John Kerry Begins His 2008 Campaign

John Kerry Begins His 2008 Campaign
Matt Margolis
Blogs for Bush
19 November 2004, 05:03 PM

Today, John Kerry effectively launched his campaign for the presidency in 2008. Kerry has placed a new petition on his former campaign website, asking his supporters to "co-sponsor" his "health care plan for every child."

A supplemental video of John Kerry can be view on this page as well. A defeated John Kerry speaks directly to his supporters, thanking them for what they did in the election - Kerry claims they "rewrote the book on grassroots politics."

Kerry's speech sounds like a production by MoveOn.org and Michael Moore... talking about how all the votes have not been counted yet, referencing attacks "from big news organizations such as Fox, Sinclair Broadcasting, and conservative talk radio."

This is John Kerry's way of keeping his e-mail list alive and to retain as many of these voters as possible in 2008. Make no mistake about it, this has nothing to with a desire to give children health care. It has everything to do with John Kerry's plan to run for president in 2008. No wonder he had all this money left over from this year's campaign.

John Kerry knows that if he's going to be the Democrats' nominee in 2008 he has got to keep the Democratic base loyal to him, and not have them stray to Hillary Clinton, who is expected to seek the party nomination herself. John Kerry is going to spend the next four years redefining his record in the Senate and keeping his e-mail list in use.

There is no doubt anymore, this stunt with the petition on his former campaign website marks the beginning of his quest for the presidency in 2008.

State, Powell Defend Comments About Iran's Nuke Program

State, Powell Defend Comments About Iran's Nuke Program
Friday, November 19, 2004
By Liza Porteus

The State Department is defending Secretary of State Colin Powell's comments earlier this week that he has seen information showing that Iran is trying to adapt missiles to deliver nuclear weapons.

"I have seen some information that would agree that they have been actively working on delivery systems," Powell told reporters en route to an Asia-Pacific economic summit meeting in Chile on Wednesday.

The Washington Post, citing two officials, reported Friday that Powell was referring to classified information that was based on an unvetted, single source, and had not been verified.

Powell and other senior Cabinet members were briefed last week on the sensitive intelligence, the Post reported. The material was stamped "No Foreign," meaning it was not to be shared with allies, although President Bush decided last week that portions could be shared with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, officials told the newspaper.

ABC news reported a similar story.

But State Department officials told FOX News on Friday that the ABC and Washington Post reports are wrong. They denied that Powell's remarks violated any classified information rule.

State spokesman Tom Casey said Powell did not misspeak and said the Post article is faulty and based on an "assumption from the reporter that intelligence her source has seen on Iranian missile development is the same intelligence provided to Powell."

Casey said that by focusing on a possible misstep on Powell's part, the real point is being lost — that the Iranians are developing delivery systems, as well as working on a clandestine nuclear weapons program that's likely not being pursued for power uses.

Powell was trying to illustrate in his remarks that this is a problem area that people need to take seriously, Casey said.

"Powell said what he said and he stands by it," he said.

Powell: Shouldn't Be 'Brand-New News'

Powell clarified his remarks on Thursday in an interview on Chile's TVN.

"Now, I made a statement yesterday that said we had some information, I've seen some information, and the dissidents have put out more information, that suggest that the Iranians are also working on the designs one would have to have for putting such a warhead into a missile," Powell told TVN.

"This shouldn't be brand-new news. This shouldn't surprise anybody. If they had been working on a nuclear weapon and designed a warhead, certainly they were also trying to figure out how they would deliver such a warhead," he said.

Iran dismissed Powell's remarks about its nuclear program as "baseless," adding he should review his intelligence sources.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi was reacting to Powell's comments on claims by the Iranian dissident group, the National Council for Resistance in Iran, that Tehran was secretly running a program intended to produce nuclear weapons by next year.

"There is no place for weapons of mass destruction in Iran's defense doctrine," Asefi said, according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency.

Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, told FOX News that it's still unknown the exact extent of the program.

"We simply don't know at this stage," he said, noting that U.S. reports of Iraq having weapons of mass destruction have thus far proven to be inaccurate. "I think we need to be sober about this information."

But the fact that the International Atomic Energy Agency got so involved in Iran's weapons programs is a prime example of how Tehran's nuclear ambitions are no secret, Powell noted.

