Free Republic

BAGHDAD - Anyone who still wonders what America's top two officials in Baghdad will report to Congress next month just hasn't been listening. The military and diplomatic public relations machines are running full bore. The message: "Things are getting better, but we need more time." Pushing that assessment most eloquently and fervently is Ambassador Ryan Crocker, a career diplomat and one of the State Department's most seasoned Mideast hands. He's polishing his report to Congress in every encounter with reporters and does not shy from talking about the difficult task he will face this fall in Capitol Hill committee rooms....

LONDON (AP) - The British government said Friday it has been granted more time to decide whether to extradite a British man facing terrorism charges in the United States. A judge ruled May 17 that Babar Ahmad could be sent to the United States to face charges of supporting terrorism, conspiring to kill Americans and running a Web site used to fund terrorists. Home Secretary Charles Clarke, the top British official in charge of law and order, had 60 days to decide whether Ahmad would be extradited. That period expires Friday, but the Home Office said Clarke had obtained an...