Israel's Netanyahu warns White House about Iran

JERUSALEM (AP) — Mortified that the world may be warming up to Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is taking an unpopular message to the White House and the United Nations this week: Don't be fooled by Tehran's new leadership.

Netanyahu contends Iran is using conciliatory gestures as a smoke screen to conceal an unabated march toward a nuclear bomb.

He will deliver those strong words of caution — and fresh intelligence — in an attempt to persuade the U.S. to maintain tough economic sanctions and not allow the Islamic republic to develop a bomb or even move closer to becoming a nuclear threshold state.

With the White House cautiously optimistic about its dialogue with Iran, Monday's meeting between Netanyahu and President Barack Obama could be tense.

"I will tell the truth in the face of the sweet talk and the onslaught of smiles," Netanyahu said before boarding his flight to the U.S. on Sunday. "Telling the truth today is vital for the security and peace of the world and, of course, it is vital for the security of the state of Israel."

Israeli leaders watched with great dismay what they derisively call the "smiley campaign" by Iran's new president, Hassan Rouhani, last week. Rouhani delivered a conciliatory speech at the United Nations in which he repeated Iran's official position that it has no intention of building a nuclear weapon and declared his readiness for new negotiations with the West.

Capping off the visit, Rouhani and Obama held a 15-minute phone call as the Iranian leader was traveling to the airport. By the end of the call, the first conversation between the nation's leaders in 34 years, Obama was suggesting that a breakthrough on the nuclear issue could portend even deeper ties between the U.S. and Iran. U.S. and European diplomats hailed a "very significant shift" in Iran's attitude and tone.

For Netanyahu, such sentiments are nothing short of a nightmare.

For years, he has warned that Iran is steadily marching toward development of nuclear weapons, an assessment that is widely shared by the West because of Iran's continued enrichment of uranium and its run-ins with international nuclear inspectors.

The Israeli prime minister contends Rouhani's outreach is a ploy to ease international sanctions and buy time. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.

Israel considers a nuclear-armed Iran an unacceptable threat, given repeated Iranian assertions that the Jewish state should not exist. Israel has a long list of other grievances against Iran, citing its support for hostile Arab militant groups, its development of long-range missiles and alleged Iranian involvement in attacks on Israeli targets in Europe and Asia.

On Sunday, Israel announced the arrest of a Belgian-Iranian businessman on espionage charges.

Netanyahu says the new Iranian leader must be judged on his actions, not his words. In the meantime, he says sanctions and other international pressure, including the threat of military action, must be increased. He has likened Iran to North Korea, which used the guise of international negotiations to secretly develop a nuclear weapon.

Netanyahu appears to enjoy widespread domestic support for his tough approach. Israel's Channel 10 TV released the results of a poll Sunday night showing that 78 percent of respondents don't believe Iran wants to resolve the nuclear problem. Fifty-nine percent said they do not think the U.S. will reach an agreement with Iran, while just 29 percent said they expect a resolution. The station did not say how many people were questioned or provide a margin of error.

Zalman Shoval, a former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. who now serves as an adviser to Netanyahu, said the prime minister would present Obama with "some very hard facts" based on intelligence showing that Iranian behavior has not changed.

Similarly, in his speech at the U.N., "he will make it very clear that Israel and the world at large should continue to be on guard," he said.

Over the years, Israel has issued shifting assessments of how close Iran is to producing a weapon. Last year, Netanyahu presented a cartoon diagram to the U.N. showing that Iran would enter the final phase of weapons production by mid-2013. Israel has since backed off that assessment.

Netanyahu's intelligence minister, Yuval Steinitz, said international pressure forced Iran to slow production.

While American officials are well aware of Israel's concerns, they say there are no plans to reverse the latest diplomatic push.

Two senior Obama administration officials said that the U.S. expects Israel to be skeptical about Iran's overture, and that the U.S. is similarly skeptical.

Obama will try to convince Netanyahu that the U.S. won't consider lifting sanctions until Iran takes concrete actions to show it is serious about a verifiable, transparent agreement, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter with the media.

Obama will also seek to assure his Israeli counterpart that if the U.S. reaches a deal with Iran, it will ultimately advance Israel's security interests by resolving the nuclear issue without the need for military intervention.

Obama's bottom line remains that Iran can't be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon, the officials said.

Israel, though, wants the U.S. to establish clear "red lines" to prevent Iran from pressing forward with its nuclear program and moving toward threshold status — having the capability to build a nuclear weapon without actually possessing one. That scenario is unacceptable to Israel.

Netanyahu has laid out four demands: that Iran stop enriching uranium; that its stockpiles of enriched uranium be removed from the country; that a fortified underground enrichment facility be closed; and that Iran not make plutonium, another possible path toward nuclear weapons.

Eytan Gilboa, an expert on U.S.-Israel relations at Israel's Bar-Ilan University, predicted a "very difficult conversation" on Monday.

The Americans "like Rouhani. They think he represents a new policy, a new approach and therefore should be given at least a chance. Netanyahu's strategy is to say that this whole thing is a big hoax," Gilboa said. "There are no buyers for his message."

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Associated Press writer Josh Lederman in Washington contributed to this report.

Via Yahoo News!

Minnesota House prepares to vote on gay marriage

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A gay Minnesota lawmaker leading the push to legalize same-sex weddings in the state told colleagues Thursday that gay couples "contribute to the same Minnesota system as everyone else" and deserve the right to be married.

The Minnesota House was expected to cast what was viewed as a pivotal vote that would position the state to become the 12th in the country to allow gay marriages and the first in the Midwest to pass such a law out of its Legislature.

Debate in the House got underway in the early afternoon, as thousands of supporters and opponents gathered outside the chamber. House Democratic leaders and the bill's supporters were confident it would pass. If it passes Monday in the Senate, Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton could sign it into law by early next week and pave the way for gay weddings as early as this summer.

"My family knew firsthand that same sex couples pay our taxes, we vote, we serve in the military, we take care of our kids and our elders and we run businesses in Minnesota," said the bill's sponsor, Rep. Karen Clark, a Minneapolis Democrat who is gay. "... Same-sex couples should be treated fairly under the law, including the freedom to marry the person we love."

Opponents argued the bill would alter a centuries-old conception of marriage and leave those people opposed for religious reasons tarred as bigots.

"We're not. We're not," said Rep. Kelby Woodard, R-Belle Plaine. "These are people with deeply held beliefs, including myself."

The Minnesota push for gay marriage grew out of last fall's successful campaign to defeat a constitutional amendment that would have banned it. Minnesota became the first state to turn back such an amendment after more than two dozen states had passed one over more than a decade.

Eleven other states allow gay marriages — including Rhode Island and Delaware, which approved laws in the past week. Minnesota would be the first state in the Midwest to pass the measure out of the Legislature. Iowa allows gay marriages because of a 2009 court ruling.

Leaders in Illinois — the only Midwestern state other than Minnesota with a Democratic-led statehouse — say that state is close to having the votes to approve a law too. But most other states surrounding Minnesota have constitutional bans against same-sex weddings, so the change might not spread to the nation's heartland nearly as quickly as it has on the coasts and in New England.

