Officials: Taliban chief's wife killed by missile

By ISHTIAQ MAHSUD and NAHAL TOOSI, Associated Press Writer

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan – A suspected U.S. missile strike killed a wife of Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud at his father-in-law's house Wednesday, Pakistani intelligence and military officials said.

Mehsud associates acknowledged a woman was killed but would not confirm her identity. They said Mehsud was not at the South Waziristan home during the attack, which authorities said also killed a second person.

The missile strike could indicate that American intelligence aimed at tracking down the notorious Taliban leader is getting sharper, and that those hunting him are getting closer.

South Waziristan is part of the northwest tribal belt along the border with Afghanistan where Taliban and al-Qaida leaders — including possibly Osama bin Laden — are believed to be hiding. Dozens of American missile strikes have landed in the tribal regions over the past year, and lately they have focused on targets linked to Mehsud.

Two intelligence officials and one army official, who all spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, said the missile strike had destroyed the home of Mehsud's father-in-law, Akramud Din, and that two people had been killed, including the second of Mehsud's two wives. Under Islam, men are allowed to have up to four wives.

One intelligence official said agents were trying to get details about the second person who died. A Mehsud associate who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue said Mehsud was not in the house hit by the strike in the Jangara area.

The information is nearly impossible to confirm independently. South Waziristan is remote, rugged, dangerous and largely off-limits to journalists. In addition, militants tend to quickly surround sites hit by missile strikes and spirit away the bodies, making definitive physical proof of deaths tough to get.

The U.S. Embassy had no comment Wednesday. Washington generally does not acknowledge the missile strikes, which are fired from unmanned drones. In the past, however, American officials have said the missiles have killed several important al-Qaida operatives.

The U.S. has a $5 million bounty on Mehsud's head, considering him a threat to its interests in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The Taliban commander has been accused in the past of involvement in the 2007 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, a charge he has denied. He is also suspected in dozens of suicide attacks in Pakistan.

If confirmed, the death of Mehsud's wife is a sign authorities are gaining on Mehsud, a leading analyst said.

"I think they seem to have good intelligence; there is no doubt about it," retired Pakistani army Lt. Gen. Talat Masood said. "They are closing in, and they are keeping the pressure on these people."

Pakistan's military has carried out several air strikes targeting Mehsud, and the army has said it is preparing for a major offensive against Mehsud and his network in the tribal region. But the offensive has not gone full-scale, despite being announced weeks ago.

Masood said it was likely the military wanted to concentrate on clearing up militants still active in and around the Swat Valley elsewhere in the northwest, where it is waging a separate three-month offensive.

"At the moment, I don't think it has any desire or intention of launching a full-fledged attack in South Waziristan. I feel they are wanting to contain them instead of having a full-fledged attack," Masood said.

The missile strikes have continued even as Pakistan formally protests them, saying they anger local residents. Masood noted that the death of a woman in the latest strike could upset some Pakistanis.

"People in Pakistan would not like wives to be targeted ... the social aspect is there," he said. "This is a very dangerous game for a fight that involves so many civilians, innocent civilians."

Many analysts suspect the two countries have a secret deal allowing the strikes, but that the Pakistani government condemns them to save face with the public. Islamabad has pushed Washington to provide it with access to the latest technology so that Pakistan's own military could carry out such attacks.

Iraq to impose controls on Internet

By SINAN SALAHEDDIN, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD - The Iraqi government has decided to crack down on Internet service providers and ban sites that incite violence or carry pornography, officials said Tuesday, a move that has been strongly criticized by freedom of speech advocates as a dangerous first step toward political censorship.

The plan to strengthen government control of content and usage will require Internet cafes — and later the service providers as well — to obtain licenses that are subject to government review and cancellation if compliance requirements are not met.

"All Web sites that glorify terrorism and incite violence and sectarianism, or those that violate social morals with content such as pornography will be banned," communications ministry spokesman Sameer al-Hasoon told The Associated Press by phone Tuesday.

Al-Hasoon refused to divulge further details of the committee's recommendations, but said he expected them to be approved by the Cabinet next week. The next step would be for the government to send the draft legislation to parliament.

Another official said the ministry is planning to license five of the 10 wireless Internet service providers currently operating in Iraq. He refused to say why the five were chosen, but said the tightened restrictions will implemented in coordination with the Interior Ministry's anti-Internet crimes directorate.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to make statements to the media.

The plan to tighten government controls has raised concerns about the protection of constitutional freedoms. Since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, Iraq has had relatively lax restrictions on Internet providers compared with some of its Muslim neighbors.

