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February 14, 2006
September:
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JULY:
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JUNE:
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MAY:
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APRIL:
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MARCH:
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FEBRUARY:
  Feb. 28, 2006
  Feb. 16, 2006
  Feb. 15, 2006
  Feb. 14, 2006
  Feb. 8, 2006
  Feb. 1, 2006

JANUARY:
  Jan. 31, 2006

DECEMBER:
  Dec. 16, 2005
  Dec. 15, 2005
  Dec. 14, 2005
  Dec. 13, 2005
  Dec. 8, 2005
  Dec. 7, 2005
  Dec. 6, 2005

Don’t get caught flat-footed in front of the press!  Below is a quick rundown of today’s “must reads.” – John T. Doolittle, House Republican Conference Secretary

THE MORNING MURMUR – Tuesday, February 14, 2006

1. U.S. Role in Iraq Security Shifting – USA Today
The U.S. military says 40% of Iraq's combat battalions are effective enough to have taken the lead role in fighting the insurgency, a key measure for determining when U.S. forces can withdraw. The U.S. military expects to complete the handover of responsibility to nearly all of Iraq's army by the end of the year.

2. On Terrorist Wiretaps, Democrats’ Position Is Absurd and Untenable – Roll Call, David Winston
Democrats have become so irrationally angry about Bush that they reflexively oppose anything the president is for. But what they have now discovered is that they are on the wrong side of this issue.

3. Danger? Drabness? No Date? Iraqis Find an Outlet Online – New York Times
Three years ago, the Internet was virtually unknown in Iraq. Today, Baghdad has dozens of Internet cafes and in parts of central Baghdad there are about 20 overlapping wireless networks.

4. Gore Decries Treatment of Arabs Post 9-11 – Associated Press
Former Vice President Al Gore told a mainly Saudi audience on Sunday that the U.S. government committed "terrible abuses" against Arabs after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

5. The Kinky Katrina Spend Spree – New York Post
Sex toys, Swedish massages, tattoos, jewelry — that's what was purchased with Katrina emergency relief aid, according to shocking audits released yesterday.

For previous issues of the Morning Murmur, go to www.GOPsecretary.gov

FULL ARTICLES BELOW:

1. U.S. Role in Iraq Security Shifting – USA Today

By Rick Jervis, USA TODAY

BAGHDAD — The U.S. military says 40% of Iraq's combat battalions are effective enough to have taken the lead role in fighting the insurgency, a key measure for determining when U.S. forces can withdraw.

The U.S. military expects to complete the handover of responsibility to nearly all of Iraq's army by the end of the year, meaning Iraq's military will rely on U.S. troops primarily for logistical support and for providing airstrikes and heavy artillery. The main fighting will be conducted by Iraqis.

"When all Iraqi combat battalions own their own battle space, the map of Iraq will be covered," said Lt. Col. Michael Negard, a military spokesman. Battle space refers to the area of responsibility assigned to a military unit.

Currently, 40 of Iraq's 102 battalions have taken over security in the areas where they operate, Col. James Greer, chief of staff for the U.S. military command responsible for training Iraqi troops, said in an interview.

The goal is to build 110 combat battalions. A typical Iraqi battalion, the army's basic fighting unit, has 700 to 800 soldiers.

"It's an essential part of the broader strategy," said Anthony Cordesman, an analyst at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

With American troops in more of a support role, they will be less visible and not as susceptible to attack, Cordesman said. "But you won't have a situation where Iraqi battalions come on line and U.S. troops leave the next week."

About 137,000 U.S. troops are in Iraq.

The pace at which the U.S. military has handed control to Iraqi battalions has picked up during the past year, Greer said. In March 2005, there were only three battalions manning their own areas — all in Baghdad, he said.

The Iraqi army is taking control in contested areas, such as parts of Fallujah, Ramadi and Samarra. "We're not just giving them the easy areas," Greer said.

The turnover raises questions about whether the United States is handing responsibility to the Iraqi army before it is ready, said Andrew Krepinevich, a military expert at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

"If they're not ready to provide security, there could be a regression," Krepinevich said.

