China frustration with NKorea offers hope for US

WASHINGTON (AP) — China's growing frustration with longtime ally North Korea offers the United States a glimmer of hope about a once unthinkable prospect: holding discussions between Washington and Beijing about what to do if the government in Pyongyang collapses.

There is no sign that the North Korean regime is in danger or that U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping will discuss that possibility when they meet this week in California. Any such talk would alarm North Korea if word got out.

But in China, talk of a North Korean collapse is no longer the taboo subject it once was. Academics are increasingly willing to discuss it and a former top U.S. general said he has detected, during informal meetings, a willingness of Chinese officials to consider such discussions.

That reflects internal debate in China and dismay about North Korean brinkmanship in the aftermath of rocket and nuclear tests this winter that defied China, which supplies the North with crucial food, energy and diplomatic support.

Young North Korean leader Kim Jong Un appears to have consolidated control since taking power a year-and-a-half ago, and the spike in tension that followed its February nuclear test has eased in recent weeks. But there's a perennial threat of fighting with South Korea on one of the world's most militarized frontiers. China would want to avoid any conflict that could draw in its forces from the North, and U.S. forces from South Korea, as during the 1950-53 Korean War. Both powers would be concerned about the fate of North Korea's arsenal of chemical weapons, missiles and nuclear weapons and facilities.

But China also has reason to fear a North Korean collapse. That could trigger an exodus of hungry refugees across its border and lead to a reunified Korea allied with the United States, hosting American troops on China's doorstep.

Analysts say that until Chinese leaders decide among themselves what kind of outcome they are prepared to accept on the Korean Peninsula, they won't discuss the subject with U.S. officials. Still, they see some changes in China's attitude.

William Fallon, a former chief of U.S. Pacific Command, said the U.S. and China would have a shared interest in working together on North Korea and discussing issues such as securing its nuclear weapons. He said that in unofficial meetings in China this year with former and current Chinese government and military officials, he raised that possibility in broad terms and detected a willingness to consider it.

"I certainly suggested, and I know others have officially and formally suggested that it's about time we sat down to talk because we have common interest here," Fallon said. "I think that idea is not being rejected. The heads are nodding and they are considering it. I would expect that this would move forward, carefully."

Such cooperation would require Beijing and Washington overcoming deep, mutual suspicions that characterize their relations as China's economic and military power grows and the U.S. looks to boost its profile and long-established presence in Asia.

But China is taking a tougher stance on North Korea, as the U.S. hoped it would. It has supported tighter U.N. sanctions in response to the February nuclear test and stepped up border inspections. Most notably, a leading Chinese state bank shut accounts of North Korea's Foreign Trade Bank, its main foreign exchange institution.

Two weeks ago, China hosted a top North Korean envoy, a visit that Brookings Institution scholar Cheng Li says was expedited in advance of the U.S.-China summit that starts Friday. The North has since adopted a less confrontational stance and declared a willingness to return to the negotiating table.

But the U.S. sees that as little progress by North Korea, noting that the day after Vice Marshal Choe Ryong returned home, Pyongyang repudiated the goal of denuclearization — a U.S. prerequisite for restarting long-stalled aid-for-disarmament negotiations.

While China is speaking out more against the North's nuclear ambitions, it is not taking steps that could hasten the end of the Kim regime, such as cutting supplies.

"Any chaos or armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula would have a major impact on China's national security interests. We have to keep that in mind all the time," China's ambassador to the U.S., Cui Tiankai, told Foreign Policy magazine.

While the more critical recent tone of Chinese scholars — and their willingness to discuss once-forbidden issues like reunification — is probably not the position of China's leaders, it reflects the government's frustrations with North Korea and could be intended to send a message for it not to push China too far, said former senior State Department official Evans Revere.

China's own strategic interests have been affected by Pyongyang's recent threats of pre-emptive nuclear strikes against the U.S. and its allies. The U.S. scaled up military exercises with South Korea — staging flights of nuclear-capable B-52 and B-2 bombers — and boosting its missile defenses in China's backyard.

"The new Chinese leadership has been alarmed by how quickly North Korea destabilized the entire region with its threats," said John Park, a Northeast Asia expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "It's presented them with a strategic dilemma."

At unofficial talks on Northeast Asian security held in Germany last week, government-linked Chinese academics signaled that Beijing's long-held interest in maintaining stability at all costs in North Korea is shifting, and it is putting increasing emphasis on denuclearization, said Frank Jannuzi of Amnesty International USA, who attended the conference.

Yet the prospects for diplomacy remain bleak, if Pyongyang demands to be treated as a nuclear power, and Washington insists on concrete signs of the North's willingness to disarm before international negotiations can restart.

