Obama: Indo-US ties can advance peace in world

Describing the Indo-US strategic partnership as a defining and indispensable collaboration for the 21st century, President Barack Obama has said the two countries share a dynamic and broad relationship that serves to advance peace and prosperity in Asia and the world.

Obama conveyed this to new Indian Ambassador to the US, Nirupama Rao, at a ceremony at the White House last evening during which she presented her credentials.

"President Obama described the India-US global strategic partnership as a defining and indispensable collaboration for the 21st Century," the Indian embassy said in a statement after the ceremony that took place at the Oval Office of the White House.

"He said the two countries enjoy a natural friendship and that the India-US partnership has proven to be dynamic and broad and serves to advance peace and prosperity in Asia and the world," according to the statement.

During the ceremony, Obama warmly welcomed Rao to Washington and wished her every success in her high responsibilities as India's new ambassador to the US.

Rao, in her remarks to Obama, conveyed warm greetings from the President and Prime Minister of India to him and First Lady Michelle Obama, adding that India was greatly encouraged by his strong personal commitment to take the bilateral strategic partnership forward.

9/11 anniversary: 'Specific, credible terror threat' in US

U.S. officials said Thursday they were investigating a credible but unconfirmed threat that Al Qaeda was planning to use a car bomb to target bridges or tunnels in New York City or Washington to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, the first tip of an "active plot" around that date.

The Homeland Security Department said the threat is credible and specific but unconfirmed. The nation's terror alert level has not changed, but raising it was under consideration Thursday night.

Law enforcement officials were investigating three people who recently entered the U.S. The threat was received by the U.S. intelligence community late Wednesday night, officials said.

"There is specific, credible but unconfirmed threat information," said Janice Fedarcyk, the assistant director in charge of the FBI's New York division. "As we always do before important dates like the anniversary of 9/11, we will undoubtedly get more reporting in the coming days."

James McJunkin, the assistant FBI director in the Washington field office, said his agents weren't seeking any particular suspects.

"There's no named individual," he told reporters in a late-night news conference.

Security has been enhanced around the country in the weeks leading up to the 10th anniversary. Law enforcement officials have been wary, particularly after information gleaned from Osama bin Laden's compound in May indicated that Al Qaeda had considered attacking the U.S. on the anniversary and other important dates.

The threat came in a single piece of information and was so specific - and came at such a time of already heightened alert - that it could not be ignored. The officials described the threat to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security matters.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg told reporters that police there were deploying additional resources around the city but that New Yorkers should go about their business as usual. The city's observance of the attacks will go on as planned, Bloomberg said.

The FBI and Homeland Security Department issued a joint intelligence bulletin Thursday night to law enforcement around the country urging them to maintain enhanced security and be on the lookout for suspicious activity.

District of Columbia Police Chief Cathy Lanier said that all police would be working 12-hour shifts indefinitely and that any cars parked in odd locations risked being towed.

President Barack Obama was briefed on the threat information Thursday morning and directed the counterterrorism community to redouble its efforts in response to the information, a White House official said.

White House officials said there were no plans to change Obama's travel schedule on Sunday in light of the threat. The president is scheduled to mark the 9/11 anniversary with stops at New York's ground zero, the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pa., where one of the hijacked planes crashed. He will also deliver remarks Sunday night at a memorial concert at the Kennedy Center in Washington.

Law enforcement officials are checking out all of the details included in the threat, said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y.

"No need to panic," King said. "They have not been able to confirm it yet."

Thursday morning, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told reporters that there was "a lot of chatter" around the anniversary of the attacks but that there was no information about a specific threat.

Report:Obama to propose $300 billion jobs package

President Barack Obama, facing waning confidence among Americans in his economic stewardship, plans to lay out a USD 300 billion job-creation package on Thursday, reported, citing Democratic sources.

