New Memorial Remembers the Roma

Jewish artist Dani Karavan (L) and Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit attend the symbolic opening of construction of the new memorial to the Roma, also known as Gypsies; who horribly perished at the hands of the Nazis during World War II, on 19 December 2008 in Berlin, Germany. The memorial, designed by Karavan, will stand near the Reichstag.

At least 500,000 Romanies were murdered by the Nazis, as part of what became known as the " Final Solution" or what further became known as the Jewish Holocaust; where untold numbers of various nationalities died during this black mark upon humanity.

US: Codepink Demonstrates In Support Of Journalist Who Threw Shoes At Bush

A member of Code Pink dressed as US President George W. Bush gestures as people throw shoes at him during a protest in front of the White House, on 17 December 2008; in Washington, DC.

A member of Code Pink dressed as US President George W. Bush lays on the ground during a protest in front of the White House, on 17 December 2008; in Washington, DC.

The activist group Code Pink staged the protest to show their support for the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at US President Bush during a press conference with the Iraqi Prime Minister.

Members of Code Pink, (L-R) Joan Stallard, Medea Benjamin, Jim Goodnow, Gael Murphy and Polly Miller, put their feet on the head of a fellow member dressed as US President George W. Bush during a protest in front of the White House, on 17 December 2008 in Washington, DC.

As to the journalist original shoes, US Security agents in Iraq destroyed the shoes thrown at US President George W. Bush by Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi, on 18 December 2008; it was reported, as momentous protests around the globe continue in favor of the Iraqi journalist and for his freedom.

Protesters gather outside the US embassy in central London holding shoes on the end of pieces of wood which has became symbolic towards Bushgate, on 19 December 2008; to ask for the release of Muntazer al-Zaidi, the Iraqi journalist arrested for throwing his shoes at US President George W. Bush.

Nevertheless, the after actions of what the shoe throwing Iraqi journalist did, resounded to what the people around the global actually feels towards US president George W. Bush and his policies towards the world; even within his own country of the US.

The question at hand instead of shoe, is will US George W Bush understand the weight of what harm he has subjected the world too; to create such a situation of increasing animosity towards him?

Further Reading:

Bush Operation Iraq Occupation

Bush Did the Shoe Fit

U.S. judge jails Muslim woman over head scarf

Ga. resident refused to remove hijab at court's security checkpoint

17 December 2008

DOUGLASVILLE, Ga. - A judge ordered a Muslim woman arrested Tuesday for contempt of court for refusing to take off her head scarf at a security checkpoint.

The judge ordered Lisa Valentine, 40, to serve 10 days in jail, said police in Douglasville, a city of about 20,000 people on Atlanta's west suburban outskirts.

Valentine violated a court policy that prohibits people from wearing any headgear in court, police said.

The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations urged federal authorities to investigate the incident as well as others in Georgia.

"I just felt stripped of my civil, my human rights," Valentine told The Associated Press on Wednesday from her home, after she said she was unexpectedly released once CAIR got involved. Jail officials declined to say why she was freed.

No comment from judge
Municipal Court Judge Keith Rollins said that "it would not be appropriate" for him to comment on the case.

Last year, a judge in Valdosta in southern Georgia barred a Muslim woman from entering a courtroom because she would not remove her head scarf. There have been similar cases in other states, including Michigan, where a Muslim woman in Detroit filed a federal lawsuit in February 2007 after a judge dismissed her small-claims court case when she refused to remove a head and face veil.

Valentine's husband, Omar Hall, said his wife was accompanying her nephew to a traffic citation hearing when officials stopped her at the metal detector and told her she would not be allowed in the courtroom with the head scarf, known as a hijab.

Hall said Valentine, an insurance underwriter, told the bailiff that she had been in courtrooms before with the scarf on and that removing it would be a religious violation. When she turned to leave and uttered an expletive, Hall said a bailiff handcuffed her and took her before the judge.