Demonstrators chanting and waving signs choked the Capitol's marbled hallways leading up to the debate, and passion was evident on both sides as gay marriage supporters waved bright orange signs and opponents hoisted pink ones. The crowds prompted heighted security at the Capitol.

Among the demonstrators was Grace McBride, 27, a nurse from St. Paul. She said she and her partner felt compelled to be there to watch history unfold. She said she hopes to get married "as soon as I can" if the bill becomes law. The legislation would allow her to do so starting Aug. 1.

"I have thought about my wedding since I was a little girl," she said.

On the other side of the divide, the Rev. Steve Goold of New Hope Church led followers in a morning prayer before they set out to lobby lawmakers. He told them they had the power to change minds, but urged them to be respectful.

"Do not shout and boo. Pray," Goold said. Galina Komar, a recent Ukrainian immigrant who lives in Bloomington, brought her four-year-old daughter and one-year-old son to the Capitol to express her religious concerns.

"I do believe in God, and I believe God already created the perfect way to have a family," Komar said.

But gay marriage supporters also boasted faith leaders in their ranks.

"I've celebrated marriages for same-sex couples, but I've never been able to sign a marriage license for any of them," said the Rev. Jay Carlson, pastor at a Minneapolis Lutheran church. "I look forward to the day when I can."

In the debate's first hour, House members adopted a Republican-offered amendment to strengthen religious protections that backers hoped would draw a few GOP votes for the final bill. The House also rejected a Republican amendment to swap marriage for civil unions.

Democrats hold 73 of the 134 House seats, but at least two from more-conservative rural districts intended to oppose the bill. Some others have said they wouldn't discuss their vote prior to casting it.

Rep. Jason Isaacson, a Democrat from the St. Paul suburb of Shoreview, recalled how when he was a student, classmates were mocked with homophobic names.

"In middle school that was one of the worst things you could call somebody else," Isaacson said. "I like to think today that is changing."

Via Yahoo News!

Internet sales tax bill faces tough sell in House

WASHINGTON (AP) — Traditional retailers and cash-strapped states face a tough sell in the House as they lobby Congress to limit tax-free shopping on the Internet.

The Senate voted 69 to 27 Monday to pass a bill that empowers states to collect sales taxes from Internet purchases. Under the bill, states could require out-of-state retailers to collect sales taxes when they sell products over the Internet, in catalogs, and through radio and TV ads. The sales taxes would be sent to the states where a shopper lives.

Current law says states can only require retailers to collect sales taxes if the merchant has a physical presence in the state.

That means big retailers with stores all over the country like Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Target collect sales taxes when they sell goods over the Internet. But online retailers like eBay and Amazon don't have to collect sales taxes, except in states where they have offices or distribution centers.

"This bill is about fairness," said Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., the bill's main sponsor in the Senate. "It's about leveling the playing field between the brick and mortar and online companies and it's about collecting a tax that's already due. It's not about raising taxes."

The bill got bipartisan support in the Senate but faces opposition in the House, where some lawmakers regard it as a tax increase. Grover Norquist, the anti-tax advocate, and the conservative Heritage Foundation oppose the bill, and many Republicans have been wary of crossing them.

Supporters say the bill is not a tax increase. In many states, shoppers are required to pay unpaid sales tax when they file their state tax returns. However, states complain that few taxpayers comply.

"Obviously there's a lot of consumers out there that have been accustomed to not having to pay any taxes, believing that they don't have to pay any taxes," said Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., the bill's main sponsor in the House. "I totally understand that, and I think a lot of our members understand that. There's a lot of political difficulty getting through the fog of it looking like a tax increase."

On Tuesday, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, declined to say whether the House would take up the bill, deferring to the House Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over the legislation. Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said there are problems with the bill but he did not reject it outright.

"While it attempts to make tax collection simpler, it still has a long way to go," Goodlatte said in a statement. Without more uniformity in the bill, he said, "businesses would still be forced to wade through potentially hundreds of tax rates and a host of different tax codes and definitions."

Goodlatte said he's "open to considering legislation concerning this topic but these issues, along with others, would certainly have to be addressed."

Internet giant eBay led the fight against the bill in the Senate, along with lawmakers from states with no sales tax and several prominent anti-tax groups. The bill's opponents say it would put an expensive obligation on small businesses because they are not as equipped as national merchandisers to collect and remit sales taxes at the multitude of state rates.

Businesses with less than $1 million in online sales would be exempt. EBay wants to exempt businesses with up to $10 million in sales or fewer than 50 employees.

"The contentious debate in the Senate shows that a lot more work needs to be done to get the Internet sales tax issue right, including ensuring that small businesses using the Internet are protected from new burdens that harm their ability to compete and grow," said Brian Bieron, eBay's senior director of global public policy.

Some states have sales taxes as high as 7 percent, plus city and county taxes that can push the combined rate even higher.

Many governors — Republicans and Democrats — have been lobbying the federal government for years for the authority to collect sales taxes from online sales.

The issue is getting bigger for states as more people make purchases online. Last year, Internet sales in the U.S. totaled $226 billion, up nearly 16 percent from the previous year, according to government estimates.

States lost a total of $23 billion last year because they couldn't collect taxes on out-of-state sales, according to a study done for the National Conference of State Legislatures, which has lobbied for the bill. About half of that was lost from Internet sales; half from purchases made through catalogs, mail orders and telephone orders, the study said.

Supporters say the bill makes it relatively easy for Internet retailers to comply. States must provide free computer software to help retailers calculate sales taxes, based on where shoppers live. States must also establish a single entity to receive Internet sales tax revenue, so retailers don't have to send it to individual counties or cities.

Opponents worry the bill would give states too much power to reach across state lines to enforce their tax laws. States could audit out-of-state businesses, impose liens on their property and, ultimately, sue them in state court.

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Associated Press reporter Andrew Miga contributed to this report.

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Follow Stephen Ohlemacher on Twitter: http://twitter.com/stephenatap

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Chicago Hull House closing for lack of funds

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Chicago's historic social services agency Hull House, founded well over a century ago by pioneering social reformer Jane Addams, will close by the end of March due to a lack of funds, the board chairman said on Thursday.

"We are no different than anybody else in the world right now," Hull House board chairman Stephen Saunders said. "We're suffering with this economy."

Saunders said the social service agency has millions of dollars of debt and has not been able to raise enough money to cover operating costs, having fallen short of fundraising goals by $1 million or more annually for the past three or four years.

"It's insurmountable," Saunders said of the situation.

Jane Addams, also a leader in women's suffrage, was the first American woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. She and her associates influenced policy on public health and education, fair labor practices and immigrants' rights.

She founded Hull House in 1889 to provide services mostly to the city's immigrant community. The current Hull House Association serves 14,000 people, with programs in early childhood development, child welfare and family services such as domestic violence counseling.

Saunders said Hull House was arranging for other social services providers, such as Metropolitan Family Services, to take on Hull House's clients and employees.

"The 14,000 people we serve aren't going to be thrown out on the streets," Saunders said.

Metropolitan Family Services Chief Executive Ric Estrada said the agency was willing to help but was waiting to find out from sources like the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois how funding will be distributed.

"There's a lack of funds all around," Estrada said. "Every place is stretched."

