Bryan Strawser

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Archives for August 2003

US Undermined Iraqi Military Before War’s Start

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WASHINGTON, Aug. 9 ó The United States military, the Central Intelligence Agency and Iraqi exiles began a broad covert effort inside Iraq at least three months before the war to forge alliances with Iraqi military leaders and persuade commanders not to fight, say people involved in the effort.

Even after the war began, the Bush administration received word that top officials of the Iraqi government, most prominently the defense minister, Gen. Sultan Hashem Ahmed al-Tai, might be willing to cooperate to bring the war to a quick end and to ensure a postwar peace, current and former American officials say.

General Hashem’s ministry was never bombed by the United States during the war, and the Pentagon’s decision not to knock Iraqi broadcasting off the air permitted him to appear on television with what some Iraqi exiles have called a veiled signal to troops that they should not fight the invading allies. [NY Times]

NATO Takes over Afghanistan Command

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KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) The North Atlantic Treaty Organization on Monday plans to take command of the international peacekeeping force in Afghanistan’s war-shattered capital, a move that reflects the 54-year-old alliance’s shifting priorities in the global war on terror.

The deployment in Asia will be NATO’s first outside Europe since the organization was formed during the Cold War to provide a bulwark against possible attacks by the former Soviet Union.

NATO will take over command of the 5,000-strong International Security Assistance Force, known as ISAF, from Germany and the Netherlands during a ceremony in Kabul. [Boston Globe]

Archbishop Chooses Rectory over $37m Mansion

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Archbishop Sean P. O’Malley, in a dramatic gesture illustrating his commitment to change, announced yesterday that he will move out of the Brighton manse occupied by his predecessors and into the brick rectory of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, next to a housing project in Boston’s South End.

The cross-town move, which O’Malley said he expects to complete within the next couple of months, is the latest in a series of rapid-fire steps the new archbishop has taken in the nine days since he was installed as archbishop July 30. On his second day as archbishop, he replaced the church’s oft-criticized lawyers, and yesterday he offered $55 million to settle 542 clergy sex abuse claims. [Boston Globe]

Exercise

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I worked out for twenty minutes this morning for the first time in two or three years. At least since before we moved into the house, so probably more like three years.

Felt good.

Now I have to get up tomorrow morning and do the same thing. Do it three or four days in a row and I should have a new habit. Wish me luck.

Arnold is Running

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LOS ANGELES, Aug. 6, 2003   Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger terminated the suspense Wednesday night by declaring that he would challenge Gov. Gray Davis in the Oct. 7 recall election, immediately becoming the most prominent opponent of the embattled Democrat. [MSNBC]