| Obama asks 16-month Iraq exit plan; Amir congratulates new US president |
WASHINGTON, Jan 21, (Agencies): President Barack Obama was to meet top military brass on Wednesday in a bid to follow through on his key campaign pledge to order US troops home from Iraq within 16 months, aides said. In his first full day in office, Obama will meet Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen and the top US commander in southwest Asia, General David Petraeus. “The President is going to get an update about what is going on in Iraq,” said his spokesman Robert Gibbs. “He will ask for planning to redeploy combat troops within 16 months.”
Obama, who opposed the Iraq war, says he wants to redeploy thousands of combat troops from the country to Afghanistan, where conditions have deteriorated and which he says is the prime front against al-Qaeda. While pushing his plan for a withdrawal within 16 months, Obama has said he will listen to his generals to get up-to-date information on conditions on the ground before making final orders. Last week, Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said the US military nevertheless would be ready to present the new president with a full range of options, and the risks associated with each. “We want to be prepared to show the incoming president a variety of options, 16-month drawdown being one of those options,” he said.
“Of course, no option will be presented without relaying the risk that is taken on in conjunction with that option,” he said. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman confirmed the lineup of top military chiefs for Wednesday’s meeting, and said that General Raymond Odierno, the top US commander in Iraq would join the meeting by video conference. “This is a logical first step, meeting with the secretary, the chairman, the field commanders and the combatant commander for Central Command,” he said.
“The major portion of the topic is going to be Iraq. When you’re talking about Iraq, the key players are the secretary and the chairman, the commander and the field commanders.”
Military judges suspended war crimes trials here Wednesday as President Barack Obama took his first steps toward fulfilling a vow to close the controversial “war on terror” prison. A Pentagon spokesman said the 120-day suspension was the first step of a “broader, comprehensive review related to detention activities at Guantanamo.” A senior administration official said Obama was not expected to issue any executive order closing Guantanamo Wednesday. Obama set in motion the dramatic change of direction Tuesday, directing US Defense Secretary Robert Gates to order prosecutors to seek the suspensions to clear the way for the review, said spokesman Bryan Whitman.
Military judges responded on Wednesday by suspending trials of a Canadian and five alleged Sept 11 co-conspirators, including alleged mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
“The practical effect is to pronounce this system dead,” said Lieutenant Commander William Kuebler, lawyer for Omar Khadr, the Canadian defendant. “There will certainly be no more military commissions in Guantanamo Bay” Kuebler said he met with Khadr, who was 15 when he was captured in Afghanistan. “He is anxious and doesn’t know what will happen but we’re all hopeful,” he said. On the other hand, Sheikh Mohammed and three other co-conspirators — Ali Abd al-Aziz, Walid bin Attash and Mustapha Ahmed al-Hawsawi — objected to the suspension of their trial at a hearing. “I would like to continue,” Sheikh Mohammed told military judge Stephen Henley. Only Ramzi Binalshibh, whose mental competence to stand trial was to be examined this week, did not oppose the ruling.
Obama vowed during his presidential campaign to close Guantanamo, a symbol to many of the excesses of the “war on terrorism” under his predecessor George W. Bush. Human rights groups which have campaigned for years against the special military trials and Guantanamo’s closure cheered his actions. “President Obama knew better than to start his presidency with the spectacle of unfair and chaotic military commission proceedings,” said Joanne Mariner, director Human Rights Watch’s terrorism and counterterrorism program. “The 120-day halt should give the new administration a reasonable time to throw out those cases without merit and transfer the rest to federal court,” she said.
Regulations
One of Obama’s first acts Tuesday was to put the brakes on all pending regulations that the Bush administration tried to push through in its waning days. The order went out shortly after Obama was inaugurated president, in a memorandum signed by new White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.
Former president George W. Bush’s administration moved into overdrive in the last year or so on a host of new regulatory proposals. Now the Obama administration will review everything that is still pending. In doing so, the Obama administration is taking a page out of Bush’s playbook from 2001.
Within hours after Bush was sworn in, Bush advisers were seeking to reverse some late-term actions of President Bill Clinton, who in his final 20 days in office issued 12 executive orders, including directives on migratory birds and the importation of diamonds from Sierra Leone.
Eight years later, the Obama White House is making a similar move. In some cases, however, the Bush administration moved too fast for the incoming administration. For example, just six weeks ago, the Bush administration issued revised endangered species regulations to reduce the input of federal scientists and to block the law from being used to fight global warming. The Bush administration worked diligently to get the change in place before Obama took over, corralling 15 experts in Washington in October to sort through 250,000 written comments from the public on the revisions in 32 hours.
Obama has said he would work to reverse the changes. But because the rule takes effect before he is sworn in, he would have to restart the lengthy rulemaking process. The changes would eliminate some of the mandatory, independent reviews that government scientists have performed for 35 years on dams, power plants, timber sales and other projects, a requirement that developers and other federal agencies have blamed for delays and cost increases.
Openness
Obama Wednesday vowed to forge a new era of government openness and froze the pay of top staff earning more than $100,000 to show Americans their leaders could also tighten their belts amid economic crisis. “For a long time now there’s been too much secrecy in this city,” said Obama who was elected partly on a platform of purging big-time politics of influence peddling and corruption.
“The old rules said that if there was a defensible argument for not disclosing something to the American people, then it should not be disclosed,” Obama said. “That era is now over,” Obama vowed at a swearing in ceremony for senior members of his White House staff in the Executive Office Building, across the road from the presidential mansion.
