The latest attempt on the life of Hamid Karzai, at a Kabul event commemorating his country's victory over Soviet forces, is being presented as evidence of a newly thriving Taliban and trouble for the US mission in Afghanistan. The Los Angeles Times, for example, says the attempt "deepened fears that Islamic militants remain able to penetrate the defenses of security forces here despite a boost in international and Afghan troop strength."
The Wall Street Journal reports the attack "comes as US and European military officials are scrambling to show progress in their long-running battle against the Islamist militant group, which has strengthened in many parts of the country since it was driven from power in 2001." The New York Times calls the failed assassination attempt "well-coordinated," whereas "the military, police and intelligence services, all of them involved in security for the ceremony, quickly began laying blame on one another for failing to thwart the attack."
AFP notes "bullets struck into the back of a stage where the president, Afghan dignitaries and senior international representatives were seated to review the...parade." In addition, "there were also several large explosions, with one -- likely from a rocket-propelled grenade -- landing just in front of the platform, Health Minister Mohammad Amin Fatimie told AFP."
The Financial Times says "the event is likely to shake confidence in the Afghan army and police, which Mr Karzai wants to take over responsibility for security in Kabul by August." Likewise, USA Today and Washington Times run an AP dispatch that reports "the live coverage of the assassination attempt will add to the sense of insecurity in the Afghan capital, which has been spared the worst of the violence as fighting has escalated between Taliban insurgents and NATO and US-led forces."
The CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News briefly reported the attack, noting three people were killed and at least eight wounded. In a follow-up report, NBC Nightly News noted US Marines' stepped-up role in Afghanistan, pushing "into Taliban country." NBC went on to report that "this will be the seventh spring offensive since this long, sometimes forgotten war began but it is hoped that with the additional US forces now on the battlefield, it will be the last."
Pakistan To Deport 2.4 Million Afghans U.S. News and World Report reports this week a "new crisis is brewing along the volatile Pakistan-Afghanistan border, with more than 2 million Afghan refugees facing the prospect of being uprooted and sent back to their embattled homeland." In all, Pakistan "wants to repatriate as many as 2.4 million Afghans by 2009, a goal that has been challenged by the United Nations refugee agency."
The Washington Post reports, "The top White House terrorism expert thinks some gains are being made in the worldwide public relations battle against al-Qaeda, as the administration and its overseas allies press efforts to show that Osama bin Laden's network is killing Muslim civilians rather than defending its interests." Speaking last week at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Juan Carlos Zarate, deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser for combating terrorism, said, "More and more Muslim and Arab populations -- [including] clerics and scholars -- are questioning the value of al-Qaeda's program."
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The New York Times, in a front-page article titled, "Letters Give C.I.A. Tactics A Legal Rationale," reports on Sunday that in a letter sent on March 5, the Justice Department "has told Congress that American intelligence operatives attempting to thwart terrorist attacks can legally use interrogation methods that might otherwise be prohibited under international law. The legal interpretation, outlined in recent letters, sheds new light on the still-secret rules for interrogations by the Central Intelligence Agency."
In continuing coverage, the AP reports this morning that "CIA interrogation techniques otherwise prohibited by international law might be legal in the face of an impending terrorist attack, the Justice Department says in newly disclosed letters to Capitol Hill." The letters "show that the Bush administration is taking the position that it has latitude in dealing with restrictions from the Supreme Court and Congress designed to limit how far interrogators in the US intelligence community can go."
The Wall Street Journal says the letters "appear to muddy the public understanding of what is and isn't legal when intelligence officials question terrorism suspects" by reserving judgment based "on the case at hand."
The Washington Post reports the Bush Administration "gambled this week that its detailed accounting of North Korean assistance to a Syrian nuclear program would help pave the way for a nuclear disarmament agreement with Pyongyang, but the allegations so angered Republican lawmakers that support for a deal may be seriously weakened." But "despite the fresh accusations of North Korean wrongdoing" officials from both sides said they were "making progress on key aspects of the disarmament deal."
