Monday, September 27, 2004
Is the World Safer?
(Paula) ZAHN: Is the world a safer place because of the war in Iraq?
(Pakistan’s Pres.) MUSHARRAF: No. It's more dangerous. It's not safer, certainly not.
ZAHN: How so?
MUSHARRAF: Well, because it has aroused actions of the Muslims more. It's aroused certain sentiments of the Muslim world, and then the responses, the latest phenomena of explosives, more frequent for bombs and suicide bombings. This phenomenon is extremely dangerous.
ZAHN: Do you think that the war in Iraq has undermined the overall war on terror?MUSHARRAF: It has complicated it, certainly. I wouldn't say undermined. It has further complicated it. It has made the job more difficult.
-CNN, 9/24
CBS Packs It in: Journalism Resumes-perhaps- on November 3
CBS News said yesterday that it had postponed a "60 Minutes" segment that questioned Bush administration rationales for going to war in Iraq.
The announcement, in a statement by a spokeswoman, was issued four days after the network acknowledged that it could not prove the authenticity of documents it used to raise new questions about President Bush's Vietnam-era military service.
The Iraq segment had been ready for broadcast on Sept. 8, CBS said, but was bumped at the last minute for the segment on Mr. Bush's National Guard service. The Guard segment was considered a highly competitive report, one that other journalists were pursuing.
CBS said last night that the report on the war would not run before Nov. 2.
"We now believe it would be inappropriate to air the report so close to the presidential election," the spokeswoman, Kelli Edwards, said in a statement. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/25/politics/campaign/25cbs.html
The Piece:
A team of “60 Minutes” correspondents and consulting reporters spent more than six months investigating the Niger uranium documents fraud, CBS sources tell NEWSWEEK. The group landed the first ever on-camera interview with Elisabetta Burba, the Italian journalist who first obtained the phony documents, as well as her elusive source, Rocco Martino, a mysterious Roman businessman with longstanding ties to European intelligence agencies.
Although the edited piece never ended up identifying Martino by name, the story, narrated by “60 Minutes” correspondent Ed Bradley, asked tough questions about how the White House came to embrace the fraudulent documents and why administration officials chose to include a 16-word reference to the questionable uranium purchase in President Bush’s 2003 State of the Union speech. http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6073449/site/newsweek/
ACTION:
If you feel like impacting the media, contact:Mel Karmazin, President, CBS CorporationVIACOM/CBS Corporation1515 BroadwayNew York, New York 10036
Or email the execs [kee@cbsnews.com, kfa@cbsnews.com, smg@cbsnews.com, 60II@cbsnews.com, audsvcs@cbs.com]
What’s Happening, Iraq:
With reports of the deteriorating situation, it’s no surprise that the media aren’t able to do their job. One problem is that we’ll have less reporting of the deteriorating situation, which will be interpreted by some as a brightening picture. [Rajiv Chandrasekaran]
We at The Post, like most other foreign journalists here, have had to restrict our movements around Baghdad and the rest of the country because of the seucrity situation. I used to jump in a car and drive out to places like Fallujah and Baqubah to write about attacks, to get a sense of what was really happening on the ground. No longer. The roads are too dangerous, the threat of kidnapping too great. We spend a lot of time sitting in our hotels and relying on the reporting of our very brave Iraqi local staff. It's not great for us and it's not great for our readers, but it's the best we can do under the circumstances. http://discuss.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/zforum/04/world_rajiv092204.htm
The same author notes the situation; this type of dispatch / report is increasingly common…at last
Less than four months before planned national elections in Iraq, attacks against U.S. troops, Iraqi security forces and private contractors number in the dozens each day and have spread to parts of the country that had been relatively peaceful, according to statistics compiled by a private security firm working for the U.S. government. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50259-2004Sep25.html
Casualties 5 Americans were killed on Saturday. And,
Coalition fatalities in Iraq: 1183U.S. military fatalities in Iraq: 1048Iraqi military fatalities: Several thousandIraqi civilian fatalities: At least 12,927
And :
Operations by U.S. and multinational forces and Iraqi police are killing twice as many Iraqis - most of them civilians - as attacks by insurgents, according to statistics compiled by the Iraqi Health Ministry and obtained exclusively by Knight Ridder.
