by Frank James
A quick guided tour of some of the morning’s most important or interesting (or both) Washington-related stories.
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Gen David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker’s assessments of the U.S. military surge’s results and the potential for improvements were more upbeat than those of many other analysts who have questioned the accuracy of Petraeus’s statistics on violence. the
Petraeus testified that he sees a larger and longer role for the U.S. military in Iraq than do many critics of the war, especially Democrats.
Petraeus’s testimony clarified that President Bush’s strategy is to leave to his successor a large U.S. presence in Iraq, essentially placing on the next president the burden of figuring out how to exit Iraq. Four years after 9/11, four of the nation’s top governmental counter-terrorism officials said the U.S. is safer but not safe as al Qaeda works to conduct another large-scale attack in the U.S.
Information about wire transfers that were important clues to the 9/11 plot were contained in a spiral notebook belonging to Zacarias Mossaoui but Federal Bureau of Investigation agents couldn’t get higher ups to sign off on warrants to search the convicted terrorist’s belongings before the attacks.
Federal Reserve officials appeared divided over the impact of the mortgage-related credit crunch and last week’s negative employment report on the economy, indicating that there will likely be disagreement over whether to cut the federal-funds rate and, if so, by how much.
The Homeland Security Department is announcing new rules requiring pilots of private planes planning to enter the U.S. to electronically transmit the names and other personal information on passengers to security officials in the U.S. an hour before departure in an attempt to close a long-known gap that could allow terrorists to enter the U.S.
Sen. Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign will return $850,000 from 260 donors linked to Norman Hsu, the felon who had been a major money bundler for her until it was discovered that he was a fugitive evading a California prison sentence.
The number of adverse drug reactions has nearly tripled, the result of a new reporting system started by the Food and Drug Administration in 1998.
Childrens’ blood pressure rates have begun rising for the first time in decades, a trend linked to growing obesity among children that raises concerns about an increase in life-threatening illnesses.