breitbart.com

DETROIT (AP) - A suburban Detroit man accused of spying for Saddam Hussein’s former regime and sharing information with the executed Iraqi dictator’s intelligence service has pleaded guilty.

Najib Shemami pleaded guilty Friday to aiding Iraq without approval from the U.S. government. The 60-year-old was accused of traveling to Iraq to report on U.S. and Turkish military activities and supply information about Iraqi natives living in the United States.

Defense lawyer Ed Wishnow says he’ll argue at sentencing in May that the Sterling Heights man was coerced by Saddam’s regime.

Shemami likely faces about four years in prison.

His case began with documents obtained by the government after the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Why is Najib Shemami not being tried for treason?

He betrayed the United States and endangered the United States military.

Hang the bastard.

WASHINGTON (AP) — In his farewell address to the nation, President George W. Bush is acknowledging that many of his decisions are unpopular with the American people. But he says there can be no debate about the results.

Indeed, a text of the speech comes with a laundry list of what Bush says are successes.

In the text, released by the White House in advance of the address Thursday night, the president says Afghanistan and Iraq have changed for the better.

Bush credits his administration for improving public schools, creating a new Medicare prescription drug benefit and finding more money for veterans.

What about the bad economy? Bush says his team took decisive measures to safeguard it.

The bottom line, Bush says, is there have been good days and tough days during his term.

On that, even his critics would agree.

(I just corrected two misspelled words in the Associated Press article. And these liberal idiots are considered “professional journalists”?)

President Bush made many socialist decisions to “safeguard” the economy.

Why are liberals complaining? Liberals should love President Bush when it comes to the economy.

Well, what goes around, comes around, and when President-elect Obama takes office, it will be my turn to disrespect Obama and give him an EPIC FAIL every time he screws up.

I cannot wait to be called a “racist”, too! (Will liberals dare call me, a Puerto Rican, a “minority”, a racist?)

Let us grade President Bush’s tenure:

Response after 9/11/01: A+

Afghanistan: B+ (The job is not done, yet. Victory is within our grasp, though.)

Iraq: B+ (Again, the job is not done, but victory is within our grasp. Our brave military will have to mop-up the terrorist bastards that are still hiding.)

Al Qaeda: B+ (They are still out there, however, they have been severely cut off from the outside world.)

Osama bin Laden: Grade pending. President Bush still has a few more days to find him and kill him.

AIDS in Africa: A+. Not even liberals can spin this as a “failure”.

Pro-Life: A+. Abortions have dropped during the past 8 years.

Economy: D-. President Bush inherited President Clinton’s recession, 9/11 and Enron screwed the economy, President Bush then cut taxes, the economy rebounded and the Dow Jones index went past 14,000 points. The economy tanked in September of 2008, especially with Bear Stearns becoming worthless, and John McCain lost the presidency due to the economy. More and more banks lost money, the auto manufacturers lost money, more businesses spanning several different sectors went out of business, Bernard Madoff ripped off the world (including his own sister) of $50 billion dollars, and now the nation is facing 7.2% unemployment.

Final Grade: B-

Those are the only issues I really care about.

Oh, wait. One more issue.

Pissing of liberals: A+++

Sweet.

Hat Tip: Michelle Malkin

Amazing photos!

Thank you, President Bush. Thank you, United States troops and Allied forces.

Merry Christmas, Iraq.

CNN.com

Even before I can ask Interior Ministry spokesman Major-General Abdul Karim Khalaf a question, he greets me with a big smile. “All Iraqis are Christian today!” he says.

Amen.

Hat Tip: Hot Air Headlines

UPDATE 1: Ed Morrissey at Hot Air adds, “This is what victory looks like.”

Amen, again.

The Pew Research Center

It is amazing that President Bush’s approval rating was once at 90%.

I believe if the federal government’s response to Hurricane Katrina was better, President Bush might have had a chance to leave office with a favorable approval rating. However, liberal Blacks (such as Jesse Jackson and the idiots of his ilk) used Hurricane Katrina as a springboard to blame all the ills of the Black community on President Bush. Many Black people in New Orleans do not blame President Bush as much as they blame Governor Katherine Blanco and Mayor Ray Nagin, both Democrats, for the slow response and incompetence during Hurricane Katrina. Even Usher Raymond (singer and actor) came out in defense of President Bush during Hurricane Katrina and said that the country needed President Bush during this time. Perhaps Kayne West should have followed Usher’s example.

