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(06/12/08 3:04pm)
MESEBERG, Germany – President Bush, in a fresh warning to Tehran, said Wednesday he favors a peaceful resolution to the nuclear standoff with Iran but has not ruled out the possible use of military force.\nBush spoke at a news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, but his words were aimed at Iran. Bush warned Iran against dragging out the dispute to run the clock out on his presidency.\n“My first choice is to solve this diplomatically,” said Bush, who is rallying European allies to back tougher sanctions against Iran. But he also said: “All options are on the table,” a phrase he has repeatedly used in reference to a possible military strike against Iran, even as a last resort.\nIran, which says it is enriching uranium for peaceful purposes, had a message for Bush on Wednesday too.\nPresident Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Bush’s presidency was over and the president has failed in his goals to attack Iran and stop its nuclear program. Addressing thousands of people in central Iran, Ahmadinejad described Bush as “wicked,” and said that Bush was targeting Iran after dispatching the U.S. military into Iraq and Afghanistan.\n“I tell him (Bush) ... your era has come to an end,” Ahmadinejad said. “With the grace of God, you won’t be able to harm even one centimeter of the sacred land of Iran.”\nMerkel, who appeared with Bush at the German government’s main guesthouse called Schloss Meseberg, said if Iran does not agree to suspend its enrichment program, additional sanctions would be needed.\n“If Iran does not meet its commitments, then further sanctions will simply have to follow,” she said.\nThe U.S. and its European allies are waiting to decide if stiffer sanctions should be levied against Iran until after the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, visits Tehran to present a package of incentives in exchange for stopping its enrichment program. The offer, an updated version of one that Iran ignored a few years ago, was developed by the United States, along with Germany, Britain, France, Russia and China.\nAhmadinejad said pressures and sanctions won’t succeed in forcing Iran to halt its uranium enrichment program. “If the enemy thinks they can break the Iranian nation with pressure, they are wrong,” he said.\nThe U.N. Security Council has imposed three sets of limited sanctions against Iran for refusing to halt uranium enrichment, a technology that can be used to produce nuclear fuel or materials for bomb. Iran continues to defy them.\nMerkel said she favors having sanctions decided through the U.N. Security Council, but that doesn’t preclude any discussion within the European Union about whether there are other punitive measures, perhaps in the banking sector.\nAt Bush’s final U.S.-EU summit Tuesday in Kranj, Slovenia, the leaders issued a joint declaration that said the United States and Europe “are ready to supplement those (previous) sanctions with additional measures” if Iran does not halt enrichment. It also said they would “work together ... to take steps to ensure Iranian banks cannot abuse the international banking system to support proliferation and terrorism.”\nAddressing opponents of taking certain sanctions, Merkel said “Let us think of the people in Iran. This is what is essential. I think these people deserve a much more – sort of a better outlook ... and we would hope for the leadership in Iran to finally see reason.”
(04/21/08 4:00am)
WASHINGTON – President Bush, ahead of his trip next week to a summit with North American leaders, said Saturday that the House’s decision to block a vote on a Colombia free trade agreement was a “serious error” and urged Congress to reconsider.\nThe Bush administration has insisted that the deal would be good for the U.S. economy because it would eliminate high barriers that American exports to Colombia now face. Most Colombian products already are entering the United States duty-free under existing trade preference laws.\n“The situation is completely one-sided,” Bush said in his weekly radio address. “Our markets are open to Colombian products, but barriers that make it harder to sell American goods in Colombia remain. If the free trade agreement were implemented, however, most of Colombia’s tariffs on American goods would be eliminated immediately.”\nDemocrats, however, have cited the continued violence against organized labor in Colombia and differences with the administration over how to extend a program that helps U.S. workers displaced by foreign competition.\nBush sent the agreement to Capitol Hill this month, but the House, led by Democrats, decided to eliminate a rule forcing a vote on the deal within 60 legislative days. The House’s decision probably kills consideration of the Colombia agreement this year, leaving it for the next administration.\nHouse Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who initiated the rules change, blames Bush for submitting the agreement before a consensus was reached with congressional leaders on outstanding differences. She has said that whether the agreement is dead for the year depends on the good faith of negotiations between Democrats and the White House.\nPelosi denied that Democrats were seeking to block the trade agreement, but wanted to create a timetable for consideration of the bill that was sensitive to the concerns of America’s \nworking families.\n“Unfortunately, the speaker of the House has chosen to block the Colombia free trade agreement instead of giving it an up-or-down vote that Congress committed to,” Bush said. “Her action is unprecedented and extremely unfortunate. I hope that the speaker will change her mind. If she does not, the agreement will be dead. And this will be bad for American workers and bad for America’s national security.”\nBush, who is meeting Monday and Tuesday in New Orleans with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderon to talk about trade and other issues affecting the hemisphere, has staked out free trade as one of his chief economic legacies.\nHe won a bruising battle to implement the Central American Free Trade Agreement with six countries in Latin America as well as a number of individual pacts. Other agreements with Panama and South Korea are also pending.\nBush used his entire radio address to push the free-trade deal with Colombia, a key U.S. ally in South America.\n“Today, almost all of Colombia’s exports to the United States enter duty-free, but the 9,000 American businesses that export to Colombia – including nearly 8,000 small and mid-sized firms – face significant tariffs on their products,” Bush said.
