Bremer leaves Iraq suddenly...

Drudge/Yahoo ^ | Reuters

[ClintonBeGone]

U.S. governor, Paul Bremer, has left for Washington at short notice and canceled a meeting on Tuesday with visiting Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller, the Polish delegation said.

Officials in the U.S.-led administration had no immediate comment on Bremer's trip to Washington

[TexKat]

Centcom:

IMPROVISED EXPLOSIVE DEVICE FOUND IN AMBULANCE

November 11, 2003

Release Number: 03-11-09

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Iraqi Police Service (IPS) discovered and defused a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device contained in an ambulance on Nov. 10. At 8:45 p.m.

IPS noticed an ambulance just south of the Al Daura Police Station. The ambulance was not using its emergency lights, and it appeared empty. IPS attempted to stop the ambulance, but it sped away, causing an accident. Three Iraqi personnel exited the vehicle, firing small arms at the other vehicle involved in the accident. The three personnel then fled the scene.

IPS searched the abandoned ambulance and found explosives. An IPS Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team disarmed four 155 mm artillery rounds and other various types of explosives.

U.S. military police secured the area, and a U.S. military EOD team evaluated the explosives and determined they were stable enough for transport. The explosives were relocated to a U.S. military site. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was contacted and is currently conducting an investigation.

[WL-law]

What would prove Saddam's still alive?

The article you cite states exactly my prior point. It attributes to "a CIA Official" -- who is that? If the CIA is making a formal statement, don't they have a formal spokesman?

And also note that "they aren't certain"? So either this is an identification or it isn't. I say that your article is NOT an identification.

How would he prove he's alive? Grant an interview to Dan Rather; appear in a credible video with today's NY Times on the table. Come on -- kidnappers have been 'proving' the existence of hostages for years.

[lasereye]

So are you saying this CIA official doesn't exist?

[kinghorse]

That's what they had. A central pole of authority. We call it a Strongman. It's all these freaks have known since the advent of fire.

[ClintonBeGone]

That doesn't sound to me like the President is led around by what the dems say or don't say.

Do you think that was true for his decision to impose steel tariffs?

[CyberAnt]

I don't know .. I wasn't in that meeting ..?? And you ..??

[BlackVeil]

Seamole writes:

Either way, something's going to be changing w/r/t our Iraq governance policy soon.

It does look that way, and like djoe, I see a link between this story, and the previous one posted by Seamole, indicating dissatisfaction with the Governing Council (or should that be the non-Governing Council?)

[ClintonBeGone]

Couldn't pass the background check?

[ClintonBeGone]

Couldn't pass the background check?

[CyberAnt]

Hmmmm? That's too bad!

[ClintonBeGone]

That was a question. We use '?' these things to indicate such.

[CyberAnt]

"We" ..??

Who is "we".

Since you couldn't pass the background check .. I wondered why you were questioning it .. like maybe you thought you should have passed ..??

[Spruce]

4TH ID SECURES LARGE CACHES OF ROCKETS AND MUNITIONS

If these weapons found in the Sunni Triangle are not old there are drastic changes coming.

[TexKat]

L. Paul Bremer, center, the top U.S. administrator in Iraq , walks from the Dwight D. Eisenhower Executive Office Building to the White House in Washington Tuesday, Nov.11, 2003. Bremer made a hastily arranged visit to Washington Tuesday amid growing dissatisfaction here about the performance of the Iraqi Governing Council. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Bremer Summoned to D.C. for Talks on Iraq

By TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent

WASHINGTON - Frustrated with the U.S.-picked Iraqi Governing Council, President Bush's national security advisers questioned the top American administrator in Iraq on Tuesday about how to break a political logjam in Baghdad and speed planning for the nation's political future.

L. Paul Bremer was summoned unexpectedly from Baghdad to a White House meeting with Secretary of State Colin Powell, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and other key officials.

There have been concerns about the performance of the governing council, a senior administration official said, particularly the lack of progress toward a Dec. 15 deadline to set a timetable for writing a new constitution and holding democratic elections. Bremer has expressed frustration to members of Congress that council officials are not working hard enough.

