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Iranian President Cancels U.N. Visit
Tweet Share on Facebook March 23, 2007 CommentIranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has cancelled his planned appearance before the United Nations Security Council prior to Saturday's vote on possible sanctions, the State Department has confirmed.
U.S. News senior writer Kevin Whitelaw says Ahmadinejad's camp is blaming the cancellation on delays in Washington's granting of a visa for his visit to New York. But U.S. officials are insisting the visas were issued in time. Instead, they are trying to attribute it to the Iranian president's unwillingness to defend his tough rhetoric.
"Any suggestion that visa issues are the cause of President Ahmadinejad's decision not to travel to New York is false," said State Department spokesman Thomas Casey in a statement. "Rather, it would appear that he is unwilling to stand before the Council and take the heat for his continued defiance of the international community."
Also, be sure to see Anna Mulrine's exclusive on confrontations between Iranian and U.S. troops in Iraq.
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Sampson Will Testify Next Week
Tweet Share on Facebook March 23, 2007 CommentWe've learned this afternoon that Kyle Sampson, the former chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, will testify voluntarily before the Senate Judiciary Committee this coming Thursday, March 29, at 10 a.m.
"I think it could be very important for the DOJ part of the puzzle, as his assertions seem to challenge those of other top-level DOJ officers and their testimony to Congress," University of Richmond law professor Carl Tobias tells U.S. News chief legal correspondent Chitra Ragavan.
A letter from Sampson's attorney to members of the judiciary committee is here.
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Soldier Who Recently Bemoaned "Uncertainty" in Iraq Killed by Sniper
Tweet Share on Facebook March 23, 2007 CommentU.S. News reporter Alex Kingsbury received word this morning about the death of a soldier he met on his recent trip to Iraq. Staff Sgt. Darrell Griffin, an infantryman with the 2-3 Stryker Brigade, was killed Wednesday by a sniper as his unit conducted operations in the Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad, his wife, Diana, told Kingsbury in a call this morning. He was 36 years old.
"The uncertainty is one of the hardest things to deal with," Griffin said in the March 11 article.
The Defense Department notice of his death is here.
Video: Kingsbury accompanies the 2-3 Stryker Brigade on a raid.
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U.S. News Editor Brian Duffy Stepping Down
Tweet Share on Facebook March 23, 2007 Comment (2)U.S. News editor-in-chief Mortimer Zuckerman announced today that editor Brian Duffy is stepping down as our editor to pursue other projects. Below is the press release announcing the move:
New York, NY - March 23, 2007 - Mortimer Zuckerman, editor-in-chief of U.S.News & World Report, announced today that editor Brian Duffy is stepping down to complete a book and to pursue other long-format writing projects.
"It is with great regret but understanding that I have accepted Brian Duffy's decision to leave to complete his book and pursue long-format writing projects," said Mr. Zuckerman. "Brian has been a member of the U.S. News family for 16 years, serving as our extraordinary editor for the last six years, and he has made a major contribution both to U.S. News and to journalism in general. I thank him for all that he has done for U.S. News and wish him every success in the future."
Brian Duffy first joined U.S. News in 1986 and stayed until 1996, when he left to manage investigative coverage on the national desk at The Washington Post. He subsequently joined The Wall Street Journal as its investigative editor, returning to U.S. News in August 1998 as executive editor and becoming editor in June 2001.
He has previously written a novel and co-authored four non-fiction books. He is currently working on a history of the espionage efforts of the Americans and the British during the Revolutionary War.
Brian Kelly, executive editor of U.S. News, will now manage all editorial functions of the publication.
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U.S. Attorneys Story Not Exactly a Barn Burner
Tweet Share on Facebook March 23, 2007 CommentWhoops.
Here in Washington, it's been all U.S. attorneys all day every day this week, particularly since the House Judiciary Committee dropped a little beach reading--3,000 pages of internal Justice Department documents--on Monday night.
Along comes a poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press with a sobering conclusion: The U.S. attorneys story ranks fourth on the list of stories respondents reported having followed closely, while it sits at the top of the list of stories most covered by the news.
A pdf of the full questionnaire is here.
So should the uninformed press be taking cues directly from readers and viewers on what to cover? Let us know at newsblog@usnews.com.
