McCain More Conservative Than His Image
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gO1787MReKt8NlkNjv-28cMSIwjwD901GSQ00
WASHINGTON — The independent label sticks to John McCain because he antagonizes fellow Republicans and likes to work with Democrats.
But a different label applies to his actual record: conservative.
The likely Republican presidential nominee is much more conservative than voters appear to realize. McCain leans to the right on issue after issue, not just on the Iraq war but also on abortion, gay rights, gun control and other issues that matter to his party's social conservatives.
The four-term Arizona senator, a longtime member of the Armed Services Committee, criticized the earlier handling of the war but has been a crucial ally in President Bush's effort to increase and maintain U.S. forces in Iraq.
Besides the war, McCain agrees broadly with Bush and other conservatives on:
_Abortion. McCain promises to appoint judges who, in the mold of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, are likely to limit the reach of the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion. McCain's record is not spotless on abortion: He said once, in 1999, that Roe v. Wade should not be overturned. But that amounted to a blip in an otherwise unbroken record of opposing abortion rights for women.
"I am pro-life and an advocate for the rights of man everywhere in the world," McCain told the Conservative Political Action Conference in February. "Because to be denied liberty is an offense to nature and nature's Creator."
_Gay rights. McCain opposes gay marriage. True, he does not support a federal ban on gay marriage on grounds the issue traditionally has been decided by states. But McCain worked to ban gay marriage in Arizona. He also supports the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, and he opposed legislation to protect gay people from job discrimination or hate crimes.
"I'm proud to have led an effort in my home state to change our state constitution and to protect the sanctity of marriage as between a man and woman," he told CNN in March. "I will continue to advocate for those fundamental principals of our party and our faith."
_Gun control. McCain voted against a ban on assault-style weapons and for shielding gun-makers and dealers from civil suits. He did vote in favor of requiring background checks at gun shows, but in general he sides with the National Rifle Association in favor of gun rights.
When the Supreme Court held arguments last month on Washington, D.C.'s handgun ban, McCain said it was "a landmark case for all Americans who believe, as I do, that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to keep and bear arms."
His conservatism could be a problem for McCain — particularly if this November's contest is as close as recent presidential elections, which were decided by independent-minded voters in the center of the political spectrum.
But he might avoid this problem to the extent people know him as an independent-minded politician. And many do view him that way.
"People see him as a centrist. They don't see him as a conservative," said Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.
"In fact, they put him pretty close to themselves, in terms of ideology, and put President Bush way to the right of themselves," Kohut said.
In a national Pew survey earlier this year, voters placed McCain in the middle, where they placed themselves, when asked to judge the ideology of Bush and the presidential candidates. They placed Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama far to the left.
And voters who back Clinton and Obama are open to McCain.
Nearly a third of Clinton supporters said they would back McCain if Obama becomes the Democratic nominee, and more than a quarter of Obama supporters said they would back McCain over Clinton, according to Associated Press-Ipsos polling released Thursday.
Democrats are trying to change the perception of McCain. The Democratic National Committee insists that McCain's election would amount to a third term for Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.
"All he offers is four more years of the failed Bush economy, an endless war in Iraq and shameless hypocrisy on ethics reform," DNC Chairman Howard Dean said last month.
Whatever the general image of McCain, the Christian right is deeply suspicious of him despite his many conservative positions. McCain has clashed with its leaders. He called televangelists Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell "agents of intolerance" and has often worked against them.
He pushed to limit the influence of money in politics through campaign finance reforms that, critics say, stomp on the constitutional right to free speech.
He backs a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, which many of his party's most conservative members oppose.
And he splits from the right over research which extracts stem cells from human embryos in an effort to develop treatments for Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and a range of other diseases. Conservatives object because human embryos are destroyed; McCain supports the research.
Polls indicate McCain has the same level of GOP support as Bush had at this point in 2000. But some insist he still isn't reaching out to rank-and-file conservatives who are needed to lick envelopes, make phone calls and knock on doors in states where the election is likely to be close.