Saunders, describing Addams as "essentially the mother of social services in the city," said another agency would probably apply the Jane Addams Hull House name to one of its programs.

Hull House is not affiliated with the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, which is located in the original settlement house on the city's near south side.

(Reporting By Mary Wisniewski; Editing by Cynthia Johnston)

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Bachmann announces White House bid

Bachmann is scheduled to launch her presidential bid formally on MondayShe has hired Sarah Palin's debate coach, nabbed Haley Barbour's pollsterBachmann's staff challenge is to broaden her appeal beyond conservative activists

Washington (CNN) -- Forget political pedigree, executive experience or ties to deep-pocketed donors.

No Republican presidential candidate is better positioned to capitalize on the recent tide of conservative anger toward President Barack Obama than Michele Bachmann.

Her charisma and crossover appeal to both social and fiscal conservatives have the three-term Minnesota congresswoman rising in the polls and primed to make a serious impact on the GOP nomination fight.

Bachmann, unlike several of her rivals making appeals to the Tea Party movement, has the resources and fundraising potential to steer her campaign beyond the crucial early states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

Though firmly on the insurgent side of the Republican field, she is also taking steps to position herself as a credible alternative to the crop of establishment-friendly White House contenders with deep pockets and long political resumes.

She has hired Sarah Palin's debate coach. She nabbed Haley Barbour's pollster.

And Bachmann's campaign organization will be based not in Minnesota, but in Washington, where the coming battle on Capitol Hill over raising the debt ceiling will place her squarely in the middle of the national political debate this summer.

Most her rivals, now out of office, will be watching from the sidelines.

The question of whether Bachmann can ride these advantages all the way to the Republican nomination will begin to be answered on Monday in Iowa, where she formally launches her presidential bid in Waterloo.

That Bachmann was born in Waterloo and lived there until age 12 is fortuitous. Iowa, political observers say, is now key to Bachmann's chances of becoming president.

"The bad news for Bachmann is that she has to win Iowa," said Republican strategist Curt Anderson, who is not aligned with any 2012 campaign. "Without it her campaign is over. The good news for Bachmann is that she can win Iowa."

That much is true. A Des Moines Register poll released over the weekend confirmed what many Iowa Republicans have been proclaiming for months: That barring a late entry into the race by a high-profile conservative like Palin or Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Bachmann might be the Iowa frontrunner.

Bachmann captured the support of 22% of likely caucus-goers in the survey, putting her just one percentage point behind former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the GOP frontrunner who does not plan to compete as seriously in Iowa as he did during the 2008 race.

No other candidate came close to that level of support, including Texas Rep. Ron Paul, former Sen. Rick Santorum, businessman Herman Cain or former House Speaker Newt Gingrich -- all candidates who, like Bachmann, are angling for support among Tea Party activists and social conservatives.

Strikingly, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who has campaigned in Iowa for more than a year but has struggled to gain traction, took just 6%.

With her showing in the Register poll and an eye-opening performance in the New Hampshire Republican presidential debate earlier this month, the expectations for Bachmann in Iowa are climbing.

With little more than seven months until the caucuses, her staff must work to keep them in check.

"The expectations are rising for her," said Ed Brookover, one of Bachmann's closest advisers. "She has to meet or beat expectations, whatever those are next February."

While Bachmann's team smartly refuses to call Iowa a "must-win," they acknowledge that a strong showing in the caucuses is crucial for her campaign.

"The primary process is sort of like the NCAA tournament," Brookover said. "You have to survive and advance. That's what you have to do in these early states in order to do well. That's a long way of saying Iowa is pretty important for her."

Bachmann has yet to do the kind of face-to-face campaigning that Iowans demand, though that will quickly change as the campaign gets underway.

Meanwhile, her staff has been busy laying the groundwork for a competitive race.

Her congressional chief of staff, Andy Parrish, re-located to Des Moines in early June. Iowa state Sen. Kent Sorenson, a popular figure among Iowa Tea Party activists, will chair her campaign.

Wes Enos, the political director behind Mike Huckabee's surprising second place finish in the 2007 Ames Straw Poll, is taking on a similar role for Bachmann ahead of this year's poll, scheduled for August 13.

Out of the view of the media, there is also behind-the-scenes work underway to win over the kind of hard-to-reach grassroots activists who often play an outsized role in the caucuses.

Bachmann, for instance, has lined up the backing of influential home-school activist Barb Heki, a board member of the Network of Iowa Christian Home Educators who assisted Huckabee's winning caucus effort in 2008 and helped the conservative effort to oust three judges from the Iowa Supreme Court last year.

In private meetings in recent months, Bachmann has won over influential faith leaders across the state, including Brad Cranston, the pastor of Heritage Baptist Church in Burlington.

Cranston runs a group called "Iowa Baptists for Biblical Values," a loose network of pastors from around the state.

He recalled meeting with Santorum, Paul and Pawlenty early in the presidential process, but said that Bachmann was the only Republican who spoke convincingly about "the moral issues" that faith-minded voters in Iowa hold dear.

"Michele is what she claims to be," said Cranston, who manages an e-mail database of politically active churchgoers. "She will bring the conservative and Christian perspectives back to where they need to be. She will find a lot of support among religious conservatives in the state as things move forward. I think she has it already."

The challenge for Bachmann's staff if they hope to win more than just Iowa is to broaden her appeal beyond just the conservative activists who seem to have gravitated to her early.

Bachmann must defend a thin record during three terms in the Washington, where she is known more for her frequent cable news appearances than for any significant legislative achievement aside from creating the House Tea Party Caucus.

And, as aides to her Republican rivals like to point out, her tendency toward gaffes and conspiratorial claims about the president would be problematic, if not fatal, in a general election.

Bachmann seems to be aware of this fact, which is why she has assembled a team of veteran political operatives to manage her campaign.

She hired Ed Rollins, who directed Ronald Reagan's landslide re-election bid in 1984 and managed Huckabee's 2008 effort, to run her operation.

Along with loyal advisers like Brookover and fundraising consultant Guy Short, Bachmann has brought on top flight Republican talent like pollster Ed Goeas, who was working with Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour before he declined to seek the nomination, and former George W. Bush and McCain message maven Brett O'Donnell, who coached Palin before her high-stakes vice presidential debate in 2008.

Also aiding Bachmann: veteran consultant Bob Heckman, who has deep ties to the conservative movement, former McCain campaign web guru Becki Donatelli, and Tom McGill, a fundraiser for President George W. Bush's 2004 campaign and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani's 2008 bid.

When asked "Why Michele Bachmann?," a common theme emerges in discussions with her advisers, some of whom might have been comfortable working for a more traditional candidate like Pawlenty or Romney.

Their argument, as simple as it sounds, is that Bachmann is the only candidate in the field who truly understands the issues and impulses of the Republican voter at a very unconventional moment in American politics.

"After the first debate performance it was obvious that people responded to her in such an overwhelming way," said Rex Elsass, her Ohio-based media consultant. "There was a sense that finally someone was speaking to the heart and the core of the party."

CNN

House set to rebuke Obama on Libya mission

Washington (CNN) -- The Republican-led House of Representatives rejected a bill Friday that would have sharply restricted funding for U.S. involvement in the NATO-led Libya campaign.