Etc.: Why Don't You Cover All 2008 Candidates Equally? at the News Desk on USNews.com
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Cancer Announcement Could Woo Women Voters
Tweet Share on Facebook March 23, 2007 CommentThis from Chief White House Correspondent Kenneth T. Walsh:
Asked about the reaction of some bloggers that John Edwards cynically used his wife's illness to attract sympathy, most political pros say the couple handled the situation well.
"The vast majority of voters will conclude that Senator Edwards did exactly the right thing by making it public," observes Democratic pollster Geoff Garin, because such openness is what most Americans expect of major presidential candidates these days. Political sources say John and Elizabeth Edwards never seriously considered ending the campaign.
But some Democratic insiders admit that another candidate might have made a different choice and at least suspended the campaign to spend time comforting his or her spouse and their children. Another item of chatter on the political circuit this morning is that Elizabeth Edwards's bravery in dealing with the recurrence of cancer will help her--and, by association, her husband--bond with female voters. This could lure women voters away from Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Democratic front-runner who is using gender as a pillar of her own presidential campaign.
Etc.: Defying Reports, Edwards Stays In, on USNews.com
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A Case of Sore Winners for North Korea
Tweet Share on Facebook March 23, 2007 CommentThursday's unexpected breakdown of North Korean nuclear talks in Beijing--though galling to the United States and other negotiators--is likely to be a temporary hiatus in a negotiating process that will face much tougher tests later this spring, says U.S. News diplomatic correspondent Thomas Omestad.
North Korea essentially opted out of this week's bargaining session, saying it couldn't participate until it received $25 million from accounts that have been frozen in a Macao bank because of allegations that some of the funds were linked to money laundering and counterfeiting. The sanctions on Banco Delta Asia have been a prime sticking point in the nuclear disarmament talks for more than a year and a half.
But U.S., Asian, and Russian diplomats were surprised--and peeved--that after the United States, in a major concession, agreed to recommend that the bank release the funds to a North Korean account at another Chinese bank, the North Koreans would allow technical delays in the transfer of funds to scotch this week's negotiating effort. Chief U.S. negotiator Christopher Hill, who is returning to Washington, professed confidence that talks would resume soon.
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Who's Where on the Trail
Tweet Share on Facebook March 23, 2007 CommentA busy weekend for the candidates is coming up:
Democrats
- On Saturday, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Chris Dodd, John Edwards, Bill Richardson, and Dennis Kucinich will participate in a forum on healthcare at the University of Nevada--Las Vegas.
- Clinton campaigns in Las Vegas today, then heads to Los Angeles for a fundraiser tomorrow after the forum followed by campaign stops in San Francisco on Sunday.
- Richardson also heads to L.A. after the forum to address the National Convention of the Stonewall Democrats as well as the Human Rights Campaign gala dinner.
- Edwards attends a private party in Reno, Nev., on Saturday afternoon.
- Chris Dodd holds a meet-and-greet in Henderson County, Nev.
- Obama rallies in Las Vegas today and attends several fundraisers in West Palm Beach on Sunday.
Republicans
- John McCain buses through New Hampshire on the Straight Talk Express today and tomorrow, then heads to Austin, Texas, on Sunday for a fundraiser.
- Mike Huckabee makes the rounds in Iowa on Saturday.
- Duncan Hunter makes campaign stops in Cheshire and Somersworth, N.H., on Saturday.
- Tom Tancredo stops by Muscatine and Anamosa, Iowa, tomorrow.
- Rudy Giuliani attends a private fundraiser in Montecito, Calif., on Sunday.
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Morning Buzz: March 23, 2007
Tweet Share on Facebook March 23, 2007 CommentThis morning's top stories:
- In the House, Democratic leaders believe they have the votes to end the war in Iraq by September 2008 as part of a military spending bill, and are expected to vote today.
- In Texas, immigrants entering the country illegally had to be caught at least six times before they were prosecuted, according to Justice Department memos.
- The brinkmanship between Congress and the White House over the testimony of top Bush aides in the probe into the U.S. attorney firings is being negotiated between the Senate Judiciary Committee and Fred Fielding, the White House counsel, the AP reports.
- A Japanese real-estate mogul in Hawaii has donated eight mansions to the Native Hawaiian homeless.