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Purveyor's JournalRussian FM Lavrov Urges Caution Over Syria Chemical Weapons Reports To Avoid The “Iraqi Scenario”
BRUSSELS, April 23 (RIA Novosti) – Any reports of the alleged use of chemical weapons in the Syrian conflict must be carefully investigated to avoid the repetition of the “Iraqi scenario,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday.
"We believe that any concrete reports that chemical weapons were used or that there are serious concrete suspicions that there was such use should be immediately investigated by experts on the spot," Lavrov said at a news conference after a meeting of the Russia-NATO Council in Brussels.
He said Syria should not face the repetition of the so-called “Iraqi scenario” in which unconfirmed suspicions that Saddam Hussein’s regime possessed weapons of mass destruction were enough for invasion.
“The Syrian government has confirmed its readiness to receive experts investigating a particular incident and readiness to receive experts in any place in Syria if there is specific information that chemical weapons could have been used there,” Lavrov said.
The Russian minister described the delays in sending a UN mission to investigate the reports of the use of chemical weapons in Syria as “an attempt to politicize the issue” and force the “Iraqi scenario” on Syria.
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http://en.rian.ru/russia/20130423/180805892.html
Text of White House letter on Syria sent to Sens. John McCain, Carl Levin
WASHINGTON — The White House released on Thursday the following letter on Syria that was sent to Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Carl Levin, D-Mich., by Miguel E. Rodriguez, assistant to the president and director of the Office of Legislative Affairs:
Thank you for your letter of April 24 regarding the situation in Syria and the allegations of chemical weapons use there. I am responding on behalf of the president and want to offer a prompt response to your question: “Has the Assad regime— or Syrian elements associated with, or supported by, the Assad regime— used chemical weapons in Syria since the current conflict began in March 2011?”
At the president’s direction, the United States government has been closely monitoring the potential use of chemical weapons within Syria. We have kept the relevant committees of Congress fully informed of our assessments on this issue, consistent with our statutory obligations. Our intelligence community does assess with varying degrees of confidence that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons on a small scale in Syria, specifically the chemical agent sarin. This assessment is based in part on physiological samples. Our standard of evidence must build on these intelligence assessments as we seek to establish credible and corroborated facts. For example, the chain of custody is not clear, so we cannot confirm how the exposure occurred and under what conditions. We do believe that any use of chemical weapons in Syria would very likely have originated with the Assad regime. Thus far, we believe that the Assad regime maintains custody of these weapons and has demonstrated a willingness to escalate its horrific use of violence against the Syrian people.
Because of our concern about the deteriorating situation in Syria, the president has made it clear that the use of chemical weapons— or transfer of chemical weapons to terrorist groups — is a red line for the United States of America. The Obama administration has communicated that message publicly and privately to governments around the world, including the Assad regime. We have also provided information and equipment to the region to help protect Syrians and support humanitarian workers in their life-saving work. However, precisely because the president takes this issue so seriously, we have an obligation to fully investigate any evidence of chemical weapons use within Syria. That is why we are currently pressing for a comprehensive United Nations investigation that can credibly evaluate the evidence and establish what took place. We are also working with our friends and allies, and the Syrian opposition, to procure, share and evaluate additional information associated with reports of the use of chemical weapons so that we can establish the facts.
Given the stakes involved, and what we have learned from our own recent experience, intelligence assessments alone are not sufficient— only credible and corroborated facts that provide us with some degree of certainty will guide our decision-making and strengthen our leadership of the international community. The Obama administration will remain in close consultation with you and the Congress on these matters. In the interim, the administration is prepared for all contingencies so that we can respond appropriately to any confirmed use of chemical weapons, consistent with our national interests. The United States and the international community have a number of potential responses available, and no option is off the table. In response to the deteriorating situation in Syria, we have also dramatically increased our humanitarian assistance and our support for the opposition to bring about the political transition that the Syrian people deserve.
'Red Line' Crossed On Syria, Senators Say
Source: Politico
By GINGER GIBSON | 4/25/13 12:32 PM EDT
In response to Thursday’s White House acknowledgement that Syria used chemical weapons, several senators called on the Obama administration to step up its response.
“It’s pretty obvious that red line has been crossed,” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) told reporters.
McCain called for arming the opposition, a step that the White House has resisted thus far, establishing a safe zone and taking proactive steps to ensure that the chemical weapons don’t fall into the wrong hands. “It does not mean boots on the ground,” McCain said.
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) stopped short of saying what steps should be taken, but agreed a line has been crossed.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/syria-chemical-weapons-red-line-crossed-senators-90640.html#ixzz2RUjMHUK8
Graham: 'Ultimate Blame' For Boston Attacks On Administration
Source: CNN
Washington (CNN) – Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said Thursday the administration is to blame for not preventing last week's terror attack at the Boston Marathon finish line.