According to the ministry, the interim Iraqi government recorded 3,487 Iraqi deaths in 15 of the country's 18 provinces from April 5 - when the ministry began compiling the data - until Sept. 19. Of those, 328 were women and children. Another 13,720 Iraqis were injured, the ministry said.
While most of the dead are believed to be civilians, the data include an unknown number of police and Iraqi national guardsmen. Many Iraqi deaths, especially of insurgents, are never reported, so the actual number of Iraqis killed in fighting could be significantly higher.
During the same period, 432 American soldiers were killed.
Iraqi officials said the statistics proved that U.S. airstrikes intended for insurgents also were killing large numbers of innocent civilians. Some say these casualties are undermining popular acceptance of the American-backed interim government. http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/9753603.htm
That Iraqi Security Force: Hardly trustworthy
The American military said Sunday that it had arrested a senior commander of the nascent Iraqi National Guard, raising concerns about the loyalty and reliability of the new security forces just months before general elections are scheduled across the embattled country. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/27/international/middleeast/27iraq.html?pagewanted=all
Allawi Tour Ends, thank goodness. Clever for the Bushies to think of bringing him over to campaign. That way. if you dare to accuse Bush of lying you’re not only attacking the C. in Chief, but also besmirching the “Prime Minister of an independent and free Iraq” and clearly are being non=supportive. Of course, Allawi, the former Saddam thug and CIA asset is not even an independent thug.
Josh Marshall hit the irony hard in noting Bush’s comment that "You can't lead this country" while undercutting a valued ally.”
Rumors of a coming attack on Kerry for war-profiteering in connection with a secret no-bid ketchup contract for the Heinz Corporation could not be confirmed as this story went to press. www.talkingpointsmemo.org
So-called “War on Terror”- the Failure: Nothing new here. LA Times:
Al Qaeda Seen as Wider Threat: The network has evolved into a looser, ideological movement that may no longer report to Bin Laden. Critics say the White House focus is misdirected
Authorities have made little progress worldwide in defeating Islamic extremists affiliated with Al Qaeda despite thwarting attacks and arresting high-profile figures, according to interviews with intelligence and law enforcement officials and outside experts.On the contrary, officials warn that the Bush administration's upbeat assessment of its successes is overly optimistic and masks its strategic failure to understand and combat Al Qaeda's evolution. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-qaeda26sep26,1,7404747.story?coll=la-home-world
In Lieu of a Policy… Off the Coast of North Korea…
After 45 months of no policy, the Administration “acts.”
In the first step toward erecting a multibillion-dollar shield to protect the United States from foreign missiles, the U.S. Navy will begin deploying state-of-the-art destroyers to patrol the waters off North Korea as early as next week. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6091020/
Car Bombs in Foreign Countries. Good thing it ain’t happening here…yet.
A car bomb killed a leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Damascus on Sunday, and Israeli security officials acknowledged that the Jewish state was involved. http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109619415966628012,00.html?mod=home_whats_news_us
Syria Next? Long rumored, but the lack of troops means it would have to be covert.
Deep in the Pentagon, admirals and generals are updating plans for possible U.S. military action in Syria and Iran. The Defense Department unit responsible for military planning for the two troublesome countries is "busier than ever," an administration official says. Some Bush advisers characterize the work as merely an effort to revise routine plans the Pentagon maintains for all contingencies in light of the Iraq war. More skittish bureaucrats say the updates are accompanied by a revived campaign by administration conservatives and neocons for more hard-line U.S. policies toward the countries. (Syria is regarded as a major route for jihadis entering Iraq, and Iran appears to be actively pursuing nuclear weapons.) Even hard-liners acknowledge that given the U.S. military commitment in Iraq, a U.S. attack on either country would be an unlikely last resort; covert action of some kind is the favored route for Washington hard-liners who want regime change in Damascus and Tehran. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6099353/site/newsweek
Welfare Reform: The Success (?) Seems like poverty is up…
Though the number of welfare recipients continues to decline, poverty rates -- particularly for single mothers and children -- have surged in recent years. Just last month, the government reported that the number of people on welfare had declined by 149,000 at the end of 2003 compared with 2002, while the number in poverty rose by 1.3 million. Those divergent trends offer fresh ammunition to both sides in the debate over whether, eight years after the fact, welfare reform is working.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49955-2004Sep25.html
Plight of the Working Poor: Fewer programs.
