memeorandum: Getting Serious With Iran In Iraq (Captain Ed/Captain's Quarters)

12:20 PM ET, January 26, 2007

Top Items:

Troops Authorized to Kill Iranian Operatives in Iraq — Administration Strategy Stirs Concern Among Some Officials — The Bush administration has authorized the U.S. military to kill or capture Iranian operatives inside Iraq as part of an aggressive new strategy to weaken Tehran's influence across …

Captain Ed / Captain's Quarters:

Getting Serious With Iran In Iraq — The Bush administration has decided to escalate the response to Iranian infiltration in Iraq by ending a "catch and release" program and operating more aggressively against Iranian agents, especially Revolutionary Guard elements.

Discussion: Sister Toldjah

Dana Milbank / Washington Post:

In Ex-Aide's Testimony, A Spin Through VP's PR — Memo to Tim Russert: Dick Cheney thinks he controls you. — This delicious morsel about the "Meet the Press" host and the vice president was part of the extensive dish Cathie Martin served up yesterday when the former Cheney communications director took …

Discussion: Real Cities, The Moderate Voice, TalkLeft, Grasping Reality …, The Carpetbagger Report, Swampland, Firedoglake, The Impolitic, AMERICAblog, Liberal Values and ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES

Neil A. Lewis / New York Times:
Ex-Cheney Aide Contradicts Libby

Discussion: Swampland, CNN Political Ticker, PoliBlog (TM) and Firedoglake

Washington Post:
Ex-Aide Says Cheney Led Rebuttal Effort

Discussion: TPMmuckraker

Stella Dawson / Reuters:

DAVOS-U.S. invasion was "idiot decision"-Iraq vice president — Source: Reuters — The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 was an "idiot decision" and Iraqi troops now need to secure Baghdad to ensure the country's future, Vice-President Adel Abdul Mahdi said on Thursday.

Discussion: Jules Crittenden and BobGeiger.com

Associated Press:

Bush: 'I'm the decision-maker' in Iraq troops — President challenges lawmakers to give 'surge' plan a chance to work — President Bush, right, meets with Defense chief Robert Gates, left, and Army Lt. General David Petraeus at the White House. — NBC VIDEO — Jan. 26: President Bush speaks to reporters on Friday.

Discussion: The Political Pit Bull and Liberal Values

Adam Liptak / New York Times:

Secrecy Is at Issue in Suits Opposing Spy Program — The Bush administration has employed extraordinary secrecy in defending the National Security Agency's highly classified domestic surveillance program from civil lawsuits. Plaintiffs and judges' clerks cannot see its secret filings.

Discussion: Booman Tribune, Andrew Sullivan, Stop The ACLU and The Heretik

Dan Eggen / Washington Post:
Dismissal of Lawsuit Against Warrantless Wiretaps Sought

Discussion: The Impolitic

Shailagh Murray / Washington Post:

Hagel Ponders White House Run As War Criticism Raises His Profile — His Republican colleagues regard him warily. The White House barely speaks to him. He is reviled by his party's conservative base. — Looks as though Sen. Chuck Hagel is on a roll. — Both parties have their Iraq war contrarians.

Discussion: Donklephant, Unqualified Offerings, The Caucus, The Carpetbagger Report, Riehl World View, Wonkette, Blue Crab Boulevard and Chuck Hagel for President …

Rick Moran / Right Wing Nut House:

WHAT NASRALLAH HATH WROUGHT — Students take cover behind a makeshift concrete barrier in Beirut yesterday during clashes at Beirut University. — Neither side planned it. Neither side wanted it. But in their darkest nightmares, both sides must have realized that the potential …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, From Beirut to the Beltway, Lebanese Political Journal and Hot Air

Brian Murphy / Associated Press:
Curfew Imposed in Beirut After Clashes

Discussion: Blacksmiths of Lebanon and Gateway Pundit

Gerard Baker / Times of London:

The vaulting ambition of America's Lady Macbeth — Hillary Clinton's shameless political reconstructive surgery — You can measure the scale of an American president's troubles by the number of skutniks he deploys during his State of the Union address. — Every year during …

Kevin Drum / Political Animal:

CAMPAIGN RHETORIC....Is soaring campaign rhetoric enough? Atrios says this: … I agree completely, but I still think there's an important distinction to be made here between cheap campaign rhetoric and serious campaign rhetoric. Among Republicans, cheap campaign rhetoric includes things …

Discussion: Hullabaloo, TAPPED, The RBC, The Huffington Post and The Sentinel Effect

John Bresnahan / The Politico:

Feingold Pushes Plan to Cut Off War Funds — Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., has scheduled a hearing next Tuesday in his Judiciary Committee subcommittee to explore whether Congress has the authority to cut off funding for the U.S. military campaign in Iraq. The move comes as Congress prepares …

Discussion: The Caucus and Atlas Shrugs

John Hawkins / Right Wing News:

Right-Of-Center Bloggers Select The Most & Least Desired 2008 Republican Nominee (First Half Of 2007 Edition) — Right Wing News emailed more than 230 right-of-center bloggers and asked them to send us a ranked list 1-5 of the candidates that they would most like to take the Republican nomination …

Discussion: Riehl World View and Wizbang

David Segal / Washington Post:

The Right & the Wrong — Conservative Talker Glenn Beck Puts His Own Failings Up Front — The set of Glenn Beck's talk show on CNN Headline News looks like the rooftop patio of a posh apartment, complete with simulated bricks and a huge photo-realist mural of a SoHo block.

Discussion: DownWithTyranny!, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES, NewsBusters.org and Brendan Nyhan

Marc Santora / New York Times:

Iraq Leader and Sunni Officials in Clash on Security — Iraq's Shiite prime minister and Sunni lawmakers hurled insults at one another during a raucous session of Parliament on Thursday, with the prime minister threatening a Sunni lawmaker with arrest and the Sunni speaker of Parliament threatening to quit.

Discussion: Informed Comment, Brilliant at Breakfast and AMERICAblog

Aaron Klein / WorldNetDaily:

Jimmy Carter: Too many Jews on Holocaust council — Former president also rejected Christian historian because name sounded 'too Jewish' — TEL AVIV - Former President Jimmy Carter once complained there were "too many Jews" on the government's Holocaust Memorial Council, Monroe Freedman …

Discussion: Kesher Talk, The Moderate Voice, PoliPundit.com, shotinthedark.info/wp, Hot Air and Tammy Bruce

Andrew Klavan / Los Angeles Times:

Is Hollywood too timid for the war on terror? — Thanks to political correctness, you don't see much about the greatest conflict of our time on the big screen. — I RECENTLY attended "FBI 101," a G-man seminar for Hollywood writers. I do this kind of thing a lot: law enforcement seminars …

Discussion: The Glittering Eye and Hot Air