White House Criticizes Nancy Pelosi’s Syria Trip
March 31, 2007
The Bush administration Friday criticized plans by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to visit Syria. Pelosi and a delegation of other House Democrats are expected to go to Damascus early next week as part of a broader Middle East trip. VOA’s David Gollust reports from the State Department.
Officials here say Speaker Pelosi and her delegation are getting all the customary logistical support from the State Department, including a policy briefing on Syria.
But in an unusual move, the Bush administration has publicly criticized the speaker’s travel plans, saying the visit will undermine U.S.-led efforts to isolate the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Congressional aides say Pelosi and her colleagues began the mission Friday in Jerusalem where they were to meet Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, and would go on to Syria, then Lebanon and Saudi Arabia.
Pelosi, who as House speaker is just behind Vice President Dick Cheney in the presidential line-of succession, would be the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit Syria in several years.
At the White House, Deputy Press Secretary Dana Perino said the visit was a very bad idea that can only help the Syrian government, which the United States accuses of meddling in Lebanon, supporting Palestinian extremists, and allowing foreign fighters to cross its borders into Iraq.
At a news briefing here, State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack said the Assad government showcases visits of this kind to try to conceal its own political isolation:
“We don’t think it would be appropriate for high-level visitors, even those from the Congress to pay a visit to Syria right now,” he said. “The typical Syrian MO [mode of operation] on this is to use these visits to tell the rest of the world, to say: look, there’s nothing wrong. We’re having all these visitors coming to Damascus. There’s no problem with our behavior. And they point to the visits as proof that there is no problem with their behavior and they are not, in fact, isolated.”
McCormack said the administration’s advice on visiting Syria would be the same to both Democrats and Republicans, while stressing that travel decisions are ultimately made by the legislators themselves.
Though it maintains diplomatic relations with Syria, the United States withdrew its ambassador from Damascus in 2005 after Syrian officials were implicated in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration Ellen Sauerbrey was in Damascus earlier this month in the highest-level State Department visit there in two years.
But McCormack said her talks were limited to her counterparts in the Syrian government and strictly confined to the issue of Iraqi refugees.
The Pelosi delegation also includes, among others, House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Tom Lantos and first-term Minnesota Democrat Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Congress.
A group of Senators from both parties visited Damascus in December after the bipartisan Iraq Study Group recommended greater U.S. dialogue with Syria and Iran in efforts to end Iraqi violence.
Source: VOA
2nd British Sailor Shown on Iranian TV as Crisis Continues
March 31, 2007
A second member of the British crew captured last week in the Gulf has been shown on Iranian television making an apology for illegally entering Iranian waters. The British government has denounced the video as propaganda.
Crewman Nathan Thomas Summers, one the 15 British Naval personnel being held by Iran, apologized for the latest incident as well as one that occurred three years earlier.
“I would like to apologize for entering your waters without any permission,” he said. “I know it happened back in 2004 and our government promised that it would not happen again. And again, I deeply apologize for entering your waters.”
Summers was shown sitting with the female detainee and another serviceman. The TV channel previously showed a similar taped confession from the woman.
Britain maintains its naval personnel were in Iraqi waters when their vessel was seized by Iran.
Reacting to the video clip, British leader Tony Blair says parading and manipulating captured personnel disgusts people and, he says, it does not fool anyone.
“What the Iranians have to realize is that if they continue in this way they will face increasing isolation,” said Mr. Blair, ” the United Nations yesterday, the European Union today, we will be talking to other key allies over the weekend and we have just got to pursue this with the necessary firmness and determination, but also patience, because there is only one possible conclusion to this and that is that our personnel are released safe and sound.”
The area near the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab waterway where the British patrol was picked up has for decades been claimed by both Iran and Iraq and its ownership has been hotly disputed.
Mr. Blair says that, based on satellite data from global positioning system technology, the naval and marine party was in Iraqi waters, not Iranian.
“The sooner the Iranian regime realize that they are not gaining anything from this, they cannot gain anything from this, it is perfectly obvious that these people were in Iraqi waters under a United Nations mandate, there is absolutely no question about the unlawful nature of their capture and therefore they have got to be released,” he added.
Meanwhile, for the first time in the weeklong standoff, the Iranian foreign ministry has sent a letter to the British embassy in Tehran.
British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett says London is carefully studying the wording of the document, and Britain will respond formally, but she says she is not very optimistic it represents a key potential breakthrough.
“There is nothing in the letter that suggests that the Iranians are looking for a way out of this difficult situation,” she said. “We have been looking for a way out of it, for them for us and particularly for our service personnel from the beginning. I wish I saw any sign that this is what Iran is trying to do.”
An Iranian news agency reports the message contains a call for Britain to avoid violating Iranian territorial waters in the future.
While the dispute continues, the price of oil keeps climbing on the worldwide markets to above the $68 mark.
Source: VOA
GTA IV (PS3, Xbox 360) Trailer Reveals Return To Liberty City
March 31, 2007
The suspense is over — after millions of gamers pondered which city GTA IV was headed to on PS3 and Xbox 360, the question has been answered.
It’s back to Liberty City, baby!
The locale for Grand Theft Auto IV actually hasn’t been officially announced, but the trailer that was newly released clearly showed the Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty and Times Square. And Liberty City has always been the stand-in for New York City, so there you have it.
When MTV asked Rockstar who the fella with the accent is and where he comes from, the rep responded: “We would like to let the trailer speak for itself. However, we can confirm that all footage in the trailer ‘Things Will Be Different’ was captured directly from 720p gameplay running real time in our RAGE engine on a next-gen gaming console.”
The seemingly-gorgeous title will hit the shelves October 16th for Xbox 360 and PS3.