The officials said their concern is primarily over sites that promote violence. They also say they want to ensure that the online fare readily available at Internet cafes does not get too far out of step with Iraq's social mores.

But the Baghdad-based independent Journalistic Freedom Observatory denounced the step as an "attempt to control the flow of free information on the Internet and limit the knowledge of the citizens."

The JFO also claimed the plan violates the Iraqi constitution, which guarantees the freedom of mail, telegrams, phone and electronic communications. The constitution, enacted in 2005, says such communications cannot be "monitored, tabbed or revealed."

"Excuses of protecting national security or moral standards are unacceptable," the JFO said in a statement. "It is only being used to censor Internet service and control freedom of expression."

The group said the plan opens the door for tighter controls, particularly over political discussions, dissent or debate on issues that are sensitive to the government.

It says the controls are a throwback to the days of Saddam, when access to the Internet was limited to just one provider and e-mail and phone calls were monitored and censored by the Ministry of Communications and security agencies.

After Saddam was toppled in the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, dozens of wireless Internet providers started business and hundreds of Internet cafes were opened in the capital, Baghdad, and other provinces.

"No one opposes blacking out web sites that offer pornography because of the damage such sites bring to society," said Hassan al-Kaabi, the 26-year-old owner of an Internet cafe in Baghdad's eastern Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City. "But the government decision that deals with web sites that incite violence and terrorism is vague and needs more clarification."

Al-Kaabi, who has 12 computers and offers wireless service to about 80 subscribers, said he is worried about his future and the gains Iraq has made since Saddam's ouster.

"This is just like a trap to me," he said. "This will definitely affect our business."

Ahmadinejad sworn in as Iran president amid crisis

By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Writer

TEHRAN, Iran – Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was sworn in to a second presidential term Wednesday with a call for the divided nation to "join hands," but it was greeted by protests in the streets and snubs inside Iran's parliament.

The oath-taking ceremony capped a cycle of outrage over claims of massive fraud in the June 12 elections and moved Iran into a new phase: A weakened leadership facing a wider opposition that includes powerful clerics and internal splits among conservatives.

The political fissures raise serious questions about Iran's ability to make policy decisions on looming issues such as offers for talks with Washington and efforts to mend ties with European trade partners.

"We have now a crisis of authority, where the president and the supreme leader are not able to make big decisions including about the nuclear program and engagement with the U.S.," said Mehdi Khalaji, a senior fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

President Barack Obama has given Iran until next month to show willingness to open dialogue after a nearly 30-year diplomatic standoff.

Iran's leaders must first try to tone down the worst domestic upheaval since the 1979 Islamic Revolution — which has been fanned by a mass trial that includes prominent reformist political figures.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Washington still favors direct contact with Iran, but she also lauded those challenging the leadership in Tehran.

"Our policy remains the same and we take the reality that the person who was inaugurated today will be considered the president," Clinton told reporters in Nairobi, Kenya. "But we appreciate and we admire the continuing resistance and ongoing efforts by the reformers to make the changes that the Iranian people deserve."

In his inaugural address — in tones somewhat quieter than his often-bombastic style — Ahmadinejad called for the nation to put aside its differences and "join hands."

But on the streets outside the dark green marble parliament chamber, riot police used batons and pepper spray against hundreds of protesters chanting "Death to the Dictator," witnesses said.

Some of the protesters wore black T-shirts in a sign of mourning and others wore green — the color of the opposition movement. A middle-aged woman carried a banner warning Iran's leaders to listen to the people's demands or face the same fate as Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was toppled in the Islamic Revolution.

Nearly every night, opposition supporters reprise one of the main tactics of the anti-shah movement, shouting "Allahu Akbar," or "God is Great," from rooftops.

Inside parliament, the dissent came in the form of boycotts. Key opposition leaders, moderate lawmakers, two former presidents and all three of Ahmadinejad's election challengers stayed away from the swearing-in ceremony.

Among the no-shows: former presidents Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami and two of the reformist-backed candidates, the top challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi. Another powerful snub came from the third candidate, conservative Mohsen Rezaei — a former commander of the Revolutionary Guard who had attended a pre-inauguration ceremony for Ahmadinejad on Monday.

His decision to stay away from the main event could reflect growing cracks among conservatives, which could sharply complicate Ahmadinejad's bid to regain political legitimacy.

Rezaei has increasingly criticized the leadership for their crackdowns, including calling for high-level probes into abuses after the son of his top aide died in detention. State media reported Tuesday that charges could be filed against police, judges and others for alleged abuses, but it remains unclear whether authorities will follow through.

