From the New York Times via The Australian :

A Top al-Qaeda leader captured in Pakistan was the main source for now-discredited intelligence claiming that Iraq provided chemical and biological arms training to members of the group, The New York Times reported today.

Quoting unnamed US intelligence officials, the newspaper said: “Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, a member of Osama bin Laden's inner circle, recanted the claims sometime last year, but not before they had become the basis of statements by President (George W.) Bush, Vice-President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell and others about links between Iraq and al-Qaeda that involved poisons, gases and other illicit weapons.”

Libi, captured in Pakistan in December 2001, “is still being held by the Central Intelligence Agency at a secret interrogation centre, and American officials say his now-recanted claims raise new questions about the value of the information obtained from such detainees”, the report said.

From AFP The Australian :

Powerful explosions rocked Fallujah today in what appeared to be a fresh US bombardment of the flashpoint city.

Hospital sources said that at least six Iraqis were killed and 30 injured.

The explosions centred around the north-eastern part of the city, in an area known as Al-Askari.

The US military had no immediate comment but confirmed earlier clashes with insurgents.

Fighters in civilian clothing attacked a marines position near Fallujah with mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire, prompting US troops to return fire with tanks, it said.

The marines also bombarded a building in the city's industrial neighbourhood from where insurgents were suspected to be firing on the military post, the military said.

There was no word on casualties.

The enemy are no longer 'Militants' or even 'Insurgents' : according to AFP they're now 'Fighters in civilian clothes'.

A group linked to terrorist mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi announced Saturday that it has kidnapped two drivers working for a Turkish company supplying goods to U.S. forces in Iraq, Al-Jazeera reported Saturday.

In a videotape broadcast on the Arabic-language network, the Unification and Jihad group said the company must stop its activities in Iraq within 48 hours or the militants will behead the two.

CNN Turk identified the two as Abdulrahman Demir and Sait Enver. They work for a Turkey-bas

Full story…

HAARETZ: Gadhafi urges Arab and Muslim nations not to send troops to Iraq

Libyan leader Col. Moammar Gadhafi has urged fellow Arab and Muslim nations not send troops into Iraq, the official news agency reported Saturday.

“Arab and Muslim troops should not be sent to Iraq unless the occupation forces withdraw,” JANA quoted Gadhafi as saying in a statement. He also said that a United Nations resolution was also needed to sanction sending these troops to the war-torn Arab country.

Saudi Arabia has suggested dispatching Arab and Muslim troops to Iraq. The Saudi foreign minister said Wednesday there had been preliminary discussions about the possibility of forming a Muslim force and deploying it in Iraq to supplement the U.S.-led coalition.

An Arab League ministerial committee discussed the prospect in Tunisia on Thursday but League spokesman Hossam Zaki said no decision has been made.

The head of a school for teachers was killed Friday afternoon in a town 65 kilometers (40 miles) south of Baghdad in what Iraqi police said was a drive-by assassination.

Dr. Isma'il Al-Kilabi, chief of the teachers' institute in the town of Mahmoudiyah, was walking home from the noon prayer at a mosque when he was shot to death by four masked gunmen in two cars, according to Iraqi Police Col. Abdul Kahrim.

“We do not know the reason behind that assassination,” said Col. Kahrim.

Anyone who's been following the shennanigans in the warcrimes tribunal judging Slobodan Milosovic knows that his health problems may abort the trial, permanently. How ill he actually is is a matter of some debate.

From the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

Lawyers for the ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein say they are concerned about his health and want to send a doctor to visit him in prison in Iraq.

The demands from Saddam's legal team follow reports that the former Iraqi leader has suffered a stroke while in prison.

Those reports have been denied by the US military, who are holding him in Iraq.

From the AFP via the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

United States President George W Bush has lifted sanctions placed on Iraq when Iraq was run by Saddam Hussein, who was toppled last year by US-led troops.

”I have determined that the situations that gave rise to these national emergencies have been significantly altered by the removal of the regime of Saddam Hussein and other developments,” Mr Bush said.

US and United Nations sanctions were put into place after Saddam's army invaded neighbouring Kuwait in 1990.

“This action is consistent with United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1483 and 1546, of May 22, 2003, and June 8, 2004, respectively, which substantially lifted the multilateral economic sanctions against Iraq,” the statement said.

Still in place are measures such as the freezing of assets linked to Saddam's regime.

