MEXICO 'NEEDS US ACTION ON DRUGS'

The US must keep to pledges to tackle the flow of arms from the US into Mexico and money-laundering, Mexico's attorney general has stressed.

Eduardo Medina Mora said those parts of a new bilateral initiative were more important than the provision of $1.4bn of US funds under the plan.
Mr Medina also estimated about $10bn (£4.8bn) in laundered Mexican drug money ended up in US banks each year. The anti-drugs "Merida Initiative" has caused some controversy in Mexico. Some politicians have dubbed it "Plan Mexico", inviting comparisons with the contentious anti-narcotic scheme Plan Colombia, established by the US in co-operation with Colombia in 2000.
But President Felipe Calderon, who worked on the Merida Initiative with US President George W Bush, insists it will not entail an increased US military presence in Mexico as some suspect.
President Bush recently asked the US Congress for a first tranche of £500m funding for the plan.

US 'permissive'
The money will go towards training Mexican troops and the purchase of equipment and technology to fight the often violent drugs trade. But on Tuesday, Mr Medina said that key parts of the agreement were US commitments to clamp down on the trade in arms and the illegal chemicals used to process drugs, money-laundering and domestic consumption of drugs.
"For me, it is far more important that the United States is dedicated to confronting these four components of the drug-trafficking equation," he told the Mexican Congress.

He said that there were some 12,000 American gun stores located close to the 3,200km border with Mexico, which, along with the US' "permissive" gun-control laws, facilitated the flow of arms into Mexico. Mr Medina added that about $10bn of laundered Mexican drug money ended up in US banks each year. He said his office was drafting a money-laundering bill that would regulate those responsible for transactions commonly associated with money-laundering.

BURMA ARMY 'RECRUITING CHILDREN'

The Burmese army is forcibly recruiting children to cover gaps left by a lack of adult recruits, says a report by a US-based human rights organisation.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) says children as young as 10 are beaten or threatened with arrest to make them enlist. Burma has previously said it is working towards preventing the recruitment of children by the military. HRW has urged the UN Security Council to do more to punish Burma over its alleged use of child soldiers.

False documents
The report, entitled "Sold to be Soldiers: The Recruitment and Use of Child Soldiers in Burma" says there are thousands of children in the Burmese military. It claims that children are approached in public places by military recruiters and civilian brokers who have been promised cash rewards by the military. The children are often beaten or threatened with arrest to force them to enlist, the report says.
It is claimed that recruiting officers routinely falsify enlistment documents to register children as being 18, the legal minimum age for recruitment. One child quoted in the report says he was forced to lie about his age when he was recruited for a second time.
When I said I was 16, I was slapped and he said, 'You are 18, answer 18.' "I just wanted to go back and home and I told them, but they refused."

'Blatant recruitment'
The child recruits are deployed to battalions after an average of 18 weeks training, the report says. They are often reportedly sent into combat immediately, or forced to take part in activities, such as burning villages, which can be classified as human rights abuses. Jo Becker, children's rights advocate for HRW, said Burma is "literally buying and selling children" to fill the ranks.
"The government's senior generals tolerate the blatant recruitment of children and fail to punish perpetrators," she said. "In this environment, army recruiters traffic children at will."
Ms Becker said that the recent military crackdown had put off many of those potential recruits who were not already deterred by poor conditions and low pay.
"After deploying its soldiers against Buddhist monks and other peaceful demonstrators, the government may find it even harder to find willing volunteers," she said. The Burmese ruling junta says it has formed a high-level committee to address the issue of child soldiers. However, Ms Becker described the committee as "a sham", saying the government must address the issue head-on and demobilise all children.

International pressure
There remains widespread international concern about human rights in Burma. Thousands of people are thought to have been detained following September's military crackdown. The UN Security Council is due to meet soon to discuss the use of child soldiers in Burma.
HRW has accused the Security Council of not taking any action to address the issue, despite stating repeatedly that it would consider targeted sanctions. The group has urged the UN to impose travel restrictions and arms embargos if the situation does not improve.

