Summary: In a curt missive issued by Baghdad Operations Command, Iraq’s top commanders told their U.S. counterparts to “stop all joint patrols” in Baghdad, raising fresh concerns about the safety of U.S. troops in Iraq. … U.S. F-15E fighter jet crashes in Afghanistan, killing crew. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on the fourth day of his 2008 campaign against incumbent U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann for the Republican nomination in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, Aubrey Immelman responded to a challenge by Eric Zaetsch of the “Developers are Crabgrass” blog to define what he means by “traditional conservative values.”
Summary: The upcoming January 2009 provincial elections will be Iraqis’ fourth national ballot since the 2003 overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s regime. … David Enders of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting examines the power struggle among competing Shiite factions in Iraq.