The proposed new spending, to be announced by Obama in a nationally televised speech to Congress, would be offset by budget cuts, the report said, signaling that the Democratic president hopes to mollify the concerns of Republican fiscal hawks resistant to his jobs ideas.

There was no immediate comment from the White House.

Obama's aides have refused to go public with the estimated cost of Obama's package or provide many specifics in advance, except to say that the proposals will have a "quick and positive" impact on boosting jobs at a time of stubbornly high US unemployment.

Confidence in Obama's management of the economy has been hit by months of bad economic news and several polls on Tuesday showed fresh declines in his job approval ratings.

Obama hopes to start reversing this trend in an address to a joint session of Congress on Thursday, in which he will try to convince voters that he has a better economic recovery plan than his Republican opponents.

"We need to do things that will have a direct impact in the short-term to grow the economy and create jobs and the president will put forward proposals that will do just that," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

Obama fought Republicans all summer to lift the US debt ceiling in a bitter debate that saw rating agency Standard & Poor's cut the US AAA credit rating, and he must now get lawmakers to back additional spending that many oppose.

However, the president is seeking congressional support at a time when his own prospects of re-election have worsened.

A third survey by Politico and George Washington University found that 72 percent of voters believe the country is either strongly or somewhat headed in the wrong direction, a jump of 12 percent since last May.

Obama must get unemployment down from levels currently above 9 percent to improve his chances of winning a second White House term in the November 2012 election.

The president has already touched on a various steps Congress could take to lift growth and hiring, including infrastructure spending, business tax breaks, and extending a payroll tax cut and aid for the long-term unemployed.

Carney declined to lay out any specifics but said the measures Obama would recommend would yield a "direct, quick and positive impact" on the US economy if they were enacted by Congress.

Republicans criticized Obama for not including them in discussions on the package before his big speech and indicated any jobs bills could face tough passage through Congress, where they control the US House of Representatives.

"I have no doubt the president will propose many things on Thursday that, when looked at individually, sound pretty good, or that he'll call them all bipartisan. I'm equally certain that, taken as whole, they'll represent more of the same failed approach," said the top Senate Republican, Mitch McConnell.

Republican House leaders separately wrote to Obama urging him to repeal "excessive, job-destroying regulations" and laying out possible areas of common ground, including reforms to the unemployment system and free trade agreements.

Obama on Irene Invites Bush, Katrina Comparisons

All indications point to this being a historic hurricane,” President Obama said in remarks about Hurricane Irene on Friday morning from his Martha’s Vineyard vacation.

He emphasized that coordination with local agencies has already begun. “Although we can’t predict with perfect certainty the impact of Irene over the next few days,

the federal government has spent the better part of last week working closely with communities that could be affected by this storm to see to it that we are prepared.”

That’s what President Obama said publicly, and for a window into what the private briefings might look today and tomorrow, it’s worth looking back at video of

President George W. Bush’s briefing with FEMA and National Hurricane Center officials less than a day before Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in 2005. The Associated Press

obtained video of that briefing six months after Katrina.

It was a Sunday morning, and President Bush tapped in via video conference from his ranch in Crawford, Texas. Then-FEMA Director Michael Brown was there, as was

National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield.

"My gut was this was a bad one and a big one," Brown told the assembled group. "This is, to put it mildly, the big one I think."

Brown went on to express concerns about worst-case scenario plans to shelter residents at the SuperDome, questioning the soundness of its roof and noted the public

health challenges of assembling so many people there.

National Hurricane Center director Max Mayfield did his best to emphasize the massive scale of the potential devastation.

“I don’t think anyone can tell you with any confidence right now whether the levees will be topped or not, but that is obviously a very, very grave concern," Mayfield

warned the group, the latest in a string of warnings he issued as Katrina neared the coast. The night before this briefing with the president, Mayfield had called the

governors of Mississippi and Louisiana and the mayor of New Orleans to emphasize his serious concerns. "I just wanted to be able to go to sleep that night knowing that

I did all I could do," Mayfield later told the St. Petersburg Times.