Programmed to fail: the World Bank clings to a bankrupt development model

BANGKOK -- Like its sister institution the IMF, the World Bank has seen its legitimacy, if not its authority, sharply eroded over the last decade.

The tarnished image of the Bank marks a major change from the state of affairs 10 years ago, when, to great fanfare, Australian-turned-American James Wolfensohn assumed the presidency of the Bank. With the help of a well-oiled public relations machine headed by ex-Economist writer Mark Malloch-Brown, he tried to recast the Bank's image as an institution that was moving away from structural adjustment's emphasis on markets, deregulation and privatization, and making poverty elimination its central mission, while also promoting good governance and supporting environmentally sensitive lending.
While Wolfensohn won some sympathizers in the elite media, especially in the United States, his image makeover failed. Intensifying street protests in developing countries, and in the United States and Europe; biting criticism from the U.S. Congress; corruption scandals; and betrayals of commitments to good faith dialogue with civil society all overwhelmed the Bank's PR offensive.
Most of all, the Bank's record of ongoing failure--a debt relief program that did not deliver the goods; ongoing support for environmentally destructive projects; its ideological commitment to the "market-based" approaches favored by big corporate interests, even as they left their purported beneficiaries among the poor worse off; and a crushing burden of global poverty that persisted not just despite but in part because of Bank policies--destroyed the notion of a progressive, poverty-alleviating Bank.

REALITY BEHIND THE RHETORIC
A report of a commission mandated by the U.S. Congress to look at the international financial institutions destabilized the Bank in early February 2000. Headed by academic Alan Meltzer, the commission came up with a number of devastating findings: 70 percent of the Bank's non-grant lending was concentrated in 11 countries, with 145 other member countries left to scramble for the remaining 30 percent; 80 percent of the Bank's resources was devoted not to the poorest developing countries but to the better off ones that have positive credit ratings and, according to the commission, could therefore raise their funds in international capital markets; the failure rate of Bank projects was 65 to 70 percent in the poorest countries and 55 to 60 percent in all developing countries. In short, the commission found, the World Bank was irrelevant to the achievement of its avowed mission of alleviating global poverty.

China communists 'falling short'

Chinese President Hu Jintao has said in a keynote speech that the Communist Party he leads has fallen short of the people's expectations.

Speaking at the start of the party's 17th congress, he also lashed out at officials who were extravagant, wasteful and corrupt.
President Hu's criticism came as he assessed the party's recent performance in front of senior leaders.
The gathering is held every five years to decide future policies.
Heads bowed
"While recognising our achievements, we must be well aware that they still fall short of the expectations of the people," said President Hu. Some of the problems faced by ordinary people relate to employment, housing, social security and education, he said.
He was particularly critical of party leaders who used their position to provide for themselves, a theme President Hu has often spoken about. "A small number of party cadres are not honest and upright," he told more than 2,200 delegates. "[Their] extravagance, waste, corruption and other undesirable behaviour are still serious problems with them," he said.
The congress officially started when the country's top leaders filed out on to the podium in Beijing's Great Hall of the People, which was bedecked in red flags. In an indication of how much sway former President Jiang Zemin still holds, he emerged immediately after President Hu and sat next to him on the podium. A military band than played the national anthem before party leaders bowed their heads to remember the party's founding fathers. To polite applause and with a hammer and sickle symbol behind him, President Hu then began his speech.
As well as criticising the party's performance over the previous few years, he also laid out its future plans. One of the main goals is to build a "moderately prosperous society" by 2020.
Short on specifics
Later on Mr Hu defined that task as quadrupling the country's year 2000 per capita gross domestic product by 2020. Mr Hu also had a warning for Taiwan, a self-governing island that Beijing considers part of China. The two sides split in 1949. He said the forces of "Taiwan independence" were stepping up their efforts to separate the island from China. "[We] will never allow anyone to separate Taiwan from the motherland in any name or by any means," he warned.
Mr Hu's speech was typical of those delivered by senior Chinese officials at these well-orchestrated gatherings. It was laced with well-worn official phrases such as "socialism with Chinese characteristics". It was long, but short on specifics. For example, Mr Hu promised to "expand socialist democracy" but did not explain exactly what that means. On Sunday, Li Dongsheng, the spokesman for the 17th congress, said China would never adopted Western-style democracy.
But one thing appears clear. President Hu has cemented his position at the top of the party hierarchy. His personal contribution to party theory - scientific development - was placed on a par with contributions from other top leaders. In the speech it ranked alongside Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory and ex-President Jiang's Three Represents. Little is known about Hu Jintao beyond the brief, official biography.
But in his closing remarks, he perhaps revealed something of the man he hopes the public see him as. "We must guard against arrogance and rashness, preserve plain living and struggle hard," he said.