A Detroit News report that notes that “the amount of money millions of Americans now pay for services ranging from child care to housing is greater than the amount they saved through the tax cuts.”
The Bush administration and Congress have scaled back programs that aid the poor to help pay for $600 billion in tax breaks that went primarily to those who earn more than $288,800 a year.
To offset the loss of the tax revenue, the administration has amassed record federal deficits and trimmed social spending.
The affected programs — job training, housing, higher education and an array of social services — provide safety nets for the poor. Many programs are critical elements in welfare-to-work initiatives and were already badly underfunded.
A six-month Detroit News investigation showed that as a result of the withering government assistance, working poor and destitute Americans are increasingly likely to be placed on waiting lists for help, receive reduced services, or be denied service entirely.
The News, after interviewing scores of people across the United States and examining thousands of pages of federal and state financial records, determined the loss of services cost many poor Americans more money than they saved from the tax cuts.
In many cases, the poorest lost services and got no tax cut at all. http://www.detnews.com/2004/specialreport/0409/26/a01-284666.htm
A Thinking Republican Deserts Bush
Russell Train is so disappointed in President Bush's environmental record that the staunch Republican, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's second leader 30 years ago, is casting his vote in November for Democrat John Kerry.Train, 84, EPA administrator under Presidents Nixon and Ford from 1973 to 77, was in Madison Tuesday in support of Environment2004, an organization trying to end what it calls the anti-environmental agenda of the Bush administration.A Washington insider for more than half a century, Train said the Bush administration's performance is a radical rollback of environmental rules to benefit special interests. http://www.madison.com/tct/mad/local/index.php?ntid=10685
Seattle Journalist Makes (Rare) Sense: A script for Kerry:
Bush's dismal policy failures in tax cuts and Iraq are being sold as achievements-Walter Williams
During his first term, George W. Bush has inflicted more damage on the nation's people than any other president in the post-World War II era. Not only has the Bush administration failed, it has been far and away the most dangerous presidency in this period.
No other administration has seen itself above the law or so disregarded the Constitution by attacking the venerable institutions created to uphold democracy. In addition, the Bush presidency pushed through its policies by employing a calculated lawlessness that featured both deception and secrecy. A couple of examples help illustrate the administration's use of subterfuge.
The wanton level of deception became clear early on when the first tax cut was sold with the claim that those with the lowest earnings did better than the highest-income families. As data and analysis became available, however, it was clear that claim depended on statistical trickery. The biggest beneficiaries were the top 1 percent of the population, who received more than twice as much from the total amount of tax reductions as the bottom 60 percent.
Another example involves the Medicare bill. To pass the legislation, the administration promised reluctant conservatives that the legislation would cost less than $400 billion over 10 years. After enactment, the administration admitted that Medicare would cost $530 billion.
It also came out that the Medicare actuary, a career civil servant, had earlier projected the cost at around $550 billion. After Congress requested the actuary's numbers, the administration threatened to fire him if he turned over his projection. He did not.
Later the administration's threats that blocked the actuary were adjudged illegal. Yet the lawless behavior won the day, with the legislation acclaimed as a great triumph for the president. Deception became the administration's primary weapon.
The Bush administration's two most important policy thrusts -- the three tax cuts and the pre-emptive invasion of Iraq -- were sold with similar tactics, including the withholding of critical information needed by Congress and the public to make informed judgments.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/192327_williams26.html
Then there’s the poll that finds 66% of respondents consider Bush an “optimist”.
Blair Holding On?
Tony Blair's allies will fight a rearguard action today to prevent Labour's annual conference from issuing an embarrassing call for British troops to pull out of Iraq.
As delegates pour into Brighton for the start of the conference this morning, they will come under pressure from party officials not to allow the Iraq conflict to deflect attention from Mr Blair's plans for the next five years of a Labour government. http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=565791
-R
(Paula) ZAHN: Is the world a safer place because of the war in Iraq?