"So I think that the Iranians still have much more to do to convince the international community that they are not moving in the direction of a nuclear weapon, and they will comply with their obligations to the IAEA, and they will this time meet the commitments they are making to the European Union," Powell added.

Britain, France, Germany and the European Union have struck a deal with Iran that is designed to stop the nuclear enrichment program. The agreement, which takes effect Monday, prohibits Iran from all uranium gas processing activities.

"We'll be following this with a certain degree of caution — not in opposition to what's going on, but with necessary, deserved caution, because for 20 years the Iranians have been trying to hide things from the international community," Powell told reporters en route to Chile. "And it is the United States, rather than us being a problem, we have been the ones who have been pointing out to the world since 2001, when the president came into office, that there was a problem in Iran."

John Pike, founder of Globalsecurity.org, said the United States has every reason to be wary of the agreement.

"This is a more ambitious, more far-reaching agreement" than previously attempted, Pike said, noting that the Iranians are under no legal obligation to adhere to the deal.

"My concern is that the Iranians are just playing the Europeans along and that the agreement's going to fall apart within a few months," he said.

Kimball said the IAEA should be able to finish its job inspecting Iran and that diplomacy is still the best tool in the American arsenal to wield.

"Even if [Powell's information] is true, it is not all that surprising. Iran has had a missile program for some time. We've known about their uranium enrichment activities," Kimball said. "The real question is, what the United States and its allies can do about the situation."

"The United States, I think, really needs to take a look at the opportunity here and it should complement, not complicate, the European approach while we at the same time make sure Iran does not violate its nonproliferation commitments and the European deal," Kimball added.

Report: Iran Producing Nuke Gas

Diplomats told The Associated Press on Friday that Iran was exploiting the window until Monday to produce significant quantities of uranium hexafluoride — a gas that can be used to make nuclear weapons — at its plant in the central city of Isfahan.

Asked about quantities, one diplomat said "it's not little," but he declined to elaborate.

When introduced into centrifuges and spun, uranium hexafluoride can be enriched into weapons-grade uranium that forms the core of nuclear warheads

Iran has huge reserves of raw uranium and has announced plans to extract more than 40 tons a year. Tehran has maintained in the past that it was pursuing a nuclear program as a source of electrical power in the country.

Pike agreed with Powell that Tehran's nuclear aspirations are no secret and that it's expected the country would be planning delivery system for its weapons.

"This is the missile that North Korea has been developing for over a decade for delivering its atomic bombs," as well as the same type of missile Pakistan has been working with Pyongyang on developing, Pike said. "It's inconceivable that Iran is not working on the very same missile for the very same reason."

Pike noted that those nuclear facilities inside Iran are very similar to those in Pakistan that produce uranium and plutonium — the two main ingredients of an atomic bomb.

"I don't think anyone knows for sure how far away they are" from completing their work on such a weapon, Pike said of Iran. But he said evidence suggests that the pieces could be in place for completion within a year to 18 months.

On another note, Powell plans to attend a conference on Iraq on Monday and Tuesday at Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik.

State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said he's not aware of any plans by Powell to raise his nuclear concerns directly with Iranian diplomats who are expected to attend the conference.

FOX News' Toni Delancey and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Diplomats: Iran Doing Last-Minute Nuke Processing

Diplomats: Iran Doing Last-Minute Nuke Processing
Friday, November 19, 2004

VIENNA, Austria — Iran is spending the last few days before it must stop all work related to uranium enrichment converting tons of ore into a dual-use gas that could then be processed to make nuclear weapons, diplomats said Friday.

Iran recently started producing uranium hexafluoride at its gas processing facilities in Isfahan, the diplomats told The Associated Press. When introduced into centrifuges and spun, the substance can be enriched to low levels for use as fuel to generate electricity or to levels high enough to make weapons-grade uranium that forms the core of nuclear warheads.

A diplomat familiar with the International Atomic Energy Agency — the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency — said the Iranians apparently were in the process of converting 22 tons of uranium into gas before Monday's deadline. Iran was doing this either as a precursor to producing uranium hexafluoride or actually producing it.

Iran is not believed to have enriched substantive amounts of uranium hexafluoride.

Iran has insisted it wants to produce uranium hexafluoride for enrichment to generate electricity. The United States — which once labeled Iran part of an "axis of evil" with North Korea and prewar Iraq — believes Iran is trying to make atomic bombs.