I believe that Iraq will stabilize completely and President Bush will be remembered fondly for making the right decision to go to war and depose Saddam Hussein. For as much as liberals bitch about freedom, they sure love to deny it to the majority of the good Iraqi people.

I hope and pray that Osama Bin Laden is caught or confirmed dead before President Bush leaves office.

Hat Tip: Hot Air Headlines

Drudge Report:

35 IRAQ OFFICIALS ARE HELD IN RAIDS ON KEY MINISTRY; working to reconstitute Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party…

These officials are just looking for an excuse to get severely beaten like Shoe-icide Bomber, Muntadar al-Zaidi.

Breaking News…

Developing…

UPDATE 1: New York Times

BAGHDAD — Up to 35 officials in the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior ranking as high as general have been arrested over the past three days with some of them accused of quietly working to reconstitute Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party, according to senior security officials in Baghdad.

The arrests, confirmed by officials from the Ministries of the Interior and National Security as well as the prime minister’s office, included four generals, one of whom, Gen. Ahmed Abu Raqeef, is the ministry’s director of internal affairs. The officials also said that the arrests had come at the hand of an elite counter-terrorism force that reports directly to the office of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki.

The involvement of the counter-terrorism unit speaks to the seriousness of the accusations, and several officials from the Ministries of the Interior and National Security said that some of those arrested were in the early stages of planning a coup.

None of the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the delicate nature of the subject, provided details about that allegation.

But the arrests reflect a new set of political challenges for Iraq. Mr. Maliki, who has gained popularity as a strong leader but has few reliable political allies, has scrambled to protect himself from domestic rivals as the domineering influence of the United States, his leading backer, begins to fade.

Rumors of coups, conspiracies and new alliances abound in the Iraqi capital a month before provincial elections. Critics of Mr. Maliki say he has been using arrests to consolidate power.

But senior security officials said there was significant evidence tying those arrested to a wide array of political corruption charges, including affiliation with Al Awda, or the Return, a descendant of the Baath Party, which ruled the country as a dictatorship for 35 years, mostly under Mr. Hussein. Tens of thousands of Iraqis died or were persecuted, including Mr. Maliki, a Shiite Muslim, by the Baath Party. It was outlawed after the American invasion in 2003.

While most members of the Baath Party were Sunni Muslims, as Mr. Hussein was, those arrested were a mix of Sunnis and Shiites, several officials said. It was unclear precisely how many Interior Ministry officials were detained.

A high-ranking Interior Ministry official said those affiliated with Al Awda had paid bribes to other officers to recruit them and huge amounts of money had been found in raids. He said there could be more arrests. Some of those arrested were members of the now-illegal party under Mr. Hussein’s government. Mr. Maliki’s office declined to comment officially. But one Maliki adviser, insisting that he not be named because he was not authorized to speak, said the detainees were involved in “a conspiracy.”

Coups? Conspiracies? New alliances?

The fight for freedom is never easy.

Muntadar al-Zaida is a liberals wet dream. He hates Bush and loves (mass murderer) Che Guevara.

That is not all.

CBS News is calling Zaida a celebrity.

The Los Angeles Times compared Zaida to Joe the Plumber.

Newsweek is still dancing over Zaida’s defiance.

Zaida wanted to die a martyr. Perhaps he is a shoe-icide bomber.

Enjoy the secret prison abuse, Zaida.

Hat Tip: The Jawa Report

breitbart.tv

Reuters.com

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - President George W. Bush made a farewell visit to Baghdad on Sunday, flying in secret out of Washington just weeks before he bequeaths the unpopular Iraq war to President-elect Barack Obama.

Bush held talks with President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, and was due to address U.S. troops. He made a show of the improved security in Baghdad after five years of sectarian bloodshed by landing in daylight and venturing out beyond the heavily fortified international Green Zone.

Bush’s visit was intended to thank U.S. troops for their efforts and “pat the Iraqis on the back for all they’ve accomplished this last year,” said General Douglas Lute, White House coordinator for Iraq and Afghanistan.

Bush arrived first by helicopter at the presidential palace for talks with Talabani and his two vice-presidents.

Talabani called Bush a great friend of the Iraqi people “who helped us to liberate our country and to reach this day, which we have democracy, human rights, and prosperity gradually in our country.” He said he hoped that friendship would continue when Bush went back to Texas after leaving the presidency.

