Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has officially won reelection, according to the Iranian interior minister, but his closest rival is casting doubt over the results.
With turnout remarkably high, at about 85 percent, Ahmadinejad had more than 60 percent of the vote, while his top challenger, Mir Hossein Mousavi, took about a third of the vote of the vote. Had Mousavi held Ahmadinejad under 50 percent, they would have gone to a runoff.
Mousavi has also declared victory and labeled the results a "dangerous charade."
"I personally strongly protest the many obvious violations and I'm warning I will," he said, according to Reuters. "The result of such performance by some officials will jeopardize the pillars of the Islamic Republic and will establish tyranny."
The British Broadcasting Channel reports that police have barricaded Mousavi's campaign headquarters, preventing his supporters from holding a press conference.
The result in Iran represents a setback for the United States, which has had a rough relationship with Ahmadinejad.
President Obama said before the results were finalized Friday that he hoped his speech to the Muslim world in Cairo in recent weeks would lead to a new day in the Middle East, regardless of who won in Iran.
"We tried to send a clear message that we think there's a possibility of change and, ultimately, the election is for the Iranians to decide but just as what has been true in Lebanon, what can be true in Iran as well, is that you're seeing people looking at new possibilities," Obama said. "And whoever ends up winning the election in Iran, the fact that there's been a robust debate hopefully will help advance our ability to engage them in new ways.''
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner hailed a new "period of global economic cooperation" during a financial ministerial meeting on Saturday, pushing his counterparts to further coordinate their economic strategies.
"This has been a remarkable period of global economic cooperation -- with a common strategy, more effectively applied -- than we have seen in any of the crises of the past few decades," in remarks at the meeting of G-8 finance ministers in Leece, Italy this weekend.
Geithner encouraged the other countries to greater coordinate their policies to stem what he called "acute challenges" that still remain on the horizon. He said that would include proposals in the U.S. and in the other countries to strengthen their regulatory regimes.
"We need to reinforce the improvement in global demand and continue to lay a foundation for a durable recovery," Geithner said. "It is too early to shift toward policy restraint."
"Next week, we will outline comprehensive proposals for regulatory reform in the United States," the Treasury secretary added. "Because risk does not respect borders, we will put forward several international proposals in our reform package that will help to raise standards globally."
He said the U.S. proposals would include new regulations on capital requirements for banks, as well as new resolution authority for failed banks that span borders.
President Obama said Friday his administration sees a "possibility of change" in Iran as voters in that country go to the polls in its presidential election today.
"We are excited to see a robust debate taking place in Iran," Obama said at the White House after remarks on signing the tobacco bill. "We think there is a possibility of change."
High turnout in Iranian elections has raised hopes that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a thorn in the side of both Presidents Bush and Obama, might go down to defeat at the hands of a reformist candidate.
Obama's remarks signal optimism that Ahmadinejad may find himself out of office when the election is finished, though outside observers have raised questions about the final accuracy of the polls.
"We're seeing people looking at new possibilities," the president said, adding he hoped to engage Iranians in new ways.
Isarel should impose sanctions on the U.S. and attempt to influence U.S. congressional races in response to President Obama's position on settlements, an Israeli cabinet minister said yesterday.
Minister-without-portfolio Yossi Peled says a forceful response is needed to what he calls Obama's "intensive pressure to stop building settlements."
"Obama's ascendance represents a turning point in America's approach to the region, especially to Israel," Peled wrote in a letter to Prime Minister Benhamin Netanyahu. "The new administration believes that in order to fight terror, guarantee stability and withdraw from Iraq, a new diplomatic slant is needed involving drastic steps to pacify the Muslim world and the adoption of a more balanced approach to Israel, including intensive pressure to stop building in settlements, remove outposts and advance the formation of a Palestinian state."
According to the Jerusalem Post, Peled suggested the following:
...in the interim, the minister suggests reconsidering military and civilian purchases from the US, selling sensitive equipment that the Washington opposes distributing internationally, and allowing other countries that compete with the US to get involved with the peace process and be given a foothold for their military forces and intelligence agencies.
Peled said that shifting military acquisition to America's competition would make Israel less dependent on the US. For instance, he suggested buying planes from the France-based Airbus firm instead of the American Boeing.