Suspect Identified in Murder Investigation Moments after the Offense

18 December 2008

New Orleans, LA -The New Orleans Police Department is requesting the public’s assistance in locating 15-year-old Larry Coleman, wanted in connection with the fatal shooting that resulted in the death of 17-year-old Brian Urby. The offense occurred shortly before 5:30 P.M., in the 7100 block of Bunker Hill Road.

According to investigators, Seventh District officers responded to a call of a “male shot” and upon their arrival, found the victim inside of a residence suffering from an apparent gunshot wound to the body. Emergency medical technicians transported the victim to the hospital where he later died.

As a result of the ongoing investigation, diligent work of the New Orleans Police Department’s Homicide Division and great citizen involvement, detectives determined Coleman as the person responsible for the murder moments after the offense.

Detectives also learned that this incident stemmed from an argument prior to the offense.



Wanted: 15 year-old Larry Coleman



Wanted For: Manslaughter



Citizens with information that can help solve this crime are asked to call CRIMESTOPPERS at 822-1111, toll-free 1-877-903-STOP(7867). You could receive a cash reward of up to $2,500 for information leading to the arrest and indictment of the responsible person(s). You do not have to give your name nor testify to receive the reward.

'U.S. Seeks New Bases'

17 December 2008

Moscow-General Nikolai Makarov, chief of the General Staff, warned that Moscow felt threatened by U.S. policy in Central Asia and claimed that Washington was attempting to establish new military bases there, Interfax reported Tuesday.

"According to our information, it [the U.S.] is planning to establish military bases in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan," Makarov said. He did not elaborate.

"That's news to me. I don't think that's true," U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza said in a telephone interview Tuesday.

Bush Did the Shoe Fit

Palestinian journalists demonstrate to express solidarity with Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi, 29, who hurled his shoes at US President George W. Bush, on 18 December 2008; in front of the Church of the Nativity in the town of Bethlehem.

Zaidi threw his shoes at Bush during a press conference in Baghdad, Iraq; on 14 December; while yelling in Arabic: 'This is a farewell kiss, you dog; this is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq.'

Websites keep popping-up in response to the show throwing incident, that they agreed with the Iraq journalist hurling his shoes at Bush for the reason he gave.

Nevertheless, the consensus across the globe is Bush deserved this type of Iraqi intercession.

“A Saudi sheik offered $10-million to purchase Mr. al-Zaidi shoes, the Dubai-based al-Arabiya TV channel said. The shoes are being kept as evidence, however.” From http://shoesatbush.net/

As to Bush appearing to laugh the incident off, it is further understood in private; that he is in actuality got quite angry over the shoe’s being thrown and the public response to the incident, it was reported. What is a hope, is did Bush learn something positive from the experience.

As to al-Zaidi being jailed and beaten unmercifully by the American’s for the shoe incident, just shouldn’t have occurred; after all, isn’t the US always speaking of freedom, especially freedom of speech?

Update:

Shoe-hurler sparks chaos in Iraq's parliament
Speaker quits amid debate over whether 'beaten' journalist should be freed

Blackwater guards killed 16 as U.S. touted progress

The following is just some of the possible reason’s why their became a shoe-throwing Iraqi journalist named Muntadar al-Zaidi and other’s across the globe; even American's that would have wished to have been in al-Zaidi’s place, on 14 December 2008 in Baghdad. Iraq has become with the US invasion another place of extreme substandard health conditions and the macabre towards man, by the US.

16 December 2008

by Leila Fadel

BAGHDAD — On Sept. 9, the day before Army Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. military commander in Iraq, and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker told Congress that things were getting better, Batoul Mohammed Ali Hussein came to Baghdad for the day.

A clerk in the Iraqi customs office in Diyala province, she was in the capital to drop off and pick up paperwork at the central office near busy al Khilani Square, not far from the fortified Green Zone, where top U.S. and Iraqi officials live and work. U.S. officials often pass through the square in heavily guarded convoys on their way to other parts of Baghdad.

As Hussein walked out of the customs building, an embassy convoy of sport-utility vehicles drove through the intersection. Blackwater security guards, charged with protecting the diplomats, yelled at construction workers at an unfinished building to move back. Instead, the workers threw rocks. The guards, witnesses said, responded with gunfire, spraying the intersection with bullets.