From the AFP via the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

At least 13 Iraqis were killed and a dozen wounded in overnight clashes between United States troops and insurgents in Fallujah, west of Baghdad, according to hospital sources and police.

”We have 13 killed and 13 wounded,” said doctor Bilal Jassem at Fallujah's main hospital without indicating if the casualties were civilians or fighters.

The same toll was given by Lieutenant Walid Mohammed of the Iraqi police.

The US military said earlier that it targeted insurgents in Fallujah with artillery and air fire after they attacked a marine position in the city with mortar rounds, rocket-propelled grenades and small arms.

Marines first responded with tanks and artillery fire, it said, adding that there were no marine casualties and “no information about any insurgent losses”.

Residents said they heard loud explosions that appeared to come from the Shuhada neighbourhood in the south of the city, targeted by previous US air strikes.

“I heard a very powerful explosion around 10:30 pm coming from the Shuhada neighbourhood,” a resident said on condition of anonymity.

Powell made a surprise visit to Baghdad, where he spoke to Iraqi leaders, saying:

“….[T]he United States will speed up spending to rebuild the country's infrastructure and create jobs, and said doing so will help make Iraq safer.
“It's important to note the leaders of Iraq are very courageous, they put themselves at risk every day. We have to make sure that these insurgents understand that we will not be deterred … . The terrorists will be defeated, there can be no other option.”

International Herald Tribune:

Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s terrorist group has kidnapped a Somali truck driver in Iraq and threatened to behead him if his Kuwaiti company doesn’t stop working here, according to a videotape broadcast by Al-Jazeera Thursday.

The videotape, released by the Tawhid and Jihad group, showed three masked and armed militants standing behind a seated man waving a passport.

Al-Jazeera’s news presenter identified the hostage as Ali Ahmed Moussa and said the militants had threatened to behead their captive in 48 hours if the Kuwaiti company he works for doesn’t stop working in Iraq.

The company was not identified. An identity card shown during the tape gave his year of birth as 1959.

Cross-posted at Backcountry Conservative

This one still appears to be a bit iffy. I'm sure there will be reports from other sources confirming or debunking it later today.

Sofia News Agency/Novinite.com:

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, head of the group suspected of beheading two Bulgarian hostages, has reportedly been arrested in Western Iraq.

Al-Zarqawi has been arrested by Iraqi police and US military close to the border with Syria, Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported, citing information posted on the Internet.

Zarqawi was dressed in a white T-shirt and blue jeans. Reports claim that he didn't oppose the arrest.

A blood sample has been sent to Baghdad for DNA tests.

(Via Fark.)

Google News shows the results from today but also shows reports on June 28 that turned out to be false.

If it turns out to be true - bank on the timing being questioned by Democrats.

UPDATE: A commenter at The Command Post provided a link to the Russian-language version of the RIA Novosti article.

12:33 UPDATE: U.S. officials have apparently denied the report according to Novinite.com:

Reports about the arrest of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi have been denied by representatives of the US Commandment and Iraq's Interior Ministry.

The message about the arrest of al-Zarqawi comes from unreliable sources, Russian online edition Utro.Ru said, citing US Commandment and Iraq's Interior Ministry.

Based on the above context we have another Russian source of unknown reliability saying the previous Novosti report of Zarqawi's capture was false - all of this brought to us by a Bulgarian source.

Other blogging:
Rusty Shackelford
Speed of Thought
Say Anything
James Joyner

Cross-posted at The Command Post.

THE AGE: Europe gets 'waterfalls of blood' threat

A statement purportedly by an al-Qaeda linked group has threatened to destroy European cities and “create waterfalls of blood” because the continent failed to respond to Osama bin Laden's truce offer.

The statement, posted on the Internet in the name of Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades, condemns Europeans for not withdrawing their troops from Iraq and Afghanistan within three months, as bin Laden demanded on April 15.

“Today, we have declared a bloody war against you. We will not stop our attacks until you have come to your senses,” the statement said.

There was no way to verify the authenticity of the statement which surfaced on an Islamic website known for its extremist content.

On Sunday, a threat by the al-Qaeda linked Tawhid Islamic Group said it would turn Australia into pools and baths of blood if it did not leave Iraq.

US officials and some terrorism experts believe Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades, which claimed responsibility for the Madrid train bombings that killed about 200 people in March, lacks credibility and has only tenuous ties to al-Qaeda.

SA: Hostages executed in Iraq

A militant group holding two Pakistani contractors hostage said on Wednesday it had killed the men, according to the Pan-Arab television station Al-Jazeera.

