Summers to be named economic adviser
WASHINGTON, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers is U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's pick for White House economic adviser, sources say.
Summers will be introduced along with Treasury Secretary-designate Timothy Geithner Monday, CNN reported, citing sources close to Obama's transition team. The president-elect is set to hold a news conference to issue more details on his strategy to deal with a quickly deteriorating U.S. economy and accelerating job losses, CNN reported.
Summers served as Treasury secretary in the Clinton Administration, and will be named chief of the National Economic Council, sources said. He and Geithner will spearhead Obama's goal, outlined Saturday in the weekly Democratic Party radio address, of using infrastructure rebuilding projects and investments in green technologies as the centerpiece of an economic stimulus and job creation program.
Obama's economic advisers have been working with Democrats in Congress to craft a stimulus proposal, which is thought to be worth at least $150 billion and perhaps much higher, The Washington Post reported.
On the campaign trail, Obama had proposed a two-year, $175 billion stimulus package, which would include money for cash-strapped state governments and infrastructure projects. Also contained would be a $1,000 tax credit for working families, the Post said.
Clinton's pro-Israel stance worries Arabs
WASHINGTON, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- The prospect of U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., becoming Secretary of State worries some Arabs because of her unstinting support of Israel, analysts say.
Clinton is likely to be named to the post by U.S. President-elect Barack Obama, sources say. Already seen as one of Israel's staunchest supporters in the U.S. Senate, Arab diplomats told Sunday's Washington Post they are also wary of her initial support for the Iraq invasion and hawkish statements about Iran, such as her support for a proposal to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization.
"Nobody has a negative opinion of Senator Clinton, except maybe that her opinions are closer to the neoconservatives than they might wish," Amjad Atallah, who formerly served as a legal adviser for the Palestinian negotiating team in peace talks with the Israelis, told the newspaper.
Others, however, said Clinton is committed to jump-starting efforts to work out a peace deal between the Palestinians and Israel and also supports Obama's stated goal of creating a direct negotiating channel with Iran, despite opposing it in the U.S. Democratic Party primary elections.
"Their arguments were about tactics, not about objectives," Martin Indyk, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel, told the Post.
Kurdish arms imports signal Iraq trouble
BAGHDAD, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- Concerns about a possible conflict between Baghdad and Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region are rising with the delivery of weapons to the Kurds, sources say.
Citing unnamed sources, The Washington Post reported Sunday that Kurdish officials took delivery this fall of three planeloads of small arms and ammunition imported from Bulgaria, arriving in the northern city of Sulaymaniyah. Such weapons imports are considered illegal by Iraqi officials.
As key regional elections approach and tensions flair over the disputed northern city of Kirkuk, the arms move signals a growing willingness by the Kurds to assert their independence, analysts told the Post, noting the Kurdish militia -- the pesh merga -- has come close to clashing with Iraqi troops several times.
"You could easily have a huge eruption of violence in the north," Kenneth Katzman, a Middle East specialist at the Congressional Research Service, told the Post. "Nothing having to do with the Kurds is resolved."
"There is a lot of tension," added Kurdish parliament member Mahmoud Othman. "(Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri) al-Maliki and his administration are accusing the Kurdish authorities of violating the constitution. And the Kurds are accusing Maliki of violating the constitution."
Islamic militants vow to free supertanker
HARADHERE, Somalia, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- Hard-line Islamic militiamen have arrived in a lawless part of Somalia vowing to free a Saudi oil supertanker from the clutches of pirates, residents say.
Members of the militant al-Shabab group, which has been designated by the United States as a terrorist organization, have poured into the area around Harardhere, telling residents they are committed to freeing the Sirius Star and stamping out burgeoning piracy in the Gulf of Aden, CNN reported Sunday.
Ahmed Mohamed, a resident of the town, told the broadcaster the al-Shabab militias are opposed to hijacking ships owned by Muslims, such as the Saudi-owned Sirius Star. But other residents say the group's motive is sharing any possible ransom collected by the pirates, who are demanding a multimillion-dollar payoff from owner Vela International.
Saudi Arabia Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal acknowledged earlier this week that Vela faces a tough choice.
"We do not like to negotiate with either terrorists or hijackers, but the owners of the tanker are the owners of the tanker and they are the final arbiters of what happens there," he told CNN.
