Cpl. Jonathan T. Yale, from Burkeville, Va., is scheduled to receive the Navy Cross medal, posthumously, at a ceremony February 20 at the National Museum of the Marine Corps near Quantico, Va. Yale was an infantryman assigned to 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, and was killed in action while deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Lance Cpl. Jordan Haerter, from Sag Harbor, N.Y., is scheduled to receive a Navy Cross medal, posthumously, at a ceremony February 20 at the National Museum of the Marine Corps near Quantico, Va. Haerter was an infantryman assigned to 1st Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, and was killed in action while deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Early Bird summary
Wednesday’s Early Bird leads with a story from the Associated Press that reports President Barack Obama is days away from approving a new Afghanistan troop buildup, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday, as the new administration confronts a worsening war.
Obama is likely to send fresh forces to the Afghan battle even before concluding a wide review of U.S. strategy and goals there, in part because time is short to have new units in place for the expected increase in fighting that comes with warmer weather.
“The president will have several options in front of him,” Gates said at a Pentagon news conference, adding that he expects a decision “in the course of the next few days.”
Reuters reports that Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the Pentagon has not yet decided whether to continue production of the Lockheed Martin Corp F-22 fighter jet, but reiterated that current economic conditions required tough choices among competing programs.
Gates said on Tuesday that there was broad agreement to begin including more spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the Pentagon's base budget, but doing so would take more time than he initially hoped.
Pentagon officials last year proposed increasing the fiscal 2010 defense budget to around $584 billion in 2010 from $515 billion in fiscal 2009, partly to include more war spending.
Canadian press, including the Toronto Star and Toronto Globe & Mail, report that Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters that he didn't even raise the topic with Canadian counterpart Walter Natynczyk in a get-together undertaken in the lead-up to U.S. President Barack Obama's visit to Ottawa next week.
Military analysts, however, expect that as many as 1,000 to 1,500 Canadian soldiers could remain in Afghanistan past 2011 in a reconfigured mission focusing on training and security. That's more than one-third of Canada's current commitment of about 2,800 troops.
Adm. Mullen, who is currently pressing NATO allies to boost their military commitment in Afghanistan, left the impression yesterday that he is giving Canada a pass in his recruiting drive.
Other noteworthy stories in today’s EB:
The Washington Times reports that U.S. diplomats tried to work out details in talks with Russian officials Tuesday on plans to ship Western supplies bound for Afghanistan across Russia, the U.S. Embassy said.
The delegation's visit to Moscow comes a week after Kyrgyzstan's president said his Central Asian country would evict U.S. forces from an air base crucial to American operations in nearby Afghanistan.
U.S. officials suspect that Moscow is behind the decision to close the Manas base, which could be confirmed by Kyrgyzstan's parliament this week.
The New York Times reports that Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq signaled a desire to gradually diminish American power over Iraqi politics and increase ties to other Western powers, during a visit on Tuesday by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France.
In a rare news conference with a Western leader who is not from the United States or Britain, Mr. Maliki gave Mr. Sarkozy a warm welcome and rebuffed a recent statement by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. that the United States would have to be “more aggressive” in forcing the Iraqis to reach political reconciliation.
The Washington Times reports that Lt. Gen. Frank Helmick, who is in charge of training Iraq's security services and military, told The Washington Times that some of the ordered equipment would not be delivered until 2012, even though a new status of forces agreement (SOFA) requires all U.S. troops to exit the country by 2011.
Gen. Helmick said the Iraqi military had already ordered 140 M1 Abrams tanks, up to 24 Bell Assault Reconnaissance helicopters and 6 C130-J transport airplanes. The tanks will not be delivered until 2011, and the helicopters and transport planes will not arrive until the end of 2012 or possibly in 2013.
The Pentagon is reviewing its communications with lawmakers traveling to war zones following a senior member’s disclosures about a delegation trip to Iraq and Afghanistan according to the Congressional Quarterly publication CQ Today.
Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the top-ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, told reporters about the trip days before the group departed and then posted updates on the delegation’s approximate location every few hours using the Twitter social networking service .
Hoekstra has been criticized publicly by liberal bloggers and privately by Republican aides and others familiar with security protocols for such trips. Although what Hoekstra disclosed was not classified, questions arose about his discretion in handling sensitive information.
Both the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Washington Post report that Pakistan told an envoy dispatched by President Obama that it wanted to be included in talks on any changes in U.S. efforts to defeat al-Qaeda and Taliban extremists who are wreaking havoc in its territory and in neighboring Afghanistan.
Pakistani officials gave no details on any policy discussions during Richard Holbrooke's meetings yesterday with the prime minister and other leaders, but Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi hailed his visit as a "new beginning" in ties between the United States and Pakistan.
The New York Times reports that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran took up President Obama’s oft-repeated invitation for direct talks between the United States and Iran on Tuesday. The move signaled the start of a long-delayed war-or-peace drama that may help define the Obama administration’s plans to remake America’s approach to diplomacy.