The group, calling itself the Islamic Army in Iraq, announced in a video sent to Al-Jazeera on Monday that it had kidnapped two Pakistanis working for US forces and had sentenced them to death because their country was discussing sending troops to Iraq.

In a new videotape sent to the station Wednesday the men said they had carried out their threat, the station reported.

The newsreader said the video showed the corpses of the two men. The station did not show the footage.

BLOOMBERG: Saudi Foreign Minister Proposes Islamic Military Force in Iraq

Saudi Arabia proposed deployment to Iraq of a military force drawn from Islamic nations to supplement and perhaps eventually replace the U.S.-led coalition, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said.

“We had preliminary discussions on that, but will have detailed discussions later on,” al-Faisal said at a joint news conference with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell in Jeddah. Al-Faisal, asked how the U.S. responded and for further details of the proposal, said he would continue the talks in a second meeting with Powell this evening.

Powell declined to comment on the idea.

AFP:

Three sons of the governor of Iraq (news - web sites)'s restive Al-Anbar province were kidnapped by gunmen who barged into the official's private home in the flashpoint city of Ramadi west of Baghdad, police said.

Unknown gunmen barged into the governor's home, snatched his sons aged between 15 and 30, and then torched the building while Governor Abdul Karim Burghis al-Rawi was at work, Captain Omar Dulaimi told AFP.

Cross-posted from Backcountry Conservative.

JERUSALEM POST: Iraqi Sheikh: Kill Muslims who protect infidels

A lengthy audiotape purportedly by the spiritual adviser to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's al-Qaida-linked group justifies killing Muslims when their presence protects infidels and threatens revenge on Shiite Muslims.

The 74-minute tape, posted Wednesday on an Internet site that often carries statements from Islamic terrorists, identifies the speaker as Sheik Abu Anas al-Shami, spiritual leader for Tawhid and Jihad. His name often is cited in Islamic forums as a religious authority, but he was not known to have released such audiotapes.

“If infidels take Muslims as protectors and Muslims do not fight them, it is allowed to kill the Muslims,” the speaker said, then gave an example.

“If there is an interest in killing a Turk, and if it is necessary - meaning that if targeting the infidels is impossible as long as the Turk exists - then killing the Turk serves an interest to all Muslims and his killing is allowed,” he said.

A huge explosion caused by a suicide car bomb tore through police and government buildings in central Baqouba on Wednesday, killing 51 people and injuring scores more, U.S. military and Iraqi health officials said.

At least 40 people were wounded by the blast outside the al-Najda police station, which was being used as a police recruiting center, in the turbulent city about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad ), according to Saad al-Amili, a Health Ministry official. He said 51 people were killed.

CNN has more details:

Police recruits were waiting in line outside the station in the heart of the city when a Toyota mini bus exploded on Wednesday at around 9:40 a.m. (0540 GMT).

A bus passing by with 21 passengers on board were all killed when the mini bus blew up, said Sa'ad al-Amalii, the director general of the Health Ministry.

Officials have said they expect the toll to rise in what has been described as the deadliest single bombing since the handover of sovereignty in late June.

One local health official put the number of wounded at 70.

Update: The death toll has been raised to 68.

CNN: Egypt denies paying ransom for diplomat

Egyptian officials in Cairo and Washington Tuesday dismissed a CNN report that Egypt had paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in ransom to win the release of an Egyptian diplomat in Iraq.

High-level sources in Baghdad told CNN that the Egyptians had paid the Lions of God Brigades for the release of diplomat Momdoh Kotb, Egypt's third-highest ranking diplomat in Iraq.

Kotb was abducted Thursday as he was leaving a mosque after evening prayers. He was released late Monday night.

Egypt “categorically denies any money (was) paid out to anybody,” Egypt's ambassador to Washington, Nabil Fahmy, told CNN.

Fahmy said Egypt had contacted the Iraqi interim government and “different groups” of “influential figures in and out of government.”

U.S. State Department spokesman Adam Ereli at first said he “could not speak to the veracity of” the CNN report” and then said that information from the Egyptian government indicated that Egypt “did not make any concessions to the terrorists.”

“Our information is the Egyptian government remains steadfast in this manner,” he said.

U.S. and Iraqi officials strongly discourage paying ransom — or acquiescing to kidnappers' demands in any way — for fear it will inspire insurgents to use the tactic more frequently.

But a security source in Baghdad told CNN that hundreds of thousands of dollars changed hands for Kotb's release.

