New York Times
One way to chill a Congressional investigation is to send a flock of F.B.I. agents to Capitol Hill to ask legislators to take polygraph tests and answer questions about their dealings with reporters. Unfortunately, that is precisely what is happening these days at the Senate and House Intelligence Committees as they review the government's response to terrorist threats in the years leading up to last Sept. 11.
The F.B.I. investigation may be the coup de grâce for a Congressional exercise that has been hobbled by timidity and mismanagement. The two committees should never have been given the job of examining intelligence failures because their own lax oversight of the C.I.A. and other spy agencies contributed to the nation's vulnerability last September. Assigning the committees to conduct a joint investigation suited the White House, which doesn't want an exacting inquiry and has resisted creation of an independent review commission.
Seizing on the leakage of information about intelligence lapses to the press, the White House moved this summer to deliver a debilitating blow by pressing Senator Bob Graham and Representative Porter Goss to order an aggressive investigation into the unauthorized disclosures. The lawmakers quickly caved and invited in the F.B.I. ...
While leaks of this kind are embarrassing to the White House, intelligence agency bureaucrats and the two committee chairmen, they have helped alert the public to possible defects in N.S.A. monitoring operations and have increased public pressure for an independent investigation of possible intelligence failures. Senator Graham and Representative Goss would better serve the nation if they turned their attention to uncovering these failures instead of inviting the F.B.I. to investigate their fellow committee members.
Washington Times
In 1995, Bill Clinton -- accepting the Secret Service's requests -- shut down two blocks of Pennsylvania Avenue to motorists except those cleared to visit the White House. The closure created a traffic nightmare, stunting commerce for nearby businesses. The unilateral decision drew such broad and nonpartisan criticism that reopening America's so-called Main Street became an issue in the Republican Party's 2000 platform. Since September 11, the Secret Service has become even more cautionary.
Yesterday, the Secret Service began prohibiting trucks along an eight-block stretch of 17th Street NW -- from H Street, which is the northern side of Lafayette Square, to Constitution Avenue, the east-west corridor that is already gridlocked with locals, tourists and commuters. The eight-block stretch includes federal entities, such as the old Executive Office Building and offices of the U.S. Trade Representative, as well as the American Red Cross headquarters, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Organization of American States and the headquarters of Daughters of the American Revolution. E Street, which runs behind the White House, is closed, and parking, stopping and standing is prohibited on 17th Street. Rush-hour traffic yesterday morning was painful. The evenings likely will prove to be worse -- since the Secret Service moved the vendors, which sell the usual tourist items, onto Constitution Avenue. Also, there are post-September 11 traffic restrictions around Capitol Hill, where blocks of parking were already limited to staffers on Capitol Hill. ...
We understand that the world we fell asleep to on September 10 is far different than the one we awoke to September 11.
That new reality requires new security calculations. But maintaining a functional traffic flow is also necessary.
The Secret Service, like any bureaucracy, will reach (and historically has reached) for more restrictions than necessary. Ultimately, the president must make the call. Because security issues may inhibit a full public debate of the matter, the White House should assemble and work with a panel of respected community and business leaders to design a plan that assures both the White House security and acceptable traffic flows. Because the solution may cost real money, a Senate and House appropriator should probably be on the panel.
Los Angeles Times
Iran's reformers are fighting a difficult seesaw battle to loosen the grip of conservative clerics who hold the real power in the country. The best, if most difficult, course for the United States is to quietly wish the reformers well, not to proclaim public support that makes their foes label them lackeys of Washington.
Last month, President Bush issued a statement denouncing Iranian hard-liners who arrested political opponents and brought hardship to their citizens. He also said reformers had no better ally than Washington.
Those remarks predictably prompted the hard-liners to accuse those wanting more liberalization of being pawns of the United States. Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, who has been at odds with conservative mullahs during his reign, felt compelled to criticize Washington. ...
It's better to urge Iran to work with other nations, as it did in providing assistance to Afghanistan, and to warn that Washington will not lift sanctions so long as Tehran supports terror.
Washington also should keep pressure on Russia not to expand its nuclear cooperation with Iran. Moscow has been helping complete a reactor in the Iranian city of Bushehr and recently announced, then seemed to back away from, plans to build five more reactors in Iran.
The clerics' grip on Iran has visible cracks. ...
The best course for outsiders is to dial down the volume on complaints about the mullahs' rule and hold their fire for times when Iran becomes a threat to its neighbors.
Miami Herald
The forces that have destabilized Colombia for decades won't go away quietly. They are redoubling efforts to fight Alvaro Uribe, the nation's new president, who pledged to restore order to the violence-wracked nation. He has enormous popular support from Colombians tired of a weak president and failed peace talks. But the situation could get worse before getting better.
President Uribe well knows the overwhelming obstacles. ''In four years it will be impossible to resolve everything,'' he said in his inaugural speech. ''But we won't spare any effort trying.'' A realistic approach by President Uribe is welcome because the expectations for his rule may be beyond human reach. ...
The FARC has stepped up its terror campaign since former President Andres Pastrana canceled peace talks and Mr. Uribe was elected in May. Most recently, in an attempt to disable all local governance, the FARC has threatened to kill mayors unless they resign.
President Uribe's problems don't end with the leftist guerrillas who have waged war against Colombia's government for four decades -- and who killed his father. There also are the AUC, illegal paramilitary groups that commit record numbers of human-rights violations while battling the guerrillas, and the narco-traffickers who finance the violence and who corrupt government officials. ...
But if President Uribe wants to establish a true rule of law, he would be wise to adhere to human-rights standards. ...
President Uribe's best bet is to stop civilians from turning to illegal paramilitary action and to eject human-rights abusers from the military, including those who collaborate with the paramilitaries.
''The world should understand that this conflict needs solutions that are unconventional, transparent and imaginative,'' he said. Well said. We wish President Uribe good fortune in finding those solutions for Colombia.
(Compiled by United Press International)
