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Though no definite plans have been set forth, the still-to-be-determined strategy for Afghanistan will include careful consideration of troop withdrawal once the area has been stabilized, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said. Gibbs spoke to reporters aboard Air Force One on Thursday, en route to Alaska before continuing on to Asia, emphasizing that Afghanistan is a not a forever war. “It’s important to fully examine not just how we’re going to get folks in, but how we’re going to get folks out,” he said, adding that President Obama will not commit to an "open-ended conflict." Obama continues to seek advice and counsel regarding the next step on Afghanistan, though Gibbs predicted that a decision would be coming sooner rather than later.
We have details! In her new memoir, Going Rogue, Sarah Palin says that Sen. John McCain's aides kept her “bottled up,” that Katie Couric was “badgering” and biased, and that Charlie Gibson wasn’t interested in “substantive issues.” Palin claims that she went on as a favor and that Couric suffers from low self-esteem. She also complains that the McCain campaign charged her $50,000 for the vetting she received. According to the Associated Press, “she was told McCain’s camp would have paid all the bills if he’d won; since he lost, the vetting legal bills were her responsibility.”
Embattled White House Counsel Gregory Craig announced Friday that he is returning to private practice. Craig had struggled to lead the effort to close the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, which Barack Obama had promised to do within a year of being taking office. Bob Bauer, the president’s personal attorney and longtime adviser, will replace Craig, who also oversaw the president's overhaul of government policies on terrorism interrogations. In a statement from Japan, Obama called Craig a trusted adviser who took on a difficult job. Dissatisfaction over Craig’s management of Guantánamo policy had been brewing for months, and the change was expected.
Federal prosecutors seized four Shiite Muslim mosques and a 36-story New York skyscraper owned by a nonprofit Muslim organization with suspected ties to the Iranian government Thursday. The Alavi Foundation, which is part of the alleged front company Assa Corp., is being asked to forfeit all of their U.S. properties, totaling $500 million in assets. The foundation is being accused of laundering money back to Iran's state-owned Bank Melli, with which the U.S. has outlawed doing business because of its suspected role in Iran's nuclear program. The foundation provides imprisoned Muslims in the U.S. with educational literature and support for Iranian academics. There are few instances in U.S. history in which a religious place of worship has been seized, because of the First Amendment right to religious freedom.
Do we still get to call her a hero? Contrary to earlier reports, it now appears that Sgt. Kimberly D. Munley did not shoot the alleged Fort Hood killer, Major Nidal Malik Hasan. In an interview with The New York Times, another cop, Senior Sgt. Mark Todd, says that he brought down the gunman after Munley was wounded. A witness confirms his account. “Once I came around the front of the building, I caught his attention again, started shouting commands, and then he opened up a second time,” Sergeant Todd said. “And that’s when I returned fire, neutralized him and secured him.”
Italian officials have arrested 17 Algerians who were part of a "significant" international terrorist cell. The members, spread throughout Italy and Europe, allegedly raised approximately $1.5 million for terrorist activities outside of Europe. For the past three years the group had burglarized and commited theft to raise the funds, which were intended to be funneled to Algeria. The arrested had also made contact with North Africans who are under investigation by European countries. An Italian official that the group had been "dismantled."
A 26-year-old German citizen allegedly demanded $100,000 from Cindy Crawford and husband Rande Gerber, claiming that he had a "sexy photograph" of the couple's 7-year-old daughter. Edis Kayalar said he stole the photo from a former nanny and wanted to return it to the parents so it wouldn't fall into the hands of the tabloids. He then turned around and threatened to sell the photo to the media if the couple wouldn't pay up. Court documents state that Kayalar claimed the photo exposed Crawford's daughter "in revealing clothing, bound to a chair and gagged." According to the court papers, the daughter told her parents that the nanny had taken the picture as part of a "cops and robbers" game. Kayalar was indicted Thursday, and the couple are making sure the photograph doesn't fall into the wrong hands.
Pakistan's main spy agency, which oversees counterterrorism in the border regions of Afghanistan, was bombed Friday. An Associated Press reporter on the scene says there were at least eight wounded or dead. The blast knocked down most of the building, which is located in the northwestern city of Peshawar. The area is a militant hub and has been the target of a series of attacks on security forces and civilians since Pakistan stepped up its national-security offensive. Since mid-October, Pakistan has heightened watch over the South Waziristan area, where the Taliban has a stronghold.
