Given the scale of the ongoing Rove controversy and the SCOTUS decision, there are bound to be many stories that fly under the general radar. This is an open diary for posting the marginalized stories of the day.
More below and to be added later.
Al Qaeda warns EU nations to leave Iraq by next month or face new attacks
"This message is the final warning to European states. We want to give you a one-month deadline to bring your soldiers out from the land of Mesopotamia (Iraq)," said the statement signed by Al-Qaeda group the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades and dated July 16."
After August 15, "there will be no more messages, just actions that will be engraved on the heart of Europe.
McCaffrey Expects Iraq Attacks to Peak
"January through September 2006 will be the peak period of the insurgency and the bottom rung of the new Iraq," McCaffrey told the Senate foreign relations committee.
"The positive trend lines following the January 2006 elections - if they continue - will likely permit the withdrawal of US combat forces by late summer of 2006," said McCaffrey, who formerly taught at the West Point military academy, after a week-long fact-finding tour of Iraq one month ago.
...
"The Army and Marines are starting to come apart under this overly aggressive foreign policy," he said.
Note that the estimated peak doesn't fall, it only stops a result of withdrawal. We haven't seen anything yet.
Palestinians Pledge Peace in Attempt to Pre-Empt Israeli Offensive into Gaza
Baghdad Doctors on Strike
Three UK soldiers facing war crime charges
Iraq Body Count says 25,000 Iraqis Civilians Dead Since Beginning of War
BRAC Commission Adds 5 More Bases to Closure List
States move to neutralize Supreme Court ruling on eminent domain
FBI keeps track of civil liberty and antiwar protest groups