Zogby Poll: McCain Bests Both Obama, Clinton
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/McCain_over_Obama_Clinton/2008/03/15/80707.html
UTICA, New York – Riding high after locking up his party’s presidential nomination, Republican John McCain of Arizona has moved ahead of both of his potential Democratic Party rivals in a national general election test, the latest Zogby telephone survey shows.
Perhaps profiting from the continuing political battle across the aisle, McCain would defeat Hillary Clinton of New York by six points and Barack Obama of Illinois by 5 points, the survey shows. Clinton and Obama are locked in a tight battle to win the Democratic Party nomination, a fight that has grown nasty at times recently and threatens to continue on all summer long until the party’s national convention in Denver this August.
The telephone survey of 1,001 likely voters nationwide was conducted by live operators calling from Zogby’s call center in Upstate New York on March 13-14, 2008. It carries a margin of error of +/- 3.2 percentage points.
Prospective General Election Match-up
3-13/14
McCain
45%
Clinton
39%
Nader
6%
Not sure/Someone else
11%
The introduction of long-time activist Ralph Nader into the mix is having an effect on the race, as he wins enough support to make a difference, the poll shows. Nader entered the race recently, charging that there is little difference between the Republican and Democratic parties and their presidential candidates. Using the same argument eight years ago, his presence on the ballot in Florida may well have tipped the presidential election away from Democrat Al Gore and in favor of George W. Bush. His run four years ago yielded less dramatic results, but the political atmosphere has changed since 2004, and may be more favorable for him again, the Zogby survey shows.
In the McCain-Clinton-Nader match-up, McCain leads mainly because of a significant advantage among independents. Among those voters, he wins support from 45%, compared to 28% for Clinton and 15% for Nader. McCain wins 79% support from Republicans, while Clinton wins 75% support from Democrats.
Clinton leads only among those voters under age 30, while McCain leads among all voters over age 30. Nader also does well among the young, winning 12% support among those under age 30. Among men, McCain leads 51% to 33% for Clinton. Among women, Clinton leads, 45% to 40% for McCain. Nader wins 8% among men and 3% among women.
Nader also does particularly well as a third-party candidate among progressives, winning 15% support from the group that would very likely otherwise go to Clinton were he not in the race. At the other end of the ideological scale, he wins 12% among libertarians. He also wins 6% support among both conservatives and liberals.
Prospective General Election Match-up
3-13/14
McCain
44%
Obama
39%
Nader
5%
Not sure/Someone else
11%
In the McCain-Obama-Nader match-up, the independent candidate is having the same effect. Nader wins 15% support among political independents nationwide.
Ideologically, Nader wins 18% support among progressives, and 12% among libertarians. He does less well among mainline conservatives and liberals compared to the match-up including Clinton.
An interesting factor in this race: the inroads McCain has made into Obama’s base and vice versa. McCain wins 19% support from Democrats, while Obama captures just 67% of voters in his own party. Obama wins 15% support among Republicans, compared to 73% for McCain.
As is the case in the McCain-Clinton-Nader contest, Obama wins among voters under age 30, while McCain leads among all voters age 30 and older. Nader wins 15% support among those under age 30, but has little support among older voters.
Among men, McCain leads Obama 48% to 34%, while Obama holds a slim 43% to 41% edge over McCain among women. Nader wins 6% among men and 4% among women.
Pollster John Zogby: “Nader’s presence in the race can potentially turn a lulu of a race into an absolute tizzy. The messages to Democrats are clear – number one, Nader may win enough support to get into the general election debates. Number two, what could be at risk is support among several key constituencies that the Democratic Party candidate will need to win in November, notably younger voters, independents, and progressives.”
McCain camp disputes Wright-Parsley comparison
http://embeds.blogs.foxnews.com/2008/03/15/mccain-camp-disputes-wright-parsley-comparison/
Washington, D.C. — John McCain’s campaign is pushing back on recent allegations that controversial Ohio pastor, Rev. Rod Parsley, serves as a “spiritual guide” for the GOP presidential nominee.
