Iran tries to make nice with West by releasing Newsweek reporter

Iran's efforts to get along with Western nations continued yesterday when a Newsweek correspondent jailed four months ago during massive protests that followed the disputed June presidential election was released on bail. A pro-government news agency in Tehran said Newsweek reporter Maziar Bahari, an Iranian-Canadian, was freed on nearly $300,000 bail after confessing to charges of propagandizing against Iran and other charges, according to Cable News Network (CNN). Bahari was among 1,000 arrested in the protests that erupted after Iran's election commission said incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad had been overwhelmingly re-elected. Ahmedinejad's main challenger, Mir Hussein Moussavi, claimed the results were fraudulent, prompting the demonstrations. Bahari was one of 100 journalists, reform leaders and former ministers who went on trial in Iran's Revolutionary Court in August, CNN said. Iran's crackdown on the protests was consistent with its belligerence toward Western nations accusing Tehran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the guise of a civilian nuclear power program. Suspicions about Iran's program were heightened last month, despite the country's denials, when the United States revealed the existence of a secret nuclear enrichment facility near the holy Shiite city of Qom, in north-central Iran west of Tehran. But Iran abruptly changed course on its nuclear program, agreeing to allow international inspectors into the Qom facility and to export nearly all of its nuclear fuel for processing. Newsweek, which has denied that Bahari was engaged in anything but reporting, said Saturday that Iranian authorities did not give a reason why the journalist was released but that "humanitarian considerations were presumed to have played a role in the decision." Bahari, 42, is expecting his first child Oct. 26 and the mother has suffered "health complications," Newsweek said. The magazine also said on its Web site that Bahari's case was raised at recent talks between the United States and Iran in Geneva that resulted in the Qom agreement. Other charges filed against Bahari by Iranian authorities included favoring opposition groups, sending foreign reports to foreign media, disturbing the peace and possessing confidential documents, the Fars news agency reported, CNN said.

Trial of ex-BART cop who killed passenger ordered moved from Oakland

Is it really not possible to find a dozen intellectually honest people in a county of $1.5 million? That's what a judge ruled ruled Friday in ordering a case against a former transit police officer accused of killing an unarmed black passenger moved to another jurisdiction, according to the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper. While it's true that wide publicity has followed the seemingly inexplicable killing of 22-year-old Oscar Grant on a train platform in Oakland and the civil unrest that erupted in the city's downtown in the aftermath, it cannot possibly be that enough people in California's seventh-largest county are unable to set aside their prejudices to make up an impartial jury. Yet that's the meaning of the judge's ruling that Johannes Mehserle, 27, the white BART cop who fired the fatal shot, cannot get a fair trial in Alameda County. The uproar over the shooting has continued to be so intense, the judge ruled, that it will "foreclose any real hope of insulating jurors from the pressure of the public outrage in Alameda County." Mehserle was shot and killed while lying face down on the platform at the Fruitvale Station of the BART regional transportation system. The shooting, which followed a disturbance on a train, was captured on dozens of digital and cell phone cameras. A BART-commissioned study found officers to be at fault in their handling of the disturbance and the immediate aftermath of the shooting. BART stands for Bay Area Rapid Transit, which carries more than 350,000 riders daily. "The incident is viewed by many as being a case about race relations between the police and minority communities," Alameda County Superior Court Judge Morris Jacobson wrote in his 28-page decision. "In essence, this case is an allegation of murder under color of law, inseparably entwined with a broad-scale political controversy." The judge also cited inflammatory statements by public officials following the shooting as additional justification for moving the case. Los Angeles and Sacramento counties have been mentioned as possible locations for the trial. The family of the slain youth, who have filed a $25 million wrongful death claim against the BART police, wanted the trial kept in Alameda County, the Chronicle said.