(03/24/08 2:49am)
RAMALLAH, West Bank – A Mideast peace agreement will require “painful concessions” by Israelis and Palestinians who must work together to defeat those “committed to violence,” Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday.\nAfter meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Cheney stressed the U.S. commitment to the creation of an independent Palestinian state, saying it was “long overdue.”\n“Achieving that vision will require tremendous effort at the negotiating table and painful concessions on both sides,” said Cheney, whose stop in Ramallah came just two months after President Bush’s trip to the West Bank.\n“It also will require a determination to keep those who are committed to violence and who refuse to accept the basic right of the other side to exist,” Cheney said.\nAbbas, a moderate, controls the West Bank and is battling Hamas militants who have taken charge of the Gaza Strip from Abbas-allied forces and have bombarded southern Israel with rockets.\n“Terror and violence do not merely kill innocent civilians, they also kill the legitimate hopes and aspirations of the Palestinian people,” Cheney said.\nIn their meeting, Abbas asked Cheney to help stop Israeli settlement expansion and military operations targeting militants, said Saeb Erekat, an Abbas aide.\nSpeaking at the news conference, Abbas thanked Cheney for U.S. support. But he also lashed out at Israel’s settlements and checkpoints, and called for an end to Israeli military operations.\n“Peace and security can’t be achieved through settlement expansion and building barriers,” he said. To reach peace, Abbas said, “what is required is will, courage and strong support from the international community, especially the U.S.”\nIn his remarks, Cheney said, “A negotiated end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – one that addresses the legitimate national claims of both people – will have limitless value. Years of mistrust ad violence have achieved nothing, and the extremists who have stood in the way of a settlement have only caused further grief and suffering to the Palestinian and Israeli people.”\n“No one,” he said, “deserves to go through live in a climate of fear of deprivation. ... That should not be and must not be the direction of events in this region.”\nBefore the session, aides to Abbas said Abbas would tell Cheney there had been little progress in peace talks since the Palestinian leader and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert agreed to a resumption at a November conference hosted by President Bush in Maryland.\nCheney said “the future belongs to the advocates of peace and reconciliation.” He cited Bush as saying that “the establishment of the state of Palestinian is long overdue.” The Bush administration, Cheney said, will commit resources to help the Palestinians build the infrastructure necessary to prosper.\nCheney held talks with Israeli officials in Jerusalem before flying by helicopter to the West Bank. After seeing Abbas, Cheney planned a separate meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.\nThe vice president began Easter Sunday with a prayer and the singing of “Amazing Grace” at a tiny chapel in Jerusalem, then launched into a day of talks about the Mideast peace process and the rising influence of Iran in the region.\n“We are obviously dedicated to doing all we can as an administration to try to move the peace process forward, and obviously actively involved in dealing with the threats that we see emerging in the region – not only threats to Israel, but threats to the United States as well,” Cheney said in a meeting with Israel’s president, Shimon Peres.\nIt was clear that Cheney was referring to Iran. Peres was more specific, saying the declarations that Iranian President MahmoudAhmadinejad makes against Israel cannot be ignored.\n“We have this problem of the Iranians who want to build two satellites, the Hezbollah and the Hamas in Gaza. ... Nobody cancontrol us and say that declarations by Ahmadinejad are less serious,” Peres said. “We have to take it seriously.”\nHe said time is of the essence in the peace negotiations, but that he believes progress is achievable.\nCheney is on a 10-day trip to the Mideast, where oil, the future of Iraq and Afghanistan and Iran’s rising influence in the region have highlighted his talks with foreign leaders. His visit here is part of the Bush administration’s strategy to keep the pressure on Israel and the Palestinians to reach a framework agreement for peace before Bush leaves office in January 2009.
(03/18/08 3:00am)
BAGHDAD - Vice President Dick Cheney, marking five years since the U.S. invasion of Iraq with an overnight stay in the war-torn nation, warned on Monday against large drawdowns of American troops that could jeopardize recent security gains.\nAt a news conference with U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and Gen. David Petraeus, the top commander in Iraq, Cheney said that given the nearly 4,000 U.S. troop deaths and billions of dollars spent on the war, it is very important that “we not quit before the job is done.”\nCheney, who stayed on a military base reporters were asked not to reveal for safety reasons, credited reductions in violence to President Bush’s decision to deploy an additional 30,000 troops to Iraq. In deciding whether to draw back more than the 30,000 before he leaves office, Cheney said Bush will weigh whether the U.S. can continue on a track toward political reconciliation and stability in Iraq.\n“It would be a mistake now to be so eager to draw down the force that we risk putting the outcome in jeopardy,” said Cheney. “And I don’t think we’ll do that.”\nAsked whether the progress that’s been made on the security front is an indication of more troop withdrawals after July, Cheney answered, “No, it does not.”\nPetraeus and Crocker are working on a status report on the war and will testify to Congress next month. Petraeus said discussions on the report would continue within the chain of command this week and then with the president.\n“We’re keenly aware of the strain and the stress that these extended deployments have put on soldiers and their families and we would love to draw down further, but that is dependent on conditions on the ground,” he said.\nAt the news conference, a rarity for the vice president, Cheney was asked questions ranging from Iran to oil to the upcoming presidential election.\nThe vice president brushed off President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s recent visit to Baghdad and said it was not widely discussed at his meetings with Iraqi leaders. “We obviously noted Ahmadinejad’s visit to Iraq,” Cheney said, adding that he did not find it surprising that the leader of a neighboring nation would visit.\nCheney said U.S. allies in the Arab world should send ambassadors to Iraq as a counter to Iran, which is seeking a greater sphere of influence in the Middle East and is accused of supporting terrorists and extremists in Iraq.\n“A number of them have indicated that they’re prepared to do it, but have not yet done it,” Cheney said.\nIn a country with the world’s third-largest known crude oil reserves, Cheney acknowledged that the declining value of the U.S. dollar was a factor in helping drive up global oil prices. He said another problem was that there was not a lot of excess capacity.\nCheney steered clear of sharing any concerns that his Iraqi hosts have about the upcoming presidential election. \n“I’m not here to sell a particular partisan view to our hosts,” he said just hours after the GOP’s expected nominee, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., left Baghdad after a weekend visit.\nAsked whether he came on his third vice presidential visit to Iraq with a weaker hand because he and Bush have just 10 months left in office, Cheney said, “I don’t feel any sense of the loss of influence, if you will. If anything, the successes that we’ve demonstrated here have given us greater credibility than would have been the case if we hadn’t had the surge and the progress of the last 12, 15 months.”\nBush’s decision last January to increase troops put to rest any notion that either “here inside Iraq or in the region that people could ‘wait us out,’” Cheney said.\nCheney landed at Baghdad International Airport, then flew by helicopter into the dusty, heavily secured Green Zone for talks with U.S. military and diplomatic officials and the Iraqi prime minister. It was Cheney’s third vice presidential trip to Iraq, where 160,000 American troops are deployed and the U.S. death toll is nearing 4,000. Cheney was expected to make stops throughout the country.