This marks the first time the attacks have been so politicized in the search for answers for how the two brothers suspected of the bombings slipped past government anti-terror detection measures.
Graham put it in the same category as the September 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, in which four Americans were killed. Graham and other lawmakers, mostly Republicans, argue the Benghazi attack was a major security failure on the part of the Obama administration.
Asked if Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano bears responsibility for allowing Tamerlan Tsarnaev to fall through the cracks of federal agencies, Graham said the fault falls on a broader scale.
Read more: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/04/25/graham-ultimate-blame-for-boston-attacks-on-administration/
McCain was just on CNN chiming in in agreement with Graham...
Musharraf Arrested Over Bhutto Murder Case
General Pervez Musharraf has been formally arrested in relation to the Benazir Bhutto murder case.
Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder, reporting from Islamabad, said that Musharraf will remain at his Chak Shahzad farmhouse residence but will be produced at the anti-terrorist court in Rawalpindi on Friday.
“The Musharraf case has many implications given the fact that the country is less than two weeks away from election,” he said.
“It will be the responsibility of the new elected government to deal with this important issue.
“He has admirers no doubt. Many of the powerful political parties were all on board with the former military ruler.”
Since his return to Pakistan in a bid to contest the 2013 general election, Musharraf has been dealing with a number of legal cases against him, including the detention of judges and treason against the state.
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http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2013/04/2013425151713444188.html
House Immigration Rewrite to Be Long Process: Goodlatte
The Republican-led House will rewrite U.S. immigration law through a “step-by-step” process, the Judiciary Committee chairman said, in contrast to the Senate’s decision to consider a single comprehensive plan.
“This process can be long,” Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, a Virginia Republican, told reporters today in Washington. He said his panel will examine a rewrite of immigration laws through “regular order,” which will allow lawmakers to ensure their constituents’ “voices” are heard.
The House Judiciary Committee will start with the introduction of two Republican-sponsored bills this week: one focusing on agricultural guest workers and another on an electronic employment-verification system, Goodlatte said.
Immigration overhaul “is not an easy task, but a solution is not out of reach,” Goodlatte said.
The House is taking a different approach than the Senate, where the Judiciary panel plans next month to consider an immigration plan introduced last week by a bipartisan group of senators, instead of individual pieces of legislation.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-25/house-immigration-rewrite-to-be-long-process-goodlatte.html
Americans Online Seen Paying States Seeking $23 Billion
Kelly Blair, a banker from the Baltimore suburbs, spends hundreds of dollars online every year buying gifts and household supplies like pet food and shampoo. She doesn’t check to see whether she owes sales tax -- though her home state of Maryland says that she should.
“I had no idea,” said Blair, 30.
U.S. states forgo as much as $23 billion a year in sales tax as consumers like Blair spend money online at businesses far across state lines. That’s because officials rely on consumers to pay it. Millions of consumers technically are violating their states’ tax laws, and the states have chosen not to pursue them one by one through audits.
That situation may change: A measure that Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said will pass the U.S. Senate this week would let states require companies such as Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) and dealers in EBay Inc. (EBAY) online auctions to collect sales taxes. That may lead to a boon for state governments only now emerging from the fiscal blows of the recession.
“It’s rare to have an opportunity to collect tax revenue that’s already owed,” said Donald Boyd, executive director of the State Budget Crisis Task Force, a private group that issued reports on state fiscal matters. “From a state perspective, it’s a very good thing. There is a hole in tax bases that is only going to grow otherwise. It’s significant revenue over the long term.”
more...
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-25/americans-online-seen-paying-states-seeking-23-billion.html
Richest Man Slim Cited for Profiting From Phones for Poor
Congressional Republicans want to rein in a $2.2 billion U.S. mobile-phone subsidy for the poor, saying it’s riddled with fraud and benefits the world’s richest man, Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim.
Slim’s TracFone Wireless Inc. received about a quarter of the funds from the U.S. government’s Lifeline program, according to the latest figures. Today, a House subcommittee convenes a hearing to ask why the program, paid for by fees charged to U.S. phone subscribers, tripled in cost since 2008.
“It’s not fair that people save and work and pay for phones from whatever funds they have, and other people get them for free,” Representative Tim Griffin, an Arkansas Republican who wants to eliminate the mobile subsidy, said in an interview. “It’s not fair the biggest beneficiary of this is Carlos Slim, the billionaire owner of TracFone.”
