Obama declares swine flu emergency

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama has declared swine flu a “national emergency” as the United States reels from millions of cases of infection and more than 1,000 deaths.

The emergency declaration, which was made public Saturday, lets doctors and nurses temporarily bypass certain federal requirements so they can better handle a spike in influenza A(H1N1) patients.

The declaration comes just days after Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius warned that demand was outstripping supply of vaccine for the novel flu strain. “The 2009 H1N1 pandemic continues to evolve,” Obama said in the declaration.

“The rates of illness continue to rise rapidly within many communities across the nation, and the potential exists for the pandemic to overburden health care resources in some localities.”

US officials however said the declaration was not issued due to any specific development, but rather as a pre-emptive measure.

As Americans waited for more vaccine shipments, 46 of the 50 states now report widespread swine flu activity — an unusually early uptick that ordinarily takes place in January or February at the peak of a normal flu season.

“By rapidly identifying the virus, implementing public health measures, providing guidance for health professionals and the general public, and developing an effective vaccine, we have taken proactive steps to reduce the impact of the pandemic and protect the health of our citizens,” Obama said.

Among other things, the declaration gives Sebelius temporary authority to allow local authorities to set up makeshift emergency rooms to treat possible flu victims separate from regular patients.

Western leaders demand Iran open nuclear site

PITTSBURGH: US President Barack Obama and the leaders of France and Britain said Friday that the existence of a previously secret Iranian nuclear facility ups the ante on Tehran in international talks next week, declaring that Iran must cooperate on its suspected weapons development ‘or be held accountable.’

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Iran has until December to comply or face new sanctions.

‘We will not let this matter rest,’ said British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who accused Iran of ‘serial deception.’

‘The Iranian government must now demonstrate through deeds its peaceful intentions or be held accountable to international standards and international law,’ said Obama.

Their dramatic three-way statement opened the G-20 economic summit here.

Obama urged Iran to fully disclose its nuclear activities and said the International Atomic Energy Agency must investigate the newly revealed site.

Iran has kept the facility, 160 kilometres southwest of Tehran, hidden from weapons inspectors until a letter it sent to the IAEA on Monday, which was publicly disclosed for the first time Friday.

But the US has known of the facility’s existence ‘for several years’ through intelligence developed by US, French and British agencies, a senior White House official said.

Obama decided to gather allies to talk publicly about it after Iran’s letter made clear it had become aware that Western intelligence knew of the project, officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity to let the statements from Obama and the leaders remain the focus.

The plant would be about the right size to enrich enough uranium to produce one or two bombs a year, but inspectors must get inside to know what is actually going on, the official said.

Obama hopes the disclosure will increase pressure on the global community to impose new sanctions on Iran if it refuses to stop its nuclear program.

Beyond sanctions, the leaders’ options are limited and perilous; military action by the United States or an ally such as Israel could set off a dangerous chain of events in the Islamic world. In addition, Iran’s facilities are spread around the country and well-hidden or buried, making an effective military response logistically difficult.

The leaders did not mention military force. But Sarkozy said ominously, ‘Everything, everything must be put on the table now. We cannot let the Iranian leaders gain time while the motors are running.’

The disclosure comes on the heels of a UN General Assembly meeting at which Obama saw a glimmer of success in his push to rally the world against Iranian nuclear ambitions. And it comes just days before Iran and six world powers are scheduled to discuss a range of issues including Tehran’s nuclear program.

Germany is one of those six powers, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters Friday that her country views the revelation of the second nuclear site as ‘a grave development’ and called on Iran to answer IAEA questions about it ‘as quickly as possible.’

She said Germany, Great Britain, France and the United States had consulted on the issue and agreed to a joint response. Merkel did not appear with Obama, Sarkozy and Brown because she had an already-scheduled meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at the same time.

She said ‘we will see’ about the reactions of Russia and China, which also are part of the group of six but always more reluctant to take a firm line on Iran.

Earlier this week, Medvedev opened the door to backing potential new sanctions against Iran as a reward to Obama’s decision to scale back a US missile shield in Eastern Europe. But it’s unclear if that will translate into action.

The senior administration official said Obama told Medvedev about the facility during their meeting this week in New York. The Chinese were informed about 48 hours ago and are ‘just absorbing these revelations,’ the official said.

Before the scheduling of the October 1 meeting, the US had long avoided direct talks with Tehran over its nuclear program.

‘Iran is breaking rules that all nations must follow,’ Obama said.

Sarkozy and Brown struck an even more defiant tone. ‘The international community has no choice today but to draw a line in the sand,’ Brown said.

Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, made no mention of the facility while attending the UN General Assembly in New York this week. But he insisted that his country has fully cooperated with international nuclear inspectors. Iran denies that it is enriching uranium to build a nuclear bomb – as the West suspects – and says it is only doing so for energy purposes.

However, Iran is under three sets of UN Security Council sanctions for refusing to freeze enrichment at what had been its single publicly known enrichment plant, which is being monitored by the IAEA.—AP

Instead of more troops, perhaps more drones

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama may change course again as the war worsens in Afghanistan, steering away from the comprehensive counter-insurgency strategy he laid out this spring and toward a narrower focus on counter-terror operations aimed at al-Qaeda.

The White House is looking at expanding counter-terror operations in Pakistan as an alternative to a major military escalation in Afghanistan.

Two senior administration officials said Monday that the renewed fight against al-Qaeda could lead to more missile attacks on terrorist havens inside Pakistan by unmanned US spy planes. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because no decisions have been made.

The armed drones could contain al-Qaeda in a smaller, if more remote, area and keep its leaders from retreating back into Afghanistan, the officials said.

The prospect of a White House alternative to a deepening involvement in Afghanistan comes as administration officials debate whether to send more troops — as urged in a blunt assessment of the deteriorating conflict by the top US commander there, Gen. Stanley McChrystal.

The president thus far has not endorsed the McChrystal approach, saying in television interviews over the weekend that he needs to be convinced that sending more troops would make Americans safer from al-Qaeda.

Tellingly, Obama reiterated in those interviews that his core goal is to destroy al-Qaeda, which is not present in significant numbers in Afghanistan. He did not focus on saving Afghanistan.

‘I’m not interested in just being in Afghanistan for the sake of being in Afghanistan or saving face,’ Obama told NBC television’s ‘Meet the Press’ on Sunday.

Top aides to Obama said he still has questions and wants more time to decide. The officials said the administration aims to push ahead with the ground mission in Afghanistan for the foreseeable future, still leaving the door open for sending more US troops. But Obama’s top advisers, including Vice President Joe Biden, have indicated they are reluctant to send many more troops — if any at all — in the immediate future.

The proposed shift would bolster US action on Obama’s long-stated goal of dismantling terrorist havens, but it could also complicate American relations with Pakistan, long wary of the growing use of aerial drones to target militants along the porous border with Afghanistan.

Most US military officials have preferred a classic counterinsurgency mission to keep al-Qaeda out of Afghanistan by defeating the Taliban and securing the local population.

However, one senior White House official said it’s not clear that the Taliban would welcome al-Qaeda back into Afghanistan. The official noted that it was only after the 9/11 attacks that the United States invaded Afghanistan and deposed the Taliban in pursuit of al-Qaeda.

Pakistan will not allow the United States to deploy a large-scale military troop build-up on its soil. However, its military and intelligence services are believed to have assisted the US with airstrikes, even while the government has publicly condemned them.

Wider use of missile strikes and less reliance on ground troops would mark Obama’s second shift in strategy and tactics since taking office last January.

But stepping up attacks on the remnants of al-Qaeda also would dovetail with Obama’s presidential campaign promise of directly going after the terrorist network that spawned the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.

Over the past few weeks, White House and Pentagon officials have debated the best way to defeat al-Qaeda — and whether to send more troops to Afghanistan to battle the extremist Taliban elements that hosted Osama bin Laden and his operatives in the 1990s and have continued to aid the terrorist group.

McChrystal has argued that without more troops the United States could lose the war against the Taliban and allied insurgents.

‘Resources will not win this war, but under-resourcing could lose it,’ McChrystal wrote in a five-page Commander’s Summary that was unveiled late Sunday by The Washington Post.

His 66-page report, which was also made public by the Post in a partly classified version after appeals from Pentagon officials, was sent to Defence Secretary Robert Gates on August 30 and is now under review at the White House.

In an interview Monday with CNN, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said, ‘Where General McChrystal is asking for more resources, in all aspects, to boost the effort against terrorism, he has our support there.’

But Karzai added that the US and its allies also need to ‘concentrate on the sanctuaries for terrorists outside of Afghanistan.’

White House officials have made clear that Pakistan, where the US cannot send troops, should be the top concern since that is where top al-Qaeda leaders, including bin Laden himself, are believed to be hiding.

Very few al-Qaeda extremists are believed to still be in Afghanistan, according to military and White House officials.

There have been more than 50 missile strikes against Pakistan targets since August 2008, according to an Associated Press count. Two weeks ago, a US drone killed a key suspected al-Qaeda recruiter and trainer, Pakistani national Ilyas Kashmiri.

A draft study by Notre Dame Law School professor Mary Ellen O’Connell found that drone attacks by the US in Pakistan began in 2004, jumped dramatically in 2008 and continue to climb so far this year.

But the attacks target Taliban in Pakistan as well as al-Qaeda, O’Connell said in an interview Monday, pointing to an August 5 CIA missile strike that killed Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud.

‘The only reason people think drones are successful is because they’re doing a body count,’ O’Connell said. ‘They’re not looking at the bigger picture’ of Pakistani animosity, she added.

One of the White House officials said that Mehsud, an al-Qaeda ally, was targeted as a threat to Pakistan at the behest of that nation’s leaders.

On Capitol Hill, lawmakers divided largely on party lines over whether more US troops should be sent to Afghanistan. Several said McChrystal’s assessment shows that the American strategy in Afghanistan remains murky, and renewed demands that the general personally explain his conclusions to Congress.

‘We have reached a turning point in Afghanistan as to whether we are going to formally adopt nation-building as a policy,’ said Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., a former secretary of the Navy during the Reagan administration.

High-level Obama aides said the Pentagon’s case to send more troops was being pushed most aggressively by Joint Chiefs chairman Adm. Mike Mullen.

White House officials were caught off guard and reacted with displeasure last week when Mullen told a Senate panel that more troops were all but certainly needed in Afghanistan, and that a second report asking for the additional forces would be delivered ‘in the very near future.’