US, RUSSIA IN KEY MISSILE TALKS

The US and Russia are set for high-level talks in Moscow that will focus on Washington's plans to place a missile defence system in Europe.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defence Secretary Robert Gates will meet their opposite numbers to try to tackle the Kremlin's opposition. Moscow sees US plans to base radar in the Czech Republic and interceptors in Poland as a threat to its own security.
The US says it has to counteract "rogue states" like Iran and North Korea. The Kremlin has asked the US why it cannot instead use Russian-operated early warning radar in Azerbaijan.
Friday's talks are also expected to cover Russia's threat to leave the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe and aim nuclear missiles at Europe if the US forges ahead. Analysts say discussions on what might succeed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) on nuclear weapons, which expires in 2009, are also likely.
And the political future of Kosovo will be on the agenda. The so-called two-plus-two meeting will bring Ms Rice and Mr Gates face-to-face with their Russian counterparts, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov.
"We have been very clear that we need the Czech and Polish sites," Ms Rice told journalists on her plane as it flew to Moscow on Thursday night. The secretary of state, who trained as a Soviet specialist during the Cold War, is also expected to hold a private meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
BBC Moscow correspondent Richard Galpin says there is little hope of progress on the key issue of the US missile defence plans. He says the fact that Ms Rice and Mr Gates have flown to Moscow shows how serious problems are now between the two countries. The US diplomatic team is also expected to seek Russian backing for tougher sanctions against Iran. Washington says Iran wants to build nuclear weapons but Tehran says it simply wants to produce nuclear energy. Mr Putin, who is due to visit Iran next week, says there is no evidence that Iran is trying to build a nuclear bomb.

TENSIONS RISE IN TURKEY ON TWO FRONT

ISTANBUL, Oct. 11 -- The Turkish government warned Thursday that a congressional committee vote labeling the mass killings of Armenians during the Ottoman Empire as genocide would "endanger relations" with the United States, and it summoned its ambassador from Washington for emergency consultations.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee vote on the Armenian deaths -- one of the most sensitive issues in Turkish politics and society -- came as Turkish officials said they were preparing to seek parliamentary authority to launch a military assault across the border in Kurdish northern Iraq in retribution for Kurdish rebel attacks that have killed 29 Turkish soldiers, police and civilians in the past two weeks.
Discussion PolicyDiscussion Policy CLOSEComments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post. U.S. officials said Thursday that rising tensions over both issues could have far-reaching ramifications for American operations in Iraq: A Turkish military attack in northern Iraq could create chaos in the country's only relatively stable region, and a Turkish threat to limit U.S. access to its air bases and roads because of the congressional vote could cripple supply lines to American forces in Iraq.
"The committee's approval of this resolution was an irresponsible move, which, at a greatly sensitive time, will make relations with a friend and ally more difficult," the Turkish government said in a statement.
President Abdullah Gul called Wednesday's congressional vote "unacceptable," adding, "Some politicians in the United States have once again sacrificed important matters to petty domestic politics despite all calls to common sense."
Turkish Ambassador Nabi Sensoy said he plans to leave Washington on Friday or over the weekend. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ankara described the diplomatic recall as temporary.
"This is a serious thing," Sensoy said in an interview. "This is the first time that an ambassador has been recalled in many years. We have a sound, time-tested relationship, but these are unfortunate events that put into danger the future of Turkish-U.S. relations."
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said his government will probably present a resolution to parliament next week seeking permission to conduct a cross-border assault into Iraq targeting separatist guerrillas from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the aftermath of the recent attacks.
Turkey accuses Iraqi Kurds of providing refuge for separatist rebels who have been waging a war for autonomy against Turkey since 1984.
Turkey's top civilian and military authorities ordered the armed forces to their highest state of alert Tuesday. The next day, Turkish F-16 and F-14 fighter jets and Cobra helicopter gunships bombed suspected PKK hideouts and escape routes in the mountainous border regions, according to the Turkish Dogan news agency.
Iraqi civilians said Turkish artillery shells had landed inside Iraqi territory, according to news reports from the border area.
Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul told reporters, "There is no need for parliamentary authorization for a hot-pursuit operation" to chase suspected PKK guerrillas. However, Iraq has denied Turkey permission to conduct such raids.