What up with this, Michael Steele? Politico is reporting that the insurance plan that the Republican National Committee offers its employees covers abortions, which the GOP platform calls “a fundamental assault on innocent human life.” In all, 176 House Republicans voted last week with 64 Democrats for the Stupak amendment to the health-care bill, which would prohibit federal funds from being used by individuals to purchase plans that cover abortions. According to an RNC spokeswoman, “The current policy has been in effect since 1991, and we are taking steps to address the issue.”
American journalist Euna Lee is set to write her own account of the 140 days she was detained by North Korean officials. Lee, who is a producer for Al Gore's Current TV, was arrested with fellow journalist Laura Ling on March 17 at the border between China and North Korea. They were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for hostilities toward North Korea, but were pardoned following a visit from former president Bill Clinton. Neither Lee nor Ling has spoken extensively about her time as a captive yet. Lee's book will be titled The World Is Bigger Now: A Memoir of Faith, Family and Freedom. Ling is also pitching a book, with sister and journalist Lisa Ling.
Former President Bush cannot, apparently, spot the contradiction. “I went against my free-market instincts and approved a temporary government intervention to unfreeze the credit marks so that we could avoid a major global depression,” Bush said at the unveiling of he George W. Bush Presidential Center at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, before going on to say that “History shows that the greater threat to prosperity is not too little government involvement, but too much.” He went on to warn the world against “the temptation to replace the risk and reward model of the private sector with the blunt instruments of government spending and control.”
Military prosecutors will seek the death penalty for Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the accused gunman in the Fort Hood shootings who faces 13 counts of premeditated murder. (The last active duty serviceman to be executed was hanged at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1961.) Hasan will be tried in a military court, instead of a civilian one, reflecting investigators’ belief that he acted alone, despite emails to a radical Muslim cleric. Prosecutors may also file additional charges against the alleged shooter, whose troubled military career has been the subject of intense scrutiny since he emerged as the chief suspect in the aftermath of last week's killings. The major, a psychiatrist, is said to have been a troubled man who flirted with radical Islam and worried his superiors at Walter Reed Medical Center.
Are heads about to roll in the White House? Politico is reporting that the Obama administration is frustrated by the spate of national-security leaks about Afghanistan and Fort Hood, and it “is planning a major effort to root out and punish those responsible.” Defense Secretary Robert Gates pronounced himself “appalled,” saying “If I found out with high confidence anybody who was leaking in the department, … it would probably be a career-ender.” National Counterintelligence Executive Robert Bear Bryant, meanwhile, has been ordered to come up with a strategy to stem the leaks. Pentagon General Counsel Jeh Johnson said some of the leaks were attributable to information given to journalists who said they were working on long-term book projects.
John King, CNN's chief national correspondent, has been named as the new host of the network's 7 p.m. hour after Lou Dobb's sudden departure Wednesday night. King, a reporter with the news channel since 1997, will host an hour-long nightly politics show along with State of the Union on Sundays. CNN president Jon Klein said King's show will "reflect what CNN is all about: straight facts from our anchors and the widest range of opinions from across the political spectrum." Dobbs, one of CNN’s original anchors, resigned on air after his repeated misstatements about immigration and his pursuit of the discredited "birther" story made him a source of controversy at the network.
Something to talk about at Thanksgiving dinner, perhaps? Gawker is reporting that Levi Johnston has, in fact, posed nude for Playgirl. Specifically, “naked with a hockey stick.” The photo shoot took place Thursday. Gawker's source says, “His ass is smooth as a Sade song.”
After appearing on countless talk shows and cutting a deal with RadarOnline, Nadya Suleman hasn't tired of the public's probing and disapproving eye. The "world's most renowned postnatal celebrity" is currently the subject of OctoMom: Me & My Fourteen Kids, which is being filmed by a Dutch production company. “I’m damned if I do what I need to do with the media to support my kids, and I’m damned if I don’t,” Suleman says about her willingness to participate in the media circus. "If I don’t, I can’t take care of them." For 11 days of shooting, Suleman will receive a $250,000. The Angelina Jolie look-a-like, who studied for a master's degree in child psychology, denies that her pregnancy was a stunt, instead explaining that her frozen embryos were racking up storage bills. Rather than destroy the embryos, she simply "decided to take the chance" that they could lead to one or two or eight more children. One moral that Octomom hopes the public can take away: that a single mother can "earn a living with dignity, or at least a minimum of dignity, without resorting to public assistance."