As Barack Obama continues to take heat for anti-American and racially divisive comments made by his longtime pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, some voices on the left are arguing that McCain should be receiving similar scrutiny for provocative remarks made by Parsley.
The Ohio-based religious leader has made a number controversial statements about Muslims, previously calling Islam an “anti-Christ religion” based on “deception.” In a recent book, he also wrote that the prophet Mohammad “received revelations from demons and not from the true God,” adding that “Allah was a demon spirit.”
According to the campaign, McCain met Parsley for the first time three weeks ago, when the pastor served as an introductory speaker at a February 26 rally in Cincinnati.
McCain praised most of the leaders in attendance, saying of Parsley: “I am very honored today to have one of the truly great leaders in America, a moral compass, a spiritual guide…thank you for your leadership and your guidance. I am very grateful you are here.” (Coincidence note: This was the same event of the infamous Bill Cunningham remarks)
A number of blogs and magazines are citing the “spiritual guide” line to make the case that Parsley is an important influence for the Arizona Senator. International publications are also picking up on the endorsement–a headline in the Tehran Times this morning screams, “McCain advisor: Destroy Islam.”
A campaign official disputes that argument, adding that any comparison between the Wright and Parsley situations is “totally absurd.” The official notes that Rev. Wright married Obama, baptized his children and has served as his spiritual adviser for 20 years, whereas McCain received Parsley’s endorsement at one event and has never attended his service.
Regarding Parsley’s comments on Islam, campaign officials point to McCain’s denunciation of similar comments made by Rev. John Hagee–noting that the presumptive GOP nominee was not endorsing Parsley by accepting the pastor’s endorsement and does not agree with all of his views. McCain has vowed repeatedly to run a “respectful campaign,” condemned any personal attacks on Obama and Clinton.
Additionally, Campaign Manager Rick Davis circulated a memo this week that called upon supporters to “follow John’s lead and run a respectful campaign focused on the issues.”
Obama Attempts Damage Control, Fallout Over Pastor’s Sermons Unclear
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/03/15/fallout-from-pastors-sermons-unknown-as-obama-attempts-damage-control/
The presidential contenders have all had their share of supporters whose insensitive remarks forced the campaigns to issue disavowals. This week, it was Barack Obama’s turn.
After a series of recorded sermons by Obama’s longtime pastor the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. sparked controversy over Wright’s fiery views on race, America and the Sept. 11 attacks, Obama responded Friday by firmly repudiating Wrights’ views in lengthy written statement and a round of cable news interviews.
On Saturday at a town hall meeting in Plainfield, Ind., Obama broached the matter with the public, saying they’ve probably heard comments “that were incendiary and that I completely reject.”
The question now is whether Obama’s response worked, and whether his connection to Wright will haunt the Democratic senator’s campaign and dampen his presidential hopes.
Rival Hillary Clinton has not yet drawn political attention to the sermons, and deflected questions Saturday.
“Ask the Obama campaign,” she said to inquiries about Wright.
Pollster Doug Schoen said it’s unlikely the Wright issue will play big in the primary, but that it poses trouble down the road.
“In a Democratic primary this issue has limited viability and utility,” he said. “In a general election, however … I think this could be a real serious problem for Barack Obama.”
Obama tried to put Wright’s sermons in perspective Saturday, saying: “It reminds me that we’ve got a tragic history when it comes to race in this country … But what I continue to believe in is this country wants to move beyond these kinds of divisions.”
In an interview Friday with FOX News, Obama said he personally never had heard the pastor’s controversial comments, though he joined his Trinity United Church of Christ nearly 20 years ago. He said the sermons now sparking controversy didn’t resemble the ones he remembers from Wright, which, Obama said, stuck to messages of faith, values and helping people in the community.
But Obama’s pastor long has been a lightning rod for controversy. For starters, Wright’s relationship with Louis Farrakhan, once described by Obama as a “close” relationship, has been of concern to many in the Jewish community.
And once Wright’s remarks were publicized last year, Obama backed out of plans to have Wright speak at his Feb. 10, 2007, presidential announcement.
Author Larry Elder said he doesn’t buy Obama’s new, firmer denunciation of Wright.
