Bipartisan Letter Sent To Obama Urges Strong Sanctions Against Iran

By Laurel Brishel Prichard University of New Mexico/ Talk Radio News Service

Bipartisan support was shown Wednesday in a letter sent to President Barack Obama urging him to put “crippling” sanctions on Iran to stop the prevent the country from developing nuclear weapons.

“Without a doubt, Iran’s nuclear weapons program poses a severe threat to America’s national interest,” said Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL.) in a press appearance with Republican colleagues.

The sanctions would place strict regulations on Iran which would stop the country from acquiring nuclear materials as well as keep the nation from becoming “a more dangerous, destabilizing and destructive force in the world,” according to Jackson.

While the United Nations is currently focusing on applying sanctions against the country, Rep. Illeana Ros-Lethinen (R-Fl.) hopes the leter prompts faster action.

“We are repeating the failures of the past and continuing to let Iran run out the clock. We can’t wait for consensus on watered-down resolutions at the United Nations Security Council,” said Ros-Lethinen.

The letter was signed by 361 House members.

Napolitano Announces Enhanced Customs Cooperation With Mexico

By Celia Canon

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Mexican Finance Minister Agustin Carstens signed a letter of intent announcing new areas of cooperation on the U.S-Mexican border during a press conference Monday at the Ronald Reagan Center.

In 2007, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) along with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had agreed upon a bilateral program that allowed Mexico and the U.S to join forces in order to safeguard trade and combat illegal activity at the border.

Today’s announcement boosted the 2007 Bilateral Strategic Plan by updating agencies' technology, training Mexican officers for Border Patrol service, and preventing criminals from entering Mexico.

Napolitano praised the extension, saying “The U.S is a full partner with Mexico and the Calderon administration as we satisfy our twin goals of a secure border and a resilient border that allows legitimate trade and commerce to pass but that keeps out drugs, that keeps out weapons, keeps out the cash that fuels these cartels and... makes certain that the border is safe and secure for those who live there.”

Carstens reflected on the importance of this fundamental cooperation for the completion of both Mexican and American interests.

“We both acknowledge that...our joint efforts will translate into more secure and competitive North America,” said Carstens.

The 2007 initiative has already been met with considerable success.

“We have seized [three times] the amount of arms, we’ve seized 50% more drugs,” said Napolitano.

North Korean Threat Not So Imminent?

By Celia Canon- Talk Radio News Service.

Analysts for the Brookings Institution gathered to assess the North Korean threat on America and its allies in reaction to N.Korea's recent underground nuclear bomb detonation and the launch of two short-range missiles.

The think tank was pressed into discussing the matter following North-Korea’s acceleration in its military activity.

Pyongyang had already caught the international community’s attention in October 2007 by unsuccessfully testing a nuclear weapon.

However the threat posed by the North Asian state has reached new heights after N.Korea announced that it had conducted underground nuclear tests on Monday, followed by two short-range missiles (a ground-to-ship missile and a ground-to-air missile) launched from an east-coast base on Tuesday.

Michael O’Hanlon, a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution warned that although “Their options are limited,” threats must be taken seriously, they must be mitigated.

Richard Bush, a Senior Fellow and Director for the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies, confirmed that “They have a problem though, and that is that deterrence is not yet credible; their missiles don’t fly far enough and accurately enough, the weapons design is not yet perfect and so they need to test, that's the only way they can demonstrate to others that they have the capability to inflict harm on the United States and on Japan.”

If the production of the missiles is one leap closer to achieving significant nuclear capabilities, O’Hanlon explained that “The real issue is the size of the weapon and how deliverable it would be by the North Koreans, if they were to choose to deliver it some day.”

Additionally, “[The missile] has to survive the stresses of missile flight, which are no trivial,” said O’Hanlon.

However, according to the analysts, this does not mean that a threat is nonexistent but rather that the U.S should not be concerned by missiles coming from North Korea directly.

O’Hanlon said “I would say the most worrisome question is the sale of nuclear material because if they attack South Korea, their regime will end.”

O’Hanlon concluded that “The only thing they can plausibly get way with is the sale.”

