Free Internet Press Newsletter - Thursday January 18 2007 - (813)

Thursday January 18 2007 edition
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Half Of Names On U.S. No-Fly List To Be Removed 2007-01-18 03:32:11 The Bush administration is checking the accuracy of a watch list of suspected terrorists banned from traveling on airliners in the U.S. and will probably cut the list in half, the head of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said Wednesday. Kip Hawley told Congress that the more accurate list, combined with a new passenger screening system, should take care of most incidents of people wrongly being prevented from boarding a flight or frequently being picked out for additional scrutiny. A "no-fly" list of suspected terrorists and criminals considered too dangerous to travel on commercial airliners in this country has existed for decades. But since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the list expanded. Tightened security procedures have led to closer scrutiny of air travelers and resulted in many complaints. Read The Full Story Disaster Fund On Verge Of Running Out Of Money 2007-01-18 03:30:39 The federal government’s biggest program to help people rebuild after natural disasters is on the verge of running out of operating money because of budgeting problems at the agency that runs it, the Small Business Administration. If Congress does not intervene in the next month or so to cover the administrative costs of the program, it will have to shut down, according to an internal agency memorandum given to the New York Times by a critic of the agency. Agency officials say, and Congressional leaders agree, that the legislature will almost certainly act to keep the program running. “It would be very surprising to us if they wouldn’t address this,” said Steven C. Preston, the administrator of the S.B.A. Read The Full Story Storms Leave Texas, Plains States Under Blanket Of Ice 2007-01-18 03:29:38 A series of winter storms blanketed most of Texas and the south-central Plains on Wednesday, leaving hundreds of thousands without power and causing as many as 60 weather-related deaths in nine states. The fronts - a fast-moving mass of dry arctic air from Canada and a lumbering line of warm, moist air coming off the Gulf of Mexico - collided on the meteorological battlefield between California and Missouri, spewing sleet, snow and ice and leaving destruction in their wake. "Looks like the cold air won this one," said Walt Zaleski, a meteorologist in the National Weather Service's Southern Region Headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas. "And it will have the upper edge for the next seven to 10 days." Read The Full Story Lawyers Resignations At Federal Elections Commission Raise Concerns 2007-01-18 03:28:29 The announcement Wednesday that the top two lawyers for the Federal Election Commission (FEC) had resigned helped spread an undercurrent of concern about the diminishing role of a once-prominent public voice on the intersection of money and politics. The stated reasons for the departures of FEC General Counsel Lawrence H. Norton and Deputy General Counsel James A. Kahl was that the two men had landed private-sector jobs at a large firm with offices in six states. Norton and Kahl, reached Wednesday, said their resignations were not intended to send any broader message. Those who monitor campaign finance law with some dedication said the departures coincided with a perceived shift in the way the commissioners have worked with the general counsel. Read The Full Story Mikhail Gorbachev: History Is Not Preordained - A New Cold War Can Be Avoided 2007-01-17 23:00:09 Intellpuke: The following commentary is written by former Soviet Union president Mikhail Gorbachev and appears on the New York Times' website edition for Wednesday, January 17, 2007. In his column, Mr. Gorbachev writes that U.S. military arrogance has led to a global crisis, but there is still time to change course and build a democratic world order. Mr. Gorbachev's column follows: A watershed in international relations has occurred in recent months. Indeed, the past year may well have seen the end of an entire era in world affairs - the post-cold war period of unilateralism and missed opportunities. When the cold war ended, avenues opened up for progress toward a better world. Major powers, particularly the United States, the Soviet Union and China, were working constructively together in the United Nations security council. International conflicts, including those in Angola, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Cambodia, were brought to an end. Nuclear and conventional arms control agreements were concluded, and democratic changes were under way in dozens of countries in Asia, Latin America and central and eastern Europe. The Charter of Paris for a New Europe, signed in 1990, marked the beginning of a process that was expected to lead to a new, peaceful and democratic world order. But the movement in that direction soon stalled. The break-up of the Soviet Union was followed by changes in the political elites of the United States and other countries. The Charter of Paris was forgotten. Instead of moving towards