Sunday, September 13, 2015
Bid to shut Guantanamo roils Pentagon, White House, Congress
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama
administration's struggling quest to close the U.S. detention center at
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is mired in state and federal politics. Frustrated
White House and Pentagon officials are blaming each other for the slow
progress releasing approved detainees and finding a new prison to house
those still held.
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Defense
Secretary Ash Carter is facing criticism from some administration
officials who complain that he has not approved enough transfers, even
though 52 Guantanamo detainees are eligible. Carter's predecessor, Chuck
Hagel, was forced from the Pentagon job in part because the White House
felt he was not moving quickly enough to send detainees to other
countries.
Two officials said
the White House is frustrated because President Barack Obama discussed
the issue with Carter when he was hired this year to lead the Defense
Department, and they believed Carter was on board with the White House's
plans to act faster.
Other
U.S. officials note that Carter has approved some transfers and is
pushing his staff to move quickly to get more to his desk. But many
other proposed transfers are slogging through the bureaucracy, under
review by a long list of defense, military, intelligence and other
administration offices. The transfers cannot be approved unless
officials believe the detainees will not return to terrorism or the
battlefield upon release and that there is a host country willing to
take them.
During his two years as Pentagon chief, Hagel approved
44 detainee transfers. Carter, in his first seven months, has
transferred six.
Pentagon
press secretary Peter Cook issued a statement Saturday saying that
Carter shares Obama's commitment to closing the detention facility
?responsibly and has been working "deliberately and diligently" on a
comprehensive plan.
"Working with our interagency partners and
Congress, his top priority has been and will continue to be the safety
and security of the American people," Cook said.Obama has promised to close the facility since he was a presidential candidate in 2008. He said it ran counter to American values to keep people in prison, many without criminal charges or due process.
Opponents have argued the detainees are essentially prisoners of war.
From a peak of 680 prisoners, 116 remain. Finding acceptable places for them has been an intractable problem.
"Finding
a solution for these individuals involves complicated negotiations with
international partners, extensive consultations with the leaders of the
national security and legal organizations and final approval by me,"
Carter told reporters.
A key player in the process is Gen. Martin
Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Dempsey, who spent more
than three years as a commander in Iraq, continues to be very cautious
in his recommendations for transfers. His opinions carry a lot of
weight.According to U.S. officials familiar with the process, Carter recently notified Congress of two transfers, and has four whose files are ready to go to Capitol Hill, likely later this month. Congress has 30 days to review the transfers before they are made public.
A number of U.S. officials familiar with the ongoing discussions spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about the subject publicly.
The movement of detainees is only part of the challenge. A greater hurdle will be finding a U.S.-based prison to house the 64 detainees considered too dangerous to be sent to another country. Congress has opposed any effort to bring detainees to America, so Obama's long-stated goal of closing Guantanamo before he leaves office in January 2017 is more likely to die on the steps of Capitol Hill.
Aware of those objections, the White House last month stalled Pentagon efforts to send a plan to Congress outlining several U.S. prisons that could be upgraded and used for the detainees. Early drafts of the plan included some rough estimates of the costs and the time needed for renovations.
U.S. officials said the administration was worried that sending the plan to Congress could affect the crucial vote on the Iran nuclear deal by infuriating lawmakers who do not want the detainees moved to the U.S. or who adamantly oppose having them in a prison in their state or district. The resolution of disapproval of the Iran deal failed in the Senate, handing Obama a victory on that issue.
Three to five civilian facilities are being eyed as potential sites, officials said. A Pentagon team has gone to military facilities in South Carolina and Kansas to develop better estimates of construction and other changes that would be needed to house the detainees as well as conduct military commission trials for those accused of war crimes.
The visits to the Navy Consolidated Brig in Charleston, South Carolina, and the United States Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas triggered immediate outrage from lawmakers and governors there.
Republican Govs. Nikki Haley of South Carolina and Sam Brownback of Kansas have threatened to sue the administration if detainees are brought to either state.
Both the House and
Senate have pending legislation that would maintain prohibitions on
transferring detainees to U.S. facilities. The Senate legislation allows
the restrictions to be lifted if the White House submits a plan to
close the facility and it's approved by Congress.
GOP
Sen. John McCain of Arizona, chairman of the Senate Armed Services
Committee, has made it known he would consider a comprehensive plan to
close Guantanamo, but said it must include answers to a number of tough
legal and policy questions, including whether detainees held in the U.S.
would have additional rights.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has opposed using the Charleston brig because it is in a populated area.
Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., has said flatly that, "Not on my watch will any terrorist be placed in Kansas."
Carter
has acknowledged the challenge of getting a U.S. facility approved by
Congress, but has insisted that some lawmakers have indicated a
willingness to consider a plan.
"This
would be a good thing to do if — if we can all come together behind a
plan to do it," Carter told reporters. "Our responsibility is to provide
them with a plan that they can consider that is a responsible one."
Carly Fiorina fires back at Donald Trump as feud heats up before GOP debate
Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina turned the tables on Donald Trump after he said her face makes her unelectable.
Rather
than sidestep the putdown, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO cleverly
turned it into an asset, encouraging a National Federation of Republican
Women audience to do exactly what Trump commanded: “Look at that face!”
“Ladies, look at this face. This is the face of a 61-year-old woman. I am proud of every year and every wrinkle,” Fiorina said to roaring applause,
kicking off her speech Friday night. “And look at all of your faces.
The face of leadership … in our party, the party of women’s suffrage.”
Fiorina,
the only woman running for the GOP nomination, has been rising in the
polls and made the cut for the next primetime Republican debate
Wednesday; her campaign picked up momentum after a strong performance in
the party’s first JV debate.
At
the Reagan Library in California, the former businesswoman will face
off against a slew of career politicians and two other outsiders making
waves: retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and Trump.
The real estate magnate turned reality TV star lobbed his insult turned alley-oop while being interviewed for a Rolling Stone article that was published Wednesday.
"Look
at that face!” Trump said while watching Fiorina on TV. “Would anyone
vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?! … I
mean, she’s a woman, and I’m not s'posedta say bad things, but really,
folks, come on. Are we serious?”
Later
that night, Fiorina responded in a conversation with Fox News anchor
Megyn Kelly, another woman with whom Trump has feuded.
“Well, I think those comments speak for themselves,” she said.
“And all of the many, many, many thousands of voters out there that are
helping me climb in the polls, yes, they’re very serious.”
Fiorina
suggested her rising polls numbers might be worrying Trump. One thing
is certain: Both of their poll numbers should be troubling for their
competition — dyed-in-the-wool Washington insiders.
“Seventy-five
percent of the American people think the federal government is
corrupt,” she said during the National Federation of Republican Women
speech. “Eighty-two percent of the American people now think we have a
professional political class that is so focused with the preservation of
its own power, privilege and position that it has forgotten who it is
there to serve.”
Fiorina
also went after former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and
criticized the Democratic Party for — from her perspective — treating
women as a special interest group rather than the majority of the
country.
“I
personally am so tired of hearing about women’s issues. Every issue is a
woman’s issue,” she said. “We care about health care. We care about
national security, education, about debts and deficits. Yes, we care
about the character of our nation.”
Report: Iran finds 'unexpectedly high' uranium reserve after Dems seal nuke deal for Obama
It'd that a miracle? Iran just happens to find uranium right after the big dummy makes a deal with them.
Iran has reportedly found an unexpectedly high reserve of uranium, following assessments that the country is running low on the nuclear raw material and just days after President Obama essentially secured an international nuclear deal with the country's leaders.
The discovery was reported first by Reuters and based on comments made by Iranian nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi to the state news agency IRNA.
"I cannot announce (the level of) Iran's uranium mine reserves," Salehi was quoted as saying. "The important thing is that before aerial prospecting for uranium ores we were not too optimistic, but the new discoveries have made us confident about our reserves."
The international deal with Iran, largely brokered by the Obama administration, slows the country’s nuclear development for nearly a decade in exchange for the lifting of billions of dollars worth of crippling economic sanctions.
World leaders think Iran is trying to develop a nuclear weapon, despite Tehran’s denial.
However, Iran under the deal will still be able to pursue a nuclear-development program, for which the uranium could be used.
The remarks by Salehi, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, could not be found Saturday morning on the IRNA website. But another story had him as saying the deal -- reached in July and officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action -- will not slow the pace of Iran’s nuclear program.
“The official said the restrictions which the JCPOA entails are by no means the ones which would restrict Iran in its nuclear activities,” reads one line in the story.
Several other news-gathering agencies have either picked up the Reuters’ story or cited it in their own version.
That Obama would win congressional approval of the deal became apparent in recent weeks, but not without a fight from the GOP-controlled Congress and other critics including conservative groups and pro-Israel organizations.
