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| Democrats fear Social Security reform will work |
| Saturday, February 19, 2005 |
By Taylor Armerding
Staff writer
Everybody, quick, cash in your 401(k) retirement accounts. Don't even think about opening an IRA. Are you crazy? Don't you realize the stock market is far too risky? In fact, it would probably be best just to leave the country entirely, since the health of the stock market is linked to that of the American economy. So if the market is too risky for your assets, well then, the American economy must be too risky as well. Head for Canada. Head for Mexico. Anywhere but here.
That is the absurd logic that proceeds from the U.S. Senate minority leader, Democrat Harry Reid of Nevada, in response to President Bush's proposal to reform Social Security.
Reid says Bush's proposal to let younger workers � and only those who want to � divert some of the Social Security taxes they pay into their own private investment accounts would turn that program from a guaranteed retirement safety net into a "guaranteed gamble."
I guess Reid ought to know about gambling, given that he represents Las Vegas, where I have personally witnessed hundreds of American retirees giving away some of that safety net to the slot machines.
But that, so far, seems to be the best scare tactic the Dems can muster. Bush wants to allow you to control some of your own money. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
I swear, the Democrats should just switch mascots � replace the donkey with the Cowardly Lion. It's not just that they want to help the helpless. They want to force all of us to think we're helpless � that we can't be allowed to choose to manage our own money, or decide what kind of risks we want to take with it.
As if keeping things the way they are doesn't involve risk. In spite of soothing reassurances from Reid and company that Social Security is sound, that there are billions piling up in Al Gore's lockbox, that there won't even be a problem, let alone a crisis, until 40 or more years from now, Democrats more sensible and sober than Reid have called it a looming crisis. Among them was the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan, former U.S. senator from New York, who issued his warning in 1998.
Moynihan's proposed solution was to raise taxes and cut benefits, but even he wanted to encourage private savings accounts as well.
The risks of the current system ought to be clear by now:
r When it began, there were 16 workers paying into the system for every retiree. Now there are a bit more than three, and the number is heading down to two. Meanwhile, people are living longer, and therefore collecting longer.
r When it began, the maximum Social Security tax was $60. Now it is $11,000 � an 18,300 percent increase. How's that for inflation?
r There is no lockbox with a Social Security trust fund in it. Government has borrowed the entire surplus to finance other programs. As President Clinton (a Democrat) put it, the so-called trust fund amounts to "claims on the Treasury," not an actual asset.
r Social Security benefits are not guaranteed. The Supreme Court has already ruled as much.
In the face of this, do Bush's opponents really want to say that since the crisis is decades away, Bush is being alarmist? Most of them admit that without significant structural changes, or major tax increases and benefit cuts, Social Security will take in enough to pay only about 73 percent of promised benefits starting in 2042. As if that's a good thing.
Does that mean they would endorse a 27 percent cut in their benefits now? Or is that just OK for their kids?
Sure, there are so-called "transition costs" to allowing younger workers to put some of their taxes into their own accounts � as much as $2 trillion by some estimates. "How is the president going to pay for that?" his critics ask. But the cost of waiting and doing essentially nothing will leave a gap in the $12 trillion range. And we all know how that will get paid � with crushing tax increases. Can you say "generational warfare?"
There are risks in the market, of course, but there has never been a 20-year period that the stock market lost value. Indeed, its average rate of return has been better than 6 percent annually, compared to less than 2 percent for Social Security. And even if the market is in a trough when some people retire, it is not as though they are going to take out all their money at once.
Indeed, I think the greatest fear Dems have is not that elders will return to poverty, but that more of them actually might be able to lift themselves out of it over their working lifetimes. Democrats need poor people who think only government will save them, and they need them to stay poor.
That is not some right-wing insult. Former Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Kerrey recalls Moynihan telling him that the reason Democrats are so afraid of Social Security reform is because it might make people wealthy, "and they worry that wealth will turn Democrats into Republicans."
That, I suspect, is what scares Harry Reid more than anything.
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posted by J.R. @ 11:58:00 PM   |
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| The secret George W. Bush tapes revealed |
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Former evangelical adviser covertly recorded conversations
� 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
WASHINGTON � Is it the revenge of Doug Wead? Or is it the self-immolation of Doug Wead.
Wead was an influential evangelical adviser to President George H.W. Bush until 1990 when he got the unceremonious heave-ho from Andrew Card, who told him to leave "sooner rather than later" for sending conservatives a letter faulting the White House for inviting homosexual activists to an event.
Beginning two years before George W. Bush took over the White House in 2000, Wead consulted with the candidate on ways he could attract evangelical voters. Wead secretly recorded those sessions and has now played some of them for the New York Times, which will publish an in-depth, front-page report in Sunday's editions.
In the tapes, Bush is prickly toward Sen. John McCain, a rival for the Republican nomination in 2000. He is very high on Sen. John Ashcroft, another rival who the future president suggests would make a good Supreme Court justice or even a vice president.
Bush also appears to acknowledge marijuana use in his youth.
But many are wondering what Wead was doing then and why he is releasing the tapes now.
Wead said he recorded the conversations because he viewed Bush as a historic figure. But he also acknowledges to the Times that the president might regard his actions as a betrayal.
"As the author of a new book about presidential childhoods, Mr. Wead could benefit from any publicity, but he said that was not a motive in disclosing the tapes," reports the Times.
In the transcripts included in the Times report, Bush appears clumsy about meeting with evangelical leaders back in 1998.
"As you said, there are some code words," said Bush. "There are some proper ways to say things, and some improper ways. I am going to say that I've accepted Christ into my life. And that's a true statement."
Bush does not appear entirely comfortable about these meetings largely because he did not share their political agenda.
He worried, for instance, that prominent Christian leaders would not like his refusal "to kick gays."
"At the same time, he was wary of unnerving secular voters by meeting publicly with evangelical leaders," reports the Times. "When he thought his aides had agreed to such a meeting, Mr. Bush complained to Karl Rove, his political strategist, 'What the hell is this about?'"
There appears to be no love lost between Bush and another Republican rival for the presidency in 2000 � Steve Forbes.
On the tapes, Bush threatens that if Forbes attacks him too hard during the campaign and wins, both Bush, then the Texas governor, and his brother, Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, would withhold their support.
"He can forget Texas," said Bush. "And he can forget Florida. And I will sit on my hands."
