General Wes Clark, former NATO commander, on Iraq and regional solutions.
** NORMAN HSU ARRIVES BACK IN CALIFORNIA, INDICTED ON NEW FEDERAL CHARGES IN NEW YORK. Disgraced political fundraiser Norman Hsu, one of Hillary Clinton’s biggest financial backers — her campaign has returned $850,000 raised by him after it became apparent he may have been using “straw man” donors to launder funds into the 2008 presidential venture — is back now in California following an expedited extradition from Colorado urged by Attorney General Jerry Brown.
As projected in the early morning report on NWN, Hsu was indicted on federal charges today in New York. He’s alleged to have swindled $60 million from investors and to have violated campaign finance laws. Obviously, this is going to be a big ongoing story.
** IT MAY NOT QUITE BE THE UNTOUCHABLES, BUT IT’S NOT BAD. Former Governor-turned-Attorney General Jerry Brown announced this afternoon that the Division of Gambling Control caught two counterfeiters who were feeding fake $100 bills into slot machines at a Tribal Casino in Mendocino County.
Brown said: “These two bandits used home printers to make fake bills that tricked casino slot machines into paying out more than $100,000. Our Division of Gambling Control demonstrated great skill and incredible ingenuity in catching and arresting these counterfeiters.”
Jack Daniels Ewing, 27, and Mikael Inturbe, 27, were arrested today at the Sho-Ka-Wah Casino in Hopland, that’s in Mendocino County, on charges of conspiracy, counterfeiting and burglary. A four-month investigation revealed that the two-man team was bleaching real $1 bills and using home printers to make counterfeit $100 bills. Brown says the counterfeiters bilked at least 20 casinos in Northern California and Nevada out of more than $100,000.
** WHOOPS! HILLARY STILL LISTS NORMAN HSU AS ONE OF HER TOP FUNDRAISERS. There he is on the current list of her top fundraisers.
** MOVEON FIGHT CONTINUES AS U.S. SENATE PASSES AMENDMENT CONDEMNING PERSONAL ATTACKS ON PETRAEUS. The Senate has passed an amendment by Republican Senator Jon Cornyn of Texas to the defense authorization bill condemning attacks on the “honor and integrity” of General David Petraeus, the US commander in Iraq. This is the continuation of the furor over last week’s MoveOn.org ad in the New York Times attacking Petraeus as “General Betray Us.”
The vote was 72-25. Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Chris Dodd voted no, as did Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and California Senator Barbara Boxer. California’s senior Senator Dianne Feinstein voted yes, as did Virginia Senator Jim Webb. Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Joe Biden did not vote. All Republicans voted yes, naturally, as this is part of a Republican strategy to isolate MoveOn.org.
Here’s what the Senate passed: It is the sense of the Senate –
(1) To reaffirm its support for all the men and women of the United States Armed Forces, including General David H. Petraeus, Commanding General, Multi-National Force-Iraq;
(2) To strongly condemn any effort to attack the honor and integrity of General Petraeus and all the members of the United States Armed Forces; and
(3) To specifically repudiate the unwarranted personal attack on General Petraeus by the liberal activist group Moveon.org.
MoveOn, of course, vows to respond.
** GIULIANI AND THOMPSON IN STATISTICAL TIE IN FLORIDA. Two new polls, including one done by the well-known Mason-Dixon operation, show Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson in a statistical tie in Florida. In both polls, Giuliani has 24% to Thompson’s 23%, with Mitt Romney and John McCain well back just above 10 percent.
Florida is key to Giuliani’s strategy. The state is a rogue, in that it has moved its primary ahead of the schedule agreed to in both national political parties, with Florida now set for late January. But the Republicans are threatening relatively weak sanctions, while the Democrats are stripping all delegates and the major candidates have agreed not to campaign in the primary.
It’s not impossible that Giuliani could lose most of the other early states of Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. So Florida becomes critical for him. But right now, Thompson’s surge has moved him to the top there, at least with the Law & Order star sharing a piece of it with the former New York mayor.
** MCCAIN FUNDRAISING WOES REPORTED. According to the Washington Times, a “friend” of John McCain — and we should all have such friends, haha — says that the Arizona senator has raised only $3.7 million in the current quarter, less than the campaign’s $4.5 million target and far less than was raised in the second quarter of the year. If this is true, McCain’s recent relative comeback with his “No Surrender Tour” geared to the Petraeus report on Iraq may be for nought.
