Missile defense deal?

The Obama administration is secretly working with Russia to conclude an agreement that many officials fear will limit U.S. missile defenses, a key objective of Moscow since it opposed plans for a U.S. missile defense interceptor base in Eastern Europe, according to American officials involved in arms control issues.

According to the officials, the administration last month presented a draft agreement on missile defenses to the Russians as part of talks between Ellen Tauscher, undersecretary of state for international security and arms control, and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Rybakov.

The secret talks and possible agreement have triggered alarm among pro-missile defense advocates who are concerned that the administration, in its effort to “reset” ties with Moscow, will make further concessions constraining current and future missile defenses.

Pro-arms-control officials within the administration dislike missile defenses, viewing them as an impediment to offensive arms agreements.

The administration’s position on missile defenses contrasts sharply with that of the George W. Bush administration, which separated the issue of missile defense entirely from strategic arms talks. To make its point, the Bush administration abandoned the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty because of its limits on strategic defenses.

By contrast, the Clinton administration sought to extend the ABM Treaty’s limits on strategic defense to short-range missile defenses, something that was opposed by the U.S. military because of the growing threat of short-range missiles.

Officials said the first linkage between missile defenses and strategic offensive arms is contained in the preamble to the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START). The preamble refers to “the interrelationship between strategic offensive arms and strategic defensive arms.”

Despite administration claims that the treaty contains no limits on missile defenses within the treaty text, the third paragraph of Article 5 contains an explicit limitation on the use of ICBM launchers for “missile defense interceptors.”

The administration has characterized the language as a meaningless concession to the Russians that the United States has no intention of ever carrying out.

PRESIDENT Obama has secretly sanctioned a huge increase in the number of US special forces carrying out search-and-destroy missions against al-Qaeda around the world, with American troops now operating in 75 countries, The Times reported.

The dramatic expansion in the use of special forces, which in their global span go far beyond the covert missions authorised by George W. Bush, reflects how aggressively the President is pursuing al-Qaeda behind his public rhetoric of global engagement and diplomacy.

When Mr Obama took office, US special forces were operating in fewer than 60 countries.

In the past 18 months he has ordered a big expansion in Yemen and the Horn of Africa – known areas of strong al-Qaeda activity – and elsewhere in the Middle East, central Asia and Africa.

According to The Washington Post, Mr Obama has also approved pre-emptive special forces strikes to disrupt terror plots, and has given the units powers and authority that was not granted by Mr Bush when he occupied the White House.

It also emerged yesterday that Robert Gates, the US Defense Secretary, has ordered the Pentagon to find savings of more than $US100 billion over the next five years to redistribute more funds for combat forces – including special operations units.

Mr Gates has called on all departments to come up with proposals by July 31, and is initially demanding $7 billion in cuts and efficiencies for the 2012 fiscal year, and further cuts each year up to 2016.

The effort to provide more money for combat forces in Afghanistan and Iraq – including special operations units – is likely to lead to a clash with Congress, and also with the defense industry if favoured equipment programs are scrapped.

The aggressive secret war against al-Qaeda and other radical groups has coincided with a surge in the number of US drone attacks in the lawless border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan, an al Qaeda and Taliban haven, since Obama took office.

(Reuters) – Even Rod Blagojevich’s lawyer finds him a bit strange, which may provide the key to the former Illinois governor’s strategy at his upcoming corruption trial — he was all talk, but no action.

Among the 24 counts of fraud, conspiracy, bribery and racketeering that could land Blagojevich a long prison sentence are charges he dangled President Barack Obama’s vacant U.S. Senate seat to the highest bidder or demanded a cabinet post for himself in exchange for naming an Obama aide to the seat.

Since his arrest at dawn on December 9, 2008, Blagojevich has repeated his mantra of innocence in nonstop interviews, in a book, on the airwaves as a local disc jockey, and to anyone who would listen on NBC’s “Celebrity Apprentice” television show.

Married with two young daughters, the 53-year-old former two-term Democrat governor and, before that, three-term U.S. representative said he is trying to make a living since being impeached and ousted last year by the state legislature.

His attorney told an interviewer that he had neither the capability nor the intention of shutting Blagojevich up.