Wead first acknowledged the tapes to a reporter in December to defend the accuracy of a passage about Bush in his new book, "The Raising of a President." He claims he made the tapes in states where it was legal to do so with only one party's knowledge.
"I believe that, like him or not, he is going to be a huge historical figure," Wead told the Times. "If I was on the telephone with Churchill or Gandhi, I would tape record them too."
There's a boastful side of Bush evident in the tapes. In 1998, he was running for re-election as Texas governor. On the even of hi re-election in November, he tells Wead: "I believe tomorrow is going to change Texas politics forever," he told Mr. Wead. "The top three offices right below me will be the first time there has been a Republican in that slot since the Civil War. Isn't that amazing? And I hate to be a braggart, but they are going to win for one reason: me."
But Bush said he wouldn't be corrupted by power because, "I have got a great wife. And I read the Bible daily. The Bible is pretty good about keeping your ego in check."
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| posted by J.R. @ 11:46:00 PM |
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| Scientists find tsunami produced 90-foot wave |
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In the minutes following December's catastrophic earthquake off the Indonesian island of Sumatra, a surge of seawater more than 90 feet high inundated stretches of the remote western coast.
A wave of such biblical proportions would crest as high as the clock on San Francisco's Ferry Building.
When the tsunami hit the island nation of Sri Lanka hours later, it displaced 2 million cubic yards of sand -- enough to bury a football field 1, 000 feet deep.
These are some of the early and jaw-dropping observations of an American team of scientists who recently returned from the disaster zone.
At a news conference at the U.S. Geological Survey's science center in Menlo Park on Thursday, USGS oceanographer Guy Gelfenbaum said that debris left high in hardwood trees that survived the tsunami provided evidence of the height of the gigantic waves in Indonesia.
Isolated villages on Sumatra's western coast just south of hard-hit Banda Aceh caught the full brunt of the giant tsunami and were swept away without a trace -- perhaps only 15 minutes after the ground began to shake on Dec. 26.
A surge of lesser height struck low-lying Banda Aceh but swept 4 miles on shore, killing tens of thousands.
The historic 9.0 magnitude earthquake is among the five most powerful recorded since 1900 and left an estimated 288,000 people dead or missing from Thailand to Somalia. Fortunately, tsunamis such as this one are among the most unusual of natural disasters.
"They are very rare,'' said Gelfenbaum, "but that makes them much harder to understand."
American scientists have begun to take the measure of the catastrophe, with the goal of gaining insight into what might happen if something similar occurred closer to home.
"Any great earthquake in the Pacific Ocean has the potential to generate a tsunami,'' said USGS geophysicist Eric Geist.
Of greatest concern here is the so-called Cascadia Subduction Zone, which runs off the west coast of North America from California's Humboldt County to the north end of Vancouver Island in Canada -- a stretch of seismically tense seabed that is geologically similar to the site of the Sumatra earthquake.
When the Dec. 26 temblor struck deep beneath the ocean surface, trillions of tons of water were rapidly displaced as one section of seabed dived under another. The quake began some 60 miles off the northwestern shore of Sumatra and ripped along the seabed at 2 miles per second, traveling for nearly eight minutes, leaving a "rupture zone" that stretched to the north about 750 miles.
Although the tsunami left a swath of destruction on coastal areas thousands of miles away, hardest hit was Sumatra itself. Indonesia's toll is 234,271 dead or missing. Bodies are still being uncovered in devastated Aceh province.
USGS scientists, working with colleagues from Japan, France and Indonesia, have also determined that sections of the western coast of Sumatra sank 3 to 6 feet as a result of the earthquake. Bruce Jaffe, a USGS oceanographer who traveled to Sri Lanka, said that freshly laid deposits of sand would give important clues to scientists studying similar deposits laid down by tsunamis hundreds or thousands of years ago.
"This is the only way to understand tsunamis before written records,'' he said.
There are mathematical models that can estimate the size of ancient tsunamis based on the depth of sediment that they left behind. Geologists can now check the accuracy of those models by comparing recent sediment deposits with other measures of wave height the December tsunami left behind.
Further studies of wave damage in Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and Indonesia may yield insights into the behavior of tsunamis.
In Sri Lanka, some coastal areas were devastated while miles away other shorelines suffered minor damage. Studies of the underwater topography will show what features protected some areas and left others vulnerable -- valuable information that might be used to protect people and property in coastal areas at risk of facing tsunami dangers in the future.
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| posted by J.R. @ 10:49:00 AM |
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| Condi to replace Cheney next year? |
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� 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
Vice President Dick Cheney likely will step down next year due to health reasons and be replaced by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, according to a report by geopolitical expert Jack Wheeler.
On his website, To the Point, Wheeler reports there's a "red-breasted rumor bird" flying around Capitol Hill that has whispered the same thing to most congressional committee chairmen.
"We all know that Dick Cheney has been the best vice president of modern times, perhaps in American history," one such chairman told Wheeler. "And we know that he absolutely will not run for president in 2008. Further, he has an unfortunate history of heart trouble. So let's just say none of us will be surprised if, sometime next year, he will step down from the vice presidency due to his health."
Continued the source: "Should this happen, President Bush would need to appoint his replacement, just as Richard Nixon chose Gerald Ford to replace Spiro Agnew. It is quite clear to us whom the president would choose should he need to: Condoleezza Rice."
Wheeler goes on to analyze what such a scenario would mean for the 2008 presidential election.
Writes Wheeler: "Being a sitting vice president places Condi in an impregnable position for the GOP nomination in 2008 and sucks every breath of wind from Hillary's sails. Historically, it's hard for a party to keep the White House after they've had it for eight years. This is George Bush and Dick Cheney's way to buck history � and make it."
Serving as Bush's national security adviser during his first term, Rice took over the State Department last month.
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| posted by J.R. @ 3:14:00 AM |
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| Americans' opinion of U.N. sinking |
| Friday, February 18, 2005 |
Just 37% think of agency favorably, same percentage want Annan out
� 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
Americans' opinion of the United Nations is sinking, with just 37 percent polled saying they are favorably inclined to the global body.
According to a poll by Rassmussen Reports, the favorability rate has declined from 44 percent in a November survey.
The poll also shows 37 percent of Americans believe U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan should resign. Just 26 percent said he should not resign and another 37 percent are undecided.
Among those polled who follow news coverage of Annan's troubles "very" or "somewhat" closely, which was 54 percent, 63 percent say Annan should call it quits. Twenty-eight percent say he should not.