On the right and across the political spectrum, McCain's image, rather than his positions on issues, seems to form people's opinion of him. Indeed, in choosing presidents, voters often look past issues to character and personality, and most individual issues are unlikely to mean much.
But one broader issue could figure prominently in November — the tumbling economy and consequent job losses, home foreclosures and soaring energy prices.
Those could prove troublesome for McCain, and not only because he acknowledges he's no economic expert.
"We are surely in a time of deep economic insecurity for a majority of the American people," said Curtis Gans, director of American University's Center for the Study of the American Electorate. "That has always led to two things: somewhat higher turnout, and votes against the party in power."
"We are also in a deeply unpopular war," Gans said. "Where there are these differences, and strong differences, they could be in the Democrats' direction."
Steyn: Michelle Obama Like Kim Jong-Il
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/steyn_obama_jong_il/2008/04/13/87613.html
Senator Barack Obama's wife Michelle is "Kim Jong-Il dressed up with a bit of Oprah Winfrey dressing," according to Mark Steyn, probably the most widely read columnist in North America.
Appearing on CNN Headline News Glenn Beck show on April 10 Steyn also described the Illinois senator's wife as "a conventional university socialist," according to a shocked Media Matters - the ultra-leftist self-proclaimed media watchdog.
Added host Glenn Beck "Her language is riddled with socialism," while opining that with both Obamas "here's a socialist agenda there for America."
On the April 10 edition of CNN Headline News' Glenn Beck show, author and columnist Mark Steyn said of Michelle Obama: "[T]his is [North Korean Communist dictator] Kim Jong-Il dressed up with a bit of Oprah Winfrey dressing." Steyn also called Obama "a conventional university socialist." During the segment, host Glenn Beck said of Mrs. Obama, "Her language is riddled with socialism," and said of the Obamas, "[T]here's a socialist agenda there for America."
According to a transcript of the show, Beck said "Now, I got to move from racism to Marxism, and Obama is still in the center of it. For months I've been telling you, Barack Obama, and more his wife than Barack -- I mean, at least looking at her language -- I believe there's a socialist agenda there for America. And Michelle ain't helping him any. She's adding fuel to the fire. Remember, Michelle is a campaign surrogate for her husband. So he can't be everywhere, so he sends her out to speak for him."
He quoted Michelle as telling some North Carolina voters as saying "The truth is, most Americans don't want much. Folks don't want the whole pie.Most Americans feel blessed to thrive just a little bit. But that's out of reach for them." The truth is, in order to get things like universal health care and revamped education system, then someone is going to have to give up a piece of their pie so someone else can have more."
Said Beck "Well, hello and welcome back, Karl Marx. A redistribution of pie doesn't make me feel any better. Thanks, but no thanks, Michelle. When it comes to pie, or money, I'll take all I can get. I want all my pie. I should be able to keep my pie. And you know what? I want you to have a huge piece of pie, as well. Have the whole thing. It's not because I'm -- I'm selfish, I'm not. Unlike the Obamas, I happen to give away more than 1 percent of my income to charity.
"The bottom line is this: success and money -- it's not finite. This is America. That's not a zero-sum game. There's as much as you feel like working for it. You know, you've got to -- you got to look at money and success as the ocean. It doesn't hurt the ocean to back a dump truck up to it and take a bunch of water out of it. There's more. Stand in line, go get it. Let's stop thinking about pieces of pie, and remember that if you wanted to look at it as pie, this is America. We're a freaking bakery. Bake more. Make as many pies as you want."
Beck noted that Michelle's language is "riddled with socialism."
Steyn agreed, saying "Yeah, I think she's a conventional university socialist. And you're right, I give enough of my pie to the federal government, and they waste most of that pie. So, when she's talking about universal health care and revamping and reforming education, by any reasonable measure, American education is overfunded.
Said Beck "Let me give you this. I'm going to -- you just tell me what we're missing here in Michelle Obama's language. Listen to this. Quote, this is from the UCLA speech she gave, 'And Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. Put down your division, that you come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zones, that you push yourselves to be better and that you engage. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved and uninformed.'