“He’s a celebrity idiot, but he is a celebrity,” Sam Adam Jr. told Chicago Magazine of plans to let his client testify.

Quieting Blagojevich would never work, he added.

“I can’t. But you’re going to see when he testifies. He’s truly funny — totally self-absorbed but truly funny,” Adams said. “He’s also one of the most insecure people I’ve ever met. It’s such a strange dynamic.”

Another possible wild card in Blagojevich’s long-awaited trial that begins on Thursday is whether it will entangle Obama and his aides in Illinois’ hurly-burly political theater.

The trial, which is expected to last up to four months, may expose discrepancies in how members of Obama’s future administration characterized its contacts with Blagojevich after the November 2008 election.

Blagojevich is accused of trying to trade official acts for kickbacks to his campaign fund, to his friends, to his wife, Patti, and to himself. He is accused of trying to extract favors from, among others, a movie producer, the chief of a local children’s hospital, and the Chicago Tribune.

Judge James Zagel of the U.S. District Court ruled out a defense request to have Obama testify. But among those who may take the stand are senior White House staffers Rahm Emanuel and Valerie Jarrett, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, U.S. Senator Richard Durbin, and U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.

“Given the former Governor’s previous antics regarding this case, it’s no surprise he is casting a wide net — apparently from the President down to dogcatcher,” a statement from Durbin’s office said after the Senate Democrat was served.

CRIMES OR HORSE TRADING?

There is also the shadowy figure of a convicted influence peddler, Antoin “Tony” Rezko, a former friend to both Obama and Blagojevich who may testify for the prosecution.

Prosecutors are expected to rely heavily on the testimony of former Blagojevich aides, three of whom have pleaded guilty, and audio tapes featuring the often foul-mouthed Blagojevich.

The FBI recorded 500 hours of conversations involving Blagojevich and his cohorts. Prosecutors say they engaged in a turbocharged version of “pay-to-play” politics, and will play some 100 hours of the tapes for the jury.

Early on, Chicago’s high-profile U.S. attorney Patrick Fitzgerald released snippets of tape transcripts of the tapes and said he had halted a “political corruption crime spree” that would have made Abraham Lincoln roll over in his grave.

Blagojevich’s predecessor, Republican George Ryan, was convicted on corruption charges and is in prison.

Unlike Ryan, Blagojevich is not accused of pocketing any money himself and experts say his task is to depict his talk as typical political horse trading. “Play all the tapes” to show the overall context, Blagojevich has repeated constantly.

In an impromptu news conference last month, Blagojevich called out Fitzgerald to meet him face to face in court — “I hope you’re man enough,” he said. The following day, presiding Judge James Zagel told him sternly there would be no “head butting” in his courtroom.

THE discovery of three American soldiers among the dead in a suicide bombing at the opening of a girls’ school in the northwestern Pakistan town of Dir last week reignited the fears of many Pakistanis that Washington was set on invading their country.

Barack Obama has banned the Bush-era term “war on terror” and dithered about sending extra troops to Afghanistan, but across the border in Pakistan, the US president has dramatically stepped up the covert war against Islamic extremists.

US airstrikes in Pakistan, launched from unmanned drones, are now averaging three a week, triple the number last year. “We’re quietly seeing a geographical shift,” an intelligence officer said.

For the past month drones have pounded the tribal region of North Waziristan in apparent retaliation for the murder of seven CIA officers in Afghanistan by a Jordanian suicide bomber working with the Pakistani Taliban.

President Obama recently shifted authority for approving sales to China of missile and space technology from the White House to the Commerce Department — a move critics say will loosen export controls and potentially benefit Chinese missile development.

The president issued a little-noticed “presidential determination” Sept. 29 that delegated authority for determining whether missile and space exports should be approved for China to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke.

Commerce officials say the shift will not cause controls to be loosened in regards to the export of missile and space technology.

Eugene Cottilli, a spokesman for Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security, said under new policy the U.S. government will rigorously monitor all sensitive exports to China.

The Obama administration is quietly dusting off an effort to impose new federal quarantine regulations, which were vigorously resisted by civil liberties organizations and the airline industry when the rules were first proposed by the Bush administration nearly four years ago.