Regarding the U.N. oil-for-food scandal, 39 percent polled believe some nations opposed the invasion of Iraq because they were bribed by Hussein, while 42 percent believe the ex-dictator used the program to bribe nations such as France and Russia.
Rassmussen Reports noted the current survey is not directly comparable to last November's results, because the current poll sampled American adults, whereas November's survey interviewed likely voters.
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| posted by J.R. @ 3:18:00 AM |
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| Former Marines protect Pantano |
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By Rowan Scarborough
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published February 17, 2005
Retired Marines set up a security watch yesterday around the North Carolina home of accused 2nd Lt. Ilario Pantano, after a Pakistan-connected Web site depicted a beheading of the Marine Corps officer.
"It's a show of solidarity for Pantano," Charles Gittins, his civilian attorney, said of the former Marine volunteers.
Mr. Gittins said Lt. Pantano has been charged unfairly with premeditated murder by the Corps at Camp Lejeune, N.C., arguing that he killed two Iraqi insurgents in self-defense.
Lt. Pantano reported the beheading on the Web site to the local sheriff, who is investigating.
Mr. Gittins also said the FBI has opened an investigation after a Web site established by the officer's mother was shut down by repeated cyberattacks that might have come from Pakistan.
The Web site, www.defendthedefenders.org, was set up by Merry K. Gregory Pantano to explain her son's case and his life story and to raise money for his criminal defense. The site crashed several times Tuesday and yesterday.
An FBI official in North Carolina had no immediate comment last night. Mr. Gittins said he spoke with a special agent assigned to the investigation.
The attorney said a check of who set up the beheading site shows that it was created in Pakistan. It has an address similar to defendthedefenders.org.
The Marine Corps last week announced that Lt. Pantano, the 33-year-old married father of two sons, had been charged Feb. 1 in the deaths of two Iraqis.
The official charge sheet accuses him of premeditated murder, which, if he is convicted at a court-martial, could bring a penalty of death.
He also is charged with destruction of property for damaging the Iraqis' sport utility vehicle. Mr. Gittins said his client smashed the vehicle so other insurgents could not use it.
The shooting occurred April 15 in the town of Mahmudiyah, south of Baghdad. It was a particularly bloody time for Marines based near Fallujah, with daily insurgent attacks. Marines had to cease their assault on terrorists in Fallujah when politicians in Baghdad protested the mission, a move that allowed the enemy to continue using the town as a base to launch attacks.
Lt. Pantano led a fast-reaction platoon. On that night, he received orders to raid a house thought to hold insurgents and an arms cache. The Marines discovered the cache, which included bomb-making equipment. They apprehended two Iraqis trying to flee.
Mr. Gittins said Lt. Pantano had the two search the vehicle in case it was booby-trapped. At that point, the men started talking with each other in Arabic and then came at him. The officer warned them in Arabic to stop and then emptied his M-16.
"After the killing, the number of attacks in that area went down to almost zero," Mr. Gittins said.
In an environment where the next person encountered on the street could be a killer, troops in Iraq say that they never know when an insurgent will attack them and that they must act within seconds or risk death.
The Marine command at Camp Lejeune has refused to discuss details of the case. The prosecution's version of events would come out at a pretrial Article 32 hearing, which has not been scheduled. After the hearing, broadly equivalent to a grand jury case in the civilian justice system, an investigative officer decides whether to recommend a court-martial or to dismiss the charges.
Mr. Gittins said his client shot the insurgents many times, following Marine training to use full force. The two men were not armed.
He said that the bodies were buried quickly and that no thorough autopsy, which would provide details of entry and exit wounds, was performed.
He said Lt. Pantano's military defense team at Camp Lejeune has requested command permission to take a combat camera team to Iraq and further investigate the case.
Mr. Gittins said the complaint against Lt. Pantano was lodged by a "disgruntled" sergeant who has been removed from two division jobs. He said statements from platoon members support Lt. Pantano's version of events.
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| posted by J.R. @ 2:28:00 AM |
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| Accused Marine featured in gripping story |
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Embedded Time reporter depicted bravery on outskirts of Fallujah
� 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
The Marine Corps officer charged with murder for killing two Iraqi insurgents was featured last spring in a gripping, first-hand account by an embedded Time magazine reporter who illustrated the hair-trigger intensity U.S. fighters endured facing an increasingly sophisticated foe on the outskirts of Fallujah.
The story showed 2nd Lt. Ilario Pantano's deep frustration with high-level decisions as forces preparing in late April for an onslaught of the terrorist-stronghold were ordered to pull back.
The reporter, Paul Quinn-Judge, picks up Pantano's 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marines Easy Company on April 24, just nine days after the incident for which the officer now faces formal allegations that could lead to the death penalty.
"From afar," Quinn-Judge wrote, "the fighting in and around Fallujah since the Marines laid siege to the city a month ago appears to be a series of brief skirmishes and sporadic gunfights. But it doesn't look that way to anyone who spent time on the ground with the Marines of Easy Company. The Marines are at war with a well-organized and relentless enemy."
The setting for the account also was three weeks after the bodies of four slain U.S. contractors were burned, mutilated and displayed in public, launching a period in which casualties to coalition forces increased by 400 percent, to 1,000.
But the Marines were eager to enter Fallujah where the casualty rate undoubtedly would spike even further.
"The men are expecting a nasty fight from the insurgents, who have surprised them with the sophistication of their tactics," the Time report said.
The Marines, however, received word from commanders to pull back and allow the new Iraqi force to enter the city.
Pantano was among the many in Easy Company who, according to Quinn-Judge, "viewed the decision as a retreat from the U.S. pledge to drive the 'bad guys' out of Fallujah."
The story quotes Pantano saying: "Does this remind you of another part of the world in the early '70s?" referring to the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam.
The Time reporter said that while it was understood the decision provided an opportunity for the Iraqis to prove they can take control of their own security, the Marines "felt angry, frustrated and deeply skeptical that the deal would work."
"As they packed up their equipment and cleared out from their forward operating base, they were fuming," the reporter wrote.
Despite the agreement, the Marines still were taking heavy fire from the insurgents.
"This is so surreal," Pantano said, after being briefed on the agreement. "I had to write it down in my journal to make sure I wasn't making it up."