ARMY OFFERS BIG CASH TO KEEP KEY OFFICERS

Thursday, October 11, 2007:
The Army is offering cash bonuses of up to $35,000 to retain young officers serving in key specialties -- including military intelligence, infantry and aviation -- in an unprecedented bid to forestall a critical shortage of officer ranks that have been hit hard by frequent deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Army officials said that lengthy and repeated war-zone tours -- the top reason younger officers leave the service -- plus the need for thousands of new officers as the Army moves forward with expansion plans have contributed to a projected shortfall of about 3,000 captains and majors for every year through 2013.
Discussion PolicyDiscussion Policy CLOSEComments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post. In response, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates approved the unusual incentives last month as a temporary measure for this fiscal year, and over the past three weeks, more than 6,000 Army captains have accepted cash awards ranging from $25,000 to $35,000 in exchange for committing to serve three more years.
In a speech at an Army conference yesterday, Gates said that holding on to today's combat veteran officers is vital to reshaping and rebuilding the force for the future -- and this could mean rethinking Cold War-era promotion policies. "There is a generation of junior and mid-level officers and NCOs [noncommissioned officers] who have been tested in battle like none other in decades," he said. "These men and women need to be retained, and the best and brightest advanced . . . to use their experience to shape the institution."
More than 18,000 Army captains are eligible for the bonuses and more than a third of those have taken them since the new cash offer was announced on Sept. 13, senior Army officers said this week. An additional 900 officers have taken other incentives to stay on.
Captains are a mainstay of the Army's combat units, even more so in the decentralized counterinsurgencies of Iraq and Afghanistan. Infantry captains lead companies of about 120 soldiers, and most have served one, two or three year-long combat tours since 2001. In Iraq, such officers are considered key to the military transition teams that are expected to increase as the mission of the 169,000 U.S. troops there shifts from combat to training Iraqi security forces.
Captains, who are generally in their 20s or early 30s, usually have three to 10 years of Army experience and earn basic pay of $4,000 to $5,000 a month. The rank of captain is often a critical juncture in an officer's career, when most decide whether to leave the service or stay, often until retirement.
"It's a challenge because now we don't have the numbers that we need to fill all the billets," Lt. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, commander of the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center, said in an interview Tuesday. The U.S. troop increase in Iraq heightened the demand for officers, causing the Army's premier school for majors to fill only 800 of its 850 slots this year, a trend that could jeopardize the education of the officer corps if it continues, he said.
"You have a shortage of both majors and captains . . . because we have a larger number make the decision that they have served honorably, they have had one or two or three combat tours and have made the decision to go into civilian life," he said.
According to Army data, the overall attrition rate for captains averaged 12.2 percent from 1999 to 2007. But the estimated captain deficits for the past year were pronounced in some fields that require heavy deployments, such as military intelligence, where the Army is short 10 percent; transportation, where the gap reaches 21 percent; and aviation, where the shortfall is 11 percent.
Army officials said the projected officer shortage is mainly the result of the Army's plan to add 65,000 active-duty soldiers to its ranks -- including more than 6,000 captains and majors -- by 2010. The cash incentives for captains are unprecedented in scope and size, and are intended in part as compensation for soldiers' long separations from their families.
"In the Army there has never been anything like this in memory," said Col. Paul Aswell, director of officer policy for Army personnel. "The bonuses are . . . a measure of payback to the family. They get this windfall to ease some of the pain of service in this environment."

