Aides decided to scrap plans for a helicopter ride to the heavily fortified Green Zone a few miles away - but attributed the decision to poor visibility rather than security concerns.
By JENNIFER LOVEN, AP White House Correspondent Jennifer Loven, Ap White House Correspondent – 10 mins ago
BAGHDAD – Unannounced and shielded by heavy security, President Barack Obama flew to Iraq on Tuesday for a brief inspection of a war he opposed as a candidate and now vows to end as commander in chief. "There is still a lot of work to do here," he declared.
Arriving not long after a deadly car bomb exploded across town, Obama spoke favorably of political progress being made in Iraq but also expressed concern that recent gains could deteriorate with the upcoming national elections.
"It's important for us to use all of our influence to encourage the parties to resolve these issues in ways that are equitable. I think that my presence here can help do that," he said.
Obama walked off his plane after a trip from Turkey wearing a business suit, shook hands with Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. commander in the country, then stepped into an SUV for a brief ride to Camp Victory, the main American military base in Iraq.
Under gray skies, the motorcade rolled past troops standing at attention. "It was wonderful to see the troops out there," Obama said. "I'm so grateful, they put their heart and souls into it."
His gleaming white and blue Air force One touched down a few hours after the car bombing, in a Shiite neighborhood of the capital city, punctuated a recent surge in violence in a war that has claimed the lives of at least 4,266 members of the U.S. military and many thousands more Iraqis since March 2003. Aides decided to scrap plans for a helicopter ride to the heavily fortified Green Zone a few miles away — but attributed the decision to poor visibility rather than security concerns.
About an hour after arriving, Obama met with about 600 of the 139,000 U.S. troops stationed in Iraq. Aides said he was presenting combat medals to 10 of them.
Officials said Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was traveling by motorcade to meet with Obama, a change from their planned get-together in the Green Zone.
En route to Iraq, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Obama chose this country rather than Afghanistan for a war-zone visit in part because it was near Turkey and also because progress "lies in political solutions."
"We spend a lot of time trying to get Afghanistan right, but I think it is important for people to know that there is still a lot of work to do here," he said.
Obama's visit came at the conclusion of a long overseas trip that included economic and NATO summits in Europe and two days in Turkey.
Shortly before leaving Turkey, the president held out Iraq as an example of the change he seeks in policies inherited from former President George W. Bush.
"Moving the ship of state takes time," he told a group of students in Istanbul. He noted his long-standing opposition to the war, yet said, "Now that we're there," the U.S. troop withdrawal has to be done "in a careful enough way that we don't see a collapse into violence."
In office only 11 weeks, Obama has already announced plans to withdraw most U.S. combat troops on a 19-month timetable. The drawdown is to begin slowly, so American forces can provide security for Iraqi elections, then accelerate in 2010. As many as 50,000 troops are expected to remain in the country at the end of the 19 months to perform counterterrorism duties.
Tuesday's trip was Obama's third to Iraq, and his first since taking office. He met with U.S. commanders and troops last summer while seeking the presidency.
Because of security concerns, the White House made no prior announcement of the visit, and released no advance details for his activities on the ground.
It was the last stop of an eight-day trip to Europe and Turkey during which Obama sought to place his stamp on U.S. foreign policy after eight years of the Bush administration.
He and other world leaders pledged cooperation to combat a global recession, and he appealed with limited success for additional assistance in Afghanistan, a war he has vowed to intensify. The new president drew large crowds as he offered repeated assurances that the United States would not seek to dictate to other countries.
"I am personally committed to a new chapter of American engagement. We can't afford to talk past one another, to focus only on our differences, or to let the walls of mistrust go up around us." Obama said before leaving Turkey. The visit to a nation that straddles Europe and Asia was designed to signal a new era. He had pledged as a candidate to visit a majority-Muslim nation in his first 100 days in office.
Bush paid several trips to Iraq while in office, and on his last, in December, he was forced to duck shoes hurled in his direction at a news conference by an Iraqi journalist. By coincidence, the Iraqi Supreme Court reduced the prison sentence Tuesday for the man, Muntadhar al-Zeidian, now sentenced to one year in jail rather than three.