Prior to the decision to pull out, Quinn-Judge recounted how Pantano, as platoon commander, led his men to the southern edge of Fallujah to help destroy two bunkers insurgents were using to fire on their positions.
He writes:
Easy's Third Platoon moved in to inspect one of the buildings, which had been hit the day before by a 500-lb. bomb. Platoon Commander 2nd Lieut. Ilario Pantano reported back that they had found gun emplacements and binoculars and that the building was still usable by insurgents. Another Marine later recalled the smell of death. Tank fire would finish the house off. Then, to their north, they spotted the movement of three or four men. Some of them appeared to be carrying guns.
The Marines aren't taking chances. Two days earlier, seven Marines were wounded in an ambush on this road.
The Marines sprint away from the building as the first tank round thunders in. Soon after they trot past the rest of the company, the whole group starts to take fire.
"I can hear yelling and talking to the north," a Marine tells Captain Bradley Weston, the company's commanding officer. A bunch of Marines jump up and fire back in the general direction of the noise. Others lay down white phosphorus to mark the area where the insurgents' fire seems to have come from. A tank pumps in more tracer. From the roof of an unfinished building, Marines blast the target with machine guns, providing protective cover.
The rest of the Marines pull back, running across a field and over to bushes, urged on by yelling noncommissioned officers (NCOs). They expect the insurgents to harass them all the way back to their base.
One young man falls and lies prone on the ground, his head pressed down as if afraid something might hit him. His hands shake uncontrollably. Chachi, a member of Easy Company's intelligence unit who asks to be identified only by his nickname, turns to me as we run for cover. "Having fun?" he asks, making clear that he is. "This is what it's all about."
Quinn-Judge noted how the insurgents routinely broke a cease-fire in effect at the time, "lobbing mortars and rockets at the Marines' positions from every direction."
He described being part of the platoon as it moved to take out the second bunker.
It is taken out, and within minutes we are pulling back under fire. We run across a field divided by an irrigation ditch. "Get in that f------- ditch!" an NCO shouts. We sink to our waist in the water, scrabbling for grip in the slippery mud. "Get out of that f------ ditch!" the same NCO yells, just as our feet touch bottom.
We dash across the field and pause for breath. When we reach the base, it's already daybreak. A sense of euphoria kicks in. Some faces are pale, others flushed. Some Marines light cigarettes and laugh about the night's adventures. The company has taken no casualties. "This has been really good for morale," says 2nd Lieut. Nathan Dmochowksi. "We have taken so much s--- from those positions." A couple of Marines flash sly smiles at me. "Stick around," says one of them. "This is only the beginning."
After returning from the operation, the Marines spoke of the decision to not go into Fallujah.
"What you saw today is only 10 percent of what they would have got if we had gone into the city," Staff Sergeant Naaman Clark told the Time reporter. "But this is an election year, and politics got in the way. We're going to be here for a long time."
Quinn-Judge gave a picture of the spartan conditions in which the 200 members of Easy Company lived � an abandoned administrative building with 10 rooms.
One [room] is the "lounge," home to the ammunition and the commanding officer. In the other rooms, on both sides of the 5-ft.-wide corridor, and even in the bathrooms, men sleep in their clothes, with their weapons, for as long as and whenever they can. There is no electricity, sanitation or water; ready-to-eat meals and 300 gal. of drinking water are brought in daily from the Marines' headquarters at Camp Fallujah, a dangerous 40-min. drive away.
Quick-reaction battalion
Pantano's attorney, Charles Gittins, emphasizing the high casualty rate at the time, said the April 15 incident took place when the officer's quick-reaction battalion was dispatched to capture an arms cache at an insurgent hideaway. After finding weapons, the Marines stopped two Iraqis fleeing in an SUV by shooting out the vehicles tires.
Pantano, armed with an M-16, had the Iraqis search the vehicle in case it was booby trapped. While performing the search, the Marine said he heard the two men talking among themselves then saw them turn.
The lieutenant thought the Iraqis were coming at him and ordered them in Arabic to stop. When they didn't obey, Pantano shot them with "many rounds," according to Gittins.
The lawyer acknowledged the Iraqis turned out to be unarmed, but insists his client didn't know it at the time.
Pantano immediately reported the incident to his superiors and an internal investigation cleared him, allowing him to continue in combat duty for another three months. After returning to Camp Lejeune, however, he learned he had been accused by a subordinate Gittins describes as a "disgruntled" sargeant who had experienced "difficulties" in the unit.
According to a Marine Corps spokesman at Camp Lejeune, an Article 32 hearing � similar to a pretrial hearing, determining whether there will be a court martial � tentatively is scheduled for about the 10th or 11th of March.
Since news of the charges was first reported last Friday, many Americans have expressed outrage, asking how a Marine with a strong reputation can be second-guessed in the heat of battle.
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| posted by J.R. @ 2:27:00 AM |
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| Witness backs accused Marine's story |
| Wednesday, February 16, 2005 |
Saw officer kill 2 Iraqi terrorists who refused stop order
A Navy man largely backs Marine Corps Lt. Ilario Pantano's version of
the events that led to murder charges for killing two Iraqi
insurgents, according to an attorney.
Charles Gittins, who represents Pantano, told WorldNetDaily the Navy
man was one of two witnesses, along with the accuser, to the April
15, 2004, incident in which the Marine Corps officer shot the two
Iraqis after detaining them in an operation to secure a weapon-laden
hideaway in the Sunni Triangle.
The only difference in the two accounts is that the Navy man believes
the Iraqis were running away, and Pantano believes they were running
toward him, Gittins maintans.
The attorney contends the discrepancy is a matter of visual
perspective � where each was standing � and argues the bottom line is
the Navy officer corroborates Pantano's claim that the Iraqis
disobeyed his order, in Arabic, to stop.
"As far as I'm concerned, that's the end of the game," Gittins said,
referring to the question of Pantano's innocence.
The Marine was charged Feb. 1 with two counts of premeditated murder
and awaits a March hearing that could lead to a court martial and
possibly the death penalty if convicted.
Pantano and the Navy man agree the Iraqis were stopped trying to flee
the hide-out in an SUV. The two men were handcuffed, and Pantano set
up a security perimeter. He then removed the cuffs and ordered the
detainees to tear apart the vehicle to ensure it wasn't booby-
trapped.
At one point, according to Pantano, the Iraqis stopped searching and
made a quick move toward him. He ordered "stop," the men kept moving,
and the Marine killed them.
