Early Bird summary
Tuesday’s Early Bird leads with two stories about Monday’s Taliban suicide bombing of a police station (an issue covered in Monday’s MFC Media Summary.) The first story, from the Washington Post, reports that at least 21 Afghan police officers were killed Monday in southern Afghanistan when a Taliban suicide bomber disguised as a policeman attacked a local police station, according to Afghan government officials. The second story, from the New York Times, reports that the attacker struck in Tirin Kot, the capital of Oruzgan Province, a mountainous area where the government’s authority is being contested by the Taliban. Oruzgan is the birthplace of Mullah Muhammad Omar, the founder of the Taliban movement.
Tuesday’s Early Bird leads with two stories about Monday’s Taliban suicide bombing of a police station (an issue covered in Monday’s MFC Media Summary.) The first story, from the Washington Post, reports that at least 21 Afghan police officers were killed Monday in southern Afghanistan when a Taliban suicide bomber disguised as a policeman attacked a local police station, according to Afghan government officials. The second story, from the New York Times, reports that the attacker struck in Tirin Kot, the capital of Oruzgan Province, a mountainous area where the government’s authority is being contested by the Taliban. Oruzgan is the birthplace of Mullah Muhammad Omar, the founder of the Taliban movement.
The Los Angeles Times reports that militants blew up a 100-foot iron bridge in northwestern Pakistan's Khyber Pass today, cutting the main route for supplies bound for Western forces in Afghanistan, a government official said.Government official Rahat Gul said it would take some time to repair the bridge, about 15 miles west of Peshawar.The Khyber Pass isn't the only route for supplies to Afghanistan. A second route runs through Pakistan, and the U.S. agreed in January with Russia and several neighboring Central Asian nations to ship supplies through their territory.
Bloomberg.com reports that President Barack Obama has made clear he is counting on America’s NATO allies for greater military contributions in Afghanistan. He may be in for a disappointment.Most European leaders have either ruled out sending more troops to buttress the fight against a resurgent Taliban or talked about increases that number only in the hundreds.In encountering such reluctance, the U.S. is paying a price for its past errors, says Anthony Cordesman, a military analyst at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies.“We asked NATO to join us in a peacemaking, post-conflict reconstruction effort when we hadn’t won the war, and let the insurgency grow to where it threatened to take over the country,” Cordesman says. “Now we’re dissatisfied because these countries that signed up for something different aren’t willing to bail us out of our own mistakes.”
Other noteworthy stories in Tuesday’s EB:
§ The Washington Post reports that Assistant Secretary of State Christopher R. Hill, a career diplomat who since 2005 was chief negotiator in the often difficult effort to try to persuade North Korea to end its nuclear programs, will be nominated as ambassador to Iraq, administration officials said.He is an unexpected choice to succeed the highly regarded Ryan C. Crocker, who retired last month after a career spent largely in the Arab world.Hill is a consummate dealmaker, but he does not speak Arabic, and his expertise lies in Europe and Northeast Asia. He was ambassador to Poland, Macedonia and South Korea and also was a top negotiator to the Dayton peace accords that ended the Bosnian war in the mid-1990s.
§ USA Today reports that the nation's top military officer says the global financial crisis is threatening U.S. security options abroad. Navy Adm. Michael Mullen told reservists Monday that the financial meltdown will force a delicate balance between national security and federal budget cuts. Mullen is chairman of the Pentagon's Joint Chiefs of Staff.
§ In a related story, the Washington Times reports that Adm. Mullen cautioned Monday against comparing the Pentagon's renewed focus on Afghanistan to the Vietnam War, citing terrorism and a non-occupation strategy as "dramatic differences" between the two conflicts."Afghanistan is much more complex," said Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.He added: "I certainly recognize - and having been in Vietnam myself - that there are those who make comparisons. I would be pretty careful about that, though, for lots of reasons."Adm. Mullen's comments came as the Pentagon prepares to deploy an additional 15,000 Army and Marine troops to Afghanistan this spring and summer in the Obama administration's military campaign to shut down the Taliban and al Qaeda.
§ Financial Times reports that America’s defence industry is bracing itself for cuts to the government’s weapons budget after early signals from President Barack Obama’s administration of “hard choices” ahead.“One thing we have known for many months is that the spigot of defence spending opened by 9/11 is closing,” Robert Gates, US defence secretary, warned Congress recently. “With two major campaigns ongoing, the economic crisis and resulting budget pressures will force hard choices on this department.”