Bush’s trip — his fourth to Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion — follows approval of a security pact between Washington and Baghdad last month that paves the way for U.S. forces to withdraw by the end of 2011.

Bush, beaming with obvious delight during the meeting with Talabani, said he had come to herald the passage of the security pact. “And the work hasn’t been easy, but it has been necessary for American security, Iraqi hope, and world peace,” he said.

The pact has its critics in Iraq, who doubt the United States will live up to its promise to leave Iraqi cities by the end of June next year and withdraw completely by end-2011.

“We reject this visit, as it occurs at a time when Iraq is still under the U.S. occupation and the U.S. army has the upper hand in controlling the security situation,” said Ahmed al-Massoudi, a spokesman for the parliamentary bloc loyal to anti-American Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

“This visit is a show of force.”

SHOWCASE SECURITY GAINS

The brief visit was meant to showcase recent security gains in Iraq but was also a stark reminder of how heavily the war will weigh on the Republican president’s foreign policy legacy.

Though Iraq has slipped down the list of Americans’ concerns as the recession-hit U.S. economy has taken center stage, polls show most people think the war was a mistake.

It will now be left to Obama, a Democrat and early opponent of U.S. military involvement in Iraq, to sort out an exit strategy after he takes office on January 20.

About 140,000 U.S. troops will still be in Iraq nearly six years into a war that has killed more than 4,200 American military personnel and tens of thousands of Iraqis.

Bush was greeted on the heavily guarded tarmac in Baghdad by the top U.S. commander in Iraq, General Ray Odierno, and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker.

The decision to land in broad daylight reflected confidence that Baghdad was more secure this time than in Bush’s last visit to the capital in 2006 when sectarian violence was raging.

Until Air Force One touched down, Bush’s trip was conducted in strictest secrecy. The presidential jet was rolled out of its giant hangar only after everyone was on board. Journalists’ electronic devices, from cellphones to iPods, were confiscated until mid-flight.

Bush, dressed casually and wearing a black baseball cap after his night-time getaway from the White House, made a rare appearance in the press cabin just before takeoff.

“Nobody knew who I was,” he joked when an aide complimented him on his disguise.

Bush was last in Iraq in September 2007, when he flew into a U.S. air base in the restive Anbar province to underscore improved security amid a 30,000-troop build-up and growing support of Sunni tribal chiefs in the fight against al Qaeda.

Since then, there has been further progress in Baghdad and elsewhere, and while suicide and car bombs remain common, violence has fallen to some of the lowest levels in five years.

Iraqi security forces are increasingly taking charge of policing streets and going after militants.

Also, an Iraqi man threw his shoes at President Bush.

Thanks to President Bush for approving the surge and thanks to the troops for victory in Iraq.

Marines versus terrorists in Al Anbar Province, Iraq.

Marines win.

Sometimes, you just need some good, old fashion war porn.

Hat Tip: The Jawa Report

Scoop This is a couple of days late to the party.

But we are still going to rock for our troops in Iraq!

On a personal note, I have two cousins and many friends fighting in Iraq. My friend Marcus Mathes died in Iraq. Before I started blogging on Scoop This, I blogged about Marcus on my .

We honor your sacrifice and celebrate your victory, Marcus.

Marcus Mathes.

Marcus hugs his wife.

More on Marcus Mathes at The Iraq Page.

Scoop This thanks all of our military men and women in Iraq, Afghanistan, and all around the world.

America is The Land Of The Free because of The Brave.

And Saddam Hussein and his sons are still burning in hell.

Hat Tip: Gateway Pundit

ITN

Iraq’s cabinet has approved a pact that will let US forces remain in the country until 2011.

President Talibani and Iraq’s two other Vice Presidents still have to ratify the deal.

At least our military will be able to get a chance to finish the job and come home in complete victory.

Check out the news video on ITN.

UPDATE 1: MSNBC.com

BAGHDAD - Iraq’s Cabinet on Sunday approved a security pact with the United States that will allow American forces to stay in Iraq for three years after their U.N. mandate expires at the end of the year.

The decision followed months of difficult negotiations and, pending parliamentary approval, will remove a major point of contention between the two allies. Parliament’s deputy speaker, Khalid al-Attiyah, said he expected the 275-member legislature to begin debating the document this week and vote on it by Nov. 24.

“This is an important and positive step,” said U.S. Embassy spokesman Adam Ereli.

Iraq has control over 13 of its 18 provinces, and violence is down dramatically, thanks to the surge.