Obama defends secret gathering of U.S. data
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is defending top secret U.S. spying programs and called them transparent – even though they are authorized in secret.
Obama told PBS’s Charlie Rose in an interview to be broadcast Monday night says “that’s why we set up the FISA court.” He was referring to the secret court set up by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that authorizes two recently disclosed programs: one that gathers U.S. phone records and another is designed to track the use of U.S.-based Internet servers by foreigners with possible links to terrorism.
Obama says the government is “going to have to find ways where the public has an assurance that there are checks and balances in place.”
White House threatens to veto farm bill
WASHINGTON – The White House is threatening to veto the House version of a massive, five-year farm bill, saying food stamp cuts included in the legislation could leave some Americans hungry.
The House is preparing to consider the bill this week. The legislation would cut $2 billion annually, or around 3 percent, from food stamps and make it harder for some people to qualify for the program. Food stamps, now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, cost almost $80 billion last year, twice the amount it cost five years ago.
The Senate passed its version of the farm bill last week with only a fifth of the amount of those cuts, or about $400 million a year, with the support of the administration.
Putin to Obama: Views differ on Syria
ENNISKILLEN, Northern Ireland – Russian President Vladimir Putin told President Barack Obama on Monday that their positions on Syria do not “coincide,” but the two leaders said during the G-8 summit that they have a shared interest in stopping the violence that has ravaged the Middle Eastern country during a two-year-old civil war.
Obama acknowledged in a bilateral meeting with Putin in Northern Ireland that they have a “different perspective” on Syria but he said that both leaders wanted to address the fierce fighting and also wanted to secure chemical weapons in the country. The U.S. president said both sides would work to develop talks in Geneva aimed at ending the country’s bloody civil war.
Putin said “of course our opinions do not coincide, but all of us have the intention to stop the violence in Syria and to stop the growth of victims and to solve the situation peacefully, including by bringing the parties to the negotiations table in Geneva. We agreed to push the parties to the negotiations table.”
While Putin has called for negotiated peace talks, he has not urged Syrian President Bashar Assad to leave power, and he remains one of Assad’s strongest political and military allies.
Obama, EU agree to start free-trade talks
ENNISKILLEN, Northern Ireland – The European Union and the United States will open negotiations next month on a long-sought deal to create free trade between the world’s two mightiest economic regions, an effort designed to create millions of jobs that could take years to transform from dream to reality.
EU and U.S. leaders announced the plans Monday at the start of the G-8 summit of wealthy nations in Northern Ireland.
At stake is a vision of boosting the value of trans-Atlantic trade in goods and services that Obama said already exceeds $1 trillion annually, as well as $4 trillion annually in investment in each other’s economies.
EU and U.S. officials agreed at the start of the Group of Eight summit that these already colossal trade figures could be much higher if only both sides agreed to dismantle high tariff walls and bureaucratic hurdles that undermine the export of many products.
Iran’s new president urges moderate path
TEHRAN, Iran – Iran’s newly elected president showcased his reform-leaning image Monday by promising a “path of moderation” that includes greater openness on Tehran’s nuclear program and overtures to Washington. He also made clear where he draws the line: No halt to uranium enrichment and no direct U.S. dialogue without a pledge to stay out of Iranian affairs.
Hasan Rowhani may be hailed as a force for change, but he also appears to carry a deep and self-protective streak of pragmatism. He knows he can only push his views on outreach and detente as far as allowed by the country’s real powers, the ruling clerics and their military protectors, the Revolutionary Guard.
Many of Rowhani’s statements reflected these boundaries, which could later expand or contract depending on how much the theocracy wants to endorse his agenda.
Associated Press