Said Steyn "Yes, exactly -- soft, fluffy totalitarianism. The right to be uninvolved, the right to be left alone is one of the most precious rights in a constitutional republic. And if she wants me to shed my cynicism, she's going to have to prize it from my cold, dead, cynical fingers. This is not -- this is Kim Jong-Il dressed up with a bit of Oprah Winfrey dressing. It's unbecoming of an American presidential candidate."
Beck said he wished "these candidates would go back and read the words of the founding fathers. You have a right to fail. You have a right to starve to death -- the government is not the person to come in and tell you how to live your life. If you want to fail -- there are a lot of people that, you know, hold themselves up in the woods in a cabin, like, 'I'm gonna sit here and eat my tin can.' That's exactly what you have a right to do in America."
Steyn answered "Yeah, and that is the most precious right -- and I wouldn't mind if she was saying, we need 300 million self-reliant, engaged citizens out there. But she just wants 300 million cheerleaders, for a messianic president. Sorry, count me out."
Jeremiah Wright Sounds Off At Eulogy for Chicago Judge
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/04/13/jeremiah-wright-sounds-off-at-eulogogy-for-chicago-judge
Rev. Jeremiah Wright told a congregation in Norfolk, Va., on Sunday that reporters sneaked into a private funeral service a day before, in which he blasted America’s founding fathers for slavery and white supremacy and received standing ovations for attacking FOX News for covering his anti-American sermons.
Barack Obama’s retiring pastor delivered a sermon at Bank Street Memorial Baptist Church, where his late uncle had been the pastor, about overcoming trouble. The public appearance was his first since news broke that the Democratic presidential candidate’s pastor frequently rails on the United States.
“Some troubles that come up in your life come up out of nowhere,” Wright said. At the end of the two-hour-plus service, about two dozen ministers gathered around Wright and his daughter to pray for them. One of the ministers asked God to give Wright courage as “the world tries to demonize him.”
Though Wright said nothing about Obama or the uproar itself, he alluded to the controversy while briefly back in the pulpit Saturday to deliver a eulogy for a late congregant of Trinity United Church of Christ — former appellate judge R. Eugene Pincham.
Wright, who is on sabbatical before retiring from Trinity United, said America’s mistreatment of blacks is the result of the founding fathers, who “planted slavery and white supremacy in the DNA of this republic.”
First reported by The Chicago Sun Times, Wright told mourners at the funeral that Thomas Jefferson, who partook in “pedophilia,” would also be considered unpatriotic these days because he wrote, “God would punish America for the sin of slavery.” He also quoted Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who said that the U.S. has a “congenital birth defect.”
Speaking of the seven lessons Pincham taught him, Wright said the judge’s faith “was not the jingoistic, chauvinistic ‘you’re either with us or against us’ demonizing kind of faith.”
“FOX News can’t understand that,” Wright said to rousing cheers and applause. “[Bill] O’Reilly will never get that. Sean Hannity’s stupid fantasy will keep him forever stuck on stupid when it comes to comprehending how you can love a brother who does not believe what you believe. [Pincham’s] faith was a faith in a God who loved the whole world not just one country or one creed.”
Israeli Leaders Snub Carter During Trip to Mideast
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,351178,00.html
JERUSALEM — Former President Jimmy Carter brokered the first Israeli-Arab peace deal, but he's getting a cool reception in Israel during his latest visit to the Mideast.
Israeli leaders are shunning the globe-trotting peacemaker for planning to meet with Khaled Mashaal, the head of Israel's archenemy Hamas, and comparing the Jewish state's policies to apartheid.
A schedule released by the Atlanta-based Carter Center showed no plans for the former president to meet any of Israel's key players: Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni or Defense Minister Ehud Barak during this week's visit, which began Sunday.
The only high-ranking official on Carter's schedule was Israel's ceremonial head of state, President Shimon Peres. The 83-year-old former U.S. leader held a closed meeting with Peres shortly after arriving Sunday.
A senior Israeli official said "scheduling problems" was the official reason given for the high-profile snub — even though Olmert recently took time to chat with "Prison Break" star Wentworth Miller.