a new security architecture, it was decided to rely on the tools inherited from the cold war. The United States - and the west as a whole - succumbed to the "winner's complex". Read The Full Story Columbia Right-Wing Militia Leader Confesses To Massacres 2007-01-17 22:59:27 A senior commander of Colombia's rightwing militias has admitted taking part in some of the country's most grisly crimes in the first of what could become a flood of confessions from demobilized paramilitary leaders. Salvatore Mancuso told a prosecutor in Medellín this week that he was responsible for hundreds of kidnappings, murders and massacres during his 15-year career in the death squads that spread terror throughout Colombia in the name of fighting leftist rebels. In two days of testimony, Mancuso admitted to directly participating in or ordering the murder of hundreds of people, among them mayors, union leaders and peasants. With presentations projected from his laptop computer, Mancuso listed in chronological order the massacres at El Aro, Mapiripan, El Salado and other towns, all of which he called "anti-subversive operations". He also named the victims. Read The Full Story Analysis: Shiite Crackdown May Be Risky 2007-01-17 16:10:49 U.S. commanders have signaled they will shy away from a Fallujah-style assault on the Baghdad stronghold of Iraq's biggest Shiite militia - even though President Bush insists that driving armed groups from the capital is key to his plan for success. The talk from the Bush administration has been tough, with strong assurances that no part of Baghdad is off limits to the new push for control. In reality, the risk of killing civilians and outraging the Iraqi government may be too high to launch an all-out attack on the Mahdi Army of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in its base of the capital's sprawling Sadr City district  - at least for now. Instead, U.S. commanders are likely first to try options that are politically less risky, such as raids targeting key Mahdi figures, or raids aimed at curbing the militia's spread across other parts of Baghdad. Read The Full Story Iranian Discontent With Ahmadinejad Grows 2007-01-17 16:09:59 Prices for vegetables have tripled in the past month, housing prices have doubled since last summer - and as costs have gone up, so has Iranians' discontent with hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his focus on confrontation with the West. Ahmadinejad was elected last year on a populist agenda promising to bring oil revenues to every family, eradicate poverty and tackle unemployment. Now he is facing increasingly fierce criticism for his failure to meet those promises. He is being challenged not only by reformers but by the conservatives who paved the way for his stunning victory in 2005 presidential elections. Even conservatives say Ahmadinejad has concentrated too much on fiery, anti-U.S. speeches and not enough on the economy - and they have become more aggressive in calling him to account. Read The Full Story Sen. Dodd Calls For Cap On Number Of Troops In Iraq 2007-01-17 16:08:59 Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Connecticut) announced legislation Wednesday capping the number of troops in Iraq at roughly 130,000, saying that lawmakers should take an up-or-down vote on President Bush's plan to send additional troops to the country and not settle for the non-binding resolution several Senate leaders prefer. "The issues are far too important," said Dodd, who last week declared his candidacy in the 2008 presidential race. "Other than expressing opposition, I felt we should do something more," and move quickly before any troop increase becomes a fait accompli. "The president has laid down the gauntlet by saying he is going to go forward and I don't care what you say," said Dodd. He argued that the authorization to send troops to Iraq given to Bush in 2002, before the 2003 invasion and occupation, did not cover a situation that had degenerated into a civil war among rival religious, ethnic and political sects. Read The Full Story Senate Finance Committee Approves Cap On Executive Pay 2007-01-17 16:08:11 The Senate Finance Committee unanimously approved by voice vote today a proposal to sharply limit the earnings corporate executives and other highly paid employees can place tax-free into deferred compensation plans, one of the most popular executive benefits in corporate America. Under the proposal, which drew virtually no debate from either side of the aisle, an individual taxpayer could defer no more than $1 million annually in compensation, beginning this year. The shift in tax policy would be likely to affect top executives at hundreds of corporations and would raise taxes on some of the nation's wealthiest workers by an estimated $806 million over 10 years. The proposal tracks rhetoric that some Democrats employed during the midterm elections, when they portrayed the Republicans who controlled Congress as being too close to special interests and the wealthy. It also offers a response to controversies that have erupted over executive pay in recent months, including scandals over backdated stock options and multimillion-dollar compensation