It will be a matter of time before most of the neo-con zionists and their allies stand before a judge for the crimes committed in Iraq. The war on Iraq was illegal hence, all death and destruction are considered as war crimes. In Spain proceeding has started to bring Jose Maria Aznar to justice. In the United Kingdom, there were will be an investigation into Tony Blair's deception and fabrication to justify sending UK troops to Iraq. It is not a coincidence that Aznar and Blair are being paid by right-wing extremist organistaions, the likes of FOX media or members of the US Jewish Lobby. Tony Blair recently received a medal and $one million from Israel and Aznar is on the board of directors of Rupert Murdoch News media corporation for $one million annual salary.
Adnan Darwash, Iraq Occupation Times
While U.S. casualties are down sharply from the war's height, there were constant reminders of violence. A half-dozen bombs rocked Shiite neighborhoods on Monday, killing 37 people. There was no immediate death toll available from the car bomb incident that occurred a few hours before the president arrived on Tuesday.
The military is in the process of thinning out its presence ahead of a June 30 deadline, under a U.S.-Iraq agreement negotiated last year that requires all American combat troops to leave Iraq's cities. As that process moves forward, the increase in bombings and other incidents is creating concern that extremists may be regrouping.
Little more than a week ago, the president announced a revamped Afghanistan strategy that calls for adding 21,000 troops, narrowing the focus from nation-building to stamping out the Taliban and al-Qaida and broadening the mission to include pressure on Pakistan to root out terrorist camps in its lawless regions.
Afghanistan was a big topic of conversation with fellow world leaders on the earlier portion of Obama's trip, particularly the part that took him to a NATO summit in Strasbourg, France.
Obama's opposition to the Iraq war helped him enormously in his campaign for the presidency. It helped him defeat former rival — now Secretary of State — Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Iowa caucuses that were the first test of the race, and aided his campaign against Republican Sen. John McCain last fall.
The end-the-war plan Obama announced in February was aimed at fulfilling his campaign promise to end combat in Iraq within 16 months of taking office. Contrary to hopes among some Democrats and grass-roots supporters, the plan calls for a 19-month timetable instead.
-------
Obama visit a reminder of off-the-radar Iraq war
07 Apr 2009 22:25:33 GMT
Source: Reuters
(For more on Obama's visit to Iraq see [ID:nN07461054])
* Only 2 pct of U.S. media coverage is about Iraq
* Many in U.S. think Iraq conflict over, reality different
* Veterans returning at time of rising unemployment
By Claudia Parsons
NEW YORK, April 7 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama's visit to Iraq on Tuesday returned the spotlight to a war that has all but dropped off the news radar screen in the United States, which is preoccupied by its economic crisis.
Television news, chat shows and other media are dominated by reports of massive job losses, home foreclosures, collapsed banks and automakers on the verge of bankruptcy.
Some veterans groups say that makes it harder for servicemen and women returning from Iraq and Afghanistan to get the help they need to return to civilian life.
Pete Hegseth, head of Vets for Freedom, said part of the reason for the reduced attention is that violence has fallen.
"Who would have thought Iraq would be one of the problems that President Obama has to deal with the least?" he said.
But Alissa Rubin, New York Times bureau chief in Baghdad, said Iraq was in a dynamic and critical phase leading up to the drawdown of U.S. troops. "It's only as they pull out you see just how bad the violence might be," she said.
"If you're sitting in New York or Washington or small-town Kansas, you look at Iraq and think 'OK, well, that war is kind of over...,' and you move on,"Rubin said.
"That's clearly the way most Americans see it, it's not on the front burner. But the reality is different," she said.
The New York Times keeps at least three international reporters and a photographer in Baghdad in addition to locally hired personnel. But most U.S. media outlets, facing pressure to cut costs, have trimmed overseas staff, relying on agencies such as Reuters and the Associated Press.
IRAQ FELL OFF THE AGENDA IN US ELECTION CAMPAIGN
Iraq was already falling off the U.S. public's agenda last year.
According to the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, the Iraq conflict in 2008 generated only about 4 percent of coverage, down from 16 percent in 2007.
