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."

___

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

Via Yahoo News!

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

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.

Yahoo! News

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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.

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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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Suspicious white substance on plane turns out to be toilet paper

By the CNN Wire Staff STORY HIGHLIGHTSFlight crew members notice a suspicious white dust in an Alaska Airlines restroomAuthorities are notified, and the descend on the plane after it arrives in CaliforniaThe material was determined to be a "cellulose paper material" -- aka, toilet paper (CNN) -- A suspicious white substance in an airplane bathroom?

It could be anthrax, could be explosive residue or -- as authorities in California learned Friday -- it could be toilet paper.

The white dust appeared in the back lavatory of Alaska Airline's Flight 508 soon after it took off Friday afternoon from Seattle, said Bobbie Eagan, a spokeswoman for the carrier. Sometime during the 1,000-mile flight, the flight's crew notified authorities about the unknown substance and asked for help.

Fire department crews, law enforcement officers and hazardous materials experts circled the plane soon after it touched down shortly after 4 p.m. at John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, California, according to Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Mike Fergus.

The aircraft's 151 passengers and six crew members deplaned, and authorities climbed on board. They included members of the Orange County Fire Authority, who along with members of the county's sheriff department tested the suspicious substance.

Capt. Greg McKeown, the fire department's spokesman, said that authorities eventually determined that white dust actually was a "cellulose paper material" -- or, in other words, what appeared to be toilet paper.

With that potential mess cleared up, the aircraft went back into service, said Egan.

CNN's Anna Rhett Miller and Marlene Baldacci contributed to this report.

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White House Easter egg roll keeps getting bigger

By Garrett Hubbard, USA TODAY

President Obama coaches a young participant in getting the scoop during last year's Easter event.

EnlargeCloseBy Garrett Hubbard, USA TODAY

President Obama coaches a young participant in getting the scoop during last year's Easter event.

Not just any eggs: Easter eggs.

And not just any people: More people than on any other day of the year. People from every state. Famous people like singer Colbie Caillat and TV star Kelly Ripa, the Harlem Globetrotters and Sesame Street

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White House: Obama to Propose New Plan to Reduce Long-Term Deficits

AP

President Obama is introduced by senior adviser David Plouffe before he speaks at a Democratic National Committee event in Washington March 16.

White House senior adviser David Plouffe said Sunday that President Obama plans to outline a new proposal for bringing down the federal deficit this week. 

The announcement comes shortly after the White House reached a deal with Congress to fund the government for the rest of the fiscal year, and ahead of two other spending battles. Republicans are pushing for trillions in additional spending cuts over the next decade as part of their 2012 budget proposal and are threatening to torpedo a vote to raise the debt ceiling unless their spending-cut demands are met. 

Plouffe, who served as Obama's campaign manager in 2008, told "Fox News Sunday" that Obama wants to take a "balanced approach" to these issues and will lay out his proposal this week. The Obama plan, a follow-up to an earlier White House budget outline, would effectively serve as a counterproposal to the 10-year plan unveiled last week by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis. -- a plan that aims to reduce the deficit by $4.4 trillion in that period through spending cuts and entitlement reforms.  

"We have to use a scalpel, not a machete," Plouffe cautioned, while vowing to look at "all corners of government" for savings. "We're going to have a big debate."

Plouffe said the president's plan would address Medicare and Medicaid, though he said Obama would downplay Social Security as a minor contributor to the country's short-term deficits. He said the president would continue to push for rolling back the Bush tax cuts for wealthy Americans. 

"His budget for this year says for upper-income Americans, he does believe that they need to contribute to the deficit reduction in this country," he said. 

The White House said in a Twitter post that the president would deliver his opening speech on the plan Wednesday. 

Plouffe, in the interview, criticized Ryan's plan for making cuts to education and energy investment while giving tax breaks for the wealthy. But Plouffe made clear that the White House is outlining its new deficit reduction plan with an eye toward the upcoming debt ceiling vote. 