However, the president worked all summer to garner support from Senate Democrat, who on Thursday block chamber Republicans from disapproving of the deal and from forcing Obama to resort to a presidential veto to win approval for what will likely be considered his biggest foreign policy achievement.
Salehi reportedly said uranium exploration had covered almost two-thirds of Iran and would be complete in the next four years.
Uranium can be used for energy production and scientific purposes but is also a key ingredient in nuclear weapons.
Some Western analysts have previously said that Iran was close to exhausting its supply of yellowcake -- or raw uranium -- and that mining it domestically was not cost-efficient, according to Reuters.
A report published in 2013 by U.S. think-tanks Carnegie Endowment and the Federation of American Scientists said the scarcity and low quality of Iran's uranium resources compelled it "to rely on external sources of natural and processed uranium,” the wire service also reported.
Iran has repeatedly denied overseas media reports that it has tried to import uranium from countries like Kazakhstan and Zimbabwe.
Donald Trump, Rand Paul feud reaches new level
At a Saturday rally in Boone, Iowa, Trump blasted Paul as being an “ineffective guy” and weak on immigration and national security issues. He claims Paul is attacking him because his polls numbers remain quite low and he needs media attention.
Trump currently stands at nearly 30 percent compared to Paul’s two percent, according to the latest Real Clear Politics average polling.
During his speech, Trump blasted critics who say he’s picking fights with his fellow Republicans and pointed to primary voters who prefer his “aggressive tone and tremendous energy."
The latest feud began Thursday when Paul, referring to Trump, said “I don’t really think there’s anything conservative about him and I think he’s selling us a bill of goods. And so I think we need to be very careful that we don’t succumb to celebrity and all of the sudden get a fake conservative that turns out to be a big government Republican.”
Later Saturday, Trump again blasted Paul on social media. “Lightweight Senator Rand Paul should focus on trying to get elected in Kentucky--- a great state which is embarrassed by him,” said the businessman in a tweet.
In another Twitter post, he took a personal dig at Paul, saying he doesn’t compare to his father, former congressman and 2008 Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul. “I truly understood the appeal of Ron Paul, but his son, Rand Paul, didn't get the right gene,” he said.
Since Trump announced his White House run in June, both candidates have spared over policy and personality.
Earlier this month, Paul said Trump “is a disaster. I think he will hurt the country and will lose in a land slide.”
At a New Hampshire rally in August, Trump told supporters a story about him playing golf with Paul. “So I'm actually a good golfer. I killed him, OK? I killed him. If I didn't, I wouldn't say it, but I killed him.”
Saturday, September 12, 2015
Black Lives Matter leader lands Yale teaching gig
Un friggin Believable.
DeRay McKesson will be teaching a one-credit course this fall as a guest lecturer at Yale Divinity School, according to higher education blog Campus Reform. The outspoken activist will be joining U.S. Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., and the Rev. Nancy Taylor, whose Old South Church in Boston is located near the site of the 2013 marathon bombing, to teach a special three-section course as part of a new leadership program. The young activist will teach the first section of the course, entitled "Transformational Leadership in the #BlackLivesMatter Movement.”
McKesson is the only guest lecturer who is not an alumnus of Yale Divinity School.
A syllabus for the course describes the credentials of McKesson, 30.
“A young leader of the Black Lives Matter Movement, DeRay McKesson will present case studies about the work of organizing, public advocacy, civil disobedience, and social change, through both Leadership of Presence, and Leadership in the Social Media.”
Readings for the course includes Ta-Nehisi Coates’s book “Between the World and Me,” a Huffington Post article titled “How The Black Lives Matter Movement Changed the Church,” the book “Silent Covenants: Brown v. Board of Education and the Unfilled Hopes for Racial Reform by author Derrick Bell,” Leah Gunning Francis’ book “Ferguson & Faith: Sparking Leadership and Awakening Community,” and a New York Times article titled “Our Demand Is Simple: Stop Killing Us.”
According to Campus Reform, McKesson last worked in the Minneapolis public school system as a human resources administrator. According to his LinkedIn profile, his only teaching experience was between May 2007 and June 2009, when he was a middle school math teacher.
The special course is being administered through the YDS’ Transformational Leadership for Church and Society program, each of the one-credit courses will be taught by a different guest lecturer and is funded through a $120,000 grant from the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations.
Each of the three 12-hour courses will take place over an intensive two-day class period, rather than spanning the course of the semester.
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