Maybe California's chief justice just forgot what he's supposed to do

Everybody has had the pleasure of dealing with government employees who don't seem to remember that they work for us, the citizens. But it's rare to get that attitude from a guy at the top. Today's subject, of course, is Saturday's remarks by Ronald George, the chief justice of the California Supreme Court, who was harshly critical of the state's initiative process in a speech in Massachusetts, according to the New York Times. Speaking to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Cambridge, an independent public policy think tank founded in 1780 by the leaders of the revolution against England, George said California's initiative process had "rendered our state government dysfunctional." Well, it certainly takes one to know one. This guy works for the government -- if the system functions badly, he's probably one of the main reasons because he's one of the most powerful officials. George was especially critical of California's two-thirds vote requirement to pass a state budget, a deadline that the legislature has missed repeatedly in recent years. No wonder. If the state doesn't have a budget, George and his colleagues might not get paid. And they do get paid, nearly $200,000 each per year. But who can even imagine how much nerve it takes to publicly denounce the very laws you're sworn to enforce. George said the two-thirds requirement was perhaps the "most consequential" impact of the referendum process because it limited "how elected officials may raise and spend revenue." But it's not difficult to understand why: the citizens don't trust their elected and non-elected officials. “California’s lawmakers, and the state itself, have been placed in a fiscal straitjacket by a steep two-thirds-vote requirement — imposed at the ballot box — for raising taxes,” George said. But these restraints are of officialdom's own making. If state officials could be trusted to take care of business without screwing up -- in 2009, the budget was passed so late that California had to issue IOUs -- the voters would not have to resort to the initiative procedure to get things done. A spokesman for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declined to comment on the chief justice’s speech, the Times said.

FHA may need bailout for poor loan oversight practices

News from Washington that another giant federal home mortgage agency was collapsing under the weight of ill-advised loans is a surprise only in that U.S. authorities, like their private industry counterparts, still seem incapable of learning from their now legendary mistakes. Some 20 percent of loans guaranteed by the Federal Housing Administration last year and 24 percent of loans from 2007 are in trouble, including default, according to the New York Times. But FHA has continued at a furious pace, four times as fast as last year, guaranteeing more than 6,000 loans worth $1 billion every day with the commercial home loan market nearly frozen, according to testimony today before Congress, the Times said. Congress is looking into concerns that the FHA could need a bailout in the next three years as its reserves fall, similar to what happened to government mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The two agencies have already borrowed $96 billion from the U.S. Treasury and may need more, the Times said. FHA Commissioner David Stephens told Congress that his agency would not need a taxpayer bailout, despite the reports. “Let me simply state at the outset that based on current projections, absent any catastrophic home price decline, FHA will not need to ask Congress and the American taxpayer for extraordinary assistance — we will not need a bailout,” Stevens testified. But FHA critics were not mollified, and insisted that a bailout was looming. “It appears destined for a taxpayer bailout in the next 24 to 36 months,” said Edward Pinto, a former Fannie Mae exec, in testimony prepared for the hearing. Pinto, Fannie Mae's chief credit officer from 1987 to 1989, said losses would more than wipe out the agency’s $30 billion cash reserve. FHA loans are commonly packaged together and sold to investors as securities with backing by the U.S. Treasury through the Government National Mortgage Association, also known as Ginnie Mae.

Former UN chief tries to save Kenya settlement

Word that former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan had arrived in Kenya brought some hope that the troubled coalition government in Nairobi can be saved. Annan arrived Sunday to restart efforts to revive the moribund reform process, which began in 2008 in the violent aftermath of a disputed presidential election in December that brought Kenyan society to the brink of collapse. Kenya's president, Mwai Kibaki, announced that he had won the election after a long-delayed count of the ballots but his main challenger, Orange Democratic Union leader Raila Odinga, charged that the count was fraudulent, sparking massive protests. More than 1,000 people were killed and hundreds of thousands displaced in post-election tribal violence that continued for nearly two months until Annan and the acting African Union chairman, Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania, arranged a power-sharing deal that allowed Kibaki to remain as head of state and created a new prime minister position for Odinga. That arrangement has held despite a series of disputes. "I have been following events in Kenya very closely, and clearly, the Kenyan people are expecting more from the coalition government,” Annan said after arriving in Nairobi, according to Cable News Network (CNN). “More unity of purpose, more progress on the reform agenda, more concrete action to end impunity and combat corruption," Annan said. "These sentiments are understandable, and I will be urging the coalition government to listen to the voices of the people and do more to push forward the essential reforms." Primary among the disputes are about the pace of reform in Kenya, which has been slow, despite the settlement agreement's commitment to constitutional and police reforms, including prosecution of those responsible for the violence. "Far-reaching reforms such as the ones agreed on during the National Dialogue negotiations last year will necessarily take some time, and a lot of hard work, not only on the part of the government but on the part of all Kenyans,” Annan said. “And yet, with a sense of urgency and national spirit, it can be done and done in a reasonable time.” Annan said he would urge Kibaki and Odinga to pick up the pace of change.