§ Locally, the Virginian-Pilot reported that U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., said that Americans understand that "there was rampant fraud, waste and abuse" of public funds after the invasion of Iraq and are looking for public officials "to demonstrate that we're willing to do something about it." Testifying at the first in a series of hearings convened by a new Commission on Wartime Contracting, Webb urged the eight-member panel to hold people accountable and critically examine the Defense Department's heavy reliance on private contractors in Iraq to handle jobs traditionally done by troops.
§ The Washington Post reports that The Marine Corps is starting to deploy a jeeplike vehicle called the Growler, 10 years after conception and at twice the contract price, after delays that were caused by changing concepts and problems in contracting, development and testing, according to two reports.Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, sought investigations by the Government Accountability Office and the Defense Department inspector general in light of complaints by the unsuccessful bidder on the project.
§ The San Diego Union-Tribune says that military officials are paving the way for the arrival of the overdue, over-budget F-35 Joint Strike Fighter at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station.At a meeting tonight in Mira Mesa, they will unveil plans to split 12 squadrons of the jets between Miramar and the Marine air base in Yuma, Ariz., starting in 2012.The five potential alternatives would designate as few as two or as many as 10 squadrons at Miramar. The F-35s would replace six squadrons of F/A-18 Hornets – about 90 aircraft – at Miramar, plus AV-8 Harriers at the Yuma base.
Media summary
1. Leading newspaper headlines: The Los Angeles Times leads with the Senate debate on the $885 billion stimulus plan, which began yesterday and is expected to last for more than a week. (Slate Magazine)
2. Letter to the Editor from LtCol Robert Bracknell of MARFORCOM SJA: Wendy MacLeod's Jan. 28 op-ed, "The Price Our Gladiators Pay," was stunning in its wrongheadedness. (Washington Post)
3. Iran launches homegrown satellite: Iran has launched its first domestically made satellite into orbit, state media report. (BBC)
4. Pakistani army kills 6 Taliban: Pakistan's army says it has killed 16 Taleban militants and injured many more during an operation in the north-western Swat Valley. (BBC)
Leading newspaper headlines
The Los Angeles Times leads with the Senate debate on the $885 billion stimulus plan, which began yesterday and is expected to last for more than a week. Everyone expects that it will receive at least a bit of Republican support, but not before some intense horse-trading sessions in which lawmakers will try to tack more of their priorities onto the package. President Obama will attempt to convince the public on the need for a stimulus package in interviews with five television networks, but most Americans don't need convincing. USA Today leads with a new poll that shows two-thirds of Americans think the package would at least provide a little boost to the ailing economy. But that doesn't mean they expect to benefit personally. Fifty percent of people say that their own family finances would not be affected or could get worse.
The Washington Post leads with preliminary results from Iraq's provincial elections, which appear to have handed a big victory to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Dawa Party. Iraqis as a whole seemed to favor parties that emphasized nationalism and a strong central government.
The Wall Street Journal leads its world-wide news box with Senate Democrats expressing support for Tom Daschle, the nominee to head Health and Human Services, who issued a public apology for his failure to pay more than $100,000 in taxes. The New York Times leads with yet another look at how Obama's campaign rhetoric doesn't quite match his governing style. You know the drill: He promised his administration would abide by high ethics standards and bar lobbyists from the White House, but he has hired many Washington insiders and two of his picks for cabinet position didn't pay all their taxes. Those who are disappointed now may not have been paying enough attention to the details. Even during the campaign, Obama's language "was always more sweeping than the specifics," notes the NYT.
As debate began in the Senate over the stimulus package, members of both parties have reservations that it devotes far too little money to housing and infrastructure. To deal with these issues, there is talk about doubling the tax credit for first-time home buyers to $15,000, as well as $25 billion more for highway, transit, and water projects. The LAT notes a "seeming paradox": Many senators complain the bill is too large but will probably end up producing "a bill significantly more expensive than the House's $819-billion version." Still, there seems to be general agreement that the package shouldn't extend beyond $900 billion, meaning that some spending items would have to be nixed. Rooting out spending deemed inappropriate will be one of Republicans' main priorities this coming week.