"China feels they've done their part by convincing North Korea to return to dialogue and now it's up to the U.S. and South Korea to do their part and welcome them back," said Jannuzi, a former Asia policy adviser to then Sen. John Kerry, now Washington's top diplomat. "They feel like the ball is in our court."

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IRS officials face grilling over lavish spending

Lawmakers to grill IRS officials over new controversy: lavish spending on employee conferences

Associated Press -

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Internal Revenue Service officials can expect a grilling when they face lawmakers over the latest controversy to rock the agency: lavish spending at employee conferences.

The IRS, however, is planning a robust defense at a congressional hearing Thursday. The agency has already imposed strict regulations to prevent expensive conferences in the future. And on Wednesday, the new acting head of the agency placed two officials on administrative leave for accepting free food at a party in a private suite at an IRS conference in 2010.

Pending a review, the two officials could lose their jobs, the agency said.

"When I came to IRS, part of my job was to hold people accountable," acting IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said in a statement. "There was clearly inappropriate behavior involved in this situation, and immediate action is needed."

Thursday's hearing by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee comes as the IRS faces mounting criticism for spending on employee conferences, and for improperly targeting conservative political groups that applied for tax-exempt status.

The IRS inspector general issued a report this week that said the agency spent nearly $50 million on 225 employee conferences from 2010 through 2012. The IRS said spending on conferences fell from $37.6 million in the 2010 budget year to $4.9 million in 2012.

The two officials were disciplined for accepting free food at a 2010 conference in Anaheim, Calif., that cost $4.1 million, the IRS said.

The agency did not publicly identify the workers, but two congressional aides said one is a top deputy in the IRS office that oversees implementation of the new health care law — Frederick Schindler, director of implementation oversight in the agency's Affordable Care Act office.

The aides spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss personnel matters on the record.

The training conference in Anaheim was held for 2,609 managers in the IRS' small business and self-employed division.

At the conference, the commissioner of the division, Christopher Wagner, stayed in a presidential suite that normally cost $3,500 a night, according to the inspector general's report. Wagner became chief of the IRS office of appeals in 2011 and retired this year.

His deputy, Faris Fink, stayed in a room that normally cost $1,499 a night, the report said. Fink, who was later promoted to head the IRS division that staged the conference, is scheduled to testify at Thursday's hearing, along with Werfel and the inspector general.

Fink has the distinction of playing Mr. Spock in a cheesy but slickly produced "Star Trek" video that IRS employees filmed for the conference.

A total of 132 IRS officials received room upgrades at the conference, according to a report by J. Russell George, the Treasury Department inspector general for tax administration. The tax agency paid a flat daily fee of $135 per hotel room, the report said, but the upgrades were part of a package deal that added to the overall cost of the conference.

The IRS also spent more than $50,000 to produce three videos that were shown at the conference, the report said, including the "Star Trek" parody that featured Fink and other IRS employees.

"The wasteful Anaheim conference is one example of a culture of excess that plagues the IRS and many federal agencies," said Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House oversight committee. "Taxpayer money meant to pay for a core agency mission, the hiring of more enforcement personnel, was instead spent on a lavish party."

Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the top Democrat on the oversight committee, said IRS spending on conferences, especially the $37.6 million in 2010, was "simply indefensible." But, he added, "I want to make sure we're clear that a lot has already been done to correct the situation."

Werfel took over the IRS last month after President Barack Obama forced the previous acting commissioner to resign following revelations that IRS agents had been improperly targeting conservative political groups when they applied for tax-exempt status during the 2010 and 2012 elections.

The IRS was screening the groups' applications because agents were trying to determine their level of political activity. IRS regulations say tax-exempt social welfare organizations can engage in some political activity but the activity cannot be their primary mission. It is up to the IRS to make that determination.

The revelations about IRS agents improperly targeting tea party and other groups have led to investigations by three congressional committees and the Justice Department. One top IRS official was forced to resign, another retired and a third was placed on paid administrative leave.

"The agency stands ready to confront any problems that occur, hold accountable anyone who acted inappropriately and permanently fix these problems so that such missteps do not occur again," Werfel said.

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Syria rebels seize crossing near Israeli border: activists

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Rebels seized a U.N.-manned border crossing linking Israel and Syria on Thursday, activists said, following heavy clashes between the opposition and President Bashar al-Assad's forces.

The crossing, in a U.N.-patrolled demilitarized zone on the Golan Heights, is the only passage between the two enemy countries and its capture seemed likely to heighten Israeli security concerns stoked by Syria's civil war.

