• Chinese, Nigerian presidents satisfied with bilateral ties • Pang Yuliang Acquired German Parchim Airport

mobile ICBM, called the DF- 31, which will be ready this year; development of a new JIN class of nuclear submarines, armed with updated ballistic missiles; and fresh intelligence China wants to build its own aircraft carrier.
ROBERT GATES, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: It paints a picture of a country that has steadily devoted increasing resources to their military, that is developing some very sophisticated capabilities.
MCINTYRE: The key question is, how does China intend to flex its bigger military muscle? That's got the Pentagon's top intelligence officer puzzled.
JAMES CLAPPER, UNDERSECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR INTELLIGENCE: Well, if I knew the answer to that, you know, I think it's -- I think China -- my personal opinion, China sees itself as a world power.
MCINTYRE: One thing that is clear, the report notes China has deployed its most advanced systems, including more than 900 missiles directly across from Taiwan, which the U.S. has pledged to defend against invasion.
And the report cites as instructive what's known as the 24- Character Strategy, a maxim devised by former Chinese leader, Dung Shuo Peng, in the '90s, it counsels hide our capabilities and bide our time, be good at maintaining a low profile and never claim leadership"
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCINTYRE: What all this suggests, says the Pentagon report, is that China is content for now to downplay its capabilities and avoid confrontation, while it builds up its military strength for the future.
In other words, Christine, what's known as keeping your powder dry.
ROMANS: So what do military planners do about it? What do the United States military do? And is there some sort division at the Pentagon about how to treat this rise of military power from China?
MCINTYRE: The big debate in the Pentagon is, what is China's real intention here? And they can't know that.
So what the military is trying to do is just react totally to its capabilities, to move more U.S. military assets into the region and to try to make sure that the United States maintains its technical superiority.
But, again, China's got a ways to go, but it's clearly on a path that, at some point in the future, it may be able to challenge the U.S., toe to toe.
ROMANS: All right, Jamie McIntyre. Thank you, Jamie.
One of China's closest allies, North Korean, today test fired of number of short-range missiles into its coastal waters. North Korea fired the anti-ship missiles from its East and West Coasts. The test firings coming as the deadlock over North Korea's nuclear weapons program continues.
The United States today scrapped a key test of an anti-missile program that is designed, in part, to protect this country against North Korea. The United States has already deployed some Interceptor missiles in California and Alaska. Officials scrapped this day's exercise because the target rocket went astray over the Pacific.
Coming up, pro-amnesty Senators try new tactics to save their so- called grand compromise on illegal immigration. We'll have a special report.
Also charges and countercharges after Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama vote against the war funding bill. Three top political analysts will join us.
And Senators McCain and Obama go head-to-head in a war of words that goes to the very heart of the political fight over the war in Iraq.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: The Senate immigration compromise. It's the result of the efforts of President Bush and small bipartisan group of Senators. They decided what went into the bill. And since its introduction, they've had to defend it from attacks from all sides.
Louise Schiavone reports. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LOUISE SCHIAVONE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Senate Immigration Reform Bill has upwards of 1,000 pages of revisions that never went through the committee process. Who came up with it?
SEN. JEFF SESSIONS, (R), ALABAMA: It's a group of Senators, got together -- affectionately called the masters of the universe.
SCHIAVONE: Masters of the Universe, so named by lawmaker's who are not among them, include Democratic Senators Edward Kennedy, Ken Salazar, Dianne Feinstein, Republican Senators John Kyle, Arlen Specter, Mel Martinez and Lindsey Graham, and last, but not least, President Bush.
BUSH: If anybody advocates drying to dig out 12 million people that have been in our society for a while, it's sending a signal to the American people that's just not real.
UNIDENTIFIED SENATOR: You tell me who on this side said we want to have a mass deportation? Zero.
SCHIAVONE: Amid mounting public resentment against illegal immigration and a demand to address it, the White House joined with key border state conservative and liberal lawmakers to forge a compromise. No subcommittee hearings, no committee hearings, just a massive document.
ROSEMARY JENKS, NUMBERSUSA: Nobody with the exception of a tiny group of people who have been forced to stay up all night and read the stupid thing have actually looked at what it really does. And there are provisions in there that I'll bet you that none of them are aware of.
ROMANS: Members of the immigration in crowd say they chatted up their colleagues before drafting the bill.
SEN. KEN SALAZAR (D), COLORADO: This legislation was just not pulled out of the darkness one day and placed here on the floor of the Senate.
SCHIAVONE: Oh, yes it was, says this critic.
SEN. JEFF SESSIONS (R), ALABAMA: Thank you, my elite colleagues. We're glad you've worked out this immigration problem. Thank you so much.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SCHIAVONE: Christine, there's still another week of Senate action ahead. The House hasn't even begun its debate. But with a week at home now for their Memorial Day break, senators will learn what voters think about the bill. And that may well determine whether Congress will pass that immigration bill this session -- Christine.
ROMANS: Senator Sessions calls them his elite colleagues. I mean, how do you get to be one of the masters of the universe? It's a pretty small club.
SCHIAVONE: Yes, it seems to be a self-selecting club, Christine. What's interesting about this group is that the real moderate Democrats can't be part of this elite group, because a lot of them are really offended by the guest worker program. They feel that it undermines Americans' wages.
And the real conservatives can't get in on this, because they feel that it becomes a very expensive proposition for the United States.
And so these people just sort of come together. There are people who are always in this kind of compromising group. You find a guy like President Bush and a guy like Senator Kennedy coming from opposite sends of political spectrum. And they're fascinated by the process, and they consider it a challenge. And they want to see it work.
ROMANS: A fragile coalition that they're trying to keep together as they go over this next week and try to go home and push their plan.
Louise Schiavone, thank you so much.
Illegal alien advocates claims the United States has restrictive policies which make it difficult for immigrants to enter the country legally. But in reality, U.S. immigration policies are more liberal than those of Canada, Australia and France.
Kitty Pilgrim reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KITTY PILGRIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): According to Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, the reality is we don't have enough people. Comparing U.S. immigration policies to France, Germany and Japan, he added, the big challenge of the 21st century is who gets the people? Who gets the immigrants?
The United States is the No. 1 immigration draw. By some calculations the current U.S. immigration legislation will promote a surge of millions of more immigrants and their family members.