One idea being considered by the administration is to create an interim Iraqi leadership with authority to govern until a new constitution is in place and elections are held, officials said. It would be patterned after the model of Afghanistan, where the government of President Hamid Karzai was installed after a U.S.-led coalition ousted the hardline Taliban regime in late 2001. Elections are planned next June.

Bush, meanwhile, urged Americans to be patient in the face of rising casualties and growing criticism that the United States lacks a strategy for postwar Iraq.

"After decades of a dictator's sustained assault on Iraq's society and dignity and spirit, a Jeffersonian democracy will not spring up in a matter of months," the president said in a Veterans Day speech to the conservative Heritage Foundation.

"The work we are in is not easy, yet it is essential," Bush said. "The failure of democracy in Afghanistan and Iraq will condemn every advocate of freedom in those two countries to prison or death, and would extinguish the democratic hopes of millions in the Middle East."

With a re-election battle ahead, Bush faces a rising casualty toll in Iraq and criticism that he lacks a strategy for postwar Iraq. As of Monday, the U.S. death toll was 394.

Bremer's hurried flight to Washington caught his staff by surprise and forced him to cancel a planned meeting with Poland's prime minister, Leszek Miller. Some U.S. officials believe that key members of the 25-member Iraqi council are stalling in hopes of winning concessions from American leaders under political pressure to turn over power to the Iraqis.

Administration officials expressed disappointment in the council's work but said Bush was not about to disband it.

"The notion that we are about to throw the council to the wolves is exaggerated," a senior administration official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "But there is a need to put some energy into the political transition. It is true they are not as together as we had hoped."

The official, who is familiar with Iraq policy, said he expects Bush to stick with the basic outlines of his policy to achieve a transition to Iraqi authority.

The White House talks, like Bremer's return to Washington a few weeks earlier, were part of a process to energize and accelerate political, military and especially security arrangements in Iraq, officials said.

"The long-term security of Iraq will be assured by the Iraqis themselves," Bush said. He said 118,000 Iraqis were serving as police officers and in other security positions, and 35,000 Iraqi troops would be in the field by the end of next year.

"Increasingly the Iraqi people are assuming the responsibilities and the risks of protecting their own country," the president said. "And their willingness to accept these duties is one of the surest signs that the Iraqis want freedom and that the Iraqis are headed toward self-government.

"Under our strategy," Bush said, "increasing authority is being transferred to the Iraqi people. "The Iraqi Government Council has appointed ministers who are responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Iraqi government."

Bremer did not mention his travel plans when he met Sunday with a congressional delegation in Iraq, said the head of the group, Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz.

Kolbe said Bremer was frustrated by the work of the council and its slow progress toward drafting a constitution. He said Bremer believes council members do not devote enough time to the job and spend too much time traveling.

But Bremer "has not given up yet on the governing council. He is still prepared to work with it," Kolbe said.

___

Associated Press writer George Gedda contributed to his report.

[ClintonBeGone]

Next time I'll type slower so you can keep up.

[ClintonBeGone]

Excellent point. I think you're right on about those weapons.

[CyberAnt]

Well .. since I'm already 10 steps ahead of you .. that won't be necessary!

[AndyJackson]

Let us try a little bit of Kemlinology on your picture. Do you recognize the functionaries on either side of him in this picture? I don't. What does that tell you. This is not a picture with Bush or Powell or Rumsfeld or Rice. This is a big demotion. Perhaps after all of his years of service Mr. Bremer should "spend some time with his family."

[exnavy]

Something surely is afoot.

[WL-law]

So are you saying this CIA official doesn't exist?

Well, by reference to the BBC's Gilligan, his source 'existed' -- the source (Kelly) was not a "spokesman" for the agency/gov't, he was a critic of the gov't, acting alone and under the cover of press secrecy.

So is that the case with this "CIA Official"? I assume yes, since he is not a spokesman for the agency or for the Bush administration.

Does the Bush administration have enemies in the CIA? Of course they do -- this source could be, i.e., Ambassador Wilson's wife (Valerie Plume) for all you know.