“How can Barack Obama dis-invite him … and now claim he had no idea that Jeremiah Wright made all these incendiary comments? It doesn’t work,” Elder told FOX News.
There’s too many variables on the campaign trail to measure the direct impact on his poll numbers, but pollster Scott Rasmussen pointed out that Saturday’s Rasmussen daily tracking poll showed Obama nearly tied with Hillary Clinton.
“That’s a big drop from Obama’s 8-point lead a day before,” Rasmussen said.
Ari Fleischer, former press secretary for President Bush, suggested that the controversy and the timing of Obama’s disavowal show him to be little more than a shrewd politician.
“I think there’s a reason Republicans I talk to are increasingly looking forward to running against Barack Obama,” Fleischer said.
Wright, who presided over Trinity’s congregation until his retirement earlier this year, officiated Obama’s wedding to Michelle and baptized their two daughters. In Obama’s first book, “Dreams From My Father” from 1995, he writes the pastor had great influence over him in the early 1990s. And it was Wright who delivered a sermon “The Audacity of Hope,” which had such an impact on Obama that he made it the title of his second book, published in 2006. The theme of hope continues to be central to Obama’s surging campaign.
His repudiation of Wright has gradually risen to a crescendo.
Three weeks ago, Obama spoke to the Cleveland Jewish Community Leaders group and was asked about Wright. Obama noted the pastor occasionally was known to “say controversial things,” adding most of those controversial statements were “directed at the African American community.”
Obama assured the Ohio Jewish leaders he never heard anything anti-Semitic, and said “he is like an old uncle who sometimes will say things that I don’t agree with.”
Obama’s camp released a somewhat stronger statement Thursday after FOX News had reported more on Wright’s sermons — in one, he repeatedly said “God damn America,” while in others he blamed the United States for the spread of HIV and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and highlighted what he saw as a racial divide between Obama and Hillary Clinton.
“Senator Obama has said before that he profoundly disagrees with some of the statements and positions of Rev. Wright, who has preached his last sermon as pastor at the church,” Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton said. “Senator Obama deplores divisive statements whether they come from his supporters, the supporters of his opponent, talk radio, or anywhere else.”
Then Friday, Obama issued the written statement calling what he’s heard from Wright “inflammatory and appalling.”
Later Friday, Obama told FOX News that he could no longer lay low as he heard more of Wright’s remarks.
“Once I saw them I had to be very clear about the fact that these are not statements that I am comfortable with,” Obama said. “I reject them completely - they are not ones that reflect my values or my ideals or Michelle’s.”
Democratic strategist Tanya Acker said Friday that Obama has nothing to be sorry for, and his campaign is in the clear.
“There’s no basis for attributing those statements to Barack Obama,” she told FOX News. “We don’t play guilt by association here, and it’s not fair.”
Throughout the campaign, candidates seemingly on a weekly basis have had to respond to, denounce and sometimes fire supporters who made offensive comments. Obama’s foreign policy adviser Samantha Power left the campaign after calling Clinton a “monster” in an interview with a Scottish newspaper. Clinton fundraiser Geraldine Ferraro left the campaign’s finance committee after saying much of the attention being paid to Obama’s campaign was because he is black.
And earlier this month, Republican candidate John McCain distanced himself from Iowa Rep. Steve King after King said terrorists would be “dancing in the streets” if Obama were elected.
Obama said Friday the pastor has never been active in his campaign and that he is no longer on his African American Religious Leadership Committee. The campaign said Wright left that unpaid post Friday, without elaborating.
Obama said Friday that with Wright retiring from the pulpit, he doesn’t see an issue with his family remaining in the congregation. Wright delivered his final sermon last month and retired as leader of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.
Pentagon Now Holding Close bin Laden Associate
http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/Rahim_captured/2008/03/14/80493.html
The Pentagon said on Friday it is holding an Afghan national who helped arrange Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's escape from Tora Bora in late 2001, a spokesman said Friday.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Muhammed Rahim, who was turned over to the military by the CIA, was a high level member of Al-Qaeda with contacts through the Middle East and one of Bin Laden's most trusted facilitators and procurement specialists.