Looks like we've all forgotten Kundun. Director Martin Scorsese will receive the Cecil B. DeMille award for "outstanding contribution to the entertainment field" at the 67th Golden Globe Awards in January, following in the footsteps of Steven Spielberg, Warren Beatty, and Anthony Hopkins, who won the award in 2009, 2007, and 2006, respectively. Scorsese, a seven-time Golden Globe Best Director nominee and two-time winner (for The Departed and Gangs of New York), directed the upcoming Shutter Island, starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
It looked like it was only worth $200, but it fetched $43.8 million. A 1962 Andy Warhol painting of 200 dollar bills fetched the primo price at an auction for London-based art collector Pauline Karpidas, who bought the painting for a mere $385,000 in 1986. The sale underscores buyers' returning confidence in the art market, which the world financial crisis nearly destroyed. Some dealers proclaimed the end of the slump. New York dealer Jack Tilton enthused, "Art has come back more than stocks or housing." It may not be time to drink champagne out of Duchamp-signed urinals yet, though. Others, such as art adviser Todd Levin, pointed out that auction house estimates have been reduced by 50 to 75 percent, lowering expectations "to such a degree that everything looks rosy."
President Obama appears to have accepted his ambassador to Afghanistan’s advice to not increase the American troop commitment until the Karzai government has proven its competence. One man who’s not happy about it? General Stanley McChrystal. The BBC reports that McChrystal is “fuming” about Ambassador Karl Eikenberry’s intervention. Previously, Eikenberry served as the top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan for two years.
The first clip of Oprah Winfrey’s interview with Sarah Palin has leaked: When the queen of talk asked Palin whether or not Levi Johnston will be invited to Thanksgiving dinner, Palin said, "It's lovely to think that he would ever even consider such a thing. Because of course you want—he is a part of the family and you want to bring him in the fold and kind of under your wing. And he needs that, too." She went on, "I think he needs to know that he is loved and he has the most beautiful child, and this can all work out for good. It really can. We don't have to keep going down this road of controversy and drama all the time. We're not really into the drama. We don't really like that. We're more productive."
The Treasury Department announced Thursday that the deficit for October weighs in at $176.4 billion—the highest October deficit ever, the fifth-largest monthly deficit of all time, and the 13th-consecutive month to show a deficit. The most significant reason for the high deficit was the lower tax receipts, which came to $135.3 billion, a 17.9 percent drop from October 2008. The Obama administration has said that this year's deficit is expected to reach $1.5 trillion, the third record annual deficit in a row, and, according to its estimates, the deficit will not come in less than $738 billion over the next 10 years. Some economists are concerned that the growing deficit might lead to higher interest rates, making borrowing more expensive, or scare away foreign investors buying Treasury debt; meanwhile, Congress will likely need to raise the government's debt limit higher than its current level of $12.1 trillion, which the White House says it will hit in December.
It's no wonder that the U.S. is mired in Afghanistan, considering that U.S. military officials in Kabul estimate that at least 10 percent of the Pentagon's logistics contracts—hundreds of millions of dollars—are going straight into the pockets of insurgents. The Nation reports that, essentially, "the U.S. military's contractors are forced to pay suspected insurgents to protect American supply routes." Security firms protecting convoys headed for hostile terrain in the south of Afghanistan can't protect American goods without paid Taliban cooperation, in part due to rules aimed at preventing collateral damage, which ban companies shipping American military supplies from using weapons heavier than a rifle. The Taliban, on the other hand, use weapons that can kill a driver from 3,000 feet away, plus, rocket-propelled grenades that can blow up an armed vehicle. They own the roads, and the U.S. must pay to use them or else risk attack.
This week Maclaren agreed to a "voluntary recall" of all of its stroller models sold as far back as 1999 after conceding that their strollers' hinges severed the fingers of 12 children. Now the New York Post says it uncovered a lawsuit proving that the company was aware of the potential defect—which it was required by federal law to report—as early as 2004, but did nothing until federal regulators all but forced it to action. In 2004, 23-month-old Connecticut toddler Carlos DeWinter permanently lost his right pinky to the device while his mother was shopping for a stroller, according to court papers the Post obtained. Maclaren argued that the mother's "own negligence" was to blame. An engineer and former compliance officer for the Consumer Products Safety Commission testified in 2007 that the stroller had a "substantial design defect" when compared to other kids' stroller designs and that "Maclaren had a legal obligation to report this."