Gates has said he has not decided whether he agrees that more troops are needed, and Obama made clear in his weekend interviews that he is far from ready to decide.

‘Al-Qaeda has shifted bases to Pakistan’

PHOENIX: US President Barack Obama says Al-Qaeda and its allies have shifted their bases from Afghanistan to the remote, tribal areas of Pakistan.

The US President said that terrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan cannot be eradicated in a short time span.

Speaking at the Veterans of Foreign Wars National Convention in Phoenix, Arizona, Obama said that the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan would enable Al-Qaeda to plan similar attacks to that of 9/11.

He reiterated that the war on terror is necessary for the defence of the people.

According to the US president the perpetrators of 9/11 are planning more attacks and if left unchecked the Taliban insurgency will mean the creation of larger safe havens from which Al-Qaeda could plot to kill more Americans.

‘As I said when I announced this strategy, there will be more difficult days ahead. The insurgency in Afghanistan didn’t just happen overnight, and we won’t defeat it overnight. This will not be quick. This will not be easy.’

‘But we must never forget: This is not a war of choice; this is a war of necessity.’

‘Those who attacked America on 9/11 are plotting to do so again. If left unchecked, the Taliban insurgency will mean an even larger safe haven from which Al Qaeda would plot to kill more Americans. So this is not only a war worth fighting. This is fundamental to the defence of our people,’ said the US president.

Obama seeks extra aid for wars

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama has formally asked lawmakers for another 83.4 billion dollars to pay for the immediate needs of his revamped strategy for Afghanistan and for the war in Iraq.

In a letter to his top Democratic ally in the House of Representatives, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Obama pleaded Thursday for swift passage of the emergency spending measure, citing the worsening situation in Afghanistan.

‘We face a security situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan that demands urgent attention. The Taliban is resurgent and Al-Qaeda threatens America from its safe haven along the Afghan-Pakistan border,’ he said.

‘With that reality as my focus, today I send to the Congress a supplemental appropriations request totaling 83.4 billion dollars that will fund our ongoing military, diplomatic, and intelligence operations,’ said the president.

The package includes items not related to the two conflicts, including 350 million dollars for security and counter-narcotics work along the US-Mexico border and 89.5 million dollars for efforts to secure Russian nuclear materials and pursue disablement and dismantlement of North Korea’s nuclear work.

But ‘nearly 95 per cent of these funds will be used to support our men and women in uniform as they help the people of Iraq to take responsibility for their own future — and work to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat Al-Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan,’ Obama said.

The president’s Republican foes were expected to join his Democratic allies in approving the request, despite growing unease among some on his party’s left flank about the escalation in Afghanistan and the pace and scope of the military draw-down from Iraq.

The request includes 75.85 billion dollars for military and intelligence operations in the two wars, and another 7.1 billion for international aid — including 400 million to help Pakistan battle extremists.

It also includes 800 million dollars to support the Palestinian Authority and provide humanitarian aid to Gaza, and 200 million dollars in aid to Georgia.

Another 800 million dollars would go to UN peacekeeping operations, fund an expanded mission in Democratic Republic of Congo, and pay for a new mission in Chad and the Central African Republic.

Obama had firmly opposed using supplementals to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and grouped them in his regular budget for fiscal year 2010, which begins October 1, but the White House said the US military needs money now.

‘We can’t wait until the appropriations process is done in September or August or September to fund operations in Iraq and Afghanistan in June,’ said spokesman Robert Gibbs.

‘The honest budgeting and appropriations process that the president has talked about falls somewhat victim to the fact that this is the way that wars have been funded previously,’ the spokesman said.

But ‘this will be the last supplemental for Iraq and Afghanistan,’ he promised.

Both the Pakistani and Afghan envoys to Washington called on the United States and its allies to provide more cash and military tools to defeat extremists and alleviate poverty.

Pakistan’s Husain Haqqani welcomed the new Obama strategy, but contrasted the amount with the multi-billion-dollar bailouts extended to US companies in distress.

‘The resources that are being committed may look big to some but very frankly, I think that a company on the verge of failure is quite clearly able to get a bigger bailout than a nation that is accused of failure,’ he said.

Haqqani added, ‘Why does Afghanistan or Pakistan get less resources allocated to solving a bigger problem (extremism) than, say for example, some failed insurance company or some car company whose real achievement is that they couldn’t make cars that they could sell?’

Source: Dawn News

Obama speech draws praise in Mideast

BEIRUT – Syria’s foreign minister praised President Barack Obama’s address to the Arab and Islamic world in Turkey, and many Arabs were cheered by the American leader’s promises to push for a Palestinian state.

On his first visit as president to a predominantly Islamic nation, Obama reached out to Arabs and Muslims in his Ankara address, saying the United States “is not and never will be at war with Islam.” He also spoke of the Arab-Israeli peace process, saying he will “actively pursue” the goal of creating a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

In an interview published Tuesday, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said Obama’s speech “reflects a clear attention toward the two-state solution.”

Al-Moallem said Obama’s words were “important” and “positive.” But he hinted that Arabs expect Washington to pressure the new hard-line Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept the creation of a Palestinian state.

“We need to see how the United States will deal with an Israeli government representing the extreme right, and continues to reject the two-state solution,” al-Moallem told Lebanon’s As-Safir newspaper.

Netanyahu’s office on Monday issued a statement saying Israel would “work closely” with the U.S. on peace, but it avoided any mention of a two-state solution.

Syria is one of the big tests of the Obama administration’s attempts to strike a new tone in relations with Mideast nations. Obama’s predecessor George W. Bush sought to isolate Syria to force it to stop its support of militant groups like Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Palestinian Hamas and do more to prevent militants from entering Iraq.

The Obama administration has said it seeks a dialogue with Syria — as well as with Syria’s ally and Washington’s biggest regional rival, Iran. Damascus has appeared eager for better ties, hoping for an economic boost and U.S. mediation of peace talks with Israel, though it has shown little sign of being ready to cut its backing for militants.

More broadly, Obama’s visit to Turkey aimed to overcome widespread resentment in the region for what many saw as the Bush administration’s aggressive policies against Muslims and Arabs. Top Arab satellite news networks Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya carried his speech to Turkey’s parliament Monday live, as well as a town hall meeting Obama held with Turkish students on Tuesday in which he said he wants to work with Muslims.

Lebanese columnist Rajeh Khoury said Obama’s visit to Turkey draws a “road map for the relationship between the West and Islam.”

Tareq Masarwah, a columnist in Jordan’s Al-Rai newspaper, pointed to the significance of Obama’s choosing Turkey — a mainly Muslim nation but with a strong secular tradition — as a nod to “moderate Islam.”

“Moderation is what we need to confront the extremism and the violence which has dominated Muslims the past three decades,” Masarwah said.

But, he said, “the sole bridge toward reconciliation is a Palestinian state.”

Though many Arabs were angered by the U.S. invasion of Iraq and other American policies in the region, the biggest dispute they most often cite is the Palestinian issue, and what they see as Washington’s bias toward Israel.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat welcomed Obama’s endorsement of a Palestinian state. “We hope that the Israeli government will understand that this is the only path to peace,” he told The Associated Press.

But Yehia Moussa, a lawmaker with the Hamas militant group, said “What’s important is not that he talks nicely, but what he does on the ground.”

“Until now we haven’t seen any positive actions on the Palestinian issue. He is repeating the same positions as Bush,” Moussa said.

Source: Yahoo News

Obama launches effort to reduce nuclear arms

PRAGUE – President Barack Obama on Sunday launched an effort to rid the world of nuclear weapons, calling them “the most dangerous legacy of the Cold War” and saying the U.S. has a moral responsibility to lead as the only nation to ever use one.

In a speech driven with fresh urgency by North Korea’s rocket launch just hours earlier, Obama said the U.S. would “immediately and aggressively” seek ratification of a comprehensive ban on testing nuclear weapons. He said the U.S. would host a summit within the next year on reducing and eventually eliminating nuclear weapons, and he called for a global effort to secure nuclear material.

“Some argue that the spread of these weapons cannot be checked — that we are destined to live in a world where more nations and more people possess the ultimate tools of destruction,” Obama said to a bustling crowd of more than 20,000 in an old square outside the Prague Castle gates.

“This fatalism is a deadly adversary,” he said. “For if we believe that the spread of nuclear weapons is inevitable, then we are admitting to ourselves that the use of nuclear weapons is inevitable.”

Obama targeted his comments at one point directly at North Korea, which launched a rocket late Saturday night in defiance of the international community. The president was awoken by an aide and told of the news, which occurred in the early morning hours in Prague.

“North Korea broke the rules once more by testing a rocket that could be used for a long range missile,” Obama said. “This provocation underscores the need for action — not just this afternoon at the UN Security Council, but in our determination to prevent the spread of these weapons.”

At a summit with leaders of the European Union later in the day, Obama called for a swift, joint statement condemning North Korea’s actions, and said the foreign ministers from the countries were in the process of crafting one.

Addressing another potential nuclear foe, Obama said in his speech the U.S. will present Iran with “a clear choice” to join the community of nations by ceasing its nuclear and ballistic missile activity or face increased isolation and a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.

He said the U.S. will proceed with development of a missile defense system in Europe as long as there is an Iranian threat of developing nuclear weapons. If that threat is removed, he said, “The driving force for missile defense in Europe will be removed.”

The choice of Prague for such a speech carried large symbolism, and Obama didn’t ignore it. Decades of communism were toppled in Czechoslovakia through the 1989 Velvet Revolution, so named because it was one of the few peaceful overthrows of communism in the Iron Curtain. The Czech Republic split from Slovakia in 1993.

Obama praised the Czechs for helping “bring down a nuclear-armed empire without firing a shot.”

Obama coupled his call for a nuclear-free world with an assurance that America would not unilaterally give up nuclear weapons. It must be a one-for-all, all-for-one endeavor, he said, and until that is possible, the U.S. will maintain a big enough arsenal to serve as a deterrent.

Few experts think it’s possible to completely eradicate nuclear weapons, and many say it wouldn’t be a good idea even if it could be done. But a program to drastically cut the world atomic arsenal carries support from scientists and lions of the foreign policy world.

The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty was signed by former President Bill Clinton but rejected by the Senate in 1999. Over 140 nations have ratified the ban, but 44 states that possess nuclear technology need to both sign and ratify it before it can take effect and only 35 have do so. The United States is among the key holdouts, along with China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, North Korea, and Pakistan.