EFFORT TO CURB ILLEGAL WORKERS' HIRING BLOCKED

Thursday, October 11, 2007:
A federal judge barred the Bush administration yesterday from launching a planned crackdown on U.S. companies that employ illegal immigrants, warning of its potentially "staggering" impact on law-abiding workers and companies.

In a firm rebuke of the White House, U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer of San Francisco granted a preliminary injunction against the president's plan to press employers to fire as many as 8.7 million workers with suspect Social Security numbers, starting this fall.
Discussion PolicyDiscussion Policy CLOSEComments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post. President Bush made the effort the centerpiece of a re-energized enforcement drive against illegal immigration in August after the Senate rejected his proposal to overhaul immigration laws. But the court ruling -- sought by major American labor, business and farm organizations -- highlighted the chasm that the issue has opened between the Republican Party and its traditional business allies.
The case also called attention to the gulf between Washington rhetoric about the need to curtail illegal immigration and the economic reality that many U.S. employers rely on illegal labor, as well as to the government's inability for nearly three decades to develop adequate tools for identifying undocumented workers.
In a 22-page ruling, Breyer said the plaintiffs -- an unusual coalition that included the AFL-CIO, the American Civil Liberties Union and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce -- had raised serious questions about the legality of the administration's plan to mail Social Security "no-match" letters to 140,000 U.S. employers.
"There can be no doubt that the effects of the rule's implementation will be severe," Breyer wrote, resulting in "irreparable harm to innocent workers and employers."
The government letters are intended to warn employers for the first time that they must resolve questions about their employees' identities or fire them within 90 days. If they do not, employers could face "stiff penalties," including fines and even criminal prosecution, for violating a federal law that bars knowingly employing illegal workers, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said when he announced the plan Aug. 10.
The plaintiffs convinced the judge that the Social Security Administration database includes so many errors -- incorporated in the records of about 9.5 million people in 2003 alone -- that its use in firings would unfairly discriminate against tens of thousands of legal workers, including native-born and naturalized U.S. citizens, and cause major workforce disruptions that would burden companies.
"The government's proposal to disseminate no-match letters affecting more than eight million workers will, under the mandated time line, result in the termination of employment to lawfully employed workers," the judge wrote. "Moreover the threat of criminal prosecution . . . reflects a major change in DHS policy."
Breyer also said that the government may have ignored a 1980 law, the Regulatory Flexibility Act, that requires it to weigh the cost of imposing new regulations that would significantly burden small-business owners. Randel K. Johnson, a vice president of the Chamber of Commerce, said the ruling shows that "the government cannot do anything it wants simply in the name of enforcement. They've got to be careful about building their record and complying with the law."
In a statement, AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney said: "This is a significant step towards overturning this unlawful rule, which would give employers an even stronger way to keep workers from freely forming unions. . . . More than 70% of SSA discrepancies refer to U.S. citizens."
Chertoff expressed disappointment with the decision and said the administration will continue to aggressively enforce immigration laws while considering an appeal, which plaintiffs' attorneys said could take at least nine months.
"Today's ruling is yet another reminder of why we need Congress to enact comprehensive immigration reform," Chertoff said. "The American people have been loud and clear about their desire to see our nation's immigration laws enforced."
Several analysts said the Bush administration's plan appeared to be designed to push business interests back into the debate by demonstrating that the failure of legislative reform efforts would carry costs, and to reassure conservative lawmakers who oppose illegal immigration that the White House is able and willing to crack down on offenders.
Doris Meissner, former commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service and now a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute in Washington, said the ruling "shows how ineffective the current laws are."
"It reinforces the opinion that many of us hold that until you have a better legal framework -- which requires new legislation -- we're stuck very much with the status quo," Meissner said.
In a statement, Rep. Brian P. Bilbray (R-Calif.), an opponent of Bush's approach who won election to the House last year on the issue, criticized the court. "What part of 'illegal' does Judge Breyer not understand?" he said. "At a time when the federal government is finally trying to enforce current immigration law, we cannot have activist judges stand in the way of doing what is right."
The scope of the problem is uncontested. A three-year government audit ending in 2001 found "widespread" misuse of Social Security numbers by illegal immigrants, who often present fake or fraudulent documents to obtain jobs. Overall, 7.2 million illegal immigrants account for at least 10 percent of low-skilled U.S. workers and 5 percent of the total U.S. workforce, according to a Pew Hispanic Center analysis of 2005 census data.

