New sanctions on Iran get support
WASHINGTON (AP) — A new package of severe sanctions on Iran’s energy, shipping and financial sectors gained strong congressional support Tuesday as lawmakers sought to ratchet up the economic pressure in hopes of halting Tehran’s suspected nuclear weapons program.
House and Senate negotiators reached agreement late Monday on legislation that builds on the current penalties directed at financial institutions that do business with Iran’s central bank. The new bill would impose sanctions on anyone who mines uranium with Iran; sells, leases or provides oil tankers to Tehran; or provides insurance to the National Iranian Tanker Co., the state-run shipping line.
Iranian officials quickly criticized the latest round of penalties, labeling the economic pressure “warfare” and promising to retool the country’s oil-dependent economy.
In an election year, U.S. lawmakers were determined to punish Iran while sending a strong signal of support to Israel amid fears about the Iranian threat to the close Mideast ally. In a separate move, President Barack Obama used his executive authority to impose fresh sanctions on foreign banks in China and Iraq that the U.S. says helps Iran evade the penalties.
Former officer’s
slaying trial starts
JOLIET, Ill. (AP) — The murder trial of former suburban Chicago police sergeant Drew Peterson began Tuesday with dueling explanations of his third wife’s death, clashes over evidence and a teary witness describing how she screamed when she discovered her friend’s body.
Prosecutors gave jurors an account that could have come from a 1940s pulp novel, in which a man does whatever he must — including murder — to keep his ex-wife’s hands off his money.
On the other side, Peterson’s attorneys argued the former officer was a victim of something newer: a 24-hour news cycle and cable TV’s talking heads, which together created a media frenzy that did not subside until prosecutors had charged an innocent man.
Peterson, 58, is charged with first-degree murder in the 2004 death of his third wife, 40-year-old Kathleen Savio. He is suspected but not charged in the 2007 disappearance of his fourth wife, Stacy Peterson. He has denied wrongdoing in both cases.
The real-life drama inspired a TV movie starring Rob Lowe, and many speculated whether Peterson used his law-enforcement expertise to get away with Savio’s murder and make 23-year-old Stacy Peterson vanish.
The prosecution’s only witness of the day was Mary Pontarelli, a neighbor who discovered Savio’s body in a dry bathtub.
“I saw Kathleen in the tub, ran out, threw myself on the ground and started screaming,” she said.
NYC urges moms to breast-feed
NEW YORK (AP) — New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has a message for new mothers: Breast-feed your baby, if possible.
Starting in September, dozens of city hospitals will ask mothers of newborns to listen to talks about why their breast milk is better than the sample formulas many hospitals offer for free. Then the women can decide for themselves, says the mayor.
Bloomberg has been ribbed as the city’s “nanny” for pushing programs aimed at making New Yorkers healthier, including clamping down on big sugary drinks.
Now, under the “Latch On NYC” initiative, 27 of 40 hospitals in the city that deliver babies will no longer hand out promotional formula unless it’s for medical reasons, or by request.
“Most public health officials around the country think this is a great idea,” Bloomberg said at a City Hall briefing earlier this week. “The immunities that a mother has built up get passed on to the child, so the child is healthier.”
He says formulas remain an acceptable solution if a mother cannot breastfeed, whether for health reasons or because her schedule does not allow it.
Report singles out
five ATF officials
WASHINGTON (AP) — After an 18-month investigation into Operation Fast and Furious, a Republican congressional draft report concludes that five officials at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives share much of the blame for what went wrong with the gun-smuggling probe in Arizona.
The first of what will be three reports says many people in the chain of command at ATF are responsible, but the investigation singled out five key figures in the controversy, ranging from the special agent in charge of the ATF’s Phoenix field division up to the agency’s director.
In Operation Fast and Furious, agents employed a controversial tactic called gun-walking — allowing low-level “straw” buyers in gun-trafficking networks to proceed with loads of weapons that they purchased at gun shops in Arizona. The tactic was designed to track guns to major weapons traffickers and drug cartels, but many of the weapons weren’t tracked and wound up at crime scenes in Mexico and the U.S., including the site of a shootout on the U.S. side of the border that resulted in the death of a border agent, Brian Terry.
“Suspects continued to acquire weapons under ATF surveillance at an alarming rate,” said the report. “In the spring of 2010, concern was mounting among ATF leadership in Washington about the large volume of weapons being sold under Fast and Furious. The case became so large that ATF Deputy Director, William Hoover, requested an exit strategy for the case — something he had never done before.”
The operation nonetheless continued into the fall of 2010.
The former head of the ATF, Kenneth Melson, bears a significant measure of responsibility for failing to ensure that the agency’s headquarters personnel adequately supervised the Phoenix field division, says the report compiled by staffers for Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. The report also says:
—Bill Newell, the special agent in charge in Phoenix for several years, was a major promoter of the strategy in Fast and Furious. The report said Newell failed to understand the basic legal standards needed for interdicting firearms and questioning potential suspects, a shortcoming that prevented interrogation, disruption and possible arrest of straw purchasers.
—Deputy Assistant Director William McMahon knew that no operational safeguards were in place to prevent the firearms from traveling to Mexico, yet made no effort to stop the flow of guns, believing that it was not his job to interfere in Newell’s investigations.
—Assistant Director Mark Chait and his superior, Hoover, had several opportunities to put an end to the operation but failed to do so. Hoover knew that Newell had employed risky tactics in the past yet failed to monitor him closely.
Fast and Furious identified more than 2,000 weapons suspected of being illicitly purchased. Some 1,400 of them have yet to be recovered.
