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Barack Obama Holds Lead Among Arab American Vote Historic Shift Toward Democratic Party Continues WASHINGTON - September 18, 2008 - Democratic candidate Barack Obama holds a substantial 21 point lead over Republican John McCain among Arab American voters. This was one of the findings of a poll of Arab American voters conducted by Zogby International for the Arab American Institute.

This is a belated Fourth of July column (superseded by the state shutdown). The headline isn't a prelude to a column justifying why the Islamists hate Westerners so much that they're pouring into Iraq to kill our soldiers (along with innocent fellow Arabs, including Egyptian diplomats). Or defending the sleeper cells planted to blow up Madrid, London and who knows where next. Rather, it's about why most Americans, particularly soldiers, hate the media. I decided to become a journalist when I was a soldier. I was in the U.S. Navy in the early and mid-1980s — "the glory years," as...

Unconfirmed Report: Kidnapped Tri-State Soldier Killed 1 hour, 24 minutes ago Add Local - WLWT ChannelCincinnati.com to My Yahoo! There are unconfirmed reports that a soldier from the Tri-State kidnapped in April in Iraq (news - web sites) has been killed, WLWT has learned. Pfc. Matt Maupin, 20, of Batavia, Ohio, a member of the 724th Transportation Company, was captured April 9. His convoy was attacked by gunmen using rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons. According to military representatives close to the Maupin family who spoke to WLWT, sources are reporting that the Al Jazeera TV network has a videotape of...

<p>BAQUBAH, Iraq -- U.S. forces battling insurgents in northern Iraq have a new weapon in their arsenal -- illustrated Arabic-language booklets explaining politely to residents why American troops want to come into their homes to search for weapons.</p> <p>"Iraqis did not like having their houses searched when we did not hand out the books," said Capt. Jeff Peterman, an expert on psychological or "information" operations with the 3rd Brigade Combat Team of the U.S. Army's 1st Infantry Division.</p>

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - A number of sites in Iraq known to have contained equipment and material that could have been used to produce banned weapons and long-range missiles have been either cleaned out or destroyed, U.N. weapons inspectors said Monday. The inspectors' report said they didn't know whether the items, which had been monitored by the United Nations, were at the sites during the U.S.-led war in Iraq. U.N. inspectors were pulled from Iraq just before the war began in March 2003 and the United States has refused to allow them to return, instead deploying its own teams to...

Nobody likes to watch sausage being made but we love it when it's finished. We cook it, we embrace it, and we eat it. And we forget the revolting process that produced it. Watching developments in the war on terrorism and the current Iraq situation as reported by the media is a lot like watching sausage being made. Thanks to the media we see everything that's going on, at least as it is seen through the media's essentially anti-war prism. It gives us 20/20 hindsight that informs us that everybody could do a better job of handing things than the...

McCartney speaks out against war Sir Paul wrote a song, Freedom, after the 11 September attacks Former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney has criticised the UK government for being too hasty in going to war in Iraq. "Maybe our government went in too fast with the Americans," he told the weekly Portuguese magazine Visao on Thursday. "It would have been better if the UN had been together," the 61-year-old singer continued. "Now it's become very bloody with Iraq, it's very difficult." The singer, who is currently touring Europe, opens the Rock in Rio music festival in Lisbon on Friday. Sir Paul...

WASHINGTON -- Seven Iraqi men whose hands were ordered cut off by Saddam Hussein met with President Bush at the White House today, along with a Houston doctor who helped fit them with prosthetics. "I'm honored to shake the hand of a brave Iraqi citizen who had his hand cut off by Saddam Hussein with six other Iraqi citizens as well who suffered the same fate," Bush said, shaking the new hand of Qasim Ghida Kadhim at a photo opportunity at the Oval Office. "They are examples of the brutality of the tyrant." Kadhim, a salesman, and the six others...

Torture Existed Before Abu Gharib, But Why No Coverage?When the Abu Ghraib prison abuse crisis exploded, I analyzed the reactions coming from the Arab World. In an election year, the stakes are high for all parties involved. Each side wants a convenient "truth". The Bush Administration talked about "bad apples." While on the offensive, the opposition talks of a "systemic problem." President Bush went on Arab TV, while his opponents rushed to speak on behalf of the "humiliated Arab world." But as General Abuzeid put it since Day One, it sounds as if "the issue is making more noise in...

It must have been a gruesome sight: the elite of the Cannes film festival applauding someone even more self-regarding than themselves. Michael Moore, portly archpriest of the anti-Bush cult, premiered his film Fahrenheit 9/11 at the festival this week. The American documentary-maker sent three undercover film crews to Iraq; they returned with footage - included in the film - claiming to show US soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners. If such abuse occurred, then it should be condemned. But no one should rush to judgment on the basis of allegations emanating from Mr Moore. Many of the claims made in Bowling for...