"He helped prepare Tora Bora as a hideout for Osama bin Laden. He assisted Al-Qaeda's exodus from the area in late 2001," Whitman said.
The Al-Qaeda leader is believed to have slipped through a cordon of US and Afghan forces from the mountain hideout near the Pakistan border, and has eluded capture ever since.
The Pentagon spokesman would not say when or where Rahim was captured or how long he was held by the CIA, but said he was transferred to US military custody at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba earlier this week.
"He had knowledge of or was involved in Al-Qaeda attacks and plans against coalition forces in Afghanistan," Whitman said.
"At the time of his capture he was providing support to anti-coalition militias and groups allied with Al-Qaeda," he said.
Rahim, an Afghan national from the country's eastern Nangahar province, first began working with Al-Qaeda in the mid 1990s, first as a supplier and later as a courier between top leaders of the network.
"He carried messages for UBL (Osama bin Laden) in early 2002. He met with chief financial officer Shayleh Said al-Masri in 2004," he said.
Before 2002, he procured chemicals for an Al-Qaeda plot against coalition forces in Afghanistan, according to the Pentagon. Whitman would provide no details on the plot.
"And he worked with paramilitary commanders to recruit individuals who had access to US military facilities, specifically Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi," he said.
Al-Iraqi was the most recent high level Al-Qaeda captive transferred to Guantanamo, which occurred in April 2007.
Whitman would not say whether al-Iraqi provided information that led to Rahim's capture.
Rahim is the 16th so-called "high value" prisoner to be transferred to Guantanamo since September 2006 when President George W. Bush acknowledged the existence of secret CIA detention facilities overseas.
First Christian Church Opens in Qatar
http://www.newsmax.com/international/qatar_catholic_church/2008/03/15/80700.html
DOHA, Qatar -- Thousands of worshippers gathered Saturday for the consecration of Qatar's first Christian church, ending decades of underground worship in this Sunni Muslim and deeply conservative Persian Gulf nation.
Cardinal Ivan Diaz, envoy to Pope Benedict XVI, presented the new Roman Catholic parish of Our Lady of the Rosary with a chalice offered by the pope. Many congregants wept when a relic of Saint Padre Pio da Pietrelcina was dedicated in the five-hour mass.
Three dozen bishops and priests gathered to celebrate the mass, which was conducted in English with prayers in the Tagalog language from the Philippines, Hindi, Arabic and other languages.
"It is a wonderful day for us, we have been waiting for many, many years to have a proper place of worship," said Indian resident Robert Rodriguez, one of the estimated 10,000 people who gathered for the ceremony.
Only 3,000 worshippers could fit inside the packed dome building, leaving thousands more to gather outside the doors.
Nearby, five more churches are under construction for other Christian denominations in this oil-rich state, where over 70 percent of the population are expatriate workers.
The 2,700-seat church was built on land donated by Qatar's emir, Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani. Out of respect for local sensitivities, the exterior does not feature any religious symbols that identify the building as a place of Christian worship.
Qatar follows the rigorous Wahhabi teachings of Sunni Islam, and like neighboring Saudi Arabia had not previously authorized Christians to practice their faith openly. A Catholic priest had operated in Qatar without official approval since the 1960s.
The consecration and construction appear to be signs of Qatar's efforts to open up to the West as it seeks a bid for the Olympic Games in 2016.
"It is a dream coming true," said Bishop Bernardo Gremoli, a former vicar of Arabia who initiated the church project more than 20 years ago.
Some 150,000 Christians of all denominations live in the emirate. About 90 percent of them are Catholic expatriate workers from the Philippines, India and other Asian nations.
"This is a historic day for the Christian community," said Filipino Imelda Ilotin. "It signifies that people can live together in peace and diversity if they are guided by illuminated rulers," she said.
Gremoli, who carried the relic of Padre Pio to Qatar, said it was the first ever holy relic to be sent from Rome to a church of the Arabian Peninsula.
