IRAQ

Washington Post: U.S. Planners Surprised by Strength of Iraqi Shiites
As Iraqi Shiite demands for a dominant role in Iraq's future mount,
Bush administration officials say they underestimated the Shiites'
organizational strength and are unprepared to prevent the rise of an
anti-American, Islamic fundamentalist government in the country. The
burst of Shiite power -- as demonstrated by the hundreds of thousands who
made a long-banned pilgrimage to the holy city of Karbala yesterday -- has
U.S. officials looking for allies in the struggle to fill the power vacuum
left by the downfall of Saddam Hussein..."