The Iraqis and the vehicle turned out to be free of weapons, but
Gittins argued that unarmed men can be dangerous, and in the intense
environment of the Sunni Triangle where so many Americans had lost
their lives, Pantano had no idea what they were doing.
"They failed to stop when he ordered them to stop," Gittins said. "If
a guy is holding an M-16 on you and he says stop, you stop."
Marine Corps spokesman Maj. Matt Morgan said he could not discuss
details of the case, but Gittins confirmed some of the accuser's
claims.
The accuser, described by Gittins as a "disgruntled" Marine Corps
sergeant who served as a radio man, asserts Pantano relieved men who
were guarding the Iraqis. The accuser said Pantano sent the guards
away so they couldn't see what he was doing and uncuffed the Iraqis.
Then, according to the claim, Pantano shot the Iraqis in the back,
left their bodies lying out in the open and put a mocking sign on
them in order to "send a message."
Gittins contends, however, that no one was relieved of guarding the
Iraqis or told to turn away, and the Iraqis were shot all over their
bodies � their backs, sides and fronts � with many rounds.
No sign was put on their bodies, he claimed, but Pantano put a sign
on the SUV with the words, in English, of 1st Marine Division
commander Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis: "No better friend. No worse
enemy."
Mattis stirred controversy earlier this month for saying at a
conference "it's fun to shoot" terrorists.
Gittins insists there was no intent to mock, and the message was only
for the troops.
"The only thing provocative about it was a general said it, and my
client repeated it," he said.
'Outpouring'
Meanwhile, Pantano's mother, Merry Pantano, continues to lead a
grassroots movement of support for her son that has picked up so much
momentum her website, www.defendthedefenders.com, crashed because it
exceeded its bandwidth capacity.
"The outpouring is phenomenal," she told WND.
Mrs. Pantano, a literary agent in New York City, said her son remains
strong.
"He's amazing," she said. "He looks at this as a battle. He analyzes
everything very critically and reminds us some days will be good and
some will be bad. Move on and stay focused."
Mrs. Pantano said her son's commanding officer told him to go home to
his wife and two children in Wilmington, N.C., near Camp Lejeune, and
prepare his defense.
Among the flood of supportive messages she has received was a phone
call from an 80-year-old, decorated World War II veteran who asked
for an address so he could send a contribution of $100.
Mrs. Pantano said she launched the website a few days after the
charges were brought against her son Feb. 1.
Yesterday, she was assisted in her advocacy activities at her New
York City home by Jeffrey Dejessie, who considers Lt. Pantano to be
his best friend.
Dejessie, of Belleville, N.J., has remained close since the two men
met while serving in the Marine Corps in the first Gulf War in 1991,
taking vacations together, joining in family dinners and "being
there" for each other in hard times.
He reacted strongly to news of Pantano's charges.
"I find it hard to believe someone who previously served and had such
an impeccable service record could have this happen to him," Dejessie
said. "The kid gave up so much, a lucrative job in the city, the high
life, a career in film and broadcasting, leaving his wife and two
children behind. He could have watched this [war] on TV every night
in the comfort of his home.
After the 9-11 attacks, when Pantano said he wanted to rejoin the
Marines, Dejessie tried to talk him out of it, questioning the war
and saying, "Come on, we're in our 30s, this is someone else's chance
to serve."
But Pantano, according to Dejessie, could not be convinced otherwise
and entered the Marine Corps training school in Quantico, Va., to
become a commissioned officer.
"He really believed in what he was doing," Dejessie said. "It's scary
that they would bring charges on such a great man like him. What
could they do to the average guy?"
But Dejessie said it's Pantano who is playing the role of
optimist, "keeping everyone else motivated and upbeat."
"This guy is under the most stress of his life and he's telling us,
you keep your head up."
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| posted by J.R. @ 2:29:00 PM |
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| Marine faces death penalty for killing 2 terror suspects |
| Monday, February 14, 2005 |
'What's he supposed to do, wait until he's standing in the inferno?'
� 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
A U.S. Marine charged with premeditated murder for shooting two
Iraqis may face the death penalty, although one of the men he shot
appeared to be preparing to attack the Marines or detonate nearby
explosives, says the Marine's attorney.
Second Lieutenant Ilario G. Pantano was charged Feb. 1 in connection
with the April 15, 2004, shooting incident, according to a Marine
Corps statement released yesterday.
Maj. Gen. Richard Huck, commanding general of the 2nd Marine
Division, convened an investigation to determine if the 33-year-old
Pantano should stand trial, but no further details were released.
But Charles Gittens, Pantano's civilian attorney, said Pantano
has "made it pretty firmly clear that he is not guilty," according to
a Reuters report.
The Marine platoon Pantano commanded had been tasked with searching a
suspected terrorist hide-out south of Baghdad last April. After
finding weapons, ammunition and bomb-making material in the building,
they observed two men fleeing in a sport utility vehicle, Gittens
said, according to the wire report.
Upon shooting out the vehicle's tires to stop it, the Marines took
the two Iraqi men into custody, ordering them to search for booby
traps and secret compartments in the vehicle by ripping out its
interior and seats, Gittens told Reuters.
Then, according to Gittens, one of the suspects turned suddenly
toward Pantano "as if to attack." When Pantano ordered them to stop,
they kept moving toward him, Gittens said.
"He (Pantano) thought he was in danger and he fired and he killed
them and that's what we do to terrorists who don't listen to
orders. ... It's a combat situation, kill or be killed," the attorney
told Reuters.
Fearing the two suspects may have been attempting to detonate
explosives remotely, Pantano shot them, Gittens said.
"What's he supposed to do, wait until he's standing in the inferno?"
the attorney added.
After the incident, Pantano served three more months in Iraq when he
returned to Camp Lejeune at the end of his tour of duty.
Possible outcomes to the case, say Marine investigators, are that
Pantano could be court-martialed, disciplined administratively, or
have the charges dropped.
Merry Pantano, the accused Marine's mother, has created a website
titled "Defend the Defenders" to tell her son's story and raise money
for his defense.
http://www.defendthedefenders.org/pages/1/index.htm
"Who is my son?" she asks on the website:
He is a young, intelligent, charismatic Marine officer and all that
that entails. And yet he is incomprehensibly charged with heinous
crimes related to a dangerous military operation that took place
in "the triangle of death" just south of Baghdad.