The differences between Katrina and Irene are notable, of course. Katrina was a massive Category 5 hurricane, while Irene is currently a Category 2 and the National

Hurricane Center does not expect it to grow in strength before it reaches the North Carolina coast Friday night. At this point, however, the hurricane’s pathway is

predicted to follow along the entire northern east coast, with warnings stretching up the mid-Atlantic to New York City and Boston.

President Bush did not ask any questions during this Katrina briefing, but he told the group the federal government was "fully prepared."

"I want to assure the folks at the state level that we are fully prepared to not only help you during the storm, but we will move in whatever resources assets we have

at our disposal after the storm to help you deal with the loss of property, and we pray, for no loss of life of course.

What President Bush knew about Katrina’s potential impact, and when he knew it, later became a major political problem for President Bush.

“There is frustration,” President Bush told ABC News days later, when the full impact of Katrina’s devastation was becoming clear. “I don’t think anybody anticipated

the breach of the levees.”

The AP later reported that it wasn’t until the day that Katrina was hitting that then-FEMA director Brown said that Bush had asked about reports of breaches, but Bush

did not participate in that briefing.  

Syrian Forces Seal Off Port City of Latakia

Syria’s military closed off access to the Mediterranean port of Latakia by land and sea and stormed the suburbs of the city of Homs in an effort to prevent further anti-government protests, activists said.

Unrest has died down in Latakia, with troops restricting movement in and out of the city, which was overtaken by soldiers backed by tanks and warships this week, Mahmoud Merhi, head of the Arab Organization for Human Rights, said today by phone from Damascus, the capital. As many as 50 people have died since the sea blockade began Aug. 14, he said. The severing of communication links with Latakia has made it difficult to learn whether the number killed by security forces has risen, he said.

In Homs, where the government crackdown killed at least 24 demonstrators on Aug. 8, soldiers stormed a residential area of a suburb, killing as many as 15, Merhi said. Protesters also returned to the streets in Dera’a, and in the capital, Damascus.

More than 2,400 people have been killed since the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government began in March, according to Merhi and Ammar Qurabi of the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria. The United Nations put the toll at about 2,000. The U.S. State Department estimated that the government has detained more than 30,000 people. Protests began after demonstrations toppled the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt, and destabilized Libya.

International pressure on the government is increasing, with U.S. President Barack Obama, Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah and British Prime Minister David Cameron calling on Syria to stop attacking its people. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Aug. 12 urged nations doing business with Syria to cut off trade and arms sales. Canada is extending sanctions on Assad’s regime.

The UN agency that helps Palestinian refugees said a number of Palestinians were killed as the security forces fired at a refugee camp in Latakia. The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East called upon the authorities to exercise the “utmost restraint in accordance with international law,” according to a statement on its website.

Assad, who came to power in 2000, has blamed the protests on foreign-inspired plots. More than 500 members of the security forces have died since the unrest began, the government said.

Many of Assad’s top officials are from the Alawite branch of Islam, an offshoot of Shiism, while most of Syria’s population is Sunni Muslim.

The U.S. is concerned about the prospect of sectarian violence in Syria and the chance it will spark more instability, a U.S. official said last week. The Obama administration may call on Assad soon to step down, said the official, who asked not to be identified because the administration was still discussing the issue.

More Than a "Beer Summit"

Let’s Talk About Race



“Blah, blah, blah, blah,” said President Barack Obama for 55 minutes. What was being said were important answers to questions about the need for health care reform, but all the reporters and viewers seemed to hear was, “Blah, blah, blah, blah.” Then, the president took one more question. Forget the past 55 minutes. Even if he had not used the adverb “stupidly”, it still would have been the headline. Why? It was about race. Race is always better than “blah, blah, blah, blah” where the media is concerned. Commentators and reporters went nuts. Headline writers had a field day.