The bill, which would have effectively prohibited U.S. offensive operations such as drone strikes, was supported by House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and other top GOP leaders.

The measure was defeated in a 180-238 vote. Minority Democrats voted solidly against the measure, while the majority Republicans supported it by a narrower margin.

Earlier in the day, House members delivered a rebuke to the Obama administration by voting down a resolution expressing support for the war. The resolution, defeated 123-295, was similar to a measure introduced in the Senate by Sen. John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, and Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona.

Republicans voted overwhelmingly against the measure, while Democrats voted more narrowly in favor of it.

White House press secretary Jay Carney expressed disappointment in the first House vote and told reporters the "writing is on the wall" for longtime Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi. Now is not the time to let up, he said.

Much of the House's disapproval of the Libya campaign has been fueled by a belief that President Obama failed to sufficiently consult with Congress before committing to military engagement. Specifically, representatives from both political parties say the administration has violated the 1973 War Powers Resolution, which gives the president 60 days to get congressional approval for sending U.S. forces to war, followed by a 30-day extension to end hostilities.

The combined 90-day period ended last Sunday.

Support for the war has also been further shaken by evidence of several noncombatant deaths caused by recent NATO airstrikes.

The White House says Obama didn't need congressional authorization because U.S. forces are playing only a supporting role in Libya and haven't engaged in what the law defines as hostilities. The president, however, personally overruled contrary legal opinions put forward by both the Pentagon and the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, according to a report published Saturday in The New York Times.

Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said during Friday's debate on the House floor that Obama's authority under the Constitution "does not free the president from accountability to the American people, this Congress or the rule of law."

The War Powers Resolution "is the law of the land and simply cannot be ignored," he said. The GOP-sponsored bill is necessary to "defend the constitutional authority of the legislature" and provides "much-needed accountability."

Some Democrats, however, blasted Republicans, accusing them of playing politics with what they called a critical foreign policy priority.

"This was not handled right" by the White House, said Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas. But the House votes are "nothing but politics," and "I don't want to abandon my friends in the Arab states who are now struggling for democracy."

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday it would be a mistake for Congress to cut funding for U.S. military operations in Libya.

"I think, once we have our forces engaged, to deny them funding would be a mistake," Gates told PBS News. Key American allies -- especially the British, the French and the Italians -- consider Libya a vital interest, and "our alliance with them is a vital interest for us," he said, citing their efforts in Afghanistan.

Gates insisted that progress has been made toward the U.S. goal of ousting Gadhafi.

"Based on everything we see, the government gets shakier by the day," Gates said. "His forces have been significantly diminished. The opposition is expanding the areas under their control."

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met privately with House Democrats on Thursday to urge support for the resolution backing the Libya mission, according to a Democratic source who attended the meeting.

"The bottom line is, whose side are you on?" she said Wednesday. "Are you on Gadhafi's side, or are you on the side of the aspirations of the Libyan people and the international coalition that has been created to support them?"

The allied military effort, which has formal United Nations support, was launched to protect Libyan civilians from violence stemming from a crackdown launched by Gadhafi. Western leaders have made clear, however, that they believe the mission cannot be successfully completed without Gadhafi's ouster.

The White House has promised not to use U.S. ground troops, but bipartisan congressional opposition to the military campaign has nevertheless been mounting over several weeks. In addition to concerns about the War Powers Resolution, traditional anti-war Democrats and fiscally conservative Republicans are worried about the cost of the conflict.

In a recent report on the mission, the administration said the cost of military and humanitarian operations through June 3 was about $800 million. It estimated the total cost through September 30 would be $1.1 billion.

CNN's Dana Bash, Rachel Streitfeld and Deirdre Walsh contributed to this report.

CNN

House weighs cutting off funds for Libya mission (AP)

WASHINGTON – Clearly frustrated with President Barack Obama, Republican leaders are propelling the House toward crucial votes on the U.S. military role in Libya that could embarrass the commander in chief and reverberate in Tripoli and NATO capitals.

"I just believe that because of the president's failure to consult with the Congress, failure to outline for the American people why we were doing this before we engaged in this puts us in the position where we have to defend our responsibility under the Constitution," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said in advancing two measures.

The House was scheduled to vote Friday on the competing measures: a resolution giving Obama limited authority to continue the American involvement in the NATO-led operation against Moammar Gadhafi's forces and a bill to cut off funds for U.S. military attacks there. The bill would make an exception for search and rescue efforts, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, aerial refueling and operational planning to continue the NATO effort.

"The president has ignored the Constitution and the War Powers Resolution, but he cannot ignore a lack of funding," said Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Fla., sponsor of the bill. "Only Congress has the power to declare war and the power of the purse, and my bill exercises both of those powers by blocking funds for the war in Libya unless the president receives congressional authorization."

House Republicans and Democrats are furious with Obama for failing to seek congressional authorization for the 3-month-old war against Libya, as required under the War Powers Resolution. The 1973 law, often ignored by Republican and Democratic presidents, says the commander in chief must seek congressional consent within 60 days. That deadline has long passed.

Obama stirred congressional unrest last week when he told lawmakers he didn't need authorization because the operation was not full-blown hostilities. NATO commands the operation, but the United States still plays a significant support role that includes aerial refueling of warplanes and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance work as well as drone attacks and bombings.

A New York Times report that said Obama overruled some of his legal advisers further incensed members of Congress.

A coalition of anti-war Democrats and tea party-backed Republicans are expected to defeat the resolution in a repudiation of the president.

"The war in Libya is illegal, unconstitutional and unwarranted. It must end," Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, said.

The fate of the legislation to cut off funds was uncertain.

In a last-ditch effort Thursday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met with rank-and-file Democrats to explain the mission and discuss the implications if the House votes to cut off funds. The administration requested the closed-door meeting.

Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn., said Clinton apologized for not coming to Congress earlier. But he said she warned about the implications of a House vote to cut off money.

"The secretary expressed her deep concern that you're probably not on the right track when Gadhafi supports your efforts," Walz said.

Rep. Howard Berman of California, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said such a vote "ensures the failure of the whole mission."

Earlier this week Clinton said lawmakers were free to raise questions, but she asked, "Are you on Gadhafi's side, or are you on the side on the aspirations of the Libyan people and the international coalition that has been bringing them support?"

In the Senate, backers of a resolution to authorize the operation wondered whether the administration had waited too long to address the concerns of House members.

"It's way late," said Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee. "This is one of the reasons why they're having this veritable uprising in the House, because of a lack of communication. And then the icing on the cake was probably for them when he (Obama) said that we're not engaged in hostilities. That obviously is foolishness."

He added, however, "That is not a reason to pass a resolution that would encourage Moammar Gadhafi to stay in power."

Earlier this month, the House voted 268-145 to rebuke Obama for failing to provide a "compelling rationale" for the Libyan mission and for launching U.S. military forces without congressional approval.

Yahoo! News

Boehner says Obama lacks House support for Libya (AP)

WASHINGTON – Setting up a showdown on Libya, House Republicans agreed on Wednesday to vote on dueling measures, one to give President Barack Obama limited authority to continue U.S. involvement in the NATO-led operation against Moammar Gadhafi and the other to cut off funds for military hostilities.