But the real reason for the cold shoulder is Carter's plan to meet with Mashaal when his Carter Center delegation travels later this week to Damascus, Syria, the Israel official said.
Israel's leader are not publicly criticizing Carter out of respect for his former position as U.S. president, the official added. He spoke on condition of anonymity because his explanation went beyond the official position.
Ahead of his Mideast trip, Carter defended his reasons for wanting to engage Hamas and said he feels "quiet at ease" about meeting with Hamas militants.
"I think there's no doubt in anyone's mind that if Israel is ever going to find peace with justice concerning the relationship with their next-door neighbors, the Palestinians, that Hamas will have to be included in the process," Carter told ABC News "This Week" in a broadcast aired Sunday.
Hamas is sworn to Israel's destruction and has carried out dozens of suicide bombings that have killed more than 250 Israelis. Israel has no contacts with the Islamic militant group, whose violent takeover of the Gaza Strip in June has undercut newly revived efforts by Israel and the Palestinians to strike a final peace deal.
Several State Department officials, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and others from the Bush administration have criticized Carter's plans to meet with Mashaal.
"The position of the government is that Hamas is a terrorist organization and we don't negotiate with terrorists. We think that's a very important principle to maintain," Stephen Hadley, Bush's national security adviser, said Sunday on ABC. "The State Department made clear we think it's not useful for people to be running to Hamas at this point and having meetings."
But Carter is among a growing group of U.S. critics who say shunning enemies is counterproductive. Several months ago, a group of prominent former senior U.S. officials — including Carter's own former national security adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski — called on the U.S. to engage in "genuine dialogue" with Hamas, not isolate it.
In Syria, senior Hamas official Mohammed Nazzal has said Hamas "welcomes the request" from Carter to meet with Mashaal. He said the meeting would take place Friday.
Carter said the meeting would not be a negotiation, but he outlined distinct goals.
"I think that it's very important that at least someone meet with the Hamas leaders to express their views, to ascertain what flexibility they have, to try to induce them to stop all attacks against innocent civilians in Israel and to cooperate with the Fatah as a group that unites the Palestinians, maybe to get them to agree to a cease-fire — things of this kind," Carter said.
Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his work in mediating conflicts, while president and under the auspices of the Carter Center. In 1979, he brokered the landmark accord between Egypt and Israel, for which Egypt's Anwar Sadat and Israel's Menachem Begin were awarded that year's Nobel Peace Prize.
But the goodwill Carter earned here was all but swept away two years ago with the publication of his book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," which compares the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories with the racial segregation and oppression that once reigned in South Africa.
Jewish groups and some fellow Democrats strongly objected to the book and more than a dozen members of the Carter Center's advisory board resigned in protest.
In a later afterword to his book, Carter criticized the lack of "balanced debate" in the U.S. about the Middle East and warned officials against being "seen as knee-jerk supporters of every action or policy" of the Israeli government.
In recent years, Carter has embarked upon "a crusade of hate against Israel," Uzi Arad, an adviser to parliamentary opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, told Israel Radio.
"There is no doubt that Jimmy Carter as a former president should be greeted as a matter of protocol, but it does not mean that the prime minister, the foreign minister and certainly the opposition leader have to meet him," Arad said.
While in Israel, Carter also plans to meet several lawmakers and visit Sderot, the southern Israeli town most frequently targeted by Gaza rocket squads.
Carter is also scheduled to visit the West Bank, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Jordan during his Mideast tour. Carter will not be visiting Hamas-ruled Gaza.
A Carter-Mashaal meeting would be the first public contact between a prominent American figure and Hamas officials since the Rev. Jesse Jackson met with Mashaal in Syria in 2006.
Calif. Gov Says No to Marriage Amendment
http://www.newsmax.com/us/schwarzenegger_gay_marria/2008/04/11/87348.html
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Friday that he would fight an initiative to amend the California Constitution to ban same-sex marriage if it qualifies for the November ballot.
Schwarzenegger has vetoed bills that would allow gay marriage but said he opposes the sort of amendments that are being proposed by two competing groups. Such amendments are already on the books in 26 states, but the governor said it would be a "waste of time" to pursue one in California.