"The war, once expected to be the burning issue in the (U.S.) presidential campaign, receded sharply," it said in a report that analyzed U.S. newspapers, cable and network television, radio and online news.
The project's associate director, Mark Jurkowitz, said so far this year, Iraq accounts for only 2 percent of coverage.
That compared to about 2 percent for Afghanistan, 1 percent for Iran and 3 percent for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Paul Rieckhoff, founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said most Americans feel little connection to the wars since only half a percent of them have a relative serving.
"With the economic downturn and the reduction of media, it's gotten harder and harder for us to get the message out," he said. "We know it's going to be a tough year for Americans, but it's going to be a tough year for veterans."
He said more veterans will be returning and looking for work at a time of rising unemployment, and many have physical and mental health issues.
"Unemployment for veterans is over 11 percent," Rieckhoff said, adding that the rate of home foreclosures near military bases was several times higher than the national average.
Obama has refocused strategy on eliminating al Qaeda in Afghanistan, promising to send another 21,000 troops to join the 38,000 U.S. forces already there. The number in Iraq remains much higher -- around 140,000.
"It's good to have a day of news cover focused on Iraq again," Rieckhoff said. "It's still a very dangerous place, and we still have a lot of people over there."
(Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Vicki Allen)
--
The Americans and their media like to boast that the mission in Iraq was 'accomplioshed' while US losses are at the minium since 2003. But this can be easily refuted without going into details. As an example, after six years of occupation, the US president who can stand and address people in Prague or Berlin can't even dare to announce he is coming to visit a state his country supposed to have liberated and freed its people. According to a high US military source in Iraq, the number of attacks on coalition troops and mercenaries averaged seven hundred per week in 2008. Like any occupying force in history the Americans like to use locals to protect them. At present close 500000 Iraqi security men and women are employed to protecting the occupiers and policing their occupation. But the Iraqis are still there awaiting a chance to blow up an American tank or to neutralise the Iraqi traitors.
Adnan Darwash, Iraq Occupation Times
===
home finance in limbo a year after Dodd-Frank
(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.)
By Agnes T. Crane
NEW YORK, July 18 (Reuters Breakingviews) - A year after the Dodd-Frank Act, the $10.5 trillion U.S. mortgage market is still in limbo. One big reason is that the law scarcely touches Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Authority -- the collection of government-run lenders that these days dominate the home loan market.
The consequences of lax mortgage lending were central to the 2008 financial crisis that Dodd-Frank was intended to make unrepeatable. But rather than tackle the huge and highly political issue of Fannie, Freddie and the FHA, the law is narrowly focused on one part of the market. That's the private-label mortgage-backed securities area, dormant(inactive) since the crisis but the source of more than $3 trillion worth of mortgage bonds between 2002 and 2007.
The most significant new rule could require private-sector financial institutions to hold at least 5 percent of securities they create by repackaging loans. Giving them some incentive to ensure the securities are creditworthy isn't a bad idea. But it reinforces the notion that the private sector is at a competitive disadvantage to government lenders if and when it returns to the MBS business. That's because Fannie, Freddie and other government agencies would be exempt from this requirement -- logically so, since their credit, which stands behind their mortgage securities, is in turn backed by Uncle Sam's.
The risk retention rule plays into another Dodd-Frank initiative: the creation of new standards for safe-as-houses home loans known as qualified residential mortgages. QRMs, in which the proposal is that homeowners must put 20 percent down, among other criteria, would be exempt from risk retention requirements.
Banks, in addition to real estate lobbyists and consumer groups, want the standards to be looser since mortgages that don't qualify could be costlier, by up to a percentage point on interest by one estimate. That hardly seems catastrophic for borrowers when 30-year mortgage rates are as low as 4.5 percent. But it's easy to see the banks' point when federally backed housing agencies sometimes allow homeowners to borrow 96.5 percent of the value of their homes.
In short, the reform effort so far seems to have widened the gap between public and private sector mortgage lending, making it harder for the latter to re-establish itself and entrenching the cost, and risk, to taxpayers from the former. Congress and regulators need to assess housing finance as one market. Until the hulking(bulky)government mortgage lenders' future is mapped out, the worthy goals of Dodd-Frank don't mean much.