Ratification of the test ban was one of several “concrete steps” Obama outlined as necessary to move toward a nuclear-free world, He also called for reducing the role of nuclear weapons in American national security strategy, negotiating a new strategic arms reduction treaty with Russia, and seeking a new treaty to end the production of fissile materials used in nuclear weapons.

Obama also said the U.S. will seek to strengthen the nuclear nonproliferation treaty by providing more resources and authority for international inspections and mandating “real and immediate consequences” for countries that violate the treaty.

Obama spoke after conferring with Czech leaders. He is nearing the end of a sweep through five nations in Europe, pivoting from the global economic swoon to the war in Afghanistan to, now, the crisis in North Korea and the fate of the nuclear world.

Pakistan aid tied to tackling terror threat: Obama

STRASBOURG: Release of additional US aid for Pakistan will be dependent on how Islamabad tackles the threat of terrorism, US President Barack Obama said on Saturday at the end of a Nato summit.

‘I informed our allies that despite difficult circumstances we are going to put more money into Pakistan, conditional on action to meet the terrorist threat,’ he told a news conference.

‘We want to bring all of our diplomatic and development skills to bear towards strengthening Pakistan in part because they have to have the capacity to take on al Qaeda within their borders.’

Obama backs Turkey EU membership bid

PRAGUE: US President Barack Obama gave his backing Sunday to Turkey’s bid to join the European Union, saying it would anchor the mainly Muslim nation in the West.

Obama seeks exit strategy from Afghanistan

WASHINGTON: US President Barak Obama has said that he wants a clear ‘exit strategy’ from Afghanistan and a diplomatic engagement with Pakistan as his administration prepares to announce its new strategy for the two countries.

Mr Obama’s stress on the need for an exit strategy for US troops from Afghanistan comes as he prepares to pour an extra 17,000 soldiers into the country.

‘What we’re looking for is a comprehensive strategy. And there’s got to be an exit strategy. There’s got to be a sense that this is not perpetual drift,’ said Mr Obama.

In an interview to CBS 60 Minutes, broadcast on Monday night, Mr Obama also spoke of the need to enhance US engagement with Pakistan. ‘We may need to improve our diplomatic efforts in Pakistan,’ he said.

Mr Obama conceded that there had to be limits to America’s ambitions and commitments in Afghanistan. ‘What we can’t do is think that just a military approach in Afghanistan is going to be able to solve our problems,’ he said.

The US president, who is expected to announce a new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan later this week, seems inclined to use a combination of military means and peace initiatives to end the Afghan conflict.

While his decision to send additional troops shows his desire for an Iraq-like success in Afghanistan, the talk of an exit strategy reflects his pragmatic approach to a war that seems to have no end.

On Sunday, the US ambassador in Kabul signalled a radical new initiative to bring the Taliban into the Afghan political process as part of growing efforts to achieve a peaceful resolution to the war. The proposal would allow the Taliban to establish a political party and put up candidates in the next elections.

Asked what the most difficult decision he has had to make since taking office, Mr Obama said: ‘I would say that the decision to send more troops into Afghanistan … it’s a weighty decision.’ The decision was difficult because it meant sending 17,000 young Americans to a war zone, he added.

‘When you end up sitting at your desk, signing a condolence letter to one of the family members of a fallen hero, you’re reminded each and every day at every moment that the decisions you make count,’ said Mr Obama.

Mr Obama also redefined the US mission in Afghanistan as uprooting the al Qaeda network from that country, and not rebuilding Afghanistan as a modern democratic state, as his predecessor George W. Bush used to say.

Asked what that mission should be, Mr Obama said, ‘Making sure that al Qaeda cannot attack the US homeland and US interests and our allies. That’s our number one priority.’

The US president also stressed the need for engaging Afghanistan’s neighbours for ending the Afghan conflict.

‘We may need to bring a more regional diplomatic approach to bear. We may need to coordinate more effectively with our allies,’ he said.

Mr Obama agreed with the interviewer that people in both Afghanistan and Pakistan have begun to believe that the US was another foreign power trying to take over the region.

‘’I’m very mindful of that. And so is my national security team. So is the Pentagon,’ said Mr Obama.

‘Afghanistan is not going to be easy in many ways. And this is not my assessment. This is the assessment of commanders on the ground,’ he explained.

‘Iraq was actually easier than Afghanistan. It’s easier terrain. You’ve got a much better educated population, infrastructure to build off of. You don’t have some of the same destabilizing border issues that you have between Afghanistan and Pakistan,’ he added.

President Obama said that the Bush administration’s policies had helped terrorists by encouraging a ‘constant effective recruitment of Arab fighters and Muslim fighters against US interests all around the world.’

Mr Obama said that if this legacy was allowed to continue it will turn the entire Muslim world against the United States.

‘Let’s assume that we didn’t change these practices. How long are we gonna go? Are we gonna just keep on going until you know, the entire Muslim world and Arab world despises us? Do we think that’s really gonna make us safer?’ he asked.

Obama admin. launches plan to free credit markets

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration launched a new effort Monday to end a paralysis in lending, saying it will team with investors with the goal of buying up to a trillion dollars of bad assets from banks that have been reluctant to make loans to consumers and companies.

In announcing the program, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner pleaded for patience, saying that work to rehabilitate an industry with such systemic problems must go forward despite “deep anger and outrage” over executive bonus payments.

Geithner’s performance in President Barack Obama’s Cabinet has come under heavy criticism from some in Congress. The secretary announced the initiative in a Treasury Department room with no cameras allowed. He was with Obama later in the morning, however, when the president spoke briefly, saying he was “very confident” the latest plan will succeed.

Obama called it “one more critical element” in a multi-pronged effort to revive the economy and said the depressed housing market is beginning to show glimmers of hope. Sales of previously occupied homes jumped unexpectedly in February by the largest amount in nearly six years, a spike attributed to first-time buyers taking advantage of deep discounts on foreclosures and other distressed properties.

Geithner said the new program will initially seek to harness government and private resources to purchase a half-trillion dollars of bad assets off the balance sheets of banks and said he expects that purchases eventually could grow to $1 trillion.

Treasury officials had no firm forecast on when the government would begin making the asset purchases although market expectations were that the process could begin within weeks. “We’re moving as quickly as we can,” Geithner said in an interview on CNBC.

Wall Street seemed to feel rejuvenated. In late afternoon trading, the Dow Jones industrial average was up more than 300 points, quite a difference from the 380-point plunge on Feb. 10 when Geithner unveiled the first version of the administration’s bailout overhaul.

Banking officials praised the outlines of the program and expressed optimism that it will work.

“We are very supportive,” said Scott Talbott, senior vice president of government affairs for the Financial Services Roundtable. “We think it is a useful tool in the arsenal against liquidity problems.”

The administration’s newest toxic-asset repellant was another in a string of banking initiatives that have included efforts to deal directly with mortgage foreclosures, boost lending to small businesses and thaw out the credit markets for many types of consumer loans.

Administration officials said the plan put forth Monday will deploy $75 billion to $100 billion from the government’s existing $700 billion bailout program for the purchase of bad assets — resources that will be supported by loans from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and a loan facility being operated by the Federal Reserve.

Under a typical transaction, for every $100 in soured mortgages being purchased from banks, the private sector would put up $7 and that would be matched by $7 from the government. The remaining $86 would be covered by a government loan provided in many cases by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Whereas Geithner suggested there was no alternative to the plan, Republicans said otherwise. House GOP Whip Eric Cantor said he hoped the administration would consider instead an earlier GOP proposal to set up a government-sponsored insurance program for mortgage-related securities.

Cantor, R-Va., called Obama’s plan a “shell game” that hid the true cost.

“As described, the plan seems to offer little incentive for private investors to participate unless the subsidy is made so rich that it comes at the expense of the taxpayer,” Cantor said in a statement.

Geithner was scheduled to testify on Tuesday before the House Financial Services Committee.

The secretary defended the decision to have the government carry so much of the risk. He said the alternative would have been to do nothing and risk a more prolonged recession or have the government carry all of the risk.

Geithner also said there would be significant advantages from having private market participants bidding against each other to set prices for which the bad assets will be purchased. “There is no doubt the government is taking risks,” he told reporters. “You can’t solve a financial crisis without the government taking risks.”

Devising bailout plans has never been easy work, and the brouhaha surrounding millions in executive retention bonuses paid out by financially strapped American Insurance Group, Inc., hasn’t improved the political atmosphere.

Officials said they expect participation by a broad array of investors ranging from pension funds and insurance companies to hedge funds. To achieve that goal, the program would be set up to entice private investors with low-cost loans provided by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Federal Reserve. The government itself would shoulder the bulk of the risk.

Geithner has said that the country cannot afford to simply wait for banks to work off these bad assets over time.

Christina Romer, who heads the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said: “It’s absolutely about helping a system so that people can get their student loans, and that families can buy their house and buy their cars, and small businesses can get their loans.”

The government has been struggling since the credit crisis hit last fall to figure out a way to sop up the bad assets, many of them involving home loans. Former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson never did come up with a solution and the Obama team has been wrestling with the same thorny problems of how to price the assets and make sure the government’s resources are up to the task.

The program surfaced after a week of Wall Street-bashing in Congress, where lawmakers were outraged with the action by troubled insurance company American International Group Inc. to distribute $165 million in bonuses after obtaining more than $170 billion in government bailouts to remain in business.

Some hedge funds and other investors have expressed reluctance to participate in the new program for fear that Congress will subject them to what they view as onerous restrictions on executive compensation.

But administration officials insisted that they believe they have found the right mix to attract private investors and make a dent in what, by some estimates, could be more than $2 trillion in troubled assets on banks’ books.

Source: Yahoo News

Obama calls AIG bonuses an ‘outrage’

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama Monday said multi-million-dollar bonuses planned for executives and traders at bailed-out insurance giant AIG were an “outrage” and vowed to pursue a clampdown.

“How do they justify this outrage to the taxpayers who are keeping the company afloat?” he said at the White House, pledging to “pursue every legal avenue to block these bonuses and make the American taxpayers whole.”

source : jang.com.pk

Obama takes on teachers’ unions

After weeks of pleasing Democrats by overturning policies set by the previous administration, President Barack Obama Tuesday will for the first time confront a powerful constituency in his own party: teachers’ unions.

Obama will propose spending additional money to reward effective teachers in up to 150 additional school districts, fulfilling a campaign promise that once earned him boos from members of the National Education Association.

