"The death of [Ayatollah Mohammed Bakir Hakim], the most influential Iraqi cleric openly allied with the U.S.-led occupation, dealt a severe blow to U.S. efforts to build a representative postwar government ... [it] left a panorama of misery and devastation unparalleled since the fall of Hussein's government on April 9. The brick facades of shops were sheared away. Cars were flipped and hurled onto the sidewalk. Burned, mangled and dismembered bodies littered the street, trampled as others ran in confusion and panic for safety. " [more]

"Ashcroft has always been one of the Bush administration's most controversial figures ... but now the attorney general finds himself at odds with some fellow Republicans from Idaho to Capitol Hill who are troubled by the extent of his anti-terrorism tactics and angered by his unwillingness to compromise." [more]

"Nearly 300 American personnel and dozens of British soldiers, plus U.N. officials and untold numbers of Iraqis, [may] have died due to incredibly bad or corrupted intelligence." [more]

"The St. Petersburg Times reported Aug. 2 that documents filed by prosecutors in Chicago identified Asher as a pilot and former smuggler in the Bahamas. He served as an informant and witness in several trials and has been identified as someone who provided police protection for smuggling operations." [more]

"Shi'a fury will be directed at the Sunnis to the north. It will also be directed toward United States as the occupying force who both did nothing to prevent this tragedy, and further continued the British doctrine of Sunni favoritism by insisting that the Shi'a religious leaders would never be allowed to come to power. [T]he forces of retribution are about to be unleashed in a manner hitherto unseen in the region." [more]

"Al-Ayiri noted that 'the collapse of the Ba'th government is a blessing for Islam and Muslims as the fall of the Arab Ba'th signals the collapse of the infidel pan-Arab slogans that swept the Islamic nation.'" [more]