White House officials aren’t saying what their rules might ultimately require. But the previous administration proposed giving the federal government the authority to order a “provisional quarantine” of three business days — or up to six calendar days — for those suspected of having swine flu or other illnesses listed in a presidential executive order.

The Bush-era proposal would also have required airlines and cruise lines to store more information about domestic and international passengers, such as e-mail addresses, traveling companions and return flight information. The information would be subject to review by federal officials in a health emergency, though it would be voluntary for passengers to provide the data.

Opponents of the Bush administration’s efforts to enforce the new guidelines insist that they still are a mistake. “It’s not really going to help,” said Wendy Mariner, a professor of law and public health at Boston University. “The proposals to limit liberty represent a dangerous precedent to constitutional theory, particularly when there’s almost no evidence it will matter. … It wouldn’t surprise me if they try to sneak this past in August, when people are away.”

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama will meet China’s President Hu Jintao on the sidelines of the Group of Eight summit in Italy next week, a senior White House official said on Wednesday.

The US leader will hold a bilateral meeting with Hu at the talks, at which China will be present as a member of the G8 plus Five grouping of developed and developing economies, Obama advisor Denis McDonough told reporters.

Obama and Hu met for the first time since the US president took office in London, on April 1, ahead of the G20 economic crisis summit.

Obama administration officials, fearing a battle with Congress that could stall plans to close the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, are crafting language for an executive order that would reassert presidential authority to incarcerate terrorism suspects indefinitely, according to three senior government officials with knowledge of White House deliberations.

Such an order would embrace claims by former president George W. Bush that certain people can be detained without trial for long periods under the laws of war. Obama advisers are concerned that an order, which would bypass Congress, could place the president on weaker footing before the courts and anger key supporters, the officials said.

After months of internal debate over how to close the military facility in Cuba, White House officials are increasingly worried that reaching quick agreement with Congress on a new detention system may be impossible. Several officials said there is concern in the White House that the administration may not be able to close the prison by the president’s January deadline.

The Obama administration is fighting to block access to names of visitors to the White House, taking up the Bush administration argument that a president doesn’t have to reveal who comes calling to influence policy decisions.

Despite President Barack Obama’s pledge to introduce a new era of transparency to Washington, and despite two rulings by a federal judge that the records are public, the Secret Service has denied msnbc.com’s request for the names of all White House visitors from Jan. 20 to the present. It also denied a narrower request by the nonpartisan watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which sought logs of visits by executives of coal companies.

President Obama’s Justice Department didn’t just disappoint some of his liberal supporters by arguing in support of the Defense of Marriage Act this week, disappointing if not angering supporters who also support same sex marriage and were appalled by the comparison of same sex marriage to incestuous ones. The president’s lawyers also repeated some of the Bush administration’s national security arguments.

The Obama Justice Department on Friday asked the full 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to review an earlier appeals court ruling to determine if details about CIA rendition flights coordinated by Jeppesen Dataplan — a division of Boeing — should be protected as “state secrets.”

As a candidate, then-Sen. Obama faulted President Bush for using the “state secrets” argument too often, and too broadly, though as president he has used it in at least three cases:

1) Jewel v NSA, in which the Electronic Frontier Foundation is challenging the National Security Agency surveillance by suing on behalf of AT&T customers whose records may or may not have been caught up in the NSA “dragnet”;

2) Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation v Obama, in which the Islamic charity, investigated for terrorist financing out of its Oregon offices, sued the government alleging it was targeted illegally under the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping program; and

3) Mohamed et al v Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc., a case involving five men who claim to have been victims of extraordinary rendition — including since-freed Guantanamo detainee Binyam Mohamed, another plaintiff in jail in Egypt, one in jail in Morocco, and two now free. They sued a San Jose Boeing subsidiary, Jeppesen Dataplan, accusing the flight-planning company of aiding the CIA in flying them to other countries and secret CIA camps where they were tortured.

ABC News’ Jake Tapper and Sunlen Miller report: The other day we heard a comment from a White House aide that never would have been uttered during the primaries or general election campaign.