"The rebels have seized the crossing near the old city of Quneitra in the occupied Golan Heights," said Rami Abdelrahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

"There are heavy explosions and fierce clashing ongoing in the area," he added.

Israel is worried that the Golan, which it captured from Syria in 1967, will become a springboard for attacks on Israelis by jihadi fighters, who are battling Assad.

Alex Shalom, an Israeli farmer from the Golan Heights, said he saw heavy smoke rising from the crossing, and Israeli military ambulances evacuating people from the site.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said the area leading to Quneitra had been closed off and that two Syrians who were wounded in the fighting have been taken into Israel for treatment. She could not say whether they were rebels or Syrian army soldiers

An Austrian Defense Ministry spokesman confirmed rebels have taken the border crossing, which is operated by the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF). Austrians account for around 380 of the 1,000-strong mission.

The spokesman said the peacekeepers have withdrawn to their bunkers and were not hurt in the fighting.

Austrian Defense Minister Gerald Klug has canceled all his appointments, a second spokesman said. Vienna has warned it could withdraw its peacekeepers from the Golan Heights if fighting in the area escalates.

UNDOF Officials could not be reached for comment.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that fighting was raging in several areas in the Golan Heights. An Israeli military spokeswoman said that two shells had landed inside the Israeli-held territory, causing no casualties or damage.

(Reporting by Erika Solomon in Beirut; Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem; Michael Shields in Vienna; editing by Crispian Balmer and Jeffrey Heller)

Meet the Unconstitutional Abortion Bill That's Advancing Through the House

Meet the Unconstitutional Abortion Bill That's Advancing Through the House

Republican Representative Trent Franks wanted this May to be the sequel to America's "Newtown moment" on gun control. But instead of pushing for background checks, Franks is trying to pass a nationwide ban on abortions after 20 weeks. Even though his pitch — America would be so outraged by the Gosnell trial that they'd support, even demand, legislation similar to his — didn't pan out, the bill itself is still making its way through the House.

RELATED: What You Missed During Today's Abortion Hearing In The House

Today, the bill (which originally only applied to D.C) was passed along by a House Judiciary subcommittee chaired by Franks in an expanded form — if it were to become law, which seems unlikely, it would now apply nationwide. The bill will move to the full committee, chaired by Rep.Bob Goodlatte, R-Va, who has a pretty consistent anti-abortion voting record. Franks, in a statement, declared today a personal win:

"I understand the unfortunate reality that today's markup will be surrounded by some degree of controversy. But we, as a nation, find ourselves at a point at which we don't offer unborn children even the most basic protections – even protections we extend to animals and property. The trial of Kermit Gosnell exposed late abortions for what they really are: relocated infanticide...I pray we use this as a 'teachable moment,' in the words of President Obama, and can agree that, at the very least, we are better than dismembering babies who can feel every excruciating moment. I look forward to the bill's moving on the full judiciary committee and to an eventual vote on this necessary, common-sense measure."

Franks's bill is called the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, and is similar to a state law in Franks's home state of Arizona, recently struck down in a federal court. It would ban abortions after 20 weeks, with exceptions only if the mother's life is in danger. In other words, later-term abortions for pregnancies resulting from incest, rape, and those that could pose significant (but non-lethal) health threats to the mother would be outlawed. The percentage of abortions affected in the country by the bill would be tiny — just 1.5 percent of abortions are performed after 21 weeks. So why would anti-abortion activists aim so low? Because the bill, if it became law, and if it survived a constitutional challenge (reminder: those are pretty big "if's"), would change the constitutional standard for determining the legality of abortions. As we explained before, the cut-off point of 20 weeks is based on what's called the fetal pain standard, which relies on a scientifically disputed claim that fetuses can feel pain at that point. That's against the precedent set by the Supreme Court, which has ruled that abortions are legal so long as the fetus isn't "viable," which is usually around 24 weeks. Any law like Franks's would, by going against that precedent, likely see a swift challenge in court, which is exactly what anti-abortion opponents are hoping for.

RELATED: The Philadelphia Abortion Doctor Trial Will Sicken You

Today's Constitution and Civil Justice subcommittee markup of the bill ended with a 6-4 vote down party lines. Democrats on the subcommittee, noting that the bill was unconstitutional, also objected to the visual their discussion created: the 10-person subcommittee is entirely made up of men. Democratic Rep. John Conyers of Michigan put it this way, according to the Huffington Posts's report on the markup: "No good has ever come from an all-male committee deciding the law about a woman's body. This is not appropriate."

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Banks in the Bucket

Terry Duffy, CME Group President and crooked bank stooge
image benginza. com


Wednesday June 5, 2013