** IRAN TO THE FORE. Rudy Giuliani used the global spotlight of a trip to London, replete with an award from former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and meetings with current Prime Minister Gordon Brown and former Prime Minister Tony Blair, to declare that stopping Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon would be a top priority of his presidency. He labeled a proposed visit by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Ground Zero in New York an “obscenity.” The visit won’t happen while the firebrand is in town for the UN General Assembly.
France, under new management with President Nicolas Sarkozy, is in the midst of a firestorm of controversy after Sarkozy’s celebrity Socialist Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said that war may be necessary to prevent an Iranian nuke.
Meanwhile, Russia says that a strike on Iran would be a profound mistake, and the Iranians themselves said that any attack from Israel would result in the most profound retaliation.
The lame duck Bush Administration has been rattling sabers with Iran for many months, to little apparent effect. Over the weekend, I had the chance to ask two very important Americans who figure into future policy, General Wes Clark, the former NATO supreme commander, victor in the Kosovo War, and Senator Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential frontrunner, what they think about the situation.
Clinton primarily deferred to Clark, whom she somewhat jocularly described as a “friend of 25 years, not that we want to remember that.”
Clark, who was the commander of US Southern Command before assuming the command of NATO, and ran a spirited campaign for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination, said that Iran is a major threat in three ways.
First, in “utilizing regional proxies through training and direct assistance, all of which is destabilizing for the Middle East.” Second, “through having its tentacles deep inside Iraq.” Third, through its “attempt to build nuclear weapons capacity.”
“This is a serious challenge to the US, to the Middle East, and to all the world.”
I asked how this challenge is best met.
Through “a strategy of engagement,” Clark replied. “But all options must remain on the table. Iran must not be permitted to have nuclear weapons. First, we have to have a serious sustained dialogue with Iran. This administration is not doing that. We have to pursue all avenues of diplomacy and sanctions. But the window is closing.”
“If we haven’t done everything possible,” said Clark, “and that would be and is irresponsible, then the president will be faced with the military option, which must only be used as a last resort. This administration simply is not fulfilling its obligations to Americans and to the region.”
For her part, Clinton said that “I underscore the understanding General Clark has of this problem. We have tried to outsource our policy on Iran to the British and the Germans (who have undertaken back-channel negotiations on our behalf). This has been a big mistake. All we have done is have a series of sporadic announcements and meetings. It is imperative that our engagement with Iran begin as General Clark described.”
** HILLARY FUNDRAISER EXTRADITED TO CALIFORNIA TODAY, FEDERAL CHARGES IN THE WORKS. Top Hillary Clinton fundraiser Norman Hsu, wanted for years on fraud charges in California, who fled to Colorado only to turn up on a train ill from a possible suicide attempt which he bizarrely blamed on Barack Obama, will return today to California upon the insistence of Attorney General Jerry Brown.
Clinton agreed to return the $850,000 raised by Hsu for her presidential campaign amidst widespread concern that he simply laundered the money into her campaign via straw donors.
Meanwhile, federal officials are expected later today to charge Hsu with violating campaign laws and running a multi-million dollar pyramid scheme. The case is expected to be announced by the U.S. attorney in New York. Many investors gave millions of dollars to Hsu for a purported apparel business, but came up short on the return on investment. There are also rumors that Hsu received money from China for his various schemes, including the ventures into political finance.
** SCHWARZENEGGER CLOSETED IN CAPITOL MEETINGS. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is off the public radar today, closeted in meetings on his speicial legislative sessions on health care reform and water policy.
** AL QAEDA’S AMERICAN PRISONERS STILL NOT LOCATED. American troops are now in the midst of a 128th day of searching for the remaining two US soldiers captured by Al Qaeda in an ambush south of Baghdad. They have had no luck so far. A video put out by Al Qaeda forces in Iraq claims that all three men were executed after being captured. But, with the exception of the Californian found floating in the Euphrates River, that claim can’t be confirmed. The US high command in Baghdad has revealed that ID cards for the other two American prisoners were found in an Al Qaeda safehouse on June 9th.
** Track global and national energy prices in near real time via Bloomberg.
Most crude oil prices remain in record territory, in the $82 to $83 per barrel range.