(02/15/08 4:53am)
WASHINGTON – President Bush, at loggerheads with House Democrats over how closely the government can eavesdrop on U.S. citizens, warned Wednesday that terrorists were planning fresh assaults that would make the Sept. 11 attacks “pale by comparison.”\nBush called on the image of planes crashing into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in 2001 as he pressured lawmakers to rewrite the intelligence rules governing how phone calls and e-mails are monitored for terrorist activity. Democrats and others fear the changes Bush and his Republican allies support would unduly encroach on civil liberties.\nThe House is considering the Senate version of the bill that Bush favors, one that includes retroactive protection from lawsuits for telecommunications companies that cooperated with government eavesdropping following the Sept. 11 attacks. The House bill does not provide telecom immunity.\nRather than wait for the House and Senate to negotiate differences in their versions of the intelligence legislation, Bush wants a rubber-stamp of the Senate bill so he can sign it into law immediately. The current law expires at midnight Saturday, and Bush said he wouldn’t approve another extension. The House wouldn’t either – Republicans led a 229-191 vote, turning down a 21-day extension.\n“At this moment, somewhere in the world, terrorists are planning new attacks on our country,” the president said. “Their goal is to bring destruction to our shores that will make September the 11th pale by comparison.”\nAbout 40 lawsuits have been filed against telecom companies by people alleging violations of wiretapping and privacy laws.\n“In order to be able to discover ... the enemy’s plans, we need the cooperation of telecommunication companies,” Bush said. “If these companies are subjected to lawsuits that could cost them billions of dollars, they won’t participate. They won’t help us. They won’t help protect America.”\nCaroline Fredrickson, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s legislative office in Washington, accused Bush of “fear mongering,” and she urged the House not to pass the Senate bill. The ACLU is particularly opposed to the Senate bill’s immunity to phone companies.\n“The people whose private phone calls and e-mails were turned over deserve to have their day in court against the phone companies. Let the American system of justice decide this case,” Fredrickson said.\nThe 68-29 Senate vote Tuesday to update the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act belied the nearly two months of stops and starts and bitter political wrangling that preceded it. The two sides had battled to balance civil liberties with the need to conduct surveillance on potential adversaries.\nWhile giving the White House what it wanted on immunity for the phone companies, the Senate also expanded the power of the court to oversee government eavesdropping on Americans. An amendment would give the FISA court the authority to monitor whether the government is complying with procedures designed to protect the privacy of innocent Americans whose telephone or computer communications are captured during surveillance of a foreign target.\nThe Senate bill would also require FISA court orders to eavesdrop on Americans who are overseas. Under current law, the government can wiretap or search the possessions of anyone outside the United States – even a soldier serving overseas – without court permission if it believes the person may be a foreign agent.\nSenate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., accused the president and Senate Republicans of being more interested in politicizing intelligence than resolving the debate. Reid said the issue would not even be before Congress if Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, “in their unyielding efforts to expand presidential powers,” had not created a system to conduct wiretapping, including on U.S. citizens, outside the bounds of federal law.\n“The president could have taken the simple step of requesting new authority from Congress ... but whether out of convenience, incompetence, or outright disdain for the rule of law, the administration chose to ignore Congress and ignore the Constitution,” Reid said.\nReid said if the president chooses to veto a short-term extension, he, not Congress, will have to take the blame for any gaps in collecting intelligence of terrorists’ communications.\nExpiration of the current Protect America Act would not mean an immediate end to wiretapping. Existing surveillance could continue under the law for a year from when it began – at least until August. Any new surveillance the government wants to institute could be implemented under underlying FISA rules, which may require warrants from the secret court.
(11/15/07 5:00am)
A style of music originated in Nigeria by the late Fela Kuti, Afrobeat is gaining increased popularity in America more 30 years after its inception because of its irresistible mixture of funk, jazz and African percussion and singing. Here is a glimpse into a style of music that you might not have been exposed to yet.
(11/09/07 3:12am)
President Bush greeted astronauts back home from a space mission and set about helping Senate Republican John Cornyn rally to raise money for re-election.\nBush attended a brunch Thursday at the manicured mansion of Richard Kinder, chairman of Kinder Morgan Energy Partners. He was attending a second fundraiser for Cornyn later in San Antonio. The aim was to raise $1.3 million to get out the GOP vote in Texas.\nAt one point Bush took time out to shake hands and be photographed with a half-dozen returned Space Shuttle astronauts and their families on the tarmac at Ellington Field.\nThe president also planned a visit with wounded fighting men and women at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio.\nCornyn is way ahead of his opponent, Democratic state Rep. Rick Noriega of Houston, in the race for campaign cash. The latest campaign disclosure reports show Noriega with about $500,000 cash to spend and Cornyn with $6.6 million.\nLast week, Vice President Dick Cheney attended a fundraiser in Dallas for Cornyn and the National Republican Senatorial Committee.\nTexas Democrats claim Cornyn knows he faces a tough re-election race because he’s so closely aligned with Bush, whose popularity has waned.\n“Cornyn has been a foot soldier for the White House,” said Amber Moon, a spokeswoman for the Texas Democratic Party. “He has tied his fortunes to Bush and he’s going to have to face that in November.”
