tom Cole is going anywhere. [(Davis, not in the GOP leadership, is quitting Congress after this term.)]
On NBC's Meet the Press, host Tim Russert referred to Jim Webb's latest novel as: "The Bible." Webb threatened that if President Bush does not sign his politically-penned GI Bill, it will come back to haunt John McCain with veterans in the election this fall.
On CBS' Face the Nation, Florida Governor Charlie Crist and former Ross Perot campaign manager Ed Rollins agreed that Republicans had to get back to their roots. Rollins insisted that it was a mistake for Republicans to campaign against Obama in local races where local issues were what is important, excepting that Democrats should campaign against the unpopular George Bush. Crist said that Bush's remarks on appeasement before the Israeli Knesset, though he doesn't how they affect the politics, were straight from the President's Heart.
Then Mario Cuomo pushed the Dem "dream ticket," Obama and Hillary, calling it "poetry and prose coming together." Next up for host Bob Schieffer, former Colorado Governor Roy Romer said that Hillary was not Barry's only option. He suggested Kansas Governor Kathy Sebelius and John Edwards.
Finally, on CNN's Late Edition, Hillary giggled about the "nice picture of Barack" on the cover of Time magazine and agreed that Obama should not meet with Ahmadinejad without preconditions. She and Wolf agreed that daughter Chelsea loves her.
Read the rest of what happened in the show-by-show review beneath the fold:
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Posted at 12:00pm on Feb. 7, 2008 Liveblogging the Vice President at CPAC
By Erick
The Vice President just started speaking. I'll be liveblogging his speech here.
Later today, Mitt Romney will speak and John McCain will speak. Also, the President will make an appearance -- his first ever.
The Vice President says that in this final year in office he and the President "are not going to waste the moment." He says the government is going to have to keep to its limits and mentions tax cuts.
"The President and I came to face challenges and face them squarely. This has required a lot of big decisions," he says. He also mentions inheriting an economy in recession. "Even with 9/11 we haven't gone through a recession since. Lower taxes are always good for this economy," he begins his pitch on the President's recovery plan.
The Vice President calls on Congress to make the Bush tax cuts permanent. He points out that all the tax cuts over the past eight years will go away unless Congress acts.
"Letting the Bush tax cuts expire will be one of the largest government money grabs in American history and we must not allow it to happen. . . . Congress will have to make some tough choices and maybe wind up with less money to spend on their own pet projects."
[NOTE: I give up the live blogging. The set up here is less than ideal. One tv at the end of a row and lots of people talking. Can't hear a damned thing.]
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Posted at 7:25pm on May 30, 2007 "Not my time to go"
There are more important things to be done than dying today
By Jeff Emanuel
While in Iraq, I spent a fair amount of time with J.D. Johannes, a former Marine, former Brownback staffer, former lobbyist, and current embedded reporter (History Channel documentarian). He and I shared a room at the Forward Operating Base, and undertook a few missions together with the 1-4 Cav.
He updated his blog today with an essay about an incident that happened just before I left - a mortaring of the FOB, in which separate rounds came just a bit too close to each of us for comfort. "Mortars are not like on TV," he writes. "You barely hear them coming and you do not have time to run." He continues:
I was walking on base a few weeks ago when a series of crashing booms filled the air--a brief high pitched 'shhzzzz' before the next crashing explosion.
One of them exploded 25 feet from me.
Read on . . .
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Posted at 9:30pm on May 12, 2007 Bow your heads
We bid farewell to a man who was there for all the right reasons
By Coates and Emanuel
Dmitry Chebotayev of Russian Newsweek was killed May 6 along with six American soldiers when their Stryker armored vehicle was struck by an IED in Diyala, Iraq. He is remembered below in posts by AcademicElephant and by Jeff Emanuel, who were fortunate enough to meet and spend time with him in Baghdad only days before his death.
Posted in Media | RedState to Iraq | Special Events — Comments (2)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 9:03pm on May 12, 2007 Underscoring the danger
They are *all* taken from us at too young an age
By Jeff Emanuel
was killed May 6 along with six American soldiers when their Stryker
armored vehicle was struck by an IED in Diyala, Iraq.