Another highly placed Iraqi source confirmed that a ransom was paid, but added that Egypt made no concessions regarding its security commitment to Iraq.

AP: Militants Threaten Iraqi-Jordanian Highway

Militants bent on disrupting the supply chain to the U.S. military threatened Tuesday to cut the highway linking Iraq to Jordan in 72 hours and said it would hit at Jordanians as well as Americans.

The threat, from a group calling itself “The Group of Death,” was made in a video obtained by Associated Press Television News. The video showed seven men wearing black clothing and masks armed with rocket-propelled grenade launchers and rifles.

The group's warning comes amid a wave of kidnappings of foreigners, mainly truck drivers, entering Iraq from neighboring countries to delivering supplies and other cargo needed for this war-ravaged nation's reconstruction effort.

A militant who read a statement on the tape criticized Jordan, Iraq's western neighbor, for letting trucking firms enter Iraq to support the U.S.-led coalition.

“We consider all Jordanian interests, companies and businessmen and citizens as much a target as the Americans,” the speaker said.

From the AFP via The Australian :

An Iraqi garbage collector was killed and 14 US soldiers and a civilian were wounded today in a mortar attack on a residential neighbourhood in central Baghdad, the US military said.

”One civilian was killed and one civilian was injured and 14 multinational force soldiers were wounded in a mortar attack on a residential building in central Baghdad at around 6:45am (1145 AEST),” a spokesman said.

South of Baghdad, Dr Kassem el-Abadi, 40, deputy director of Mahmudiyah hospital, was shot dead late yesterday by unknown assailants in a car as he left work for home, the health ministry said.
[…]
Another military spokesman confirmed the 14 wounded soldiers were American.

Strange turn of events:

Relatives of two Jordanian drivers abducted in Iraq threatened Tuesday to behead the director of the company the hostages work for and to kill all the firm's employees if the director fails to immediately comply with the kidnappers' demands to cease operations in Iraq.

Fayez Saad al-Udwan and Ahmed Salama Hassan — who work as drivers for the private Jordanian company Daoud and Partners — were kidnapped Monday by a group calling itself the Mujahedeen Corps in Iraq. The group warned the captives would be killed within 72 hours unless their employer withdrew from Iraq and stopped cooperating with U.S forces.

AL-JAZEERA: Spain reprimands Australia over Iraq comment

Spain summoned the Australian ambassador in Madrid to protest against her country's view that the pullout of Spanish troops from Iraq has given al-Qaida the upper hand.

Australian FM Alexander Downer had on Sunday criticised Spain for pulling its troops from Iraq, saying it encouraged “terrorists” to continue their agenda.

His comments came soon after a group claiming to be the European wing of al-Qaida threatened attacks on Australia and Italy if they did not withdraw their soldiers from Iraq.

Spain's under-secretary for foreign affairs, Luis Calvo Merino, delivered the “firm rejection of the Spanish government” to ambassador Susan Tanner on Monday.

The Spanish government issued a statement saying that Madrid “has established the struggle against terrorism as a clear foreign policy priority.”

It added Downer's comments were therefore unacceptable, “all the more so as they come from a friendly country such as Australia.”

The Egyptian foreign ministry said Monday its diplomat kidnapped by militants in Iraq has been released.
Mohammed Mamdouh Helmi Qutb, described as the third-ranking diplomat at the Egyptian mission in Baghdad, was snatched Friday as he walked out of a mosque. In a video released by “The Lions of Allah Brigade,” the militants said they had taken Qutb to deter Egypt from sending troops.

Freed diplomat says thanks.

A militant group…released a video on pan-Arab TV station Al-Jazeera saying it had taken hostage two Pakistanis working for US forces and sentenced them to death because their country was discussing sending troops to Iraq. It was latest in a wave of abductions of foreigners designed to force their countries to rethink sending troops to Iraq.

Insurgents killed eight people in Iraq Monday including a senior Interior Ministry official gunned down near his home, and two Jordanian drivers were the latest foreigners to be seized in a spiraling hostage crisis.

The surge in attacks, including two car bombings, marked a fresh security challenge to the interim government ahead of a major political gathering expected this week.

The U.S. military said a suicide car bomb exploded outside an American base near the northern city of Mosul, killing an Iraqi woman, her child and an Iraqi guard.

Three U.S. soldiers and two Iraqi security staff were wounded. The military said the car was packed with mortar shells, but these did not detonate, lessening the impact.