Padre Pio, a mystic Capuchin monk who had an enormous following in Italy and abroad, died in 1968 after living for decades with inexplicable, bleeding wounds on his hands and feet, like the wounds Jesus suffered at crucifixion. Pope John Paul II made him a saint in 2002.
Qatar's most ambitious move to open up to the world has come through sports. It held the 2006 Asian games and hopes to win the 2016 summer Olympics. A short list of candidate cities for the 2016 Olympics will be announced next June.
Iraqi archbishop laid to rest by mourners
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/iraqi.archbishop.laid.to.rest.by.mourners/17348.htm
Mourners have laid to rest on Friday a Chaldean Catholic archbishop known as a “man of peace beloved by all Iraqis”, after he was found dead following a kidnapping.
As Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho's coffin was carried down the streets of a village outside Mosul in northern Iraq, mourners carrying flowers and olive branches wept.
The funeral procession was led by church official carrying a wooden cross affixed with Rahho's picture.
The beloved archbishop was kidnapped by unknown gunmen two weeks ago, just minutes after performing Mass in Mosul, al-Qaida's last urban stronghold.
During his kidnapping, which is the latest in a string of attacks on the Iraqi Christian community over the past few years, three of his aides were killed.
Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho’s body was found on Thursday and his funeral took place Friday.
Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly told mourners, “He was a man of honesty, loyalty and peace. He was loved by all Iraqi people regardless of their sectarian background.”
Rahho was the second-most senior Catholic cleric in Iraq, and his murder has brought further uncertainty over the future of the Christian community in Iraq.
President Bush, the pope and Iraq's prime minister condemned Rahho's kidnapping, which US officials in Baghdad called “one more savage attempt by a barbaric enemy to sow strife and discord.”
Since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, Iraqi Christians have been targeted by Islamic extremists who label them "crusaders" loyal to US troops, AP has reported.
Militants have attacked churches, priests and businesses owned by Christians, many of whom have fled the country in a trend mirrored across the Islamic world.
The Chaldean church is an Eastern-rite denomination aligned with the Roman Catholic Church that recognizes the authority of the pope.
Overall, Chaldean Catholics make up a tiny minority of the current Iraqi population but are the largest group among the less than 1 million Christians remaining in Iraq, according to the 2007 US International Religious Freedom Report.
There have been no claims of responsibility for the archbishop's kidnapping or his death.
Iraqi Soldier, Once Loyal to Hussein, Gives Up Attacks Against U.S. Military to Help the Coalition Cause
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,338137,00.html
As a loyal officer under Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi major never imagined that one day he would become an insurgent, but when Iraq fell five years ago he was left bitter, jobless and desperate to drive the invading forces out.
“I saw my country collapse right in front of my eyes,” said Abu Abdullah, who has since orchestrated countless attacks against the U.Sx military, spent time in the notorious Abu Ghraib detention centre and briefly joined forces with al-Qaeda.
Recalling the invasion, he told The Times: “I felt as though my freedom was being snatched from me. It was one of the darkest moments of my life.” In many ways Mr Abdullah’s story is the story of the insurgency in Iraq, where the changing allegiances of Sunni Arab fighters has dictated the pace of a conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives since 2003.
He, like many Sunni Arab officers and other Saddam supporters, resorted to guerrilla warfare to kill better-equipped U.S. soldiers but gradually found that his nationalistic resistance had fallen under the control of the militant Islamists of al-Qaeda.
Appalled at the cruelty of attacks sponsored by al-Qaeda, Abdullah switched sides recently and is cooperating, albeit reluctantly, with the U.S. military as part of a grassroots security drive that has spread across Iraq.
Five years ago, as Major Abdullah, he was holed up in the Iraqi city of al-Kut, south of Baghdad, listening to the sound of American combat aircraft dropping bombs on buildings and the thunder of invading tanks. “When the infantry entered al-Kut most of my soldiers stopped fighting. They realised that the U.S. Army was much more powerful than ours,” he said. “We pulled out and returned to Baghdad. All my soldiers vanished. It was over.”