Bi-partisan Bill Gives Obama More Power Over Iran Sanctions

By Kayleigh Harvey - Talk Radio News Service

Liberals and Conservatives stood together at a Senate press conference today to discuss the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act.

Senator Evan Bayh (R-Ind.) author of the bill, along with Senators Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Senator Jon Kyl (D-Ind.), said that bi-partisanship had been achieved on this bill because of the “critical importance of this issue.”

The purpose of the legislation, which expands on the Iran Sanction of 1996, Lieberman said is, “to empower President Obama...by providing him with the explicit authority to target Iran’s achilles economic heel, which is its dependence on imports of petroleum...most notably gasoline.”

Lieberman accused previous legislation of being “quite ambiguous” and said that this legislation would “eliminate” that ambiguity. The new proposal would provide the President with a “powerful new weapon to use in the negotiations with Iran,” said Lieberman. Adding it is up to President Obama to decide, “when, where and against whom to use it.”

Bayh said the bill would help to “strengthen the President’s outreach” to Iran. Adding “if events continue go as they are currently going, then at some point during the next two to four years Iran will have a nuclear weapon”. This would have a “destabilizing” effect on the entire world,” said Bayh. This bill, he said, “gives us our best opportunity to avoid that outcome without the resort to military force.”

Kyl said the bill gives the President the tool to “stop companies who continue to sell refined gasoline to Iran or provide refining capacity from doing business in the United States or through the American banking systems.”

“In effect what we are saying to the few companies in the world who provide this refined gasoline to Iran is, ‘You can either do business in our $13 trillion economy with us, or you can do business with Iran with its $250 billion economy, but you can’t do both,’” said Kyl.

In closing Lieberman said, “this is important legislation introduced at a critical time whose consequences for the people of America, Iran, Israel and the Arab world are going to be quite serious.” Adding that he hoped this bill would make it “more likely” for the “diplomatic engagements” between President Obama and the Irani government to succeed and that “they will peacefully abandon their nuclear ambitions.”

Twenty-five U.S. Senators, from both parties, have currently signed their name as a co-sponsors to this piece of legislation.

"We're on the same page"

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen gave a press conference at the Pentagon today summing up their testimony on Capitol Hill in addition to the marathon testimony by Multinational Forces Iraq commander, Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker.

Gates said that before this period of reporting back to the Congress and the Bush administration he had hoped that he, Petraeus, the Joint Chiefs, and the former head of Central Command Adm. Fallon would have a chance to speak their mind on Iraq and Afghanistan as decisions are made about the way forward. Gates said that it just so happened that all involved ended up on the same page as far as relying on information from Gen. Petraeus about conditions on the ground and making decisions based on his reports. Gates reiterated what he has said on Capitol Hill, that it is important not to "get the end game wrong in Iraq"



Mullen said that he feels that this evaluation of forces in Iraq is important, particularly because it will inform troop decisions made about Afghanistan. The 3,500 additional Marines the Defense Department announced it would send in January have been deployed and are en-route to their work in Afghanistan. Gates made sure to say that President Bush had been careful at the NATO summit in Bucharest to say that the U.S. would send more troops to Afghanistan, but not to say exactly how many or when.

When asked whether Muqtada al Sadr is an enemy of the United States, Mullen responded that Sadr is an enigma, whose cease-fire agreement has certainly been a help to the decrease in violence in Iraq. Gates answered that anyone who is prepared to participate in the Iraqi political process in a peaceful and constructive way is no enemy of the United States.

A big topic was Iran. Gates said that he was not sure if the recent reports of Iranian activity indicated an actual uptick in Iranian involvement in Iraq or if in the recent fighting in Basra such activity has just become more apparent. Both men said that they have seen no indication that Iranian President Ahmadinejad had direct knowledge of influence over the Iranian groups that fund and support terrorism in Iraq. But Gates said that though he's seen no evidence he finds it hard to believe that Ahmadinejad doesn't have direct knowledge.

And finally Gates, speaking on Afghanistan, said that the war there seems to have very broad bipartisan support and that he is sure that no matter who the next president is, they will have success in Afghanistan as a goal.