Further it was something new. The old saw says there are several things one shouldn’t watch while they are being made. Among them are laws and news. The health care debate is a process, not easily understood while watching and reporting. This confrontation between Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Cambridge Police Sergeant James Crowley was already national news. The president admitted that he fanned the flames with his comments. The story grew legs.

The media, however, for the most part missed the point. The question posed the president probably would not have been asked to an Anglo president. If it had been asked to an Anglo president, it would have been brushed aside. Some say Obama should have done just that, but Obama does not run from the tough stuff. It was really remarkable that an African-American sitting president would weigh-in on what would seem to be a local issue involving a police officer who conducts classes on racial profiling and a scholarly professor who has researched and written extensively on the subject of being black in America. They may be the right people for what the president called a "Teachable Moment".

The media even coined the name of the afternoon meeting between the sergeant, the professor, the vice president, and the president, calling it the “Beer Summit” at the White House, something Obama attempted to dismiss. Once again, the media missed the point. No other president, except one who is African-American and also a former member of academe, would have set up such a gathering.

After the early evening meeting Thursday, July 30, 2009, the media set about to make something out of what beer was ordered by each one present, as if it somehow mattered. (Notably, Vice President Biden ordered a non-alcoholic beverage.) The Austin American-Statesman tease on the Friday front page asked, “With the suds, was there substance?” Good question. It comes closer to getting at the truth. The page A2 story taken from the New York Times, while short, reported the good news that there was “thoughtful conversation.”

Why is this Cambridge Mass./Beltway story worth discussing in Austin, Texas? The issue of race divides us here, just as it does in Cambridge and the rest of the country, and the media may be feeding the flames with less-than thoughtful, sound-bite reporting. And the viewers, readers, users of the media respond in kind.

American-Statesman readers took a dim view of Thursday’s “happy hour”. “Wow! Now this is something in which the president of the United States really needs to involve himself,” one reader wrote in the online comments. “My wife and I had a disagreement several days ago. Should the president invite us to the rose garden for a beer and reconciliation?” Another said, “Obama is the one who acted ‘stupidly’, and this is his way of sloughing it off on his friend in a media ploy. "Agree to disagree" is just another formidable way of saying the race card still gets played in [sic] Amerika.”

Who is playing the race card? I am afraid we all still do in one way or another. An African-American friend, a former news photographer, and a native Austinite worked the morning show at one of Austin’s TV stations. He’d ride his bicycle or walk to work in the early morning hours around 4 a.m. He would tell me wearily, “It happened again.” Even though he walked the same route every morning, police would stop and “ID” him every few months, asking him why he was out that time of the morning. One day, I felt compelled to day, “I’m sorry” because nobody else would.

Race is still a wedge, and there are those who would use it to divide us. Rush Limbaugh is on the air here on KLBJ-AM (Fox Radio). Tell me he does not fuel the furnace. The president with no apologies had the will to take on this all-too-familiar issue, talk about it public instead of whispers, and attempt to address it on the front page or as the lead story in national and local media.

Meanwhile, the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press reports:

Based on what people have heard about the incident
in Cambridge, 27% of blame Gates, 25% fault the police officer, 13% volunteer both or neither, and 36% offer no opinion. However, more people disapprove (41%) than approve (29%) of the president’s handling of the situation. And by a margin
of about two-to-one, more whites disapprove (45%) than approve (22%).

Yet Obama is widely liked by the public on a more personal level, with close to three-quarters (74%) saying they like the kind of person he is and the way he leads his life. Asked why, among the most frequent responses offered are impressions that he is honest, has integrity, is a good father and is intelligent.

Looking through different lenses, racism may be a bigger issue in many ways than “blah, blah, blah, blah” (Health Care Reform). Both issues need serious, transparent attention. Much of the media wouldn’t/couldn’t focus on the most pervasive part of the story. It was not a “beer summit”, but it might be a new beginning.

© Jim McNabb, 2009