"I will always be there to fight against that," Schwarzenegger said, prompting loud cheers and a standing ovation from about 200 people at the annual convention of the Log Cabin Republicans, the nation's largest gay Republican group.
The Austrian-born governor immediately cracked that he wished activists would instead focus on passing an amendment to allow naturalized citizens to run for president.
Both proposed initiatives would limit marriage to heterosexuals, and one measure would revoke the spousal rights and tax benefits currently extended to same-sex couples under state laws.
Schwarzenegger supports the current benefits for same-sex couples. In vetoing bills that would have legalized gay marriage, he has said he thinks the question should be up to voters or the courts, not lawmakers.
Geoffrey Kors, executive director of the gay rights group Equality California, said Schwarzenegger's opposition could help defeat a marriage ban or even prevent it from getting enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.
"We were thrilled. We have been asking him to do this," said Kors, whose group's volunteers have been working to persuade people not to sign petitions for the proposed initiative. "The governor's support to defeat it is critical."
Kors said Schwarzenegger's stand has precedent. In 1978, former Republican Gov. Ronald Reagan came out against a ballot initiative that would have made it illegal for gay men and lesbians to work as teachers in California public schools, an act that "made gay rights issues nonpartisan," Kors said.
Schwarzenegger is a defendant in a group of lawsuits brought by same-sex couples seeking to overturn the state's longtime statutory ban on gay marriage. A ruling in the case is expected soon from the California Supreme Court.
World Bank Leader Urges Action on Food
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/356368.aspx
WASHINGTON -- The president of the World Bank on Sunday urged immediate action to deal with mounting food prices that have caused hunger and deadly violence in several countries.
Robert Zoellick said the international community has "to put our money where our mouth is" and act now to help hungry people. "It is as stark as that."
He called on governments to rapidly carry out commitments to provide the U.N. World Food Program with $500 million in emergency aid it needs by May 1.
He said the bank is granting an additional $10 million to Haiti for feeding programs, "and I understand others are looking to help."
"It is critical that governments confirm their commitments as soon as possible and others begin to commit," Zoellick said. Prices have only risen further since the WFP issued that appeal, so it is urgent that governments step up, he said.
After a meeting of the bank's policy-setting committee, Zoellick said that the fall of the government in Haiti over the weekend after a wave of deadly rioting and looting over food prices underscores the importance of quick international action. A U.N. police officer was killed Saturday in Haiti's capital.
Zoellick said that international finance meetings are "often about talk," but he noted a "greater sense of intensity and focus" among ministers; now, he said, they have to "translate it into greater action."
Zoellick said the bank was responding to needs in a number of other countries with conditional cash transfer programs, providing food in workplaces and seeds for planting in the new season.
He said a rough analysis the bank estimates that a doubling of food prices over the last three years could potentially push people in low income countries deeper into poverty.
"This is not just a question of short term needs, as important as they are," Zoellick said." This is about ensuring that future generations don't pay a price too."
Zoellick spoke as the bank and its sister institution, the International Monetary Fund, wound up two days of meetings that dealt with the financial crises roiling global markets and rising food and energy prices.
The head of the IMF also sounded the alarm on food prices, warning that if they remain high there will be dire consequences for people in many developing countries, especially in Africa.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn said progress in recent years on development can be destroyed by rising food prices, which can lead to starvation and shake the stability of governments, even if they have nothing to do with the increase in food cost. "We are facing a huge problem," he said.
Strauss-Kahn had said Saturday that the problem could also create trade imbalances that would impact major advanced economies, "so it is not only a humanitarian question."
He said if the price spike continues, "Thousands, hundreds of thousands of people will be starving. Children will be suffering from malnutrition, with consequences for all their lives."
Mexican Finance Secretary Agustin Carstens, who heads the bank's policy-setting Development Committee, said officials "need to redouble our efforts" to help the poorest people. He said there had been "a very welcome increase in money" from governments, but all donors need to "reach into their pockets" to help.
An open world economy is crucial to global prosperity, he said, urging a successful conclusion to world trade talks.