But it also opens up the possibility of new tensions with Israel, which less than a year ago sought American help in preparing an attack on Iran’s main nuclear complex and is expected to drift further to the right after Tuesday’s parliamentary elections.
Meanwhile, Washington Times reports that a ship detained off Cyprus has breached a U.N. ban on Iranian arms exports, Cyprus' foreign minister said Tuesday.
But Markos Kyprianou refused to specify what had been found on the Cypriot-flagged Monchegorsk, which U.S. officials suspect was delivering arms to Hamas militants in Gaza.
Cyprus inspected the Monchegorsk twice after it arrived Jan. 29 under suspicion of ferrying weapons from Iran to Hamas fighters in Gaza. It remains anchored off the port of Limassol under tight security.
Media summary
1. Leading newspaper headlines: The much-anticipated announcement turned out to be a big letdown. (Slate Magazine)
2. Deadly attacks hit Afghan capital: Suicide attackers and gunmen have targeted three government buildings in the Afghan capital, Kabul, leaving at least 19 people dead, officials say. (BBC)
3. Bombing rocks Baghdad bus station: At least 16 people have been killed in two simultaneous explosions at a bus terminal in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, police and medical sources have said. (BBC)
4. U.S. envoy faces tough S. Asia test: The American special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, has a tough task ahead of him. (BBC)
5. Commanding general visits MCLB-Albany: In July 2008, concrete was poured for a new housing project at Marine Corps Logistics Base-Albany. (Albany Herald)
Leading newspaper headlines
The much-anticipated announcement turned out to be a big letdown. The New York Times highlights that the administration's plan to rescue the nation's financial system that was unveiled by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner "is far bigger than anyone predicted and envisions a far greater government role in markets and banks than at any time since the 1930s." The administration said it's committed to spending as much as $2.5 trillion in the effort. But Wall Street quickly gave the plan "a resounding thumbs down," as USA Today puts it, because it was short on some very key details that made clear the plan is very much a work in progress. The Wall Street Journal points out that the markets experienced the worst sell-off since President Obama moved into the White House as stocks plunged nearly 5 percent sending the market "to its lowest level since Nov. 20."
Investors weren't alone in their unhappiness with the plan. Lawmakers were also quick to criticize Geithner for failing to provide more details on how the administration plans to deal with the ongoing mess. "What they did is over-promise and under-deliver," the head of a private investment firm tells the Washington Post. "They said there was going to be a plan, so everybody expected a plan. And there was nothing." The Los Angeles Times says that the lack of details in the announcement "reflects a double bind for the Obama administration." It's become clear that the problems in the financial system are bigger than expected and could require more money to fix, but at the same time Congress has grown even angrier at Wall Street, which makes it highly unlikely that lawmakers would approve more funding for the effort.
Most of what was announced by Geithner yesterday was already known. He outlined a multipronged approach to fix the financial system that included a private-public partnership to get bad assets out of banks' balance sheets, a new round of direct cash injections into ailing banks, and an expansion of a Federal Reserve program to increase consumer and business lending. The NYT points out that the administration "would stretch" the remaining money in the bailout plan "by relying on the Federal Reserve's ability to create money, in effect, out of thin air."
Investors were particularly curious to hear how the administration intends to implement the plan of joining public and private money to buy toxic assets—the NYT is alone in calling it a "bad bank"—but all Geithner could say is that the administration is "exploring a range of different options." Investors are still finding it difficult to understand how this private-public cooperation would succeed in setting a price for the bad assets that would be agreeable to both buyers and sellers without a huge government subsidy. The administration was also able to provide only the most basic outline of the review that is planned of the largest banks to determine how much trouble they're in and how much help they need. This "stress test" is supposed to help the government "shed light, for the first time, on the true extent of the toxic asset problem," notes the WP.
White House officials insisted the lack of details in the plan was intentional because they want to make sure everyone has time to give their views before the plan is fully formed. The previous administration was highly criticized for haphazardly changing plans in midstream without consulting Congress, and that's exactly what the Obama team wants to avoid. The WSJ has some interesting insight into why the administration might be taking so long to settle on a final plan. By deciding early on that they wouldn't consult heavily with former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's team, administration officials ended up spending weeks trying to figure out some of the same issues that had confounded their predecessors. White House officials also were reluctant to consult Wall Street so it wouldn't look like it was a plan developed by the industry. Bank executives hope they'll get more of an input now that Geithner has made his announcement.
Geithner harshly criticized the previous administration's approach to the crisis yesterday. But in outlining his proposal "Geithner seemed to be following the Hank Paulson playbook," says the WP in an analysis piece. The few items in Geithner's plan that were new "came with so few details about how they would work that it contributed to the very public anxiety and investor uncertainty that Geithner criticized," notes the Post. The paper points out that the parts of the plan that had the most detail "are direct continuations of rescue efforts undertaken by Paulson." It's therefore no surprise that Sen. Richard Shelby, the senior Republican on the Senate banking committee, said the proposal outlined by Geithner looked like "son of Paulson."