"We're not going to default on the debt limit. We can't do that," Plouffe said, warning that such a move would hurt job creation and lead to increased interest rates. He said the White House wants to make clear that deficit reduction is possible, suggesting lawmakers on both sides of the aisle should back an increase in the debt ceiling while working toward long-term deficit reduction. 

"We don't disagree that we cannot continue on this fiscal path," he said. Plouffe said that, as the latest budget deal proves, "compromise is not a dirty word."  

But House Republican Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., questioned whether Obama had found religion on spending cuts. Though Republicans and Democrats just reached a deal to cut $38.5 billion out of the budget for the rest of the current fiscal year, Cantor said the White House wasn't exactly cooperative. 

"We've had to bring this president kicking and screaming to the table to cut spending," Cantor told "Fox News Sunday. "It's really hard to believe what this White House and what this president is saying." 

He said Republicans will still need to see genuine spending cuts and entitlement reforms to go along with an increase in the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling. 

Earlier in the year, Obama proposed a 10-year budget plan that forecast $1.1 trillion in deficit reduction. But Republicans derided the proposal, noting that the president was looking to freeze discretionary spending at already-high levels and that the national debt would continue to soar under his plan. 

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, said Sunday that he hopes the next proposal will be "sincere." 

"I think he needs to do more than just give a speech," he told Fox News. "I think he needs to submit a new budget." 

Cantor said Sunday that the weekend's budget deal was "only the beginning" in the battle to control spending. 

"We have a fiscal train wreck before us," he said. "This is the first bite of the apple." 

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Federal Workers Union Sues White House Over Possible Government Shutdown

FoxNews.com

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With time running out for congressional leaders to reach a budget deal, the country's biggest federal workers union is taking the Obama administration to court for what it called a failure to explain how federal programs and services would be affected if there's a government shutdown.

The American Federation of Government Employees announced Tuesday that it filed a lawsuit in federal court last week seeking details on the shutdown plans of federal agencies.

The union's national president, John Gage, said he filed the lawsuit after the White House Office of Management and Budget failed to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request sent early last month.

Gage said public unions have been given very little information on how agencies would determine which employees are essential in the event of a government shutdown.

"It's not something that should be cavalierly handled," Gage said in a written statement. "If a shutdown goes on, there will be federal employees who are going to be hurt financially. They should know before the eve of a shutdown what is happening and it should be done orderly and not in a last-minute rush."

The Office of Management and Budget declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying it doesn't talk about pending litigation. But the office said the administration "has taken unprecedented steps to improve government transparency and accountability, and shutdown planning is no exception. We still believe that there is an opportunity to avoid a costly government shutdown, which would cause undue harm to the lives of federal employees, the services millions of Americans rely on, and the economic recovery under way."

The agency called plans for a shutdown "pre-decisional at this time," adding that more information will be released as it is finalized.

With Republicans and Democrats unable to reach a budget agreement, a government shutdown could occur as early as this weekend. A top White House budget official has written a memo to agency heads directing them to review and share their contingency plans for a shutdown.

Gage said he sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder last week, stating the union's position that requiring federal employees to work without getting paid violates the 13th Amendment, which prohibits involuntary servitude. He said he also sent a letter last week to Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry asking how long "essential employees" can be required to work during shutdown without being paid.

Gage said if there is a shutdown, the union will be calling on employees to report to their job sites early next week to demonstrate that they are ready to go back to work.

"The American public can see at least that federal employees know the importance of their jobs and that political games should not be played with their services or with their jobs," he said.

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White House fails to end impasse on federal budget

By Mark Wilson, Getty Images

President Obama addresses the media in the White House briefing room on Tuesday.

EnlargeCloseBy Mark Wilson, Getty Images

President Obama addresses the media in the White House briefing room on Tuesday.

Since the Republican House and the Democratic Senate remain divided, the government is days away from having its legal authority to spend money expire. Congress must pass a bill by midnight Friday to avert a shutdown of most federal agencies.