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BTW, today the Islamic nations pushed through an International Atomic Energy Agency resolution urging all Middle Eastern nations “to renounce atomic weapons.” ….that would include Iran AND Israel…obviously, this targeting Israel’s “undeclared nuclear weapons” which is complicated by the fact that PM Olmert let it be known (as everybody knew anyway )…that it does exist. This decision is non-binding but it is an interesting tactical move by Arab world and will no doubt increase growing international debate over Israel’s shunning of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
BTW, today the Islamic nations pushed through an International Atomic Energy Agency resolution urging all Middle Eastern nations “to renounce atomic weapons.” ….that would include Iran AND Israel…obviously, this targeting Israel’s “undeclared nuclear weapons” which is complicated by the fact that PM Olmert let it be known (as everybody knew anyway )…that it does exist. This decision is non-binding but it is an interesting tactical move by Arab world and will no doubt increase growing international debate over Israel’s shunning of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
“The nutroots are over the top.”
True, but the US Senate passing legislation criticizing their attack ads is like trying to quiet the nuthouse by putting meth in the drinking water.
Brasky – I am not outraged. I am okay with the decision early on to give civilian control of the military. Seems better than what some seem to want, which is ceding foreign policy to the military.
Hap – Even I groan when people say “chicken hawk.” I was just making fun of the Senate.
Left, Right or Center, having politicans spend time passing laws on political ads is dumb.
I totally agree with you Brasky.
What surprises me is that Hillary fell into the trap. Now the military voters (many of whom are the centrist democrats she so needs) have a reason not to vote for her. (??)
She’s already got problems there, so I don’t see the issue.
Democrats should have just walked on the measure – it’s a fracking joke and they should have said so.
Might as well start running the same drill for the MoveOn follow-up ad. And then again for the ad responding to the Senate’s response to their response, and so forth.
Obama did walk out, I read today, but trouble with that is that he looks a little weak and lame by so doing because there was no unified caucus countermeasure or procedural move to keep the vote from being called.
How else would you prefer I refer to boomer warmongers who are now so eager to expend the blood of others but couldn’t be bothered to serve when they were of age?
Enviros need to get over their extreme dam phobia. It’s ridiculous.
The Senate Democrats might instead have substituted their own amendment for the Republican version, making it clear that no one who places himself/herself in the political arena is above criticism and calling for civility in discussing uniformed personnel.
>Hap Hazard :
Obama did walk out, I read today, but trouble with that is that he looks a little weak and lame by so doing because there was no unified caucus countermeasure or procedural move to keep the vote from being called.
Sep 20, 2007 04:40 PM
Obviously Israel is not going to give up its nuclear weapons. That would be suicidal, given how tremendously outnumbered they are and how the Israeli military failed to dominate in last years’ Hezbollah war.
>Barbara :
BTW, today the Islamic nations pushed through an International Atomic Energy Agency resolution urging all Middle Eastern nations “to renounce atomic weapons.” ….that would include Iran AND Israel…obviously, this targeting Israel’s “undeclared nuclear weapons” which is complicated by the fact that PM Olmert let it be known (as everybody knew anyway )…that it does exist. This decision is non-binding but it is an interesting tactical move by Arab world and will no doubt increase growing international debate over Israel’s shunning of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Sep 20, 2007 03:14 PM
I wonder if he was floating a trial ballon.
>Barbara :
French Foreign Kouchner in an interview yesterday which was publishe dtoday in Le Figaro asserts he “is ready to visit Iran and continue with dialogue to solve the issue of Iran’s uranium enrichment program… He added that Paris is willing to mediate between the West and Iran and stressed the importance of negotiations not lasting years. He also said his recent remarks about a possible war with Iran were misinterpreted, and that the French government has always maintained dialogue with Iran.”
This of course is a total turn around …and this is not the first time…he seems to have to do this a great deal…brilliant man, but not sure he has the temmperment or political sense for a FM….
Sep 20, 2007 03:01 PM
I wonder if he was floating a trial ballon.
>Barbara :
French Foreign Kouchner in an interview yesterday which was publishe dtoday in Le Figaro asserts he “is ready to visit Iran and continue with dialogue to solve the issue of Iran’s uranium enrichment program… He added that Paris is willing to mediate between the West and Iran and stressed the importance of negotiations not lasting years. He also said his recent remarks about a possible war with Iran were misinterpreted, and that the French government has always maintained dialogue with Iran.”
This of course is a total turn around …and this is not the first time…he seems to have to do this a great deal…brilliant man, but not sure he has the temmperment or political sense for a FM….
Sep 20, 2007 03:01 PM
It’s not reasonable to expect them to.
>Kandy Kid :
Republicans are not going to vote for a bond package that does not include real money for above ground storage. Lucy has pulled that football away too many times.
Sep 20, 2007 02:53 PM
I’d heard that explanation. I don’t buy it.