Doc Martins on The Ground We have recently received a letter from a Marine of the second division who happens to be a Conservative Punk. In it, he comments on the state of the Iraqi conflict, as well as recent events. Hey man, I just want to say, I agree whole-heartedly. I'm a Lance Corporal in the Marines. I've been in about two years now. Let me tell you, all this shit that the media is saying is such a lie. I was in Iraq. I watched a friend of mine suffer for nearly 12 hours before he died, but...

Donald Rumsfeld was, fielding unfriendly fire on Tuesday over the military's torture of Iraqi prisoners. This time, his usual pose of barely concealed contempt seemed more like scarcely repressed rage. Every muscle in his body was tensed, and his shoulders looked like wire hangers were holding them up. It was Rummy's Strangelove-ian attempt to keep from shrugging. Hey, the voice within him longed to say, those fuckers are lucky to have their fingernails. But Rummy is a master of extenuation. When Baghdad was looted while the U.S. army stood by, he uttered his most famous euphemism: "Stuff happens." Now he...

We've all heard those classic myths of the Iraq debate that just won't go away. First, President Bush is said to have called Iraq under Saddam Hussein an "imminent" threat and, second, the connection between Saddam and al Qaeda has never been substantiated. Both are laughably false. And now there are more myths about the Iraq war, more subjective than the two classics, but still untrue. Let's start with de-Baathification, the barring from the government of the new Iraq of the top officials of Saddam's murderous Baath party. Paul Bremer, the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, made this decision...

Just talked to my mother on the phone. She is very upset because she saw the beheading while flipping through cable news stations yesterday. She cannot recall which one but it was one of the cable new stations (FOX, MSNBC, CNN) She said it showed the guys talking and then putting Berg on the floor and cutting his head. She said it went off the air very quickly, but for the split seconds of what she saw it was very upsetting. It was between 3:30pm-4:30pm EDT. I have not seen the video, nor do I want. But I would like...

Polish soldiers in Iraq: Suprising survey The newest survey carried for newspaper "Fakt" was a complete suprise. The number of people wanting that our soldiers stay in Iraq is increasing. Today 39 % of the population support Iraq mission , it is an increase of 10 % in comparison with previous month .Despite of increasing risk of the mission and some casualty support is rising. Why polish people changed its mind ? asks "Fakt". It is not so easy to scare us. After the tragedy last week many people thougth that polish people will ask for retreat of our soldiers...

So now we’re told that it doesn’t matter whether or not the Iraqi torture pictures are fakes. What’s important is that British soldiers are mistreating prisoners. And if the phoney photos have drawn attention to this greater evil, then so well and good. Yeah, right. Curious how those putting forward this argument have always been first to scream “fit-up” when police are accused of fabricating evidence against known criminals and terrorists. How many cases have collapsed because detectives have over-egged the case against villains they insisted were guilty? How many guilty men have walked free because their “confessions” have been...

The horror of Abu Ghraib should not be used to unedrmine Western resolve THE whole world has been horrified by the pictures from Abu Ghraib. The sense of horror in Arab countries has been particularly acute. Understandably so, for torture is a reality which impinges on citizens of Arab nations in a way it does not directly on us. The systematic abuse of prisoners is a weapon of domestic political control in Arab nations, from Baathist Syria to Wahhabi Saudi Arabia. The citizens of those nations know that the torture chamber is only a knock in the night away but,...

There are "strong indications" that a vehicle shown in Daily Mirror photos of alleged abuse of prisoners was not in Iraq, Geoff Hoon has said. The Defence Secretary told MPs that a Special Investigation Branch inquiry into photos of PoW abuse by UK troops indicated the vehicle was not in Iraq. The photo showing an inmate in a vehicle is said to come from soldiers from the Queen's Lancashire Regiment. The Daily Mirror issued a statement in response to the Defence Secretary's comments: "Mr Hoon's comments about the photographs we published were obviously designed to divert attention from the much...

<p>U.K. Has `Indications' Iraqi Abuse Photos Are Fake (Update1) May 10 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said there are signs that photographs the Daily Mirror published purporting to show British soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners may be fake.</p> <p>The comment casts doubt on accusations that British troops tortured Iraqis. Polls show those charges have hurt the approval rating of Prime Minister Tony Blair, who said accusations of abuse by U.K. troops are still being investigated.</p>

The day after a WorldNetDaily report revealed that photos circulating in the Middle East that depict GI's raping Iraqi women were fake and had originated from pornography sites, the U.S. Embassy in Cairo issued a statement calling on Arab news outlets to publish retractions. The embassy statement read, "We have done a thorough investigation of the origin of these photos and have conclusive evidence that they originated on a pornographic web site. They are clearly staged photos, done by actors, as the site itself states." The Al Wafd newspaper published four photographs on the top of its front page that...