GOP: Party seeking dramatic changes in Medicare and MedicaidBUDGET: House GOP proposes nearly $6 trillion in cutsAfter the White House meeting, the participants gave simultaneous — if different — accounts:

•President Obama. "We are now closer than we have ever been to getting an agreement," he said in a surprise briefing. "The only question is whether politics or ideology are going to get in the way of preventing a government shutdown."

•Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. "The Tea Party is driving the House of Representatives. It's not a matter of a number. We can get them their number. It's ideological with them."

•House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. "We're going to fight for the largest cuts possible — real cuts, not more smoke and mirrors," he said.

Reid and Obama object to GOP proposals to cut funding for Planned Parenthood and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Two hours later, Boehner and Reid met again. Their spokesmen released identical statements saying they "had a productive discussion." Obama said he wants them back at the White House today. The House has voted for $61 billion in cuts from this year's budget. The Senate and White House have offered $33 billion.

Two previous shutdown showdowns have ended with short-term "continuing resolutions," funding the government two or three weeks at a time with $4 billion to $6 billion in cuts.

This time, all sides have said they don't want a stopgap bill. Even so, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky., has drafted an extension that would fund the Defense Department through September — and the rest of the government for another week. Total cuts: $12 billion.

No vote is scheduled, and Obama said he won't sign another short-term extension unless it's only for a few days to hash out a final, long-term deal.

Even as the president was working to avert it, his Office of Management and Budget was preparing for a government shutdown.

Deputy OMB Director Jeff Zients e-mailed federal agencies Monday that "given the realities of the calendar, good management requires that we continue contingency planning for an orderly shutdown."

Zients told agencies to share their secret contingency plans with top managers. But Bill Dougan of the National Federation of Federal Employees, urged him to also "share these plans with the hardworking federal employees who will be impacted the most by a government shutdown."

The House Administration Committee also released a shutdown plan, saying Capitol Hill employees necessary for security or for members to fulfill their constitutional responsibilities would continue to work through a shutdown. The only offices that will "definitely" shut down are the gift shop, visitor's center, botanic gardens and the flag office.

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Obama Summons Lawmakers to White House Budget Talks

Associated Press

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WASHINGTON -- President Obama on Monday summoned key lawmakers from both parties to the White House for budget talks in hopes of avoiding a government shutdown this weekend. 

The White House said the president has invited House Speaker John Boehner, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and top negotiators on the appropriations committees to a session Tuesday. 

Obama spokesman Jay Carney said time was running short and the president would urge the lawmakers to reach an agreement. 

Carney said the White House was optimistic that a shutdown could be averted, but a top Republican did not share that optimism. 

Boehner, R-Ohio, said there were still disagreements about how much to cut spending through Sept. 30, the end of the budget year. He accused the White House of bringing too many phony budget cuts to the table in hopes of restoring reductions made by Republicans in February. 

"Despite attempts by Democrats to lock in a number among themselves, I've made clear that their $33 billion is not enough and many of the cuts that the White House and Senate Democrats are talking about are full of smoke and mirrors," Boehner said in a statement. "That's unacceptable." 

Democratic officials knowledgeable about the proposals said the administration's ideas including taking unused money from federal highway programs and leftover funds from a program providing health care to middle-class families. Both ideas count in congressional budget terms as savings that could be used to pay for spending elsewhere in the day-to-day budgets of domestic agencies, but their practical effect is nil. 

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss proposals that haven't been made public. 

Despite his protests, Boehner's own Republican appropriators have claimed $5 billion in questionable savings from capping payments from a trust fund for crime victims. 

At issue is long-overdue legislation required to fund the operating budgets of every Cabinet agency for the ongoing budget year, which is already half over. 

Negotiations have centered on cuts in the range of $33 billion -- a figure that has allowed congressional staff aides to works through the measure line by line -- but Boehner has repeatedly said there is no agreement on how much to cut. The White and Democrats also are balking over more than 50 policy provisions that House Republicans have attached to the measure. 

Such policy "riders" include cutting off implementation of the new health care law and forbidding taxpayer money from going to Planned Parenthood.

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