International:
Officials: Mohammed exaggerated claims
While there apparently is truth in much of the statement, several officials said, there's also an element of self-promotion. They view the claims as at least in part a rallying cry to bolster his image and that of al-Qaida in the only venue Mohammed has left: a military courtroom from which the public is barred.

"I have never known a criminal — either terrorist or otherwise — that didn't exaggerate," said Michigan Rep. Mike Rogers, a former FBI agent and the top Republican on the terrorism panel of the House Intelligence Committee. Full story here [Interestingly enough...He was reported to have been killed in Karachi in a bloody shootout with Pakistani security forces on September 11, 2002 (See A chilling inheritance of terror) and there is dispute over whether or not he was one of the key planners of the September 11 attacks on the US a year earlier.]

Iran-Iraq Link?

Undetonated bomb found at site where four U.S. soldiers killed in eastern Baghdad believed to be from Iran.

Israel rebuffs Palestinian unity coalition
The rival Hamas and Fatah movements formed a long-elusive unity government today, hoping to end bloody infighting and lead the Palestinians out of yearlong international isolation.

National:
House overturns Bush order on papers secrecy
Brushing aside a veto threat, the House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to overturn a 2001 order by President George W. Bush that lets former presidents keep their papers secret indefinitely.

The measure, which drew bipartisan support and passed by a veto-proof 333-93 margin, was among White House-opposed bills the House passed that would widen access to government information and protect government whistleblowers.

"Today, Congress took an important step toward restoring openness and transparency in government," House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman said.

The presidential papers bill nullifies a November 2001 order, criticized by historians, in which Bush allowed the White House or a former president to block release of a former president's papers and put the onus on researchers to show a "specific need" for many types of records. Read full story

E-mail indicates Rove role in firings
White House political adviser Karl Rove raised questions in early 2005 about replacing some federal prosecutors but allowing others to stay, an e-mail released Thursday shows. The one-page document, which spans e-mails between the White House and the Justice Department in January 2005, also indicates Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was considering a range of options in dismissing U.S. attorneys early in President Bush's second term.

But it concludes with Gonzales' top aide warning that an across-the-board housecleaning "would certainly send ripples through the U.S. attorney community if we told folks they got one term only."
Among beneficiaries of the Bush order was Bush's father, George H.W. Bush, a former vice president and president. More here

Senate GOP Turns Back Iraq Pullout Plan

Democrats aggressively challenged President Bush's Iraq policy at both ends of the Capitol on Thursday, gaining House committee approval for a troop withdrawal deadline of Sept. 1, 2008, but suffering defeat in the Senate on a less sweeping plan to end U.S. participation in the war. More

In Other News:

Al Qaeda mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed claimed "responsibility for the 9/11 operation from A to Z," according to 26 pages of transcripts released from Gitmo by the Pentagon yesterday. Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, said, "We need to know if this purported confession would be enough to convict him at a fair trial or would it have to be suppressed as the fruit of torture?"

$2.45 billion: the revenues raked in by lobbyists last year. "The Center for Responsive Politics found that companies, unions and other organizations spent a record amount to lobby in 2006, in spite of the black eye from the Jack Abramoff scandal and a midterm election that caused Congress to close early."

Sens. John Warner (R-VA) and Ben Nelson (D-NE) are drafting a joint resolution on Iraq that would consider a phased redeployment of U.S. troops -- "but only after giving the White House until at least September to prove the current 'surge' strategy has worked."

"Two key lawmakers are seeking independent investigations of military readiness after service officials said extended operations in Afghanistan and Iraq have left shortages of war stocks that could limit the military's ability to respond to a crisis."

From The Right: Jeff Emanuel : Anti-war Leftists take careful aim, shoot selves in the foot once again As the Iraq war (and the debate surrounding it) has raged on in the years since, the Left has been trying harder and harder to claim the moral high ground with regard to the treatment and use of US troops, both by championing the few it can find who oppose the War on Terror, and by attempting to marginalize those who dare speak out against them.

From The Left: Ron Jacobs: Campus Antiwar Movement Begins to Make Its Mark Folks often ask, rather cynically, where are the students protesting the war? Well, the answer is that they are there-on their campuses and in the dorms-organizing speakers, rallies and teach-ins...and students are set to go to the March 17th March on the Pentagon.

Quote Of The Day:

"Hillary Clinton cannot be elected president because ... there's something about her vocal range." ..."There's something about her voice that just drives me -- it's not what she says, it's how she says it," ... "She is like the stereotypical -- excuse the expression, but this is the way to -- she's the stereotypical bitch, you know what I mean?" CNN Host Glenn Beck

(Sources: Reuters, AP, AsiaTimes, MyWay, FOXNews, TownHall, MediaMatters, SFChronicle, WashingtonTimes, TheHill, RollCall, ArmyTimes, CenterForAmericanProgress)