Hussein, who was on the opposite side of the street from the construction site, fell to the ground, shot in the leg. As she struggled to her feet and took a step, eyewitnesses said, a Blackwater security guard trained his weapon on her and shot her multiple times. She died on the spot, and the customs documents she'd held in her arms fluttered down the street.

Before the shooting stopped, four other people were killed in what would be the beginning of eight days of violence that Iraqi officials say bolster their argument that Blackwater should be banned from working in Iraq.

During the ensuing week, as Crocker and Petraeus told Congress that the surge of more U.S. troops to Iraq was beginning to work and President Bush gave a televised address in which he said "ordinary life was beginning to return" to Baghdad, Blackwater security guards shot at least 43 people on crowded Baghdad streets. At least 16 of those people died.

Two Blackwater guards died in one of the incidents, which was triggered when a roadside bomb struck a Blackwater vehicle.

Still, it was an astounding amount of violence attributed to Blackwater. In the same eight-day period, according to statistics compiled by McClatchy Newspapers, other acts of violence across the embattled capital claimed the lives of 32 people and left 87 injured, not including unidentified bodies found dumped on Baghdad's streets.

The best known of that week's incidents took place the following Sunday, Sept. 16, when Blackwater guards killed 11 and wounded 12 at the busy al Nisour traffic circle in central Baghdad.

Iraqi officials said the guards were unprovoked when they opened fire on a white car carrying three people, including a baby. All died. The security guards then fired at other nearby vehicles, including a minibus loaded with passengers, killing a mother of eight. An Iraqi soldier also died.

In Blackwater's only statement regarding the Sept. 16 incident, Anne Tyrell, the company's spokeswoman, denied that the dead were civilians. "The 'civilians' reportedly fired upon by Blackwater professionals were in fact armed enemies," she said in an e-mail, "and Blackwater personnel returned defensive fire."

A joint commission of five U.S. State Department officials, three U.S. military officials and eight Iraqis has been formed to investigate the incident, though almost two weeks later, the commission has yet to meet. A U.S. Embassy statement on Thursday, the first official written comment from the embassy since the al Nisour shooting, said that the group was "preparing" to meet.

Blackwater and the U.S. Embassy didn't respond to requests for information about the other incidents.

But interviews with eyewitnesses and survivors of each incident describe similar circumstances in which Blackwater guards took aggressive action against civilians who seemed to pose no threat.

"They killed her in cold blood," Hussein Jumaa Hassan, 30, a parking lot attendant, said of Hussein.

Hassan pointed to the bullet-pocked concrete column behind him. He'd hidden behind it.

"I was boiling with anger, and I wished that I had a weapon in my hands in those minutes," he said. "They wanted to kill us all."

Anyone who moved was shot until the convoy left the square, witnesses said. Also among the dead was Kadhim Gayes, a city hall guard.

It took two days for Hussein's family to retrieve her body from the morgue. Before they could, her sister signed a sheet acknowledging the contents of her purse, which had been collected by security guards at the Baghdad city hall — a Samsung cell phone, a change purse with six keys and 37,000 Iraqi dinars ($30), gold bracelets, a notebook, pens, and photos of her and her children.

Three days later, Blackwater guards were back in al Khilani Square, Iraqi government officials said. This time, there was no shooting, witnesses said. Instead, the Blackwater guards hurled frozen bottles of water into store windows and windshields, breaking the glass.

Ibrahim Rubaie, the deputy security director at a nearby Baghdad city government office building, said it's common for Blackwater guards to shoot as they drive through the square. He said Blackwater guards also shot and wounded people in the square on June 21, though there are no official reports of such an incident.

On Sept. 13 — the same day Bush gave his "ordinary life" speech — Blackwater guards were escorting State Department officials down Palestine Street near the Shiite enclave of Sadr City when a roadside bomb detonated, ripping through one of the Blackwater vehicles.

The blast killed two Blackwater guards. As other guards went to retrieve the dead, they fired wildly in several directions, witnesses said.