IAEA plans inspection of Iran's formerly secret uranium enrichment facility

News that Iran has actually scheduled a team of experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect a formerly secret uranium enrichment facility being built near Qom appears to be a clear signal that the Islamic republic has changed course and decided to cooperate with the world community on nuclear proliferation. Iran agreed last week to permit inspectors to tour the underground facility, which previously had been kept secret in violation of IAEA notification requirements, according to the Reuters international news service. "IAEA inspectors will visit Iran's new enrichment facility, under construction in Qom, on 25th of October," said Mohammad ElBaradei, the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency said at a news conference with Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran's nuclear effort. "It is important for us to have comprehensive cooperation over the Qom site. It is important for us to send our inspectors to assure ourselves that this facility is for peaceful purposes." Details of the inspection will be worked out at a meeting on Oct. 19, Reuters said. Western nations believe Iran is covertly developing nuclear weapons and has imposed a series of international trade sanctions against the country to force it to end or curtail its program. Tehran insists its nuclear work is aimed at the peaceful development of nuclear power for electricity, even though Iran's underground oil reserves are among the world's largest. But Iran has not exactly been truthful over the years, probably because of suspicions about the United States, which it regards, along with Israel, as its enemy. So, the disclosure of the secret facility caused an international furor culminating in last week's meeting in Geneva between Iran and the world's six strongest military and economic powers -- the permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany. The plant is not expected to be operational for 18 months. The Geneva meeting, at which Iran also agreed to send most of its nuclear material to France and Russia for processing, was the highest-level diplomatic contact between the United States and Iran since the 1979 revolution that overthrew the U.S.-backed Shah and brought religious leaders to power. U.S. President Barack Obama's top adviser on national security, James Jones, said Iran did not appear to be closer to having a nuclear weapon, contradicting a New York Times report on Saturday that a separate IAEA assessment had concluded Iran's program had advanced sufficiently to begin building a nuclear weapon.

Iran appears to be ready for negotiations over its nuclear programs

News that Iran has agreed, at least in principle, to open its secret uranium enrichment plant near Qum to international inspectors and to send abroad most of the uranium it has already enriched raises the intriguing prospect of a significant change in the world order. The agreement could signal a new willingness on Iran's part to cooperate with leading world powers on a host of pending issues, including its suspected quest for nuclear weapons, its support for terrorist groups and its threats to attack Israel. But it also could simply be more obfuscation or prevarication by the Islamic republic, which has already misled Western nations about its nuclear facilities, according to the New York Times. Iran denies it is trying to build nuclear weapons and insists it only wants to develop nuclear power for electricity -- a claim seemingly belied by its vast petroleum reserves. Western nations have threatened to impose additional economic sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear activities, and Iran could simply be trying to prevent that. “We’re not interested in talking for the sake of talking,” U.S. President Barack Obama told reporters in the White House on Thursday, the Times said. “If Iran does not take steps in the near future to live up to its obligations, then the United States will not continue to negotiate indefinitely." U.S. allies France and Britain have agreed to delay imposing additional penalties on Iran until December. Obama said Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, agreed to allow inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect the Qum facility within the next two weeks. The multiparty negotiations near Geneva that led to Thursday's agreement were the highest-level direct contact between Iran and the United States since the 1979 revolution that toppled the U.S.-backed Shah and included a yearlong embassy hostage crisis that was the start of decades of animosity between the two countries.