JESSICA VAUGHAN, CENTER FOR IMMIGRATION STUDIES: There is, of course, the sense of entitlement among immigrants that they should be allowed to bring in their family members and their extended family members. And that mentality is certainly going to continue under this legislation.
PILGRIM: Other countries put strict limits on immigrants' families. France, for example, tightened laws after riots in immigrant communities in 2005. French President Nicolas Sarkozy campaigned, saying France could not provide, quote, "a home for all the world's miseries." He now advocates controlled immigration.
RITA SIMON, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY: France, for example, watches its immigrants much more carefully. The immigrants have to report in when they move, when they change jobs and so forth.
PILGRIM: Canada admits about one percent of the population, or 300,000 immigrants a year but favors young immigrants who can contribute longer before collecting retirement benefits.
DEMETRI PAPADEMETRIOU, MIGRATION POLICY INSTITUTE: The point system is fairly simple, basically. You know, it tries to figure out what are the qualifications that Canada needs.
PILGRIM: In Australia, Prime Minister John Howard's re-election was tough against people seeking asylum, so-called boat people. Immigrants are admitted only for certain job categories, and there are strict limits on extended family members.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PILGRIM: The United States is the absolute first choice for immigrants, followed by Canada. And together, they receive more than one half of the world's immigrants.
But the United States has the most liberal policy in the world. There is simply no other country that can match the generosity of allowing in so many extended family members of immigrants -- Christine.
ROMANS: All right. Kitty Pilgrim. Thank you very much, Kitty.
Coming up, two Democratic senators, both presidential candidates, under fire for their vote on the war funding bill. We'll discuss election politics and the war in Iraq with three top political analysts.
Also "Heroes", our tribute to the men and women serving our country in Iraq and Afghanistan. Tonight, the store of Senior Airman Nicole O'Hara.
And a war over words -- actually it's more over spelling -- between senators McCain and Obama. We'll explain. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Joining me now with the Senate's so-called grand compromise on illegal immigration, the war funding in Iraq and so much more, Republican strategist Ed Rollins; Michael Goodwin, New York Daily News, and the editor of OpinionJournal.com, James Taranto.
Gentlemen, thank you for joining us here tonight.
I want to start, I guess, with the Obama-Clinton no votes, two of 14 no votes for Iraq war funding. Risks or advantages for them on the campaign trail with those no votes?
ED ROLLINS, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: You know, I think they had to do it because they're playing, certainly, to their constituency. I don't think they showed any courage or they didn't announce it in advance. They waited to be one of the last votes last night. I mean, if they really felt this way, they should have been out there and defended themselves more effectively.
I don't think it's a very good message for a person running for commander in chief, though, that you're going to cut off -- cut off the funds for your troops.
ROMANS: That's what the Republicans say.
MICHAEL GOODWIN, NEW YORK DAILY NEWS: I think it's a short-term game for them, among sort of the far left of the Democratic Party, which is who they are catering to right now. Who seems to be running the Democratic Party is the far left.
Long-term, I think it is a problem for them. I think that is a black mark on your record when you vote against funding the troops. They had ample opportunity here to weigh in on this bill. It's a different bill. They should have voted for it.
JAMES TARANTO, OPINIONJOURNAL.COM: Well, remember John Kerry's comment in 2004: "I actually voted for the $84 billion before I voted against it." This was exactly the same situation. He and John Edwards both voted against funding the troops after both having voted for the Iraq war, as Mrs. Clinton did.
I think, more broadly, that this effort on the part of the Democrats to pull the troops out is advantageous to them only so long as they don't succeed in doing it. Because if they succeed in doing it, then we've lost the war, and they are responsible for having lost the war.
The American people -- public opinion is fickle. Remember, 70 percent of the American people favored the war at the beginning. Now, something like that number is against it. But they're against it because they think we're losing. And they blame President Bush for -- for the perception that we're losing.
ROMANS: This is just the beginning. Because this is really just one little step in terms of this war funding. Because we've got to do this all over again. And we're going to be talking about it in September. And the debate is going to keep heading forward here.
I want to talk about the Democrats vowing to keep up the pressure to set a timetable for withdrawal. Here's what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Yesterday, Congress took a small step in the direction of accountability that the Americans have demanded on the war in Iraq. I would have hoped for more. But it does represent a change in direction.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GOODWIN: Well, look, I think that -- you mentioned September, Christine. And I think that really is the key date here. Because Petraeus, our general over there, has said he's going to review the surge, whether it's working.
And President Bush yesterday, actually, he said some, I thought, rather startling things. He now wants to look again at the Iraq Study Group. He likes the idea of training Iraqis instead of having our troops in so much combat.
Those are all the things that the Democrats were -- that was in the bill that he vetoed. That's what the Iraq Study Group. We are talking to Iran. We're kind of putting feelers out with Syria.
So he's clearly moving. And you know, by September, he may be where the Democrats are now. No telling where they'll be then. But he's clearly moving. I think he's looking for an exit.
ROLLINS: I think he was very honest in this press conference yesterday; we have very, very tough sledding. We've lost -- we've lost 100 men and woman in the last two months. And obviously, they say it's going to be even more severe in August. There's no way you can lose these kinds of numbers have and have any support from this country.
ROMANS: Let me ask you if it divides -- if this is the issue that's going to divide the Democrats, like we're seeing immigration divide the Republicans?
TARANTO: I think so. Because the Democrats are playing to a base of their party -- or are forced to play to a base of their party which really wants to lose the war. I'm not exaggerating here.
Go look at Markos Moulitsas, the Daily Kos online. He had a blog entry today in which he talked about he said, "We're in a long war. We can't back down. Our enemies are conservatives and corporatist Democrats and so forth."
The base of the Democratic Party, or a significant part of it, really sees the enemy as their domestic opponents and not the country's foes. The center of the country, which has turned against the war, is not turned against the war because they want America to lose. It's turned against the war because they think America is losing.
GOODWIN: I think James is right in the sense that the center of the country would switch back in support of the war if they believed it was effective, if they believed that we were achieving our goals.
I think we have to assume we're not -- that's not going to happen, just for sake of argument, in September. Then I think the ball's going to be back in the president's court. What is he going to do? What is Petraeus going to recommend? That way, I think the politics are going to change dramatically once we see a new strategy in Iraq.