In a front-page column, the LAT's Michael Hiltzik says that Geithner, "perhaps unwittingly," made it clear that the new administration is finding it difficult to find answers to the same "issues that confounded their Republican predecessors in fashioning a bank bailout." But Hiltzik thinks we should cut Geithner some slack because "a financial bailout can't take place on CNBC time." The WP's Steven Pearlstein warns that the criticism from Wall Street shouldn't be taken too seriously because traders and executives won't be happy until the government agrees to pick up the tab for all their mistakes "so they can once again earn inflated profits and obscene pay packages by screwing over their customers and their shareholders."
While Geithner was short on details, over on Capitol Hill it's all about the details. As expected, the Senate approved the massive stimulus package yesterday so now congressional negotiators must begin their high-stakes discussions to come up with a compromise bill that they hope to get to the president by the end of the week. The White House wants to restore some of the spending that was cut out of the Senate bill, but it's a risky proposition because it could mean losing the support of moderate Democrats and Republicans in the Senate. Negotiators are aiming to bring the cost of the final package down to $800 billion. The three Senate Republicans who supported the bill, along with some Democrats, said they're ready to vote against the stimulus if House Democrats manage to add more spending to the package.
Almost all the papers front the mass confusion in Israel that resulted after voters went to the polls and failed to give anyone a clear edge. With almost all the votes counted, the centrist Kadima Party, led by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, unexpectedly won the largest share of parliament with 28 seats. But Kadima appeared to win only one more seat than the more conservative Likud Party, led by Binyamin Netanyahu, and the parliament as a whole experienced a sharp rightward shift. Now it's unclear who will be the next prime minister, and both Netanyahu and Livni claimed victory. The leader of the party that gets the most votes is usually given the first chance to create a coalition government, but that might prove to be an impossible task for Livni given that the right-wing bloc appears to have won many more seats. The negotiations could take weeks.
Regardless of whether Livni or Netanyahu get the prime minister job, Obama's desire to start working on a peace process between Israel and Palestinians "suffered a significant setback yesterday," notes the Post in an analysis piece inside. The parliament's significant rightward shift means that even if Livni, who has spoken up in favor of negotiating with Palestinians, manages to form a government, it's likely that she "will be hamstrung by her coalition partners." The Post points out that the division in Israel "mirrors the split within the Palestinian government" between Hamas and Fatah on whether to pursue negotiations and work toward a peace plan. The divisions in both societies are so great "that few believe either the Israelis or the Palestinians can muster the will to reach a deal."
The WP's Kathleen Parker says that the first days of Obama's presidency "have been a study in amateurism." The new administration is lacking maturity, and Obama still "wants too much to be liked" when that is often the price of being president. "Giving up being liked is the ultimate public sacrifice." It's beginning to show that "the young senator from Illinois became a president overnight, before he had time to gain the confidence and wisdom one earns through trials and errors."
Not so fast, says the WP's Ruth Marcus, who writes that the first few days of the administration are "actually going rather well." Sure, there have been problems, but expecting that a new administration would be able to put together such a massive stimulus package without any problems "is like expecting a first-year med student to perform surgery—before the stethoscopes have been handed out." And it's clear that Obama has achieved more in his first few days than either of his two predecessors. "So if you're feeling jittery about Obama's start, ask yourself this," writes Marcus. "Is there another president in recent memory who would have done better?"
Top of the Document
Deadly attacks hit Afghan capital
Suicide attackers and gunmen have targeted three government buildings in the Afghan capital, Kabul, leaving at least 19 people dead, officials say.
In one attack, two suicide bombers detonated explosives at an office responsible for prisons in the north of the capital.
Attackers also targeted the justice ministry and education ministry in the centre of the city.
The Taleban have said they carried out the attacks.
A spokesman said they were in response to the treatment of Taleban prisoners in Afghan jails.
More than 50 people are reported injured, officials say.
The attacks come in the week the new US envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, is expected to visit Kabul.
The international forces in Afghanistan condemned the attacks as "callous and indiscriminate".
Taleban warning
Seven attackers took part in Wednesday's co-ordinated assault.
Four gunmen tried to enter the justice ministry. Two were killed outside but the others managed to get in, the BBC's Ian Pannell in Kabul reports.
At one point the justice minister was locked inside his office under armed protection. He told the BBC he was safe but was unable to leave.
The two attackers who entered the building were killed in a gunfight.
A senior source said a number of police officers had also been killed.
There was constant gunfire as police scaled the building with ladders to enter through windows.
Student Assadullah Jagdalak was inside the justice ministry and said he hid under a table when he heard shooting outside the building.
"Security guards started shooting and then the attackers responded by killing other security guards. One got inside the building and started shooting, one guy got upstairs," he said.
