In Other News...

From Bush's "mandate" to numbers that aren't adding up, election-related stories have taken center stage this month, reducing the coverage of other important events to short blurbs.

Some of what you may have missed:


Part I - Iraq-

According to CNN, our Iraqi "allies" apparently aren't showing up as expected.

(You'll love this part) "Now, Rumsfeld says that he does not know if militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is in Falluja. Of course, Zarqawi a man with a $25 million price on his head, who has claimed responsibility for so much of the violence thus far in Iraq. Military leaders saying basically if they catch Zarqawi in Falluja, it will simply be a bonus, because the expectation is that he and his lieutenants have had ample time to slip quietly out of this city.
(Shades of Osama Bin Forgotten- wasn't capturing Zarqawi kinda the point of going in there?)
"Now, speaking to the slipping quietly away, there are a number, perhaps hundreds, of Iraqi soldiers who did not turn up for this very decisive battle. The defense secretary yesterday saying basically that this is an isolated problem, though something that should be expected from time to time, considering the circumstances. But still this is not welcome news for the Pentagon, Carol, because this is the force that is supposed to take over security in Iraq so that U.S. troops can eventually come home."

Iraqi Officers, with battle plans in hand, are deserting:

AN Iraqi military commander deserted US forces hours after he received a full briefing on US military plans to storm the rebel-held city of Fallujah, CNN reported today.
But a report sent to Reuters and other media from a marine unit quoted US officers as saying the desertion of the unidentified captain, a Kurdish company commander, would not change plans to retake the city before Iraqi elections scheduled for January 27.
They said they believe the officer, who commanded 160 Iraqi soldiers training with US marines at a base on the outskirts of Fallujah, was not likely to hand over battle plans to rebels in the Sunni Muslim city, where Saddam Hussein loyalists and supporters of al-Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi are entrenched.
The officer disappeared one day after US marine officers gave him a full briefing on the battle plans. US officers found his uniform and automatic rifles on his bed.
(or maybe he just took a little time off to go to Alabama to work on a political campaign...)

35 US soldiers captured in Fallujah

16 US troops reported killed within the past 48 hours

Reports of "body parts everywhere" in Fallujah



Winning hearts and minds~


That's enough for now- I'm feeling sick to my stomach.


Ending on a positive note-

The Bush administration has suffered a major setback in its strategy for dealing with detainees at its Guantanamo Bay facility in Cuba.

In what's being described as a dramatic judgement, a US Federal Judge has ruled that the US administration can no longer ignore the Geneva Convention in its attempts to prosecute detainees.

Overnight the judge halted the military tribunal case against Yemeni detainee, Salim Hamdan, who is accused of being Osama bin Laden's former bodyguard and driver.

The judge ruled that the case could only proceed once what he called a "competent tribunal" determined that the Yemeni was not entitled to prisoner-of-war status.

The ruling undermines a key pillar of the Bush administration's strategy for prosecuting what it's calling enemy combatants and the Justice Department immediately announced it would appeal.

But if the ruling is upheld, it opens the way for a complete change in the treatment of all detainees at Guantanamo Bay, including the two Australians.
Australian Broadcasting Co