Mohammed Mazin was at home when he heard the bang, which shattered one of his windows.

Then he heard gunfire, and he and his son, Laith, went to the roof to see what was going on.

What they saw were security contractors shooting in different directions as a helicopter hovered overhead. Bullets flew through his home's windows, he said.

No civilians were killed that day, but five were wounded, according to Iraq's Interior Ministry.

The following Sunday, Blackwater guards opened fire as the State Department convoy they were escorting crossed in front of stopped traffic at the al Nisour traffic circle.

While U.S. officials have offered no explanation of what occurred that day, witnesses and Iraqi investigators agree that the guards' first target was a white car that either hadn't quite stopped or was trying to nudge its way to the front of traffic.

In the car were a man whose name is uncertain; Mahasin Muhsin, a mother and doctor; and Muhsin's young son. The guards first shot the man, who was driving. As Muhsin screamed, a Blackwater guard shot her. The car exploded, and Muhsin and the child burned, witnesses said.

Afrah Sattar, 27, was on a bus approaching the square when she saw the guards fire on the white car. She and her mother, Ghania Hussein, were headed to the Certificate of Identification Office in Baghdad to pick up proof of Sattar's Iraqi citizenship for an upcoming trip to a religious shrine in Iran.

When she saw the gunmen turn toward the bus, Sattar looked at her mother in fear. "They're going to shoot at us, Mama," she said. Her mother hugged her close. Moments later, a bullet pierced her mother's skull and another struck her shoulder, Sattar recalled.

As her mother's body went limp, blood dripped onto Sattar's head, still cradled in her mother's arms.

"Mother, mother," she called out. No answer. She hugged her mother's body and kissed her lips and began to pray, "We belong to God and we return to God." The bus emptied, and Sattar sat alone at the back, with her mother's bleeding body.

"I'm lost now, I'm lost," she said days later in her simple two-bedroom home. Ten people lived there; now there are nine.

"They are killers," she said of the Blackwater guards. "I swear to God, not one bullet was shot at them. Why did they shoot us? My mother didn't carry a weapon."

Downstairs, her father, Sattar Ghafil Slom al Kaabi, 67, sat beneath a smiling picture of his wife and recalled their 40-year love story and how they raised eight children together. On the way to the holy city of Najaf to bury her, he'd stopped his car, with her coffin strapped to the top. He got out and stood beside the coffin. He wanted to be with her a little longer.

"I loved her more than anything," he said, his voice wavering. "Now that she is dead, I love her more."

The Pathetic End to the Bush Era

The shoe incident by the Iraqi journalist yesterday, is being called many things; the latest is “Shoegate.”

"History will record Mr. Bush's last trip to Iraq, a country his government has left such an indelible mark upon, was greeted with a volley of shoes and a cry of 'dog' "
Martin Asser, a Journalist with BBC News

Bible probably not true, says George Bush

US President George W Bush has said that the Bible is "probably not" literally true and that a belief that God created the world is compatible with the theory of evolution.

9 December 2008

"I think you can have both," Mr Bush, who leaves office January 20, told ABC television, adding "You're getting me way out of my lane here. I'm just a simple president."

But "evolution is an interesting subject. I happen to believe that evolution doesn't fully explain the mystery of life," said the president, an outspoken Christian who often invokes God in his speeches.

"I think that God created the Earth, created the world; I think the creation of the world is so mysterious it requires something as large as an almighty and I don't think it's incompatible with the scientific proof that there is evolution," he told ABC television.

Asked whether the Bible was literally true, Mr Bush replied: "Probably not. No, I'm not a literalist, but I think you can learn a lot from it."

"The important lesson is 'God sent a son,'" he said.

Source

Federal audit raises serious questions about Housing Authority of New Orleans

Children race home from school in the Iberville development last December. Auditors recently found poor conditions at the Iberville and B.W. Cooper housing developments, including missing or loose railings, peeling paint, sewer leaks, and a serious rat infestation.

15 December 2008
by Katy Reckdahl

A report released Friday raised serious questions about the ability of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to safeguard the tenants it assists in New Orleans and ensure that they live in decent, sanitary conditions.

