Iraq War 2003

The Senate Intelligence Committee has moved toward completing its long-awaited investigation of the Bush administration's prewar assertions about Iraq, with three of five sections nearly finished, the committee's chairman said Tuesday. Seeking to quell controversy over the pace of the inquiry, Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) for the first time provided details and a partial timeline for completing the investigation, which has been underway for more than two years.

In theaters, in halls, libraries and bookstores and at outdoor sites around the globe, the third anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq is being marked today with readings of an antiwar article and the play it inspired.

President Bush and his senior advisors Sunday sought to mark the third anniversary of the Iraq war with declarations of progress, but found themselves embroiled in renewed debate about whether the nation had fallen into civil war. In statements to reporters, appearances on Sunday morning TV news shows and an op-ed article, Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Army Gen. George W. Casey, the senior U.S.

Once, 60 waiters in snazzy white shirts and ties catered each day to hundreds of customers cramming the tables of the Chicken Inn Restaurant, a famous eatery in the shadow of the square where Saddam Hussein's statue was pulled down by U.S. Marines and jubilant Iraqis three years ago Sunday. Americans and Iraqi officials dubbed April 9, 2003, Freedom Day. A new statue went up, an angelic woman holding up a crescent moon symbolizing Islam and a Sumerian sun as an emblem of Iraqi national pride.

The Senate Intelligence Committee on Friday said it had found no evidence that Saddam Hussein had ties to Al Qaeda or provided safe harbor to one of its most notorious operatives, Abu Musab Zarqawi -- conclusions contradicting claims by the Bush administration before it invaded Iraq.

President Bush retains "full confidence" in Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, a top White House official said Sunday, responding to newly published allegations that Rumsfeld has mismanaged the Iraq war and alienated senior members of the Bush administration with his autocratic personal style. "The president has full confidence in Secretary Rumsfeld," White House Counselor Dan Bartlett told ABC's "This Week" in one of three appearances he made on the Sunday talk shows.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair survived a blistering attack Tuesday on his government's handling of the war in Iraq, narrowly defeating moves to open a parliamentary inquiry into a conflict one former ally called "a huge blunder." In a gauge of how far British public opinion has swung toward opposition to the war, Blair's majority Labor Party could muster only a 25-vote margin to defeat the measure.

At least 23 Iraqis and a U.S. soldier were killed in a fresh round of attacks Tuesday as interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi acknowledged that parts of the country were too lawless to take part in the upcoming national election. Preparations for the landmark vote have deteriorated in several areas, particularly the western province of Al Anbar and the area around Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city, as some election officials have resigned under threat.

Improved technology and better planning before November's battle for Fallouja helped U.S. forces avoid the "friendly fire" casualties that have plagued other large-scale military operations, Marine Corps commanders say. Col. John Coleman, chief of staff for the Camp Pendleton-based 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said new technology, rushed to Fallouja within days of the battle, allowed air and ground units to know the precise location of U.S. forces in real time.

Brazen insurgent attacks flared from one end of this nation to the other, authorities said Monday, targeting Iraqi security forces north of the capital and polling places in the southern city of Basra. Militants also kidnapped the Catholic archbishop of the northern city of Mosul. The attacks across Iraq killed at least 28 Iraqi police and soldiers.