In a bid to strengthen its relations with the Arab League and build on their version of legitimacy…

HAARETZ: Iraqi PM: No normalization with Israel until Arab states ready

Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said Monday that Baghdad will not make any moves to normalize relations with Israel before other Arabs do as part of a Mideast settlement.

The U.S.-backed prime minister, speaking to reporters at a joint news conference with Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, also dismissed Arab press reports that Israelis have established a presence in Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion.

“Future relations with Israel are determined by two issues: international resolutions and a just and comprehensive peace that has been adopted by Arab leaderships, including the Palestinian leadership. Iraq will not take any unilateral action on a settlement with Israel outside those two frameworks,” Allawi told reporters.

He described as “absolutely false” Arab press reports that Israeli intelligence agents were operating out of Iraq.

“We regretfully hear reports in the Arab press that there are 10,000 Israelis, and stories that Iraq is being used as a base for Israeli intelligence - this is inaccurate and false,” he said. “Iraq and its territory will not be a base for any action hostile to any Arab country.”

Welcome! Our goal at Winds of Change.NET is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from Iraq that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday & Thursday. This briefing is brought to you by Andrew Olmsted of Andrew Olmsted dot com.

TOP TOPICS

• Combat in Baghdad left 15 more insurgents dead, further demonstrating the futility of attacking American troops in Iraq.

• JK: It's mail call at CBFTW blog, by a soldier serving in Mosul. You'll get very straight answers to a whole bunch of questions, and some of those answers will surprise you.

• Kidnapping is becoming the sine qua non of terrorists in Iraq, with the director of an Iraqi construction firm and a senior Egyptian diplomat the latest victims.

Other Topics Today Include: suicide bombers job troubles; the Army considers a new strategy in Iraq; Iraq's government faces a new challenge; Carnival of the Liberated; reaping what the Philippines sowed.

Read the Rest…

From the article posted by Laurence below:

Saddam Hussein is spending his time in solitary confinement writing poetry, gardening, reading the Qur'an and snacking on American muffins and cookies. One of his poems is about his arch-enemy George Bush.

Hmmm. Saddam writing poetry. What, pray tell, could his poetry be like? I feel another contest coming on … visit the Publishers's Desk and compete in our first (and likely last) Saddam Hussein Poetry Contest.

REUTERS: Saddam Spends Time Gardening, Eating Muffins -Paper

Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is passing his time in solitary confinement by reading the Koran, writing poetry, gardening and snacking on cookies and muffins, Britain's Guardian newspaper reported on Monday.

Iraq's human rights minister Bakhtiar Amin said Saddam's health was “generally good” but he was being treated for high blood pressure and had suffered a chronic prostate infection.

“One of the poems is about (U.S. President) George Bush, but I had no time to read it,” said Amin, a Kurd originally from Kirkuk, who had spent much of his life in exile in Europe and the United States.

“He is looking after a few bushes and shrubs and has even placed a circle of white stones around a small plum tree,” he added.

The Voice Of America reports that the Philippine national security advisor, Norberto Gonzalez, has criticized Australia's Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, for being what he called “narrow-minded” in blaming the Philippines for the new terror threat against Australia.

From California Yankee.

Australia's Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, said Iraqi terrorists threatening to bomb Australia had been empowered by the Philippines and Spain caving in to the terrorist's demands. Agence France Presse reports:

Downer said the threat stemmed from the Philippines' decision to withdraw from Iraq this month to secure the release of a hostage truck driver and Spain's withdrawal after the Madrid train bombing in March that claimed nearly 200 lives.

“Unfortunately these actions have encouraged terrorists to continue these threats and now we are subjected to them, the Italians are, the Poles, the Bulgarians, by this particular group” he said.

From California Yankee.

American and Iraqi forces clashed with insurgents north of Baghdad early Sunday, killing 13 Iraqi militants, the U.S. military said.

There were no reports of U.S. casualties from the fighting in Buhriz, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. Formerly a Saddam stronghold, it has often been scene of clashes.

VOICE OF AMERICA: European 'Al Qaida' Branch Threatens Italy, Australia

A group calling itself the European branch of al Qaida has threatened Australia and Italy with attacks if the countries do not withdraw troops from Iraq.

A statement posted on an Internet site and signed by the “Tawhid Islamic Group” said it would attack both countries with car bombs if the demands were not met.

The group also said it would attack Australian and Italian targets in Arab and Muslim countries. The authenticity of the group and the statement could not be verified.