packages paid to current and former corporate chieftains. Read The Full Story Top Abu Sayyaf Commander Killed In Philippines 2007-01-17 16:07:28 A top al-Qaeda-linked militant, long wanted by U.S. and Philippine authorities for deadly terror attacks, has been killed in a clash with troops in a major blow to his rebel group, the military said Wednesday. Jainal Antel Sali, Jr., popularly known as Abu Sulaiman - a top leader of the Abu Sayyaf rebel group - was fatally shot in a fierce gunbattle Tuesday in a clash with army special forces, military chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon said, confirming earlier reports of the militant's death. "We have resolved that this group and their major commanders must be finished off, that this notorious group should see its end," Esperon told a news conference. Read The Full Story Reform Bill Avoids Lobbyist Spouses Of Congress Members 2007-01-17 02:49:30 When Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-North Dakota) rose to the Senate floor last summer and passionately argued for keeping the federal estate tax, he left one person with an interest in retaining the tax unmentioned. The multibillion-dollar life-insurance industry, which was fighting to preserve the tax because life insurers have a lucrative business selling policies and annuities to Americans for estate planning, has employed Dorgan's wife as a lobbyist since 1999. A few months earlier, Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-North Carolina) had pleaded for restraint as she urged colleagues to avoid overreacting to the news that the Bush administration had let a United Arab Emirates company take over operations at six U.S. ports. At the same time, her husband, Robert J. Dole, a former senator and presidential nominee, was registered to lobby for that company and was advising it on how to save the deal from the political firestorm. At least half a dozen congressional spouses have jobs as registered lobbyists and several more are connected with lobbying firms, but reining in the practice to prevent potential conflicts or the appearance of them has not been a priority among congressional leaders. Even modest proposals such as banning wives and husbands from lobbying their spouses or using their spouses' floor privileges for lobbying have gone nowhere. Read The Full Story Senate Finance Committee Targets Executive Pay 2007-01-17 02:48:54 The Senate Finance Committee is considering a proposal to sharply limit the earnings corporate executives and other highly paid employees can place tax-free into deferred compensation plans, one of the most popular executive benefits in corporate America. Under the proposal, expected to be discussed today by committee members, an individual taxpayer could defer no more than $1 million annually in compensation, beginning this year. The shift in tax policy would be likely to affect top executives at hundreds of corporations and would raise taxes on some of the nation's wealthiest workers by an estimated $806 million over 10 years. The proposal tracks rhetoric that some Democrats employed during the midterm elections, when they portrayed the Republicans who controlled Congress as being too close to special interests and the wealthy. It also offers a response to controversies that have erupted over executive pay in recent months, including scandals over backdated stock options and multimillion-dollar compensation packages paid to current and former corporate chieftains. Read The Full Story Pentagon Official Apologizes To Detainees' Lawyers 2007-01-17 02:48:08 A Pentagon official who criticized American law firms for defending detainees at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay apologized in a letter to the editor published in the Washington Post on Wednesday. Charles "Cully" Stimson, deputy assistant secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs, said last week in a Washington radio interview he found it "shocking" that major U.S. law firms would agree to represent Guantanamo detainees pro bono. He suggested they would suffer financially when corporate clients learned of their involvement in Guantanamo cases. Read The Full Story French Abort Visit To Iran To Avoid Diplomatic Faux Pas 2007-01-17 02:47:19 At a time when most world powers have forged a united front against Iran because of its nuclear program, President Jacques Chiracarranged to send his foreign minister to Tehran to talk about a side issue, then abruptly canceled the visit earlier this month in embarrassing failure. Chirac’s troubles stemmed from his deep desire to help resolve the crisis in Lebanon before his term runs out in May. To that end, he decided to seek the support of Iran, which, along with Syria, backs the radical Shiite organization Hezbollah, three senior French officials said in describing the effort. So he planned to send Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy to Tehran, only to call off the trip two days before it was to have taken place, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly on diplomatic issues. Read The Full Story Russia Warns Citizens Of Possible Terrorist Attack 2007-01-17 02:46:33 Russian intelligence officials placed