Foreign Policy

More than five months after the Rep. Tom Lantos's (D-Calif.) death of esophageal cancer in February, the late lawmaker Read more...

Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) stressed that the United States should start "unwinding" its military presence in Iraq to allow the country to determine its own future.

Hagel, who visited Iraq this week with Barack Obama and Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), said that the trip reinforced his belief that Iraqis understand that they'll be in charge of their country.

"And it is now time for the United States to start accepting the sovereignty of that country in ways that are real," said Hagel during a news conference in Jordan. "And that means for us to responsibly start unwinding our military presence. We have interests in Iraq. We will have interests in Iraq. But, listening to the Iraqi people and their leadership, and where they think they can go and want to go, and need to go, to build a nation that is not only sovereign and independent, but a nation that can govern itself, defend itself, and support itself."

Hagel made his remarks in Amman before introducing Obama. Both senators have supported a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq.

The United States and Iraq have agreed to pursue a "general time horizon" for removing some US troops, the White House announced Friday.

President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki talked about a timeline Thursday and agreed to seek "a general time horizon for meeting aspirational goals, such as the resumption of Iraqi security control in their cities and provinces and the further reduction of U.S. combat forces from Iraq," the White House said.

The Iraqi government is proposing that US troops fully withdraw from the country within five years, but the White House has been unwilling to talk about specifics.

White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said the agreement shows that Iraq has "reached a point" where discussions about a transition over the control of security could take place, but added

Sens. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) and Jack Reed's (D-R.I.) offices announced Sunday that the two senators will accompany Barack Obama on a trip to Afghanistan and Iraq this summer.

While in Iraq, they'll look at whether the U.S. troop surge has led to "the progress necessary to resolve Iraq's political differences, provide basic services to the Iraqi people, and create long-term stability," according to a press release.

In Afghanistan, the senators will "assess the U.S.-led efforts to combat the Taliban and expand security in light of the recent rise in violence, while also assessing the political and economic situation."

Both Hagel and Reed stressed the bipartisan nature of the trip in statements.

"U.S. policies in Iraq and Afghanistan are at the center of America

Code Pink, the liberal anti-war group, surrounded Rep. Gary Ackerman's (D-N.Y.) houseboat Wednesday to protest his harsh rhetoric against Iran, Newsday reports.

Fifteen activists in three canoes and an inflatable raft encircled Ackerman's boat on the Potomac River, chanting and whistling at him until he emerged, according to the newspaper. He gave a hug and a kiss to the group's leader.

Ackerman has introduced a non-binding legislation that would ask President Bush to increase "economic, political and diplomatic pressure" on the Islamic state. The Democrat told the newspaper that he would not back down from his support for the measure.

After spending the week meeting with world leaders at the G8 discussing and struggling to try to negotiate solutions to world problems like global warming, President Bush exited his last G8 summit Thursday by saying "goodbye from the world's biggest polluter."

According to various reports, Bush, standing amongst other country's leaders, then punched the air and smiled.

The London Telegraph reports that British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy "looked on in shock" after watching Bush.

The G8 spent much of its time this week dealing with global warming, agreeing Tuesday to cut global emissions in half by 2050.

Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.) wants the president to classify a television station run by Hamas as a terrorist organization.

Bilirakis introduced a House resolution last week that condemns the incitement of violence by the station Al-Aqsa, which is broadcast out of the Gaza Strip and aired a puppet show in March that depicted the stabbing of the President of the United States. The bill calls on the president to list Al-Aqsa as a "specially designated global terrorist."

The resolution also mentioned instances of incitement of violence by the Lebanese Al-Manar, Iranian Al-Alam, Iraqi Al-Zawra and Iraqi Al-Rafidayn.

If it passes, the resolution would call on the president to designate as global terrorists satellite providers that carried stations with the the terror group status. The bill's text notes that an Egyptian state-run provider, NileSat, carries Al-Aqsa.

Bilirakis's bill has 23 co-sponsors, only one of which -- Rep. Russ Carnahan (Mo.) -- is a Democrat.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino says the United States provided "specific support" in the Colombian hostage rescue operation that freed Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and three Americans.

"We were aware of the operation in its planning stages," Perino said during Thursday's briefing. "We provided some specific support, which I'm not allowed to go into the details on, but President Bush was certainly supportive of it."

Perino said the U.S. has been working with Colombia to help free the hostages since they were taken in 2003, but gave credit for the successful operation to Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.

"What I can tell you is that the whole world now saw who is responsible for releasing the hostages, and that was President Uribe, who deserves all of the credit," Perino said, again saying that the U.S. "certainly supported the operation and provided some specific support."

Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.), the highest-ranking Republican on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, is questioning President Bush's decision to remove North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, saying the administration's action bolsters the need for congressional oversight on such issues.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced Thursday that Rep. James McGovern (D-Mass.) will replace the late Congressman Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) as co-chair of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus. McGovern joins Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), the other chairman, as head of the Caucus.