Obama considers sending more troops to Afghanistan
WASHINGTON — President Obama is nearing a decision to send more forces to Afghanistan, though probably not the 40,000 sought by his top general there.
The White House said the president hasn’t made a decision yet about troop levels or other aspects of the revised strategy.
Administration officials told The Associated Press on Monday the deployment would most probably begin in January. An Army brigade that has been training for deployment to Iraq that month may be the vanguard. The brigade, based at Fort Drum in upstate New York, has been told it will not go to Iraq as planned.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the president would meet again Wednesday with key members of his foreign policy and military team, but was unlikely to announce final plans for Afghanistan until late this month.
FBI reviews previous mental assessment of alleged shooter
WASHINGTON — Nearly a year before Maj. Nidal Hasan allegedly went on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood, terrorism investigators conducted an “assessment” of him before deciding he did not pose a threat. After the shooting, the FBI is doing a new assessment.
The Army psychiatrist is believed to have acted alone despite repeated communications with a radical imam overseas, U.S. officials said Monday. The FBI will conduct an internal review to see whether it mishandled early information about the man accused in the bloody rampage that killed 13 people and wounded 29.
President Barack Obama was joining grieving families and comrades of the victims Tuesday at a memorial service at the sprawling Texas Army base. Hasan, awake and talking to doctors, met his lawyer Monday in the San Antonio hospital where he is recovering, under guard, from gunshot wounds in the assault.
In Washington, an investigative official and a Republican lawmaker said Hasan had communicated 10 to 20 times with Anwar al-Awlaki, an imam released from a Yemeni jail last year who has used his personal Web site to encourage Muslims across the world to kill U.S. troops in Iraq. Despite that, no formal investigation was opened into Hasan, they said.
Health care moves to the Senate, Bill Clinton heads
WASHINGTON — Former President Clinton knows just how high the stakes are in the overhaul of America’s health care system.
His failed attempt to revamp the delivery of medical care contributed to the Republican takeover of the House and Senate in 1994.
Fast forward to 2009, where Clinton is still in the picture, and hespeak to Senate Democrats about health care legislation during their weekly caucus Tuesday, officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss his schedule.
President Barack Obama wants to sign the legislation into law by the end of the year. But abortion opponents in the Senate are seeking tough restrictions in the health care overhaul bill, a move that could roil a shaky Democratic effort.
Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., said Monday he could not support a bill unless it clearly prohibits federal dollars from going to pay for abortions. Nelson is weighing options, including offering an amendment similar to the one passed by the House this weekend.
FBI reassessing its actions nearly a year after first look at Fort Hood shooting suspect
WASHINGTON — Nearly a year before Maj. Nidal Hasan allegedly went on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood, terrorism investigators conducted an “assessment” of him before deciding he did not pose a threat.
After the shooting, the FBI is doing a new assessment — of its own conduct.
The Army psychiatrist is believed to have acted alone despite repeated communications — intercepted by authorities — with a radical imam overseas, U.S. officials said Monday.
The FBI will conduct an internal review to see whether it mishandled early information about the man accused in the bloody rampage that killed 13 people and wounded 29.
President Barack Obama was joining grieving families and comrades of the victims Tuesday at a memorial service at the sprawling Texas Army base. Hasan, awake and talking to doctors, met his lawyer Monday in the San Antonio hospital where he is recovering, under guard, from gunshot wounds in the assault.
In Washington, an investigative official and a Republican lawmaker said Hasan had communicated 10 to 20 times with Anwar al-Awlaki, an imam released from a Yemeni jail last year who has used his personal Web site to encourage Muslims across the world to kill U.S. troops in Iraq. Despite that, no formal investigation was opened into Hasan, they said.
Obama takes on challenge of national healer, a role that can shape a presidency over time
WASHINGTON — Presidents get elected to run the nation. Some days that means knowing how to heal it.
For the first time since winning the White House, President Barack Obama faces such a moment Tuesday at Fort Hood. After a shooting that left 13 people dead and 29 wounded on the bustling Texas Army post, it is Obama’s job to offer some comfort, if not answers.
Obama will do so privately with the families of those killed, and then publicly at a memorial service sure to be watched by American troops around the world.