A number of people were also killed and injured in the attack on the prisoner affairs department.
In the third incident, the attacker tried and failed to get inside the education ministry and set off an explosive belt after being shot.
Salim Hayran, who works at the ministry, told the BBC: "After I heard the firing I could see from my window people running and the security guards everywhere."
The commander of Nato's International Security Assistance Force, Gen David McKiernan, condemned the attacks.
"Once again the Taleban have displayed that they have no respect for Afghan citizens or any desire to see a peaceful future in Afghanistan," he said.
Our correspondent says there had been a warning that the Taleban were planning a high-profile attack.
He says the attack follows a number of similar assaults last year and comes at a time when President Hamid Karzai is offering to sit down and start peace talks with the Taleban.
The incident comes after US military chief Adm Mike Mullen said more American troops were needed urgently in Afghanistan.
US President Barack Obama is expected to announce soon how many extra US troops could be sent to Afghanistan, and has called for Nato reinforcements.
Mr Holbrooke is expected in Kabul later this week, after his visit to Pakistan.
Before he left for the region, he said Afghanistan would be "much tougher" to solve than Iraq and that he had "never seen anything like the mess we have inherited".
Top of the Document
Bombing rocks Baghdad bus station
There have been a number of recent attacks in Baghdad against Shias
At least 16 people have been killed in two simultaneous explosions at a bus termin
al in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, police and medical sources say.
At least 40 people were wounded in the blasts, caused by a two bombs near the terminal in the Bayaa neighbourhood in the south west of the city.
The area is a predominantly Shia Muslim inhabited part of the city.
At least two other blasts have been reported on the day in which Shia Muslims mark the Arbain festival.
A roadside bomb in Waziriya in the north of Baghdad killed one pilgrim and wounded six others as they walked toward the southern holy city of Kerbala, police were quoted by the Reuters news agency.
The bomb also injured another six civilians in a minibus.
Another roadside bomb hit Shia pilgrims in the south of the city, killing one and wounding five, police said.
Top of the Document
US envoy faces tough S Asia test
Wednesday’s Early Bird leads with a story from the Associated Press that reports President Barack Obama is days away from approving a new Afghanistan troop buildup, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday, as the new administration confronts a worsening war.
Obama is likely to send fresh forces to the Afghan battle even before concluding a wide review of U.S. strategy and goals there, in part because time is short to have new units in place for the expected increase in fighting that comes with warmer weather.
“The president will have several options in front of him,” Gates said at a Pentagon news conference, adding that he expects a decision “in the course of the next few days.”
Reuters reports that Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the Pentagon has not yet decided whether to continue production of the Lockheed Martin Corp F-22 fighter jet, but reiterated that current economic conditions required tough choices among competing programs.
Gates said on Tuesday that there was broad agreement to begin including more spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the Pentagon's base budget, but doing so would take more time than he initially hoped.
Pentagon officials last year proposed increasing the fiscal 2010 defense budget to around $584 billion in 2010 from $515 billion in fiscal 2009, partly to include more war spending.
Canadian press, including the Toronto Star and Toronto Globe & Mail, report that Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters that he didn't even raise the topic with Canadian counterpart Walter Natynczyk in a get-together undertaken in the lead-up to U.S. President Barack Obama's visit to Ottawa next week.
Military analysts, however, expect that as many as 1,000 to 1,500 Canadian soldiers could remain in Afghanistan past 2011 in a reconfigured mission focusing on training and security. That's more than one-third of Canada's current commitment of about 2,800 troops.
Adm. Mullen, who is currently pressing NATO allies to boost their military commitment in Afghanistan, left the impression yesterday that he is giving Canada a pass in his recruiting drive.
Other noteworthy stories in today’s EB:
The Washington Times reports that U.S. diplomats tried to work out details in talks with Russian officials Tuesday on plans to ship Western supplies bound for Afghanistan across Russia, the U.S. Embassy said.
The delegation's visit to Moscow comes a week after Kyrgyzstan's president said his Central Asian country would evict U.S. forces from an air base crucial to American operations in nearby Afghanistan.
U.S. officials suspect that Moscow is behind the decision to close the Manas base, which could be confirmed by Kyrgyzstan's parliament this week.
The New York Times reports that Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq signaled a desire to gradually diminish American power over Iraqi politics and increase ties to other Western powers, during a visit on Tuesday by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France.
In a rare news conference with a Western leader who is not from the United States or Britain, Mr. Maliki gave Mr. Sarkozy a warm welcome and rebuffed a recent statement by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. that the United States would have to be “more aggressive” in forcing the Iraqis to reach political reconciliation.
The Washington Times reports that Lt. Gen. Frank Helmick, who is in charge of training Iraq's security services and military, told The Washington Times that some of the ordered equipment would not be delivered until 2012, even though a new status of forces agreement (SOFA) requires all U.S. troops to exit the country by 2011.
