Odierno Signals Faster Withdrawal From Iraq

By Leah Valencia, University of New Mexico – Talk Radio News Service

General Raymond Odierno, who commands U.S. forces in Iraq, told the House Armed Services Committee Wednesday that improved security in Iraq may allow troops to withdraw sooner than anticipated.

Odierno says, 4,000 U.S. troops will leave Iraq this month, bringing the total number of American troops down to 124,000. He said the withdrawal would continue to increase rapidly.

“Eleven months from now, our combat mission will end,” Odierno said. “Success will be defined by our ability to support Iraq’s developing institutional capacity, from governance to economics.”

Still, Odierno told committee members that now the U.S. must be cautious with the pace of withdrawal.

“The important part is that we do not want to lose the security progress that has been made,” He added that too quick of a withdrawal would create instability. “We have to ensure that we don’t take enough risk that ethno-sectarian violence is able to continue.”

Odierno noted in his testimony that although there are still significant challenges facing Iraq, he is optimistic about the current situation.

“I believe we are now in reach of our goals,” he said.

Odierno added that attacks “of all types” are decreasing to levels not seen since the “summer of 2003.”

“You can honestly feel a difference amongst the people in Baghdad,” Odierno said.

Iraq is currently establishing diplomatic and economic ties with neighboring countries, and confidence in the operational effectiveness of Iraqi Security Forces is increasing. ISF has taken over security with U.S. forces merely advising, assisting and enabling operations.

Immigration Analysts Call For Employee Identity Verification

By Leah Valencia, University of New Mexico – Talk Radio News Service

Tuesday immigration policy researchers stated that illegal immigrants are responsible for the majority of identity theft crime and that little is being done by the Obama administration to stop them.

“What is striking to me... is how astonishingly uninterested in this crime the Internal Revenue Service and Social Security Administration is,” said Stewart Baker, the former Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Policy. “There is no inclination on the part of either of those institutions to enforce the rules.”

The remarks came during a panel discussion hosted by the Center for Immigration Studies at the National Press Club. Panelists urged employers to verify the identity and citizenship of it’s workers by using government systems such as E-Verify and Social Security Number Verification Services, explaining that 75 percent of working-age illegal aliens use fraudulent Social Security card to obtain employment.

“We are finding that foreign born individuals commit more varieties of identity frauds than Americans do,” CIS National Security Policy Director Janice Kephart said. “E-Verify is snuffing out counterfeiters relatively well.”

E-Verify, which is a voluntary online system operated by the DHS and SSA where employers can verify the identity of new hires by comparing information from an employment eligibility form to a database, has been a centerpiece in current immigration reform debates. Lawmakers have considered mandating all employers use E-Verify as opposed to the brute force of mass deportations.

However, when E-Verify was written into the Secure America Through Verification and Enforcement Act in 2007, the Congressional Budget Office estimated the system would have cost at least $12 billion over 10 years to implement. In 2005 the Government Accountability Office reported to Congress that E-Verify could not detect identity fraud if, “An unauthorized worker presents an employer with either valid identity documents belonging to another person, or reasonably well-made counterfeit documents containing valid information about another person.”

“If I were to take your name, your social security number and your date of birth... I could steal your identity through E-Verify and get through, It is not totally fool-proof,” Author of a CIS backgrounder Ronald Mortensen said.

E-Verify was scheduled to expire September 30, 2009 but on Monday Congress passed a Short-Term Funding Resolution that included a 31-day E-Verify extension.

“The difference between now and the future will be that the administration is behind it,” Kephart said. “They have now been convinced that it is a good program and they are willing to go forward with it.”

Former Homeland Security Official Calls For Increased Information Sharing In War On Terror

By Leah Valencia, University of New Mexico – Talk Radio News Service

Former Homeland Security Adviser Frances F. Townsend called on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Monday to focus on information sharing among local governments and other government entities, warning that a failure to do so could impede the Department's ability to prevent future terrorist attacks.

“If we do not get information sharing right, when there is another attack ... there will be a problem with information sharing,” Townsend said during a presentation at the Heritage Foundation.

Townsend said the issue of information sharing often falls down the list of priorities for the current administration, but could be vital in the prevention and response to terrorism.