Some military units are aligned with religious and political factions. Handing over responsibility too quickly could result in arming soldiers more loyal to factions than the national government, he said.

Last month, the U.S. military handed over an area of operation to an entire Iraqi army division in Qadissiya and Wassit provinces, south of Baghdad.

Currently, there are 227,000 Iraqi security forces, which include 106,000 military troops and 121,000 police officers, according to the U.S. military. Greer says recruitment of army cadets has been steady.

The number of trained security forces is not as good a measure of progress as the capabilities of combat units, Greer said. "The battle spaces where Iraqis have actually taken over (are) more of a measure of success," he said.

Gen. John Abizaid, the top U.S. general in the Iraq region, said last month that U.S. commanders must overcome their reluctance to turn over control to less-experienced Iraqi forces.

"There is always a risk in taking a chance on the people that you've come to help," Abizaid said. "There's also a risk of condescension (when) you look at them and say, 'They're not ready.' "

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2006-02-14-us-role_x.htm

2. On Terrorist Wiretaps, Democrats’ Position Is Absurd and Untenable – Roll Call, David Winston

February 14, 2006
By David Winston, Roll Call Contributing Writer

It was a performance that only fans of the Theater of the Absurd could love. There they were: former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, singing chorus after chorus of “Helpless” as they explained to Tim Russert on “Meet the Press” that, yes, Democrats were briefed on many occasions about the National Security Agency foreign terrorist surveillance program, but they simply had no avenue open to them to express their deep concerns about its legality.

Thus, we learned how the Democrats intend to justify their three-year silence about the program, which was broken only when The New York Times went public, giving Democrats an opening for a new line of attacks on the president and his national security policies.

In a weak performance, Harman actually tried to explain her lack of oversight by suggesting that she, like Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), her counterpart on the Senate Intelligence Committee, had no one to talk to about their concerns. Voicing strong support for the program in one breath, Harman then tried to have it both ways, saying, “I talked to absolutely no one because I would have violated three different federal criminal statutes had I talked to anyone.”

Referencing the publication of the Times article, Harman pleaded that when it came to the Congressional “Gang of Eight” who were briefed on the program, “There was no way to raise any reservations before that.” No way?

How about picking up the phone and calling the president, the vice president, House Intelligence Chairman Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.), Senate Intelligence Chairman Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) or the head of the NSA surveillance program? Or, if the phone wasn’t her complaint line of choice, how about a letter to any of the above officially raising her objections, and which would have required an official reply?

Harman talked to no one.

Of course, Rockefeller did pen a short note to Vice President Cheney expressing worry over the program’s oversight, but he never mentioned the letter or his concerns to Roberts. Instead, he popped the missive into his safe, waiting years for a politically opportune moment to release it, a moment conveniently provided by the Times.
But Harman and Rockefeller are hardly alone in their rhetorical contortions on the issue of NSA surveillance. Most Capitol Hill Democrats seem to have adopted what amounts to the inverse of a Biblical approach to the problem: Love the sin but hate the sinner. They are desperately trying to straddle the national security fence, telling everyone who will listen that they now are enthusiastic supporters of the program. It is the real and growing threat to America’s civil liberties posed by President Bush that’s got them worried.

In reality, their conundrum, whether on the NSA anti-terrorism program, the USA PATRIOT Act or the war itself, reflects a party in disarray in two disturbing ways. First, Democrats simply have been unable to come to terms with what they believe, deep down, as a party about national security. They have no ideas, no alternatives, so they try to pass off criticism as content.

Second, Democrats have become so irrationally angry about Bush that they reflexively oppose anything the president is for. When the Times story broke, most Democrats rushed to judgment and to the microphones to instinctively condemn the program and the president. What they have now discovered is that they are on the wrong side of this issue. In a recent New Models poll done by the Winston Group, we asked the question, “Do you favor or oppose allowing federal authorities to conduct surveillance on individuals’ e-mails and phone calls to al Qaeda operatives without a court order?”