ROLLINS: The difficulty is you can't win this war unless the Iraqi army gets fully engaged. And they have shown no capacity whatsoever to do that.
ROMANS: I don't believe anyone wants to lose this war. I think that this is a complicated situation that people have different...
TARANTO: Go read this blog entry by Markos Moulitsas. It may change your opinion. Look, John Edwards said earlier this week there isn't even a global war on terror. Who do you think he's appealing to with that kind of statement?
ROMANS: Let's talk about immigration here quickly. Because this is -- this is the thing that's really roiling the Republicans. Jon Kyl this week said -- stood up and said, "Yes, I'm learning a lot of new words from my constituents."
And you know, John Boehner had a nice four-letter word of his own. I mean, there's -- there's a lot of anxiety going on here about this. Does this, with -- at the helm with the masters of the universe, as Louise Schiavone reported, does this move forward from here? Does this have traction? Is it going to happen, Ed?
ROLLINS: Well, I think they're going to make every effort. I think it may get through the Senate. I think the House version will be such a bad bill that at the end of the day, they won't get sufficient Republicans to vote for it.
I think the guy who's going to pay a heavy price here is John McCain. John McCain has now made this -- the Kennedy-McCain bill. He's going to go on every talk show and try to sell this, and the conservative talk shows. And I think he'll get battered and bruised pretty severely on this.
GOODWIN: I would say it's 50-50 as to whether it's going to pass. I mean, one day it looks to me like it's dead. The next day, it looks like they're breathing some life back into it. So look, you know, with the president ready to sign this, you don't -- you don't need a very big margin here. One vote will do it.
So it's got a real chance of passing.
ROMANS: A lot of people keep saying it's good enough. It's good enough. It's better than the status quo. We've got to do this. This is our chance now. I mean, Ted Kennedy said we've got to do this now. If we don't do it now, I don't know when we're going to do it.
TARANTO: Well, I think there's something to be said about being cautious, for not rushing into it. For giving everybody a chance to read the bill and debate on it. And I think some people are justifiably troubled by the speed with which they're trying to push this through.
ROMANS: The White House is really pushing this. And I want to take a listen here to what the president said this week about the immigration bill. He's really urging the Senate to pass immigration reform now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Immigration problems cannot be solved piecemeal. They must be all addressed together. And they must be addressed in logical order. So this legislation requires that border security and worker verification targets are met before other provisions of the bill are triggered.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROLLINS: This president has had the opportunity, since September 11, to protect our borders. And if the numbers are accurate that 100 -- that 1 million illegals are coming across the border every year, probably 5 million have come across during his tenure since September 11.
He's had his power -- the ability to security the borders and hasn't done it. So that ought to be the first priority. And once that's done, then we can go deal with the other issues.
ROMANS: What about the triggers, though? They say there are going to be triggers. And then after that, we can deal with some of the other elements.
GOODWIN: Well, the triggers simply require the president to say they've been met.
ROMANS: Right. To say they can do -- the sense of the Congress in this bill is that it can be done in 18 months.
GOODWIN: Well, but just think about that. We have not been able to seal the border ever. Certainly in the last six years. Now suddenly, we're able to seal the border in 18 months? It's not credible.
But if the president says it's sealed, then it's sealed.
So I think that's one of the problems with this bill, along with all the major provisions as to what it actually stipulates. So I think there's a lot wrong with it.
But there is such an eagerness to get something done in Washington. The president clearly wants something other than the war on his record. And the Democrats want this bill. So it may happen for the worst possible reasons.
ROMANS: We'll leave it there for just a little, gentlemen. We're going to come back right after the break and talk about this more. There's so much to talk about today. But more of this panel ahead.
And our weekly tribute to the men and women who serve this country in uniform. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: It could be a matter of experience or a matter of spelling. In a press release defending his no vote on the war spending bill, the Obama campaign mentions Senator McCain's trip to Iraq where he wore a flak jacket, F-L-A-K. The press release, though, spelled it F-L-A-C-K.
Senator McCain responded with a release of his own. McCain's release said, "By the way, Senator Obama, it's a flak jacket" -- F-L- A-K -- "not a flack jacket."
While some dictionaries have both spellings, F-L-A-K is the preferred one. By the way, this controversy was generated by both senators' public relations staffs. They're known, of course, as flacks, spelled with a "c." And the reporters who go crazy over this sort of thing are hacks, I would say.
More now with our panel of top political analysts. More than a year out, and we're already starting to get personal, you know. What do you make of it?
ROLLINS: Well, first of all, I think Senator McCain, who I have a great deal of respect for, needs to wear a flak jacket if he's going to basically try to take on the conservatives on this immigration issue.
But the problem with this bill is 12 people put it together in the White House. It's -- it's more than 300 pages.
ROMANS: Now, it's 600. I read the first 300. Now it's got -- now it's doubled.
ROLLINS: No one can tell you how much it's going to cost. No one can tell you all the details of it. I bet there's not five members of the Senate that have read any detail of it.
And I think -- I think they need to slow this thing down and really look at the consequences and at least get a price tag that's accurate.
ROMANS: I want to -- I just want to talk a little bit here for a minute. I want to read to you something that a senator said in the -- in the Senate debate on immigration. I want to read it to you verbatim and get your thoughts here.
"There are three million to 12 million human beings in the United States who are here illegally. They are being used and exploited, and this is their only vehicle out of the dark. Because you know, every one of you here, that we will never grant a separate legalization to these unfortunate people unless we know it isn't going to happen again."
That was not this week. That was in 1986, Senator Alan Simpson, a Republican of Wyoming.
ROLLINS: I followed Alan Simpson every day. I was the White House political director. And I told him, exactly as I've said on this show many times, that this bill is not going to work, and it obviously hasn't worked.
That bill is still in effect. That bill has worker rights. That bill has employer...
ROMANS: Enforcement.
ROLLINS: ... enforcement and none of it has worked.
ROMAN: So what -- I mean, what kind of message is that? That we're here saying the same kind of language coming from the Senate floor again? Everyone is saying it's not amnesty, because amnesty is a dirty word because of the 1986 amnesty that apparently has failed. I mean, what -- what's the lesson?
GOODWIN: I think it's classic Washington at work. It passes a law, it doesn't enforce it, so then it needs a new law. So it only passes laws. Nobody enforces half of them anyway.
