Biden Does Damage Control With European Leaders After Hagel’s Policy Flub

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Photo Credit: marcnVice President Joseph R. Biden assured European leaders Saturday that the U.S. is not pursuing a policy of “containment” toward Iran, two days after U.S. Defense secretary-nominee Chuck Hagel mistakenly characterized the Obama administration’s policy.

“As President Obama has made clear to Iranian leaders, our policy is not containment — it is not containment,” Mr. Biden said at the annual Munich Security Conference in Germany. “It is to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.”

During his confirmation hearing Thursday, Mr. Hagel told the Senate Armed Services committee that the administration had a policy of “containment” toward the Iranian regime. After an aide slipped him a note minutes later, Mr. Hagel corrected himself and said, “We don’t have a position on containment.

That comment prompted Chairman Carl Levin, Michigan Democrat, to remind Mr. Hagel that the U.S. does indeed have a position on containment — “we do not favor containment.”

Mr. Biden didn’t mention Mr. Hagel’s stumble to the Europeans, but he did try to set the record straight. Addressing international sanctions against Iran for its nuclear ambitions, Mr. Biden said the Obama administration has “also made clear that Iran’s leaders need not sentence their people to economic deprivation and international isolation.”

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Biden Raises Possibility Of Direct U.S.-Iranian Talks

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Photo Credit: Reuters/Michael Dalder(Reuters) – The United States is ready for direct talks with Iran if it is serious about negotiations, Vice President Joe Biden said on Saturday, backing bilateral contact many see as crucial to easing a dispute over Tehran’s nuclear program.

Speaking at a security conference in Munich, Biden said Iran – which says it is enriching uranium for peaceful energy only – now faced “the most robust sanctions in history” meant to ensure it does not develop nuclear weapons.

“But we have also made clear that Iran’s leaders need not sentence their people to economic deprivation and international isolation,” Biden said. “There is still time, there is still space for diplomacy backed by pressure to succeed. The ball is in the government of Iran’s court.”

To date, fitful talks on Iran’s nuclear program have been between Tehran and the EU’s top diplomat representing six world powers including Washington. But analysts have suggested that with his re-election behind him, President Barack Obama might have more leeway to take on direct negotiations with Iran.

That makes the year ahead critical for chances of overcoming a stand-off which, if left to fester further, could see Iran approach nuclear weapons capability, possibly provoking military action by Israel that could inflame the Middle East.

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Supreme Court Wants Answers After Soldier Jailed for Killing Suspected Terrorist Who Attacked Him

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The U.S. Supreme Court has asked the federal government to explain its punishment for a U.S. soldier convicted of shooting and killing a suspected terrorist who was attacking him.

The word comes from the parents of Army 1st Lt. Michael Behenna, Scott and Vicki Behenna, who have been raising awareness of their son’s case through the Defend Michael website.

Lower courts have concluded that since Michael Behenna was holding the terror suspect at gunpoint, he gave up the right to defend himself when the suspect allegedly lunged for his service weapon.

The suspect, Ali Mansur, was thought to be involved in a series of attacks on American troops. The judges determined Behenna was conducting an “unauthorized” interrogation when Mansur lunged for Behenna’s weapon and he fired.

Behenna, an Army Ranger, was given a 15-year sentence and now is in Fort Leavenworth.

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Will Ann Romney Run for Massachusetts’ Open Senate Seat?

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Photo Credit: AP (File)Massachusetts Republicans are desperately scrambling to find a strong Senate candidate to replace Scott Brown, with some even trying to persuade Mitt Romney’s wife or son to jump into the race to avert another electoral disaster.

The former GOP senator’s decision to stay out of the June 25 special election surprised and angered some Republican leaders, who said it will make it much harder to beat a Democratic opponent without Brown on the ballot.

“I’ve had several people call me and ask about Ann Romney,” Ron Kaufman, a longtime friend and aide to the former Massachusetts governor and 2012 presidential candidate nominee, told the Herald.

Ann Romney’s inspiring battle against multiple sclerosis and her star turn on the GOP convention stage turned her into a popular national figure, especially among women voters in Massachusetts.

“That would be a very interesting thing. I would certainly love her to think about something like that,” said House Minority Leader Bradley Jones (R-North Reading).

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Reid Fends Off Questions About Menendez Allegations

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Photo Credit: Center for American Progress Action FundSenate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) fended off questions about Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) at a press conference about immigration reform.

The first question out of the gate was from CNN correspondent Jim Acosta, who asked Reid when he learned that Menendez had reimbursed a political donor nearly $60,000 for two trips he took on the donor’s private plane.

Reid defended Menendez as a “friend” and “outstanding senator” but declined to discuss any details he may have had with the New Jersey lawmaker about media reports of allegations that he had sex with prostitutes in the Dominican Republic.