Officials said the measures — a resolution and a bill — most likely would come to a vote Friday, a timetable that reflects widespread dissatisfaction with Obama's decision not to seek congressional consent for the 3-month-old war.

"The fact is the president has not made his case to the members of Congress," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, told reporters. "He's not made his case to the American people. We've been in this conflict for 90 days and the president hasn't talked to the American people for four or five weeks about why we're there, what our national interest is and why we should continue."

Emerging from a closed-door meeting on the resolution and the competing legislation, rank-and-file Republicans indicated a growing consensus for the bill, which would bar funds for Libya except for money spent this year on search and rescue, aerial refueling, operational planning, intelligence and surveillance and non-combat missions.

This was a direct response to Obama's claim that the action does not amount to full-blown hostilities and did not need congressional approval.

"It would not have funding for hostilities. Drones couldn't be used for bombing," said Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.

The Libyan war has exposed deep divisions in Congress and within the GOP ranks.

Leading Republicans and Democrats in the Senate are pushing a resolution to give Obama limited authority in the conflict, with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., calling it a "clear statement to our allies, to the world, to the Libyan people and to Gadhafi that we support the administration's actions on Libya."

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee, sponsored the resolution that would put a one-year limit on the mission and prohibit U.S. ground forces in Libya.

The House resolution to continue the mission mirrors the Senate measure.

The competing efforts put senators at odds with members of the House, including anti-war Democrats and tea party-backed Republicans, who question the legitimacy of the operation since Obama never sought congressional consent under the 1973 War Powers Resolution.

"We have a responsibility to follow the rule of law and as the chief law enforcement officer of the land so does he," Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Fla., a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said of the president.

Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, said a House vote to end the operation would "give hope to this dictator Moammar Gadhafi, undermine the effort of the innocent people in Libya and strike a blow at our NATO alliance."

Obama did not seek congressional authorization when he launched air strikes against Gadhafi's forces on March 19. Lawmakers argue that Obama is in violation of the War Powers Resolution, which requires approval of the legislative branch within 60 days, with a 30-day extension. That deadline has passed.

The White House, in a report to Congress last week, said the limited U.S. role in the operation did not amount to hostilities and did not require congressional authorization, an argument that further upset lawmakers.

"That's outrageous. What do you do, spend $9 million a day to play table tennis?" said Rep. Donald Manzullo, R-Ill.

In a Senate speech, Reid argued that the challenge to Obama was politically driven.

"Some Republicans in the House of Representatives and on the campaign trail have expressed concern over our involvement in this conflict," Reid said. "They have clearly decided to use the War Powers Resolution as a political bludgeon to pursue a partisan agenda."

The Democratic leader said the question for lawmakers was whether U.S. involvement in a mission "to stop mass murder and chaos" in Libya was the right decision.

"I'm confident it was," Reid said. "Moammar Gadhafi's repressive dictatorship is a threat to the region and to the United States' national security."

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will consider the Kerry-McCain resolution next week, but the full Senate may not act for weeks.

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Libyan officials says NATO hits civilian house (Reuters)

TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Libyan officials said on Sunday a NATO strike had hit a civilian house in the capital and killed several residents, an allegation which, if confirmed, could sow fresh doubts inside the alliance about its mission in Libya.

Reporters were taken to a residential area and saw a body pulled out of the rubble of a destroyed building.

Later, in a hospital, they were shown the bodies of a child and two others who, officials said, were among a total of seven people killed in the strike.

"There was intentional and deliberate targeting of the civilian houses," deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim told reporters at the site. "This is another sign of the brutality of the West."

NATO made no immediate comment about the air strike, but has said in the past it only targets military or command-and-control sites. There was no way for reporters to verify that all the bodies they were shown came from the building.

Libyan claims of civilian casualties from NATO attacks have sometimes been received skeptically by international observers. On one occasion, Libyan officials presented a wounded child as the victim of an air strike but medical staff passed a note to a foreign journalist saying she was hurt in a road accident.

Libyan authorities have to date been unable to prove that substantial numbers of civilians have been killed by the NATO strikes, but if that changes it could weaken the already wavering commitment of some alliance members.

NATO has been pounding targets in Libya for months in what the alliance says is an operation to protect civilians who rebelled against the 41-year rule of Muammar Gaddafi.

Strains are appearing within NATO member states as the campaign drags on for longer than most of its backers anticipated and Gaddafi remains in power -- even making a show of defiance last week by playing chess with a visiting official.

REBELS KILLED

Rebels from the city of Misrata, about 200 km (130 miles) east of Tripoli, have been trying to push west toward the capital but on Sunday they took heavy casualties when they came under fire from pro-Gaddafi forces.

Four fighters were killed and 18 wounded, according to a doctor at a field hospital near the front line in Dafniyah, an area just west of Misrata.

A Reuters reporter at the field hospital said he saw a procession of pick-up trucks arriving from the front carrying the wounded and the dead, some of them covered up with blankets.

"Gaddafi's forces were underground (in trenches). We were patrolling and they ambushed us," said rebel fighter Mohammed Swelhi, whose friend, Mustafa, was one of two bodies brought from the front in the back of a truck.

"My cousin was injured yesterday. And today my friend was killed. My group, we're all close friends," he said.

Last week, NATO aircraft dropped leaflets around the front line warning pro-Gaddafi fighters they would be targeted by attack helicopters if they did not lay down their arms. But rebels say there has been little sign of the alliance.

"We don't know what NATO is doing," said the doctor, called Nury, who was tending the wounded at the field hospital.

CASH CRUNCH

After four months of civil war, rebels control the eastern third of Libya, the Mediterranean port city of Misrata and much of the Western Mountains region stretching to the border with Tunisia.

But they remain far from seizing their ultimate prize -- Gaddafi's powerbase of Tripoli and its hinterland -- despite air support from the world's most powerful military alliance.

Speaking in the eastern city of Benghazi, the chief rebel oil official castigated Western powers for failing to make good on their promises to help the rebel cause.

"We are running out of everything. It's a complete failure. Either they (Western nations) don't understand or they don't care. Nothing has materialized yet. And I really mean nothing," Ali Tarhouni said in an interview with Reuters.

"All of these people we talk to, all of these countries, at all these conferences, with their great grand speeches -- we appreciate (them) ... but in terms of finances they are a complete failure. Our people are dying," he said.

(Additional reporting by Matt Robinson in Misrata, Saif al-Jubouri in Tripoli and Maria Golovnina in Benghazi; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Jan Harvey.)

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Pawlenty announces 2012 White House bid (AFP)

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty announced his 2012 bid to challenge President Barack Obama for the White House in a slick online video ahead of his first official campaign event in Iowa Monday.

"The truth is, our country's in big trouble. We have far too much debt. Too much government spending and too few jobs," Pawlenty says in the two-minute long video released late Sunday.

"We need a president who understands that our problems are deep, and who has the courage to face them," he says. "President Obama doesn't. I do."

"I'm Tim Pawlenty, and I'm running for president of the United States," the former governor says ahead of his official announcement at a town hall meeting later Monday in Iowa, the first in the United States presidential caucus state.

Pawlenty is to be introduced at his formal campaign kickoff at the State of Iowa Historical Building by his wife Mary, a former state judge.