Gen. Helmick said the Iraqi military had already ordered 140 M1 Abrams tanks, up to 24 Bell Assault Reconnaissance helicopters and 6 C130-J transport airplanes. The tanks will not be delivered until 2011, and the helicopters and transport planes will not arrive until the end of 2012 or possibly in 2013.
The Pentagon is reviewing its communications with lawmakers traveling to war zones following a senior member’s disclosures about a delegation trip to Iraq and Afghanistan according to the Congressional Quarterly publication CQ Today.
Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the top-ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, told reporters about the trip days before the group departed and then posted updates on the delegation’s approximate location every few hours using the Twitter social networking service .
Hoekstra has been criticized publicly by liberal bloggers and privately by Republican aides and others familiar with security protocols for such trips. Although what Hoekstra disclosed was not classified, questions arose about his discretion in handling sensitive information.
Both the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Washington Post report that Pakistan told an envoy dispatched by President Obama that it wanted to be included in talks on any changes in U.S. efforts to defeat al-Qaeda and Taliban extremists who are wreaking havoc in its territory and in neighboring Afghanistan.
Pakistani officials gave no details on any policy discussions during Richard Holbrooke's meetings yesterday with the prime minister and other leaders, but Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi hailed his visit as a "new beginning" in ties between the United States and Pakistan.
The New York Times reports that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran took up President Obama’s oft-repeated invitation for direct talks between the United States and Iran on Tuesday. The move signaled the start of a long-delayed war-or-peace drama that may help define the Obama administration’s plans to remake America’s approach to diplomacy.
But it also opens up the possibility of new tensions with Israel, which less than a year ago sought American help in preparing an attack on Iran’s main nuclear complex and is expected to drift further to the right after Tuesday’s parliamentary elections.
Meanwhile, Washington Times reports that a ship detained off Cyprus has breached a U.N. ban on Iranian arms exports, Cyprus' foreign minister said Tuesday.
But Markos Kyprianou refused to specify what had been found on the Cypriot-flagged Monchegorsk, which U.S. officials suspect was delivering arms to Hamas militants in Gaza.
Cyprus inspected the Monchegorsk twice after it arrived Jan. 29 under suspicion of ferrying weapons from Iran to Hamas fighters in Gaza. It remains anchored off the port of Limassol under tight security.
Media summary
1. Leading newspaper headlines: The much-anticipated announcement turned out to be a big letdown. (Slate Magazine)
2. Deadly attacks hit Afghan capital: Suicide attackers and gunmen have targeted three government buildings in the Afghan capital, Kabul, leaving at least 19 people dead, officials say. (BBC)
3. Bombing rocks Baghdad bus station: At least 16 people have been killed in two simultaneous explosions at a bus terminal in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, police and medical sources have said. (BBC)
4. U.S. envoy faces tough S. Asia test: The American special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, has a tough task ahead of him. (BBC)
5. Commanding general visits MCLB-Albany: In July 2008, concrete was poured for a new housing project at Marine Corps Logistics Base-Albany. (Albany Herald)
Leading newspaper headlines
The much-anticipated announcement turned out to be a big letdown. The New York Times highlights that the administration's plan to rescue the nation's financial system that was unveiled by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner "is far bigger than anyone predicted and envisions a far greater government role in markets and banks than at any time since the 1930s." The administration said it's committed to spending as much as $2.5 trillion in the effort. But Wall Street quickly gave the plan "a resounding thumbs down," as USA Today puts it, because it was short on some very key details that made clear the plan is very much a work in progress. The Wall Street Journal points out that the markets experienced the worst sell-off since President Obama moved into the White House as stocks plunged nearly 5 percent sending the market "to its lowest level since Nov. 20."
Investors weren't alone in their unhappiness with the plan. Lawmakers were also quick to criticize Geithner for failing to provide more details on how the administration plans to deal with the ongoing mess. "What they did is over-promise and under-deliver," the head of a private investment firm tells the Washington Post. "They said there was going to be a plan, so everybody expected a plan. And there was nothing." The Los Angeles Times says that the lack of details in the announcement "reflects a double bind for the Obama administration." It's become clear that the problems in the financial system are bigger than expected and could require more money to fix, but at the same time Congress has grown even angrier at Wall Street, which makes it highly unlikely that lawmakers would approve more funding for the effort.
Most of what was announced by Geithner yesterday was already known. He outlined a multipronged approach to fix the financial system that included a private-public partnership to get bad assets out of banks' balance sheets, a new round of direct cash injections into ailing banks, and an expansion of a Federal Reserve program to increase consumer and business lending. The NYT points out that the administration "would stretch" the remaining money in the bailout plan "by relying on the Federal Reserve's ability to create money, in effect, out of thin air."