On Friday, Iran dismissed as "baseless" Secretary of State Colin Powell's claims that he had seen intelligence indicating that Iran "had been actively working on delivery systems" for a nuclear weapon.

Iran last week agreed to suspend uranium enrichment and all related activities in a deal worked out with Britain, France, Germany and the European Union. The deal, which takes effect Monday, prohibits Iran from all uranium gas processing activities.

But the diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Tehran was exploiting the window until Monday to produce uranium hexafluoride at its Isfahan plant in central Iran.

Asked about quantities, one diplomat said "it's not little," but he declined to elaborate.

Iran has huge reserves of raw uranium and has announced plans to extract more than 40 tons a year.

That amount, converted to uranium hexafluoride and repeatedly spun in centrifuges, theoretically could yield more than 200 pounds of weapons-grade highly enriched uranium, enough for about five crude nuclear weapons.

Iranian officials say the Isfahan plant can convert more than 300 tons of uranium ore a year.

Iran is not prohibited from making uranium hexafluoride until the deal takes force. But its decision to carry out uranium processing right up to the freeze deadline was expected to disappoint the Europeans — and give the United States ammunition in its push to have the U.N. Security Council examine Tehran's nuclear activities.

Washington says Iran wants to enrich uranium to make weapons. Tehran says it is interested only in low-grade enriched uranium for nuclear power.

Iran announced suspension of enrichment last week, and the agency said it would police that commitment starting next week, ahead of the Nov. 25 IAEA board meeting.

Although the deal commits Iran to suspension only while a comprehensive aid agreement with the EU is finalized, the pledge reduced Washington's hopes of having the IAEA board refer Iran to the Security Council when the board meets Thursday.

By opting to freeze — and not scrap — the program, Tehran has not dropped plans to run 50,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium for what it says will be the fuel requirements of a nuclear reactor to be finished next year.

It currently possesses less than 1,000 centrifuges. But even with 1,500 centrifuges, experts say, Iran would be able to make enough weapons-grade uranium for about a bomb a year.

Iran, meanwhile, dismissed Powell's remarks about its nuclear program as "baseless," adding that he should review his intelligence sources.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi was reacting to Powell's comments on claims by the Iranian dissident group, the National Council for Resistance in Iran, which alleged that Tehran was secretly running a program intended to produce nuclear weapons by next year.

Powell said Wednesday he had seen intelligence that partially confirmed the claim, including some indicating that Iran "had been actively working on delivery systems" for a nuclear weapon.

"There is no place for weapons of mass destruction in Iran`s defense doctrine," Asefi said, according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency.

Asefi suggested that U.S. officials "reconsider their intelligence sources."

On Thursday, Asefi dismissed the claims of the Iranian dissident group, which the United States and the European Union consider to be a terrorist organization.

U.N. Staff: 'No Confidence' in Top Leaders

U.N. Staff: 'No Confidence' in Top Leaders
Friday, November 19, 2004

UNITED NATIONS — A union representing United Nations staff has voted "no confidence" in senior management, including Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

The vote is largely symbolic and has no effect over Annan’s job or anyone else’s. But it isn’t a good sign for his and other top officials’ effectiveness as leaders of the world body.

It is the first time in the labor organization’s history that it has cast such a vote, which happened behind closed doors Friday afternoon at U.N. headquarters in New York.

The move was in response to a series of scandals plaguing the United Nations under Annan’s leadership.

Union members said the vote wasn’t directed at Annan but at the management of several top officials. However, the resolution, a copy of which has been obtained by FOX News, accuses Annan of several instances of mismanagement.

Union officials said the final straw was Annan’s decision this week to clear a senior U.N. official on charges of favoritism and sexual harassment.

Annan announced he was pardoning the official, Dileep Nair, even though employees accused Nair of harassing staff and practicing favoritism in his hiring and promotion methods.

It was the second time in two weeks that Annan has refused to take action against a senior official accused of harassment.

The vote was also in response to Annan's failure to accept the “honorable action” of the deputy secretary-general who tried to resign as a result of the bombing of the 2003 United Nations building in Baghdad that killed 22 staff members.

Additionally, U.N. workers are unhappy with leaders for failing to hold accountable the chef de cabinet, whose son was hired to work there in violation of staff rules.