Sixty percent of survey respondents favored the surveillance; 37 percent opposed. When the terrorism aspect of the program is mentioned, other polls have showed similar results, and Democrats have found themselves in 2004 all over again. In the presidential election, Democratic nominee John Kerry’s (Mass.) fluid policy positions on the war became the embodiment of the party’s internal conflict on national security issues which has plagued them since 1972. Nothing captured that conflict better than the Senator’s famous “I voted for it before I voted against it” statement, referring to his flip-flopping position on the $87 billion military appropriations bill in 2003 for the war in Iraq.

Like Harman today, Kerry wanted to have it both ways: to appeal to both opponents and proponents of the war. The best you can say about his conflicting positions is at least he had the decency to take those two positions at two different times. Now, Democrats seem to have adopted a new strategy. Call it Kerry 2.0: They are desperately trying to be both for and against the program at exactly the same time.

In short, the current Democratic position on the tapping of international terrorist phone calls can be summed up this way: “The NSA surveillance program is crucial to national security and should be continued. We support it. It is also illegal and a threat to civil liberties. We oppose it and, of course, George Bush must be held accountable for his illegal actions.” This is not a national security policy that makes sense, or a national political party that can be taken seriously. It is clearly an absurd position.

Finding the right balance between intelligence-gathering and civil liberties is no easy task, and I suspect administration officials would be the first to agree with that statement. But in briefing the Hill on the NSA anti-terrorism program, they fulfilled their obligation to keep Congress informed. If the Democrats had concerns about its purpose or implementation, they had a similar obligation to do their oversight duty and propose real alternative strategies. They failed and in doing so risk total irrelevancy when it comes to the joint responsibility Republicans and Democrats share for national defense and homeland security.

Voters elect leaders, not critics who sit on the sidelines feigning helplessness.

David Winston is president of The Winston Group, a Republican polling firm.

http://www.rollcall.com/issues/winston/

3. Danger? Drabness? No Date? Iraqis Find an Outlet Online – New York Times

By ROBERT F. WORTH

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Feb. 9 — On a recent rainy afternoon, Ahmad Nader Ali sat in a booth at the ShreifiNet Cafe, sending instant messages to his brother who lives in Finland on one screen window and his fiancée, Nour, on another. A tiny Web camera sat atop the computer, beaming live images of him to Nour's home screen across Baghdad.

"Because of the situation, I'm not able to go and see her often," said Mr. Ali, a confident 20-year-old with slicked-back hair who runs a men's clothing store. "Everybody does it like this."

Nearby, partially hidden by wood-paneled booths, were a dozen other young men staring intently at their screens, most chatting simultaneously on three or four different e-mail accounts. All of them were paying 1,500 dinars an hour — about a dollar — to escape the gray confines of Baghdad's blasted walls for a while. Two heavyset men sat on a black faux-leather couch by the door, keeping a watchful eye on the street.

Three years ago, the Internet was virtually unknown in Iraq. Today, Baghdad has dozens of Internet cafes like ShreifiNet, which consists of three sparely decorated rooms with a total of 34 computers and a satellite dish on the roof. Most of the cafes also transmit wireless services to home Internet users in the surrounding area for a monthly fee; in parts of central Baghdad there are about 20 overlapping wireless networks.

The universal hunger to get online has made computer and Web services one of the few bright spots in Iraq's stagnant economy. On Sinaa Street, the two-lane thoroughfare in central Baghdad lined with computer and software stores, business is brisk. Companies that install wireless networks and satellite dishes are also thriving, despite the irritation caused by frequent power failures. So are many Internet cafes.

"I have to work to persuade people to come to my clothes shop," Mr. Ali said. "But you don't need to advertise to tempt customers to come in here."

Few people on earth have more incentive to communicate online (and indoors) than Iraqis, who risk their lives every time they go out for a quart of milk. The Internet can also be a way to get around the rising Islamization of everyday life. Young people caught flirting on the street even in Baghdad are sometimes chastised or even beaten by self-proclaimed Islamists, but no one can stop them on the Web. "If you look at the chat rooms, it is mostly young guys and girls," Mr. Ali said.

But Islamists and insurgents have their own uses for the Web. Diatribes against the American presence, along with detailed bomb-making instructions and tributes to the latest suicide bombers, appear regularly on Iraqi chat rooms and Web sites.