Earlier this week the same group issued similar threats to Poland and Bulgaria. Security officials from those two countries said there is no evidence that the threats against them are credible.

A videotape with new demands from the kidnappers of seven truck drivers — three Indians, three Kenyans and an Egyptian — was aired on the Arabic language TV network Al-Jazeera on Friday.

A masked man, appearing on the new tape in front of the truckers, read a statement for the group of kidnappers that calls itself The Black Banners.

The new demands are that the truck drivers' employer, the Kuwait and Gulf Transportation Company (KGL), pay the families of those killed in Fallujah and that all prisoners held in American prisons be released within 48 hours.

The hostage-takers originally demanded the men's employers or native countries pull their personnel from Iraq or the captors would behead a hostages every 72 hours beginning Saturday.

Those demands are pretty brazen, no?

Militants in Iraq took an Egyptian diplomat hostage Friday and demanded his country forsake any plans it had to send security experts here, according to a video broadcast Friday on the Al-Jazeera television station.

AL-JAZEERA: Al-Sadr gives first sermon in two months

Iraqi Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr gave his first public sermon in nearly two months, saying he he will not allow any attack on neighbours Syria or Iran from Iraqi territory.

Al-Sadr was speaking during Friday prayers at the Kufa mosque, reported Aljazeera's correspondent Atwar Bahjat.

He also said that the captors of a South Korean hostage were not justified in beheading him.

The South Korean civilian was killed in June after Seoul refused his cators' demands to withdraw its troops from Iraq.

“If you knew politics and religion, you would not have cut off his head,” said al-Sadr.

“There is no religion or religious law that punishes by beheading. True, they are your enemies and occupiers, but this does not justify cutting off their heads,” al-Sadr said in Kufa, next to the southern Iraqi city of Najaf.

FYI
He's wrong, of course, One religion that he's very familiar with has several references to beheading of enemies. From Sura 8, Verse 12:

God revealed His will to the angels, saying: “I shall be with you. Give courage to the believers. I shall cast terror into the hearts of the infidels. Strike off their heads, strike off the very tips of their fingers.”

The LA Times reports that a day's worth of fighting in Ramadi has left 25 Iraqis dead and 17 wounded.

The Houston Chronicle reports that Haliburton execs were on the Hill yesterday, taking questions from the House Government Reform Committee about their Iraq contracts. As you can expect, there were two sides to the story.

A minibus collided with a U.S. tank Thursday night, killing nine Iraqis and injuring 10 others, according to a U.S. military spokesman.
The minibus tried to pass another vehicle in Baghdad, the spokesman said. No U.S. forces were injured.

Also in the same report:

On Friday morning in Baghdad, in the Kadhmiya district, a roadside bomb hit a different minibus, killing two Iraqis — the driver and a girl — and wounding three others, according to Iraqi police.

USATODAY reports that:

The Army inspector general's office has examined 125 accusations that U.S. forces abused or killed prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan and found 94 confirmed or possible cases of abuse.

The new count covers incidents from September 2002 to June 2004. It marks the highest number of actual or possible abuses and deaths acknowledged thus far by the Army. Privately, officials had previously estimated just short of 90 cases, including 37 deaths. The new count includes 39 prisoner deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan. In arriving at the figure of 94, investigators threw out 31 cases in which they determined that no abuse occurred.

Bloomberg reports that yesterday Congress approved an increase in defense spending to $416 billion next fiscal year, including $25 billion the Bush administration requested for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Go here to see the bill first-hand.

WaPo, reporting on the 9/11 report:

Although recent polls have shown that more than 40 percent of the American public is still convinced that Iraq collaborated with al Qaeda and had a role in the terrorist attacks, the commission reported finding no evidence of a “collaborative operational relationship” between the two or an Iraqi role in attacking the United States.

It stated that representatives of the two may have been in contact in 1994 or 1995, 1998 and possibly 1999, largely because of what the commission described as a shared hatred of the United States. But the commission found that their interests were largely out of sync, and nothing came of the contacts.

There's also this:

Al Qaeda ties to Iran appear to have been much more substantial, according to information disclosed by the commission. An agreement brokered by Sudan in 1991 or 1992 led to Iranian training of senior al Qaeda operatives in explosives, for example. Iran also repeatedly assisted the transit of al Qaeda figures into and out of Iran by agreeing not to stamp their passports. No similar evidence of cooperation between al Qaeda and Iraq was cited by the panel.

Polic