(09/18/07 1:19am)
President Bush, seeking to avoid a possible confirmation fight over a fiercely partisan candidate, chose retired federal judge Michael B. Mukasey on Monday to replace Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Democrats said Bush made a wise choice and raised no immediate objections.\nAs chief judge of the busy U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Mukasey had presided over high-profile terrorism cases.\n“He knows what it takes to fight this war effectively and he knows how to do it in a manner consistent with our laws and our Constitution,” Bush said, standing next Mukasey in the Rose Garden.\nThe president urged the Senate to quickly confirm Mukasey, who would be Bush’s third attorney general.\nIf approved by the Senate, Mukasey would take charge of a Justice Department where morale is low following months of investigations into the firings of nine U.S. attorneys and Gonzales’ sworn testimony on the Bush administration’s terrorist surveillance program.\nMukasey said he was honored to be Bush’s nominee to take the helm of the department.\n“My finest hope and prayer at this time is that if confirmed I can give them the support and the leadership they deserve,” he said.\nThere had been rampant speculation that Bush might turn to former Solicitor General Ted Olson for the job, but key Democrats on Capitol Hill said they believed Olson too partisan a figure and indicated they would fight his nomination. The White House acknowledged that Bush had interviewed others for the job besides Mukasey.\nThe White House said that ease of confirmation was a factor, but not the decisive one, in Bush’s selection. Bush critics contended that Mukasey’s nomination was evidence of the president’s weakened political clout as he heads into the final 15 months of his term.\nSenate Democrats declared no outright opposition to Mukasey. But they made clear that there would be no confirmation hearings until the administration answers outstanding questions about the White House’s role in the firings of federal prosecutors over the winter.\n“Our focus now will be on securing the relevant information we need so we can proceed to schedule fair and thorough hearings,” said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “Cooperation from the White House will be essential in determining that schedule.”\nSen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said the answers Leahy seeks are important, but not enough to delay the installation of someone to stabilize a leaderless Justice Department hobbled \nby scandal.\nSenate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he believes the president listened to Congress and decided against a more partisan replacement for Gonzales. He said Mukasey had “strong professional credentials and a reputation for independence.”\n“A man who spent 18 years on the federal bench surely understands the importance of checks and balances and knows how to say no to the president when he oversteps the Constitution,” said Reid, D-Nev. “But there should be no rush to judgment. The Senate Judiciary Committee must carefully examine Judge Mukasey’s views on the complex legal challenges facing the nation.”\nSome legal conservatives and Republican activists have expressed reservations about Mukasey’s legal record. Even before he was nominated, Mukasey met on Sunday with six conservative leaders to answer \ntheir questions.
(09/04/07 2:15am)
President Bush, after hearing from top U.S. and Iraqi leaders, said Monday that some U.S. troops could be sent home if security conditions across Iraq continue to improve as they have in Anbar province.\nBut the president, flanked by Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, did not say how many troops could be withdrawn or how soon.\nBush spoke after hearing from Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and U.S. ambassador to Baghdad Ryan Crocker, who are testifying to Congress next week when it assesses the president’s troop buildup.\n“Gen. Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker tell me if the kind of success we’re now seeing continues, it will be possible to maintain the same level of security with fewer American forces,” Bush said.\nBush stood in front of two Humvees near a dusty tarmac of this desert outpost in western Iraq, about 120 miles west of Baghdad, to share his latest views about the war. He urged Congress to wait until they hear testimony from Crocker and Petraeus and see a White House progress report due by Sept. 15 before judging the result of his decision to send an extra 30,000 troops to Iraq.\n“I urge members of both parties in Congress to listen to what they have to say,” he said. “We shouldn’t jump to conclusions until the general and the ambassador report.”\nBush met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other top government officials from Baghdad. He urged the government to respond to progress in Anbar where violence has abated after Sunni tribal leaders and former insurgents teamed up with U.S. troops to hunt down al-Qaida and other extremists.\nHe also met with Sunni tribal sheiks and members of Anbar’s governing body.\n“I’m going to reassure them that America does not abandon our friends,” he said.\nTo a large degree, the setting was the message: Bringing al-Maliki, a Shiite, to the heart of mostly Sunni Anbar province was intended to show the administration’s war critics that the beleaguered Iraqi leader is capable of reaching out to Sunnis, who ran the country for years under Saddam Hussein.\nEven Republicans are pressuring Bush on troop cuts. Republican Sen. John Warner surprised the White House by declaring over the summer congressional break that he wants some U.S. troops to start coming home from Iraq by Christmas. He said he may support Democratic legislation ordering withdrawals if Bush refuses to set a return timetable soon.\nBush’s six-hour stay was confined to Al-Asad Air Base, an airfield that was once part of Saddam Hussein’s military.\nAnticipating criticism that Bush’s trip was a media event to buttress support for his war strategy, the White House was ready to push back.\n“There are some people who might try to deride this trip as a photo opportunity,” White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino said. “We wholeheartedly disagree.”\nHadley said Bush wanted to hear personally from commanders and from al-Maliki himself.\n“There is no substitute for sitting down, looking him in the eye, and having a conversation with him,” Hadley said. “The president felt this is something he had to do in order to put himself in a position to make some important decisions.”
(04/11/07 4:00am)
WASHINGTON – President Bush on Tuesday invited Democrats to discuss their standoff over a war-spending bill, but he made clear he would not change his position opposing troop withdrawals. The White House bluntly said the meeting would not be a negotiation.\n“It’s time for them to get the job done, so I’m inviting congressional leaders from both parties – both political parties – to meet with me at the White House next week,” Bush said in a speech to an American Legion audience in Fairfax, Va.\n“At this meeting, the leaders in Congress can report on progress on getting an emergency spending bill to my desk,” Bush said. “We can discuss the way forward on a bill that is a clean bill, a bill that funds our troops without artificial timetables for withdrawal and without handcuffing our generals on the ground. I’m hopeful we’ll see some results soon from the Congress.”\nDemocratic leaders said they’re ready to sit down and talk with Bush. But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday that Bush must agree to “take a seat at the table of negotiation, of compromise, of direction change.”\n“Iraqi leaders are not willing to take the political risk of governing their own country. That must change,” Reid said. “That’s what Congress is demanding. That is what the American people, by a large majority, demand. And the president should be leading us in that direction, not threatening to veto funding for our troops unless we rubber-stamp his flawed plan.”\nIn essence, Bush invited the Democratic leaders of Congress to come hear the stance he has offered for weeks. He again accused them of shirking their responsibilities.\n“We’re at war,” Bush said. “It is irresponsible for the Democratic leadership in Congress to delay for months on end while our troops in combat are waiting for the funds they need to succeed.”\nBush said the Defense Department will soon send Congress a request to transfer $1.6 billion from other military accounts to cover funding for troops – a move needed, he said, because lawmakers have delayed his emergency spending request. He warned that continued delays would undermine troop training, slow the repair of equipment and force soldiers to serve longer tours of duty.\nAlso on Tuesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said that he saw no need to set a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from his country. His comments in Japan came a day after tens of thousands of Iraqis took to the streets of two Shiite holy cities, demanding that U.S. forces leave the country.