>Dana :
Here is the latest on the split endorsement by the Black Caucus: The Capitol Weekly’s The Skinny column quotes Mervyn Dymally that his vote in favor of the Caucus endorsing Obama was simply “to appease an ‘abusive’ Assemblyman Mike Davis.” The column describes Davis as having dismissed Dymally’s allegations.
Sep 20, 2007 02:31 PM
Bill I was not implying that you were using Ledeen as a source but rather using him as the “Poster Boy” for the usual suspects beating the War Drum. I suppose I could have cited Podhoretz – pere et fil – or Krautheimer or Goldberg or so many others. The point is these are the same souls who told us that Saddam was going to nuke day after tommorrow if we didn’t go after his WMD’s and we know how that came out.
I’m aware of what Edwards said. I wish he hadn’t. I wish Democrats wouldn’t go bfore AIPAC and pander shamlessly to an organization that, polls show, speaks for fewer and fewer American Jews but has become a lobby for Likud and other arch reactionary forces in the Land of Milk and Honey. But I best not say anything else as Alan Dershowitz might proscribe me as unclean.
Agree the Senate floor jockeys should have had a substitute motion available, and the public figure, civility one you suggest would have been a complete checkmate.
I don’t think there will be any deal on water, nor on health care. I just don’t see how the legislators would deem either issue on of any urgency.
Kill ‘em all.
“How else would you prefer I refer to boomer warmongers who are now so eager to expend the blood of others but couldn’t be bothered to serve when they were of age? ”
The draft is dead – nobody HAS to serve. We went to war with Iraq with plenty of support from those other than the “chicken hawks.” Hillary wouldn’t have served in Vietnam – neither would her child. Under your logic, she would have had to abstain from that vote.
Fight today’s battles, not yesterday’s. There are plenty of reasons to attack Bush for going to war and congress for enabling his catastrophic folly. When you resort to tired clichés from 2000, people stop listening to you. We need people listening to every voice of dissent we can muster.
“Obviously Israel is not going to give up its nuclear weapons.’
Of course not ..this is a PR war ..
On Kouchner/trial ballon…no.. . Sarkozy is also dissing his performance and choice of words …I just think he is very green or just not very competent…he made remarks on his iraq visit that he had to take back and after a big to do about Lebanon…those talks came to nothing and he went on to something new…
Miniter’s CIA stuff rings hollow also…
The State Dept. folks can’t move without Blackwater. Richard Miniter has a certain spin about the plight of the CIA — an Iranian plot — which of course is absent in my report.
I do think it’s clear that a large faction of the Iraqi government, including our man in Baghdad, the PM, has decided to pull the trigger, as it were, on Blackwater.
yes of course the state dep & bechtel before it left…all as you say did not make a move without them…Blackwater may go …but there are hundreds of Blackwaters type companies out there …most of the them based in London…and they are going from para military operations into INTEL, the companies are here to stay …and hopefully the Cong DEMs will do the hearings right…they have been handed a gift by this incident… but the Miniter CIA lockdown stuff is just more PJ disinformation and just ridiculous sounding…
There are plenty of paramilitary outfits. However, Blackwater is unique in having its personnel fully vetted and licensed. All that would take time to replicate.
I know. I agree their days are short in Iraq. But these companies are here to stay for quite a while. and we should not throw the baby out with the bathwater. If I was working on an oil rig in Nigeria…I would want Blackwater or a British version of them around…
I know. I agree their days are short in Iraq. But these companies are here to stay for quite a while. and we should not throw the baby out with the bathwater. If I was working on an oil rig in Nigeria…I would want Blackwater or a British version of them around…
I’m all for appropriate private security.
But this is a strange way to run a military, encouraging a private outfit to siphon off operators you’ve invested major resources and time in cultivating.
Well, it was a BIG mistake but since the 1990′s the U.S. Army was designed to be a force that was dependent on the private sector to operate…I have several members of my family in military, retired officers, one was stationed in Moscow at US embassy with his family all thru the 1980s, he is a retired Col with a PhD (paid for my the military on Soviet Military) from Edinburgh Univ Scotland…his kids , my second cousins learned to speak Russian before they spoke English….years ago he told his sons he did not want then to follow him in the military because he saw what was happening…
BTW, Kouchner is in DC w/Condi, and has announced he has spoken with the Iranian FM and has agreed to meet him in person during the upcoming U.N. General Assembly meetings.
Thanks. Can you post this on today’s thread. Most people don’t check back, and I’m trying to record cues for a radio show.
I was up there..it does not fit with …well… with whatever is going on there..
You seem surprised.
Hardly…you have a good weekend