But Congress thinks it's doing its work by passing laws. I mean, it's got no reality to what happens in America. That's -- that's why Washington begins to look like it's so disconnected from the American people.
TARANTO: Well, it may also be that it's just an intractable problem to have, you know, the government dictating who can come in. But at the same time, we have -- the market has its needs for labor, for unskilled labor and skilled labor. And perhaps the people in Washington just aren't qualified to decide what -- what the market needs.
ROMANS: ... hear you say that the folks in Washington aren't qualified for an awful lot of things.
ROLLINS: The interesting thing is most people don't know what 12 million means. Twelve million people is basically larger than 44 states.
ROMANS: Right.
ROLLINS: The population of 44 states. It's a gigantic number of people. Obviously, something needs to be done about it. And I don't think anybody thinks we can move them out.
But more important is who are these people? And what are their educational needs? What are their technological needs? What burden are they going to put on this country? And are they good people or bad people? We won't know that until we do some kind of a survey on them.
GOODWIN: Well, I think we could begin by sealing the border. I mean, that would be the first real step.
ROMANS: Well, operational control would be the first step. And I'm not sure we're even there.
GOODWIN: Right, we're not there. But if we did that, and then if we began to use the provisions of the 1986 law against employers who knowingly hire illegal labor...
ROMANS: Right.
GOODWIN: ... et cetera, et cetera, we would begin then, I think, to shrink the pool, to get -- to get a realistic number and then begin to be able to deal with the people here. We could then have a more compassionate conversation, I think, about those people.
ROMANS: They call that attrition by enforcement. And what I hear for people who are opposed to attrition by enforcement, they say that it is a stealth amnesty, that people aren't just going to go home, that you're just going to drive people deeper underground.
GOODWIN: Let's assume they come here for work. If the work isn't available, many of them will not stay.
ROMANS: It's interesting, because I was covering the Phoenix immigration rallies. And a contractor, you know, a housing contractor there, told me he thought that the rallies would be fewer people because he said, we don't have any work. You know, people have gone home for six months or a year. And he said it's a completely poor situation, you know, back and forth.
And so my question is, do we need to have a guest worker program? Who's going to decide how many? How are they going to enforce it? The current programs are exploited, you know. How we are going to do that?
TARANTO: Well, we probably do need a guest worker program of some sort. And again, the problem is you end up with politicians and bureaucrats making these decisions instead of leaving it to the market.
ROMANS: Ed?
ROLLINS: I think you need some kind of a guest worker program. I think the critical...
ROMANS: Does it take the pressure off the border like president says it does, or it is just an attraction...
ROLLINS: I think the president's mind-set from the day he was a governor in Texas -- what goes on in Texas is totally different than the rest of the country. And the problem is so much more severe today than it was when he was governor of Texas. I don't think it's realistic.
I think the bottom line is we've got to basically make sure that the borders are resealed or sealed for the first time and that sufficient funding is there. My greatest fear is we legalize the 12 million. We say we're going to fix the borders, and they cut the money off two years, three years down the road.
ROMANS: Now I understand that thought (ph) from Alan Simpson on the floor in 1986. He said we've got to fix this problem, because it's not good for the country. It's divisive. And, you know, we need a legal immigration system, and we need to welcome people who come here. And if we have problems, it's -- we're going to not be a welcoming country anymore. And we can't let that happen.
GOODWIN: Well, the numbers in 1986 were about 3 million. Now they're 12 million. So that tells you how well they'll all work.
ROMANS: If we know the numbers, if we know the numbers, frankly.
OK. Ed Rollins, thank you so much. Michael Goodwin, James Taranto.
GOODWIN: Thank you.
ROMANS: Thank you, everyone, for joining us. Thanks. Have a great weekend.
TARANTO: Thank you.
ROMANS: Coming up at the top of the hour, "THE SITUATION ROOM" with Wolf Blitzer -- Wolf.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Christine.
A new detention in Iran, a fifth Iranian-American now reportedly seized by the Tehran government. It's escalating the already tense standoff with Washington.
Also, the house speaker, Nancy Pelosi, leaving the hot spotlights in the Capitol for a much colder climate. Very, very cold. We'll tell you what's behind her trip up north.
And new tell-all books on Bill and Hillary Clinton about to be released. What will they reveal that we don't already know?
All that coming up right here in "THE SITUATION ROOM" -- Christine.
ROMANS: All right. Thank you, Wolf.
Still ahead, our weekly tribute to our men and women serving in uniform, "Heroes". We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: And now, "Heroes", our weekly tribute to the men and women who serve this nation in uniform. Tonight, we introduce you to Nicole O'Hara, a senior airman who helped repel an insurgent ambush in Iraq. She risked her own life to save the lives of many others.
Kitty Pilgrim has her remarkable story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PILGRIM (voice-over): As dawn breaks over Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, Senior Airman Nicole O'Hara stands guard, protecting one of this nation's largest fighter jet bases. It's a long way from Iraq, where she recently served with an Army unit protecting vital supply convoys. SR. AIRMAN NICOLE O'HARA, U.S. AIR FORCE: You are constantly looking out. You were watching and keeping your eyes open for anything that looks suspicious. It's just constant.
PILGRIM: One evening, her convoy stopped to check a possible roadside bomb. But then she and her detachment were ambushed by insurgents.
O'HARA: It was on the radio immediately. And my truck commander was hitting my leg, telling me to contact left, contact left. My gun was pointing to the left. And I saw where those rounds were coming from. I started firing.
It all lasted about a matter of maybe 45 seconds. But it seemed like hours.
PILGRIM: O'Hara helped stop the attack and killed six insurgents. Airman O'Hara was credited with saving 39 lives, but moving forward from the ambush has been a huge personal challenge.
O'HARA: The fact that I was doing my job, doing what I was trained to do, that's fine. But the simple fact that I did what I did, you know, took someone's life away, is -- is really hard to do deal with.
PILGRIM: O'Hara is proud she completed her mission successfully.
O'HARA: I'm just glad everything went as well as it did. And that everybody came home safely. That's really all that matters to me.
PILGRIM: Airman O'Hara was recently chosen as the top base security specialist in the entire Air Force. She is one of about 20,000 members of the Air Force who have served with the Army and Marine Corps in Iraq.
Kitty Pilgrim, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: Airman O'Hara was awarded a Bronze Star for valor for her courage during the convoy ambush. We wish her well.
And we thank you for being with us tonight. Please join us tomorrow. For all of us here, thanks for watching. Have a great weekend. Good night from New York.
"THE SITUATION ROOM" starts right now with Wolf Blitzer -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Thanks, Christine.
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Government plans dedicated cell to compete for overseas business