Obama, who takes office amid the deepest economic crisis since the 1930s also sought to show his administration shared the sacrifice of Americans outside the US government. “During this period of economic emergency, families are tightening their belts, and so should Washington,” Obama said.
“That’s why I am instituting a pay freeze on the salaries of my senior White House staff. “Some of the people in this room will be affected by the pay freeze, and I want you to know that I appreciate your willingness to agree to it,” Obama said. Obama also pledged to hold himself accountable to “a new standard of openness” introducing new requirements from presidents to keep as much information as possible available to the Americans.
He said that if he, or a former president, wanted to keep information secret they would have to consult the US attorney general and the White House counsel to see whether the move was permitted by law. “Information will not be withheld just because I say so — it will be withheld because a separate authority believes my request is well grounded in the constitution.” Congratulations
His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah sent a cable of congratulations on Tuesday to the newly-sworn-in US President Barack Obama. In the cable, His Highness the Amir wished Obama success, and lauded the historic ties and partnership between the two countries. The Amir also emphasized keenness for continuing to work together in different areas in service of interest of the two nations. His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah sent similar cables of congratulation to the US president on the occasion.
Planet
The United States will “roll back the specter of a warming planet” and “restore science to its rightful place,” President Barack Obama pledged Tuesday in his inaugural address. “With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet,” Obama said, vowing to pioneer a green revolution in renewable energy. Obama’s remarks were a stark departure from the stance of his predecessor, George W. Bush, whose rejection in 2001 of the landmark Kyoto Protocol almost destroyed multilateral efforts to roll back global warming. It was only after a firestorm of criticism for holding up the deal that the Bush team signed the “Bali Roadmap” in December 2007 during a UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meeting that set a two-year deadline for a global agreement.
“We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its cost,” Obama said.
“We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do.”
Poll
A new poll shows that by a 3-1 margin, the American people feel more optimistic about the country’s future now that Barack Obama has been inaugurated president.
The Associated Press-Knowledge Networks poll found that 53 percent of those surveyed said they felt more optimistic, while just 15 percent said his ascendancy to the White House made them feel more pessimistic.
The poll also showed that even among Republicans, just 29 percent of those surveyed felt more pessimistic with Obama at the White House — roughly the same number as the 30 percent of Republicans who said they felt more optimistic.
A smaller proportion of those who said they saw or heard his inaugural address — 51 percent — called it good.
The poll was conducted Tuesday and involved online interviews with 835 adults. It has a samling error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.
Treasury secretary designate Timothy Geithner apologized Wednesday over past tax transgressions while vowing to act with “strength, speed and care” to get the stricken US economy moving again.
At his confirmation hearing, the outgoing head of the New York Federal Reserve underlined President Barack Obama’s determination to do what it takes to unfreeze credit, rebuild broken infrastructure and clean up Wall Street.
On Obama’s first full day in office, Geithner, 47, expressed contrition after revelations that he failed to pay $34,000 in income taxes while working at the International Monetary Fund earlier in the decade.
“These were careless mistakes. They were avoidable mistakes. But they were completely unintentional,” he said, apologizing to the Senate finance committee for the distraction caused by the affair.
“I should have been more careful. I have gone back and corrected these errors and paid what I owed,” he said, explaining he had relied on “Turbo Tax” software and accountants but took full responsibility himself.
The committee’s Democratic chairman Max Baucus said the errors, arising from Geithner’s tax status in 2001-2004 as a US national working for the tax-free IMF, were “innocent mistakes.”
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WASHINGTON: The US Senate on Tuesday swiftly approved six members of President Barack Obama’s Cabinet but put off for a day the vote on his choice to be secretary of state, Hillary Clinton.
The Senate confirmed all six with a single voice vote a little more than three hours after Obama took the oath of office to become the 44th president.
But Democratic hopes to add Clinton to that list were sidetracked when one senator, Republican John Cornyn, objected to the unanimous vote. Cornyn said he still had concerns about foreign donations to the foundation headed by Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton. Those confirmed were Steven Chu to be energy secretary, Arne Duncan at education, Janet Napolitano for homeland security, Eric Shinseki to head veterans affairs, Ken Salazar for interior and Tom Vilsack to lead the department of agriculture. The Senate also approved Peter Orszag, recently the director of the Congressional Budget Office, to head the White House’s Office of Management and Budget.
Obama signed nominating papers for his Cabinet choices about an hour after he took the oath.
Senate leaders agreed to have a roll call vote on Clinton on Wednesday after three hours of debate. Jim Manley, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, predicted that “she will receive overwhelming bipartisan support at that time.” The Wednesday vote became necessary when Cornyn objected to the voice vote. In the Senate, a single senator can block measures from being approved by voice. He said he wanted “a full and open debate and an up-or-down vote on Sen. Clinton’s nomination.” He said important questions remain unanswered concerning the foundation headed by former President Bill Clinton “and its acceptance of donations from foreign entities. Transparency transcends partisan politics and the American people deserve to know more.”
Cornyn’s spokesman Kevin McLaughlin said the senator is not trying to block her confirmation, but is seeking more debate on the donation issue. Several Republicans raised questions at Clinton’s confirmation hearing about possible conflicts of interest from Bill Clinton’s fundraising work and his acceptance of large donations from foreign countries and companies. Sen Richard Lugar , top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, urged Clinton to improve transparency in her husband’s fundraising activities. He said the former president’s foundation should stop taking foreign contributions while Clinton serves as secretary of state. McLaughlin said Cornyn has asked Clinton to take similar steps.
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| Posted on:
22/01/2009 |
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