(03/09/07 5:00am)
WASHINGTON – President Bush was ready to challenge a widespread perception in Latin America that U.S. neglect has empowered leftist leader Hugo Chavez as he left Thursday on a five-nation tour of the region.\nBush argues that strong democratic governments hold the promise of prosperity. He hopes his trip will resonate with the one in four impoverished Latin Americans, who live on less than $2 a day and wonder whether democracy will ever deliver them a better life.\n“The trip is to remind people that we care,” Bush said in an interview Wednesday with CNN En Espanol. “I do worry about the fact that some say, ‘Well, the United States hasn’t paid enough attention to us,’ or ‘The United States really isn’t anything more than worried about terrorism.’ And when, in fact, the record has been a strong record.”\nBut Bush, with just two years left in his presidency, has a weak hand. Anti-Americanism and Bush’s poor image, tainted by the war in Iraq, have only fueled Chavez’s influence in the region and beyond.\nThe fiery leader of oil-rich Venezuela, who has labeled Bush “the devil” and dismisses him as the “little gentleman from the North,” plans to play to this discontent. He has called for protests during Bush’s stay and is leading a rally in Argentina when the president visits neighboring Uruguay.\nThe president’s message: “Regardless of what Hugo Chavez says about us, we’re not the bogeyman,” said Russell Crandall, a former Western Hemisphere director at the National Security Council who is now at the Center for American Progress.\nBush has packed a suitcase of strategies for nurturing trade, fighting drug-traffickers and curbing poverty and social inequality for his trip, which also will take him to Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico and Brazil, where protests on Wednesday preceded his visit.\nProtesters, most of them women from the Via Campesina farmworkers movement, briefly shut down an iron ore mine, invaded an ethanol distillery and took over the Rio de Janeiro offices of Brazil’s National Development Bank. Fresh graffiti reading “Get Out, Bush! Assassin!” in bright red letters popped up along busy highways near the locations in Sao Paulo where Bush will appear as he kicks off his Latin American tour.\nProtest organizers denounced foreign investment in the vast sugarcane fields that are used to produce Brazil’s ethanol.
(10/27/06 1:11am)
WASHINGTON -- President Bush signed a bill Thursday authorizing 700 miles of new fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border, hoping to give Republican candidates a pre-election platform for asserting they're tough on illegal immigration.\n"Unfortunately the United States has not been in complete control of its borders for decades and therefore illegal immigration has been on the rise," Bush said at a signing ceremony.\n"We have a responsibility to enforce our laws," he said. "We have a responsibility to secure our borders. We take this responsibility serious."\nHe called the fence bill "an important step in our nation's efforts to secure our borders."\nThe centerpiece of Bush's immigration policy, a guest worker program, remains stalled in Congress.\nAnd a handful of House Republican are at the brakes, blocking negotiations with the Senate for a bill that includes the president's proposal.\nStill, Bush argues that it would be easier to get his guest worker program passed if Republicans keep their majorities in the House and Senate after the Nov. 7 elections. His proposal would allow legal employment for foreigners and give some of the estimated 11 million to 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States a shot at becoming American citizens.\nThe measure Bush put into law Thursday before heading for campaign stops in Iowa and Michigan offers no money for the fence project covering one-third of the 2,100-mile border.\nIts cost is not known, although a homeland security spending measure the president signed earlier this month makes a $1.2 billion down payment on the project. The money also can be used for access roads, vehicle barriers, lighting, high-tech equipment and other tools to secure the border.\nMexican officials have criticized the fence. Outgoing Mexican President Vicente Fox, who has spent much of his six years in office lobbying for a new guest worker program and a chance at citizenship for the millions of Mexicans working illegally in the U.S., calls the fence "shameful" and compares it to the Berlin Wall.\nOthers have doubts about its effectiveness.\n"A fence will slow people down by a minute or two, but if you don't have the agents to stop them, it does no good. We're not talking about some impenetrable barrier," T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, a union representing Border Patrol agents, said Wednesday.\nCustoms and Border Protection statistics show that apprehensions at border crossings are down 8 percent nationally for the budget year that just ended, Bonner said. Apprehensions were up in the San Diego sector, he said, an area of the nearly 2,000-mile border that has the most fencing.\nA spokesman for Customs and Border Protection would not confirm the statistics or discuss reasons for the increase in the San Diego sector.\nSens. John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison, both Texas Republicans, had wanted to amend the fence bill to give local governments more say about where fencing is erected. They lost that battle, but Republican leaders assured them the Homeland Security Department would have flexibility to choose other options instead of fencing, if needed.\nCornyn said he voted for the fence because he wanted to help demonstrate that Congress was serious about border security.\n"The choice we were presented was: Are we going to vote to enhance border security, or against it?" Cornyn said. "I think that's how the vote was viewed."