ATTORNEY GENERAL NOMINEE MADE HIS NAME WITH TERROR CASES

Thursday, October 11, 2007:
Early in the Bush administration, Michael B. Mukasey's position at the intersection of terrorism and the justice system may have cost him a promotion.

Mukasey, then chief judge of the main federal court in New York City, caught the eye of the White House for elevation to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit. A conservative intellectual whose admirers cut across party lines, he was running the nation's busiest courthouse just a mile from Ground Zero -- one that had handled trials of Islamic radicals for nearly a decade.
Discussion PolicyDiscussion Policy CLOSEComments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post. Mukasey was invited to Washington in the spring of 2002 and impressed lawyers from the White House and the Justice Department, several people familiar with the interview recalled.
But that June, "dirty bomb" suspect Jose Padilla was declared an enemy combatant by President Bush. When Padilla's lawyers challenged the government's action, Mukasey drew the case. White House lawyers decided they could not offer Mukasey the appellate post without seeming to undermine his impartiality in a case important to the administration, those familiar with the issue said.
Now, Mukasey's experiences in the Padilla case and other terrorism prosecutions undergird his credentials for nomination to become attorney general. If confirmed by the Senate after hearings next week, the 66-year-old Bronx native will take over an embattled Justice Department. He will deal with Congress on national security issues that remain to be sorted out in the final year of the Bush administration -- including rules for interrogating suspects and gathering evidence in terrorism cases.
Mukasey recently argued in an opinion article for the Wall Street Journal that Congress should find new ways to relieve "a strained and mismatched legal system" that cannot adequately stop terrorist plots while guarding the rights of those suspected of hatching them. He has advocated creating national security courts for terrorism cases, where classified information could be presented to judges in secret.
"If there is anybody who has a handle on the debate on terrorism issues, it's him," said David N. Kelley, who served as U.S. attorney in New York from 2003 to 2005. "He is one of the only people who has sufficient practical experience together with the intellectual ability."
Mukasey is described by people who have worked with him as a serious-minded law-and-order judge, a reserved man whose work and life were shaped by terrorism cases and by the tightknit clan of prosecutors and lawyers who orbit the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Especially long-lasting has been Mukasey's relationship with the more outgoing Rudolph W. Giuliani, a fellow federal prosecutor in the 1970s who went on to become mayor and is now a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination.
In the late 1970s and '80s, Mukasey and Giuliani were among a group of high-powered former prosecutors who revitalized the litigation practice at the law firm of Patterson, Belknap, Webb and Tyler. Mukasey is now on the Giuliani campaign's judicial advisory board, and his son works for Giuliani's law firm.
"It's almost like a fraternity. Everybody thinks they are wearing a white hat doing good working for the government," said Robert G. Morvillo, former chief prosecutor of the Southern District's criminal division and former boss of both Mukasey and Giuliani. Those two men "have grown up in the profession together," he said.
As a judge, Mukasey occasionally regaled his clerks with war stories from the old days. "He loved being an assistant U.S. attorney. I think that's what defined him," said a former colleague who agreed to share private recollections of Mukasey's days on the federal bench.

