THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION HAS DIVERTED THE MILITARY AWAY FROM THE GREATEST TERRORIST THREAT FACING THE U.S.
"In Afghanistan, we do what we can. In Iraq, we do what we must." The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Michael Mullen, acknowledged Tuesday that the military's primary focus remained the war in Iraq, not Afghanistan. "Our main focus, militarily, in the region and in the world right now is rightly and firmly in Iraq," Mullen said before the House Armed Services Committee. "It is simply a matter of resources, of capacity. In Afghanistan, we do what we can. In Iraq, we do what we must." Recently, violence in Afghanistan has been on the rise, as evident by the growing numbers of suicide attacks and roadside bombs. [LA Times, 12/12/07]
VIOLENCE CONTINUES TO RAGE IN IRAQ
Dozens killed in triple bombing. Synchronized car bombs devastated a city market district in southern Iraq, killing at least 27 and injuring 151. The explosions were about five minutes apart. The bombings began about 10 a.m., when a car parked in a garage blew up. Another car about 50 yards away exploded shortly afterward. In Baghdad, the Interior Ministry reported that the police chief in Amarah, where the bombing occurred, was fired. [AP, 12/12/07]
INVESTIGATIONS INTO PRIVATE CONTRACTOR'S ACTIONS CONTINUE
DOJ questioned about alleged '05 kidnapping and rape of a female contractor in Iraq. The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee asked the Justice Department on Tuesday to give a full account of its investigation into the alleged rape of a female contract worker in Iraq two years ago. Jamie Leigh Jones filed a federal lawsuit in May against Halliburton Co., its former subsidiary, KBR Inc., and others claiming she was raped by co-workers while working for a Halliburton subsidiary at Camp Hope, Baghdad, in 2005. In her lawsuit, Jones claims she lived in a coed barracks and, after enduring harassment from some of the men in the quarters, was drugged and raped July 28, 2005. She was then held in a shipping container without food and water until agents from the State Department's Diplomatic Service came to investigate. Her attackers were Halliburton and KBR firefighters, the suit claims. [ABC News, 12/11/07]