Obama’s plan to embrace merit pay will come in a speech before the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Washington, say administration officials who briefed reporters. Teachers’ unions say merit pay causes teachers to compete against each other, rather than collaborate, and is unfair to those who work in disadvantaged areas where it can be harder to boost student performance.

But polls show the policy is overwhelmingly supported by the public, and it offers Obama a chance both to burnish his reformer credentials and point to a split from party orthodoxy.

In addition to rewarding good teachers, Obama also will seek to push out those who aren’t getting results.

“He supports improved professional development and mentoring for new and less effective teachers, and will insist on shaping new processes to remove ineffective teachers,” said a background statement issued by the White House.

The Obama officials didn’t elaborate on how much he would spend on a merit pay program, or how he would propose to weed out bad teachers, but there is money included in the stimulus package for improved tools to track teacher performance.

Notably, the administration officials also avoided discussing No Child Left Behind – the federal education standards set by President George W. Bush – and made clear that Obama won’t be addressing the law in his speech.

“The president is not calling tomorrow for specific amendments to No Child Left Behind,” said a senior administration official.

The law is deeply unpopular with teachers’ unions, and Obama railed against it during the campaign, where it was listed as the very first issue on his website’s education page.

Obama will use his address to challenge states to implement “world-class standards,” a senior official said, but he won’t propose specific benchmarks they must meet.

In a move that may make the merit pay proposal more palatable for teachers’ unions, Obama will speak out against the current standardized tests so loathed by educators in favor of upgraded assessments and better data systems for tracking student progress.

Obama also plans to:

• Tout grants in his budget that would bolster data collection among early education programs.

• Address the drop-out rate as “a new national priority,” with a specific eye on the 2,000 American high schools that produce more than half of the country’s dropouts.

• Link the growth in Pell Grants to the rate of inflation to ensure regular increases as part of a goal of having the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020.

source : news.yahoo.com

Obama challenges lobbyists to legislative duel

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama challenged the nation’s vested interests to a legislative duel Saturday, saying he will fight to change health care, energy and education in dramatic ways that will upset the status quo.

“The system we have now might work for the powerful and well-connected interests that have run Washington for far too long,” Obama said in his weekly radio and video address. “But I don’t. I work for the American people.”

He said the ambitious budget plan he presented Thursday will help millions of people, but only if Congress overcomes resistance from deep-pocket lobbies.

“I know these steps won’t sit well with the special interests and lobbyists who are invested in the old way of doing business, and I know they’re gearing up for a fight,” Obama said, using tough-guy language reminiscent of his predecessor, George W. Bush. “My message to them is this: So am I.”

The bring-it-on tone underscored Obama’s combative side as he prepares for a drawn-out battle over his tax and spending proposals. Sometimes he uses more conciliatory language and stresses the need for bipartisanship. Often he favors lofty, inspirational phrases.

On Saturday, he was a full-throated populist, casting himself as the people’s champion confronting special interest groups that care more about themselves and the wealthy than about the average American.

Some analysts say Obama’s proposals are almost radical. But he said all of them were included in his campaign promises. “It is the change the American people voted for in November,” he said.

Nonetheless, he said, well-financed interest groups will fight back furiously.

Insurance companies will dislike having “to bid competitively to continue offering Medicare coverage, but that’s how we’ll help preserve and protect Medicare and lower health care costs,” the president said. “I know that banks and big student lenders won’t like the idea that we’re ending their huge taxpayer subsidies, but that’s how we’ll save taxpayers nearly $50 billion and make college more affordable. I know that oil and gas companies won’t like us ending nearly $30 billion in tax breaks, but that’s how we’ll help fund a renewable energy economy.”

Passing the budget, even with a Democratic-controlled Congress, “won’t be easy,” Obama said. “Because it represents real and dramatic change, it also represents a threat to the status quo in Washington.”

Obama also promoted his economic proposals in a video message to a group meeting in Los Angeles on “the state of the black union.”

“We have done more in these past 30 days to bring about progressive change than we have in the past many years,” the president in remarks the White House released in advance. “We are closing the gap between the nation we are and the nation we can be by implementing policies that will speed our recovery and build a foundation for lasting prosperity and opportunity.”

Congressional Republicans continued to bash Obama’s spending proposals and his projection of a $1.75 trillion deficit this year.

Almost every day brings another “multibillion-dollar government spending plan being proposed or even worse, passed,” said Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., who gave the GOP’s weekly address.

He said Obama is pushing “the single largest increase in federal spending in the history of the United States, while driving the deficit to levels that were once thought impossible.”

source : news.yahoo.com

Obama taps Sebelius for HHS secretary

WASHINGTON – Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is President Barack Obama’s choice for secretary of health and human services, a White House source said Saturday.

The source, who was not authorized to speak on the record, said Obama will formally announce the nomination on Monday.

Sebelius, 60, was an early Obama supporter. She picked his presidential campaign over that of Hillary Rodham Clinton, now the secretary of state. Sebelius worked tirelessly for Obama’s bid and was a top surrogate to women’s groups.

Obama’s first choice for HHS, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, withdrew after disclosing he had failed to pay $140,000 in taxes and interest.

Sebelius drew praise for the consumer watchdog role she played as Kansas insurance commissioner for eight years before she became governor.

Her name had been floated for several Cabinet posts. She said in December that she had removed herself from consideration from a Cabinet job, citing Kansas’ budget problems that needed her attention.

Sebelius is in the middle of her second term as governor and is legally barred from seeking a third term next year. Many Democrats had hoped she would finish her term and run for the U.S. Senate seat that Republican Sam Brownback is giving up in 2010.

Kansas has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1932, and Sebelius was seen as the best chance for breaking that string. She comes from a strong political family. Her father, John Gilligan, was the governor of Ohio in the early 1970s.

Abortion foes strongly oppose Sebelius because she once had a reception attended by a late-term abortion provider who now faces criminal charges. Democrats say there was never any doubt that Obama would appoint an HHS secretary who supports abortion rights.

Sebelius will be subject to confirmation by the Democratic-controlled Senate.

source : news.yahoo.com

Obama chooses Gary Locke for commerce secretary

WASHINGTON – Hoping the third time will be the charm, President Barack Obama named former Washington Gov. Gary Locke as his nominee for Commerce secretary Wednesday.

“I’m sure it’s not lost on anyone that we’ve tried this a couple of times. But I’m a big believer in keeping at something until you get it right,” Obama said, standing with the fellow Democrat in the Indian Treaty Room at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building near the White House.

The president’s two top earlier choices for the post dropped out — one a Democrat facing questions about a donor and the other a Republican who had a change of heart about working for a president from the opposition party — well before the Senate had a chance to confirm them.

Obama praised Locke as a man who shares his vision for turning around the economy, and someone who knows the American dream. “He’s lived it and that’s why he shares my commitment to do whatever it takes to keep it alive in our time,” Obama said.

“I’m grateful he’s agreed to leave one Washington for another,” the president added.

In turn, Locke said: “The American people and I fully support you and have confidence in your bold strategy to turn our economy around.” He said he was committed to making the sprawling department an “active and integral partner” in advancing Obama’s agenda.

A Democrat, Locke was the nation’s first Chinese-American governor, serving two terms from 1997 to 2005.

If confirmed by the Senate, he would assume control of a large agency with a broad portfolio that includes overseeing the 2010 national head count, oceans policy and many aspects of international trade.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Maybe the third time will be the charm. President Barack Obama can only hope.

He is set to name former Washington Gov. Gary Locke as his commerce secretary on Wednesday after his top two choices for the post fell through.

A Democrat, Locke was the nation’s first Chinese-American governor, serving two terms from 1997 to 2005.

If confirmed by the Senate, he would assume control of a large agency with a broad portfolio that includes overseeing the 2010 national head count, oceans policy and many aspects of international trade.

The president initially tapped New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a fellow Democrat, for the Cabinet post. He withdrew in January, before Obama took office, after the disclosure that a grand jury is investigating allegations of wrongdoing in the awarding of contracts in his state.

A month later, Obama announced that Republican Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire had accepted the job. But a week after that, Gregg stepped down, citing “irresolvable conflicts” with the policies of the Democratic president.

Even after Obama makes Locke’s selection official, his Cabinet still won’t be complete. He still does not have a health and human services secretary; former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle withdrew his nomination for that post amid a tax controversy. Among those under consideration to replace him is Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.

Locke, 59, works for the Seattle-based law firm Davis Wright Tremaine on issues involving China, energy and governmental relations.

He still must get through Senate confirmation hearings to assume the post, and there are a number of issues over which he may face questions.

Locke was briefly linked to the scandal over foreign contributions to President Bill Clinton’s 1996 campaign. In July 1998, he gave a deposition to the House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight about his relationships with questioned Clinton donors. But the committee later said the deposition produced no evidence that Locke knowingly accepted illegal campaign donations.

Locke denied any wrongdoing, and he subsequently returned some checks tied to people implicated in the fundraising scandal, including $750 from John Huang. The former Commerce Department official was the Democratic Party’s chief fundraiser for the Asian-American population in the 1996 elections, and he became one of the central figures in the national Democratic Party fundraising scandal.

In December 1997, Locke’s political committee was fined a maximum $2,500 by state regulators after it admitted breaking campaign finance laws during two out-of-state fundraisers in 1996.

And in March 1998, state investigators cleared Locke of wrongdoing following complaints that he unlawfully took $10,000 in campaign contributions from members of a Buddhist church.

source : news.yahoo.com

Obama to address Congress, nation on economy

WASHINGTON – Barreling ahead on a mammoth agenda, Barack Obama is ready to offer a detailed sketch of the first year of his presidency, casting the nation’s bleeding economy as a tangle of tough, neglected problems.

In a prime-time speech to Congress and millions watching at home, Obama will make his case Tuesday that much more has to be done to turn around the economy — a message he knows he must explain.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Tuesday that Obama will provide more details about his financial stability plan and measures to help the economy while delivering “a sober assessment about where we are and the challenges we face.”

“He’ll say we’re on the right path to meeting these challenges, and there are better days ahead,” Gibbs said.

Obama approaches this moment riding a strong, upbeat sentiment among the public. Overall, 68 percent of people approve of his job performance, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds. A New York Times/CBS News polls finds that more than three-quarters of those surveyed were optimistic about the next four years with Obama in charge, and similar majorities said they were confident in his ability to make the right decisions about the economy.

Still, the president faces steep challenges. The nation is nearly dizzy keeping up with what’s emerged from Washington during Obama’s first weeks as president, from a staggering $787 billion stimulus plan to a revamped bailout for the financial sector to a rescue plan for struggling homeowners.