Top Iraqis Pull Back From Key U.S. Goal

Monday, October 8, 2007
BAGHDAD -- For much of this year, the U.S. military strategy in Iraq has sought to reduce violence so that politicians could bring about national reconciliation, but several top Iraqi leaders say they have lost faith in that broad goal.
Iraqi leaders argue that sectarian animosity is entrenched in the structure of their government. Instead of reconciliation, they now stress alternative and perhaps more attainable goals: streamlining the government bureaucracy, placing experienced technocrats in positions of authority and improving the dismal record of providing basic services.
Discussion PolicyDiscussion Policy CLOSEComments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post. "I don't think there is something called reconciliation, and there will be no reconciliation as such," said Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, a Kurd. "To me, it is a very inaccurate term. This is a struggle about power."
Humam Hamoudi, a prominent Shiite cleric and parliament member, said any future reconciliation would emerge naturally from an efficient, fair government, not through short-term political engineering among Sunnis and Shiites.
"Reconciliation should be a result and not a goal by itself," he said. "You should create the atmosphere for correct relationships, and not wave slogans that 'I want to reconcile with you.' "
The acrimony among politicians has strained the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki close to the breaking point. Nearly half of the cabinet ministers have left their posts. The Shiite alliance in parliament, which once controlled 130 of the 275 seats, is disintegrating with the defection of two important parties.
Legislation to manage the oil sector, the country's most valuable natural resource, and to bring former Baath Party members back into the government have not made it through the divided parliament. The U.S. military's latest hope for grass-roots reconciliation, the recruitment of Sunni tribesmen into the Iraqi police force, was denounced last week in stark terms by Iraq's leading coalition of Shiite lawmakers.
"There has been no significant progress for months," said Tariq al-Hashimi, one of Iraq's two vice presidents and the most influential Sunni politician in the country. "There is a shortage of goodwill from those parties who are now in the driver's seat of the country."
Iraqi leaders say there are few signs that Maliki's government is any more willing to share power now than 15 months ago, when he unveiled a 28-point national reconciliation plan. A key proposal then was an amnesty for insurgents -- an "olive branch," Maliki said at the time -- to bring members of the resistance into the political fold.
But over the summer and fall of 2006, sectarian violence rose to its highest levels, driving thousands of people out of mixed neighborhoods and pushing Sunni and Shiite politicians further apart. The amnesty never materialized, nor has the reconciliation.
Some politicians remain hopeful. Hashimi, the Sunni vice president, recently drafted what he calls the "Iraqi National Compact," a 25-point statement of principles that condemns all types of extremism and sectarian discrimination.
Hashimi's statement calls for candid dialogue among Iraq's various factions. On Sept. 27, he met with the country's most respected Shiite religious leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, a rare and symbolic gesture that underscored the possibility of cooperation across the sectarian gap. Hashimi said Sistani expressed support for the national compact while requesting minor editing of the document.

Nuclear Power Primed for Comeback

Monday, October 8, 2007
CHEROKEE COUNTY, S.C. -- Two decades ago, after Duke Energy abandoned its partly built nuclear power reactors here, the site was sold and turned into a movie set.

Director James Cameron used it to film "The Abyss," a 1989 movie about civilian divers who encounter aliens while trying to rescue a stricken nuclear submarine. Cameron filled the unused nuclear containment building with water and hauled a section of an oil rig, a tiny submarine and fiberglass rocks inside to make convincing underwater scenes.
Now there's a new twist in the plot: The nuclear power industry is trying to come back from its own abyss. With natural gas prices volatile and people anxious about climate change, the nuclear power industry is touting its technology as a way to meet the nation's growing energy needs without emitting more greenhouse gases. Over the next two years, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission expects applications to build as many as 32 new nuclear reactors.
Discussion PolicyDiscussion Policy CLOSEComments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post. Duke Energy could be among them. It reacquired the Cherokee County site and has been tearing down old buildings so it can ask the NRC to let it start all over again. On a hot mid-September afternoon, a giant wrecking hammer was prying huge chunks of concrete from the walls of the old containment facility. They dangled from steel reinforcing rods like stones tottering from the ruins of an ancient coliseum. Inside, the props for "The Abyss" lay covered with dust.
Other utilities and independent power companies are also laying the groundwork for a new wave of U.S. nuclear plants. On Sept. 24, NRG Energy filed the first full application for a new nuclear unit since the partial meltdown of Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island plant in 1979. Then the Tennessee Valley Authority approved plans to build two new reactors in northern Alabama, where it abandoned two mostly finished units in 1988 when electricity demand failed to meet forecasts. Earlier, Constellation Energy Group filed a partial license application to add a nuclear unit to its existing site in Calvert Cliffs, Md.
NRG Energy chief executive David W. Crane proclaimed "a new day for energy in America."
But there is still a lot of worry about the economics of nuclear power. Nuclear plants are hugely expensive to build; they have long lead times and a history of cost overruns. Bottlenecks loom for key components if more than a few plants are built. The price of uranium has soared in recent years. So has the cost of construction materials and skilled labor, which is in short supply. Politicians, environmentalists and business still can't decide how to dispose of radioactive waste.
"If I were an investor, I'd be squeamish," said Jim Harding, a consultant and former director of power-supply planning at Seattle City Light.
To ease financial concerns, the nuclear power industry has turned to Congress. Among the biggest reasons for renewed interest in nuclear power are the tax breaks, loan guarantees and other subsidies in the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
Those benefits were "the whole reason we started down this path," Crane said after filing NRG Energy's license application. "If it were not for the nuclear provisions in there, we would not have even started developing this plan two years ago."
For each nuclear plant seeking federal approval before the end of 2008, the act provides tax credits of up to $125 million for eight years, loan guarantees for up to 80 percent of a plant's cost, shared application costs and insurance that would cover the costs of regulatory delay.
Nuclear plants also receive other subsidies, including local tax breaks and limits on liability for catastrophic accidents.
Many utility executives, however, say they need more.