Investors were particularly curious to hear how the administration intends to implement the plan of joining public and private money to buy toxic assets—the NYT is alone in calling it a "bad bank"—but all Geithner could say is that the administration is "exploring a range of different options." Investors are still finding it difficult to understand how this private-public cooperation would succeed in setting a price for the bad assets that would be agreeable to both buyers and sellers without a huge government subsidy. The administration was also able to provide only the most basic outline of the review that is planned of the largest banks to determine how much trouble they're in and how much help they need. This "stress test" is supposed to help the government "shed light, for the first time, on the true extent of the toxic asset problem," notes the WP.
White House officials insisted the lack of details in the plan was intentional because they want to make sure everyone has time to give their views before the plan is fully formed. The previous administration was highly criticized for haphazardly changing plans in midstream without consulting Congress, and that's exactly what the Obama team wants to avoid. The WSJ has some interesting insight into why the administration might be taking so long to settle on a final plan. By deciding early on that they wouldn't consult heavily with former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's team, administration officials ended up spending weeks trying to figure out some of the same issues that had confounded their predecessors. White House officials also were reluctant to consult Wall Street so it wouldn't look like it was a plan developed by the industry. Bank executives hope they'll get more of an input now that Geithner has made his announcement.
Geithner harshly criticized the previous administration's approach to the crisis yesterday. But in outlining his proposal "Geithner seemed to be following the Hank Paulson playbook," says the WP in an analysis piece. The few items in Geithner's plan that were new "came with so few details about how they would work that it contributed to the very public anxiety and investor uncertainty that Geithner criticized," notes the Post. The paper points out that the parts of the plan that had the most detail "are direct continuations of rescue efforts undertaken by Paulson." It's therefore no surprise that Sen. Richard Shelby, the senior Republican on the Senate banking committee, said the proposal outlined by Geithner looked like "son of Paulson."
In a front-page column, the LAT's Michael Hiltzik says that Geithner, "perhaps unwittingly," made it clear that the new administration is finding it difficult to find answers to the same "issues that confounded their Republican predecessors in fashioning a bank bailout." But Hiltzik thinks we should cut Geithner some slack because "a financial bailout can't take place on CNBC time." The WP's Steven Pearlstein warns that the criticism from Wall Street shouldn't be taken too seriously because traders and executives won't be happy until the government agrees to pick up the tab for all their mistakes "so they can once again earn inflated profits and obscene pay packages by screwing over their customers and their shareholders."
While Geithner was short on details, over on Capitol Hill it's all about the details. As expected, the Senate approved the massive stimulus package yesterday so now congressional negotiators must begin their high-stakes discussions to come up with a compromise bill that they hope to get to the president by the end of the week. The White House wants to restore some of the spending that was cut out of the Senate bill, but it's a risky proposition because it could mean losing the support of moderate Democrats and Republicans in the Senate. Negotiators are aiming to bring the cost of the final package down to $800 billion. The three Senate Republicans who supported the bill, along with some Democrats, said they're ready to vote against the stimulus if House Democrats manage to add more spending to the package.
Almost all the papers front the mass confusion in Israel that resulted after voters went to the polls and failed to give anyone a clear edge. With almost all the votes counted, the centrist Kadima Party, led by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, unexpectedly won the largest share of parliament with 28 seats. But Kadima appeared to win only one more seat than the more conservative Likud Party, led by Binyamin Netanyahu, and the parliament as a whole experienced a sharp rightward shift. Now it's unclear who will be the next prime minister, and both Netanyahu and Livni claimed victory. The leader of the party that gets the most votes is usually given the first chance to create a coalition government, but that might prove to be an impossible task for Livni given that the right-wing bloc appears to have won many more seats. The negotiations could take weeks.
Regardless of whether Livni or Netanyahu get the prime minister job, Obama's desire to start working on a peace process between Israel and Palestinians "suffered a significant setback yesterday," notes the Post in an analysis piece inside. The parliament's significant rightward shift means that even if Livni, who has spoken up in favor of negotiating with Palestinians, manages to form a government, it's likely that she "will be hamstrung by her coalition partners." The Post points out that the division in Israel "mirrors the split within the Palestinian government" between Hamas and Fatah on whether to pursue negotiations and work toward a peace plan. The divisions in both societies are so great "that few believe either the Israelis or the Palestinians can muster the will to reach a deal."
The WP's Kathleen Parker says that the first days of Obama's presidency "have been a study in amateurism." The new administration is lacking maturity, and Obama still "wants too much to be liked" when that is often the price of being president. "Giving up being liked is the ultimate public sacrifice." It's beginning to show that "the young senator from Illinois became a president overnight, before he had time to gain the confidence and wisdom one earns through trials and errors."
Not so fast, says the WP's Ruth Marcus, who writes that the first few days of the administration are "actually going rather well." Sure, there have been problems, but expecting that a new administration would be able to put together such a massive stimulus package without any problems "is like expecting a first-year med student to perform surgery—before the stethoscopes have been handed out." And it's clear that Obama has achieved more in his first few days than either of his two predecessors. "So if you're feeling jittery about Obama's start, ask yourself this," writes Marcus. "Is there another president in recent memory who would have done better?"
