UK's Brown in Iraq to meet Maliki - state television

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

UK's Brown in Iraq to meet Maliki - state television
11 Jun 2007 08:39:20 GMT

BAGHDAD, June 11 (Reuters) - Britain's next prime minister,
Gordon Brown, arrived in Iraq on Monday for his first visit
since it was confirmed he was taking over the premiership
from Tony Blair on June 27, Iraqi state television said.

The television said Brown, who is on his second visit to
Iraq, would meet Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

The British embassy declined to comment on the report.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/COL130736.htm

[maddezmom]

1. UK's Brown makes fact-finding visit to Iraq

UK's Brown makes fact-finding visit to Iraq
BAGHDAD, June 11 (Reuters) - Britain's next prime minister, Gordon Brown, arrived in Iraq on Monday for a fact-finding visit as he weighs Britain's future involvement in a four-year-old war that has angered voters and led to calls for a speedy pullout.

"Gordon Brown is in Baghdad to gather facts that will inform decisions he needs to make about Iraq over the next couple of months," a British embassy spokeswoman said.

It is his first visit since it was confirmed he was taking over the premiership on June 27 from Tony Blair, whose popularity among British voters was undermined by his support for the U.S.-led Iraq war.

Brown told reporters travelling with him: "This is very much an assessment more than anything else, a fact-finding trip."

more:http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L11718355.htm

[maddezmom]

2. Brown vows to make intelligence independent of politics

Prime minister-in-waiting Gordon Brown used a surprise trip to Iraq today to pledge that in future security and intelligence would be kept "independent" of the political process.

In an attempt to draw a line under the erroneous weapons of mass destruction claims and the "dodgy dossier", Mr Brown said he had appointed the cabinet secretary, Sir Gus O'Donnell, to make sure that in future any intelligence material put in the public domain was properly verified and validated.

Mr Brown's trip came as the Tories used an opposition day debate to call for an independent inquiry into the Iraq war - a bid which may attract some support from anti-war MPs on Labour's backbenches.
As Mr Brown arrived in Baghdad for talks with the British military and the Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, he pledged to "learn the lessons" of the run-up to the conflict.

more:http://politics.guardian.co.uk/gordonbrown/story/0,,2100276,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront

[1932]

3. Incidentally, one of Chalmers Johnson's recommendations to fix the US is to dissolve CIA

and move intelligence gathering to the State Department.