The former governor enters a thinning field of prospective contenders which lacks a clear frontrunner for the Republican nomination after three high-profile candidates -- former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, real estate mogul Donald Trump, and Indiana governor Mitch Daniels -- dropped out in little more than a week.

Pawlenty made his intentions to run clear weeks ago, in March releasing a polished YouTube video announcing the formation of an exploratory committee.

And for more than a year he has been traveling to key early presidential nomination states like Iowa and New Hampshire.

Following his first official campaign event, Pawlenty plans to participate in a Facebook town hall meeting on Tuesday in Florida, which is angling to be among the first crop of nominating states.

He was due to speak in Washington Wednesday at the libertarian Cato Institute.

An evangelical Christian, Pawlenty was born to a Polish American and his German American mother in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He was trained as a labor lawyer before being elected governor. He and his wife have two daughters.

The low-key Pawlenty -- derided by detractors as bland and uncharismatic -- is little known outside of his home state. He hopes to position himself as a fiscal conservative who will shake up Washington.

All told, the Republican field encompasses about a dozen hopefuls who have declared their intentions or are preparing to, among them Minnesota representative Michele Bachmann; former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum; Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels; former ambassador to China Jon Huntsman; and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich was the first major Republican candidate to formally throw his hat into the ring earlier this month, less than two weeks ahead of Pawlenty.

Also recently announcing a long-shot White House bid was US lawmaker Ron Paul, a libertarian with a small but spirited Republican following.

There has been talk of a possible late election season entry into the White House contest, because the Republican electorate is said to be disenchanted with the field of contenders so far.

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NY House race spotlights national spending issues (AP)

CLARENCE CENTER, N.Y. – The special election to fill a House seat in upstate New York was supposed to be an easy victory for Republicans.

But less than two weeks before the May 24 vote, polls show a competitive contest between Republican Jane Corwin, 47, and Democrat Kathy Hochul, 52, in what's become the first electoral test of GOP budget policies. The race also has drawn an avalanche of spending by interest groups, as well as both national parties.

"Jane Corwin said she would vote for the 2012 Republican budget that would essentially end Medicare," says a TV ad for Hochul, underscoring the degree to which the national debate in Washington is framing this race.

Corwin hits back in her own ad, saying Hochul "refuses to tell us her plan to cut the deficit."

Until recently, Democrats had all but written off the state's 26th congressional district spanning the suburban and rural communities between Rochester and Buffalo. The seat was left vacant in February, when incumbent Republican Rep. Chris Lee resigned after shirtless photos surfaced that he'd sent to a woman he'd met on Craigslist.

It's the most conservative district in New York; Republican John McCain carried it by 6 points over President Barack Obama in 2008. And it could be eliminated next year when the state loses two seats as lawmakers redraw congressional lines as required by law following the 2010 Census.

But this week, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced it would spend $250,000 on ads to help Hochul, the Erie County clerk. The campaign committee had already contributed about $100,000 to Hochul for research and other campaign operations.

The House Majority PAC, a new independent group launched to help House Democrats, announced late Friday it would also begin TV advertising to help Hochul.

The GOP isn't taking any chances. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, headlined a fundraiser for Corwin last week, the National Republican Congressional Committee has pledged to advertise and a major GOP-aligned group has gotten involved, too.

Corwin, a wealthy state assemblywoman who has lent her campaign nearly $2 million, has seen her lead in polls evaporate after endorsing the budget plan crafted by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., that would cut billions from Medicare, the government health care plan for the elderly. Corwin has defended the proposed changes to Medicare even as members of the House GOP leadership have softened their stance on the immediacy of enacting them amid an outcry from seniors.

"This is going to be a referendum on the Republican plan to end Medicare as we know it," Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., who heads the House Democratic campaign committee, told The Associated Press.

Hochul has used her television ads to hammer Corwin on Medicare and the two rivals tangled over the issue in their first televised debate Thursday.

"If we keep Medicare in the same plan we're going to run out of money by 2029," Corwin said.

Hochul argued that the Ryan plan could force seniors into poverty, adding: "It's not the American way. I won't go there."

With television ads swamping the district, several voters said they were aware of the differences between the candidates on Medicare and that the issue could affect how they vote.

"I work in a hospital and we would definitely be impacted by changes to Medicare," said Lockport resident Stephanie Douglas, an independent who was leaning toward Hochul.

And local nonprofit executive Michael Genga was urging his staunchly Republican mother to support Hochul, saying: "If Jane Corwin is supporting people who want to end Medicare, that's just way off base."

The Medicare issue aside, the race also has been complicated by the presence of a wealthy third party candidate, Jack Davis. He's a former Republican who has run for the seat three times as a Democrat and is now competing as a tea party contender. Many local tea party leaders have denounced Davis's candidacy, but he's spent heavily on the race and polls show him drawing votes away from Corwin.

Steve Greenberg, director of the Siena Poll which has conducted district surveys, said Davis's presence on the ballot had improved Democrats' chances of taking the seat.

"If Corwin can convince voters he's not the real conservative in the race, she can get them back. Or at least convince Davis voters to stay home," Greenberg said.

Republicans and independent conservative groups are trying to marginalize Davis while insisting Corwin's troubles have little to do with her support for the Ryan budget.

"This is about western New York values," Erie County Republican Chairman Nick Langworthy said. He also dismissed Davis as a "political opportunist," warning, "Don't let our friends and neighbors be fooled."

The House Republican campaign committee, for its part, has seized on a video showing Davis in a dustup with a Corwin staffer and emailed it around to reporters. And Davis is the target of a major television ad campaign by American Crossroads, the independent conservative group that spent over $70 million to help Republicans reclaim the House majority in 2010. The Crossroads ad accuses Davis of trying to buy the seat.

"You can't trust Jack," the ad warns.

The race comes eighteen months after a similar New York special election in 2009 when a Democrat, Bill Owens, won a conservative upstate district in a 3-way race that split votes between the Republican and tea party candidates.

Republicans, here and in Washington, hope this race won't be a repeat.

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NY House race spotlights national spending issues (AP)

CLARENCE CENTER, N.Y. – The special election to fill a House seat in upstate New York was supposed to be an easy victory for Republicans.

But less than two weeks before the May 24 vote, polls show a competitive contest between Republican Jane Corwin, 47, and Democrat Kathy Hochul, 52, in what's become the first electoral test of GOP budget policies. The race also has drawn an avalanche of spending by interest groups, as well as both national parties.

"Jane Corwin said she would vote for the 2012 Republican budget that would essentially end Medicare," says a TV ad for Hochul, underscoring the degree to which the national debate in Washington is framing this race.

Corwin hits back in her own ad, saying Hochul "refuses to tell us her plan to cut the deficit."

Until recently, Democrats had all but written off the state's 26th congressional district spanning the suburban and rural communities between Rochester and Buffalo. The seat was left vacant in February, when incumbent Republican Rep. Chris Lee resigned after shirtless photos surfaced that he'd sent to a woman he'd met on Craigslist.

It's the most conservative district in New York; Republican John McCain carried it by 6 points over President Barack Obama in 2008. And it could be eliminated next year when the state loses two seats as lawmakers redraw congressional lines as required by law following the 2010 Census.