Car Dealer Tactics on the New-Home Lot

Monday, October 8, 2007; Page A01
Won-Ki Choi and his wife Janice had their eye on the townhouse at East Market at Fair Lakes for some time. But the $536,449 price tag was much too high for them.
Then they saw a newspaper ad from Ryland Homes: For two hours on a recent Saturday afternoon, the Calabasas, Calif.-based builder would sell 140 homes in the Washington area at a discount, through a silent auction.
Won-Ki Choi holds his son Jungwoo, 2, as his wife Janice wipes tears of joy from her eyes after hearing that their $429,999 bid won in a silent auction for a Fairfax County home normally priced at $536,449. (By Susan Biddle -- The Washington Post)
Discussion PolicyDiscussion Policy CLOSEComments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post. The minimum bid for the 2,068-square-foot Fairfax County home was $429,999. Won-Ki Choi wrote his name down minutes before the auction was scheduled to end at 3 p.m. He was the only bidder.
"This is your lucky day," Jerie Wolicki, a company receptionist, told him amid applause.
When the housing market began to weaken, builders responded with incentives such as money toward closing costs and low-interest loans through their mortgage arms, but they did so without cutting their base prices. Faced with a glut of unsold homes and canceled contracts, builders are now turning to tactics typical of car dealerships and department stores. What's even more unusual is that the deals are often accompanied by deep price cuts, which builders had been reluctant to do up until now.
"It's a little odd thinking of homes being sold that way," said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in the District. "You think of a sale for coffee or laundry detergent, but not really for a home."
Craftstar Homes recently had a "Luxury Home Clearance Sale!" where customers could win a vacation and up to $110,000 off an already-built house. Buy a Ryan Home and get "employee pricing," or 10 percent off the purchase price up to $35,000. At the Sterling at the Metro, a condominium community in North Bethesda, buyers got $50,000 off the price or toward closing costs last weekend.
"It's one gimmick after another," Baker said.
But the buyer should beware, housing experts say. The sales typically come with conditions, disclosed in the fine print, such as use of the builder's lender. And in the case of the auctions, buyers can often negotiate the lower price or incentives even if they don't make the decision that day.
Still, said Chris Longly, public affairs manager for the National Auctioneers Association, such sales are the fastest-growing sector of the auction industry. "We're seeing more of it every day, especially this particular type of auction where builders are choosing to go to auctioneers to help them liquidate the properties," he said.
If it all seems a bit desperate, there's good reason. Sales of new homes dropped nationally in August to an annual pace of 795,000, the lowest level in more than seven years, and the median price dropped 7.5 percent from a year earlier, the Commerce Department recently reported.
And the tightening of credit from a rise in foreclosures, especially among risky borrowers with adjustable-rate mortgages, is expected to push even more potential buyers out of the market. The foreclosures are also likely to add to an already-bloated inventory.