Abdullah, a married father of one, drove his family to his parents’ house in Samarra, a predominantly Sunni Arab city north of the Iraqi capital, which eventually became a haven for al-Qaeda.
With the former army disbanded, he spent the next year at home defeated and with nothing to do – until he started meeting other former army officers at coffee shops in town.
“We started to discuss things and develop serious ideas. Eventually we agreed to form groups and start fighting,” Abdullah said in a late-night interview at a Baghdad hotel, dressed in a maroon and blue tracksuit.
They were well prepared to begin an insurgency because, three months before the invasion, Iraqi military commanders had instructed all soldiers and officers to receive specific training in street fighting. Recruiting young men locally from April 2004, he started a branch of al-Tawhid wal Jihad, one of four main Sunni Arab insurgent groups that ultimately combined to become al-Qaeda in Iraq.
They had an abundance of rockets, guns, ammunition and bomb-making material, thanks to the many old Iraqi army warehouses dotted around the country that had been abandoned.
“Our objective was clear: to remove the occupying forces. We did not launch attacks in urban areas, just the outskirts of towns and on the main highways,” Abdullah said, emphasising that his group also never targeted Iraqis.
They operated north of Baghdad up to the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, firing rockets at American bases, planting roadside bombs against military convoys and, on occasion, following up with an armed ambush.
The first mission that Abdullah planned, against a base in Tikrit, was a bit of a failure because he miscalculated the distance for a barrage of rockets to be fired. He became much more accurate over time.
“We had many successful operations,” he said, with a knowing smile when asked if he had killed any American soldiers. Abdullah says that he lost 26 fighters. Over a 10-month period his men carried out attacks twice a day. Using their superior knowledge of the terrain they would creep down dirt tracks and hide in farm houses. “The Americans would never know where we were coming from.” Sharing intelligence at meetings with other insurgency groups, he recalled how praise was heaped on any fighter who pulled off a complex mission.
“That was motivational. When you heard of someone else’s successes you wanted to go out and do something better,” said Abdullah, a tall, well-built man who used to be a boxer and is a martial arts expert.
The former officer’s attacking spree was halted when he was arrested by U.S. troops driving away from the scene of his biggest mission – blowing up five American vehicles with 12 roadside bombs as they travelled towards the once-restive city of Fallujah, west of Baghdad, in March 2005.
“The soldiers told us that they were going to execute us by pushing us out of their helicopter. I thought to myself that I was just defending my country and if you want to kill me then go ahead,” he said.
Thrown into Abu Ghraib, the U.S.-run detention center that become infamous after American soldiers were pictured humiliating Iraqi prisoners, Mr Abdullah said that he was kept in a box-like cell that measured a meter square.Forced to sit squashed up because of his large frame, he said that he was held in there for 29 days, allowed out for only four hours a day.
He also claimed that he was beaten and interrogated repeatedly. “In one of the worst moments, which I will never forget for as long as I live, I was handcuffed to a chair and a female soldier hit me across the head with a metal pipe. You might be able to see the scar,” he said, touching his hair-line. “I started to bleed and she hit me on the arm, breaking it. They left me for a week without medical attention. As I experienced all of this I kept thinking about two things: my son and my country. I felt really sad for my country.”
Abdullah, who said that he never admitted to any crime, spent three months in Abu Ghraib before being moved to Camp Buka, a larger detention centre in southern Iraq, where he said that conditions were much better.
After another six months he was released, but his time in captivity left him even more embittered towards the U.S. forces and he vowed to return to the resistance. “When I arrived back in Samarra I found that a lot of things had changed. My group had become part of al-Qaeda and was killing members of the Iraqi security forces and even civilians,” he said.
Most of the people he had fought with had fled to Syria, being replaced by hired guns who were working for an influx of new commanders, many of them foreign. Abdullah said that other Arab countries and Iran were helping to fund the operations.
Despite many misgivings, he rejoined the group at the end of 2005 but quickly regretted it. “I found out that my cousin had been killed because he had refused to join.” Mr Abdullah was also shown footage of two policemen being beheaded.