Sangeeta Singh and

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749 words

23 May 2007

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Copyright 2007. HT Media Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
The government is embarking upon an energy diplomacy programme to deal with all areas of energy by setting up a dedicated cell in the external affairs ministry.
The cell will identify ways to enhance diplomatic relationships with other oil consuming and producing countries as India tries to win multi-billion contracts in Russia’s Sakhalin and hydrocarbon blocks in Africa. It will also look to resolve contentious transnational gas pipeline issues among other things.
“The idea is to structure a well laid-out energy diplomacy programme, which will deal with all areas of energy, be it oil, gas, coal, nuclear or even green fuel. The ministry is expected to formalize this in the next few weeks,” said a government official familiar with the development. The move comes close on the heels of India having lost prestigious projects to China in Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Angola and Myanmar.
The cell, to be headed by an additional secretary-level official, will also act as a coordinator of technical issues that are being pursued by other ministries, such as petroleum and natural gas, coal, power and the department of atomic energy. It will also push the agenda on an integrated energy policy for the country.
Energy security is a key to sustaining 8%-plus economic growth. In 2006, the Asia-Pacific demand was 15.6 million barrels per day (mbpd), compared with local crude and gas production of 6.85 mbpd. India’s consumption of petroleum products is around 112 million tonnes per annum. India, the world’s fifth-largest oil importer, procures 78% of its energy needs from abroad.
An official of the ministry of external affairs said the cell would help India make new relations, revive old ones and improve bilateral ties. “India is leveraging its long-standing relationship with Russia to acquire a stake in Sakhalin-III,” he said. India already has a 20% stake in Sakhalin-I through ONGC Videsh Ltd, and is studying options to bring its share of gas to India through a swap deal with Japan.
According to G. Parthasarathy, former Indian high commissioner to Pakistan, this cell was long overdue. “Since there is no integrated energy policy, no proper study for geopolitics in energy and no proper coordination within the government, a huge mess-up has happened. This has led to (India) losing out deals to China,” Parthasarathy said.
The ongoing deals where the energy cell could help include the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline. The issues of transit fee to Pakistan and the pricing of gas to Iran are likely to be resolved by June-end at a trilateral meeting. But the deal will hinge on India’s diplomatic ties with these countries as well the US, which is against this deal because of Iran’s nuclear programme.
“The entire pipeline strategy is flawed. India should have only negotiated with Iran and not bothered about Pakistan. The current strategy is for insecurity rather than security,” Parthasarathy said.
Another project India needs to close is the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline. The main issue here is of security as the pipeline passes through Afghanistan and Baluchistan (Pakistan), both routinely unstable areas.
The deals that India has recently lost to China include the H1 and H3 offshore hydrocarbon blocks in Myanmar. India also failed to acquire a stake in Petro Kazakh, Kazakhstan’s national oil firm, which went to China’s National Petroleum Corp. Chinese companies also beat Indian firms in Angola and Nigeria. Indian firms lost in Angola because they couldn’t match the Chinese’ offer of a $2 billion soft loan.
In order to sweeten hydrocarbon deals, China has used its permanent membership at UN Security Council where it has a veto power. Some experts attribute its recent win in the Myanmar deal to this clout.
India is now following the Chinese model of going beyond commercial considerations, although it is taking a different path.
For instance, NTPC Ltd offered to build power-generation projects in Nigeria in lieu of a gas block there. India has also offered to develop infrastructure networks like railways in Angola.
With Indian firms starting to acquire coal mines abroad for importing coal, the cell could help with the negotiations. Coal India wants to buy mines in Australia and Africa, and Tata Power recently bought a stake in Indonesia to import coal for its Mundra project.
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Document HNMINT0020070712e35n002tv