Slim owns Mexico’s biggest phone company America Movil SAB (AMXL), which offers mobile service in 17 Latin American countries and the U.S. Its TracFone unit is the largest recipient under the U.S. Federal Communication Commission’s Lifeline program, taking in $451.7 million, or 28 percent, of payments in 2011, the last year for which records are available.
“It doesn’t matter who owns the company,” Jose Fuentes, a spokesman for Miami-based TracFone, said in an interview. “Tim Griffin needs to focus on finding jobs, not trying to focus on a valuable program.”
more...
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-25/richest-man-slim-cited-for-profiting-from-phones-for-poor.html
Senate Retirements Could Be Crucial In Upcoming Battle For Political Control On Capitol Hill
By PBS Newshour
Thursday, April 25, 2013 6:38 EDT
GWEN IFILL: Now: new developments in the upcoming battle for control of the Senate.
Montana Democrat Max Baucus surprised Capitol Hill today by announcing he will not seek reelection when his term ends next year. That makes him the eighth senator, and the sixth Democrat, to step aside. The two Republicans hold safe red seats in Nebraska and Georgia. And three of the Democrats are from states President Obama carried last fall. But the rest are tossups that may cost Democrats control of the Senate in 2014.
Plus, four more incumbent Democrats from North Carolina, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Alaska are considered vulnerable. So, can one senator's decision change the political landscape?
For that, we turn to Stuart Rothenberg of The Rothenberg Political Report and Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report.
Good to have you both here.
What's the answer to the question, Stu?
READ: Evangelicals Rally for Pathway to Citizenship and Immigration Reform
STUART ROTHENBERG, The Rothenberg Political Report: Yes, I think it changes the math a little bit.
There are four seats right off the top that Republicans are very optimistic about, two open in South Dakota and West Virginia, and then the two Democratic senators from the South, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Mark Pryor of Arkansas. Getting beyond that four is the challenge. It's not to say the Republicans will win any or all of those, but they have a pretty good chance.
So the question is can they broaden the playing field? Montana is an important addition. They need to put these other seats, as you mentioned, Alaska, North Carolina, into play.
GWEN IFILL: And Max Baucus is no backbencher.
AMY WALTER, The Cook Political Report: No, he's the chairman of a very, very important Finance Committee. And he's been around for 30 years.
That's what you're seeing with so many of these folks who are retiring. They have been committee chairmen. They have been in Congress for 30 or more years. Actually, the interesting thing about open seats is no party really wants to have an open seat. Right? They are usually are tougher to defend.
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http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/04/25/senate-retirements-could-be-crucial-in-upcoming-battle-for-political-control-on-capitol-hill/
Politico’s Wholly Sexist Narrative Of The ‘Woman In Power’ At The New York Times
By Emily Bell, The Guardian
Thursday, April 25, 2013 3:41 EDT
Happy newsrooms are all alike. Every unhappy newsroom is unhappy in its own way. The New York Times newsroom is unhappy because its editor is not very nice. Allegedly. This startling revelation comes from a piece posted on Politico yesterday that instantly lost the internet but gained fans at the NYT.
The litany of complaints against Jill Abramson, the Times’s executive editor, is indeed jaw-dropping.
She is apparently, on occasion, stubborn and condescending. She snaps at people in meetings (sometimes). Once, she asked why an editor was still in a meeting instead of leaving to fix a problem that had been identified. Worst of all, she had such a strong disagreement with her managing editor over the direction of the news pages that he slapped the wall and walked out. The fact that he was allowed to walk back in again might mean that the tirelessly unpleasant Abramson was having an off day.
Dean Baquet, the managing editor in question, does admit in the piece that walking out was not perhaps the best thing for a senior editor like him to do. The very popular Baquet also admits to a history of wall-punching. Abramson, though apparently non-violent, is judged “impossible”, according to the unsourced Politico hatchet job. Impossible, stubborn, condescending, snappy. Yes, it is undoubtedly the case that Jill Abramson is a newspaper editor. Not just any newspaper editor – a female newspaper editor.
The lame nature of the reporting suggests it might be better just to ignore the piece entirely, but it deserves attention, as it fuels an exasperating and wholly sexist narrative about women in power. The souls of the New York Times who found themselves describing Abramson’s shortcomings in terms of her manner and mood should be sentenced to read Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In as punishment. As we know, this manifesto for women in the boardroom tells us that the correlation between women being judged ‘likeable’ and their position in a hierarchy are inversely proportionate.
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http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/04/25/politicos-wholly-sexist-narrative-of-the-woman-in-power-at-the-new-york-times/
Politico article: Jill Abramson loses the newsroom
http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2013/04/jill-abramson-loses-the-newsroom-162480.html
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