Tuesday, July 05, 2005

The FBI works in Iraq!

Is our national security threatened because our domestic law enforcement agency (like our National Guard) is sending people out of the country?
Iraq is ready to accept U.S. help in investigating the killing and kidnapping of government officials, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Sunday after a surprise visit amid tight security.

The informal agreement covering the criminal investigations came after Gonzales met with Iraq's prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, as well as police and judicial officials during a six-hour visit to the Iraqi capital. Word of the arrangement followed the abduction on Saturday night of Egypt's top envoy to Iraq — an apparent bid to discourage the country's Arab neighbors from bolstering ties to the embattled U.S.-backed government.

Ihab al-Sherif, 51, chief of the Egyptian diplomatic mission in Baghdad, was kidnapped by about eight gunmen after he stopped to buy a newspaper in western Baghdad, witnesses said.

Al-Sherif, who had been in the country since June 1, was pistol-whipped and forced into the trunk of a car as the assailants shouted that he was an "American spy," the witnesses said on condition of anonymity.

[...]

While details still need to be worked out, investigators from the FBI and other U.S. law enforcement agencies would join their Iraqi counterparts at crime scenes and in other aspects of the probes, Gonzales' aides said.

[...]

Some five dozen FBI agents and analysts are also on assignment in Iraq investigating roadside bombings and other attacks against U.S.-led coalition forces.

[...]

Gonzales' visit took place under extraordinary security precautions, including a news blackout until Gonzales was safely inside the heavily fortified green zone where Iraqi and U.S. officials work.

[...]

The attorney general condemned abuses by American soldiers at the
Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad, blaming them on a few individuals, not official U.S. policy.

  Yahoo News article

Oh, that's rich, coming from the guy who found the legal excuse for granting the POTUS torture rights.

And speaking of rich, catch this July 4 speech from the Asshat in Chief...
The challenges that America faces in Iraq, President Bush said at an outdoor rally here on Monday, are like those that confronted the country on its first Independence Day, the (registration-restricted) New York Times' Anne Kornblut reports.

   Raw Story article

Yeah. Funny he should mention that. I'm pretty sure he's not equating the "insurgents" with the American patriots who were fighting against the occupying English.
"On July 4, 1776, more than five years of the Revolutionary War still lay ahead," Mr. Bush said.
So don't get in a hurry to leave Iraq, eh?

By the way, he was in W. Virginia when he said that. Apparently, he keeps going back to that state on Independence Day.
It was the third time in recent years that Mr. Bush had visited West Virginia on the July 4 holiday, drawn to its nearness and increasingly Republican electorate at a time when many in the state are also active in the military. Republicans, having won the state's five electoral votes in the last two presidential elections, are now eyeing the possibility that Representative Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican often targeted by Democrats, will challenge the revered Democratic senator from the state, Robert C. Byrd, who is up for re-election in 2006. Ms. Capito and her father, Archie A. Moore, Jr., the former governor, joined Mr. Bush onstage.
Never pass up an opportunity to do a little politicking for the party, Buttie.

Taxpayers pick up the tab?

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

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