U.S. Ending the War in Iraq

The Barack Obama of 2011 and the Barack Obama of 2008 don't constantly see eye to eye. In general the presidential vision has overruled the candidate's. But in the case of the complete withdrawal of American troops from Iraq by the end of this year, candidate Obama prevailed over the president.

President Obama wanted to stay longer -- as recently as a few weeks ago was asking the Iraqi government to allow 10,000, then 3,000 troops to remain past New Year's Eve.

But the president ultimately had no choice but to stick to candidate Obama's plan -- thanks, of all things, to an agreement signed by George W. Bush.

What makes this turn of events even more improbable is that Bush initially intended the agreement to do precisely the opposite: to lock the next president into staying in Iraq indefinitely. But back in 2008, Iraqi government officials -- fed up with a seemingly endless U.S. occupation and emboldened by candidate Obama's vow to withdraw most combat troops within 16 months -- insisted on setting a deadline for departure.

"Bush didn't want the date certain for withdrawal at the time; that was forced by the Iraqis," said Daniel Serwer, a senior fellow at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

Full Story

Report finds Bush White House violations

The White House Office of following Affairs during the George W. Bush administration defiled the law by giving briefings to following employees, conclude a government account issued Monday.

The report says the electoral success of the Republican Party and possible strategies for achieve it often were on the schedule at some 75 supporting briefings at 20 federal agencies from 2001 to 2007. Proscribed political activities were prevalent in the months running up to the 2006 midterm elections, according to the description.

The Office of Special Counsel finished that such briefings should take place away from the federal place of work during nonbusiness hours and that turnout should be totally optional.

Bush says clear conscience on financial crisis

Previous President George W. Bush said on Wednesday he has a "clear sense of right and wrong" about recognizing the problems that led to the monetary disaster and he blamed Congress for blocking attempt to address them.

Bush, who initially kept a low-profile subsequent to leaving the White House, has been liability a series of high-profile interviews to encourage his newly released memoir, "Decision Points."

inside a live interview with Matt Lauer on NBC's "Today" show, Bush said his supervision did recognize a ominous quandary with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and that the advance giants

"Were making risky investments."

Full story

Fidel Castro: Osama bin Laden is a US agent

Fidel Castro say al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden is a bought-and-paid-for CIA mediator who forever popped up when previous President George W. Bush wanted to scare the world, at variance that papers recently posted on the Internet show it.

"some time Bush would stir up terror and make a big speech, bin Laden would come into sight threatening people with a tale about what he was going to do," Castro told state media during a gathering with a Lithuanian-born writer known for advance conspiracy theories about world domination. "Bush never lacked for bin Laden's support. He was a subordinate."

Castro said papers posted on WikiLeaks.org — a website that lately released thousands of pages of classified documents from the Afghan war — "effectively proved he was a CIA agent." He did not complex.

Full story