It was during the peak of insurgent violence in mid April of 2004,
with hundreds of fellow Marines and soldiers being killed and wounded
throughout the "Sunni Triangle." Terrorists, captured while trying to
recover a vehicle used in an earlier attack on the Marines, had given
detailed information about a supply of weapons and terrorist hideout
that my son and his platoon were hastily dispatched to search. Their
search revealed weapons, ammunition, mortar equipment, bomb-making
material and two fleeing terrorists.
In an ensuing search of the terrorists' vehicle, my son, concerned
for his safety and the safety of his men shot them both in self
defense and then disabled their vehicle so it could not be used in
further attacks. He and his men went on to fight with distinction and
honor in Falluja and the surrounding areas and, when possible, aided
in the reconstruction effort. Months later, the government began an
investigation that only now, 10 months after the fact, alleges an
evil intent which is at polar opposite of my son's character and
principles.
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| posted by J.R. @ 9:50:00 AM |
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| US troops stop grenade attack by child |
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US troops from the 2nd Infantry Division foiled an attempt to coerce a child
into accepting a hand grenade in the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi, the US
command said.
The troops were on patrol when they saw a blue sedan with three military-aged
males pull up near their position.
The driver left the vehicle and approached a child, who took a grenade from
the adult, a US statement said.
The Americans fired a warning shot and the child dropped the grenade and ran
away. The adult returned fire with a pistol, jumped into his vehicle and tried
to escape.
US troops disabled the vehicle, killing one and wounding two, the statement
said.
The grenade never exploded and the child disappeared, the statement added.
"The incident demonstrates the ruthless disregard that the insurgency has for
the citizens of Iraq," said Marine Major Phil Bragg, a spokesman for the 1st
Marine Division.
Last week, Iraqi officials accused insurgents of using a retarded man to
carry out one of the eight suicide bombings in Baghdad during the January 30
elections.
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| posted by J.R. @ 9:42:00 AM |
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| CNN News Executive Eason Jordan Quits |
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CNN chief news executive Eason Jordan quit Friday amidst the furor over remarks he made in Switzerland last month about journalists killed by the U.S. military in Iraq.
Jordan said he was quitting to avoid CNN being "unfairly tarnished" by the controversy.
During a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum last month, Jordan said he believed that several journalists who were killed by American forces in Iraq had been targeted.
He quickly backed off the remarks, explaining that he meant to distinguish between journalists killed because they were in the wrong place and were killed by a bomb, for example, and those killed because they were shot at by American forces who mistook them for the enemy.
"I never meant to imply U.S. forces acted with ill intent when U.S. forces accidentally killed journalists, and I apologize to anyone who thought I said or believed otherwise," Jordan said in a memo to fellow staff members at CNN.
But the damage had been done, compounded by the fact that no transcript of his actual remarks has turned up. There was an online petition calling on CNN to find a transcript and fire Jordan if he said the military had intentionally killed journalists.
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| posted by J.R. @ 9:27:00 AM |
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| German Prosecutor Won't Pursue Rumsfeld Case |
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Germany's federal prosecutor says the allegations that United States Defense Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and other top Washington brass were responsible for Abu Ghraib must be investigated in the US, not under German war crimes laws. The decision deals a blow to the American group that brought the case, but it could ease German-American tensions.  | AFP Off the hook: Germany's federal prosecutor says he won't investigate Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on war crimes charges for Abu Ghraib. |
For more than two months, a legal petition to investigate United States Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on war crimes charges connected to the Abu Ghraib torture scandal threatened to further strain relations between Berlin and Washington, where diplomats have been working overtime to patch up relations lately. The case made headlines again in recent weeks in the run-up to an annual Security Conference in Munich because Rumsfeld had threatened to sit out the meeting if the petition against him wasn't dropped.
On Thursday, Germany's federal prosecutor, Kay Nehm, said his office would not pursue the case. In his statement, Nehm said that German authorities could only pursue the allegations if US authorities refused to do so -- and currently, there is no evidence that they won't. The men accused of torture at Abu Ghraib are all American citizens, none of the victims are German, and the cases should either be tried in the US or the victims' own countries, Nehm's office said.
Rumsfeld left open last week whether he would attend the prestigious conference and attributed his uncertainty to the petition. "It's certainly an issue, as it was in Belgium. It's something that we have to take into consideration," he said.
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| posted by J.R. @ 9:04:00 AM |
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| Boy is aborted 3 times and lives |
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February 13, 2005
A BABY survived at least three attempts to abort it from the womb and was born alive at 24 weeks old.
The boy was delivered in hospital after his 24- year-old mother changed her mind about wanting the child after feeling it move on the way home from an abortion clinic.
Although the clinic had told her an ultrasound scan had confirmed the child was dead, she went into labour that afternoon and the boy was born alive.
Now two years old and healthy, he is the first long-term abortion survivor to have been born so prematurely. His remarkable entrance into the world is documented in the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
The mother had not realised she was going to have a baby until 22 weeks into the pregnancy and felt that she could not cope with a second child. She was given a series of abortion drugs over four days at a private clinic.
After birth the child was rushed to the hospital�s neonatal intensive care unit where he was on a ventilator for 7� weeks. He fought off several life-threatening infections and suffered from severe lung disease for his first six months. He was allowed home after seven months of treatment.
Dr Paul Clarke, one of the report�s authors and the baby�s doctor at Hope hospital in Salford, Greater Manchester, said: �This mother went through extreme hardship waiting to see if her baby was going to make it. She was told to expect him to die so many times. I am full of admiration for her.�
The attempted abortions had been carried out at the British Pregnancy Advisory Service�s Blackdown clinic in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire.
Clarke reveals that paediatricians often intervene to save babies who have survived abortions.
He writes: �Late abortion raises serious practical, ethical and professional concerns. The dilemma of being telephoned about an infant born showing signs of life following termination of pregnancy is one that many paediatricians have faced. If viable, and resuscitated, those infants who survive may suffer significant illness.�
The paper calls for a review of late abortions at private clinics where there are no staff qualified to give emergency treatment if babies are born alive.
Ann Furedi, chief executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, said: �It sounds highly unusual. Usually we would keep a woman at the clinic until she delivered the foetus. When women are having a late medical abortion they are normally attended in the clinic by nursing staff with specialist midwifery training.