During a conference call in preparation for President Obama’s trip to Cairo, Egypt, where he will address the Muslim world, deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications Denis McDonough said “the President himself experienced Islam on three continents before he was able to — or before he’s been able to visit, really, the heart of the Islamic world — you know, growing up in Indonesia, having a Muslim father — obviously Muslim Americans (are) a key part of Illinois and Chicago.”

Given widespread unease and prejudice against Muslims among Americans, especially in the wake of 9/11, the Obama campaign was perhaps understandably very sensitive during the primaries and general election to downplay the candidate’s Muslim roots.

The candidate was even offended when referred to by his initials “BHO,” because he considered the use of his middle name, “Hussein,” an attempt to frighten voters.

With insane rumors suggesting he was some sort of Muslim Manchurian candidate, then-Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and his campaign did everything they could to emphasize his Christianity and de-emphasize the fact that his father, Barack Obama Sr., was born Muslim.

The candidate’s comment at a Boca Raton, Florida, town hall meeting on May 22, 2008, was typical: “My father was basically agnostic, as far as I can tell, and I didn’t know him,” he said.

In September 2008, candidate Obama told a Pennsylvania crowd, “I know that I’m not your typical presidential candidate and I just want to be honest with you. I know that the temptation is to say, ‘You know what? The guy hasn’t been there that long in Washington. You know, he’s got a funny name. You know, we’re not sure about him.’ And that’s what the Republicans when they say this isn’t about issues, it’s about personalities, what they’re really saying is, ‘We’re going to try to scare people about Barack. So we’re going to say that, you know, maybe he’s got Muslim connections.’…Just making stuff up.”

Back then, the campaign’s “Fight the Smears” website addressed the candidate’s faith without mentioning his father’s religion:

“Barack Obama is a committed Christian. He was sworn into the Senate on his family Bible. He has regularly attended church with his wife and daughters for years. But shameful, shadowy attackers have been lying about Barack’s religion, claiming he is a Muslim instead of a committed Christian. When people fabricate stories about someone’s faith to denigrate them politically, that’s an attack on people of all faiths. Make sure everyone you know is aware of this deception.”

The website also provided quotes from the Boston Globe and Newsweek mentioning his father’s roots.

Since the election, however, with the threat of the rumors at least somewhat abated, the White House has been increasingly forthcoming about the president’s roots. Especially when reaching out to the
Muslim world.

In his April 6 address to the Turkish Parliament, President Obama referenced how many “Americans have Muslims in their families or have lived in a Muslim majority country. I know, because I am one of them.”

NEW YORK (AP) – Longtime fundraiser Norman Hsu was convicted Tuesday of violating campaign finance laws in a case that became an embarrassment to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and other prominent Democrats he courted.

A jury in federal court in Manhattan deliberated less than three hours over two days before returning the guilty verdict. Hsu, already jailed following an earlier guilty plea, showed no reaction as he was led out of court.

“I think he expected it because it was quick,” said his attorney, Alan Seidler. The lawyer said there would be an appeal.

Hsu, 58, had been accused of using clients of his fraudulent investment business, including actors and other political novices, as straw donors to make thousands of dollars in campaign donations. The scheme was designed to bypass rules limiting the amount any single individual or group can donate.

During the trial that began May 12, television actress Susan Chilman testified that she given nearly $42,000 to Clinton and other Democratic candidates. Once she took out her checkbook, Hsu would simply give her a name and an amount, then later reimburse her, said Chilman, who’s had roles in “Brothers & Sisters,” “CSI Miami” and “ER” under the stage name Susan Pari.

Jurors also heard testimony from several other investors who recounted how Hsu showed off his political connections by decorating his home with photos of himself with marquee Democrats. One witness testified she met President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Clinton, President Bill Clinton, Sen. John Kerry, Sen. Ted Kennedy and Rep. Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island at fundraisers she attended with him.

Prosecutors played a voicemail recording of Clinton, then a senator, effusively praising Hsu for his loyal support.

“I’ve never seen anybody who has been more loyal and more effective and really just having greater success supporting someone than you,” she told him. “Everywhere I go, you’re there. If you’re not, you’re sending people to be part of my events. You know, we’re going to win this campaign, Norman, because you single-handedly are going to make that happen.”