The total number of people using the Internet, like most Iraqi statistics, is partly guesswork. There are 215,000 subscribers on the state-owned Internet company, but that does not include the Internet cafe users, who are probably far more numerous, said Eva Wohn, a legal adviser to Iraq's Communications Ministry on telecommunications issues.

After their long isolation, young Iraqis are quickly erasing their technological gap with the West. In some ways they are even further along. Thanks to the absence of piracy laws here, many Iraqis use software that is not yet in common use in the United States. The new Microsoft Vista operating system, for instance, scheduled to be introduced for commercial use in late 2006, is already widely used here.

Large numbers of Iraqis can be found on the dozens of Arabic chat rooms listed on Yahoo Messenger, a popular platform for instant messaging. There are dozens of Iraqi Web logs, ranging from political sites, to forums for young people seeking spouses, to "hashasha" (www.7shasha.com), a comic site whose name means "hashish smokers." Angry sectarian conversations often break out, especially in Arab Chat Room 12, which is popular with Iraqi Shiites (the number signifies the 12 great imams of Shiite Islam).

Like many Internet cafe users, Mr. Ali has no access at home. He lives in Doura, a dangerous area where there are almost no Internet cafes and few wireless networks. He could get service on a land line, but he works long hours and prefers to do all his e-mailing at ShreifiNet, which is not far from his clothing store.

That calculus has been good for Ramzi al-Shreifi, 32, the owner of ShreifiNet. He took over the lease of his two-story building just off Karrada Street from a travel agency in the fall of 2003 and renovated it, painting the two columns out front bright yellow. A Kurdish company installed a satellite dish on the roof, charging him $2,600 a month for his service. He also mounted wireless transmission equipment, and now has 25 home customers, paying $50 each to use his signal. In the past year, his gross income has grown by half, to about $6,000 a month, Mr. Shreifi said, a tidy sum by Iraqi retail standards.

"It would have been more, but there is competition," he added.

There are about 15 Internet cafes in Inner Karrada, a busy commercial area that is one of Baghdad's safer neighborhoods, Mr. Shreifi said. His cafe is open until 10 p.m., and would stay open all night if not for the curfew imposed by the Iraqi government, he said. He has been luckier than many Baghdad business owners: no robberies, no violence.

Mr. Shreifi has plans to expand. There are hundreds of people in the area who would like to get wireless service. The problem, he said, is that there are no rules governing the Internet: anyone with enough money for a satellite can transmit to whomever he or she like, and some do not require passwords so that many people can log on free. Mr. Shreifi also suspects that his signal is sometimes affected by American military officials in the Green Zone who may be jamming frequencies used by insurgents. Still, by Baghdad standards, it is a good living.

"Most days this place is almost full," Mr. Shreifi said.

Khalid al-Ansary, Qais Mizher and Khalid Hassan contributed reporting from Baghdad for this article.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/10/international/middleeast/10internet.html

4. Gore Decries Treatment of Arabs Post 9-11 – Associated Press

By JIM KRANE, Associated Press Writer

Mon Feb 13, 7:10 AM ET

Former Vice President Al Gore told a mainly Saudi audience on Sunday that the U.S. government committed "terrible abuses" against Arabs after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and that most Americans did not support such treatment.

Gore said Arabs had been "indiscriminately rounded up" and held in "unforgivable" conditions. The former vice president said the Bush administration was playing into al-Qaida's hands by routinely blocking Saudi visa applications.

"The thoughtless way in which visas are now handled, that is a mistake," Gore said during the Jiddah Economic Forum. "The worst thing we can possibly do is to cut off the channels of friendship and mutual understanding between Saudi Arabia and the United States."

Gore told the largely Saudi audience, many of them educated at U.S. universities, that Arabs in the United States had been "indiscriminately rounded up, often on minor charges of overstaying a visa or not having a green card in proper order, and held in conditions that were just unforgivable."

"Unfortunately there have been terrible abuses and it's wrong," Gore said. "I do want you to know that it does not represent the desires or wishes or feelings of the majority of the citizens of my country."

On Iran, Gore complained of "endemic hyper-corruption" among Tehran's religious and political elite and asked Arabs to take a stand against Iran's nuclear program.
Iran says its program is for peaceful purposes but the United States and other Western countries suspect Tehran is trying to develop nuclear weapons.