(10/05/06 2:44am)
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- President Gorge W. Bush on Wednesday claimed Democrats can't be trusted to protect the nation from terrorist attacks. "Vote Republican for the safety of the United States," he said.\nIn an echo of the election-year charges the GOP used in 2002 and 2004, Bush accused the Democrats of being soft on terrorism and argued the nation's security is a key issue in the midterm elections.\nVice President Dick Cheney, in 2004, had said a vote for Democratic Sen. John Kerry would risk another terror attack.\nOn his three-day, $3.6 million fundraising swing through Nevada, California, Arizona and Colorado, Bush is trying to keep the election framed around the economy and the war on terror,\nBut back in Washington, the partisan sniping continues over when Republican leaders in the House first learned about the conduct of former Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., who sent sexually explicit messages to teenage boys who had worked as pages at the Capitol.\nRepublican strategists worry that the Foley scandal could keep conservatives away from the polls, but the White House said Bush is focused on getting his message out to voters.\nBush interrupted his fundraising swing in California on Tuesday to denounce Foley's conduct and support House Speaker Dennis Hastert amid calls from some conservatives for the Illinois Republican's resignation as speaker.\nAt a $450,000 breakfast fundraiser for Republican Rep. Rick Renzi, Bush criticized Democrats who voted against legislation allowing tough interrogation of terror suspects by CIA agents and a bill authorizing warrantless monitoring of phone calls and e-mails to detect terror plots.\n"If the people of Arizona and the people the United States don't think we ought to be listening in on the conversations of people who can do harm to the United States, then go ahead and vote for the Democrats," Bush said.\n"If you want to make sure that those on the front line protecting you have the tools necessary to do so, you vote Republican for the safety of the United States."\nDemocrats argue that Republicans have put national security at risk by their policies in Iraq and no longer have credibility with the American people.\n"Time and time again, the president says he's running smart successful policies, but everyday the facts show that is not happening," Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., chairman of the Senate Campaign committee, said in a statement. "Instead of making baseless claims, the president should focus on the facts and discuss what he's doing to improve the situation on the ground in Iraq."\nAfter the morning fundraiser for Renzi, who is seeking a third term, Bush signed a bill that could bring hundreds of miles of fencing to the busiest illegal entry point on the U.S.-Mexico border.\nOn his way back to Washington, Bush is stopping in Englewood, Colo., to speak at a $550,000 fundraiser for Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez. \nAt the Renzi fundraiser, Bush also said his pro-growth economic policies have helped working Americans and called on Congress to make his administration's tax cuts permanent. "If the other bunch gets elected," he said of Democrats, "they're going to raise your taxes."\nDemocrats argue that Republicans essentially are raising taxes by failing to revive popular middle-class tax breaks. A list of widely popular tax cuts expired more than nine months ago and have not yet been renewed. Among the expired provisions: deductions for student tuition and expenses and for state and local sales taxes, intended to help residents in states that don't have an income tax.\nBut the loudest applause from the Republican crowd came from his remarks criticizing the Democrats on national security.\n"We believe strongly that we must take action to prevent attacks from happening in the first place," Bush said "They view the threats we face like law enforcement, and that is, we respond after we're attacked. And it's a fundamental difference, and I will travel this country the next five weeks making it clear the difference"
(10/04/06 2:46am)
STOCKTON, Calif. -- President George W. Bush said Tuesday he was "shocked and dismayed" at disgraced lawmaker Mark Foley's behavior and supports House Speaker Dennis Hastert's call for a full investigation.\n"This investigation should be thorough, and any violation of the law should be prosecuted," Bush said while campaigning for Republican lawmakers in California.\nSome, including a Washington newspaper, have called for Hastert to resign, but Bush expressed confidence in the speaker's ability to resolve the matter, calling him a "father, teacher, coach."\nBush spoke after Hastert brushed aside any suggestion of resignation Tuesday as House Republican leaders struggled to contain the fallout from an election-year scandal involving sexually explicit messages from the disgraced former Florida Republican lawmaker to underage male pages.\n"I know that he wants all the facts to come out, and he wants to ensure that these children up there on Capitol Hill are protected," the president said. "I'm confident he will provide whatever leadership he can to law enforcement in this investigation."\n"I was disgusted by the revelations and disappointed that he (Foley) would violate the trust of the citizens who placed him in office," Bush said. "Families have every right to expect that when they send their children to be a congressional page in Washington that those children will be safe."\nThe president spoke in a courtyard of the George W. Bush Elementary School. Inside, the president visited young children practicing their reading in the school library named after his wife, Laura. The school has 858 students in grades kindergarten through seventh grade.\nBush's comments on the Foley scandal came as he also addressed a string of deadly attacks in schools in the past week. He said Americans have a responsibility to protect their children.\n"Our school children should never fear their safety when they enter into a classroom," the president said.\n"Laura and I were saddened and deeply concerned, like a lot of citizens around the country, about the school shootings that took place in Pennsylvania, Colorado and Wisconsin. We grieve with the parents, and we share the concerns of those who worry about safety in schools," Bush said.\nOn Monday night, the White House announced a conference of education and law enforcement experts on how the federal government might help communities prevent violence and deal with its aftermath. No date has been set, and it was unclear whether Bush would attend.