the country on an unusual high alert on Tuesday night, appealing to citizens for vigilance and saying that the government had been informed by “foreign partners” of a possible terrorist act. The warning was at once detailed and vague. Issued at the end of a 9 p.m. national news broadcast, it said that the National Antiterrorist Committee was checking information about a possible attack on public ground transportation or subway systems, but it did not specify in what city an attack was feared, or when. It also did not identify the “foreign partners” who had provided the information. The National Antiterrorist Committee is led by Nikolai P. Patrushev, the director of the Federal Security Service, or F.S.B., Russia'sdomestic successor to the K.G.B. Read The Full Story Iran President Sends Note To Saudi King Urging Cooperation On Iraq 2007-01-17 02:46:03 Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday that he sent a message to Saudi King Abdullah proposing that they cooperate in helping stabilize Iraq. Ahmadinejad's comments came as Washington is trying to rally its Arab allies and isolate Iran. "We, Saudis and other neighboring countries can help the Iraqi people to take the lead to consolidate their government's capability to stabilize and maintain security in their country," Ahmadinejad told the Saudi-owned satellite television channel. Read The Full Story	Climate Change Legislation Moves To Center Stage In Congress 2007-01-18 03:31:53 The climate in Congress has definitely changed. Legislation to control global warming that once had a passionate but quixotic ring to it is now serious business. Congressional Democrats are increasingly determined to wrest control of the issue from the White House and impose the mandatory controls on carbon dioxide emissions that most smokestack industries have long opposed. Four major Democratic bills have been announced, with more expected. One of these measures, or a blend of them, stands an excellent chance of passage in this Congress or the next, industry and environmental lobbyists said in interviews. Many events have combined to create the new direction - forsythia blooming in lawmakers’ gardens in January, polar bears lacking the ice they need to hunt and Al Gore's movie, “An Inconvenient Truth,” along with pragmatic executives seeking an idea of future costs and, especially, the arrival of a Democratic-controlled Congress. There was evidence of the changed mood all over Washington this week. Read The Full Story New Strain Of Bird Flu In Egypt Resistant To Antiviral Drug 2007-01-18 03:29:53 A strain of avian flu that is resistant to the antiviral drug oseltamivir has been isolated from two family members in Egypt, the World Health Organization said Wednesday. The development is potentially dangerous because oseltamivir, commonly sold under the name Tamiflu, is the chief weapon against the flu strain, H5N1, which many worry could mutate into a strain that could set off a worldwide pandemic. The health organization emphasized that it was too early to tell whether the resistant strain had developed independently in the two patients, who were both under treatment with the drug, or whether they had picked it up from birds or from each other. The resistant strain did not spread to anyone else, including a third family member who also had avian flu. Read The Full Story Mexico Captures Dias Parada Drug Cartel Leader 2007-01-18 03:28:50 Mexico has captured the leader of one of its seven major drug cartels, the "Diaz Parada" gang, five weeks into an army crackdown on narco gangs, the attorney general's office said on Wednesday. Mexican soldiers and federal police arrested Pedro Diaz Parada, whose cartel operates across southern Mexico, on Tuesday in the southern city of Oaxaca, said a spokeswoman for the attorney general's office. The cartel, based in impoverished Oaxaca state, dominates narcotics trafficking in the south and is thought to deal with bigger smuggling gangs based in Mexico's violent northern border region. Read The Full Story Clinton Fails To Satisfy Iraq Critics 2007-01-17 23:00:21 Hillary Clinton risked being outflanked in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination Wednesday when she revised her stance on the Iraq war but failed to go far enough to satisfy anti-war critics. Sen. Clinton, who voted for the war in 2002 and has so far refused to repudiate that, took to television and radio studios for a media blitz Wednesday morning to set out a new position after a visit to Iraq and Afghanistan last week. Yet she still remains well out of step with the other main potential Democratic candidates - Senator Barack Obama, Senator Joe Biden, and John Edwards - who all have clear anti-war credentials. Read The Full Story Taliban Leader Mullah Omar Is In Pakistan Says Captured Militant 2007-01-17 22:59:51 A Taliban spokesman told Afghan agents who captured him that the militia's chief, Mullah Omar, lives in Quetta, southwestern Pakistan, protected by that country's powerful intelligence service. Pakistan's interior minister said Wednesday the claim was "totally baseless". Muhammad Hanif, a Taliban spokesman captured on Monday near the border with Pakistan, made the