“This is not a sexy issue but it is one that will absolutely be our downfall in terms of stopping an attack,” she explained.

The DHS’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis outlined their key intelligence initiatives and reforms in a hearing before the house subcommittee on intelligence late last week. One priority mentioned included improved coordination and information sharing.

Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said the fundamental goal for protection is to better information sharing so that it occurs in a regular and timely manner.

“The key for protecting the homeland from attack is disseminating useable intelligence and information to our state, local, tribal and private sector partners, getting similar intelligence and information back from those partners for analytic work by Office of Intelligence and Analysis and the national Intelligence Community, and ensuring this two-way exchange happens on a real-time basis,” Napolitano said.

Townsend said drastic circumstances should not be necessary before this issue gets the attention it deserves.

“I think people sorely underestimate the consequences of a large scale cyber attack,” Townsend said. “There will be a cyber 9/11 and regretfully I think that is what it will take before people pay attention to these security issues.”

Geithner Urges Congress To Act On Financial Regulatory Reform

By Leah Valencia, University of New Mexico - Talk Radio News Service

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner urged Congress to act quickly in executing a comprehensive overhaul of the financial regulatory system, telling members of the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday that, "Time is the enemy of reform."

Geithner said lawmakers must act to correct the regulatory problems that have left the financial system in disarray.

"As some normalcy returns to our financial system and our economy, we cannot let it be cause for complacency," he said in a hearing on Capitol Hill. "We simply cannot walk away from the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression and not do everything in our power to reform the system."

Geithner explained that the regulatory reform plan proposed in June by the Obama administration aims to achieve three main goals, including providing consumer protection, creating a new financial system less prone to crisis and safeguarding taxpayers from bearing costs of future crises.

A key aspect of the proposal seeks to merge the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision into a new consumer financial protection agency. Lawmakers from both parties raised concerns about such an agency.

House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) wrote proposed changes to the consumer agency in a memo Tuesday. The changes excluded a range of non-financial businesses, such as retailers and auto dealers, from oversight by the agency. Frank also said he plans to fund the agency in a way that would not burden financial institutions, and will no longer require them to offer "plain vanilla" financial products, such as 30-year fixed mortgages.

Geithner said in his testimony that all institutions providing financial credit should be subject to the same regulation and credit standards as banks, but he did not indicate whether these standards would extend to non-financial businesses

"If you are in the business of providing financial credit and you are competing with banks and thrifts to do that, there should be a common set of standards," he said. "In general, we're very supportive of the changes proposed by the chairman."

Frank said he will be holding a series of hearings on the regulatory proposal in coming weeks and plans to have legistlation in the House and Senate by the end of the year.

"This is going to be a very time-consuming committee in October and November," Frank said.

The new legislation would mark the most drastic governance changes for financial institutions implemented in seven decades.

Sen. Brown: Climate Bill Will Not Pass Without Manufacturers' Approval

By Leah Valencia
, University of New Mexico – Talk Radio News Service

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said the American Clean Air and Security Act will not make it through the Senate if harmful economic consequences facing the manufacturing industry are not addressed.

"I don't think there's any way we get to even 50 votes if we don't deal with manufacturing in the climate change bill," Brown told reporters in a conference call organized by Campaign for America's Future. "I do know for sure that there are a number of us who understand that manufacturing is so important to this country that if we don't do manufacturing right, our standard of living will continue to decline."

The American Clean Air And Security Act passed through the House of Representatives late June under the stewardship of Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.). The bill seeks to put a cap on greenhouse emissions and levy a tax on carbon.

According to Brown, the concern facing lawmakers is that new climate control legislation would constrict existing environmental regulations, and thus persuade manufacturers to advance overseas production as a means to lower labor and energy costs.

Brown said it is imperative to have at least a temporary "border equalization" step to prevent American manufacturing jobs from relocating to India and China

"We need some sort of border equalization ... temporary not permanent...until the Chinese and others move in the direction they need to on this issue," Brown said.

The Ohio senator said the President needs to take a more aggressive approach to regain trust from the American public during this week's G-20 summit in Pittsburgh.

"The public has already lost confidence in trade agreements and the way we approach globalization," Brown said.