Top of the Document
Deadly attacks hit Afghan capital
Suicide attackers and gunmen have targeted three government buildings in the Afghan capital, Kabul, leaving at least 19 people dead, officials say.
In one attack, two suicide bombers detonated explosives at an office responsible for prisons in the north of the capital.
Attackers also targeted the justice ministry and education ministry in the centre of the city.
The Taleban have said they carried out the attacks.
A spokesman said they were in response to the treatment of Taleban prisoners in Afghan jails.
More than 50 people are reported injured, officials say.
The attacks come in the week the new US envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, is expected to visit Kabul.
The international forces in Afghanistan condemned the attacks as "callous and indiscriminate".
Taleban warning
Seven attackers took part in Wednesday's co-ordinated assault.
Four gunmen tried to enter the justice ministry. Two were killed outside but the others managed to get in, the BBC's Ian Pannell in Kabul reports.
At one point the justice minister was locked inside his office under armed protection. He told the BBC he was safe but was unable to leave.
The two attackers who entered the building were killed in a gunfight.
A senior source said a number of police officers had also been killed.
There was constant gunfire as police scaled the building with ladders to enter through windows.
Student Assadullah Jagdalak was inside the justice ministry and said he hid under a table when he heard shooting outside the building.
"Security guards started shooting and then the attackers responded by killing other security guards. One got inside the building and started shooting, one guy got upstairs," he said.
A number of people were also killed and injured in the attack on the prisoner affairs department.
In the third incident, the attacker tried and failed to get inside the education ministry and set off an explosive belt after being shot.
Salim Hayran, who works at the ministry, told the BBC: "After I heard the firing I could see from my window people running and the security guards everywhere."
The commander of Nato's International Security Assistance Force, Gen David McKiernan, condemned the attacks.
"Once again the Taleban have displayed that they have no respect for Afghan citizens or any desire to see a peaceful future in Afghanistan," he said.
Our correspondent says there had been a warning that the Taleban were planning a high-profile attack.
He says the attack follows a number of similar assaults last year and comes at a time when President Hamid Karzai is offering to sit down and start peace talks with the Taleban.
The incident comes after US military chief Adm Mike Mullen said more American troops were needed urgently in Afghanistan.
US President Barack Obama is expected to announce soon how many extra US troops could be sent to Afghanistan, and has called for Nato reinforcements.
Mr Holbrooke is expected in Kabul later this week, after his visit to Pakistan.
Before he left for the region, he said Afghanistan would be "much tougher" to solve than Iraq and that he had "never seen anything like the mess we have inherited".
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Bombing rocks Baghdad bus station
There have been a number of recent attacks in Baghdad against Shias
At least 16 people have been killed in two simultaneous explosions at a bus termin
al in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, police and medical sources say.At least 40 people were wounded in the blasts, caused by a two bombs near the terminal in the Bayaa neighbourhood in the south west of the city.
The area is a predominantly Shia Muslim inhabited part of the city.
At least two other blasts have been reported on the day in which Shia Muslims mark the Arbain festival.
A roadside bomb in Waziriya in the north of Baghdad killed one pilgrim and wounded six others as they walked toward the southern holy city of Kerbala, police were quoted by the Reuters news agency.
The bomb also injured another six civilians in a minibus.
Another roadside bomb hit Shia pilgrims in the south of the city, killing one and wounding five, police said.
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US envoy faces tough S Asia test
Pakistani Taleban - Mr Holbrooke brings a 'new focus' to the war against militants
By M Ilyas Khan
BBC News, Islamabad
The American special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, has a tough task ahead of him.
Not only must he come up with an effective strategy to curb extremism in Afghanistan, he must also devise shrewd ways to appease Afghanistan's meddlesome neighbours.
Since Monday, he has been on a familiarisation trip to Pakistan, which has a history of direct involvement in Afghanistan and is believed by many to be a major cause of the current unrest in the region.
Pakistan's security establishment is also widely accused of using militancy as a policy tool in dealing with India and Afghanistan - neighbours with whom it has had strained relations.
Army role
A part of Mr Holbrooke's job will be to determine whether this security establishment has a strategic interest in the spread of Islamic extremism, or whether it simply lacks the capacity to deal with it.
Mr Holbrooke has described the situation in Pakistan as dire
While doing so, he will also be mindful of what many observers call Pakistan's "deceptive" political system, in which the security establishment tends to play a greater role than is normally evident.
On Tuesday, Mr Holbrooke met Pakistan's political leadership, including President Asif Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi.
Later in the day he held meetings with Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, the country's army chief, and Lt Gen Ahmad Shuja Pasha, director-general of Pakistan's premier intelligence service, the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI).
Reports say that while most discussions have been "exploratory" in nature, Mr Holbrooke has stressed US financial commitments to Pakistan, as well as the US desire to put an end to militant sanctuaries in the Pakistani tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan.