Images on state television showed many empty seats during the swearing-in ceremony, and an opposition lawmakers' Web site said 57 of its 70 lawmakers were not there. Many of the 13 who did attend walked out in protest when Ahmadinejad began to speak, it said. Parliament speaker Ali Larijani maintained 273 of the 290 Iranian lawmakers were present.

In his speech, Ahmadinejad demanded that Iran be on an equal footing with other world powers and denounced foreign interference. Iran has accused the U.S. and the West of backing street protests.

"We must play a key role in the management of the world," Ahmadinejad said. "We will not remain silent. We will not tolerate disrespect, interference and insults."

He added that he would "spare no effort to safeguard the frontiers of Iran" — an apparent reference to Israel and U.S. troops along its borders in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But Iran's detention last week of three Americans who strayed across the border while hiking in northern Iraq has added a new point of friction in relations with Washington.

Ahmadinejad noted that some Western countries — including the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Italy — did not congratulate him on his election win.

"They do not respect the rights of other nations, yet they recognize themselves as the yardstick for democracy," he said, without naming specific countries.

"Nobody in Iran is waiting for anyone's congratulations," he added to cheers from lawmakers.

A British Foreign Office spokesman said his country has serious concerns over the election, Iran's contentious nuclear program and human rights that must be addressed first.

Ahmadinejad did not directly address Obama's outreach for the start of a dialogue on Iran's nuclear program, which the U.S. suspects is geared toward producing weapons. Iran says it only seeks energy-producing reactors.

But he said: "Iran is a nation of logic, dialogue and constructive interaction. The basis of our foreign policy is wide and constructive contacts with all nations and independent governments based on justice, respect and friendship."

Ahmadinejad mentioned the election crisis only in passing, but issued an apparent warning to demonstrators that authorities would "resist any violation of law and interference."

Hundreds of police deployed around parliament Wednesday and two subway stations nearby were closed to the public. Witnesses said at least 10 people were detained by police. Authorities have banned foreign media from covering opposition activities, forcing them to rely on witness accounts and tightly controlled state media.

In the days leading up to the inauguration, opposition groups had called protesters into the streets to coincide with the swearing in, spreading the word through postings on reformist Web sites and blogs.

The calls showed the protesters resolve to keep confronting the government even though a harsh crackdown by security forces on any street demonstrations has killed at least 30, according to Iran's official toll. Human rights group suspect the death toll is far higher.

The opposition — and some powerful conservatives — have also been angered by a mass trial for more than 100 pro-reform figures and protesters accused of challenging the Islamic system. Among those on trial are many prominent reformist activists and political figures, including former Vice President Mohammad Abtahi.

The trial had been scheduled to resume Thursday, but was postponed until Saturday after 10 defense lawyers asked for more time to prepare, the state Islamic Republic News Agency reported. Many defense lawyers have complained they have been blocked from access to their clients.

The Islamic Iran Participation Front, the biggest pro-reform group, issued a statement saying many of its members remain in detention and denouncing the "kangaroo court" overseeing the mass trial.

Aboard Air Force One, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs retreated from an earlier statement that Ahmadinejad is "the elected leader" of Iran. Gibbs said it was "a fact" that Ahmadinejad has been inaugurated, but added it's up to the Iranian people to decide whether the election "was fair."

Freed journalists home in US after NKorea pardon

By ROBERT JABLON, Associated Press Writer

BURBANK, Calif. – Two American journalists jubilantly reunited with family and friends early Wednesday upon returning to the United States with former President Bill Clinton, whose diplomatic trip to North Korea secured their release nearly five months after their arrests.

The jet carrying Euna Lee and Laura Ling, reporters for Al Gore's San Francisco-based Current TV, and Clinton arrived at Burbank's Bob Hope Airport at dawn. Clinton met with communist leader Kim Jong Il on Tuesday to secure the women's release.

Lee emerged from the jetliner first and was greeted by husband Michael Saldate and 4-year-old daughter Hana. She hugged the girl and picked her up before all three embraced in a crushing hug as TV networks beamed the poignant moment live.

Ling embraced her husband, Iain Clayton, as teary family members crowded around.

"The past 140 days have been the most difficult, heart-wrenching days of our lives," Ling said, her voice cracking.

Thirty hours ago, Ling said, "We feared that any moment we could be sent to a hard labor camp."

Then, she said, they were taken to another location.

"When we walked through the doors, we saw standing before us President Bill Clinton," she said to applause. "We were shocked but we knew instantly in our hearts that the nightmare of our lives was finally coming to an end, and now we stand here, home and free."