Zoellick said the Development Committee endorsed his call for a "New Deal for Global Food Policy" that would aim to boost agricultural productivity in poor nations , improve access to food through schools or work places and help small farmers.
He said earlier this month the bank would nearly double the money it lends for agriculture in Africa from $450 million to $800 million.
Zoellick said he had received positive feedback from his proposal to have sovereign wealth funds - huge pools of capital controlled by governments - invest one percent of their resources in Africa. He said this could draw $30 billion to African growth.
He said the bank was following up the proposal in discussions with countries that have sovereign wealth funds, mainly in Asia and the Middle East, through the International Finance Corporation, the bank's private sector arm.
"Hunger, malnutrition and food policy have formed a recurrent theme at this weekend's meetings, and I believe that we have made progress," Zoellick said. "But it will be important to continue to retain the focus on this as we leave Washington."
Hadley: Iran Remains Threat in Iraq
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/356419.aspx
WASHINGTON -- With al-Qaeda's influence diminishing in Iraq, U.S. troops have much work to do in stemming Iranian support for militias, President Bush's national security adviser said Sunday.
"Iran is very active in the southern part of Iraq. They are training Iraqis in Iran who come into Iraq and attack our forces, Iraqi forces, Iraqi civilians. There are movements of equipment. There's movements of funds," Stephen Hadley said. "So we have illegal militia in the southern part of the country that really are acting as criminal elements that are pressing the people down there."
"Al-Qaeda, they're on the defensive," he added, citing the illegal militias as an emerging threat. The prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, "decided it was time to take control of the situation down there.. He's had some success. He's taken control of the port. But there's more work to do."
Last week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the U.S. will be as aggressive as possible to counter the increase in Iranian support for militias. He said the Iraqis "are in a position themselves to bring some pressures to bear on Iran."
"I think that one of the interesting developments of Prime Minister Maliki's offensive in Basra is that it has revealed to the Shia, particularly, in the Iraqi government, the level of Iranian malign influence in the south and on their economic heartline through Basra," Gates said in an interview aired Sunday.
"And so I think what has happened is that the hand of Iran has been exposed, in a way that perhaps it had not been before, to some of the Iraqi government," he said.
Gates also has acknowledged that future troop withdrawals will go more slowly than he had initially hoped last year. He told a Senate panel he expects Gen. David Petraeus, the top military commander in the war, to be able to make an assessment of further drawdowns by mid-September.
In the broadcast interview, Gates played down concerns that an extended U.S. presence in Iraq might lead to a confrontation with Iran.
"I think the chances of us stumbling into a confrontation with Iran are very low," he said. "We are concerned about their activities in the south. We are concerned about the weapons that they continue to send in to Iraq. But I think that the process that's under way is, as I said, headed in the right direction."
Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he was struck during last week's hearings by the repeated references to Iran.
"Iran kept being mentioned. The fact that the Iranians are intruding," he said. "It was almost as if we were justifying our continued presence in Iraq with the fact that we may be in a conflict with Iran, and furthermore, the al-Qaeda, wherever they may be. It's a very confusing picture to say the least."
"Because, essentially, we did not get into the overall status of our armed forces, our economy, and our ability to pay for this, quite apart from exactly who enemy is, what the priorities are, in terms of our expenditure of forces and money," Lugar said.
To Gates, "extremism" is the biggest threat in Iraq.
"The reason you don't hear much about al-Qaeda is because our soldiers have been very successful, our soldiers and our marines, in taking them on, as have the Sunnis in Iraq, themselves," he said.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., criticized the administration's strategy of taking a "pause" before deciding whether a major drawdown was warranted. She noted that the U.S. has been in Iraq for more than five years and she blamed Republicans for not working with Democrats to change the course of the war.
"We have not been successful, because what we found out, really, is it's not just the president. It's the Republicans in Congress who are committed to this course of action, which I believe is a wrong course of action, and it will keep us in Iraq for many years to come, instead of taking us out, strengthening our military, regaining our reputation for security in the world.
"I've always said it was a mistake," said Pelosi, in comments aired Sunday. "Sadly, it's now a mistake that is five years old."
