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WASHINGTON, March 14, 2007 – Violence is down in Iraq and Iraqis “are starting to see this growth and gaining new confidence,” a coalition spokesman in Baghdad said today. Army Maj. Gen. William Caldwell told reporters at a news conference that the decrease in violence has created an opportunity for new progress. Combined efforts between coalition forces and Iraqi fighting forces have brought down the level of violence in the Iraqi capital, Caldwell said. “Iraqi forces are getting better each day, and are demonstrating the commitment needed to defend the government and the people,” he added. He cited two...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 2, 2007 – More Marines in the ranks will mean a less stressed Corps, which translates to a higher state of readiness, officials said today at the Pentagon. The president’s budget proposal that includes a 27,000-Marine increase is expected to be released Feb. 5. The Corps hopes to add the Marines incrementally beginning this fiscal year and continuing through fiscal 2011. A Marine official speaking on background was quick to add that the increase is not related to the president’s proposed surge of troops in Iraq. The prolonged war has caused a strain on the Corps’ members...

Al-Qaeda 'increased threat to UK' It will become harder to tackle the terror threat, says the MPs The threat to the UK from al-Qaeda is likely to have increased and the Iraq war has provided a boost to extremist groups, a committee of MPs has found. The terror network posed "an extremely serious and brutal threat" to the UK, the latest Foreign Affairs Committee report into the "war on terror" found. Tackling this threat would become more difficult in the future, it concluded. One reason was propaganda coming from Iraq which is a crucial training ground for international terrorists, it...

WASHINGTON, June 16, 2006 – Coalition soldiers in Baghdad are committed to helping Iraqi forces take control of their own security and curb violence in the city, the U.S. commander in the region said today. "The security of Baghdad is about Iraqis," Army Maj. Gen. James D. Thurman, commander of Multinational Division Baghdad, said in a news conference from Baghdad. "This is about the Iraqi government stepping forward and taking action to lower this violence. This is not about the coalition." Iraqi security forces, with the assistance of the coalition, launched Operation Together Forward June 14, which is designed to...

WASHINGTON, April 5, 2006 – Improving cooperation and coordination among government agencies is vital to winning the global war on terrorism and ending circumstances that drive people to terrorism, top Defense Department officials said on Capitol Hill yesterday. "We must bring all elements of our national power to bear in this struggle against global terrorism, and we can only do that through effective interagency coordination at all levels," Thomas W. O'Connell, DoD's assistant secretary for special operations and low-intensity conflict, told members of the House Armed Services Committee. The most recent Quadrennial Defense Review states the Long War is "characterized...

WASHINGTON -- The Federal Reserve, optimistic about the U.S. economic outlook, on Tuesday raised its key interest rate for the fifth time in six months and signaled it isn't inclined to take a break anytime soon. The central bank's monetary-policy committee voted unanimously to raise the federal-funds rate a quarter percentage point to 2.25%, a three-year high. It was the first time since the late 1980s that the Fed has raised the rate in December -- a time when financial-market trading tends to be light and easily swayed by unexpected news. The decision reflected the Fed's growing comfort with the...

Throughout the 1990s, Turkish foreign policy analysts had an easy job. After all, Turkish foreign policy was predictable. Ankara cooperated enthusiastically with Washington, whether in the Middle East or in the Balkans. Turkey aligned itself with Israel and kept at arms length from Middle Eastern neighbors such as Syria and Iran. In Europe, Ankara traded heavily with the European Union (EU) but did not allow the EU to dictate foreign policy. The European Union's frequent allegations and criticism of human rights abuses in Turkey, especially with regard to Turkey's fight against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK, Partiya Karkaren Kurdistan) terrorists, soured...

There’s no question that the U.S. economy is booming. Why isn’t this reflected in President’s Bush poll ratings? Why would Americans think that John Kerry would do anything but ruin the economy? Kerry: the King of All Waflers; the most liberal member of the Senate. He proposes increasing taxes by $700 billion over the next 10 years. Kerry plans to stifle the American economic engine. Faced with good economic times, just what are Americans thinking?Boom Times Yesterday, the Conference Board reported that U.S. consumer confidence reached its best level in two years. 248,000 new American jobs were created in May....

ASHINGTON, Dec. 23 — Pentagon officials said today that Americans in some areas of the country could expect to see more warplanes in the skies during the holiday season now that a higher antiterrorism alert level is in effect. "They may see additional air patrols over select cities and facilities, an increase in the air-defense posture here in Washington, D.C., and combat aircraft could be put on a higher alert at different air bases throughout the country," the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Richard B. Myers, said at a Pentagon briefing. "We have dedicated people and resources...

<p>Nearly four years ago, Gov. Gray Davis signed a little-noticed piece of legislation that allowed state agencies, cities and counties to boost the retirement benefits of their employees, particularly peace officers and firefighters.</p> <p>Now that law, debated for only a few minutes in the frenetic closing days of the 1999 legislative session, has come back to haunt California. Those greatly improved retirement benefits -- and a stock market in the tank -- are about to devour billions of dollars that could otherwise be used for education, police and fire protection and road improvements.</p>

Immigrants bring increased crime, says police chief By John Steele, Crime Correspondent (Filed: 19/05/2003) An influx of refugees has generated significant increases in crime and the potential for unrest on the streets, the leader of police chiefs said yesterday. Chris Fox: 'They bring with them different cultural values' The warning came days before the Prime Minister is due to claim that monthly arrivals of asylum seekers have fallen from about 9,000 last October to an average of 5,000 a month in the first quarter of this year. However, Chris Fox, the president of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO),...