Obama ponders conditions in filling posts
WASHINGTON, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- U.S. President-elect Barack Obama likely will keep Bush appointees in several critical posts for continuity in his administration's early days, observers said.
Because of the weak U.S. economy and financial crisis, Obama will seek counsel from Ben Bernanke, a Republican and former chairman of U.S. President George Bush's Council of Economic Advisers, who will lead the Federal Reserve for at least the first year of his administration, The Washington Post reported Monday.
Obama will work with U.S. Navy Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, whose term ends in late 2009 and who, by tradition, could be reappointed for a second term, the Post said. Helping to protect the United States from terrorist attacks will FBI Director Robert Mueller, whose term ends in 2011.
Obama also indicated he is considering asking U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates to stay on at least for a while to help ensure a smooth transition.
"It's a challenge," but not crippling, said William A. Galston, a domestic policy adviser to President Bill Clinton, told the Post.
Obama might be suited to the reconcile his campaign call for change while keeping current administration leaders in key posts, said Galston, now a governance expert at the Brookings Institute.
"This is not someone who feels comfortable (only if) he has constructed his own cocoon around him," Galston explained. "His life has trained him to move through different environments and adjust accordingly."
ACLU urges Obama to close Gitmo
WASHINGTON, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- The American Civil Liberties Union says it has started an ad campaign urging U.S. President-elect Barack Obama to close the Guantanamo Bay prison camp.
It began the campaign with a full-page ad in The New York Times calling for Obama to issue an executive order closing the military prison camp on Cuba holding suspected terrorists when he takes office Jan. 20, McClatchy Newspapers reported.
"On Day One, with the stroke of a pen, you can restore America's moral leadership in the World," the ad read.
ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero told McClatchy the ad was "a shot across the bow," adding his group would spend up to $500,000 for the campaign.
An Obama spokeswoman told the newspapers Sunday the transition team would have no comment.
British Iraq troops need recovery time
LONDON, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- A top British military commander says troops withdrawn from Iraq shouldn't be redeployed to Afghanistan to enable a troop surge there.
Air Chief Marshal Jock Stirrup, chief of Britain's defense staff, told a BBC interviewer Monday that the country's armed forces have been stretched to the limit in recent years and the Iraq troops needed time to recover, the Times of London reported.
Britain is set to pull out most of its 4,100 Iraq troops by May. But Stirrup, referring to calls that Britain respond to growing Taliban strength in Afghanistan by transferring troops there from Iraq, told the BBC, "It cannot be just a one-for-one transfer from Iraq to Afghanistan."
Stirrup said during the interview that while several thousand more British troops will be needed in Afghanistan, up to about 8,200, other nations must make contributions as well, the Times reported.
"We're the second-largest troop-contributing nation," he said. "We expect others to take up their share of the burden."
14 Taliban killed in Pakistan air raids
BAJAUR, Pakistan, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- Fourteen Pakistani militants were killed when jets bombed targets in the northwestern tribal areas, officials said.
The strikes in the Bajaur region targeted Taliban hideouts in the Sparay, Kharkay, Damodola and Choptra areas, the Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported Monday. Ten other militants were injured, it said.
Local residents reported four civilians were also killed in the bombings, but military sources denied that, telling the newspaper only Taliban positions, including bunkers and tunnels, had been attacked.
Sources also told Dawn government troops were poised to advance into Inyat Kalley, a position they hoped to use to effectively restrict movement of Taliban forces in the tribal areas.
Report: Fire system problem led to deaths
MOSCOW, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- A malfunction in the fire safety system was the probable cause of the deadly accident aboard a Russian submarine, an investigatory commission said Monday.
"The preliminary official conclusion is the unauthorized operation of the fire extinguishing system," Ksenia Gusentsova, spokeswoman for the chief federal inspector for the Primorye Territory in Russia's Far East, told RIA Novosti.
Tuesday was declared a day of mourning in Primorye Territory, base of the Russian navy's Pacific Fleet.
The weekend incident killed 20 people and injured 22 while the Nerpa nuclear-powered sub was conducting exercises in the Sea of Japan. Investigators said the dead were suffocated when Freon gas was released after the vessel's fire safety system was activated.
A Russian naval commander said earlier the submarine's reactor wasn't affected by the incident and radiation levels were normal.
The incident is the worst for the Russian navy since the Kursk submarine sunk in 2000, killing all 118 members of its crew.