Hadley noted that the Iraqi government has been putting more diplomatic pressure on Iran, which he called a "good thing."
"We will continue to do with Iraqi security forces what we've been doing for some time. We will go after their surrogate operations in Iraq that are killing our forces, killing Iraqi forces," he said. "We will disrupt their networks by which they move fighters, weapons and funds in and around Iraq. And we will cut off as best we can the flow of fighters, weapons and arms into Iraq."
Regarding troop drawdowns, Hadley reiterated that Bush will give Petraeus the time that he needs to assess the security situation in Iraq.
"What we hope is that conditions on the ground will permit continuation of what we call return on success, and more U.S. forces will come out," he said.
Bush "has told them very clearly their only consideration is what they need to do to succeed in Iraq. And his objective is to leave Iraq in a situation at the end of his term where we have a strategy that is succeeding, that the American people can see progress, and to hand it over to the next administration, whether Republican or Democrat, so that they will inherit a strategy ... that is working," Hadley said.
Hadley spoke on "Fox News Sunday," Lugar appeared on CNN's "Late Edition," while Gates and Pelosi taped interviews Friday that were broadcast Sunday on "Face the Nation" on CBS.
IAEA: Iran Calls Off Nukes Meeting
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,351179,00.html
VIENNA, Austria — A top Iranian official on Sunday abruptly canceled a meeting with the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, dealing a blow to IAEA efforts to investigate alleged attempts by Tehran to make nuclear arms, an agency official said.
The IAEA official, confirming Iranian media reports that Monday's planned meeting was off, told The Associated Press that no reason had been given.
But a senior diplomat had told the AP that IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei likely planned to use the meeting with Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, the head of Iran's nuclear program, to renew a request for more information on allegations Tehran had tried to make atomic arms.
Both the official and the diplomat demanded anonymity because they were not authorized to comment by name on the Iranian nuclear issue.
The diplomat, who follows IAEA attempts to clear up suspicions about Iran's nuclear activities, said the meeting also was likely to have focused on Iran's latest show of defiance of U.N. Security Council demands to suspend uranium enrichment.
Last week Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that his nation was installing thousands of new uranium-enriching centrifuges and testing a much faster version of the device.
Ahmadinejad said scientists were putting 6,000 new centrifuges into place, about twice the current number, and testing a new type that works five times faster.
That would represent a major expansion of uranium enrichment — a process that can produce either fuel for a nuclear reactor or material for a warhead.
Still, others suggested the claims may be exaggerated.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice cautioned the claim could not be immediately substantiated, and diplomats close to the IAEA said Iran has exaggerated its progress and experienced problems operating the 3,000 centrifuges already in place. One diplomat said Ahmadinejad's claims of a more advanced centrifuge appeared to allude to a type known as the IR-2, which the agency and Iran said months ago that Iran had begun testing.
The IR-2 is believed to be two-to-three times faster than the centrifuges currently in use, and his claim that the new machine was five times as quick added to the diplomats' skepticism.
In the enrichment process, uranium gas is pumped into a series of centrifuges called "cascades." The gas is spun at supersonic speeds to remove impurities. Enriching at a low level produces nuclear fuel, but at a higher level it can produce the material for a warhead. Iran says it is only interested in the process to generate nuclear power and plans to move toward large-scale uranium enrichment that ultimately will involve 54,000 centrifuges.
The canceled meeting was also consider the first test of whether Iran will truly continue to stonewall the IAEA, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, in its attempt to investigate the alleged military programs after saying earlier this year that such allegations were fabricated.
Iran has denied ever trying to make such weapons. But U.S. intelligence agencies say Tehran experimented with such programs until 2003, and other countries believe it continued past that date.
Suspected weapons-related work outlined in a February presentation to the IAEA's 35-nation board and IAEA reports preceding it include:
• Uranium conversion linked to high explosives testing and designs of a missile re-entry vehicle, all apparently interconnected through involvement of officials and institutions.
• Procurement of so-called "dual use" equipment and experiments that could be used in both civilian and military nuclear programs.
