Real good news...I know some don't want to admit it but there is alot of good going on in IRAQ...in spite of the cries that say otherwise. That's what I mean when I say...it's an election year. Can anyone tell me what DEMS are FOR???? Specifics please...specifics...

Iraqis lead final purge of Al-QaedaMarie Colvin in Mosul

American and Iraqi forces are driving Al-Qaeda in Iraq out of its last redoubt in the north of the country in the culmination of one of the most spectacular victories of the war on terror.

After being forced from its strongholds in the west and centre of Iraq in the past two years, Al-Qaeda’s dwindling band of fighters has made a defiant “last stand” in the northern city of Mosul.

A huge operation to crush the 1,200 fighters who remained from a terrorist force once estimated at more than 12,000 began on May 10.

Operation Lion’s Roar, in which the Iraqi army combined forces with the Americans’ 3rd Armoured Cavalry Regiment, has already resulted in the death of Abu Khalaf, the Al-Qaeda leader, and the capture of more than 1,000 suspects.


The group has been reduced to hit-and-run attacks, including one that killed two off-duty policemen yesterday, and sporadic bombings aimed at killing large numbers of officials and civilians.

Last Friday I joined the 2nd Iraqi Division as it supported local police in a house-to-house search for one such bomb after intelligence pointed to a large explosion today.

Even in the district of Zanjali, previously a hotbed of the insurgency, it was possible to accompany an Iraqi colonel on foot through streets of breeze-block houses studded with bullet holes. Hundreds of houses were searched without resistance but no bomb was found, only 60kg of explosives.

American and Iraqi leaders believe that while it would be premature to write off Al-Qaeda in Iraq, the Sunni group has lost control of its last urban base in Mosul and its remnants have been largely driven into the countryside to the south.

Nouri al-Maliki, Iraq’s prime minister, who has also led a crackdown on the Shi’ite Mahdi Army in Basra and Baghdad in recent months, claimed yesterday that his government had “defeated” terrorism.

“They were intending to besiege Baghdad and control it,” Maliki said. “But thanks to the will of the tribes, security forces, army and all Iraqis, we defeated them.”

The number of foreign fighters coming over the border from Syria to bolster Al-Qaeda’s numbers is thought to have declined to as few as 20 a month, compared with 120 a month at its peak.

Brigadier General Abdullah Abdul, a senior Iraqi commander, said: “We’ve limited their movements with check-points. They are doing small attacks and trying big ones, but they’re mostly not succeeding.”

Major-General Mark Hertling, American commander in the north, said: “I think we’re at the irreversible point.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article4276486.ece

Wow, that's great news. I wonder how many dead Americans it will take to "drive out" Al-Qaeda, a force who wasn't in Iraq until after we invaded...

Says who? You expect me to believe libs??? LOL

Right...OOPS! Don't look now but...

and there was no holocaust & there are no terrorists...other than the ones our evil country created...right? Yuk! Yuk!

According to Libs... hehehehe

Hmmm... I don't think even your friends at FauxNews allege Al-Qaeda was in Iraq under Saddam, but you believe what you want and of course, you are right.

Well honestly...I wish I wasn't.

There is a big divide over causes & solutions.

You should be asking how many dead Americans will it take before you get them back home.

I feel sorry for them. They have no chance of "winning" anything, as there is nothing to win.

The Vietnam mantra...

No hope No hope No hope... that all some have to give. That's why you don't let doves run the govt.

##############################################################

There are definite connections of Hussein and Al-Qaeda:

http://www.cfif.org/htdocs/freedomline/current/in_our_opinion/oil_for_osama.htm

Oil for Osama

The United Nations’ Oil for Food program scandal continues to swell.

Recall that documents discovered after the liberation of Iraq revealed that the U.N.’s self-described flagship humanitarian program was wracked with bribery, kick-backs, smuggling, under the table deals and influence peddling. Among other revelations, evidence uncovered in Baghdad implicated long-time U.N. official Benon Sevan who was responsible for managing the program and reported directly to Secretary General Kofi Annan……………………….

However, the documents show that Saddam was able to thoroughly corrupt the program and use it to line his own pockets, fund purchases of illegal weapons, pay off officials in a variety of nations and organizations and stash hidden cash in banks around the world.

Saddam’s booty resulted largely from a kick-back scheme involving oil sales under the program. Iraq would sell oil to Oil for Food contractors at below-market prices. ………………..

Coverage of the scandal, led by journalist Claudia Rossett, has forced the U.N. to respond. Last month, Secretary Annan named former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker to lead a U.N. investigation into the matter. ………………….

On May 2, Tim Russert questioned Secretary General Annan on Meet the Press about a letter from Sevan’s U.N. office to the Oil for Food contractor responsible for overseeing Saddam’s oil exports.

The day after Russert revealed the letter, Rossett and the Wall Street Journal reported that they had obtained another letter from Sevan’s office. It was addressed to a Swiss company named Cotecna, responsible for inspecting humanitarian goods shipped into Iraq under the Oil for Food program. Rossett reports that Cotecna employed Secretary Annan’s son for nearly three years before winning its Oil for Food contract. According to the Journal, the letter warns Cotecna that all "documents and all other data compiled or received by the Contractor … shall be treated as confidential and shall be delivered only to United Nations authorized officials."……………….

Even more disturbing than the U.N.’s shameful response and the complicity of supposed U.S. allies France and Russia in the scandal is the possibility that Oil for Food money funded AL QAEDA and other terrorist organizations.

Rossett, reporting in National Review, recently detailed two possible links between the proceeds from the Oil for Food program and organizations with known links to AL QUAEDA and she’s careful to leave open the possibility of many more as-yet undiscovered connections.

