Free Republic

The United Nations Security Council has passed another resolution concerning Iran because its nuclear program is an unacceptable threat. Iran's violations of Security Council resolutions not only continue, but are deepening. Instead of suspending its proliferation-sensitive activities as the council has required, Iran is dramatically expanding the number of operating centrifuges and developing a new generation of centrifuges, testing one of them with nuclear fuel. Once again, Iran has not made the choice the world had hoped for; once again, the Security Council has no choice but to act. At stake is the security of a vital region of the...

Hailed as the cure for ill will toward Washington and other diplomatic problems at the United Nations, the American ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, was taken down a peg over the weekend, as his own — and his country's — prestige were thrown into question. What will one of President Bush's favorite operators do now? Mr. Khalilzad sold to the 15 members of the Security Council a resolution in support of the Palestinian Arab-Israeli negotiations at Annapolis. But he acted like a star quarterback who botched the signals, ran ahead with the football, got the backs and coaches all confused, and ended...

UNITED NATIONS, (AP) -- Zalmay Khalilzad started his new job Monday as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, with one ambassador on the Security Council saying he 'can't be as bad' as his controversial predecessor — John Bolton. Khalilzad was confirmed by the Senate on March 29 by unanimous voice vote to replace Bolton, whose nomination by President Bush sparked a bruising Senate debate. Bolton resigned in December, weeks before his recess appointment was to expire. When asked about Khalilzad as he headed into a Security Council meeting Monday, South Africa's U.N. Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo said with a smile,...

WASHINGTON -- Zalmay Khalilzad, who was announced this week as leaving as U.S. ambassador to Iraq, is the leading prospect to replace John Bolton as envoy to the United Nations. President Bush was reported by aides as looking for someone who approximates Bolton's combination of toughness and diplomatic skill and has tentatively decided on Khalilzad. A native of Afghanistan, he has served in government posts dating back to 1985 and is the highest-ranking Muslim in the Bush administration. Speculation on a new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations to succeed John Bolton is focusing on the current U.S. ambassador in...

WASHINGTON - Zalmay Khalilzad, the plainspoken dealmaker and Republican insider who has won praise and criticism for attempts to broker Sunni political participation in Iraq's fragile government, is likely to quit his post as U.S. ambassador in Baghdad in the coming months, a senior Bush administration official said Monday. As the midterm elections approached in the United States, Khalilzad has been a public face of Bush administration attempts to project both willingness to change strategy or tactics in an unpopular war and solidarity with the increasingly fractious Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Khalilzad's departure has been rumored for...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A military investigation into allegations that U.S. troops intentionally killed Iraqi civilians in a March raid in Ishaqi, a village north of Baghdad, has cleared the troops of misconduct, the military said Friday — despite dramatic video footage of slain children. Meanwhile, a lawyer representing families of some of the two dozen unarmed Iraqi civilians allegedly killed by U.S. Marines in the western town of Haditha on Nov. 19 said three or four Marines carried out the shootings while 20 more waited outside the homes. He also said victims' relatives turned down a request by U.S. investigators...

THREE YEARS after U.S. Marines and Iraqis toppled the huge statue of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in Baghdad's Firdos Square, Americans and Iraqis can be proud of what our common efforts and sacrifices have achieved since that day, even as we acknowledge that challenges remain to reaching the goal of a stable and democratic Iraq. The success of Iraq is vitally important to the region and the world. In the broader Middle East, the absence of freedom, accountable systems of government and social and economic progress contributed to creating an environment in which extremism and terrorism developed and thrived....

Weekend Talk Show *Preview* for DATE HERE (not the live thread)Journal Editorial Report (Paul Gigot) - FNC show page Meme: Don't believe what the dinosaur media is telling you about November, but don't discount it, either Topics: "Runs, Hits and Errors"A discussion of GOP prospects (from OpinionJournal web site) After Tom DeLay's departure, how bad does November's election now look for Republicans, and can they do anything to stop a rout? The 2006 elections: With DeLay out of the picture, can the GOP get its mojo back? (FNC web site)Baseball steroids (from OpinionJournal web site) Major League Baseball finally confronts...

As the Bush administration's envoy for Iraqi politics, Zalmay Khalilzad had considerable experience dealing with Iraqi opponents of Saddam Hussein. Before the war, Mr. Khalilzad was the White House's point man in meetings with Iraqi exile leaders in London and Kurdistan. After the shooting started, he was a key figure at political gatherings in Baghdad and at Tallil air base to begin assembling a new Iraqi leadership. So when the White House prepared to announce the appointment of L. Paul Bremer III as the chief civilian administrator in Iraq in May 2003, Mr. Khalilzad had every expectation that he would...

Lost amid the news of all the bloodletting in Iraq is an important political development: The Kurds have switched sides. In the first parliament after the first set of elections, they allied themselves with the Shiite slate to produce the current Shiite-dominated government led by Ibrahim al-Jafari. Now the Kurds have joined with the opposition Sunni and secular parties to oppose the Shiite bloc. The result is two large competing coalitions: (a) the Kurd-Sunni-secular bloc, which controls about 140 seats in the 275-seat parliament and would constitute the barest majority, and (b) the Shiite bloc, which itself is a coalition...