�It would never be the case that a woman would be discharged with the expectation that she would deliver at home.�
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| posted by J.R. @ 8:57:00 AM |
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| How Syria fooled U.S. on terror cooperation |
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Assad trained operatives for 'al-Qaida'
to attack America, then turned them in
Posted: February 14, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern
� 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
WASHINGTON � In international relations, things are not always what they seem to be.
For instance, back in 2003, Syrian President Bashar Assad came up with what he thought was a great idea to curry favor with the U.S. and stave off threats of sanctions and even invasion for its support of international terrorism, including in neighboring Iraq.
Syrian intelligence chief Ghazi Kanaan came to the dictator with a plan to run an operation against U.S. intelligence, according a to a report in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the premium, online intelligence newsletter published by WND's founder.
The plan called for Syria to recruit and train some mujhadeen to work on behalf of Osama bin Laden in an attack on the U.S. The Syrian intelligence officials easily found two willing participants, who never understood they were actually being used as pawns by Damascus.
The pair was trained for three months in weapons, explosives, engineering (for bringing down bridges, buildings, etc.) and other espionage activities, in addition to setting up a number of accounts, credit cards, and how to use discard cell phones so they could not be traced.
The Syrians launched the players into action, ordering them to go to the U.S. through Athens.
Then Syria double-crossed their dupes, tipping off the Greeks and the Israelis, informing them two al-Qaida operatives were on their way to the U.S. Syria also tipped off the chief of mission in Damascus.
Of course, the Central Intelligence Agency gets tips from three different sources � Syria, Greece and Israel. The CIA assumed the information was golden. The FBI was alerted that these operatives were en route.
Eventually, the two betrayed mujahadeen were nabbed in Heathrow Airport in London and interrogated vigorously by the British. They cracked and told everything they knew � that they had been trained by al-Qaida for a mission against the U.S., because that's what they believed.
The CIA congratulated itself. The FBI congratulated itself. The congressional intelligence subcommittee congratulated itself. An announcement was made that an al-Qaida plot against the U.S. has been foiled.
And, shortly aferward, Colin Powell traveled to the Middle East to meet with Assad, thank him for his help and to press him for more concessions � such as closing down the offices of Palestinian terrorist groups in Damascus. Of course, Assad pledged continuing support.
Powell announced Syria was now cooperating in the war on terror.
Powell went on to say that Assad listened carefully to his concerns for three hours "and in every instance the president said he wished to consider the point of view I presented."
In exchange for his "cooperation," Powell offered Assad something he wanted � a commitment by the White House to seek a "comprehensive" Middle East peace settlement that would include negotiations on the return of the Golan Heights, captured by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War.
It was at least the second time Assad had betrayed � and fooled � the U.S. and the former secretary of state. In 2001, Assad promised to close an oil pipeline from Iraq to Syria that Saddam Hussein was using to evade United Nations sanctions. The illegal oil, which accounted for as much as 20 percent of Syria's foreign-trade revenue, continued to flow until 2003 when U.S. forces shut it off.
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| posted by J.R. @ 8:51:00 AM |
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| New hanging effigy: Bush lied, I died |
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California residence becomes ground zero for protests
Posted: February 14, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
New message posted above Iraqi flag at Sacramento home
A California couple who created a national uproar last week by hanging in effigy a U.S. soldier on its home with the message "Your Tax Dollars at Work" now has a new message with the hanging uniform: "Bush Lied. I Died."
In reaction to the latest message, Move America Forward, the national organization that supports American troops and the war against terrorism, has announced it will hold a candlelight vigil tomorrow night at the Sacramento home of Steve and Virginia Pearcy.
The three-hour vigil, slated to begin at 7 p.m., is designed to show support for U.S. troops and "register our opposition and disgust with the hateful 'soldier hanged in effigy' display."
"Move America Forward supports the right of free speech," a statement from the group said. "However, the right to speak freely does not mean all words or sentiments should be warmly embraced. The hateful messages that undermine our troops should be treated the same as the hate that spews from the likes of KKK members – we must step forward and make it clear that these voices of hate do not speak for our greater community, and that we will reject them through peaceful assemblies of the community."
Iraqi and Palestinian flags are also being displayed in the windows of the home.
The Pearcy family released a statement to the media in connection with its original effigy, which eventually was torn down by an individual who scaled a tree on the property.
"There will always be people who are offended by political speech, and the most important forum of all ... is one's own residence," the statement said. "The First Amendment is meaningless unless dissent is allowed."
The display has been a source of contention among neighbors who live on Marty Way.
"I'm outraged," neighbor Marque Cohen told the Sacramento Bee. "We have our men and women in uniform that are dying to protect our rights and I think it's a disgrace that somebody would be allowed to hang a U.S. soldier in effigy in front of their house."
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| posted by J.R. @ 8:39:00 AM |
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| Zarqawi said on run |
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Published February 13, 2005
BAGHDAD -- In Kirkuk in the north, police said they were hot on the trail of Abu Musab Zarqawi, the Jordanian terrorist who has claimed responsibility for many of the worst attacks in Iraq, including the beheading of several foreign hostages.
"He came to Kirkuk from Mosul," a source in the Kirkuk police department told Reuters news agency, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "There's a possibility that he might be captured at any moment."
There was no immediate comment from U.S. or Iraqi officials on the report. Iraqi officials recently said they were close to capturing the elusive militant, who is allied to al Qaeda. U.S. authorities are offering a $25 million bounty for his capture.
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| posted by J.R. @ 12:25:00 AM |
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| Shiites Win Nearly Half of Iraqi Votes |
| Sunday, February 13, 2005 |
Shiites Win Nearly Half of Iraqi Votes
22 minutes ago
By JASON KEYSER, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq 's majority Shiite Muslims won nearly half the votes in the nation's landmark Jan. 30 election, giving the long-oppressed group significant power but not enough to form a government on its own.
The Shiites likely will have to form a coalition in the 275-member National Assembly with the other top vote-getters — the Kurds and Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's list — to push through their agenda and select a president and prime minister. The president and two vice presidents must be elected by a two-thirds majority.
"This is a new birth for Iraq," Iraqi election commission spokesman Farid Ayar said as he announced results. He added that Iraqi voters "became a legend in their confrontation with terrorists."
Elsewhere Sunday, insurgents attacked a U.S. convoy and a government building near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, leaving at least four people dead, hospital workers said. Two Iraqi National Guard troops were also killed while trying to defuse a roadside bomb.