"Is it only for the West to say this is dangerous?" Gore asked. "We should have more people in this region saying this is dangerous."

Several audience members criticized the United States for what they described as "unconditional" U.S. support for Israel, saying U.S. diplomats helped Israel flout U.N. resolutions that they enforced when the measures targeted Arabs.

Gore refused to be drawn into questions about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"We can't solve that long conflict in exchanges here," Gore said.

Also at the forum, the vice chairman of Chevron Corp., Peter Robertson, said President Bush's desire to cut U.S. dependence on Mideast oil shows a "misunderstanding" of global energy supply and the critical role of Saudi Arabia.

In his State of the Union address this month, Bush pledged to cut U.S. dependence on Middle East oil by 75 percent by 2025.

"This notion of being energy independent is completely unreasonable," Robertson said at the economic forum, which opened Saturday.

"I believe Middle Eastern oil can and must play a certain role in the system," Robertson said. "Saudi Arabia's massive resources will continue to promote international energy security and serve as a moderating force in balancing supply and demand."

Cherie Blair, wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, made a plea at the forum for women's rights, telling Saudi leaders that the dearth of women in the work force was "undermining economic potential" of the kingdom.

Irish President Mary McAleese urged Saudi Arabia to learn from Ireland's economic transformation, which hinged on opening the country to the outside world and ushering women into the workplace.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060213/ap_on_re_mi_ea/saudi_gore_3

5. The Kinky Katrina Spend Spree – New York Post

By GEOFF EARLE

WASHINGTON — Sex toys, Swedish massages, tattoos, jewelry — that's what was purchased with Katrina emergency relief aid, according to shocking audits released yesterday.

Federal Emergency Management Agency officials wasted millions in taxpayer dollars and even put up Hurricane Katrina evacuees in luxury hotels — including a New York hotel that billed the feds $428 per night, federal investigators revealed.

The probers also found widespread abuse of $2,000 debit cards that FEMA provided to evacuees.

Disaster victims were supposed to use the vouchers for emergency expenses, but many racked up expenses as if they were at a bachelor party.

One evacuee spent $400 on a Swedish massage in Irving, Texas, and one paid $150 for "adult erotica products" at a store called Condoms To Go.
Another spent $450 to get an arm tattoo; and another spent $1,300 on a .45-caliber pistol.

Someone used the money to pay off a bail bondsman, one paid $1,100 for a diamond engagement ring, and yet another made several bank withdrawals at a casino.
The disclosure of waste and fraud amid government mismanagement are contained in searing Senate testimony given by the Department of Homeland Security's Inspector General Richard Skinner, and in a new report by the General Accounting Office, a government watchdog.

Skinner told senators that a government contractor spent $150,000 paying for 773 rooms at an average of $191 per night to house evacuees who fled massive flooding and storm damage in Katrina's wake.

In addition to paying full fare at the New York City hotel, which he did not name, Skinner said FEMA picked up the tab for a $375-per-night beachfront condo in Panama City, Fla., and a downtown Chicago hotel that cost $399 per night.

Skinner said investigators found examples of hotels that charged "excessive" rates above their usual prices, and said the feds would keep investigating the matter.
Corporate Lodging Consultants, who got the government contract, has handled hotel billings worth $350 million. But company executives refused to return calls from The Post about why the government was paying rates fetched by some of Manhattan's finest hotels to house hurricane victims.

"Yes, there were people that got one over on us," said Butch Kinerney, a FEMA spokesman.

The Justice Department said federal prosecutors have filed charges against 212 people for hurricane relief scams.

A forthcoming report by an investigative committee in Congress faults the Homeland Security Department for a "failure of initiative" in its response.
A federal judge ruled yesterday FEMA could stop paying hotel assistance for 12,000 families.

"Obviously, nobody expected them to be here for five months," said Tony Pinto, manager of the Radisson Hotel at JFK Airport, which has been housing a group of evacuees.

He said the hotel would serve eviction notices in the next few days, and said hopefully a nonprofit group would step in.

http://www.nypost.com/news/nationalnews/63523.htm