Morning copy 02.13.2006

The Washington Post on the upcoming House Katrina report:

"If 9/11 was a failure of imagination then Katrina was a failure of initiative. It was a failure of leadership," the report's preface states. "In this instance, blinding lack of situational awareness and disjointed decision making needlessly compounded and prolonged Katrina's horror."

The Christian Science Monitor on Ibrahim al-Jaafari's next term as P.M.:

But during his year in power, Jaafari, leader of the Dawa (or Islamic Call) party, has become one of the country's most polarizing and divisive politicians.

And the Chicago Tribune brings in Sadr:

The nomination means al-Jaafari is set to head the first permanent government since the fall of Saddam Hussein--continuing in the position he has held on a transitional basis since April--thanks largely to the support of radical cleric Moqtada Sadr, who has opposed the U.S. presence in Iraq.

The Christian Science Monitor: "Russia and France reach out to Hamas"

The Los Angeles Times:

NEW YORK — A draft United Nations report on the detainees at Guantanamo Bay concludes that the U.S. treatment of them violates their rights to physical and mental health and, in some cases, constitutes torture.

The Guardian: "Saddam creates uproar in forced court appearance"

The Guardian: "North-eastern Kenya's worst drought for years has highlighted the country's stark economic and social divides, says Jeevan Vasagar"

The Boston Globe on India:

With a storied ancestry that includes the Indus Valley culture -- which, beginning 4,500 years ago, rivaled all other civilizations for more than a millennium -- India, say economists and international observers, is emerging from the world's shadows to become a global player in trade, technology, and political influence.

One of the most striking changes in India observed during three weeks of travel, from Kerala in the south to this capital of 17 million people in the north, was the country's new tone: a vocabulary of confidence, a word used over and over to describe today's Indian psyche.

The New York Times on the Impostor:

Although "Impostor" is flamboyant in its anti-Bush sentiments — on the first page Mr. Bartlett calls Mr. Bush a "pretend conservative" and compares him to Richard Nixon, "a man who used the right to pursue his agenda" — its basic message reflects the frustration of many conservatives who say that Mr. Bush has been on a five-year federal spending binge. Like them, Mr. Bartlett is particularly upset about Mr. Bush's Medicare prescription drug plan, which is expected to cost more than $700 billion over the next decade.

He is unhappy, too, with the president's education and campaign finance bills and his proposal to overhaul the nation's immigration laws, which many Republicans call a dressed-up amnesty plan. The book, to be published by Doubleday on Feb. 28, also criticizes the White House for "an anti-intellectual distrust of facts and analysis" and an obsession with secrecy.

"The Clinton people were vastly more open and easier to deal with and, quite frankly, a lot better on the issues," Mr. Bartlett said in the interview, in the kitchen of his pared-down modern house on a street of big new homes in Great Falls. Mr. Bartlett hastened to add that although he admired Mr. Clinton's economic policies, that did not mean he had changed sides.

"I haven't switched to the Democratic Party," he said. "I wrote this for Republicans."