When New York Daily News writer James Meek headed to Arlington National Cemetery to visit the graves of three veterans, he didn't expect to meet the president. But Obama, stopping to lay a Veterans Day wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns, unexpectedly stopped and visited with many of the grieving relatives and friends who had chosen to visit their loved ones' plots on the rainy holiday. Shaking hands and giving hugs, the president soon found himself, by coincidence, face-to-face with Meek, who was standing at the grave of his friend, Pfc. David Sharrett, who died in Iraq in 2008. "We appreciate his service very much," the president said to Meek, as the first lady told the writer there was "no finer place to be on Veterans Day." "I'm sure the cynics will assume this was just another Obama photo op," writes Meek, but "his presence in Section 60 convinced me that he now carries the heavy burden of command."
Balloon Boy's parents are expected to plead guilty to criminal charges in a Larimer County, Colorado court on Friday. The couple's 6-year-old boy grabbed national attention last month after he was thought to have floated away in a homemade, UFO-shaped silver balloon. The parents' lawyer said that father Richard Heene will plead guilty to a felony charge of attempting to influence a public servant, while mother Mayumi Heene will plead to the lesser misdemeanor charge of making a false report to authorities. Heene is taking on the felony charge, the lawyer said, because Mayumi is a citizen of Japan and could face deportation if she were to plead guilty to a felony. Larimer County authorities have not confirmed the settlement.
Photographer Tony Echevarria, 50, says that heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson struck him once at the Los Angeles airport in a scuffle that ended with both men being booked and released on suspicion of misdemeanor battery Wednesday. Echevarria went down after the strike, and a hospital treated him for a cut to the forehead. Tyson alleged through a spokeswoman that the photographer behaved aggressively and attacked him while he was traveling with his wife and 10-month-old child. His spokeswoman said Tyson "acted in self defense as a father protecting his child." Some eyewitness accounts back each of the versions. Both men have said they intend to press charges of misdemeanor battery against each other.
It is a good year to be Taylor Swift. On Wednesday night, she became the youngest person and first solo female act in a decade to win the Country Music Association's award for entertainer of the year. Her supremacy didn't stop there, either. She won every category in which she was nominated, including best female vocalist (upsetting Carrie Underwood's three-year streak), album of the year for Fearless, (also the top-selling CD of the year), and video of the year for "Love Story." After winning entertainer of the year, Swift gushed, "Everything that I have ever wanted has just happened to me," although with characteristic modesty she noted, "every single person on that category let me open up for them this year. Thank you all so much."
Like the Sept. 11 hijackers who spent their some of their final moments in a Las Vegas strip club, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan repeatedly visited a lap dancing club near the Fort Hood base in the days before he allegedly killed 13 soldiers. One day, Hasan spent six hours watching women pole dance. Said one woman who works at the club, called Starz, "He came in on his own about 7.30 p.m. and was here until 2 a.m. He wasn't like our normal crowd which is young solders. He seemed older, more mature, a bit shy and reserved and a little out of place but not abnormal."
A bombshell from the White House: A senior Obama administration official tells MSNBC that the president will reject all of the options that have been presented to him by his national-security team, and that instead he will demand clarifications on when U.S. troops would turn over responsibility for the country to the Afghan government. The sticking point appears to be timelines: President Obama wants to make clear that the U.S. commitment to Afghanistan is not open-ended. Consequently, the options presented to Obama will be amended. Previously, it was believed he was leaning toward 30,000 additional troops.
Influential former American ambassador Peter W. Galbraith "stands to earn perhaps a hundred million or more dollars as a result of his closeness to the Kurds, his relations with a Norwegian oil company and constitutional provisions he helped the Kurds extract," according to The New York Times. Galbraith, who has been an important voice on Iraq and helped shape policies of Joe Biden and John Kerry, advised the Kurdish regional government during constitutional negotiations, the paper says. Galbraith helped negotiate provisions allowing the Kurds to control many of their own internal affairs, including the rights to almost all new oil finds in their territory. Last month, investigative journalists from the Norwegian paper Dagens Naeringsliv uncovered documents linking Galbraith to a Norwegian oil company doing major business in Iraq. Interviews by The New York Times, together with legal records, confirmed that Galbraith received an enormous stake in at least one of Kurdistan's oil fields in 2004. Months after he helped push through Kurdish constitutional provisions, drillers made a huge oil find in that field. Galbraith maintains that he did no wrong. He says he advised the Kurdish government as purely a private citizen at a time when he held no official position with the U.S. Kurdish officials confirm that they were aware of his relationship with the oil company during the negotiations.