According to the audit by HUD's inspector general, the federally-run Housing Authority of New Orleans hasn't properly maintained its public-housing apartments or inspected its Section 8 rentals since Hurricane Katrina. The report also found the agency may have paid too much rent for many New Orleans apartments, and that it has created a Section 8 waiting list that's virtually unusable.

HANO had "placed a higher priority on housing displaced tenants instead of ensuring that units were qualified to house those tenants," the audit said.

That's true, HUD managers said in a written response: "Considering the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina and the dire need to house families, HUD stands by its decision to place a priority on housing families."

The agency's seven-page reply also detailed the systems and procedures that HUD and HANO would implement in response to the audit.

HANO has been controlled by a rotating pair of HUD executives since the federal government took the reins of the failed agency in 2002. Karen Cato-Turner, HUD's current receiver in New Orleans, has overseen day-to-day operations for more than a year; Diane Johnson came to New Orleans from HUD's New Jersey offices in May to act as the sole member of HUD's board.

Between April and September, HUD auditors examined 10 random apartments with tenants who receive rental assistance through HANO's Section 8 program, also known as the Housing Choice Voucher program. All 10 of the units fell short of HUD's quality standards because of loose floorboards, inoperable stoves, leaking water and sewage, mold, peeling paint in units housing young children, missing handrails and insufficient heating.

Two-thirds of public-housing apartments also failed the random inspections. Auditors found poor conditions at the Iberville and B.W. Cooper housing developments: missing or loose railings even on second-story balconies, peeling paint, long-standing sewer leaks, and a network of tunnels along Iberville buildings' foundations indicating "a serious rat infestation."

The head of HANO's property-management department told auditors that he was short-staffed and so hadn't routinely inspected public housing in the city since Hurricane Katrina. Similarly, the annual Section 8 inspections, federally mandated by HUD, were skipped for two years because of staff shortages, HANO said.

In its written response to auditors, HANO called the Iberville development "obsolete" and noted that the B.W. Cooper units are "slated to be demolished." This is despite the fact that the agency, when asked whether the city's public housing can accommodate all returning tenants, has typically described the Cooper and Iberville units as "repaired and ready to be occupied."

The audit also found that HANO didn't have a system in place to review the local rental market to ensure it wasn't paying above-market rates for its Section 8 apartments. And the audit found HANO had miscalculated rents for nearly half of the randomly chosen Section 8 and disaster-voucher tenants. After looking at a random selection of voucher holders, auditors discovered that during March 2008 HANO had paid $3,569 rent for three vacant units, and it had overpaid $1,200 in rental assistance for two disaster-voucher tenants, problems HANO blamed on understaffing.

The agency's Section 8 waiting list, which had 9,700 names before Hurricane Katrina, was missing key federally required data. Without that critical information, such as the date of application, the agency can't pick tenants fairly from the list, the audit found.

The report concluded that "HUD's receiver did not provide adequate management oversight" to ensure that HANO complied with federal law.

According to HUD's managers, Katrina took a toll on the agency's staff, but HUD is confident the agency will be returned to local control by fiscal year 2010 and that HUD is on its way to fully restoring the agency.

"HANO's programs are back on track," they wrote.

Banner reads: 'Stop racism against Jews and Muslims'

People demonstrate on 14 December 2008 in Paris, after 500 graves of French Muslim war veterans were daubed with swastikas and anti-Islam slogans at the Notre-Dame-de-Lorette cemetery in Ablain-Saint-Nazaire, near the northern town of Arras, on 7 December.

The banner reads: 'Stop racism against Jews and Muslims'.

From L : Mouloud Aounit, president of the MRAP (Movement Against Racism and for Friendship between People), Djelloul Seddiki, director of the Musulman Al Ghazali Institute, Joel Mergui, president of France's Jewish central Consistory, and Dalil Boubakeur, rector of the Paris' Grand Mosque, attend a demonstration, on 14 December 2008; in Paris.

Bush Operation Iraq Occupation

Bush: Work in Iraq has been hard; needed for peace

U.S. President George W. Bush walks with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani during an arrival ceremony at Salam Palace in Baghdad, on 14 December 2008.

