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Show Friday, Sept. 18, 2009 Page 2 World&Nation Utah State University • Logan, Utah • www.aggietownsquare.com ClarifyCorrect The policy of The Utah Statesman is to correct any error made as soon as possible. If you find something you would like clarified or find unfair, please contact the editor at statesmaneditor@aggiemail.usu.edu Celebs&People NEW YORK (AP) — President Barack Obama’s candid thoughts about Kanye West are provoking a debate over standards of journalism in the Twitter age. ABC News says it was wrong for its employees to tweet that Obama had called West a “jackass” for the rapper’s treatment of country singer Taylor Swift. The network said some of its employees had overheard a conversation between the president and CNBC’s John Harwood and didn’t realize it was considered off the record. The network apologized to the White House and CNBC. NewsBriefs Attacker injures nine students in Germany ANSBACH, Germany (AP) — Police say a 19-year-old armed with an ax has attacked a high school in southern Germany, wounding nine students. Nuremberg police spokeswoman Elke Schoenwald says the student attacker stormed his high school in the Bavarian town of Ansbach early Thursday. In addition to the ax, the student appeared to be carrying Molotov cocktails. Schoenwald says the attacker, who also was injured, has been arrested and police have evacuated the school. Utah unemployment rate stays at 6 percent SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show Utah’s unemployment rate held steady at 6 percent from July to August. Last August, the state’s unemployment rate was 3.4 percent. The Utah Department of Workforce Services says about 82,500 Utahns were considered unemployed in August 2009, compared to 47,600 last August. Most Utah industries have lost jobs. LateNiteHumor David Letterman, Aug. 24, 2009 – Top 10 Signs President Obama Needs a Vacation. 10. Last week’s radio address was 10 minutes of snoring. 9. Switched from beer summits to tequila summits. 8. Asked CIA director what we’re doing about terrorist organization “Al-Pacino.” 7. Staffers often find him on White House roof meowing like a kitty. 6. Announced he’s sending an elite military unit to kill Hitler. 5. Lately, he’s been fist-bumping staffers in the face. 4. Asked for the number of Rush Limbaugh’s OxyContin guy. 3. Called Bush for advice on sneaking naps during intelligence briefings. 2. Been babbling nonsense about government death panels – wait, that’s a sign Sarah Palin needs a vacation. 1. Barely has the energy to smoke. Pelosi addresses angry health care rhetoric WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that the anti-government rhetoric over President Barack Obama’s health care reform effort is troubling because it reminds her of the violent debate over gay rights that roiled San Francisco in the 1970s. Anyone voicing hateful or violent rhetoric, she told reporters, must take responsibility for the results. “I have concerns about some of the language that is being used because I saw this myself in the late ‘70s in San Francisco,” Pelosi said, suddenly speaking quietly. “This kind of rhetoric was very frightening” and created a climate in which violence took place, she said. Former San Francisco Supervisor Dan White was convicted of the 1978 murders of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, a gay rights activist. Other gay rights activists and others at the time saw a link between the assassinations and the violent debate over gay rights that had preceded them for years. During a rambling confession, White was quoted as saying, “I saw the city as going kind of downhill.” His lawyers argued that he was mentally ill at the time. White committed suicide in 1985. Pelosi is part of a generation of California Democrats on whom the assassinations had a searing effect. A resident of San Fransisco, Pelosi had been a Democratic activist for years and knew Milk and Moscone. At the time of their murders, she was serving as chairwoman of her party in the northern part of the state. On Thursday, Pelosi was answering a question about whether the current vitriol concerned her. The questioner did not refer to the murders of Milk or Moscone, or the turmoil in San Francisco three decades ago. Pelosi referenced those events on her own and grew uncharacteristically emotional. “I wish that we would all, again, curb our enthusiasm in some of the statements that are made,” Pelosi said. Some of the people hearing the message “are not as balanced as the person making the statement might assume,” she said. “Our country is great because people can say what they think and they believe,” she added. “But I also think that they have to take responsibility for any incitement that they may cause.” Pelosi’s office did not imme- HOUSE SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI of California gestures during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. AP photo diately respond to a request for examples of contemporary vstatements that reminded the speaker of the rhetoric of 1970s San Francisco. The public anger during health care town hall meetings in August spilled into the House last week when South Carolina Republican Joe Wilson shouted “You lie!” at Obama, the nation’s first black president, during his speech. On a largely party-line vote, the House reprimanded Wilson. The tone of the protests has sparked a debate over whether the criticism of Obama, the nation’s first black president, is really about his race. Former President Jimmy Carter has said he thinks the vitriol is racially motivated, but Obama does not believe that, a White House spokesman said. Asked about Pelosi’s remarks Thursday, House Republican Leader John Boehner said he hasn’t seen evidence that any of the public anger could lead to violence. And he took issue with Carter’s remarks. “I reject this resoundingly,” Boehner told reporters, noting that he and other Republicans called Obama’s election last year a defining moment for the nation. “The outrage that we see in America has nothing to do with race,” Boehner said. Nuclear agency says Iran could make bomb VIENNA (AP) — Iran experts at the U.N nuclear monitoring agency believe Tehran has the ability to make a nuclear bomb and worked on developing a missile system that can carry an atomic warhead, according to a confidential report seen by The Associated Press. The document drafted by senior officials at the International Atomic Energy Agency is the clearest indication yet that those officials share Washington’s views on Iran’s weaponmaking capabilities and missile technology – even if they have not made those views public. The document, titled “Possible Military Dimension of Iran’s Nuclear Program,” appeared to be the so-called IAEA “secret annex” on Iran’s alleged nuclear arms program that the U.S., France, Israel and other IAEA members say is being withheld by agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei – claims the nuclear watchdog denies. It is a record of IAEA