Saturday ShowsCNBC'S TIM RUSSERT SHOW Meme: George Bush never really wanted to capture Osama and was really intent on going to war with Iraq all the time Topics: Former CIA agent Gary Berntsen, author of “Jawbreaker”  tells the riveting tale of how Osama bin Laden escaped at Tora Bora. Guests Former CIA agent Gary Berntsen, author of “Jawbreaker” The program airs on CNBC Saturday nights at 7 & 10 p.m. ET Journal Editorial Report (Paul Gigot) - FNC show page Meme: Is George W. Bush in control?Why is he doing inexplicable things? Topics: "Could scores of sealed documents reveal Saddam...

It used to be said that the best hope for an impoverished little country was to declare war on the United States, because the ILC would lose and then receive massive quantities of aid and assistance. Such bits of folk wisdom led to some great comic masterpieces, such as the memorable Peter Sellers movie, The Mouse that Roared, in which the ILC was unlucky enough to win...and then what? Nowadays the process from war to aid and assistance has grown much shorter, because it's no longer necessary to go through the unpleasant business of losing. And if you do have...

"Sunni Arab opposition to Iraq's draft constitution has increased the potential for instability and called into question U.S. hopes for substantial troop cuts next spring, the top U.S. Commander in Iraq said Friday (General George Casey)." _______ In my opinion, we should expect to be in Iraq a long time. I believe that we need to establish permanent bases there as we did in Japan and Germany after World War II. There would be many benefits to this strategy. Also, I advise President Bush to stay the course until the job is completed. Respectfully submitted, J. Scott Davis Veteran: U.S....

BAGRAM, Afghanistan - Vice President Dick Cheney congratulated U.S. troops for helping give democracy a chance to take root in Afghanistan. "For the first time the people of this country are looking confident about the future of freedom and peace," Cheney told a group of soldiers Tuesday morning at Bagram Air Base, just hours before a ceremony to inaugurate President Hamid Karzai. Cheney was leading a U.S. delegation that included Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad. The vice president recounted the role of U.S. forces in destroying the Taliban regime, which had harbored...

Dec. 24 — KABUL (Reuters) - Guerrillas from Afghanistan's ousted Taliban militia and the al Qaeda network it once sheltered are using Pakistan as a sanctuary, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan said Wednesday. Speaking at a police graduation ceremony, Zalmay Khalilzad also said senior al Qaeda members including Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar must be brought to justice. "The remnants of extremist Taliban, al Qaeda and Hekmatyar want to take Afghanistan to the bad old days," Khalilzad said. "They use Pakistan as sanctuary." The Taliban and Hekmatyar...

<p>Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday promised that America will stand with Afghanistan as it tries to rebuild after a quarter-century of conflict, and warned Taliban rebels that they "are fighting a losing battle."</p> <p>The former first lady, who was in Afghanistan along with Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., on a whistlestop tour to spend Thanksgiving with U.S. troops, said her country is impressed by the course Afghan President Hamid Karzai is taking his country, and determined to stand with him.</p>

AFP Photo Two key powerbrokers began making their mark on post-war Iraq as Paul Bremer, the top US civilian official, began touring the Gulf a day after a top Shiite Muslim leader returned home in triumph from 23 years of exile.Bremer, a 61-year-old career diplomat and counterterrorism expert arrived in Doha to outline his mission to supervise the rebuilding and democratization of war-torn Iraq.Tapped Tuesday by US President George W. Bush for the post, Bremer was accompanied by General Richard Myers, chairman of the US military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, and was to met retired general Jay Garner, the US...

REBUILDING PLAN AGREED Free Iraqis have drawn up a 13-point plan to rebuild their country following the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime. The plan was agreed at US-hosted talks at Ur, the birthplace of the biblical prophet Abraham. The delegates also voted to meet again in 10 days' time. In a statement they said a future Iraqi government must be democratic, no leader must be imposed from outside, and the Baath party must be dissolved. As the meeting began, hundreds marched through the streets of nearby Nasiriyah protesting about US involvement in their country's future. They were concerned that the...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said on Friday it would convene a meeting of Iraqis in the southern city of Nassiriya on Tuesday to discuss the future of Iraq (news - web sites) and an eventual interim authority to govern the country. The meeting, which a U.S. official said was to be chaired by U.S. presidential envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, was expected to be the first in a series Washington aims to organize leading to a Baghdad conference to choose an Iraqi governing authority. It was expected to include Iraqis from inside and outside the country, including opposition figures and...

A TOP US official today accused Iran of still harbouring members of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network after they fled the US bombing onslaught in Afghanistan. Zalmay Khalilzad, special presidential envoy to Afghanistan, who has frequently criticised Iran on this issue in the past, said it was unacceptable for Iran "to harbour, host or hide," members of the group blamed for the September 11 attacks. He said the Iranian government had to make a "strategic" decision to hand over al-Qaeda members that Washington believes are still in Iran, Khalilzad noted at a conference at the Washington Institute for Near East...