14 December 2008
By JENNIFER LOVEN

BAGHDAD – On a farewell trip to Iraq, President George W. Bush said Sunday the war has been hard, but was necessary to protect the U.S. and give Iraqis hope for a peaceful future.

Bush visited the Iraqi capital just 37 days before he hands the war off to President-elect Barack Obama, who has pledged to end it. At the end of nearly two hours of meetings at an ornate, marble-floored palace along the shores of the Tigris River, Bush defended the war, now in its sixth year.

"The work hasn't been easy, but it has been necessary for American security, Iraqi hope and world peace," the president said. "I'm just so grateful I had the chance to come back to Iraq before my presidency ends."

But in many ways, the unannounced trip was a victory lap without a victory. Nearly 150,000 U.S. troops remain in Iraq fighting a war that is remarkably unpopular in the United States and across the globe. More than 4,209 members of the U.S. military have died and the war has cost U.S. taxpayers $576 billion since it began five years and nine months ago.

After an arrival ceremony, Bush began a rapid-fire series of meetings with top Iraqi leaders. The president wanted to highlight a drop in violence in a nation still riven by ethnic strife and to celebrate a recent U.S.-Iraq security agreement, which calls for U.S. troops to withdraw by the end of 2011.

Air Force One, the president's distinctive powder blue-and-white jetliner, landed at Baghdad International Airport in the afternoon local time after a secretive Saturday night departure from Washington. In a sign of modest security gains in this war zone, Bush received a formal arrival ceremony — a flourish absent in his three earlier trips.

Referring to Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, seated beside him, and the country's two vice presidents, Bush said: "I've known these men for a long time and I've come to admire them for their courage and their determination to succeed."

Bush's meetings at the palace were held as the sun set outside and darkness fell over Baghdad. Talabani called Bush "our great friend," who "helped to liberate" Iraq. "Thanks to him and his courageous leadership, we are here," Talabani said in heavily accented English.

Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki planned a ceremonial signing of the security agreement — a "remarkable document," according to Bush's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley. He said the pact was unique in the Arab world because it was publicly debated, discussed and adopted by an elected parliament.

Hadley said the trip proved that the U.S.-Iraq relationship was changing "with Iraqis rightfully exercising greater sovereignty" and the U.S. "in an increasingly subordinate role."

The Bush administration and even White House critics credit last year's military buildup with the security gains in Iraq. Last month, attacks fell to the lowest monthly level since the war began in 2003. Still, it's unclear what will happen when the U.S. troops leave. While violence has slowed in Iraq, attacks continue, especially in the north. At least 55 people were killed Thursday in a suicide bombing in a restaurant near Kirkuk.

For Bush, the war is the issue around which both he and the country defined his two terms in office. He saw the invasion and continuing fight — even after weapons of mass destruction, the initial justification for invading Iraq, were not found — as a necessary action to protect Americans and fight terrorism. Though his decision won support at first, the public now has largely decided that the U.S. needs to get out of Iraq.

It was Bush's last trip to the war zone before Obama takes office Jan. 20. Obama won an election largely viewed as a referendum on Bush, who has endured low approval ratings because of the war and more recently, the U.S. recession.

Obama has promised he will bring all U.S. combat troops back home from Iraq a little over a year into his term, as long as commanders agree a withdrawal would not endanger American personnel or Iraq's security. Obama has said that on his first day as president, he will summon the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the White House and give them a new mission: responsibly ending the war.

Obama has said the drawdown in Iraq would allow him to shift troops and bolster the U.S. presence in Afghanistan. Commanders there want at least 20,000 more forces, but cannot get them unless some leave Iraq.

After a 10 1/2 hour fight, Bush was met at the airport by U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and the top U.S. commander Gen. Raymond Odierno. The president then climbed aboard a helicopter for a five-minute flight to the presidential palace.

The trip was conducted under heavy security and a strict cloak of secrecy. People traveling with the president agreed to tell almost no one about the plans, and the White House released false schedules detailing activities planned for Bush in Washington on Sunday.