And investors are dour. Wall Street took another pounding Monday, with the Dow Jones industrial average tumbling to its lowest close since 1997.

Although Obama is too new in office to be delivering a State of the Union address, his speech will have all the same trappings. It comes two days before he delivers a budget blueprint to Congress. Unlike that detail-driven document, his address will be broad, spelling out what he wants and how he will do it.

The economy, in its worst tailspin in decades, will dominate. Obama will touch on foreign policy, but that will largely be left for other upcoming speeches. This will not be a rollout of one policy initiative after another.

Obama will make clear that the trillion-dollar-plus deficit is one he “inherited.” In other words, he wants to remind people that President George W. Bush and the previous Congress left him a big hole, forcing him to pursue the costly stimulus package.

The president will push for movement on ensuring health coverage for all Americans. He will seek to expand educational opportunities, and diversify the country’s energy sources, and contain sacred entitlements like Social Security, and halve the soaring budget deficit in four years.

His rhetorical mission is to show not only how all those pieces connect to the health of the economy, but why they must be pursued simultaneously.

Gunning for so much at once is complicated, both in terms of the issues themselves and the politics. Senior presidential adviser David Axelrod acknowledged Monday there is a risk in taking on too much.

“I think the bigger concern,” he said, “is to not be aggressive at a time when a tepid approach could really consign us to a long-term economic catastrophe. We believe the times demand vigor and aggressive action, and so we’re having to do a lot of things at once.”

Rep. Darrell Issa of California, the top Republican on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said Obama’s speech amounts to a coming-out party.

“You never know what a salesman’s going to sell you until he shows up at your door,” Issa said of his expectations. “If he gives us a narrow set of priorities that can be executed, and they don’t just involve more spending, then I think it will be refreshing. If he gives us a long laundry list, which most presidents do, then although it will set the agenda … it won’t be as meaningful.”

In many ways, though, Obama will be speaking directly to the American people. Daily followers of Obama’s rhetoric are not likely to be surprised by Obama’s words, some of which will be repeats. He is trying to reach millions of people who don’t get to hear him every day.

So Obama will say that the crises facing the nation are so large they can only be solved in bipartisan ways. He will be blunt about the country’s woes but try to balance that talk with optimism. He will talk about his travels as president so he can focus on the stories of communities outside Washington.

Asked in an MSNBC interview how the president plans to make good on his pledge to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term, Gibbs said, “The biggest thing we’re going to do is cut the amount of money we spend each year in Iraq.”

He said Obama also planned to talk about necessary investments and about taxes.

“I think the president believes very clearly that we have to be honest about where we are,” Gibbs said. “Tonight, he will tell the country that we’ve faced greater challenges than we face now and we’ve always met those challenges.”

There is sure to be ceremony as Obama arrives in the well of the House. His speech is tentatively at 45 minutes, accounting for applause time.

source : news.yahoo.com

Official: Obama plans to slash deficit in half

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama has committed hundreds of billions of dollars to help revive the economy and is working on a plan to cut the federal deficit in half by the end of his first term.

Obama will touch on his efforts to restore fiscal discipline at a White House fiscal policy summit on Monday and in an address to Congress on Tuesday. On Thursday he plans to send at least a summary of his first budget request to Capitol Hill. The bottom line, said an administration official Saturday, is to halve the federal deficit to $533 billion by the time his first term ends in 2013. He inherited a deficit of about $1.3 trillion from former President George W. Bush.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the president has not yet released his budget for the fiscal year 2010, which begins Oct. 1, said the deficit will be shrunk by scaling back Iraq war spending, ending the temporary tax breaks enacted by the Bush administration for those making $250,000 or more a year, and streamlining government.

“We can’t generate sustained growth without getting our deficits under control,” Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address that seemed to preview his intentions. He said his budget will be “sober in its assessments, honest in its accounting, and lays out in detail my strategy for investing in what we need, cutting what we don’t, and restoring fiscal discipline.”

Republicans were not convinced. They said Obama’s plan would hurt small businesses, including many filing taxes as individuals and possibly facing higher taxes under his plan.

“I don’t think raising taxes is a great idea,” Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “And when our good friends on the other side of the aisle say raising the taxes on the wealthy, what they’re really talking about is small business.”

Obama’s budget also is expected to take steps toward his campaign promises of establishing universal health care and lessening the country’s reliance on foreign oil.

Obama has pledged to make deficit reduction a priority both as a candidate and a president. But he also has said economic recovery must come first.

Last week, he signed into law the $787 billion stimulus measure that is meant to create jobs but certainly will add to the nation’s skyrocketing national debt. He also is implementing the $700 billion financial sector rescue passed on Bush’s watch; about $75 billion of which is being used toward Obama’s plan to help homeowners facing foreclosure.

source : news.yahoo.com

Obama backs Bush: No rights for Bagram prisoners

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama’s Justice Department sided with the former Bush administration on Friday, saying detainees in Afghanistan have no constitutional rights.

In a two-sentence court filing, department lawyers said the Obama administration agreed that detainees at Bagram Air Base could not use U.S. courts to challenge their detention. The filing shocked human rights attorneys.

“The hope we all had in President Obama to lead us on a different path has not turned out as we’d hoped,” said Tina Monshipour Foster, a human rights attorney representing a detainee at the Bagram Air Base. “We all expected better.”

In midyear last year, the Supreme Court gave al-Qaida and Taliban suspects held at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the right to challenge their detention. With about 600 detainees at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan and thousands more held in Iraq courts are grappling with whether they, too, can sue to be released. Three months after the Supreme Court’s ruling on Guantanamo Bay, four Afghan citizens being detained at Bagram tried to challenge their detentions in U.S. District Court in Washington.

After Obama took office, a federal judge in Washington gave the new administration a month to decide whether it wanted to stand by Bush’s legal argument. Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd says the filing speaks for itself. “They’ve now embraced the Bush policy that you can create prisons outside the law,” said Jonathan Hafetz, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union who has represented several detainees. The Justice Department argues that Bagram is different from Guantanamo Bay because it is in an overseas war zone and the prisoners there are being held as part of a continuing military action. The government argues that releasing enemy combatants into the Afghan war zone, or even diverting U.S. personnel there to consider their legal cases, could threaten security.

source : jang.com.pk

Obama honors Lincoln’s vision of strong union

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – Summoning the pride of a nation, President Barack Obama paid fond tribute Thursday to Abraham Lincoln by challenging people to embrace his vision of a collective union and reject a “knee-jerk disdain for government.”

“He recognized that while each of us must do our part, work as hard as we can and be as responsible as we can — in the end, there are certain things we cannot do on our own,” Obama said of Lincoln at a celebration of the revered president’s 200th birthday.

“There are certain things we can only do together,” Obama said. “There are certain things only a union can do.”

Here in the place that Lincoln called home, and from where Obama launched his presidential bid, the new president’s speech capped his third event honoring Lincoln’s bicentennial.

It was a whirlwind day for Obama. He squeezed in economic comments in East Peoria, Ill., and coped with the abrupt withdrawal of another commerce secretary nominee.

The stories of Obama and Lincoln have become entwined by history, geography and symbolism. Their paths are viewed as not just their own, but the country’s as well — a lineage from the man who freed the slaves to the first black president in U.S. history.

Obama said Lincoln understood that self-reliance was at the core of American life. But Obama said individual liberty is “served, not negated, by a recognition of the common good.”

The pendulum, Obama said, has swung too far toward a philosophy that says government is the problem — a notion that it should be dismantled, with tax breaks for the wealthy that might eventually help out everyone.

“Such knee-jerk disdain for government — this constant rejection of any common endeavor — cannot rebuild our levees or our roads or our bridges,” Obama said. His list of collective examples went on: better schools, modern health care, an economy built on clean energy.

“Only a nation can do these things,” Obama said. “Only by coming together, all of us, and expressing that sense of shared sacrifice and responsibility … can we do the work that must be done in this country. That is the very definition of being American.”

Earlier Thursday, back in Washington, Obama celebrated Lincoln’s resolve at a ceremony in the stately Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. And he spent Wednesday evening at a performance at the newly renovated Ford’s Theatre, where Lincoln was assassinated in 1865.

Like Lincoln, Obama is a skinny lawyer who rose from obscurity and served briefly in the Illinois legislature before leaping to national office at a time of burgeoning crisis.

Still, the White House is mindful to limit the comparison, whatever the parallels.

Lincoln is a monumental figure who fought to preserve the union, presided over the enormously costly Civil War and signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

Obama has been president for less than a month.

“This president isn’t seeking to compare himself with I think what many believe is one of the two or three greatest presidents that this country’s ever had,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said.

That Obama often operates in Lincoln’s shadow is largely a matter of choice. He admires the 16th president, reads his language, quotes his speeches and draws on him for inspiration.

source : news.yahoo.com

Obama pays personal tribute to Abraham Lincoln

President Barack Obama is paying a very personal tribute to Abraham Lincoln on the former president’s 200th birthday. Obama said in prepared remarks Thursday that he feels “a special gratitude” to the historical giant, who in many ways made his own story possible.

The White House released in advance Obama’s remarks to a Lincoln bicentennial celebration in the stately Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol.

On Thursday night, Obama will deliver the keynote address at the Abraham Lincoln Association’s annual banquet in Springfield, Ill.

In Washington, Obama’s remarks summoned the attention of the nation at war and in crisis, exhorting people to remember Lincoln’s singular priority of unity.

source : news.yahoo.com

Economic stimulus package on track for final votes

WASHINGTON – Economic stimulus legislation at the heart of President Barack Obama’s recovery plan is on track for final votes Friday in the House and Senate after a dizzying final round of bargaining that yielded agreement on tax cuts and spending totaling $789 billion.

Obama, who has campaigned energetically for the legislation, welcomed the agreement, saying it would “save or create more than 3.5 million jobs and get our economy back on track.”

The $500-per-worker credit for lower- and middle-income taxpayers that Obama outlined during his presidential campaign was scaled back to $400 during bargaining by the Democratic-controlled Congress and White House. Couples would receive $800 instead of $1,000. Over two years, that move would pump about $25 billion less into the economy than had been previously planned.

Officials estimated it would mean about $13 a week more in people’s paychecks this year when withholding tables are adjusted in late spring. Next year, the measure could yield workers about $8 a week. Critics say that’s unlikely to do much to boost consumption.