Asked on CNN's Late Edition if she believes the Administration is correct in its assertion that North Korea was "cooperating with Syria in developing clandestinely a nuclear reactor," Sen. Dianne Feinstein said the Administration's experts "had a number of...documenting points to make the case that this was, in fact, a nuclear weapons facility. Now, having said that, I was surprised that they hadn't given the information to the International Atomic Energy Agency, and I was also surprised by the timing of it, because there have been some reports that Israel and Syria were looking at a settlement, quite possibly, and this could very well disrupt that settlement."
Also appearing on CNN's Late Edition, Rep. Pete Hoekstra agreed that "the evidence that was presented...is compelling information. But I think this points out...the reason why the Administration should have briefed us -- at least the Intelligence Committees -- seven months ago. Because there are a lot of other questions that are out there, questions about how close was this to being operational? Who funded this for Syria? How close was the North Korean/Syrian cooperation in this?"
The Los Angeles Times reports on Hoekstra and Feinstein's appearances on CNN, adding that in remarks published Sunday, Syrian President Bashar Assad "dismissed the allegations that the site known as Al Kibar was involved in nuclear activities."
U.S. News and World Report reports, "The public disclosure of evidence that North Korea allegedly was secretly aiding the construction of a nuclear reactor in a remote part of Syria has delivered a blow to already shaky prospects for completing North Korea's denuclearization." US News adds that "some conservatives in and out of government contend that the administration is wobbling on North Korea -- specifically, on its oft-stated insistence that North Korea had to fully reveal not only its well-known plutonium fuel activities, but also a suspected, if nascent, effort to enrich uranium, along with its alleged atomic assistance to Syria."
Doubt Cast On Some CIA Claims The Financial Times reports, "When the Central Intelligence Agency on Thursday rolled out evidence to support allegations that North Korea had helped Syria build a nuclear reactor, officials said they had 'low' confidence that Syria was developing the reactor to produce nuclear weapons," leading critics to raise questions about the "quality of the intelligence and the timing of the Israeli decision attack the Syrian facility under the cloud of darkness in September."
Democratic Advisors Endorse Israeli Strike Susan Rice, foreign policy adviser to Obama, on CNN's Late Edition, was asked if the Israelis did "the right thing in knocking out that suspected nuclear facility in Syria," she responded, "Yes. ... Obviously any threat to Israel is of grave concern to the United States, it would be of grave concern to President Obama. And we have to view that facility in Syria as such a threat."
Asked the same question, Hillary Clinton adviser Jamie Rubin, also on CNN's Late Edition, said, "Yes. ... And I think under a President Clinton what we would be seeing would be an effort to deal with nuclear weapons proliferation in a much more comprehensive way where the world would know that the United States was willing to talk to resolve these problems first."
With some top US officials increasingly linking Iran to Shiite insurgents in Iraq, other officials and analysts are casting doubt on this view. The New York Times, in a front-page article titled "Questions Linger On Scope Of Iran's Threat In Iraq," reported over the weekend that as the US "has gathered its most detailed evidence so far of Iranian involvement in training and arming fighters in Iraq, officials say...significant uncertainties remain about the extent of that involvement and the threat it poses to American and Iraqi forces." In "contrast to what President Bush and other American officials have publicly portrayed as an intensified Iranian role," it is in fact "difficult to draw firm conclusions about the ebb and flow of Iranian arms into Iraq."
However, the Wall Street Journal reported Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen "said Iran's support for insurgents in Iraq is steadily increasing, and he warned Tehran that the U.S. military maintains the power to strike Iran if given the order." Mullen's remarks, described as "unusually strident," were "the latest escalation in U.S. rhetoric about Iran, which the Bush administration blames for hundreds of U.S. combat deaths in Iraq."
The Washington Post noted Mullen's comments as well, placing them in the context of remarks earlier in the week by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who said Iran "is hell-bent on acquiring nuclear weapons" and that while war would be "disastrous," the military option "must be kept on the table." According to Mullen, Gen. David Petraeus, "is preparing a briefing soon on increased Iranian involvement in Iraq" which "will detail, for example, the discovery in Iraq of weapons that were very recently manufactured in Iran." According to the Los Angeles Times, Mullen "said there was not a massive infusion of weapons but said over time there had been 'a consistent increase' in arms shipments."