Bush's visit came after Defense Secretary Robert Gates' unannounced stop in Iraq on Saturday, at a sprawling military base in the central part of the country. Gates will be the lone Republican holdover from the Bush Cabinet in the Obama administration.

The new U.S.-Iraqi security pact goes into effect next month. It replaces a U.N. mandate that gives the U.S.-led coalition broad powers to conduct military operations and detain people without charge if they were believed to pose a security threat. The bilateral agreement changes some of those terms and calls for all American troops to be withdrawn by the end of 2011, in two stages.

The first stage begins next year, when U.S. troops pull back from Baghdad and other Iraqi cities by the end of June.

Odierno said Saturday that even after that summer deadline, some U.S. troops will remain in Iraqi cities. They will serve in local security stations as training and mentoring teams, and so will not violate the mandate for American combat forces to leave urban areas, he said.

Iraq's Defense Ministry said Sunday that U.S. commanders would have to get Baghdad's permission for keep the troops there.

Video

Raw Video: Bush Makes Surprise Visit to Iraq

Update:

An Iraqi journalist is taken to the ground after throwing his shoes at US President George W. Bush during a joint press conference and signing ceremony with Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki at Maliki's private office during an unannounced visit to Baghdad, Iraq, on 14 December 2008.

Angry Iraqi throws shoes at President Bush in Baghdad

In this image from an APTN video, of one of the flying shoes thrown at US President George W. Bush during a news conference with Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, 0n 14 December 2008.

Another image from the APTN video, of the Iraqi journalist (center) preparing to throw his size 10 shoe at US President George W Bush; which is actually a very unusual occurrence in Iraq, let alone the Middle East.

Which some people’s opinion globally, this was due to the horrendous conditions of occupation and genocide that has been occurring since the US invasion of Iraq; in 2003.

It is an enormous consensus in Iraq, that the Iraqi people wish the US military out of Iraq forthwith and full freedom for the people of Iraq; without the conditions that has been plaguing them since the US invasion.

Further Reading:

US President Bush Meets with Iraq President Talabani in Iraq

Bush Makes Stop in Afghanistan to Rally Troops

US President George W. Bush arrived in Afghanistan before dawn, five and a half hours after leaving Iraq, the details of the trip shrouded in even greater secrecy than the first leg; to Iraq.

Preparations for Cheerful Bethlehem Christmas as Town Bustles with Tourists

Forty-day-old Christian Palestinian infant Riyan Khader is laid in front of the doll representing the infant Jesus to receive its blessing in St. Catherine's Church next to the Church of the Nativity, the traditional birthplace of Jesus, on 14 December 2008; in the ancient town of Bethlehem.

Christian pilgrims pray in the grotto of the Church of the Nativity, the traditional birthplace of Jesus Christ, on 14 December 2008.
A Christian pilgrim lays her hand on the 14-pointed Silver Star that marks the traditional birthplace of Jesus Christ in the grotto of the Church of the Nativity, on 14 December 2008.

Just 10 days to go before Christmas, the city is bustling with tourists as unified Christian, Jewish and Muslim Palestinian forces are working diligently to make this the most cheerful Christmas since the year 2000.
Palestinian glass painter Raslan al-Natsheh decorates a glass bell, hand blown at his family's glass factory in the city of Hebron, on 14 December 2008. Glass baubles and bells are being created and sold in the town of Bethlehem and across Palestine for a wonderful remembrance of Christmas in Bethlehem.

A Palestinian policeman relaxes in a ray of sunshine which strikes the ancient marble pillars in the Church of the Nativity, on 14 December 2008.

“Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”
Luke 2:14

Hajj Pilgrimage Seen 2.4 Million Turn-out

Muslim pilgrims pray outside the Prophet Mohammed Mosque in the Saudi holy city of Medina, on 13 December 2008.

Statistics put the total number of pilgrims who attended this year’s annual hajj pilgrimage last week at more than 2.4 million, almost 1.73 million from abroad and 679,000 from within the kingdom, according to the official SPA news agency.