“I could not tolerate or accept how they were working, so in the end I fled to Syria. I felt quite disappointed with the way that the resistance had become.” After only a week Abdullah returned to Iraq and took his family to Baghdad, where he used his car to work as a taxi driver. Leaving al-Qaeda meant that his life was in constant danger. Twice gunmen tried to shoot him and he was forced to move house four times.
Still opposed to the U.S. military and increasingly against the Shia-led Government of Iraq, Mr Abdullah dreamt of starting up a fresh resistance. But in late 2007 he was approached by two uncles and a cousin who had joined a new security movement, which was established by Sunni Arab tribes who had turned against al-Qaeda in Anbar province, once the heart of the insurgency. The concept – arming local people and charging them with security for their neighbourhood – appealed to Abdullah even though the group’s members, which number at least 90,000, were under the payroll of the U.S. military.
“I started to feel that the Americans were better than the Iraqi Government at that moment. I still look at them as occupiers. My feelings towards them have not changed. But my main concern is to stop the Iraqi people’s suffering,” he said. Agreeing to help to set up branches of the so-called Awakening movement in Samarra and other towns north of Baghdad, Mr Abdullah attended his first meeting with the U.S. military just over a week ago – something that he had resisted for months.
“When American soldiers turn up I feel very sad for myself, my country and the fact that I have to sit down and deal with them. I feel like wolves are eating my flesh during the meeting,” he said.
Abdullah, however, believes that the largely Sunni Arab Awakening groups lack support from the Government, which has pledged to find all members jobs in the regular army or police or a civilian role.
Asked what would be the outcome if the government failed to create new employment opportunities, the former insurgent responded: “An uprising.” As for his future, Abdullah just wants security for his son, now 6, adding: “I am determined to raise him to be a fighter like me.”
Hu Jintao Re-Elected to 5-Year Term as China President
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,338108,00.html
BEIJING — China's legislature re-elected Hu Jintao as president Saturday, giving him a second five-year term as leader of the world's most populous country. It also returned Hu as head of the Central Military Commission, the body overseeing the armed forces.
The National People's Congress appointed Xi Jinping, a top Communist Party leader and the son of a revolutionary, as vice president. Xi, ranked No. 6 in the party hierarchy, is widely seen as Hu's apparent heir and has risen quickly through the party's ranks in just six months.
The congress also approved a plan to reshuffle the Cabinet by establishing five "super ministries" and a ministerial-level energy commission.
Both men received virtually unanimous support from the nearly 3,000 National People's Congress delegates, known to unfailingly carry out decisions made by the party's top leadership. There were no other candidates for the positions, reflecting the one-party state's stress on consensus and outer harmony.
As the results were read out, each man stood and bowed from the dais of the cavernous Great Hall of the People. Neither addressed the body.
Under Hu, China's economy has continued to grow rapidly while its international profile has steadily risen, a development embodied by Beijing's hosting of the Olympic Games in August.
Hu and Premier Wen Jiabao, who heads the government administration, are generally well supported among middle class urban Chinese, who see the two leaders as competent and sympathetic to their concerns over housing woes, inflation, medical care and education.
In a sign of Xi's rise to prominence, he has been placed in charge of preparations for the Olympics, an event generating enormous national pride and regarded by the leadership as a chance to show off a dynamic new China to the world.
But Hu and his advisers face stiff challenges during his second term. Soaring food costs have driven inflation to its highest level in nearly 12 years.
And snowstorms this winter brought many parts of China to a halt, highlighting transportation weaknesses, power infrastructure and government planning.
Deadly anti-Chinese riots in Tibet this week have underscored the lack of progress in tamping down unrest among the country's minority groups.
The vice presidency, though devoid of real power, offers Xi an opportunity to nudge his profile higher through official travel and public appearances at state events. Like all would-be successors in rank-conscious China, Xi is careful to talk up his boss, telling officials to study Hu's speeches and follow his orders.
Hu is believed to favor the party's seventh ranking official, Li Keqiang, to succeed him. Li has failed to receive the same level of support from ranking cadres as Xi, who has taken an unusually visible role since vaulting from leader of Shanghai to the Communist Party's inner sanctum last October.
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