From Despair to Hope
by Adebayo Adejare

1,237 words

23 May 2007

12:34 PM

All Africa

AFNWS

English

(c) 2007 AllAfrica, All Rights Reserved
Lagos, May 23, 2007 (Daily Champion/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) --
For Nigeria, it has been a long road to nationhood. After centuries of colonization, Nigeria became independent only 47 years ago. Seventy-five percent of those 47 years were spent under repressive military dictatorships while three were wasted in civil war. The average Nigerian today is disoriented by incidents now of the past. If he is over 55 he probably harbours feelings of a failed First Republic and memories of the civil war. If he is less than 50 but over 40, he has probably never witnessed real democracy as he has lived all his life under military dictatorship. If less than 40, then he doesn't even know what we are talking about.
What is however indisputable is that none is satisfied with the state of affairs in contemporary Nigeria. Our problem is not just with learning to live the democratic way of life. Democracy is not the answer to all our national travails though it is the magic wand to some. Our problems are more fundamental. After all, countries like China are not democracies yet they thrive. Nigeria has failed in many respects.
As an emergent society we have been unable to harmonize indigenous socio-cultural notions with the dictates and challenges of modernity and technology. There is no real national orientation, nothing you can call the "Nigerian dream". There are no national standards of morality precepts or decency. Certainly no national ideology. Our unity is only in name. There are over 200 nationalities and that many number of languages. But for loss at the battlefield one of the majority tribes would have seceded long ago. We obtained independence from the colonialists with plenty of hope and ideals only for those hopes to be dashed and those ideals jettisoned soon thereafter.
We never really had a stable government and so have alternated between democratic government and military Dictatorship, the latter being prevalent. In consequence of persistent misrule, there is poverty and hunger in the land; yet the country is a major oil producing nation. Government has made little progress in the pursuit of its stolen wealth yet unable to stop further looting. Bribery and corruption are excused in various guises. We condemned apartheid and fought racism yet tribal and ethnic discrimination is prevalent in our society. Religious freedom is used for wholly profane and eminently diabolical ends.
More Nigerians were killed than in any other country during the Danish Cartoon crises. Not a wink or sleep is lost over the perennial destruction of lives and property over religious fundamentalism and fanaticism. There is no respect for public property, no consequence for evil nor any reward for good.
The public sector is in a state of near anarchy. Those who resist the known beneficiaries of this state of things or expose and criticize them are liable to loss of office, livelihood or life. How does a society hope to meaningfully fight corruption when there is no protection for whistleblowers?
When disaster occurs (including electricity power outage) a few are poised to take advantage of the event politically or economically. Government has failed to guarantee security of lives and property yet it complains of lack of foreign and domestic investments. There is massive unchecked abuse and misuse of corporate and personal confidential information. Military Rule, which has profited other nations was an unmitigated disaster to Nigeria yet the same actors of the failed experiment seek to return to governance as civilians. Our work ethics are low.
Our citizens are trapped abroad as economic refugees even in less prosperous nations. As someone recently put it, speaking about life in Nigeria, it is either something is pursuing you or you are pursuing something. Life is as near as it could be to the Hobbesian model - nasty, brutish and short.
These are great challenges indeed but all is not lost. They would task every nerve, every fibre, and every cell of anybody aspiring to leadership. The excuse that "we did not know the magnitude of the problems" would avail no leader. Leaders at every level will henceforth be evaluated by the followership. Dwelling on the past will only complicate issues, hence we just have to get over it and ignore the rapists, as in the past eight years, to move on.
Do not also appeal to citizens for patience because their patience ran out since June 12, 1993. Time does not by itself bring bread to the table nor solve any serious problem. There is a place for jaw-jaw and another for action but action speaks louder than words. These issues cannot be confronted with kid gloves for it is the destiny of millions of people involved. Fortunately, we are not short of precedents even Biblical ones.
Of course, not everyone will catch the vision immediately. There are bound to be distractions, even sabotage. It is up to the leadership to stay focused on its task of salvaging our nation. The resources are there, all that is needed is to harness them. With over 150 million people and abundant availability of minerals resources failure cannot be an option. The train of liberation has taken off.
An administration unable to give hope to a hopeless people is not worth its name. The 2007 Election marks a threshold in our journey to nationhood. It is the first time we have successfully transited from a civilian to another civilian administration. I hope our leaders in government have not underrated the enormity of the challenges as reviewed above.
We need a clean break from the travails of our recent past. I also hope they appreciate the nitty-gritty of Nigerians' demand of their compatriots who are public officials. I hope they will be facilitators rather than cogs in the wheel of progress. Public office is a sacred trust. In our peculiar under-developed state the destiny of much of the populace rests on that trust.
To them failure is death. Therefore, our hopes are high and nothing, absolutely nothing but tangible achievements, can transform it to reality. These challenges provide opportunity for leadership and achievement. Nigerians do not demand magic but something drastic needs to happen to ameliorate the present hunger, poverty and disease in the land. This, indeed, is the challenge to public officials elected in the 2007 elections.
But we must first see light at the end of the tunnel. Our challenges are not insurmountable or peculiar. The future is bright, fellow Nigerians, but all hands must be on deck. Our Nehemiah task of building a new Nigeria must be accelerated in earnest. We need iron determination. The Sambalats and Tobiahs as well as the doubting Thomases who expect nothing good to come out of Nazareth must be put to shame. We must beware of iconoclasts in our midst. Nigeria must realize its destiny.
We have the skills, abilities and (in late Chief Obafemi Awolowo's terms) "mental magnitude". The eyes of the world are focused on Nigeria. A fresh air of optimism must be injected into the air. We must have faith that as a people, we can make it and our faith must be backed by visible action. Failure is not an option. In the immortal words of General Muhammadu Buhari: Nigeria is the only country we have and we must join hands and salvage it together. "arise o compatriots!"
Document AFNWS00020070523e35n001ph
GERMAN WORLD BANK FORUM 2007, WELCOME REMARKS BY OBIAGELI KATRYN EZEKWESILI VICE PRESIDENT, AFRICA REGION
2,524 words