After Hsu’s 2007 arrest, the senator returned more than $800,000 to donors whose contributions were linked to him.

The defense suggested Hsu was framed by “greedy” investors who cut non-prosecution deals with the government. His attorney argued his client’s decision to plead guilty to separate securities fraud charges before the trial gave him credibility.

Hsu’s trial came just days after he pleaded guilty to 10 counts of wire and mail fraud, admitting that he cheated investors of at least $20 million in a Ponzi scheme.

Sentencing was set for Aug. 19.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Obama said Wednesday that he told government lawyers to object to a court-ordered release of additional images showing alleged abuse of detainees because the release could affect the safety of U.S. troops and “inflame anti-American opinion.”

The Defense Department was set to release hundreds of photographs showing alleged abuse of prisoners in detention facilities in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“I want to emphasize that these photos that were requested in this case are not particularly sensational, especially when compared to the images we remember from Abu Ghraib,” the president said on the South Lawn of the White House. “But they do represent conduct that didn’t conform with the Army manual.”

Obama said the publication of the photos would not add any additional benefit to investigations being carried out into detainee abuse — and could put future inquires at risk.

“In fact, the most direct consequence of releasing them, I believe, would further flame anti-American opinion and to put our troops in greater danger. … I fear the publication of these photos may only have a chilling effect on future investigations of detainee abuse,” Obama said.

In the past few weeks, we’ve seen the Obama Justice Department make absurdly broad invocations of the state secrets privilege to protect Bush’s spying programs from judicial review. We’ve seen the administration argue that foreign detainees — as long as they are being held in Afghanistan rather than at Guantanamo — can be imprisoned indefinitely without formal charges. We’ve seen how Obama, after staying out of the debate over accountability for torture and other unlawful legacies of the Bush administration, is now, apparently, taking sides by balking at requests from his own top legal advisers to release incriminating memos.

It’s getting increasingly hard to reconcile candidate Obama, who eloquently criticized Bush’s executive power overreach, with President Obama. This is especially true because his underlings consistently duck questions, leaving it entirely unclear why he’s taking the positions he now takes and what, if anything, made him change his views.

WASHINGTON, April 9 (Reuters) – President Barack Obama asked the U.S. Congress for an additional $83.4 billion to fund the military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan on Thursday, saying the security situation along the Afghan-Pakistan frontier was urgent.

“The Taliban is resurgent and al Qaeda threatens America from its safe haven along the Afghan-Pakistan border,” Obama said in a letter to Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House of Representatives, that was released by the White House.

Obama said 95 percent of the $83.4 billion in supplemental funds he was requesting would go to support U.S. military operations in Iraq and the U.S. effort to disrupt and defeat al Qaeda.

(04-06) 15:26 PDT SAN FRANCISCO — The Obama administration is again invoking government secrecy in defending the Bush administration’s wiretapping program, this time against a lawsuit by AT&T customers who claim federal agents illegally intercepted their phone calls and gained access to their records.

Barack Obama found his diplomatic skills tested to the limit today when he was forced to address the Turkish slaughter of Armenians during the dying days of the Ottoman Empire without using the word “genocide”.

Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed in a systematic campaign of extermination during the First World War, and during his campaign for the presidency Mr Obama declared that “America deserves a leader who speaks truthfully about the Armenian genocide”.

Today, during a joint press conference in Ankara with his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul, President Obama said that his views had not changed but he took extreme care not to use the word “genocide” so as not to inflame his hosts, who have always denied the claims.

Instead, he expressed the hope that talks between Turkey and Armenia could “bear fruit very soon” and he wanted to support that process.

Gordon Brown declared that a $1 trillion package to stimulate economic growth agreed at yesterday’s G20 summit in London will ensure that the world pulls out of recession more quickly.

Speaking after the one-day summit of the world’s richest nations in the Docklands, the Prime Minister said there were “no quick fixes”, adding: “Today’s decisions will not immediately solve the crisis. But we have begun the process by which it will be solved.”

He said: “This is the day that the world came together to fight back against the global recession, not with words, but with a plan for global recovery and for reform and with a clear timetable for its delivery.”