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Adam Banotai was a 21-year-old sergeant and squad leader in the Marine Corps during the 2004 invasion of Falluja, a restive insurgent-held city in Iraq. His unit — which had seven of 17 men wounded by shrapnel or bullets in the first days of the invasion — seized control of the government center early in the campaign. So when Sunni insurgents, some with allegiances to Al Qaeda, retook the city this month and raised their black insurgent flag over buildings where he and his men fought, he was transfixed, disbelieving and appalled.

Take a look at Boxer's poll numbers. Compare the last 5 polls to the previous 5. Her numbers are clearly going down. She is only getting about 45%, and in several of those polls they are over sampling Democrats. They are sampling Democrats at a higher rate than showed up at the polls in 2008, that will never happen. Plus Fiorina has avoided a lot of the mud that has surrounded Whitman. Boxer is gone.

American troops have shot and wounded an Iraqi man who hurled a slipper at a military convoy in the former insurgent stronghold of Falluja. A joint patrol of US and Iraqi troops is believed to have mistaken the flying shoe for a grenade. A statement from the US military said that during a patrol on Wednesday an "object" was thrown at the troops, who then fired "in self-defence, wounding the attacker". US troops gave the man, Ahmed al-Jumaili, first aid before he was taken to hospital by Iraqi police. He was in a stable condition after being treated for a...

I posted the following message on the CBS message board yesterday and also sent the same message to Fox News' Bill O'Reilly. If you agree with my message, I would appreciate it if you would forward this e-mail to others in your address book. I believe this is very important and a "grass roots" effort may be the only way to force Dan Rather, CBS, and others to accept the responsibility of their careless and destructive actions: "I think all American citizens should be outraged at CBS for making the "abuse" pictures public. CBS has done serious damage to the...

A bomb has exploded in the western Iraqi city of Falluja, killing four policemen and a civilian, police say. Fifteen people were injured in the blast outside a bank in the city. Falluja was at the centre of the Sunni Muslim insurgency following the US-led invasion of Iraq, until local tribes turned against al-Qaeda militants. The casualties were people who were inspecting the scene of an earlier blast when the second explosion was detonated, police said. Police did not say who was behind the attack, but al-Qaeda remnants in Anbar province are often blamed for such bombings. The US military...

FALLUJAH, Iraq -- Mosques such as this one are visible throughout the city. U.S. and Iraqi leaders feel such reconstruction projects are important during this phase of the counterinsurgency battle. The partner relationship between the Iraqi police and Marines of 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, has provided much of the security needed to complete rebuilding inside the city. FALLUJAH, Iraq -- Corporal Ryan York, 26, infantryman, Company I, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, walks passed residents of a small farming community in the northwestern section of the city during a recent mini-swarm. York is a combat veteran who saw...

Three years after the massive US assault on Falluja, the city's mayor has accused Iraq's central government of starving the city of resources. Mayor Sa'ad Awad says Shia officials still consider the former insurgent stronghold a haven for Sunni militants

Times photographer Luis Sinco made James Blake Miller an emblem of the war. The image would change both of their lives and connect them in ways neither imagined.

CAMP PENDLETON — Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents are examining allegations that Marines killed as many as eight unarmed Iraqi prisoners during a battle in Fallouja in November 2004, according to civilian and military sources. (snip) In the Haditha case, three enlisted Marines face murder charges, and four officers are accused of failing to investigate the killings. Preliminary hearings are underway. (snip) The two cases do not involve any of the same Marines. But some of those being interviewed in the Fallouja case were expected to serve as character witnesses for colleagues accused of murder in the Haditha case. (snip>...

By Tim Ripley NEW satellite images of an Iraqi nerve gas plant show that the site has been rebuilt after being bombed by the United States, but there seems to be little sign that production of chemical weapons is under way. The site, named Fallujah I, some 38 miles north-west of Baghdad, is one of three similar facilities built in the late 1980s around the town of Habbaniyah to mass-produce elements, known as precursors, of the nerve gases used in the Iran-Iraq war and against the Kurds in 1988 and 1991. Images taken by an American company, DigitalGlobe, and published...

