Poll: Most think stimulus plan ineffective
WASHINGTON, Aug. 17 (UPI) -- Most Americans said they think the infusion of cash into the economy costs too much and has done too little to end the recession, a USA Today poll indicates.
The USA TODAY/Gallup Poll released Monday indicated 57 percent of respondents said the stimulus package has no impact on the economy or is making it worse. Sixty percent said they doubted the stimulus plan would help the economy in coming years. Eighteen percent said it has not done anything to help improve their personal situation.
"This is a wake-up call for the administration," House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, R-Va., told USA Today. "People see the stimulus hasn't worked, and now you want to lay on over $1 trillion in a healthcare plan."
The administration declined to comment on the poll results.
The government has allocated more than $200 billion in aid so far, USA Today said. Since the plan began, however, the Labor Department reported the recession has left an additional 2.2 million Americans jobless.
The stimulus package includes $288 billion for tax cuts and $499 billion in new spending, much of it targeted for unemployment and other social services.
The USA TODAY/Gallup Poll of 1,010 adults was conducted Aug. 6-9. The margin of error is 4 percentage points.
Report: McKiernan firing shows new urgency
WASHINGTON, Aug. 17 (UPI) -- The May firing of the top U.S. military commander in Kabul revealed the urgency felt in Washington over Afghanistan, The Washington Post reported Monday.
Citing interviews with unnamed key participants and senior officials who have direct knowledge of the situation, the Post reported that Gen. David McKiernan was considered too languid and lacking in charisma and political savvy to lead the U.S. military effort in Afghanistan at a time when President Barack Obama is seeking rapid success.
"There are those who would have waited six more months" to fire McKiernan, Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Post. "I couldn't. I'm losing kids and I couldn't sleep at night. I have an unbounded sense of urgency to get this right."
Part of McKiernan's problem, sources said, is that he suffered in comparison to Gen. David Petraeus, who took over as commander in Iraq in 2007.
"Blame General Petraeus," a senior Defense Department official told the Post. "He redefined during his tour in Iraq what it means to be a commanding general. He broke the mold. The traditional responsibilities were not enough anymore. You had to be adroit at international politics."
Clerics speak out against Khamenei
TEHRAN, Aug. 17 (UPI) -- A group of Iranian clerics posted a letter on opposition Web sites, calling Iran's supreme leader a dictator and demanding his removal.
Analysts said the unsigned letter and other criticisms of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in recent days don't pose a real threat to the supreme leader, The New York Times reported Monday.
The backlash does chip away at a long-standing taboo of questioning the leader's neutrality; Khamenei's status has suffered since he approved the June 12 presidential election, which opponents said was rigged to declare incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the winner, the Times said.
In their letter, the clerics blamed Khamenei for post-election violence in which dozens of people died.
The clerics accused the supreme leader of using the Revolutionary Guards in "his own private guard" and the media to "defend and propagate him." They also said they feared reprisals from Khamenei if they included their names.
"(There) is such a dictatorship that we, as defenders of religion who are also close to public officials, have to practice Taqieh," a Shiite practice of hiding one's identity in anticipation of damage or injury, the Times said.
French schoolteacher Clotilde Reiss, charged with espionage and accused of having a role in the post-election demonstrations, was released from prison into the custody of the French Embassy, the Times reported. Reiss, who denied the charge, can live at the embassy until the a verdict is reached in his case.
On Sunday, Iranian authorities began the trials of demonstrators who said they were directed by officials of defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi to destroy public property during the protests. The Washington Post said. Many government opponents said the confessions were coerced.
Vatican: U.S., Britain knew of Holocaust
VATICAN CITY, Aug. 17 (UPI) -- The Vatican's newspaper says the United States and Britain knew about Adolf Hitler's plans to exterminate the Jews, but did nothing to stop him.
L'Osservatore Romano, quoting from the diary of then-U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau Jr., said the British and American governments ignored, downplayed or suppressed intelligence reports about the extermination plans, The Times of London reported Monday
In contrast, Pope Pius XII tried to save as many Jews as he could through clandestine means, the L'Osservatore article said. The dispatch is Vatican's latest effort to restore the reputation of Pope Pius, whose unwillingness to denounce the Nazis publicly resulted in accusations of anti-Semitism and earned him the moniker "Hitler's Pope."
The article quoted Morgenthau as saying that as early as August 1942, the U.S. government "knew that the Nazis were planning to exterminate all the Jews of Europe," The Times said. In his diary, Morgenthau wrote of a telegram, dated Aug. 24, 1942, and passed on to the U.S. State Department, that relayed a report of Hitler's plan to kill between 3.5 million and 4 million Jews.
The article also cited a British Foreign Office message that warned of "the difficulties of disposing of any considerable number of Jews should they be rescued from enemy occupied territory," advising against allocating money for the project.
Chicago closing offices to balance budget
CHICAGO, Aug. 17 (UPI) -- Chicago closed City Hall and public libraries and shut down or reduced services in many offices for a day Monday to help balance the budget.
The city said in a news release offices offering essential city services would remain open but with minimum staffing, the Chicago Tribune said.
Cutbacks did not apply to public safety providers, including police and firefighters, officials said.
Two additional reduced-service days have been scheduled for the Friday following Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve, the Tribune reported.
The Chicago Sun-Times said the three reduced-service days, which also include a temporary stoppage of garbage collection, are expected to save the city $8.3 million.
