Obama ends combat ops in Iraq, signals July 'transition' in Kabul
Sep 2, 2010, WASHINGTON: Formally declaring an end to combat operations in a war he opposed as a candidate, US President Barack Obama said the drawdown in Iraq would enable America to go on a short-term offensive in Afghanistan even as he turns his attention to domestic problems amid growing disquiet at home.
In an 18-minute Oval Office address, Obama drew the curtains on a war that was increasingly deemed across the world and even in the US as misdirected and wasteful.
However, with the drawdown from Iraq a foregone conclusion, it was his remarks on Afghanistan - a war he supported - that were parsed for clues about American intention and resolve in capitals across the world, especially in the subcontinent. On this, President Obama remained vague, promising heightened engagement for now but eventual withdrawal from Afghanistan as well, a prospect that will give heart to al-Qaida, Taliban and their mentors in Pakistan while causing anguish in New Delhi, which has invested more than $1 billion in the war-torn country.
"As was the case in Iraq, we cannot do for Afghans what they must ultimately do for themselves. That's why we are training Afghan security forces and supporting a political resolution to Afghanistan's problems. And, next July, we will begin a transition to Afghan responsibility," Obama said, adding that the pace of troop reductions will be determined by conditions on the ground, and our support for Afghanistan will endure.
"But make no mistake: this transition will begin because open-ended war serves neither our interests nor the Afghan people's," Obama said. Indeed, he added, one of the lessons of Iraq is that American influence around the world is not a function of military force alone.
For now though, Obama indicated he hadn't changed his mind about the central belief behind the war in Afghanistan even though Americans were asking tough questions about it. Al-Qaida was still ensconced in the badlands between Afghanistan and Pakistan and were still plotting against the US. He said Washington would disrupt, dismantle and prevent the al-Qaida from using Afghanistan as a base. But Obama did not address how the US would do this in a timebound manner implicit in his withdrawal timetable.
The address, which came at an arbitrary moment in the US calendar, was seemingly aimed at arresting the flagging Democratic prospects in the November congressional election by seeking to fulfil Obama's 2008 campaign promise to end the war. Careful to praise the US military for its sacrifices, Obama spoke feelingly about the need to revive the moribund US economy, saying the "nation's perseverance in Iraq must be matched by determination to address problems at home".
Seeking to temper partisan feelings, Obama reached out to his predecessor who initiated the conflict.
Having spoken to former President Bush on the phone, Obama said no one could doubt his "support for our troops, or his love of country and commitment to our security" but they clearly disagreed on the war that cost the United States more than 4,400 US lives and nearly a trillion dollars.
On the ground, however, there will still be 50,000 US troops in Iraq as " advisors", and a similar if not greater number are expected to remain in Afghanistan, along with a huge number of private contractors. By most accounts, the battles are over, but it appears a shadowy war will continue to be fought away from the headlines.
Discovery gunman shot dead; 3 hostages safe
Thursday 02 September, 2010: Police shot and killed a man upset with the Discovery Channel network’s programming who took two employees and a security officer hostage at the company’s headquarters on Wednesday, officials said.
All three hostages escaped safely.
Police spent several hours negotiating with the gunman, who was upset about the network’s programming, after he burst into the suburban Washington building at about 1 pm (10.30 pm IST) waving a handgun and with canisters strapped to his body.
Montgomery County Police Chief Thomas Manger said one explosive device detonated on the gunman’s body when they shot him, and they were working to determine whether two boxes and two backpacks he also had with him were explosives. The 1,900 people who work in the building were able to get out safely.
Manger said officers were monitoring Lee on building security cameras and tactical officers moved in when they saw him pull out the handgun and point it at one of the hostages.
A law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing said authorities had identified James J. Lee as the likely suspect.
A different official, who spoke on condition of anonymity for the same reason, said Lee previously protested outside the building, where he was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct in February 2008, according to court records.
Police reports indicate he paid homeless people to join his protest and carry signs outside the building. He gave one individual $1,000 for what he considered a prize winning essay.
At one point, a crowd of more than 100 people gathered around Lee, 43, who referred to money as “just trash” and began throwing fistfuls of it into the air.
At the trial, The Gazette of Montgomery County reported, he said he began working to save the planet after being laid off from his job in San Diego.
He said he was inspired by “Ishmael,” a novel by environmentalist Daniel Quinn and by former Vice President Al Gore’s documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.”
A lengthy posting which could be seen Wednesday on a website registered to Lee expressed anger against the Discovery Channel and said it promoted overpopulation.