“The most highly touted tax cut in the original proposal now translates into $7.70 a week for middle-class workers,” said Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

Millions of people receiving Social Security benefits would get a one-time payment of $250 under the agreement, along with veterans receiving pensions, and poor people receiving Supplemental Security Income payments.

An additional $46 billion would go to transportation projects such as highway, bridge and mass transit construction; many lawmakers wanted more.

Brendan Daly, spokesman for Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Don Stewart, an aide to McConnell, said final votes are likely in the House and Senate on Friday.

The Obama plan offers a 60 percent subsidy to help unemployed people pay health insurance premiums under the COBRA program and divvies up $87 billion among the states to help them with their Medicaid costs for the next two years. It provides $19 billion to modernize health information technology systems, even though such funding will create few jobs right away.

To tamp down costs, several tax provisions were dropped or sharply cut back. A provision popular with Republicans and the big business lobby that would have awarded about $54 billion to money-losing businesses over the next two years was instead limited to small businesses, greatly reducing its cost.

A $15,000 tax credit for anybody buying a home over the next year was dropped; instead, first-time homebuyers could claim an $8,000 credit for homes bought by the end of August. Car buyers could deduct the sales tax they paid on a new car but not the interest on their car loans.

But nothing could shake negotiators from insisting on including $70 billion to shelter middle- to upper-income taxpayers from the alternative minimum tax, originally passed a generation ago to make sure the super-rich didn’t avoid taxes.

The move is aimed at easing political and logistical headaches for lawmakers who wanted to do the so-called AMT “patch” now rather than later. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that provision will have relatively little impact on the economy.

In late-stage talks, Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., pressed for $8 billion to construct high-speed rail lines, quadrupling the amount in the bill that passed the Senate on Tuesday.

Reid’s office issued a statement noting that a proposed Los Angeles-to-Las Vegas rail might get a big chunk of the money.

Scaling back the bill to levels lower than either the $838 billion Senate measure or the original $820 billion House-passed measure caused grumbling among liberal Democrats, who described the cutbacks as a concession to the moderates, particularly Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who are feeling heat from constituents for supporting the bill.

Specter played an active role, however, in making sure $10 billion for the National Institutes of Health, a pet priority, wasn’t cut back.

After final agreements were sealed Wednesday afternoon, staff aides worked into the night drafting and double-checking in hopes of officially unveiling the measure Thursday.

source : jang.com.pk

Creator of iconic Obama ‘Hope” poster arrested for graffiti: report

WASHINGTON: The artist, who created the iconic pop-art portrait, which became the unofficial logo for Barack Obama’s insurgent White House bid, has been arrested in Boston for defacing property with graffiti, US media reported Saturday.

Artist Shepard Fairey was arrested in Boston late Friday on warrants for defacing property with graffiti, the Boston Herald and other media outlets reported.

source : jang.com.pk

South Asian chasm of mistrust awaits Obama’s envoy

ISLAMABAD: Richard Holbrooke, President Barack Obama’s troubleshooter for Pakistan and Afghanistan, will visit Islamabad on Monday before going to Kabul and New Delhi to devise a grand strategy to rid the region of Islamist militancy.

Russia welcomes Biden offer to “reset” ties

MUNICH: Russia welcomed on Sunday an offer by the United States “to press the reset button” on ties with Moscow, in a sign the former Cold War rivals could repair strained ties under U.S. President Barack Obama.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said in a speech to the annual Munich Security Conference on Saturday that it was time to end a dangerous drift in ties between Washington and Moscow. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov applauded that message ahead of a meeting with Biden on Sunday, the first high-level meeting between the United States and Russia since Obama took office last month.

Ivanov said Biden’s speech was “very positive”. Asked specifically what he had found positive in Biden’s comments, said, “restarting the button”.

source : jang.com.pk

Obama hails Senate stimulus plan breakthrough

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama on Saturday hailed a provisional deal reached in the US Senate on a economic stimulus plan offering Americans relief from a “devastating” and worsening recession.

“In the midst of our greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression, the American people were hoping that Congress would begin to confront the great challenges we face,” he said the morning after Senate Democrats and a handful of Republicans forged a plan to pump at least 780 billion dollars into the ailing US economy.

“The scale and scope of this plan is right. And the time for action is now,” said Obama in a radio address, calling the breakthrough after days of debate “positive,” even though the deal has generated scant Republican support.

If the measure clears the Senate, it woud be reconciled with a similar, albeit less costly House of Representatives bill. Both chambers of Congress would then vote on the resulting final product, which Obama has said he wants to see on his desk by February 16.

Lawmakers were to resume debate on the measure in a rare Saturday session, with a vote likely on Monday.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid signaled that he believed his 58 Democratic senators had enough Republican support to secure the 60 votes needed to thwart any legislative delaying tactics. Obama also urged lawmakers to approve the measure without delay.

“If we don’t move swiftly to put this plan in motion, our economic crisis could become a national catastrophe,” he said.

“Millions of Americans will lose their jobs, their homes, and their health care. Millions more will have to put their dreams on hold.”

He lauded the draft measure as one providing “jobs that rebuild our crumbling roads, bridges and levees and dams,” and which provides “immediate tax relief for our struggling middle class.”

The deal came on the same day as the release of figures which showed that nearly 600,000 jobs were lost in January, making more than 3.6 million jobs lost since the start off the recession.

source : jang.com.pk

Pentagon may take control of US nuclear stockpile

WASHINGTON: Obama administration is considering the idea to hand over the US nuclear stockpile to the Pentagon.

According to a US newspaper, the US nuclear weapons program is currently under the Department of Energy (DOE) and the US government wants the Pentagon to take control of this program so that the DOE could focus more on research and preservation of energy initiatives.

The White House has directed both the departments to prepare a detailed report in this regard and a deadline of September 30 has been set for the purpose.

source : jang.com.pk

Obama stimulus plan faces changes in Senate

WASHINGTON – A top Republican called for more mortgage relief and additional tax cuts in President Barack Obama’s massive economic stimulus package as Democrats conceded privately they will drop items that have drawn bipartisan criticism.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters Monday that “a stimulus bill must fix the main problem first, and that’s housing.” He promised that Republicans would offer a plan to have the government step in to reduce mortgage rates to the 4 percent range, which could shore up home prices and lower housing payments for millions of Americans.

At the same time, two questionable items in the plan — $75 million for smoking cessation programs and $400 million to slow the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases — have already been dropped from the most recent draft of the measure.

The Senate planned to begin debate on the legislation Monday and the process was likely to stretch into next week.

Democrats were prepared to offer amendments to add $20-$30 billion more for infrastructure programs such as roads, bridges, mass transit and water projects, according to Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.

Schumer also said Democrats would support a GOP-backed idea to double a home buyers tax credit from $7,500 to $15,000 and make it available to all home buyers instead of those purchasing their first home.

The bill is a major test for Obama and Democrats controlling the Senate. There’s unrest among Democrats such as Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., and Ben Nelson, D-Neb., who have expressed concern that many of the items in the sprawling measure won’t do much to stimulate the economy.

The price tag is already approaching $900 billion — and it’s likely to grow during Senate debate.

The Senate measure is broadly similar to an $819 billion plan that passed the House last week. It contains almost $350 billion in tax cuts, including a two-year temporary $500-per-worker or $1,000-per-couple tax cut. There’s also a $2,500 college tuition tax credit.

For businesses, there’s a plan to infuse cash into money-losing companies by allowing them to claim tax credits on past profits, as well as incentives for investments in new plants and equipment.

The bill also contains extensive public spending: An extension and temporary increase in unemployment benefits; about $87 billion to help states with Medicaid bills; and aid to schools.

Infrastructure projects would also get a boost under the Senate plan, including $27 billion for road and bridge construction and repair, $20 billion to repair and renovate school and university buildings, and $9 billion for improved access to broadband.

The Senate plan also contains an approximately $70 billion provision to ensure that 24 million tax filers won’t get trapped by the alternative minimum tax. The AMT was designed four decades ago to make sure wealthy taxpayers pay at least some tax, but it never was adjusted for inflation and therefore threatens to trap millions of people for whom it was never designed.

The White House and some Democrats had resisted the AMT provision, arguing that it wouldn’t do much to boost the economy since Congress was virtually certain to address the issue later anyway.

source :

Pak needs no lectures on war against terror: Zardari

ISLAMABAD: Advocating the need for recasting Pakistan-U.S. relationship into a long-term partnership for peace, stability and development, President Asif Ali Zardari Wednesday asked President Barack Obama to help resolve the lingering Kashmir dispute that remains at the heart of South Asian unrest and challenges like extremism.

“President Obama understands that for Pakistan to defeat the extremists, it must be stable. For democracy to succeed, Pakistan must be economically viable,” Zardari wrote in a US newspaper article in which he congratulated the new U.S. leader on assumption of office and extended Pakistan’s “hand in friendship”.

As part of economic empowerment efforts, President Zardari called for swift progress towards realization of economic assistance expansion initiative (Biden-Lugar legislation) in Congress as well as the preferential trade program of reconstruction opportunity zones and said, “assistance to Pakistan is not charity.”

“The water crisis in Pakistan is directly linked to relations with India. Resolution could prevent an environmental catastrophe in South Asia, but failure to do so could fuel the fires of discontent that lead to extremism and terrorism. We applaud the president’s desire to engage our nation and India to defuse the tensions between us”, he said.

“Unlike in the 1980s, we are surrogates for no one. With all due respect, we need no lectures on our commitment. This is our war. It is our children and wives who are dying”, the president added.

Zardari renewed Pakistan’s determination to curb the menace of terrorism in its own interest and called for equipping Pakistan with modern security tools and technology to proactively fight the terrorists “on our terms”.

source : jang.com.pk

Obama to make first Pentagon visit

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama will make a short trip from the White House to the Pentagon on Wednesday, for fresh “unvarnished” advice from military brass on his Iraq withdrawal plan and the Afghan war.

In his first week in office, the new US commander-in-chief Obama has already instructed military planners to draw up proposals which would allow him to honor his campaign pledge to get most troops out of Iraq within 16 months.

The meetings on Wednesday were the latest step of a process initiated by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to introduce Obama to all the key players in formulating his war strategy, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

The president will get to meet “all the people that are involved in these decisions and all the people that are involved in committing the lives of men and women in our uniform,” said Gibbs.

source : jang.com.pk

US ready to cut Karzai adrift

WASHINGTON: The US administration hinted that President Barack Obama would take strong stance about Afghan President Hamid Karzai whereas new US policy for Afghanistan would be based on war rather than development.