But this week, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced it would spend $250,000 on ads to help Hochul, the Erie County clerk. The campaign committee had already contributed about $100,000 to Hochul for research and other campaign operations.

The House Majority PAC, a new independent group launched to help House Democrats, announced late Friday it would also begin TV advertising to help Hochul.

The GOP isn't taking any chances. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, headlined a fundraiser for Corwin last week, the National Republican Congressional Committee has pledged to advertise and a major GOP-aligned group has gotten involved, too.

Corwin, a wealthy state assemblywoman who has lent her campaign nearly $2 million, has seen her lead in polls evaporate after endorsing the budget plan crafted by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., that would cut billions from Medicare, the government health care plan for the elderly. Corwin has defended the proposed changes to Medicare even as members of the House GOP leadership have softened their stance on the immediacy of enacting them amid an outcry from seniors.

"This is going to be a referendum on the Republican plan to end Medicare as we know it," Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., who heads the House Democratic campaign committee, told The Associated Press.

Hochul has used her television ads to hammer Corwin on Medicare and the two rivals tangled over the issue in their first televised debate Thursday.

"If we keep Medicare in the same plan we're going to run out of money by 2029," Corwin said.

Hochul argued that the Ryan plan could force seniors into poverty, adding: "It's not the American way. I won't go there."

With television ads swamping the district, several voters said they were aware of the differences between the candidates on Medicare and that the issue could affect how they vote.

"I work in a hospital and we would definitely be impacted by changes to Medicare," said Lockport resident Stephanie Douglas, an independent who was leaning toward Hochul.

And local nonprofit executive Michael Genga was urging his staunchly Republican mother to support Hochul, saying: "If Jane Corwin is supporting people who want to end Medicare, that's just way off base."

The Medicare issue aside, the race also has been complicated by the presence of a wealthy third party candidate, Jack Davis. He's a former Republican who has run for the seat three times as a Democrat and is now competing as a tea party contender. Many local tea party leaders have denounced Davis's candidacy, but he's spent heavily on the race and polls show him drawing votes away from Corwin.

Steve Greenberg, director of the Siena Poll which has conducted district surveys, said Davis's presence on the ballot had improved Democrats' chances of taking the seat.

"If Corwin can convince voters he's not the real conservative in the race, she can get them back. Or at least convince Davis voters to stay home," Greenberg said.

Republicans and independent conservative groups are trying to marginalize Davis while insisting Corwin's troubles have little to do with her support for the Ryan budget.

"This is about western New York values," Erie County Republican Chairman Nick Langworthy said. He also dismissed Davis as a "political opportunist," warning, "Don't let our friends and neighbors be fooled."

The House Republican campaign committee, for its part, has seized on a video showing Davis in a dustup with a Corwin staffer and emailed it around to reporters. And Davis is the target of a major television ad campaign by American Crossroads, the independent conservative group that spent over $70 million to help Republicans reclaim the House majority in 2010. The Crossroads ad accuses Davis of trying to buy the seat.

"You can't trust Jack," the ad warns.

The race comes eighteen months after a similar New York special election in 2009 when a Democrat, Bill Owens, won a conservative upstate district in a 3-way race that split votes between the Republican and tea party candidates.

Republicans, here and in Washington, hope this race won't be a repeat.

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House passes bill making it easier to drill

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican-controlled House passed the first of three bills Thursday aimed at speeding up offshore oil and gas drilling a year after the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

In a 266-149 vote that included 33 Democrats in its majority, the House approved a bill that would force the federal government to conduct three lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and one off the Virginia coast within a year, or by June 2012. Lease sales are the first step in a multi-year process that can culminate in drilling.

The Obama administration had postponed the sales after the massive Gulf oil spill, saying it needed time to conduct more thorough environmental reviews, to account for the blowout's effects on the Gulf ecosystem and to incorporate lessons learned from the disaster.

A major federal investigation into what caused the accident has yet to be released.

Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., the House Natural Resources Chairman and the bills' sponsor, said Thursday the legislation would reverse actions by the Obama administration that have blocked or hindered drilling at a time of rising gasoline prices.

"The pain being felt today has been exacerbated by the actions of the Obama administration," Hastings said. He said opening up more areas to drilling would send a signal to the world market that the U.S. is serious about reducing its dependence on foreign oil and lower pump prices.

Hastings' two other measures — which would speed up decision-making on drilling permits and mandate that the government sell offshore leases where the greatest oil deposits are — are expected to be voted on next week.

None of the three measures is likely to pass the Senate, where Democratic leaders are more focused on ending tax breaks received by profitable oil companies. The White House said Thursday it would oppose two of the three bills because they would hastily open up areas to offshore drilling based on outdated environmental analyses and put unnecessary constraints on the government's ability to ensure permits meet new safety standards.

The environmental reviews, which covered the area where BP was drilling at the time of blowout, predicted and analyzed spills much smaller than what occurred last April. However, the government requires additional analysis before companies explore for oil, and again before they start producing oil and gas.

House Democrats mounted an unsuccessful attempt Thursday to force their own vote on repealing billions of dollars in subsidies for the five biggest oil companies. They also failed to get support for a measure to guarantee that all oil and gas produced from the leases would be sold in the U.S.

"Together, these bills will not relieve pain at the pump, but they will increase the chances of another ? disaster, costing lives, livelihoods, and hurting some of our precious natural resources," said Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo. "Why? Because that is what Big Oil wants."

The three Gulf sales are currently scheduled to occur by mid-2012, and one could occur by the end of this year. The sale off Virginia at the earliest would happen in 2017.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Bin Laden unarmed during raid, White House says

WASHINGTON — Osama bin Laden was unarmed when Navy commandos shot him, the White House said Tuesday in a revised version of how the world's most notorious terrorist was killed.

Media and local residents gather outside the house where al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was caught and killed.

Additional details about the Sunday raid emerged from the White House and CIA Director Leon Panetta, and new questions were raised about how authorities were tipped off to the men who were hiding bin Laden. Information from the elite team of Navy SEALs who raided bin Laden's compound in Pakistan and carried out his execution is coming in "piece by piece and is being reviewed and updated and elaborated on," White House press secretary Jay Carney said.

With the dramatic middle-of-the-night raid less than two days old, Carney corrected several elements of a description given Monday by White House counterterrorism czar John Brennan about the final moments of bin Laden's life.

Brennan told reporters that bin Laden "engaged in a firefight" with the SEALs before they shot him in the head and killed him. Brennan also said one of bin Laden's wives, placed in front of him as a shield, was shot and killed.

Although others at the compound were involved in a firefight with the U.S. commandos, bin Laden "was not armed," Carney said Tuesday, adding that it doesn't mean he didn't resist in some way.

Additionally, the unarmed wife, who rushed the assailants as they moved toward her husband, was shot in the leg but not killed, Carney said. Another woman on a lower floor of the compound was killed when she got caught in the crossfire between the SEALs and the men living at the compound with bin Laden.

Carney said the commandos were met by "a great deal of resistance" throughout the 40-minute raid.

