Panel begins inquiry into financial meltdown

The chairman of a new congressionally appointed panel on Thursday pledged to deliver a no-holds barred investigation into last year's devastating economic collapse, including whether big financial firms and their government regulators were guilty of criminal misconduct.

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Baker, Hamilton endorse Iraq plan

Foreign policy gurus Lee Hamilton and James A. Baker III said Thursday they support President Barack Obama's 19-month timetable in Iraq and, if asked, would advise Obama to limit the nation's goals in Afghanistan.

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NBC: Obama picks Panetta for CIA director

NBC News has learned that President-elect Barack Obama has chosen former Clinton chief of staff Leon Panetta to be his CIA director.

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Giuliani Confronts String of Bad News

Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani has confronted a spate of bad news in recent days, from the drug indictment of his South Carolina chairman to criticism for skipping meetings of the Iraq Study Group.

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U.S. May Have Botched Training of Iraqis

Training the police is as important to stabilizing Iraq as building an effective army there, but the United States has botched the job by assigning the wrong agencies to the task, two members of the Iraq Study Group said Wednesday.

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Iraq President Lashes Out at Study Group

The Iraqi president on Sunday sharply criticized the bipartisan U.S. report calling for a new approach to the war, saying it contained dangerous recommendations that would undermine his country's sovereignty and were "an insult to the people of Iraq."

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'Forward' - Bush's New Favorite Word?

When he received his own copy of the Iraq Study Group report, President Bush praised the subtitle, "The way forward — a new approach." On Thursday, it was clear he had added the phrase to his lexicon. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair used "forward" or "way forward" about two dozen times during their news conference about the war and problems in the Middle East.

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Iraq Panel Chairmen to Face Senate Today

The co-chairmen of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, former secretary of state James A. Baker III and former Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., are taking their 96-page report before a Senate committee Thursday to face questions on their assessment of conditions inside Iraq as well as their recipe for stabilizing the country and beginning the withdrawal of American forces.

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Panel: U.S. Underreported Iraq Violence

U.S. military and intelligence officials have systematically underreported the violence in Iraq in order to suit the Bush administration's policy goals, the bipartisan Iraq Study Group said.

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Highlights of Iraq Report

Highlights of the Iraq Study Group report:

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Bush to Meet With Shiite Leader Today

The White House is preparing for an important week: President Bush plans to meet Monday with Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, the Shiite leader of the largest bloc in Iraq's parliament, and the recommendations from the bipartisan commission are to be released Wednesday.

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There's no doubt that the financial crisis, job insecurity, and fundamental economic worries are the No. 1 issue in Tuesday's vote. But that raises a critical question: If Barack Obama is elected, will he have an antiwar mandate? The answer isn't clear.

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Obama's call for negotiations with Iran has been welcomed by governments throughout the world and follows the advice of the conservative "Iraq Study Group" headed by Lee Hamilton and James Baker.

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"Currently, Iraq is not capable of even rudimentary enforcement of anticorruption laws," according to a confidential draft assessment prepared by the United States Embassy in Baghdad. As a result, corruption has become "the norm in many [Iraqi government] ministries."

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Are there finally signs that Iran and Syria, two of the world's leading supporters of terrorism are getting squeezed? Jules Crittenden has his fingers crossed

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Everyone remembers the media failures in the run-up to the war. But nearly as tragic was the performance by the press in the weeks before the "surge" was announced in January. Now what will happen over the next few days?

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The terrorists were not Buddhists. And...James Baker and the "Iraqi Study Group" to the contrary not withstanding...solving the "Palestine" problem wouldn't have prevented this. And...this is not because "the War in Iraq is 'radicalizing Muslims'": Excerpts:

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Excellent satire of James Baker, Ahmadinejad, & the Iraq Study Group ( video).

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The touchy secret about Rumsfeld's departure seems to have been that Bush didn't want the American people to know that one of the chief Iraq War architects had turned against the idea of an open-ended military commitment, says Robert Parry.

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This article refers in large part to the report presented to Congress by the Iraq Study Group last December.

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After months of feuding over Iraq, Congress' majority party makes a stand on troop withdrawal.

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Washington - With the war in Iraq roiling Congress, antiwar groups are targeting dozens of lawmakers – many facing tough reelection races in 2008 – in a bid to peel off enough Republicans to force President Bush to end the war there.

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With the Bush administration's own assessment showing limited progress in Iraq and an increasingly exasperated Congress once again debating the future of the war, a growing number of senators from both parties are making a new push to adopt the Iraq study group's recommendations  …

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After the Iraq Study Group report was released last December, offering a blueprint for changing course in Iraq, it rocketed to the top of bestseller lists and more than 1.5 million copies were downloaded from the Internet.

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Despite an overwhelming House vote last month to revive the Iraq Study Group, the White House has blocked reconvening the bipartisan panel to provide a second independent assessment of the military and political situation in Iraq, said several sources involved in the panel's Dece …

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Early on the morning of Nov. 13, 2006, members of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group gathered around a dark wooden conference table in the windowless Roosevelt Room of the White House.

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Republicans facing lousy polls now embrace the Iraq Study Group report. But do they know it advocates a radical break from Bush's policies?

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After a week-long recess, Congressional members will head back to Capitol Hill this week. And some top Republicans openly are discussing defying President George Bush and supporting a bill to bring home overseas troops.

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Rudolph Giuliani's membership on an elite Iraq study panel came to an abrupt end last spring after he failed to show up for a single official meeting of the group, causing the panel's top Republican to give him a stark choice: either attend the meetings or quit, several sources s …

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Giuliani Skipped ISG Meetings For Motivational Events Featuring 'Christianity' And 'Pumping Music'

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Rudolph W. Giuliani quit the high-profile Iraq Study Group after failing to attend the group's meetings.

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The US military has embarked on a new and risky strategy in Iraq by arming Sunni insurgents in the hope that they will tackle the extremist al-Qaida in Iraq.

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Seeking to keep pace with public opinion, key Democratic leaders will soon be considering a peace initiative including full withdrawal from Iraq, revision of the United Nations authorization, and a diplomatic offensive to engage other countries in assisting Iraq.

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The struggle over Iraqi oil has been going on for a long, long time. One could date it back to 1980 when President Jimmy Carter -- before his Habitat for Humanity days -- declared that Persian Gulf oil was "vital" to American national interests.

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