21 May 2007

States News Service

SNS

English

(c) 2007 States News Service
The following information was released by the World Bank:
Introduction
Thank you, Madame Minister, for that introduction, and let me also express our gratitude to the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development for convening this critical Forum, and to the European School of Management and Technology for hosting us.
This is the Ninth German World Bank Forum, but the first to discuss Africa, and I want to say that I am honored to be able to participate.
I also wish to thank the broad array of participants who have come to this gathering from Germany, from Africa and from around the world. I especially want to than those of you who have come from Africa to share your insights . I believe I can state for the entire group that we intend to be good listeners, and to make use of what you have come to share with us.
I would like to begin by sharing some observations about my experiences working in Africa in both the public and private sector, struggling with some of the issues we will be discussing today.
Over the past few years global attention has been focused on the opportunities and challenges confronting Africa. In the World Bank Africa is the number one priority. It is extremely important that Chancellor Angela Merkel has pledged a strong focus on Africa at next month's Group of Eight summit showing that the attention isn't a passing phenomenon, but something the African people can count on.
This is a critical time for Africa. There are wonderful new opportunities presented by the global economy, and difficult new challenges in moving forward to the next level
TAKE AWAY MESSAGE: The Moment for Africa is now
(Africa is on the move; the WBG is part of the "move")
Africa's per capita income is increasing at a rate equal to those of other developing countries, and at rates that are consistently higher than those of wealthy industrialized countries.
Africa's growth experience is increasingly diverse, with an increased number of countries pulling ahead while other still lag behind.
Two-thirds of Africa's population live in countries that have shown sustained level of growth of better than 5% for a decade.
Today more than 90% of Africa's children are enrolled in primary school, up from just over 70% in 1991.
Owning the Governance Agenda. We are not only seeing more attention on the part of development organizations on accountability for results, but most importantly an overall shift in which African are demanding improved governance from the ground up [MENTION YOUR EXPERIENCE DURING THE SPRING MEETINGS]
Africa remains the number one priority of the Bank and we eagerly work with other developing partners to support the development vision of the people of Africa.
The WBG work in Africa is organized with a results framework we call the Africa Action Plan. Working together with our partners in Africa, we set targets we think are realistic, and we track our deliveries.
The plan is structured to strengthen Africa's performance in four ways: supporting shared economic growth; building capable states; assisting countries in developing operational strategies to improve lives and livelihoods; and working to maintain an effective global development partnership, where assistance is better coordinated, more strategic and more predictable.
One area which we have made a "flagship," is empowering women, and in particular, female entrepreneurs, an under-utilized resource in much of Africa.
TAKE AWAY MESSAGE: Responding to the Challenge (To stay on the Move and achieve the MDGs Africa needs to sustain countries doing well, and help those not doing so well)
We are pleased to see growth rates of 5% and 6% in the continent , but countries like Ghana are pushing for international support in taking this to the next level of growth namely rates above 7%, which is the level where you begin to see rapid reduction in poverty.
And let's not forget those who have not been affected by recent growth -- the woman in rural Angola who lives at the end of a poorly maintained feeder road, and faces a three hour walk to the nearest market center or health clinic, and a two hour walk to find safe drinking water for her children
We need to work with oil producing states to help assure that the flow of oil revenues is invested in poverty reduction and development.
One-third of all African reside in countries where there is low growth, or even no growth, and where living conditions for large numbers are miserable and deteriorating.
We need to support the low-growth countries a number of which are just emerging from devastating conflicts so they can make a solid start on the path to growth and job creation that Mozambique and Uganda traveled in the last decade. We cannot afford failed states in any part of Africa.
Malaria and HIV/AIDS exact a terrible price in illness and death, and life expectancy is dropping in parts of Africa.
We need to understand and address the constraints and vulnerabilities that touch half of all Africans those that are women and girls. We know that they will carry Africa forward, but we need to provide them a foundation to do so through access to education, health care, legal rights, and credit that is at least equal to that enjoyed by African men.
We need to help Africa close its infrastructure gap in power, water and transport This will require more than US $22 billion per year of investment by the public and private sectors in Africa over the next decade. A further US$18 billion per year is estimated to be required for operation and maintenance of infrastructure assets.1
Lighting Up Africa, Empowering Africa. Let me use the example of the Power Sector
It's time to turn on the lights in Africa.
No economy can expand and generate jobs if it lacks something as basic as electricity. Electrical outages occur so often that 47% of all firms surveyed are forced to invest in acquiring and maintaining their own generating equipment. 2
It takes 80 days to obtain an electricity connection in Africa compared with 27 in the rest of the developing world. Once the connection is in, electrical outages occur 90 days per year. Nearly half [47%} of all firms surveyed say they are forced to invest in their own generators.3
Less than 5% of rural households are connected to electrical service. And continuing at the present rate, more than half of all households still would lack electricity in the year 2030. 4
Inadequate electricity is not only an economic problem, it is a human problem. Improved lighting increases literacy: 72% of children surveyed read in the evening if they had electricity compared to only 43% without. The electricity problem also affects health care and makes childbirth more hazardous than it should be. In Kenya only 5% of dispensaries have access to electricity and only 50% of primary health centers are connected to electrical supply. As a result of the lack of other energy, the widespread use of biomass fuel severely increases incidence of respiratory illnesses
A Nigerian child told me during a forum we organized under the title " Education of my dream" that she would like to make me proud by studying and earning high grades, but with electricity so sporadic, studying at home is impossible 90% of the time. Power outages coming when mothers are in the throes of childbirth or newborns require medical attention, are not simply an inconvenience, but a matter of life and death.
Unleashing Africa Potential through Private Sector Growth. We understand much of our task to be unleashing Africa's potential, not creating or directing it. Africa's people, and its enterprises, recently have discovered their own sources of success in the export of clothing, in the sale of cut flowers, in call centers, and in the enormous expansion of tourism.