It is his time to take on the healer-in-chief role that can help shape a presidency at a time of national tragedy.
Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, governed during the worst terrorist attack on American soil, the most crippling natural disaster in U.S. history, a space shuttle explosion, a shooting rampage at Virginia Tech, a tornado that wiped away a Kansas town, a bridge collapse in Minnesota, Midwestern flooding and California wildfires. Each response affected his standing, for better or worse, in a country that expects its president to be empathetic and clearly in charge.
Navies of 2 Koreas exchange fire near disputed border; NKorean boat suffers heavy damage
SEOUL, South Korea — The two Koreas briefly exchanged naval fire Tuesday along their disputed western sea border, with a North Korean ship suffering heavy damage before retreating, South Korean military officials said.
There were no South Korean casualties, the country’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement, and it was not immediately clear if there were any casualties on the North Korean side. Each side blamed the other for violating the sea border.
The clash — the first of its in kind in seven years — occurred as U.S. officials said President Barack Obama has decided to send a special envoy to Pyongyang for rare direct talks on the communist country’s nuclear weapons program. No date has been set but it would be the first one-on-one talks since Obama took office in January. Obama is due in Seoul next week.
“It’s a regrettable incident,” South Korean Commodore Lee Ki-sik told reporters in Seoul. “We are sternly protesting to North Korea and urging it to prevent the recurrence of similar incidents.”
North Korea’s military issued a statement blaming South Korea for the “grave armed provocation,” saying its ships crossed into North Korean territory.
Health care moves to the Senate, Bill Clinton heads to the Capitol to meet with Democrats
WASHINGTON — Former President Bill Clinton knows just how high the political stakes are in the fight to overhaul America’s health care system.
His failed attempt to revamp the delivery of medical care contributed to the Republican takeover of the House and Senate in 1994.
Fast forward to 2009, where health care’s white-hot spotlight now shines on the Senate.
Clinton is still in the picture, and he’s expected to speak to Senate Democrats about health care legislation during their weekly caucus Tuesday, officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss his schedule.
President Barack Obama wants to sign the legislation into law by the end of the year. But abortion opponents in the Senate are seeking tough restrictions in the health care overhaul bill, a move that could roil a shaky Democratic effort.
Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., said Monday he could not support a bill unless it clearly prohibits federal dollars from going to pay for abortions. Nelson is weighing options, including offering an amendment similar to the one passed by the House this weekend.
Obama near decision on deploying nearly 40,000 additional troops to Afghanistan
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is nearing a decision to add tens of thousands more forces to Afghanistan, though probably not quite the 40,000 sought by his top general there.
The White House emphasized that the president hasn’t made a decision yet about troop levels or other aspects of the revised U.S. strategy in Afghanistan.
Administration officials told The Associated Press on Monday the deployment would most probably begin in January with a mission to stiffen the defense of 10 key cities and towns.
An Army brigade that had been training for deployment to Iraq that month may be the vanguard. The brigade, based at Fort Drum in upstate New York, has been told it will not go to Iraq as planned but has been given no new mission yet.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the president would meet again Wednesday with key members of his foreign policy and military team but was unlikely to announce final plans for Afghanistan until late this month, when he returns from an extended diplomatic trip to Asia.
Gibbs said the Pentagon is “working on additional recommendations” to present to Obama and said Obama has made no decision on troop numbers, or even on what the ratio should be between combat troops and trainers.
Unless governor stops it, D.C. sniper mastermind John Allen Muhammad set for execution Tuesday
RICHMOND, Va. — Unless Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine steps in, sniper mastermind John Allen Muhammad will be executed Tuesday for the attacks that terrorized the nation’s capital region for three weeks in 2002.
Muhammad is set to die by injection at Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt. His attorneys have asked Kaine to commute his sentence to life in prison because they say he is mentally ill. The U.S. Supreme Court turned down Muhammad’s final appeal Monday.
Muhammad was sentenced to death for killing Dean Harold Meyers at a Manassas gas station during a spree that left 10 dead across Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.
He and his teenage accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, also were suspected of fatal shootings in other states, including Louisiana, Alabama and Arizona.
For the families of those killed, the day is a long time coming.
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