findings since the agency began probing Iran’s nuclear program in 2007 and has been continuously updated. The information in the document that is either new, more detailed or represents a more forthright conclusion than found in published IAEA reports includes: – The IAEA’s assessment that Iran worked on developing a chamber inside a ballistic missile capable of housing a warhead payload “that is quite likely to be nuclear.” – That Iran engaged in “probable testing” of explosives commonly used to detonate a nuclear warhead – a method known as a “full-scale hemispherical explosively driven shock system.” – An assessment that Iran worked on developing a system “for initiating a hemispherical high explosive charge” of the kind used to help spark a nuclear blast. In another key finding, an excerpt notes: “The agency ... assesses that Iran has sufficient information to be able to design and produce a workable implosion nuclear device (an atomic bomb) based on HEU (highly enriched uranium) as the fission fuel.” ElBaradei said in 2007 there was no “concrete evidence” that Iran was engaged in atomic weapons work – a source of friction with the United States, which has sought a hard-line stance on Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. Responding to the AP report, the agency did not deny the existence of a confidential record of its knowledge and assessment of Iran’s alleged attempts to make nuclear weapons. But an agency statement said the IAEA “has no concrete proof that there is or has been a nuclear weapon program in Iran.” It cited ElBaradei as telling the agency’s 35-nation governing board last week that “continuing allegations that the IAEA was withholding information on Iran are politically motivated and totally baseless.” “Information from a variety of sources ... is critically assessed by a team of experts working collectively in accordance with the agency’s practices,” it said. “The IAEA reiterates that all relevant information and assessments that have gone through the above process have already been provided to the IAEA Board of Governors in reports of the director general.” The document traces Iran’s nuclear arms ambitions as far back as 1984, when current supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was president and Iran was at war with Iraq. At a top-level meeting at that time, according to the document, Khamenei endorsed a nuclear weapons program, saying “a nuclear arsenal would serve Iran as a deterrent in the hands of God’s soldiers.” He and other top Iranian leaders insist their country is opposed to nuclear weapons, describing them as contrary to Islam. They argue that Iran’s uranium enrichment program and other activities are strictly for civilian purposes. Senior U.S. government officials have for years held the view that Iran has the expertise to make a bomb. The Obama administration said Thursday it was scrapping a Bush-era plan for a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the decision came after U.S. intelligence concluded that Iran’s short- and medium-range missiles were developing more rapidly than previously projected and now pose a greater near-term threat than the intercontinental ballistic missiles addressed by the plan under former President George W. Bush. The AP saw two versions of the U.N. document. Both were tagged “confidential.” Medal of Honor awarded to soldier killed in Afghanistan WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama on Thursday praised a U.S. soldier who three times left cover for an attempted rescue while Taliban bullets and grenades rained around him, ultimately losing his own life while trying to save his comrade on an Afghan battlefield. A somber Obama, standing just feet from SGT. 1ST CLASS Jared C. Sgt. 1st Class Jared Monti of Raynham, Mass. AP photo Monti’s parents, told a White House audience that the 30-year-old soldier’s sacrifice should give Americans pause when they throw around words such as duty, honor, sacrifice and heroism. “Do we really grasp the meaning of these values? Do we truly understand the nature of these virtues, to serve and to sacrifice?” Obama asked. “Jared Monti knew. The Monti family knows. And they know that the actions we honor today were not a passing moment of courage. They were the culmination of a life of character and commitment.” Presenting his first Medal of Honor, Obama lav- ished praise on the soldier from Raynham, Mass., who was leading a scouting mission along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan when a helicopter deployed to resupply the patrol blew their cover. Taliban fighters converged, and Monti called for backup. With vivid details, the president told the story of 16 soldiers who were surrounded and outnumbered by insurgents yet kept their position until backup arrived. “Bullets and heavy machine gunfire ricocheting across the rocks. Rocket-propelled grenades raining down. Fire so intense that weapons were shot right out of their hands,” Obama said, explaining the battle to a packed audience at the White House. “Within minutes, one soldier was killed, another was wounded. Everyone dove for cover, behind a tree, a rock, a stone wall.” One of Monti’s men, Pvt. Brian Bradbury of St. Joseph, Mo., was shot during the encounter. Monti, who enlisted at age 17, twice left cover and ran into the open under intense enemy fire to retrieve the wounded soldier. “Jared Monti did something no amount of training can instill. His patrol leader said he’d go, but Jared said, ‘No, he is my soldier. I’m going to get him,’” Obama recounted. “Said his patrol leader, it ‘was the bravest thing I had ever seen a soldier do,’” Obama continued. On Monti’s third attempt, he was struck by a gre- nade and died on the field. Three others, including Bradbury, also died during the fight. “Jared Monti saw the danger before him. And he went out to meet it,” Obama said. “Faced with overwhelming enemy fire, Jared could have stayed where he was, behind that wall. But that was not the kind of soldier Jared Monti was.” The award came as the administration is wrestling with its next move in Afghanistan. Obama has held off sending more troops to the country where the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were launched. He already has sent 17,000 additional combat troops to Afghanistan and is weighing sending more to stabilize that nation. Democrats, however, want specific benchmarks set before Obama goes forward with more combat troops for the region. For his part, Obama stayed away from the Washington debate and focused on the story of what happened on June 21, 2006, when Monti died during a firefight in Gowardesh, Afghanistan, Monti previously was awarded a Bronze Star, Purple Heart, five Army Commendation Medals, four Army Achievement Medals and three National Defense Service Medals. The Medals of Honor are the highest award for military valor, typically reserved for members of the military who risk their lives with gallantry beyond the call of duty. Monti is the 3,448th service member to earn the honor. |