In spite of increasing commodity prices, lawmakers appear poised to approve an agriculture bill that continues to subsidize grain crops by $5 billion per year. The AP reported that Congressional negotiators "reached a tentative agreement Friday on a multibillion-dollar farm bill that includes a hefty increase for nutrition programs at a time of rising food prices. An intense series of closed-door bargaining sessions over how to pay for the five-year, roughly $280 billion bill ended Friday afternoon with senior Democrats expressing optimism that they would soon be sending the measure to President Bush."
The New York Times notes the deal "contains tax cuts of up to $1.8 billion, including depreciation incentives for racehorse breeders sought by the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. And it includes a new $3.8 billion disaster relief program for farmers, scaled back from the $5 billion proposed by the Senate."
According to the Washington Post, "The bill would reduce the tax credit for ethanol made from corn to 45 cents per gallon from 51, but the tax credit would be extended through 2010. ... The bill also includes a provision that would require the labeling of imported meat and vegetables for the first time."
The Financial Times said that "the tariff on ethanol imports from outside the US is also expected to be scaled back." And the Wall Street Journal reported, "Congressional aides said details of the tax provisions still had to be scrubbed over the weekend and could require further negotiation Monday among lawmakers," including House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel and Sen. Baucus.
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Sen. Barack Obama's interview on Fox News Sunday yesterday morning, and the public reappearance of Rev. Jeremiah Wright at an NAACP event in Detroit, combined to make the former pastor's controversial comments the focus of much of the coverage of the Democratic primary this morning. On Fox News Sunday, Obama said that some voters were "legitimately offended" by some of Wright's comments. According to Obama, "The fact he's my former pastor I think makes it a legitimate political issue. So I understand that. I think that it is also true that to run a snippet of 30-second sound bites, selecting out of a 30-year career, simplified and caricatured him and caricatured the church. And I think that was done in a fairly deliberate way, and that is unfortunate, because as I've said before, I have strongly denounced those comments that were the subject of so much attention. I wasn't in church when he made them."
On NBC Nightly News, Andrea Mitchell said, "It is not a good thing for Senator Obama for Reverend Wright to be out and speaking out again now. The campaign would clearly have liked for him not to be reemerging." USA Today says that the "public relations blitz" by Wright "is re-igniting a racially charged controversy at a time when Obama is trying to convince party leaders he can appeal to white, blue-collar voters critical to capturing the White House."
Sen. John McCain, after being skewered last week by prominent conservatives for distancing himself from the North Carolina GOP's use of Wright clips in an ad, took advantage of Obama's admission that Wright's statements represent a "legitimate" concern for voters to make an issue of the remarks for the first time. The New York Times reports McCain "delved...into remarks made by" Wright, "saying it was 'beyond belief' that Mr. Wright had likened the Romans at the time of Jesus' crucifixion to the Marines and had suggested that the United States was acting like Al Qaeda under a different color flag." The Times notes that previously McCain "had largely avoided talking about the incendiary views of Mr. Wright, saying he wanted to run a 'respectful' campaign."
In a blog posting, Fox News reports on the "very thin line" McCain is treading on the Wright issue, saying that "while he will not make an issue of Barack Obama's pastor, he will not be surprised if others do. 'I believe that Senator Obama does not share those views. But Senator Obama himself says it's a legitimate political issue so I would imagine that many other people would share that view and it will be in the arena,' McCain said."
Obama Says He Can Appeal To Working Class Whites NBC Nightly News reported that Obama, "who has been questioned about his inability to win over working class voters attended services at this predominantly white Methodist church in Indiana and tried to downplay the issue in a TV interview." Obama said, "It's not like I've been winning in states that only have either black voters or Chablis-drinking limousine liberals. We've been winning in places like Idaho."
Wright Addresses Detroit NAACP Audience The Washington Times reports from Detroit that yesterday Rev. Wright "told supporters of the NAACP...that he is not a political figure or interested in preaching for political gain, despite media criticism he says is to the contrary. ... Mr. Wright gave the keynote address to the NAACP's 53rd annual Fight for Freedom Fund dinner, during which he sang, beat-boxed and did impressions of Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson." The New York Times adds that Wright "spent much of his address discussing differences between blacks and whites but argued that 'different does not mean deficient.'"
