The News

nytimes.com — The Bush administration is considering establishing an American diplomatic presence in Iran for the first time since relations were severed nearly three decades ago, European and American officials said recently. The idea would be to establish a so-called interests section, rather than a fully staffed embassy, with American diplomats who could issue visas to Iranians seeking to visit the United States. The idea has not been approved by the White House and could be delayed or blocked by opposition within the administration.The proposal comes as the White House appears to be looking for new ways to bring a peaceful resolution to the impasse over Iran's nuclear program.

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msnbc.msn.com — President Bush has asserted executive privilege to prevent Attorney General Michael Mukasey from having to comply with a House panel subpoena for material on the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity. Among the documents sought by House Oversight Chairman Henry Waxman are FBI interviews of Vice President Dick Cheney. They also include notes about the 2003 State of the Union address, during which President Bush made the case for invading Iraq in part by saying Saddam Hussein was pursuing uranium ore to make a nuclear weapon. That information turned out to be wrong.

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hosted.ap.org — The government is taking too long to secure radioactive materials that could get into terrorists' hands, according to a government report. Radioactive material used for legitimate purposes in medical equipment and food, for instance, could be used to create a dirty bomb. According to a Government Accountability Office report, new requirements to ensure that a person purchasing or carrying radioactive materials has a reason to do so is more than three years behind schedule. In a probe last year that set up a bogus company, investigators said they were able to obtain a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that allowed them to buy enough radioactive material for a small dirty bomb. Officials hope the licensing requirements will prevent this from happening again.

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washingtonpost.com — Congress has quietly used fiscal 2008 legislation on military construction to signal that it plans on a long-term military presence in Afghanistan. In the recently approved supplemental funding bill for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, legislators approved construction of a $62 million ammunition storage facility at Afghanistan's Bagram Air Base, where 12 planned "igloos" will support Army and Air Force needs. In another sign that U.S. troops will be there a long time, the Army requested, and Congress provided, $41 million for a 30-megawatt power plant at Bagram, capable of generating enough electricity for a town of more than 20,000 homes.

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nytimes.com — The Bush administration is considering the withdrawal of additional combat forces from Iraq beginning in September, according to administration and military officials, raising the prospect of a far more ambitious plan than expected only months ago. Such a withdrawal would be a striking reversal from the nadir of the war in 2006 and 2007. One factor is the pressing need for additional American troops in Afghanistan, where the Taliban and other fighters have intensified their insurgency and inflicted a growing number of casualties on Afghans and American-led forces there. More American and allied troops died in Afghanistan than in Iraq in May and June.

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washingtonpost.com — U.S. and Iraqi negotiators have abandoned efforts to conclude a comprehensive agreement governing the long-term status of U.S troops in Iraq before the end of the Bush presidency, according to senior U.S. officials, effectively leaving talks over an extended U.S. military presence there to the next administration. Instead of the agreement expected by July 31, the governments are now working on a more limited "bridge" document, that would allow basic U.S. military operations to continue beyond the expiration of a U.N. mandate at the end of the year. The failure of months of negotiations over the more detailed accord deals a blow to the Bush administration's plans to leave in place a formal military architecture in Iraq that could last for years.

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