The Americans, who are in the process of reviewing their policy towards Afghanistan, consider Pakistan's army as a key factor in the fight against militants.
But in recent months they and their allies in Nato - which has thousands of troops stationed in Afghanistan - have been accusing Pakistan of not doing enough to wipe out militant sanctuaries in its north-western region.
Mr Holbrooke is here to clear up the mess, and one of his more dependable allies in Pakistan is likely to be the civilian leadership
Nosedive in Afghan-US relations
Some of them have even accused "rogue" elements in the ISI of training and funding Taleban militants to destabilise Afghanistan.
Pakistan denies this, pointing out that it has lost hundreds of soldiers in the fight against the Taleban.
Over the past couple of years, several Pakistani officials and retired generals-turned-defence analysts have been building a case to explain why the so-called "war on terror" has led to an expansion rather than a contraction of militancy.
According to them, the insurgency is fuelled by the presence of Western troops in Afghanistan, and once these troops leave the insurgents will go home.
They also blame the "corruption and inefficiency" of the Afghan government, led by President Hamid Karzai, as one of the causes of the spread of militancy.
They argue that if Afghan and Nato troops together can fail to curb militancy in Afghanistan, how can Pakistan, with fewer resources and little technology, succeed?
'Safe havens'
But independent observers have a different view.
American money... is the greatest leverage [Richard Holbrooke] can employ to achieve this aim
They say the Taleban insurgency took shape in the Pakistani "safe haven" of Waziristan at a time when the overwhelming majority of Afghan people had supported the 2001 overthrow of the Taleban government.
This support was evident in the 2004 elections when a large number of Afghans voted for President Karzai.
They believe things worsened when the Bush administration made the "strategic error" of shifting the entire focus of the "war on terror" to Iraq.
The Americans not only ignored the reconstruction needs of Afghanistan, they say, but also failed to commit sufficient troops to deal with Pakistan so as to forestall a comeback by the Taleban.
The results have horrified foreign governments as well as people in Pakistan.
The sanctuary of the militants has expanded from the diminutive Wana region of Waziristan to the entire Pakistani tribal belt, as well as to parts of the adjoining North West Frontier Province.
Meanwhile, Western intelligence analysts say that after pouring $10bn into Pakistan for its war effort, the Bush administration did not succeed in reducing the threat of militant attacks.
Mr Holbrooke is now here to clear up this mess, and one of his more dependable allies in Pakistan is likely to be the civilian leadership that is directly threatened by the militants.
As such, his test will lie in his ability to devise mechanisms to minimise the role of the Pakistani security establishment in charting the country's geo-political strategy.
American money, which has helped keep this security establishment alive and strong, is the greatest leverage he can employ to achieve this aim.
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Commanding general visits MCLB-Albany
Maj. Gen. Carl B. Jensen, the commanding general of Marine Corps Installations East, visited Marine Corps Logistics Base-Albany to tour the housing construction on base.
Jennifer Maddox Parks jennifer.parks@albanyherald.com
MCLB-ALBANY — In July 2008, concrete was poured for a new housing project at Marine Corps Logistics Base-Albany. On Tuesday, the construction effort was opened for a tour.
Specifically, the tour was opened to members of the media and Maj. Gen. Carl B. Jensen, commanding general of Marine Corps Installations East.
“This is what they deserve,” Jensen said. “This is real state of the art stuff.”
The project, titled Public Private Venture (PPV), has cost $38 million to develop. The projected completion date is set for October. So far things are ahead of schedule.
“This is going to influence a lot of (Marines) to live on the base now,” said Col. Christian Haliday, the base’s commanding officer. “It adds value to them on the job.”
The PPV includes 110 houses, which will be occupied by the Marines and families currently living in the older residences on base. The older housing units are expected to be demolished once the transfer is complete.
“It’s great when they bring their families in,” Jensen said. “It’s great housing for very great Marines and sailors.”
In addition to the housing units, the PPV also includes a community center and swimming pool for personnel living on base.
“It’s so important to moral if your spouse is happy, it makes for happy service members,” Jensen said. “It’s awfully nice to come home to something you are proud of.”
The minimum size for a home on the project is 1,800 square feet, with a minimum of three bedrooms. Once complete, all military housing aboard the base will be converted to privately owned and operated residences.
Jensen was assigned as the Deputy Commander and Chief of Staff for U.S. Marine Forces Command in Norfolk, Va. until assuming his current duties last year.
Marine Corps Logistics Base-Albany was commissioned in 1952 as the Marine Corps Depot of Supplies to provide supply support to Marines east of the Rocky Mountains. Today, it is part of Marine Corps Installations East and home to Marine Corps Logistics Command and Maintenance Center Albany. The base occupies 3,600 acres in Dougherty County with approximately 1,300 acres available for future development. Overall, it is estimated that the base’s economic impact in fiscal year 2008 was more than $987 million.
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