I met Dmitry Chebotayev while in the Green Zone in Baghdad. He was between embed assignments (having come from a component of the same unit I was about to embed with), and I was waiting to head out to the field. The group of us there at the Combined Press Information Center (CPIC) spent the whole day talking about journalism, Iraq, and journalism in Iraq - a fascinating, multinational conversation. I remember Dmitry very well; he was young (about my age), motivated, and exceptionally smart and talented, and in that one day we spent together he made an eternal impression on me.
Like many of the foreign journalists I spoke with, he was impressed by the soldiers he met, and very much wanted to get the story right the first time, rather than wanting to make news or frame a narrative himself.
Along with being a great, personable, nice young man, he was very, very good at what he did, and it was literally gut-wrenching to me to hear of his death this past week. Though I could go on for some time about how highly I thought of Dmitry, though, the praise which deserves to be published here is that of the soldiers with whom he sweated and suffered - and, ultimately, died.
This is what Major Kirk Luedeke, the Public Affairs Officer for the 1st Infantry Brigade Combat Team (IBCT) of the 1st Infantry Division (the parent Brigade of the 1-4 Cav, among others), wrote to me after Dmitry's death:
Read on . . .
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Posted at 6:55pm on May 12, 2007 Remembering Dimitry Chebotaev
Godspeed my friend
By AcademicElephant
When I arrived in Baghdad there were several others living in "The Pen," as the communal quarters at the Combined Press Information Center (CPIC) are affectionately known. Jeff was there, of course, and also Greek Public Television correspondant George Kiliaris, Linda Robinson of US News and World Report, Monte Morin of Stars and Stripes, and Dmitry Chebotaev, a photographer with Russian Newsweek. You make friends pretty fast in such a context, regardless of political bent or country of origin. George and Dimitry already knew each other from previous assigments, and their existing friendship broke the ice for the rest of us. In that oddest of environments that is Baghdad today--a war zone that is a functioning large city--we managed to achieve what I least expected: a circle of congenial and collegial friends whose company made our assignment enjoyable.
Read on
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Posted at 6:06pm on May 9, 2007 The Iraqi people, front and center
How about we check with those who will be affected by the war, for better or worse, long after we leave?
By Jeff Emanuel
The debate about the war in Iraq often focuses on America’s national security, other countries’ opinions of the US, “what is best for the troops,” and, of course, the Bush administration. Only on the rarest of occasions is lip service paid to those who will feel the effects of our decisions on the war most immediately, most acutely, and for the longest time – the Iraqi people. At the end of the day, Americans can simply click off their television sets and forget about the situation in Iraq. For the families living there, that’s just not possible. They have to live forever with the consequences of our actions.
As Lt. Colonel James Crider, Squadron commander of the 1-4 Cavalry (“Quarter Cav”), told me, “I’ve had several Iraqis tell me that...[t]hey want us here - not forever, but for now, until they can take care of themselves.”
“'It would be a disaster if you leave now,' they tell me.”
Iraqis’ opinions, actions, and welfare, should be front and center in this debate. I spoke with many Iraqis, as well as many soldiers about the Iraqis, during my recent trip to Baghdad. We talked about the current situation there and the effect of the American political debate on their lives and actions. Though the views of Iraqis, like those of Americans, span the spectrum of possible opinions, most of the people I met had one thing in common: a longing for freedom and safety, coupled with a knowledge that they need our help -- at least in the near term.
The national government of Iraq is struggling against the ingrained mindset of the Iraqi people to think of themselves as members of tribes, sects, neighborhoods, and clans, rather than as members of a unified nation. “Saddam kept the country together,” an Iraqi expatriate, who fled in the 1990s and returned this year as a contractor, told me. “It hurts me to say this, but what we need is the American army to completely take over the government. The people are not ready for freedom yet; you took away the one thing that had held the country together without anything to replace him. That was a very big mistake.”
Read on . . .
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Posted at 2:36pm on May 7, 2007 Iraq the Model?
One Baghdad neighborhood may serve as an example of coexistence between the coalition and sectarians
By Jeff Emanuel
Note: For better size and resolution of all photos, flip through this online album.