CONTEXT NEWS
-- Under the Dodd-Frank Act signed into U.S. law on July 21, 2010, the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp and other U.S. regulators proposed a rule that would require banks to retain at least 5 percent of the risk when they repackage home loans into securities. Qualifying residential mortgages, which would require down payments to be at least 20 percent of the value of home purchases, would be exempt. The deadline for comment on the proposed rule, originally set for June 10, has been extended to Aug. 1.
-- Moody's Analytics estimates that interest rates for home mortgages that don't meet the QRM criteria could be 75 to 100 basis points higher than for those that do.
-- Risk retention proposal: http://link.reuters.com/sus62s
((agnes.crane@thomsonreuters.com))
(Editing by Richard Beales and Martin Langfield)
===
Mortgage-Backed Security (MBS)
What Does It Mean?
What Does Mortgage-Backed Security (MBS) Mean?
A type of asset-backed security that is secured by a mortgage or collection of mortgages. These securities must also be grouped in one of the top two ratings as determined by a accredited credit rating agency, and usually pay periodic payments that are similar to coupon payments. Furthermore, the mortgage must have originated from a regulated and authorized financial institution.
Also known as a "mortgage-related security" or a "mortgage pass through".
Watch: Mortgage-Backed Securities
Investopedia Says
Investopedia explains Mortgage-Backed Security (MBS)
When you invest in a mortgage-backed security you are essentially lending money to a home buyer or business. An MBS is a way for a smaller regional bank to lend mortgages to its customers without having to worry about whether the customers have the assets to cover the loan. Instead, the bank acts as a middleman between the home buyer and the investment markets.
This type of security is also commonly used to redirect the interest and principal payments from the pool of mortgages to shareholders. These payments can be further broken down into different classes of securities, depending on the riskiness of different mortgages as they are classified under the MBS.
--------
Foreclosure abuse rampant across U.S., experts say
Fri, Feb 17 02:25 AM EST
image
By Tim Reid
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A report this week showing rampant foreclosure abuse in San Francisco reflects similar levels of lender fraud and faulty documentation across the United States, say experts and officials who have done studies in other parts of the country.
The audit of almost 400 foreclosures in San Francisco found that 84 percent of them appeared to be illegal, according to the study released by the California city on Wednesday.
"The audit in San Francisco is the most detailed and comprehensive that has been done - but it's likely those numbers are comparable nationally," Diane Thompson, an attorney at the National Consumer Law Center, told Reuters.
Across the country from California, Jeff Thingpen, register of deeds in Guildford County, North Carolina, examined 6,100 mortgage documents last year, from loan notes to foreclosure paperwork.
Of those documents, created between January 2008 and December 2010, 4,500 showed signature irregularities, a telltale sign of the illegal practice of "robosigning" documents.
Robosigning involves the use of bogus documents to force foreclosures without lenders having to scrutinize all the paperwork involved with mortgages. The practice was at the heart of the foreclosure scandal that led to a $25 billion settlement between the U.S. government and five major banks last week.
The banks have never formally admitted any wrongdoing. A Wells Fargo spokesman said, "We have acknowledged we didn't always follow our policies in the foreclosure process. We found some areas where there were deficiencies in our process."
It is expected that the $25 billion settlement will include no admission of wrongdoing by the banks.
Home loans have dropped 33 percent from a 2006 peak that was fueled by generous loans, often to people with dubious credit records. Nearly 11 million Americans now owe more than their homes are worth.
Thingpen said the San Francisco audit, which was commissioned by the city's assessor-recorder, Phil Ting, was not an exceptional case. "Where there's smoke, there's fire, and we're beyond the smoke stage. There's fires in county recording offices across the country."
John O'Brien, the register of deeds for Essex County in northwestern Massachusetts, conducted an audit of loans issued in 2010 and found 75 percent of the assignments to be invalid and a further 9 percent questionable.
LOAN REPACKAGING MUDDIED OWNERSHIP
One of the major problems that has emerged in the foreclosure crisis is that it is far from clear that many lenders foreclosing on properties actually own the loans and have the right to take action against them.