(09/05/06 4:29am)
PINEY POINT, Md. -- President Bush said Monday the economy is growing steadily and jobs are plentiful, but America must work harder to break its dependency on foreign oil.\nMaking a Labor Day appearance at Maryland's Paul Hall Center for Maritime Training and Education, which offers vocational training to Seafarers International Union members, Bush said "dependence on foreign oil jeopardizes our ability to grow."\n"Problem is, we get oil from some parts of the world, and they simply don't like us," he said. "The more dependent we are on that type of energy, the less likely it will be that we are able to compete and so people can have good paying jobs."\nBush also said he is interested in new technology that produces battery-operated cars and allows people to fuel their vehicles with ethanol, particularly in Farm Belt states. And he made a fresh push for greater development of nuclear energy.\n"Nuclear power is safe, and nuclear power is clean, and nuclear power is renewable," the president said.\nOn trade, he said the United States must "continue opening markets to U.S. products."\n"My message to the world is this: Just treat us as we treat you," Bush said. "I believe this country can compete anytime, anywhere, as long as the rules are fair."\nBush again called on Congress to make permanent a host of tax cuts, saying, "I like it when people working for a living have more after-tax money in their pocket."\nHe said people in all walks of life should work hard to ensure that "our workers have the skills necessary to compete in the 21st century."\nBush made a brief mention on the war and terrorism, thanking America's fighting men and women for their sacrifices and saying, "They may hear all the political discourse going on, but the people of this country -- the people of the United States of America -- stand squarely behind the men and women who wear our uniform"
(07/05/06 11:16pm)
WASHINGTON -- The Bush White House condemned North Korea for its defiant missile tests and accused Pyongyang of trying to "intimidate other states" but said the missiles posed no danger to the United States.\nThe test-firings of six missiles -- including a long-range missile designed to reach U.S. soil -- came as America celebrated the Fourth of July and raised the stakes in a nuclear standoff and pressured the U.S. and its partners to penalize Pyongyang. North Korea fired a seventh missile early Wednesday, after the initial round of U.S. reaction.\nFor now, talking is the order of the day. Japan asked the U.N. Security Council to hold an emergency session Wednesday. Tokyo was expected to present a U.N. resolution protesting the missile tests, which sent U.S. officials scurrying to telephones for urgent, long-distance diplomacy.\nThe long-range missile, called the Taepondong-2, failed less than a minute after liftoff. It's unclear what North Korea learned from launching the shorter and medium-range ones, which fell into the Sea of Japan, but could be capable of striking its neighbors.\n"Regardless of whether the series of launches occurred as North Korea planned, they nevertheless demonstrate North Korea's intent to intimidate other states by developing missiles of increasingly longer ranges," White House press secretary Tony Snow said in a statement released late Tuesday night. "We urge the North to refrain from further provocative acts, including further ballistic missile launches."\nDemocrats also expressed concern.\n"This is an incredibly immature regime in the north. That's the part that frightens me about them," Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del, ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Wednesday.\n"I'm not concerned immediately about their nuclear capability or anything coming close to reaching the United States in this decade and maybe beyond," Biden told CBS News. "But I do think they're so irrational ... that they may play a game of brinksmanship."\nDemocratic Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, U.N. ambassador during the Clinton administration, told ABC News that North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Il, was using the missile firings to flex his muscle.\n"He's trying to say, hey, I'm around. I'm a player ... He's crazy like a fox. He's unpredictable. He's reckless. But you have to take him seriously," Richardson said.\nDonald Gregg, ambassador to Seoul during the administration of Bush's father, George H.W. Bush, agreed that the North Koreans were "far from being able to miniaturize a warhead to put on this missile." He called the test-firings "a very stupid move on the part of the North Koreans," and told ABC News that "what Kim Jong Il has done now plays into the hardliners who don't want to do business with us anyway."\nThe White House said the United States would continue to take all necessary measures to protect itself and its allies, yet further diplomacy, not military action, appeared to be the preferred course of action.\nSecretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Christopher Hill, assistant secretary of state, began talking Tuesday with their counterparts in Japan, China, Russia and South Korea. Hill was being dispatched to the region for new rounds of discussions.
(02/10/06 5:06am)
WASHINGTON -- President Bush said the U.S.-led global War on Terror has "weakened and fractured" al-Qaida and allied groups, outlining as proof new details about the multinational cooperation that foiled purported terrorist plans to fly a commercial airplane into the tallest skyscraper on the West Coast.\n"The terrorists are living under constant pressure and this adds to our security," Bush said. "When terrorists spend their days working to avoid death or capture, it's harder for them to plan and execute new attacks on our country. By striking the terrorists where they live, we're protecting the American homeland."\nThe president said the anti-terror battle is far from over.\n"The terrorists are weakened and fractured, yet they're still lethal," the president said in a speech at the National Guard Memorial Building. "We cannot let the fact that America hasn't been attacked in 4 1/2 years since Sept. 11, 2001, lull us into the illusion that the threats to our nation have disappeared. They have not."\nBush has referred to the 2002 plot before. In an address last October, he said the United States and its allies had foiled at least 10 serious plots by the al-Qaida terror network in the last four years, including plans for Sept. 11-like attacks on both U.S. coasts. The White House initially would not give details of the plots but later released a fact sheet with a brief, and vague, description of each.\nThe president filled in details Thursday.\nHe said that Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks who was captured in 2003, had already begun planning the West Coast operation in October 2001. One of Mohammed's key planners was Hambali, the alleged operations chief of the al-Qaida-related terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah. Instead of recruiting Arab hijackers, Hambali found Southeast Asian men who would be less likely to arouse suspicion and who were sent to meet with Osama bin Laden, Bush said.
(01/12/06 4:11am)
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- President Bush said Wednesday that congressional hearings to investigate his domestic eavesdropping program will be good for democracy as long as they don't give secrets away to the enemy.\nBush was initially opposed to having the program investigated in a public format, but made it clear he is resigned to open hearings scheduled to begin in coming weeks.\nBush's decision to authorize the National Security Agency to monitor -- without warrants -- people inside the United States has sparked a flurry of questions about the program's legal justification.\nBush defended the program during a campaign-style town hall meeting, saying he understands concerns about it, but monitoring the phone calls of affiliates of the terrorist network al-Qaida is necessary to protect the United States. He said he made sure he had the legal authority to allow the program before he did so.\n"There will be a lot of hearings to talk about that, but that's good for democracy," he said. "Just so long as the hearings... explore whether or not I had the prerogative to make the decision I make, doesn't tell the enemy what we're doing. See, that's the danger."\nIn the days after the program's existence was revealed, Bush cautioned against hearings, arguing that the appropriate members of Congress were being consulted privately and offering assurances he was working within the law to authorize the eavesdropping.\n"Any public hearings on programs will say to the enemy, 'Here's what they do -- adjust.' This is a war," Bush said at a December news conference when asked about expected hearings on Capitol Hill.\nThe Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled hearings to discuss the issue for early February. The Senate Intelligence Committee also plans to hold hearings that will be closed to the public.\nFor the second time in a month, Bush took questions from audience members during an appearance to win support for his War on Terrorism.\nIn his opening remarks, he defended the global war on terrorism and the U.S. effort in Iraq. He said insurgents in Iraq were trying to drive the United States out through violence and bloodshed but he declared, "They're not going to shake my will."\nWhile saying he wanted to bring American troops home, he said, "I don't want them to come home without achieving the victory."\nIn a question-and-answer session, Bush was asked about Iraq, education priorities, immigration, the economy, health care and other subjects. He said the War on Terrorism would not end with an enemy surrender, as was the case in World War II. \n"I don't envision a signing ceremony on the USS Missouri," Bush said. "The peace won't be the kind of peace we're used to."\nWhite House press secretary Scott McClellan said questions from the audience were not prescreened, and Bush himself said that while the event was about terrorism, no questions were off limits.