He said it and its affiliates should stop “encouraging the birth of any more parasitic human infants.” Instead, he said, the network should air “programs encouraging human sterilization and infertility.”
“NO MORE BABIES! Population growth is a real crisis,” he wrote.
He also railed against “programs promoting War” and said solutions should be found for global warming and automotive and factory pollution.
“I want Discovery Communications to broadcast on their channels to the world their new program lineup and I want proof they are doing so,” he wrote.
“I want the new shows started by asking the public for inventive solution ideas to save the planet and the remaining wildlife on it.”
Discovery Communications Inc. operates cable and satellite networks in the U.S., including The Discovery Channel, TLC and Animal Planet.
Discovery shows include “Cash Cab” and “Man vs. Wild,” and TLC airs “American Chopper” and “Kate Plus Eight.”
Animal Planet also airs the controversial series “Whale Wars,” about attempts by environmentalists to disrupt the Japanese whaling industry.
After Lee’s arrest, a magistrate ordered a doctor’s evaluation, but court records do not immediately indicate the result. Lee was convicted by a jury and served two weeks in jail.
He was also ordered to stay 500 feet (150m) away from Discovery headquarters.
Netherlands releases American Yemeni terror suspects
Amsterdam, Sep.2: Prosecuting authorities in The Netherlands have released the two American Yemenis, who were arrested on suspicion of being involved in a terrorist plot, as an investigation failed to find any evidence against them.
The two suspects were arrested on Monday upon arriving at Amsterdam's Schipol Airport on a flight from Chicago in the United States on a request from US authorities.
US officials later said they did not believe they were planning an attack.
"Two men from Yemen in custody since Monday on suspicion of possible involvement in the planning of a terrorist act, were freed this evening," the BBC quoted the Dutch prosecutor's office, as saying in a statement.
"From investigations in the United States and in the Netherlands there has been no indication of the men's possible involvement in any criminal act," the statement added.
The two men have been identified as Ahmed Mohamed Nasser al-Soofi and Hezam al-Murisi. Both were travelling to Yemen capital Sanaa, and were arrested on arrival at Amsterdam.
U.S. officials believe the two men did not know each other and were not travelling together. (ANI)
NASA turns down Chilean miners request for alcohol, cigarettes
London, Sep.2: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the executive branch agency of the United States Government, which is responsible for the nation's civilian space, has reportedly turned down requests for alcohol and cigarettes made by 33 trapped Chilean miners.
According to The Telegraph, a NASA doctor has, however, agreed to provide them with nicotine patches to get them through their ordeal.
According to one report, some of the miners were dependant on alcohol before becoming trapped and were experiencing withdrawal symptoms after nearly four weeks of being cut off from the outside world.
But James Michael Duncan, NASA's deputy chief doctor, who has flown with a team of space agency medical experts to Chile, said: "From the alcohol standpoint, we need to first get their nutrition up before we make any considerations there."
Instead of wine, the miners, who have lost about 22lb each in body weight, will have to make do with high protein, high-calorie foods delivered to them in narrow plastic tubes.
Cigarettes were deemed to be bad for their health in such an enclosed space, but they have been given both patches and nicotine gum to help them counter withdrawal symptoms.
Dr Duncan said: "It's an environment that's pretty enclosed and we don't want to contribute to any of the problems within the atmosphere of the mine."
Jaime Manalich, Chile's Health Minister, who had earlier been quoted as saying some of the men were big drinkers, denied any of them were alcoholics or were addicted to any other substance.
Javier Diaz, head of a medical team treating the miners, added: "Miners do not drink more or less alcohol than the average Chilean."
He said vitamins being sent to the miners were to counter constipation, not withdrawal symptoms.
Meanwhile, the Chilean government has released a new video of the miners showing them smiling, shaved, wearing red T-shirts and listening to music. It was a stark contrast to a previous video showing them haggard, mud-caked and bare chested.
The miners have been stuck 2,300ft (700 metres) down the San Jose mine in the Atacama Desert since August 5.
The authorities have started vaccinating the trapped men against tetanus, diphtheria, flu and pneumonia to prevent outbreaks of disease. The men have moved to a drier spot almost 1,000ft deeper inside the mine because some were developing fungal infections and body sores.
They have located four sources of water, two of which have been deemed fit for human consumption.
The operation to rescue them is code-named "Operation San Lorenzo" after a martyred Christian saint.
If drilling goes as planned they will then face the ordeal of squeezing into a tubular, metal cage for three hours as they are slowly pulled up one at a time.
