Obama pledges $100M to Haiti for aid
WASHINGTON, Jan. 14 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama said $100 million would be available immediately to provide equipment, food, water and medicine to earthquake-ravaged Haiti.
"This investment will grow over the coming year as we embark on the long-term recovery from this unimaginable tragedy," Obama said.
The first waves of U.S. rescue and relief workers have landed in Haiti, laid to waste by a 7-magnitude earthquake Tuesday afternoon, Obama said.
A survey team worked to identify priority areas for assistance, search-and-rescue teams were deployed, military personnel secured the Port-au-Prince airport and prepped it to receive the heavy equipment and resources en route, Obama said.
"The losses that have been suffered in Haiti are nothing less than devastating, and responding to a disaster of this magnitude will require every element of our national capacity -- our diplomacy and development assistance; the power of our military; and, most importantly, the compassion of our country, Obama said.
Obama warned that getting all supplies and personnel to Haiti would take hours and "in many cases, days" because roads are impassable, the main port badly damaged, communications are spotty and aftershocks continue.
He said several U.S. Coast Guard cutters arrived, "providing everything from basic services like water, to vital technical support for this massive logistical operation."
Personnel and equipment from the Army's 82nd Airborne Division arrived Thursday, Obama said. A Marine Expeditionary Unit, the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, and the Navy's hospital ship, the Comfort, also were deployed.
The United States would partner with the Haitian government, the United Nations and other nations and global organizations to provide humanitarian and security support, he said.
Addressing Haitians directly, Obama said, "(You) will not be forsaken; you will not be forgotten. In this, your hour of greatest need, America stands with you. The world stands with you."
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U.S. following credible threat in Yemen
WASHINGTON, Jan. 14 (UPI) -- U.S. authorities are monitoring a credible threat from al-Qaida in Yemen against the United States, officials said.
One official characterized the threat as general in nature and lacked specificity, and a second official said the matter was not a case of "we connected the dots to something imminent," CNN reported Thursday.
The first official said, however, that U.S. learned al-Qaida has already started making adjustments to new U.S. security measures, raising concerns.
The U.S. has some information about time frame, but not about location, sources said.
Other sources told CNN that follow-ups on Omar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the young Nigerian accused of trying to blow up a Detroit-bound airplane on Christmas Day, led to information related to aviation and al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, the group that claimed responsibility for the Christmas Day bombing attempt.
The level of concern is "measurable" a source told CNN, adding, "There is more prickling of the neck hair."
Intel indicates Detroit a random choice
WASHINGTON, Jan. 14 (UPI) -- The choice of a Detroit-bound airplane as the target for a Christmas holiday terror attack apparently was random, a U.S. House panel determined.
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said after a closed-door briefing with administration officials Wednesday that intelligence didn't point to a known "Detroit connection," the Detroit Free Press reported Thursday.
Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., said she was told in a separate briefing for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence that the Motor City "was not specifically targeted."
Congressional hearings into the incident are scheduled for next week.
Since the Christmas Day incident, officials have been trying to determine why accused Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, flew to Detroit from Amsterdam, Netherlands, after flying to Amsterdam from Lagos, Nigeria. Abdulmutallab is accused of trying to blow up Northwest Flight 253 on its decent to Detroit Metro Airport. Other passengers subdued him and the plane landed safely.
Thompson and other lawmakers said they want to ensure such an incident doesn't happen again, the Free Press said. While President Barack Obama tried to assure that stronger steps are being taken to protect the country against another breach, Thompson said he wants to see what the ongoing reviews say, as well as proposals to beef up airport security domestically and internationally.
Airport scanners could come up short
WASHIINGTON, D.C., Jan. 14 (UPI) -- The plan to install full-body scanners at hundreds of U.S. airport security checkpoints still could leave many partially protected, experts say.
The Transportation Security Administration wants to install 300 scanners for more thorough checks for weapons but that would leave more than 500 checkpoints without the new technology, USA Today reports.
That raises concerns that terrorists could spot the 10-foot machines and find an easier way to smuggle weapons past airport security.
Another potential weakness is that TSA policy allows passengers to refuse to go through a body scanner search, provided they agree to undergo a pat-down by a TSA officer.
The Nigerian man accused of trying to blow up a Northwest Airlines jetliner over Detroit on Christmas Day allegedly hid explosives in his underwear as he went through security at Amsterdam's airport.
Dems have hard road in 2010, Gingrich says
CARY, N.C., Jan. 14 (UPI) -- Democrats in 2010 will have a harder time retaining their hold on U.S. Congress than they did in 1994, when Republicans swept into power, a GOP leader said.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, quoting a letter from fellow Republican and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, said Barbour thought the House "could go Republican this year" and the GOP could pick up several governorships during the midterm elections, The (Raleigh, N.C.) News and Observer reported Thursday.
"It certainly looks like this could be a very, very good year for the American people to send a signal that they don't want higher taxes, more deficits and high spending," Gingrich told reporters before speaking at a dinner of the John Locke Foundation in Cary, N.C.
Gingrich said Barack Obama was, in some ways, "the most ruthlessly effective" president since Lyndon Johnson in the 1960s.
"If you can get $787 billion (the economic stimulus package) out of Congress with nobody having read the bill, that is pretty remarkable," Gingrich said. "He has come closer to passing government-run healthcare than anybody in American history. And he has done so in a pretty relentless way.
But challenges such as high unemployment, energy and terrorism, "are not particularly helpful" to Obama, the former House speaker said.
Looking to the 2012 presidential race, Gingrich said three GOP contenders in the 2008 tilt -- former Govs. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, and Sarah Palin of Alaska, the party's vice presidential candidate -- were viable candidates in 2012, as are current governors, such as Minnesota's Tim Pawlenty and Indiana's Mitch Daniels.
Michelle Obama discusses being first lady
WASHINGTON, Jan. 14 (UPI) -- U.S. first lady Michelle Obama says she's ready to take up causes such as fighting against childhood obesity as she begins her second year in the White House.
Obama said she had no regrets about her first year in the White House and that her daughters, Malia, 11, and Sasha, 8, had adjusted to life in the fishbowl that is Washington, the Chicago Tribune reported Thursday.
"I was just really worried about these little girls and whether they'd feel good starting this new school and living this new life," she said.
She spoke of her top causes -- healthy eating, mentoring, promoting volunteerism and supporting military families -- and pledged to kick it up a notch when a major initiative to combat childhood obesity is revealed.
Obama said returning to Chicago has been difficult -- she and President Obama have been back just once -- because of the girls' hectic schedules, including ballet, basketball for Sasha and soccer for Malia.
"Just tell Chicago, (it's) nothing personal. It's kids," Obama said.
She said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's comment on Obama's race demonstrated misconceptions persist and conversations on race must continue, the Tribune said.
"None of us should be complacent in believing that just because we have a black president that everything is going to be fixed," she told reporters.
Obama said she was proud to be the nation's first African-American first lady.
"My goal is to make sure that I'm representing the entire country and doing myself and my family and my community a service as I do it," she said.
She said plans to celebrate her 46th birthday on Sunday were up in the air.
"I might go out to dinner with my husband, but I don't know yet," Obama said. "I haven't been invited."