Clinton came down the stairs to applause. He hugged Gore, then chatted with family members.

Gore described the families of the two women as "unbelievable, passionate, involved, committed, innovative."

"Hana's been a great girl while you were gone," he told Lee. "And Laura, your mom's been making your special soup for two days now."

He also thanked the State Department for its help in the release.

"It speaks well of our country that when two American citizens are in harm's way, that so many people will just put things aside and just go to work to make sure that this has had a happy ending," he said.

After 140 days in custody, the reporters were granted a pardon by North Korea on Tuesday, following rare talks between Clinton and the reclusive North Korea leader. They had been sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for entering the country illegally.

The women were kept in enforced isolation and fed poor-quality food, Ling's sister said.

"They were kept apart most of the time. ... On the day of their trial, they hugged each other and that was it," Lisa Ling told reporters outside her sister's home in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles.

"She's really, really anxious to have fresh fruit and fresh food. She said there were rocks in her rice. Obviously, it's a country that has a lot of economic problems.

"The little bit that she was able to recount of her experience of the last 4 1/2 months has been challenging for us to hear," Lisa Ling said. "She's my little sister but she's a very, very strong girl and a determined person."

Ling's husband told reporters that his wife had spent more time in North Korea than in their North Hollywood home, which they bought in November shortly before she went overseas.

"It was very lonely," Clayton said. "One of the hardest things was obviously coming home every night, and there were reminders of her in the house."

The women, dressed in short-sleeved shirts and jeans, appeared healthy as they prepared to leave North Korea. They shook hands with Clinton before getting into the jet, exclusive APTN footage from Pyongyang showed. Clinton waved, put his hand over his heart and then saluted.

North Korean state TV showed Clinton's departure, and North Korean officials waving to the plane, but did not show images of the two journalists.

Speaking on the White House lawn just before leaving on a trip to Indiana, President Barack Obama said the administration is "extraordinarily relieved" that the pair has been set free. He said he had spoken to their families once the two were safely aboard a plane out of Pyongyang.

"The reunion we've all seen on television, I think, is a source of happiness not only for the families but also for the entire country," Obama said.

Ling was later seen entering her mother's home in the Los Angeles suburb of Toluca Lake, while Lee was spotted going into her home in Los Angeles.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Clinton will fill in Obama's national security team on what transpired during his trip as a private envoy to Pyongyang.

He reiterated that Clinton did not carry a message from Obama to Kim.

"If there wasn't a message, there certainly couldn't have been an apology," Gibbs said.

When asked whether the release of the journalists could lead to a breakthrough on other issues such as North Korea's nuclear program, Gibbs said that will depend on the actions of the communist regime.

"The people that walked away from the obligations they agreed to were not anybody involved on our side," Gibbs said. "It was the North Koreans."

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton hailed the journalists' release.

"I spoke to my husband on the airplane and everything went well," she told reporters in Nairobi, Kenya. "They are extremely excited to be reunited soon when they touch down in California. It was just a good day to be able to see this happen."

Ling, a 32-year-old California native, is the younger sister of Lisa Ling, a correspondent for CNN as well as "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and "National Geographic Explorer." Lee, 36, is a South Korean-born U.S. citizen.

They were arrested near the North Korean-Chinese border in March while on a reporting trip for Current TV.

The release also amounted to a successful diplomatic foray for the former president, who traveled as an unofficial envoy, with approval and coordination from the administration. He was uniquely positioned for it as the only recent president who had considered visiting North Korea while in office, and one who had sent his secretary of state, Madeleine Albright.

His landmark visit to Pyongyang to free the Americans was a coup that came at a time of heightened tensions over North Korea's nuclear program.

The meeting also appeared aimed at dispelling persistent questions about the health of the authoritarian North Korean leader, who was said to be suffering from chronic diabetes and heart disease before the reported stroke. The meeting was Kim's first with a prominent Western figure since the reported stroke.

Pardoning Ling and Lee and having Clinton serving as their emissary served both North Korea's need to continue maintaining that the two women had committed a crime and the Obama administration's desire not to expend diplomatic capital winning their freedom, said Daniel Sneider, associate director of research at Stanford University's Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center.

"Nobody wanted this to be a distraction from the more substantially difficult issues we have with North Korea," he said. "There was a desire by the administration to resolve this quietly and from the very beginning they didn't allow it to become a huge public issue."