The Obama administration seems open to amending certain portions of the bill in order to get it moving through the approval process as quickly as possible. This urgency isn't just due to the need for speedy relief; it also shows that Obama wants to get the stimulus package out of the way before he goes back to Congress to ask for yet more money to prop up the nation's financial system. "Given the widespread anger over Wall Street bonuses and what are seen as other excesses, proposing to shell out more tax dollars could trigger extreme sticker shock in both parties," notes the LAT.
USAT's poll gives Obama an approval rating of 64 percent and notes that two-thirds of Americans support several of the reversals from the Bush years. But only 44 percent of Americans support closing Guantanamo within a year, and only 35 percent approve of the move to lift restrictions on foreign aid given to family-planning organizations that also provide abortion services.
The NYT gave some preliminary results of the Iraqi elections in yesterday's paper, but today the WP is much more thorough and details how different parts of the country voted. Besides Maliki, Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr also appeared to make gains in a few Shiite areas. Some Sunnis, particularly the leaders of the resistance groups that were funded by the United States, also appear to have done well. Overall, urban areas voted for more secular candidates, while religious parties continued to win big in rural parts of the country, "highlighting the ideological divide in the nation," notes the Post.
After meeting with the Senate Finance Committee, Daschle issued a public apology and said his failure to pay the appropriate taxes was "completely inadvertent." Democrats were quick to rally around Daschle, a former majority leader of the Senate, and say that the mistake was certainly embarrassing but understandable. Republicans aren't so sure, and some continue to raise questions that go beyond taxes and have more to do with potential conflicts of interest for a man who made so much money from health care companies after he left Capitol Hill. But it seems clear "senators will almost certainly confirm the former member of their club," as the WP's Dana Milbank puts it.
Having friends in high places isn't just helping Daschle maneuver through the controversy; assuming he's confirmed, it will also be of great help once he settles into his new role in the Obama administration. "Daschle is likely to be one of the best-connected Cabinet secretaries in the administration, if not history," declares the Post. Obama has depended on Daschle protégés and his former aides since his first days in the Senate through the campaign and transition. After Daschle lost re-election in 2004, he basically handed his team over to Obama, so the former Senate leader's "tentacles … stretch far beyond the agency Obama picked him to lead." That means Daschle would be well-positioned to play a key role in the administration and ensure that his priorities get heard.
In other Cabinet news, the Senate confirmed Eric Holder as the nation's first African-American attorney general with a 75-21 vote. In addition, the White House confirmed that Obama is set to nominate Republican Sen. Judd Gregg for commerce secretary today, a move that would make him the third Republican in the Cabinet. But it looks as if Democrats can let go of their 60-seat dream, because Gregg emphatically stated he would not take the job if a Democrat were to take his place.
When attention turns away from the stimulus package, a clash over how far Washington should go to reshape the nation's financial system is inevitable, notes the LAT in a front-page analysis. So far, the discussions have been kept largely under the radar, but that will all change once Obama outlines why he wants more money to prop up the financial system and how he'll prevent the problems from happening again. The debate that will ensue is unlikely to remain confined to the financial sector. In outlining its plans, "the administration will offer the first hints of how aggressively it is prepared to intervene in other damaged or seemingly dysfunctional sectors of the economy such as housing, healthcare, autos and energy," says the LAT. Many Democrats are arguing in favor of a more robust regulatory system that would undo much of the hands-off policies conservatives have been fighting for since Ronald Reagan's presidency. Republicans, on the other hand, want much more narrow legislation, and many believe that much of today's problems are due to an excess of regulation.
It's already well-known that many of the banks that have received money from Uncle Sam haven't increased their lending, but today the Post takes it a step further and points out that banks that got government money have reduced their lending more than those that didn't receive anything. According to new Fed data, banks across the country tightened their lending as the volume of outstanding loans decreased by 1 percent during the last three months of 2008. But the decline was almost twice as large among banks that received government money. One of the main reasons for this is that the government mostly decided to help out banks that needed money to solve problems, rather than trying to figure out who was in a better position to increase lending.
The deepening recession and increasing unemployment has turned out to be a boon for online entertainment sites, reports the WSJ. Some sites claim business has never been so good, as more people with more time to kill are spending an increasing number of hours in front of the computer, looking for an escape. It seems the Internet has taken the place of movie houses, where many unemployed workers spent entire afternoons during the Great Depression.