(Pakistan’s Pres.) MUSHARRAF: No. It's more dangerous. It's not safer, certainly not.
ZAHN: How so?
MUSHARRAF: Well, because it has aroused actions of the Muslims more. It's aroused certain sentiments of the Muslim world, and then the responses, the latest phenomena of explosives, more frequent for bombs and suicide bombings. This phenomenon is extremely dangerous.
ZAHN: Do you think that the war in Iraq has undermined the overall war on terror?MUSHARRAF: It has complicated it, certainly. I wouldn't say undermined. It has further complicated it. It has made the job more difficult.
-CNN, 9/24
CBS Packs It in: Journalism Resumes-perhaps- on November 3
CBS News said yesterday that it had postponed a "60 Minutes" segment that questioned Bush administration rationales for going to war in Iraq.
The announcement, in a statement by a spokeswoman, was issued four days after the network acknowledged that it could not prove the authenticity of documents it used to raise new questions about President Bush's Vietnam-era military service.
The Iraq segment had been ready for broadcast on Sept. 8, CBS said, but was bumped at the last minute for the segment on Mr. Bush's National Guard service. The Guard segment was considered a highly competitive report, one that other journalists were pursuing.
CBS said last night that the report on the war would not run before Nov. 2.
"We now believe it would be inappropriate to air the report so close to the presidential election," the spokeswoman, Kelli Edwards, said in a statement. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/25/politics/campaign/25cbs.html
The Piece:
A team of “60 Minutes” correspondents and consulting reporters spent more than six months investigating the Niger uranium documents fraud, CBS sources tell NEWSWEEK. The group landed the first ever on-camera interview with Elisabetta Burba, the Italian journalist who first obtained the phony documents, as well as her elusive source, Rocco Martino, a mysterious Roman businessman with longstanding ties to European intelligence agencies.
Although the edited piece never ended up identifying Martino by name, the story, narrated by “60 Minutes” correspondent Ed Bradley, asked tough questions about how the White House came to embrace the fraudulent documents and why administration officials chose to include a 16-word reference to the questionable uranium purchase in President Bush’s 2003 State of the Union speech. http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6073449/site/newsweek/
ACTION:
If you feel like impacting the media, contact:Mel Karmazin, President, CBS CorporationVIACOM/CBS Corporation1515 BroadwayNew York, New York 10036
Or email the execs [kee@cbsnews.com, kfa@cbsnews.com, smg@cbsnews.com, 60II@cbsnews.com, audsvcs@cbs.com]
What’s Happening, Iraq:
With reports of the deteriorating situation, it’s no surprise that the media aren’t able to do their job. One problem is that we’ll have less reporting of the deteriorating situation, which will be interpreted by some as a brightening picture. [Rajiv Chandrasekaran]
We at The Post, like most other foreign journalists here, have had to restrict our movements around Baghdad and the rest of the country because of the seucrity situation. I used to jump in a car and drive out to places like Fallujah and Baqubah to write about attacks, to get a sense of what was really happening on the ground. No longer. The roads are too dangerous, the threat of kidnapping too great. We spend a lot of time sitting in our hotels and relying on the reporting of our very brave Iraqi local staff. It's not great for us and it's not great for our readers, but it's the best we can do under the circumstances. http://discuss.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/zforum/04/world_rajiv092204.htm
The same author notes the situation; this type of dispatch / report is increasingly common…at last
Less than four months before planned national elections in Iraq, attacks against U.S. troops, Iraqi security forces and private contractors number in the dozens each day and have spread to parts of the country that had been relatively peaceful, according to statistics compiled by a private security firm working for the U.S. government. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50259-2004Sep25.html
Casualties 5 Americans were killed on Saturday. And,
Coalition fatalities in Iraq: 1183U.S. military fatalities in Iraq: 1048Iraqi military fatalities: Several thousandIraqi civilian fatalities: At least 12,927
And :
Operations by U.S. and multinational forces and Iraqi police are killing twice as many Iraqis - most of them civilians - as attacks by insurgents, according to statistics compiled by the Iraqi Health Ministry and obtained exclusively by Knight Ridder.
