Obama honors fallen Americans at Dover
October 29, 2009 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
US President Barack Obama saw first hand the human cost of the Afghanistan war on Thursday as he saluted the flag-draped caskets of 18 soldiers and Drug Enforcement Administration agents killed in Afghanistan this week.
After a midnight flight in his Marine One presidential helicopter, Obama landed in Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, home of the largest US military mortuary and main point of entry for service members killed abroad. Minutes before Obama’s arrival, an Air Force C-17 transport aircraft landed in the base, carrying the bodies of eight Army soldiers killed by a roadside bomb and seven soldiers and three DEA agents killed in a helicopter crash.
Obama stood at attention and saluted as six soldiers carried the casket, bearing the body of Sergeant Dale Griffin of Indiana, off the plane and loaded it onto a waiting van. Earlier, Obama met with families of the killed soldiers and agents in a chapel on the base, the officials said. It was Obama’s first visit to the base as president and he was due to fly back to Washington before dawn.
With at least 53 killed, October has been the deadliest month for US forces in the unpopular eight-year war Obama inherited from his predecessor, George W. Bush. Polls show Americans increasingly weary of the war, which analysts say will likely help define Obama’s presidency. There is scepticism, including among his fellow Democrats who control the U.S. Congress, over sending more troops. Obama has held a series of meetings with his war cabinet to review the new Afghan strategy he put in place in March and to consider a request by his top military commander in the field, General Stanley McChrystal, for 40,000 more troops to combat a resurgent Taliban.
Obama honors fallen Americans at Dover was first posted on October 29, 2009 at 9:33 pm.
Iran won’t retreat on nuclear rights: Ahmadinejad
October 29, 2009 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
TEHRAN, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed on Thursday Tehran would not give up the country’s right to nuclear technology, but said he was ready to co-operate on nuclear fuel.
“As long as this government is in power, it will not retreat one iota on the undeniable rights of the Iranian nation,” Ahmadinejad said in a speech in the northeastern city of Mashhad, broadcast live on state television. He said the provision of nuclear fuel for a Tehran research reactor was an opportunity for Iran to evaluate the “honesty” of world powers and the U.N. nuclear agency watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). “We welcome cooperation on nuclear fuel, power plants and technology and we are ready to cooperate,” Ahmadinejad added.
On the other hand, the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog’s mission to a newly disclosed plant in Iran said the inspectors had what he termed a good trip but he declined to give any details.
The site, which Iran revealed last month, has heightened Western fears of a covert programme to develop atomic bombs. Tehran says its nuclear programme is only for power generation. “We visited the Fordo enrichment plant. Now we are going to analyse the data and the director-general will then report in due time,” International Atomic Energy Agency official Herman Nackaerts told reporters, after the four-day trip, on arrival at Vienna airport with the three other members of his team. He declined to say whether the team of experts had discovered anything surprising or if they had been able to carry out a full visit of the site, built inside a mountain about 160 km (100 miles) south of Tehran. IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei will issue his next report on Iran around mid-November.
Iran won’t retreat on nuclear rights: Ahmadinejad was first posted on October 29, 2009 at 9:57 pm.