Dr Duncan praised the miners' courage and said it was important to get them on a regular sleep pattern and keep them optimistic. (ANI)
Israelis, Palestinians resume direct talks
Thursday 02 September, 2010: Seeking to broker a Mideast peace agreement that has eluded U.S. presidents for decades, the Obama administration is overseeing the first direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians in nearly two years.
After a day and evening in White House talks with President Barack Obama, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas sit down together on Thursday for the first of what American officials hope will be a series of meetings that lead in a year’s time to an agreement on the creation of a Palestinian state.
“This moment of opportunity may not soon come again,” Obama said at the White House on Wednesday night.
Obama said he was “cautiously hopeful” about the talks, which begin with dim expectations and have been marred by two shooting attacks against Israelis in as many days.
Mediated at the State Department by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and special Mideast peace envoy George Mitchell, the two leaders’ discussions face numerous obstacles, not least renewed violence and provocations from Israelis and Palestinians opposed to the goal of an independent Palestine and secure Israel.
Gunmen from the militant Palestinian Hamas group, which opposes the talks, killed four Israeli residents of a West Bank settlement on Tuesday as Mr. Netanyahu, Abbas and the leaders of Egypt and Jordan convened in Washington.
On Wednesday, hours before the leaders were to eat dinner together at the White House, unidentified gunmen wounded two Israelis as they drove in their car in another part of the West Bank.
Hamas claimed responsibility for that attack as well.
After the first attack, security forces loyal to Abbas, who heads a moderate government in the West Bank, quickly rounded up 250 Hamas members and supporters.
Netanyahu said the violence would not disrupt the talks.
Before the White House dinner with Netanyahu, Abbas, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Obama said they all had a stake in the peace efforts as leaders and fathers.
“Do we have the wisdom and the courage to walk the path of peace?” Obama asked in the packed East Room of the White House.
Each of the leaders spoke of his hopes for a breakthrough, with the U.S. playing the role of peace broker, but the event was subdued, reflecting broad pessimism about chances of success after nearly two decades of failed peace talks.
Israelis “recognize that another people shares this land with us,” Mr.Netanyahu said at the White House on Wednesday.
He said any agreement must guarantee Israel’s security and could not be a repeat of Israel’s unilateral withdrawals from Gaza and Lebanon, where territory evacuated was seized by Iran backed militants who launched further attacks on Israel.
“We left Lebanon, we got terror. We left Gaza, and we got terror once again. We want to ensure that territory we concede will not be turned into a third Iranian sponsored terror enclave aimed at the heart of Israel,” he said.
Abbas joined Netanyahu in declaring that it was time to seize the moment.
“We don’t want blood to be shed, neither that of Palestinians nor of Israelis. We want peace, we want normal life. We want to live as partners and neighbours,” he said.
Israel, Mr. Abbas added, needs to give the Palestinians tangible signs, including freeing all Palestinian prisoners and freezing all settlement construction on land the Palestinians want for their future state.
The talks will face their first test within weeks, at the end of September, when the Israeli government’s declared slowdown in settlement construction is slated to end.
Palestinians have said a renewal of settlement construction will torpedo the talks.
The Israeli government is divided over the future of the slowdown, and a decision to extend it could split Netanyahu’s hawkish coalition.
Netanyahu has given no indication so far that it will continue beyond the deadline.
Speaking to Ms. Clinton on Tuesday, Netanyahu said his government’s decision on a 10 month freeze that would end in September remained in effect.
Direct Israeli Palestinian negotiations broke off nearly two years ago, in December 2008, and the Obama administration spent its first 20 months in office coaxing the two sides back to the bargaining table.
Despite the success in launching the talks, gaps between the sides are wide, distrust remains after years of violence and deadlock, and expectations are low.
Obama said the U.S. would help both sides reach an agreement within a year, but said his country’s influence was limited.
“Ultimately, the United States cannot impose a solution, and we cannot want it more than the parties themselves,” he said.
Obama was also adamant that violence would not derail the process.
“There are going to be extremists and rejectionists who, rather than seeking peace, are going to be seeking destruction,” he said.
“The United States is going to be unwavering in its support of Israel’s security. And we are going to push back against these kinds of terrorist attacks. And so the message should go out to Hamas and everyone else who is taking credit for these heinous crimes that this is not going to stop us.”
American officials are hopeful they can at least get the two sides this week to agree to a second round of talks, likely to be held in the second week of September.
That could be followed by another meeting between Obama, Netanyahu and Abbas on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly near the end of the month in New York.
The stated goal is to reach a final peace settlement within one year.
After listening to the Mideast leaders he convened on Wednesday night, Obama pronounced himself carefully optimistic.