<p>Satellite pix show that three chemical facilities in Iraq - Fullujah I, II and III - wrecked in the 1991 Gulf War are back in business.</p> <p>August 19, 2002 -- WASHINGTON - These mysterious chemical factories northwest of Baghdad are a major reason the Bush administration thinks war with Iraq is inevitable.</p>

Italian journalist held hostage in Iraq Claire Cozens and agencies Tuesday August 24, 2004 Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni, who has been missing in Iraq since last week, has been kidnapped by militants, according to a video broadcast today on al-Jazeera television station. His driver was found dead at the weekend in Najaf and today an Islamist group said it had abducted an Italian in Iraq, giving Silvio Berlusconi 48 hours to announce it was pulling his troops out of the country.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon on Wednesday acknowledged using incendiary white-phosphorus munitions in a 2004 offensive against insurgents in the Iraqi city of Falluja and defended their use as legal, amid concerns by arms control advocates. ADVERTISEMENT Army Lt. Col. Barry Venable, a Pentagon spokesman, said the U.S. military had not used the highly flammable weapons against civilians, contrary to an Italian state television report this month that stated the munitions were used against men, women and children in Falluja who were burned to the bone.

Two weeks ago, Turkish police arrested an Islamist with ties to many upper tier al-Qaida members. The man not only tried to get asylum in Germany, but claims to have known about the London bombings beforehand and to have helped the 9/11 pilots. The Turkish interrogators in Istanbul's high-security prison wanted to be polite; they wanted to show respect for Islam. They offered their prisoner, an Islamist named Luai Sakra, 31, a chance to pray during a pause in questioning. They'd done the same thing with earlier suspects. The move was supposed to establish trust. But this prisoner reacted a...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Navy investigators have determined a U.S. Marine acted in self-defense when he shot an apparently wounded and unarmed Iraqi inside a Falluja mosque in November, a senior Pentagon official said Wednesday. The Marine corporal, who will not face charges, was under investigation in the shootings of four enemy combatants as part of an operation during the siege of Falluja on November 13, 2004. The mosque shooting was captured on videotape by an embedded reporter. [...] Although that Marine has been cleared of wrongdoing, the investigation remains open because autopsies of some of the bodies found in the...

Wounded in Fierce House-to-House Fighting, a Marine Tries to Recover. By NICK WATT TAOS, N.M., April 10, 2005 — Huddled in an abandoned house last November, Sgt. Jason Arellano gave his platoon a pep talk as they prepared to push deeper into insurgent-occupied Fallujah. "So they're right here in this area. There are going to be more and more as we push further down," he said. Arellano gave the speech after a Marine on an adjacent street had both his legs blown off by insurgents' grenades. "You don't want other squads giving speeches to their men about one of us,...

A large number of US troops were observed leaving Fallujah on Tuesday, with speculation that the withdrawal was due to Sunday night's attack by Mujahideen who reportedly fired rockets loaded with Sarin gas at a nearby US base. Dozens of US vehicles loaded with American troops were seen leaving Fallujah on Tuesday morning, heading for the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. In a report filed at 4:25pm Mecca time Tuesday afternoon, the correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam reported from International Highway 1, saying that hat he had witnessed more than 90 US vehicles including tanks, and armored vehicles, being transported on giant...

Ahmed Resain has his back to the door, so he does not see the gunman alight from a car outside his rudimentary Al Pasha hairdressing salon, in Baghdad's dusty Al-Salam quarter. The assailant strides deliberately into the shop and coldly turns to face Ahmed. He presses a pistol to the stunned barber's lower lip, carefully angling the weapon to ensure that the bullet exits through his left jaw. Ahmed, 37, is still standing - but three shots to his legs as the gunman makes his getaway drop him to the floor in a pool of his own blood. His survival...

Saddam, the ATM of Al Qaeda By Christopher S. Carson FrontPageMagazine.com | November 15, 2004 The Report of the 9/11 Commission has been digested, and the news media outlets have seized upon it as confirmation of their view that al Qaeda is a kind of purely stateless entity that never had "operational links" with rogue states like Iraq. Somehow, goes the thrust of the Report, Osama bin Laden was for years able to finance, train and supply an international terrorist corporation that had ongoing jihad operations in fifty countries - by himself, on no more than a $30 million personal...

FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqis reacted with anger, frustration and resentment Friday after many returned to Falluja to discover their homes in rubble and their livelihoods ruined following last month's U.S. offensive. "I saw the city and al-Andalus destroyed," said Ali Mahmood, 35, referring to the district of the city he returned to briefly Thursday but now plans to leave after seeing the mess. "My house is completely destroyed. There is nothing left for me to stay for," the teacher said, adding that he would rather live in the tented camp outside Falluja that has been his family's home for...