Top of the Document
Real 'Gladiators' and Their Scars
Tuesday, February 3, 2009; Page A14
Wendy MacLeod's Jan. 28 op-ed, "The Price Our Gladiators Pay," was stunning in its wrongheadedness.
Don't get me wrong: I love football as much as the next person -- maybe more. But it is simply indefensible to place football players, with their exorbitant lifestyles and salaries, on such a high pedestal.
Let me offer a category of "gladiators" who are perhaps more deserving of adulation: the Marines, soldiers, airmen and sailors who have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injuries, concussions and other grievous consequences of combat are at epic levels in the U.S. military, and the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments are struggling under the weight of the requirements imposed by the scars of war borne by these returning heroes.
The difference between these patriots and NFL players? The injuries of service members are not offset by six- and seven-figure salaries. Rather, most are young men and women who enlisted or accepted commissions out of a sense of duty and honor, or to avail themselves of educational and professional opportunities not otherwise available to them. These warriors come home, broken and bleeding, to the arms of a mostly, but perhaps superficially, grateful nation, and they must make do without the comforts of Bentleys, mansions or millions of adoring fans.
Rather than elevating professional athletes who willingly trade off their health for riches, it would be refreshing to see a more exalted status for our returning warriors, who may bear their wounds for life, or render the ultimate sacrifice for their countrymen, out of duty and honor.
ROB BRACKNELL
Norfolk
The writer is a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps.
Top of the Document
Iran launches homegrown satellite
Iran has launched its first domestically made satellite into orbit, state media report.
TV commentary said Monday's night-time launch on a Safir-2 rocket was "another achievement for Iranian scientists under sanctions".
The satellite was designed for research and telecommunications purposes, the television report said.
Iran is subject to UN sanctions as some Western powers think it is trying to build a nuclear bomb, which it denies.
Tehran says its nuclear ambitions are limited to the production of energy, and has emphasised its satellite project is entirely peaceful.
The launch of the Omid (Hope) satellite had been expected and was clearly timed to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the Iranian revolution, says the BBC's Jon Leyne in Tehran.
Space centre
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the satellite was launched to spread "monotheism, peace and justice" in the world.
But the launch could cause alarm in the West because of fears the technology could be used to make a long-range missile, possibly with a nuclear warhead, our correspondent says.
Iran will no doubt reply that it is once again being judged by double standards for using a technology that is commonplace in many other parts of the world, he adds.
Speaking after the launch, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki stressed the project was peaceful.
"Iran's satellite technology is for purely peaceful purposes and to meet the needs of the country," Reuters agency quoted Mr Mottaki as saying on the fringes of an African Union summit in Ethiopia.
Last August, Iran said it had successfully launched a rocket capable of carrying its first domestically built satellite, having in February launched a low-orbit research rocket as part of preparations for the satellite launch.
That launch marked the inauguration of a new space centre, at an unidentified desert location, which included an underground control station and satellite launch pad.
The White House called the 2008 launch "unfortunate", warning it would further isolate Iran from the global community.
In February 2007, Iran said it had launched a rocket capable of reaching space - before it made a parachute-assisted descent to Earth.
In October 2005, a Russian rocket launched Iran's first satellite, the Sina-1, which carried photographic and telecommunications equipment.
Top of the Document
Pakistani army 'kills 16 Taleban'
By Barbara Plett BBC News, Islamabad
Pakistan's army says it has killed 16 Taleban militants and injured many more during an operation in the north-western Swat Valley.
Local officials say the number of dead is greater and includes civilians.
The military launched its offensive last week in response to a public outcry over the Taleban's growing strength in Swat.
The clash is the latest in an operation against an increasingly powerful Taleban insurgency in Swat.
The militants have tightened their hold on the scenic valley, banning girls' education, setting up their own courts and executing those they oppose, sometimes beheading their victims.
Last week the military launched a fresh offensive against the Taleban with the army chief and the government vowing to restore state authority in Swat.
But locals say the army action is often indiscriminate and officials report that women and children are among the dead from Sunday's fighting.
As debate began in the Senate over the stimulus package, members of both parties have reservations that it devotes far too little money to housing and infrastructure. To deal with these issues, there is talk about doubling the tax credit for first-time home buyers to $15,000, as well as $25 billion more for highway, transit, and water projects. The LAT notes a "seeming paradox": Many senators complain the bill is too large but will probably end up producing "a bill significantly more expensive than the House's $819-billion version." Still, there seems to be general agreement that the package shouldn't extend beyond $900 billion, meaning that some spending items would have to be nixed. Rooting out spending deemed inappropriate will be one of Republicans' main priorities this coming week.
