On the edge of Baghdad’s Sadr City, U.S. soldiers wait to be attacked Will Weissert, The Associated Press Published: Monday, January 08, 2007 BAGHDAD -- A mock bumper sticker affixed to a door in the headquarters building of a U.S. outpost in eastern Baghdad proclaims: "I Love Sadr City." Soldiers smile when they see it. They know the opposite is true. During one tense mission recently, U.S. army soldiers rolled up to the edge of the Shiite slum in hulking Stryker armoured vehicles. They never set foot inside, but they still got a sharp reaction. A burst of gunfire rang out moments after soldiers got out, prompting one squad to take cover in the home of an unemployed man named Abdul-Kareem Hassan Dhamin. More shooting followed, but then, just as suddenly, it stopped. Residents, accustomed to darting indoors during bursts of gunfire, peeked out and re-emerged. A line formed at a bread shop, and women with laundry baskets on their shoulders walked down the street. A man herded ...
Iraq Security Contractor Countersues By MIKE BAKER The Associated Press Friday, January 19, 2007; 9:42 PM RALEIGH, N.C. -- Private security contractor Blackwater USA is seeking $10 million from the attorney representing the estates of four employees killed and mutilated in Iraq, arguing their families breached the security guards' contracts by suing the company for wrongful death. Blackwater also has asked a federal court to move the dispute into arbitration, having failed so far in its ongoing efforts to have the lawsuit dismissed. Arbitration is necessary "in order to safeguard both (Blackwater's) own confidential information as well as sensitive information implicating the interest of the United States at war," attorneys for Blackwater Security Consulting, a unit of Moyock-based Blackwater USA, wrote in a petition filed December 20. Dan Callahan, a California-based attorney representing the families, called the claim "appalling." "This is a shock-an...
Clinton Says ‘I’m In to Win’ 2008 Race By PATRICK HEALY Published: January 20, 2007 “I’m in,” she says in a statement on her new campaign Web site. “And I’m in to win.” Mrs. Clinton, 59, called for “bold but practical changes” in foreign, domestic, and national security policy and said that she would focus on finding “a right end” to the Iraq war, expanding health insurance, pursuing greater energy independence and strengthening Social Security and Medicare. In her statement, Mrs. Clinton also squarely confronted an issue that concerns many Democrats: Whether she can, in fact, win the presidency. Some voters still associate her most with the controversies of the Clinton administration, and Republicans have long attacked and caricatured her, and plan to brand her as indecisive on Iraq. “I have never been afraid to stand up for what I believe in or to face down the Republican machine,” Mrs. Clinton said on the Web site. “After nearly $70 million spent against my campaigns in New York ...
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