comments during interrogation by Afghanistan's intelligence service, which distributed to reporters a DVD of what it said was his questioning. "He lives in Quetta," Hanif said of Mullah Omar, as he sat in a dimly lit room, with Afghan agents peppering him with questions. "He is protected by ISI," he said, referring to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency. Read The Full Story Opposition To Bush's War Plan Is Growing 2007-01-17 16:11:05 With a prominent Republican senator joining top Senate Democrats to oppose a troop increase in Iraq, President Bush met Wednesday with a group Republican senators in an effort to shore up support for his war plan. The Senate is preparing to hold a vote on a nonbinding resolution opposing the troop increase. The move has added to the mounting political pressures on Bush - and on the Republicans who will have to vote on it - over his new Iraq strategy, which has met with widespread criticism. Other Democrats said Wednesday that they would press for even tougher measures, such as demanding that the president seek congressional authorization before increasing the troop presence in Iraq. Read The Full Story Interpol Launches Task Force On Child Sex Abuse 2007-01-17 16:10:17 Interpol said on Wednesday it was launching a special task force to tackle a growing problem of pedophiles using fake "modeling" sites on the Internet to gain access to children. The sites do not contain sexually graphic images, but serve as a front, enabling pedophiles to contact the site owners and gain physical access to the so-called child models, or to buy images of the children being abused. "This trend requires the urgent attention of law enforcement, but the significant investigative resources required are simply not available in most national police forces, which is why Interpol is launching Project Guardian," Ronald Noble, head of the world police body, said at a Paris conference on child abuse. Read The Full Story NATO, U.S. Commanders In Afghanistan Request More Troops 2007-01-17 16:09:42 American and NATO military commanders in Afghanistan are worried about the resurgent Taliban insurgency and have asked for additional troops, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Tuesday, adding that he was “sympathetic” to the request. Gates said that the commanders had “indicated what they could do with different force levels,” but he would not say how many additional troops the commanders had asked for. He spoke to reporters at the end of a two-day visit to Afghanistan, before flying here for meetings with Saudi officials. He said the troop request would be studied by Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who will consult with the chiefs of the other services and then make a recommendation. Read The Full Story Secret Court To Govern Warrantless Wiretapping 2007-01-17 16:08:45 The Justice Department, easing a Bush administration policy, said Wednesday it has decided to give an independent body authority to monitor the government's controversial domestic spying program. In a letter to the leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said this authority has been given to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and that it already has approved one request for monitoring the communications of a person believed to be linked to al-Qaeda or an associated terror group. The court orders approving collection of international communications - whether it originates in the United States or abroad - was issued Jan. 10, according to the two-page letter to Sens. Patrick Leahy,  D-Vermont, and Arlen Specter, R-Pennsylvania. Read The Full Story Islamist Fighters Captured Fleeing Somalia 2007-01-17 16:07:52 Somali Islamist fighters, possibly including some top leaders, were arrested as they tried to escape across the border into Kenya, Kenyan authorities said Wednesday. The arrests raised the possibility of a sticky asylum issue.“We have detained a number of people, but we are still trying to determine their identities,” said Alfred Mutua, spokesman for the Kenyan government. According to Somali officials, one of the Somalis captured by Kenyan soldiers may be Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, the second in command of the defeated Islamist Court Union forces. Gen. Ismail Qasim Naji of the Somali transitional government said that Sheikh Sharif’s briefcase was recently discovered at a jungle hideout in southwestern Somalia. “It had some important documents in it,” General Naji said at a press conference in Mogadishu, Somalia’s seaside capital. When a reporter asked what they were, the general replied, “Top secret.” Read The Full Story J.P. Morgan Chase's Income Soared By 68 Per Cent In 4th Quarter 2007-01-17 16:07:09 Net income at J.P. Morgan Chase soared by 68 percent in the fourth quarter, the company reported Wednesday. Record-high profits in its investment-banking advisory businesses and vast improvement in its trading results were the reasons, the company said. J.P. Morgan reported fourth-quarter net income of $4.5 billion, or $1.26 a share, compared with $2.7 billion, or 76 cents a share in the comparable period in 2005. The latest figure reflects a $622 million