Discussions about normalizing ties with North Korea went dead when George W. Bush took office in 2001 with a hard-line policy on Pyongyang. The Obama administration has expressed a willingness to hold bilateral talks — but only within the framework of the six-nation disarmament talks in place since 2003.

North Korea announced earlier this year it was abandoning the talks involving the two Koreas, Japan, Russia, China and the U.S. The regime also launched a long-range rocket, conducted a nuclear test, test-fired a barrage of ballistic missiles and restarted its atomic program in defiance of international criticism and the U.N. Security Council.

Senators, Military Advisers Urge Obama to Double Afghan Forces

Indira A.R. Lakshmanan – Tue Aug 4

Aug. 4 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama and top U.S. military commanders are under pressure from influential senators and civilian advisers to double the size of Afghan security forces, a commitment that would cost billions of dollars.

In private letters and face-to-face meetings, these supporters of mounting a stronger effort against the Taliban seek to boost the Afghan National Army and police to at least 400,000 personnel from the current 175,000.

“Any further postponement” of a decision to support a surge in Afghan forces will hamper U.S. efforts to quell an insurgency in its eighth year, Senators Joseph Lieberman, chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, and Carl Levin, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, wrote to the White House in a July 21 letter provided to Bloomberg News.

General Stanley McChrystal, the new U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, will recommend a speedier expansion of Afghan forces beyond current targets in an assessment he will give Defense Secretary Robert Gates and North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen by Aug. 14, according to a military official familiar with the review.

McChrystal has heard from civilian advisers who studied the war effort. The general won’t suggest in the report how many more U.S. or NATO troops would be needed to train those Afghan forces or to boost the U.S. fighting effort, the official said.

In a meeting last week with Lieutenant General Douglas Lute, the deputy national security adviser who oversees Afghan policy at the White House, Levin said a substantial expansion of Afghan forces is essential and that he would support funding for that, according to Levin spokeswoman Tara Andringa.

Earlier Letter

In a May 19 letter to Obama, 17 Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee, including Levin, Lieberman, and Senator John McCain, the former Republican presidential candidate, urged a doubling of Afghan forces. They cautioned Obama against “taking an incremental approach” that “does not reflect the realities on the ground.”

The U.S. already has agreed to fast-track the buildup of combined Afghan security forces to 134,000 Army personnel and 96,800 police -- 230,800 in all -- by 2011, according to U.S. Central Command. The Defense Department has requested $7.5 billion for fiscal year 2010 to fund the expansion.

More Afghan troops would bolster U.S. efforts to conduct joint operations, said Major General Curtis Scaparrotti, the commander for NATO forces in eastern Afghanistan, where the U.S. is the lead nation in the coalition.

‘Greater Capacity’

“I do see a need for a greater capacity within the Afghan national security forces,” Scaparrotti told reporters at the Pentagon today via video link from Afghanistan. “General McChrystal has stated we look at not only building their competency but building their capacity at a quicker pace.”

Training and equipping 170,000 additional forces would balloon costs and require thousands more foreign military advisers, a commitment the Obama administration has thus far been reluctant to make.

Senators argued in their May letter that building Afghanistan’s own forces is far cheaper than sending American soldiers -- making clear they would support administration requests for funds to train and equip Afghan troops.

“For the cost of a single American soldier in Afghanistan, it is possible to sustain 60 or more Afghans,â€

A similar message was drummed home by a dozen civilian national security experts in meetings with McChrystal and in a written report they gave him after a month in Afghanistan assessing ground conditions.

McChrystal asked the analysts from the secretary of defense’s office, the Congressional Research Service, Washington research institutions, the European Union and a French think tank for help in preparing the strategic assessment.

Decision ‘Avoided’

Lieberman, a Connecticut independent who has sought an expansion of Afghan forces, said the commitment “is a decision that we have avoided making for far too long.”

Retired Lieutenant Colonel John Nagl, a counterinsurgency expert, predicts doubling the size of the Afghan Army would likely be a five-year, $25 billion proposition that would require 12,000 U.S. military trainers. Those troops would have to be reassigned from other duties.

The realization in Washington “of the scope and scale of what would be required in Afghanistan is frankly causing waves,” said Nagl, a member of the Defense Policy Board that advises the secretary of defense. He is president of the Center for a New American Security in Washington.

In February and March, Obama pledged 17,000 additional U.S. ground troops and 4,000 trainers, all of whom will be on the ground by the end of September, said Major John Redfield, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command.

There are 62,000 U.S. troops and 40,500 non-U.S. NATO forces in Afghanistan, the highest number since the war to oust the Taliban began in 2001.