By Ravi Bhatia, Talk Radio News Service

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton discussed Friday the U.S agenda for the upcoming United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), touching on issues such as the Obama administration’s missile defense strategy, the conflict in the Middle East, nuclear proliferation and the threat posed by Iran.

While she read her speech at the Brookings Institute in Washington, D.C., she discussed the “ambitious” intentions of the Obama administration at next week’s UNGA in New York, and alluded to a long term goal of a world “with no nuclear weapons.” While fielding questions, she reflected on the state of American foreign policy today.

“For many years, [the U.S] outsourced our policy and concerns about the nuclear program to others to try to intervene with and persuade Iran to change course,” she said. “So we were on the sidelines…we were just trying to figure out how to get other people to go on the field and deal with this problem and look where we are today. We’re really nowhere.”

Clinton also discussed the Obama administration’s missile defense strategy, which was retooled to focus on defending the United States and its allies in Europe from short and mid-range missile attacks. The strategy rejects the Bush administration’s plan to station interceptors in the Czech Republic and Poland that were intended to stop long-range missiles that the current administration believes Iran does not have. Since Poland and the Czech Republic will no longer have land-based interceptors, the new plan eases pressure on Russia, displeasing some Republican members of Congress upon Obama’s announcement of the strategy on Thursday.

“This decision was not about Russia,” she said. “It was about Iran and the threat its ballistic missile program poses. Because of this position, we believe we will be in a far stronger position to deal with that threat and to do so with technology that works and a higher degree of confidence that what we pledge to do we can actually deliver.”

She later discussed Iran and the repercussions the country must face for not revealing its intentions to the international community for nuclear technology.

“Our concern is not Iran’s right to develop peaceful nuclear energy, but its responsibility to demonstrate that it’s program is intended exclusively for peaceful purposes,” she said. “This is not hard to do. The Iranian government seeks a sense of justice in the world, but stands in the way of the justice it seeks.”

In response to a question from Brookings Institute President Strobe Talbott, Clinton also discussed the U.S. government’s strategy for restructuring the country’s health care policy.

“It’s interesting that what we are proposing is fundamentally so conservative compared with so many of our friends and allies around the world, who do a much better job then we do in covering everybody and keeping costs down,” Clinton said. “And yet some of the political opposition is so overheated. We have to calm down here, take two aspirin, go to bed, think about it in the morning. But I’m optimistic.”

By Ravi Bhatia-Talk Radio News Service

A number of high ranking Congressional Republicans Thursday protested President Barack Obama’s recent decision to scrap an Eastern European based missile defense system.

Ranking Member of the House Committee on Armed Services Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-Calif.), House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.), Ranking Member of the House Subcommittee on Strategic Forces Michael Turner and House Chairman Michael Pence (R-Ind.) all delivered statements.

“We’re seeing this administration’s real national security policy emerge,” McKeon said. “The administration is capitulating to Russia’s demands, rewarding Russia for its divisive policies and actions.”

The plan eliminates former President George W. Bush’s planned missile defense system, which would have deployed either a radar system in the Czech Republic or 10 ground-based interceptors in Poland in order to deter long range and short range missiles. Instead, the Obama administration will use a system aimed more toward intercepting shorter-range missiles from Iran, which Defense Secretary Robert Gates believes pose a more immediate threat.

“The sudden turnaround, the sudden release of new intelligence information – that has not come the way of the Hill – is puzzling, to say the least,” Cantor said. “We await the answers associated with that turnaround from our administration.”

Cantor also said that he hoped Vice President Joe Biden was “misquoted” when he said he was much less concerned about Iran because Iran does not have the potential capacity to launch a missile at the United States.

“To me, implicit in [Biden’s] statement is that we should not naturally concern ourselves with the threat to our allies in Europe, to our allies in the Middle East such as Israel,” Cantor said.

Acording to Michael Turner, the Obama administration has cut missile defense funding by $1.2 billion. He also said that the plan will not provide the United States with long range missile defense until 2020, while the former plan would have considered long range missile defense as early as 2013.

“They’re retreating from the deployment of a missile defense shield in Europe,” he said.

“The Obama administration is continuing a policy of appeasement at the expense of our allies,” Pence said. “History teaches that weakness and appeasement invite aggression against peaceful nations.”

Travis Martinez, University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News Service

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) defended the scrapping of a missle shield aimed at preventing an attack from Iran Thursday morning after a meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

“The missile shield is an ineffective and expensive way to deal with missiles,” said Schumer.

The initial plan, which would have established a missle defense sysytem in Poland and the Czech Republic, was recently halted by President Barack Obama.

Schumer went on to say that the missle shield would only antagnonize the Russians and suggested an economic deterrent to Iran’s alleged nuclear pursuit.

“We need to squeeze them economically,” said Schumer.

Secretary Clinton left without comment.

John DuBois- New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

Dore Gold, a former Isreali Diplomat, joined with Republican House members Wednesday to discuss the threat posed by a nuclear armed Iran.