US officials said Karzai is considered to be a big hindrance in the way of attainment of US objectives in Afghanistan.

International support for Mr Karzai has waned spectacularly, amid worsening violence, endemic corruption and weak leadership. But until very recently, diplomats insisted there were no viable alternatives even as fighting has intensified and the Taliban insurgency in the south has grown.

Mr Obama has already started getting to grips with the challenge of Afghanistan; he received a briefing on the coming American troop “surge” from General David Petraeus, his first full day in the Oval Office. Last night, Mr Obama appointed the veteran diplomat Richard Holbrooke as his new special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

source : jang.com.pk

Obama calls for quick action on stimulus

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama says the nation can’t afford “distractions” or “delays” when it comes to the economic stimulus plan working its way through Congress.

Obama pointed to job cuts taking place at companies including Microsoft, Intel, United Airlines and Home Depot. And he said it means more working men and women “whose families have been disrupted and whose dreams have been put on hold.”

Obama told reporters Monday the government owes it to “every American” to act with a “sense of urgency” and “common purpose.”

Senate committees are scheduled to take up the massive economic stimulus package Tuesday and the full House is expected to vote on its version of the $825 billion plan Wednesday. Republicans want the recovery package tilted more toward tax cuts.

Obama said these “extraordinary times” call for “swift and extraordinary action.”

source : news.yahoo.com

Obama targets greenhouse gases, fuel efficiency

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama took aim Monday at the lofty but long elusive goal of making the nation more energy independent, ordering reviews that could lead to tougher auto emission standards in states and higher pressure on automakers to produce more fuel-efficient cars.

Attacking a Bush administration policy, Obama directed the Environmental Protection Agency to re-examine whether California and other states should be allowed to have tougher auto emission standards to combat a build up of greenhouse gases.

Obama also directed his administration to get moving on new fuel-efficiency guidelines for the auto industry in time to cover 2011 model-year cars.

“For the sake of our security, our economy and our planet, we must have the courage and commitment to change,” Obama said in his first formal event in the ornate East Room of the White House.

“It will be the policy of my administration,” he said, “to reverse our dependence on foreign oil while building a new energy economy that will create millions of jobs.”

California and at least a dozen other states have tried to come up with tougher emission standards than those imposed by the federal government, but Obama said that “Washington stood in their way.” The president wants the EPA to take a second look at a decision denying California — and the other states that want to follow its model — permission to set tougher tailpipe emission standards.

More broadly, Obama sought to show he was not waiting to put his stamp on energy policy, which has both near-term implications on the sagging economy and long-range effects on pollution, climate change and national security.

“Year after year, decade after decade, we’ve chosen delay over decisive action,” Obama said. “Rigid ideology has overruled sound science. Special interests have overshadowed common sense. Rhetoric has not led to the hard work needed to achieve results — and our leaders raise their voices each time there’s a spike on gas prices, only to grow quiet when the price falls at the pump.”

The Clean Air Act gives California special authority to regulate vehicle pollution because the state began regulating such pollution before the federal government got into the act. But a federal waiver is still required; if the waiver is granted, other states can choose to adopt California’s standards or the federal ones.

In 2007 the Bush administration’s Environmental Protection Agency denied California’s waiver request, gaining praise from the auto industry but touching off a storm of investigations and lawsuits from Democrats and environmental groups who contended the denial was based on political instead of scientific reasons.

Obama on Monday directed the EPA to re-examine the decision. That does not yet overturn anything. But still, the states’ wanting their own power considered it a victory.

“The federal government must work with, not against, states to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” Obama said. He added: “The days of Washington dragging its heels are over. My administration will not deny facts; we will be guided by them.”

California’s proposed restrictions would force automakers to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent in new cars and light trucks by 2016.

At least 13 other states — Arizona, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington — have already adopted California’s standards, and they have been under consideration elsewhere, too.

Under California’s approach, car makers would need to boost fuel efficiency in new vehicles to about 36.8 miles per gallon in the states that chose to adopt the California standards.

Automakers, which sued to block the state regulations, argued that it could require dealerships in some states to limit sales of large trucks in order to meet the standards. They have pushed for a single national standard.

Requiring automakers to build cars that get more miles to the gallon will reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions from the tailpipes of vehicles.

A law passed by Congress in 2007 requires that by 2020, new cars and trucks meet a standard of 35 miles per gallon, a 40 percent increase over the status quo. But the Bush administration did not set regulations in support of that law.

On Monday, Obama ordered new guidelines in place to start affecting cars sold in 2011.

He also promised a broader, bipartisan review with the auto industry.

Industry officials have also said they would face billions of dollars in new costs to meet the rules at a time when General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC have received billions in federal loans to stay afloat.

The Bush administration estimated the federal fuel economy rules would cost the industry more than $100 billion to implement the changes by 2020.

“Let me be clear: Our goal is not to further burden an already struggling industry,” Obama said. “It is to help America’s automakers prepare for the future.”

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday will appoint a special envoy for climate change as the Obama administration moves to restore America’s credentials in environmental policy, said U.S. officials familiar with her decision.

source : news.yahoo.com

Obama, lawmakers to meet on economic stimulus

WASHINGTON – Congressional leaders and President Barack Obama are having a hard time finding common ground on an economic recovery plan as Republican resistance to the stimulus package emerges in the House.

The president and top Democrats and Republicans from the House and Senate planned to meet Friday to discuss the status of the spending and tax cutting legislation that Obama has demanded to confront an ever weakening economy.

The stimulus legislation, priced at about $825 billion and likely to grow, advanced in House committees this week. Republicans, who are in the minority, were unable to make inroads with their proposals.

The House Ways and Means Committee on Thursday approved $275 billion in tax cuts on a party-line vote of 24-13. The House Energy and Commerce Committee, also working on the bill, cleared $2.8 billion to expand broadband communications service. And on Wednesday night,the House Appropriations Committee approved a $358 billion spending measure on a 35-22 party-line vote.

Democratic leaders have promised the measure will be ready for Obama’s signature by mid-February.

On Friday, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus was expected to unveil a Senate version of the tax cutting portion of the bill. The legislation could have a more bipartisan look in the Senate, where it takes 60 votes out of 100 to overcome procedural blocks.

Obama is scheduled to meet with House Republicans next week, at the their request. But by then the House bill could be on the floor awaiting a vote.

“Yes, we wrote the bill. Yes, we won the election,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday. “But that doesn’t mean we don’t want it to have sustainability and bipartisan support, and the president is working hard to get that done.”

House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, protested: “While we appreciate the chance to work with the president, it appears that House Democrats are going to continue to barrel ahead without any bipartisan support.”

Obama’s meeting with the bipartisan leadership Friday comes in the midst of increasingly grim economic news. Government reports showed the number of new jobless claims was up and new home construction hit an all-time low in December. Microsoft Corp. said it would slash up to 5,000 jobs over the next 18 months, while chemical maker Huntsman Corp. said it would cut more than 1,600 employees and contractors combined.

Republicans have been seeking deeper tax cuts and have said there was no reliable estimate of the bill’s impact on employment.

“Our plan offers fast-acting tax relief, not slow-moving and wasteful government spending,” Boehner said, referring to a study by the Congressional Budget Office that questioned administration claims that the money could be spent fast enough to reduce joblessness quickly.

In response to the study, Peter Orszag, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, sent a letter to Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., late Thursday pledging that at least 75 percent of the stimulus package would be spent in 2009 and 2010.

On a key vote Thursday, Democrats preserved a tax break for this year and 2010 that would mean $500 for many workers and $1,000 for millions of couples, including those whose earnings are so low that they pay no federal income tax. They also voted down a Republican effort to eliminate a health insurance subsidy for laid-off workers.

“We need to be dealing with people at the bottom of the income scale,” said Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash. He also noted that the legislation would provide a $25-per-week increase in unemployment benefits.

But Rep. Dave Camp of Michigan, the top Republican on the tax-writing committee, cited a report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service that he said showed lower- and middle-income workers already would have received most of the benefits from the proposal to eliminate the tax on unemployment benefits.

Separately, the House Energy and Commerce Committee late Thursday approved a $2.8 billion program that would expand broadband service into underserved areas. It also approved various programs costing an estimated $27 billion to promote energy efficiency.

The panel also passed a $20 billion effort to speed the creation of electronic health records, and it approved more money to help states afford increased enrollment under Medicaid, the health care program for the low income. In all, the additional spending for health care programs totals about $150 billion over five years.

On another aspect of Obama’s economic plan, lawmakers from both parties in the House got to vent about the $700 billion rescue plan for the financial sector.

In a symbolic vote, the House voted to reject Obama’s request for the unspent $350 billion in the bailout fund. The 270-155 tally was a moot point because the Senate had refused to block the release of the money last week. That effectively made it available to the new administration.

___

Associated Press writers Andrew Taylor, David Espo, Stephen Ohlemacher and Kevin Freking contributed to this report.

source : news.yahoo.com

FOR FUNNY JOKES & SMS

Aide: Successor chosen for Clinton’s Senate seat

ALBANY, New York – Gov. David Paterson has picked Democratic U.S. Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand to fill New York’s vacant U.S. Senate seat, an aide to the governor said early Friday, a day after Caroline Kennedy abruptly withdrew from consideration.

Gillibrand, a second-term lawmaker from upstate New York, will be named to fill the seat vacated when Hillary Rodham Clinton resigned to become secretary of state in the Obama administration, the aide said, speaking on condition of anonymity because an announcement hadn’t been made. It was scheduled for later Friday.

Gillibrand’s office didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment.

She was considered one of the top contenders in Paterson’s selection process, along with Kennedy and state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

Paterson’s appointment lasts until 2010, when a special election will be held to fill the final two years of Clinton’s term.

Kennedy, the daughter of the late President John F. Kennedy, called the governor around midday Wednesday and told him she was having second thoughts about the job, according to a person close to Paterson, who said she later decided to remain in contention, only to announce her withdrawal early Thursday in an e-mail.

Others in the field, including U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, whose husband was killed by a gunman on the Long Island Railroad, criticized Gillibrand as recently as Thursday evening, saying her support of more conservative issues such as gun ownership rights was out of step with most New York Democrats.

But Gillibrand is a proven vote-getter in a largely rural eastern New York district that sprawls from the mid-Hudson Valley to north of Albany. She defeated a long-term Republican incumbent in 2006 and won re-election last year by a wide margin.

“Gender plus geography equals Gillibrand,” said Doug Muzzio, a political science professor at Baruch College. He said her upstate base would help Paterson’s 2010 ticket, which otherwise would be dominated by New York City residents like himself.