after-tax gain related to its exit from the corporate trust business, which it traded to the Bank of New York for that bank’s retail branch network. Revenue rose to $16.9 billion, a 14 percent increase from the prior year. J.P. Morgan’s strong performance reflects a banner year for Wall Street, but also the steady progress that James Dimon, its chairman and chief executive, has made in integrating a giant company built through blockbuster mergers. Now that the great majority of potential merger-related cost savings have been realized, Dimon said Tuesday, he was “declaring victory” over the 2001 combination with Bank One. Read The Full Story U.S. Justice Department Names New Prosecutors, Forcing Some Out 2007-01-17 02:49:14 The Justice Department is removing several United States attorneys from their jobs, among them Carol C. Lam, the top federal prosecutor in San Diego, California, who led the corruption prosecution of former U.S.Representative Randy Cunningham. Justice Department officials said Tuesday that Lam’s dismissal had nothing to do with the prosecution of  Cunningham, Republican of California, but was based on her overall record in prosecuting firearms violations and crimes along the California border with Mexico. U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, said that Lam and Kevin V. Ryan, the United States attorney from San Francisco, among others, were being pushed out “without cause”. Ryan’s office has been investigating the backdating of stock options granted to corporate executives. Read The Full Story Israeli Army Chief Of Staff Resigns 2007-01-17 02:48:33 Israeli military chief Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz turned in his resignation, the military reported early Wednesday, yielding to demands that he pay the price for Israel's flawed summer war in Lebanon. Halutz's decision to step aside ratcheted up the pressure on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz, whose roles during Israel's largest military operation since 1982 also have been assailed. Halutz stepped down at the end of an already turbulent day for Olmert: Hours earlier, the Justice Ministry ordered police to launch a criminal investigation into his conduct in the sale of Israel's second-largest bank before he became prime minister last year. Troops, bereaved families and even members of Israel's tightly knit military elite have been calling for Halutz's head ever since the monthlong war against Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas ended on Aug. 14. Read The Full Story Homes Burned, Tourists Evacuated As Firefighters Battle Wildfires In South Australia 2007-01-17 02:47:44 Firefighters battled Wednesday to contain a wildfire that razed a number of homes in southern Australia amid soaring temperatures and warnings that the worst is yet to come. Two fires in southern Victoria state destroyed a number of homes late Tuesday, including one west of the capital, Melbourne, and three in the state's northeast, where a massive blaze has blackened nearly 67,000 acres over the past two days, according to the Victoria Country Fire Authority. Authorities earlier reported that eight houses had burned down, but revised the figure after firefighters were able to enter the charred areas and inspect the damage. Read The Full Story U.N. Clashes With Iraq On Civilian Death Toll 2007-01-17 02:46:51 The United Nations said Tuesday that the civilian death toll in Iraq last year was 34,452 - much higher than previous estimates - as an explosion outside a Baghdad university killed a further 65 people. The bomb at al-Mustansiriya university went off as students were queuing for minivans to take them home at the end of their day's study. About 138 were wounded. Within an hour, gunmen opened fire in a mainly Shia neighbourhood, killing 11 people and wounding five. The attacks came after 109 bodies were found overnight in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq. Four U.S. soldiers were also killed Tuesday by a roadside bomb in the northwest of the country. The U.N. report put the death toll for last year much higher than the 12,357 figure released earlier this month by Iraq's interior ministry and the 22,950 reported by the Washington Post last week apparently based on Iraqi health ministry statistics. Read The Full Story Arab Group Signals Iran To Quit Meddling In Iraq 2007-01-17 02:46:19 A group of eight Arab nations on Tuesday joined the United States in issuing a veiled warning to Iran against interfering in Iraq's affairs but offered only tepid support for President Bush's new plan for stabilizing Iraq. The statement was written in diplomatic jargon and did not mention Iran by name or even cite concerns about Iran's nuclear program. It warned against "destabilization" of the Persian Gulf, expressed support for the "principle of noninterference" and said it did not want Iraq to become "a battleground for regional and international powers," code for Iran and the United States. The statement welcomed Bush's speech as expressing "a commitment by the United States" to saving Iraq, but made no mention of Bush's proposed troop buildup. Read The Full Story
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