... a few stories of note:

Staunch support from the White House, the State Department, and the past three ambassadors to Iraq notwithstanding, Brett McGurk, Prez O's choice for US ambassador to Iraq, withdrew his nomination from consideration on Monday, one day before a scheduled vote in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Friday's column opposing McGurk's nomination is here.

Cliff Kincaid has a terrific column out reminding us of what is likely the main, staggering reason classified information has been gushing from the White House: President Obama, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and top presidential advisor David Axelrod are individuals whose out-and-out Communist associations and activities should have instantly prevented them from ever receiving a basic FBI security clearance.

From Poland, more mystery, more misery: A top Polish general and critic of the Polish and Russian government's white-washing of the April 2010 Smolensk plane crash investigation was found with "bullets wounds to the head" in an underground parking garage of his apartment building in Warsaw. Initial reports claim his death was suicide, but friends and relatives have expressed disbelief.

From The Scotsman:

Leszek Miller, a former prime minister and now leader of the opposition Democratic Left Alliance, said: “men like [Petelicki] don’t commit suicide”.

Meanwhile, Romuald Szeremietiew, a former defence minister, yesterday told the press that last year he had received information that an “influential group” wanted to “silence me forever”. He had kept quiet about it at the time, but now the general’s death had “forced him” to speak.