International:
GAO: Looted munitions pose new threat
Explosives looted from Iraq munitions sites probably will continue to support terrorist attacks throughout the region, a congressional report said Thursday. It said some sites were still not secure more than 3 1/2 years after the war started.

Failure to guard the sites "has been costly," the Government Accountability Office report said, noting looted munitions are being used to make roadside bombs, the No. 1 killer of U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

Quoting from previous Defense Department reports, the study says widespread looting occurred after the fall of Baghdad in early 2003 because war planners did not put enough troops into the country to secure weapons depots and because officials incorrectly assumed Iraqi soldiers would surrender and help with security.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters Thursday that large amounts of unexploded munitions continue to be a huge problem in Iraq. Read details of the report

In video, al-Qaida urges unification
In a new video posted Thursday on the Internet, an al-Qaida militant who escaped from a U.S. prison in Afghanistan urged Sunni militants in Iraq to join the terror group and claimed the U.S. military's security plan for Baghdad has failed.

Abu Yahia al-Libi, who broke out of the U.S. prison at Bagram Air Base north of Kabul in 2005, said it was the sacred duty of all mujahedeen, or holy warriors, to "stand steadfast together."
He called on militant groups known as Ansar al-Sunnah, the Islamic Army in Iraq and the Army of the Mujahedeen to "hurry up and respond to the call of the Quran to become one and ... join the Islamic State in Iraq," an al-Qaida affiliate in the country.

"This is the legitimate duty and urgent need imposed by the circumstances of this stage of the jihad in Iraq," the black-turbaned al-Libi said, referring to militants' holy war. Full story here

U.N. chief unharmed after Green Zone attack
“U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was unharmed as he ducked behind a podium after a rocket or mortar round landed near the prime minister’s office Thursday while the two men were holding a news conference.” Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki remained claim through the attack. CNN’s Kyra Phillips reported:

For [Maliki] obviously, this is just another day in Iraq, another day in Baghdad. Obviously, the UN Secretary General right there in the middle, talking about a reconstruction plan, had a little bit of a reality check on his first trip to Iraq. Watch report video

National:
Senate Judiciary Committee authorizes subpoenas
The Senate Judiciary Committee, following the House’s lead, has authorized subpoenas for White House political adviser Karl Rove and other top aides involved in the firing of federal prosecutors. … A House Judiciary subcommittee authorized subpoenas in the matter Wednesday, but none has been issued. Democrats said the move would give them more bargaining power in negotiating with the White House to hear from Bush’s closest advisers.

Meanwhile, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) announced that ex-Gonzales chief-of-staff Kyle Sampson plans to testify voluntarily next Thursday. Here is video of Leahy ripping into the proposed White House deal: “What they are offering is nothing, nothing, nothing.”

Senate committee approves Iraq redeployment plan
The Senate Appropriations Committee approved a $122 billion measure Thursday financing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but also calling on President Bush to pull combat troops out of Iraq by next spring. The bill, approved by a voice vote, is similar to one the House began debating Thursday. The White House has threatened to veto the House measure and issued a veto threat against an earlier, similar version of the Senate withdrawal language.

Subpoena battle is 'a game of chicken'
The high-stakes face-off between Congress and the White House over eight fired U.S. attorneys most likely will end in a negotiated deal, with no subpoenas being issued and no court battle, legal analysts tell The Washington Times. Read here

Federal Prosecutors Move to Reduce Abramoff Prison Sentence
Federal prosecutors took the first steps toward reducing the prison sentence of disgraced former Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who is currently scheduled for release in 2011 for a Florida fraud conviction. More here

In Other News...
Bob Novak reports conservatives are angry at CIA Director Michael Hayden for telling Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) that Valerie Plame was covert. “Waxman’s statement astounded Republicans whose queries about her had been rebuffed by the agency. That confirmed Republican suspicions that Hayden is too close to Democrats. … When Hayden’s role was pointed out to one of the president’s most important aides, there was no response.”

A review 1,400 veterans hospitals has turned up more than 1,000 reports of substandard conditions. In response, VA Sec. Jim Nicholson this week ordered “immediate corrective action” to fix the problems. Bobby Muller of the Veterans for America said, “There is a social contract between a country and those it sends to war, and America’s social contract is broken.”

“In a stinging, wide-ranging assessment,” Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart Bowen found the U.S. was “unprepared for the extensive nation-building required after it invaded Iraq, and at each juncture where it could have adjusted its efforts, it failed even to understand the problems it faced.”

From The Right: Ann Coulter: The coming ass age The only place Al Gore conserves energy these days is on the treadmill. I don't want to suggest that Al's getting big, but the last time I saw him on TV I thought, 'That reminds me -- we have to do something about saving the polar bears.'

From The Left: Think Progress: Boehner’s 60 Days On Iraq Are Up On January 23, 2007, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) said on CNN that he supported benchmarks for Iraqis and a timeline of “60 to 90 days” for the escalation to work:

Quote Of The Day: "Maybe I'm missing something here. I mean, we're going to have kind of a nation-building corps from America? Absolutely not. It needs to be in our vital interest, the mission needs to be clear, and the exit strategy obvious. I'm not so sure the role of the United States is to go around the world and say this is the way it's got to be. I think the United States must be humble . . . in how we treat nations that are figuring out how to chart their own course." George W. Bush

(Sources: AP, FOXNews, CNN, ThinkProgress, TownHall, ABCNews, WashingtonTimes, WashingtonPost, NYT, Michael Kinsley (theage), ImusBlog, SFChronicle, TheHill, USAToday, ThePolitico)