The Obama administration seems open to amending certain portions of the bill in order to get it moving through the approval process as quickly as possible. This urgency isn't just due to the need for speedy relief; it also shows that Obama wants to get the stimulus package out of the way before he goes back to Congress to ask for yet more money to prop up the nation's financial system. "Given the widespread anger over Wall Street bonuses and what are seen as other excesses, proposing to shell out more tax dollars could trigger extreme sticker shock in both parties," notes the LAT.
USAT's poll gives Obama an approval rating of 64 percent and notes that two-thirds of Americans support several of the reversals from the Bush years. But only 44 percent of Americans support closing Guantanamo within a year, and only 35 percent approve of the move to lift restrictions on foreign aid given to family-planning organizations that also provide abortion services.
The NYT gave some preliminary results of the Iraqi elections in yesterday's paper, but today the WP is much more thorough and details how different parts of the country voted. Besides Maliki, Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr also appeared to make gains in a few Shiite areas. Some Sunnis, particularly the leaders of the resistance groups that were funded by the United States, also appear to have done well. Overall, urban areas voted for more secular candidates, while religious parties continued to win big in rural parts of the country, "highlighting the ideological divide in the nation," notes the Post.
After meeting with the Senate Finance Committee, Daschle issued a public apology and said his failure to pay the appropriate taxes was "completely inadvertent." Democrats were quick to rally around Daschle, a former majority leader of the Senate, and say that the mistake was certainly embarrassing but understandable. Republicans aren't so sure, and some continue to raise questions that go beyond taxes and have more to do with potential conflicts of interest for a man who made so much money from health care companies after he left Capitol Hill. But it seems clear "senators will almost certainly confirm the former member of their club," as the WP's Dana Milbank puts it.
Having friends in high places isn't just helping Daschle maneuver through the controversy; assuming he's confirmed, it will also be of great help once he settles into his new role in the Obama administration. "Daschle is likely to be one of the best-connected Cabinet secretaries in the administration, if not history," declares the Post. Obama has depended on Daschle protégés and his former aides since his first days in the Senate through the campaign and transition. After Daschle lost re-election in 2004, he basically handed his team over to Obama, so the former Senate leader's "tentacles … stretch far beyond the agency Obama picked him to lead." That means Daschle would be well-positioned to play a key role in the administration and ensure that his priorities get heard.
In other Cabinet news, the Senate confirmed Eric Holder as the nation's first African-American attorney general with a 75-21 vote. In addition, the White House confirmed that Obama is set to nominate Republican Sen. Judd Gregg for commerce secretary today, a move that would make him the third Republican in the Cabinet. But it looks as if Democrats can let go of their 60-seat dream, because Gregg emphatically stated he would not take the job if a Democrat were to take his place.
When attention turns away from the stimulus package, a clash over how far Washington should go to reshape the nation's financial system is inevitable, notes the LAT in a front-page analysis. So far, the discussions have been kept largely under the radar, but that will all change once Obama outlines why he wants more money to prop up the financial system and how he'll prevent the problems from happening again. The debate that will ensue is unlikely to remain confined to the financial sector. In outlining its plans, "the administration will offer the first hints of how aggressively it is prepared to intervene in other damaged or seemingly dysfunctional sectors of the economy such as housing, healthcare, autos and energy," says the LAT. Many Democrats are arguing in favor of a more robust regulatory system that would undo much of the hands-off policies conservatives have been fighting for since Ronald Reagan's presidency. Republicans, on the other hand, want much more narrow legislation, and many believe that much of today's problems are due to an excess of regulation.
It's already well-known that many of the banks that have received money from Uncle Sam haven't increased their lending, but today the Post takes it a step further and points out that banks that got government money have reduced their lending more than those that didn't receive anything. According to new Fed data, banks across the country tightened their lending as the volume of outstanding loans decreased by 1 percent during the last three months of 2008. But the decline was almost twice as large among banks that received government money. One of the main reasons for this is that the government mostly decided to help out banks that needed money to solve problems, rather than trying to figure out who was in a better position to increase lending.