The Shiite-dominated ticket received more than 4 million votes, or about 48 percent of the total cast, Iraqi election officials said. A Kurdish alliance was second with 2.175 million votes, or 26 percent, and Allawi's list was third with about 1.168 million, or 13.8 percent.
Of Iraq's 14 million eligible voters, 8,456,266 cast ballots for 111 candidate lists, the commission said. That represents a turnout of about 60 percent, several points higher than the predicted 57 percent.
The figures also indicate that many Sunni Arabs stayed at home on election day, with only 17,893 votes — or 2 percent — cast in the National Assembly race in Anbar province, a stronghold of the Sunni Muslim insurgency.
In Ninevah province, which includes the third-largest city, Mosul, only 17 percent of the voters participated in the National Assembly race and 14 percent voted in the provincial council contests.
A ticket headed by the country's president Ghazi al-Yawer, a Sunni Arab, won only about 150,000 votes — less than 2 percent. A list headed by Sunni elder statesman Adnan Pachachi took only 12,000 votes — or 0.1 percent.
Pachachi told Al-Arabiya television it was clear that "a big number of Iraqis" did not participate in the election, and "there are some who are not correctly and adequately represented in the National Assembly" — meaning his fellow Sunni Arabs.
"However, the elections are correct and a first step and we should concentrate our attention to drafting the constitution which should be written by all Iraqi factions in preparation for wider elections."
Parties have three days to lodge complaints before the results are considered official and assembly seats are allocated, the election commission said.
"Until now there is no estimation regarding how many seats the political parties will get. When the counts are final the number of seats will be divided according to the number of votes," commission member Adel al-Lami said.
The balloting was the first free election in Iraq in more than 50 years and the first since Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) was ousted from power after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
Also Sunday, gunmen assassinated an Iraqi general and two companions in a Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad. The attack occurred as Brig. Gen. Jadaan Farhan and his companions were traveling through Baghdad's Kazimiyah district, an Iraqi police officer said on condition of anonymity.
A claim of responsibility for the attack in the name of al-Qaida quickly surfaced on a Web site that often posts statements by Islamic militants. The claim described the brigadier general as a senior commander in the Iraqi National Guard and the guard commander at Taji camp, an American facility about 15 miles north of Baghdad.
There was no way to verify the claim's authenticity.
Meanwhile, U.S. hopes for a larger NATO (news - web sites) role in Iraq suffered a setback when German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer on Sunday rejected calls for the alliance to protect U.N. operations there. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) also ruled out a U.N. security role.
In the battle just north of Mosul, insurgents fired on the convoy in Al-Qahira district, leaving at least four people dead and two wounded, doctors at the Al-Jumhuri Teaching Hospital said.
Insurgents also fired a rocket at the governor's building in Mosul, killing one woman and one man, as well as injuring four others, officials at the hospital said. Two Iraqi National Guard troops were killed on Mosul's airport road while trying to diffuse a roadside bomb, police said.
NATO's role in Iraq has been limited to a small training mission in Baghdad and logistics support to a Polish-led force serving with the U.S. coalition. Iraq war opponents led by France and Germany have prevented the alliance developing a wider role, and have refused to send their own troops, even on the training mission.
Fischer, Germany's foreign minister, said his country would not veto a NATO decision to do more, if it was backed by the other 25 allies. But he insisted "we will not be sending soldiers to Iraq."
Fischer emphasized German efforts to help Iraq in other ways — through military and police training outside the country, economic aid and debt relief.
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| posted by J.R. @ 10:12:00 AM |
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| President Bush Lays Out Details on Spending Cuts |
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Bush Lays Out Details on Spending Cuts
NewsMax.com Wires
Saturday, Feb. 12, 2005
WASHINGTON - More than five days after unveiling his budget, President Bush spelled out in detail for lawmakers his requests to eliminate or sharply reduce spending for 154 programs the administration sees as duplications, failures or inefficiencies.
With a document detailing the administration's rationale for each proposed cut, the White House fleshed out Bush's State of the Union promise to curb government spending and reduce budget deficits that have been forecast. The document was released late Friday, a time that administrations of both parties have picked for years to deliver unpopular news, because of Saturday's newspapers and news broadcasts have the week's smallest audiences.
Many of the items listed are not widely known, rather very small projects inserted by lawmakers to benefit their districts.
This list was in addition to $4.7 billion in savings from major proposed reforms already discussed in the budget released Monday, such as beginning to eliminate Amtrak, consolidating job-training programs and moving community development grants to the Commerce Department.
In the new list, Bush asked lawmakers to eliminate programs worth $4.3 billion from education, $1 billion from health and $1.5 billion from law enforcement.
Reductions include cuts totaling $2.5 billion from agriculture, $690 million from health and $470 million from housing.
In all, the targeted programs include 99 that the White House wants to eliminate, for a total of $8.8 billion in savings. The president wants to save an additional $6.5 billion by cutting spending on 55 programs.
Repeats on List
More than half of the identified programs had been flagged for cuts or elimination in previous years.
Last year, the president asked Congress to eliminate 130 federal programs. Four were terminated.
A few examples of the new recommendations:
-End the Small Business Administration's $15 million micro-loan program because it costs taxpayers yearly $1 for each $1 lent.
-Eliminate $496 million in educational technology state grants to free more money for higher priority programs that focus on student achievement and show clearer results.
-Cut half of the Manufacturing Extension Partnership and move the program closer to self-reliance.
-Cut one-third of the Children's Hospitals Graduate Medical Education Payment Program because an assessment determined there was no demonstrated need for the program.
-Eliminate the National Drug Intelligence Center because it duplicates programs run by a new, multi-agency Drug Intelligence Fusion Center.
The administration said it paid special attention to overlapping programs that serve the same purpose. By streamlining those programs, the White House suggests the government can save $1.9 billion.
Some changes identify programs the administration sees as better served by private companies and organizations.
"When the federal government focuses on its priorities and limits its claims on resources taken from the private sector, that helps sustain a stronger, more productive economy," the report said.
The list of 154 proposed cuts came from the one-third of federal spending reviewed and directed by Congress every year. That does not include such programs as Social Security and Medicare.
The president additionally asked lawmakers to review the Pentagon's budget and to consider trimming the vast portion of federal spending that increases automatically each year, such as agriculture payments.
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| posted by J.R. @ 12:06:00 AM | | |