Separately, a U.S. intelligence official who is not authorized to speak publicly, said a key clue to the courier's identity came with the the 2004 capture of al-Qaeda operative Hassan Ghul in Iraq. The official said Ghul identified the courier by the pseudonym Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti. U.S. officials used the information in subsequent interrogations of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and al-Qaeda leader Abu Faraj al-Libbi.

For years, U.S. officials pursued information about the courier through interviews, electronic intercepts and other methods before learning four years ago the courier's true name, Sheik Abu Ahmed. It took two more years, the official said, before U.S. authorities learned of the courier's whereabouts, leading to bin Laden's compound outside of Islamabad.

In other news related to Sunday's events and their aftermath:

• Panetta and the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee offered conflicting accounts of whether harsh interrogation methods used in the questioning of top al-Qaeda leaders yielded the key information that led authorities to bin Laden's hide-out.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said the information that one of bin Laden's trusted couriers might be hiding him did not come from such interrogations. "Nothing has been found to indicate this came out of Guantanamo," she said.

Panetta, however, told NBC Nightly News that the information came "from a lot of sources" but that "clearly some of it came from the detainees and the interrogation of detainees." He said the interrogation techniques used included "waterboarding."

•Feinstein said she and other Intelligence Committee members were first briefed in December on the existence of the compound the CIA believed might be housing bin Laden.

•Lawmakers who were briefed by Panetta said they were wowed by the work of the intelligence community and the commandos who dropped into the compound on a moonless night.

"I've never been prouder to be an American than I am today," Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., said. To hear how the United States developed intelligence and executed the operation "will be a great source of pride to every American."

Said Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 Democrat in the House of Representatives, "It's incredible what our people can do."

•Panetta told NBC that Pakistani authorities are holding bin Laden's relatives, along with those of the courier and his brother, and will give U.S. authorities access to them "so we can continue to gather intelligence."

•Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said he is concerned about terrorist attacks in retaliation for bin Laden's death. "We are on high alert and getting intelligence wherever we need to protect our country," he said. "My concerns are the homegrown terrorists right now."

•House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi called former president George W. Bush to thank him. "I wanted him to know the appreciation that many of us have in a bipartisan way," she said. "We have all recognized in our public comments that his role was important in having this success."

•Carney said bin Laden's death will not prompt any change to plans to withdrawing troops from Afghanistan in July. "The pace of that drawdown will be determined by conditions on the ground," he said.

For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.We've updated the Conversation Guidelines. Changes include a brief review of the moderation process and an explanation on how to use the "Report Abuse" button. Read more.

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White House held breath during bin Laden raid

WASHINGTON — After playing nine holes of morning golf, President Obama joined his senior aides in the White House Situation Room at 1 p.m. ET on Sunday to go over final preparations for that day's top-secret raid on a complex 35 miles outside Islamabad that those in the room believed was built to hide Osama bin Laden.

President Obama and Vice President Biden, along with members of the national security team, receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House on Sunday.

By Pete Souza, White House

President Obama and Vice President Biden, along with members of the national security team, receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House on Sunday.

Few beyond that room had any inkling that the government had been planning this raid for months and had worked to find the sprawling complex for years — all based on a tip from a detainee who gave authorities a nom-de-guerre for a man he said could be hiding the world's most notorious terrorist.

At 3:32 p.m., Obama rejoined his aides as a small team of Navy SEALs boarded helicopters in the dark and headed toward the affluent suburb of Abbottabad in their quest to capture or kill the man responsible for 9/11.

Monday, White House counterterrorism czar John Brennan described the scene in the Situation Room as one of the most "anxiety filled" of his life.

He would not describe how the group followed the raid in real time — whether they could watch it unfold on video or whether they had audio from the scene — but he said the room was near silent as events unfolded.

A photo of the scene released by the White House illustrates the stress. Obama, Vice President Biden and a dozen top aides are huddled on one side of the room, staring at something on the other side. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is holding her hand over her mouth.

Although the entire raid, during which bin Laden and those hiding him were killed, passed in 40 minutes, those "minutes passed like days," Brennan said.

The commandos knew how the complex was laid out and even where bin Laden and his family likely could be found on the second and third floors of the largest building on site. According to the National Journal, they had been practicing at a mock complex, a replica of bin Laden's home, built at a secret base in nearby Afghanistan.

"You can imagine that for something as important as this, and something as risky as this, every effort would be made to do the practice runs, understand the complexities and the layout of the compound," Brennan said. "There were multiple opportunities to do that in terms of going through the exercises to prepare for it."

But the SEALs could not know for sure what would happen once they dropped in to the complex. They didn't know whether they could get in and out before the Pakistani government — which had not been informed about the raid before it was launched — would be able to scramble fighter jets and get them to the scene to respond to what to Pakistan was a threat from a mysterious source.

There were "a lot of people holding their breath," Brennan said. It went like clockwork — almost.

Bin Laden and the courier hiding him, along with the courier's brother, put up a fight — as expected.

Brennan said U.S. forces were prepared to take bin Laden alive but knew he would probably not go down easy. It was unclear Monday whether he "got off any rounds," Brennan said, but he reached for a weapon as a firefight broke out, and the SEALs shot him in the head.

After the U.S. forces secured the area, collected bin Laden's body and sent word to the White House that he had been tentatively identified, it became clear that one of their helicopters, which had stalled on its way into the compound, could not be restarted. Reinforcements came in, the broken aircraft was destroyed so it wouldn't fall into hostile hands and the SEALs got out before Pakistani jets got to the scene.

The commandos were able to make off with a cache of information that could help the government root out more al Qaeda leaders, Brennan said, and no Americans were injured in the raid.

In the Situation Room, "there was a tremendous sigh of relief," Brennan said. "Thankfully, no Pakistani aircraft engaged."

Analysts say it was one of the most successful raids they can recall. "This is probably the most historic raid in U.S. history," said Rick Nelson, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

It had its roots in a tip, years ago. According to the Associated Press, it came from al Qaeda's No. 3 leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who gave authorities the nicknames of several of bin Laden's couriers — men who could be hiding the al Qaeda leader. The CIA homed in on one man when another detainee, Abu Faraj al-Libi, provided interrogators with more information. Two years ago, the CIA figured out where the man might be living, and in August 2010, it identified the complex.

It was a house eight times bigger than any other in the affluent neighborhood of mostly Pakistani military retirees. Located near a military training academy, it had 12- to 18-foot walls topped with barbed wire, security gates and guards — and no phone or Internet service.

The CIA knew for months that the complex, which was built in 2005 at the end of a dirt road, was being used to hide someone important. It took a while to become certain that someone was bin Laden.

While they worked to nail it down, Obama ran months of secret meetings with top advisers to go over a plan. They discussed many options, including an assault from the air, and there was not unanimity about the plan, that was executed, Brennan said. "The president had to look at all the different scenarios, all the different contingencies that are out there," he said. "What would have been the downsides if, in fact, it wasn't bin Laden? What would have happened if a helicopter went down?"

Brennan agreed that the commandos should go in.

Friday morning at 8:20 a.m., before he boarded a plane for Alabama to view tornado damage, Obama gave the go-ahead for the weekend raid. It was scrapped Saturday because of bad weather. That night, the president attended the White House Correspondents Association annual dinner.

He gave no hint of what was happening behind the scenes.

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