AP Network News. I’m Bryant Thomas.
Senator John McCain says he cannot give a vote of confidence to defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld but will try to work with him anyway. McCain also says even the new level of 150,000 troops in Iraq will probably not be enough to accomplish US goals.
--- It probably isn’t, but the problem that we have here is that the Pentagon has been reacting to initiatives of the enemy rather than taking initiatives from which the enemy has to react to.
McCain spoke on Fox News Sunday.
Also on the talk show circuit today, Iraq’s Interim Prime Minister Ghazi al-Yawar, who says insurgents are trying to scare Iraqis away from the polls in next month’s elections.
--- People are scared of going and addressing their means of reprisals and atrocities of these armies of darkness.
The Iraqi leader spoke on NBC’s Meet the Press.
When congress returns for business tomorrow in Washington, job one will be the push to pass intelligence reform as outlined by the 9/11 Commission. Senate majority leader Bill Frist says the current holdup goes well beyond opposition from a pair of key lawmakers.
--- It’s not just chairman Hunter and congressman Sensenbrenner. There are a lot of people who have questions, because we’re talking about safety and security. We’re talking about that soldier on the battlefield. We want to make sure he or she has good intelligence. And immigration is a huge issue.
Frist appearing on ABC’s This Week says he’s confident an intelligence reform will pass the congress.
In Canada, the Mounties are wondering what’s happened to some official clothing belonging to the country’s air transport security authority. In Toronto, here’s correspondent Steve Heniger.
--- During the past nine months, 1100 uniforms and badges that are worn by Canadian airport security screeners have disappeared.
Now Canada’s transport minister is expecting a report on the missing uniforms and badges by tomorrow. This occurs while the government seeks to reassure citizens in Canada that everything is still all right.
This is AP Network News.
Egypt and Israel appear to be warming things up. Egypt has released an Arab-Israeli who’d been convicted of spying. Israeli government spokesman Ranaan Gissin says relations between the two countries are on the mend.
--- A personal gesture that can pave the way to the future tightening of strategic cooperation with Egypt, economic relations with Egypt, and many more things that we did not have in the past 4.5 years where the relations were quite frozen.
In exchange, Israel released six Egyptian students that it had been holding.
Germany’s foreign minister visiting the West Bank says Palestinian presidential elections and an end to violence could lead to renewed Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. In the meantime, Israeli foreign minister Silvan Shalom says his country is eager to restart the peace talks too.
--- We share the desire to see a return to the roadmap and the negotiations necessary to bring peace. This is a time of great opportunity and hope.
But in the Gaza Strip, a Hamas leader says a truce is not on the agenda.