According to the ministry, the interim Iraqi government recorded 3,487 Iraqi deaths in 15 of the country's 18 provinces from April 5 - when the ministry began compiling the data - until Sept. 19. Of those, 328 were women and children. Another 13,720 Iraqis were injured, the ministry said.
While most of the dead are believed to be civilians, the data include an unknown number of police and Iraqi national guardsmen. Many Iraqi deaths, especially of insurgents, are never reported, so the actual number of Iraqis killed in fighting could be significantly higher.
During the same period, 432 American soldiers were killed.
Iraqi officials said the statistics proved that U.S. airstrikes intended for insurgents also were killing large numbers of innocent civilians. Some say these casualties are undermining popular acceptance of the American-backed interim government. http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/9753603.htm
That Iraqi Security Force: Hardly trustworthy
The American military said Sunday that it had arrested a senior commander of the nascent Iraqi National Guard, raising concerns about the loyalty and reliability of the new security forces just months before general elections are scheduled across the embattled country. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/27/international/middleeast/27iraq.html?pagewanted=all
Allawi Tour Ends, thank goodness. Clever for the Bushies to think of bringing him over to campaign. That way. if you dare to accuse Bush of lying you’re not only attacking the C. in Chief, but also besmirching the “Prime Minister of an independent and free Iraq” and clearly are being non=supportive. Of course, Allawi, the former Saddam thug and CIA asset is not even an independent thug.
Josh Marshall hit the irony hard in noting Bush’s comment that "You can't lead this country" while undercutting a valued ally.”
Rumors of a coming attack on Kerry for war-profiteering in connection with a secret no-bid ketchup contract for the Heinz Corporation could not be confirmed as this story went to press. www.talkingpointsmemo.org
So-called “War on Terror”- the Failure: Nothing new here. LA Times:
Al Qaeda Seen as Wider Threat: The network has evolved into a looser, ideological movement that may no longer report to Bin Laden. Critics say the White House focus is misdirected
Authorities have made little progress worldwide in defeating Islamic extremists affiliated with Al Qaeda despite thwarting attacks and arresting high-profile figures, according to interviews with intelligence and law enforcement officials and outside experts.On the contrary, officials warn that the Bush administration's upbeat assessment of its successes is overly optimistic and masks its strategic failure to understand and combat Al Qaeda's evolution. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-qaeda26sep26,1,7404747.story?coll=la-home-world
In Lieu of a Policy… Off the Coast of North Korea…
After 45 months of no policy, the Administration “acts.”
In the first step toward erecting a multibillion-dollar shield to protect the United States from foreign missiles, the U.S. Navy will begin deploying state-of-the-art destroyers to patrol the waters off North Korea as early as next week. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6091020/
Car Bombs in Foreign Countries. Good thing it ain’t happening here…yet.
A car bomb killed a leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Damascus on Sunday, and Israeli security officials acknowledged that the Jewish state was involved. http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109619415966628012,00.html?mod=home_whats_news_us
Syria Next? Long rumored, but the lack of troops means it would have to be covert.
Deep in the Pentagon, admirals and generals are updating plans for possible U.S. military action in Syria and Iran. The Defense Department unit responsible for military planning for the two troublesome countries is "busier than ever," an administration official says. Some Bush advisers characterize the work as merely an effort to revise routine plans the Pentagon maintains for all contingencies in light of the Iraq war. More skittish bureaucrats say the updates are accompanied by a revived campaign by administration conservatives and neocons for more hard-line U.S. policies toward the countries. (Syria is regarded as a major route for jihadis entering Iraq, and Iran appears to be actively pursuing nuclear weapons.) Even hard-liners acknowledge that given the U.S. military commitment in Iraq, a U.S. attack on either country would be an unlikely last resort; covert action of some kind is the favored route for Washington hard-liners who want regime change in Damascus and Tehran. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6099353/site/newsweek
Welfare Reform: The Success (?) Seems like poverty is up…
Though the number of welfare recipients continues to decline, poverty rates -- particularly for single mothers and children -- have surged in recent years. Just last month, the government reported that the number of people on welfare had declined by 149,000 at the end of 2003 compared with 2002, while the number in poverty rose by 1.3 million. Those divergent trends offer fresh ammunition to both sides in the debate over whether, eight years after the fact, welfare reform is working.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49955-2004Sep25.html
Plight of the Working Poor: Fewer programs.