“First of all, Bob Menendez is my friend. He’s an outstanding senator. Any questions in this regard, direct to him. I don’t know anything about it,” Reid said.

The purpose of the press event was for Democratic leaders to reiterate their call for comprehensive immigration reform, and Reid wanted to discuss his plan for moving the bill through the Judiciary Committee and then to the floor.

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Levin: Muslim Brotherhood Infiltration? ‘It’s Obama Himself’

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If lawmakers are serious about investigating whether or not Washington has been infiltrated by the Muslim Brotherhood, they need look no further than Barack Obama himself, charged talk-show host Mark Levin.

Levin noted the scorn congressional colleagues directed at Reps. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, and three other House members who asked for an examination of evidence that the parent organization of jihadist groups such as al-Qaida and Hama were wielding influence on U.S. policy from within.

The lawmakers were “treated like pariahs,” Levin recalled.

The talk host contended Obama’s nomination of former Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel as defense secretary is evidence that Obama himself embodies the infiltration of the Muslim Brotherhood.

“You want to look into Obama’s soul?” Levin asked, then look at Hagel.

Listen to Audio:

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ICE Agents Union to AFL-CIO President Trumka: ‘You Don’t Speak for Us’

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The ICE Agents union responded forcefully to AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka’s assertion Tuesday that “unions did have at one point some differences” but “the entire labor movement is entirely behind” the president’s immigration reform agenda now.

“No President Trumka, there are still differences within the AFL-CIO, and you don’t speak for us,” the ICE union dispatched in a press release this week.

According to the union, an AFL-CIO affiliate — currently suing Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, ICE Director John Morton, and U.S. Customs and Immigration Services Director Mayorkas over the administration’s changes to immigration policy, which they say prevents them from enforcing the law — the ICE Agents union has been barred from AFL-CIO discussions regarding the union’s stance on immigration policy.

They note the administration and lawmakers have also left them out of the policy debate.

Chris Crane, National ICE Council president, which reportedly represents about 7,000 ICE agents, officers and employees called the exclusion of de facto immigration experts under the AFL-CIO’s organizational umbrella “shocking.”

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Obama Recovery: January Unemployment Rises to 7.9%

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Photo Credit: Susan Trigg The new year started off with an old story: Employment grew again in January but not at a pace able to lower the jobless rate.

Nonfarm payrolls rose 157,000 for the first month of 2013 while the unemployment rate edged higher to 7.9 percent, news unlikely to alter the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy or instill confidence that the recovery is gaining steam.

Economists were looking for 160,000 net new jobs created with the unemployment rate holding steady at 7.8 percent.

The ho-hum jobs numbers for January were accompanied by substantial revisions higher for previous months, according to the report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics . . .

A report earlier this week indicated that third-quarter growth actually contracted 0.1 percent, but Friday’s jobs numbers contradicted the gross domestic product read.

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Convicted Murderer Mistakenly Freed Recaptured in Illinois

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Photo Credit: Cook County Sheriff’s OfficeCHICAGO – A convicted murderer from Indiana who was mistakenly released after a Chicago court appearance was back in custody Saturday after authorities tracked him down at a house in southern Illinois about 60 miles away.

Steven L. Robbins, 44, was rearrested late Friday night without incident in Kankakee, the Cook County Sheriff’s Department said in a news release. Although the details of his capture weren’t immediately released, officials said they used various leads and interviews with friends and family members at police headquarters to locate him.

The reason Robbins was able to escape in the first place, Illinois officials acknowledged, was because they lost paperwork directing them to return him to Indiana.

Robbins was serving a 60-year sentence for murder in Indiana and was escorted by Cook County sheriff’s deputies to Chicago this week for a court appearance in a separate case involving drug and armed violence charges — a case that had actually been dismissed in 2007.

After appearing before two Cook County Circuit Court judges, Robbins was taken to a jail on Chicago’s South Side. He was released hours later, instead of being sent back to Indiana to continue his murder sentence. The public was not alerted that he was on the loose for about 24 hours.

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Harvard Scandal: Students Punished for Cheating in . . . ‘Introduction to Congress’

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Photo Credit: Patricia DruryHarvard University said Friday it has issued academic sanctions against dozens of students, bringing to a close a cheating scandal that involved the final exam in a class on Congress and drawing criticism from a high-profile alumnus.

he Ivy League school implicated as many as 125 students in the scandal when officials first addressed the issue last year.

The inquiry started after a teaching assistant in a spring semester undergraduate-level government class detected problems in the take-home test, including that students may have shared answers.

In a campus-wide email Friday, Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Michael D. Smith said the school’s academic integrity board had resolved all the cases related to the cheating probe.

He said “somewhat more than half” of the cases involved students who had to withdraw from the college for a period of time.

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