On the morning of May 1, I accompanied the second platoon of 1-4 Cav’s Alpha (“Apache”) Company and members of the sherda, or Iraqi National Police (NPs) on a joint patrol of the southwestern quadrant of the unit’s area of operations, in the area known as Abu Dischir. The main purpose of the patrol, and the house searches it entailed, was to continue showing a sustained US presence in this Shi’a district which is home to large numbers of Jaish al Mahdi, or "JAM" members, and to check for such things as weapons caches and unlicensed firearms (each Iraqi household is allowed a registered AK-47 and thirty rounds, but no other weapons).
Upon arriving, I was amazed at how drastically different Abu Dischir was from the Sunni neighborhood to its north, al Hadir, where I had been only days before, and which has been suffering under the dual blights of an influx of al Qaeda and of Shi'a death squads. Instead of trash being piled literally feet high on the streets, the ground in the district was relatively clean. The homes were largely in good repair, with very few abandoned houses. There was almost no gunfire to be heard – a stark contrast with al Hadir, where AK-47 fire can be heard almost around the clock. The air was one of hope, not of despair, as it had been only a few blocks to the north. “Nothing’s going to happen to you here,” said Sergeant First Class Edgy, the unit’s platoon sergeant. “It’s a pretty calm place.”
It was an amazingly calm place, but even more amazing to me was the presence on the streets. People were everywhere; shopping at the market, talking with their neighbors, and walking from place to place with so little overt concern for their safety that they might have been living in Atlanta instead of in Baghdad. Teenagers were playing soccer on a dirt field at the end of the block (photos: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4), and as we drove by houses children came running up to the trucks asking for chocolate and for footballs (photos: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5).
Read on . . .
Posted in RedState to Iraq | Special Events — Comments (1)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 9:55pm on May 5, 2007 Scenes From Outside the Greenzone
By The Directors
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Posted at 6:38pm on May 5, 2007 Heading Home (Updated)
By Erick
Having done some excellent work in Iraq, Jeff and Victoria made it from Iraq to Heathrow Airport via an undisclosed location and Kuwait, jetted across the Atlantic, and touched down in New York City. Stay tuned for more truly excellent blogging.
Thanks to all of you who helped support this mission. As you probably are aware, Jeff and Victoria spent the last couple of days in some undisclosed locations without access to the internet. They'll be devoting a lot more this week to blogs about the trip.
In the meantime, please check out the latest pictures from Iraq.
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Posted at 8:55am on May 3, 2007 And the winner is...Muharib Abdul Latif
Jill Carroll's abductor dies near Baghdad
By AcademicElephant
It turns out that the high-value target killed near Baghdad on Tuesday was Muharib Abdul Latif, who served as al Qaeda in Iraq's chief information officer. He also masterminded the movement of Jill Carroll around Baghdad, was the last person known to have Tom Fox in custody before his murder, and organized transport of al Qaeda recruits into Iraq from Syria. He was also in charge of the AQI media campaign of disinformation. So while he's not a "name" like al-Masri or al-Baghdadi, he is a major catch for the MNF-I and the ISF. He was killed in the course of a major offensive against al Qaeda, "Operation Rat Trap," which has been going on throughout April. Rat Trap has resulted in 87 AQI killed and 465 detained in the course of 139 individual missions, and the effort will be ongoing in May.
The confusion over Muharib's identity stems from the rather ghoulish drama that followed his identification. After MNF-I received DNA confirmation of his indentity yesterday, they informed senior levels of the Iraqi government and released the body to his tribe (al Juburi) for proper burial. While in transit to the mosque, the vehicle transporting the body was stopped by the Iraqi police, who had not yet been informed of this event. They recognized him as a high-value AQI target but did not know his specific identity, took the body back into custody and returned it to the MNF-I. By the time the SNAFU was unravelled, the rumor that it was al-Masri and/or al-Baghdadi spread. The good news is that the Iraqi police forces did their job--they identified and detained what they understood as a high-value AQI target and turned it over to the authorities.