The Detroit News reports on Wright's "unapologetic speech," "alternately fiery and humorous," in which he "defended the preaching that has taken center stage in the presidential campaign. 'I am not running for the Oval Office,' said the controversial Chicago minister...addressing a sold-out fundraiser for the Detroit NAACP. 'I have been running for Jesus for a long, long time, and I'm not tired yet.'
Wright to appear in DC Today The Washington Post reports Wright "is scheduled to speak this morning in the District as part of a two-day seminar exploring the mission of the black church."
The Wall Street Journal reports Sen. Barack Obama "recast his call for change by speaking more directly to voters' economic concerns as polls show him in a dead heat with Hillary Clinton in Indiana." The shift "comes amid signs that Sen. Obama's lofty appeals for hope and change may not be resonating with financially insecure voters, and may even be driving them away." The Washington Post adds that in a "noteworthy shift," Obama is "trying to reach working-class and middle-class voters by arguing more explicitly that the reform ideas driving his campaign can address the economic troubles that threaten their way of life." The New York Times reports Obama is "making subtle changes to his campaign style and message in an effort to strengthen his appeal to blue-collar voters and to avoid a defeat in Indiana that aides fear could give Democratic Party leaders further pause about his viability in a general election." And in "interviews with several associates and aides, Mr. Obama was described as bored with the campaign against Mrs. Clinton and eager to move into the general election against" John McCain, so the Obama campaign "is undertaking modifications in his approach intended to inject an air of freshness into his style."
McCain: Obama Is Out Of Touch On Economy The AP reports McCain yesterday called Obama "insensitive to poor people and out of touch on economic issues." McCain "rapped his Democratic rival for opposing his idea to suspend the tax on fuel during the summer, a proposal that McCain believes will particularly help low-income people who usually have older cars that guzzle more gas." McCain "deflected questions about his record on the Bush administration's tax cuts -- he initially opposed them but now supports extending them -- by again criticizing Obama." McCain said, "Sen. Obama wants to raise the capital gains tax, which would have a direct effect on 100 million Americans."
The Wilmington Morning Star reports that in Wilmington, North Carolina yesterday, Sen. Hillary Clinton "called on Barack Obama to debate her Lincoln-Douglas style on the back of a flatbed truck. 'The people of North Carolina deserve this,' the New York senator told the crowd of people along the Wilmington riverfront. 'I don't care where we do it, we just need to do it.'" CBS News notes on its web site, "Part of Clinton's new strategy is to push back against Obama so much that he finally agrees to a debate. In their previous four one-on-one meetings, Clinton has fared better than her opponent, and most recently at a debate in Philadelphia, Obama's campaign complained that he was unfairly targeted by the moderators. Some said Obama's performance may have cost him votes in the primary there."
However, the AP reports Obama "brushed aside" Clinton's calls for new debates yesterday, saying, "I'm not ducking. We've had 21 debates. For two weeks, two big states, we want to make sure we're talking to as many voters on the ground, taking questions from voters. We're not going to have debates between now and Indiana."
An American Research Group poll of 600 likely Indiana Democratic primary voters taken April 23-25 shows Sen. Hillary Clinton leading Sen. Barack Obama 50%-45%. In a similar poll taken April 2-3, Clinton led Obama 53%-44%. Indiana holds its primary on May 6, and the contest is expected to be more competitive than the North Carolina primary, which will be held on the same day, in which Obama is heavily favored.
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Jay Leno: "Hillary Clinton said she is a stronger candidate than Barack Obama. And to prove it, she counts the votes she got in Michigan, even though his name wasn't even on the ballot. It's a pretty strong argument. I mean, whenever Barack Obama's name is not on the ballot, she beats him every single time."
Jay Leno: "Well, campaigning in Indiana today, Hillary Clinton, once again, up to her old tricks. She told the crowd that she's a lifelong Colts fan, and recalled that when she was a little girl, her father taught her how to drive an Indy car."
Conan O'Brien: "Today, at the White House, President Bush" signed "a proclamation declaring this Malaria Awareness Week. ... There was an awkward moment when, during the ceremony, Bush said, 'This is a great day for all Malarians.'"
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