Mass. Gov. Romney makes visit to Iraq

Mass. Gov. Romney makes visit to Iraq
By GLEN JOHNSON, AP Political Writer

BOSTON - Gov. Mitt Romney made an unannounced visit to Iraq this week, an effort to visit Massachusetts troops and understand an international hotspot that could also burnish his foreign policy credentials should he run for president in 2008.

The Republican governor met with military and diplomatic leaders in Baghdad on Tuesday and Wednesday, before returning to a United States staging area in Kuwait City, Kuwait, according to his communications director, Eric Fehrnstrom.

Romney is scheduled to stop in Pakistan on Thursday en route to Afghanistan, where he will meet with President Hamid Karzai. After an overnight stay at the U.S. embassy in Kabul, Romney will fly to Ramstein Air Base in Germany on Friday. The governor is scheduled to return to Massachusetts on Saturday.

The opening stage of the trip, which began Monday with a military flight to Kuwait from Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, was made under a reporting embargo requested by the Department of Defense.

Pentagon officials said advance publicity about visits by high-profile U.S. delegations can inspire violence by Iraqi insurgent groups.

(more)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060524/ap_on_re_us/romney_iraq