In what may be his most controversial suggestion, Peled recommends intervening in American congressional races to weaken Obama and asking American Jewish donors not to contribute to Democratic congressional candidates. He predicted that this would result in Democratic candidates pressuring Obama to become more pro-Israel. [emphasis added]
Netanyahu repotedly "reacted to [the letter] with scorn." I don't see how the electioneering idea would pan out. Can you imagine, "I'm Benjamin Netanyahu, and I approve this message?"
Hillary Clinton said today that President Obama has successfully passed the "3 AM phone call" test that she famously warned about during the Presidential primary.
In her first Sunday morning appearance since becoming Secretary of State, Clinton praised Obama's handling of national security crises.
"Absolutely," she said, when asked whether Obama was handling the 3 A.M. phone calls well. "And, you know, the president, in his public actions and demeanor, and certainly in private with me and with the national security team, has been strong, thoughtful, decisive. I think he's doing a terrific job. And it's an honor to serve with him."
Former State Department official Walter Kendall Myers and his wife were arrested and indicted Friday for allegedly spying for Cuba since the 1970s.
Myers, a former official in the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research who retired in 2007, is said to have worked as an agent of the Cuban Intelligence Service along with his wife, Gwendolyn.
Charges of conspiracy, being an agent of a foreign government, wire fraud, forfeiture, and aiding and abetting were filed against Walter and Gwendolyn Myers in the federal district court for Washington, D.C. on Friday.
"The clandestine activity alleged in the charging documents, which spanned nearly three decades, is incredibly serious and should serve as a warning to any others in the U.S. government who would betray America's trust by serving as illegal agents of a foreign government," Assistant Attorney General for National Security David Kris said in a statement announcing the indictments.
As a State Department Employee, Myers has had access to some classified information since 1978.
The indictment said that the alleged "conspiracy" persisted from 1979 to "on or about June 4, 2009."
The indictment accuses the couple of working to undermine the day-to-day function of the State Department.
It is not clear whether Gwendolyn Myers had once served as a congressional aide, as had previously been reported.
The detailed indictment unveiled today even goes so far as to say the couple had used shortwave radio and morse code to communicate messages to the Cuban government.
According to the indictment, the FBI had run an undercover sting at a Washington, D.C. hotel against Walter Myers in mid-April of this year.
"These arrests are the culmination of an outstanding counterespionage effort by many agents, analysts and prosecutors who deserve special thanks for their extraordinary work," Kris said.
Thanks, but no thanks. That's the message Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper relayed to the Obama administration when asked if the country would accept the 17 Uighurs being released from Guantanamo Bay.
Canada has refused a request from the Obama administration to take men cleared for release from the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay.
Kory Teneycke, a spokesman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, today said recent inquiries concerning 17 Chinese Muslims called Uighurs at Guantanamo were rejected.
Mr. Teneycke says Canada won't take any detainees. He says they have no connection to Canada and there are security concerns.
U.S. authorities no longer consider the Uighurs enemy combatants but have not been able to find a country willing to accept them and have opposed their release into the United States. The Uighurs fear persecution if they are sent back to China.
Rep. Connie Mack (R-Fla.) has introduced legislation to withhold U.S. funding from the Organization for American States (OAS) if the Latin American group readmits Cuba as a member.
The OAS on Wednesday ended Cuba's suspension from the group in a move described as historic by those attending the meeting.
Still, it's unclear if Cuba will rejoin the organization anytime soon. Cuba would have to ask to be readmitted, and then would take part in a dialogue with the OAS.
Mack said the OAS should not consider readmitting "this brutal dictatorship" to the OAS. He said the move was "feckless, irresponsible and anti-democratic."
Cuban-American Reps. Albio Sires (D-N.J.), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) and Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) signed on as co-sponsors to the resolution.
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel sought Thursday to tamp down expectations for the effect of President Obama's speech this morning in Cairo.
"Let me try to lower the expectation that one speech is going to deliver a silver bullet that all the year of differences are going to somehow evaporated," Emanuel told ABC News. "If that's the standard, you're going to be disappointed."
Obama's speech in Cairo, in which he sought a "new beginning" with Muslims around the world, has already received top headlines for its effort to reach out to that community.
Emanuel talked up the effect of that speech on the public relations front.
"America is no longer losing that PR war," he told ABC. "If you go over the past eight years, everyone was always complaining that America was losing the PR war."
The White House chief of staff also spoke of the "moment of truth" between Israelis and Palestinians, which he said those people must seize.
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