White House warns Karzai comments ”troubling”

WASHINGTON: The White House on Friday delivered a stern public rebuke to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, describing his latest outburst as “genuinely troubling” and seeking “clarification” from Kabul.

Just three days after President Barack Obama made a secret weekend trip to Afghanistan to warn him to do more to tackle government corruption, Karzai accused foreign powers of orchestrating election fraud last year.

“Obviously some of the comments by President Karzai are troubling. They are cause for real and genuine concern,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said, in a stiffening of the US tone on the controversy.

“We are seeking clarification from President Karzai about the nature of some of his remarks,” Gibbs said, noting the huge US military and political resources and sacrifices that the United States had committed to Afghanistan.

“The president was quite clear with President Karzai over the weekend about the necessary steps that have to be taken to improve governance and corruption.”

Gibbs was asked whether Karzai”s visit to the White House planned for May 12, was still on. His response: “as of right now,” appeared to raise doubts about the event.

Karzai”s claims called into question whether he had absorbed Obama”s message on Sunday, and will also pose a political problem for Washington, which has embraced the Afghan leader as a partner despite its distaste for his conduct.

US welcomes return of Turkish ambassador

WASHINGTON: The United States on Friday welcomed Turkey”s decision to return its ambassador after a row over moves in Congress to brand the World War I massacres of Armenians as genocide.

“We welcome that decision,” State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters. “Turkey and the United States have a significant strategic relationship.

There”s lots of work that we can jointly accomplish, and that work becomes more effective when we have an able interlocutor here in Washington,” he said.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier said “positive developments” in the month-old spat had permitted the return of the ambassador, adding he would go to Washington to attend a nuclear security summit on April 12-13.

Ankara recalled Ambassador Namik Tan on March 4 immediately after the House of Representatives” Foreign Affairs Committee adopted a resolution branding the 1915-17 massacres of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire as genocide.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she opposed the move and had urged the congressional leadership not to bring the resolution before the full House, warning it would set back diplomacy between Turkey and Armenia.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kin perished in deportations and orchestrated killings under the Ottoman Empire during World War I.

Turkey counters that 300,000 to 500,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks perished in civil strife when Armenians rose up against their Ottoman rulers and sided with Russian forces invading the crumbling empire.

Turkish ambassador to return to US soon: diplomat

ANKARA: Turkey”s ambassador to the United States is set to return to his post after being recalled following a US House panel vote branding the World War I massacres of Armenians as genocide, a Turkish diplomat said Thursday.

“A decision has been made in principle for his return,” the diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Ankara recalled Ambassador Namik Tan on March 4 immediately after the House of Representatives” Foreign Affairs Committee adopted a resolution branding the 1915-17 massacres of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire as genocide.

The envoy is expected to return to Washington before April 12 when Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan “will very probably” go to the US capital for a nuclear security summit, the diplomat said.

Top UK General Says Afghanistan Army In Morale Crisis

The head of the army has warned that British troops are facing a crisis of deteriorating morale on the home front that risks undermining the war in Afghanistan.
In a confidential draft memo prepared for ministers, General Sir David Richards, chief of the general staff (CGS), said that recent cuts to the defence budget are having a “cumulative and corrosive effect on our soldiers and their families”.
Cuts to housing, shortages of training equipment and even the cancellation of sports events between soldiers’ tours of duty were making them and their families feel “undervalued”, the army chief wrote.
The leaked memo will be seized on by the Tories as opening a new front in the tussle between army chiefs and ministers over the politically sensitive issue of defence cuts.
It echoes the row last year when Richards’s predecessor, General Sir Richard Dannatt, stepped down after speaking out about equipment shortages as well as poor pay and conditions. It later emerged that government figures had tried to smear him over his expenses.
A senior military commander emphasised yesterday that it was not Richards’s intention to criticise ministers: “He’s not whingeing. He’s simply trying to flag up what he believes is a vital issue that needs their urgent attention.”
In the memo to the defence board, which comprises ministers and service chiefs, Richards shifts the focus of criticism from the war effort in Afghanistan to the treatment of troops on their return home.
While there had been “significant progress” on the front line, Richards said, the treatment of soldiers when they returned for 24 months between tours is so poor that it is threatening to undermine the war effort.
Marked “restricted”, the memo reports a summary of an internal “poll” of 5,000 soldiers and their families at units in Britain, Germany and Cyprus over the past four months.
The survey was discussed at the executive committee of the army board this month. Its results appear to be so alarming that Richards decided to alert ministers to its key findings. “My greatest concern … is the deteriorating experience of soldiers and their families … between tours which, the [survey] team reports, is disaffecting attitudes, damaging morale and risks undermining our ability to sustain the campaign . . .” he wrote.
“We need our soldiers to be ready, mentally and physically, to endure repeated tours in Afghanistan, in a harsh environment, with the real prospect of significant casualties each time. “To maintain the necessary morale and cohesion, they must see tangible signs between tours that they and their families are valued.”

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Top UK General Says Afghanistan Army In Morale Crisis was first posted on March 1, 2010 at 12:54 am.

President Barack Obama Signs One-Year Extension Of Patriot Act

President Barack Obama has signed a one-year extension of several provisions in the nation’s main counterterrorism law, the Patriot Act.
The Act, which was adopted in the weeks after the Sept 11, 2001 terror attacks, expands the government’s ability to monitor Americans in the name of national security. Three sections of the Patriot Act that stay in force will: _Authorize court-approved roving wiretaps that permit surveillance on multiple phones. _Allow court-approved seizure of records and property in anti-terrorism operations.
_Permit surveillance against a so-called lone wolf, a non-U.S. citizen engaged in terrorism who may not be part of a recognized terrorist group. Obama’s signature comes after the House voted 315 to 97 Thursday to extend the measure. The Senate also approved the measure, with privacy protections cast aside when Senate Democrats lacked the necessary 60-vote super majority to pass them.
Thrown away were restrictions and greater scrutiny on the government’s authority to spy on Americans and seize their records.

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President Barack Obama Signs One-Year Extension Of Patriot Act was first posted on March 1, 2010 at 1:00 am.

Abortion Rights Groups Scramble In Stupak Amendment’s Wake

Full Story And Original Content.TrendPK.com WASHINGTON — Abortion rights groups, outflanked and outnumbered in the health debate, are scrambling to regain lost ground after the House passed a health bill with strict abortion limits. They’re blanketing Capitol Hill with lobbyists, petitions, letters and phone calls in efforts to defeat the restrictions in the Senate, where debate could

Full Story And Original Content.TrendPK.com WASHINGTON — Abortion rights groups, outflanked and outnumbered in the health debate, are scrambling to regain lost ground after the House passed a health bill with strict abortion limits.
They’re blanketing Capitol Hill with lobbyists, petitions, letters and phone calls in efforts to defeat the restrictions in the Senate, where debate could [...]