The deepening recession and increasing unemployment has turned out to be a boon for online entertainment sites, reports the WSJ. Some sites claim business has never been so good, as more people with more time to kill are spending an increasing number of hours in front of the computer, looking for an escape. It seems the Internet has taken the place of movie houses, where many unemployed workers spent entire afternoons during the Great Depression.
Top of the Document
Real 'Gladiators' and Their Scars
Tuesday, February 3, 2009; Page A14
Wendy MacLeod's Jan. 28 op-ed, "The Price Our Gladiators Pay," was stunning in its wrongheadedness.
Don't get me wrong: I love football as much as the next person -- maybe more. But it is simply indefensible to place football players, with their exorbitant lifestyles and salaries, on such a high pedestal.
Let me offer a category of "gladiators" who are perhaps more deserving of adulation: the Marines, soldiers, airmen and sailors who have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injuries, concussions and other grievous consequences of combat are at epic levels in the U.S. military, and the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments are struggling under the weight of the requirements imposed by the scars of war borne by these returning heroes.
The difference between these patriots and NFL players? The injuries of service members are not offset by six- and seven-figure salaries. Rather, most are young men and women who enlisted or accepted commissions out of a sense of duty and honor, or to avail themselves of educational and professional opportunities not otherwise available to them. These warriors come home, broken and bleeding, to the arms of a mostly, but perhaps superficially, grateful nation, and they must make do without the comforts of Bentleys, mansions or millions of adoring fans.
Rather than elevating professional athletes who willingly trade off their health for riches, it would be refreshing to see a more exalted status for our returning warriors, who may bear their wounds for life, or render the ultimate sacrifice for their countrymen, out of duty and honor.
ROB BRACKNELL
Norfolk
The writer is a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps.
Top of the Document
Iran launches homegrown satellite
Iran has launched its first domestically made satellite into orbit, state media report.
TV commentary said Monday's night-time launch on a Safir-2 rocket was "another achievement for Iranian scientists under sanctions".
The satellite was designed for research and telecommunications purposes, the television report said.
Iran is subject to UN sanctions as some Western powers think it is trying to build a nuclear bomb, which it denies.
Tehran says its nuclear ambitions are limited to the production of energy, and has emphasised its satellite project is entirely peaceful.
The launch of the Omid (Hope) satellite had been expected and was clearly timed to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the Iranian revolution, says the BBC's Jon Leyne in Tehran.
Space centre
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the satellite was launched to spread "monotheism, peace and justice" in the world.
But the launch could cause alarm in the West because of fears the technology could be used to make a long-range missile, possibly with a nuclear warhead, our correspondent says.
Iran will no doubt reply that it is once again being judged by double standards for using a technology that is commonplace in many other parts of the world, he adds.
Speaking after the launch, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki stressed the project was peaceful.
"Iran's satellite technology is for purely peaceful purposes and to meet the needs of the country," Reuters agency quoted Mr Mottaki as saying on the fringes of an African Union summit in Ethiopia.
Last August, Iran said it had successfully launched a rocket capable of carrying its first domestically built satellite, having in February launched a low-orbit research rocket as part of preparations for the satellite launch.
That launch marked the inauguration of a new space centre, at an unidentified desert location, which included an underground control station and satellite launch pad.
The White House called the 2008 launch "unfortunate", warning it would further isolate Iran from the global community.
In February 2007, Iran said it had launched a rocket capable of reaching space - before it made a parachute-assisted descent to Earth.
In October 2005, a Russian rocket launched Iran's first satellite, the Sina-1, which carried photographic and telecommunications equipment.
Top of the Document
Pakistani army 'kills 16 Taleban'
By Barbara Plett BBC News, Islamabad
Pakistan's army says it has killed 16 Taleban militants and injured many more during an operation in the north-western Swat Valley.
Local officials say the number of dead is greater and includes civilians.
The military launched its offensive last week in response to a public outcry over the Taleban's growing strength in Swat.
The clash is the latest in an operation against an increasingly powerful Taleban insurgency in Swat.
The militants have tightened their hold on the scenic valley, banning girls' education, setting up their own courts and executing those they oppose, sometimes beheading their victims.
Last week the military launched a fresh offensive against the Taleban with the army chief and the government vowing to restore state authority in Swat.
But locals say the army action is often indiscriminate and officials report that women and children are among the dead from Sunday's fighting.
Top of the Document
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