President Obama departs for Asia Thursday, with Chinese economic relations at the top of his agenda. Obama—who will also address North Korea and Iran with Beijing—warned of "enormous strains" if the U.S. and China did not correct current economic imbalances. China, as well as South Korea, may push against the president's agenda, worried that the U.S. has hurt economic relations by insisting on industry tariffs and through White House ties to labor.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton offered a blunt piece of advice to Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday. Clinton said the U.S. was "looking for measures of accountability and transparency that will demonstrate a clear commitment to the kind of government and outcomes the people of Afghanistan deserve," adding that "the corruption issue goes to the heart of whether the people of Afghanistan feel the government is on their side." Clinton declined to comment on reports that the U.S. ambassador to Kabul cabled Washington to express his concerns about deploying more troops to the region due to graft, the widespread practice of using power and position to extort money from others.
A new report from Human Rights Watch details a hair-raising trend in China: many Chinese citizens who come to Beijing to protest unlawful conditions at home are being thrown into prisons, called China's "black jails." The report comes as President Obama prepares a two-day visit to Beijing during his tour of Asia. "The existence of black jails in the heart of Beijing makes a mockery of the Chinese government's rhetoric on improving human rights and respecting the rule of law," a Human Rights Watch director says. The lock-ups are part of an effort to discourage petitioners, according to the agency. Chinese officials denied the existence of such a program to The Independent newspaper.
Sean Hannity was caught red-handed; now is he going to fess up? Hannity is going to address complaints after The Daily Show host Jon Stewart caught him doctoring footage of a protest rally on his show. Hannity aired footage of a 9/12 rally and claimed that it was from Michele Bachmann’s much smaller November 5 rally—Stewart caught the deception when he noticed that the trees were green in the footage, even though it is fall. Fox News would not comment on the video except to say “Sean will address this on his show tonight.”
Washington's power players can't seem to reach consensus on Afghanistan. The Washington Post reports that America's ambassador in Kabul, Karl Eikenberry, sent two classified cables to D.C. last week urging President Obama to hold off on troop increases until after newly reelected President Hamid Karzai shows he's serious about cutting corruption and curtailing the Taliban. Eikenberry commanded America's troops in Afghanistan from 2006–2007, and his request reportedly rubbed former colleagues at the Pentagon—not to mention Gen. Stanley McChrystal—the wrong way. Eikenberry's reticence stems from what the Post characterizes as "deep reservations about Karzai's erratic behavior," including the leader's ambivalent attitude toward America: "The United States and its allies came to Afghanistan after September 11. Afghanistan was troubled like hell before that, too. Nobody bothered about us," he said in an interview with Jim Lehrer last week.
Lots of countries have shadow governments waiting in opposition, but perhaps only Mexico has a shadow government that thinks it is real. "You may call me the Legitimate President of Mexico," Andrés Manuel López Obrador tells the Wall Street Journal as he sits in a former garage where he meets with fellow opposition leaders in Mexico City. López Obrador lost Mexico's presidential election in 2006 and has called the winner, President Felipe Calderón a "presidential usurper" ever since. The next election is not until 2012, but López Obrador continues to travel the country, visiting thousands of towns and villages, declaring himself to be Mexico's true president.
Bank of America may not meet its own deadline of finding a replacement for CEO Ken Lewis, who on Sept. 30 abruptly announced he was leaving the bank. The Bank of America board had said it would pick a candidate by Thanksgiving, but the Financial Times reported Thursday that its search has been slowed down by the absence of a clear successor and fear that the bank's choice may not meet the approval of the Federal Reserve. Bank of America has been a recipient of $45 billion in federal aid.
The Taliban may reject modernity and have banned the Internet and television, but the Islamic fundamentalist group is using the Web to propel an online propaganda machine that NATO has been largely unable to combat. Now, NATO has 120 people working in Kabul trying to address the problem. “Information is everything. This is a war of perception played out in the minds of the Afghan people,” a U.S. Navy communications expert told The Times of London Thursday. “The Taliban blow stuff up to create an event that they can then market to the media and that will shape public perceptions,” he said.
For a few brief hours, it seemed as though Fox News and the Obama administration had signed an armistice, as the Drudge Report announced that Fox News landed an interview with President Obama during his China visit. But Politico reporter Michael Calderone pried a statement out of the White House that denounced the Drudge piece as "not accurate." The official added: "We've not committed to doing any presidential interviews during the trip to Asia with any outlets at this point."
Last week's sobering announcement that the unemployment rate had hit 10.2 percent in October has spurred Obama to action. Before heading to Asia Thursday morning, Obama announced that he will hold a jobs summit at the White House in December. A senior aide said, "We're shaking every tree to get every good idea." Double-digit unemployment does not a happy electorate make, and Democratic officials are evidently worried that if the situation doesn't improve by next summer, the party will face an uphill battle in November's midterm elections.