“On the minus side, she’s an unproven statewide vote-getter, a conservative `Blue Dog’ Democrat who could face a primary challenge in 2010 and face a tough general election,” Muzzio said. “Also, her congressional seat, the 20th, is a mostly Republican district that she first won in 2006 after a long Republican monopoly.”

Those weaknesses, the appearance of being a second choice after Kennedy, and the wrath of more senior Democrats who were overlooked provide a good chance for a primary challenge in 2010 — a situation Paterson has sought to avoid. He said he wants his choice to be good enough to hold the seat for a decade or more.

Paterson’s unusual move, as head of the state party and governor, to summon New York’s Washington delegation to Albany for a closed-door meeting Friday morning appears to be a way to garner support among those he didn’t choose.

Gillibrand, 42, becomes the only woman on a ticket that will include Paterson, Cuomo, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and senior U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer.

The pick came after a week in which Kennedy surprisingly withdrew from consideration and Paterson revealed he was considering Cuomo, who had refused to publicly express his interest. In the end, Paterson chose the up-and-comer over more established names.

But Paterson has said the first task of a new U.S. senator should be bringing more aid in the federal stimulus package back to New York. It’s uncertain that Gillibrand has the background or pull to do that.

She voted last year against the $700 billion Wall Street bailout bill.

This consideration, as the state faces a historic fiscal crisis, was considered a strength for Kennedy, who is close to President Barack Obama and may have been owed a favor for her early endorsement of him; and Cuomo, who has ties and experience in Washington as President Bill Clinton’s former housing secretary.

Gillibrand was an official in the Housing and Urban Development Department during the Clinton administration. She worked as a lawyer before challenging Republican John Sweeney in 2006 to represent New York’s 20th District. Her upset win came after a police report showing that Sweeney’s wife had called 911 in what appeared to be a domestic violence incident was leaked shortly before the election.

In November, Gillibrand defeated wealthy General Electric heir Sandy Treadwell. The former state Republican chairman was seen as one of the Republican Party’s best chances to capture a congressional seat in New York.

Gillibrand graduated from Dartmouth College in 1988 and earned a law degree at UCLA in 1991. She is the daughter of Albany lobbyist Douglas Rutnik.

___

Associated Press writers Devlin Barrett and David Espo contributed to this report from Washington

source : news.yahoo.com

FOR FUNNY JOKES & SMS

Obama’s says Clinton “an early gift” to diplomacy

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama has described his new chief diplomat Hillary Clinton Hillary as “an early gift” to the State Department.

“It is my privilege to come here and to pay tribute to all of you, the talented men and women of the State Department,” Obama told the employees during a visit to underscore “my commitment to the importance of diplomacy in renewing American leadership.”

“I’ve given you an early gift, Hillary Clinton,” he said amid laughter and applause. “You will have a secretary of state who has my full confidence,” he said of his one- time Democratic rival for the nation’s highest office.

The former first lady too, leaving the bitterness of the election campaign behind, reciprocated his sentiments: “We are not only honoured and delighted, but challenged, by the president coming here on the second day.”

source : jang.com.pk

Obama terms Afghanistan, Pak central front in war on terror

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama on Friday said Afghanistan and Pakistan are the central front in the America’s war against terrorism and deteriorating situation in the region poses grave threat to the global security.

“This is the central front in our enduring struggle against terrorism and extremism,” Obama said reiterating that the Afghan-Pak problem can’t be resolved in isolation.

There has to be regional approach to it, he argued.

Addressing the officials of the State Department after Richard Holbrooke was appointed Special US Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Obama said, “There, as in the Middle East, we must understand that we cannot deal with our problems in isolation.”

Obama said his administration is committed to refocusing attention and resources on Afghanistan and Pakistan and to spending those resources wisely. “That’s why we are pursuing a careful review of our policy,” he said.

Obama alleged that the Afghan government had been unable to deliver basic services. “Al-Qaeda and the Taliban strike from bases embedded in rugged tribal terrain along the Pakistani border. And while we have yet to see another attack on our soil since 9/11, Al-Qaeda terrorists remain at large and remain plotting,” he said.

Giving an inkling of his yet to be Afghan policy, Obama said, “We will seek stronger partnerships with the governments of the region, sustain cooperation with our NATO allies, deeper engagement with the Afghan and Pakistani people, and a comprehensive strategy to combat terror and extremism.”

source : jang.com.pk

After a day off, Obama daughters return to school

WASHINGTON – After a day off because of the excitement surrounding their father’s inauguration, President Barack Obama’s two daughters are back in school.

Both girls returned to class Thursday at the private Sidwell Friends School.

Malia, 10, is a fifth-grader at the middle school campus in the District of Columbia, while younger sister Sasha, 7, is in second grade at the elementary school campus in Bethesda, Md., just outside Washington.

The girls were allowed to skip school on Wednesday after an exhilarating, late-night scamper around their new home that ended when they opened a White House door and found their favorite musical band, the Jonas Brothers, waiting to surpise them.

Barack Obama was sworn in as president on Tuesday.

source : news.yahoo.com

Blagojevich: Senate impeachment trial unfair

CHICAGO – Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Thursday called his upcoming impeachment trial a “sham,” saying it would deny him the right to due process because he couldn’t call witnesses.

Blagojevich spoke to reporters outside his Chicago home Thursday morning, a day after he missed a deadline to tell the Senate which people and documents he wanted to subpoena for the trial to remove him from office.

The two-term governor is accused of abusing his power by scheming to benefit from appointing a person to fill President Barack Obama’s Senate seat, circumventing hiring laws and defying General Assembly decisions. He was impeached by the state House on Jan. 9, and his trial in the state Senate is set to begin next Monday.

He has denied any wrongdoing.

Federal prosecutors have asked the Senate trial’s prosecution and defense not to call witnesses involved in Blagojevich’s criminal trial.

“The impeachment trial is a sham,” Blagojevich said before going on his morning run.

“What the Senate and the House and Legislature is trying to do is to thwart the will of the people and remove a governor elected twice by the people without a fair hearing, without due process,” he said.

Impeachment prosecutor David Ellis proposed calling only one witness involved in the criminal investigation of Blagojevich — an FBI agent familiar with recordings of the governor’s conversations. But Ellis said he would drop that request if the U.S. attorney objects.

Last week, renown defense attorney Edward M. Genson pulled out of earlier arrangements to represent Blagojevich at the impeachment trial. Two other members of the governor’s defense team, attorneys Sam Adam and his son, Samuel E. Adam, also withdrew, comparing the proceedings to a “lynching.” They said they didn’t have adequate time to prepare or subpoena power.

On Thursday, Blagojevich said he agreed with their actions. He said the lawyers “have chosen not to participate in the impeachment process in the Senate because they believe, rightfully so, that the rules of the Senate that don’t allow me as governor to call witnesses are unfair and deny fundamental due process,” he said.

The governor said he would like to call Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, citing comments Emanuel recently made that he had never gotten the impression that Blagojevich wanted anything improper in return for naming a Senate replacement.

While Blagojevich ignored the filing deadline Wednesday, Ellis continued to pursue the case against him. Ellis filed documents listing the people he wants to call. Most are members of the House committee that recommended impeachment.

source : news.yahoo.com

Obama signs order to close Guantanamo in a year

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama began overhauling U.S. treatment of terror suspects Thursday, signing orders to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center, shut down secret overseas CIA prisons, review military war crimes trials and ban the harshest interrogation methods.

With his action, Obama started changing how the United States prosecutes and questions al-Qaida, Taliban or other foreign fighters who pose a threat to Americans — and overhauling America’s image abroad, battered by accusations of the use of torture and the indefinite detention of suspects at the Guantanamo prison in Cuba.

“The message that we are sending the world is that the United States intends to prosecute the ongoing struggle against violence and terrorism and we are going to do so vigilantly and we are going to do so effectively and we are going to do so in a manner that is consistent with our values and our ideals,” the president said.

The centerpiece order would close the much-maligned Guantanamo facility within a year, a complicated process with many unanswered questions that was nonetheless a key campaign promise of Obama’s. The administration already has suspended trials for terrorist suspects at Guantanamo for 120 days pending a review of the military tribunals.

In the other actions, Obama:

_Created a task force to recommend policies on handling terror suspects who are detained in the future. Specifically, the group would look at where those detainees should be housed since Guantanamo is closing.

_Required all U.S. personnel to follow the U.S. Army Field Manual while interrogating detainees. The manual explicitly prohibits threats, coercion, physical abuse and waterboarding, a technique that creates the sensation of drowning and has been termed a form of torture by critics. However, a Capitol Hill aide says that the administration also is planning a study of more aggressive interrogation methods that could be added to the Army manual — which would create a significant loophole to Obama’s action Thursday.

“We believe that the Army Field Manual reflects the best judgment of our military, that we can abide by a rule that says we don’t torture, but that we can still effectively obtain the intelligence that we need,” Obama said. He said his action reflects an understanding that “we are willing to observe core standards of conduct, not just when it’s easy, but also when it’s hard.”

A task force will study whether other interrogation guidelines — beyond what’s spelled out in the Army manual — are necessary for intelligence professionals in dealing with terror suspects.

But an Obama administration official said that provision should not be considered a loophole that will allow controversial “enhanced interrogation techniques” to be re-introduced. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to speak candidly about the administration’s thinking.

The order also orders the CIA to close all its existing detention facilities abroad for terror suspects — and prohibits those prisons from being used in the future. The agency has used those secret “black site” prisons around the world to question terror suspects.

_Directed the Justice Department to review the case of Qatar native Ali al-Marri, who is the only enemy combatant currently being held on U.S. soil. The directive will ask the high court for a stay in al-Marri’s appeals case while the review is ongoing. The government says al-Marri is an al-Qaida sleeper agent.

An estimated 245 men are being held at the U.S. naval base in Cuba, most of whom have been detained for years without being charged with a crime. Among the sticky issues the Obama administration has to resolve are where to put those detainees — whether back in their home countries or at other federal detention centers — and how to prosecute some of them for war crimes.

“We intend to win this fight. We’re going to win it on our terms,” Obama said as he signed three executive orders and a presidential directive.

The administration official said Obama’s government will not transfer detainees to countries that will mistreat them, including their own home country.

In his first Oval Office signing ceremony, Obama was surrounded by retired senior military leaders. He described them as outstanding Americans who have defended the country — and its ideals

source : news.yahoo.com