In many cases during the housing bubble that burst in 2008, original mortgages were repackaged and sold to so many investors
that it is now unclear who actually holds the loans
O'Brien could only find the current owners of the mortgages he studied in 287 out of 473 cases.
In the San Francisco study, which studied properties subject to foreclosure sales between January 2009 to November 2011, 45 per cent were sold to entities improperly claiming to be the owner of the loan.
"It is not impossible that there are homeowners who are alleged to have defaulted on loans to which they never fully agreed to and, further, are being foreclosed upon by lenders that might not even own such loans," the report stated.
One factor that probably caused the particularly high 84 per cent rate of illegal foreclosures in San Francisco is that California is a "non-judicial" foreclosure state.
In other words, the foreclosure process does not need to be overseen by a judge. That left the conduct of lenders in California - one of the hardest-hit states in terms of foreclosures - largely unscrutinized until the robosigning scandal gained prominence in late 2010.
In judicial foreclosure states such as New York, some judges have been taking banks to task for submitting faulty foreclosure paperwork.
But Ray Brescia, a visiting professor at Yale Law School and an expert in housing law, said foreclosure fraud had been as rampant in judicial states as non-judicial ones.
"This number around 80 percent is not a number we have not seen before," Brescia said, referring to both the issuing of faulty loans during the housing bubble and the foreclosure crisis that followed.
"There have been a very high level of irregularities across the country."
(Editing by Peter Cooney)
---------
Single-family home sales dip
Fri, Feb 24 11:53 AM EST
image
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New single-family home sales fell in January, but an upward revision to the prior months' data and a drop in the supply of properties on the market added to growing signs of a budding recovery in the housing sector.
The Commerce Department said on Friday sales slipped 0.9 percent to a seasonally adjusted 321,000-unit annual rate. December's sales pace was revised up to 324,000 units, the highest in a year, from the previously reported 307,000 units.
October and November sales also were revised higher. Although sales fell last month, they were higher than economists' expectations for a 315,000-unit rate. Compared to January last year, new home sales were up 3.5 percent.
Despite the weak sales last month, details of the report offered further fresh signs of green shoots in the housing market, with the months' supply of homes on the market falling to 5.6 months - the lowest since January 2006.
That compared to 5.7 months in December. A 6-month supply is generally considered ideal.
"The report shows traction for a housing industry anxious to ascend from the bottom," said Mitchell Hochberg, principal at Madden Real Estate Ventures in New York. "To climb back, the foreclosure overhang needs to clear, prospective home buyers must find it less difficult to qualify for a mortgage and consumer confidence must improve."
Demand for housing could get a boost from the strengthening economy, especially the labor market, which is helping to lift confidence among Americans.
The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan's final reading on the overall index on consumer sentiment edged up to 75.3 in February, the highest in a year, from 75.0 in January.
The median price for a new home rose 0.3 percent to $217,100, the highest level since October. Compared to January last year, the median price was down 9.6 percent. The inventory of new homes on the market was the lowest on record.
The market for new homes faces stiff competition from previously owned homes, many of which are selling at a huge discount because of foreclosures.
But economists say house prices may be close to a bottom, citing recent declines in the supply of unsold previously owned homes and the homeowner vacancy rate.
The months' supply of previously owned homes on the market fell to a near 6-year low of 6.1 months in January.
The homeowner vacancy rate, which is closely correlated to the month's supply, fell to 2.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011 from 2.4 percent in the prior three months. The rate peaked in 2008.
"While still elevated, their current levels are again consistent with stable or even slightly rising house prices," said Harm Bandholz, chief U.S. economist at UniCredit Research in New York. "This, in turn, would imply that one important drag on the economy will cease to exist."
Data this week showed home resales rose to a 1-1/2 year-high in January. Confidence among homebuilders this month approached a five-year high and builders are undertaking more residential projects, mirroring the economy's generally upbeat tone.
Still, both sales and home construction remain far below their 2005 levels.
The Federal Reserve has suggested a number of ways other policymakers could step in to help the beaten-up market and is considering purchasing more mortgage-backed securities to drive mortgages rates even lower.
New home sales last month rose in two of the four regions, but fell sharply in the Midwest and the West.
(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
===========
No comments:
Post a Comment