Africa's business environment presents its difficulties, but it is improving. Africa which used to rank last among region in the Bank's Doing Business surveys, last year came in third. Nearly half of all African countries enacted some reform to become a more hospitable environment to launch and operate a company.
Companies once had to obtain 1,300 business licenses to start a business in Kenya.Now it takes 100.5 Mali has eliminated all of their business registration fees.6 A year ago, it took 45 days to register a company in Burkina Faso; now it takes 7 days.7
Modernizing Africa's financial system is central to any strategy for enterprise growth. The bad news is that banking systems are small in absolute terms, and historically unresponsive to the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises. Less than 20% of households in Africa have access to finance.
The good news is that Africa's financial firms are deep in liquidity on average banks hold 30% of their assets in non-productive liquid assets. The potential for channeling these funds into productive investments is huge. One intriguing prospect is linking banking services to mobile phone technology, which has swept across Africa.
Finally, we need to find mechanisms that will switch the brain drain to the brain gain by encouraging educated Africans in the Diaspora to return to home and use their education and experience to improve the standard of living of their compatriots.
As the political economy of Africa becomes more open, more rules-based, we will begin to see more instruments for reversing the brain drain that is more ways where the African talent outside Africa can connect with the opportunity within Africa.
And the same factors that restore confidence among Africans in the global diaspora will make a difference to outside investors in search of the next opportunity. I would ask some of our German private sector leaders whether they have fully explored the prospect of investment on the Continent.
TAKE AWAY MESSAGE Accountability for Results (Africa is doing its part, the international community is not keeping its side of the deal)
Accountability for results underlies all that we do in Africa and in the world capitals outside Africa.
For instance, African leaders are internalizing the good governance agenda, but they need support from their partners in areas such as implementing the OECD Treaty on Bribery in International Business and repatriation of funds resulting from corrupt practices. How can the developed countries preach good governance if they don't provide support where it is most needed.
The Africa Peer Review mechanism is unique in the world in having national leaders invite their peers to review economic, social and governance policies and institutions, and make suggestions for change. Ghana and Rwanda have recently completed such reviews and are implementing many of their findings.
The same is true when we come to development assistance. The international community is far more focused on Africa than it was ten years ago. But we must also note that the pledges to increase development assistance made in Monterrey and Gleneagles have been slow to materialize.
Indeed, excluding debt relief and emergency food aid, assistance to sub-Saharan African actually fell by 2.1 percent in real terms from 2004 to 2005. A typical well-performing African country has seen little or no increase in the resources available to support development projects and programs
Meeting these commitments will require a significant acceleration in aid in 2008- 2010, beginning with a healthy replenishment of IDA, the International Development Association.
At the Bank, we face a particular challenge with IDA, the vehicle through which we extend grants and credits to the world's poorest countries, particularly those in Africa, which receive half of the available IDA resources.
This year the replenishment of this critical lifeline faces a special challenge: because of debt forgiveness, which we worked for and which we applaud, we have fewer resources flowing back to us from borrowers. That translates to fewer IDA resources available for, say, Liberia's reconstruction, or the expansion of energy resources in Rwanda, or the fight against HIV/AIDS in Zambia unless donors finance the shortfall.
Progress on trade is equally important. In the long run sustained growth and job creation in Africa will depend on its export success.
Many of us have looked to the Doha "development round" to increase market access for exports from Africa within a global trading system.
To date the Doha round has been a disappointment, and Europe, America and Asia, Africa's three leading trading partners must show greater leadership in bringing the round to a successful conclusion.
At the same time, Europe can, through reforms to its Everything but Arms (EBA) initiative, and the design of its Economic Partnership Agreements with Africa provide more effective market access to African processed and manufactured exports.
Conclusion
Today, nearly half of all Africans have not yet reached the age of 14.8 They are tomorrow's entrepreneurs, teachers, engineers and farmers. They will have expectations of moving forward with the rest of the world. We can't afford to fail this generation.
We need a global marketplace that welcomes more production from Africa. But even more important, we need an African enterprise sector that can take advantage of the opportunity. And we need for global investors to understand that remarkable opportunities are developing on this continent.
We need African governments committed to good governance, to radically streamlining the processes which raise the costs of doing business, and to expanding infrastructure services.
Finally, as partners to Africa, we need to hold up our side of the bargain. Today, that translates into following through on trade-opening moves, providing the promised assistance and helping push this continent of promise toward fulfilling its potential.
There are tremendous opportunities in Africa. These are being found by our friends from China and India. When Nigeria opened up its mobile phone industry few of the large players wanted in. They were put off by Nigeria's reputation. But the firms with the insight and courage to invest in Nigeria dominate one of the fastest-growing industries in the world. The failure of many firms to show interest in privatization programs in Africa is a missed opportunity.
I want to ask those of you who represent the German private sector "How close are you to making the sound investment decision of putting your money where opportunity trumps difficulty? How close are you to investing in Africa?"
Thank you. I look forward to the discussions that will follow.
______________
1 Estache, 2005
2 The World Bank Group's Africa Action Plan: Progress in Implementation; March 15, 2007
3 The World Bank Group's Africa Action Plan: Progress in Implementation; March 15, 2007
4 IDA at work web package
5 Kenya Investment Climate Assessment, Africa Region Private Sector Development group
6 World Bank Group, Africa Region, Private Sector Unit
7 Doing Business 2007
8 43.7 percent of Sub-Saharan Africans are 0-14 years of age (2004 data); Source: WDI 2006
06/07/07 08:33:32
Document SNS0000020070607e35l000q0

Satellite Launches Boost African Communications
by Abiose Adelaja and Christina Scott

462 words

18 May 2007

05:07 PM

All Africa

AFNWS

English

(c) 2007 AllAfrica, All Rights Reserved
May 18, 2007 (SciDev.Net/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) --
African space science advanced this week with the launch of a new Nigerian satellite, and the announcement of South Africa's plans to launch a second low-earth-orbiting satellite next month.
Nigeria launched its communication satellite NIGCOMSAT-1 on Monday (14 May) at the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in Sichuan province, southwest China.