Porter J. Goss was forced to step down yesterday as CIA director, ending a turbulent 18-month tenure marked by an exodus of some of the agency's top talent and growing White House dissatisfaction with his leadership during a time of war.

The likely successor to Goss is Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the former director of the National Security Agency and now deputy to Director of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte, senior administration officials said. He could be named as soon as Monday.

Goss Forced Out as CIA Director; Gen. Hayden Is Likely Successor

If it is authentic, the video would be the first time that Mr. Zarqawi had willingly shown his face to the world.

You have to ask, why?

Many experts believe that there are elements of a rivalry between Mr. Zarqawi and Mr. bin Laden.

Several other explanations for releasing the video also suggested themselves, including the possibility that the timing was meant to coincide with the first steps toward a new Iraqi government.

The video could have been intended to dispel any notion that Mr. Zarqawi is dead or unable to lead his movement.

Qaeda Video Vows Iraq Defeat for 'Crusader' US

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, seeking to put past differences behind them, paid a surprise joint visit to Iraq today to mobilize diplomatic and security forces and bolster the new government of Prime Minister Jawad al-Maliki.

This trip is clearly an engineered photo-op. I can see Bush ordering this trip at a principals meeting after Rice and Rumsfeld publicly disagreed about whether "errors" were made and whether they were strategic or tactical.

The George Packer story in the New Yorker is a good counterpoint to the Secretaries' spin in this news coverage.

Rumsfeld and Rice Visit Baghdad

Nepal is in the throes of a democratic revolution.

"We call upon people from all walks of life to take to the streets and bring everything in the capital and all across the country to a complete halt."

Where is President Bush and his pro-democracy agenda?

President George W. Bush and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger put aside their differences in a show of Republican solidarity on Friday after Bush approved federal help to shore up the state's fragile levee system.

"He is a really interesting man," Bush said of his fellow Republican. "He didn't have to run for office, but chose to do so and I admire that in you, I admire somebody who doesn't always take the comfortable way in life."

What a silly comment. Who has to run for the governorship? (Apparently, the elder Bush forced W to run in Texas, and perhaps Jeb to run in Florida.) Maybe the comment isn't so silly after all ...

Why doesn't CNN tell you about Bush's position on Nepal?

In a blunt message to Nepal’s King Gyanendra, the Bush administration has said he should return power to the parties and adopt a more ceremonial role in the political process.

"It is time for the King to return political power to the parties so they can appoint a prime minister and take over governance. It is time for the King to adopt a more ceremonial role and let the political process go forward," the assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, Mr Richard Boucher told reporters at a roundtable at the state department.

At the State web site:

The United States salutes the people of Nepal's courage and resilience in their struggle for democracy. We are pleased that King Gyanendra's message today made clear that sovereignty resides with the people. We expect the King to live up to his words, and allow the parties to form a government. We urge the parties to respond quickly by choosing a prime minister and a cabinet. The people of Nepal deserve a democratic government that can return stability and peace to their country. We urge all sides to refrain from violence to allow the restoration of democracy to take place swiftly and peacefully.

It's interesting that these statements are occurring only now, when protestors are in the streets. What did they have to say when it happened? Now they're saying:

"King Gyanendra's decision 14 months ago to impose direct palace rule in Nepal has failed in every regard."

As though the overthrow of democracy would have been OK if only he had been a more effective dictator.

In February 2005, when the K... [ Read More (0.4k in body) ]

Embattled King of Nepal Offers Gesture to Protesters

The operative, Marwan Hadid al-Suri, 38, also known as Abu Marwan, was shot to death on Thursday during a gunfight outside Khaar, a tribal area close to the Afghan border. Mr. Suri was killed after his bus was stopped by soldiers at a checkpoint. He shot one of the soldiers and was fired upon as he tried to flee.

"This is a big achievement because he was Al Qaeda's explosives expert."

A Qaeda Bomb Expert Killed in Pakistan Was a Paymaster

Joshua B. Bolten, the new White House chief of staff, has raised the possibility of moving Harriet E. Miers from her job as President Bush's counsel as part of a continuing shake-up of the West Wing, an influential Republican with close ties to Mr. Bolten said Thursday.

It was not clear whether Mr. Bolten was floating a trial balloon to gauge White House reaction to the idea, or whether he might have been intending to send a signal to Ms. Miers that he would like her to think about leaving on her own.

Bush Counsel May Be Next in Shake-Up

Top British transplant surgeons have accused China of harvesting the organs of thousands of executed prisoners every year to sell for transplants.

"The weight of evidence has accumulated to a point over the last few months where it's really incontrovertible in our opinion."

China 'selling prisoners' organs'

George Packer on Iraq

Tal Afar is an ancient city of a quarter-million inhabitants, situated on a smuggling route in the northwestern desert of Iraq, near the Syrian border. In January, when I visited, the streets had been muddied by cold winter rains and gouged by the tracks of armored vehicles. Tal Afar’s stone fortifications and narrow alleys had the haggard look of a French town in the First World War that had changed hands several times. In some neighborhoods, markets were open and children played in the streets; elsewhere, in areas cordoned off by Iraqi checkpoints, shops remained shuttered, and townspeople peered warily from front doors and gates.

Since the Iraq war began, American forces had repeatedly driven insurgents out of Tal Afar, but the Army did not have enough troops to maintain a sufficient military presence there, and insurgents kept returning to terrorize the city.

The soldiers who worked to secure Tal Afar were, in a sense, rebels against an incoherent strategy that has brought the American project in Iraq to the brink of defeat.

...

He walked me outside into the sunlit garden. On the street, a car passed by slowly. For an hour, I had forgotten to be afraid, and now that we were saying goodbye I was reluctant to go. In the past we had always shaken hands, but on this occasion Dr. Butti kissed my cheeks, in the Iraqi way. Perhaps he felt, as I did, that we might not meet again for a long time.

THE LESSON OF TAL AFAR, by George Packer | The New Yorker | Fact

If our choice is another Rummy-led operation on Iran or Iran's going nuclear and our deterring it through classic means, I prefer deterrence.

Friedman on Iran

Eberhardt Rechtin, who played a key role in the development of space technology during the Cold War, died Friday at Torrance Memorial Hospital after lengthy battles with several illnesses. He was 80.

Rechtin, of Rolling Hills Estates, was chief executive of El Segundo-based Aerospace Corp. for 10 years, chief engineer of Hewlett-Packard Corp. and director of the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, among other positions that placed him at the forefront of U.S. national security. He later joined the faculty at USC, creating the school's first program in aerospace architecture.

Eberhardt Rechtin, 80; Helped Develop US Space Technology