The first runs from an Oil for Food oil buyer through a front company in Liechtenstein to a bank in the Bahamas called Bank Al Taqwa. In November 2001, both the U.S. government and the U.N. publicly identified both the front company and Bank Al Taqwa as belonging to AL QAEDA, and revealed that both the company and the bank had definitive links to two known major AL QAEDA financiers.

The second ran through a now-defunct Swiss company called Delta Services, also an Oil for Food oil buyer. Delta Services was a subsidiary of a Saudi company which had close ties to the TALIBAN during the height AL QAEDA’s involvement in Afghanistan in the late 1990s.

That Saddam viewed AL QAEDA’s interest to be parallel with his own — and sought to fund their efforts — is no great logical leap. We already know that he had previously funded terrorist organizations like HAMAS, and his contempt for the United States is clearly established. But the possibility that Saddam could have provided funding to AL QAEDA and other terrorists using proceeds of Oil for Food sales is incredibly disturbing.
Consider this: Osama bin Laden is believed to have funded AL QAEDA with about $300 million of family money. During its eight-year life, more than $111 billion flowed through the Oil for Food program. Bin Laden’s initial contribution constitutes a mere three tenths of one percent of the total program — a mere rounding error. If Saddam succeeded in routing only a few hundred million to AL QAEDA, he provided funding for sophisticated terrorist operations for decades to come.

It’s essential that the U.S. learn to what degree French and Russian opposition to its intervention in Iraq was motivated by Saddam’s payoffs. And it’s time for the U.N. to stop clamping down and start opening up.

************************************
************************************

Oil-for-Food Programme
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Oil-for-Food Programme, established by the United Nations in 1995 (under UN Security Council Resolution 986)[1] and terminated in late 2003, was intended to allow Iraq to sell oil on the world market in exchange for food, medicine, and other humanitarian needs for ordinary Iraqi citizens without allowing Iraq to rebuild its military.

The programme was introduced by United States President Bill Clinton's administration in 1995, as a response to arguments that ordinary Iraqi citizens were inordinately affected by the international economic sanctions aimed at the demilitarisation of Saddam Hussein's Iraq, imposed in the wake of the first Gulf War. The sanctions were discontinued on November 21, 2003 after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and the humanitarian functions turned over to the Coalition Provisional Authority.[1]
As the programme ended, there were revelations of corruption involving the funds…………………………..

Allegedly used to finance Al-Qaeda.

The scandal engulfing the United Nations Procurement Department and the Oil-for-Food Programme allegedly involved AL QAEDA finance operations. FOX News broke the story that Alexander Yakovlev, a Russian official in the UN Procurement Department, was involved; he later resigned and pled guilty to corruption charges. One link was to Ahmed Idris Nasreddin, a man designated as a terrorist financier by the US and the UN. The UN has named Nasreddin as a man "belonging to or affiliated with AL QAEDA." Petra Navigation Group was a company that was on the blacklist of firms blocked from doing business with the U.S. for sanctions-busting activities designed to help Saddam's regime

Now, sit there and say that Al-Quada was never involved with Iraq, Saddam Hussein...

Yes, I omitted a lot of material. The links are provided if you want to read for yourself. I see no reason to put all of that in this post, as this post is intended to show DEFINITE connections with Al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein.

Apparently you do not, intentionally I believe, keep up with the current news. It is all over FOX news and democrats are ADMITTING, of the great achievements that have been, AND are being made in Iraq. ESPECIALLY SINCE THE SURGE, WHICH DEMOCRATS ARE ADMITTING IS A SUCCESS!!

NONE OF THE USA'S MILITARY DIED IN VAIN!! I do hope you understand this fact.

Of course, perhaps where you reside, your country's news media never covers such good news. Therefore, as a result of lack of proper, current coverage, you would NOT be in a position to make any constructive criticism of USA military's overwhelming success in achieving vast improvements in Iraq.

Sarcasm is totally unnecessary. If you "don't think" perhaps the statement should not be made without factual proof and link to where such information can be obtained.

Unfortunately, North America has completely BIASED news media!

If you lived outside of North America, you would realize that.

Do you know any Iraqi/Afghani people, personally, I mean?
Do you know their side of the story? If not then you are making totally biased statements and therefore you may not have your facts straight.

JMO

We went to war in Iraq without any factual proof of WMD or any Al-Qaeda link to Iraq. Will these ever be deemed lies or will they always be "unproven?"

Perhaps one does not keep abreast of current news, or past news.

The Administration and the media keep an ongoing propaganda to justify the wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan . Those who hate the truth and are racists will find any excuse to support the wars .
It does not take a genius to know what is right and what is wrong . If a person pretends not to see the reality ,it is because he or she supports the wars for other reasons and he or she is ashamed to state the ugly reasons . At the end it is just common sense .

Is that your idea of a clever, non answer?

Or you just keep your head in the sand. (or somewhere equally dark and inaccessible)



Fox news ... owned by the US ... of course they are not going to show 200 deserters escaping to Canada because they believe the war is illegal.

All of your military died because your stupid leader wanted to rabble rouse the US nation into supporting him, and apparently a lot did.
Then a lot of the more intelligent ones started to question when WMD were not found.

Where I reside actually has news from 20 different countries, so I get to chose which country is slagging off the illegal invasion that the US has chosen to partake in.

I'll just remind you of Vietnam and the "Overwhelming success in achieving vast improvements" you made there.

Peace!!! STOP THE WAR!!!

ONTO THE MADRASAS!!!

KILL The tens of thousands of boys now studying to become terrorists! Yes, thats the way!...Pakistan here we come!

Oh man...I forgot about the food for oil scam. I don't understand why Americans...or any civilized country would put their trust in the U. N.??? do they really think these thugs would have anyone's best interests at heart?