“We are in a dangerous position with Iran,” said Gold. “The time is five minutes before midnight and we cannot drag this out,” Gold added, a reference to the symbolic doomsday clock that tracks the possibility of nuclear weapons use.

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) stated that he feels concerned and “fears a policy of engagement with Iran will lead down a dangerous path.”

The speakers stated that the International Atomic Agency reports a steady growth in low enriched uraninium stocks linked with Iran and that the Islamic Republic is steadily working on the production of warheads.

“The time is now for Congress to in act the strongest sanctions against the regime in Iran,” Rep Mike Pence (R-Ind.) said, referring to the proposed Iran Petroleum Sanctions Act. Pence called upon Democrats to support the legislation.

“I call on our Democratic colleagues in Congress to bring the Iran Petroleum Sanctions Act to the floor this week,” said Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) “It will send the precise, correct message to the President of Iran.” (0:37)

 

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Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) calls Iran a “ticking time bomb” at an event sponsored by the Bipartisan Policy Center in order to promote a report suggesting that the United States establishes a more urgent tone on Iran. (0:30)

 

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

The United States Committee for Camp Ashraf Residents called Thursday for the U.S. government to respond to the alleged mistreatment of Iranian political exiles in an Ashraf, Iraq based refugee camp by transferring control of the camp from Iraqi security forces.

“We have a contractual signed agreements with each of these refugees, we need to honor that,” U.S. Army Col. Gary Morsch M.D. during a press conference in Washington, D.C. with the Committee. “We have a responsibility and an opportunity to do something.”

The refugees of Camp Ashraf were recognized by the United States as “protected persons” during the Fourth Geneva Convention and were under U.S. military protection until January 2009 when the Iraqi government assumed responsibility for their safety. In July, 2009, a raid by Iraqi security forces wounded over 500 refugees with an additional 36 taken hostage. The hostages remain in critical condition and Iraqi forces are limiting medical resources, food and water supplies.

In response, many Iranian-Americans have begun a hunger strike to urge U.S. government officials to push for the immediate release of the 36 refugee hostages and have U.S. forces temporarily take over Camp Ashraf security until a United Nations monitoring post can be established. Hunger stiker Hamid Godarzi said they have been on strike for 37 days and will not quit until their demands are met.

“This is not simple for us to do. I am a senior research scientist in San Antonio, Texas and I left my ordinary life to be here,” Godarzi said. “It is our responsibility to give a voice to the residents of Ashraf.”

According to Godarzi, the White House has not issued a response to the hunger strikers.

By Learned Foote- Talk Radio News Service

The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs is weighing the possibility of levying economic sanctions against Iran. During a hearing on Capitol Hill Thursday, the committee discussed ways to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

Nicholas Burns, a professor at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and former State Department official during the Bush administration, said that Iran’s hotly contested presidential election has compromised the power of its government, and that America “should seek to diminish its strength further.” He said that “Americans should seek to maintain our position as the dominant power in the Middle East, because our influence is positive in that region, and Iran’s is not.”

Burns said that President Obama has generally followed former President’s Bush “basic strategy” by trying to end the nuclear weapons project in Iran through negotiations before applying “draconian” economic sanctions. He said that he did not believe negotiations alone will successfully end Iran’s nuclear program, but said that financial, economic, and energy sanctions would be more effective.

Dr. Suzanne Maloney, a Senior Fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institute, discussed the economic outlook in Iran. She said the country faces “serious economic problems: double-digit inflation, power shortages, a tumbling stock market, stubbornly high unemployment rates,…increasing dependence on volatile resource revenues, and perhaps most ominously for the Iranian leadership, a rising tide of popular indignation about economic frustrations.”

The panelists agreed that unilateral sanctions will not be effective unless other countries join in sanctions against Iran. “We alone in the United States don’t have the capacity to cripple the Iranian economy with our sanctions,” said Maloney. She argued that “multilateral steps represent the only real alternative to a negotiated solution.”

Testifying before the committee, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I- Conn.) praised an amendment added to the Defense Authorization bill, which passed last week. The amendment places a time limit on how long Iran would have to respond to U.S. requests for negotiation before sanctions would be imposed.

“This bill will basically say to companies worldwide who are selling gasoline to Iran, who are shipping it to Iran, or who are insuring or financing those shipments, you got a choice to make. You can continue what you are doing with Iran, or you can do business in the United States of America. You cannot do both,” said Sen. Lieberman. He said that the amendment would not force President Obama to act, but would grant him the authority of enacting economic sanctions.

Sen. Lieberman said that the amendment had bipartisan support. “No matter what may divide us on other issues, we are very united in our concern, our anger about the Iranian program of nuclear weapons development,” he said. “The greatest threat to peace is for Iran to get a nuclear weapons capability.”

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) says that the Iranian regime cares more about its survival than obtaining nuclear weapons, and that economic sanctions would encourage the regime to stop trying to build a nuclear weapons program. (0:24)

 

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Sen. Joe Lieberman (I- Conn.) says that there is bipartisan support for preventing Iran from establishing a nuclear weapons program. He says there is commitment from members of both parties to halt these developments. (0:26)

 

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