• Iran's possession of a 15-page document outlining how to form uranium metal into the shape of a warhead.
Iran is under three sets of Security Council sanctions for its refusal to suspend enrichment and meet other council demands designed to ease fears its civilian nuclear program is a cover for attempts to make atomic arms.
SKorea to North: Drop Nuclear Program
http://www.newsmax.com/international/koreas_nuclear/2008/04/13/87509.html
SEOUL, South Korea -- South Korea's president renewed his call Sunday for North Korea to scrap its nuclear weapons programs and said Seoul is ready for talks with Pyongyang.
South Korea wants to persuade the North that abandoning its nuclear programs "is in its interest," President Lee Myung-bak said in a news conference ahead of his trip to the United States for talks with President Bush.
Lee also said South Korea is prepared for talks with North Korea if they help to resolve the North's nuclear impasse and improve the livelihood of North Koreans.
"The door is open," Lee said.
Relations between the two divided Koreas have worsened since Lee took office in February with a pledge to get tough on Pyongyang. Lee, who ended a decade of liberal rule in which South Korea sought to reconcile with the North, said inter-Korean ties "are going through an adjustment period."
North Korea has test-fired missiles and leveled harsh personal rhetoric against Lee, and threatened to reduce the South to "ashes."
The North has also expelled South Korean officials from an industrial zone and a South Korean-run mountain resort in the North _ two prominent symbols of inter-Korean reconciliation.
Lee's comments came days after the U.S. suggested it was backing off on a demand that has hung up disarmament talks.
Negotiations have been stalled for months over whether Pyongyang has met its requirement to fully declare its atomic programs under an agreement reached last year with the U.S. and other regional powers.
North Korea has claimed it gave the U.S. a nuclear list in November. But Washington has said the North never produced a "complete and correct" list that would address all its past atomic activity.
U.S. officials now say they will still get the information they need, but it will be packaged and presented in a way more acceptable to the reclusive North.
Malaysia to ease religious tension over conversions
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/malaysia.to.ease.religious.tension.over.conversions/17965.htm
Malaysia will soon require new converts to Islam to notify family members of their change in faith after a controversial conversion case stoked religious tensions in the mostly Muslim nation, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said on Thursday.
Non-Muslims have complained that Islamic authorities snatched bodies of dead relatives, denying them their funeral rights. The authorities argued that they intervened because the dead were Muslims. Such disputes have raised fears the authorities are trampling on the religious rights of the sizeable minority Chinese and Indians, who are Buddhists, Hindus or Christians.
Abdullah, seeking to rebuild popular support after last month's election debacle, said the new ruling would help avoid problems when converts died.
"We do not want the religious department saying the deceased was a Muslim but the family members disputing it because he or she converted on the quiet," the state Bernama news agency quoted Abdullah as telling reporters.
Politically dominant ethnic Malay Muslims form about 60 percent of Malaysia's population of roughly 26 million.
The opposition won a record number of seats in parliament at the March 8 elections, dealing the ruling National Front coalition the biggest setback in its 50-year reign and spelling trouble for Abdullah's future leadership.
Scientists Reportedly Develop New Cloning Method That Could Be Used to Produce a Human Child
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,351192,00.html
A new form of cloning has been developed that is easier to carry out than the technique used to create Dolly the sheep, The Independent reports, raising fears that it may one day be used on human embryos to produce "designer" babies.
Scientists who used the new procedure to create baby mice from the skin cells of adult animals have found it to be far more efficient than the Dolly technique, with fewer side effects, which makes it more acceptable for human use.
The procedure is reported to be so simple and efficient that it has raised fears it will be seized on by in-vitro fertilization doctors to help infertile couples who are eager to have their own biological children.
One scientist said a maverick attempt to perform the technique on humans is now too real to ignore. "It's unethical and unsafe, but someone may be doing it today," Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer of Advanced Cell Technology told The Independent.
"Cloning isn't here now, but with this new technique we have the technology that can actually produce a child. If this was applied to humans it would be enormously important and troublesome," said Dr Lanza, whose company has pioneered developments in stem cells and cell reprogramming.
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