(12/08/05 1:48am)
WASHINGTON -- Defending his strategy in Iraq, President Bush said Wednesday that reconstruction has been "uneven" but spreading economic progress is giving people hope for a democratic future.\nIn particular, Bush cited Najaf, 90 miles south of Baghdad, and Mosul in northern Iraq -- once the sites of some of the bloodiest battles of the war -- as two cities where headway is being made, giving Iraqis more of a stake in their country's future.\n"In places like Mosul and Najaf, residents are seeing tangible progress in their lives," Bush said. "They're gaining a personal stake in a peaceful future and their confidence in Iraq's democracy is growing. The progress in these cities is being replicated across much of Iraq. And more of Iraq's people are seeing the real benefits that a democratic society can bring."\nBush's speech was the second in a series of four to answer criticism and questions about the continuing U.S. presence in Iraq more than two-and-a-half years after the war started.\nWhile Bush talked about reconstruction projects and the reopening of schools, markets and hospitals, and the upgrading of roads and the growth of construction jobs in the two cities, he also acknowledged that both cities still face challenges.\n"Iraqis are beginning to see that a free life will be a better life," Bush said. "Reconstruction has not always gone as well as we had hoped, primarily because of the security challenges on the ground. Rebuilding a nation devastated by a dictator is a large undertaking."\nHouse Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi suggested that Bush was out of touch with reality in Iraq. "Just because he says things are improving there, doesn't make it so," the California Democrat said.\nAfter a caucus meeting about Iraq, she and other Democrats in leadership sought to project a unified front on the war, even though they disagree over just when U.S. troops should return home.\nIn his speech, Bush acknowledged that there's still plenty of work left to do in cities like Najaf and Mosul.\n"Like most of Iraq, the reconstruction in Najaf has proceeded with fits and starts since liberation," he said. "It's been uneven. Sustaining electric power remains a major challenge."\n"Security in Najaf has improved substantially but threats remain," Bush added. "There are still kidnappings and militias and armed gangs are exerting more influence than they should in a free society."\nCritics of the administration's reconstruction strategy in Iraq say not enough has been done since the U.S.-led invasion to reduce unemployment, step up oil production and keep the lights on.
(12/01/05 4:50pm)
ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- President Bush gave an unflinching defense of his war strategy Wednesday, refusing to set a timetable for U.S. troop withdrawals and asserting that once-shaky Iraqi troops are proving increasingly capable. Democrats dismissed his words as a stay-the-course speech with no real strategy for success.\nBush recalled that some Iraqi security forces once ran from battle, and he said their performance "is still uneven in some parts." But he also said improvements have been made in training and Iraqi units are growing more independent and controlling more territory.\n"This will take time and patience," said Bush, who is under intense political pressure as U.S. military deaths in the war rise beyond 2,100 and his popularity sits at the lowest point of his presidency.\nBush's speech at the U.S. Naval Academy, the first of at least three he'll give between now and the Dec. 15 Iraqi elections, did not outline a new strategy for the nearly three-year-old war. Rather, it was intended as a comprehensive answer to mounting criticism and questions. Billed as a major address, it brought together in a single package the administration's arguments for the war and assertions of progress on military, economic and political tracks.\nThe address was accompanied by the release of a White House document titled "Our National Strategy for Victory in Iraq" -- a report that House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi dismissed as "35 pages of rhetoric on old sound bites." Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., called Bush's speech "lipstick" on a failed Iraqi strategy. "If things on the ground in Iraq are as rosy as the picture the president painted today, then we should be able to begin to bring our troops home in 2006," he said.\nBush spoke to a friendly audience of midshipmen. They welcomed the president by singing him the Navy fight song. At the end, they chanted in unison, 'Fire it up! Fire it up!'\nThe president said the U.S. military's role in Iraq will shift from providing security and fighting the enemy nationwide to more specialized operations targeted at the most dangerous terrorists. "We will increasingly move out of Iraqi cities, reduce the number of bases from which we operate and conduct fewer patrols and convoys," the president said.\nStill, Bush remained steadfastly opposed to imposing a deadline for leaving Iraq.\n"Many advocating an artificial timetable for withdrawing our troops are sincere, but I believe they're sincerely wrong," Bush said. "Pulling our troops out before they've achieved their purpose is not a plan for victory."\nSenate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada called on the president to release a strategy that has military, economic and political benchmarks that must be met. "Simply staying the course is no longer an option," Reid said. "We must change the course."\nBush was ready for that.\n"If by 'stay the course' they mean we will not permit al-Qaida to turn Iraq into what Afghanistan was under the Taliban -- a safe haven for terrorism and a launching pad for attacks on America -- they're right," Bush said.\n"If by 'stay the course' they mean that we're not learning from our experiences or adjusting our tactics to meet the challenges on the ground, then they're flat wrong."\nThere are about 160,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. The Pentagon has not committed to any specific drawdown next year beyond the announced plan to pull back 28,000 troops who were added this fall for extra security during the election.