A Detroit News report that notes that “the amount of money millions of Americans now pay for services ranging from child care to housing is greater than the amount they saved through the tax cuts.”
The Bush administration and Congress have scaled back programs that aid the poor to help pay for $600 billion in tax breaks that went primarily to those who earn more than $288,800 a year.
To offset the loss of the tax revenue, the administration has amassed record federal deficits and trimmed social spending.
The affected programs — job training, housing, higher education and an array of social services — provide safety nets for the poor. Many programs are critical elements in welfare-to-work initiatives and were already badly underfunded.
A six-month Detroit News investigation showed that as a result of the withering government assistance, working poor and destitute Americans are increasingly likely to be placed on waiting lists for help, receive reduced services, or be denied service entirely.
The News, after interviewing scores of people across the United States and examining thousands of pages of federal and state financial records, determined the loss of services cost many poor Americans more money than they saved from the tax cuts.
In many cases, the poorest lost services and got no tax cut at all. http://www.detnews.com/2004/specialreport/0409/26/a01-284666.htm
A Thinking Republican Deserts Bush
Russell Train is so disappointed in President Bush's environmental record that the staunch Republican, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's second leader 30 years ago, is casting his vote in November for Democrat John Kerry.Train, 84, EPA administrator under Presidents Nixon and Ford from 1973 to 77, was in Madison Tuesday in support of Environment2004, an organization trying to end what it calls the anti-environmental agenda of the Bush administration.A Washington insider for more than half a century, Train said the Bush administration's performance is a radical rollback of environmental rules to benefit special interests. http://www.madison.com/tct/mad/local/index.php?ntid=10685
Seattle Journalist Makes (Rare) Sense: A script for Kerry:
Bush's dismal policy failures in tax cuts and Iraq are being sold as achievements-Walter Williams
During his first term, George W. Bush has inflicted more damage on the nation's people than any other president in the post-World War II era. Not only has the Bush administration failed, it has been far and away the most dangerous presidency in this period.
No other administration has seen itself above the law or so disregarded the Constitution by attacking the venerable institutions created to uphold democracy. In addition, the Bush presidency pushed through its policies by employing a calculated lawlessness that featured both deception and secrecy. A couple of examples help illustrate the administration's use of subterfuge.
The wanton level of deception became clear early on when the first tax cut was sold with the claim that those with the lowest earnings did better than the highest-income families. As data and analysis became available, however, it was clear that claim depended on statistical trickery. The biggest beneficiaries were the top 1 percent of the population, who received more than twice as much from the total amount of tax reductions as the bottom 60 percent.
Another example involves the Medicare bill. To pass the legislation, the administration promised reluctant conservatives that the legislation would cost less than $400 billion over 10 years. After enactment, the administration admitted that Medicare would cost $530 billion.
It also came out that the Medicare actuary, a career civil servant, had earlier projected the cost at around $550 billion. After Congress requested the actuary's numbers, the administration threatened to fire him if he turned over his projection. He did not.
Later the administration's threats that blocked the actuary were adjudged illegal. Yet the lawless behavior won the day, with the legislation acclaimed as a great triumph for the president. Deception became the administration's primary weapon.
The Bush administration's two most important policy thrusts -- the three tax cuts and the pre-emptive invasion of Iraq -- were sold with similar tactics, including the withholding of critical information needed by Congress and the public to make informed judgments.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/192327_williams26.html
Then there’s the poll that finds 66% of respondents consider Bush an “optimist”.
Blair Holding On?
Tony Blair's allies will fight a rearguard action today to prevent Labour's annual conference from issuing an embarrassing call for British troops to pull out of Iraq.
As delegates pour into Brighton for the start of the conference this morning, they will come under pressure from party officials not to allow the Iraq conflict to deflect attention from Mr Blair's plans for the next five years of a Labour government. http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=565791
-R