Another concern is the ongoing internal investigation into the Oil-for-Food scandal. At issue is whether a senior U.N. official accepted bribes in exchange for diverting the Oil-for-Food program funds meant as aid for impoverished Iraqis directly to former Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein.

A U.N. spokesman said he hopes the body can work out its problems so it doesn't have to pass resolutions like this one.

"The idea is to keep dialogue going and see if we can’t sort out our differences so it isn't necessary to adopt resolutions saying we don’t have confidence in senior management,” said the spokesman, Fred Eckhart.

FOX News' Todd Conner and Catherine Donaldson-Evans contributed to this report.

Exclusive: Kerry Says UBL Tape Cost Him Election

Exclusive: Kerry Says UBL Tape Cost Him Election
Friday, November 19, 2004

NEW YORK — John Kerry believes he lost to President Bush because of the video from Usama bin Laden that surfaced just days before the Nov. 2 presidential election.

The Massachusetts senator told FOX News' senior correspondent Geraldo Rivera that he believes he lost because the tape may have scared the American electorate.

Rivera spoke to Kerry on Thursday as the senator and a slew of other notable names — including wife Teresa Heinz Kerry, actors Robin Williams and Morgan Freeman and comedian Chris Tucker — were in a holding room prior to the processional leading up to the formal opening of the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Ark.

"Tough luck, senator," Rivera said to Kerry, referring to the Democrat's election loss.

Trying to recount Kerry's words verbatim, Rivera said Kerry responded by saying:

"It was that Usama tape — it scared them [the American people]."

Rivera said Kerry said the tape came out too late for his camp to rebut and the Democratic campaign couldn't counteract it in time for the Tuesday election.

"Sen. Kerry clearly believes not only is it the security issue that cost him the election, but very specifically the Usama tapes coming out in the 11th hour," Rivera reported Friday.

Kerry also acknowledged that the security issue in general hurt him in the race, Rivera said.

The broadcast of the tape from the Al Qaeda leader jolted the campaign's closing days, accentuating the terrorism theme with a reminder of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

In the tape, aired by the Arab television network Al-Jazeera, bin Laden spoke directly to the American people. He admitted for the first time that he carried out the Sept. 11 attacks and said the attacks would have been less severe if Bush had been more alert.

He promised to lay out "the best way to avoid another Manhattan" and told Americans, "Your security is not in the hands of Kerry or Bush or Al Qaeda. Your security is in your own hands."

The tape caused Kerry to revive his contention that Bush missed an opportunity to capture or kill bin Laden during the Afghan war. The Democratic challenger asserted throughout the campaign that U.S. forces could have run down bin Laden in the Tora Bora mountains in late 2001 if they had gone after him on the ground, and he blamed Bush for the decision to let Afghan forces lead that chase.

But during the campaign, Republicans insinuated that terrorists would prefer to see Kerry in office, saying the Massachusetts senator would be too soft in the War on Terror.

Some political observers believe that many Americans voted for Bush not only because of his strong stance in the War on Terror but because they held tight to the adage of, "you don't change horses in midstream."

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, in responding to the FOX News report, said she does believe the bin Laden tape favored the president a little but would not say it outright tipped the election.

"It was a reminder he [bin Laden] still at large," she told FOX News. "I think what we could see in the polls a real lead for Kerry and that made a couple points difference … I think it had an effect."

On another note, Kerry is thanking supporters in an e-mail for moving voters, holding Bush accountable and for helping counter "the attacks from big news organizations" such as FOX News.

"I want to thank you personally for what you did in the election — you rewrote the book on grassroots politics, taking control of campaigns away from big donors. No campaign will ever be the same," Kerry wrote. "You moved voters, helped hold George Bush accountable, and countered the attacks from big news organizations such as Fox, Sinclair Broadcasting, and conservative talk radio."

Kerry went on saying the Bush administration is planning "a right wing assault on values and ideals we hold most deeply" and that diverse opinions are being "eliminated" from the State Department and CIA with the personnel reshuffling, and the Bush Cabinet is being remade to "rubber stamp policies that will undermine Social Security, balloon the deficit, avoid real reforms in health care and education, weaken homeland security, and walk away from critical allies around the world."

Kerry also vowed to "continue to challenge this administration" on a variety of issues, ranging from election standards and health care for children.

FOX News' Carl Cameron, Jim Mills, Liza Porteus and Geraldo Rivera contributed to this report.