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... Petraeus attributed this turning point [in stabilizing Iraq] to the increased numbers of coalition and Iraqi forces, part of the surge declared by President George W. Bush in January 2007, but he gave equal credit to the predominantly Sunni popular movement known as the Sons of Iraq (SOI). ... What motivated these Sunni tribesmen to sign loyalty oaths to fight for an Iraqi government with whom they had only recently battled viciously? What were U.S. officers thinking when they provided military training and money for arms and equipment to men who, more often than not, had been their enemies...

Columbus has spent about $1.9 million to buy 150 homes with federal money designed to shore up city neighborhoods ravaged by foreclosures and vacant housing. The city bought the houses in Linden, Franklinton and the Hilltop and on the South Side. Purchase prices averaged about $12,666; officials say they expected to spend twice as much, another stark reminder of how bad things have become in some neighborhoods. "We've been shocked at the values," said Donna Hunter, administrator of Columbus' land-redevelopment office. The lenders that sold the foreclosed houses to the city "perceived the neighborhoods as so challenged they were willing...

A rising chorus of GOP leaders are protesting that the blockbuster Democratic stimulus package would provide up to a whopping $5.2 billion for ACORN, the left-leaning nonprofit group under federal investigation for massive voter fraud. Most of the money is secreted away under an item in the now $836 billion package titled “Neighborhood Stabilization Programs.” Ordinarily, neighborhood stabilization funds are distributed to local governments. But revised language in the stimulus bill would make the funds available directly to non-profit entities such as ACORN, the low-income housing organization whose pro-Democrat voter-registration activities have been blasted by Republicans. ACORN is cited by...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 21, 2006 – The United States will provide funding and other assistance to support a U.N. plan to end warfare between Lebanon-based Hezbollah guerrillas and Israel, President Bush said here today. Recently passed U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 has authorized a 15,000-strong international force to deploy as a buffer between Israel and Hezbollah. A brokered cease-fire has reduced fighting between the two antagonists after they fought a month-long trans-border battle using rockets, mortars and ground troops. “America will do our part. We will assist the new international force with logistical support, command and control, communications and intelligence,” Bush...

Less than three months after the World Trade Center collapsed, a Washington lawyer, Kenneth R. Feinberg, was handed a highly unusual job. In an effort to prop up the airline industry, Congress had passed the Air Transportation Safety and System Stabilization Act. Along with loan guarantees, the new law called for a special fund to compensate victims of the 9/11 attacks. The amount of the compensation, and who qualified for it, would be decided by an all-powerful official known in legal language as a special master. Mr. Feinberg, a mediator best known for resolving the Agent Orange class-action suit, got...

ARLINGTON, Va. — Beginning in September, the Army each month will designate one U.S.-based brigade as a “force stabilized” unit that will arrive, train and fight as a unit for three years before turning over as a group. At the same time, the service will begin a “home basing” approach, which will keep junior soldiers at one installation for six to seven years — well beyond the current three-year average, according to Brig. Gen. Sean Byrne, the Army’s director of military personnel policy. Force stabilization, as the initiative is known, is supposed to foster “increased readiness and stability for the...

With Iraqi frustration growing over the timetable being used to form a cohesive and effective Iraqi sovereignty a question must be asked. Are the coalition forces led by L. Paul Bremer occupying forces meant to remain in Baghdad to coerce any Iraqi government into an a pro-American way of thinking or are they stabilization forces caught in the middle of a people so divided in their own cause that their extraction would be leaving Iraq in a more lawless state than it was before? The front-runners who have established themselves in the Iraqi power struggle have their good points and...

The rift in Europe over Iraq reopened last night after America's friends began to assemble a stabilisation force to back coalition troops, but left out France. Asked about the plan at the European Union summit in Athens, Jacques Chirac, the French president, expressed surprise. "I do not know anything about this proposal," he said, adding that he did not think such a force would be "an essential part of the solution of the problem" in Iraq. He was speaking a day after he had a 20-minute conversation with President George W Bush to try to repair relations with Washington. Denmark's...

NASA scientists have invented a new video technology that helps police track down criminals. NASA Science News March 26, 2003 FBI and other law enforcement officers, whose investigations are normally down-to-Earth, recently have been seeking the help of two NASA scientists who study the Sun and storms like hurricanes. Why are specialists from such different worlds working together? The NASA researchers--using their expertise and equipment for analyzing satellite video--have created a new crime-fighting software tool called VISAR. Short for Video Image Stabilization and Registration, VISAR transforms dark, jittery images captured by security systems and video cameras in police cars into...