Maj. Gen. Caldwell did not rule out the deaths of either of these gentlemen in Operation Rat Trap, but he emphasized that MNF-I is not currently in possession of a body that can be identified as al-Masri's (and they have the means to positively identify him should he be brought in), and he is not entirely convinced that al-Baghdadi is a specific individual. Stay tuned.
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Posted at 7:10am on May 3, 2007 Breaking News: Another One Bites the Dust [UPDATED]
By AcademicElephant
[UPDATE: The Washington Post, among other sources, has been reporting that the target was al Baghdadi--I just learned from a MNF-I spokesman that this is not the case--the al Qaeda body they have is neither al Masri nor al Baghdadi, but it is significant figure. We'll learn more at the press conference in five minutes.]
A "major al Qaeda operative" has been killed in fighting between joint Iraqi-US forces and insurgents north of Baghdad. This time there is a body and a press conference will be held shortly, so while there is not additional information on al-Masri, it seems this one is indeed dead.
One way or the other, this flurry of anti-al Qaeda activity is, in conjunction with what has been happening in al-Anbar province, "certainly...a trend" as Lt. Col. Christopher Garver told me yesterday. There does appear to be concrete movement away from the al Qaeda terrorists who have worked so hard to fulment sectarian strife and so destablize Iraq. The demise of these two no-gooders would not spell the end of all violence, but it sure might be the beginning of the end of the current crisis because it removes a major instigators of the insurgancy. Terrorist activity in Iraq is not like the 9/11 operation in which al Qaeda members infiltrated the US for years before the actual attack and created their own support network. As AQI moves into Iraq, it immediately starts operations, and depends on a local (Sunni) support network for basic survival. Recent reports have suggested that the Sunni north of Baghdad have started to close their doors to the al Qaeda agents who have brought them nothing but death and misery. But as with everything in Iraq, the proof is in the pudding. And at long last this looks like proof. If al Masri and al Baghdadi are indeed dead in the same week and the same area, it seems that these Sunni are beginning to take some pretty serious actions against their tormenters.
Read on for Lt. Col. Garver's full remarks on this topic below the fold...
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Posted at 10:58am on May 2, 2007 Scenes from Iraq
By The Directors
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Posted at 9:41am on May 2, 2007 "A withdrawal now...will have a horrible end."
Another voice from the Iraqi parliament
By AcademicElephant
Yesterday afternoon, I sat down with Alaa Makki, who is one of the lead members of the Sunni block in the Iraqi parliament. As recently as two weeks ago, The Washington Post referred to Dr. Makki as having "close ties with the insurgents," and according to additional reporting from the same source, the Sunni block is threatening to withdraw from the cabinet out of frustration with the political situation--and so to destabilize the government. But Dr. Makki also made some news recently when he spoke out against the terrorist attack on the Iraqi parliament, which was perpetuated by that purported ally of the Sunni, AQI. Indeed, the very Washington Post article that reports his ties with terrorism suggests that Dr. Makki's group is severing its connection with AQI--although the Post worries that the isolation of al Qaeda will turn out to be a bad thing for Iraq's political futures. Be that as it may, I agree that there is cause for frustration in Iraq. Each block has its particular hot button issues, and is fiercely defending its interest. But unlike the Sadrists, who reject all suggestions of negotiation and compromise, Dr. Makki suggested an openness to negotiation and an interest in promoting nationalism rather than sectarianism. A couple of other points to note are his thoughts about the ISF and his reaction to the idea of a swift American withdrawal according to the timetable proposed by congress. Read what he says and see what you think.
Read on...
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Posted at 6:49am on May 1, 2007 Breaking News: Head of AQI killed north of Baghdad
By AcademicElephant
Details are hazy, but local media is reporting that the head of al Qaeda in Iraq was killed in Balad today. Brigadier General Abdul Karim Khalef, speaking for the Ministry of the Interior, said Abu Ayyub al Masri died during a fight between two militant groups. Al Masri became head of al Qaeda in June, 2006 after Abu Masad al Zaqarwi was killed by American forces. The report has not yet been confirmed because the body has not been recovered, but the story is just now appearing on Bloomberg and in the IHT and everyone here seems pretty sure about this one.